1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

The AMC one used the format the best. But the GH one was an outlier even back then. It was kind of the theme but you could tell they wanted it to stand out.

AMC's was easily the best, and should never have been retired for that Guiding Light Powerpoint-esque thing they did near the end. It had real specificity to that show and was made with detail and love.

OLTL's was a total afterthought, terrible, and you could tell how Frons felt about the show. I think the most it had beyond a black stage and lights was a few very vague backdrops of a college campus, the Llanview U setting he briefly tried to put over for the youth set in 2004.

I would bring back FOTH today, sequence, heads and all. I don't care. That would be one of my first orders of business lol. You could use the theme unchanged tbh, the sax is back in fashion enough. Or you could re-record it. I think FOTH is timeless and apart from a few cosmetic changes to the look I wouldn't do much to it. I've always felt it was a huge mistake to go away from it, first to the dumb rock version of the theme and then to Frank's even worse series of Powerpoints than AMC's, along with whatever the hell that thing was he used to do with the opening when he first took over in 2012. This show does not need to look like Generic Brand X, and that's what the current opening is. When you watched FOTH you knew where you were, and it was home.

(I'd probably even try to get Lynn to do the eyebrow again)

Edited December 29, 2025Dec 29 by Vee

The last few shots ending with Mac seemed crammed in.

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Sometimes I forget about just how wretched everything about the mid/late '00s opening was - it is so damn cheap looking, and has the blaring horn music, the seizure-inducing strobe lighting, the shots of Geary trying to look badass (oh he's walking away while all the men [no girls allowed!] stay seated).

The 2000s opening was clearly an attempt to get people to take the show very seriously as a primetime-adjacent, action-oriented show with all the rock music, blaring horns and strobes lol. It was tryhard and overproduced. The part that cracked me up was when they had to do quick edits during the Liason era and suddenly Becky Herbst is flying at the screen like a ghost near the beginning with the leads after spending years in the background. Or the occasional subliminal shots of Alan, Monica and Bobbie.

The one that came near the end of Guza II had these weird artificial backdrops behind the actors which always made me think I was watching a Fox Kids horror-oriented show. Wyndemere behind people's profile shots looked like Big Bad Beetleborgs, and meanwhile the horn is still howling away.

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

I personally was always perplexed with Mac ending the opening.

Mac ending the opening cracked me up near the end of FOTH's run, when he was so irrelevant. You could always depend on ol' Mac at the end! But he was also a comforting presence there in his own way, and it was a keepsake of the time when, as you guys have said, he was a major male lead in the early '90s. I was glad when JFP updated it to have Luke and Laura at the end, even if everything else about the show was a mess at that time.

Now I've done at least three separate posts I should've knitted together. Oh well.

I remember Jason after Stone died and before his accident making sure Robin was doing okay, spending time with her, etc. IIRC she visits him in the hospital after the accident and she was one of the few people he was not a dick to, even if he didn’t know her yet.

I remember that WLS interview with Labine, and in recent years MVJ has contradicted the Carly part of that timeline, saying she was wholly created with Guza and the staying writers before the official credited change in HW. I tend to believe MVJ’s version of events eve no though I adore Claire Labine. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle. MVJ is certainly a Guza apologist!

Just now, titan1978 said:

I remember that WLS interview with Labine, and in recent years MVJ has contradicted the Carly part of that timeline, saying she was wholly created with Guza and the staying writers before the official credited change in HW. I tend to believe MVJ’s version of events eve no though I adore Claire Labine. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle. MVJ is certainly a Guza apologist!

I think it is probably somewhere in the middle. IIRC Carly's first day is one of Labine's last credited but don't quote me there. I do think the thumbnail sketch of the character came from Labine, but Mulcahey, Guza, Harris, etc. are what really fleshed her out into a person onscreen almost immediately.

Same goes with Jason/Robin in a way. Labine was clearly setting them up IMO from what I've seen, but it's Guza and co. who made them take flight to become a supercouple. I think she's right though that she left them a couple very good springboards.

23 minutes ago, Vee said:

(I'd probably even try to get Lynn to do the eyebrow again)

Rena did static version of her shot with her nails visible in the current photo montage that mirrored her old shot and I knew it was purposeful and I loved her for it.

I have been very lucky to finally get to revisit the Puerto Rico saga and November sweeps '94 in full for the first time since I was a kid watching live. It is very hard to come by and is not available on YouTube. It's been said before but the PR remote and all the action really holds up - you can see why they kept it in the opening forever to the point that we were cracking jokes about it by the end. It's beautifully done.

What's also remarkable is how a good portion of it is very clearly not the stuntmen. It's amazing Maurice and Vanessa didn't take more spills with how fast they were tearing through that hotel and those grounds on various levels, stairs, ramps, etc. And climbing onto the roof of various spots, then on the hotel tram and very clearly being on it while it was moving! Of course the story they have both told is that it was VM who was gung-ho while Mo was terrified on the tram. As I would be!

And unsurprisingly, the key location segments were apparently directed by... Shelley Curtis.

Edited December 30, 2025Dec 30 by Vee

The chase sequence is on youtube and its damn good all these years later. Just how intense and fast paced it all is and how gurella it was to film.

Would love the show to try something like this again with some of the younger cast. It could really elevate the young talent massively if they tried a story like this. I could imagine Rory Gibson's Michael running around like that perhaps.

4 hours ago, Vee said:

I have been very lucky to finally get to revisit the Puerto Rico saga and November sweeps '94 in full for the first time since I was a kid watching live. It is very hard to come by and is not available on YouTube. It's been said before but the PR remote and all the action really holds up - you can see why they kept it in the opening forever to the point that we were cracking jokes about it by the end. It's beautifully done.

What's also remarkable is how a good portion of it is very clearly not the stuntmen. It's amazing Maurice and Vanessa didn't take more spills with how fast they were tearing through that hotel and those grounds on various levels, stairs, ramps, etc. And climbing onto the roof of various spots, then on the hotel tram and very clearly being on it while it was moving! Of course the story they have both told is that it was VM who was gung-ho while Mo was terrified on the tram. As I would be!

And unsurprisingly, the key location segments were apparently directed by... Shelley Curtis.

The action scenes are great. It is definitely one huge advertisement for the hotel though. Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of it, but that hotel is truly massive and Sonny/Brenda give you the grand tour while running through it. Lucy watching the whole chase with binoculars and not doing anything is pretty funny too. I also will never forget Maurice walking back and forth on the grounds to go to Rivera's compound? safe house? Whatever? It was hilarious to watch him walk for nearly a minute each time. That's a long time to watch someone walk.

I liked the fact that they showed what I believe was a real Ricky Martin concert. You know how I feel about Miguel, but it made L&B seem much more legitimate than BLQ being a record producer with her husband and Blaze as her top artists.

You have almost inspired me to watch it again. I remember personally having some issues with the climax of the story like Luke being left in the water by Sonny/Brenda and Rivera kidnapping everyone to just let them go because Lily said so.

16 hours ago, titan1978 said:

I remember Jason after Stone died and before his accident making sure Robin was doing okay, spending time with her, etc. IIRC she visits him in the hospital after the accident and she was one of the few people he was not a dick to, even if he didn’t know her yet.

I think it was Levinson that created the Robin/Jason seed. She had a huge crush on him when they were doing the crisis hotline stuff. She and her silly friend would talk about it all the time. I could see Labine or Guza easily picking that thread back up once KMc was a bit older. When I watch them in 1992 I get the sense the show could have always been playing the long game with the pairing.

51 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I think it was Levinson that created the Robin/Jason seed. She had a huge crush on him when they were doing the crisis hotline stuff. She and her silly friend would talk about it all the time. I could see Labine or Guza easily picking that thread back up once KMc was a bit older. When I watch them in 1992 I get the sense the show could have always been playing the long game with the pairing.

The Jason / Robin seed is in March, 1992, when there is no headwriter and Wendy Riche is overseeing pretty much every aspect of the show. Riche had Robin and her pal (who I think stuck around through early Levinson/Thoma as I think its the same girl who is with Robin during the storm when I think they are babysitting the Jones kids) talk about Robin wanting Jason, while Jason was pining after Karen in her first few appearances.

I think you and spoke about this before, and I think you suggested that the show may have been waiting until Kimberly McCullough either came of age or at least appeared older, which makes sense. There was definitely indication that the show wanted Robin / Jason as endgame as you said especially since it seemed Karen / Jagger were the intention from the start.

Riche wanting Jason / Robin from the start would explain why this thread plays out pretty much until Riche leaves.

3 minutes ago, dc11786 said:

The Jason / Robin seed is in March, 1992, when there is no headwriter and Wendy Riche is overseeing pretty much every aspect of the show. Riche had Robin and her pal (who I think stuck around through early Levinson/Thoma as I think its the same girl who is with Robin during the storm when I think they are babysitting the Jones kids) talk about Robin wanting Jason, while Jason was pining after Karen in her first few appearances.

I think you and spoke about this before, and I think you suggested that the show may have been waiting until Kimberly McCullough either came of age or at least appeared older, which makes sense. There was definitely indication that the show wanted Robin / Jason as endgame as you said especially since it seemed Karen / Jagger were the intention from the start.

Riche wanting Jason / Robin from the start would explain why this thread plays out pretty much until Riche leaves.

Interesting. Thank you. I couldn't remember who started writing the Robin crush. Robin's buddy, who I cannot recall a name for, appears more than I thought when I watched 1992 a while ago. It seems like the show might have been testing the character out actually. I guess they ditched her for a few Christie Clark appearances (random) and eventually Brenda.

My assumption was that the show was waiting until KMc looked more adult but also had more life experience as Robin. Jason (pre-accident) is pretty directionless outside the Keesha romance, which honestly doesn't get that much attention. I am sure there are interviews out there, but I would be curious to know if the plan was Jason/Robin, Labine wanted the AIDS/Stone story, and the show always intended to move back to J/R later on.

43 minutes ago, carolineg said:

My assumption was that the show was waiting until KMc looked more adult but also had more life experience as Robin. Jason (pre-accident) is pretty directionless outside the Keesha romance, which honestly doesn't get that much attention. I am sure there are interviews out there, but I would be curious to know if the plan was Jason/Robin, Labine wanted the AIDS/Stone story, and the show always intended to move back to J/R later on.

Jason is very aimless under Riche in what I've seen. There is the desire to be the doctor and the very complicated relationship with Karen which becomes so nasty and vicious by the end, but that's more than likely Levinson's misogynistic slant to the material. He is tethered too long to Karen as the loser, which was sort of the fate of Kurt McKinney's Ned Ashton for a bit. I think the Karen / Quartermaine connection is very interesting, but they probably should have leaned into the possibility of Brenda / Jason sooner even if it was as a scheme for both of them to get the other person, though Jason would have been a more manipulative character. Because he's the good brother, he is always forced to play mediator. It might have been nice to have gone with a Brenda / Jason story where Jason was trying to break free of always being the good guy and wanting to be more carefree and slightly dangerous. Break his moral compass long enough for Karen to save him and allow Karen and Jagger fight when Karen (wrongly) assumes that Brenda is the source of all Jason's woes, but only for Brenda to bluntly inform Karen that it's Jason inability to get over his obsession with St. Karen that his driven him down this road. Of course, if I'm allowing for a briefer moment of a darker Jason, I would also have Jason and Karen reconnect when Karen worked as a stripper with Karen confessing the truth about Ray to Jason before Jagger, causing more Karen / Jagger tension, and later causing A.J. / Jason tension when A.J. continues to slut shame Karen. And in this situation, you could play out the possibility of people thinking Jason killed Ray which could add more tension to many dynamics (Jagger / Karen, Alan / Monica, Alan / Rhoda, Jason / Brenda, Jagger / Jason). I'm going to stop before I go too far down roads not travelled.

1 hour ago, dc11786 said:

Jason is very aimless under Riche in what I've seen. There is the desire to be the doctor and the very complicated relationship with Karen which becomes so nasty and vicious by the end, but that's more than likely Levinson's misogynistic slant to the material. He is tethered too long to Karen as the loser, which was sort of the fate of Kurt McKinney's Ned Ashton for a bit. I think the Karen / Quartermaine connection is very interesting, but they probably should have leaned into the possibility of Brenda / Jason sooner even if it was as a scheme for both of them to get the other person, though Jason would have been a more manipulative character. Because he's the good brother, he is always forced to play mediator. It might have been nice to have gone with a Brenda / Jason story where Jason was trying to break free of always being the good guy and wanting to be more carefree and slightly dangerous. Break his moral compass long enough for Karen to save him and allow Karen and Jagger fight when Karen (wrongly) assumes that Brenda is the source of all Jason's woes, but only for Brenda to bluntly inform Karen that it's Jason inability to get over his obsession with St. Karen that his driven him down this road. Of course, if I'm allowing for a briefer moment of a darker Jason, I would also have Jason and Karen reconnect when Karen worked as a stripper with Karen confessing the truth about Ray to Jason before Jagger, causing more Karen / Jagger tension, and later causing A.J. / Jason tension when A.J. continues to slut shame Karen. And in this situation, you could play out the possibility of people thinking Jason killed Ray which could add more tension to many dynamics (Jagger / Karen, Alan / Monica, Alan / Rhoda, Jason / Brenda, Jagger / Jason). I'm going to stop before I go too far down roads not travelled.

Your ideas sound really good. I never got the feeling the show was terribly interested in a Jason/Brenda pairing during that era. Steve and Vanessa had good chemistry and I really think the show should have gone with it 2003, but I think the idea was probably to pair Brenda with AJ instead pre-Sonny-and the show did flirt with that for a minute.

I like they took their time with finding Brenda a love interest. I think a Jason/Brenda pairing would have boxed the character of Brenda in too much and she was far more easily disposable than Jason at the time. I also can't line up the entire time frames in my head, but I assume they knew ASJ was out as soon as his contract was up, so I don't know how much the show would want to waste time on a quad with the characters.