1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

I say this because Kimberly Simms as Mindy had great chemistry with Roger, Mallet, & Nick

Simms was fortunate because they also gave her some good storylines to play. Being involved with Roger and Nick, both bringing her into conflict with Alex, resulted in some strong storytelling.

This was never done with Krista's Mindy. There were some mild plot-driven obstacles (wanting a career more than a baby with Kurt; having a problem with Rusty being a cop) but never a strongly written story with some really delicious conflict.

I guess people could argue that Simms was a better actress and that would inspire the writers to give her better material. But it's possible if Krista had been given better storylines she could have handled them. She was never really given the chance, IMO.

Just now, DeeVee said:

Simms was fortunate because they also gave her some good storylines to play. Being involved with Roger and Nick, both bringing her into conflict with Alex, resulted in some strong storytelling.

This was never done with Krista's Mindy. There were some mild plot-driven obstacles (wanting a career more than a baby with Kurt; having a problem with Rusty being a cop) but never a strongly written story with some really delicious conflict.

I guess people could argue that Simms was a better actress and that would inspire the writers to give her better material. But it's possible if Krista had been given better storylines she could have handled them. She was never really given the chance, IMO.

Oddly I think Krista's last few months was the show finally committed to giving her something to play with her interacting with Will and marrying him. Who knows what the show would have done with that dynamic had she not quit (a decision Krista says as an adult she regretted).

22 minutes ago, P.J. said:

@alwaysAMC lol...I know my opinions don't always line up with the more popular takes. While I didn't mind Abby, I'm not sure the character would've been handed a storyline outside of being Reva's talk to if she'd come on as anyone else's friend. To be blunt, at times it seemed like Abby was GL's attempt at a social issue story.

Back to the McTavish of it all, I do wonder if Abby was her idea or if it was already planned and given to her when she arrived. Anyway, I get what you mean... but I also think Abby turned out to be popular enough to get her own storylines away from Reva, which earned her an Emmy nom. I do think the Rick/Abby/Michelle (Budig's Michelle which I loved - I know, I know) was the initial social issue story... but I have to imagine the public loved her enough and they kept her for at least ~4 years now (from my watch), which went well beyond the PBS/TLC story.

I do wonder what becomes of Rick after Abby leaves... I know there is a black lady that he marries at some point. I do love Rick (and MOL) and I'm really curious to see how it turns out.

3 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I mean this as no disrespect to Krista T, but she didn't strike me as a chemistry magnet and I think that is why any attempts at pairings (Rick, Kurt, Rusty, Frank) never really took off. Although I will say I thought she and Frank had a nice rapport. I say this because Kimberly Simms as Mindy had great chemistry with Roger, Mallet, & Nick.. oddly even had some chemistry/rapport with Rusty.. yet didn't have any with Rick (Barbara Crompton's Mindy was the only Mindy that had chemistry with Rick..imho).

I think Anderson and hubby tried to make Rusty/Mindy & Johnny/Roxy (inherited) happen.. but the best pairing from their 9 month stint was Chelsea/Phillip.

I was browsing through some May 1987 episodes and I was surprised that Sarah Shayne was offered a job as a patient advocate at Cedars where Ed talked about Bert being the previous one while Sarah said she had heard good things about Bert. And that she and Lillian had a lot of scenes with one another in regards to Hawk and also working together at Cedars.

The one thing I noticed about this particular regime was that Reva/Josh were a couple, but KZ was pregnant and was off for some weeks due to maternity leave while a lot of the focus went to Roxy/Johnny, Dinah/Cam, Vanessa/Ross, and a lot of focus on Lillian. It is interesting that Lillian gets decent focus and story of her own when Long isn't head-writer.

And seeing Will in June 1987 episodes with him acting shady makes me wonder if Anderson had a plan for him that changed once Long came back and added Sonni/Solita to the mix?

It was said at some point back in the day, that P&G bought the Sonni story from Anderson and her husband when they were let go. I remember Josh having nightmares of a woman falling off a cliff, and their last credited episode i believe was Reva finding out that he had been married. Long's first wouldve been Reva and Josh's confrontation. I'm sure Long made changes to the story, but we'll probably never know what they were

At the point Sheri came in they should have taken stock and had a proper restructure.

Meta arriving with a young ward. Maybe Hope and or Mike back to shore up the Bauers.

With the Lewis, Shayne, Spaulding and Reardons there were a lot of families that had missing members. Slowly bring them back in with original actors or at least some brief returns.

It just seemed from one year to the next there were too many new faces, new couples and too many missing people.

4 hours ago, bboy875 said:

Long's first wouldve been Reva and Josh's confrontation.

That sounds right, because one of her earliest episodes after Long's return was Reva dressing up in her red "Slut of Springfield" dress, making a scene at the country club--and catching Alan's attention, which began his obsession with her.

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Meta arriving with a young ward. Maybe Hope and or Mike back to shore up the Bauers.

They could have brought Mike back with a new wife who had some teen children to shore up the young crowd. Maybe the wife was pregnant, to bring in a new Bauer legacy character. (Maybe she had a past with Alan, to bring in some spice to the story).

Lots of possibilities.

Instead we got the "faux" Bauers. ☹️

Edited 21 hours ago21 hr by DeeVee

It's the anniversary of Chris Bernau's passing.

2 hours ago, P.J. said:

It's the anniversary of Chris Bernau's passing.

There really is no one else like him in GL history. I wish much more of his '70s run was available as what is available is riveting to watch.

I’m up to August 20, 1999.

In Chicago, Ross and Holly have dinner and talk about Blake and Sam separately and their feelings for them. Blake is at the bar watching them, thinking they’re together. She calls Harley and laments to her about the situation and Harley tells her to just come home. Ross tells Holly that he’ll consider talking to Blake about his feelings when they get back to SF, and Blake secretly watches them leave dinner and head back to their hotel room. She says to herself that she can’t hurt her mother because she won’t be able to handle it after the year Holly went through, and if she tells Ross she’s pregnant, then he’ll leave Holly, so she vows not to tell Ross about the pregnancy. They all get back to SF separately and Blake tries to coax Holly into telling her about Chicago, where Holly says she decided not to sell the Journal. Blake is surprised and Ross shows up, which makes her want to leave and meet with Cassie and Harley. Ross and Holly speculate why Blake rushed out so quickly, just as Sam shows up. Sam gives Holly a hard time because he assumes she was snooping through his stuff to get dirt on him. He reveals sunglasses that he assumes are Holly’s, but she tells the guys they are Blake’s. Holly pushes Ross, who wants to stay out of it, to go talk to Blake, so he finally leaves to do so. Holly then tells Sam she is interested in going on a date with him, which surprises him because he assumed she was with Ross. She explains her relationship with Ross, but Sam says Blake was right to question him because he’s not someone Holly should be involved with. He then reveals that he killed a man! Holly is shocked as Sam says he served 6 years for involuntary manslaughter, and would do it again if he had the chance. He explains that he was in a bar and watched a man beating his wife and couldn’t take it anymore, so he punched the man to death. Holly then tells him about Meg and what she did last year, and he realizes she’s on parole and says they can’t date because it’ll go against her parole rules since he’s a felon. Meanwhile, Blake confides in Harley and Cassie about it all and is determined that she can’t tell Holly or Ross that she’s pregnant even though the girls tell her she needs to. Ross then shows up and Blake gets flustered, but he gives her a hard time for breaking in and snooping at Sam’s. They get into a fight, with Ross saying Blake hasn’t changed and Blake saying he’ll always be judgmental. Blake later confides in Harley about having an abortion. Harley tries to convince her not to, but Blake is now determined, thinking she has no other option. They go to the clinic and she signs her papers and reads the pamphlets, while Harley tells her to make sure this is really what she wants.

As India and Beth meet with Phillip about their new roles at Spaulding, Vicky shows up demanding why she wasn’t invited. She demands respect, but Phillip tells her she better get used to the fact she wasn’t promoted or else she’s completely out (ouch). Vicky continues to push him and he says she needs to earn her stripes, but she brings up examples of things she’s done above and beyond India and Beth. Phillip says this is what Alan wants, so for now, that’s what it’ll be. Vicky later tells herself she’s just going to have to take what she wants. She laters makes a phone call and leaves a message for Ben Warren to call her back.

Susan and Beth awkwardly plan Jim’s birthday party, with Susan wanting to do something afterwards as a group, but Beth says she wants to spend alone time with him at the end of the night. Beth asks if she’s still ok being with her dad and Susan says yes, but you can tell she struggles to say it. Later, Susan confides in Harley about it and says she’s trying hard to like Beth, but it’s difficult. Harley tries to reason with her, but Susan gets the crazy idea that maybe Jim should focus more on Cassie instead of Beth.

A frantic Olivia and her sister Marissa (who we haven’t seen before) are packing their suitcases, preparing for Olivia to leave San Cristobel. Marissa says if Richard finds out she was involved and knows what happened to Jonathan, which was a crime, then he’d kill them both. We learn that Jonathan didn’t die, but that what happened with him was no accident. Olivia tries to calm her down and they continue to pack. Meanwhile, Reva now thinks Jonathan may be alive and she wants to get to the bottom of it with Olivia, but Richard says there is no way Olivia would lie to him, knowing how he would feel about it. They go to Olivia’s cottage to talk to her, but realize she and all of her stuff are gone. They head to her backyard and realize there’s a hidden child’s swing which makes Reva wonder why, since Olivia has no children. She then sees the name ‘Jon’ etched into a rock and decides that he must be alive. We then see Olivia talking to a young blonde boy, telling him that she has to take a new path in life and leave San Cristobel. She hugs the boy goodbye and calls him Jonathan! Marissa is there and we realize Jonathan calls her mother, which means Olivia gave him to Marissa that night Reva left. We then see Edmund reflecting back on the night, where Reva was afraid of him. Edmund told her that night that he won’t allow the throne to be given to a boy whose mother is trash, and he (Edmund) will be the rightful heir. Afraid that Edmund would kill Jonathan, Reva gave Jonathan over to Olivia that night to care for him. Meanwhile, Reva also has a memory of Edmund being there that night, so she and Richard demand from Edmund to know what happened, but he lies and says Reva started having memories back to Josh and her family in SF, so she wanted to go back and needed to give Jonathan up. Reva doesn’t believe she would do that and Richard demands to know why he would never tell him what happened all these years. Edmund says Richard would have gone insane if he knew the truth and didn’t want to ruin San Cristobel if Richard’s mind wasn’t right to rule it.

Josh and Cassie are at the airport waiting for Reva to get off the plane that she was supposed to take that night, but they realize she never boarded it and start to get worried again. They go back to Company and call Jim because the rescue mission is back on. Jim comes by and hugs Cassie, which Beth sees and gets a bit jealous over. She wants to know what’s going on, so as she and Jim are talking, he says Josh has a special assignment for him. She says it’ll have to wait until after his birthday party, but he said it can’t and they have to postpone the party, which disappoints Beth. She then learns that Cassie knows the secret place that Jim is going and gets jealous and calls him out on it.

A frantic Pilar, still carrying the bearer bonds, tells Bill she’s ready to have sex. They start to take off their clothes as they kiss, but are interrupted by Danny who says she needs to go back home with him for a family emergency. He privately threatens Bill that he won’t keep his SanCorp job if he isn’t good to Pilar. Back at the Santos mansion, Michelle continues to be upset with Danny for not telling her what’s going on, but he pleads with her that he has her best interest at heart and they have sex. Dietz later switches Pilar and Michelle’s bags and stores the luggage for their trip to San Cristobel, effectively putting Carmen’s plan in motion for Michelle to get caught and arrested with the bearer bonds while down there. The next morning, David stops by and tells Carmen about giving Pilar the tip about the police raiding their house. She’s impressed and David asks to work for their family. Carmen tells him he should get his police badge back and continue to work on the inside, giving them leads about the police. They say he has to drop Ben as his lawyer to maintain independence, and he says he’ll think about it. On his way out, he runs into Vicky who is there to meet with Ben. David is concerned that she is going to work for Ben and shows his displeasure, but Vicky tells him it’s none of his business anymore. Vicky goes inside and meets with Ben, telling him she is wanting to work at SanCorp and destroy Spaulding, but he doesn’t believe her and says no, which surprises Vicky. She says to prove herself, she’ll tell Ben what they plan to offer a company they both want to buy so that SanCorp can win the bid. Vicky leaves and Ben tells Carmen he’ll see how she performs, while David stops Vicky later and continues telling her that he wants to protect her from Ben. He stills tells her they have to cool off though, so she angrily kisses him and says that’s what he’ll be missing and walks off.

We then see Danny, Michelle, Josh, Matt and Jim on a very nice yacht (on location) going over the plans to rescue Reva. Back in SF, Susan taunts a jealous Beth about both Jim and Cassie being out of town at the same time, which irritates Beth since she doesn’t know where Jim went to since the mission is secret. On the yacht, the group finds Cassie who secretly stowed herself away in a closet, which really pisses Josh off. He later apologizes and says he’s just trying to protect everyone. Cassie gets seasick and Jim helps her recover and they talk about their friendship.

In San Cristobel, Olivia finally calls Reva and Reva demands to know where she is because she knows Jonathan is still alive. Olivia tells Reva to come to where she is alone, so Reva writes Richard a note before she leaves saying she had to go alone, but he runs off anyway. Olivia tells her sister the only way to keep Jonathan safe is to lure Reva there like Edmund is requiring her to, because it’s either Reva’s life or Jonathan’s, and her hands are tied. Later, Reva arrives at Olivia’s but no one is there and Richard shows up, which annoys Reva since she’s supposed to be alone. They talk and become friendly again and hug each other as Edmund walks up to a window and points a gun through the blinds. Richard sees the gun and pushes them out of the way and is shot (cliffhanger)! Just as Edmund is about to shoot Reva, Olivia knocks him out from behind. Richard says he wasn’t shot and they both run outside and find Olivia, who gets spooked and runs away, leaving Reva/Richard to believe she is the shooter. They help Edmund wake up and he plays along that it was Olivia who shot at them. Edmund then leaves and Richard collapses and they realize he was shot in the shoulder. He doesn’t want people to know in case they panic, given his title as Prince. Reva is able to get the bullet out and bandage him up. Edmund returns, saying Richard must go to a public appearance. After he leaves, Reva apologizes to Edmund and says she wasn’t sure she should trust him, but now she realizes how good of a brother he is.

Drew and Max are getting ready for their adoption hearing when Jesse calls to check in on them, but Drew hangs up on him. Max pleads with Drew to be nice to Jesse and get back with him. He brings up that he’s not Jewish either and asks her when she’ll dump him too because of it. Drew tells him it’s different and she’ll never give him up, and Max tells her he loves her like family, which was sweet. Meanwhile, Buzz and Selena meet and discuss their feelings. Buzz tells her he thought about her a lot when he was in England and shows her a postcard he wrote while over there but never had the courage to send. She reads it and he declares that he loves her, which surprises her. Buzz says he’s scared, but he knows he doesn’t want to lose her and they kiss. They leave and meet Drew and Max so they can all go to the adoption hearing together. Ben and Ross are both there at the courthouse and they get Ross to help Max with the case. Carmen shows up and asks why Ben cares about Max. She starts prying into his past, which he’s hesitant to talk about, and Carmen presses that in order for her to really love him, she needs to know everything about him. He tells her about his mother and how horrible she was to him, including burning his face that one night. Meanwhile, Drew tells Selena she’s ready to find her bio dad, since Max never got to know his own father. She confirms that her dad was burned on the face and they go back and forth between Ben/Carmen and Drew/Selena and it’s pretty obvious Ben will be Drew’s dad. They really teased this so long ago and I’m happy they’re finally revisiting it.

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

There really is no one else like him in GL history. I wish much more of his '70s run was available as what is available is riveting to watch.

I do too. Maybe someday, more will turn up.

@alwaysAMC just a clarifying question, did Vanessa get consulted when **** decided to run off and play GI Joe?

7 hours ago, P.J. said:

It's the anniversary of Chris Bernau's passing.

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

There really is no one else like him in GL history. I wish much more of his '70s run was available as what is available is riveting to watch.

Of CB's original run, I've accepted we probably won't see anything from 1977 and 1978, and 1979-1984 is spotty.

GL had two show-defining villains with MZ Roger and CB Alan and those who got to see Roger vs. Alan 1977-1980 were most fortunate. Sadly so little of the 1977-1980 Roger vs. Alan storylines are out there.

It's unfortunate that due to real-life circumstances we didn't get MZ Roger vs. CB Alan in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

Something I just realized is that almost a decade separates each of the passings of CB (June 14, 1989), MZ (December 6, 1998), BM (May 2, 2008).

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by kalbir

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

  7 hours ago, P.J. said:

It's the anniversary of Chris Bernau's passing.

There really is no one else like him in GL history. I wish much more of his '70s run was available as what is available is riveting to watch.

Yes, he truly was unique.

It would be great to see him as the eariler incarnation of Alan, before he became Roger's victim and had to be on his best behavior because of Hope. From what I do remember, he was pretty rotten, especially to Elizabeth.

Also do not understand why the one period from the Marland era that is totally missing is his affair with Rita. Even the German channel doesn't have it. That's high on my wish list of missing episodes. (At the time I hated it because I was really pro-Alan and Hope, now all these years later, I'm pretty sure I'd have a different reaction, lol). Oh, and his wedding to Jackie. I'd love to see that again.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by DeeVee

1 minute ago, DeeVee said:

Also do not understand why the one period from the Marland era that is totally missing is his affair with Rita. Even the German channel doesn't have it. That's high on my wish list of missing episodes. (At the time I hated it because I was really pro-Alan and Hope, now all these years later, I'm pretty sure I'd have a different reaction, lol). Oh, and his wedding to Jackie. I'd to see that again.

I wish SoapClassics had put together an Alan collection. I wonder if they would have, had they had the time and opportunity.

2 hours ago, P.J. said:

@alwaysAMC just a clarifying question, did Vanessa get consulted when **** decided to run off and play GI Joe?

Not a single conversation about it haha. But to be fair, Vanessa (and Matt) have barely been on in the last 5 months. I'm starting to wonder if Maeve was doing another project for most of 1999? She had blonde hair for a hot minute but then it went back to her dark hair a month or two later.

So far, the rescue mission has been more focused on Josh and Jim, with Matt as a background character in all of it. He's there, but doesn't say much and isn't running story. I find it to be a bit odd.

6 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Not a single conversation about it haha. But to be fair, Vanessa (and Matt) have barely been on in the last 5 months. I'm starting to wonder if Maeve was doing another project for most of 1999? She had blonde hair for a hot minute but then it went back to her dark hair a month or two later.

So far, the rescue mission has been more focused on Josh and Jim, with Matt as a background character in all of it. He's there, but doesn't say much and isn't running story. I find it to be a bit odd.

I don't know of anything she did. I know she eventually went back to college and focused on her writing. Her kids would've been about the right age to be going off to college themselves about this time.