All of you mentioning Mr Lindsay (Dietrich) in terms of romantic/rival potential for Holly, etc... yet the #1 reason I wanted to meet Mr Lindsay was only because he would have been the missing piece of the puzzle for how Blake turned out.

The few mentions of Mr Lindsay by Blake indicated he wasn't a warm and paternal influence in her life, and that his presence made Holly/Blake at odds made me wish he was bought on in order to give us more insight into the years that Holly/Blake were not on the canvas.

 

19 hours ago, Vee said:

A grudge you surely hold for The Possession of Joel Delaney.

Among other projects, lol.

21 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

All of you mentioning Mr Lindsay (Dietrich) in terms of romantic/rival potential for Holly, etc... yet the #1 reason I wanted to meet Mr Lindsay was only because he would have been the missing piece of the puzzle for how Blake turned out.

The few mentions of Mr Lindsay by Blake indicated he wasn't a warm and paternal influence in her life, and that his presence made Holly/Blake at odds made me wish he was bought on in order to give us more insight into the years that Holly/Blake were not on the canvas.

Unfortunately, this happened all too often on GL. Characters who had been off the canvas for any period of time were treated as if their lives had barely progressed. Which is SO dumb, because the past is always a great place to build a story in the present. So, yes, beyond the romantic possibilities in the present story, there was also a missed opportunity to round out Blake's character by bringing her past relationship with Dietrich into the story.

I always say that one of the reasons Reva and Josh took off so fast is the way they brought in their past to inform the present. Long was good at that. Maybe she had a plan to bring in Dietrich but subsequent writers were not interested in doing it.

15 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Unfortunately, this happened all too often on GL. Characters who had been off the canvas for any period of time were treated as if their lives had barely progressed. Which is SO dumb, because the past is always a great place to build a story in the present. So, yes, beyond the romantic possibilities in the present story, there was also a missed opportunity to round out Blake's character by bringing her past relationship with Dietrich into the story.

Yes! People on soaps go into suspended animation when they leave...(we used to make fun of the way on GL Marland would send a character, including Holly, off to Europe, like they are on the moon) 

Mike Bauer could have married and had kids off camera, having a new set of Bauers to come to town. Hope just, disappeared...what if she had married and had kids also. 

I do remember that they had hinted that Joan/Alex would have a past with..Ed off camera..I can't imagine Joan having to overcome the sourpuss face, but the thought makes me laugh.

I don't recall Blake talking about him, period. Or really Holly for that matter. Blake's judgment of him might have been somewhat skewed, as he wasn't Ed (when she was young) or Roger (who's love she kept chasing).

31 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Unfortunately, this happened all too often on GL. Characters who had been off the canvas for any period of time were treated as if their lives had barely progressed. Which is SO dumb, because the past is always a great place to build a story in the present. 

Prime examples, Trish Lewis and Justin Marler. Both of whom had plenty of family still on the canvas for years, yet, other than the odd mention (or appearance at weddings or funerals, at least for Trish), NADA.

Maybe it's not that surprising, as I can't think of a soap other than ATWT under Marland (yes, the irony) that ever regularly made mention of family members with the occasional update on what they were doing. (Craig and Sierra had Lucy off-screen, Seth was writing, and Frannie/Sabrina were in Montega doing good works)

I doubt Roxy would've ever gotten out of that mental hospital if they hadn't needed a quick, can't hate him for leaving exit for Johnny.

51 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Maybe it's not that surprising, as I can't think of a soap other than ATWT under Marland (yes, the irony) that ever regularly made mention of family members with the occasional update on what they were doing. (Craig and Sierra had Lucy off-screen, Seth was writing, and Frannie/Sabrina were in Montega doing good works)

General Hospital did it, at least once that I can think of--Jeff Webber had children off screen who became major characters. Someone mentioned on the Y&R board the other day that they once introduced a character who was a child of a legacy character off the canvas for a long time.

The number of characters from core families GL had off-screen not getting married and/or not having children is kind of mind-boggling. Mike, Hope, Justin, Trish, Mindy, Alan-Michael, Jim Reardon (why have Bridget be Sean's kid and not Jim's?). Amanda (until she came back de-aged), then she was gone again and nothing until Roger's death was announced. Was she ever mentioned after that? Another is Nick, but the fact that he didn't have children was explained by his partner being HIV+.

The only one I can think of who had a kid off-screen was Tony Reardon, and no one ever thought to bring his kid Tommy on the show. And his birth was basically used as an excuse to write Bea out of the show.

Well, I think the answer about why Bridget wasn't Jim's kid is fairly simple---you couldn't write Jim being a deadbeat father with a troubled daughter. Not knowing Bridget's parents made it easier to give Bridget that personality. (although GL's troubled daughters are certainly not exclusive to blue collar characters)

As much backstage turmoil as GL had, I wonder if some of the HWs even knew these core families had other members. 

You can add to the non-kid list: Maureen, India, Dylan, Samantha, Kat, David. I mean, it took them 15 bleepin' years to give Ross a kid on-screen (surprise children don't count). Not to mention Rick. I mean I get that you don't need every one droppin' babies with every relationship, but it is shortsighted.

39 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Well, I think the answer about why Bridget wasn't Jim's kid is fairly simple---you couldn't write Jim being a deadbeat father with a troubled daughter.

I don't know if I agree with that. They portrayed Jim as almost fanatical about his work. I could see him going off to study some amoeba or something on Antarctica for a year and not even know he had a kid. And Maureen taking her in out of love for her brother and longing for more kids.

Besides, if Bridget had been Jim's child, maybe there would never have been you-know-who. 

43 minutes ago, P.J. said:

You can add to the non-kid list: Maureen, India, Dylan, Samantha, Kat, David. I mean, it took them 15 bleepin' years to give Ross a kid on-screen (surprise children don't count). Not to mention Rick. I mean I get that you don't need every one droppin' babies with every relationship, but it is shortsighted.

I'll give them a pass on Maureen because the fact that it was difficult for her to have kids was a long-term, ongoing conflict between her and Ed. (But the fact that Ed kept saying he didn't want kids meant...Ed never had more kids. Guaranteeing the shrinking of the Bauer pool).

I’m up to June 15, 1998.

*I’ve always loved a music montage to close out an episode, on any soap opera, because it really pulls on your emotions. But June 10th’s episode may have been the worst, most cringe song ever used. I tried to Shazam the song, but no results were found, so I’m very curious who and what that was. It ended with Hart telling Cassie that Dinah is pregnant and she throws a framed picture of Hart and her, which shatters. But, that song was so awful, wow.

The clone lets the real Reva out so she can convince Josh to keep the clone in the States (as Josh wants to ship her to Paris to start a new life). The clone threatened the kids’ safety if the real Reva tells him the truth about her being really alive (the clone took the kids to a hotel instead of camp). The real Reva and Josh have an emotional exchange and she breaks down and tells him she survived the plane crash and it’s really her. He doesn’t believe her, but she continues telling him about the island and Sean. Meanwhile, in the hotel, the clone is annoying Marah and she wants to call home to Josh, which the clones stops her from doing. She tells Marah that she and Josh are having problems. The real Reva continues to tell Josh the truth when Michael comes in and she lays into him for creating ‘the monster’. She tells them both that the clone took the kids and they’re not at camp like Josh thinks. Michael then drugs her so she’ll pass out because they think she’s talking nonsense. The next morning, the real Reva writes a letter to Sean telling him everything and asking that he call Josh to tell him the truth. The clone then shows up, Reva roughs her up a bit, but the clone says she has the kids and if she hurts her, she’ll hurt the kids. The clone reminds Reva of her mission to get Josh to want her to stay, or else she’ll hurt the kids. Josh shows up and the real Reva backtracks on the truth she tried to tell him the night before, and he apologizes for having to drug her. She later kisses him, as part of her plan to want him to keep the clone in town, and he says that felt like the real Reva, so he becomes enticed by her. Josh is way too easy LOL, but she then convinces him to have sex upstairs. Afterwards, she tells him again about the plane crash, the island and being the real Reva. Josh leaves to think and the clone comes in and realizes Reva is double crossing her, so she knocks her out with chloroform and locks her in the pool house. The clone is back with Josh and he starts to think yet again she’s coming on too strong and is ‘different’, so he calls the camp to check on the kids, not knowing the clone called the camp director and got him to tell Josh the kids are there. Later that night, he goes to the lighthouse basement where Reva told him the clone was keeping her, and he finds an etched heart with their initials and realizes the real Reva is alive and she was right all along. He runs to Michael to tell him and takes him to the lighthouse to prove it, but unfortunately the real Reva was trying to convince the clone to take her back to the lighthouse where she had more room. The clone got suspicious so she went to the lighthouse and found the etched heart, so she erased it. Josh/Michael arrive and can’t find it, so Josh thinks he’s going crazy. The next day, Matt comes by and Josh tells him all about the clone because he’s desperate. Matt is skeptical, but he runs into the clone and makes up a trip they all took to Hawaii, which the clone plays along and says it was great trip. He then goes to Josh and says he believes him, because that lady is not Reva. They start to work together to find what island she may have crashed on and who/where Sean is.

Meanwhile, Michael goes back to Alan and says he can no longer go through with the cloning project because it hurts too many people. Alan gets suspicious and wonders why Josh is still involved. Michael then says he and Vicky lied and they actually didn’t clone anyone, but Alan doesn’t believe him. On the side, Alan tells Vicky she must work on Michael because he now wants this clone thing to happen.

Abby stops by to visit Reva and pushes her about not seeing her in prison, acknowledging her marriage to Rick or seeing her after getting out of prison. The clone, of course, makes a blunder of the situation, which really upsets Abby. Alan overhears all of this and becomes suspicious. I’m really glad they didn’t let the Reva/Abby relationship go forgotten here, very happy they brought it together.

Phillip and Harley push Lizzie to finally tell the truth and come to find out, she was the one who killed Carl!  Lizzie says she had to stop Carl from hurting her mother that night. Wow, so that’s why Beth was working so hard to make people believe she was the killer, she was protecting her daughter. They decide to put her in therapy, which will require Phillip and Beth to work together going forward. Earlier, Phillip had confronted Ben in public about sleeping with Beth, which Griffin overhears, and is now planning to disbar Ben for sleeping with a murder suspect. This has fueled some jealousy with Phillip and he and Ben continue to fight. Later, Griffin then fires Ben and Ross gets to gloat a bit, but Ben reminds us (the audience) that he has a tape of him and Blake in bed (surely to be used later to get back at Ross).

Social workers are now determining if Beth is suited to be a mother and have threatened to take Lizzie away from her. Phillip steps in and says he’ll stay with Beth, in a relationship, if it allows them to keep Lizzie, which again drives a wedge with Harley. Randomly, Holly comes by and Beth lashes out at her for having the SF paper put their story on the front pages. Holly then says she knows how she feels because she just lost her daughter Meg.

Dinah goes to Hart to tell him about her pregnancy, but Tammy interrupts them and Dinah realizes Hart is really back with Cassie. She gets upset, per usual, and then breaks down and tells him they’re having a baby from that one night he was drunk and remembers nothing. Later, Matt warns Hart that Dinah could be faking, while Marcus visits Dinah and finds a letter that Rob wrote her. Rob seemingly has left town for Chicago, but told her in the note that Marcus read that he loved the night they had together. Marcus realizes this is Rob’s baby and pushes Dinah to tell him the truth. Hart arrives and Marcus is poised to tell him the truth, but Dinah pressures and convinces him not to. Alone with Dinah, Hart says he’d like to have a paternity test done, which makes Dinah believe that Matt was in his ear. She’s now determined to figure out how to fake a paternity test. Later, Cassie comes back to town from a work conference and Hart keeps Dinah from telling her about being pregnant. Dinah then goes to Vanessa to complain about Matt and also tells her she plans to be there for her daughter unlike how Vanessa was for her, which stings. Later, Hart feels compelled to tell Cassie the truth and she gets upset and leaves.

Holly admits to Ross that she would have run off with Roger to have ‘one last dance with the devil’, and isn’t surprised that Fletcher did what he did, which shocks Ross. Meanwhile, Matt confides in Vanessa that he overheard Holly call Maureen Meg and it’s bothering him. She tries to tell him he’s overthinking it and Maureen has Holly’s kidney, so there’s a connection and he needs to get over it.

Drew and Jesse are back from LA where they buried her father. Michelle continues to be standoffish with Jesse, Lord knows why (so dumb), and Jesse tells her he’s taking a different approach and will back off from her as well, since that’s what he thinks she wants. Holly convinces Michelle to be nice to Drew and that they have something in common now with losing a parent. Michelle goes to Drew and offers her condolences, but Jesse then takes Drew away which upsets Michelle. Later, Drew tells Jesse it was fake and Michelle is just like every other rich, spoiled girl. She later tells Michelle what she said to Jesse and admits she wants Jesse for herself. Drew tells her she’s had her chance and blew it, now it’s her turn, but Michelle says she’ll fight for Jesse (finally!). Later, Drew buys Jesse a new motorcycle, which she shows off in front of Michelle.

Selena got out of jail (convenient), and visits the hospital to find Abby. She runs into Rick instead and they get to know each other a little through fun banter. He offers her a room at their house to stay in for a while. She then finds Abby and they reconnect post-prison. Later, Selena notices that Drew is coming in-between Michelle and Jesse at the hospital and confronts Drew about it. She tells her three is a crowd and she knows how to handle women like her. Hmm.

The “Second Chances” girl group have their first meeting, comprised of Vanessa, Holly, Michelle, Meta, Abby, Jenna and Harley. I guess this was formed because people thought the ladies of SF weren’t united enough? Anyway, they talk about their relationship problems (Michelle/Jesse and Harley/Phillip). Meta also had a wonderful discussion about her relationship with Bert, with some regrets but also things she learned and cherished from her. Jenna then goes into labor! She’s rushed to the hospital and Buzz arrives. He runs off to get Griffin and then surprises everyone with the idea of marrying Jenna while she’s in labor. In true Buzz fashion, the whole thing is chaotic. Charles Grant steps in and refuses the ceremony from happening in the ER, which Griffin thinks it’s because of him being there (they have a spat about sanctity of marriage and their past, which was 2 years ago, so this was super random). Charles finally allows it to happen and they get married. I feel so bad for Fiona during all this, she had to scream and breathe so much in this episode haha. During the wedding, Jesse offers Buzz the wedding band he originally bought for Michelle and says in front of everyone that he no longer has a use for it, which makes Michelle walk out (so sad). Jesse runs after her and they have a tearful exchange and kiss (yay).

After the wedding, Jenna then has her baby, which Buzz wants to name him Stavros, but they can’t agree to anything permanent yet.

While at the hospital, Holly goes to the chapel and asks God where her life went, why she’s losing control and why can’t he help her. It was a touching scene and I feel for Holly. She then has flashbacks to Fletcher and Meg, and then takes a sip from her flask.

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

 

Besides, if Bridget had been Jim's child, maybe there would never have been you-know-who. 

You just gotta torture me with that....LOL.

I think that is Rita Lloyd in the Minute Rice ad at the 10:48 mark. Gil Rogers appears as her husband. I also recognized actress Liz Moses in the Kotex ad from the first season (1979-1980) of the PBS series 3-2-1- contact. 

 

18 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

I’m up to June 15, 1998.

*I’ve always loved a music montage to close out an episode, on any soap opera, because it really pulls on your emotions. But June 10th’s episode may have been the worst, most cringe song ever used. 

The “Second Chances” girl group have their first meeting, comprised of Vanessa, Holly, Michelle, Meta, Abby, Jenna and Harley. I guess this was formed because people thought the ladies of SF weren’t united enough? 

Because I had to know, I tried to watch the horrible montage. For whatever reason, I couldn't see the episode, just hear the vocals. The fifteen seconds or so that i heard convinced me that you're right, it's horrible. It must've been specially written for the show. Why is a mystery.

I'm not sure when montages became a thing, but I couldn't really find GL using them until '92. (Other than maybe couple specific ones like Beth and Lujack's beachy-montage) There's a really good one that ends the 6-8 episode, set to Carole King's "In the Wee Small Hours" and then at the end 7-2 episode concluding the blackout, they used Linda Ronstadt's " 'Round Midnight." 

I think Second Chances only really existed to give Holly a hit list. Not that she really needed one, even if people didn't interact, everyone knew everyone's business. 

47 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Because I had to know, I tried to watch the horrible montage. For whatever reason, I couldn't see the episode, just hear the vocals. The fifteen seconds or so that i heard convinced me that you're right, it's horrible. It must've been specially written for the show. Why is a mystery.

I'm not sure when montages became a thing, but I couldn't really find GL using them until '92. (Other than maybe couple specific ones like Beth and Lujack's beachy-montage) There's a really good one that ends the 6-8 episode, set to Carole King's "In the Wee Small Hours" and then at the end 7-2 episode concluding the blackout, they used Linda Ronstadt's " 'Round Midnight." 

I think Second Chances only really existed to give Holly a hit list. Not that she really needed one, even if people didn't interact, everyone knew everyone's business. 

LOL right?  So awful, although I'll admit, I've now watched it a few times and it's starting to grow on me in a 'love to hate' kind of way. That final whisper "Tell me the hard way" hahaha. You're a Trek fan so maybe you'll get this comparison, but the opening theme song to Enterprise - so awful, but now I love it because it's so awful haha.

Do you use the Vault at all? You can see it fully from there:

Viewing Episodes

Simply click on this link to view the episodes - bit.ly/4hkIsuE. Navigate to the folder, and on the video file, either right-click (for computer/laptop users) or long tap (for mobile users), and choose "Open in new Tab".

I just opened up the 6/08/92 episode and YES, that was a fantastic use of a montage. Vanessa looked amazing in that final shot in bed, but who was she with? I couldn't make it out, but I know it's pre-Matt... it looks like Fletcher to me.

The 7/02/92 is also a good one, gosh you know this will make me want to go watch this era now   I'm guessing that final shot with Ross is Blake before Keifer took over? 

Edited November 2Nov 2 by alwaysAMC

19 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

After the wedding, Jenna then has her baby, which Buzz wants to name him Stavros, but they can’t agree to anything permanent yet.

I remember that a soap mag commented this scene that they were obviously burning off people's guarantees by stuffing them in the room, (and really, why would half of these people care and even if its a family member, you don't hang over their bed while they are saying vows.) This was the time to write both Buzz and Jenna out happy...as they were soon going to punish Fiona by firing her and killing off Jenna, and the annoying Selena to try to scream over Deas in their scenes together. From here on it Buzz is just there (and really more tolerable I have to say.) 

11 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

I just opened up the 6/08/92 episode and YES, that was a fantastic use of a montage. Vanessa looked amazing in that final shot in bed, but who was she with? I couldn't make it out, but I know it's pre-Matt... it looks like Fletcher to me.

I must have said this before, but I have to say it again:

VANESSA SLEPT WITH FLETCHER?

That guy was the town tramp. There's hardly a woman in town he didn't sleep with or pursue.

Maybe the upside of Hope being written out of the show is they most certainly would have paired her with Fletcher at some point.

Don't get me wrong, I like Hammer, he's O.K. But almost EVERY woman?

No. Don't believe it.

It's almost like any time there was an unattached woman, they would say, "Let's put her with Fletcher." Like he was the extra man at a dinner party. 😂

Edited November 2Nov 2 by DeeVee