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Retro B&B: When the Beautiful Were Also Bold


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Thorne 1.0 was easy on the eyes, blonde yummy goodness in contrast to Ridge's dark good looks

 

I liked how back then that casting - a softer blond and a more sharp looking brunette - also extended to Kristen and Felicia too. It made it more believable that some of the siblings resembled each other. And I always thought Ron Moss and Felicia 1.0 could pass for siblings.

 

Sheila's introduction was when the show pulled up in ratings from dead last up to number 2 in ratings

 

It was never in dead last. In the late 80s/early 90s, it's lowest ranking was #8, back when there were 11 or 12 shows on. Once Sheila joined, it steadily rose up the rating scale and regularly placed in the top 5. The 1995–1996 Season is when it reaches #3, and doesn't reach # 2 until 1998–1999.

 

The introduction of Brooke's Bedroom line

 

Oh man that whole scene was hilariously awesome.

 

If I had to sum up B&B with one clip, this might be it: Brooke being shocking, Taylor being shocked, Stephanie being furious at Brooke, the Forrester men being charmed by her, models posing in sorta-high-fashion and a dramatic press conference.

 

That would definitely be a strong contendor.

 

The restaurant was called the Cafe Russe.  It was the equivalent to Y&R's Colonnade Room--the place where every woman was wined, dined and romanced by her wealthy suitor. 

 

But before that, there was the private dining room with the balcony over-looking the ocean...

 

I do remember the 'younger/teen appealing' characters in the mid-90s, the long forgotten Forrester Jessica, Dylan Shaw, the Lady Called Michael and not-Lisa Tuttle. 

 

Jessica was a bit annoying, but man, give me that foursome anyday over Steffy/Liam/Hope/Wyatt...

 

For me, the "golden era" of the show was probably from 1991 to 1998. There was a good balance to the show. You had romance, fashion shows, corporate battle, family drama, behind the scenes manipulations, love triangles...and there was a balance to the cast as well. You'd see an episode featuring multiple characters involved in multiple storylines of their own, instead of most of the cast acting as a Greek chorus to either the Steffy/Liam/Hope triangle or the the Liam/Hope/Wyatt triangle. It was just so much more fun and enjoyable a show. There were good times before, and good times after, but that stretch of years of the show are the best for me.

Edited by AndySmith
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Speaking of balance and characters, I was surprised at the development of Ron Deacon's character. For a bad guy whose time on the show was measured in weeks, we learned more about him and his life (which includes yet another enabler mother on this show!) than I know about Liam after almost five years.

It's crazy to me that B&B doesn't have better continuity and developed history between its cast when the EP is not only the son of the creator, but has written for the show from day one. The other soaps have had a revolving door of EPs and HWs, but B&B has not. So it is...baffling, to say the least.

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This looks to be one of the last times the original Donna and Katie appeared in 2001, along with Grandma Logan:

 

Also

came up, and I can't figure out any context for this scene whatsoever, and the Polish voice over made it impossible to pick out the English.

If I rember correctly....due to Brooke's look and Thorne's presence at Brooke's home I think that Brooke's family (with all the original actor portraying them except for Beth that was the no.2 but was the most used as a character) went there for Brooke and Thorne's wedding!!!!!

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So Dee Bap has finished uploading the Ron Deacon rape trial...Holy moly. I forgot that trials on soaps used to last longer than one workweek. And as a soon to be 29 year old, I admit I can't fully appriciate how far we've come for rape trials where proof of struggle is no longer required for conviction. But kudos to Ridge for the first and last attempt to put anyone's needs above his own.

Also, it's coming up to the beginning of the Brooke Logan I've loved to hate. Sigh....it was nice while it lasted, and between that and the impending triangle between Kirsten/Clark*/Margo, it's ashamed that the first two genuine friendships of the show's history went to the shitter so quickly.

*I said in this thread that Thorne #1 was the sexiest guy on the show, but young Clark Garrison....YUM!

And to add it here before I forget, am I the only one thinking it odd to propose to someone as a celebration of convicting a rapist? I don't have any first hand with a situation like this, but it just seem...odd, for lack of a better term. "Hey, we just finished getting that rapist guy put away in jail three months after the attack, and we've only dated for two!Let's get married, ktnxz!"

:/

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So Dee Bap has finished uploading the Ron Deacon rape trial...Holy moly. I forgot that trials on soaps used to last longer than one workweek. And as a soon to be 29 year old, I admit I can't fully appriciate how far we've come for rape trials where proof of struggle is no longer required for conviction. But kudos to Ridge for the first and last attempt to put anyone's needs above his own.

 

The trial was tough to watch, more so than I expected. Maybe because it felt like even today, Ron Deacon would be the kind of convincing nice guy who could get away with it if there was no video or a witness to testify that the victim was a virgin.

 

I'd heard about Brooke hiding a letter but I thought it was the day before the wedding or something, instead of before Caroline answered Thorne's proposal (quite risky - though it looks like the wedding will be pretty soon). That felt really momentous, watching it in 2015. But it also made me appreciate how nuanced the show was then, with over half a year of Brooke as a nice young woman before her first major oh no you didn't-moment.

 

Clarke was so young! I checked Sally's first appearance and it was January 1989. I associate Clarke so strongly with Spectra that it's interesting he was around for a year+ before Sally and her gang.

 

The newest episodes are from November, so maybe the Caroline/Thorne haste is because they wanted the new show to have a big sweeps month with the trial/proposal/letter/wedding preparations.

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(edited)

I too was surprised when Clark showed up outta the blue, but it was nice reminder of how characters would get introduced slowly and gradually as popularity or story necessitated and not shoved into one's face as it is on Y&R.

Agreed about Brooke, and I'm beginning to see why she a solid fanbase that took till the Beacon affair to start fracturing. And funnily enough, I've noticed two things: that there wasn't much to go on for Bridge even back then, and that Brooke and Thorne #1 had an ease with one another as friends and I'm kind of retroactively upset that they won't get together till 11 years later. LOL!

Edited by Anna Yolei
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I was very young when Thorne #2 was on the show and so my memories of his storylines and acting aren't the best, but now that I've seen Thorne #1 that seems like an odd recast. They're both blond and good-looking, but even though #1 is the good son to Ridge's dashing playboy favorite he can at least stand up to him. #2 seems too limp for that. I can see Brooke and Taylor with Thorne #1 but not #2.

 

I've seen some B&B DVD box sets, but the one I'd totally buy is Brooke vs. Stephanie. In the latest episodes Stephanie has started making comments about the Logans that really have me hoping I'll get to see their first-ever confrontation.

 

. Bonus: widowed Ridge with a beard.

 

: Stephanie runs into Brooke and Eric, then Ridge and Taylor show up. Didn't remember this at all but I'm sure it led to wacky hijinks. Maybe it was even the first Big Bear visit.
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As an aside, I only knew of Big Bear's existance from this show, and I'm a native Californian. LOL! But then I was born in the Bay Area, and all two of us that enjoy snow would go up to Lake Tahoe and that general area.

I'm sure TPTB could put together a collection of just Big Bear hijinx alone. Half of Brooke's children were born there, and a good number of Steph' fights with Brooke happened there, too.

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Stephanie runs into Brooke and Eric, then Ridge and Taylor show up. Didn't remember this at all but I'm sure it led to wacky hijinks. Maybe it was even the first Big Bear visit.

 

Classic moment! And so much awkwardness, but it was awesome too, given the dynamics between all 5 of them back then.

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Into the Woods was a good showing for former soap stars....Billy Magnussen from ATWT played MM's prince.

I was so glad to see Mauzy though. I always thought she had talent but the bad fortune of being in horrid SLs with Slighty Less Psycho Than Today!Rick. It's too bad the Rapunzel role got neutered from the original stageplay, she could've done so much more.

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Funny you should mention Julianne Moore, grisgris.  I found some really old youtube clips of ATWT with a super young JM, and she was absolutely dreadful then, it's really amazing how much better she got.  I liked the fact that she appeared on one of the final ATWT episodes as Frannie & that she never seemed embarrassed (quite the opposite, she always seemed grateful) that she got her start on a soap.  Unlike Meg Ryan, who rarely fesses up to her ATWT role.

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I could understand anyone coming into the genre after 2000 not fessing up (I don't know how many know of Eva Longoria's stint on Y&R about a year before she was picked up for Desperate Housewives, as one example), but the 1980s was the highlight of the genre. No shame in that, imho!

Coincidentally, when Meg Snyder married Paul Ryan, the show went outta it's way to never use Meg Ryan in a line. The closest thing was a line where she introduces herself as Meg Synder, then corrects herself, saying she wasn't use to being married.

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My money's on murder. But my money's only worth $0.76 USD. Didn't Sheila murder someone before she came to L.A. and hooked herself on the wealthy Eric Forrester the First, and then Lauren came on board and was all about exposing her - all the way back in 1993? Shame on me for expecting something original from Brad Bell.

It was actually a pretty complex story that took a long time to play out. Y&R used to do those so well. Here's the short version: Lauren was married to a doctor named Scott. Sheila was a nurse in the hospital where Scott worked. She seduced Scott and became pregnant (by another man, if I remember correctly) to trap Scott. Lauren became pregnant at the same time, but claimed the baby wasn't Scott's when she learned of the affair (Sheila knew the truth, I believe). Sheila miscarried, but told nobody and faked the rest of her pregnancy. When it was time for the baby to be born, she bought a baby on the black market and swapped that baby for the baby Lauren had just given birth to. So Sheila really did end up with Scott's baby. The baby Lauren raised soon died of meningitis. Sheila's mother figured out what Sheila had done and had a debilitating stroke while she was on her way to tell Lauren. Sheila basically kept her mother prisoner as she was regaining her speech, but Lauren knew that Sheila's mother was trying to tell her something and went to visit her. Sheila burned the house down with the two of them in it. They escaped, and everyone believed Sheila died in the fire. Sheila made her way to L.A., and you know the rest.

I remember when Sheila was first joining B&B, the commercials had her leaning over a crib saying, "the baby needs changing." She was such a great villain before they made her into a Freddy Kruger-type pyscho.

Edited by Snaporaz
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One of my first memories of watching this show was when Sheila delivered a lock of baby Thomas's hair to Stephanie. This was shortly before she left in 1998, kidnapping her daughter Mary/Erica in the process. The two appearances after that were pretty lame and far more in line to the type of villain we have in Rick...which could work, but that was never what Sheila was.

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I mean, the story wasn't bad per se...but compared to what she had always been--a villianess with vulnerabilities--I can see why it didn't go over so well.

It's like the difference in retro!Victor Newman, who could be cruel when someone crossed him but cared for his family and the idiotic schemes he comes up with now where he doesn't seem to give a fuck who becomes collateral damage, because Jaggabbot.

But apart from that, there was the even bigger elephant in the room of Eric aging from 2 to 20 in the span of FIVE YEARS. TIIC even included a flashback to the fight where Amber and Steph take on Sheila then have Amber utter a line about how Mary would be a grown up now. Just no.

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I was doing some channel surfing last night, and I stumbled upon this show called Tyrant on FX. Jennifer Finnigan is one of the stars! I didn't actually sit and watch it because it it appeared to be several episodes into the season (and I don't even know how many seasons there have been), so I had no idea what was going on. But I just noticed it was her and thought some of you may be interested.

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Man, I'd love for Amber and Maya to mix it up! They would either be the worst of enemies or the best of golddigging friends, sharing trade secrets.

Oh and in case it gets buried in the main thread, I mentioned there that Roku has a channel dedicated to old B&B episodes! There weren't a whole lot.....Maybe 70 episodes spanning from '03 to 2010 or so, but maybe they'll go back further than that. The infamous Ridge and Rick fight on the roof of FC (the one that made The Soup!) is up there and it's still hilarious!

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Never thought I'd be nostalgic for the mind numbing boredom that was Steffy and Marcus! But yanno.....I still don't care. She didn't steal him from a relative l, so by default it's still her "best" romance. But this clip is just so corny I had to share!

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Even though technically, he is a "relative" lol...isn't he her step-uncle or something?

Trying to figure out relations on this show gives me a migraine haha, but yes, I think you're correct.  However, I don't think Eric adopted him until well after the beach frolic, if I'm remembering correctly.

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OMG. Could the writing be any worse on this show? First, Ivy falls down the stairs. Then she decides to fly 15 hours to Australia with a concussion against doctors' orders. Then Lame gets a blast of water from the sink on the plane (has anyone on this writing team EVER flown on a plane and used the bathroom?) falls down and knocks himself out until after the plane takes off. To Australia, no less. Then he calls Steffy who has stayed up all night waiting to hear from him although we saw her wake up on the sofa the next morning. Then Lame calls her from Australia and before he can even explain, she hangs up on him. No wonder the soaps are failing. This is stupid beyond words. Why do I keep watching (well, once a week) when it's so insulting to my intelligence? Maybe because I'm old enough to remember when all of the soaps were well written with characters we actually cared about because they had similar family problems and hopes and dreams. Just kill this show and all of the others now. 

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Easily one of my favorite storylines on B&B. And certainly one of the best "corporate battles" this show has ever done. Having Brooke take over the company was a shrewd move, since it actually gave her a reason to be on the show, besides her involvement with the Forrester men.

Edited by AndySmith
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It's still so difficult to believe that Brooke is a chemist.  Chemistry and product development requires brains, and Brooke hasn't said or done a single smart thing in all the time I've been watching B&B (on and off since the Pose boink).  It must be disappointing for KKL to look back at past storylines and compare them to more recent ones, since now all she gets to do is simper and squint ... when she gets airtime at all.

Edited by Kitty Redstone
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Yeah, in the 80s and 90s, say what you will about her, we did see Brooke as a smart, hard working chemist and later CEO of Forrester. We can't forget, she did create BeLieF, gave FC a men's line, and also the financially successful Brooke's Bedroom and Ambrosia lines. Too bad thats all gone.

 

This video is, I think, one of the last times we saw Brooke working as a chemist. And it was while she was CEO of FC. Girl can multi-task for sure lol

 

 

Check out other videos by the guy who posted that video. Lots of good vintage B&B stuff, mostly from 1993 to 1995. Mostly.

Edited by AndySmith
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Sometime in the late 90s/early 2000s, Brooke stopped showing any real growth, and at times seemed to regress. I think it was around the time she and Thorne broke up, because after all she went through to be with him, she just seemed to wake up one day and realize she was really in love with Ridge all along, and was just settling for Thorne, which, bull shit.

 

And she also became less confident and more simpering, as others have pointed out. Sure, she did have her occasional moments where we got to see the old Brooke in action. But for some reason, Brad seemed to not be able to write Brooke as a strong person, he seemed to prefer her as a perpetual simpering screw-up. And even after the affair with Deacon, we seemed to be getting a Brooke who realized she needed to become a better person, to improve herself, and take responsibility for her actions. Then that was torpedoed a few years later by having Brooke sleep with Nick like an hour after Ridge "died". Oy.

 

Now, obviously, we need drama to keep this show going. But there has to be a way to have Brooke still have drama while still giving her a backbone, and without having her boink her daughter's boyfriends/husbands or her step-son. Another thing that was ruined with those storylines was Brooke's saving grace of being a good mother, no matter what else she did in her life.

 

Ok, end of rant lol

Edited by AndySmith
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