8 minutes ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Total agreement here. Especially regarding Patti. Patti had been a contemporary of Janet Bergman, who was Liza and Gary's mother. So Patti should have been cast with an actor old enough to have adult children. There was no reason to reverse-soras Patti and forget her entire adult history.

Especially silly was making Patti the romantic rival of Liza, since Patti should have been old enough to be Liza's mother. Dear God in Heaven!

On the other hand -- there was an argument to be made that bringing back Patti in her mid-forties would have left her almost alone in that generation. In the mid-1980s, SFT seem to be populated with Jo and Stu in the older generation, then jumping down to the early-30s generation with Liza, Travis, Sunny, Hogan, etc -- and then jumping down again to the Danny, Wendy, Cagney, and T.R. generation. So had Patti returned as a mid-forties aged character, what other characters would have been her contemporaries? Perhaps Lloyd and Estelle?

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by Tisy-Lish

Caldwell House comes into play in summer of 1985 under Avila Mayer and Braxton. It was again a historic home, and it was a bed and breakfast. I believe it was intended to give Jo a set as she hadn't had a business since the Riverboat exploded in June, 1984. She was then taking college classes, hosted the murder mystery party, and attended town council meetings but I don't think she had a permanent job per se. So that would have been over 3 years after they torched the inn.

Caldwell House isn't open long because of the flood. Probably six months. I thought the kitchen set was nice. Prior to this, they had Jo in that small little attic looking apartment so this was a step up. I really liked the kitchen set.

I don't think bringing Patti back was a bad idea. I don't think Jacqui Schultz was the right actress, but I don't think they were going to cast someone age appropriate. I do think Jo having a daughter on canvas outweighed the obvious issues, but I don't like Patti and Hogan personally. The bigger issue is that there were just no real strong males on the canvas in her age range. I think they should have brought back Len, even if it was for a short run, to play out the paternity reveal involving Chris. Too bad Ryder's background was so well established as I think I would have liked Adam Storke as Chris Whiting.

Patti could have been a youthful early 40's woman-this was about the time that 40 plus was no longer considered 'old'. Did Kathy and Patti interact at all in the 70's?

When Janet returned with older children did they play down the Patti/Janet friendship as Janet had been aged up and Patti was still a young mother. If so who was in Patti's friendship circle?

Bringing back Len in the 80's to play that history would have been good, especially if Chris and Tracey were brought on. Len could even have hung around and he and Patti would be in each other's lives b/c of the kids and lingering feelings.

Get back to the hospital as a central theme? Or was that too old hat by the mid 80's?

There was no need to kill off Stephanie-she could just leave town. Same with Suzi-if they were unhappy with the actress, send her out of town for a while. There were too many deaths and murders.

And the Kendalls had been through so many recasts and rewrites that I would have dumped the lot of them.

Gary Walton and Laine Adamson returning was a story waiting to be told.

So many possibilities that tied into the past.