Was Janice Stafford ever on the show?

There was a long, complicated storyline involving Alan conspiring with various people (most of whom ended up dead) to make the courts think Elizabeth had had an affair, which meant he got custody of Phillip. Roger knew about all this. Then when he "died", Diane knew, and this is what ultimately drove her over the edge.

Soapsuds, Jane Marie and Janice Stafford were the characters mentioned by Alan's mysterious caller. They were sisters and Jane Marie turned out to be Morgan's mother Jennifer Richards. Jennifer and Alan later turned out to be the parents of Amanda Wexler (a storyline later undone by another writing regime).

Thanks for the info. I was 10 when I first saw it so I don't remember everything.

That is so confusing! Who is Blake Lindsay? How did she mysteriously return to town without anybody knowing who she was? I'm assuming she must've been more of a schemer. And who the hell thought of bringing Michael Zaslow back as Alan Spaulding?! That's not just bringing any actor back who played any character. To my knowledge, Roger is a legendary soap character and Zaslow is a soap superstar. That makes no sense at all! I'm glad he didn't do that. Both characters are too important and they interacted so it makes no sense. I just can't get behind that.

No one had seen Christina since she was about 5 or 6 years old.

GL asking Zas to take over Alan sounds insane (and that's the first time I've ever heard that..) but in their defense, at the time, Roger was "definitely dead", and had been so for almost a decade. There weren't even a lot of people with a connection to his character on the show any more. (GL must have gone through three Ed's by that time.) Alan was a tentpole of the show at the time. It's interesting to think about what might have been.

Wasn't Blake brought on during the strike and when Pam Long/the writing team came back, they decided to make her Christina?

I believe Dennehy started shortly before the strike and the scabs had absolutely no clue what to do with her. I forget though---if the scabs brought her in and made her too bitchy or if they thought she was too bitchy and made her into an idiot. There's an infamous "Phillip catches Blake talking to coconuts in their hotel room" scene that comes to mind.

I read somewhere that Blake spent a lot of time during the strike making mysterious phone calls, with the scab writers having no idea who she was calling. I think Pam Long decided after her return to make Blake more fun, or something, because she hadn't intended for Blake to be so heavy.

But the scab writers had Blake have a sexual past with Alan, which was something Pam Long did not envision. The whole Blake/Christina thing I think came from production.

Blake/Alan is one of those stories I would rather forget (and generally the show did forget it, aside from bits like his 1994 return).

Yeah, I first read about the MZ as Alan thing in Gerald Waggett's soap lists book re: interesting/strange casting ideas. I've also read that Beverlee McKinsey suggested her former Texas co-star Daniel Davis for the new Alan. Daniel has a very similar quality to Chris B.

Betty Rea scouted Sherry Stringfield at her college showcase and saw something in her aware of the fact that they'd soon need a new Blake. What's so curious to me is WHAT exactly did she see/have in mind, because I wouldn't immediately jump from ED to SS in my mind's eye. And it's not that SS particularly looks like MG or MZ either. Maybe there had been meetings on what direction they planned to take the character and SS embodied that.

I have an old tape with Blake and phillip's wedding where "Adam Malik" aka Roger is unmasked and Holly screams bloody murder. I believe the following ep on the tape is Sherry's first episode where she comes back to town and phillip is frantically trying to make her a welcome home dessert. She is incredibly sweet with him and in no way tips her hat to the scheming seductress she'll become. Later in her run, she had great material with Beverlee McKinsey's Alex.

Got my set today cant wait to watch!!

The material in the Spaulding kitchen is Sherry's first day, but obviously things happened between the shooting and her returning that you don't have...

Sherry's audition for GL was for Dana of all people, and she was surprised to be cast as Blake because of that, but if they wanted her to play Frank she would have agreed.

Popped in Disc 2 (Secrets & Scandals) and loved the first episode. The pacing seemed strange, but I felt like the episode lasted FOREVER (which I loved). A bit OTT acting and the sets are atrocious looking but the storylines more than make up for it. I loved Vanessa and her father's dynamic. I loved Vanessa's haughty tone.

I admit to not being overly familiar with this time period. It is kind of strange to realize Floyd becomes a crazy man down the road and it's kind of a shame they did that, from what little we saw of him in this episode.

I miss how connected soap towns used to feel. EVERYONE knew everyone's business and everyone was involved. You just don't get much of that anymore.

Lisa Brown was just terrific. I hadn't seen much Nola material (I haven't YouTube'd much old/classic GL) but man, I would have loved watching her in her prime. Brown just makes you really feel for Nola and not hate her for her malicious scheming. I miss this kind of writing.

Loved seeing Ross and Jane Elliot as Carrie. Who was the curly haired woman with Ross, Carrie and Ben? And who was the blonde with Hillary?