I meant to add for that 1980 video after seeing that 1972 picture of Ellen Holly that I think she read as much younger with the longer hair than the shorter style she carried in the mid-80s. 

2 minutes ago, soapfave06 said:

I meant to add for that 1980 video after seeing that 1972 picture of Ellen Holly that I think she read as much younger with the longer hair than the shorter style she carried in the mid-80s. 

Here are a couple of pictures of her with Al Freeman:

2 hours ago, Vee said:

I loved, loved, loved Gigi early on and them as a supporting B-couple. Frontburner leads, it didn't work. But Farah Fath's dry, bitchy energy was always brilliant opposite people like Erika Slezak, etc. who she clearly had a lot of reverence for (no small feat in FF's world). I am glad they didn't kill her, if only because Jack could never have been redeemed from that. Not in the way it was written and not using Andrew Trischitta as Jack, who was terrible. And yet that was apparently the original plan had they not been cancelled - Gigi would've stayed dead at his hands.

The only thing that worked re: Stacy was Kim. Crystal Hunt's last few days on-air with Clint in "Hell" at the end of the show in 2012 were fun, but I

I think there's some terrible [!@#$%^&*] in the last few months tbh - John stuff, Austin Peck and the "Jailbait" video, the Todd story spinning its wheels as they waited to see if they were going to go online. I think the Gigi resurrection story was very, very bad though I was happy with the end result. A lot of the show was bad IMO. The final weeks were great. I think there was a lot of very, very good stuff in '09 despite huge glaring problems, and I think 2010 is a real mess in many ways with some bright spots.

God, you brought some bad memories up now that I purged from my mind. 

Todd vs Victor had so, so much potential, his 'murder' was disappointing....I also blocked out Jack's involvement in Gigi's OG death...I do still enjoy the Gigi/Stacy mess looking back, not sure why haha...I thought the Jailbait and that whole teen scene was trash but the climax I recall tying into the Todd/Victor reveal and David's movie so while that didn't save the plot I enjoyed the end result...OMG just remembered Tea's random boring pregnancy as well giving Flo nothing to do in the final months. 

I do have great memories of Vital and Rama and Tina and Cord's return and I felt like Viki was used better than she had since 2008 so I think I am blurring lines on the bad. 

On Rex/Gigi agreed, supporting couples like them and Vimal/Rama go far for me. I felt Ron did a great job in the fall of 2007 with her intro, the diner and the New Orleans/drag tie in with Marcie on bringing the show back to class differences. 

1977:

Love these Amy!

56 minutes ago, soapfave06 said:

I do have great memories of Vital and Rama and Tina and Cord's return and I felt like Viki was used better than she had since 2008 so I think I am blurring lines on the bad. 

I enjoyed most of Tina's return which I think was much better than her 2008 stint. Those scenes with her, ES and RH in the Llanfair kitchen, and then when she left the inheritance to Todd, were gold. I didn't like that they wrote her and Cord out before the finale with no mention whatsoever after their re-marriage (at least, no mention I can recall).

I didn't mind them slowly re-pairing Viki and Clint, even though I was a huge fan of her and Charlie, because I think ES and JVD had very strong chemistry even if it was more intellectual and combative than it had been with Clint Ritchie. He was a different man and she was a different woman than they used to be, and I think it clicked even better on OLTL 2.0 in 2013 when Clint's recent sins came to the fore in the plot again. But I didn't recall her doing much in those last months besides hanging out with him in the house and having Kim's too-brief visit; it all runs together for me, I guess. I would've been very happy with Viki/Charlie and Clint/Kim staying together bc I loved both couples, but ES/JVD really worked for me so I was okay.

It was very evident (and discussed at the time on the rumor mill) that Florencia had no story with TSJ gone, and allegedly they had considered writing her and a few others out early, which did happen with other characters. Ron didn't do that bc he loved her, so in the meantime the story went in circles with her, Todd, Blair and Tomas. Blair got short shrift and while I'm glad she didn't exit Téa was made to look stupid unnecessarily. They pretty much ruined the Tomas character by making him responsible for Todd's imprisonment and the triangle didn't work anymore but it kept going. And faking out the audience by first claiming Todd hadn't done it and having Téa defend him, then reveal that he had, then finally revealing Victor was alive was stupid. It was a retread of old Todd stuff when they should've been moving all the characters forward, even when it was obvious Victor was not really dead.

Edited October 10, 20214 yr by Vee

It's been awhile since I thought about this book. Has anyone else here ever read it?

I have been getting lost in October 2001 episodes just because... and while no one cares, I have some thoughts. 

- I had mostly associated the Todd-makes-Blair-believe-Jack-died story with KdP's tour-de-force performances at the key points of the story (that live performance still dear to my heart) but I had completely forgotten how much the immediate aftermath of it was played almost as... comedy?
It is very jarring tonally. Involving David obviously had to bring that comedic touch but a lot of it plays as a Feydeau farce with people shuffling people out of a room right before someone else enters. RH is playing it very broad, the writers are introducing silly side characters (the Mexican nuns) and even the dialogue for Blair feels unnatural - if I didn't know the story I would actually think Blair knows and is intentionally saying things to make Todd uncomfortable. She actually doesn't and it is the writers making her say weird things to make Todd uncomfortable but it comes off... odd.
- Also, TW being gay was an open secret, at least in a lot of the gay community - I don't know how much already back then though - but it is funny in hindsight to see how many inside jokes the writers were putting in the scripts about it.
- Finally, I wasn't following fan forums back then so I don't know how people felt about the story then - I think the fact Jessica still ended up being Viki's daughter certainly saved it for me - but I had also forgotten that horrible Natalie was ... kinda fun?

@FrenchBug82 Great insight's . There are lot worser era's of OLTL. Then early 2000. Malone/Griffith second run. Followed by Higley spring to mind.  I hated the retcon with Jess. Turning out to be Mitch's daughter. I'm so glad it was undone towards the end. I didn't mind Natalie being Jessica's fraternal twin. After the gloominess of JFP run. The comedy Tomlin brought was a welcome change. But he over did it at times with the comedy.

Edited October 13, 20214 yr by victoria foxton

I have never forgiven Tomlin for playing the baby Jack story for laughs and I never will. He was a good guy with a good heart who got the show back into a lighter place and a happier one overall for the fans and the cast, but a lot of his stories sucked and that was #1 with a bullet.

4 hours ago, Vee said:

I have never forgiven Tomlin for playing the baby Jack story for laughs and I never will. 

I never understood why they played it that way at the time and still don't. That was so cruel.

OK So I am super relieved that it wasn't my imagination.
I hadn't remembered that comedic tone at all so for a minute there I was worried I was overinterpreting a series of episodes.
Such a strange choice.
That said I think the stories themselves are good - albeit with the caveat that knowing how a lot of them will end/be retconned softens the emotional frustration.

The show at the time had a very Passions tone. The weird dialogue from Blair that you mentioned @FrenchBug82 was part of that. Every line has to hint to the plot or a secret, even if the person saying it has no idea what that secret is.

Other than Live week the show never cared how Blair felt about the baby switch, it was all about Todd's antics and RH hamming it up. I also think they kept it light because what Todd did was monstrous and if they played it straight he'd be done for and you know the rapist was the most important character the last 15 years of the show. 

Edited October 13, 20214 yr by Darn

1 hour ago, Darn said:

I also think they kept it light because what Todd did was monstrous and if they played it straight he'd be done for and you know the rapist was the most important character the last 15 years of the show. 

I hadn't thought of it this way but that actually makes sense.
And I guess they felt they could get away with playing it light since the baby wasn't really dead. But it still reads so tone-deaf and icky, even as I enjoy well enough the underlying story.

2 hours ago, Darn said:

The show at the time had a very Passions tone. The weird dialogue from Blair that you mentioned @FrenchBug82 was part of that. Every line has to hint to the plot or a secret, even if the person saying it has no idea what that secret is.

Other than Live week the show never cared how Blair felt about the baby switch, it was all about Todd's antics and RH hamming it up. I also think they kept it light because what Todd did was monstrous and if they played it straight he'd be done for and you know the rapist was the most important character the last 15 years of the show. 

You hit the nail right on the head.