I stopped watching for a while during San Chistobel.

2 hours ago, Speed Racer said:

Yes - Reva driving off the bridge in 1990 does parallel well with Guiding Light driving off the bridge and into San Christobell in 1999! Good call, AMC, and LOL!

Yet the first event had a most pleasant effect and somewhat long-lasting outcome. The second??

2 hours ago, Stevel said:

I stopped watching for a while during San Chistobel.

LOL - well, I must admit... after the show teasing San Cristobel for ~2 long months, I'm finally happy it's here so I can see what all the hub-bub is about. I know it lasts way too long and wasn't a fan-favorite, but so far, I'm kind of intrigued LOL. The mystery behind it all has been interesting and I was shocked to see Michelle/Danny roped in. I'm going to give it until the location shoot is over and see how I feel then.

BTW - I recently followed a new GL instagram account that posts a ton of episode clips from over the years. Yesterday they posted a ton of clips from the 2006 Daytime Emmys. I did not remember GL almost sweeping the acting categories that year! Kim, Tom, Gina and Jordan all won! That had to be a nice surprise to the entire cast and fans. So 2005 must have been a pretty good year - maybe their last great year? Because they had many others nominated too that didn't win...

11 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

I'm surprised they never bring her up anymore now that Phillip is back from '96 on (or Justin/Jackie for that matter). I wonder if she just wasn't a popular character?

Yes, it is very strange that they completely dropped a legacy character and she was never seen again. She might have been mentioned, but it became like she never existed. And they didn't have the excuse of her having a rapidly SORASed child, like they did with Hope.

They put a lot into the Dylan/Samantha pairing . It just never took off. They were the nice intellectual girl in love with the blue collar bad boy trope but they never clicked with the audience. I think they were hoping they'd be another Phillip/Beth pairing, or more accurately, Lujack/Beth, in popularity.

To show how much the show had invested in these characters: they was an article in TV Guide about casting Samantha. That's not something you saw much outside of soap magazines.

I always got the impression that Morgan Englund, who played Dylan, felt like he should have broken out and become a star on the show. Maybe that's mostly ego, but they immediately connected him to two major characters: Reva, by making him her son, and to Harley, by making him the father of her daughter. You do that with the anticipation that this character is going to be a big deal on the show. (Nowadays he speaks very positively about his GL experience).

As for Justin, they tried recasting him but it was another flop. I adored Christopher Pennock when he was on Dark Shadows, but he was not the right actor to play Justin. Tom O'Rourke, the original Justin, probably would have never come back. He was furious when they fired him.

Unfortunately, Douglas Marland never understood the character of Jackie at all, pretty much destroyed the character, and then killed her off before they ever did the reveal about Phillip's parentage. By the time her daughter arrived in SF, Samantha may as well have sprung from Justin's head.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by DeeVee

2 hours ago, DeeVee said:

Yes, it is very strange that they completely dropped a legacy character and she was never seen again. She might have been mentioned, but it became like she never existed. And they didn't have the excuse of her having a rapidly SORASed child, like they did with Hope.

They put a lot into the Dylan/Samantha pairing . It just never took off. They were the nice intellectual girl in love with the blue collar bad boy trope but they never clicked with the audience. I think they were hoping they'd be another Phillip/Beth pairing, or more accurately, Lujack/Beth, in popularity.

To show how much the show had invested in these characters: they was an article in TV Guide about casting Samantha. That's not something you saw much outside of soap magazines.

I always got the impression that Morgan Englund, who played Dylan, felt like he should have broken out and become a star on the show. Maybe that's mostly ego, but they immediately connected him to two major characters: Reva, by making him her son, and to Harley, by making him the father of her daughter. You do that with the anticipation that this character is going to be a big deal on the show. (Nowadays he speaks very positively about his GL experience).

As for Justin, they tried recasting him but it was another flop. I adored Christopher Pennock when he was on Dark Shadows, but he was not the right actor to play Justin. Tom O'Rourke, the original Justin, probably would have never come back. He was furious when they fired him.

Unfortunately, Douglas Marland never understood the character of Jackie at all, pretty much destroyed the character, and then killed her off before they ever did the reveal about Phillip's parentage. By the time her daughter arrived in SF, Samantha may as well have sprung from Justin's head.

Really appreciate your notes/perspective!

I'm not sure why Englund left the show originally, but I always found it strange that Dylan was never a thought during Reva's return in 1995. They finally had some throwaway line where Reva called Dylan, but it just seems silly that we're supposed to believe Reva/Dylan reconnected all offscreen during that time. When I was watching, I just assumed that maybe Reva and Dylan weren't really close for whatever reason, but after seeing that 1990 episode of Reva which includes Dylan and Sam in the mix, it's clear they were in story/closely involved when she drove off... now I'm wondering if there was much Reva talk, from him or others, between the time Josh left and when Reva came back (since Englund was there for most of that period).