50 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I think Maureen Garrett also benefited from the life experience of another decade. She's good in what I've seen of her first run, and she does what she can with her poor run on Ryan's Hope, but she is luminous by the time of her return to Springfield.

I agree totally. While I didn't think EJ on Ryan's Hope was a well-conceived character, I very much enjoyed MG's performance.

It's interesting that everyone being named: Alex, India, Blake, Jenna...they pulled back on all of them either because of a romantic connection, or, like in Alex's and India's cases, because of love for their children.

If Alex was meant to be a bitch, you don't start off right away with a sob story about her child being stolen from her. I think they tried to harden her after Lujack was killed off, but there were always Alan's children around to soften her. And of course Simon, who for a while practically turned her into a jelly fish.

13 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

That scene where Nola starts raging about how much she hates Morgan and can't even bear hearing her name is astonishingly good at showing just how dark Lisa Brown could have gone with Nola.

I'm going to say something that's maybe a bit controversial: I don't think Marland liked Morgan. There was a kind of underlying contempt for her, especially early on. Those lectures Kelly gave her were insanely hostile a lot of the time. And it seemed like the audience was supposed to be nodding and agreeing with him.

Morgan was meant to be a way for teen girls to dream about falling in love with an older boy (O.K., let's face it--man). The whole storyline was created to attract a younger audience. But I always got the feeling that she was not really loved by her own creator. I believe when Nola talked about hating Morgan, WE were supposed to hate her, too. Supposedly, Marland always meant for Kelly and Nola to get together for real at some point, so it would make sense for him to see Morgan, and not Nola, as the spoiler in the triangle.

Regardless of how anyone feels about that, it is absolutely true that Nola was softened a great deal because the pairing with Quinton took off and was very popular with a vocal section of the audience. Which is probably why they had so much trouble coming up with stories for her after she had her second kid.

The premise that having a child or falling in love suddenly makes someone a nicer person is very odd to me. (I never found that to be the case in real life, LOL). I don't see why characters like Alex, India, or Blake had to lose their edge because they genuinely loved someone. Roger genuinely loved Christina, but he never lost his edge.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by DeeVee

Hate might be a reach, but Marland may have found Morgan a bit frustrating to write for. She's like sixteen, and wasn't written like a font of wisdom (that I remember anyway) unlike the tendency with teens in later years. She also had to be gullible to Nola's machinations. And maybe, if the rumors are true and Kristen V was coming to work underprepared, it carried over to his writing.

It's hard for me to judge now, I'm not really interested in the Morgan part of the story. It's Nola that I gravitate to.

7 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I agree totally. While I didn't think EJ on Ryan's Hope was a well-conceived character, I very much enjoyed MG's performance.

It's interesting that everyone being named: Alex, India, Blake, Jenna...they pulled back on all of them either because of a romantic connection, or, like in Alex's and India's cases, because of love for their children.

If Alex was meant to be a bitch, you don't start off right away with a sob story about her child being stolen from her. I think they tried to harden her after Lujack was killed off, but there were always Alan's children around to soften her. And of course Simon, who for a while practically turned her into a jelly fish.

I'm going to say something that's maybe a bit controversial: I don't think Marland liked Morgan. There was a kind of underlying contempt for her, especially early on. Those lectures Kelly gave her were insanely hostile a lot of the time. And it seemed like the audience was supposed to be nodding and agreeing with him.

Morgan was meant to be a way for teen girls to dream about falling in love with an older boy (O.K., let's face it--man). The whole storyline was created to attract a younger audience. But I always got the feeling that she was not really loved by her own creator. I believe when Nola talked about hating Morgan, WE were supposed to hate her, too. Supposedly, Marland always meant for Kelly and Nola to get together for real at some point, so it would make sense for him to see Morgan, and not Nola, as the spoiler in the triangle.

Regardless of how anyone feels about that, it is absolutely true that Nola was softened a great deal because the pairing with Quinton took off and was very popular with a vocal section of the audience.

The premise that having a child or falling in love suddenly makes someone a nicer person is very odd to me. (I never found that to be the case in real life, LOL). I don't see why characters like Alex, India, or Blake had to lose their edge because they genuinely loved someone. Roger genuinely loved Christina, but he never lost his edge.

You're right that it was a very antiquated idea about female characters. Alex may have come the closest to having loved ones but still going to dark places.

I have wondered if any '80s powers that be may have wanted to make Alex darker, but Beverlee and the fans didn't want to see her go dark. I imagine Alan's departure for several years was one reason (as Alan brought out her worst, along with Roger). Another was that the Alexis Carrington offshoots on '80s soaps were often given layers which started to fade by the '90s.

The attempts from '90s writers to make Alex into a darker character were generally unpopular all around and just ended up making her a buffoon by Marj's era - if only more skillful writing and casting had been in place, but I think Amanda could have easily filled that void instead of Alex, especially since Alex grew up with some love...Amanda only ever had pain.

You make a good point about Morgan. Under Kristen Vigard, I do think we were meant to see her at least in part as immature, trying to pretend she was the woman she was not. (note that we were never supposed to question Kelly getting involved with a woman ten years his junior and trying to make her a woman).

I always question where the part would be that makes Kelly fall in love with Nola. Maybe that would entail Stacey being very sick and Kelly seeing how much Nola loved her.

42 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Hate might be a reach, but Marland may have found Morgan a bit frustrating to write for. She's like sixteen, and wasn't written like a font of wisdom (that I remember anyway) unlike the tendency with teens in later years. She also had to be gullible to Nola's machinations. And maybe, if the rumors are true and Kristen V was coming to work underprepared, it carried over to his writing.

It's hard for me to judge now, I'm not really interested in the Morgan part of the story. It's Nola that I gravitate to.

I find Vigard fascinating to watch, as much as Brown, but once she's gone, there's nothing left. Jennifer Cooke only finds her voice in the role post-Marland, post-booting Kelly and acting her age.

I can't help comparing Morgan vs. Nola to Lily vs. Meg. They started out very similar, and early on, Marland allowed Lily to be portrayed as bratty and get called out. Along the way he seemed to begin seeing her as much more sympathetic and was reluctant to criticize her, and the rivalry with Meg faded as Meg was isolated and had to learn some very ugly lessons.

If Meg/Dusty/Lily had continued, instead of Holden/Lily taking off, then he may have kept playing some of those old beats a second time around.