Around the same time there was a convincing physical fight, with what appeared to be real punching, between Roger and The Great Hulswit's Ed.  The show might not have been running on all cylinders yet but people were taking notice.

It felt like The Dowdy Soap but that was part of the appeal. It felt more real 

 

17 minutes ago, Stevel said:

Around the same time there was a convincing physical fight, with what appeared to be real punching, between Roger and The Great Hulswit's Ed.  The show might not have been running on all cylinders yet but people were taking notice.

It felt like The Dowdy Soap but that was part of the appeal. It felt more real 

Was it the fight about six minutes into this?

That description does seem to fit what is available of the late '70s - trying to modernize after some dreary years. The show then becomes very dowdy again under Marland before being modernized under Kobe, too much, to the point of being a husk. The Dobsons are the ones who seemed to truly get the balance right.

I wish I could see some of Deerfield's Holly.

I'm trying to think of a well-known or current actress I can compare to Deering to give the connection.  She was a different Holly. A blonde bimbo in a way. Very pretty. Much more vulnerable and immature. Almost a temporary character until Garrett took the role and gave it depth.

 

Now I will look at that video you so generously provided.

Take care.

 

Good lord, Zaslow is freaking brilliant.

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Wasn't Elvera Roussel's pregnancy written in?

That's news to me. I never heard she was pregnant in real life.

Cullen's pregnancy was written in. She talked on the Locher Room about how protective Jerry and Stephen were when she had to faint in the courtroom scene after Jennifer reveals she's her child.

After Amanda lost the baby, that's when they had her regress to acting like a child and dressing in big, Shirley Temple style dresses. She also sat at the piano a lot to hide her belly. 

2 hours ago, Stevel said:

I give wide-eyed Deering credit for at least trying to act like a rape victim but she wasn't much.

Deering was gone way before the rape story. She left around the time Ed and Holly got divorced. 

Edited September 22Sep 22 by DeeVee

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Was it the fight about six minutes into this?

That description does seem to fit what is available of the late '70s - trying to modernize after some dreary years. The show then becomes very dowdy again under Marland before being modernized under Kobe, too much, to the point of being a husk. The Dobsons are the ones who seemed to truly get the balance right.

I wish I could see some of Deerfield's Holly.

Now this is a soap opera!  The fight between Roger and Ed is dramatic, but grounded in reality. Not the stupid over the top stuff the late 90s until it's end, IMO. 

@Stevel Yes, he was.  I think all the actors in this storyline did an excellent job.  Too bad they didn't have the pull Kim Zimmers did. 

Edited September 22Sep 22 by MLH

On 9/21/2025 at 12:17 AM, DRW50 said:

@alwaysAMC Reading your last few summaries. Thanks. I'm reminded of how busy this period was. That was generally true of the B&E run - something was always happening. 

I had forgotten J left this soon as I thought his story with Drew ran a little longer. 

Michelle's story with Jesse is a repeat of a story Beth had with Lujack. A shame they didn't play into that during Beth's return.

The man who played Jesse's father was a good actor - I remember him being on Oz in these years. Wish they'd done more with him.

Reading your reviews reminds me of some moments I'd forgotten, like the Beth/Ben relationship. Ben had chemistry with a number of women, but his most was with Beth. Beth Chamberlin didn't have much spark with most of her leading men, but I thought she worked well with Hunt Block. It helped that Ben and Beth were both broken people.

A lost opportunity with the Harley/Philip/Beth triangle was the class issue. Philip was born with a silver spoon, whereas Beth and Harley had both worked from an early age and had never felt accepted in the Spaulding world. By 1998, Beth and Harley had both lost that side (and Harley had already started to become so brittle). Rauch's era of the show never seemed to delve into these class issues. 

As mentioned at the time, it was smart writing to have Annie rescue Abby but leave Reva for dead. I never loved Reva's house, I'm not surprised Rauch didn't either (it was very metallic-tinged), but I prefer it to her moving into Vanessa's house. For the rest of the time Reva lived in that place (what was it - 5, 6 years?) I still saw it as Vanessa's house. 

I'd forgotten just how heavily they still had Annie in story. I guess they wanted to get every last penny out of Watros, but a part of me wonders if they should have just recast as soon as she left to properly finish the stories they were setting up. 

The robe story I appreciated mostly because the writing finally accepted that Dinah was a bitch to Vanessa instead of asking for pity parties. I'm not sure how much the show had planned for Matt and Dinah, but I believe this was another story the Matessa fans hit the roof over (I can't really blame them - if I'd been one I might have too).

You're welcome! And you're so right, I've noticed over the past several months how much storyline they churn through. I'm having to take many more notes as I watch (which I love). I don't mind the pace as long as the storylines work and I'm entertained, which I have been.

Yeah they dropped J so quickly out of nowhere, and he didn't even really get a storyline with Drew. I think they had 1-2 episodes where he hired her at Company and she was doing an awful job, but they never really hinted at any romance or storyline between the two of them. In fact, Drew is barely used in her first 3-4 months at GL. They seemed to drop the Sugar Hill storyline so quickly, which is what brought her into the show. My only guess is Taye Diggs couldn't keep up with the daytime schedule, because he flubbed lines pretty often.

Jesse's father actually got a recast just before Abby's trial where she kills Roy. I had wondered why they did that, but I guess maybe the original actor's schedule picked up.

I hate to admit this, but I've actually warmed up to Ben a little. He's dreadful when he's in court or making decisions to bring Ross down, but he shines when he's flirting with women (Beth/Blake). It's strangely sexy to me... we'll see how long that lasts haha.

I hated Reva's house too. To your point, it wasn't warm or comfortable looking. I'm excited to see how Watros goes out and where the Annie story continues, since I know she gets a recast. Yeah they really used Watros a ton in these last few months.

Dinah has really annoyed the crap out of me since she and Hart broke up. She's lashing out again like she used to in 1995 and it's so off-putting to me. I love Wendy, and she does a great job with the Dinah character, but man she's so mean and entitled sometimes. 

23 hours ago, P.J. said:

[!@#$%^&*] GL for being so cheap they had Vanessa screwing that miniature garden gnome wannabe in that house.*  

*Sorry, not sorry, I'm in my feels today.

LOL - you always crack me up with these digs at Matt   

Reminders of Vanessa/Matt's beginning... look how giddy she looks watching Matt shirtless and wet   Pretty sexy scenes here!

 

 

5 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

You're welcome! And you're so right, I've noticed over the past several months how much storyline they churn through. I'm having to take many more notes as I watch (which I love). I don't mind the pace as long as the storylines work and I'm entertained, which I have been.

Yeah they dropped J so quickly out of nowhere, and he didn't even really get a storyline with Drew. I think they had 1-2 episodes where he hired her at Company and she was doing an awful job, but they never really hinted at any romance or storyline between the two of them. In fact, Drew is barely used in her first 3-4 months at GL. They seemed to drop the Sugar Hill storyline so quickly, which is what brought her into the show. My only guess is Taye Diggs couldn't keep up with the daytime schedule, because he flubbed lines pretty often.

Jesse's father actually got a recast just before Abby's trial where she kills Roy. I had wondered why they did that, but I guess maybe the original actor's schedule picked up.

I hate to admit this, but I've actually warmed up to Ben a little. He's dreadful when he's in court or making decisions to bring Ross down, but he shines when he's flirting with women (Beth/Blake). It's strangely sexy to me... we'll see how long that lasts haha.

As someone who mostly just complains about how terrible Block was on ATWT, I agree with you about his charisma on GL. 

I had forgotten Jesse's father was recast.

Taye Diggs was cast for How Stella Got Her Groove Back around the time he was cast on GL, IIRC, so whatever plans they may have had for him were cut even shorter.

Drew was bought on as a spoiler for Dahlia/Marcus/Sugar... she was the spoiled daughter of the record producer that employed Sugar and where Marcus was trying to get signed.   

Tammy Blanchard said she wasn't sure exactly what the show's plan was for her character.. but she had said in an interview that once Taye Diggs left and the record story was dropped... she was going to be paired with J.  I think she was cut off and J giving her a job was the first step in pairing them together.

I think the actor that played J also left so she was kind of backburnered until the show decided to make Drew a spoiler for Michelle/Jesse.   Rebecca Budig and Tammy Blachard had good rival chemistry.. and I think the show was planning to pair Rebecca Budig's Michelle with a recast Bill... but she quit the show and was replaced by Joie Lenz.. and we all know what happened next.

Cleaned up/Upscaled 1979 episode with Roger and Holly's rape. Elizabeth & Alan's battle over the custody of Phillip. Cindy Pickett was a treasure as the tormented Jackie.

 

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

Drew was bought on as a spoiler for Dahlia/Marcus/Sugar... she was the spoiled daughter of the record producer that employed Sugar and where Marcus was trying to get signed.   

Tammy Blanchard said she wasn't sure exactly what the show's plan was for her character.. but she had said in an interview that once Taye Diggs left and the record story was dropped... she was going to be paired with J.  I think she was cut off and J giving her a job was the first step in pairing them together.

I think the actor that played J also left so she was kind of backburnered until the show decided to make Drew a spoiler for Michelle/Jesse.   Rebecca Budig and Tammy Blachard had good rival chemistry.. and I think the show was planning to pair Rebecca Budig's Michelle with a recast Bill... but she quit the show and was replaced by Joie Lenz.. and we all know what happened next.

Yep - exactly right, good memory!  

I just watched all of this and thought it was so odd how quickly things got scrapped and you could tell they didn't know what to do with Drew or her dad. It seems like Marcus/Dahlia finally got a storyline again after being MIA for several months/almost a year, but then that storyline abruptly dropped just as Drew joined it, Drew was then 'cut off' for being spoiled, got hired at Company by J. She was a horrible waitress, but then J left and that waitress/Company story stalled. Now I'm just seeing her getting with Jesse. But it was so odd seeing her name in the end credits as a contract player and she was only on ~15 episodes over her first 3-4 months with the show.  

20 hours ago, DRW50 said:

similar to what Matt was intended to be. It would have done more to benefit Matt as a character - they always refused to inject nuance into Matt, to the point of not even wanting to admit that he sold ass for cash.

 

I did not hate Matt in of himself, but similar to Moniz's Dinah, he took away most of Vanessa's voice and presence.

It's much easier to write that a woman was a whore/mistress and regretted it than it ever was (or will be) for a man to admit he was a gigolo/paid sex worker, and expect the audience to forgive/forget/understand.

Vanessa had traditionally been written as very smart about people. She's too skeptical and too observant to get fooled. It's one thing being a chump for your child, it's another to not see what's obvious. Yes, at one point, Nadine manipulated her, but Van always knew who and what Nadine was. Part of the decline of the daytime soap is the decline in writing, where characters are just suddenly "too stupid" to further the plot. 

16 hours ago, DeeVee said:

That's news to me. I never heard she was pregnant in real life.

Cullen's pregnancy was written in. She talked on the Locher Room about how protective Jerry and Stephen were when she had to faint in the courtroom scene after Jennifer reveals she's her child.

After Amanda lost the baby, that's when they had her regress to acting like a child and dressing in big, Shirley Temple style dresses. She also sat at the piano a lot to hide her belly. 

My bad. Duh---I know I read something about her having that breakdown to hide her pregnancy. I guess I just thought the trial and Amanda's breakdown were further apart, storywise. The "trial stress miscarriage" seemed to be a bit of a thing---I swear ATWT's Margo has one around the same time under nearly identical circumstances. 

@alwaysAMC  I truly can't watch him. Unless it's Vanessa tap-dancing on his heart nonchalantly at the end. That I could almost bring myself to watch on a loop.  Oh, and apparently the word t-roll is verboten now. Otherwise, I'd have settled for calling him that.

Edited September 23Sep 23 by P.J.