14 hours ago, DeeVee said:

I can't answer 1 & 3, but I can answer this:

Meredith is Fletcher's sister. She's a doctor. She and Rick fell in love. At one of the Bauer 4th of July BBQs, they had a fight. She ran into Phillip at a bar and the two of them ended up having sex.

Rick and Meredith reconciled and...you guessed it, she turned up pregnant. She didn't know for sure who the father was but she let Rick think it was his. Just before their wedding, he saw a sonogram picture. Being a doctor, he could tell how far along she was and realized he wasn't the father.

He still went through with the ceremony (why, don't ask me) and afterwards confronted her about it. She told him she picked up a stranger at a bar. Rick was bitter about it but he still stayed with her.

Eventually, the secret came out. Rick was furious about Phillip betraying him. Still, he stayed with Meredith (again, why, I don't know). She had a stillbirth and was left barren.

Meredith finally decided to leave him and left SF for good.

Rick was awful to her, including after losing the baby. Just was a creep about it. It was hard for me to ever like the character after this storyline. I don't knowl if one of the writers strikes was going on during this story, but it was so, so bad. Rick and Meredith had no chemistry. The way Rick stayed with her, the way she stayed with him, made zero sense to me.

 

God forbid someone is upset with their spouse for not being honest with them.   I swear... Misandry is so rampant nowadays.

10 hours ago, P.J. said:

Reva--pfft. Yes, she could've stayed gone. I'm unsure what the early reception to Josh/Annie was, but I thought RN and CW had good chemistry. Reva had been gone a while at this point, the audience would've accepted anyone who was good to Josh's children. 

Agreed that Phillip most definately needed to stay on the canvas if GA was going to play him. Too much history going back to the Dobsons there. Also, they were not hamstrung on Phillip/Beth the way they were on Jeva, so the characters had room to move on to others logically and stay in each others orbits...(I am not saying what they chose to do with Beth in Ruachieville was good but..)

I think Reva should have been brought back to cause trouble for Josh and Annie, go through angst, get together with Josh and leave town together. There was no where else to go with them after that as post Annie is when all the ridiculous things happened to keep them on screen.

 

But Zimmer had been in Hollywood where a Khan said about O'leary..."Realized they couldnt get arrested" lol and she was bound and determined to keep going (not that I blame her, a check is a check) and the Jeva nuts (prompted by Zimmer and Newman at times) would scream if they were off screen for 5 minutes. 

The only possible story for Reva was for Josh to be killed or for him to finally have enough of her and leave town. I thought Reva was most interesting during that weird post RN period when she broke up with Kyle and was living with Cane...she had jobs, she was involved with a lot of different people and was not always the center of the story.

Edited May 15May 15 by Mitch64

49 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

God forbid someone is upset with their spouse for not being honest with them.   I swear... Misandry is so rampant nowadays.

I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't put words in my mouth. I never said he shouldn't have been upset about it. He knew before the wedding and went through with it anyway. She offered to split up with him. He decided to stay. Then he treated her dirt, even after she had just lost her baby.

If he couldn't deal with it, he should have left her. (Or, SHE should have thrown him out. The story made no sense.)

14 hours ago, DRW50 said:

That guy also abused Beth (the one Lizzie killed), which the show probably should have done more with rather than just giving her a split personality and having her do whatever the plot demanded.

ICAM!!

A few years ago, during COVID, I started watching old soaps on YouTube during lunch breaks and one of the longest stretches available is the GL episodes from the summer of 1966.  I thought Lynne Adams and Fran Myers were extremely crushworthy, especially if little elem entary school me had watched them when they were originally aired.  I was also pleased to find out that for a while, Lynne had taken the place of Jada Rowland on Secret Strom, another super cute actress I found in those old videos.  I'm especially pleased to know that all three are still with us, doing well, and as lovely as ever.

Grant Aleksander is a charismatic performer, but I never liked Philip very much. I thought he was a sanctimonious ass at times and also too intense for me. I do think they had a great opportunity for his 2009 return story at showing a man who had come back from the brink and wanted to reclaim his life. If the show had continued, I am curious to see what they would have done.

The show's biggest mistake with the Spauldings was keeping Alan much too long instead of having Philip take his place as head of the family. Ron Raines was the luckiest man in daytime to last for 15 years. Alan should have died in the early '00s at the latest, during the Philip/Olivia saga.

11 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

Very interesting - thanks, @P.J. and @DeeVee!  This makes me want to go back in time and start my watch at '89. I think I'm going to power through just a little more of '96 right now just to see A-M/Lucy marry (so I can see their happy ending), how Phillip enters the picture, more of Alex vs. Amanda (because that's so funny/amusing to me), and what happens to Blake's twin babies (the only things really keeping me going right now).

a) you would not be sorry, but  b) full episodes from the first half of '89 are hard to find. 

On 5/12/2025 at 10:59 PM, Kane said:

I'm pretty sure Lucy and Bridget never even have another scene together for the rest of the time they're both on the show. Bridget isn't even invited to the wedding! The lack of community feeling and continuity of non-romantic relationships during this period is very jarring. 

I'm deep into 1997 in my watch right now and find that it's even stranger because the show goes back and forth between ignoring history in order to manufacture some kind of separation between characters (for example, at one point Amanda refers to the Coopers as a family that the Spauldings "barely know," despite her and Alan spending the better part of 1996 going to war with Buzz over 5th street

Going back to this, I'm even more confused why Amanda would say that only a year later (lazy writers), because I'm watching April 29, 1996 right now and literally all of the current on-air Spauldings (Alan, Alex, Amanda, A-M) and Coopers (Buzz, Lucy, Frank, Eleni) are on a plane together for Lucy/A-M's wedding. Along with Reva (which right now makes sense because she's married to Buzz), Dahlia (so out of place, but by default because they can't let a high school kid they just took in stay home alone), and a very random Rick (he's barely had any interaction with any of these characters all year haha).  It's like a madhouse on that plane, which is pretty comical because most of them don't get along... but they very much know each other.

Still miffed that Bridget is totally forgotten here. And David. And Nick/Susan! Couldn't they have waited to fire them until after this wedding?  It was only like 2 months later. They had to make Alan be A-M's best man (which is wild to me) bc A-M doesn't even have any real friends on the show right now. 

Edited May 16May 16 by alwaysAMC

14 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

They had to make Alan be A-M's best man (which is wild to me) bc A-M doesn't even have any real friends on the show right now. 

I honestly don't think Alan-Michael ever really had a friend on the show. Maybe Cameron or Samantha, but otherwise...

*Cameron was a high school friend who ended up dating teenage Dinah after she broke up with A-M. Samantha is Phillip's biological sister, who A-M treated like a sister. Interestingly enough, they were born the same week on the show in 1981, but A-M ends up being older than her when she returns to town in '89.

2 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I honestly don't think Alan-Michael ever really had a friend on the show. Maybe Cameron or Samantha, but otherwise...

*Cameron was a high school friend who ended up dating teenage Dinah after she broke up with A-M. Samantha is Phillip's biological sister, who A-M treated like a sister. Interestingly enough, they were born the same week on the show in 1981, but A-M ends up being older than her when she returns to town in '89.

Ahh interesting. Yeah, that's sad for A-M. I will say, he and Nick became fast friends when Susan started working at Spaulding. A-M/Lucy/Nick/Susan had a lot of double dates in those 7 months. A-M was Nick's best man at his wedding to Susan, which now that I think about it, is odd that he wouldn't have considered Fletcher. I remember those two were so close at the paper, and even living together with Ben. Once Tangie left SF, Nick left the paper, and Fletcher/Holly were rarely seen... so I guess they felt that friendship wasn't shown often enough anymore (which again, lazy writing).

What did happen to Beth between 86 and 89? Did she have amnesia?

11 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

Going back to this, I'm even more confused why Amanda would say that only a year later (lazy writers), because I'm watching April 29, 1996 right now and literally all of the current on-air Spauldings (Alan, Alex, Amanda, A-M) and Coopers (Buzz, Lucy, Frank, Eleni) are on a plane together for Lucy/A-M's wedding. Along with Reva (which right now makes sense because she's married to Buzz), Dahlia (so out of place, but by default because they can't let a high school kid they just took in stay home alone), and a very random Rick (he's barely had any interaction with any of these characters all year haha).  It's like a madhouse on that plane, which is pretty comical because most of them don't get along... but they very much know each other.

Still miffed that Bridget is totally forgotten here. And David. And Nick/Susan! Couldn't they have waited to fire them until after this wedding?  It was only like 2 months later. They had to make Alan be A-M's best man (which is wild to me) bc A-M doesn't even have any real friends on the show right now. 

They probably threw in Rick because he's AM's cousin, Michelle should've been there too. I don't remember if Ed was still on the show at this point 

16 hours ago, DRW50 said:

The show's biggest mistake with the Spauldings was keeping Alan much too long instead of having Philip take his place as head of the family. Ron Raines was the luckiest man in daytime to last for 15 years. Alan should have died in the early '00s at the latest, during the Philip/Olivia saga.

I would have to say FD was the luckiest man in daytime who stayed way past any reason for him to be there, but yes, totally agree that Alan should have died at that point, which would have spared us more years on mustache twirling bombasity.

 

I know it was a big get to bring Joan Collins on, and I loved her Alex, but it would have been great at that point if they had just brought Amanda back. Phillip is named by Alan and Alex as the successor or head of family and head of the corporation, with the board and investors approval. Amanda (who is back to being Alan's daughter, it was one last "screw you" from Brandon to try to get Alan and Alex at each others throats) gets pissed and comes back to stake her claim and be a thorn in everyone's side. Meanwhile Liv is suddenly REALLY interested in Phillip as he will have a longer self life then Alan. Things unfold much as they did with Amanda coming back to thwart Liv as Alex did..and when the truth comes out Alan really does have a heart attack and kicks (for real, for good, no fake outs, no returns, he's dead..dead.) and then AM comes back (as Taggert originally planned before Weston came to stink up the place.) to make his claim also.

Phillip' guilt over Alan's death and having no final reconciliation ( On his death bed Alan could say, "I am proud of you son, you have finally become a real Spaulding," right before he kicks. )

I also agree that Phillip was not always likable, which really I give GA credit for being brave enough to make him that way, which is exactly how Phillip should be.

 

2 minutes ago, bboy875 said:

They probably threw in Rick because he's AM's cousin, Michelle should've been there too. I don't remember if Ed was still on the show at this point 

Ed and Chelle were there, but she ran off the plane to chase J...(I kid you not, that is why we started calling her Slutchelle) and Ed ran after her. The reason they, and no one else was at the wedding was obviously to save money, so it would have made more sense to have it on an existing set then that dumb Universal Studios thing.

5 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

I would have to say FD was the luckiest man in daytime who stayed way past any reason for him to be there, but yes, totally agree that Alan should have died at that point, which would have spared us more years on mustache twirling bombasity.

 

I know it was a big get to bring Joan Collins on, and I loved her Alex, but it would have been great at that point if they had just brought Amanda back. Phillip is named by Alan and Alex as the successor or head of family and head of the corporation, with the board and investors approval. Amanda (who is back to being Alan's daughter, it was one last "screw you" from Brandon to try to get Alan and Alex at each others throats) gets pissed and comes back to stake her claim and be a thorn in everyone's side. Meanwhile Liv is suddenly REALLY interested in Phillip as he will have a longer self life then Alan. Things unfold much as they did with Amanda coming back to thwart Liv as Alex did..and when the truth comes out Alan really does have a heart attack and kicks (for real, for good, no fake outs, no returns, he's dead..dead.) and then AM comes back (as Taggert originally planned before Weston came to stink up the place.) to make his claim also.

Phillip' guilt over Alan's death and having no final reconciliation ( On his death bed Alan could say, "I am proud of you son, you have finally become a real Spaulding," right before he kicks. )

I also agree that Phillip was not always likable, which really I give GA credit for being brave enough to make him that way, which is exactly how Phillip should be.

 

Ed and Chelle were there, but she ran off the plane to chase J...(I kid you not, that is why we started calling her Slutchelle) and Ed ran after her. The reason they, and no one else was at the wedding was obviously to save money, so it would have made more sense to have it on an existing set then that dumb Universal Studios thing.

Thanks! I never venture back to re-watch that period of the show 

1 hour ago, bboy875 said:

They probably threw in Rick because he's AM's cousin, Michelle should've been there too. I don't remember if Ed was still on the show at this point 

I would have bought it if Ed/Rick/Michelle were all there, but 1) Ed said he couldn't go because he had to work, to which even someone highlighted that he's chief of staff and could easily go if he wanted; 2) Michelle got on the plane with Rick to go, but J showed up and the Spaulding's kicked him off because why would they want another random teenager to go, so Michelle ran off the plane after him and Rick just let her go (haha, it was kind of dumb); and 3) Rick and A-M have barely said 2 words to each other in the 15 months I've been watching so far, so it was weird he's now just by himself with the Spauldings/Coopers.  

But I know now why they're doing this, Rick is clearly there because Phillip has shown up. Very plot-driven, but at least I’m getting old flashbacks of Rick/Phillip during this. 

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

Ed and Chelle were there, but she ran off the plane to chase J...(I kid you not, that is why we started calling her Slutchelle) and Ed ran after her. The reason they, and no one else was at the wedding was obviously to save money, so it would have made more sense to have it on an existing set then that dumb Universal Studios thing.

Slight correction - Ed never showed up on the plane, just Rick and Michelle.  Ed had already made the decision he wasn't going. Once 'Slutchelle' (haha!) ran off, I thought it was so weird that Rick either didn't run off after her, or didn't call from the plane to tell Ed. It was only when Blake called Rick, who happened to be with Ed at the hospital, that he happened to tell Ed, in midair, "oh hey, you may want to go find Michelle, she ran off" hahaha.

Yeah, I get that being a location shoot, they had to minimize the number of people, but to have Dahlia there over Bridget still irks me. I get it, at this point, Bridget wouldn't have any connections to any of the people there outside of Lucy, just still hurts.

ETA: Ugh, and now Marcus shows up!

Edited May 16May 16 by alwaysAMC