tslpsh

Yes. That was a good one too. When she was recovering from her aphasia. I love he got both.

kayrey

Love those gifs. Ryan was always trying to spoil Gillian.

I like to think Christmas was when they usually tried to give the audience some of what they wanted hence all the good RG moments.

I've never actually been a big GH fan and haven't watched in years, I only really watched it because it was on after AMC and OLTL, but having Esta on with Cameron would definitely have me tuning in again.

Not to say she dislikes Cameron or anything but as an actress it's also got to be incredibly frustrating for Rebecca that the biggest reason they want to bring her back ties into a pairing that both she and Cameron seem to very obviously know has never been it.

The link has talk of putting characters on the backburner during the summer so I'm guessing this was her plan right before she was replaced in May '99? So maybe Kendall was for when Ryan and Gillian were separated at the time? Anyways, I'm glad none of that happened because imho most of it sounds absolutely awful. I wouldn't be surprised if that played a part in her being replaced. And iirc it was not made obvious who Braden was at the beginning so you may be on to something there.

Butterfly85

I wouldn't of minded seeing Gillian and Kendall meet though. Then again, they probably would of made them enemies and pathetically fight over Ryan (Just like they did with Gillian/Greenlee and Kendall/Greenlee) so I guess we didn't miss much *gags*

BaileyQ

Gillian and Kendall definitely would have been enemies based on Kendall's history with Gillian's family alone. Gillian was so close with Dimitri, and Kendall accused him of rape when she knew he did nothing wrong.

It's so disheartening to know that even with Gillian still on the canvas, McTrash wanted Kendall with Ryan. Thank goodness it didn't happen then. If it did, we probably wouldn't have gotten the summer of 2000 and all their scenes in the turret. And I don't see any mention of Gillian in those plans. Was McTrash going to backburner her? Why would you backburner a popular character and couple? It frustrates me how underappreciated Gillian/Esta was

Butterfly85

Oh yeah, of course. It does seem like they would instantly be at each other's throats cause of Kendall's history with Dimitri, Anton (Even though he was nothing but a spineless lapdog) Erica, etc. I still bet they would make their rivalry mostly about Ryan though. I'm not surprised if they would trash Ryan/Gillian despite their popularity. That's all they did in the later years, destroying popular couples with history to appease their fantasies instead. They didn't give a damn, even if it continued to murder the show.

tslpsh

That's true. Now that you mention it, didn't Kendall also marry Anton (Dimitri's son) to get her hands on the Marrick inheritance?

The Maria lookalike haunting Edmund might've been okay. Anything was better than Kit. Was she suppose to be sympathetic? I didn't get it. She just accused a bunch of people of rape that didn't do it, including Tad?
Was this suppose to be like Gloria's "redemption" where she was raped by Dixie's brother Will and no one believed her? That ruined Will's character and they killed him off. Turning David into a rapist would've been the end of his character. That would of gone too far. Like I said, I wonder if Gillian having an affair with him was suppose to lead up to him being exposed as a rapist or if that was cut before they started that whole affair story with Gillian sleeping with him for Ryan's bail money.

Interesting that she considered Dimitri the true love of Erica yet didn't have them together at all during that whole 2nd tenure of hers.

I'm glad they didn't bring back Anton. Anton and Brooke? Wtf.

IA about how overlooked Esta/Gillian were. It's frustrating. It's just odd cause they obviously cast Cam as a love interest for Esta in mind.

Butterfly85

Since most AMC episodes used to be on YT *cries* It's still fresh in my mind. Kendall didn't marry Anton for his money, he married Kendall for revenge cause he was mad Dimitri didn't tell him he was his father. Same for Corvina being his mother and not his sister. Kendall got nothing out of that marriage except being abused on a regular basis. I hated Kendall for her actions, but the way Anton treated her at this time pissed me off too. Same for the bs with everyone acting like Anton was Kendall's victim when he's the one that pushed them into getting married to piss off Dimitri (That's why I loved Del and Kendall together before she left town. It was so much healthier and she took responsibility for her past actions when she was with him) I'm glad Anton never came back too, I hated him cause he was a whiny, fickle baby. I hated how he treated Kendall and Julia, they both deserved and got better than him.

I don't remember much about Kit, yeah besides where she got raped, said Ryan did it, but it ended up being one of his 2767 brothers. Wasn't she also Jack's sister? Outside of that, I don't remember anything else about her or how she even left the show lol. I don't remember much about Edmund/Kit either *pukes* I only liked Edmund with Maria anyway, but that sounded like one of his worst pairings after Maria was gone. I wasn't watching the show when all the Will stuff was happening, only heard about the infamous scene where Janet killed him with a crowbar and that's it. From how his history sounded, he deserved what he got and I don't get why Dixie kept glorifying her rapist, murderer brother. Sadly, I don't think rapists are done on soaps. They always love glorifying them and pairing them with their victims. One of the many disturbing things about soaps. I am a little surprised they wanted to bring Kendall back in 99', they seemed to be really careful about how they brought her back and who played her since SMG blew up.

tslpsh

Thanks. But didn't Kendall go into the marriage some how going after the family money? Wasn't that what that whole thing with Corvina and that leopard was about? I know it blew up in her face. I agree Anton was an idiot that was constantly coddled like a child. After all Kendall did before, he should of known better. I mean, this was after she faked a raped, faked a pregnancy, faked a suicide and probably some other things I'm forgetting.

Will was actually a nice guy for awhile. Dixie was original the schemer of the two until they changed it. Will didn't go off the deep end until they turned him into a rapist out of the blue to prop Gloria, even though Gloria came to town to con Dixie. Then of course had him try to rape Hayley.

Butterfly85

I remember the leopard statue story, but I can't remember if it was to get money. Last time I saw that storyline on YT, I thought it was dumb and pointless so I don't know if I didn't care enough to remember lol. Unless someone else remembers that more than me, Kendall just kept hoping Anton would fall for her again during their toxic, sham marriage. Anton was a pathetic doormat that wanted to just be in love with anyone. He kept making excuses for Kendall clearly being a lying sociopath. Then when he stopped fighting it he started obsessing over Julia then started treating her horribly too. I actually didn't know Will raped Gloria, I don't hear that talked about much. I thought he was always evil too, I hate when they suddenly make a character OOC and evil to prop someone else (Which is what they did to Edmund and Laura) I did know he almost raped Hayley but Janet killed him before he could do it.

kayrey

I have nowhere near the knowledge of the history of AMC pre-Ryan/Gillian that y'all do but I feel like the one thing I know is that Anton was trash. Which sucks because anyone related to Dimitri should be awesome, especially his son.

Gillian and Kendall meeting is not something I've thought about but Gillian just being around to meet some of the more recent characters would have been nice. I think a rivalry based on familial history could have actually been interesting. You don't usually get that between two women. But then you guys are probably right that it would have been all about Ryan.

I do think Agnes Nixon was on to something though with her thoughts on Bill Bell's shows. I have always thought there was a certain groundedness there that I think some might find boring but was likely appealing even to people who might not generally like soaps.

I've mentioned it before but it is... strange how they went from creating Gillian for Esta and casting Cam as her love interest to the point where she's constantly being shortchanged. Obviously Esta's very low-key. Even now she's doing interviews I sometimes feel like she's holding back about what went down before and around the time she left. I don't think we're getting the full story there.

Butterfly85

Yeah, Anton was the trashiest. I personally thought the best years of AMC were 1994-1996. After those years, Ryan and Gillian were what I liked the most about the show. If Esta is holding back I guess she's trying not to burn her bridges, but at the same time AMC is over and is never coming back so I don't see anything coming back to bite her if she told the truth. I agree there was a lot of shady and personal bs behind her exit. The way they wrote Gillian off was just such a huge middle finger to her. The entire thing could of been written better and with more dignity. I hated the end to Gillian's character and story.

BaileyQ

I guess our revenge is that Gillian's death and heaven storyline were poorly received. I remember all the soap magazines calling it the worst storyline of the year (of all the soaps!) Also, none of Ryan's other pairings ever reached that same level of popularity. I'd argue they were all flops. They only hurt themselves.

I think they learned their lesson a year later with Leo, but the irony is Josh Duhamel became so famous he was never coming back to AMC while Esta would have. Their deaths should have been reversed.

Butterfly85

I agree. I wish they kept Gillian's death open like Leo's cause I personally never liked Leo and didn't care if his overdramatic ass returned or not lol. They could of recasted Leo if they wanted to, cause I think he could of easily survived that fall. They could of had Gillian see that woman about to shoot her, they fight over the gun, and they both fall over the cliff. It all could of easily gone another way, such a waste SMH.

tslpsh

Maria's death was left open ended too with the airplane crash. Jesse did get a permanent death with donated organs, but I read that was done during a writers strike.

kayrey

The fact that it was so permanent is part of why I think there's more to it. Like they didn't want her to come back. But it's all speculation. It being all downhill from there does warm my spiteful heart though.