Thanks so much Carl! As usual, very great stuff!

Best Recast - Tina (Krista Tesreau), OLTL

Say what??

Loving did improve in 1994--I'd love to see that write up.

I remember loving the Wildwind dinner/breakfast scenes.

You would think that as head of Pine Valley's royal family, Count Dimitri Marick could keep his in-laws in line, but even he can't stop the fur - and food - from flying at the dinner table. One night, the strudel went soggy as Edmund accused Maria of having an affair. "So how long have you and Del been lovers?" he seethed. Only Kendall wasn't at a loss for words. "It's nice to see that I'm not the only one who gets into trouble, and by the way, could you please pass the butter?" smirked Ms. Hart (before staging her own delicious battle with Julia). And who can forget the night that smart-mouthed Noah dropped by for supper? "So this is what they serve at Weirdwind!" he said, picking at his salad.

If you're looking for the best in Continental cuisine, wangle yourself an invite to Wildwind, where someone's head is sure to be served on a platter.

If we had written this issue eight months ago, LOVING probably would have been contending for a lot more Worsts and no Bests whatsoever. But it's amazing what a new villainess, a drug problem and a resurrected patriarch can do for a show. Deborah's schemes, Casey's addiction and Cabot's return from the dead have kicked off a slew of storylines that we actually care about. The writing is better and has resulted in a number of scenes - Buck's plane crash, Cooper streaking through the bank and Isabelle making Deborah carry her suitcases, to mention three - that will long be remembered.

Dennis Parlato (Clay), Ameila Heinle (Steffi), Nancy Addison Altman (Deborah) and Michael Weatherly (Cooper) tend to get the accolades where this show's acting is concerned, but the truth is, almost everyone's good; it's just that those four performers are consistently front-burner. We look forward to the days when Debbi Morgan (Angie), Alimi Ballard (Frankie), Geoffrey Ewing (Charles), Catherine Hickland (Tess) and Elizabeth Mitchell (Dinah Lee) aren't so shockingly underused.

Of course, mistakes have been made this year. Jamie, the freshest face that Corinth had seen in a while, should never had died in the plane crash, and Christopher Marcantel (Curtis) should not have been dropped to recurring status. But the show has recovered nicely from the departures, and Alex and Ava (Randolph Mantooth and Lisa Peluso) have filled the void created by Leo and Shana's sudden exit.

With LOVING's unfortunate time slot (it kicks off the ABC lineup and in many areas competes with YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) nobody's holding their breath for the show to crawl up from the ratings cellar. But it would be a shame if soap fans confused this show's Nielsen ratings with its quality; LOVING is slowly but surely becoming a show that you really shouldn't miss.

John/Sharlene really are the most boring couple i have ever tried to watch.

Most Preposterous Plot - Janet's plastic surgery, AMC

But Robin Mattson sold the HELL out of it. I absolutely LOVED her as Janet, especially in the early years. Somehow, she always made you sympathize with Janet, a feat that Kate Collins never really accomplished IMO.

Loved Robin Mattson as Janet-From-Another-Planet, but I wasn't watching AMC when Kate Collins returned to reprise the role. How did they explain Janet looking like she did before her plastic surgery??? (Forgive me if this has already been discussed to death, but I'm new!)

They didn't explain, I don't believe.

They didn't explain. I guess we were supposed to forget that Janet ever had facial surgery.

Yeah that was lame, though I have enjoyed, with mixed reactions depending on the time, Kate in the role.

The Janet plastic surgery was so over the top soap (remember the great "This Is Your Life" episode with her all banadged up? Some of that was filmed by director Goutman as a hommage to the famous Twilight Zone episode). Yet I really think int his case the actor and the writing made it work. It was a gamble for a show like AMC (though AMC had done wacky plots iwth mixed results before) but IMHO the sum justified the means.

Mood-altering pearls....yep. Sounds like DAYS circa 1994 to me. I still don't love the idea of Jamie Lyn Bauer as a recast Laura, when Laura was always a natural blonde (I remember reading Marlena's first episode's script on Jason47's site where they mention that detail about Laura), obviously it's a minor thing, but it's there. It'd be somewhat akin to replacing Jennifer with a non-blonde, rly.

And as for Jensen Buchanan, I never remotely liked her as Vicky (never really saw much of her Marley). It came off like everything that made Anne Heche's Vicky jump out at you was toned down 10x when JB took over. All of the edge was gone. I may not be remembering it right, but her Vicky always put me right to sleep.

Watching the lead-up to Roger's shooting was so amazing. Alex's toast to Nick and Mindy was gold, and the chaos immediately afterwards was priceless too (if a bit messy). Michael Zaslow's Roger is pretty much my favourite soap character ever, I could watch him all day and night.

Edited December 15, 201014 yr by beebs

I've been so meaning to reply to this!

I'm curious to see the write up on Jason Biggs' Pete. I don't remember liking the story much mainly having Julie have missing kids just dumped upon her, though kind of funny. On the flip side, I don't remember Cal/Connor/Kirk being bad but you know I was more interested Holden/Lily/Damien and I never cared much for Cal either.

Best Wacko should have gone too Janice on ATWT or somebody else. Speaking of ATWT, yes Scott being missing was a mess before they dropped it. Wasn't he smuggling stuff and Lisa discovered it?

Most Dramatic Story - Jack and Keemo, Y&R

Most dramatic? More like coma-inducing.

I agree and sadly my favorite Y&R story of '94 which was April murdering Robert was so much more dramatic and was still even overlooked then as it played out. It's a shame that neither Cindy Eilbacher nor Conci Nelson(Kay Alden's daughter) were written out and not brought back.

Least Realistic Couple - Ashley/Blade, Y&R

Amen. No way would the luminous Brenda Epperson's Ashley have fallen for that dud. They should have put her with Brad- it was such a wasted opportunity. While Diamont has had chemistry with pretty much every actress he's ever been paired with, he never sizzled with them in quite the same way he did Epperson. They were the hotness.

I agree and I always wondered why Ashley was paired up with a brand new character. Michael Tylo was talented back in the day but he always seemed awkward on Y&R though he did well as evil Rick at least. Not too mention their story turned into one big hot mess in 1994.

Biggest Waste of Talent - Michael Sabatino, B&B

Double Amen. Anthony Armando was one of the worst, most forgettable characters ever to grace B&B. Even putting him in story with Sally Spectra didn't help- in fact, the always colorful Darlene Conley only seemed to make him more dull in comparison.

Another hot mess because the story turned convoluted so quickly. My god Ivana was brutally murdered just for this!

Who Shot Roger? was a great tale I loved Roger hiding in Holly's basement with that bullet stuck in him. The Spauldings had weird stories in '94, from Alex's little scandalous photo reveal at Nick and Mindy's wedding (I could have cared less), Alan the Japanese businessman, and then the Alan/Tangie/A-M triangle which was boring.

I don't remember the photo reveal. What was that? I agree that they had odd stories. The Mr. Tashewa stuff I laughed at and hated at the same time -- I still remember that bad Japanese accent as he sat behind a screen. The stuff with Tangie/AM/Alan was so dull, he should have been with Gilly. I barely stayed interested in GL in 94, when I got a chance to watch. For me the highlight was the Bridget/Vanessa custody battle and Julie going after Frank.

I wonder if they paired Ashley with Blade because they struggled to write story for her. Her relationships with Brad and Victor were very complex and the show didn't seem to want to fully resolve them. They did this another time too, with Stephen Lassiter, didn't they?

I will write up the stuff you mentioned in a little bit. At the time I really enjoyed Pete/Julie. I liked the idea of this kid making Julie's life a mess, yet they also respected each other on some level. This kicked into high gear when Julie took Damian's ransom money and Pete helped her. I liked that story. I hated to see Julie go but at least she left on a good note. Let's not talk about the stories which later dumped Aaron off on her (as if!) and then wrote her as dying for about five years

I don't remember much about Cal/Connor/Kirk. I think I missed a lot of ATWT at that time, and I was angry about Shannon's botched return and about Iva and Lyla being written out.

Janice was the best. Holly Cate played the hell out of that role! Oakdalian put up some stuff of her from Thanksgiving 1993 where she is wearing silly outfits to try to sell herself as being a simple girl, and she's trying to get out of the Hughes Thanksgiving, she keeps giving awkward glances. As soon as Meg meets Janice she sees right through her.

Alex tried stopping Nick and Mindy's second wedding with a slideshow of some uncompromising photos of Nick in bed but ultimately the wedding continued on and Alex was kicked out.

It's an interesting parallel between Blade and Stephen, both characters played by well known daytime stars(Rod Arrants and Michael Tylo), both men having crazy women from their past(Leanna Love and Mari Jo), and both meeting tragic demises (plane crash and car crash). I always thought Bell must have loved Ashley as a character because he never wrote her out and was kept on the front burner a lot, even when her stories were not too good.

I wish Holly Cate did more in daytime and it's a shame her Janice is not up there with Daytime's other great psychos.

ATWT was generally written off by the time Janice was peaking, which is a shame, as she was great. I've sometimes felt that her success made ATWT comfortable enough to bring Carly in, because the psycho before Janice, Debbie Simon, was terrible.

I do think Bill Bell must have been fond of Ashley, as he tried to keep her going no matter what -- Ashley is a tough character to cast and to write for and it has showed onscreen. I liked Brenda Dumani, I'm sorry she didn't get more chances. The whole Blade/Rick thing never made sense to me. I mostly just liked Mari Jo.

Thanks for reminding me about the wedding thing. You can see how fond my memories are of Nick/Mindy or of Alex at that time. They degraded Alex so much not long after Marj took over. I felt for her.

On the Y&R stuff from earlier, I actually really liked the Keemo story, I thought it was the type of big weepy melodrama which Peter Bergman is better at than the other aspects of Jack. I also liked Laun, and the love story. I hated the end though.

The April story was great. Wonderful acting from Cynthia and Doug and the ending was a heartbreaker. I still can't believe they had April come back for like 2 days with Rebecca Staab. Just more disrespect for history.

I wonder if they paired Ashley with Blade because they struggled to write story for her.

Not really.

Bill had plans for Blade but Tylo/Epperson had NO chemistry & Tylo himself couldn't carry the story.

I hated the end though.

*cough*blamebergman*cough*