GL on DVD!

[DRW50]

What did you think of Peggy?

I always thought it was a little odd that she essentially left town and then mostly returned for appearances behind the nurses desk.

[saynotoursoap]

Julie worked better as a bitch, but none of the writers seemed to know what to do with her, which is why I found her directionless. She started out the sweet virgin, became an adultress, segued into a scheming bitch, and near the end was just plain bizarre. Remember that odd story of her attempting to pick up a stranger in the park and then intimated that she had been raped? Truly one of the WTF moments of that era. For me, it did not help that she was Mallet's sister, as JFP butchered him along with Harley and Frank.

[DRW50]

I'd forgotten about that. I mostly remember her exit which implied she was going to go look for Hart, and then she was never mentioned again. They could have at least had Hart throwing the back of a brunette woman's head out of his room as he came back to Springfield a few years later.

1994 was a very odd time for GL - I never really understood why Eleni spent so much time on face cream, and then she was catering - I half-expected her to run for mayor.

I don't know if any soap story about face cream has ever been worth watching.

[scherra]

I didn't care for many of the characters you named either but the difference is that in 1993-1994 (and up to mid-1995, before McTavish came on board) SF still felt like a genuine community and none of those characters took over the show to the extent that Annie Dutton, the Santos family or the San Cristobel clan did later on, which is what repulsed me. (Gave up GL around 2000 so can't comment on what took place afterwards.) Ron Raines as Alan in his first six months or so might be the exception, but even though I never cared for his performance, at least his character had the history and ties to 'warrant' such influence. Not so much with Annie, whom I didn't mind as a nurse or her tentative relationships with Josh, Rick or Phillip ca. 1995-1996 but the psychotic archvillain version under Rauch and Cynthia Watros' hammy acting embodied everything I detest on soaps. I enjoyed the trial storyline well enough in first half of 1997, and the show did feel a little energized vs. 1996, but it went downhill very fast. The whole idea of Annie engineering Reva's death, leading Josh to clone her, felt like a desperate move because nothing they/TPTB did drew any interest.

[Mitch]

Annie as an addictive personality who went over the edge worked, and Watros brought the pain, anger and vunerability to that. It was when E & B became lazy and TPTB thought the had a YR Sheila and Annie became the criminal mastermind who would hurt anyone who got in her way, that everything went to [!@#$%^&*]. When it was Annie who was running the scheme against Josh and Reva in regards to Cassie, the show became ridiculous. It should have been Alan doing it and Annie relunctantly going along with it as he brought her over to the dark side, only to have her become the monster he couldn't handle. But RR, as someone mentioned, was a terrible recast..I have no idea why they didnt just write Alan and Alex off as their recasts and the writing turned them into cartoons, and just have Phillip, Amanda and AM take over the Spaulding in fighting and create a new character or have Kyle come back as the new "big bad."

Disagree that no characters took over in 93=94...the show became the Justin Deas hamming for an emmy/Buzz Cooper power hour....and all we got was Cooper after Cooper as we had to watch Eleni, yes, run a catering business (thought he never worked) and Jenna/Buzz/AM fight over a stupid ass face cream. GOOOD, I would take Pelphery's yelling and mugging over FH standing over a pot of face cream as Justin Deas spun his arms and spit!!

Julie made a great bitch but she was a plot point not a character. After she failed to break up Frank and Eleni they should have just wrote her out as they shoudl have wrote out Frank and Eleni after Melina left.

[~bl~]

Julie was written out once she failed to break up Frank and Eleni. They said she was going to Florida where Mallet was.

[soapfan770]

Actually Julie went off to chase Hart around if I recall right after learning of his whereabouts. Obviously they never reunited--did Bogue's Mallet ever mention Julie?

With the exceptions of fall '94/spring '95 and autumn 1996 GL was in my opinion generally good and entertaining I thought there from when I first started watching 1990/1991 up until 1999.

[Soapsuds]

I hated Julie so much that I forgot she was related to Mallet. She was a bore and only became interesting when they turned her evil.

[DRW50]

Julie changed her plane ticket from Florida to Vancouver - I always remember that because I had a soft spot for Julie, in spite of what was, looking back, some shocking writing.

I never really bought them as brother and sister either, although part of that was down to my thinking he was a dbag and avoiding most of his scenes (the only time I liked him was the stories with Mindy and Francesca).

[~bl~]

Okay that explains it she changed her plane ticket...

[scherra]

Wanted to say it made GL look like the Bell soaps but drew a blank on parallels, so thanks. (I've given up soaps and not following the boards as often as I used to, I'm starting to forget chunks of soap history.)

LOL. I didn't care for many of the plots (or the characterizations, eg. redeeming Roger) towards the end of JFP's run, and I recall the latter half of 1994 as the pits. The difference's that even then, it never occurred to me that within 2-3 years, Rick Hearst, Peter Simon, Maeve Kinkead, Michael Zaslow etc. would be gone and my choices would be limited to Reva, Annie, Dinah, Cassie. It never occurred to me the show couldn't get better. (I was young and naive etc.) By 1996, I knew things had changed irrevocably, and looking back at my viewing habits and reactions through 1995-2000, I think I went through the soap viewer's equivalent of the 5 stages of grief. I did try to keep up with the show through the boards (eg. GLBuzz), and if Millee Taggart's run had lasted a little longer, I probably would have given it another try. Alas...

[juniorz1]

Just got my DVDs!!! Yayyy!!!

Starting up Secrets & Scandals now. Will post my thoughts later. I LOVE THIS (these P&G DVDs and discussing them)!!!

[KMan101]

Is there a normal time frame between purchase and arrival? Ready for my set to arrive ... lol

[soapfave06]

I just got mine today too and I can't wait to start watching.

I ordered Monday, it was shipped on Tuesday and I got it today. It came earlier than they said it would.

[~bl~]

It took me a little under a week and I ordered on the first day.