13 hours ago, P.J. said:

Judi's Beth is like a saccharine version of ATWT's Lily Snyder or Y&R's Cricket. There's a moment I wound up running into over and over during my rewatch of Josh's accident, during Beth and Lujack's beach story, where Judi is literally running around like a hyperactive chipmunk....and I wonder what I ever saw in Beth.

What helped Judi was her sincerity - I think she has always been one of the "purest" actresses on soaps, even when the character is poor (like whatever DAYS has done with her for decades now). Beth was not much of a character in her own right, but it was probably her best daytime role (I don't think she was ever the right choice for Paulina on AW). Any time I see her work from back then I can understand why she became so popular, especially since the only other ingenue who had sort of had that spark in recent years had been Kirsten Vigard, and the show suffocated that with Kelly and then dumped her.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by DRW50

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

What helped Judi was her sincerity - I think she has always been one of the "purest" actresses on soaps, even when the character is poor (like whatever DAYS has done with her for decades now). Beth was not much of a character in her own right, but it was probably her best daytime role (I don't think she was ever the right choice for Paulina on AW). Any time I see her work from back then I can understand why she became so popular, especially since the only other ingenue who had sort of had that spark in recent years had been Kirsten Vigard, and the show suffocated that with Kelly and then dumped her.

You're probably right---I'm just a little too jaded now. Both Judi and Krista were special, and it's one of the few times I can recall a show launching two ingenues who both successfully caught on with the audience.

Watching 1986 clips, there is a certain charm and spirit that shines through with watching them. I can understand viewers being confused over the tone of the show, especially if they had been long time viewers... but it's a show going through an identity crisis during this year especially.

On the surface, the tone resembles the Kobe/Long tone minus some of the long term characters that helped ground it... but the follow up writers to Long didn't know how to write her tone so it feels like a big old mess.

The only positive I could find in the show during this time was Reva, and I truly think it was because she wasn't suffocated by weight of 'Bud' and 'Always'. She could function as a character on her own without being judged by her 'true love'.

13 hours ago, DeeVee said:

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.

I agree. To me, Rita was like OLTL's Tina. She wasn't a "bad girl," per se. She had the best intentions. She just couldn't tell the truth, lol.

2 hours ago, P.J. said:

You're probably right---I'm just a little too jaded now. Both Judi and Krista were special, and it's one of the few times I can recall a show launching two ingenues who both successfully caught on with the audience.

It's kind of a shame--Judi could have grown into a mature heroine on the show. Most of her career was working on soaps, so she didn't leave because she was ambitious for a night time or movie career. I think she left because she was unhappy on GL.

Long put a lot into the female characters she created--I wonder if like Reva, Beth and Mindy had aspects of her personality/life woven into the characters. There was a lot of care in creating them, which rarely happened with young soap characters. And of course, the casting was on point. The only time she really flopped doing this was with Jessie and Calla, who were clearly based on her (and possibly her mother) because of the beauty pagent stuff.

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

On the surface, the tone resembles the Kobe/Long tone minus some of the long term characters that helped ground it... but the follow up writers to Long didn't know how to write her tone so it feels like a big old mess.

One of the problems with the revolving door of writers that year is they started stuff that got dropped. I really think they were building towards an Alan/India pairing. They even had CB and MKA do a Soap Opera Digest cover and spread. Then they dropped it. Which to me is a shame because I thought they had fantastic chemistry.

There was obviously going to be a major story involving the backstory of Alan's time in San Rios. Big build up and then--dropped. (Actually, I'm glad that was dropped, the "Encantadora" stuff was flashing "CRINGE! CRINGE! CRINGE!" all over the place).

Both Rita and Hope were brought up. Seemed pretty obvious they were planning to bring them back, then--nothing.

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

The only positive I could find in the show during this time was Reva, and I truly think it was because she wasn't suffocated by weight of 'Bud' and 'Always'. She could function as a character on her own without being judged by her 'true love'.

Sometimes we forget that RN left not that long after the Reva/Josh pairing was first established. IMO, we think of her being suffocated by him because after he came back it was always Reva/Josh, no matter who either one got involved with. They were always going to be the endgame, period. The fact that they were able to create a popular pairing for her with Kyle before RN came back shows that they did not have to be tethered to each other forever. But I guess TPTB believed the audience always wanted them together.

On 4/15/2026 at 7:54 PM, P.J. said:

To which Vanessa would retort: "At least I was having sex. Not simply pretending to. Jealousy is so last season, Nola dear."

LOL.

Why can't I watch THIS alternate GL?!?!?

15 hours ago, P.J. said:

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.

It actually would have been much more interesting if TP's Jonathon was brought back as some kid Josh had...(Sonni's kid when she was Solita and dropped him off at the Catfight Convent as she had better things to do) and HATED Reva...same storyline...and he even seduces Reva to show her as the true Slut of Springfield...Kimmer would have both loved it and hated it...and it would be fun to see Rauch's Soccer Mom Reva shown for her true colors. The show was ending anyway...go Big and Go Home!

"The only positive I could find in the show during this time was Reva, and I truly think it was because she wasn't suffocated by weight of 'Bud' and 'Always'. She could function as a character on her own without being judged by her 'true love'."

Reva was so much more interesting when she did have the weight of "Always" to drag around. During this time she had a job, she had friends (its Reva so of course they are all men) and yes, he had someone madly in love with her, bit he was a psycho...she was a real character...and then Jarsh came back. TPTB wouldnt seperate them (despite even Kimmer and RN wanting to work with different people) because the audience writing in wouldnt stand for it.) I wish when they brought her back she was not Amish Reva, but part of her amnesia was her free break from Jeva, and she came back as a woman who didnt want to get invovled with that...(but of course she would.)

Edited 41 minutes ago41 min by Mitch64