Fabulous news! Thanks for posting, GBB.

Not really a funny per se, but I thought this was really interesting. Apparently some of the scenes where Steve was particularly "mean" to Kayla (after he was arrested and some in the mental hospital) were originally much worse in the scripts. Stephen couldn't reconcile Steve saying some of those things to Kayla even in a brainwashed state, so he toned a lot of it way back and refused to say some of it. I shudder to think how bad the original was. The stuff that got through was bad enough.

Also, found it really interesting that a lot of stuff on the 5/23 episode (where Kayla begins to try to deprogram Steve) was adlibbed on their part. Steve sitting up and dragging Kayla's chair over for a kiss, the whole ending bit where she crawls into bed with him and holds him as he falls asleep -- that wasn't in the script. The director initally didn't want to let them do it but he changed his mind.

Stephen said soaps run very differently now. There's no time on set for rehearsal. And that you have to come to the set just ready to work. He and Mary Beth make sure they take time to rehearse on their own in the dressing room.

Thanks for sharing the little stories. It is good to hear about Stephen and Mary Beth wanting to add stuff to the deprogramming episode. To be honest, that chair dragging kiss and Kayla holding Steve on the bed at the end were some of my favorite moments between them this year - and for various reasons these moments were examples of why I like Steve and Kayla so much as a couple. It is interesting that these great scenes were brought to us more by the actors, who obviously care about their characters and understand what fans like to see, rather than being written in and initiated by the writers and directors.

The same goes for Stephen not being willing to say certain dialogue that he believed was too out of character for Steve. I am glad to hear that Stephen and Mary Beth contine to be committed to the integrity of their respective characters.

As for the rehearsing, I wonder if it has been that way for awhile. I recall when Mary Beth went to GH, she was really surprised at how some of the actors with whom she was romantically paired did not want to rehearse and run lines ahead of time. She said that they just wanted to to "go fresh and with the moment" or something along those lines. It was hard for her to get used to because she and Stephen had always spent so much time running lines and rehearsing.

Thanks for the post, GBB!!

I may disagree with you all about how good the show is, but I too hope our efforts go somewhere and everyone on the show is utilized. Yay balance!