29 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Tony and Annabelle can't generate story after Barbados,

This is a problem a lot of soaps have, even to this day. They don't know what to do with married couples. The same thing happened with Nola and Quint. 

Long tried to create a triangle with Tony/Anabelle/Jim, but that was absurd. Jim's girlfriend had just blown up, FFS. Of course they dropped it like a hot potato. Even their participation in the Barbados story was ridiculous--it had nothing to do with them, except for Anabelle's "psychic" visions. And don't forget the "Nolarobics" nonsense, which literally drove Lisa Brown off the show.

Alan and Hope's marriage was a little different because there was the spectre of Alan's illegal dealings hanging over them, along with the Amanda reveal and his affair with Rita. As soon as all that resolved--boom, they were on the backburner. Breaking them up was absolutely the correct choice--the mistake was writing Hope out for good.

40 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Hill and Leslie Ann end up dead, and Trish's romance with Ross stalls inexplicably. 

Hillary and Leslie Ann getting croaked had to do with Kobe's determination to clean out most of the Dobsons' and Marland's characters.

It's always been a mystery to me why Trish didn't last. The Lewises basically took over from the Bauers as the central core family, she was definitely a needed character. 

48 minutes ago, P.J. said:

But I also feel that under Long, Spaulding and Cedars lose some of their prominence in Springfield.

Oh, I have tons of criticisms to level at Long. And I didn't hate everything Marland did. They both had certain things they did better than the other.

49 minutes ago, P.J. said:

And just to circle back to the lack of friendships in Springfield, the only friend I ever recall Josh having in his entire run (outside of Billy and Van) is Will Jeffries, who wants to kill him. LOL.

If you were Josh's friend, wouldn't you want to? 😂

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

And just to circle back to the lack of friendships in Springfield, the only friend I ever recall Josh having in his entire run (outside of Billy and Van) is Will Jeffries, who wants to kill him. LOL.

You're going to hate this LOL, but mid/late-90s, Matt is his friend!   They worked together and he was Josh's best man at his wedding to Annie. Josh/Reva also supported them during Vanessa's pregnancy/birth to Maureen. It's nowhere near a Phillip/Rick friendship though.

I’m up to January 21, 1998.

For the month of January, the opening now has a voiceover congratulating GL for being named the best soap opera of 1997 by TVGuide and Soap Opera Digest - haha, way to go! Ironically, they weren’t even nominated for best soap in the Daytime Emmys that year (which AMC won over DAYS, GH and Y&R). I’d be curious now to read the reviews by TVG and SOD.

Whelp, I guess that’s the last we’ll see of J. He is no longer in the ending credits as a contract player, so I guess his scenes with Nola were the last, sadly. Out with an unceremonious whimper.

Harley sets up a romantic night with Phillip in NYC for New Year’s Eve, mailing him a plane ticket to meet her. Annie intercepts and never gives Phillip the ticket, and when Harley calls the mansion, Annie tells her that Phillip is spending the night with Beth instead. Meanwhile, Annie has locked Phillip and Beth in the attic. Beth is pouring her heart out to Phillip and tells him she’s still in love with him and wants him back. He gets angry because she threw away their marriage over the last couple years with no good reason and he finds it hard to accept she’s changed her mind out of the blue. He says he now loves Harley and that won’t change. He then realizes Harley is in NYC and takes an axe to the door to unlock them from the attic. He makes it to NYC the next morning on New Year’s Day and reunites with Harley, but she’s upset and they talk through all the details. Once she hears that Beth plans to stay in SF, she says she’s getting off the rollercoaster and no longer able to be with Phillip, and walks out. On the other hand, Beth was supposed to have a date with Ben on New Year’s Eve, but stood him up because of the attic situation. He comes over the next morning and isn’t happy, but she apologizes and he explains to her his entire backstory, eventually saying he has a very cold exterior but even more cold interior. She seems to think she can warm him up a bit.

Michelle and Jesse finally make love for the first time at the lighthouse, which was very sweet, but an interesting choice to have her be blind during her first time. While he’s sleeping, she whispers to him that she’ll always love him and then leaves. Dahlia takes her to the blind school and makes Dahlia promise that she won’t tell Jesse that she’s there and blind. Jesse wakes up the next morning and reads the note Michelle left him and is sad. Michelle struggles in school, but her blind mentor helps her. She calls Dahlia one night and Jesse takes the phone from Dahlia and hears her voice, but she hangs up. Jesse is upset and tries to get the truth out of Dahlia, but she won’t say anything. Jesse heads to a bar and finds his dad, who miraculously says he’s forgiven Jesse and the Bauer’s and won’t go after them anymore. Meanwhile, Ed visits Michelle and apologizes to her for thinking she had to elope because he wasn’t supportive of her relationship with Jesse.

Ok new interesting story developing - Annie’s new business at Spaulding, called Simply Annie, is now operating with Michael as the lead chemist/researcher. Alan/Annie visit him and he has a random cat that he’s taking care of. Ultimately he’s testing new perfumes for Annie to sell, but asks Alan/Annie to call ahead if they plan to visit again which Alan didn’t really like. Later, while alone, he tells the cat that no one can find out what they’re really doing.  WHAT? Later, Vanessa visits him and she’s surprised how top-secret secure the place is just for perfume. Michael acts surprised that she was able to get inside easily. Michael then tells her he’s spending time trying to find a cure for her.

Griffin announces to Ross and Blake that he’s been promoted/elected to district judge and later is revealed to be the presiding judge over Abby’s trial.

Holly tells Ross that Fletcher wants to move away and take Meg to a better school in Chicago or Toronto, hmm. While they’re talking, Kevin falls from a chair and sprains his arm. Rick is upset to hear what happened when he’s brought into the hospital, but he treats him. Rick then has a cute little chat with just Kevin in the hospital room where he does a hilarious impersonation of both Billy and Phillip. O’Leary is really funny, you can tell - reminds me of Michael E. Knight.

Reva/Blake/Abby/Jenna/Harley all work together to get information on Ben to bring him down. He walks in on them scheming and reveals how much he knows about all of their pasts. This is probably one of the few times I’m actually enjoying Ben because he’s able to shut the ladies down in a dark, flirtatious way which is kind of sexy and intriguing. Later that night, Blake goes to Ben’s place and pretends to cave to his ultimatum and seduces him. I have to admit, this whole thing was pretty sexy and Ben flirtatiously warns her not to start something she can’t finish. She gets him to close his eyes and she handcuffs him to his couch. After more banter, she takes a knife to his neck, but ultimately she stops herself. As she walks by, he grabs her into a kiss. She then bashes his head with a vase and he goes unconscious. She freaks out, thinking she’s killed him. She calls Rick and tells him what happened, but Ben wakes up while they’re on the phone and he continues to flirt with Blake about their situation. Rick then tells her what happened with Kevin so she throws Ben the keys to the handcuffs and rushes out to be with Kevin/Ross, who just got discharged. She accidentally left her bracelet and Ben now has it, which Blake has realized.

Finally, Matt finds Dinah and says if she ever does what she did on NYE again, he’ll spend his entire life making her regret it. Good job, Matt! But Dinah tries to turn the tables on him and exclaims that he liked it. Otherwise, he would have told Vanessa about what happened, and he hasn’t. He gets more upset.

As Dinah gets into her car in the parking garage, she see Hart and Cassie leaving their date at the Towers. They’re holding each other and eventually kiss and then Hart leaves. Dinah starts her car, slams the pedal and drives right towards Cassie! Great cliffhanger. She eventually slams the breaks just before she hits Cassie and Cassie jumps away to the ground. Dinah pretends like she didn’t see her, but Cassie doesn’t believe it and tries forcing her to accept the truth that she’s with Hart now. Great catfight which includes Cassie beating Dinah’s car with a random tire iron. Matt breaks them up and tells Dinah she really needs some soul searching, and she breaks down alone in the garage. Later, Hart confronts Dinah about the incident and they have a huge fight and Dinah says she’ll make Hart/Cassie’s lives a living hell going forward. Hart then surprises Cassie by buying them the dive bar they met in.

Phillip wants Harley to live with him and it takes her zero seconds to say yes LOL, while Beth calls AC Mallet (off camera) telling him she’s worried about Harley and her well-being. Mallet says he can’t be bothered, but Beth pleads while Phillip overhears from the other room. He then tells her they’ll never get back together and the only reason they are connected is Lizzie. Lizzie overhears this and runs away from the mansion. Everyone starts looking for her and then we see Lizzie fall into a deep well. Harley finds and saves her the next episode, so this was a nothingburger, but probably will bring Phillip/Harley even closer.

Annie goes to Lewis Oil and hands out wedding invitations to Reva/Josh/Billy/Cassie/Hart and asks if Tammy could be her flower girl LOL. They all tell her to F off, but she then announces she’s the newest board member of Lewis Oil LOL. Reva is determined to find more dirt on Annie to get rid of her, so she finds a man (Eddie Banks) from her prior life in Chicago. He tells her that Annie is dead because she committed suicide, and he took the blame for a crime she committed that caused him to go to jail. Reva convinces Eddie that Annie is still alive and wreaking havoc on her life. Eddie then tells her a secret about Annie (that viewers don’t get to hear) that Reva says will finally end Annie once and for all. She later tells Josh/Cassie/Billy (but we don’t see what it is), and they all agree to go to Annie/Alan’s wedding so they can reveal the secret to as many witnesses as possible. Oh boy!  Dinah ends up overhearing them gloat about it at the end, and now she’s suspicious that something will happen at the wedding.

Matt/Vanessa have a sonogram and find out they’re having a girl, which they’re both excited about. They decide to name her Maureen, awww. Sadly, soon after, Dr. Sedgewick tells them that there is a recurrence of her disease. So they either need to terminate the pregnancy or Vanessa might die. They look into perhaps inducing the baby early since premature babies often survive. Vanessa is ultimately determined to carry the baby to term, even if she has to die. Matt then threatens to take Vanessa to court to force her to have the baby now so she could be saved (yikes, but I get it). Vanessa of course flips out.

Abby and Ross prepare for trial and Abby tells Ross about Roy mouthing to her that she’s going to die. She assumed he vocalized it and everyone heard, but Ross tells her that he must have mouthed it and only she saw. They think back to Dinah filming the trial and losing the tape and now wonder how they can find it. Meanwhile, Jesse finds the tape that he took from that day, so only a matter of time before Ross/Abby find it.

This is the ultimate showdown! Alexandra Spaulding vs. Reva Shayne. Two of the greatest characters created by Pam Long have a supreme face-off in this scene. This scene features two of the best actresses on daytime, Beverlee McKinsey and Kim Zimmer. This scene is one of the first episodes penned by Pam Long when she returned as head writer of the show. Enjoy! 

 

1 hour ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

This is the ultimate showdown! Alexandra Spaulding vs. Reva Shayne. Two of the greatest characters created by Pam Long have a supreme face-off in this scene. This scene features two of the best actresses on daytime, Beverlee McKinsey and Kim Zimmer. This scene is one of the first episodes penned by Pam Long when she returned as head writer of the show. Enjoy! 

 

This was so good, thanks for sharing!  What year was this?

6 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

This was so good, thanks for sharing!  What year was this?

It's so good. Giving me Brooke-Stephanie at their prime vibes. 

2 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

This was so good, thanks for sharing!  What year was this?

Long returned in '87. This has to be a mid-late November episode, as it's after Sally's death and Reva mentions Alan and Van's engagement. 

The episode Reva referenced (Alan paying her for a "bedtime story" ; a story about her being bought a meal when she's a pre-teen by an older man) was August 12, 1987.  Long's first episodes blew up Josh and Reva over Marah's supposed paternity and Ross and Van over her being involved in Alan's problems and not committing to Ross. 

Edited September 20Sep 20 by P.J.

3 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

You're going to hate this LOL, but mid/late-90s, Matt is his friend!   They worked together and he was Josh's best man at his wedding to Annie. Josh/Reva also supported them during Vanessa's pregnancy/birth to Maureen. It's nowhere near a Phillip/Rick friendship though.

Oh, I knew the show tried selling that everyone considered Matt a good guy. And good enough for Van. (Why the guy can't find employment outside of Van's ex-in-laws is a question though...lol)

HELL, at some point after Matt and Van divorced, Matt is back working with Josh and Billy...and in '08-'09, Billy goes out of his way to twice inform Matt that he's got his sights set on remarrying Vanessa.

From what I understood, there was a big change that always signaled when Long would return to the show as head-writer.  That Alexandra/Reva scene was redone a few years later between Alexandra and Blake (SS's version)... and both scenes were well written and done... and played by strong actresses.

From what I recall, Long's return after the writer's strike was also noticeable because it was right after Maeve was killed off... and that inner circle was processing that information as a community.

With that said, as much as I did enjoy Long's writing.... I will agree that within her first year of her initial writing stint.. she did seem to have characters islanded (Reardon family at Company, Bauer's at Cedars/house, Lewis Family,).. with the Spaulding clan being the thread to uniting some of those islands.

The Nolarobics era was cut short due to Brown quitting.. but I will say that it did connect some of the islanded characters.   However, I don't think the story was going to lead to anything major.. although maybe Nola/Quint could have been used during the Infinity story since she was working to make exercise tapes, wanting to use copy righted music, etc.

oops..nevermind.

Edited September 21Sep 21 by P.J.
oops

6 hours ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

This is the ultimate showdown! Alexandra Spaulding vs. Reva Shayne. Two of the greatest characters created by Pam Long have a supreme face-off in this scene. This scene features two of the best actresses on daytime, Beverlee McKinsey and Kim Zimmer. This scene is one of the first episodes penned by Pam Long when she returned as head writer of the show. Enjoy! 

 

A great example of when there was truly good writing.  However, Alexandra's hair is horrible! LOL

12 minutes ago, MLH said:

A great example of when there was truly good writing.  However, Alexandra's hair is horrible! LOL

It's shockingly bad. I am not sure if they were trying to imitate Jane Wyman on Falcon Crest, but she was almost 20 years older than Beverlee! That period seemed to want to age Alex - maybe because of the pairing with HB. I don't like it.

Remind me, as a less versed tourist of GL: Did Pam Long do much (or want to do much) with Nola before Lisa exited? Or did she just miss her? Idk why I thought Nolaerobics wasn't her but if so my mistake.

3 minutes ago, Vee said:

Remind me, as a less versed tourist of GL: Did Pam Long do much (or want to do much) with Nola before Lisa exited? Or did she just miss her? Idk why I thought Nolaerobics wasn't her but if so my mistake.

Long took over around the time Nola and Quint were getting married. She seemed to move them away from the adventure elements and toward more domestic stories, filler stories, having a baby (the child was named by viewers), Nolaerobics, Quint being a professor and Fiona Hutchinson throwing herself at him (this was not Jenna), Quint being a scientist, with a robot and taking in a precocious child (played, naturally, by a kid from Texas) for a time.

Edited September 21Sep 21 by DRW50

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Long took over around the time Nola and Quint were getting married. She seemed to move them away from the adventure elements and toward more domestic stories, filler stories, having a baby (the child was named by viewers), Nolaerobics, Quint being a professor and Fiona Hutchinson throwing herself at him (this was not Jenna), Quint being a scientist, with a robot and taking in a precocious child (played, naturally, by a kid from Texas) for a time.

Fiona was on it then? Wow.

I knew about the genius child but not the robot lol. How long was Lisa on during the Long era? Were they trying to run out the rest of a contract? I can see why they tried to slot them into being sort of the wacky couple back in Springfield but I can't blame her if some of that made her want to dip, where of course she made history with Marland again at ATWT.

Was the Dreaming Death, Tony and Annabelle, Jim and Hilary etc. Long? I thought some of that caper stuff was decent when I watched a fair bit of it a year or two ago (except for the unbearable Tony). idk why I thought the Dreaming Death was Jeff Ryder or whoever. There was a frenzy of creatives at both GL and OLTL in the early-mid '80s it seems like.

Edited September 21Sep 21 by Vee