I never really warmed up to BC's Beth. The Beth I grew up was victimized but she had an inner strength to her despite all the perils. 90s Beth is more of a vixen but more emotionally fragile-- which gets exponentially worse/toxic when she hooks up with Prince Edmund.

@alwaysAMC its also pretty cool that MKA is a direct desendent of our 2nd US President- John Adams.

I hated how they wrote her off of ATWT with no chance of returning. She was such a good fit with Lucinda as her sister. I recently saw her cameo on an old OLTL as Death-- that was a pleasant surprise.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Spoon

It was kinda unusual for the time, for both Josh and Blake to have multiple children with only one partner.

Given how many Reva kids popped out of the woodwork must've been great restraint to not give Josh kids where he had plenty of opportunities... knocking up Morgan on her way out of town, 84-86 in Venuzuela and 91-93 in Italy.

My favorite Reva storyline post-Annie was when Jonathan came to town. It was such karmic goodness, Reva's mini me. His diabolical plan to tear her family up. I have sympathy for GL viewers having to deal with two Revas with TP and KZ having the same over-the-top acting styles. I find that style very classic soap camp, but I get that some prefer more subtle performances.

22 minutes ago, Spoon said:

@alwaysAMC its also pretty cool that MKA is a direct desendent of our 2nd US President- John Adams.

I hated how they wrote her off of ATWT with no chance of returning. She was such a good fit with Lucinda as her sister. I recently saw her cameo on an old OLTL as Death-- that was a pleasant surprise.

Oh very cool - didn't know that

23 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Y'all! I was watching a random ATWT episode last night and noticed Mary Kay Adams (India), but went to her Wiki just to make sure it was her. And to my absolute surprise, I learned she was one of my favorite female Klingon characters on Star Trek: DS9! I'm SHOCKED and so happy to figure this out. She played such a great Klingon, which is so different from India. I've got way more respect now for Mary Kay Adams haha.

I thought you knew! During MKA time on ATWT, she's involved with Joe Breen's character, Scott Eldredge. Joe Breen also plays Will Jeffries on GL, who was involved with Michelle Forbes' Sonni/Solita. Who natch, was on TNG and DS9. (this is the circle of soap life.)

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I don't know if it was a re-write, but this brief snippet of an episode when Beth vanishes does kind of reveal that something valuable had been stolen from the museum so it's possible that it wasn't a re-write.

Thanks! I rechecked the recaps, but they just mention Alan faking a medical report. I'm going to assume he did. Beth's kidnapping was mixed up in Alan's return and the Von Halkein gold story. Phillip won't believe she's dead and puts his recovery at risk continuing to look for her. TPTB pulled the old no body found trick.

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

I seem to recall that Alan had Jackson doing a lot of diving in the lake where Beth disappeared. Maybe he had him do it?

Though during the funeral scenes Jackson made a big show of grief and telling everyone he loved her, blah, blah...now I don't know if that was for show or it was just Loving Beth Raines Syndrome.

The recaps mention something about Jackson being in league with Alan. Jackson was so poorly thought out, he was just one of those characters who they threw into random plots. I think he had feels for Beth, but he never seemed on the up and up about anything.

21 minutes ago, Spoon said:

Given how many Reva kids popped out of the woodwork must've been great restraint to not give Josh kids where he had plenty of opportunities... knocking up Morgan on her way out of town, 84-86 in Venuzuela and 91-93 in Italy.

This is the thing that's so frustrating about how everything had to revolve around Reva. She never should have had another kid after Shayne. But, no, we had to have Jonathan and then have her miracle post-menopausal baby. Just ridiculous.

I strongly feel that Morgan should have been brought back at some point. I definitely have no objection to her bringing a Josh prog with her. It would have been anchored in the history of the show. Morgan had connections to several characters still on the show. It just made so much sense to bring her back.

But if she'd come back and had Josh's baby, that would have taken the focus off of Reva....we couldn't have THAT.

7 minutes ago, P.J. said:

The recaps mention something about Jackson being in league with Alan. Jackson was so poorly thought out, he was just one of those characters who they threw into random plots. I think he had feels for Beth, but he never seemed on the up and up about anything.

Did I really sit through all those available 1986 episodes?

Yes, I did. 😂

When Beth exposed the fact that Jackson sold some photos of Mindy (in--GASP!--her underwear) to a men's magazine, no one wanted anything to do with him. So Alan zoomed in and hired him because Jackson had no other possibility for employment.

He had him do some diving in the lake when people were looking for the chest of Andora gold. (Like why would Alan need that? He told India he was doing it for her but of course he wanted it for himself. It made as much sense as Alan selling stolen art, that whole year was a total joke).

Anyway, the chest got lost because some guy kidnapped Beth and took the chest. During the getaway the boat sank. That's why everyone thought Beth was dead.

So Jackson did some diving and he's so dumb his diving mask, which had prescription lenses, got dropped or something. The cops found it and matched the lenses to him, so he was briefly implicated in Beth's disappearance.

He didn't work for Alan long. For SOME REASON, the Lewises FORGAVE Jackson for what he did to Mindy. (Like Billy wouldn't have killed him!) They hired him at Lewis Oil. He ran around in a hard hat for a while doing whatever it is that they do there. So he was able to get under Alan's thumb.

1986 was SO bad.

24 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I thought you knew! During MKA time on ATWT, she's involved with Joe Breen's character, Scott Eldredge. Joe Breen also plays Will Jeffries on GL, who was involved with Michelle Forbes' Sonni/Solita. Who natch, was on TNG and DS9. (this is the circle of soap life.)

Haha I love that! I'm a huge fan of Michelle Forbes, so I can't wait to see her on GL when I ultimately get there. Of course I loved her in Trek, but she was also so good in True Blood.

If Josh's secret child was a male, he would have slept with Reva. Be careful what you wish for.

Thinking about what a missed opportunity it was to not bring back Rita with a son. If they SORASED him to be around Alan-Michael’s age in 1989, he and AM likely would’ve butted heads (Alan’s bio son versus this new son that Rita wants to pass off as Alan’s; they’d both be career driven looking to make a name for themselves at Spaulding Enterprises) Throw in Alan Michael’s close relationship with the Bauers most notably Ed, he would’ve been one to reveal the truth. Throw in Hope, Alan, maybe even Roger, and the story writes itself.

I just watched the 1998 movie Wild Things with a friend. I used to LOVE this movie as a teen, but haven't seen it in many years. It's honestly one of the sexiest movies of its time. Anyway, I recognized Jesse Blue (Paulo Benedeti) in the first 5 minutes sitting next to Denise Richards! It made me so happy seeing him in a movie while he was playing Jesse at the time.

@alwaysAMC unfortunately the Sonni/Solita story became a mess under the scab writers-- Long had to change the whole back end of the plot. I don't know how much is in the vault, but I know the Sonni/Solita stuff is pretty sparse on YT.

4 hours ago, DeeVee said:

But if she'd come back and had Josh's baby, that would have taken the focus off of Reva....we couldn't have THAT.

Did I really sit through all those available 1986 episodes?

Yes, I did. 😂

When Beth exposed the fact that Jackson sold some photos of Mindy (in--GASP!--her underwear) to a men's magazine, no one wanted anything to do with him. So Alan zoomed in and hired him because Jackson had no other possibility for employment.

He didn't work for Alan long. For SOME REASON, the Lewises FORGAVE Jackson for what he did to Mindy. (Like Billy wouldn't have killed him!) They hired him at Lewis Oil. He ran around in a hard hat for a while doing whatever it is that they do there. So he was able to get under Alan's thumb.

1986 was SO bad.

LOL...right? Reva's Guiding Light.

Well, Billy had just been on trial for killing David Preston. I guess even TPTB thought there was a limit to how much violence Billy could do. But working at Lewis does seem a little extra forgiving.

The only reason I watched what's available of '86 is to figure out the Dinah thing. It's just painful to watch. There's even a fill in for Henry, at points, which really blunts the story.

2 hours ago, dc11786 said:

If Josh's secret child was a male, he would have slept with Reva. Be careful what you wish for.

snort As long as it wasn't Bill, I honestly wouldn't have cared. It would've been perfectly in keeping with Reva if she had boinked Josh's son while she was "on a break" from whoever she was with at the time. And then had to lie to Josh about it.

1 hour ago, MichaelGL said:

Thinking about what a missed opportunity it was to not bring back Rita with a son.

I forget---have we discussed possible Rita recasts? I think that would've been almost impossible.

2 hours ago, dc11786 said:

If Josh's secret child was a male, he would have slept with Reva. Be careful what you wish for.

OMG, you are probably right! Ew!

2 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

Thinking about what a missed opportunity it was to not bring back Rita with a son. If they SORASED him to be around Alan-Michael’s age in 1989, he and AM likely would’ve butted heads (Alan’s bio son versus this new son that Rita wants to pass off as Alan’s; they’d both be career driven looking to make a name for themselves at Spaulding Enterprises) Throw in Alan Michael’s close relationship with the Bauers most notably Ed, he would’ve been one to reveal the truth. Throw in Hope, Alan, maybe even Roger, and the story writes itself.

I LOVE the idea of Rita trying to pass off Ed's son as Alan's. I believe as far back as the Dobsons, Rita was slated to go after Alan as more than just a bed partner. She wanted to be Mrs. Alan Spaulding and everything that went with it. This would have touched a lot of characters, which is what the best soap storylines do.

(The one problem is that they were writing Alan off the canvas at this point because of Chris Bernau's death. But maybe if someone had suggested this, they would have put an effort into finding a good permanent recast).

25 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I forget---have we discussed possible Rita recasts? I think that would've been almost impossible.

A couple of times. I think the last time we talked about Judith Chapman. She was definitely sexy enough but in kind of a cool, remote way. Rita had more of a sultry vibe.

I've said a couple of times I like the idea of Sharon Gabet playing Rita. I thought she was terribly wasted on OLTL as Melinda Cramer. She was such an insipid character. They tried to take advantage of Gabet's sexiness by having Melinda and her boyfriend act out their sexual fantasies by role playing. It just ended up being very cringy.

The most difficult part of recasting Rita is Lenore somehow made a fairly unlikeable character sympathetic. Not a lot of people could do that. She never played her as overtly calculating. There was always a softness to her.

Edited 38 minutes ago38 min by DeeVee

34 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

A couple of times. I think the last time we talked about Judith Chapman. She was definitely sexy enough but in kind of a cool, remote way. Rita had more of a sultry vibe.

The most difficult part of recasting Rita is Lenore somehow made a fairly unlikeable character sympathetic. Not a lot of people could do that. She never played her as overtly calculating. There was always a softness to her.

LOL...how lazy am I? That wasn't that long ago. Lenore made that sultriness look so easy. And without any of the cringey dialogue they'd probably have stuck the character with later.