Mitch

No, he doesnt appear until the Dobson's are well into their second tenure. He did work with this Dee, trying to peddle a perfume that has something in it that makes the wearer impossible to resist.. (I kid you not.) As if this Dee needed it...she had John, Brad, Tom and James after her and everyone in between commenting on how wonderful she was. She was the Dobson's Lily! They ended that story quickly too. I remember how harsh and kind of annoying Colin was as Margo. I grew to like her but she was just always pissed off and shouting at people (hence she was John's daughter.) I liked HBS's kinder, gentler Margo who meshed much better with the Hughes family. (I can't imagine Colin's Margo calling Nancy "Gram!") I think Davidson left in December of that year to go away to college. A relief as she was always stilted and kind of goofy as Betsy. She was recast with some model looking chick who never had a storyline and just faded away until Ryan came. Once again I am a complete dork for remembering this stuff.

I think they obviously ment James to be bad..its just that after he married Barbara he became the controlling villian, which was abrupt. The past life stuff was during the Dobson's second tenure. It WAS truly stupid and not ATWT at all..(cause like, who cares of they were all tied together in their past lives..) I think their inspiration was Anya Seyton's Green Darkness, which I am embarrased to admit, is a good book (yea, its a chick book, but a very dark one, and the history is great) so I don't know why I didnt like it. Would have been fun to see more then just the four of them back in time, Lisa as the madame in town, Nancy (if she was still on) as the controlling matron, Bob as the kindly but hapless doc, variations of their characters but allowing the actors to expand and be BIGGER. But it was just on the four of them, and I have no idea how Schultz was popular as she was such a wet rag as Dee. That ended quickly and it became a game of James gasslighting Barbara, which WAS fun. I think Schultz might have hated it as she and Zenk didnt get along and Barbara was the one "right," in this storyline and Dee was once again her hapless self, falling for the town villian though everyone tells her to stay away. However, Shultz was much better then her recast.

Started really "watching," (as opposed to my mom having it on in the background so I knew who the people were) that summer, right around July of 1980 (that is why it seems these synopsis are a bit late, the August ones seem to be aired in June.) I think I actually started watching during Brad's party of all things, my first memories are of Melinda falling in the lake and dumb ass Brad being pushed aside by a little drunk girl, him falling on his head and being knocked out!. I remember Babs being chased through the museum by "Hans," I think and the Masqurade Ball, which I think was the first time that ATWT put on a big glamarous event. Obviously James was popular..though I think it was more of Herrara's (whom my little high school fag self was seriously hot for) and Zenk's chemistry. He went from dream prince to villian in no time at all and it didnt make much sense. The Joyce/Grant/Lisa thing was fun, as it gave Lisa a chance to be a bitch again (this time for a reason) but made Grant look like a tool. It seems the Dobson were trying to turn Don into a villain, which would have made for good drama for the Hughes and kept Chris and Nancy in the game, and was actually a good move as Bob was the "good," brother. I dont know if it was a mandate from above to make the show younger and sexier, or if it was because the actor playing him just kind of came off as a douche, but that ended abruptly. They should have recast Don with someone sexier to give the show an older villian (remember James was supposed to be in his early 30s at the most, a practical teenager for ATWT at the time.) Would have been funny to pair him up with Nick's "back from the dead," evil wife Andrea when she comes to town later. Odd that they sent Tom out of town at this time, I know it was to usher in the Deas recast, but JD was totally miscast (but popular) as Tom. I could seem him being a combo of staid Bob and live wire Lisa, but it just didnt jive with Tom's earlier portrayal..I just cant see him having a scene with Wagner in the Hughes kitchen (probably never did.) I remember my mom stopped watching at this time, she didnt like the way they pushed Nancy and Chris aside and some of the "new," people. I think it would have worked except for the fact of pushing the two tent poles out the way they did.

Interesting reading these synopsis. You can see its an uneasy transition to the Dobson material and things seem a bit rushed...(people are "falling in love," and agreeing to marry quickly.) You can see the Dobson's repeating some themes (i.e. both Dee and Amanda being "frigid," ) and you can see the early hostility towards the Hughes family (Tom is brushed aside and leaves town, Nancy tells a little boy is "Aunt," pushed him mom down the stairs, and in what could have been interesting, Don shows an interest in going to the dark side..) Some of it could have been interesting, the Dee and John relationship, Don going to the dark side, but most of it didnt translate well. This is also an early example of misogony, as Lisa, Annie, Melinda and Dee are enthralled with the lumpy Brad, Brad is not interested in owing money to a "woman," (uh, you took it easy enough) and Lisa of all people falls for Brad's act and then apologizes for not trusting him later, even when it is proven that he was not being above board. The Dobson's material really wouldnt work until their second go around with Bunim as EP, but it still wasnt really ATWT until Marland comes aboard.

I liked her as the original Lyla. Much stronger and "pushier," then Sward, who I thought was as interesting as watching paint dry (never understood how they kept her around that long.) Harder to believe that she would be pushed around by John, but also easier to believe as a former good time girl floozy, then Sward. That era interests me, still can't figure out how Dee went from screwing this Ian guy, he dies, John helps/manipulates her, and in that same amount of time Brad and she somehow fall in love??? Would love to see the digests running up to that time.

I think they were handling it well, two troupers who had a very good career for a very long time (at least World Turns ended with them firmly installed as the patriarch and matriarch of Oakdale.) They really do interact and seem so very Bob and Kimish don't they??? Damn Hayes NEVER ages!!!

Bad way to die, especially since it was just a set up to get Annie and Brad together the dull adjiunct to the Dee/John storyline, which was good on its own and could have caused tons of story and drama for the Stewarts without the dumbass Dee being in love with Brad and the rape storyline, which was just a rip off of the Dobson's previous Rita/Ed/Holly/Roger storyline. It is funny to read the other characters calling Brad a ladies man and womanizer when he looks like such a schlep. They couldnt have found a hotter guy? I think they got rid of Melinda to focus on their own new "vixen," the under written and totally under acted Cricket. As you said, Melinda had ties to the all core, Babs, Bob, Kim and Lisa...imagine Melinda going after Tom after Babs dumped him, causing angst for both Lisa and Kim (and this was before the "kiddo," days but would have loved to seen the start of Kim taking kicking ass and taking names.) Reading this you could see what the Dobson were going for but the really dull "teen," triangle of that particularly dull Betsy, Eric and Cricket, was supposed to get the demos going?

JVD always said that he was saved during the Long era as they just "forgot," he was there. Those clips from above were so good. I LOVED early Reva and Reva and H.B. He was still a wiley "old coot," back then, before the became the grandfatherly voice of wisdom. I loved that he blackmailed Reva into marriage and that he and she came to love each other! I do hate that they totally pussed out Vanessa after she married Billy. She totally broke off ties with her father, saying she was a"Lewis," now, and her brittle relationship with Nola was shoved aside for her to sigh over Billy and be a pill popping housefrau.

I liked Rose, she was funny and she was one character who could put Lily in her place, she was actaully one of the few "good," characters who could ever diss Lily and get away with it. I like that Lily finally had another female confidant and I like that it showed the loving side of Lucinda that she took Rose in as her own. I kind of agree with Byrne, Lily is the character who should have been killed off, by someone pissed off that the whole town is forced to celebrate her birthday! What bugged me more is that they brought in Rose's dad and tried to pair him up with Nancy Hughes...what Nancy is a cougar all of a sudden. Would have made sense if Rose was raised by her grandfather but come on!!! Carl there are no words for the Ratay comment!!!

I always thought that is exactly what should have happened, that Reva is found living it up with Kyle on some island somewhere (not San Crud) where he controls his business interests from afar. I can see why they had Reva in a "country," situation, after Ghost Reva we needed to know she was alive and breathing and RealReva was such a robust character it made sense to have her filmed in the sunlight. The Amish thing was stupid. I also think it would have been great to bring in Kyle as the big bad. I think he was popular but RR's Alan just sucked from the get go. A Kyle return taking on Lewis Oil and Spaulding, making Josh and Alex form an uneasy alliance to protect their interests and their families would have been great. Plus Reva having a few more kids with Kyle after the fact. I really dont know how there could have been a Kyle/Reva romance after that though, as how could Reva forgive him for not telling her about her kids? Maybe after Reva finds out she leaves Kyle and moves to the Jessup farm to gradually get her memory back and take care of herself. Kyle comes blazing into town ready for revenge and forms an alliance with Roger to take on Josh and Alex, with Reva stuck in the crossfire. Alex never told H.B. the truth. One thing that was consistent was the Alex was both trying to protect Alan and using the truth as leverage (remember on soaps when characters had warring motivations and were not good or evil but something in between?)

No I have never seen it but yes, that was an awful thing for them to have Alex do, I can't believe that Pam Long did that, she usually kept her characters in check, or if not they had to pay. Sally was annoying as hell so I suppose the audience didnt car..I know I didnt. And actually, it wasnt as if Alex kept her heart medicine from her , she just did nothing. They actually should have brought Kyle back right after J and R were remarried before San Crud, and had it come out that in the mix up the real father of Marah WAS Kyle. Alan could be shipped to prison for forgery and Kyle could be the big bad in town.

Actually, he and his family did go down in the plane crash, though Kyle survived. At this time Reva and Josh thought that Marah was Kyles (and to help reinforce that Alan switched the paternity tests at Cedars to make it look that way though he told Reva that he had switched the tests to make it look like Josh was the father.) Reva was afraid that the loss of his son would make Kyle come after Marah..Josh was with Sonni (and Solita!!!) at this point so she sidled up to Alan so she would have some protection from Kyle. Ms. Sally found out the truth at Sonni and Josh's wedding and had a heart attack during a confrontation with Alex over it. In a weird scene we watched Alex let Ms. Sally die, without getting help..to keep Alan's secret (and Bev thought Alex was bad later on???) I loved the show at that time.

oo. Who was Janice, that blondie bouncing around in the Snyder kitchen. Its funny, you can see Marland was getting burned out on ATWT, he was just repeating Holden/Lily with Emily etc. I miss the days of Bob and Kim's exposition scenes...("Well, as I was in the express line at Aunt Mary's Shop n Go, I happened to bump into Emily, who was buying a pregnancy kit with a coupon...Gosh darnit I knew I had one, as I was worried that Lien might need it after her one night stand with John's kid. Anyway, Emily swore me not to tell Brock. By the way did you know that Brock is considering going into business with Damien. That might cause a stir as they were both involved with Emily who now may have a baby on the way. Oh forgot the napkins. By the way, Ellen told me that she might go into making decorative napkins for BRO as now Carly has left....." ) Marland wrote them so well and no wonder Bob and Kim became the center of the show, Hastings and Hays NEVER looked bored with providing support and you feel that they really are invested in not only serving ice tea, but if Lily will be singing tonight at the Falcon club!!! Judson Mills had to be blowing Marland or someone else, he always looked slightly, uh, like he took the short bus to school!

That probably was Wheeler's inspiration for her "vision," "Hey guys this is rooted in history! We will have people wandering around town, uh, except there will be an apparent reason for that, and uh, it will be anytime of the year, not on a nice fall day, and uh, we will be shooting up Reva's nostrils, and if we are lucky, maybe get more then a third of her head in the shot, and uh, here is the kicker, instead of that boring old soap music, we will have our own "House Band," uh which actually is a bunch of musicians who cant get hire anywhere else doing bad knock offs of songs over ten years old!" I hated Kyle..I think it was Larkin Malloys flaring nostrils that threatened to engulf anyone he had a scene with. And the fact that he had no other purpose then to be Reva's boyfriend du jour and be an uninteresting amoral bastard.

I think that Parker was an interesting choice as she was so different then Dolan. It took a while to get used to her but looking back on it now I see its a wise move. Maureen would never have become the "Bert Bauer," of the show with Dolan in the lead (and Long writing her.) Watching Dolan on ATWT she just lacks the warmth to be the core maternal character of the show. I think it was also an interesting choice to have Maureen decide to be a stay at home mom. Not only was it stupid that she was able to be the CEO of a hospital (after never going to school ) but it made sense that Maureen, who had to help Bea raise the kids because Bea was single mom trying to get by, would find herself financially able to stay at home, and choose to do that. It was refreshing for a soap, who always had to have women in "power positions," show a "real," looking and acting woman, make a "real," choice. I just wish that Long in her desire not to have more Bauers, would have allowed Mo to be fertile, or they reversed that and let Mo and Ed have more kids, to fill the Bauer void (always thought that it would have been more interesting to keep Mo alive, have her leave Ed, return to the Boardinghouse, run it, and she would be the one to adopt Peter. Eventually she would reunite with Ed and imagine him finding out his son is Roger's kid, much more interesting then Faux Billy.

If only Peapack looked like that!!! And only could RealReva (as opposed to post resurrection Reva) be dumped on her wedding day to wonder around dressed up like Scarlett, to be run over by a car, only to wake up in the arms on hottie Josh...(only to dramatically faint again!!!) Love the over the top Babs song playing in the background as if we needed that!

I think he just finished it up. It was started by other writers. I think he was only there until Dec of 78 or 79 and then the Dobsons took over in Jan? Someone had a synopsis of what happened month to month of that year, and its interesting to see the transition.

And it was a car accident right? Could the driver in the other car have had a kid in the car and its really that kid who died? But how would Shae have gotten to him and spirited him away? Man, it must have been fun, despite the usual network b.s. to be a soap writer during the hey day of the 70s and 80s. Sitting around a room with other writers trying to make sense of something that couldnt possibly have happened in real life! The Dobson's time would have actually been a good time to do this, the Lisa Grant thing had gotten stale by then (how many times could a nutty woman get in between those two, by the time the Dobson's had Joyce faking dying, Grant was a certified idiot...Lisa and Grant had to have been the Lily/Holden, Carly/Jack of their time, viewers going "Again with this [!@#$%^&*]???" ) and the show needed an infusion of young blood, and with GH riding high in the ratings every show wanted a moody anti hero heart throb (not that I could ever understand how Geary was ever a heart throb...) so an angry kid, manipulated by his evil father would have been great then. And any kid that was the product of Shea and Lisa would have had to been a handful. I wonder why they killed him off back then? Seems a bit of a mean thing to do, have a kid die. Maybe to punish Lisa after all of those years of "kicking up her heels," ? She did seem to mellow after that.

Fulton said for years she asked if they would let her mention Chuckie...come across a shoe in a drawer and she would have a moment, which would have been great and given more depth to a character that lesser writers tried just made into a fluttering soul. I always thought that her relationship with her stepson Kirk would have been a good time for them to mention that she would have a son his age. I wish that Marland had brought the McColls back recast Kirk and Diana. There is a scene on You Tube of Lisa right after some goofy kidnapping she was saved from and Marcy and Kirk are in the kitchen telling Lisa that they love her and she makes the place a home. Nice for Lisa to have a family of her own. Anyway, Marland's original idea was to have Chuckie really be alive, (would have been interesting, maybe Shae wasnt really dead and he faked Chuckies death to punish Lisa, so Chuckie could have been trained to hate Lisa all these years...hey thats a good story!!) But Fulton said that it was impossible as Nancy buried him, and anyone who was "buried by Nancy Hughes stayed dead!" LOL.

I remember listening to my yell at the TV during that time (I was forced to have quiet time at 12:30 after my lunch so my mom could not miss a minute of the show and not miss seeing "What that damn Lisa is up to,") at Dr. Shea...so he must have been a corker. I wonder why they didn't bring him back from the dead, seemed a totally Marland thing to do. Lisa going to some South American country to try to find Scott, has an accident and is taken to some shack where doctors could treat her. As she wakes up out of her coma she sees a face,"Hello...Liiiisssaaaa!" fade to black for Friday cliffhanger Interesting. That was the year after Wagner left the show and they bumped McClaughlin to recurring, and then just never mentioned him again. I always thought it was a jab at the powers that be and now I can see he had even more reason to do that.

I can't believe they kept giving Bartholomew jobs after the hatchet job he did on ATWT. I guess recycling hacks is not new. I didn't really mind this era of Search, it was so much better then the spy crap that seemed to go on for years. Imagine what Marland could have done with Search? It was almost a blank slate for him..he had the core of Jo and Stu, etc, and he most certainly would have brought back Patti and other characters related to the core, but I do think a new family would have popped into town and I wonder if this would have been a certain farm family??/

Hmmm, I must have missed the yucks that either Dolan or Holmes ever brought to their roles. I remember them being quite dour going back to Marland (though I do remember a scene where Margo was laughing it up with Tom over airplane food and it was supposed to show them back in their charming devil may care days but it just fell flat..kind of like how Marland had to "tell," us that Ellie was funny because he couldnt really write humor.) I thought they were dour going back to Margos rape and yes, I realize it was well written and realistic and well acted and all that but I am sick of strong women being raped (I know it happens all the time in real life) on soaps and having to sit through socially relevant storylines so writers can win awards. Was the rape before or after Margo pulled the plug on Casey, another laugh fest involving Tom and Margo. ( I am not making fun of your opinion so I hope it doesnt sound like it.) I really think they should have just wrote them out back before it got to Holmes and Dolan. Marx and HBS were the last time that they were fun and had chemistry (can you really see Holmes and Dolan going at it in the sack???) But then, I would never had Margo sleep with Hal (how the hell did that happen anyway, I forget) which I think goes back to "ruining," them and made Tom look like a neutered fool. I do see why they would have Emily chase after Tom. She was always messed up and looking for a father figure, and at least on paper, Tom was that. I agree that FMB and everyone after her just made Emily a freakin evil loon. A triangle involving Margo, Tom and a sympathetic but still screwed up Emily could have lasted years and had effects on the extended families of the Hughes and the Stewarts...(but then you would have had to have Ellen there.) But yea, I think the Eddie Silva thing was stupid, (even though I found the actor kind of hot in an "Im embarrassed to admit it, " way) but the worst was that rich guy who I think was supposed to be a villian that Margo screwed. At least Eddie was humpy and stupid and you could send him on his way after having your way with him!

What did FMB do to Tom and Margo that made them so unappealing (actually I never got the appeal of Dolan and Holmes Tom and Margo...its as if T & M went through three personalities...the Deas/Colin hippy T & M, the Marx/Whatsherface T & M (my favorite) as more normal people (and one half being hot as f*ck) and the Dolan/Holmes T & M who were uptight, annoying, sexless bores. Never understood why no one ever recast Holmes as Tom...

Hubbard reminds me of Bev McKinsey and Michael Zaslow and Peter Simon, really good actors who were prickly and demanding but it was all because of wanting quality and the best work, not that they have to be the big "star." I know that I read an article at the time where Marlnand liked to open the show with Lucinda because of Liz's energy, and Bryne wrote that when she first started working with her it was like Tootsie, it would freak her out as Hubbard would start out with her first line, go off on a tangent as she would paraphrase the writers, and then land on her last line and say it exactley on script for the next actor to pick it up. She says she and many others who worked with her the first time would stand there with their mouth open looking befuddled and forget what their line was! That had to be a huge stretch for Marland , or any other writer who was meticulous and a control freak to let Hubbard let go and it was a smart move. Which reminds me, Don Hastings always says that Bob has that beffudled look on his face in his scenes with Lisa as he never knew what would fly out of Lisa's mouth because Don never knew what Fulton would come up with as she would go off script so much.

Yea, it seems that anything earlier then 1980 has disappeared for ATWT. Would love to see some of the early Dobson stuff, the transition from the old stuff to the "new," stuff, etc. Would love to see of Annie Brad and Dee were as dull and lifeless as I thought they were!\ Would also love to see a scene in Nancy's kitchen, I have memories of it as a kid but I never have seen a clip on you tube, etc.