The Best and Worst of One Life to Live

[mstaken]

This is the place to rank and chat about our favorite and least favorite aspects of this refuse-to-believe-it's-really-gone-forever show. 

 

To kick us off: Name your five (well, okay, 5-10!) very favorite characters and 5-10 very LEAST favorite characters...and why :) 

[MSquared]

This is the place to rank and chat about our favorite and least favorite aspects of this refuse-to-believe-it's-really-gone-forever show. 

 

To kick us off: Name your five (well, okay, 5-10!) very favorite characters and 5-10 very LEAST favorite characters...and why :) 

 

Favorites:

Todd

Blair

Viki

Clint

Bo

 

And the reasons are all in their interconnectedness.  I love Todd and am a die-hard TnBer.  Todd and Viki are my super siblings.  I miss them almost as much as I miss Todd and Blair.  And yeah, I was a Cliki fan.  Theirs was the relationship that lasted the longest on the show and I always believed they were a OTP.  As for the Buchanan brothers, I loved their relationship as well, especially when JvD came on and they were more often than not on opposite sides.

 

Dislikes:

Ford brothers (They seem to be all the same characters and I wished Chandy took them out in one shot.)

Dani (Sorry, but no amount of Ron Retconning and PP re-enforcement will make me buy her as Todd's daughter.  My story is when Tea came back to defend "Todd", she found a guy she thought was the man she wanted all those years ago finally wanting her and she sprung the kid on him when she got Victor's devotion at last.)

Tea/Victor (They're more of a love/hate relationship.  I actually love them together, but find them annoying and/or psycho on their own.  Add in that Tea had to be propped to high heaven, to even making her besties with Blair, which never made sense to me.  The one caveat I have for Victor is, I love him in any scene with Todd and Viki, even when he's psycho and annoying.)

Rex/Gigi (Again, the propping.  And the fact that Mannings got sacrificed at the altar built to them.  Hell, Viki never had a scene with her nephew and godson Jack  alone through the end of ABC OLTL, yet she was there for Shane and Rex.)

Mitch (He was amusing the first few time, but Ron's sick fascination with Mitch and Jessica was just that...sick.  The best thing Ron did in the end was make Jessica a Buchanan again.)  

[mstaken]

I'm finding it hard to answer my own question :)

 

Favorites, in no special order:

 

Dorian

Blair 

Todd (he's often awful, of course...but fascinatingly and entertainingly so!)

Bo 

Gigi (stop laughing at me!)

Rex (I know...I KNOW!)

Natalie 

Jared

Victor

Kim

 

Runner up: Tea (I often couldn't stand her, but when I liked her, I REALLY liked her!) and Jessica

 

...Probably at least 12 more that I'm blanking out on! One thing I'll say for OLTL: It's among the only shows I've watched where I generally find the female characters more compelling and interesting than the males! With obvious exceptions, of course :) 

 

 

Least favorites:

 

McBain

Marty

Dani

Matthew

Starr 

Cole

Edited June 9, 2014 by mstaken

[MSquared]

Oh, yes, Cole!  Never made sense (Marty and Patrick were having a girl, right?  And the whole age thing.  Plus the roid rage, the Marty Achilles Heel shit.  Happy to see him go off the cliff in Port Charles.  Though Hope, no).  Also, as much as I loved Starr, even on GH, kid!Starr rocked and adult Starr sucked.  

[LeftPhalange]

Favorites:

 

Bo

Gigi

David

Brody

Vikki

Langston

Dorian

 

 

Least Favorites:

 

Jack

Marty

Stacey

Jack

Cole

Jack

Mitch

 

I really wanted Jack to be stabbed in the face and then thrown in a dumpster. Marty's decent into madness was cringe worthy and I lost whatever sympathy I had left for her.

 

Sometimes liked and sometimes disliked/hated:

 

Matthew

Victor

Kim

Clint

Natalie

[ElleryAnne]

I was a very late-comer to the show - I came in around the time Brett Claywell joined the cast, but then caught a couple of years' worth of earlier stuff via youtube at various points along the way.  I like a lot of the characters, so it's hard to narrow it down even to ten, but here goes:

 

Favorites:

Kyle 

Gigi

Dorian

Roxy

Shaun 

Fish

Rachel

Natalie

Bo

Nora

 

( I want to fit at least a half-dozen other characters into that Top 10 - David, Rex, Schuyler, Vicky, Shane, Destiny, Jessica, Clint, Tea, Stacy, Layla, Christian, even John McBain (gasp!)... and okay, that's already even more than a half-dozen more, but I really like a lot of characters from the few years I watched the show before it went off the air)

 

I happily admit I have, shall we say "non-standard" taste in soap opera stuff?  Because I think my favorite storyline was the bag-of-blood and the other stuff surrounding that whole crazy blackmail.  It was the first major storyline I watched on this show, so I have a sentimental attachment to it.  It's probably the only way to explain my ongoing love for Kyle, who clearly should not be trusted around DNA and blood test results, given that he comes into the show bringing incorrect results about Bo and David, goes on to switch blood test results for Shane's donor and later uses that to blackmail Roxy and Stacy, uses DNA results to blackmail Natalie and Jared, and then runs unauthorized DNA results on Fish to verify Sierra's paternity.  If I didn't love the character so much, I'd have to hate him for being allowed anywhere near a lab.

 

 

Least favorites:

- Those two Ford brothers who weren't Robert, and their horrible, horrible father - Just annoying.

- Langston - I know she was too young when she first moved in with Marco (and Starr and Cole), but I still hated her for cheating on Marco.  He didn't deserve that.

- Greg - too full of himself, and I hate that Rachel thought he was more interesting than Shaun, who was so cool and nice

- Jack as a teenaged bully - no explanation needed for this one, is there?  (Though I didn't mind younger, pre-SORAS Jack)

 

That's about all I got for least favorites.  

[mstaken]

I was a very late-comer to the show -

 

As was I! Good to see you here, by the way :)

 

 

 

I happily admit I have, shall we say "non-standard" taste in soap opera stuff?  Because I think my favorite storyline was the bag-of-blood and the other stuff surrounding that whole crazy blackmail.  It was the first major storyline I watched on this show, so I have a sentimental attachment to it.

 

Hee! Yeah, I'm a total sucker for that stuff as well. I like a certain amount of camp, fun over-the-top intrigue, etc. It's why I loved the much-reviled RC years of the show :) 

 

It's funny, because I never hated the Fords. I didn't LIKE them, exactly, but I didn't hate them. 

 

 

 

Langston

 

She wasn't among my very least favorites, but she WAS among my greatest disappointments. She was just so utterly blah to me, and given her ties to the fantastically vibrant, layered Cramers like Blair and Dorian, she could and should have been a million times more awesome than she actually was! IMO, of course :)  

Edited June 9, 2014 by mstaken

[TeeVee329]

Favorites (in no particular order):

Victoria Lord

Dorian Lord

Clint Buchanan (Jerry ver Dorn)

Natalie Buchanan

Roxy Balsom

Oliver Fish

Kyle Lewis

Schuyler Joplin

Kimberly Andrews

Rachel Gannon (Daphnee Duplaix)

 

As a viewer, I feel like I tended to gravitate towards the second-tier characters and the underdogs.  I never took as much of an interest in the characters the show or the network viewed as "the stars" (VicTodd, Tea, Rex, Jessica, John, Starr).

[UYI]

My prime heyday for watching this show, was honestly, 2001-2003, so some of my picks still reflect on that era:

 

Favorites:

Max (when he wasn't in the middle of his descent of being an asshole, that is)

Gabrielle (yes, I love Blair too, but Gabrielle was THE OLTL anti-heroine as far as I am concerned, especially given her tragic, premature death. You may all stone me now.)

Blair

Todd

Tina

Starr (snarky child Starr, not drippy pregnant teenager Starr--although I still never really hated her)

Natalie (but mainly teenage/early 20's snarky, awesome with Cristian Nat)

Lindsay (especially during the summer of 02 Statesville days, and whenever she and Troy had HOT sex)

Cristian

Gigi (I LOVED Gigi more than I hated her, although those last few months tried my patience a bit. And she and Rex as a couple got me back into OLTL after many years away. Yes, you may send me to my room for admitting that. I was done with them after Stacy, though, and wanted her with Sky or even Cutter afterwards.)

 

Least Favorite:

Jen

Victor Jr.

Tea

Stacy

Ford

 

ETA: I have to mention my hate for Luna, too. Granted, she had been dead for years by the time I became a fan of this show in 2001, but she still brainwashed some people into thinking she was Max's true love instead of Gabrielle, and Malone's raging hard-on/insistence that she keep coming back as a ghost during his second tenure of the show? Screw that. And don't even get me STARTED on her week-long death after getting SHOT IN THE STOMACH. Ugh, screw the Cornpone Witch. Good riddance.)

Edited June 10, 2014 by UYI

[Dandesun]

Best Wedding: Hands down, for me, Asa/Alex' cowboy/Cleopatra themed wedding that started with her on a barge in freaking Central Park, kidnapped by goons dressed as nuns, all of the Buchanan men saddling up to chase them down and rescue Alex, Nora as Alex' reluctant maid of honor (in full Egyptian regalia and hating every minute of it) -- it was ludicrous and insane and hilarious and totally fitting those characters.

 

Other Honorable Mentions: Jake and Megan's wedding was so romantic. Possibly a bit on the cloying side, really, but it was in a time when a couple got married after going through ridiculous amounts of shit and really earning it. So, while their planting a tree was a bit... dorky, it was also bookended with Jake digging it up and planting it outside Megan's window in the hospital as she was dying. He held her in his arms as she died looking out at that tree. Copious tears, people.

 

Tina busting in on Cord/Kate's wedding. Kate Saunders was such a drip. I never could get invested in her. The rest of her family was insanely evil, hell, her brother Jamie was responsible for Tina going over the falls, but they all at least had some personality to them, Kate... not so much. So Tina bursting in as they're walking down the aisle having just been pronounced man and wife... "Am I too late?" handing Al over to Cord (claiming it was their baby) and then collapsing in a heap was pure soap opera gold.

 

Todd and Blair's third wedding. Yes, the one where he had Jack upstairs after he had told Blair he was dead... I am, personally, not a huge fan of the famous Golden Balloon wedding. The ceremony itself I can do without although I absolutely adore everything that comes after it, 'I'm going to shower her with gold' (which is more than a little dirty if you think about it) and their private reception. And even that third wedding had some severe lameness to it... Blair literally thanking God for Todd and their love always struck me as way too treacly... BUT, I am in deep and profound love with Blair's dress and I quite appreciated Todd gathering Kelly and Cassie and Addie to be there for Blair and putting together a damn nice wedding in about 24 hours.

 

Also, a part of me really wishes we could have seen them get married on PP. A quickie wedding as they pledged themselves to each other in the midst of something dreadful threatening them and their family would have been ripe for lots of emotion... but I'm glad they got married all the same. Seeing the rings on their fingers after so long felt immensely satisfying to me.

[UYI]

I always really liked T&B's third wedding too, even with the DBL hanging over it. This was right when I had just started watching the show, and watching that wedding, I could totally see why people loved them as much as they did.

 

And even though it didn't have JDP as Max (STILL BITTER HE DIDN'T GET TO ACT OUT AN M&G WEDDING, GAH GAH WHY?), Max & Gabby's one and only wedding in 1990 is pretty nice, too, taking place at the same inn Max took her to after he helped her escape from the convent (and where they were originally going to be married before he was presumed dead in that car accident--which marked JDP's departure from the show). I also loved Gabby's dress and hair, and that Andy, despite not really liking Gabby and wanting Max with Megan, still acted as Max's "Best Man" (why not best woman or whatever still escapes me) that day. About the only thing wrong here is that Cord & Tina weren't there.

 

 

 

The actual wedding takes place in part 2. 

Edited June 10, 2014 by UYI

[MSquared]

It was a little goofy, way to rushed, but I have to say, there's something about Tina and Cord's last wedding that I loved.  Clint's constant eyerolling and bitching about his son getting back with Tina and Viki's admonishing of him was good, but he stepped up when Cord asked him to be the best man.  I also loved the Lord sisters together and smirked at Viki calling Dorian for an assist.  And the heartfelt proposal by Cord, Tina's vows and even Nora and Shawn's bet were all lovely touches.  

 

I'm in the same boat as Dandesun with the Gold Balloons Wedding.  A little too much for my taste.  But I think it was great how we were shown, not told (yeah, dig at Ronnie) that they had become Mr. and Mrs. again on PP.  Subtle, elegant, romantic and sexy as hell.  Really, after all they'd been through, I just needed to see the end result.  

[jsbt]

I liked Cord and Tina's last surprise wedding, but my problem was that that wedding was literally the last time either were seen or mentioned on the show, and it had a couple months left. They were going off the air, the least they could've done is dropped in a line or a few more scenes.

 

I was reasonably fine with Todd and Blair remarrying offscreen after a zillion weddings because it was an online startup finding its feet (or not), because they had limited time with Howarth, because there was the promise of a reunion and something more, and because they made such weight of the re-marriage in the following episodes with Blair, Téa, Viki and finally Jack. But there were two things I had a problem with, one of which was that they cut scenes where Todd and Blair actually did discuss possibly marrying again which led up to that reveal. The other issue was bigger - they mishandled so much of Howarth's screentime in the latter half of those 40 episodes, desperate to have him on almost everyday for like thirty seconds, and after a certain point he rarely left his hotel suite, and all he did was stand around and talk with Blair and Téa about a scheme they were creating offscreen which never actually materialized.

 

There were so many better ways to handle Howarth's limited availability than shoot all that hotel shit in one night, which is what it looked like they did. They had more time than that, and Frank Valentini for all his faults, and he has many when it comes to character beats, would never have let that happen. He can manage those kind of limitations for short-term players or drop-ins. Which is not to say I wasn't supportive of the new EP because I was, I thought she was doing a good job and I felt it was important to have a woman back in charge. I thought the show looked fantastic and was often cut and staged well. But there are certain things like this that FV has been handling for years (unfortunately, now the entire GH canvas is handled like everyone is short-term).

Edited June 10, 2014 by jsbt

[UYI]

 

I liked Cord and Tina's last surprise wedding, but my problem was that that wedding was literally the last time either were seen or mentioned on the show

 

Viki actually mentioned them in her Thanksgiving toast that year, but that was the last time they were mentioned, and they had already be shown onscreen for the last time before that. 

[hcs]

 I have to agree with others about T&B's gold balloon wedding not being my favorite I think the key west wedding is my favorite in retrospect cause I can watch two friends get married and even though they fall in love later in some ways they never get that friendship back .

 Top 10 characters of all time I go back earlier than some of you

 

 1 Natalie my favorite character of all time loved her  when she was bitchy bad loved her when she was sweet as pie.. Disliked that she was used to prop McBain when his other romances failed but that happens to every long time female character.

 2 Todd RH's version  he scared me made me laugh and made me care  and made me doubt my self as a feminist and a mother when

   I liked him as man who gave away the love of his life's child..

 3 Blair It took me a while to warm up to Blair and I hated any time she went back to Max but if she was away from him I liked her

 4 RJ  the perfect grey character who liked strong women his besties were Dorian and Lindsay plus he was physically perfect and had 

     the best voice ever

 5   Cassie the reason I even turned the show on there were Tina and Gabrielle as such overwrought cartoon characters and their 

       was Cassie struggling with having Dorian as her mother.. What teenage girl could resist.

 

    Jared cause her loved Nat as much as I did.

 

 Least fav

 1   Max ugh the original Ford never met a virgin he didn't want to deflower and was swarmy as hell.

 2  McBain the most passive aggressive douchebag who couldn't solve a crime unless the criminal called him and said hey I am holding (usually Nat) your girlfriend hostage come find me.

  3 Evangeline she dumped RJ for McBain and told him it was his fault

  4 Tea  for everything

 

  Most every one in RC's last years the Fords Danyelle Sean Gigi Staci Aubrey

[UYI]

 

Max ugh the original Ford never met a virgin he didn't want to deflower and was swarmy as hell.

 

hcs, I think it's safe to say that I disagree COMPLETELY with this (big shock, I know. LOL!), as I would NEVER, EVER, even in the worst of days--and they got pretty damn dark for my poor baby Max--even come CLOSE to comparing him to Ford, however, while Gabrielle was indeed a virgin when they first slept together (and even then, I think he genuinely liked/loved her and wasn't just using her), Blair didn't inform him that she was a virgin until AFTER they first slept together--and there was suspicion that she may not have been telling the truth, and although I wasn't watching then, I get the impression that Max was SHOCKED to find out she was a virgin. 

 

And honestly, I think they were the only two virgins he ever slept with. Unless Maggie the juggling nun wannabe was a virgin, too? Or Lee Ann when he was first involved with her? (She WAS kind of young for him, but if I were her I would have banged him too, hee hee :P)

 

YMMV, of course. And I still love you either way. :) But we will never, EVER, see eye-to-eye on My Man Max Holden. :P

Edited June 11, 2014 by UYI

[TeeVee329]

Best Wedding: Hands down, for me, Asa/Alex' cowboy/Cleopatra themed wedding that started with her on a barge in freaking Central Park, kidnapped by goons dressed as nuns, all of the Buchanan men saddling up to chase them down and rescue Alex, Nora as Alex' reluctant maid of honor (in full Egyptian regalia and hating every minute of it) -- it was ludicrous and insane and hilarious and totally fitting those characters.

 

Dandesun's reminiscence about Asa and Alex's wedding (which I've only seen assorted clips of online) reminded me of how disappointed I was in what we got for Clint and Kim’s wedding.  Obviously, there were a lot of factors in play (Amanda Setton giving her notice, the rewrites and cast purges swirling around them, shrinking budgets, etc.).  But when I first read the spoiler, I was giddy with excitement and pictured just a big, trashy, OTT sideshow with Kim in some ridiculous dress and various Buchanans tripping over themselves to object first and Kyle rolling his eyes at the bride wearing white.  And what we got were those two awful dayplayer strippers who dominated the scenes and one Buchanan (Kevin) half-heartedly threatening Kim.  What a wasted opportunity.

[jsbt]

I remember watching Asa and Alex's wedding live as a kid. That was something else.

 

I liked Clint and Kim's wedding - I didn't think it was much cheaper than any quickie, scandalous wedding of a similar type on daytime at that time. And I actually liked all the strippers goggling over Kevin; I thought that was the show's attempt at a consolation prize for Dan Gauthier, since they'd reportedly been stymied yet again on bringing him back on contract at that time.

Edited June 11, 2014 by jsbt

[Dandesun]

I honestly don't know how to categorize Eterna. At the time, I thought it was beyond stupid and I still do. But, by the same token, it was so unbelievably stupid that it was also kind of awesome. It was very much a story for it's time (the 80s) -- buried underground city, Victor Lord's lost cache of Nazi gold, everyone wearing jumpsuits, the first of Viki's "Oh! I totally forgot I gave birth!" kids.

 

Eterna is one of those situations where you look back on it with some fondness going 'Yeah, that was nuts...'

 

Whereas the storyline where Clint gets jettisoned to the 1800s and meets dopplegangers in the Old West remains a story I really hate and that they revisited that with the 1960's time travel story didn't help either tale in my view. 

[dubbel zout]

I loved the 1960s time travel story for how much fun the actors were clearly having with it. The conceit was beyond dumb, but watching John Brotherton throw himself into playing Clint was great. I loved the way he leered at Natalie-as-Maria.

[jsbt]

I adored 1968. People hated it at the time but I loved it - RSW doing his deadpan comedy routine, JPL reacting to him (which is how he was often best, as a reacter and support player), Farah Fath as Emma - Farah was always a really gifted comedienne, and she did bits of business people hardly noticed, like her dragging her kid around like a purse - JB hamming it up as cowboy Clint, Melissa Archer's ridiculous bronzer and wig and Meester Asa accent, even Austin Williams as bad seed Spencer, wearing the exact same clothes and haircut in childhood as in later life. I loved it, and it (mostly) made sense, even later on - it also ushered in David as Bo's son and Rex as Clint's, which I still think were two strokes of genius. Now the revisit of the story in 2011, with the time-traveling TV, Rex, Gigi and Delbert Fina's descendent - that sucked.

 

I also loved the Dorian gay wedding story, which most people called too much too fast, exploitative, etc. And I understood some of that. I know Robin Strasser was unhappy with it, but I disagreed with the complaints from her and others. I felt it was something Dorian would do, and I also felt they treated all the GLBT characters in the story with a lot of respect and candor - Mel and Delphina, Kyle, Oliver and Nick. We had a black lesbian and a heavyset butch on a daytime soap, along with a major gay couple where neither guy fit the butch/femme mold and were just, y'know, guys. And their sexuality was real and it was intimate and on-display, including with Nick. I couldn't believe it when they did that quick makeout scene with Nick and Kyle early on - that was when I knew they were going for it with that storyline.

 

Some of the plot beats with Kyle and Nick were rushed, but nothing like what we got later on at OLTL or with RC and FV at GH. I thought that story and the calculated spread of GLBT characters and issues was aggressive and brazen in how it pushed itself on a traditional soap audience and media, and I thought it needed to be that brazen in 2009, when soaps still barely know (then and now) how to handle gay characters. I know that the public outcry against the story led to plummeting ratings (which I maintain was not entirely that story's fault), and that that in turn led to the network-ordered purge of that entire wing of the canvas, including poor Rachel. But I think it was a golden moment for OLTL and its long, proud history of these kind of aggressive social issue stories, and I don't regret any of it. RC has always had a lot of ego and balls, but that was his best use of both.

Edited June 11, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

it also ushered in David as Bo's son and Rex as Clint's, which I still think were two strokes of genius

 

Not following - how did the 1960s time travel storyline set up Rex being Clint's son?  At that point, the writing was still very much on the wall that Rex was going to be revealed to be Mitch Laurence's.  And the 1960s time travel didn't factor into any of the ridiculous retconning that came later (the Wittle Orphan Rexie locket, the Rexes with Wolves psych-out, Rex suddenly being older than Natalie and Jessica).

Edited June 11, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

Yeah, I misspoke a little. It only set up Bo and David. But it also, in doing so, I felt, sort of left the place open in the air for the perfect companion piece to Bo and David, which was Rex and Clint, IMO. Instead, Rex would turn out not to be Bo's cute little son - which was something too much of the press and the audience were eager for at that point, and which I would've found nauseating and too on the nose since Bo and Rex's relationship had gone from fun to way too cloying - but Clint's, the imperious Buchanan patriarch who he despised. Now they're kind of a matching, funhouse-mirror set. They didn't go for the cute setup, and I always liked that.

 

I would've been happy with Rex staying Mitch's - they set that up very early on in Ron's tenure, and I knew from the first day the question was raised and Roxy and Corinne started lying to Rex that it had to be Mitch. I knew he had the means and the opportunity, and Mitch Laurence is the only man Roxy would ever deny sleeping with. It was set up and teased out well over what ended up being too long a period.

 

But at the same time, I know Ron had apparently planned some sort of other swerve originally, that the show apparently couldn't get clearance for from the network - something about Roxy turning out to have been born a man, and having had Rex with Alison Perkins, or something. He used that on the Fraternity Row meta-soap at the end of the show, had Roxy's FR surrogate, "Lorraine," turn out to be transgender.

 

We don't talk about the Rexes With Wolves subplot. I have no idea who thought that up, but I know all of that was a patch job. I assumed then that someone stepped in and said Rex could not be saddled with such lowly paternity as Mitch Laurence, but looking at the endless paternity/maternity swaps RC has since done on GH, I think it's possible Ron just changed his own mind a couple times.

Edited June 11, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

I get what you're saying about the writing subverting the audience's desire for Bo to be Rex's dad by making Clint his papa instead and that was smart, but I still hate that retcon from top to bottom, from the very minute Roxy was no longer his mother and Rex was just this perfect, healthy baby that Allison replaced sicky, weakly Schuyler with.

Edited June 11, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

I hated the switch, but I liked Echo and Clint. They didn't do enough with Kim Zimmer, who worked well on the show, surprisingly enough given the obscure character. And her later stuff was lousy. I remember Zimmer telling a story about that debacle with little Sam as Spider-Man and the silly string gun and Dorian. IIRC, she said she wasn't big on that mess either, but they'd been there all day and Robin Strasser was doing enough bitching for both of them - "I just wanted to go home, okay?"

[UYI]

 

Eterna is one of those situations where you look back on it with some fondness going 'Yeah, that was nuts...'

 

 

In her interview for the Archive of American Television, Erika Slezak recalled that, despite the fact that Eterna made the show daytime's laughingstock for awhile, she and the rest of the cast loved it and had the best time doing it.

 

They actually had to use a separate studio for Eterna, it was so big. In the 30th anniversary book, Larry Pine (Roger Gordon) recalled that when they filmed one of the climax scenes with a waterfall, they accidentally flooded the studio below them--ABC's Wide World of Sports. And yes, he did make a "thrill of victory" and "agony of defeat" joke, because, who wouldn't? :P

 

 

I kind of wear it as badge of honor that the final episode of Eterna aired the day I was born (February 28th, 1989). 

[jsbt]

Back in the early 2000s Gary Tomlin (and later FV) made regular use of a rock quarry set that was supposed to be up around Llantano Mountain. The kids would hang out up there, there would be fights, and in later years I think Nash and Jessica even had sex up there in the rain.

 

I always personally believed the rock quarry was in fact the remains of Eterna - I wanted Bo and Nora to go up there and for Bo to be like, 'hey, wait a minute...' And I'm sure it's something Ron would have inserted into dialogue had he thought of it. It was just a funny little thought.

Edited June 11, 2014 by jsbt

[UYI]

Al (Michael Tipps' short-lived Al, that is) lost his virginity to Jen at the quarry (and briefly thought he got her pregnant). That was actually one of the first memories I have of watching the show (for better or worse, I know). 

[jsbt]

Yes, he did. And then, IIRC, Nathaniel Marston's Al fell from the quarry and became paralyzed.

[UYI]

Yep, after he and Cristian had a fight over Jen. And then he pretended he was paralyzed after he recovered so Jen would marry him. Speaking of worst stories, that qualifies as one! Ugh. I was so happy when Al finally got away from Jen and wound up with Marcie. 

Edited June 11, 2014 by UYI

[TeeVee329]

Back in the early 2000s Gary Tomlin (and later FV) made regular use of a rock quarry set that was supposed to be up around Llantano Mountain. The kids would hang out up there, there would be fights, and in later years I think Nash and Jessica even had sex up there in the rain.

 

OMG the quarry!  That place was like THE spot back when I first started watching.  I remember Natalie spent a good amount of time there angst about Cris and the like.  Good times!

[jsbt]

She met Mitch up there, too.

[Dandesun]

Pretty much everything related to the Jenbot is in the running for Worst Ever. Holy crap was she a horrible character. I only ever softened up on her when she paired up with Riley and wasn't on every freaking day.

 

I mean, come on, the Pornbirds, y'all. When she was married to Rex for whatever reason... blackmail, maybe? And then fell in love with Reverend Joey and they fucked in the pews because Jen was all 'But He's a loving God...' Or when she was trying to keep Cris away from Natalie so she fucked Al twice because, apparently, having sex twice increased the chances of pregnancy. (I honestly don't think she read that right. I'm thinking twice as in within a couple of hours or whatever...  not twice as in days apart but if figures that her programming wouldn't understand logistics like that.)

 

I think there was a joke about the Quarry at one of the boards I frequented being absolutely riddled with STDs given the sheer amount of Young Person sex that was going on up there. Yeah, they used the hell out of that 'set.' It was the Rest Stop U of its day.

[jsbt]

"He's a loving god!" I remember that. And then they fucked in the pews on that very day, IIRC. Where the little children could see, as I once said. Jen ruined the show's last shot at getting behind Joey as a serious male lead, and that was because they (and Brian Frons) were taking a shot at making her the next Marty Saybrooke. Complete with multiple direct allusions to Marty by Nora and Andrew - as in, 'Jen is just like Marty Saybrooke,' full stop.

 

I just remember that fantasy Joey had where Jen was standing in the doorway of the church or something, and she looked completely dim and vacant but we were supposed to see her as the epitome of burning desire and sexuality. And then Jessica Morris, with no emotion or passion, droned out, "I know you want me, Joe." I got a lot of mileage out of that line.

 

I know a lot of people wept for Jen when she died, were heartbroken, etc. I think she never improved as much as people said, though Jessica Morris did try; the very earnest writing and her co-stars did most of it for her. I cheered for her death.

[LeftPhalange]

 

I also loved the Dorian gay wedding story, which most people called too much too fast, exploitative, etc. And I understood some of that. I know Robin Strasser was unhappy with it, but I disagreed with the complaints from her and others.

 

What were Robin Strasser's complaints?

[dubbel zout]

I assumed then that someone stepped in and said Rex could not be saddled with such lowly paternity as Mitch Laurence

 

Why would it matter to TPTB? Mitch was a recurring character who came on, did some damage, and died. And then came back, lather, rinse, repeat. (I will always love beyond reason him rising out of Jared's coffin. That was classic soap camp. Just fabulous.) Making Rex Clint's son was pointless, IMO. David being Bo's was, too, but I don't think it hurt either of them as much. And Echo, ugh. What a disaster.

Edited June 12, 2014 by dubbel zout

[jsbt]

What were Robin Strasser's complaints?

 

She thought it was something Dorian wouldn't do, IIRC; go for the votes by posing as gay. Which I could understand, but I loved the story anyway and I thought she was incredible in it.

 

dubs, I was under the impression at the time that ABCD had stepped in and demand that Rex finally be made a core family member, by hook or by crook. I don't know if that's so now - again, after so many re-re-revised biological parentage stories at first OLTL and then GH, I think Ron may have switched it up all by himself.

Edited June 12, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

Clearly they wanted to excise Mitch from the show in 2010 (funny enough, a Mitch story centered around John and Rex and Mitch mostly being in a hospital bed when he wasn't trying to rape his daughter wasn't a huge hit), but they didn't need to undo making Rex his son to make that happen.  Stick Mitch in a maximum security prison far, far away and move on to something else.  But for some reason, the thought they audience wanted to see another "Who are Rex's parents?" story while ignoring the much more interesting story with Schuyler and Roxy they should have pursued.

 

As for the Dorian pretending to be gay to win the mayoral election story, I think one aspect that's never really discussed with regards to its success or failure is that I think the audience resented being told they were getting a Viki vs. Dorian story with the two really going head-to-head for the mayoral seat when that's not really what the story ended up being about at all.  It started off fun with Viki tricking Dorian into taking David on as her campaign manager, but then it was just a few scattered scenes of Viki clucking at Dorian's deceit and then Viki was off being worried about her daughters, Nash being dug up, etc.

Edited June 12, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

I thought Viki and Dorian were on pretty regularly throughout that story, though it's been a long time since I've watched it. As a fan of theirs I had little complaints. Viki didn't step out, IIRC, until Jared was killed and she forfeited her win to Dorian on Election Day.

 

I do agree Sky and Roxy were lovely, but someone didn't give a shit about them.

Edited June 12, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

I'll admit that I haven't watched the non-Kish parts of that story in quite some time, but IIRC, Viki was around, but we weren't seeing her campaigning, seeing debates with Dorian (which the characters referenced, but sadly happened off-screen), seeing her investment in winning, etc.  She was helping her daughters and Charlie with their problems.  And on Dorian's end, it was mostly about whether or not she would take another chance with David or continue her deceit to win the election and one-up Viki.

[dubbel zout]

dubs, I was under the impression at the time that ABCD had stepped in and demand that Rex finally be made a core family member, by hook or by crook.

I still don't understand why they'd care. Rex was established by that point; who his parents were wasn't going to change that, IMO. Was it supposed to make him more likable? It's all moot now, I know.

 

Nash being dug up,

I didn't like that as much as Mitch and the coffin, but I admired it.

[UYI]

 

Or when she was trying to keep Cris away from Natalie so she fucked Al twice because, apparently, having sex twice increased the chances of pregnancy. (I honestly don't think she read that right. I'm thinking twice as in within a couple of hours or whatever... not twice as in days apart but if figures that her programming wouldn't understand logistics like that.)

 

I was 13 when that aired, and even then I knew that was one of the dumbest things I'd ever seen on television. Seriously? That's just fucking with the idea of basic biology. She did get pregnant by Al, but miscarried; Max asked Al point blank afterwards if that was his child, but Al never said it was.

 

And then there was the scene where Al proclaimed to Max that Jen was (or could be) "his Luna". I hate Luna, but even I knew that was bullshit. Al was Max & Gabrielle's son and I loved him dearly when NM played him, but he could quite the dumbass sometimes. 

 

That said, the scene where Max told Al that Luna was the love of his life but that didn't mean he didn't love his mother...well, you could imagine how I felt about that (and that was before Malone was back, even! Broderick and Whitesell were still there!). 

Edited June 12, 2014 by UYI

[Dandesun]

I loved Max and Luna but I also loved Max and Gabrielle. I also loved Max and Tina and Max and Megan. I was a Max-phile for a good long time. As much as I did love Max/Luna (despite their not aging well as a pairing for me) I never, for a moment, thought that Luna was IT for Max. I knew it was always Gabrielle who was his number one.

 

When I started watching the show regularly, it was all about the Tina-Cord-Max-Gabrielle foursome. Such glamour! Such romance! Such HAIR! Tina and Gabrielle had manes that would make an Andalusian proud (Google it, you'll get it) and, of course, there was always some Dorian/Viki shenanigans going on.

 

You know what other pairing I liked? Gabrielle and Michael Grande. I'm fairly sure they were involved due to the baby switch that ended up with Gabrielle going to prison... with Michael's wife Alicia dying in a car accident and Brenda McGillis pregnant with, I think, Steve Holden's baby after he bought it via explodey wedding cake. And, dude, that previous sentence... 80s soaps were a crazy, addictive awesome freakshow.

 

I just remember Michael sweeping Gabrielle up into his arms and her hair swirling about like a cape... oh! Good times, good times.

[Melgaypet]

Oh, the Jenbot and her "having sex twice will totally guarantee pregnancy" logic. Remember how we joked that the Jenspawn killed itself rather than be born to her? And I believe that's when Marcie first showed up, as her stalker/flunky. She and Al were both so stupid and obsessed about her, I wanted to kill them both.

 

But I can't totally hate that time. Crisalie happened then, and I adored them. Enough that I use their smushed-up name, and I hate those.

[MSquared]

Another bit of the Best of OLTL:  Asa's funeral.  I admit, it brought me back to OLTL just to see NF as Joey (and that was a whole lotta treats right there!  Joey with Viki and Kevin at Joe's grave, Joey and Dorian, Joey and his sibs!) but I still go back and watch the whole things for it's lovely touches.  From Nigel discovering the body and having to tell Renee, et al, to the word spreading to the Buchanan stables, Llanfair, and the world (Max came back!  Alex was fishing for money!  I know it was Ron's first assignment as head writer and yes, he opened with a bang.  

 

The worst thing about it is, he's skated on it ever since.  He has rarely had a good story in the years since.  

[dubbel zout]

Asa's fake funeral with all of his wives (and the instant classic of KdP's Blair flashing back to MK's Blair's wedding to Asa) was pretty great, too.

Edited June 13, 2014 by dubbel zout

[Melgaypet]

That was the funeral where Natalie busted in wearing a red dress. I think I fell in love with her at that moment.

[LeftPhalange]

I still don't like how Charlie got trashed so Vikki and Clint could reunite. If they had to be endgame there was a better way to make it happen.

[jsbt]

Supposedly they hadn't initially planned to bust Viki and Charlie up in that story with Echo, but sort of fell into it as the storyline progressed and then the cancellation arrived.

 

I think ending them and reuniting Viki and Clint was something Ron had had in his back pocket for years, though - he lies in wait on stuff like that, especially with old school couples which he feels "must" be reunited. He made a point to have Viki discover a letter from Asa the night before her wedding to Charlie, where Asa claimed she was "a Buchanan and always will be." That didn't pay off for another year or two, but it did pay off, even though Viki and Charlie were one of Ron's own premier original couples.

 

I think JVD and ES had and have great chemistry, especially on the online revival - they made me care about Viki and Clint as a couple again, though I had been over them for many years, thought it was old hat. They made me invest and enjoy them together again. That being said, I would have been very, very, very happy had Viki and Charlie stayed together. I adored them; they were probably my favorite of her pairings. I hated how Charlie was made a fool and dragged through the mad, but I will say that the drama in those big reveal scenes with them and Echo was beyond spectacular - very well-performed, very well-written, just excellent stuff. And they did somewhat redeem Charlie at the close of the show, when Viki ran into him back in Paris, Texas and they had a heart to heart.

Edited June 14, 2014 by jsbt

[dubbel zout]

I will say that the drama in those big reveal scenes with them and Echo was beyond spectacular - very well-performed, very well-written, just excellent stuff. And they did somewhat redeem Charlie at the close of the show, when Viki ran into him back in Paris, Texas and they had a heart to heart.

 

Those scenes would not have worked with actors of lesser talent—ES was spectacular keeping Viki's rage controlled instead of going into scenery-chewing hysteria, like many actors would have done—and as much as I hated Echo, Kim Zimmer is a powerhouse. But I thought Echo was pointless, and I hated how she called Charlie "Chuckles." I also hated how weak Charlie became. He was never superconfident to begin with, and that was a nice contrast to the men Viki had been with, but Echo arrives in town and he becomes a doormat. That's never a character I can get behind. But yeah, he was kind of redeemed. At least he got that.