I do remember the line but didn't remember the date of death being changed. I do think all things considered that it works better to go with the more impactful version -- that he died in the '70s. Nothing about the Heart of the Lord story was worth keeping and in fact didn't really even affect anything going forward from what I can remember. It happened and then they all more or less moved on.
I hadn't heard that about the idea for Dorian seducing Joey with CM in the role -- that is such a wild idea.
I had heard before that Joey was the original plan for the gay teen, and I've always been sorry they didn't go with that. I'd have sacrificed Joey/Dorian and definitely Joey/Kelly (not a fan) to be able to give that story to such a core character.
I watched that not too long ago for I think only the second time ever, and it was chilling. I cannot imagine how much more terrifying it would have been to not know it was the alters.
Speaking of the alters, I was thinking the other day that out of all the impressive turns ES got to play when switching between them, I think the most impressive for me is Tori-as-Viki because Tori, for my money, is the one who manages to come the closest to being able to imitate Viki, but there are still the subtlest indications that something is still off. There is a moment I'm thinking of right now where Tori manages to take control during one of the various freak-outs, still pretending to be Viki, and the only way I could tell it still wasn't Viki was something about her eyes.
I haven't actually watched the whole episodes of 1994, just clips, though I will at some point, and I'll be looking to see what is hinted.
Susan Batten is really good as Luna, even if Luna and the crystal/goddess/new age-y stuff isn't necessarily my thing on its own...and seems worse in the '93 episodes I'm watching right now than in the '95 episodes, where I find her kind of eye-rolling these-people-in-my-life-are-making-stupid-crazy-decisions sentiment almost endearing.
I think my distaste for Max is probably mostly to blame. Even in the 1989 episodes, when he pops up to yell at Gabrielle about Al, I'm rolling my eyes/muttering at the screen for him to shut up, etc.
What were the BTS reasons in 2002?
So, even though my early memories of watching OLTL in late 2002 are fuzzy, because I was mostly just catching pieces of episodes as they were airing before GH while getting very limited information from my roommate (who knew OLTL basics but didn't care about it because she was primarily a GH fan) when I asked her questions about which characters were the main pairings based on which people I saw interacting in scenes together at the time ("No, that's Bo, and he and Viki are not a couple. I think she's married to his brother" "No, Cassie and Todd are not a couple. He's with Tea or Blair"), I do remember the "RETURN OF THE EMMY-WINNING WRITING TEAM" promos for Malone II and the hype online and in the magazines. I knew it was a big, big deal even if I didn't have the benefit of having seen Malone I, and even though I hadn't watched enough of Gary Tomlin's OLTL to hate anything I was seeing.
So basically everything I watched Malone and Griffith do, I was on board and started watching really faithfully.
Like you, I see the creativity, and I admire the attempts to try different things. I was glued to the creepy Mitch-takes-over-Llanfair story, Dorian teaming up with Blair/Jessica/Lindsay against Mitch, David coming back, the Walker/Todd stuff, and Kelly/Kevin's marital troubles.
I think I was initially on board for the Santi story before that went totally off the rails and ruined Antonio for me for good. Didn't care for Heaven Can Wait. "Flash"/Joey pretty much ruined what should have been a good re-entry for Sarah. They talked a game about CJ, and he never materialized.
So much potential and so much screwed up. I know a lot of problems would be down to network/Frons interference, but some of it feels too wild/weird for that and like the stories just got away from them somehow.
It's also really hard to watch these episodes from the '90s and remember what was going on in 2003 and think that it's the same writing team. There's so little overlap in terms of quality and tone.
The Vegas are a good example because they had ample focus in both eras. But in the '90s the Vegas were grounded in real, serious stories (Angel Square, Cristian/Jessica, gang violence, police corruption, Antonio and Andy's fight for justice). In 2003-2004, the Vegas got instead a convoluted story about an international drug cartel, a treasure hunt, various people being brainwashed/drugged, and constantly shifting family ties: Antonio's father is this man -- no, he is this man. Dorian is lying about Adriana's parentage -- no, she's not lying, or maybe she is lying, but not in the way you thought she was lying. This woman is Antonio's mother -- no, this other woman is Antonio's mother. Cristian is Cristian -- no, he's not Cristian. Or maybe he is Cristian. Tico? Sonya? I don't even remember how they fit in. I just know by the end it was hard to care because everything kept changing.
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sunvsbanner ·
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