History has been very unkind to this show

I just watched an episode of GL you posted from 1990. It must have been from right before Memorial Day weekend, according to one of the commercials that was included. The main difference between soaps then and soaps now is how well-defined the characters are. Pam Long was my favorite headwriter on GL, and you can see how she is presenting very strongly women defined, like Vanessa, Nadine, Holly, Maureen, Harley and Alexandra. The men too: Josh, Billy, Frank, Rick, A.C.-- these are very simple characterizations but they are clearly defined and they all act very specifically. Pam's southern upbringing is also very discernible in the way the characters are established and presented. Dylan seems the most southern to me. I think the plots are quite slow but it almost doesn't matter, because it's the characters and who they are that makes the show worth watching.

I watched an episode of Days of Our Lives earlier and caught Jordi Vilasuso playing Dario. I thought he was just great as the first Tony Santos on GL. He still retains a boyish charm and slightly neurotic, almost whiny Brando quality. I love watching him.

Getting back to Ozzie & Harriet, I see you uploaded around 250 episodes. Do you have a blog where you comment on each episode? I figured not all of them ever made it into syndication. When you say they edited them, does that mean they pared them down to add in more commercials? I'd hate to think they were ever edited for reasons of political correctness. Though this show is so wholesome, I doubt there is anything very controversial by today's standards.

I have saved the last 25 years of GL and archived it on DVD if you can believe it? It took a better part of 10 years to do. I know Jordi, he actually just did a film a friend of mine produced. He's a really nice guy.

I don't do any sort of a blog. I participate in a couple fan groups on Facebook and share behind the scenes photos and memories of my Uncle's and personal memories I have from the ones I knew from the family and the show. Aside from that and YouTube, nothing else. They were edited because commercials run a lot longer then they did when the episodes originally aired, and several of Rick's songs were cut out later because of copyright. Luckily, I have so many of the original prints with his music and the original commercials still intact.

You were smart to save episodes of GL since it will never be rerun. I'm sure it has been labor intensive putting them on YouTube. I always recorded over the episodes I taped. Probably my favorite period of the show is the San Cristobal storyline James Harmon Brown & Barbara Eisenstein wrote. And Claire Labine and Millee Taggart did some interesting stuff immediately afterward. Those plots honored the long-time characters and gave us a fun-to-watch romance with Richard & Cassie. Plus I thought Edmond was a good replacement villain when Roger left the show. It's also when the Santoses came in, and Saundra Santiago did such a fantastic job as Carmen. I loved when she let Vanessa take the fall for Ben Warren's death, which her daughter Pilar had caused. The Reva clone story was wild but at least they were attempting to try something different. So I'd say episodes from 1997-2002 is really what I'd love to see again.

I looked some more at your O&H playlist. I like the episode where Ozzie recruits the Tigers (neighborhood boys) to go to the dance Harriet and the other women are putting on. Do you have that one? It didn't seem to be uploaded.

What's your favorite episode? Did your uncle have a favorite one?

It's a lot of work! LOL I'm not a fan of many of the storylines after 1997. The show changed a lot. 2002-2005 were not bad, but after that it was down hill. Saundra was good on the show. I'm still friends with her and Paul Anthony Stewart. I prefer the 1988-1996 years.

The episode you mentioned I do have, I just don't have it posted yet.

I don't have a particular favorite episode...there are too many episodes from the series to just have one. I really like "The High Cost Of Dating", "Getting Wally Into Shape", "The Sea Captain", "Dave The Worrier" "The Ghost Town" and all the Christmas episodes. My Uncle never mentioned a favorite, he would probably say all of them. lol

Re: GL-- I didn't like Ellen Weston's headwriting from 2002-03. She had been an actress on the show in the 60s but I felt she didn't understand the characters. And as great as Carrie Nye was in the Marianne Carruthers story, it was basically a rehash of what she had done as Susan Piper around 1984 (during Pam Long's first tenure as headwriter). I do think Kim Zimmer was fantastic in the episode where psychic Reva was possessed by Marianne's spirit and the whole mystery was finally resolved. It seemed like something out of Dark Shadows.

Weston's partner John Conboy was also not as good a producer as Paul Rauch had been, and it seemed to be falling apart. When Ellen Wheeler & David Kreizman took over, there was new energy-- and I did like the casting of Tom Pelphrey as Jonathan, which referenced Reva giving up a son down in San Cristobal so all that came full circle. But the loss of Laura Wright as Cassie was something the show did not recover from, then when Beth Ehlers left, everything was put on Kim to carry the show as Reva. When they changed their production model and filmed out in New Jersey, it was a huge change and it really wasn't the same anymore. I just feel that 97 to 02 is the last real renaissance period, then it struggles along admirably till 05, then it just begins to crash and burn.

The 88 to 96 years were interesting. All the stuff Pam Long did during her second tenure from 87 to late 90 was brilliant. Losing the great Bev McKinsey in the summer of '92 was a huge bump in the road. Some of the mid-90s stuff written by Megan McTavish is interesting-- Jenna & Roger; the beginning of Blake & Ross; Holly & Fletcher; the wacko Brent/Marian story; Dinah & Hart; Matt & Vanessa with her unnamed disease (have to laugh about that one). But there were things that didn't work in the 90s-- talented Marcy Walker never seemed to fit in as Tangie; killing off Nadine was a mistake; a recast for Ed that didn't work, ironic since Robert Gentry had played the role much earlier; and the removal of Michael Zaslow as Roger (never understood all that).

Do you know any of the actors from other New York based soaps? I do have hundreds of episodes of Search for Tomorrow (I checked and those discs are still in my collection). Aside from Jane Krakowski who's been the most visible, I've wondered what happened to a lot of the SFT cast.

Getting back to Ozzie and family-- the ghost town episode is definitely a classic. Wally seems to be used a lot more in the last few seasons. A thought I've had as I've been going over your playlist is how Norman Rockwell these titles are. Ozzie definitely found inspiration-- his wife and sons and later the sons' wives were all muses for him. I wonder why the in-laws (especially the Harmons) weren't written into the stories. And also, why in the final season, the boys weren't allowed to start having kids. Instead of the Ozzie's Girls show in the 70s, they really should have done a program focusing on Ozzie & Harriet's young grandkids.

Paul Rauch is the one who ruined the show by firing many of the longtime characters, or putting them on the back burner to try to gain a younger viewing audience, and that didn't work out very well. GL had longtime viewers, and that's why a lot stopped watching the show. He was not well liked by many either. Michael was let go because of his illness, which wasn't right, but Michael could also be very difficult which I also think played a factor. He deserved much better, because he carried the show in many ways during the years Kim Zimmer was gone. I met people from other soaps, but I can't remember off hand who all I did meet. That's been quite awhile ago now. The only ones I became personal friends with were from GL. Speaking of Brent/Marion, Frank Beaty who played that role is another good friend. We spent some time together this past summer. He's a great guy!

I know Maeve Kinkead (Vanessa) did not get along with Rauch, something I found interesting considering he had cast her on Another World in the 70s, which was her first important role. I read they fought over her hair color. She wanted to go gray, and he forced her to keep dying it-- when Vanessa shot Ben Warren and lapsed into a coma, then she was allowed to go gray for awhile. LOL On the other hand, Grant Aleksander (Phillip) seemed to like Rauch and said Rauch was working on an online version of GL but died before it could launch. Some of the young ones that were on the frontburner in the late 90s were very good-- Joy Lenz who played Michelle went on to do primetime work; Tammy Blanchard who played Drew was in a TV movie as Judy Garland; and of course Jordi has worked consistently.

You're right about Michael Zaslow deserving a better exit. When he died a few years later, there was a nice tribute for him in People magazine. He's probably the only one in the history of the show who will ever get that type of recognition. The deaths of the others will be covered in the soap publications but not in the mainstream entertainment media like Zaslow. He definitely was a legend and both his tenures on the show were sensational.

I appreciate your sharing these memories. It helps me appreciate the show and its talented cast and crew in retrospect. I wish someone would write a book on these people and the whole golden age of soap opera production. Just like I wish someone would do a reappraisal of the Nelsons. I finished going over the playlist of the titles you have uploaded. From memory I was trying to recall which ones I didn't have and haven't seen yet. Did your uncle give you all the Ozzie's Girls episodes too? Or just the few you've posted?

He didn't have all the Ozzie's Girls episodes...Ozzie did not own that show outright like "The Adventures". I have a few more, but haven't got around to them yet.

Thanks Mike for all the detailed replies the past few days on this thread. When I get time this weekend, I will be enjoying some of the O&H episodes you've posted. Thank you for making the content available to everyone. On another note, I might send a private message later with more observations/questions about GL, if that's okay. - Jarrod

You're very welcome, and you can message me anytime! I'm going to upload "The Tigers Go To A Dance" for you tonight or tomorrow!

Wonderful! Can't wait to see it again. I just had a bit of free time and watched a different one with Barry Livingston-- 'The Barking Dog.' I like how we see all of these neighbors, little Barry, the dog, the people at the roadside cafe, the guy at the butcher shop, etc.-- Ozzie gives us a fun story with help from a nice supporting cast.

Connie Harper Nelson is the one that plays the waitress at the roadside cafe. She also played Dave's secretary Miss Edwards on the show. She married Ozzie's younger brother Don in real life, and was also Ozzie's real life secretary. She and I talk everyday!

Thanks for the trivia. I had actually looked up Don Nelson's credits on the IMDb yesterday. When I saw his date of birth was over 20 years after Ozzie, I found that to be interesting. Was he a half-sibling of Ozzie's (not that it makes a difference)...I have a younger half-brother who was born when I was 19. I like Connie's performances. Truth be told, I prefer the stuff from 1960 to 1966 best...it feels like they've shed the radio sitcom format and by that point, they are doing miniature movies. In 'The Barking Dog' episode, I like how Ozzie takes the camera out of the studio set and we get a lot of exterior action on the road and at the lake. They should have turned the dog into a recurring character.

No, Don was his full Brother.

Thanks for uploading 'The Tigers Go to a Dance.' I just really enjoy this one, the ending is so cute. I love watching them do all the grown-up dances. So funny. By the way, in a few moments, I will be sending a private message to you here on the IMDb with some detailed thoughts I had about the series. If you don't get the message, please let me know. - Jarrod

You're welcome and ok.