All Episodes Talk

[jsbt]

He's a renaissance man! Ward Horton, a.k.a. Dean Trayger, the lawyer/drug dealer/possible Téa love interest/potential tattoo person/mostly-totally-extraneous-Shelter-recurring-player-but-he-was-too-hot-for-me-to-ignore from last year's OLTL 2.0, is now the male lead in Annabelle, the new spin-off film from The Conjuring. Yes, with that doll.

 

Edited July 19, 2014 by jsbt

[Melgaypet]

Ew, creepy doll!

Speaking of hot dudes on PP's OLTL, does anyone recollect Hot Aussie (Possibly Dirty*) Cop Bruce's last name? I keep thinking 'Carter' but I think that's wrong. I need to know for reasons.

*He can be as dirty as he wants with me... sorry, y'all, I'm a little tipsy tonight.

[jsbt]

I believe it was Bruce Hunter.

 

He was very hot and obviously on the take. I strongly suspected he was also another tattoo mole - a way to keep an eye on both Shelter and the LPD.

[Melgaypet]

Thanks! And, man, there were so many possible Tattoo People. Bruce, Arturo, Jack's Pervy Teacher, Michelle the Catfish, probably others I'm forgetting... I loved that damn show.

[jsbt]

I thought there was an 50/50 chance Bandini was sort of a mid-level guy involved. He reacted to the name Todd Manning, he was clearly shown to be bad news by the end of the run, and he had put up Dani's friend Briana Marland, whose other lover was one of the cartel/tattoo people. The neat thing was that it was also equally possible that Arturo wasn't one of them at all - that he was just his own separate type of bad news for a separate story with Dani, tangentially connected to the conspiracy plotline via his involvement with Briana.

 

But I was pretty certain either Bruce the cop or Dean the lawyer (or both) were tattoo folk. Most likely Bruce, IMO.

 

That story was finally coming together by the end of the run. It's too bad it's gone.

Edited July 20, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

My money was on Kate (Jack's teacher slash bang buddy) turning out to be a tattoo minion.  Her pursuit of him that first day in the coffee shop was pretty aggressive.  Or maybe I just needed something, anything, to shake up the very tired soap trope of a student secretly sleeping with a teacher.  

 

I also kept waiting for it to loop back around that Jeffrey was the one who was originally talking to Michelle online.  I don't think she was in the tattoo organization per say, but I did think she and Jeffrey were in league somehow, Jeffrey set them up to distract Matthew, etc.

[jsbt]

I thought Michelle was another red herring, just crazy on her own. I was pretty ready for her to go, too. I understood why they used Michelle as a wedge to push Dani closer to Arturo and Destiny to Jeffrey, to eventually give Matthew a comeuppance when he realized she was mental. But at two days a week that story quickly grew agonizing, which was too bad since Amber Noyes was really talented. I would've found it silly if Michelle had turned out to be, say, Alison's daughter or something as people suggested - I thought that would be a Ron Carlivati move, and while some Ron moves are quite inspired and I thought OLTL 2.0 pulled off one that really worked at the end (Carl Peterson turning out to be Alison's brother and the mastermind behind things), I think piling on too many, as Ron tends to do, would've been too much.

 

Kate I didn't give a shit about. That story didn't work and I didn't think she was a mole either. They needed to keep putting Andrew Trischitta with the vets, which is where he did his best work (and he was improving a lot IMO) or find better newbies for him.

Edited July 20, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

Oh, like I said, I don't think Michelle was actually sporting a tattoo, and yes, a twist where she turned out to be Allison's daughter just because both were crazy whack jobs would have been silly.  But after we learned what we did about Jeffrey, it just seemed weird to me that nobody pointed out that he was the reason Michelle was in their lives in the first place.  He was the one who was talking to her online when Matthew jumped in, he was the one that pushed Matthew to meet her in person when he was ready to bag the whole thing, etc.

 

The story with Jack and his teacher really was terrible.  The whole "student secretly sleeping with their teacher" story has been done to death on teen soaps the last few years and it really isolated Jack from the main action, although there were a few nice scenes with him and David as a result.

[Melgaypet]

I lean toward Kate (thank you! I could not remember her name, she was such a nothing character) being a Tattoo Person, if only to justify that story, which, yes, was awful. That scene where she wordlessly "seduced" Jack by taking his computer in the coffee shop...ugh.

I agree that Michelle probably wasn't a Tattoo Person. She seemed genuinely unstable (not that Allison isn't, but whatev) and she certainly couldn't keep her lies straight. I think Jeffrey found her online, sussed out that she was a stalkery nut, and sicced her on Matthew.

Arturo...I dunno. Probably, but I actually liked him, despite something definitely being off about his whole deal.

Hot Cop Bruce was hot. And sketchy. I bet our pal Fish noticed both those things from his spot juuuust offscreen....

[jsbt]

I think they kept Arturo written right on the edge of good or bad remarkably well, right until the end when I thought he showed his true colors, to us and Téa if not to Dani. It was subtle but it was clear, IMO, that he was trouble, especially in the way they cut and scored their love scene with the spooky music. It helped that he had such chemistry with Kelley Missal. Paolo Seganti looked rough as hell, almost as awful as he had on ATWT in the last few years, but that worked for the character - this kind of former stud gone to seed, wasting away.

 

I didn't think Jeffrey had anything to do with Michelle simply because we saw him go through the process of discovering where she was in town and being surprised, and IIRC he did that alone with no witnesses.

 

I wish we'd gotten to find out what the supposed 'big' stories for Season 2 were, something 'never done in daytime.' A lot of people thought David was going to be outed as bi on the heels of Tuc Watkins officially coming out, but I have no clue.

Edited July 20, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

I didn't think Jeffrey had anything to do with Michelle simply because we saw him go through the process of discovering where she was in town and being surprised, and IIRC he did that alone with no witnesses.

 

Oh yeah, I think you're right.  He was alone in the apartment when he got her on the phone and then heard the car alarm in the background.  Overall, I agree that I wanted Michelle's crazy to be a completely different sect of crazy from the tattoo organization, but it always felt to me like that angle of Jeffrey being the one who was talking to her in the beginning and Matthew snaking her was dropped.

 

I wish we'd gotten to find out what the supposed 'big' stories for Season 2 were, something 'never done in daytime.' A lot of people thought David was going to be outed as bi on the heels of Tuc Watkins officially coming out, but I have no clue.

 

Eh, I dunno if I would have been into that.  It's like fans of "The Young and the Restless" clamoring for Greg Rikaart's character to be gay just because he came out in real life, even if it doesn't fit for the character.  I don't think David needs to be gay or bi just because Tuc Watkins is.  Although can you imagine David trying to worm his way between Kyle and Fish!

 

Speaking of them...

 

Hot Cop Bruce was hot. And sketchy. I bet our pal Fish noticed both those things from his spot juuuust offscreen....

 

My #showinmyhead storyline for Kyle and Fish would have been Fish teaming up with Natalie to investigate the shadiness at Shelter and crooked cop Bruce.  Kyle, meanwhile, would notice something weird in Clint's blood work at the hospital and dig into it, putting him in the tattoo organization's crosshairs.  Then you could have had dramatic scenes at their wedding/committment ceremony where they're both in danger and one of them taking a bullet for the other (fear not, the shot individual would live!), leading to dramatic hospital bedside scenes.  Siiigh.

Edited July 23, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

I think it did fit David, actually - I've always seen him as omnisexual and possibly neglecting to mention it. It's easy enough for him to say, deadpan, to the rest of the cast "none of you guys were hot enough." And Kevin Fisher on Y&R, well, he's a creep but unlike David I never can buy him as str8.

Edited July 23, 2014 by jsbt

[Melgaypet]

They had David state outright a few times that he was only into women, which made me roll my eyes a little. I mean, if you need to say it... I also saw David in a bit of a Captain Jack Harkness mold. Oh, well.

Though come to think of it, it was always far harder to believe Rex was straight, especially back in the days of Preacher Joey.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Melgaypet

[TeeVee329]

My point was not so much that David couldn't be bisexual, but that he didn't need to suddenly be written as such just because Tuc Watkins came out in real life.

 

As far as David during the theoretical second season of PP OLTL, I think he would have been entangled with either his show producer Jo (even though I wanted her to have a steamy affair with cameraman Leo, my favorite of the teritary characters) or Rama (considering Vimal had all but disappeared) until the reveal that Carl (wooing Dorian, last we saw) was no good, which probably would have begun a David/Dorian reunion.

Edited July 23, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

I don't know what they had in mind for Jo, but I was sure the reality show was just a device to eventually bring D&D back together. It was not dissimilar to a typical RC comedy story for them IMO, which is fine in theory, except that it did have the far more serious element of Dorian becoming involved with Supervillain Carl and they weren't being played as total caricatures anymore. I adored Jo. I would've wanted a more solid way to tie her into the show. Were it to return now, I'd probably say that David and Jo had teamed up to revive Fraternity Row with Bo's reluctant counsel. That could be their new work environment and you could have some other folks work there as well.

 

I think they had had more in mind for Vimal and Rama and the open marriage and then dropped most of it in the flurry of rewrites. I really liked that storyline and it was barely on. I liked that they showed that Vimal was a burgeoning stud who could get plenty of dates while Rama was being left out in the cold. And I liked that they showed their genuine love for each other, that he wasn't just a joke character but a virile man. It was more than Ron gave him. I hope they would've kept using him when the dust settled, had the show gone on.

They had David state outright a few times that he was only into women, which made me roll my eyes a little. I mean, if you need to say it... I also saw David in a bit of a Captain Jack Harkness mold. Oh, well.

 

I have always taken the same line on David. Which is why I expected it in Season 2, honestly. Of course there were also rumors about Bo getting testicular cancer or something, that that was Bo and Nora's very serious upcoming story. I didn't need Bo to lose a testicle.

 

Rex, of course, was originally conceived of as a gay villain by Gary Tomlin. He was played extremely neutrally, almost cold and standoffish for his first several months on the show except for his antipathy towards Seth Anderson, who he was supposed to bed, stealing his 'sister' Jessica's boyfriend. When that got scrapped he became a stud overnight, banging college skanks two at a time and he became the much more overtly snarky character we grew to love. Until we didn't. Rex is another guy who is clearly closeted bi, IMO. (Though I don't really buy David as being closeted. David is just David.)

 

I'll admit I'm moderately tempted to reach out to the OLTL crewmember who lurks at SON, to see if he has any dirt on Season 2. The most I know for sure is that they did approach Ilene Kristen.

Edited July 23, 2014 by jsbt

[dubbel zout]

(Though I don't really buy David as being closeted. David is just David.)

 

That's how I always saw David, too. He was with Dorian because she was the person he wanted to be with then. But if some great guy had come along, and David and Dorian were split or on the rocks, I could see him deciding to sleep with the great guy. It would be no big deal to anyone, because David is just David.

Edited July 23, 2014 by dubbel zout

[MSquared]

 

I also saw David in a bit of a Captain Jack Harkness mold. Oh, well.

 

HEY!  Don't you go comparing that clown to my Captain Jack!  I do like David and loved that he wasn't played so much the annoying clod he was under Ron, but Jack Harkness.  No...just no.

[TeeVee329]

Were it to return now, I'd probably say that David and Jo had teamed up to revive Fraternity Row with Bo's reluctant counsel. That could be their new work environment and you could have some other folks work there as well.

 

Now that sounds fun!  They could have even used the "All My Children" sides of the sets (like AJ's bedroom) for "Fraternity Row"!  And Rama and cameraman Leo would have been a good fit in that type of story too. 

 

While Robert S. Woods and Hilary B. Smith would have rocked it, Bo having testicular cancer would have been depressing to watch.  At least Rex wouldn't have been around to make it all about himself.

 

Was I the only one who kept expecting someone, maybe Michelle, to anonymously drop some kind of bomb on the Nightbird and that becoming a bigger story for Bo and Nora?

 

I'll admit I'm moderately tempted to reach out to the OLTL crewmember who lurks at SON, to see if he has any dirt on Season 2. The most I know for sure is that they did approach Ilene Kristen.

 

Roxy!   They did name check her a few times.  I wonder what they had in mind for her.

Edited July 24, 2014 by TeeVee329

[Melgaypet]

HEY!  Don't you go comparing that clown to my Captain Jack!  I do like David and loved that he wasn't played so much the annoying clod he was under Ron, but Jack Harkness.  No...just no.

Ha! I should've known I'd offend a Captain Jack fan. But, really, I was only equating the two in terms of unlimited/undefinable sexuality; not intelligence or courage or morality or anything else. Better?

I do wonder if they were ever going to pick up the thread of David's long-lost kid and if it would turn out to be Jeffrey. And what were they going to do with Jeffrey? I loved him, he was absolutely my favorite new character and Jeffrey/Viki scenes were the best. He dug himself a deep hole, I wanted to see him claw his way out.

[MSquared]

 

unlimited/undefinable sexuality; not intelligence or courage or morality

 

Okay, fine on the first ones, but David was no where near as smart or brave as Jack though, at times, his morality may have been better than Jack's.  And thinking of it now, they could both camp it up with the best of them.

[UYI]

 

Judge Fitzwallace was also on L&O as a judge several times. I always loved Fitzie! But I'm talking about major actors like Slezak, Woods, Ritchie, Howarth...

 

Her name was actually Judge Fitzwater :) .

 

I think Fiona Hutchison did an episode of SVU.

 

JDP did an episode of Simon & Simon before he was on OLTL. I'd love to see it. 

[jsbt]

Chris McKenna, the teen Joey before Nathan Fillion, talks OLTL and his new role on Y&R. I remember him as the first Joey when I started watching, but I got more acquainted with him in some of his later TV and film roles, as well as watching his really three-dimensional, heartfelt performance in the Billy Douglas story on YouTube. I often wanted him back in the role of Joey in those last few years on ABC; Nathan was never coming back for good and McKenna has had a solid career, and was great in the part.

 

 

 

SERIAL SCOOP: Changing gears a bit, it was 22 years ago that One Life to Live launched a storyline where Billy Douglas, played by Ryan Phillippe, came out as a gay. It was groundbreaking at the time for daytime. Looking back, did you realize how important a story this was?

 

CHRIS L MCKENNA: I was told. It was talked about a lot. We went and visited the AIDS quilt. I was aware but didn't appreciate it. I wasn't able to. It took me awhile. In fact just last week, a fan wrote a letter telling me how affected they were and how they were gay and didn’t know it, and didn't know they were normal and it was okay until they saw that storyline. I was teary reading it. The impact it had on people I couldn't appreciate it as much at the time, I was [a] kid, and I was 14 years old. It's only since that I've come to realize how proud I am of that.

 

SERIAL SCOOP: The head writer at the time, Michael Malone, was quoted as saying that he initially wanted Joey to be gay but the network rejected it, because they didn't want a core member of the Buchanan’s to be gay. At the time how do you think you have felt playing that, at that age?

 

CHRIS L MCKENNA: I would have been fine with it. I grew up in show business. I played a gay character at that same time in a play with Andrew McCarthy and Giovanni Ribisi called "Dare Not Speak Its Name." I had a kiss with a man. It's why I also I didn’t realize it had an impact because I never thought it was a big deal. So I couldn't understand to some people it it was. I would have been totally fine with that. Of course on the other hand I hadn’t kissed anyone yet. I had my first kiss with a girl on One Life to Live. It would have been difficult either way.

 

SERIAL SCOOP: What is it like having your first kiss on camera?

 

CHRIS L MCKENNA: Oh gee, I handled it like a pro. Oh wait, no wait, I threw up afterward. [Laughs] I was 14, she was 20 years old. It was very nerve-wracking. I could not breathe. I probably would have been the same way kissing a guy; it wouldn't have made a difference.

 

SERIAL SCOOP: If you think back on your time at One Life to Live, do you have a favorite experience?

 

CHRIS L MCKENNA: It was not my first kiss. It was definitely not that. [Laughs] I had a great time on the show. Actually, It was doing the make a wish foundation softball games. The charities and the people I met and the kids we were raising money for. I have pictures of them with me in my bedroom here in Connecticut. My mom keeps it all up. There are pictures with Jessica Collins (Avery on Y&R, then Dinah Lee on Loving) and Amelia Heinle (Victoria on Y&R, then Steffy on Loving). I've shown them and we've reminisced about them. Those were such great times.

Edited August 4, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

That's a nice little interview.  I wasn't watching then, who was the girl that Joey kissed?  Was she a character connected to anyone or some rando first love?  I didn't think Joey had any on-screen romance before Dorian.

 

Speaking of Billy Douglas, back before Fish and Kyle got booted from the show and I thought the custody battle over Sierra would end up being a, you know, actual battle, I thought it would have been cool if they'd had reintroduced Billy as the lawyer Fish and Kyle hired to represent them.  He could have been a courtroom shark like Tea and Eli, but also had a partner and children and been an example for Oliver during those trying times.  Alas.

Edited August 5, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

I think the girl had to be "Alana," who I think was Joey's first girlfriend who tagged along with him and Billy Douglas a lot during that storyline. She didn't look much older than him but I could swear I've seen an episode where they kissed. They were a whole trio and she was a nice kid.

 

The following year they did test him with Reiko Aylesworth's Rebecca Lewis, who he looked significantly younger than; he was recast shortly thereafter. I saw some of those episodes again recently and the age difference was jarring. But I don't think it was her.

Edited August 5, 2014 by jsbt

[UYI]

I always thought the actress who played Alana resembled Erin Torpey in pictures.

 

The age difference there reminds me of the one on The Wonder Years between Fred Savage (Kevin) and Julie Condra (Madeline). It was about the same, with Julie as a 20 year old playing a 14 year old. 

[TeeVee329]

David Fumero (Cristian Vega) interview:

 

http://www.soapoperanetwork.com/2014/08/up2lately-david-fumero-giving-back-life-one-life-live

Edited August 7, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

Just a brief bit, but Gina Tognoni, who's just taken over the role of Phyllis from Michelle Stafford on Y&R, talked with Michael Fairman and they quickly discussed her last run at OLTL.

 

MICHAEL:

On One Life to Live you came back to the role you originated of Kelly Cramer, and continued on shortly before the show went off the air.  Can you touch upon your feelings for the show that gave you your first soap break being canceled?

 

GINA:

My heart broke for that show.  It felt very unfair that it was canceled.  OLTL fans were so supportive and vocal about the show being canceled; you would think in these days that it would be enough to keep it on the air.  I think for the TV version, Frank Valentini (former EP OLTL, now EP GH) and Ron Carlivati (former head writer OLTL, now head writer GH) did a good job of wrapping it up.  It broke so many people’s hearts to take something off the air that meant a lot to so many.  I feel grateful to be on The Young and the Restless as there is an appreciation here for what we do.

 

MICHAEL:

What did you think about your final turn playing Kelly on One Life?

 

GINA:

I feel like Kelly’s storyline was stuck somewhere between first gear and neutral, but here at Y&R I feel thrilled to be working with all five gears with the Phyllis storyline. Case closed! (Laughs)

[TeeVee329]

GINA:

I feel like Kelly’s storyline was stuck somewhere between first gear and neutral

 

 

If by first gear she meant "awful" and by neutral she meant "boring", she's totally right!  Not that she helped matters with her insistence about working with Michael Easton and Trevor St. John, sense be damned.

Edited August 8, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

I always took that to be more of the network's mandate - top star from CBS is tested with top stars. She was very keen on the Michael Easton thing, but she was a soap actress looking for job security; it's what any of them would do. I don't think Gina Tognoni had any power to affect her story. She seemed befuddled and adrift the entire time.

[TeeVee329]

Oh I don't disagree, the blatant chemistry testing with all the show's (awful) leading man - VicTodd, John, Rex - was mandated higher up, but I couldn't help remembering her guuuushing interviews at the time about how "interesting" as actors/performers Michael Easton and Trevor St. John were.

Edited August 8, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

At least she and Easton had some chemistry (same with her and JPL, I thought). The stuff with TSJ was beyond painful. He clearly didn't give a shit, it made no sense for the characters, and it made Victor/Todd even pervier than ever as he randomly Frenched his employee one day for no goddamn reason. And then she began to obsess over it, which managed to somehow degrade both characters and their history - Todd would never do that, and a Kelly in her right mind would never do that (Heather Tom's mentally ill Kelly, who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, almost did in 2004 and it was kind of hot, but 'Todd' was manipulating her at the time and they didn't actually do anything).

 

Fortunately, it all made sense a year later when we learned "Todd" was actually Victor - much like his other questionable choices over the years, we can now handwave his flirtation with Cousin Kelly as more of Victor's schizoid mania coming out.

[eXiled]

For me the issue with Kelly Cramer is that I never knew who she was supposed to be. Re-watching episodes from the early 90s when she was a kid fresh out of boarding school, it's clear she was supposed to be a free spirit, a little eccentric, but who nonetheless has a good heart and is loyal to her family. By the early 2000s, she is running the Sun, is hard, ruthless and spends most of her time trying to determine which Buchanan man's bed she wants to sleep in that night. I wonder if the show decided to write to Gina T's strengths ( I liked her so much more as the cynical Dinah on Guiding Light) but lost Kelly's true essence.

 

Tracy Melchior's Kelly didn't make much of an impression on me, so when Heather Tom showed up, I was delighted. Her Kelly seemed to be teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. She was always scrambling to keep her family together. I enjoyed watching her scrap with Blair and VicTodd. While a big departure from the fashion obsessed schoolgirl who first showed up, I liked this Kelly. She was as looney as any Cramer woman ought to be, yet she could find strength to get things done.

 

Gina T returned and the rest seemed to be forgotten. Kelly was no longer hanging by a thread. She was hardened, self assured, and once again, thought she was better than the other Cramer women. I didn't hate this portrayal necessarily, I just wish the show had picked character traits and stuck to them instead of writing for the actress playing the role.

[jsbt]

The key to Kelly's character, IMO, is she never knew who she was either.

 

She spent years avoiding her mad mother like the plague, shunning the eccentricities of her family and trying to attach herself as closely as possible to the stability and domesticity of the Buchanans. She wanted to be the 'good' Cramer, the not-Cramer. She wanted to never be wrong. She wanted to be perfect, and she never was. She was with Joey, she was with Kevin. She thought she finally was the First Lady of the Buchanans and when it all fell apart she had a breakdown, and IMO came the closest to the raw truth of who she really is. (Which is why, while I think Gina is a very good actress and could have done much more with the role, Heather Tom was overall my favorite Kelly by far.)

 

She and Kevin rebuilt into a more healthy relationship - her best, IMO - but she made another horrible mistake with Duke and she never forgave herself for it, was never able to allow herself to accept Kevin's love and devotion again because, in her own words, "I slept with her son." She finally went back to Joey - yet again, after all she'd done to him and to her cousin, Cassie, who had helped raise her, whose husband she'd stolen - because, IMO, Kelly just wanted some semblance of stability, of youth and purity and uncomplicated happiness. She had a skewed view of being her best self with Joey all those years ago before all her mistakes, and she tried to recreate it. IMO it would never have worked.

 

I think Gina's best work last time was in her few days with Dan Gauthier, where she told Kevin why she couldn't be with him - I think so much of Kelly is built on flight from her neuroses, from her deep, deep pain and shame over her family and her choices, which is why she wouldn't go back to him, and Gina played that very, very well. And then they never touched on the truth of her character, this deep fear and self-loathing again. I figure by now Kelly has left Joey again, and she's still the perpetual woman that got away for the brothers and probably her son. Off trying to find herself somewhere else.

Edited August 12, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

If I remember correctly, wasn't the last time we ever saw Kevin when Kelly flew to London at Thanksgiving to declare her feelings for Joey and she just went on and on and ON to Kevin about it?  Poor Kevin, he should have slammed the door in her face.

[jsbt]

I don't remember Kevin ever appearing again after early 2010 when Gina first returned - he came to town after Melinda died, proposed, they had those scenes in the church, she said no, Clint married Kim, and Kevin skipped town. That was it, AFAIK. I don't remember him being on at Thanksgiving or ever again.

 

Wait, scratch that, you're right - he did appear in November. I have a very, very, very vague recollection of those scenes with her and Nigel's British twin Neville, but I clearly blocked out the part with Kevin. Right, she went there looking for Joey and he was already gone, now I remember. I'll have to watch this again. Shit.

Edited August 12, 2014 by jsbt

[jsbt]

So I did go hunt those scenes (the first of them, anyway) down, and I remember them now - DG was so great with Gina, again. The whole drunk dialing setup was also very funny and true to life, one of the few 'funny' bits Gina really nailed with Kelly last time that was organic to both her and her original version of the character and still viable for the modern Kelly - it's the kind of thing Ron Carlivati's team knows how to do well when they do it in moderation, which they don't anymore. Not that the whole resulting "Kelly wants Joey again" story made much sense, and I thought Tom Degnan was a very weak casting job and the story quickly became a disaster, especially because they never really dealt with the Kevin issue. Anyway, what this clip really illustrates is how much chemistry Gina had with Dan Gauthier, and how much his Kevin should still be a tentpole character on some future fantasy OLTL that will never happen. I mean, if the show had run on ABC Family or something, with his mixed wife Rachel, it'd still be on.

 

Edited August 12, 2014 by jsbt

[Melgaypet]

If I remember correctly, wasn't the last time we ever saw Kevin when Kelly flew to London at Thanksgiving to declare her feelings for Joey and she just went on and on and ON to Kevin about it?  Poor Kevin, he should have slammed the door in her face.

 

Poor Kevin, indeed. I never understood why the Lord-Buchanans didn't hate Kelly's guts, especially Clint, Viki and Jessica. I mean, if someone was forever cheating on members of my family with other members of my family, as well as stealing babies and faking attacks by serial killers and various shit; I'd, at best, think she was completely insane, and at worst, think she was a fucking plague that should everyone should stay the hell away from. But no, Clint, Viki, and Jess all continued to think she was great. Only Natalie had anything approaching an appropriate reaction to her. It was downright weird.

[Dandesun]

 

I never understood why the Lord-Buchanans didn't hate Kelly's guts, especially Clint, Viki and Jessica. I mean, if someone was forever cheating on members of my family with other members of my family, as well as stealing babies and faking attacks by serial killers and various shit; I'd, at best, think she was completely insane, and at worst, think she was a fucking plague that should everyone should stay the hell away from. But no, Clint, Viki, and Jess all continued to think she was great.

 

I remain utterly and completely perplexed at the Lord-Buchanans' bizarre love and acceptance of Kelly after her constant merry-go-rounding on Kevin and Joey (and throw Drew in there, too, although he died too soon to fit into her regular routine.) I could understand Viki and Jess being 'Well, she's confused and all that' and trying to understand but only if Kelly had moved the fuck on to plague some other family. But the idea that with off of her ping-ponging much less the Duke crap resulting in them being thrilled to have her be a part of their family...

 

Well, the Lord side is definitely nuts anyway but that doesn't explain the Buchanan side of things. Asa still liked Kelly before he died and that didn't make one iota of sense to me at all.

 

Kelly was a mess. A full on mess. She was vastly insecure and she wanted to pick and choose parts of the various Cramer lives to take for her own without actually having to earn any of it. I remember when she tried to get Blair and Todd to let her live with them. Todd was having none of it (which, as has been said, furthers the bizarreness of the Not!Todd/Kelly... whatever that was because Todd Manning had no fucks to give about Kelly Cramer. Ever.) She was envious of Blair's beauty and wild, glamorous life... she was envious of Dorian's money and 'hot, young stud' of a husband. I don't think she envied Cassie until Cassie dumped Andrew for Kevin.

 

I'd actually have to agree that Heather Tom was probably the best Kelly because she went full-bore into that crazy place that Kelly should, by all accounts, live in as she's practically devoured by the envy she holds for her cousins... so much of which seemed to be directed at Blair, who never did anything to Kelly but who Kelly easily did the most harm to.

 

That they basically ignored all of the messy years when Gina returned did a huge disservice to the character. They pretended none of that had ever happened and then immediately sent Kelly after Not!Todd because....? Why? Because he was the one that never gave Kelly a second glance? To have so much train-wreck in a character's immediate past and NOT utilize that just... mystified me. MYSTIFIED ME.

 

Part of me kind of wished that Kelly had interacted with real Todd so we could see RH play the utter contempt that Todd truly always had for Kelly... especially if she tried to hint at her 'brief romance' with Not!Todd. I had some fun with it in my fic where Kelly says she likes the other Todd better and Todd remarked that he wasn't surprised because Victor is as big an idiot as she. At the same time, I feel that would have been a waste of time to deal with on the show. (Although I remain infinitely bitter that Todd and Dorian didn't get any scenes together. I always loved their mutual animosity.)

 

It's just... the writers never seemed to be able to decide who Kelly was; was she the anti-Cramer? Or the biggest train-wreck Cramer of them all? (I think the latter.)

[jsbt]

HBS weighs in on OLTL 2.0 in a larger interview at SON:

 

“There weren’t really any final moments, and that was the problem,” she says of Nora’s end and the end of the show as a whole. “We went on a hiatus, and we were supposed to come back, and to be perfectly honest, I had to pass on other work because I was under contract with [Prospect Park]. And then they bailed on it, and I don’t think it’s a secret that they owe people a lot of money. They didn’t end up honoring the contracts, so that was kind of a bummer. And now they’re in this big lawsuit and they’re suing everybody, and it’s just too bad. And I felt bad for the fans. I don’t feel like they got any closure.”

 

But what exactly went wrong? Especially considering Prospect Park was extremely dedicated in bringing the soap a second life. “I think the true problem was that they used a broadcast model on the Internet, and you can’t do that,” she explains. “You have to curtail your productions to the fact that you are on the Internet, and the Internet, as wide as it is and as wonderful as it is, is a frontier that hasn’t been monetized the way broadcast has been monetized… Prospect Part wanted to do it their own way, and they weren’t particularly interested in seeing what works on the Internet; they wanted to do it their way. And unfortunately, I think that was their downfall. Their intention was there, they wanted to make it work. They were right behind it, they were really excited about it, and while we were working, they treated us all very well. [but] they hired broadcast people, and you can’t really have broadcast people when you’re dealing with the Internet. It’s a different medium.”

[hcs]

re Kelly It's interesting reading others opinion of Kelly To me she was the Cramer who didn't want to be a Cramer at all and would sell out any of them for Viki's approval . Cassie was the good girl who would always do the right thing for the right reasons.. Blair was the one with the heart of Gold who always put her family first but was willing t do the wrong thing for the right reasons like protecting her family or getting revenge on some one who crossed her family. Kelly was different, she wanted to be seen as the good one and would do the right thing for the wrong reasons.. to be seen as good. It was always an interesting dynamic and I wish the show had actually explored it more .

[TeeVee329]

 

I remain utterly and completely perplexed at the Lord-Buchanans' bizarre love and acceptance of Kelly after her constant merry-go-rounding on Kevin and Joey (and throw Drew in there, too, although he died too soon to fit into her regular routine.) I could understand Viki and Jess being 'Well, she's confused and all that' and trying to understand but only if Kelly had moved the fuck on to plague some other family. But the idea that with off of her ping-ponging much less the Duke crap resulting in them being thrilled to have her be a part of their family...

 

 

 

Pulling up a seat at this table because, even though I didn't watch Kelly's first stint on the show so much of her Buchanan swapping is just a history lesson to me, I don't understand how Kevin and Joey's parents and sister can be okay with her constant ping-ponging between them.  In fact, did any of them express to Joey that maybe Kevin, who had just spent years living (if platonically) with Kelly and raising a child with her and had relatively recently had his heart ripped out again by her, might have a problem with them reuniting and then moving back in with him?

 

I do remember delighting in Natalie at one point in early 2011 snarling at Kelly to get her hands off of Joey (and possibly alluding to the Zane stuff, I can't remember exactly), but alas, it wasn't so much about Kevin and Joey as it was about Kelly's sleeping with John.

[jsbt]

Except for a bit of discussion in the Malone II years, when Kelly (and Kevin) got some karmic comeuppance, no one on the show except "jealous" Natalie and Blair dared question Kelly bopping between brothers. And both of them were always dismissed as being wrong by the writing.

[TeeVee329]

Melissa Archer is going to "Days of our Lives".  Here's hoping she and Kassie's Eve are buddies.

 

http://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/exclusive-melissa-archer-joins-days

Edited August 27, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

My girl! Sigh.

[hcs]

Really Guess Days goes on the DVR  with both KDP and MA who could resist.

[TeeVee329]

I've never been too much into "Days of our Lives" (and it bugs me to no end how hard they pat themselves on the back re: boring ass Will and Sonny considering they sat back and let ATWT, AMC, and our show kick in the doors they strolled through), but I've peeked in at various points and Melissa Archer would probably get me to do it again.

Edited August 28, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

I peek at the show from time to time to see KDP and I'm sure I'll do the same for MA. Honestly, it's still a little tender for me because I remember them on OLTL last year.

Edited August 27, 2014 by jsbt

[Melgaypet]

DAYS is the one that had someone possessed by Satan and turned into a serial killer, right? Or am I thinking of Passions?

[TeeVee329]

It might have happened on "Passions" too because, from the sounds of it, EVERYTHING happened on "Passions".  But yes, "Days of our Lives" is the soap known for Marlena's demonic possession.

Edited August 28, 2014 by TeeVee329

[TeeVee329]

More details on Melissa Archer's "Day of our Lives" gig, including her first airdate:

 

http://tvline.com/2014/08/28/days-of-our-lives-melissa-archer-serena/