29 minutes ago, Maxim said:

The period you are currently watching... up until at least February-March 1992 is quite the transformative phase. People dying, leaving, new people coming in. That continues through 1992, but the first months are WILD change after change. Following that, the show truly finds its footing. And the moment the Blair/Dorian storyline really takes off... is when 1992 begins to reeeally shine in my opinion. Then we dive into the Billy/AIDS storyline (Malone's best work so far), and by the end of 1992 - Viki's Anna Karenina era (guilty pleasure). It's absolutely fantastic. I have just a bit left of 1992 before I jump into 1993. From what I've heard of people telling me... 1993 sounds like a very interesting year.

I am still enjoying your reviews (and Vee’s!) and I hope to catch up! Ultimately this era is one of the few successful reboots of a soap opera IMO.

Just now, soapfave06 said:

I am still enjoying your reviews (and Vee’s!) and I hope to catch up! Ultimately this era is one of the few successful reboots of a soap opera IMO.

That's so kind of you to say. And I enjoyed your take today so much. Made me remember things I forgot from more than a half a year ago when I was at that stage. And I agree about what you said about Carlo just being there. Sadly... it doesn't get better. Only worse actually. (when it comes to Carlo) I think I may have to go back to his original intro storyline from 1990 to appreciate him. I heard it was not bad. I think I'm couple of episodes before Todd Manning's arrival... and I'm scared actually. I've heard so much about this character that at this point I don't know what to think.

At 0:57 - NO LIFE TO LIVE. 😄

@DRW50

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Maxim

@Maxim That makes me laugh. I imagine whoever wrote it did have some experience with soaps.

I always roll my eyes at the "there must be something better" mentality when it comes to panning soaps.

Susan would have made for a good OLTL psycho in the Rauch years.

Just now, DRW50 said:

@Maxim That makes me laugh. I imagine whoever wrote it did have some experience with soaps.

I always roll my eyes at the "there must be something better" mentality when it comes to panning soaps.

Susan would have made for a good OLTL psycho in the Rauch years.

Ooooooo....now I can totally picture this. Even though... Tonja's Alex gives similar energy when she hasn't taken her mood stabilizers. 😁

I have made it to Blair’s arrival, such good scenes. You can really see the new era kicking in as her first scenes are with Luna, new Tina and new Cassie (at the time)

John Loprieno in the Ancient Greek fantasy Tina had, 🥵

I had no idea that Bo, Viki and random officer man tracked Alex and Porter down and did NOT see her shooting Porter in the back coming and definitely not her killing the police officer. Wow! Porter’s death scene was actually pretty good and the scoring to Alex holding Bo at gunpoint was chilling.

I would still gripe that maybe there isn’t really umbrella arcs. Alex would add more to the Sarah mystery, Carlo remains blah, Viki randomly got added into the Sarah tale.

Why on earth is Cain Rogan targeting Megan? The scenes aren’t bad but it comes off messy when A) it should be Marco (copied that from Bluesky honestly) or B) Andrew whom I thought was more vital to her send off in just a couple months.

Lastly, the character of Jason has officially captivated me. Wow. Not sure what was left for the character longterm, but compared to what I have seen of Suede, Dylan and others Jason would’ve been a great antagonist to Todd and his mane of hair.

Oh lastly, can anyone explain the ages?

How old are Kevin, Jason, LeeAnn, Joey, Stephanie supposed to be?

10 minutes ago, soapfave06 said:

Why on earth is Cain Rogan targeting Megan? The scenes aren’t bad but it comes off messy when A) it should be Marco (copied that from Bluesky honestly) or B) Andrew whom I thought was more vital to her send off in just a couple months.

Lastly, the character of Jason has officially captivated me. Wow. Not sure what was left for the character longterm, but compared to what I have seen of Suede, Dylan and others Jason would’ve been a great antagonist to Todd and his mane of hair.

Jason and Todd do clash, but Jason becomes redundant with the new focus on Todd and the loss of Lee Ann (who they initially planned to recast with AMC's Sydney Penny, apparently). I find Jason (particularly in this period) to be the sort of benign prototype for Todd, in a lot of ways. He does get a very sweet sendoff in summer '94 though.

Cain is targeting Megan because he is hoping to run the same scam he attempted with equally rich heiress Tina in the summer. (Back when he was Hudson King and presumably first brought in by Rauch.) I wrote about this fall '91 period in here a lot over the last year, but it is interesting how far they go with Megan being tempted by him; Jessica Tuck and Christopher Cousins have real heat. Equally interesting is how they pivot in a week or so's time from Heinrich/Cain to Andrew having that same role in her life after Cain gets outed and briefly flees town. The men swap roles very fast, and Megan and Andrew quickly become BFF.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee

I loved how contrasting the relationships between Andrew and Megan and Cain and Megan were. Cain was opportunistic, parasitic even, and yet she felt that attraction... Like a moth to a flame. While Andrew was like her safe place, a warm looking little cabin in the dark of the woods. The two men were absolute opposites and I loved seeing Andrew fall in love with her slowly while she was using Cain to self destruct in a way, after her condition deteriorated. If the actress was not going away this could have been so interesting.

To this day I love how Andrew still hasn't forgotten Megan. Her photograph still in his drawer.

Edited 58 minutes ago58 min by Maxim

20 minutes ago, Vee said:

Jason and Todd do clash, but Jason becomes redundant with the new focus on Todd and the loss of Lee Ann (who they initially planned to recast with AMC's Sydney Penny, apparently). I find Jason (particularly in this period) to be the sort of benign prototype for Todd, in a lot of ways. He does get a very sweet sendoff in summer '94 though.

Cain is targeting Megan because he is hoping to run the same scam he attempted with equally rich heiress Tina in the summer. (Back when he was Hudson King and presumably first brought in by Rauch.) I wrote about this fall '91 period in here a lot over the last year, but it is interesting how far they go with Megan being tempted by him; Jessica Tuck and Christopher Cousins have real heat. Equally interesting is how they pivot in a week or so's time from Heinrich/Cain to Andrew having that same role in her life after Cain gets outed and briefly flees town. The men swap roles very fast, and Megan and Andrew quickly become BFF.

Did you feel there was still story left for Jason, or none at all?

I did read through your previous reviews and enjoyed them very much, it’s hard to recall everything between binge watching and binge reading.

31 minutes ago, soapfave06 said:

Oh lastly, can anyone explain the ages?

How old are Kevin, Jason, LeeAnn, Joey, Stephanie supposed to be?

That's how I perceive them - Kevin - late teens... Jason and Leanne - early 20s, Joey - 13-14. Stephanie - late teens too.

4 minutes ago, soapfave06 said:

Did you feel there was still story left for Jason, or none at all?

I haven't watched much of '94 since it first aired when I was a kid (and with the exception of revisiting the rape trial saga I am slowly going from '91 chronologically - I started watching in '93, and will also revisit '94-'95) so I couldn't say for sure. I do think they lost focus on Jason with Roger Howarth and Todd taking off like a rocket, and so Jason became a B or C-player. If things had been different who knows. I wish they'd tried Jason and Marty for real, for instance.

Mark Brettschneider was one of the 'interesting faces' Gottlieb asked people to send her, experience notwithstanding, and she found their roles and places over time. I do wish we'd been able to see Jason again once more. If the show was still around I'd have him make a little appearance, with people like Kevin and Rachel, Chris Mc Kenna's Joey and Marty back on the canvas. It would be a nice reflection of the last time (other than 2013) that the show underwent a dramatic revamp.

I do think the question of what would become of Megan had they convinced JT to stay is very interesting - I think Andrew, or Cain or both would've been very much in the picture, as Joe Lando was never coming back full time. I also love Andrew and Megan and always have when glimpsing this era. (Incidentally, the mags spoiled Gerald Anthony appearing as Marco during Megan's death saga but he never turned up.)

Edited 42 minutes ago42 min by Vee

I think in a similar manner... Andrew became a safe place for Cassie after she got dumped by Bo. He's that male figure that women are drawn to after/during trauma. The guy in the intro that comes to save you after you trash your life with someone that has a nice smile or a nice butt.

P.S. I still believe the reverend had more chemistry with some of the guys on the show (Hey, Dr. Jonas... with that cute earring), but of course they didn't go there. Just imagine if Andrew and the psychiatrist were involved. I can picture the cover of the Intruder "Scandal! The man of God and the therapist!" with a tabloid photo of them making out. But let's not get carried away. 😁

Now... about him and Cassie... At first that relationship felt a little forced to me, but then it grew and grew to a point I started believing it. They added even more nuance with making Cassie's mother have a crush on Andrew's father. Only on soaps! And now with the dark cloud of bad Marty hanging over them, I think the potential is there. They've been testing Cassie and Marty for a feud and I'm here for it.

Edited 19 minutes ago19 min by Maxim

I am looking forward to seeing this Dr. Jonas. When did he first appear?

I had no idea Gerald Anthony was scheduled to appear, what a shame, I would’ve loved that.

I can’t imagine Todd and Jason couldn’t both fit. Maybe I’m too caught up in the moment but I shall fantasize for now, and what an easy way for Wanda to appear again for Jason.

1 minute ago, soapfave06 said:

I had no idea Gerald Anthony was scheduled to appear, what a shame, I would’ve loved that.

I don't know if he was scheduled or they just approached him; I can't recall the exact item. It seemed like a done deal in their article the way they were writing about it (in either late '91 or very early '92), but obviously it didn't occur. Then both GA and Marco turned up on GH during its transitional period in '92/'93. Very strange.

The Andrew and Marty thing was really kind of a redo of Andrew and Megan but with an even more transgressive element; her youth and role as his wayward young parishioner, etc. They played with the will they/won'they temptation between them a few times in the early '90s, Including a period where the show was cutting some steamy promos for them in either '93 or '94 when Andrew and Cassie were in a rough patch. I don't remember the details but I think it went so far as maybe an emotional affair that nearly turned very physical. I think maybe they made out or were half-dressed together a few times. I had forgotten about that whole sequence of events completely til I saw one of those promos again a few years ago. I think it was an unpopular story, one I will see in full again someday.

Part of the reason they kept playing with the Andrew thing is bc I think they were fully committed to Susan Haskell (and rightly so) but struggled to find a man to match her talent (who wasn't married or too taboo, like Krimmer's Andrew) until they finally found Thorsten Kaye to play Patrick. The Kevins were never an option for a variety of reasons, mostly the endless recasts but I do wish they'd tried harder to test them in '92, something they explicitly said they were going to do at the time in the soap press. Joey Thrower was not really an option but by the time they had Kirk Geiger he was set for Ellen Bethea's Rachel. I think Kevin and Marty has always been another road not taken, and it's a temptation I'd still consider today.

As for Andrew and Marty, I almost entertained the idea of them ending up together older and wiser in what were some of Bob Krimmer's last scenes on the show - when Marty was amnesiac in late 2008, found her way to St. James and reintroduced herself to an aged, somewhat fascinated Andrew. He told her all about the story of her life, and that was their last set of scenes. Susan and Krimmer were still excellent together. But today I like to think Andrew and Cassie just settled down again.

(Malone trying to xerox the Andrew/Marty dynamic for the wooden Jen Rappaport and young priest-in-training Joey in 2003 though, right down to Andrew and Nora telling them repeatedly how much Jen how much she reminded them of Marty Saybrooke - don't get me started, woof.)

Edited 1 minute ago1 min by Vee