GL on DVD!

[RogerNewcomb]

I love Krista. As a 13 year old in 1983 I loved Beth (Judi) and my sister loved Mindy and it was the source of many arguments. LOL I thought Kimberly did a great job with the part, but Krista and her original interpretation were always my favorite and I'm glad she came back later.

I watched an entire month's worth of GL leading to the Maureen death episode and the only bad part of it for me was Ann Hamilton as Mindy. Even worse watching it back now. It's hard to believe anyone would have made that casting decision. She appears on that episode on the DVD but I can't remember how much.

[DRW50]

I think in the clips of Maureen's death leadup, Mindy is on the phone?

Simms wanted to work something out with GL and apparently JFP wasn't interested. I think a lot of the time JFP did some type of spite casting or put her issues with an actor onto the character. Her casting for Mindy was awful. Barbara Crampton was passive, whiny, and sucked the last remaining life out of the Mindy character.

I think JFP only saw Mindy as Nick's puppet.

[RogerNewcomb]

She was too old and totally miscast. I enjoyed a lot of the show at that time but something went haywire where Mindy was concerned.

As a big Rita fan, and understanding that it was Peter Simon and not Mart Hulswit, I would have still been okay with Maureen's death if Rita came back and reunited with Ed and they stayed on the canvas for the rest of the show.

Speaking of Hulswit, I think I am finally going to interview him after wanting to for many years.

[DRW50]

That's great. I think Hulswit is my favorite Ed, from what I've seen of his work.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I always wondered why Rita seemed completely erased from the history of the show.

Ed, Holly, Roger, and Alan were all on the show together for a while in the 90's, and not once did any of the characters ever mention her.

[~bl~]

there was talk at one point about them bringing Lenore Kasdorf back, but she was having health problems at that time, so it never happened.

My disks shipped before noon this morning.

[Chris B]

My discs shipped today as well! I'm very excited for this set. Unlike ATWT where I was familiar with the material, most of these episodes will be new to me. I started watching during Ellen Weston's tenure and GL was never my soap, mainly because of when I started watching. What bits and pieces I've seen of the past make it seem like this could've been one of my all-time favorites had I started watching sooner. I held it down through some of the worst periods in soap history, so it'll be nice to see the good stuff!

The actors I'm most excited about are Lisa Brown, one of my favorites from ATWT. From what I've seen and read, it looks like Nola is a sexier and more lively character than Iva, who had such a dark backstory. Then I'm a huge Kim Zimmer fan and I fell in love with Beverlee McKinsey from Texas. The 90s episodes most excite me, because it seems they did so well post-Reva.

Roger, do you know when we can start to hope for another set of any of these shows? Also, with the longer canceled ones like Another World, Texas, SFT, Edge, when will we know about those? Have yall started thinking of how one of those releases would be handled? For example, would they still get a 20 Best Of to kick things off, or maybe something smaller, but with the same idea? And in general have yall considered doing a set that contains episodes from various soaps? For example, maybe one with Anniversary episodes or Christmas episodes from all the PGP soaps available?

[P.J.]

Oh, are you in for a shock. Nola and Iva are universes apart.

I think a lot of the Marland-era got buried by Pam Long. It wasn't only Rita who was never mentioned again---Hope, the Reardons, Evie, Ben, Lainie, Trish, Amanda (and I'm referring to realAmanda, not madam-curly-sluthair) and Elizabeth all pretty much disappeared and were expunged from Springfield. Maureen survived, but Chelsea was retconned into the family, so I don't really count her.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Which makes it so strange that Lisa Brown just couldn't shake Iva out of her system when she returned to play Nola in '95.

To be fair though, the writing was bad, but then when she left ATWT, I was ready for Iva to go too.

[P.J.]

But she only played Nola for three years. She was Iva for like 10 or so. I don't think the writing helped, being that Nola was brought back in such a downer story, having learned Quint had cheated on her. I do remember it was hard for me to not see the Iva-ness in all of Nola's gestures. LOL.

[Chris B]

Oh that's disappointing that she was more Iva than Nola in her return. As much as I love Iva, Nola does seem like the more interesting character.

[SFK]

Roger, when is your Ellen Holly interview going up? Looking forward to that.

[P.J.]

Well, some of that is just me not being able to separate Brown from Iva. I was a teen just getting into GL when Nola started. (I was not nearly old enough to appreciate Nola's fantasies, which I regret) I was obsessed with ATWT under Marland.

[DRW50]

I think a lot of Nola may have been Lisa Brown being younger and more energetic. From the few interviews I've seen and heard with Lisa, she's probably closer to Iva (minus the horrific soap plights, of course). I loved Iva so I was thrilled to see her on GL, even though I knew little about Nola, but wow, the writing for her was just miserable - say what you will about Iva but she was never written to be as petty or stupid as Nola was. I just don't get it, and I never will, especially since McTavish was there when Nola was a prominent character.

Bea returned briefly in 1986 when Chelsea first started, but then she left again.

I remember when Maureen died and they just said "Well the Reardons are all at Company." I would have preferred a scene of Tony trying to karate kick Ed through the wall.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I remember McTavish writing terribly for Bridget too, I don't think she understood characters like Nola/Bridget.

I got very tired of Iva just before Brown left ATWT, I felt they had done all they could do with her and ran out of ideas for her by that point.

Nola is definitely Brown's signature and most iconic soap role. Had Pam Long and other writers properly used them, Quint & Nola, not Josh & Reva, would have been the show's signature couple for years to come. Nola would have definitely been the show's premiere heroine in that age range.

It's bizarre how popular Quint/Nola were at their peak, considering they weren't on the show for very long and were backburner towards the end.