On 12/30/2025 at 2:25 PM, Maxim said:

This stuff is WILD. Your recaps are addicting. I love how it goes from Annie threatening to kill her... to both having champagne together and toasting. 😁

@Maxim - still can't get over this all happening within a single episode LOL. Happy New Year to you and all my GL friends here 🥂🤩

I guess the file size was too large to post all three pics in a single post - oops!

4 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

@Maxim - still can't get over this all happening within a single episode LOL. Happy New Year to you and all my GL friends here 🥂🤩

Happy New year dear @alwaysAMC!!! Cheers! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

15 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks! Appreciate knowing about the new promos. I believe you about the episodes as you have seen much more of this period online than I have.

Guiding Light - (1983?) (15A1) - YouTube

Skimming through one of them and I'm so fixed on the moments with Helena, Philip, Eve and Justin - two of them stalwarts of the Dobsons era, one brought in by Marland, and Grant's Philip, brought in during one of the short-lived writers (Browne?). They'll all be gone within a few months while Philip is there to the final episode.

I feel bad for Eve essentially being a maid. No wonder she leaves within a month (?) to live in Rome with hunky Ben, or wherever he was by then.

You can tell that we've really entered into the "piece of ass" era of soaps as we not only have Philip shirtless and working out when Helena arrives, but at the end of the episode, he's shirtless again!

Interesting how Helena was agog at him like a cartoon character - I doubt they were hinting at anything, more just her reacting the way they thought viewers would.

The scene where Justin kisses Helena is one that Tom O'Rourke put on Youtube in a reel.

The moment with Justin and Philip horsing around makes me a little sad as we got so little of that. This was presumably put in for the anguish of the upcoming paternity reveal...not that it mattered as Justin was written out not long after.

Also nice to see some of these glimpses of Josh, Trish and Vanessa before we start getting into Lewismania. Trish in particular was swallowed whole by them.

I didn't even know Floyd and Lesley Ann were still involved at this point.

As popular as Janet Grey probably was, it is a sad kind of fading into the background to the character.

It is interesting hearing about Billy and Mindy before they show up in town. I knew there was friction between the Josh/Trish and Billy, but it doesn't always translate from the German.

The Vanessa episode is German episode 1038. The Tony episode is 1039. And ergo, ATWT's Barbara and Gunnar must have married the first week in May, 1983.

If Spauldingfield's dates are correct, 1038 would be May 4, and 1039 May 5.

9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Someone kindly figured out the days for the material in the Y&R promo. May 5th and 6th. So that means 15A2 must have aired around that point and 15A1 aired a little earlier?

Guiding Light - (1983?) (15A2)10

Edited December 31, 2025Dec 31 by P.J.

8 hours ago, DeeVee said:

Her husband's name was Kevin Bancroft. She married him because she erroneously thought he fathered Victoria. Long before Victor and Nikki slept together, Victor had had a vasectomy, so they thought they were sure he couldn't be the father.

(Fun fact: Victoria was actually named after a Bancroft family member, not Victor. Quite the coincidence! The kind Bill Bell loved 😂).

Don't know who she was cheating with. I doubt he was an important character.

LOL...Nikki was always such a 'ho.

7 hours ago, P.J. said:

The Vanessa episode is German episode 1038. The Tony episode is 1039. And ergo, ATWT's Barbara and Gunnar must have married the first week in May, 1983.

If Spauldingfield's dates are correct, 1038 would be May 4, and 1039 May 5.

Thanks!

7 hours ago, P.J. said:

It is interesting hearing about Billy and Mindy before they show up in town. I knew there was friction between the Josh/Trish and Billy, but it doesn't always translate from the German.

It's also kind of fun (and true to life) that Josh only believes the best of Mindy while Trish is extremely wary.

Another touch I liked in their scene was Trish carried on talking with Josh even as she left the room.

The episode has a certain pulse even with characters and stories I may not be as invested in. After some moribund periods in 1982 they seemed to have put themselves back together to where Long and Kobe had plenty to work with. A shame how that ended up.

8 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

I guess the file size was too large to post all three pics in a single post - oops!

Thanks. This sums up the Rauch era set design - simultaneously impressive but bland.

January 2nd milestones, including GL:

1-2-84 Young and Restless's "yr" logo is introduced.

1-2-90 All My Children introduces a new theme and title sequence for their 20th year.

1-2-91 Guiding Light introduces the "Hold onto Love" theme along with a new visual identity.

1-2-92 One Life to Live debuts a new "satin sheets" opening sequence with "new age" sounding theme music.

February 1, 1991

https://youtu.be/UPqbM1mPaZk?si=YXOyk64mlLDmomlC

The earliest long "Hold Onto Love" outro that I could find. Phillip and Beth haven't left and right off the top there's an announcement for a fill-in for Roger.

Edited January 2Jan 2 by Spoon

https://youtu.be/ZAv9O_NX_SY?si=npo9CvOXxtpctbMO

Here's the German dubbed copy of the US 1-2-91 episode. They are still using the 1985-87 theme and the 1982-87 visuals. This is soon before Josh leaves (he's long gone by February) and they are really ramping up on Josh and Harley in this episode.

Matt Weiss and his fashion label is referenced, remember that's the issue Pam Long left over. She wanted to introduce a new, Jewish family around this Matt character but I guess CBS (or P&G) vetoed it.

Edited January 2Jan 2 by Spoon

54 minutes ago, Spoon said:

1-2-90 All My Children introduces a new theme and title sequence for their 20th year.

And breaking this lifelong fan's heart in the process.

19 minutes ago, Spoon said:

Matt Weiss and his fashion label is referenced, remember that's the issue Pam Long left over. She wanted to introduce a new, Jewish family around this Matt character but I guess CBS (or P&G) vetoed it.

Pam Long had the right idea, but I think whoever vetoed it would've had a harder time doing so if GL had cast Matt Weiss with someone who was, well, hunkier, lol.

Edited January 2Jan 2 by Khan

4 hours ago, Spoon said:

February 1, 1991

https://youtu.be/UPqbM1mPaZk?si=YXOyk64mlLDmomlC

The earliest long "Hold Onto Love" outro that I could find. Phillip and Beth haven't left and right off the top there's an announcement for a fill-in for Roger.

Oh...the reason I loathe Nadine with a passion...

Onto other things--

Josh had just left at the end of January. Arguably, Josh's scenes saying goodbye to Billy are the best of Robert Newman's career.

As a viewer, it now surprises me that there aren't A and B versions of the outro. Did soaps just not have them at that time? Or not do them as often? Guiding Light had two version when they went to the "My Guiding Light" theme, there was the Vanessa/Nola opening, and there was the Billy/Mindy opening.

Especially when the opening has a lot of missing major players.

Characters included: Blake, Billy, Ed&Maureen (lousy fake small picture) Alex, Roger, Hamp, Mindy, Mallet, Vanessa, Dylan, Harley.

No Ross, Holly, Samantha, Alan-Michael, Nadine (not that I mind...) Maybe that's why they did all the actors over the long closing credits. That was easily edited (I guess). This episode also features the long crawl, and Robert Newman is already out, while Grant and Beth Chamberlain are still in.

I only ever saw a partial version of this episode until now so put the full version on Youtube. I don't think we're in a hurry go to back to 1996 but @alwaysAMC as you finished this period not long ago you may enjoy it.

@P.J. I also found an ad about Billy's return to Springfield. Those "wilder/wilder than ever" ads are so absurd. Beth Ehlers looks like she is about to crack up. I can't believe they even had Daniel Pilon do one with Alan's wheelchair.

Guiding Light promo (1989)

I am up to November 26, 1991. Finally the Daniel St. John story went somewhere-the body of Jean Weatherill was just found in the pool. This really, really dragged.

I'm sort of amused by this long con of Suzanne who was just super sketchy for what, 8 months before it was revealed she was working for Roger? Or did it just feel like that long? Her actions from the beginning screamed I AM NOT WHO I SEEM from day one. ("I will work for free! Anything at all I just need THIS job! I am not sus, nope, not at all!"). It's a little alarming for the DA to be this gullible haha

I said it upthread, but it's sort of amazing how any attractive woman can pretty easily con Ross. I know he's about to get duped by Blake (in the beginning), which leads to tensions when Dinah dupes him, which leads to more tensions when Amanda dupes him. (Ross got really bailed out IMO by Blake sleeping with Rick because he was really terrible to Blake during the Amanda stuff-he kept gaslighting her that Amanda had no interest in him and that Blake was crazy as Blake was slowly disintegrating with insecurity and would get mad at HER for not trusting him.)

Random observation from this time period: it amuses me that Sam and Alan Michael look like siblings when Sam has zero physical resemblance to Phillip.

Now that the Daniel St John story is moving forward I will be very happy to see this Nick paternity plot finally move forward (even if I wasn't spoiled could it have ended up any other way really?).