Some recurring questions I have:

--Why did the show end up blowing Jacqueline Courtney's return so badly in 1984 even after gaining a good amount of viewers back?

--Why did so many pivotal characters end up dead(Julia, Sally, Frankie etc.)

--What was the Alice and Rachel interaction like during the Harney years? I remember reading Rachel played a small role in the Beatrice Gordon story trying to tarnish Alice as a person while Rachel was off with that art sculptor teacher who was supposedly a very boring character.

I was wondering why they wasted Jacqueline Courtney too. There was so much potential there storyline-wise for so many characters and the only story she had was being a doctor and falling for Mark and even that barely played out. The same went for 1989, that would have been another great chance to bring her back. I really wish she had returned to either One Life or AW.

It is a shame they wasted her both times. They really missed the boat in the 90s to rebuild the Matthews clan. I think most soaps by the mid to late 90s really started ignoring their deep histories and never tried many big returns or efforts to rebuild the core families.

Lemay and Rauch began the process of dismantling the Matthew family and it was just about done when Courtney returned. I'm surprised they even asked her back, since her era of the show was long past. I think they should have toyed with making Alice remote, scarred from her mistakes, and with an edge, as that was basically the main way to write heroines in that age range (Felicia, Rachel) by this time. I also wonder how Alice/Carl might have been.

Vera Moore played Linda Metcalf who was half sister (?) of Peggy Nolan (Micki Grant)

Lee and Peggy

Edited January 23, 201213 yr by Paul Raven

The only clip which is around of her, I believe, is when she testified at Rachel's murder trial (when she shot Mitch).

I think she faded away right before the new black focus. I wonder how she felt, being there for years and doing nothing, then they write her out when they want to have a stronger black presence on canvas.

Watching these 1994 episodes, I can kind of see why Christine Tucci was fired - she seems drab, no real spark, which I felt with Sandra Reinhardt and even poor Laura Moss.

I was struck by how much RC's Lorna was styled like Frankie.

Nice to see some of Cass' manic depression story.

Grayson McCouch seems very wet. I just have never gotten him. I always enjoy seeing Colleen Dion but can't say I love Brett here.

I guess this is right before Jensen quit.

The show seems OK at this time - not fantastic, but good solid soap. Charles Keating also seems to be a little more restrained. I guess it tells you of the importance of Ada that they needed to bring in a variation of her (although the real Ada never would have approved of Carl/Rachel). I like Sloan Shelton. I have no idea why they didn't have her pop into ATWT at this point.

Lorna's look changes when she gets involved with grnat nore heavily, she becomes corprorate, then it changes again when she works at the Hospital and gets invovled with Gabe, more Rita Hayworth style. I also like Lorna when she was briefly paired with Morgan, I thought RC and GM had good chemistry.

Tucci grew in the role for me, for me Amanda is supposed to be a brunette like the little girl that played her back in de day, Tucci had great chemistry with TE during the whole Vory Takeover.

Was this before the takeover story (perhaps not since Jake is a pariah).

I remember Lorna's later, glam look. I guess JFP gave her a makeover.

I always associate Amanda with so many hair colors but I guess to longtime viewers she should have been brunette. I know Reinhardt started dyeing her hair to browner shades in her last months on the show - was that to ease a transition to Tucci or did she just want to change her hair?

Laura Moss was so underrated in the role of Amanda. Ferguson had just finished a pointless role on Beach where her character wound up dead during the Terror Island story so I was happy to see her come back but sad to see Moss go whom I had liked.

Of course, Brian Krause and Jeff Phillips both were royally bad as Matt. I'm surprised Krause has even had a successful career or that even he lasted on Charmed like he did when that show had hotter, more talented leading men over the seasons.

I think the changes they made in Matt for the story made Krause worse.

Matt wasn't much of a character - Matt Crane was probably the only thing about him viewers cared about.

Summaries of eps available to view at The Paley Center

Monday Nov 9th 1964

Carol waits for her date, Tom Baxter, who, unbeknownst to her, lies dead from a gunshot wound; Frank arrives home where he finds Pat standing over Tom's body; Pat leaves the apartment when Frank's back is turned; Laura begs Ken not to divorce her, but her efforts are fruitless; Frank tells the police what happened; and Ken arrives at the scene of the crime and sees the dead body of his son

Tuesday Nov 10th 1964

Mary Matthews expresses concern to husband Jim over the relationship between Tom Baxter and their daughter Pat -- a relationship that Mary senses is falling apart; Pat arrives home looking exhausted, and Mary tells Jim she thinks Pat has been overworking herself since her recent recovery from illness; Laura Baxter, already distraught over Ken's request for a divorce, is further stricken when Ken returns home to inform her that Tom has been killed; and Sergeant Adams arrives at the Matthews house to question Pat about Tom's shooting

Edited January 29, 201213 yr by Paul Raven

Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I don't know a lot about these characters, aside from Pat and Mary of course. I wonder if Laura and Ken were supposed to be long term characters or just for this story.

Some 1999 episodes are being uploaded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH8nONSp1mI&list=UU7R6xujViNo72FeVvDU4HUA&index=3&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkQlmeI22Ro&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzq8V6wwzdE&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Alicia Leigh Willis = always horrible and annoying to watch.