Soapfan4life...you are mostly right! Waaaaayyy back in 1990-1991, Gabriell Medina, Max's then wife, orchestrated a scam in which she manufactured evidence to make everyone believe that Asa was Max's pa. Asa, Renee, Max and little Al becam a very close family group. Max and Renee became particularly close. Naturally, the truth came out. But since Max was not in on the scam, Renee held no grudge against him, and she remained a mother figure to him for years. Meawhile Max and Asa became mortal enemies when Max discovered that Asa had cheated Max's father, Wingate Holden, out of a fortune years before.

Fast forward to 1999. It was revealed that Renee had given birth to Asa's baby boy once upon a time. This baby was thought to be dead, but wasn't. A "Who's the son" story played out for some time. Blair, Max's wife at the time, devised a scheme (just call her Gabrielle junior!) to trick Asa and Renee into believing that Max was their missing son. Blair resurrected the "proof" from 1990, and had it "validated". (Quite clever storytelling, actually.) Max, hating Asa, happily went along with the fraud. As it always does on soaps, the deceit was revealed (by Todd Manning). Renee pronounced Max dead to her, but later forgave him when he saved the life of her real son, Ben.

Renee is no dummy, though. It was well established that she saw Max for the rogue and liar that he is, but she could not squelch the maternal feelings she had for him.

How and why do I remember all this? I can't remember all the important things in life, but this stuff I remember! LOL!

Thank you so much for refreshing my memory. I was remembering bits and pieces and then throwing in other shows stories and confusing myself lol

This is something neat that I just ran across:

Link: http://www.ktnv.com/global/story.asp?s=6937867

Be sure and click on the video link on the left side of the page. The clip show scenes from Thursday's episode and footage from the July 3rd behind-the-scenes cast/crew party when the Mayor's office presented the show with the "One Life to Live Way" sign.

They did get one thing wrong, however, they say Erika Slezak has been around since the start of the show in 1968. That, of course, is incorrect; she actually took over the role of Viki in 1971.

I loved today's episode. I loved Alex's entrance at the end with Renee - Matthew was hilarious, "Grandma, who's this?". Very well done. I can't wait till tomorrow.

LOL! I loved her enterance. Alex hugging Renee, and Renee, Matthew, and Nigel's expressions... awesome. I couldn't stop laughing at it.

Death is always sad. Asa lived a long life. Please, Don't let you feelings on the Phil Carey situation affect your thoughts on the episode. I thought it was very realistic.

It was hard to feel bad when the pulled back when someone would learn Asa died. We saw very little immediate reaction to the news of Asa's death, which weakened the emotional atmosphere for me. That said, some of the exchanges between Nigel and Renee were pretty heart breaking.

I'm surprised by some of the negativity I'm been seeing about today's show from the various message boards.

Apparently people would rather watch John, Marty, Adriana, and Cole.

As someone who was left rather disappointed with today's show, the problem wasn't the characters featured it was the pacing of the material made the episode disjointed. It was hard to invest in when you aren't seeing the emotional fallout. The beauty of soap opera is that you have time to play the beats of the story.

I thought that the Marty/Miles stuff was actually a really good story. A woman protects her son by marrying a psychopath only for the new husband to blackmail the child into silence as well. Having not seen Marty the first time around, I don't know how she was. I'm not the biggest fan of Christina Chambers, but this is probably the best work of her career. While I can understand why people would dislike the story, but it's different strokes for different folks.

I think the Tommy story is being well handled. The right beats are being hit and some of the moments are classic soap opera. I'm not the biggest fan of Michael Easton, but he has impressed me with this storyline. I loved the scene the other day between him and Marcie drinking beer on the rooftop. I liked that this relationship is being explored as it will be so important to the storyline.

These two stories hit the beats, which frightens me because I don't want to think that this is the new headwriter's work (I'm not even going to attempt to butcher his last name). The show doesn't seem to gel though. The stuff at BE charity event looked exciting, but the episode as a whole didn't work. When I first started watching it, I thought it was great because soaps don't often do big events like this anymore. Then, as it progressed, I cringed. Todd hitting Miles' glass was childish. I don't like the way Todd is acting. I don't like the way he's treating Star and I don't like the way he's treating Blair.

Ya know? I mean damn, we are never going to be able to be as good as the "best times" because those were the "best" times. [!@#$%^&*], at least they tried. We could have just gotten a funeral with no Joey, or Kevin,or Chord, and we really got treats with Max and Alex. We got flashbacks and history mentions. I agree, this should have been a weeklong event, but it wasn't and the show gave me all that I could ask for and I am satisfied with it.

Why should the audience accept a poor product? Honestly, all I want is a good story and by that I want a story that hits the beats. Asa's death should have provided that. Other soaps have managed to give decent funerals to characters in recent years without half the history that Asa's has. Jen's death was well handled and Jen was a character that was despised for most of her run on the show. The show currently features other storylines that are doing that why cannot Asa's death be given the same treatment?

Today came off as rushed plain and simple.

With all that said, I enjoyed some parts. It was nice to see Dan Gauthier back as Kevin and I hope that we get some decent Cord/Sarah scenes. Stopping by to see Joe Riley was nice as was Kevin's heartbreak over the lose of his own two sons. Patricia Elliot is a hidden gem and I enjoy seeing her.

Take this or dont take it. When you dont have an actor, it usually affects the funeral. Contracted actors who are leaving get real funerals. This funeral was actually pulled out of the blue because Asa was upstairs or in his office all this time. This is a ratings stunt to coincide with the 10000, but nevertheless it is a treat, and we cant bitch about treats because thats what it is.

Today came off as rushed plain and simple.

I get what you are saying. At the same time though, I have watched two elaborate funerals for Asa before this one. Anyone remember his funeral in 1983 when he faked his death so he could lurk around in the shadows to see if Bo and Delila would get together? He actually ended up revealing himself to be alive at the funeral! LOL!

Five years ago, he he faked another death and all of his wives (the ones who were alive, anyway!) showed up for his funeral. IMO, that was the best soap funeral ever!

Both "deaths" and funerals played out for days, with the citizens of Llanview steppping up to the church podium and remembering Asa. So, I get why the show chose to play this death out the way they did. Playing out Asa's third and final funeral over a number of days would be rehashing what we have already seen. I thought Thursday's eppy was to the point. I also think they did a masterful job of subtly letting us know just how everybody was feeling without actually showing us. The Buchanans are devastated. We (or at least I ) don't need to see the hysterics and crying.

I hope more people enjoy today's show!

I think today's episode will be better, I agree yesterday was way too rushed and I didn't have time to feel for anyone's grief. It just didn't touch me deeply enough. but it was a great stunt and a great stand alone episode. Terrific to be able to use again if they need to ever do a repeat for any reason. It didn't really affect any current storylines and it didn't matter who was on the show at this time and who came back,. It was just a nice send off for Asa.

The flash backs are always a nice touch especialy when they are old ones. I can't believe how young Nigel and Renee looked in that clip that they showed when Nigel was remembering Asa. nice nods to history

So Dorian is again confessing to killing Victor Lord.....interesting since they decided in 1995 that Viki's altar Tori had killed him, and not Dorian.

This should be interesting......

I love the Buchanan children getting along, even if Natalie is there.

Somewhat off topic but for those of you wanting to see Evangeline again you are in luck....on Labor Day OLTL will re-broadcast the Valentine's Day episode.

Bo is ON FIRE!!!!!!!!! MAJOR kudos to Robert S. Woods.

Ha! Dorian asks Viki what she is going to do with the rest of her life and tells her she only has "One Life to Live."

God love Ron Carlivati!

I got interupted by the news Im in the Philly Area. Whats going on? Last I saw, Matthew was talking to Nora.

I want an Alex/Asa flashback to the Cleopatra wedding.

Bo is ON FIRE!!!!!!!!! MAJOR kudos to Robert S. Woods.

Emmy reel! He is smokin today & this is the first time I really believed that he & JVD were brothers on sreen