Chrisml:   Thanks for the explanation; you and I are very much in agreement.  The February 1994 engagement party is correct.  I have to wonder what Maeve Kincaid was thinking while doing these abysmal scenes with Dusay, versus the wonderful scenes she was doing with Ver Dorn, Roerick, Hayden and Englund re: Peter's custody battle.  All that was happening more or less simultaneously. 

It appears that the custody battle was Curlee/Demorrest's last true effort on the show.  Great dialogue, recall of history, intent, implications and cross pollination of characters.

All of that missing from the Nick/Mindy/Alex story at that time.  Floundering, listless, pointless retread of water long passed under the bridge.  The June 1992 ending of Nick and Mindy was both solid and memorable and should not have been revisited.

IMO, what needed to happen in March 1994 was a reintro of Hope or Rita as some here have suggested, or a reintro of Kathleen Cullen as I have proposed (Cullen would arrive with a warning about Alan nearing a completion of a Spaulding takeover from prison; later, she eventually marries Ed and becomes a Bauer).  In any event, some sort of significant applecart needed to be turned over in 1994.  Instead, we got Buzz and Nadine on a gameshow, Alan pretending to be Mr Toshua and Reva reappearing as a phantom figure by Christmas.  Ugh.

I was surprised when they brought Eve on in May 1992...a clear signal of an intended Eve/Nick/Mindy triangle with Alex encouraging Eve from the sidelines.  A bad idea...Nick/Mindy was playing itself out.  Eve was never intended to go nuts or move into Ed's orbit.  Both stories made up on the fly out of necessity, following the departures of Simms and McKinsey.

I don't think any of this 1994 Mindy/Nick/Alex stuff was sexist.  Stupid?  Yes.  Uninspired?  Yes.

 

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

Yep. AFAIC, Billy is the heart and soul of the Lewis family. Josh is it's conscience. I'm not sure I would've accepted Crampton more, but the Billy/Mindy dynamic had always been important for both characters.

When I was watching the finale a few days ago, the scene where Mindy tells Billy she is staying in Springfield got to me - it was like no time had passed from 1983 with the connection between Krista and Jordan. 

Kimberley and Jordan were just as good or better. One of the toughest parts of the affair reveal is always when Billy finds out.

12 hours ago, P.J. said:

I think this is the clip you're thinking of, it's from May '91, when Mindy's miscarrying. Alex had learned that Mindy was pregnant with Roger's child, that Hart was Roger's and that Roger was embezzling from Spaulding. 

 

The first instant I recognized the speech.

"The world has gone crazy. Or maybe it's just me." They rush into the room,p ressuring her & saying that something terrible has happened about Spaulding, she does a silent take & then ... laughs, the most wonderful laugh, with it she communicates how very ridiculous this situation is. 

Then, a few months later

GL 5-13-91 "I must make a note to myself Never have another family dinner party, ever. And, will someone please pass Beth the dam*ed butter."

Edited June 30Jun 30 by Contessa Donatella

10 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

The first instant I recognized the speech. did iit 3 timews

 

17 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

The first instant I recognized the speech. did iit 3 timews

The part where she wants to rip his lungs out? Yeah, that's a great speech. And highlights the connection between Henry and Alex. I hope the full episodes eventually get uploaded.

41 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

When I was watching the finale a few days ago, the scene where Mindy tells Billy she is staying in Springfield got to me - it was like no time had passed from 1983 with the connection between Krista and Jordan. 

Kimberley and Jordan were just as good or better. One of the toughest parts of the affair reveal is always when Billy finds out.

And I think Rick, Matt and Frank (maybe) kind of drift by them at Bill and Lizzie's wedding, and Billy says something about how she's already attracting all the boys in town again.

When KS arrived, Mindy and Billy are a little more at odds than they ever have been between the Will thing and the Dylan reveal. But there's a moment between them after Billy and Vanessa blow up (after Saudi Arabia) and he's sitting alone in his office and she just comes in and consoles him that sold it for me. That moment's in the opening credits until the Hold on to Love one debuted.

2 hours ago, Speed Racer said:

IMO, what needed to happen in March 1994 was a reintro of Hope or Rita as some here have suggested, or a reintro of Kathleen Cullen as I have proposed (Cullen would arrive with a warning about Alan nearing a completion of a Spaulding takeover from prison; later, she eventually marries Ed and becomes a Bauer).

My only objection to this would be Amanda marrying Ed...at least if Ed was still portrayed by Peter Simon. I can't see Cullen and Simon having chemistry. In theory, it's a GREAT idea because Ed and the Bauers are Alan's enemies. If we're shaking up the show, then an Ed recast could have been in order.

Before she exited in 1983, Cullen had a couple of scenes with Jordan Clarke. I detected some sparks between the two of them. If Billy was around at this time, that could have been another option, with Amanda captured by the Lewises. (Josh was her partner at LTA, so she's already connected to them through that old friendship). That would also be a problem for the returning Alan.

(After I posted this, I looked up Jordan Clarke's time on GL and he was NOT around in 1994, so there goes that idea out the window, LOL).

I've always been a proponent of bringing Rita back. With Roger and Holly on the canvas, Alan and possibly Hope returning, she could have shaken a lot of things up.

Edited June 30Jun 30 by DeeVee

@Speed Racer I have not seen too much of 1994. I was just horrified by what Dusay and the writers were doing with the character. I can only imagine what Kinkead thought about the material but she emerged with her dignity intact. I felt for Dusay because it seemed like she had no idea what she was meant to do in the scene (or perhaps was badly directed). 

My question: Weren't there people on the show who knew the history of the character? Why didn't someone step in and help with the writing or say this isn't the Alexandra that viewers know and want? It just felt so sloppy and insulting. Perhaps, it didn't matter by that point.

JFP run started good but couldn't maintain it's momentum and then just fell apart.

Yes, JFP got the ratings up in her first year but that was helped by ABC big three tanking at various times during that year and Days being in their post-supercouple/pre-Reilly mess era.

The big cast departures of Summer 1992 (Kimberley Simms in June, Sherry Stringfield in August, Beverlee McKinsey in August) derailed all the momentum that had been built during JFP first year. While September-December 1992 weren't bad, the departures left a void in the canvas.

January 1993 Maureen Bauer killed off and that whole era from aftermath of Maureen's death until Nancy Curlee leaves the writing team in March 1994 was a chore to get through. That era was marked by way too much Buzz but a positive for me was Michael Zaslow finally getting his long-awaited for Lead Actor Daytime Emmy.

June 1994 the start of OJ and GL was not in a good place creatively. Some might say GL limped along in its final 15 years. I would go as far to say GL was effectively over in the aftermath of OJ.

Edited June 30Jun 30 by kalbir

6 minutes ago, kalbir said:

June 1994 the start of OJ and GL was not in a good place creatively. Some might say GL limped along in its final 15 years. I would go as far to say GL was effectively over in the aftermath of OJ.

GL did have some ratings momentum again in the late '90s, even if it was never a challenge to the higher rated soaps, although that seemed to fade around 2000 (probably why they changed headwriters).

GL was over so many times I am not entirely sure what the date should be You could argue as far back as around 1986.

Edited June 30Jun 30 by DRW50

4 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

back as around 1986.

1986 GL avoided cancel territory because Capitol was still CBS lowest-rated daytime drama. GL became CBS lowest-rated daytime drama in 1989 but didn't enter cancel territory until 1995.

Didn't JFP's GL lose over a million or so viewers by the time she was finally fired? IT was around the time that GL was apparently so bad that Michael Logan (in his column) was calling for her to be fired. 

I can see why 1986's GL was cancel territory though. Yeesh. That was some bad stuff.

15 hours ago, Speed Racer said:

BTW, maybe 300 pages ago on this site, someone mentioned the great acting of McKinsey upon finding out that Hart was Roger's son (the third Earth-shattering bit of news that Alex learned in one day)!  Alex just starts laughing in an incredulous way - it's so damn appropriate and so damn good!  I wish I knew the date of that episode.  Must be late 1991 or early 1992.

There's another episode from Spring/early Summer of 1992 where McKinsey has a maybe two-minute monologue in the Spaulding study.  It's great!  Bandstand Mike had posted it, but YT yanked it.  I haven't seen in since.  Bummer.  Maybe someone here has seen it?  

GL 5-13-91 just the laugh, although it is notable that this is likely the beginning of the 'Roger embezzled lots of money from Spaulding' arc, which I think we could say has its conclusion at the Country Club with most of the town present & possibly Beverlee's most famous verbal takedown of another character.  And, thanks so much @Speed Racerfor pointing out this laugh. "Blake Marler" YouTube uploader has done a pretty good job of covering things we lost from Bandstand Mike after that awful YT purge but as in this example, this is clips of that day, where he had the full episode up. (Maybe it can be found. I know I will keep an eye out for it now that I have its date.)

 

Edited June 30Jun 30 by Contessa Donatella

Watching that clip I'm reminded of why I thought Jeff Philips was effective as Hart. Hart worked best as the innocent contrast to Roger, inevitably crushed by the reality of his father. Nothing after that really works. I kind of wish they'd killed him off when they wrote him out in 1992.

44 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Watching that clip I'm reminded of why I thought Jeff Philips was effective as Hart. Hart worked best as the innocent contrast to Roger, inevitably crushed by the reality of his father. Nothing after that really works. I kind of wish they'd killed him off when they wrote him out in 1992.

Jeff Phillips is someone I liked & also thought he probably was underappreciated. He does good work in these scenes. I was just watching the Country Club scenes and not for the first time, boy, Kimberly Simms is on fire!!

GL 2002-03 Intro "Fifty Years on Television"

There is a destiny that makes us brothers 

None goes his way alone 

All that we send into the lives of others 

Will come back into its own