Awkward Returns

[carolineg]

Well, KMc was quite a bit younger than both of them.   And she did end up dating Jason who would be Brenda's age as well.  But VM looked more mature than both SBu and KMc at the time, so it was easier to slip her into adult stories.  To be fair, Robin did act very mature for her age.  Honestly, more mature than both Brenda and Sonny.

 

You are correct.  Robin was a sophomore when the others were seniors.  The show did age Brenda a year so she turned 21 on her actual 20th birthday, so that makes them 3 years apart, but they were actually only 2.  Not sure if Jason et al were also aged or Brenda just became a year older.  They have kept the canon that Brenda and Jason went to HS and the prom together, so I would assume they are both now 3 years older.

 

Agreed. It didn't help LK didn't have much chemistry with WK either.   I think she was okay with TK, but one of the defining characteristics of Lois is that she didn't fall for that kind of charm and hated the mob crap, so why Lorenzo of all people? They should have tried her with Ingo.  At least they had a history to play off of.  It would have been a crappy thing to do to Brenda, but I don't think they even mentioned her friendship with Brenda in 2004, so I'll allow it.

I agree that Lois is very much a moment in time character and we haven't seen her on screen change or grow, so to have her come back with all her idiosyncrasies would be odd because she would be pushing 50 now, but again, to have her lose that would make her Olivia lol.  I think the canvas has changed so much it would be hard to find a place for her to fit, but I think it would be great if she popped in to see Brooklyn from time to time.  I do think it would be hard to top Rena though.

 

[Forever8]

I do think Lois Cerullo is needed on the GH Canvas. However, she doesn't need to be on the show full-time. I wouldn't mind stints here and there, especially, when Brook Lynn comes back to the canvas. I do think if written correctly they can mature Lois into a smart competent woman proud of her Bensonhurst roots who has connections on this show but it is now a bit more mature and toned-down a bit in personality. 

 

So who would you cast if Lois ever came back? 

 

My choices 

Julie Pinson

Nancy McKeon 

Moira Kelly 

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Speaking of Delia, that certainly wasn’t her on GH some years back! I remember watching old Ryan’s Hope episodes on Soapnet and she was nothing like that. 

[titan1978]

It felt like Roxy adjacent to me.  Not quite Roxy, certainly not quite Delia.

[soapfan770]

Didn’t see it mentioned but it definitely deserves to be but Cecile’s 1995 return on AW was absolutely dreadful. I had been watching some AW from that time period lately and it’s just as bad as I remember, maybe even worse. 

[Soaplovers]

For me, Reva's return in 1995 (as a ghost and later as an Amish woman, etc) was awkward.  Reva was a character that fit the 80s...not the more toned down back to basics 90s and 00s. 

 

Had the writers truly studied Reva's history...she could have worked in the 90s and beyond...but she no longer fit..imho

[j swift]

I'm going to add the 1995 return of Liza Colby to All My Children.  I know many consider the 2009 Jamie Luner period to be the low point of the character.  However, I have some quibbles with the 1995 storylines for Liza.

 

First, she was brought back to break up Tad and Dixie.  Dixie had already been involved with both Craig and Brian, and Tad had a baby with Brooke.  But, by 1995 Tad and Dixie were in a solid relationship and had renewed their vows.  So, why was Dixie immediately threatened by Liza's return?  They had never met, Liza was always Tad's second choice, heck he even preferred her mother to Liza.  The motivation for Dixie's jealously coincided with the need to write her out of the show, so it seems more plot-driven than character specific.

 

In my opinion, Liza really returned as Eden from Santa Barbara.  She was no longer snobby, suddenly business savvy, and never blamed her father for creating new found half-siblings, just like Eden.   There were no remnants of the original Liza, except a penchant for a heavy bang.

 

I enjoyed her initial relationship with Adam.  But, even that devolved into a very dark plot line.  And eventually she snuck out of town without a significant exit scene.

Edited January 18, 2021 by j swift

[Vee]

I think Liza's first year back was flawless, and I had no clue who she was at the time beyond being an old character with a long history with Tad. She was gangbusters. It was everything after that - including some of the relationship with Adam, though I haven't seen their initial courtship in aeons - that sucked IMO. She was tired before the end of the millennium, and she didn't have to be.

[DRW50]

I loved Liza's first year or so back. I thought Marcy Walker was electric. Everything from the time that they paired her with wooden Jake on was downhill. Liza lost her spark and became one of the interchangeable morass of "good" people that weren't really worth watching.

[Faulkner]

I hadn’t watched Liza in her legendary early ‘80s reign of terror either, but I really enjoyed her that first year back as the bitch-on-wheels producer at the Cutting Edge. She immediately mixed it up with Opal, which set the stage for her integration with the rest of the canvas. But man, she was destroyed with a quickness.

[titan1978]

Add me to the list!  I thought that first year or so of MW’s return was fantastic.  She still had that snobbery, she directed it towards Dixie and Opal quite often in subtle and not so subtle ways.  I also felt Marian fit right back in to the main action of the show.  Both were so entertaining to watch.

 

I knew of Liza and her storyline with her mother and Tad, but this was my first time seeing her.  I loved Dixie but I absolutely adored Liza right away.

[Faulkner]

What was her line to Opal? “White trash in a mansion is just white trash with a few extra bedrooms on her hands.” Something like that. Then Opal laid hands on her.

[DRW50]

 

She also roasted Opal for having a dead cowboy in her bed.

 

The best thing about Liza in that first year was how effortlessly she was utilized for the purposes of camp and John Waters type hysteria (the peak being "I want blood!" before Laurel was gunned down). Marcy was a butch actress anyway, so the winks and nods to a drag queen culture fit her well. The later attempts to make her a bland heroine did not. 

 

The best part of their relationship was the scene when she was supposed to leave him for Jake, but he told her, "I'm you," and they made love, with her realization of just how well they fit each other. This then led to a brief period where Liza was allowed to be a bit wicked but not too much so - like when she learned Adam was hiding Erica in the attic and she brought a camera crew in to film as she had the cops arrest Erica. 

 

Sadly, soon after this they had that very depressing and "off" story with Liza miscarrying because of a plane crash Adam caused (retconned several months later), and the character never recovered.

[Soaplovers]

Yeah, Liza's return from 1995 to 1997 was pretty good.  Her nickname post 1997 was pod liza back in the day.

[John]

I would have bought Jamie Luner as a Hillary Wilson recast, not a Liza recast

 

They could have hired Kim Johnston Ulrich for Liza or Beth Chamberlin