ABC: Always Be Catty.

With all due respect, David, I don't think I like the Tracy/Sydney exchange too much. It's as if whoever wrote it (B&E?) attended the Spelling-Vincent School of Bad Dialogue Writing. Sure, it's "ear candy", and it helps digest the exposition more smoothly (although, I felt certain beats were replayed); but, does it say anything revealing about either woman? I'd say, not really.

Oh Khan, it was an awkward jump in the conversation, just to throw in a dig about the chairs. It's the most random part of the scene and it was even more awkward for me to type than to hear. But overall, I just love the scene. It is definitely telling about Tracy. The way it's all worded. She started the scene "asking for a favor" and then in a little while she was doing Sydney a favor by not revealing the truth about Sydney's gold, and then asking for a gift in exchange for doing that favor, and then flatout just blackmailing Sydney. I love Tracy cutting to the chase when her patience runs out. "I HAVE DANCED WITH YOU ENOUGH" is my favorite line, and her delivery is gorgeous.

If you've never seen Tracy on The City, PLEASE seek out the tapes from someone on the internet and buy them and watch them. TWICE. Her scant few months there showed us more sides of Tracy's character (and LIGHTER sides!) than we have seen since she left GH back in 1993. Seriously. She was a loving mother, vulnerable daughter, she broke out into song during scenes where she was alone in her penthouse, she had a conscience about bilking Jacob Foster out of his dead son's college fund, she was playfully seductive with Alex Masters, surprisingly open with Zoey, thrived on her rivalry with virtual equal Carla Soleito, and just plain fun as she tried to reel in the too-old-for-her Godfather Gino Soleito. She was EVERYTHING on The City. And away from the Quartermaines she was just better. At least I felt she was.

If you've never seen Tracy on The City, PLEASE seek out the tapes from someone on the internet and buy them and watch them. TWICE. Her scant few months there showed us more sides of Tracy's character (and LIGHTER sides!) than we have seen since she left GH back in 1993. Seriously. She was a loving mother, vulnerable daughter, she broke out into song during scenes where she was alone in her penthouse, she had a conscience about bilking Jacob Foster out of his dead son's college fund, she was playfully seductive with Alex Masters, surprisingly open with Zoey, thrived on her rivalry with virtual equal Carla Soleito, and just plain fun as she tried to reel in the too-old-for-her Godfather Gino Soleito. She was EVERYTHING on The City. And away from the Quartermaines she was just better. At least I felt she was.

VERY well said. Tracy was extremely well written on CITY

Edited January 15, 200916 yr by cityfan01

VERY well said. Tracy was extremely well written on CITY

ITA. Tracy did very well out on her own. JE really deserved that chance to shine, and you know her heart was in it given her history with L-O-V-I-N-G. When I'm watching Tracy on GH my mind often flashes to this *lovely* mental snapshot I have of Tracy sitting... on one of those chairs! in a robe holding little Dillon in her lap. Such a simple, tender moment that we hardly ever get to see from Tracy. JE the actress and Tracy the characer are totally capable of carrying a series, ABC made a great choice. I only regret that they never put her in the opening credits. Tracy in The City is how they should have handled Iris in Texas. You flesh out a character like that, you give her more colors, you don't hack away the very qualities that made her a star. I don't understand why they thought fans wouldn't want to watch a "bad girl" headline a show (Erica! Lisa! Rachel!), but that's Another Thread.

ITA. Tracy did very well out on her own. JE really deserved that chance to shine, and you know her heart was in it given her history with L-O-V-I-N-G. When I'm watching Tracy on GH my mind often flashes to this *lovely* mental snapshot I have of Tracy sitting... on one of those chairs! in a robe holding little Dillon in her lap. Such a simple, tender moment that we hardly ever get to see from Tracy. JE the actress and Tracy the characer are totally capable of carrying a series, ABC made a great choice. I only regret that they never put her in the opening credits. Tracy in The City is how they should have handled Iris in Texas. You flesh out a character like that, you give her more colors, you don't hack away the very qualities that made her a star. I don't understand why they thought fans wouldn't want to watch a "bad girl" headline a show (Erica! Lisa! Rachel!), but that's Another Thread.

I loved that they never painted her as ALL bad, she was always struggling and colored by the way other people viewed her. Sometimes it made her determined to prove them wrong, sometimes she gave in and gave them what they expected of her.

Great scenes of Tracy on the City (as if I could narrow it down!):

Dillon's devout Catholic nanny Beth confessed that Edward offered to pay Beth to spy on Tracy and report back to him about Tracy's activities in The City. SO intense from Jane Elliot!

Tracy scrambles at her engagement party when the fake Quartermaines she hired are a mess. Fake Edward gay and flirting with Fake Ned, Fake Lila getting drunk and standing up from her wheelchair. But all the while her secret is protected by Alex and when Carla tries to blow Tracy's lies out of the water, Tracy flips the script and blackmails Carla with news of Carla's faked pregancy! Classic Tracy!

Tracy repeatedly calling Jocelyn by other names like "Julia" and "Josie" until Alex gets flustered and confused and corrects Tracy by calling his girlfriend "Julia" after Tracy calls her "Josie"! I would have loved to see where Tracy/Alex went in the future.

Tracy scrambles with hiding Gino's dead body (after Tracy hired a hooker to impersonate Tracy in the dark on Tracy and Gino's wedding night!), and then having to deal with Carla when she learned her father was dead. Tracy seemed to genuinely care for Gino (you always appreciate someone more when they're gone) and seemed to care for Carla's grief.

Tracy backs off from taking Jacob's money (from his dead son's college fund) to pay her $12,000 hotel bill, but after a scuffle with the collection agent Jacob bails her out anyway and he forces her to agree to start a charity to help inner city kids (like the one she fabricated to get Jacob's money). Tracy went through a lot of waffling and levels with Jacob in these scenes.

Jane and Tracy were amazing centerpieces to a soap, and she had everything she needed to take The City to the next level. If given more time, I think the show would have snowballed into a much greater success.

It's not from a soap, but my friend and I were at a bar, and they were sizing up an okay-looking guy, and they said:

"I'd [!@#$%^&*] him quick on a slow night."

I loved it.

I don't have the exact dialogue, but I love one of Anne and Claudia's exchanges on Knots Landing. Claudia and Anne are having a conversation over tea, pretending to be civil while thinking rotten things about each other. On edit, I found the clip on youtube

Edited January 18, 200916 yr by ReddFoxx

Yes, me again, with more early 90's GL dialogue! What a shock!

This is from when Maureen finds out about Ed's affair with Lillian and Lillian comes to the house. Yes, Maureen's death was JFP's greatest sin and GL lost something that it never regained. But damn it, this storyline was INCREDIBLY well-written from start to finish.

Maureen (to Lillian): "You have reduced us to a ridiculous suburban joke and I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS!"

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq57zdK7Oy4 (embedding for this clip isn't allowed).

This whole clip is riveting from start to finish. Another example of Curlee's "meticulous" writing, as Patrick Mulcahey put it. It's as close to Greek tragedy on a soap opera as you'll find. The acting, writing, and execution are all top notch. This scene thankfully won Ellen Parker that Emmy in 1993.

Edited January 19, 200916 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

I absolutely LOVE at the beginning of that clip where Maureen and Lillian talk about the china. "I love china. It's so graceful. But it's a headache trying to find the same pattern." To which Maureen, obviously using the china as a metaphor for her marriage, replies "Sometimes it's not worth trying to save."

Tonight I've been watching this great Roger and Holly scene from Frb 1994. The charges against Roger in connection with his takeover of Spaulding the previous year were dropped and Roger and Holly celebrated their renewed romance.

Yes, me again, with more early 90's GL dialogue! What a shock!

This is from when Maureen finds about Ed's affair with Lillian and Lillian comes to the house. Yes, Maureen's death was JFP's greatest sin and GL lost something that it never regained. But damn it, this storyline was INCEDIBLY well-written from start to finish.

I will always be torn over my feelings re: Maureen's death. Yeah, it was a crushing blow to GL, and kind of a stupid move. Yet, it truly delivered writing I've rarely seen on a soap since. It will go down as my most AND least favorite GL story.

I believe Courtney Simon wrote the script for the Lillian/Maureen scenes. I remember Tina Sloan talking about it in an interview with SOD.

Edited January 19, 200916 yr by brimike

I will always be torn over my feelings re: Maureen's death. Yeah, it was a crushing blow to GL, and kind of a stupid move. Yet, it truly delivered writing I've rarely seen on a soap since. It will go down as my most AND least favorite GL story.

Years later when I found out that JFP fired Ellen Parker (Maureen) so that she could hire Justin Deas to play Buzz, I could never look at Deas the same way again. I know it's stupid to blame him, but his presense on the show has left me bitter after that bit of info leaked. LOL!

But damn, Curlee and Demorest poured EVERYTHING in that mandate. Only writers who care would craft a storyline with that much thought and heart, when they knew it had to have been a mistake. And of course, JFP later called it, "the BIGGEST mistake of my career." How many times has she admittted to a mistake?

I LOVE the quote Curlee gave in an interview about this storyline, she admitted it was a costly move and one she was uncomfortable with. And she gave me this great quote, "You can scare the hell out of the soap audience, but they have to be able to run out of the dark backyard, up the porch steps through the screen door to find Nancy Hughes backing cookies. With that you can do anything you want to them."

I believe Courtney Simon wrote the script for the Lillian/Maureen scenes.

I'm still trying to figure out if it was her or Roger Newman that wrote the Roger/Holly scenes at the Country Club. GL's scriptwriting was unmatched in the early 90's. Sigh, good times...

I believe Courtney Simon wrote the script for the Lillian/Maureen scenes.

Yep.

I'm still trying to figure out if it was her or Roger Newman that wrote the Roger/Holly scenes at the Country Club.

It was Newman.

Years later when I found out that JFP fired Ellen Parker (Maureen) so that she could hire Justin Deas to play Buzz, I could never look at Deas the same way again. I know it's stupid to blame him, but his presense on the show has left me bitter after that bit of info leaked. LOL!

BTW, I believe I read somewhere that there was a choice between Vanessa and Maureen to be given the axe for the big salary that Justin Deas was to get...

BTW, I believe I read somewhere that there was a choice between Vanessa and Maureen to be given the axe for the big salary that Justin Deas was to get...

Yeah, JFP went to her focus groups (which is a recurring problem with her) and Mo and Vanessa had mixed reactions from people in that group. Also, JFP REALLY wanted a Lillian and Ed pairing from what I've heard, but the backlash from Mo's death stopped them from going in that direction.

Knowing how intolerable the Cooper's would become, they should've hired a no-name actor, but not like this was the last case of Jill hiring her friends.

Also, JFP REALLY wanted a Lillian and Ed pairing from what I've heard, but the backlash from Mo's death stopped them from going in that direction.

I'm not sure I entirely believe that little piece, if only because of the way they wrote Lillian directly after Mo's death. I mean, we had that wonderful scene with Vanessa outside the Bauer house where Van orders Lil to appear at the reception because she refused to have Lillian's name on everyone's lips on what should be Maureen's day. Then, we have Michelle completely freaking out with only Holly able to get through to her.

BTW, I did hear that shortly after, Tina Sloan officially went on recurring (where she would stay). I'm wondering exactly when that happened. It could have been a reaction to the fan's outrage.