Mitch

Yea, I just don't see Carol as being a really good rival for Margo. Not only the fact that she was so nice she would never go after someone, but she was so boring and soft, and I think it was always played that the two of them were young and it was a mistake from the start. Tom, even before Deas and Margo, like his women a little more zingy, which makes sense being raised by his control freak grandmother and having Lisa for a mother. Now bringing back JC as Natalie would have been really, really good. The Dobsons or whomever blew it by bringing her back totally miscast. I would have liked to see how Chapman and Colin worked together or HBS....(I think Dolan's Margo would have just wanted to BE the one to sleep with her herself!) Yea, its werid about Deas, I never thought he was that magnetic but what is it about soaps twisting themselves into knots to write for him? On ATWT the writing made a little sense as I could see Tom being a bit of a hippie, kinda guy, with Lisa for a mom a clean cut lady killer for a dad. Its just too bad they erased his whole sense of being a Hughes, I can not remember a scene he had with Wagner and McLaughlin, and don't really remember a warm relationship with his parents..which is odd, I would think he and Fulton would have been a hoot together, and Hasting can work with anyone and make them look good. On GL it became the Buzz Show and Buzz wasnt that pleasent of a character to begin with.

Now Maura West could have done something with her (and I have never liked Carly or Carjack that much.) Plus, she looks like she could be related to Zimmer. Sigh...I think the worst thing about the Rauch/E& B era is that it had potential. Through most of it, right up until San Crud took over, it had really entertaining parts to it, I would say it was a lot more entertaining then the last year or two of JFP. But there was so much wasted potential which was coated in a sheen of bland or safeness. Having Reva deal with her white trash yard dog of a sister would have been way more fun then watching the two of them buddy up all over town and be selr righteous shrews (self righteous and Reva should never have gone together. )

HATED Laura Wright's smug, annoying Cassie, gritting her teeth and snarling at people, but EVERYONE loved her! Even Reva got told off and yelled at by other characters, hell, even St. Harley got told off during the Wheeler/Kreizman era and she was like, their patron saint! Vanessa was able to have a few short exchanges where MK was able to spin it that Van really didn't like Cassie, but was too well bred to make a point of it. When they first brought her on I really thought they were going to make her a hellion, and what fun could that have been? Giving Reva a sister that was not only a vixen, but sometimes outright nasty (which Reva never was.) But LW's Cassie outlook and the way she acted never matched her backstory!. The chick grew up in foster homes and had a kid with a drug dealer, but she ran around acting like she was an entitled cheerleader. I blame that on LW's ego...and the fact that she was friends with the headwriters and that Rauch had them on site, so that LW had easy access to them (and could take them to the bar across the street.) Its too bad, as I think she has the talent and the hard edge to bring an edgy character to life.

Yes, didn't she appear during the whole, "Earl Mitchell is missing/did Grant do it," storyline as rich society matron girlfriend of either Earl or Grant? They SHOULD have brought her back as Jennifer for the Amanda parentage thing, at least it would have made it SEEM that it made more sense. There was enough ambiguoty to have Amanda be Brandon's daughter (didnt he originally say he was...) if they would have connected the dots better (and it was the first step of turning Alex into a total shrew, that she would have know the truth but never said anything, to be replayed years later by trying to shoehorn Gus (and Icky Ricky) into the Spaulding family.

Yea, that was weird, you could see that the storyline was going in the direction of Miranda dieing in Bob's arms but they changed it. I don't think that Miranda was a Dobson character, so I am suprised they wanted to keep her at all, but it was odd, that they married them off and she all of a sudden became this paragon of Oakdale society and then nothing. They did have a little thing where Bob wanted Miranda to live with Nancy and Chris, and Chris didnt want to as he had protected her from the "criminal element," but then he relented. As Helen Wanger was gone by that time, and Don McClaughlin was kicked down to recurring they didn't pick up on anything after that but can you imagine a storyline with exotic criminal Miranda living with iron fist Nancy Hughes? They also had started a little something with Frannie having problems with Miranda but they dropped it. It is too bad, Miranda could have been a very Lucindaish character, a mixture of good and bad. Running a business but loving her family and trying to protect them, and also butting heads with her mother in law.

Well, you could see that Pat Holland character was trouble, she actually had a perm and wore a graphic T-Shirt to Nancy and Chris' backyard!!!STRUMPET!!! She was really sporting the Joyce Dewitt look didn't she??? I know that Larry B has always been trouble, but he really, really added a sense of, "reality," to the show. His John was neither good or bad, hell, he even made the Dobson's material, when it became the John Dixon show, real, and gave John motivation despite the sometimes misogynistic writing for him at that time. I really think that today's writers don't really know how to write for characters like John, Lisa or Lucinda who are shades of good and bad. People can still do shitty things, but the writers make them act like their [!@#$%^&*] don't stink. I think that AMC kind of co opted ATWT formula and updated it. It was about small town life, and families, and traditional values, but was faster, had campy aspects, etc. I do think that they threw out the baby with the bath water, getting rid of Nancy and Chris and that family feeling. Even GH kept the vets with the goofy stuff going on at that time. The Dobsons got rid of them, but kept the slow pace and the kinda boring feel (I remember particalarly the Dee actress and her long pauses and open mouth staring into the camera) instead of updating the pace and keeping the stucture. Oh, well, four years later Marland showed them how to do it, though none of the idiots in the industry tried to copy him.

Bob looks great now...I just ment he kinda looks sexy in this photo and I think its weird (and almost sacrilegious) to think Bob in anyway being sexy! Who is that couple behind Chris to the left behind Carol and Jay? I can see why the show needed to be "youthized," as it was full of just middle aged people. Just too bad that the Dobsons through out the baby (and Nancy and Chris) with the bath water. Who is the young girl with the curly dark hair to the right of Alma? I grew up with the show and remember Grandpa Hughes and Alma better then any Don..so he kind of was just there. Jay's sox are weird..the actor was gay right? That is Joyce in that red dress, and she looks really pretty. LOL on the woman in the jumper, have no idea who that is

I love this..it looks like a real family picture despite the astroturf! They would never do that now. Bob is looking kinda 70s studly!!!Where were David and Ellen and Lisa?

Well, you gotta love Bert Bauer calling someone a slut!!! It had to be fun to be involved in the soaps back then, they seem to have a lot of camaraderie back then, like no one was taking it that seriously and ego tripping (though I am sure there were a few who still did.) Stephen Yates was hot, but yea, he pinged off the charts, wonder what happened to him and if he was a Marland conquest?

Remember when they would put Lucinda in those ridiculous Alexis Carrington hats. That went by the wayside with Marland, thank God. So out of place with Lucinda, I mean, how does one throw their hands up and wave them all over the place with that honking ass hat in the way? Rod...that whole storyline gave me the skeeveys, starting with his name. How did anyone not say, "Uh, we need to come up with another name," unless they did it as a joke and unless the ATWT writers were different then their material, I can' t see them doing it. Have we ever had confirmation on Marland's sexuality (I mean, I confirmed it by just watching the show) I think it interesting that you could kinda surmise a writer's neurois back then, the work was so individual. His fascination with straight farm boys (he grew up on a farm) quasi incest, and "Rod," the rapist!!! I love the ad for the hour long expansion...it seems ATWT wasnt in the grip of trying to youthify the show yet, with Nancy and Chris front and center (just three years later they would be obscured by the Dobsons.) I also love the Joyce/Grant/Lisa picture, that was the whole storyline in a nutshell, over and over and over again! I always wondered why those women were so crazy to get him, he was uptight and also kinda dumb ("OH Joyce, I believe you have a brain tumor, just because you told me, even though you have a history of constantly lying, so I will do what anyone would logiclaly do, marry you!"

Who didn't hate Amanda and Eve???LOL! I love those ads, that was at the time that CBS was pushing real hard for GL to be over the top 80s and compete with Dynasty and Dallas. The funny thing was ratings fell from a high of No 1 for GL when it was still a slightly over the top, but still family show! I love the pic of Larkin Malloy, that was his friggen expression in every scene. I also love the second pic with Reva with a mullet and involving one of my favorite storylines, Sonni/Solita "Isolated one!!!" Man, Annie vs. Reva (which I loved also) held no candle to Sonni and Reva wrestling on a convent floor at Christmas!!! Now THAT's how you do over the top!

I would love to read about that "stuff," back then! I just remember Jay disappearing..(this was back when I first started watching as a regular viewer and not because it was "on.") they would mention him, "Oh, Lisa, Jay had to leave the wedding for work, can I get a ride with you and Grant?" but never show him. So they had Carol, kinda flirting with Steve, but no drama, as the husband was not there. I think that it could have been an interesting story, Carol dealing with natural sexual feelings but still staying faithful. They killed him off in a "mine," disaster, so maybe his contract was up in the summer, and the Dobsons wanted to keep him on until November to kill him off then? Who knows about Irna, the broad must have been something else to deal with! I loved Ehlers version of her on the GL anniversary thing. I read she went to talk to Hastings, Fulton and Hays to get a scoop of how Irna acted, talked, etc.

That is way too early for me! I do remember reading that Irna Phillips basically wrote the whole Stewart family out when she came back. What would have she thought of the Dobsons turning that around five years later and getting rid of Nancy and Chris in favor of David and Ellen??? We can see now why Fulton had the grandma clause. After Ellen became a grandma...(Bruder was way too young) I think they just kinda got rid of her as it looked ridiculous having a son(s) that old! I don't know why the Dobson's ignored Lisa and Ellen's "thing." I wish they would have had Lisa have an affair with David!!!

And that wasn't even fun!!! Now it would have been cool to have Sabrina be her boring self in front of the family, but at night she is going to bars and slutting it up, and she kind of laughs at the family and their earnestness behind their backs. Of course she would be redeemed, but not after causing all kinds of trouble. Maybe someone like Susan or Lisa, former bad girls, see that Sabrina is not what she says she is, and it causes conflict with Lisa and the family, or since it is Susan Kim wouldnt believe her, etc. The Hugheses needed conflict within the family, that didnt involve a disease of the week or rape. Sabrina could have been the catalyst to really drive a lot of problems in the family, much like Babs did. But Babs was so entrenched that there still was not that much conflict. Its a lot like the Bauers on GL. I always thought they should have brought back an illegit kid of Ed and Rita's and he would be nothing but trouble. There needed conflict within that family. Its too bad that postMADD that the shows treated both families as outdated and spent of drama, when that was not true.

That rewrite was so stupid..didn't the writers know how to pull up an old episode or old script? They could have still made David Lucinda's lost son, but have James adopt him and bend him to his evil will. LURVED Daniel Markel..why did they fire him for that trashy soft porny looking guy? I would prefer Casey off the show, he was so freakin boring. Not quite as boring as Seth Snyder, but up there. I always thought that after she found out clean cut, wealthy polite successful Doug Cummings was a psycho that Frannie would look for the opposite, some hot, beefy, blue collar cop, or reporter or fireman, who would be rough around the edges, not polished, good, but not overly polite, that she would find love with a great sex..while the rest of the uber clean cut Hughes family would be a bit suprised at her choice. But they stuck poor Frannie with dull down at the farm Seth! Of course, I woulda made Sabrina a boozed up slut, just as the whole family gathered around in their requisite sweaters to have coffee in the morning and to discuss how the lastest drama in Oakdale is effecting Lily, Sabrina saunters in from a night on the town, reeking of ciggies and gin.."Do I hav to hear about what that dumb clit Lily has got up her arse again?? You know, mummy, I got a pearl necklace myself last night!!!!" You are right, 1993 was the start of the end. Marland got away from his original premise of the Hughes, Snyders and Walsh familes and brought in so many characters that he didnt want to get rid of that it became too convoluted and it became so dark and dreary. I know its a crime but I HATED Margo's rape. I know, strong women are raped in real life but I didnt need to see that on a soap..some stuff is just too real and raw to deal with. Likewise giving Mac alzheimers. Why do that to one of the few elderly couples on a soap? It started to make me long for the giddy goofy days of the Dobsons second tenure. Didnt help the bad recasts, the new Emily and new Frannie didnt work for me at least.

LOL on the Iva spoof! So nice to see Lisa Brown get to do comedy again. Why in the world would you take someone who could do comedy so well and saddle her with that drip of a character. Beatrice was dull, but it is amazing how many of Marland's characters were dull. He just had so much going on (can you imagine that many characters and storylines in one episode?)if you didn't like a character, Lucinda and James would come on and scheme against them soon enough. I know you disagree but friggen Lyla (SNOOZE) and Casey (Double Snooze) Shannon and freakin Uncle Earl. I can only imagine they gave Fulton Earl to get her to stop bitching about a love interest (like Lisa better when she is alone and getting into everyone else's bizness instead the love sick romantic) and reportedly, to give the producer's lover a job. Granger was a great looking older guy, too bad they hadn't cast him as Whit earlier, I could see him doing imperious and cruel. And that throwaway line from Earl..."Dont worry Tom, she has nothing to worry about with me!" I know it is the setup to the "Is Earl trying to scam/kill Lisa," but it sounded like a setup to "Dont worry, we two divas will get along just fine!" And sigh, Greg Marx, my 18 year old ideal for the perfect gay husband!LOL. What was in Marland's and the TPTB mind to cast boring, short, annoying Scott Holmes as Tom? You go from that big, strapping guy, who actually had a warm chemistry with his family and everyone, with cold, angry Holmes? And Anthony Herrara was freakin' hot back then. I never thought it back then but wow...he was one villian you could see smart women like Babs and Lucinda falling for..(though its weird to see Lucinda kissing him instead of spitting out "JAAAMESS!") Corrine and her mother were supposed to be annoying. They were North Shore socialites (its amazing how much Marland got right about Chicago and the burbs, you could never fault him for attention to detail.) that Lucinda was trying to get to buy into a deal and James was screwing, I think both of them. It was one of his minor characters that were more caricatures then anything else...(didn't James kill the mother???) I think the Craig thing was more that it got kind of tired watching him wear his guilt. The stuff he did wasnt THAT bad compared to most soap characters. But I do agree, Bryce has great chemistry with all the women he works with...Frost had way more chemistry with him then her flaring nose husband. I think that Craig WAS hard to reconcile with the Hogan version of Craig..you had to forget Marland's and remember the Dobsons to like his Craig. If they had brought him back as conflicted and not so assholey and evil then it could work (actually the last Craig was closer to Byrces version...despite the writing he gave him a conflict and vunerability then Block ever gave him.) AMBROSE..as Lucinda would scream out, WAS great! I wonder what happened to the actor that they wrote him out. Was he sick, because he and Jane just disappeared..(I loved the long suffering Jane and her rolling her eyes at her boss.) Lucinda's supporting team were great. They should have gave Lisa a Thelma Ritter type maid who would roll her eyes and sarcastically tell off Lisa..."Oh yes, there is nothing more attractive then some over the hill broad acting like she is still 18...if you need me I will be downstairs at the Mona Lisa bar!"

Hmmm, I don't know about Lisa and a younger man. They flirted with that with Brad Hollister (but he, however, was a big dud!) But Lisa was written so flitty, silly at that time I don't think it would have worked. If they brought out a more sophisticated side to her I could see it. I also think it was in Lisa's character to go for a more serious "older," controlling figure (which she of course would rebel against. Bob, John Eldridge, Grant, Whit McColl, all more serious men (and with bucks.) That is why I don't think Lisa worked with the Farley Granger character. He was way too soft with her, I think she would have been bored senseless. I think Lisa worked better with younger guys as a mentor figure. As I said before, Marland was always impressed with Fulton's handling of the younger actors, so if he brought someone new in he would have some of their first scenes with her. I though Lisa worked best with the young McColls to work with..Fulton had a young person's energy, and when she just started hanging out with Bob and Kim and Nancy and worst of all, the last Tom actor, who drained the energy out of every scene, it inhibited her. Never understood why Hogan and Gautman reglegated her to the background when their were tons of younger miscreants who she could have mentored. LOL at her "column!" Also, I never knew she had her own line of loungwear for J.C. Penny of all places. Seems Fulton was ahead of the game in terms of Lucci, etc, and their own line of products. Which I am surprised...she doesn't seem the best business mind in the world. I am sure Leblanc was in a daze at that time...imagine him surrounded by all those Chippendales manflesh dancers!

With all due respect for Collen, I have always found the Brian actor scary, and kinda gross. Its like his body is way too skinny for his head. I think he is good at playing skeezy characters, like his GL one(s) or AW, but as a nice, conflicted person...uh no. The Brian character could have been a good one, and was conceived well, (ambitious prosecuting attorney vs. his step brother, the idealistic hippie Tom that Deas played ) but after the recast with Pinter it kinda sucked. And he never seems to have chemistry with his female partners. I thought they should have recast all of Lisa's stepkids after the Diana actress and Kirk left...she needed a family and Brian could have been a good character. Trivia, Lisa was originally supposed to be lovers with Brian and then be attracted to Whit. LOL at Cousin Gerri! I woulda loved her on ATWT, but Marland would have made some boring socially "relevent," story about her being discriminated against. Would have been funny (I know and tasteless) to have her as someone whose disability also prevents her from censoring her words, like Sofia on GG, she can't help saying whatever hits her mind, imagine the uber polite and uptight Marland characters dealing with that..."Does Iva know the guy she is in love with is a f*g??? And why would he like her, he wears more makeup then she does!!!"

This was the one and only time I watched the Doctors, and I love the goofy storyline with the necklace and the grave robbing (wasnt there a youth serum also?) Of course, I also liked Alec Baldwin who was smoking hot at that time (though he may have been killed off already???) I just wonder what the dedicated long time viewers thought of this time???Probably much like I thought of the Reva Clone and Jonathon/James.

No..but the ooomph was taken out of it when Fulton left (as you can see in You Tube and even her last few scenes on the show, nobody can give a bitchy remark with a smile like Fulton.) Diana and the new Lisa didn't get along but BVF was a colder Lisa so there was no fire there and the recast didn't work so I think they just kept thinking of her as a placeholder for Fulton. Its funny but when Fulton returned she has a very protective relationship of Diana. Really the start of Lisa starting to "mentor," the younger set, which worked as Fulton always had good chemistry with kids..which I think is why the Lisa/Carly fued never worked as I see Lisa kicking her ass but with good intentions. I wonder how BVF would have been as Alex? She was to the manor born and a cold customer so it might have worked.

No, Lisa, was having a suprise birthday party for Whit...and the intro of Diana. Lisa contacted daddy's girl and pre Paris Hilton party girl Diana in "Europe," to come to the suprise party. Whit knew about it and played along until before Diana's entrance,(she popped out of a cake) so Lisa got mad and playfully smashed a cake in his face. Diana had popped out of the cake and was annoyed that Lisa's stunt got more attention then her, setting up a Diana/Lisa rivalry. I always thought Fulton was kind of stupid to leave the show at that time...not only was she well into her 50s to go to Hollywood, but the Dobsons, who had gotten rid of or ignored a lot of the vets, built an entire family around her and were starting a Rachel/Iris thing with Lisa/Diana. That was Whit's old office, Lucinda took over his company as revenge for her husbands suicide, which we later learn, with Marland, was not because of Whit but because of Lily's birth reveal, which Marland never really connected ot his storyline.

LOL...I watched this scene the other day when you posted the clip above. I actually remember watching this episode..it must have been the monkeys, I mean, what in the hell were they doing there??? I remember thinking Jay was HAWT and I look at him now and laugh, there is no way in hell would soaps today show a regular cute, but skinny guy as a stud! Everyone of them look alike now and they all have to be shaved and plucked and pumped up. (I was sick so I watched OLTL the other day, just to see "Ross," be evil, and they have this really cheesy embarrasing promo of one of those brothers standing in front of a collage of lips, ripping his shirt open and winking at the camera! The 80s promos don't look so cheesy now!) I like the later episode when Frannie is with Babs, after they just found out Betsy "died," and Barbara is all like "Yea, its so sad, but I don't know how much more I can take...what with my husband running off!" It was all about Babs even back then, so I can see Marland watching that and that lightbulb going off in his head! God Whit was so freakin; gross, they couldnt have gotten a decent looking older guy to play him. His dentures are practically falling out of his mouth and his toupe is about to fly off!

Yes, we always knew she was alive, wish more shows had done that. The question is, why not just have a recast Betsy instead of going through all that plastic surgery amnesia stuff? I don't remember who was trying to shoot who, and why Margo and Maggie didn't just tell them! Betsy Vonwhatever was a terrible Lisa. She subbed for Fulton in 81 or something when she was sick, and they brought her in as a recast. Lisa was boring and wimpy and way too "to the manner born," during her time. Fulton would always give that gross guy playing Whit the evil eye when he was trying to boss her around, but BVF's Lisa just did whatever he said. They were going to kill her off but Fulton said she would come back (I tend to think that Fulton sometimes exagerates, I couldnt see them killing Lisa off at that stage of the game, the show was too silly and lighthearted back then to kill a beloved character off...Wagner had left the show but Nancy was still kept alive and they could have killer her off with a heart attack.) Which reminds me, whatever happened to "Aunt Charmagne," I LURRVED her and how she would get BVF;s snobby Lisa in an uproar. God, the Steve actor was bad!

Alan in a soft corn flick...EWWWWW!!!! I do think that Pilon's voice matched CB's...RR..I don't know, he was so "Foghorn Leghorn," that he could never be considered a serious threat. That clip in pure Alex...a snob, a bitch, funny sarcastic and then vunerable, and even able to apologize to someone. Marj's Alex was just a shrill harpy. Remember when the Spauldings actually had that great set? And remember when Rauch gave it to Carmen of all people???

"Phillip grew up watching your....escapades, no wonder he is acting like this!" This is the Alex I love...Marj's Alex doesn't come close. God, Bev would have chewed Ron Raines and spit him back out on a regular basis. I remember not liking Daniel Pilon but I almost thought he was the "Real," Alan for a minute so I can see why they hired him. God I hated Marj's screeching, wimpy Alex....they should have just made her a new character.