51 minutes ago, Spoon said:

That's why I didn't mind seeing Maureen die, that should've created angst for years but the follow-up was practically non-existent.

That was the big mistake.

Her death amounted to pretty much nothing except causing this big gap on the show that was felt for years. Part of the problem was the lack of other Reardons on the canvas at the time. But even if they couldn't have found a way to bring them in even briefly, many possibilities were left on the table: Ed and Lillian being ostsracized, their good reputations left in the dust, Ed drinking again, the impact on Ed and Lillian's professional relationship, Michelle finding out why the accident happened--that would have impacted her relationship with her father for years! Rick, too, because he loved Maureen (was he on the show at the time? I can't recall).

Yeah, sure, Vanessa and Mo were wine buddies and she eventually named her kid after her, but it was still wild that it was mostly about her and not Maureen's family. A better way to utilize the relationship would have been to have Van enact some delicious revenge against Lillian and Ed. She would have fixed both their wagons.

Pretty much the only one who really cared was Bridget, who was hiding in an attic because Nadine was hiding her pregnancy. Oh, yeah, and ROGER, of all people.

I don't mind when they kill off main characters. I mind when their deaths don't have a major impact on the other characters and future storylines.

I’m up to June 30, 1999.

Susan is now grounded and argues with Harley about it, but Harley tells her they’ve all decided she’s going to a sleepaway camp for the summer, which pisses her off. Cassie comes by to babysit Susan while Harley goes to her doctor’s appointment, and Cassie tells Susan this is for the best. Susan then sneaks away to the roof to call Max and tells him he needs to come over because she’s on the roof and may do something stupid. He says she’s being silly because camp is easy, but she then says she’s going to run away from home.

Meanwhile, Phillip is waiting for Harley at the hospital and tells Dr. Sedgwick that Harley is adamant about not knowing the sex of the baby until she gives birth. She then leaves Phillip in the room alone, but he happens to see Harley’s file and takes a peek and learns the sex, which makes him smile. Harley finally arrives and reconfirms her decision to wait on learning the sex, but once Phillip leaves the room for a minute, Harley secretly takes a peek at her file and also learns the sex, which makes her smile. When Phillip returns, they talk about how they can’t wait to see their child grow up and Phillip says something that makes Harley think he knows it’s a boy and calls him on it. She says he must have seen the green paper in her file and he asks how she knew it was green, which gives her away too and they both laugh about knowing they’re having a boy and new Spaulding heir.

Jim goes to Millennium and tells Drew/Jesse that he will meet with social services tomorrow about Max. He says that living on top of a bar in a single bedroom with them is no way for a teenager to be raised, which pisses off Drew. Jim then goes to Harley’s to pick up Susan, but Cassie tells him he’s being too harsh on Max/Drew which he scoffs at. She says Drew is the only family Max has now and he needs to support them. It finally sinks in when Cassie reminds him of her struggles to parent Tammy when she was stripping and he leaves to go apologize to Drew.

Jesse decides that in order to make themselves look more mature to social services, they should be married so he proposes to Drew. She says that shouldn’t be the reason they marry, but he goes into how much he loves her and she gets excited and says yes. Jesse leaves to get champagne to celebrate and Jim stops by and apologizes to Drew. He says he won’t proceed with social services and wants them to be happy, which makes Drew ecstatic. Jesse then walks in, sees Jim and goes off on him, with Drew trying to tell him Jim has changed his mind, but Jesse quickly yells out that Jim can’t go to social services because Max isn’t Drew’s brother, just as Max walks in and hears everything! Max gets angry and Drew tries to convince him that what Jesse said was a lie, but Max doesn’t believe it and says they’re all liars. Drew says she only knew the truth a couple weeks ago, but Max runs out and Drew chases after him. Drew tells him the whole story and says they’re still siblings because they have a special connection, but he is nasty to her and leaves. Max goes to his mother’s gravesite and scratches out Drew’s name that he got added to her tombstone.

Beth talks to Lillian about Susan and they agree this camp will be best for her, since it helped Lizzie when she went after shooting Carl. However, Jim is now convinced, thanks to Cassie, that she shouldn’t go to the camp and Beth and Jim clash about it. Susan later overhears them discussing it again and how Beth wants her to go, which pisses Susan off. Max then calls Susan asking her to meet him at the park, but she’s grounded and says she can’t, but he presses her about how important it is they talk, so she tries to leave but Beth catches her. Susan tells her she’s not her mom and can’t tell her what to do, so she leaves anyway. Jim comes home and Beth tells him what happened, proving why she needs to go to the camp. She eventually says if they can’t agree on this camp, then she needs to exit from their relationship for her own good.

Susan finds Max and he tells her about the Drew situation. He decides to runaway from SF and Susan says she’ll go with him. He says no at first because too many people love her in SF, but she insists she’s going so they plan to meet the next day at his mother’s grave and go from there. Meanwhile, Ben shows up to Company and overhears Selena and Drew talking about losing Max and Ben chimes in and says Drew should adopt him. Selena tells him to go away, but Drew wants to hear him out and he says she could legally adopt Max and be his legal guardian, which excites Drew. Ben offers his services pro bono and Selena tells him on the side he better not screw Drew over.

Cassie and Blake have lunch and discuss their lives, with Cassie saying the farm is so expensive to maintain and she’s living paycheck to paycheck. Blake says she gives her blessing to sell the farm and Hart would completely understand, which makes Cassie feel better. This is kind of sad if it happens, as the Jessup farm was pretty important, but I get it since Hart is dead, Roger is gone and there isn’t much left to do with it.

Selena asks Buzz for another night off to go on another date with Billy. Buzz says yes, but then fires Selena on the spot saying he needs a manager that can be there full-time while he’s trying to get the revamped Company off its feet. Selena thinks he’s being silly, but they argue and Selena gets up to leave. Before she walks out, she uses the phone to call Billy (in front of Buzz) to confirm their date that night. Harley comes by later and pushes Buzz to admit that he wants to be with Selena and he’s being ridiculous for firing her. Later at the Towers on their date, Billy is giving Selena a background of SF and mentions Roger and Alex, but it’s clear Selena isn’t paying attention and only thinking about Buzz. She notices Abby a few tables over and gets up to talk to her on the way to the bathroom and Abby tells her she needs to think about her future and learn to just enjoy the date. Selena then acknowledges Abby’s new implant which was nice to see, considering Selena came to the show because she was Abby’s cellmate. After, we see Buzz at Selena’s porch with flowers, but he hears Billy and Selena walking up being happy, so he places the flowers on the stoop and leaves without being seen. Selena sees the flowers and smells them, leaving Billy to proclaim she must have herself an admirer. The next night, Selena stops by Company to pick up her last paycheck and Buzz apologizes for being mean to her the other day. She mentions someone left her flowers after her date, but he denies it was him, which she doesn’t believe. He eventually offers her the job back and they’re cute together when she playfully makes him sign an agreement to be nice to her and never fire her again.

Rick and Abby have dinner at the Towers, but Rick gets upset seeing Danny there. He confronts him and they argue more about the Michelle situation. Later, we see Rick walk back to the table but Abby isn’t there, and Rick sees a note that says “Your wife is with me, now you know what it feels like”. He realizes Danny took her and heads to the Santos mansion, as we see Danny sitting there waiting for him. Rick arrives and demands to know where Abby is, but Danny plays dumb and says he had nothing to do with it, but taunts him by saying it must hurt having someone take his wife away from him. Rick is forcefully escorted out of the mansion, and Abby then walks out and reveals that it was her idea to do this with Danny because she assumed Rick would let Michelle go. Abby is now distraught that her plan didn’t work out and begs Danny to drop the ruse, which he eventually agrees to. Rick goes to Phillip for help, who tells him he has no choice but to let Michelle go. Meanwhile, Carmen visits Michelle at the psych ward and says she wants to repair their relationship since Danny will need to be in both of their lives, but Michelle balks at the idea. Carmen says she wants to be closer knowing that she’ll have her grandbabies one day, but Michelle says there is no way in hell she will ever let her kids be around her, which annoys Carmen. Carmen then taunts Michelle, insinuating she could have one of her men come in and act like an orderly and attack her, which makes Michelle go manic and the doctors have to sedate her. Rick, now influenced by Phillip’s passionate words, decides to let Michelle go, but when he tries to wake her up, she’s unable to and he panics. He talks to the doctor who said they had to sedate her because of her reaction to Carmen, but Rick says she’s fine and needs to be released. The doctor says no and based on her evaluation, Michelle needs to stay another 14 days which pisses Rick off. Danny and Abby then show up and a shocked Rick embraces Abby. Abby says Danny took good care of her, but it was all her idea. Rick gets upset with Abby about her role in it. Danny asks when Michelle can go, but Rick tells him about Carmen’s visit upsetting Michelle and how the doctor is now requiring 14 more days, which makes Danny irate. Danny dresses up like a doctor and removes a sedated Michelle out of her room and takes her to the Santos mansion. She finally wakes up and Danny tells her he’s going to take her away somewhere safe, but Ben and Carmen stumble into the house making out, about to have sex. Carmen is surprised to see Michelle out of the hospital and Danny goes off on her and makes Ben leave. Rick and Abby show up and Rick tells them he’s giving up, but Michelle says she can’t trust him anymore and he’s ruined their relationship and a sad Rick and Abby leave.

David and Vicky have dinner and see Bill and Pilar walk in. David tells Vicky his biggest goal is to bring down the Santos family. He then utters under his breath that the Santos family hurt his father and they’ll pay for it. Hmm, we haven’t seen Charles in forever, so I guess they’re making up some backstory here. Meanwhile, Bill tells Pilar that he scored a computer job at this company called SanCorp (where Ben is now president), which makes Pilar laugh because it’s one of their family businesses and he’ll be working for her mom, which shocks Bill. Bill says he’s not taking the job because he doesn’t want to work for her mother, but Pilar says it’s their one business that’s legit and he should rethink it.

20 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

That was the big mistake.

Her death amounted to pretty much nothing except causing this big gap on the show that was felt for years. Part of the problem was the lack of other Reardons on the canvas at the time. But even if they couldn't have found a way to bring them in even briefly, many possibilities were left on the table: Ed and Lillian being ostsracized, their good reputations left in the dust, Ed drinking again, the impact on Ed and Lillian's professional relationship, Michelle finding out why the accident happened--that would have impacted her relationship with her father for years! Rick, too, because he loved Maureen (was he on the show at the time? I can't recall).

Yeah, sure, Vanessa and Mo were wine buddies and she eventually named her kid after her, but it was still wild that it was mostly about her and not Maureen's family. A better way to utilize the relationship would have been to have Van enact some delicious revenge against Lillian and Ed. She would have fixed both their wagons.

Pretty much the only one who really cared was Bridget, who was hiding in an attic because Nadine was hiding her pregnancy. Oh, yeah, and ROGER, of all people.

I don't mind when they kill off main characters. I mind when their deaths don't have a major impact on the other characters and future storylines.

Rick wasn't on the show at the time, but when he returned that could have been some good drama if he found out, especially as I felt like they were implying he had fallen in love with Eve while she was dying.

The biggest problem with Maureen's death is that it was done just to have a death, to try to shock viewers and manipulate them. There was no care. The whole thing was cheap. A few strong scenes doesn't change that. And viewers picked up on the game. I think that's why there was little trust in JFP from then on, at GL or on her other soaps.

16 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

The biggest problem with Maureen's death is that it was done just to have a death, to try to shock viewers and manipulate them.

Doesn't the story go that they did a focus group that declared Mo boring? And that's why they decided to kill her off?

Which is the dumbest thing, ever. I'd bet good money that almost no one in the focus group watched soaps. I was put in a focus group once. I was standing outside a shoe store, just looking in the window. Someone approached me asked me if I wanted to make $40 by being in a focus group. I said sure!

Not surprisingly, it was about shoes. I hate shoes. I hate shopping for shoes. I have fallen arches. I'm a klutz who automatically falls down in heels.

I didn't tell them this. It was $40 for less than an hour of my time. My opinion on anything they asked me was basically useless.

Showing people soap opera scenes out of context is also basically useless. You can't properly assess Maureen's importance to the show that way.

Really a low point for GL.

Maureen was the anchor/tentpole of the show and was not boring. GL being a community-based show needed an anchor/tentpole character to keep things grounded and JFP failed to realize that.

18 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Doesn't the story go that they did a focus group that declared Mo boring? And that's why they decided to kill her off?

Which is the dumbest thing, ever. I'd bet good money that almost no one in the focus group watched soaps. I was put in a focus group once. I was standing outside a shoe store, just looking in the window. Someone approached me asked me if I wanted to make $40 by being in a focus group. I said sure!

Not surprisingly, it was about shoes. I hate shoes. I hate shopping for shoes. I have fallen arches. I'm a klutz who automatically falls down in heels.

I didn't tell them this. It was $40 for less than an hour of my time. My opinion on anything they asked me was basically useless.

Showing people soap opera scenes out of context is also basically useless. You can't properly assess Maureen's importance to the show that way.

Really a low point for GL.

Yes. And of course as JFP reminded us, she was the reason fans even cared about Maureen!

I wish she'd just said outright that Ellen Parker was let go to help throw money at Justin Deas, Marcy Walker and Robert Newman.

12 minutes ago, kalbir said:

Maureen was the anchor/tentpole of the show and was not boring. GL being a community-based show needed an anchor/tentpole character to keep things grounded and JFP failed to realize that.

2 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I wish she'd just said outright that Ellen Parker was let go to help throw money at Justin Deas, Marcy Walker and Robert Newman.

IA on both counts!