November 4Nov 4 Member 22 minutes ago, P.J. said: There is still good storytelling from '94-'99 in fits and spurts. And there's still a good core of actors anchoring the show. (Even though honestly, I have no desire to watch it, which seems like a contradiction.) IMO, GL was limping along those last 15 years for a lot reasons. Poor writing. Questionable casting decisions. Too much dependence on certain somebodies who shall remain nameless. Trying too hard to catch younger viewers. An audience that had moved on from soaps after the OJ trial. But all soaps at the time were having similar problems. The landscape had changed, and most were having a terrible time adapting to the new one. GL was no different. Their fall seems more spectacular probably because of the failed Peapack experiment. As awful as that was, at least it was an attempt to find a new model to keep soaps alive.
November 4Nov 4 Member 2000, when the mob and the island people completely dominated, the show became something else. I got optimistic in 2002 with Millee Taggart, GL was feeling like GL again. The mob was gone, Prince Richard was killed off, Ed, Little Bill, Ben and Alex were back. Happy Days were here again, and then came ConJob. 😔 Once they put JVD off contract and he bolted to OLTL, the show was practically over.
November 4Nov 4 Member 15 hours ago, Spoon said: @alwaysAMC you mentioned that you dig Michelle and Jesse, which couples do you like and which ones are you not feeling? Also which characters do you like most and dislike most? Personally, I was a Bloss fan. I thought Jenna was Buzz's best pairing- sorry Nadine. At the time I was rooting for Beth and Phillip to reunite. 1998 Neth is so different from 80s Beth- she's a b-word vixen. While Phillip and Harley are a cute couple, Harley's next long term coupling is better. I was never into Mattessa. Cassie and Hart are pretty good together, but I feel bad for Dinah being the town pariah. Of course, she caused it by aways being selfish and entitled. She's long forgotten her circus roots. Great questions! Favorite couples so far: Jesse/Michelle, A-M/Lucy, Rick/Abby, Holly/Roger, Blake/Ross (although she makes some of the dumbest decisions and is too afraid of him to say the truth, even when he gives her the opportunity, consequence-free). Nick/Susan (but way too short). I do like Matt/Vanessa too I also thought Phillip/Annie had great chemistry, if not romantically, at least friendship-wise, until they just wrote Annie off the deep-end (which was fantastic too). I also really loved the Josh/Annie romance from the beginning, but in hindsight, I could see how that might have gotten boring without some curveballs thrown their way. Least favorite couples: Holly/Fletcher (boring, and especially what Fletcher did to her on his way out), Gilly/Griffin/Vivian (whole thing was gross), honestly the Beth/Harley/Beth triangle doesn't do much for me, but I don't hate it or them, Alan and anyone because he's so gross, Reva/Buzz was awful, Roger/Dinah in the beginning was great, but once Lonatrat happened, it was awful how they treated each other. I see potential in Hart/Cassie, but honestly I dig Dinah/Hart more because of their history. I just don't feel like the writers gave Hart/Cassie enough material early on to really make me fall in love with them. I mostly blame the fact that Cassie kept having to spend time in Reva's storylines, that she just wasn't given the chance. It took them months to even have sex for the first time, and then right after was the insta-triangle with Dinah, so the build-up wasn't as satisfying for Hart/Cassie. Favorite characters - I love a lot and my top 5 fluctuate based on the storylines that happen. Roger, Lucy/A-M, Brent/Marian, Holly, Blake, Ross, Vanessa, Matt, Josh, Annie, Gilly, Frank, Rick/Abby, Michelle/Jesse, Bridget, Alex have all rotated in and out. I loved Henry, but didn't get to see enough of him to really place him top 5 anywhere. Least favorite characters - again, some have had redeeming qualities and rotated in and out of my bottom 5, but generally Alan, Fletcher, Buzz, Vivian, Griffin, Marcus, the first J, Quint, Drew (so far, it's early), and Dolly the clone haha. Characters I love to hate - Dinah, Amanda, Ben (he sucked in the beginning, but he has great chemistry with Blake and their emotional love affair is really intriguing and hot; and he's a great friend to Beth, which has been nice to see).
November 4Nov 4 Member On 11/2/2025 at 9:15 PM, P.J. said: His lack of ties certainly did make him unique. Sort of like Ross, although Ross was always more in the thick of the action than Fletch. It is interesting that Ross was originally introduced to have more family around Justin, which resulted in both Ross and Lainie in the Springfield canvas. Then Lainie and Justin get written out, and Ross becomes the last Marler standing for years. As Jerry Ver Dorn once stated in a Soap Opera Digest interview, once Mike Bauer left Springfiled, it was pretty easy to stay in Springfield as the only consistent attorney within the town. He wasn't wrong at all.
November 4Nov 4 Member At the time, I was also rooting for Phillip and Annie. She needed a "good guy" by her side, but I get it. They probably knew CW had Primetime ambition and wasn't going to stick around. Cassie was to saccrine for an ex-strippwr who was bounced around in orphanages. She should've had more edge. Also, the character was a pet of B&E since they wrote for her on Loving. Another Loving vet joins late this year and its the same thing. Edited November 4Nov 4 by Spoon
November 4Nov 4 Member I'm glad you liked A-M & Lucy, I was starting to wonder if anyone else liked Lucy. Too bad that she was nothing more than a placeholder for Harley, literally coming in when Harley is leaving and leaving when Harley comes back. Lol I loved seeing Quint and Nola return, because they were among my earliest GL memories BITD, being home after kindergarten. They were completely wasted, and Nola was sad and bitter. Thank goodness they let Lisa Brown throw in a line about being reunited with Quint when she returned for the final week of the show. Stinks that we never saw her daughter Stacy (Anastasia Chamberlain) grown up, I remember stacy had a hearing problem when she was an infant and needed surgery.
November 4Nov 4 Member 1 hour ago, Spoon said: Cassie was to saccrine for an ex-strippwr who was bounced around in orphanages. She should've had more edge. Also, the character was a pet of B&E since they wrote for her on Loving. Another Loving vet joins late this year and its the same thing. I think Laura Wright had some edge (and she became harder and harder as the years passed), but I agree she wasn't really believable as a stripper. I think the situation with Paul Anthony Stewart was different as B&E only wrote for him for a few months. He just happened to have strong chemistry with Joie Lenz and it gave them an open door to start focusing on the mob element, which is something Paul Rauch had also kept going back to on OLTL.
November 4Nov 4 Member 1 hour ago, Spoon said: I'm glad you liked A-M & Lucy, I was starting to wonder if anyone else liked Lucy. Too bad that she was nothing more than a placeholder for Harley, literally coming in when Harley is leaving and leaving when Harley comes back. Lol I love that someone else enjoyed Lucy I will say she got boring/too sweet with the A-M recast, so maybe she was 'boring' before the Brent/A-M storyline (I don't know yet)... but 1995 to mid-1996 with Hearst, she was pretty much leading lady with big storyline (as you know)... so part of me wonders if they would have kept her if Hearst would have stayed. The recast wasn't very strong and once he joined, it felt like they didn't have a desire to write for them anymore. Had Brent (Beaty) stayed on too, surely she would have stayed longer. I think there was potential in having both Lucy and Harley on the scene together. So many 'what ifs' haha.
November 4Nov 4 Member I have a feeling that they were running out Sonia Sattra's contract as it seems like they barely even tried with Michael Dietz in the role, especially once Phillip returned. Ric Hearst was fantastic in the role, I hoped he'd return for the final week since he was between gigs at the time but nope. I wonder if it was Sonia Sattra's "whiny" voice and perkiness that turned ppl off, on the other hand Kristina Wagner on GH had similar qualities and she's still around. Last year, I was watching OLTL and I got from mid '88-late '91. Basically the tail end of Rauch's run, oddly I enjoyed it more than his GL. Maybe because I wasn't acquainted with OLTL pre-Rauch, unlike GL. Carlos Hesser was a real highlight i was "oh! That's Col. Dax!" Edited November 4Nov 4 by Spoon
November 4Nov 4 Member I think the Santos family could have worked if they were written differently because they were at least stationed in Springfield... the show did try to connect them to the rest of Springfield with Danny being married to Michelle, Pilar briefly dating Bill and interacting with his mother Vanessa, and Carmen having scenes with Alex/Vanessa/Michelle/Ben... while Mick was blackmailing Blake over the tape of her with Ben. Instead of building on that start, the show insisted on keeping the Santos family islanded and never really establishing true roots/connections to the rest of Springfield. San Cristobel, on the other hand, never should have been featured past the initial 2000 story.
November 5Nov 5 Member Carmen was such a cartoon villain. I'm surprised they didn’t pair her with HB Alan, I would've paired her with Peter Simon's Ed for shock value. Maybe humanize her a little. I used to tr y to convince people online that Grandma (Maria) Santos was the new Bert Bauer. Ironic that you use the term "islanded", in regards to the GL of that period. 😆 I'm also surprised they didn't showcase Tony's brother, the Priest in a forbidden love story. The actor seemed well received by the audience. I think Pilar didn't work out because they cut Little Bill loose at that time and he wouldn't return until 2002 with Daniel Cosgrove in the role.
November 5Nov 5 Member 26 minutes ago, Spoon said: I have a feeling that they were running out Sonia Sattra's contract as it seems like they barely even tried with Michael Dietz in the role, especially once Phillip returned. Ric Hearst was fantastic in the role, I hoped he'd return for the final week since he was between gigs at the time but nope. I wonder if it was Sonia Sattra's "whiny" voice and perkiness that turned ppl off, on the other hand Kristina Wagner on GH had similar qualities and she's still around. Last year, I was watching OLTL and I got from mid '88-late '91. Basically the tail end of Rauch's run, oddly I enjoyed it more than his GL. Maybe because I wasn't acquainted with OLTL pre-Rauch, unlike GL. Carlos Hesser was a real highlight i was "oh! That's Col. Dax!" Rauch's OLTL benefited from some very dramatic and charismatic females and writers who managed the camp and histrionics. That starts to falter around 1990, after S. Michael Schnessel leaves (probably not the only factor). I don't know Sonia Satra really suited GL, which had a long history of wan ingenues coming and going, but I think she would have had a better chance if she hadn't arrived just as Harley was leaving and if they hadn't been so heavy-handed in trying to make viewers like her. At the time I remember too much focus on her mooning over Alan-Michael and how sorry we were meant to feel for her. If I rewatched that time now, I may not have as much of an issue with her. I grew to like her more after Sonia Satra proved she could handle a big dramatic story with Brent. I just had such a sour reaction to most of GL in 1993 and 1994.
November 5Nov 5 Member 2 hours ago, Spoon said: Carmen was such a cartoon villain. I'm surprised they didn’t pair her with HB Alan, I would've paired her with Peter Simon's Ed for shock value. Maybe humanize her a little. I used to tr y to convince people online that Grandma (Maria) Santos was the new Bert Bauer. Ironic that you use the term "islanded", in regards to the GL of that period. 😆 I'm also surprised they didn't showcase Tony's brother, the Priest in a forbidden love story. The actor seemed well received by the audience. I think Pilar didn't work out because they cut Little Bill loose at that time and he wouldn't return until 2002 with Daniel Cosgrove in the role. Priscilla Garita couldn't really act, which didn't help, although she was alright. She seemed to be about the same when she was on PP AMC 11 or 12 years later. They did try to give Carmen some shades, but while beautiful and charismatic, Saundra Santiago never seemed to shake the brittleness. I would love to see Maria meeting Bert Bauer... I do wish they'd done more with Ray. He was around to the end. Didn't he have the hots for Catalina? I can't remember.
November 5Nov 5 Member 6 minutes ago, DRW50 said: Priscilla Garita couldn't really act, which didn't help, although she was alright. She seemed to be about the same when she was on PP AMC 11 or 12 years later. They did try to give Carmen some shades, but while beautiful and charismatic, Saundra Santiago never seemed to shake the brittleness. I would love to see Maria meeting Bert Bauer... I do wish they'd done more with Ray. He was around to the end. Didn't he have the hots for Catalina? I can't remember. Priscilla Garita didn't portray the role of Pilar. That was Paula Garces. And I totally agree about her performances on AMC.
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