10 minutes ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

Donna, that is the most creative metaphor I have ever read.  LOL.   I think I want you on my writing team.  

Why thanks! Count me in. 

Who was responsible for that hideous Pied Piper story that Maureen had to play? Between Holly stealing children & Phillip stealing children, there was real family endangerment! Okay, that's not a word. 

On 12/27/2023 at 12:22 AM, Vee said:

Except for one thing, when he literally throws that creep Grady off a cliff and no one ever finds out!

That scene with the obvious doll going over the ledge might have been one of the most unintentionally-funny scenes I've seen. I am not ashamed to admit I cackled. 

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Who was responsible for that hideous Pied Piper story that Maureen had to play? Between Holly stealing children & Phillip stealing children, there was real family endangerment! Okay, that's not a word. 

That was still Esensten and Brown in late 1998-early 1999.

12 minutes ago, Dan said:

That was still Esensten and Brown in late 1998-early 1999.

Well, I was taught not to speak ill of the dead & I think Barbara Esensten died in 2012. 

But, I thought James Harmon Brown wrote an AWFUL MEAN-SPIRITED story. I didn't like what he wrote on some ABC soap either! 

BTW since the Nursery Rhyme stalker mess got mentioned. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Jenna killed off because Fiona spoke out about the MZ firing or is that just scuttle butt that got speculated? 

5 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

But, I thought James Harmon Brown wrote an AWFUL MEAN-SPIRITED story.

Don't leave me hanging, spill! If you don't want to get into it, please give a brief clue and I can probably research it or figure it out for myself. I didn't watch GL that much the last ten years. Thanx!

On 12/6/2023 at 11:14 AM, Soapsuds said:

Btw nice to see you around posting again @Dan. Hope things are going well. We haven't talked in ages.😂 

That's @Soapsuds. I don't often get here since I have no interest whatsoever of the current soaps, but I always try to stop by when I can. I still love going into the archives and I'm thrilled that alot of the bandstandmike archive got reposted to YouTube to enjoy. I will still go down that rabbit hole at times

1 minute ago, Dan said:

I have no interest whatsoever of the current soaps

I couldn't agree more!!

3 minutes ago, China Jones said:

Don't leave me hanging, spill! If you don't want to get into it, please give a brief clue and I can probably research it or figure it out for myself. I didn't watch GL that much the last ten years. Thanx!

I don't think there is any real juicy gossip about it. Donna just mentioned the Nursery Rhyme stalker mystery from 1998/1999 that completely trashed Holly's character but fit in with the archetype that Rauch/E&B/MADD followed that women could only be saints or one-note, conniving psychopaths. 

13 minutes ago, Dan said:

That's @Soapsuds. I don't often get here since I have no interest whatsoever of the current soaps, but I always try to stop by when I can. I still love going into the archives and I'm thrilled that alot of the bandstandmike archive got reposted to YouTube to enjoy. I will still go down that rabbit hole at times

You're kidding!!! REALLY. What good tidings you have brought me! And, hey! I didn't recognize you with no last name!

Always great to see you chiming in @Dan! 🙂

16 minutes ago, China Jones said:

Don't leave me hanging, spill! If you don't want to get into it, please give a brief clue and I can probably research it or figure it out for myself. I didn't watch GL that much the last ten years. Thanx!

Oh, you know it! The Nursery Rhyme Stalker? Holly kidnapped all of the kids. MG had two totally hateful things to do at GL in the last decade. This was one & Sebastian kidnapping her & kissing her, was the other. I just always call it that dreadful Pied Piper story & then I try to blank it out of my mind! 

8 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

You're kidding!!! REALLY. What good tidings you have brought me! And, hey! I didn't recognize you with no last name!

I found it posted under username Blake Marler, but it seems like a whole lot of the bandstandmike archive seems to be there.

As far as the no last name, that's just a remnant I haven't changed from my days wayyyyyyyyyy back when I was on the SON staff as a mod/GL columnist. We all had our first name. It's been a long time. 😂

8 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

Always great to see you chiming in @Dan! 🙂

Appreciate you all! Wish life was a bit less hectic that I could get here more often! 

Edited December 29, 20231 yr by Dan

40 minutes ago, Dan said:

I found it posted under username Blake Marler, but it seems like a whole lot of the bandstandmike archive seems to be there.

I will look for it! 

40 minutes ago, Dan said:

As far as the no last name, that's just a remnant I haven't changed from my days wayyyyyyyyyy back when I was on the SON staff as a mod/GL columnist. We all had our first name. It's been a long time. 😂

I chgd too. When you last saw me I was Tonksadora. 

40 minutes ago, Dan said:

Appreciate you all! Wish life was a bit less hectic that I could get here more often! 

I just get more behind. Isn't that what life is all about?!! 🤨😉😶😀👌

5 hours ago, chrisml said:

I'm not going to dispute that Conboy and Weston were a menace, but on an episode by episode basis, I found them somewhat compelling. I didn't stop watching the show as I did with other regimes. I also appreciated the Maryanne Carruthers (sp?) story was meant to bring the actors into one umbrella story. While I appreciated it and it had its moments, it was still one big illogical and tortured mess. The obsession with Marty West and the baseball set made no sense either. However, I'll take that regime over the show during the post-Maureen's death, Amish Reva, and San Cristobel periods (I'm assuming those three periods had different producers, but I could be wrong]. I have a vague recollection of Reva being obsessed with a painting, but I might be misremembering as I came and went as a viewer.

This is kinda where I ended up. I started watching in fall 1998 when Essensten and Harmon Brown so my standards weren´t that high. I didn´t think the Maryanne Carrouthers story was any worse than what I had seen of the Annabelle/Eli Simms story which had, at that time, a more mixed reaction than it has now. I thought Carrie Nye was deliciousy campy as Carolyn Carrouthers (I was seventeen, sue me).

I remember learning to appreciate some actors I hadn´t under Conboy. Beth Chamberlain, no longer a lead but a supporting role, gave some very emotional performances as Beth that I hadn´t seen in her previous stories where she was donning a wig and an accent and writing romance novels. I feel like David Andrew Macdonald´s Edmund also seemed to find some humanity in a character who shouldn´t have had any. 

Also, the Conboy produced Culliton/Taggart episodes were the perfect mix of style and substance and I don´t regret that very short period at all. 

Conboy´s biggest issue to me was he hadn´t worked in daytime in over 15 years. The Internet had changed the way viewers interacted with the show. When he was quoted as saying  he couldn´t understand why Bradley Cole had been fired given all the outcry, I knew that he was too far gone to really make an impact. No one wanted to lead ¨Guiding Light¨ in terms of headwriters or producers. 

Seeing what happened a few years later, I would have liked to have seen how a Gary Tomlin produced show embracing more of his ¨Days of our Lives¨ style rather than his ¨One Life to Live¨ work would have done.

In regards to the nudity, Conboy´s love scenes were steamy. I seem to recall he came in right off the bat and had a very intense encounter with Grant Alexander and Crystal Chappell where Chappell´s chest was heavily featured. The mentioned Shayne and Marina scene was noteable because Shayne was paralyzed at the time. I´m surprised the Shayne scene got them fined because, if I recall correctly, that was a December/January scene and it was Daniel Cosgrove´s butt on display in February in a shower scene with Deborah Zoe´s Eden. Mark Collier had a similar scene at ¨As the World Turns¨ around the same time. 

1 hour ago, Dan said:

I don't think there is any real juicy gossip about it. Donna just mentioned the Nursery Rhyme stalker mystery from 1998/1999 that completely trashed Holly's character but fit in with the archetype that Rauch/E&B/MADD followed that women could only be saints or one-note, conniving psychopaths. 

The Nursery Rhyme Stalker showed the ultimate flaw of the Loving Murders, the story that it was clearly being cribbed from, once the reveal comes out, what do you do with the perpetrator? Be thankful we didn´t have to watch Michelle Bauer put Holly out with a syringe of cleaning fluid. 

Edited December 29, 20231 yr by dc11786