1 hour ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

That is terrible news, re: YouTube!  I had discovered those early '90s episodes way late and was still a year behind the uploads—actually more, because I had hit a brick wall in June 1993.

 

I wasn't enjoying Buzz or Nick this time around, and Barbara Crampton's Mindy never worked for me.  Whereas in previous 1993 episodes there were other stories hitting their stride that held my interest, the focus on Hart and the lead-up to Billy/Vanessa's wedding all seemed so anticlimactic knowing as I did that Leonard Stabb and Jordan Clarke would both be abruptly gone in a matter of months for such unfortunate reasons.

 

I got distracted with the Zoom reunions and, so help me, the Loving murders (if you had told me circa 1999 that I would pass up the opportunity to watch full episodes of GL written by Curlee/Demorest for something written by Esensten and Brown...).  And I even skipped ahead a few weeks ago around the 4th to watch episodes from a year later with the return of the Bauer BBQ, and went down a bit of a rabbithole watching some surrounding scenes of Roger/Holly, Vanessa/Jenna, etc.

 

The 1993 dialogue and acting (for the most part) were still topnotch, though, and I knew full well there was so much exciting story I actually care about coming up in a matter of weeks: David/Kat, Roger/Holly, Holly/Blake...  I should have just skipped ahead.

 

A year or so ago, I recall BandstandMike announcing in the description videos that he was making decades' worth of episodes available on a flash drive, but there was a hard stop by a certain date–which, of course, had long passed by the time I got up to whatever episode that was.  Does anyone know if he ever revisited that offer?
 

Regarding the flash drive...I’m trying to find that out, too. I’m willing to pay. Please let me kow if you find anything out.

Would Barbara Crampton have made a better Tina than Krista Tesreau?

 

Since Buzz has been mentioned a lot lately, someone asked Patrick Mulcahey about the character and his creation on Twitter. Seems like Mulchaey had a lot of personal connection to the character and used him to work out some of his own father issues.

 

He also said that at SB and GL, there wasn't a big firewall between the actors and the writers like there was at other shows, so he got to work with actors and the production staff to really hone-in on characters better.

 

 

10 hours ago, cassadine1991 said:

Would Barbara Crampton have made a better Tina than Krista Tesreau?

 

Probably not. Michael Malone did not understand Tina. 

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

Probably not. Michael Malone did not understand Tina. 

An Evergreen comment from the episodes/clips I've seen of that era.

17 hours ago, Asb23 said:

Regarding the flash drive...I’m trying to find that out, too. I’m willing to pay. Please let me kow if you find anything out.

 

careful with this guys! I’ve seen several reviews on fraud about this guy when selling the dvds and flash drives. 
 

I was looking for information on why the channel got deleted and this was everywhere.   People stating they paid him money and never got anything. 
 

just be careful about sending money. 😘😘

So I was waiting to post this until I got all the way through to the end of the Who Shot Roger? story on YouTube, but now...

 

I was struck by a scene between Henry and Billy just before Billy and Vanessa's wedding, and not just because nearly every scene with William Roerick was a gem.  Billy was insisting that he was going to stay sober, and Henry was dubious that Billy wouldn't find some way to mess up again and hurt Vanessa.  They almost seemed to already be foreshadowing Billy falling off the wagon and trying to kill Roger, even though Jordan Clarke was still on the show.  I had always assumed that wouldn't have happened had Clarke not left so suddenly, but it crossed my mind a few times rewatching the early '90s episodes that maybe the writers really were playing the long game to lay the groundwork for one of the show's patriarchs becoming an attempted murderer all along.

 

For example: when Billy almost strangled Roger at Hamp's restaurant after finding out Mindy had an affair with Roger.  I guess as an adolescent in the '80s and '90s, I was so numb to graphic depictions of violence on-screen that it didn't really register, but that Roger/Billy scene was fairly disturbing, particularly for a soap.  And it was surprising rewatching as an adult that none of the other characters were that taken aback by how out of control Billy was, when so much else about the writing and storytelling at the time made Springfield feel like a living, breathing, interconnected community.  (If memory serves, the next morning Billy was threatening to sue Vanessa for custody of Bill because she went home with some guy.)

 

Maybe that was the point all along...that the whole town contributed to Billy's downfall by turning a blind eye to those kinds of violent outbursts for all those years?  I was particularly hoping to see Roger and Ed's fight at the country club to compare how that was handled, although if memory serves, Ed didn't hurt Roger nearly as bad as Billy had.  (And, at the risk of posting this outside of the politics thread, Ed presumably didn't own a gun...)  Does anyone else think the show would have "gone there" with Billy if they had any other choice?

11 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Since Buzz has been mentioned a lot lately, someone asked Patrick Mulcahey about the character and his creation on Twitter. Seems like Mulchaey had a lot of personal connection to the character and used him to work out some of his own father issues.

 

He also said that at SB and GL, there wasn't a big firewall between the actors and the writers like there was at other shows, so he got to work with actors and the production staff to really hone-in on characters better.

 

 

 

I love Patrick Mulcahey and his work on GL in particular, and I liked Buzz's character back in the '90s, but...

 

I had never seen Buzz's very first episodes until YouTube, and of course it's impossible to watch that now without it being influenced by my opinions about Jill Farren Phelps's subsequent work, but it really seemed like overkill.  And especially jarring coming right after Maureen's death—talk about armchair-Freudian interpretations, the theme of the show for a while there was essentially "Mommy's dead and the the absent Daddy from hell is in charge now."

 

Buzz also could have had the story PM described without taking over the whole show.  I liked Buzz/Jenna from what I saw in later months/years, but did JD really need to be thrust into a(nother) story with one of the show's leading ladies right off the bat?  I know Jenna had Daddy issues of her own, and my teen self had a complete crush on Michael Zaslow in the '90s so I'm not being ageist, but at times it was just too much watching her make herself miserable because Buzz and Roger weren't paying enough attention to her.  At least she could have told them both to go to hell and hooked up with Henry, and had some happiness.

I also have to question how many cast members got to call writers and complain around this time—probably not just anyone who'd joined the show less than a year ago.  Could Beverlee McKinsey?  Or Ellen Parker?

On 7/22/2020 at 8:36 AM, Mitch said:

Tangie was brought on to combat the return of Luke and Laura on GH. I no doubt thought that they wanted to bring Zimmer back then but JFP wouldn' t do it so she threw out another "big name" in her place. I actually didn't mind Tangie at first..she came off as tough and was different..but her weird backstory and I never saw Walker as a romantic lead..

 

Yes, JFP was looking for a splash to counter L&L's return. A Martinez has said she approached him around this time to join GL, but he had a new baby and didn't want to leave LA. I suspect (bot no proof) that JFP had him in mind to play Detective Cutter, who debuted in October 1993. Cutter was a creation of the writers' to replace permanently-honeymooning cops Harley & Mallet and went forward with Scott Hoxby in the role. But still wanting her big splash, JFP moved down the list and asked Marcy Walker to join GL with no character or story in place. In interviews from around that time, even MW says she didn't know much about the character. Turns out no one did for too long although I'm surprised MW's good friend, Patrick Mulcahey, who knew her from even before their SB days, didn't give her character more definition.

 

Mark Derwin, in one of the recent quarantine interviews, said that JFP asked him and Beth Ehlers to stay in 1993 specifically because L&L were returning to GH. But he and BE were determined to head west. So JFP hatched another plan. You can't really blame her, and she was using the connections she had to stay competitive with a resurgent GH. The wrinkle, of course, is that Kim Zimmer was unemployed in '93 and wanted back on GL, but JFP fought it and won. Reva's return probably would have solved everything and kept GL competitive. But JFP was pleased with post-Reva GL and had other ideas.

Edited July 26, 20205 yr by redontop4
typo

2 hours ago, redontop4 said:

Cutter was a creation of the writers' to replace permanently-honeymooning cops Harley & Mallet and went forward with Scott Hoxby in the role. But still wanting her big splash, JFP moved down the list and asked Marcy Walker to join GL with no character or story in place. In interviews from around that time, even MW says she didn't know much about the character. Turns out no one did for too long although I'm surprised MW's good friend, Patrick Mulcahey, who knew her from even before their SB days, didn't give her character more definition.

 

Good point.  Why didn't he?

37 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

Good point.  Why didn't he?

 

He was too busy working out his daddy issues with the Buzz character is my theory 

14 hours ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

Could Beverlee McKinsey?  

 

We know she hated how vindictive Alexandra had turned in the last year of her run with the Mindy storyline and that played some minor part in her deciding it was time for her to retire.
The question, though, is did she ever say something? She had interviewed many times that she was not interested in influencing the writing on any show she has been on. Her job was acting whatever is written for one and her acting was just her job, for two. 
Would it have influenced the writing if she had said something? I dunno but I doubt it. They didn't listen to her asking for a lighter schedule so I doubt they would have listened to the substance of the writing.

I think this is Nancy St. Alban?

 

(this ad is annoying as hell)