YouTube pushed a 1988 episode-the fashion alone must be checked out. Harley is pure 80s. Frank is wearing high waisted white pants with a tight striped mime type shirt. Alex is wearing a wild red getup.

The main plot is Alan seeking an annulment from Reva. Alex is claiming Alan is struggling because this is the first time he’s been in love. Reva is broke and Sarah suddenly starts suggesting Alan really loves Reva and she shouldn’t sign. Sarah tries to make it seem like it’s not about the money until she finally starts hinting at it.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by GL95

@alwaysAMC I just realized the reason Abby is rarely seen. (Vague spolier ahead.....) I'm betting this was the period where the actress took a leave to have a particular medical procedure done which will be written into the show eventually.

The show had the idea of the three pillars- Reva, Harley and Cassie. But eventually Harley and Cassie were gone and it was all on Reva. Didn't help that Marina was wasted with a subpar actor in the role and Michelle was gone as well. In the later years, I'd say Lizzie was the no. 2 female star on the show.

44 minutes ago, GL95 said:

The main plot is Alan seeking an annulment from Reva. Alex is claiming Alan is struggling because this is the first time he’s been in love. Reva is broke and Sarah suddenly starts suggesting Alan really loves Reva and she shouldn’t sign. Sarah tries to make it seem like it’s not about the money until she finally starts hinting at it.

I have to FREQUENTLY remind myself that this all came out during a very long writers strike. The whole "Reva in a coma and its aftermath" story was SO nonsensical.

Not only was this Hope erasure, Alan's problem wasn't an inability to fall in love. It was that he fell in love all the time. (There's a really good scene when he and Jackie are divorcing where she says this to him).

The scabs turned SARAH (and holier-than-thou Rusty) into money-grubbers, advising Reva to marry Alan for his money.

Writer strikes show why even so-so writers are really important.

2 hours ago, Spoon said:

The show had the idea of the three pillars- Reva, Harley and Cassie. But eventually Harley and Cassie were gone and it was all on Reva. Didn't help that Marina was wasted with a subpar actor in the role and Michelle was gone as well. In the later years, I'd say Lizzie was the no. 2 female star on the show.

I'd throw in Olivia as well.

3 hours ago, GL95 said:

YouTube pushed a 1988 episode-the fashion alone must be checked out. Harley is pure 80s. Frank is wearing high waisted white pants with a tight striped mime type shirt. Alex is wearing a wild red getup.

The main plot is Alan seeking an annulment from Reva. Alex is claiming Alan is struggling because this is the first time he’s been in love. Reva is broke and Sarah suddenly starts suggesting Alan really loves Reva and she shouldn’t sign. Sarah tries to make it seem like it’s not about the money until she finally starts hinting at it.

Carl Evans and Rick Hearst rarely remind me of each other as I think of Carl's A-M as more boyish, but he does remind me a lot of Rick in the scene where he flirts with Harley until they kiss. That was a hot moment (it helps that Carl and Beth really went for it).

I think the show threw that relationship away too easily.

Was Frank meant to be in a yellow Speedo by the end? I think those scenes may have been in the 1992 anniversary special.

2 hours ago, DeeVee said:

I have to FREQUENTLY remind myself that this all came out during a very long writers strike. The whole "Reva in a coma and its aftermath" story was SO nonsensical.

Not only was this Hope erasure, Alan's problem wasn't an inability to fall in love. It was that he fell in love all the time. (There's a really good scene when he and Jackie are divorcing where she says this to him).

The scabs turned SARAH (and holier-than-thou Rusty) into money-grubbers, advising Reva to marry Alan for his money.

Writer strikes show why even so-so writers are really important.

I've enjoyed your takes on the strike material over the last year as the show was so in flux at this time I was never sure what changes were made during the strike period.

Going through the episode now, Sarah does have a harder edge than I remember her having under Long. This is more believable, but it's somewhat difficult to watch. Audrey Peters does a good job of shifting her characters.

Reva's dramas are tiresome even by 1988, but Kim sells her dilemma with a surprising amount of sincerity and restraint.