Favorite Lines of Dialogue Ever!

[Dan]

I'm still DESPERATELY searching Youtube for that particular scene at Maureen's gravesite. What a wonderful summation of that FASCINATING friendship between Maureen and Roger. Speaking of Holly and Roger, I especially love this scene just a few days after that grave scene.

Transcript from michaelzaslow.com...

ROGER, still in his overcoat, rummages through HOLLY’S kitchen.

ROGER: But where-oh-where is your corkscrew?

HOLLY [sourly]: I keep it by my bed, to ward off intruders.

ROGER: Is that supposed to be a hint?

HOLLY: If the shoe fits?

ROGER: Now, c’mon, Holly. . .

HOLLY: Roger, you are in my house, going through my things, without an invitation. I call that a major intrusion, wouldn’t you?

ROGER: I don’t think I interrupted anything especially exciting.

HOLLY: Well, not everybody needs the high life to enjoy themselves. I was very content before you arrived, and I could probably recapture the feeling if you leave—quickly, please. [she picks up the bottle he brought.] And as for the wine, I prefer white. [Putting it down and heading to the door]. If you’ve got to do something with that tonight, I could christen your car with it as you pull out. Now!

ROGER: Boy, Holly. You can be so ungracious sometimes. I came here to make peace with you; surely that is worth a moment of your time?

HOLLY: What, are we at war?

ROGER: I don’t know. Every day brings a new story. Friend or foe—I never know what it’s gonna be.

ROGER stands in the foreground, looking down rather vulnerably, as HOLLY responds.

HOLLY [Thoughtfully, but with a touch of her characteristic wry humor]: We’ve tried and tried to work things out; it never lasts. Maybe we just make better enemies than anything else—why don’t we just leave it at that?

ROGER [Turning to her, very vulnerable]: Because tonight I need a friend.

HOLLY seems to consider this possibility for a moment, and then turns her back to ROGER . . .

HOLLY: Are you drunk?

ROGER: I’m never drunk. I just get high enough to smile more easily.

HOLLY: Well, why aren’t you sharing this glow with Jenna? She probably finds it more fascinating than I do. [Turning to him] You’re still with her, aren’t you?

ROGER: You jealous?

HOLLY: Your ego still requires that of me, doesn’t it?

ROGER [With a faint smile]: Recently, you and I were contemplating ruling an empire together, do you recall?

HOLLY: I recall a business proposition, not a romantic liaison. Why don’t you go now?

ROGER comes closer to her.

ROGER: Holly, I’m really not trying to aggravate you. I really do need a friend tonight.

HOLLY [Turning to him, the words as though pulled out of her]: I am not your friend!

ROGER looks down and shakes his head slightly, a gesture of a forlorn man who has had a door slammed in his face. He turns away from her and walks a step before she says . . .

HOLLY: Oh, what’s happened to you tonight?

ROGER [Melancholic]: Well, it started paying a visit to Maureen’s grave. She’s the closest thing I had to a friend in this lousy town. And then Chrissy led me over to Ross—wanted me to “accept him.” And I found out that he is going to champion Spaulding in a lawsuit they don’t deserve to win, only because I’m on the other side of it.

HOLLY [Quietly]: With Jenna?

ROGER: Yes, she’s the wronged party. And then mad dog Lewis assaulted me—again! See, I don’t think sometimes it has anything to do with me. It’s like I represent something in themselves that they’re terrified of and they have to bludgeon out of existence.

HOLLY [Frustrated]: And you come to me for sympathy? Don’t you know that everything that has happened to you, everything that has happened to you, you brought it on yourself?!

HOLLY: I mean, do you really expect me to give you a shoulder to cry on, to tell you “Don’t worry, Roger, I know you’ve done nothing wrong”? [HOLLY is in his face, and he looks down. Somewhat more subdued, she says . . .] I’m sorry. I’m not Maureen Bauer. [ROGER nods, but her temper rises again]. And everybody who hates you has a damned good reason. Just look at what you’ve done to them! I mean, you have made it a mission in your life to try and sabotage Ross’s career. And what has gone on between you and the Spauldings, I . . . [HOLLY rolls her eyes, and ROGER looks down and shakes his head]. And don’t you remember—you nearly destroyed Billy Lewis when you used his daughter and then you threw it back in his face?

At this, ROGER looks up.

ROGER: I loved Melinda!

HOLLY: No, no! You don’t get to be the victim here! The victims are all those people you have hurt trying to get what you wanted!

ROGER [Moving closer to HOLLY]: Like you, Holly?

HOLLY: Yes! Like me! You’re damned straight!

ROGER looks at her, knowingly, and the ROGER-HOLLY “sexual tension” background music kicks in . . .

ROGER: But you don’t hate me, Holly. Why is that?

HOLLY appears vulnerable for a second, quickly glancing at ROGER’S lips and up into his eyes as they nearly fall into a kiss ...

... until she deftly pushes him away.

HOLLY [Opening the door to Hollybend] Go home now, Roger! Or I call the police!

ROGER steps into the darkness, and HOLLY follows as if to make one of her “comments”—she had a habit, in those days, of sending a parting shot to people as they left—but ROGER, with his back to her, asks a question.

ROGER: Do you hate me, Holly?

There is a pause. ROGER’S back is still to HOLLY.

HOLLY [softly]: No. I used to, but I don’t anymore.

ROGER turns to her, and she looks gently into his eyes.

HOLLY: I pity you.

This cuts ROGER to his heart.

ROGER: Don’t! Don’t you ever do that! Don’t you ever feel sorry for me!

ROGER then adds, wryly: Oh well. I asked.

HOLLY, puzzled, watches him as he leaves.

[Dan]

BTW, I forgot to add, that I love how neurotic Holly was in the early 90s. No matter who she was talking to, no matter what the conversation was about, she ALWAYS found a way to turn the conversation back to herself and her dramas just like she did in that clip with Maureen lol.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I've been trying to get a hold of it for YEARS, I still remember seeing that scene originally as a kid. Damn, they don't write history-laced, emotion-driven dialogue like that anymore.

I also loved how both Maureen and Roger felt like outsiders regarding Ed and Holly's friendship. I mean, Roger and Holly will always be the loves of one another's lives, the same with Ed and Maureen. However, I've always considered Holly and Ed to be best friends, and even though they were romantically linked at various times, I really love the friendship they had. Holly really proved what a great friend she was to Ed during Mo's funeral episode, where she was the only one able to get through to Michelle. I really love those scenes in Michelle's bedroom. Aw, the wonders of a Nancy Curlee storyline with the addition of some wonderful dialogue written by Patrick Mulcahey...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

LOL! Me too, to me Holly is and should be a neurotic character given all her life experiences. No one got Holly and especially Roger and Holly like our girl Nancy Curlee. I really hated what successive regimes did to the character (hello, B&E!) and Roger and Holly's dynamic (hello, McTavish!).

[Dan]

I don't want to hijack the thread (even if it was started by me lol), but I also LOVE the scenes with Michelle's first period. It's such a minute detail that I'm sure no other show would have spent any time on it, yet they really packed an emotional punch. The ending scene also has one of my favorite scores.

[Sylph]

I wonder when will brimike write something about Santa Barbara.

[R Sinclair]

Not to hijack an already hijacked thread, but... didn't Roger rape Holly? And isn't that Roger holding a gun to Holly's head?

I am NOT a Guiding Light fan/historian or even a casual viewer... thanks largely to

THIS!

So, I don't know the ins and outs.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yes, it was technically marital rape (written by the Dobson's), they had a wonderfully complex relationship that was equal parts love and hate. The rape and emotional and vocal abuse was always there and an important obstacle in their relation to one another, and it hindered them from ever becoming a real couple ever again. However, there was a connection between the two characters that never died and love for one another that was there despite everything.

Thankfully, she left in the summer or so of 1990, and the show became a rounded ensemble again and entered what I and many consider its last golden age. GL is always more interesting to me when Reva is not the "center."

All I can say is THANK GOD Robert Calhoun and Pamela K. Long HATED one another, or else we wouldn't have gotten Curlee and Demorest and those lovely years in the early 90's, Zimmer would've probably not left as well, since she LOVED Long...

[brimike]

Yes, Roger did rape her. And hold a gun to her head. A few times, I believe.

Roger was an incredibly dark, incredibly power-hungry, vicious man. Yet somehow, the audience believed whole-heartedly that in his own sick way, he loved Holly, and he would never love anyone like her again. And Holly, even after the rape, could never fully let go of that part of her life completely.

The Roger/Holly story is full of dark twists and turns, but from beginning to end, it really was a love story. Not like Luke and Laura, who ended up being all flowers and puppies and mob hits after awhile. Or Todd and Marty which started out as a vicious psychopath tying a woman down. Or Jake and Marley, which to this day, I'll never understand the story reasons behind making Marley obsessed with Jake after ten years, especially the way things were left between them.

Roger and Holly were capable of falling in love with other people, but nobody had the effect on them that the other had, and unfortunately, they both knew it (and at times, loathed it). It was an incredibly complex relationship, and I honestly don't know if we'll ever see anything like it on daytime again. God, how I miss Zaz and Garrett on screen together. Dangerous, deadly, sexy, reprehensible, sarcastic, biting, evil, emotional, real and romantic, although nothing about Roger and Holly's past was EVER romanticized on-camera. It was all laid out bare for the audience and the characters.

I miss those days. *sigh*

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Curlee's years at GL might have been a little over 3 years, BUT SO MUCH HAPPENED in that time, more so than you'll find in longer HW tenures of today. Roger and Holly were so Curlee's signature couple, I remember reading some place that she once referred to them as a "runaway train." No other writing regime that followed understood the complexity of the Roger/Holly dynamic. I know there's an article that exists that interviews Curlee, Zaslow, and Garrett about the scenes at the Cliff House, where Roger and Holly had sex for the first time since the rape, I'd do anything to get my hands on that.

I wish I had a transcript from that episode where Holly takes Ed out for the first time after Mo died, which happened soon after Roger and Holly's sexual encounter. I LOVED the dialogue in the scenes where Roger crashed the party and those outside scenes with Holly. Even after they had sex, she was afraid of him and even though sex happened, the rape was NOT WHITEWASHED. Dan, if you have the dialogue to those scenes, please post!

[Dan]

Zimmer left before Long was even fired.

I know we won't see another relationship like that because I truly credit Zas for portraying such a fascinating character. I honestly don't think soap fans had ever or will ever see such a layered performance ever again. There's only one Zas. We've seen couples with chemistry attempt to get past a rape, but IMO I don't think any of these were ever quite as genuine.

I assume you mean Zas' 1994 Emmy reel. I don't have the scenes transcribed, but if you give me a minute I'll start. I happen to have the scenes conveniently on my computer. (I'm stunned that Zas' official site doesn't go that far.)

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Ah yes, Long was gone by the fall, and Zimmer left in the summer. Honestly, I don't know how Long made it a few months without writing for her pet character.

Yes! Thanks!

[Dan]

July 1993

INT: Country Club

Roger: Here you are. Tucked cozily away in the bosom of your family and friends. (He gestures toward Blake.) And in the bosom of my once-loyal family as well.

Ed: I think you've had a little too much to drink, wouldn't you say?

Roger: (drunkly slurring the words): How quick we are to begrudge others those pleasures we ourselves are denied? (Walks down the stairs, tripping on the way down). You know I understand that because I am very much the same way. And so it is that I'm here with my own special little hero's welcome surprise for you.

(Closeup of Holly as fade to black.)

Billy: Why don't you take this outside because believe me nobody wants to here it in here.

Blake: What's he talking about? Something's wrong with him Ross. [FYI, Lewis Arlt temped for JvD during these scenes]

Mindy: I'm calling Jenna Bradshaw to come get him. He's supposed to be her problem now.

Blake: No , Mindy don't. Mindy don't do that. (Mindy ingnores her).

Roger: How I wish your dear lost wife were here to watch you as you reassemble your domestic relationships (neat closeup of Lillian) at my expense or so you think.

Ed: No one's here under duress Roger, not even you.

Holly: It's me you came for isn't it? Let's go. I'll talk to him outside. (Roger gives a victorious smile.)

[Rest of scene isn't important.]

----------

Ext. Country Club Patio.

Roger buys a drink from one of the attendence and starts to drink it.

Roger: I went to your house. I waited for you on your porch.

Holly: I'm sorry. I didn't know.

Roger: You're not sorry. I waited for hours--I think it was hours. Were you with him, Ed?

Holly: Roger you are so mistaken about that. Ed doesn't even think of me that way.

Roger: Oh well. You'll fix that won't you?

Holly: I planned a party for him, that's all.

Roger: I left a message for you. I left MESSAGES actually. To your house, I even called the Journal where they treated me like primordial ooze. Why didn't you call me back.

Holly: (slowly) I didn't know what I was going to say.

Roger: To WHAT? I could have been bleeding to death. I could have been CAPTURED BY TERRORISTS. Look, you can make love to me. (Roger swats at the air, A fly perhaps?) But I mean, the effort of returning a phone call is somehow beyond you.

Holly: I didn't think it would be kind to keep repeating again and again what I have already told you. I can't give you what you want. I can't be with you.

Roger: Well, See, I won't accept that.

[End Scene]

Holly: How many ways have we tried and failed? If it was going to work between us, it would have.

Roger: Oh. How fatalistic! My gosh. What is this? You're saying that it's all in the hands of the gods? You know this is very weird because you are not passive in any other single area of your life. In fact the only thing that you CAN'T control is the one thing you are trying so DESPERATELY to control and that is the fact that you love me. (They argue yes and no back and forth.). I know what I know. When you were with me that night it was there and you know it too.

Holly: What is wrong with you? Our marraige was VICIOUS and brief. Our divorce is a smashing success by comparison and why? Because we managed to stay out of each other's way. Roger, you have made so much more for yourself alone than you ever could we me and what now your future depends on having me back?

Roger: You let me taste it again Holly. You showed me that you wanted to. YES YES! Holly, it's not me that you can't live with you know what it is? It's the shame that crept in after we made love. That's what it is. After you reverted back to what you like to think of as Holly Norris Bauer Thorpe Lindsay again. The shame of loving someone that you're supposed to find dispicable and that's why you run to Ed.

Holly: I run away from you. I don't run to Ed. My life and his are so seperate now.

Roger: YOU'RE LYING! (Holly and Roger look to see if anyone heard them.) Well it doesn't matter. Do you really think he's going to want you after he learns that you slept with me?

Holly: Roger!

Roger: Hey. If I can't have you. He sure as hell isn't going to...

[Fade to black]

[Y&RWorldTurner]

^Again, THANK YOU for posting that. That last two scenes alone sum up Roger and Holly's relationship and all the history behind it. God, I just love scenes like that. You know, the scenes where so much history comes at you not only is it NOT contrived, but you don't even really need to know the whole back story to appreciate its historical relevance. Oh, and it sums up everything in just a few lines of dialogue. I can go on and on about this. LOL!

[Dan]

Ext. Country Club

Roger buys another drink.

Roger: Just bring the bottle and leave it here. We're having a celebration here (As he says this, Holly silently tells the waiter not to.).

Waiter: Of course Sir.

Roger raises the glass.

Cheers!

Holly: You've had wayy to much to drink Roger.

Roger: You wish!

Holly: Come on, I'll take you home. (Roger grabs her arm.) You're in no shape to drive.

Roger puts the glass on the table and pulls Holly into an embrace.

Roger: You're doing it again Holly.

Holly: What?

Roger: Using yourself, using me. Tempting yourself, tempting me.

Holly: You're not terribly tempting at the moment Roger.

Roger: You know, you always ask me when will I ever learn. Well I'm gonna ask you, when will you?

Holly: Why? Because I don't want you to get into a head-on collision?

Roger raises his finger.

Roger: The only head-on collision you're afraid of is one with you-know-who.

Holly: Let me repeat this to you Roger. Ed does not think of me that way. Not for a long, long time.

Roger: Well, let me repeat this to you. That ain't gonna stop you.

Holly: When I talked about what we had, I was talking about this kind of peace and security that I want in my life.

Roger: WHAT KIND OF PEACE? WHAT KIND OF SECURITY? The daughter you gave him or tried to? The daughter who was MINE, if you remember? Is this what you want again?! Ed all neat and tidy in the dining room and good ol' Rog waiting out for you in the woods?! Well I'm sorry sweetie. But I don't lay out in the dirt for ANYONE anymore, not even for you!

Holly: You're never content until you make me hate you again. It's the only thing you really trust, isn't it?

Roger: I think we should rejoin the party. (Drunkily.) Lest TONGUES begin to WAG!

Holly: No you're not going in there!

Ed: (still inside) Alright, time's up.

(Holly blocks the way. Roger tries to move her.) You letcher! (Roger falls to the floor.)

Holly:What's wrong with you? Why can't you be the same man two weeks in a row? There is just no reaching you. There is no reasoning with you. (Roger uses Holly to pull himself up when suddenly Ed grabs him from behind.)

Blake: Daddy!

(Fade to Black)

Ed: Some things never change do they Roger? Why don't you just leave?

Roger: Tell you what. Why don't you just toss me out?

Ed: Because I gave up drunken brawls a long time ago.

Roger turns to Holly and smiles.

Roger: I've got just thing to get you started again.

Holly interupts. "Will someone just get him out of here."

Billy: All right Ed. You take one arm--

Roger: WOAH! Calling out the big guns here. Okay. I'll leave quietly. I don't know why; I'm a dues paying member. I have a room upstairs. If I don't I guess you'll all keel picking at me until you're bloody. So Ed. You'll always be my hero. Holly, it was -- as always-- a genuine pleasure. (Roger starts to leave when Blake calls him.)

What do you want?

Blake: I want to help.

Roger: Help whom. Do what?

Blake: You. If you need it.

Roger: What would I need with your help? You've got Ross here. He's gonna need all the love and attention you can give him. You know sweetie. Your little life can't encompass two men old enough to be your father.

Holly interupts.

Holly: Oh leave her alone. What do you want her to do Roger? Take sacred vows and swear her service forever to you? You know, you just want to much. You always have. And you try to fill your life with women and cars and money and children but it doesn't fill it and it never will. And then you blame us for not being enough, when YOU'RE the one who's lacking!

Blake: I can't stand this!

Ed grabs her and tells her that he's leaving.

Roger: Oh look at that. Some things never change. She'll always come to you for comfort Ed, but she'll always come to me for SEX!

[End scene]