On Wednesday, November 01, 2017 at 5:06 PM, victoria foxton said:

Kelsey always came across as a bland and underdeveloped character to me. Pairing her with the last Jamie and later with John didn't help. 

 

One of my former supervisors first heard the name Kelsey while watching AW one day when pregnant with her first child. That's the name she ended up giving her baby girl just weeks later.

12 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

 

One of my former supervisors first heard the name Kelsey while watching AW one day when pregnant with her first child. That's the name she ended up giving her baby girl just weeks later.

That's a cute story. Kelsey is a nice name. Kelsey was ranked among the top 100 names for girls born in Scotland in 2007. It was also among the top 100 names for girls born in England and Wales in the late 1990's. Kelsey was the 201st most popular name for girls born in the United States in 2007.

Yes, and the funny thing is that she wasn't a soap watcher. I believe she was put on bed rest for the final few weeks of her pregnancy and would watch more TV than usual. AW just happened to be on and she liked the name of Kelsey, not so much because of the character of Kelsey.

On Friday, June 23, 2017 at 10:15 PM, BetterForgotten said:

Jensen absolutely ruined Marley (and Vicky, if we want to be honest). 

 

Not as much as she's ruined herself in the past couple of years. 

On 11/3/2017 at 7:04 PM, watson71 said:

http://deadline.com/2017/11/nbc-buys-family-dance-school-drama-produced-sean-hayes-hazy-mills-thomas-ian-griffith-mary-page-keller-1202200524/

 

Mary Page Keller and Thomas Ian Griffith (Sally and Caitlin, AW) are going to produce a new family drama on NBC.  A recent picture of them is in the article.  They still look good 33 years later!

 

Wow!  He's still hot af!  My favorite vampire (John Carpenter's Vampires)! 

RIP Ann Wedgeworth (Lahoma Vane Lucas):

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2017/11/ann-wedgeworth-dead-at-83.html?m=1

Here's another article about Ms. Wedgeworth:

 

https://www.google.com/amp/variety.com/2017/tv/people-news/ann-wedgeworth-dead-dies-1202618282/amp/

 

My Thanksgiving vacation has (un)officially begun. I'm off work today - errands and the like for Thanksgiving - but I allowed myself a lazy morning . I continued my re-watch of AW starting at 7:50 this morning. Now, at 11:45, I'm forcing myself to walk away. I'm at the 25th anniversary party/reveal of Jason's murderer. I just couldn't stop. It's all some really well crafted soap!! 

 

I don't have many memories of the 25th from my childhood, although I watched it every day. I had only been watching the show for 2 years and so I didn't really know the characters who were coming back. Now, as an adult, I still don't know them well but I understand the history. Plus, I know Coster and Lyman from other shows and it was fun to watch them this morning. The tragedy of Watson's passing is, of course, so much a part of it. When Rachel gives her/his speech at the event and the crowd pans across the set, you can see on the grief on their faces. Really great stuff and, at this point, no longer a hold over from LeMay either I imagine, but all Swajeski. The biggest "oh-my-god-I-want-to-see-more-of-this-person" a-ha moment for me was Jacqueline Courtney. What a presence. Her scenes are enthralling to watch and not much really happens in them. She's clearly a stunner of an actress and I would love to see her Alice storyline. I read all of the Soaps & Serials books when I was a kid (still have them, in fact) and so I've read it but, now that I've seen the actress, I wish I could do a day-to-day watch of her time.

 

And, for those people such as myself, who didn't watch the show for its 25 years, the writers give you the resolution of Jason's murder AND put Vicky through the ringer as everything comes out about her sleeping with Jake - which she dared to claim rape! Great stuff on Eplin, Heche, and Lau's part.

 

And the murder mystery....I loved it when I was kid and, re-watching it over the past 3 months has proven to me that it was, indeed, one of the great soap opera murder mysteries. The reveal makes absolute sense - when watching it again, either they informed Howard early on, or the directors were in on it and told her how to play the scenes in order to have it all make sense later. The scenes where Cass confronts her are heart-breaking, especially when watched in a marathon day. I can completely understand her reasoning for not speaking up until Felicia went to jail and then, at that point, how do you admit that you've been lying the whole time? If she'd only been honest in the beginning...cautionary storytelling at its finest.

 

I'm sure everyone's got some opinions on this time. I'd love to hear them!

 

 

On 11/22/2017 at 11:58 AM, adrnyc said:

My Thanksgiving vacation has (un)officially begun. I'm off work today - errands and the like for Thanksgiving - but I allowed myself a lazy morning . I continued my re-watch of AW starting at 7:50 this morning. Now, at 11:45, I'm forcing myself to walk away. I'm at the 25th anniversary party/reveal of Jason's murderer. I just couldn't stop. It's all some really well crafted soap!! 

 

I don't have many memories of the 25th from my childhood, although I watched it every day. I had only been watching the show for 2 years and so I didn't really know the characters who were coming back. Now, as an adult, I still don't know them well but I understand the history. Plus, I know Coster and Lyman from other shows and it was fun to watch them this morning. The tragedy of Watson's passing is, of course, so much a part of it. When Rachel gives her/his speech at the event and the crowd pans across the set, you can see on the grief on their faces. Really great stuff and, at this point, no longer a hold over from LeMay either I imagine, but all Swajeski. The biggest "oh-my-god-I-want-to-see-more-of-this-person" a-ha moment for me was Jacqueline Courtney. What a presence. Her scenes are enthralling to watch and not much really happens in them. She's clearly a stunner of an actress and I would love to see her Alice storyline. I read all of the Soaps & Serials books when I was a kid (still have them, in fact) and so I've read it but, now that I've seen the actress, I wish I could do a day-to-day watch of her time.

 

And, for those people such as myself, who didn't watch the show for its 25 years, the writers give you the resolution of Jason's murder AND put Vicky through the ringer as everything comes out about her sleeping with Jake - which she dared to claim rape! Great stuff on Eplin, Heche, and Lau's part.

 

And the murder mystery....I loved it when I was kid and, re-watching it over the past 3 months has proven to me that it was, indeed, one of the great soap opera murder mysteries. The reveal makes absolute sense - when watching it again, either they informed Howard early on, or the directors were in on it and told her how to play the scenes in order to have it all make sense later. The scenes where Cass confronts her are heart-breaking, especially when watched in a marathon day. I can completely understand her reasoning for not speaking up until Felicia went to jail and then, at that point, how do you admit that you've been lying the whole time? If she'd only been honest in the beginning...cautionary storytelling at its finest.

 

I'm sure everyone's got some opinions on this time. I'd love to hear them!

 

 

This was a brief time that AW got back to the basics.  88-89. The 70's was AW's fame and they tried to bring back some characters related to that and EP Michael Liabson bought on Harding Lemay to rewrite the show but it failed.  Donna Swajeski did not do a terrible job and the theme that year was focused on the show being 25 years old but once the anniversary special was over it just tanked and then kept tanking.  The Murder mystery was great and intriguing especially since they used a major character as the murder and remember watching the original episodes but never catching the cue and the body language of Nicole as her being a suspect.  It was great seeing JC come back as Alice in brief episodes and ironically death of DW dying as Mack was the same time as the anniversary.  DL back as Gwen Frame and NC as Robert Delaney was great to see along with the few other actors that came back for the anniversary and Mack Corys funeral.  

IIRC, Thanksgiving 1989 was very emotional as it was the first holiday without Mac (and Doug Watson). Rachel ended up doing the toast in his stead.

I remember that as well. I was gutted as a child - and I'd only been watching the show since Feb of 1987. I cried enough at the toast at the 25th anniversary party that Rachel read in his place. I'm not looking forward to going through the actual death of the character (again) in a few months time. 

4 hours ago, adrnyc said:

I remember that as well. I was gutted as a child - and I'd only been watching the show since Feb of 1987. I cried enough at the toast at the 25th anniversary party that Rachel read in his place. I'm not looking forward to going through the actual death of the character (again) in a few months time. 

 

4 hours ago, adrnyc said:

I remember that as well. I was gutted as a child - and I'd only been watching the show since Feb of 1987. I cried enough at the toast at the 25th anniversary party that Rachel read in his place. I'm not looking forward to going through the actual death of the character (again) in a few months time. 

Ah! Well, if you have not got to the death episodes then fair warning it is very sad.  From the music to the characters.  I won't spoil it but I also found some of the scenes of history between some characters beautiful from putting the past behind and grieving someone they all loved.  I thought the death of Mack was one of the saddest episodes of any show

Only positive of Mac's death was the evolution of Iris and Rachel's relationship...which always seemed to be in a hamster wheel in the 70s..and at the start of Iris' return in late 1988.  After Mac's death till 1994...there were times Iris and Rachel got along...even teamed up at times especially when it came to Jake.   I don't think the show would have done that had Mac lived.  In an odd way, Iris would forever be haunted with hurting her daddy and never making up with him before he died.  It was the one unexpected positive that Swajeski really mined to great effect.

I imagine Mac was a father/grandfather figure for certain members of the audience. There was also no doubt how universally beloved Doug Watson was by cast and crew alike. The show had to go on, but his passing left a hole that was never filled for its remaining decade on the air.