How rude of these folks to keep bringing up Phil. If Ruth had something to share I'm sure she would, she's probably just trying to have a nice night out.

Did Phil come back after this? I thought he was gone by this time.

How desperate of me to be live bloggging this, lol, sorry guys!

I was doing the same thing in the other thread in the videobash session. Imagine how much ABC would make if they released all this stuff - we'd probably be up all night. I tried to space this out but didn't last a week.

Charlie: Did she give you any (candy)?

Tad: I dittin't 'twan any!

Who knew Charlie was such a little jerk! When Tad stormed off to his room and Charlie said, "Yeah, you're just going up there to...", I 'd for a split second!

For some reason I always thought Ruth was the tough mother and Kate the sweet grandmother, but Kate seems more like the taskmaster here.

Gosh, that was so good! Thanks Eric! I'm so sad now...

Then this would be her last appearance, as the Loving stuff was 93-94.

The actors make all this reunion stuff seem so natural, I guess because it was a reunion for them. I love the way Donna says she just can't help hugging Benny, and all the laughing and joking with everyone. Yet they also include some who will never get along, like Stuart and Enid. It's so beautifully done. I think it's easy to forget at times that AMC did have this big heart, it's just that the last decade didn't always show that (although I guess that lived on through Bianca, at least for a while).

It really is a full on valentine to fans--the way they don't even try to explain who everyone is in fact but just assume long term fans will know is something I kinda respect--that together with the Burnett primetime episode showed how well regarded the soap really was--and I don't think ever quite was again. And yes, there is a ton of heart. I still often saw glimmers of that I guess, especially compared to some other soaps, but a big part of that is nostalgia for when I first started watching and the history I knew. AMC really was a soap (like, of course many others) around families and generations when it was at its best. And I do think that even compared to many other soaps, the appeal of it at its height was really more about hanging out with these characters than wacky plot twists and shocks.

I guess in the context of soaps, where so many insane things happen, and are forgotten, it's strange to me that it was still brought up so often, especially since the show had made Will into the evil of evils and Janet seemed more sympathetic.

This episode also has a flashback to when Jeff proposed to Mary. That must have been 1973, 1974? Is that episode out there? Was it ever on WOST?

Not to the best of my knowledge--nothing pre the 1978 wedding and those 70-71 B&W kinescopes has popped up. WOST had some good episodes from around '81 though...

I believe Dixie always felt that she kinda let Will down, that there could have been some way to save him. Anyway, I think in situations like that people often blame themselves.

Oh yes! She invented mirror Janet.

I don't know if that Jeff/Mary episode was on WoST, Eric will remember. But WoST did have a partial early seventies episode in color.

Yeah, I love that disco clip and I think the original music played was Staying Alive. Would love to see them grooving to the real thing. Erica kills me with the disco whistle. Eric, are you listening our local disco expert? What was the deal with disco whistles, how did they become a thing?

Do forgive me if I mix anything up in reference to the anniversary episodes because I haven't fully rewatched yet, I'm working from memory... 17 years ago! I got the AMC coffee table book as a gag gift from a friend for Christmas, can you believe?? I guess I had it all of ten days when the first anniversary episode aired.

Hrmm is that the colour episode there's like 4 minutes of on youtube?? (And now I can't find the link...) Jeff Mary seemed to really be a big deal at the time, it would be nice to see more.

I've never got the disco whistle thing I know in the early disco days if a man had a whistle it usuallyw as meant to be an indication he was gay and on the prowl (maybe cuz he was "bloawing?" but by 1980 or whenver Pine Valley finally got the disco thing it had all become fairly mainstream kitsch).

(And that's a great gag gift! )

I think this was his last appearance. I remember seeing ol' Lang another random time before this and I honestly that may have been in '92 or something and we made a big deal about seeing him. I just remember that he was in a turtleneck and blazer and he had gained weight, or at least looked fuller in the face. When I saw him on that Shelley Taylor Morgan/Michael Logan E! show he was rather thin, I think that's when he was sick. They talked about his Nobody Cares About Langley album.

I must find that album...

Yes, I mentioned earlier that clip from around '92 with him--which is interesting because at the time I really didn't remember seeing him except the 25th week, when Iw as pretty excited to finally see him on screen--but I watched regularly in '92 (I swear I didn't miss an episode, so...)

With AMC and OLTL both, after their 25ths I tend to confuse the anniversary specials with the ten thousandth episode specials and the like. They had some slogan for thirty, or was it 35, and the three-zero/five was displayed in their graphics, like when giving the next day preview.

Edmund gave the poem on one occasion and I want to say that was the thirtieth anniversary or the ten thousandth episode.

The thirtieth was decent, but after the better 20th episode, and the awesome 25th week--and the Daytime to Remembers, etc, it was less exciting. It was at a Crystal Ball--I have it on tape somewhere and believe it might be online, and was just one episode. The 35th was at the hopsital with Agnes for Joe's anniversary or something and was Phoebe's last appearance days before her death (I actually remember the OLTL anniversary's much less clearly--I think they did the first one for their 25th as when AMC did their 20th it was still rare for soaps to do that--of course they did have the flashback week when Megan died. I remember thinking as a whoile they were more disappointing--I remember a thirty fifth one I think that had brief musical montages for key characters like Dorian/VIcki but nothing too rare).

And there Dixie has a whole speech to Seabone (Seabone Hunckle?) about her guilt over Will...

I know they've got them beat by four years, but this reminds me of the first episode of Santa Barbara.

It's partly how it's filmed I guess--I completely see what you mean.

When I first started watching AMC people used to talk about how awful the Kennicotts were (I think the only one who had fans was Mary). I wonder why they kept going back to that family.

I said this in the other thread but I just love how gothic the Cortlandts are here. I know that's a cliche but what the hell. I especially love how Daisy is a little mad, like Quentin's crazy wife Jenny on Dark Shadows. And the way Myra skulks around, trying and failing to control these people. The chases through corridors, the scene where Myra is eavesdropping and realizes Daisy crashed the party...

I already mentioned this too but I LOVE the way Palmer gets so furious and practically spits fire through "Happy Birthday."

I think this was the first time AMC tried anything gothic, and it seems like it went over really well (I've read articles about people seeing promos for the Cortland stuff and being intrigued and finally getting hooked on AMC) and in some ways seems like the first major change in style the show did to accomodate the hour change a few years before.

I never have got why they aolways returned to the Kennicotts too... There wa Dan who was bad right? And? Mary was very popular but it was quite a few years before...

Watching the second episode, the first time I can remember seeing Devon or Wally (I may have seen Devon but it was a long time ago). Wow, they are both so drab and malnourished. I think soaps have often felt like in order for characters to be "good", they must be very wan, but it's such a contrast to Ellen, who has such a sense of life and wit even in everyday scenes.

These "ACTING IS AN EXPERIENCE" scenes with Devon make me hate her a little.

I'm kind of amazed Devon lasted as long as she did.

I am too though she was more sympathetic (as a B character) later on--helping Brooke with her rape, the lesbian stuff, etc. Devon and Wally are in that 1978 Tom/Erica wedding episode as well.

In the scenes where Cliff and Nina tell Frank and Betsy about their engagement, the band is playing that song "Just to Dance With You." I wonder if Nina was a huge Beatles fan. I think I hear "All My Loving" too.

It's there. I find it amazing that they licensed Muzaky (OK I guess it's meant to be big band or something) versions of Beatles music, of course soaps in the 70s and 80s were much more likely to use "real" recognizable music.

I would say it wasn't her but I think someone did call her Claudette, unless AMC brought in another caterer named Claudette just to insult the woman who played the other one

Based on Brooke and Tom talking about the end of his marriage, I wonder if Erica had fled town after the birth control pill lie was uncovered. That was fall 1979 wasn't it?

Yes it was--a full year after their marriage. SHe may have been involved in her New yorkl world more again? It is interesting she's not there--then again maybe they (rightly) felt with nearly the whole cast in these special episodes she wasn't needed and Susan could take a break...

Yes. They married for the sake of the child, and she saw him as a burden. I think eventually she learned to love him, but didn't they split up again before she had the story with Donna Pescow? Can't remember if she went back to him.

I wonder how much James Mitchell was cracking up in those scenes where he had to wander around outside, yelling. It's just nuts.

Frank seemed like such a part of the community...kind of sad he was casually killed off a few years later.

I thought Phil had been killed in a shootout or something along those lines. I didn't know his second exit was also going missing.

Donna seems a little like a young Daisy in these episodes. I wonder if that's why Palmer fell for her.

Tara is just played out.

Phil died in 1981 in (I thought) a plane exploding, something to do with politics... But I think it may have even been off camera when Tara was meant to find him and she shortly moved away with Mr (Jim?) Jefferson. But I think Phil may have been missing for a while in the explosion and then never found--I can't remember. It seemed like they realized that Phil and the endless new Taras were finally played out.