11 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I believe Labine said the car dealership scenes were supposed to be a one off, but it got such a great response they went with Sonny/Brenda.  

I thought they tested them at least once before that? I know the car scene was also a test.

1 minute ago, Franko said:

For better or for worse, it is cool that Labine wasn't married to any one outcome, that she could adapt based on how things were going.

Agreed to all of the above. The rock or pop charts would have had no use for Ned BITD. At best, he'd be playing Atlantic City.

Okay, maybe that's a little cruel, me. Ned could also have done okay on the NYC cabaret circuit (your Carlyles, Joe's Pub's, etc.)

Edited March 22, 20223 yr by Franko

Just now, Franko said:

For better or for worse, it is cool that Labine wasn't married to any one outcome, that she could adapt based on how things were going.

Agreed.  I think they were keeping a lot of options open for Brenda, which was wise.  I remember that bathtub fantasy and she had like 5 love interests.  She was young and fun, so why not?  

Just now, Vee said:

I thought they tested them at least once before that? I know the car scene was also a test.

I think it was the episode where Brenda took a bath and fantasized about almost all of the available men in town (Ned, Sonny, Jagger and Jason).

1 minute ago, carolineg said:

Agreed.  I think they were keeping a lot of options open for Brenda, which was wise.  I remember that bathtub fantasy and she had like 5 love interests.  She was young and fun, so why not?  

Great minds. I just referred to the bathtub fantasy. That's one of my earliest and most vivid soap memories. It helps that VM reminded me of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. (Tell me you're a millennial without telling me your a millennial ...)

Just now, Vee said:

I thought they tested them at least once before that? I know the car scene was also a test.

They had a scene when Jagger was on the run? and she was in his room and Sonny was slightly coming on to her.  They also had the docks scene where they 'officially' met.  The show was obviously was considering it, but I think testing if it's was too creepy.

6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I think WK is a good looking guy, but I don't think him and his leather pants were taking the world by storm.  Idk, his singing is decent but I think this was when the show was really leaning into musical acts.  Ricky Martin's hips don't lie, but WK is not exactly on the same level.  I am not embarrassed to say "Don't Stop Now" by Miguel Morez is kind of a jam lol.  The video is cringe though.. Vanessa Marcil can do almost anything but dancing might not be in her wheelhouse.

I always loved Miguel tbh. Ricky Martin was so hot, I didn't care about anything else lol. I even liked him and Lily! I was like 12.

I liked Ned, because he was witty, Wally's dry delivery was priceless and I enjoyed him with Lois. (I also came in just as the period when he was apparently a true turd was ending.) But it was just embarrassing to watch them try to put Dad Jeans Ned over as a rock star in that particular period in pop music; I can't imagine anyone buying it, and it got worse when the Eddie Maine story kept going with him and Alexis later on and they started hitting a different age demographic, in the late '90s. And then the endless speeches about the evils of the Qs, A.J., etc. got old. I enjoy him much more again now.

The music thing was especially glaring when you looked at OLTL regularly playing serious pop and rock/grunge music on a recurring basis, gritty stuff, and then at 3 PM we're all getting out of school and Ned is trying to pretend he is my mom's old Steve Winwood tapes.

3 minutes ago, Franko said:

Great minds. I just referred to the bathtub fantasy. That's one of my earliest and most vivid soap memories. It helps that VM reminded me of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. (Tell me you're a millennial without telling me your a millennial ...)

I saw that one a few weeks ago, and that's how I finally found out where the clip of them from the FOTH opening came from. (Bring back FOTH!) I didn't see that episode when it aired.

Edited March 22, 20223 yr by Vee

4 minutes ago, Franko said:

I think it was the episode where Brenda took a bath and fantasized about almost all of the available men in town (Ned, Sonny, Jagger and Jason).

Great minds. I just referred to the bathtub fantasy. That's one of my earliest and most vivid soap memories. It helps that VM reminded me of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. (Tell me you're a millennial without telling me your a millennial ...)

I loved Brenda's little fantasy scenes.  It's a fun, whimsical thing soaps don't do anymore.  

1 minute ago, Vee said:

I always loved Miguel tbh. Ricky Martin was so hot, I didn't care about anything else lol. I even liked him and Lily! I was like 12.

I liked Ned, because he was witty, Wally's dry delivery was priceless and I enjoyed him with Lois. (I also came in just as the period when he was apparently a true turd was ending.) But it was just embarrassing to watch them try to put Dad Jeans Ned over as a rock star in that particular period in pop music; I can't imagine anyone buying it, and it got worse when the Eddie Maine story kept going with him and Alexis later on and they started hitting a different age demographic, in the late '90s. And then the endless speeches about the evils of the Qs, A.J., etc. got old. I enjoy him much more again now.

The music thing was especially glaring when you looked at OLTL regularly playing serious pop and rock/grunge music on a recurring basis, gritty stuff, and then at 3 PM we're all getting out of school and Ned is trying to pretend he is my mom's old Steve Winwood tapes.

I think you are the only Lily/Miguel fan and I don't judge you.  Ricky Martin is a gorgeous man and I was sad he had anti-chemistry with Vanessa.  I don't know if I am a total weirdo, but I loved when Miguel/Sonny used to fight in Spanish.

I loved, loved Ned/Lois so I am not going to judge that too harshly.  The Eddie's Angels thing lasted way to long, but I like when WK sang at the Nurse's Ball.  His singing is fine for a hobby, but he's no rockstar.  I also hated the gatekeeper [!@#$%^&*] with Ned/Alexis.  Like no one ask you to be that guy Ned....

6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I think you are the only Lily/Miguel fan and I don't judge you. 

I didn't say I still was! 😅

I thought the Ned/Alexis interplay about their families worked up to a point. After hearing it 50 times, and then watching the Qs get decimated since then and revisiting his treatment of A.J., it plays differently. It would be nice to see it examined in a script one day, considering Ned has proudly taken on the family name and role of patriarch since then.

Oh, and I remember the whole thing with Alexis somehow ending up an inadvertent sexy centerfold. I loved Nancy especially back then, but come on. No.

I did like the revisit of them not long ago, where I think they had a drunken ONS behind Olivia's back. Did that go very far? It should've kept going. I kept waiting for it to turn out they'd not actually fucked.

Edited March 22, 20223 yr by Vee

1 minute ago, Vee said:

I didn't say I still was! 😅

I thought the Ned/Alexis interplay about their families worked up to a point. After hearing it 50 times, and then watching the Qs get decimated since then and revisiting his treatment of A.J., it plays differently. It would be nice to see it examined in a script one day, considering Ned has proudly taken on the family name and role of patriarch since then.

Oh, and I remember the whole thing with Alexis somehow ending up an inadvertent sexy centerfold. I loved Nancy especially back then, but come on. No.

I actually think the Lily/Miguel stuff works on paper-it just got lost with those two.  I want to say it's more on him than her, but I always thought Lily was after Sonny's peen from the get go and was just a passive aggressive, manipulative bitch about it.  I might not be the most objective person on this subject though.🤣  She bought herself a husband and I am still not sad she blew up.  

I liked Ned/Alexis a lot.  I just think Ned was always pressed about the family and no one really asked him to take on that role.  He's just that guy that takes on this role, but wants to complain all the time.

I don't really have a lot to say about Alexis as a centerfold.  NLG can still get it, but she's not centerfold material.  

I am a little amazed GH kept the ancient ambulance opening and '70s theme until 1993(!!). You see it play over '92 episodes and it is extremely jarring to go from contemporary music cues and aesthetics to that. It was fine for the era of its inception but I don't know how the hell that was allowed for so long. Look at Y&R, AW, ATWT, OLTL, GL, etc. and all their permutations through the '80s and early '90s and it's beyond me. Even AMC (which had a somewhat less dated opening with the book) had updated well before then.

Edited March 22, 20223 yr by Vee

4 hours ago, Vee said:

I am a little amazed GH kept the ancient ambulance opening and '70s theme until 1993(!!). You see it play over '92 episodes and it is extremely jarring to go from contemporary music cues and aesthetics to that. It was fine for the era of its inception but I don't know how the hell that was allowed for so long. Look at Y&R, AW, ATWT, OLTL, GL, etc. and all their permutations through the '80s and early '90s and it's beyond me. Even AMC (which had a somewhat less dated opening with the book) had updated well before then.

It does look out of date and jarring, especially in the 1992 episodes when Riche had already started to make the show more grounded.  Once FOTH and Labine arrived it was like an almost totally different show in tone, but still had plenty of characters that were beloved and could fit with the more grounded material that it all just worked.  The only other contemporary example I can think of was OLTL under LG and Malone.

Oh, and DAYS- but they went the other direction from heightened romance to gothic to pure camp.

10 hours ago, Vee said:

I am a little amazed GH kept the ancient ambulance opening and '70s theme until 1993(!!). 

Yeah, the only alteration made during that time was when they changed the theme to "Autumn Breeze," which will always be my favorite GH theme song, btw.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

Yeah, the only alteration made during that time was when they changed the theme to "Autumn Breeze," which will always be my favorite GH theme song, btw.

I thought it was all old-fashioned by the end, but I always liked how it seems like FOTH incorporates the opening of Autumn Breeze into the beginning of the track. Or am I crazy? You can still hear both of them in the occasional GH music cue used today, mostly in only piano stuff. That beginning is timeless.

Edited March 23, 20223 yr by Vee

36 minutes ago, Vee said:

I thought it was all old-fashioned by the end

Perhaps.  But hearing that theme song always felt oddly comforting to me, even though I wasn't a huge GH fan.

If anything, I thought Wendy Riche just needed to keep "Autumn Breeze" (or maybe have a new recording of it) and instead film a new opening, with a new ambulance whizzing by the hospital, because the sequence that WAS there looked worn-out as hell.

Edited March 23, 20223 yr by Khan

I think the opening for Autumn  Breeze is a bit too fast, but the extended closing is just gorgeous, and very soothing.