Classic SOD Synopses section (December 10, 1991 issue)

[DRW50]

Sly just vanished didn't he?

Oh and I wanted to thank Darcy again for her great recap of the Craig and Will stories.

[soapfan770]

[yr9190]

So apparently Reily helped Days rating throughout the 90s? (first time at least) Days was always said to be the most popular soap back then, so i wonder why it was rated so low? It seemed in the bottom with the other NBC soaps (which doesnt surprise me if u catch my drift)

[DRW50]

So Reilly didn't write any of the John/Marlene airplane sex then? Did they start up again later under his pen and that's when Sami caught them?

Were Sturges and Easton fired or did they leave?

[Bright Eyes]

John and Marlena only had sex twice. The airplane, then the more famous conference room at Titan where Sami saw them.

[yr9190]

GUIDING LIGHT:

Henry fears Alex is taking her obsession too far when she secretly sabotages Nick's network job. Vera's also concerned after Alex admits she thinks Nick is her son. Meanwhile, Mindy tells Billy she's moving to New York with Nick. When McHenry arrives at the Springfield airport, he's thrilled to spot Mindy desperately trying to book a flight to New York. the duo rush off to the lighthouse to make love.

FATAL ATTACTIONS:

Roger does his best to keep an eye on Holly while trying to tack down Jean. He and Holly wind up in a sticky situation when they get locked in the basement of WSPR's studio. First Holly is terrified at the though of being trapped with Roger, but then she begins to realize that he's not the same monster anymore. Later, Daniel finds them and flies into a jealous rage.

THE TRUTH, AT LAST:

After Dylan warns Bridget to tel Mallet and the Bauers the truth, Elvis kidnaps her. Once again, Hart rescues Bridget. But when she comes clean, Mo and Ed find the truth as unbelievable as her tall tales- until Hart drags Elvis through the door.

THIS IS WAR:

When Alex learns Nick left the airport with Mindy, she sneaks into the lighthouse and discovers they're lovers. With Nick out fetching dinner, the women have a heated confrontation. Alex then tracks Billy down at the Blue Moon and tells him- and everyone else, including Nick- what a lying tramp his "princess" really is. Afraid Billy will kill Roger, Vanessa urges Thorpe to scram before he's spotted, but unfortunately it's too late.

TOWN TOPICS:

Alan-Michael tries to snow vanessa with kindness, but she isn't fooled.... Little Billy pleads with his father to stop Vanessa from dating so many men.... Harley's touched when A.C. throws her a birthday party. Unfortunately, the murder of a fellow cop runis the evening, but sheds new light on Mallet's sensitive side.... When Daniel slacks off at work, Ed gives him a warning.

Billy beats Roger to a pulp, but Hamp breaks it up before he murders Thorpe. Although Billy won't even acknowledge Mindy as his daughter, Nick's feelings for her are unaffected by Alex's announcement. In fact, Nick's furious when he realizes that Alex nixed his network job. She treis to explain, claiming that he's her son. Digusted, Nick replies, "After what i've seen tonight, who'd want to be your child?" Meanwhile, Holly stuns everyone by taking Roger to the hospital.

A TANGLED WEB:

After Hart convinces Ed that Bridget is telling the truth for once, Ed and Mo agree to let her stay on at Springfield. Ed then tricks Elvis into confessing to the police.

While explaining the facts to Mallet, Bridget slips about Hart and Julie's relationship. Livid, A.C. decides to ship Julie back to New York. Harley intervines, comparing Mallet to Francesca's father. As A.C. angrily tells her to butt out, Hart and Julie decide to run away.

LIES AND BETRAYAL:

Feeling betrayed, Billy rips into Vanessa for not telling him about the affair. Shaken, she spends the night with her business date. Discovering his mom never came home, Little Billy runs to his father's house.

Nadine berates Vanessa, Mindy and Dylan for their lack of loyalty, but a call from Roger has her shaking: Thorpe reminds Nadine of the Lewis Oil blueprints she once traded him for the LOVE BUG show.

HOUSE SHOPPING:

Frank decides to buy a house for himself and Eleni. Mallet advises him to admit his true feelings to her. Later, A-M tells Eleni that he and Blake are just friends, but Blake tells her a different story. That night, A-M and Blake hit the streets.

THE AFTERMATH:

Blake's hurt because Roger didn't confide in her about the affair.... Holly accuses Thorpe of being noble in Acapulco because he already had his hands full with Mindy.... Flecther's had it with Alex.... A-M is stunned to learn Alex thinks Nick is her son.... Hart reads Roger the riot act regarding his adultery.

PARTY POOPER:

Jean informs Roger that she plans to bring Daniel down during his congratulatory party.Thorpe loves the idea, but warns her against revealing their conspiracy. Later, Daniel corners Jean in her hotel room. She's scared by his calm attempts to silence her and managages to escape. Realizing Jean plans to expose his past during the party, Daniel enlists Sam's help.

CLIMBING THE FAMILY TREE:

Nick and Mindy reveal their love for each other. then cautions Alex to stay out of his life. However, he's confused when she shows him a videotape of Lujack. Hoping to prove he has no connection to Alex, Nick and Mindy take off for San franscisco, Nick's birthplace.

[DRW50]

I did not like the story of Alex's obsession with Nick then and when I watch clips I still don't like it. Vincent is a great actor and he was fine as Lujack and is fine on AMC and objectively I can see he was also OK as Nick but there was such a smugness and dismissiveness in Nick's character - and generally in most of the new characters JFP basically dropped onto the show expecting viewers to love them automatically - and it was almost painful to watch Mindy and Alex both be reduced to humiliating themselves over him over and over and over again. JFP never had any idea what to do with him, and once they couldn't hide behind Beverlee and Kim Simms anymore, it showed, giving us wonderful stories like psycho Eve smashes Malibu Mindy's windscreen. Even now, the memory of the way he said "Melinda" or "Alexandra" makes me cringe.

Oddly enough the only time I thought they got the character right was in his last year on the show, with Susan. Oh well.

[Mitch]

Hate, hate,hated Nick and still can't stand Irrizary because of that character. He WAS smug and selfrighteous and that annoying fake laugh of his. I know that Harley and Mallet were the supercouple at that time but I think that Kim Simms and the Mallet actor would have freakin' torn it up with the heat (never really like Ehlers Harley as a heroine, she was always a shrill harridan to me.)

[DRW50]

I loved Mallet and Mindy when they had moments together, like at the end of the Francesca story when he was crying and she was holding him. I know that they might have worked best as friends but they just had a lot of natural chemistry to me, and the characters were good contrasts. I think that I was annoyed because I liked Harley with Alan-Michael and Josh and didn't want to see her with someone else but at the time I just thought Mallet was always yelling at her and she would yell back and there was no real pleasure there.

A lot of the time when I see this stuff again I think that it might be one of those situations where my feelings at the time were so strong I can never totally get over them, and that I lump some of that together with my upset over so much of GL changing at that time (many of my favorite characters leaving and being replaced by people who annoyed me). I think the story worked as an extension of Alexandra and her pain, and once it stopped being about that and started being about Alex scheming against Mindy and Nick it just wasn't as good. Then when Beverlee left all the years of history left. If it had been me, with Marj, I would have made Nick and Alex close fairly quickly and moved her into other stories and broken Nick and Mindy up for good, either put him with a non-crazy Eve, or with someone else, like Gilly, or Tangie. I know it isn't that simple but my memories of Marj for years were her being all but spat on by Nick and then going around flapping her arms at Roger.

[Mitch]

Hated Marj the first time around...she was such a contrast to Bev's cool, controlled Alex. EVERYONE got the best of Marj's Alex! However, I did like her when she returned the last time and they were still writing for Joan Collins. Marj can really bring the intimidation on, (while still being more huffing and puffing then Joan or Bev were.) But then they started writing Alex shitty again. I did watch the you tube where Alex confronts NotAnnie in the Spaudling attic and I really liked it (but typical E and B and Rauch, they dropped that, Alex vs. Annie would be so much more interesting then Reva/Josh against her yet again.) It also made me again think on why they just didnt bring Marj in as a new character to take Alex's place, a white trash woman who married/inherited Spaudling stock, or a Lewis with stock. She was great as a more out there street Alex, so would have loved to see her as an outsider who is a thorn in Alan's side all the time.

[DRW50]

I feel like JFP was threatened by Alex, who was such a strong character, even when weakened she had such a strong inner presence. In some ways Beverlee might have sensed this and wisely left when she could.

The writing for Alex was awful for ages but around 1995 I just kind of gave up and started enjoying her buffoonish, comic scenes. She and Gil Rogers had great comic chemistry together -- although I don't think that relationship was ever brought up again after McTavish/Laibson were out.

I still roll my eyes when I remember Rauch saying that Alex was a female Alan. That was never true. They were great together. Marj and Ron Raines (he had more chemistry with her than he had with a lot of people on the canvas), there were some fun scenes like when he was in rehab for some attack or something and she went to visit and ate his food. And of course Beverlee and Chris.

[Mitch]

Bev was complaining that they were making Alex too mean. She was right as they just had her coming in between Mindy and Nick for far too long. (Though I do remember that great scene of Mindy in bed, and Alex comes up and strokes her hair, she thinks its Nick and looks up and shriecks that it is Alex, who then grabs her hair and pulls it hard.)

I love that scene of Alex and Alan laughing at Reva and Kyle's wedding. The two actors really did act like they were the manor born. This was such a badly written period of GL, but they still got Alan and Alex right, fighting for dominance but loving each other. When Marj came on and RR was cast, they never got it right, it was either Alex was downright mean to Alan or he stepped all over her (well Taggert had them right, JC's Alex just seemed to delight in toying with her "brotha," and trading jabs and schemeing. Her Alex had fun fighting with Alan while Bev's Alex fighting with Alan came with more angst. ) I guess I was too young but I never realized how sexy Bernau's Alan was..hot daddy indeed!

Was this the trip to San Rios and that dumb ass Encontradora and Alex being held hostage by that dictator?

I have to say, watching that scene, remember when soaps had the money to pay for extras. Cedars was hustling and bustling there...soaps dont seem as rich without that hint that a real world is going on around these characters.

[DRW50]

The problem was the story was shifting more and more towards Alex being some bitter shrew jealous of Mindy, which was basically what the writing was when Marj and Crampton came along. It wasn't about Alex. The whole thing bothered me because there are much more creative ways of causing conflict in a storyline. Wouldn't it cause even more conflict if they DID try to get along? And you can cause conflict in a relationship while not opposing the relationship. I was watching a lot of the old stuff from 1985 or so that everydayrebellions has posted, and even though Alex was a big supporter of Beth/Lujack, she still ended up causing them problems, because of her involvement in the Andy Ferris story. She also got the chance to have what I would call "Alex moments" back then, just fun, silly little camp scenes or confrontations or outfits, yet the scenes still let Alex keep her dignity. Alex had few of those by the time Beverlee left, everything was very serious and depressing. I guess that's one of the reasons I loved Joan's Alex immediately, because she also got to have those fun moments. I wonder how Beverlee felt about her.

I miss the extras sometimes, especially at the soap trials. I think what I really miss is the sense of confidence. Like with the Spauldings, they were, in the show's last decade or so, often portrayed as just being trash with money. It's just more entertaining to see people who act rich and who are isolated from the world because of their wealth and elitism. When I watch the old stuff, John Bolger exudes that so much, and along with his good looks, it helps make his Phillip believable to me, even though I know Aleksander is the one who most truly understood the role and played the angst to a tee.

Sometimes I wonder how much money was being burnt around 85-86 in lieu of stories but damn if some of these locations, like Kurt and Mindy's wedding, or Reva running from her wedding in that green cape, are not breathtaking. And they look so good, whereas some stuff that must have been expensive, like Luke and Laura getting married, felt cheap to me.

I know this has been posted before but anyway:

[juniorz1]

Please do S & Y. I really would like to read the Santa Barbara & Y&R synopses.

[yr9190]

KNOTS LANDING:

The Tidal Energy Corporation needs to win approval from the Shoreline Committee and get the go-ahead for the energey project. The biggest obstacle in their way is Sumner, who holds the majority of the committee members in his pocket.

AND THEN HE KISSED ME:

Kate and Jospeh are growing closer, and Joseph finally gets the nerve to ask her out for dinner. kate gladly accepts, and offers to cook at her place. After dinner he kisses her, but then leaves. Kate is a little hurt because she wanted more. They work things out the next day.

RADIO DAYS:

Anne gets approval from Framingham for a radio show called "Tell Me About It." The show gets off to a slow start, but Benny has his friends call in and things get rolling. Anne is overjoyed. She and Benny celebrate when she gets home.

WHO IS ROSA?:

Claudia is still having nightmares. Karen tells her that she called out the name "Rosa" in her sleep, but the name doesn't ring a bell for Claudia. The next day, she coincidentally receives a letter from Rosa Barth, who was her mother's old nurse.

OLD TRICKS:

Paige undercovers what Sumner has over one of the commitee members and tricks Mort into letting her into the Sumner Group after hours. She swipes some papers from Greg's vault that will help her cause. TEC wins the vote, and Greg realizes just how well he taught Paige.

KILLER INSTINCTS:

Hot on Johnson's trail, Greg's private investigator Phineas gets a lead as to his whereabouts and goes to check it out. Unfortunately, Brian is too quick for him and pumps a bullet into Phineas's head. Greg turns to Mack for help.

IN THE PAST:

Pierce runs into Victoria and offers her a lift. He's relieved that they can be just friends until he learns she called the office looking for him. Paige is worried Victoria won't leave her and Pierce alone.

Anne is a big hit with her phone-in radio show, and has attracted a devoted following. Benny is trying hard to cash in on Anne's success, but to no avail.He then calls in to her show under an assumed name and admits his love for her. She knows it's him and lets him down gently, saying that they are just good friends.

PARTNERS IN CRIME?:

Mack agrees to help Sumner with the Brian Johnston investigation by contacting his buddies at the department. He wants to find out if they are dragging their feet on the case. Karen is proud of him.

CAREER OPTIONS:

The Tidal ENERGY group runs into a snag when it turns out that the prototype was made with nonpermable cement. It's going to cost them a lot of time and money to undo the damage. Pierce and Gary explain to Joseph that they need his undivided attention in this project. He agrees, and leaves the university.

CASUAL SEX?:

Debbie pays Frank a surprise visit in court, and the two get cozy in one of the consultation rooms. On their next date, Debbie tells him that she isn't happy seeing him on such a casual basis. When Frank tells her that he can't give her more, she agrees to keep things the way they are. She goes to Karen for advice, and Karen approaches Frank to get the real story. Frank listens to what Karen has to say, but offers little insight into how he's feeling.

LOVE ME DO:

Kate asks Val for advice about love, and Val later pumps Gary for Joseph's feelings about Kate. Gary tells Val it's none of her business. Jsoeph finally tells kate that he loves her, and they go back to her apartment and have sex. At work, Joseph confides in Pierce about his feelings for Kate.

LIVING IN THE PAST:

A "distressed" Victoria visits Pierce in Paige's apartment, claiming to have lost her purse. He is annoyed, but she tries to soften him up by reminding him of the good times they shared. He orders her to leave, and she asks Pierce if he has told Paige about the secret "the Daedalus." He doesn't answer. She then invites Paige to her apartment in order to check out her competition. Paige is not intimidated, but Victoria implies that Pierce is hiding something. Pierce later goes to Victoria's apartment to tell her, once and for all, that it's over between them.

DEADLY INTENTIONS?:

Sumenr visits Mack at the house, but he isn't there. He sees Meg, who invites him to her birthday party. Sumner confirms his plans for the party later with his secretary as the lurking Brian Johnson listens. The next day he goes to the MacKenzies' with Johnston close at his heels. Johnston hides on the patio, but Meg and Karen accidentally find him. Cornered, Brian aims his gun at Karen's heart.