I saw no problem with the hairstyle. And I wasn't bothered that she was a bit plumper. She looked 35 or 38 or whatever. The writing sucked for her.

10 hours ago, watson71 said:

Another thing about this episode was Jacqueline Courtney’s appearance. In 1984, she was 38 years old in real life; however, the hairstyle and clothes they dressed her in made her look older than she was. I guess the show was trying to actually make her look old enough to be Sally’s mother.

Sally was 10 years old in 1975, the year Alice adopted her, so Alice would have been 29-ish. In 1984, a 38-year-old Courtney did not look so young that her being Sally's adopted mother seemed too blatantly ridiculous. Certainly, on-screen age discrepancies between other parent-offspring combinations on soaps have been much more noticeably egregious.

10 hours ago, Tisy-Lish said:

If somebody (whether it was Jacquie herself, or TPTB) wanted Alice to have a new hairstyle, they should have introduced her with long-ish hair, and then a month or two later, Alice could have chosen a new hairstyle on camera. But the way it was done was shocking to the audience -- especially long-term viewers. Seeing Alice arrive at the Matthews house with that pixie haircut and wasn't she wearing a somewhat masculine looking hat?? It was too much change too soon.

Yes, she was wearing what I call a Humphrey-Bogart style private-eye hat, LOL.

As time went on, Alice had her short hair flattened down with what looked like Dippity-Do at times. And what was that butch-looking, plaid lumberjack coat they had her wearing at one point?

It was as if some PTB were trying to sabotage the actress' return by giving her no story, no purpose on the show, and making her look dreadful.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by vetsoapfan

Alice's return was a monumental botch up. Didn't Gary Tomlin offer the excuse that he wasn't aware of how important Alice had been?

Like dude, do some research! Ask people who were there at the time. Maybe read some story documents? Some old Soap Opera Digests? Something.

The level of incompetence of some of these writers. They have a wealth of history waiting to be explored but think their new stories and characters are all that's needed.

14 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Alice's return was a monumental botch up. Didn't Gary Tomlin offer the excuse that he wasn't aware of how important Alice had been?

Like dude, do some research! Ask people who were there at the time. Maybe read some story documents? Some old Soap Opera Digests? Something.

The level of incompetence of some of these writers. They have a wealth of history waiting to be explored but think their new stories and characters are all that's needed.

Yep, Tomlin acknowledged in the press that the botching of JC's comeback rested mainly on his shoulders because he had not researched the character enough to understand her history or her significant ties to other characters.

Being so incompetence was bad enough in itself, but coming out and admitting it was jaw-droppingly STOOPID.

Even Vana Tribbey, when she assumed the role of Alice in 1981, said she had studied a "very long, very complicated 17-year history" of the character, to get her thoroughly familiar with the role.

Tomlin's carelessness and incompetence really damaged the show.

26 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

Yep, Tomlin acknowledged in the press that the botching of JC's comeback rested mainly on his shoulders because he had not researched the character enough to understand her history or her significant ties to other characters.

Being so incompetence was bad enough in itself, but coming out and admitting it was jaw-droppingly STOOPID.

Even Vana Tribbey, when she assumed the role of Alice in 1981, said she had studied a "very long, very complicated 17-year history" of the character, to get her thoroughly familiar with the role.

Tomlin's carelessness and incompetence really damaged the show.

That explains why Vana seemed to have some of Alice's mannerisms and expressions when reciting her lines. She actually researched the character in order to get a sense on how to play the character. In other words, she did what she could with odd writing for Alice in 1981