I did enjoy B&b Most of 2002-2004 too. I mean the Return of Macy! The custody Battle of Deacon and Macy against Rick and Amber. That was Hot Stuff and is not been talked about enough. It was so well written and soapy. I was hooked every day that Story was on. 
Macy&Deacon an underrated couple tbh. 

Amber kinda carried the show for a while with Stephanie when the other Stories were Bad They made up for it!

even though its disgusting and trashing their characters but deacon and brooke‘s thing was actually so soapy and should’ve happened anyway. I mean it even made sense and the f.cked up thing brought in so much steam to the show

I also enjoyed Gabriela Moreno and Thomas storyline. Shame Bell gave up on it so fast

19 minutes ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

I did enjoy B&b Most of 2002-2004 too. I mean the Return of Macy! The custody Battle of Deacon and Macy against Rick and Amber. That was Hot Stuff and is not been talked about enough. It was so well written and soapy. I was hooked every day that Story was on. 
Macy&Deacon an underrated couple tbh. 

Amber kinda carried the show for a while with Stephanie when the other Stories were Bad They made up for it!

even though its disgusting and trashing their characters but deacon and brooke‘s thing was actually so soapy and should’ve happened anyway. I mean it even made sense and the f.cked up thing brought in so much steam to the show

I also enjoyed Gabriela Moreno and Thomas storyline. Shame Bell gave up on it so fast

In my view, 2002 was the most entertaining year of the show since 1993. However, everything fell apart in 2003 with the Ridge-Bridget storyline and numerous rewrites that left me feeling dizzy. Moreover, the overall dialogue was quite poor. Yet, I still recall 2004 as being very enjoyable. Soon, we will find out how it has fared over time... we just need to get through the final weeks of 2003. 

8 hours ago, Maxim said:

Another change in perception I've noticed. While watching a part of 2007 episode my husband came through the room and saw Taylor... Hunter Tylo... and commented - Oh my god, she's so beautiful, so gorgeous. And I started thinking... well... back then in 2007 most people were cringing at how HT looked and the overall consensus was that she looks too artificial and bizarre and that the surgery was not successful. But that was a different era almost. That was before the culmination of social media... before all the influencers with huge fake lips and botoxed faces... instagram where everyone looks the same... tik-tok - the goldmine of Kardashians-type junk food entertainment. I started thinking that if you look at how HT's Taylor looked back then... through today's lens... you would have such a different reaction. Some would say... as my husband did... that she looked amazing even. And yet... in 2005-2007 we were all shocked how different and plastic surgery-ed she seemed. By today's standards... it's nothing almost.

I don't know if this is a bad or a good sign of what has happened in society/social media/etc.  

I could be mistaken but I think she let her face settle and then she looked pretty good for a while before she went buck wild on more procedures after that.

Her 2005 return look would be just as shocking today IMO. She was such a natural beauty and when she returned she was the most plastic looking person on the show. Right or wrong, Taylor couldn't be taken seriously as a voice of reason character again for the rest of Tylo's run because of that.

I wonder, at what points during the show’s history was the contract cast largest or smallest? Has anyone tried to count?

1995 and 1996 the cast seemed bloated, probably in anticipation for expansion to 1 hr. 1997 there was a cast purge since the expansion didn't happen.

1 minute ago, kalbir said:

1995 and 1996 the cast seemed bloated, probably in anticipation for expansion to 1 hr. 1997 there was a cast purge since the expansion didn't happen.

Thank God that didn't happen. 40 minutes of Bradley Bell a day would be something not a lot of people could stomach. And also... they wouldn't have these ratings, lol. 

4 hours ago, Anooj said:

I wonder, at what points during the show’s history was the contract cast largest or smallest? Has anyone tried to count?

There were only 14 contract players for a month or two in 1992. Between Jake and Margo leaving & Sheila and Taylor's family arriving. And that included bit players Saul & Darla. Thorne pretty much qualifies as a bit player at this point too.

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

1995 and 1996 the cast seemed bloated, probably in anticipation for expansion to 1 hr. 1997 there was a cast purge since the expansion didn't happen.

Wasn't the rumor that there would be a new 1/2 hour Bell show and GL would be cancelled? I'd love to know the real story there. My guess is that the Bell's business affairs people talked them out of it as it would have been a tough sell for its lucrative foreign markets. Plus in the US, GL slot was pushed to 10am in a bunch of big markets at that point. But if talks with CBS advanced there would likely have been a fight with P&G over the timeslot, as Bold would have wanted the 2pm slot rather than having ATWT as its lead-in in most markets. 

6 minutes ago, bongobong said:

Wasn't the rumor that there would be a new 1/2 hour Bell show and GL would be cancelled? I'd love to know the real story there. My guess is that the Bell's business affairs people talked them out of it as it would have been a tough sell for its lucrative foreign markets. Plus in the US, GL slot was pushed to 10am in a bunch of big markets at that point. But if talks with CBS advanced there would likely have been a fight with P&G over the timeslot, as Bold would have wanted the 2pm slot rather than having ATWT as its lead-in in most markets. 

1996 it looked like Guiding Light was going to be cancelled and B&B would be expanded to 1 hr. Bill Bell Jr. and Maria Arena Bell had a soap bible Coming of Age that they attempted to sell to NBC in the early 1990s so maybe that could have been a new 1/2 hr show.

Remember too 1997 was the height of time slot rival Reilly Days so CBS would not want the new 1/2 hr show head-to-head w/ Reilly Days.

If 1997 we got expanded B&B and new Bell show, I think the Eastern time soap schedule would have been

12:30 pm Y&R

1:30 pm B&B

2:30 pm new Bell show

3 pm As the World Turns

Once upon a time.

God I'm watching the 2007 episodes while they premiere on youtube... and Brooke is such a hardcore ho. I mean... she's on another dimension.😂 Basically trying to jump Nick every time she sees him. If this was happening in this day and age... with the current social media craziness and tik tok... the audience would have flipped and went crazy. All of this reminds me how... boring 2025 is. Brooke's vagina in 2007 was more daring then the entire 5 years of writing.  

21 hours ago, kalbir said:

1996 it looked like Guiding Light was going to be cancelled and B&B would be expanded to 1 hr. Bill Bell Jr. and Maria Arena Bell had a soap bible Coming of Age that they attempted to sell to NBC in the early 1990s so maybe that could have been a new 1/2 hr show.

Remember too 1997 was the height of time slot rival Reilly Days so CBS would not want the new 1/2 hr show head-to-head w/ Reilly Days.

If 1997 we got expanded B&B and new Bell show, I think the Eastern time soap schedule would have been

12:30 pm Y&R

1:30 pm B&B

2:30 pm new Bell show

3 pm As the World Turns

Interesting, thanks for the info on the Bell bible.

Good point on Days being at its peak, but at the same time Y&R was so much stronger than B&B at the time that it still would have been a safer launching pad. Days was strong in W18-34, while the CBS shows skewed older. 

Either way, I'm glad it never happened. Every time I've tried to watch an 1-hour soap in the past 10 years it felt like such a slog.

Macy and Grant was such a cute couple. I'm really enjoying them. 

When I hear this song I'm instantly remembering the classic bold moments.

On 10/17/2025 at 6:36 AM, Maxim said:

Oh I agree. I didn't like Taylor sleeping with James just because they were "dying". It felt like a character assassination. Up to that point Taylor had never done anything like that and was the complete antithesis to Brooke. Why make her cheat on Ridge like that... It made no sense.

And boy how right you are about 2003.

As usual... I just live for your analysis. 

I hate soap stories where people rut while in avalanches or in cave-ins or whatever else. I would much rather just see people cheat because they openly admit to wanting to without the justification.

I can't even remember if Ridge found out. Didn't she "die" before he could?

Something else - and I may be wrong as I haven't watched any of this since it first aired - that was dubious to me was the leadup was a story about how James had been abused as a child and this led him to avoid sex.

Afterward, he seemed to enjoy sex just fine (I remember a very fun sex scene he had with Brooke where she was in some costume), which would mean Brad Bell was doing one of those "making him a real man" stories in 1994.

Then he was just cycled through various women until being written out (I can't remember if he was ever paired with Lauren - probably not). The one I would have enjoyed him with, aside from Brooke, was Sally - I think he could have been good for Sally.

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I hate soap stories where people rut while in avalanches or in cave-ins or whatever else. I would much rather just see people cheat because they openly admit to wanting to without the justification.

I can't even remember if Ridge found out. Didn't she "die" before he could?

No, Ridge didn't find out until years later, after Taylor's second resurrection. She did write him a letter just after it happened, but Stephanie intercepted that and hid it from Ridge.