2 hours ago, EricMontreal22 said:

We also have the introduction of some major new characters. Including Matteo (who actually in his opening episodes is better than I remembered) and the Santos parents.

One thing I didn't remember from watching 20 years ago was that Hayley referred to Mateo as "Matt" in his first few episodes. It really caught me off guard during this rewatch.

3 hours ago, Jonathan said:

One thing I didn't remember from watching 20 years ago was that Hayley referred to Mateo as "Matt" in his first few episodes. It really caught me off guard during this rewatch.

I think initially they thought he would usually go by Matt, in general, even Julia calls him that at one point? In the later August/Sep episodes he seems to get called both but yeah, pretty quickly I remember them only ever calling him Mateo.

Mona was the first soap (and soap actor) death I experienced I think, and even though I'd only been watching for two and a half years before, it really affected me.

Are full episodes from Karen Lynn Gorney's return as Tara in the mid 90's online? I saw a few brief clips years ago on youtube but they are not coming up in my search. I remember thinking at the time she seemed to be awkward like she was a few beats behind in responding to dialogue. She was also made up to look matronly with her hair in a bun and little old lady clothes. Did she have any scenes with Susan Lucci (Erica)?

11 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

Are full episodes from Karen Lynn Gorney's return as Tara in the mid 90's online? I saw a few brief clips years ago on youtube but they are not coming up in my search. I remember thinking at the time she seemed to be awkward like she was a few beats behind in responding to dialogue. She was also made up to look matronly with her hair in a bun and little old lady clothes. Did she have any scenes with Susan Lucci (Erica)?

It was early 1996 right? I don't think I've come across them--obviously she was on when Kelsey moved in with the Martins. I also seem to recall she wasn't on very much (a couple of episodes?) and I don't think she interacted with much of the cast.

(Oddly, I don't remember her returning for the January 1995 anniversary week when SO many past characters came to the Martins' new house warming but I haven't watched those in a while, and some of the actors barely got more than one line.)

I do remember reading at the time an interview where she was very clearly actively campaigning to return to the show in a more permanent capacity--and also remember hearing gossip (and I have nothing to verify this at all, so I don't want to be unfair) that she was difficult to work with... I don't know if this meant her behaviour, or she had trouble falling back into the soap opera rhythm, or what. Her subsequent screen credits are nearly non existent (a waitress in the show Six Degrees which I actually watched but forgot even existed...) but she HAS done a relatively fair amount of theatre work, mostly regional, since which makes me assume it wasn't an issue memorizing lines, although it takes different muscles to memorize lines for a soap than for a show you rehearse for a few weeks. She's still alive--has anyone heard anything from her in the past while?