1 minute ago, P.J. said:

I still wonder how the Peter story would've played out with Jordan Clarke still there as Billy. I think the goal would've always been to have Bridget reclaim him. But I don't know if it would've broken Billy and Van up.

***the thought of never needing **** on canvas is too delicious to ignore.

Leonard Staub’s accident I’m guessing changed things as well-I would think the plan was to have Hart find out he’s Peter’s father which triggers the custody battle. I’d think the custody battle was planned as the groundwork is so clearly set but the dynamics of it shifted due to casting.

If you think about it the Dinah plot line would’ve worked even better with Billy. There would’ve been a different dynamic with Billy/Dinah of course but Dinah turning to Roger takes on a lot more drama with Billy involved. Plus Dinah would’ve been trying to suck up to Billy once she realized he had money and Ross didn’t, though don’t see her successfully manipulating Billy. But Billy would’ve still done everything he could to get her away from Roger.

7 minutes ago, GL95 said:

Leonard Staub’s accident I’m guessing changed things as well-I would think the plan was to have Hart find out he’s Peter’s father which triggers the custody battle. I’d think the custody battle was planned as the groundwork is so clearly set but the dynamics of it shifted due to casting.

If you think about it the Dinah plot line would’ve worked even better with Billy. There would’ve been a different dynamic with Billy/Dinah of course but Dinah turning to Roger takes on a lot more drama with Billy involved. Plus Dinah would’ve been trying to suck up to Billy once she realized he had money and Ross didn’t, though don’t see her successfully manipulating Billy. But Billy would’ve still done everything he could to get her away from Roger.

I don't think Dinah would've ever sucked up to Billy. She loved Ross, and always blamed Vanessa for growing up without him.

It's hard to judge what the Billy/Dinah dynamic would've been like, since they don't really interact much until Tognoni's in the role. (they're rarely in town at the same time after Van finds her.) And even that isn't until near the end of the show, when she's suddenly all about being Bill's sister.

1 minute ago, P.J. said:

I don't think Dinah would've ever sucked up to Billy. She loved Ross, and always blamed Vanessa for growing up without him.

It's hard to judge what the Billy/Dinah dynamic would've been like, since they don't really interact much until Tognoni's in the role. (they're rarely in town at the same time after Van finds her.) And even that isn't until near the end of the show, when she's suddenly all about being Bill's sister.

If Dinah perceived Billy to soften Vanessa into writing her a check (or write one herself), she would’ve been sucking up IMO. Her long game was definitely to stick it to Van but she would’ve worked any angle to pay off that debt.

23 minutes ago, GL95 said:

If Dinah perceived Billy to soften Vanessa into writing her a check (or write one herself), she would’ve been sucking up IMO. Her long game was definitely to stick it to Van but she would’ve worked any angle to pay off that debt.

Well, she might've tried. But pretty sure Billy would've had that number, and not liked the way Dinah treated Van--at all.

Re: Macully west. I hope you like the song "You belong to the City" by Glen Frey, because you'll be hearing that A LOT.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

I still wonder how the Peter story would've played out with Jordan Clarke still there as Billy. I think the goal would've always been to have Bridget reclaim him. But I don't know if it would've broken Billy and Van up.

***the thought of never needing **** on canvas is too delicious to ignore.

And yeah, Nick McHenry---world's worst reporter.

Lent isn't over! 😜😘

1 hour ago, GL95 said:

I picked up ATWT in 1993-it’s funny because the promos right now on my GL watch are about Lily/Damian which is about when I first started watching. (It’s a pretty specific memory because I lived overseas 1990-June 1993 and started ATWT that summer.)

I love that many of the episodes in the Vault retained those CBS promos of the other soaps. There were many Lily-centric storyline promos around 95-97 that I always thought looked pretty interesting.

16 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Lent isn't over! 😜😘

I love that many of the episodes in the Vault retained those CBS promos of the other soaps. There were many Lily-centric storyline promos around 95-97 that I always thought looked pretty interesting.

Not a criticism. A wish---🌟

NGL--love ATWT. '95-early'97, not the best. But you'd love my girl Maura West.

More into 1993:

HB is for some unknown reason trying to play matchmaker to bring Nick/Mindy back together. I really don't understand this at all. It's not entirely Nick's fault per se (and I find him insufferable at this point most of the time) but I don't see how her family is so excited for her to get back together with someone who fairly easily believed some truly terrible things about her. Not to mention, even though Alex is off the radar, you'd think her being completely free of the Spauldings would make the Lewis clan in general happy. They just handed over the Journal Lewis Oil investment to Mindy just to get her in Nick's orbit. (This is after HB "lost" his binoculars and sent Nick/Mindy off to find them.")

Blake is in her period of practically begging Ross to marry her. One thing looking backwards on Blake/Ross is how they really set up Blake's entire self-worth on Ross's opinion of her. She tells Ross she is sure this marriage will work because he's someone too good to leave her, which is interesting because knowing where it goes she's both right and wrong. I think the writing didn't do Blake any favors by having the final death knell with AM be him leading her on/using her given that their marriage falling apart was 100% based on her lying and not him being quick to leave. The focus being on the very end left Blake with no lesson other than picking the wrong men, which really the lying should have been her lesson which she never learns. (Ross is a bit of a sucker for manipulative women so I guess she chose well on finding someone who she can both consider herself unworthy of yet somehow almost always forgive her lies eventually.).

Ed just went to visit Eve in the mental hospital roughly two weeks after drugging Mindy/Nick and injuring Mindy among other things, and she is surprised somehow that she won't get to immediately practice medicine. Ed says she can still do non-patient work which seems exceptionally generous to be employed at all after what she did, but she seems upset by this. Roger started a news story about Eve that just sent Ed into a rage.

Nick finally decided to give his approval to Holly for the money and expertise the Journal absolutely does not have. The scheming immediately begins with Holly coming up with the idea to do a feature on Jenna that is glowing to basically trap Jenna into creating an image for herself that will conflict with Roger. Strangely, Holly has to literally spell out the theory behind the puff piece to AM who doesn't get it even though Fletcher/Nick get it right away as AM suddenly doesn't leap to deviousness though he's super into it of course once Holly explains. That being said, I could watch Holly/AM scheme all day. (It's funny but in a lot of ways I feel like he fits in better with the Thorpe family messed up dynamics than the Spaulding ones and pretty much like him playing off any of Roger/Blake/Holly better than any Spaulding once Bev left. As a side note, it's funny to me this show never really gave Hart any male friend after Dylan because I feel like there's a bevy of male characters who can relate to his issues with Roger/his new family as a whole. He and Nick basically had the same plot going on at the same time for awhile and I feel like AM has similar baggage.)

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by GL95

3 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Not a criticism. A wish---🌟

NGL--love ATWT. '95-early'97, not the best. But you'd love my girl Maura West.

It's funny-I always loved Carly/Maura West (even when Carly was making terrible decisions I almost always sympathized with her) and I remember it being one of the first times I started diverging with my mom who hated Carly. My mom pretty much only liked "good" characters on shows.

7 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Not a criticism. A wish---🌟

NGL--love ATWT. '95-early'97, not the best. But you'd love my girl Maura West.

LOL! I see... 😉

Good to know. I do love Maura West (especially on GH now that I've picked that up). For some reason I don't remember much of CarJack during that year I watched ATWT (2007-2008). I mostly remember the younger set and then Katie/Henry (who I liked a lot). I do think I'd love CarJack though, that's definitely a couple I'd love to see from beginning to end.

10 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

LOL! I see... 😉

Good to know. I do love Maura West (especially on GH now that I've picked that up). For some reason I don't remember much of CarJack during that year I watched ATWT (2007-2008). I mostly remember the younger set and then Katie/Henry (who I liked a lot). I do think I'd love CarJack though, that's definitely a couple I'd love to see from beginning to end.

There's so many of my favorite actors from over the years on GH right now-Maura West/Rick Hearst/Cynthia Watros among others-I don't really know that I want to actually dive into a new modern soap but it's tempting.

Aww, I loved Katie/Henry too. I'd forgotten all about him for some reason but as soon as I saw this I had happy flashbacks.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by GL95

46 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Lent isn't over! 😜😘

I love that many of the episodes in the Vault retained those CBS promos of the other soaps. There were many Lily-centric storyline promos around 95-97 that I always thought looked pretty interesting.

The Lily/Damian story in 1997 got me interested in ATWT. The Hogan Sheffer years hooked me.

I wonder what Hogan could've done for GL as a head writer.

4 minutes ago, GL95 said:

There's so many of my favorite actors from over the years on GH right now-Maura West/Rick Hearst/Cynthia Watros among others-I don't really know that I want to actually dive into a new modern soap but it's tempting.

Sadly, they're all being wasted on GH.

Re: The Dinah/Billy sibling bond. During my 2005 binge, I felt so dumb at first for not realizing they were brother and sister. Dinah is usually in scenes with Jonathan, Edmund, Cassie, and her dad. I wondered why Bill was at her invention.

This video was recommended to me yesterday. Wendy was soooooo good as Dinah. And Gina still made the role her own.

10 minutes ago, GL95 said:

There's so many of my favorite actors from over the years on GH right now-Maura West/Rick Hearst/Cynthia Watros among others-I don't really know that I want to actually dive into a new modern soap but it's tempting.

SO many soap vets are on GH, with several from AMC which really drew me in. I decided to catch Erika Slezak's appearance back in September and when I saw all the vets, I got sucked in and have watched daily since haha. For a modern day soap, GH is the one that still feels like an older soap. It has the most sets, probably too many characters, but feels like there is budget to be used. A handful of the vets aren't leads in many of the storylines, but you see them frequently enough that it still makes me happy enough. When I see scenes of Laura Wright and Cynthia Watros, I'm like hey, it's Annie and Cassie 30 years later! :)

6 minutes ago, CrazySexyQ said:

This video was recommended to me yesterday. Wendy was soooooo good as Dinah. And Gina still made the role her own.

Yes!! I just saw this recently - it's from Feb 1999 and basically Wendy's exit from the show. So sad to see her go because I do think Wendy was fabulous in the role, but they did really make Dinah cross the line too much there towards the end. I'm so curious to see how Gina is in the role and how Dinah gets back into SF without getting thrown in jail haha.

1 minute ago, alwaysAMC said:

LOL! I see... 😉

Good to know. I do love Maura West (especially on GH now that I've picked that up). For some reason I don't remember much of CarJack during that year I watched ATWT (2007-2008). I mostly remember the younger set and then Katie/Henry (who I liked a lot). I do think I'd love CarJack though, that's definitely a couple I'd love to see from beginning to end.

Because they're not really together in '07-'08. '07, she was on maternity leave for a couple of months, and Jack and Katie get together (I PUKE just typing that.) Carly comes home (long story), tries to get Jack back, and he gets sick of her games. She then gets sick and is told she's going to die. (She's been misdiagnosed.) She and Jack briefly reunite, but then she's told she's not going to die, but doesn't tell Jack. (long story) '08 has Wally Kurth in a short term role of a guy who's obsessed with Carly and nearly rapes her. She and Jack work to clear Parker, but Jack then starts screwing Janet (played by Julie Pinson), his brother Brad's babymomma (AGAIN...PUKE) Jon Lindstrom shows up at the end of '08 as Craig. (MORE PUKING.)

Anyway, even though Jack and Carly aren't togethertogether they are constantly intertwined in each other's lives. The good news, you can see Carly/Jack from beginning to end. Most ATWT episodes are up from '97 (when Maura returns) to the end. Carly and Jack start working their way back to each other in late '09 when Maura returns from another maternity leave.

Only Maura is on for a year-ish, from '95-'96. She left to give birth to her first bambino.

26 minutes ago, GL95 said:

More into 1993:

HB is for some unknown reason trying to play matchmaker to bring Nick/Mindy back together. I really don't understand this at all.

Ed just went to visit Eve in the mental hospital roughly two weeks after drugging Mindy/Nick and injuring Mindy among other things, and she is surprised somehow that she won't get to immediately practice medicine. Ed says she can still do non-patient work which seems exceptionally generous to be employed at all after what she did, but she seems upset by this.

Well, the Lewises are suckers for love, and Mindy had lied to Nick about his parentage. Billy isn't all that thrilled about Nick/Mindy by this time, although he'd initially really liked the guy. (It led to a hilarious fight between Billy and Van right before their second wedding) But with Mindy's taste in men, that's somewhat understandable.

Yeah, the entire Eve plot sucks. Sorry Hilary Edson fans.

8 minutes ago, GL95 said:

There's so many of my favorite actors from over the years on GH right now-Maura West/Rick Hearst/Cynthia Watros among others-I don't really know that I want to actually dive into a new modern soap but it's tempting.

I tried for ten years to "get" GH. I just gave up, and didn't even bother to watch many of Rick's return scenes.

2 minutes ago, CrazySexyQ said:

Re: The Dinah/Billy sibling bond. During my 2005 binge, I felt so dumb at first for not realizing they were brother and sister. Dinah is usually in scenes with Jonathan, Edmund, Cassie, and her dad. I wondered why Bill was at her invention.

Yeah, I don't watch a lot of Moniz, so I don't remember if she really interacts much with Bryan Buffinton's Bill. I would guess not, as they really cut back his airtime after they recast Michelle with Budig. I think Bryan's last scenes were around Maureen's birth, and Ryan Brown shows up that fall.

I'm not sure on the timing of Danny Cosgrove, but he's gone for a while while Tognoni's in the role. He returns around '07, and suddenly Dinah and Bill start scheming together like old pals. It's like Mindy never existed and he forgets he has other sisters/siblings.

24 minutes ago, GL95 said:

It's funny-I always loved Carly/Maura West (even when Carly was making terrible decisions I almost always sympathized with her) and I remember it being one of the first times I started diverging with my mom who hated Carly. My mom pretty much only liked "good" characters on shows.

Maura was really good at showing Carly's vulnerability, even when she's being greedy and selfish.

8 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

I'm so curious to see how Gina is in the role and how Dinah gets back into SF without getting thrown in jail haha.

It has something to do with the government and impersonating Princess Cassie with Jeff O'Neill. It's CRAY CRAY.