1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

Soapcentral's bio claimed that Jessie and Simon had a son offcamera (named after her father?) and that Lillian would mention visiting Calla, but those bios often had some fancruft. I never heard any mention of them, even though it would have made sense to bring back Jessie later on (Beth likely would have ended up screwing her man).

Calla is a flop of a character, remembered only for a VD shame story, and was likely just brought on because Lisby Larson was a big name on Texas, the previous Kobe/Long soap.

I can't remember if I showed you this before (if I did my apologies) but it is one of my "favorite" Jessie scenes - Simon decides to woo her with a puppet.

Guiding Light - Jessie has a date with a puppet (1986)

YES! I totally remember you posting that puppet date clip last year and I had no idea that was this girl Jessie. How interesting... but weird that she left that same year after the date. I thought that scene was really cute and endearing, I really bought into their coupling just from that episode. Online it says Jessie and Simon left town together, so at least they stayed together LOL.

Re: Calla - What's VD?

Also - watching part 9 of that wedding series, I instantly recognized AMC's Chuck Tyler!!! I had no idea Richard Van Vleet was on GL, let alone as Ed Bauer - wow. Was he popular as Ed back then? He was a handsome guy.

@alwaysAMC no, he wasn't. He was only in the role for less than 2 years before Peter Simon's came back. I thought he was underrated-showed more emotion than stoic Peter Simon's.

I need to add that it didn't help that you had a recast Phillip and Ed from 85-86 plus Kyle who was a replacement for both Alan and Josh. In 1986, all four came back.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Spoon

25 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Re: Calla - What's VD?

Venereal disease.

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

Not his fault, he just wasn't GA's Phillip..he should have been someone Alex brought in to run the company who...I don't know, had actual business experience. He could have still been at odds with Simon (Alex looks so stupid here if she thinks this Flock of Seagulls guy could be Brandon,the Root of All Evil's son.

But he was doomed to fail just because of the writing. He had WAY more chemistry with MKA than he did with JE, and they never had him in scenes with MOL, so who knows there. His Phillip spent time writing that stupid novel and it just looked crazy that India (who was madly in love with Phillip) or Beth would even consider Simon or Jackson before him. He just tutted Alex constantly and his Phillip was just there.

Ha.. I remember watching the reveal at the Student Center TV lounge and everyone in hysterics...Didnt dumb Jessie go running out into a field or something when she found out?

May you rot in soap opera hell for digging that up! : )

What I love about that Jessie puppet sequence is the beauty shot. I don't think GL even had beauty shots much longer so one of the last being a moose amuses me.

You're right that he had a real spark with MKA. I don't know why they never paired India with a man who would actually want her.

I have never seen the reveal or Jessie's reaction. I guess I should look for it.

I wonder if they should have just written Philip out for a while and cast Bolger as Simon. That would have been a year earlier but they could have made it work (was it Long who created Simon or was that all Ryder?). He could have feuded with Lujack. Bolger would have been believable as Simon - a con artist, one with a heart, and probably some added bisexual sleaze appeal.

Edited 25 minutes ago25 min by DRW50

Calla was like a prototype for Nadine. Aging, blonde gold diggers.

Here's a question, if Ross wasn't saddled with Blake-- would they have continued the revolving doors of lovers (the 80s) or would he have settled down with some other character? I would've aged the kids in the 2000s (over loser characters like Ashley Wolfe and Joey Lupo) and make the marlers a core family. They already had Dinah driving story and most of the Spaildings on canvas were biological Marlers.

3 minutes ago, Spoon said:

Calla was like a prototype for Nadine. Aging, blonde gold diggers.

Here's a question, if Ross wasn't saddled with Blake-- would they have continued the revolving doors of lovers (the 80s) or would he have settled down with some other character? I would've aged the kids in the 2000s (over loser characters like Ashley Wolfe and Joey Lupo) and make the marlers a core family. They already had Dinah driving story and most of the Spaildings on canvas were biological Marlers.

I think we would have mostly just seen him in his lawyer role and not with a serious love interest. I think he would have ended up like Frank or Billy often were in their last decade on the canvas.

8 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

"When Jordan returns in '97-ish, he's more of the support character. He's there when family needs him. I caught some silly scene when he's helping Bill break out Olivia from a nut hut or something, which is kind of funny...but a little sad, knowing he used to be a force to be reckoned with. As much as Zaslow or Deas were always lauded for their work, Jordan deserved lead emmy consideration for his work as well. He won a supporting actor emmy around '06-'07, which was long overdue, imo."

Jordan we know had his issues, even Maeve had a hard time working with him...I think he was just glad to have a job, and for once GL did the right thing by keeping him around (with an out for them.) What made Billy great was he was one of those characters, like Nola at a certain time and India in her return, who just liked to stir sh*t up, and did it with a twinkle in his eye. You need those kind of characters, not bad, not self righteously good, who just liked to throw a wrench into something out and watch everyone scarmble. I think that is why he worked so well with self controlled Van, he needed her to keep him centered and she needed him to remove the stick that sometimes got up her ass.

And honestly, this is one of those times I should've been less up in my feels while posting. To it's credit, GL did bring him back, and while it may not have been the way I wanted, Billy was still a vital part of Springfield. These are by no means just token appearances. It would've been infinitely worse for me if all of the sudden both of Bill's parents just suddenly ghosted him, and only shown up for the occasional wedding or funeral (ala Hope or even Ed).

And while he might not be everyone's favorite, I rarely hear anyone say they ever got sick of Billy, the way being forced into nonsensical stories has a tendency to disenchant viewers. (coughRevacough).

Billy and Van work for a lot of reasons (gee, you'd never know that, because I so rarely post about them...lol). I think they ground each other in good ways. They aren't Josh and Reva, which may have been equal at one time, but just became and endless string of Josh forgiving Reva for (insert lie/stupid move here). Billy and Van loved each other for who they were, not who they could've (or had) been.

2 minutes ago, Spoon said:

Calla was like a prototype for Nadine. Aging, blonde gold diggers.

Here's a question, if Ross wasn't saddled with Blake-- would they have continued the revolving doors of lovers (the 80s) or would he have settled down with some other character? I would've aged the kids in the 2000s (over loser characters like Ashley Wolfe and Joey Lupo) and make the marlers a core family. They already had Dinah driving story and most of the Spaildings on canvas were biological Marlers.

I'm not sure the show would've invested in getting Ross a viable love interest, had they busted Blake/Ross up. As adored as JvD was, I think the show would've just used him as the town's lawyer, Dinah's dad, Phillip's uncle and possibly aged the twins to give him story.