Serial Drama

Beverly Hills, 90210: Wedding Bell Blues

We're going back in time a bit to the final episode of Season 2. It always makes me happy to see the Walsh parents in the opening credits.

Brenda and Dylan are in an office at border control because Brenda went to another country without a driver's license, as geniuses do. Jim shows up and is NOT PLEASED, because, sure. His child lied about where she was and went to ANOTHER COUNTRY INSTEAD. He yells at Dylan a lot, not even realizing that Brenda lied to Dylan, too. He wants to know if Brandon was part of it, too. He was! And Kelly! Everyone was lying for her! Cindy isn't pleased. Cindy isn't pleased one bit. Jim suggests that the relationship is the problem, and Dylan gets all up in his face, since they are peers. After Dylan takes off, Brenda makes it clear that somehow she has been mistreated and wronged and is the real victim here. 

Kelly is dating Jake from Melrose Place, or rather Jake who will be on Melrose Place, and gets in trouble with her mom for having lied for Brenda. She isn't delighted.

Andrea thinks she wasn't invited to Kelly's mother's wedding. Andrea feels sorry for herself, as is the norm, and is furious. Because she thought she and Kelly were friends. Literally nobody points out that Andrea isn't friends with Kelly's mother, the actual human getting married, although they are about the same age.

Dylan seeks advice from Brandon on making up with Jim, but at the moment there's no way to make up to him. WHICH IS FINE. GOOD GRAVY, SHE WENT TO ANOTHER COUNTRY.

At Casa Walsh, there are a lot of awkward silences. Brandon is in trouble for lying to his parents for Brenda, who still feels persecuted. At school, Dylan smooches her and says he wants to skip Jackie's wedding, and Brenda decides she'll skip the wedding too which makes all the sense in the world. Dylan is unhappy about all of this, but in a rebellious way, which manifests itself in a dramatic exit that involves this:

My boyfriend is such a dark and tortured soul, he slapped the ceiling!

Jake has finished his job, which gives Kelly the sads. It makes me happy to see Kelly with eyebrows, because once we hit the college years they are gone, gone, gone.

Jake makes himself irresistible by telling Kelly he's the last person she should be dating. Kelly and Brenda get in a fight about this, and about how it's exhausting that all Brenda talks about is her problems with Dylan. Brenda insists Kelly has no right to talk about her relationship issues as if they compare with hers. And there's some sort of plumbing issue at the house so the wedding can't happen there!

Andrea finds the wedding invitation, which was stuck to her mother's purse or some shit. Brandon offers up his parents' house for the wedding, which they don't want, but get stuck with. The Walshes continue to have terrible kids and only punish one of them, the girlchild, so on some level I can understand why she gets so confused when she gets in trouble for legitimate reasons.

Brenda makes some sort of feminism argument at Cindy for standing by Jim's decision to ask Brenda and Dylan to cool it for a bit. Cindy, who is in love with Dylan, wants to help. She gives Brandon a letter for Dylan. Inexplicably it is not covered in hearts, but it might as well be.

She signs it, "With love, Cindy Walsh" as if there might have been confusion.

Kelly apologizes to Brenda, who actually realizes she should apologize too. They hug it out.

It's going to be the last time. 

Beverly Hills, 90210: Remember the Alamo

The people have spoken in survey form (you can still take it! one question!). It was cool to see the responses, and our beloved Beverly Hills, 90210 won by a landslide, but there was significant interest in other areas as well, so none of those are excluded. All this means is that I'll make the Bev Hills effort more than once a year!

I can't promise any sort of chronological order since, let's face it, I've watched the whole series a lot and sometimes I just want to skip whole eras. And I've explained that, unlike most BH90210 nostalgia blogs and podcasts and message boards, I am unabashedly pro-Kelly Taylor, and to stay that way I need to avoid some of the Brandon/Kelly episodes, since I found her insufferably sanctimonious during that time. (I will take doing a crap thing to a friend as a teenager in the Summer of Deception any day over smug-faced sanctimony)

Nonetheless, I happened to be doing an episodes fly-by and fell on one where my girl is not at her best. I'll cover it anyway.

It's the premiere of the seventh season and David is directing a video starring Donna, since she is the hottest thing to ever happen, according to her actress's EP father (early shades of Trump??). I can't quite remember what was going on here, other than David and Donna working together as... what, music producers? And David is a director? How does that make sense? David doesn't give a shit about anything Donna is saying about "at least we have each other," and she gives some pained looked in response. It's a day ending in Y.

New Season 7 credits, killing me with Kelly's bad hair. And Joe E. Tata is main cast now. 

Beach apartment. Kelly's hair is actually growing out okay. Claire shows up looking like she wrote and invented the 90s.

Brandon called to say he and Steve are staying in San Antonio and Claire is surprised to miss him this much. I don't blame her, since Steve was my least favorite character until (a) Season 10 and (b) my rewatch of the whole dang thing in which he's utterly dopey and endearing and less of a smugshit than anyone else ever was on this show.

Cut to Texas, where they try to make it look like it's 1951. The tow truck driver is very impressed that Brandon and Steve must know all the movie stars, so that's not condescending at all. PRIESTLEY'S FROM CANADA, please. The mechanics make "fruits and nuts" jokes toward Steve and Brandon, and Brandon talks about Steve's tongue in his ear or something. Allies! Ha. Steve wants to call Claire and Brandon says, "Be gentle, she's a small girl," which is not as cute as anyone thinks.

Brando calls Val, who is feeling sorry for herself because she's like 20 or 21 and lives in a mansion and owns a popular club in Los Angeles, and you guys: SHE'S SMOKING POT!!!! Terrible! Now we know she's still "bad."

Brando meets a black girl in the library in Texas so here we go. He's going to teach us all by being a white savior in a not-at-all condescending storyline.

Kelly needs to find an internship for her major. Val shows up where Kel and Claire are, and is somehow offended that Kelly hasn't contacted her all summer. These two have the dumbest pissing contests over the years. They openly hate each other, but somehow Kelly's a bitch for not visiting. Val announces she'll wait till Kelly gets a new man so she can go after him, and they smirk at each other because they are awake.

Mariah's boss at the library is super-rude to her, and Brando's all over it, savior-ing.

Those stereotypes from the mechanics' place see them together and legit say, "Salt and pepper, don't that make you sick?" because sure, small towns, WRITERS.

Val meets the infamous accountant Kenny. A lot of this is hard to really respond to as if I'm not seeing it for the thousandth time with knowledge of the future, but Kenny is a DUD. Why did this show think this was the best Val could do?

Donna's hair is the worst and their musician is a bad UK stereotype, because we haven't done enough regional cliches yet this episode. He remembers Kelly bizarre Seventeen Magazine cover, and she agrees to hang out a bit to help Donna keep the client. 

Brandon is douching it up with Mariah, who is played by Maia Campbell who blissfully had a good sitcom career after this humiliation, and they're talking about former relationships.

Honestly by Season 6, this really turned into a daytime soap format at night -- the scenes are so short. This really depresses me about the whole genre. ANYWAY. The English idiot is taping his video on the beach and mainly cares about whether or not Kelly approves. David is outraged at Donna for distracting the artist with Kelly. Taz! That's the artist. Ugh, this show. Was there a stereotype they ever ignored? 

Quick Survey!

Literally one question: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8KSJWMX

It's anonymous and you can pick more than one thing! Feel free to expand on it in the comments here -- if you picked Web Soaps, do you have favorites? If you picked 90210, what are your favorite seasons? Etc!

Edited to add: I want to clarify one thing. I'm probably not going to cover the best new shows on television. Or the best old shows. If I can't have a little fun at the show's expense, for the most part, you can find lots of much more high-profile commentary on just about everything. I'm not here to recap Friday Night Lights or The Wire. I even dropped The Fosters because I like it and other places covered it well (Previously TV, Autostraddle, etc) but I noticed some sites dropped them so, hey, low-coverage shows are more likely to happen here if they're worth it. Maybe I'll pick it back up.

This is kind of stream-of-consciousness, but I just wanted to offer up a sense of what's behind the thinking here! 

 

Beverly Hills, 90210: Sorry, Scott Scanlon!

So I'm doing a full re-watch of Beverly Hills, 90210 now that it's streaming on Hulu and now that you can get Hulu without commercials (thank you, television gods!), but apparently over 60 episodes of the show are completely missing because Hulu wasn't able to get the music rights. Which is particularly hilarious since all the actual pop music from the show has been replaced anyway by some terrible pop-punk/grunge hybrid something-or-other, to the point where literally characters are singing along to the WRONG SONG and references are made that make zero sense at all. (I mean the series finale is missing!)

Point being, some of the most iconic episodes aren't there, so I added a few of the DVDs to my Netflix queue to fill in the gaps. I won't be recapping the whole series, but just episodes here and there, and what better episode to start with than "The Next Fifty Years," otherwise known as the Very Special Episode in which former series regular Scott Scanlon bites it after playing with his dad's gun. Don't play with guns, kids! They're not toys! They even say that in the episode!

(WARNING: most people who still talk about the original 90210 on these here internets are only interested in the Brenda years and are pretty hung up on how awesome she is and how horribly she was treated by anyone and everyone. If that sounds like you, I promise that you will only be annoyed by my commentary. Go to literally anywhere else on the internet where they talk about Bev Hills. I find new reasons to hate her every single time I rewatch this series and I keep thinking I'm going to see things differently but I never do. This blog may well end up being a revival of the I Hate Brenda club, seriously. ShanDo is awesome. Brenda is not. That's a credit to the actress, to be clear.) (Again: this is a SAFE SPACE for Brenda hating!)

I sat down to watch it expecting to be laughing at it the entire time, but perhaps I'm getting soft in my old age. I actually thought it was pretty well executed in a lot ways and it made me sad. There's no room for such things in my life! I'm hoping on my recap rewatch I'll have a little more aesthetic distance!

Basically the framing device here is that there's a time capsule from 1941 that's being opened at the school. Because this is 1991. There's some sort of choir singing at the school (which is convenient, since they'll milk it for pathos later), and we open with their rendition of "This Is My Country," which goes on forever. Seriously. They cut around to our various beloved characters who are simply rapt. Is "This Is My Country" not in the public domain yet? I'm going to lose my mind trying to figure out what the dealbreaker was for streaming rights here. David is making a video yearbook, in which he helpfully defines Brenda and Dylan as "popular." We're going to be hearing that word a lot today. This group of friends: MOST POPULAR PEOPLE AT WEST BEVERLY. Despite the fact that they never interact with other humans and, when they do, it's generally to get sanctimonious at them in one way or the other. 

Andrea really wants Brandon to come watch Citizen Kane on Saturday night (she's excited because it came out the year she was born!), but he breaks her little heart once again by having plans with a certain Emily Valentine, who has yet to have her meltdown or spike anyone's drink with U4EA. She has, however, already suffered the wrath of Brenda Walsh, who was a total beast to her in her introductory episode. 

The gang talks about what they would have done if they were around in 1941. Dylan thinks he would have joined the navy, while Steve is certain he would have been a marine. Sure, guys. You seem like the types to be war heroes. Scott Scanlon wanders up and tries to get David's attention but, you see, David got cool over the summer season while Scott spent the summer getting less cool in Oklahoma, which presumably occurred because they realized Douglas Emerson was not, how do you say, an actor.

Mrs. Scanlon is stalking David at school to try to convince him to help her plan a surprise party this Saturday for Scott's birthday. He really doesn't want to do it, but she guilts him into it. She thinks 25 kids would be perfect! David chases down Scott's fifth-grade girlfriend, who explains that being known as Scott Scanlon's former girlfriend is "embarrassing now!" 

David approaches the gang to try to get them to go to the party. Dylan can't go because, man, he's going to be in Baja this weekend. Brenda wants to know when she gets to join him in Baja. Well, Brenda, in about 18 episodes you're going to lie to your parents and leave the country and then get caught and act like being in trouble for LEAVING THE COUNTRY is completely out of line, since every time you get in trouble you seem to think you're the wronged party instead of, I don't know, apologizing and showing a little humility. (I warned you guys!)

Kelly wants to know who else is going. Kelly, literally everyone you know is standing right there, so what difference does it make? Donna's in, and is going to have a hard time talking anyone else into it. She will talk them into it, but we'll never know how because this happens off-screen.

We cut to the party preparations. Scott has 375 siblings and they pop a lot of balloons. This is very startling for people, and is also foreshadowing. Because accidental gunshots and popped balloons, of course. None of these siblings is Sue Scanlon, the sister they invent the following season who David tries to rescue from sluttiness and goth clothing. A little brother wants to do some gun-shooting in their Beverly Hills backyard at night, and in case you think that's normal, Mr. Scanlon assures us that guns are not toys, they are weapons. Lest you think this is responsible parenting, don't forget that he keeps a loaded gun in his desk drawer in a house full of 376 children with Attention Deficit Disorder.

They yell "surprise!" but it's really Donna, Steve, Kelly, and Brenda. Mrs. Scanlon is somehow really put out by this. Brandon and Emily are arriving outside and totally ruin the surprise, mostly because Brandon ruins everything. (Are you starting to sense how much I hate these twins?) Scott cannot believe that the most important kids at school are all at his house! In fact, he deems this "far out!" Mrs. Scanlon does not appreciate these "friends" showing up without gifts.

David is annoyed. He finds a moment with Donna.

David: She acts like the party was ruined because of me and my friends when she should be thanking me for saving it! It's not like Scott's Mr. Popular. No one would have even showed up if it wasn't for you and me. 

Because this is television, Scott overheard the whole thing. I mean he was there from the first word and David just kept talking. Both David and Donna apparently have some sort of sight disorder, because really, how did they not see him?

David does not apologize. Again, because this is TV, there's just an awkward silence and we cut to the next scene. 

The gang is being deliberately miserable. Steve wants to know how long they have to stay. "We're on borrowed time as it is," says Brandon, which makes no sense.

Everyone starts to leave, and when Mrs. Scanlon protests, Brandon insists that it's getting very late now that it's 8:30. Because Brandon is a dick. David swoops in to save the day by announcing that his birthday present to Scott is learning how to dance! The cool kids are going to teach him. Brandon and Emily do not participate in this, because it is beneath them. This is actually kind of a sweet scene because the rest of them actually do step up and have a little fun, and Brenda and Kelly particularly show Scott a good time by dancing right up on little Scott. Speaking of Little Scott, it's probably making some moves in his pants now, right about the time that the two hottest girls in school are kind of grinding on him.

Things fall apart completely when Brenda makes this inexplicable move:

Someone needs to explain this to me. I was there in the 90s. In fact, I was the same age as these characters (and about 20 years younger than half of the actors). I don't remember this.

Whining Semi-Professionally For Three Whole Years

Somehow we both managed to forget our three-year blogiversary last week.  Obviously, as would be the case in a traditional relationship, this has caused us to reexamine our connection and enter counseling.  While we work through our myriad issues and contemplate whether this whole co-blogging thing is really right for us, or whether instead our twins and sextuplets would be better off with us on separate blogs, we invite you to peruse the most popular entries of our third year, based on your comments and visits.  We ask for privacy during this difficult time.  (Except for the regular interviews we will provide about our progress, the personal diaries we will post as blog entries, and the reality show that a crappy cable network -- or the CW! -- will be picking up momentarily.  Other than that, like we said, PRIVATE.)

We wrapped up the second season of Night Shift on a high note and vowed to write Sri Rao love notes until the end of time or until he becomes head writer on another soap (and given the decision-making skills of most soap showrunners, the former may come before the latter).

We lamented the sad state of General Hospital repeatedly, loudly, bitchily, and hopefully -- on occasion -- somewhat amusingly.  We were reduced to examining it by the numbers, as an instructive lesson in how to be terrible, and were sometimes just left with our lists.  The only solidly good constant throughout our third year, upon closer review, appears to be baby Emma.  Love you, boo.  Try to stay out of snow-covered trees this next year, 'kay?

We reviewed 2008 and struggled for entries on the “best” side of the list.

We relived some of General Hospital’s golden years, which then made us even more bitter about the shitpile the show has become.

We weathered the firing and somehow even shoddier subsequent treatment of big stars.  (Ones that we didn’t really like, but still…)

We said goodbye to a daytime legend.

We suffered through The Thong Incident.

We shuddered through inappropriate groping.

We peeked into Robin’s Diary.

We marveled over All My Children’s awfulness, and Ryan Lavery’s inability to fail at failing.

We rolled our eyes through product placement nonsense.

We begged a heroine to choose herself.

We had to adjust to an uneasy feeling: Hating Luke Spencer and even – gasp! – disliking his portrayer.

We wondered how Charles Pratt remains employed, but then we remembered that Bob Guza does too, at the same network, and it made more sense.  Well…”sense.”

We wondered who they’re trying to kid with the whole “she’s Liza!” thing.

We watched some new-to-us shows (and Mallory jinxed Guiding Light and got it canceled).

We watched Y&R actually get good and therefore difficult to mock, but then rejoiced with the whole Colleen’s murder thing that allowed the bitching to perk up.

We watch Gossip Girl so were luckily able to track down the Daytime Emmys on the tiny lil’ CW and say a few things about the whole shebang.  (“Shebang” is actually far too generous, but soaps are supposed to be overdramatic so we’re trying to stick with a theme.)

We welcomed an awesome guest blogger.

We had conflicting thoughts about the re-re-recasting of Lucky Spencer.

And finally, we have no link for this one, but we continued to be completed flattered, baffled, and delighted by the fact that you read and comment on our blog, and looked forward to three more years and beyond!

Where Have You Gone, Summer Storylines?

We were completely flattered that Soap Opera Digest's Naomi Rabinowitz once again asked us for our opinion on soaps outside of our normal we-hate-basically-everything column. And since her article about the state of--or lack of--"summer" storylines on soaps today afforded us the opportunity to engage in two of our favorite traditions (complaining about bad writing and reminiscing about soaps' glory days), we had plenty to say.

Check out the article after the jump (click on the images to enlarge to full-size).  Fun side task:  Keep track of how many quotes in the article, from basically everyone interviewed, actually translate to "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ENOUGH WITH THE SHITTY WRITING!" 

Vintage Suds: GH Christmas 1996 in May 2009

Exhausted by another week of the show currently masquerading as General Hospital?  Want to be reminded of how seriously, staggeringly, immeasurably better this show used to be?  Read on.

(I know what you're thinking -- Dude, you're just now getting around to recapping the SOAPNet Christmas marathon?  The answer is yes.  You have my permission to be disappointed in me, or amazed by my slackerdom.  As my penance, I've provided extra screencaps.  Plus this post will be almost entirely free of bitchiness.  Except about Miranda.  And Tom.  And maybe some hairstyling and fashion issues.  There is a limit to how nice I can be, even when trying to curry favor.  Sorry.)

It’s Jax and Brenda’s first Christmas together!  (That “Eeeeeee!” you hear is Mallory, at the mere mention of Jax and Brenda.)  Jax brought Brenda a whole box full of Christmas decorations from Australia, which he bursts into his penthouse with, forcing her to scurry and hide something (presumably his gift).  Brenda hadn’t gotten a tree because she wasn’t sure Jax would be back in time, but of course he would, because he’s dreamy.  So they’re off to get a tree.  Jax jokes that he’s going to cut down one in Edward Quartermaine’s yard.  Ooooh, the Jax/Q family rivalry!  Remember when there were rivalries on this show that didn’t involve hitmen and “coffee importing”?  Sigh.

Query:  Why did I find Ingo (and Jax) so damned hot when he had outfits and a haircut like this?

The draw of an Australian accent is a remarkable thing.  It is truly a wonder how I managed to maintain my Mel Gibson hate for so many years (long before he publicly became an epic ass, I mean).

Vintage Suds: Days of Our Lives December 1988

I have been in a soap funk lately, hating GH and being bored by Days (though on the latter point there has been positive progress – more on that in the coming days).  As a result of that funk and a crazy work schedule, my posts here have all but disappeared.  So I thought, what better way to get back in the mood than to watch an episode of the first soap I ever watched, from the era in which I fell for it?  Therefore, I bring you a recap of a Days of Our Lives episode from December 1988.  (I previously blogged about the episode after this one, but then found this old tape (I only have like five soap tapes, so the odds of sequential episodes are low), and figured it was worth recapping.  Particularly since I assume everyone has already forgotten about the last one!  Except the video about Kayla’s wardrobe.  Because nobody can forget that.)

Fair warning:  This post will contain many mullets and shoulder pads.  Reader discretion (and, if applicable, ability to mock things you unironically wore in the 80s) advised. 

The Robin's Diary Book Club

When we last left our intrepid heroine, she couldn't get Michael Cates out of her head, even though he is the antithesis of her grammar-loving, verb-conjugating self and refuses to refer to him as Stone.

For those of you who are interested, there are used copies available on Amazon, and ebay. It is worth it for the 90s flashbacks you will undoubtedly have when you flip through it (I may need to post such flashbacks in every post, because I know some of you have the same memories. I was reminded quite randomly today, while reading, of Now and Then. Why? I don't know. And that made me remember the vicious fan wars that girls had over Devon Sawa and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. My generation was a sad generation) and it is good to have on hand to remember a time when GH was excellent and had a large cast and socially relevant and exciting storylines. The downside is that you will sometimes start sobbing after sitting through an episode of current GH when you compare the two....

January 25, 1994

Okay, so I'm obsessed; sue me. (Only Robin Scorpio would bother to punctuate that with a semi-colon.) There, see! Right there is the problem:

I'm sure Michael Cates, if he ever met a semi-colon, would put it in its proper place, which is nowhere in his life. (So how can I imagine that a person who thinks this much about punctuation could possibly have a place in his life, either?)

Probably this obsession has to do with my current boyfriendless state. The only boyfriend I've had so far was Roger Hollander, and I don't think we really liked each other. Then I had this large crush on Jason Quartermaine, who was very kind about it.

Maybe that's all this is about Mike Cates (okay, I'll give him Mike, but not Stone)--a raving crush. It feels like more, but how would I know? I may be some kind of sexual retard.

Tiffany keeps warning me about "raging hormones". I have reason to believe my hormones are awake, but they're not anywhere near raging. Felicia keeps assuring me I am probably a late bloomer. Then there's Brenda, who I guess bloomed early and could probably give me some advice, but I don't even know what to ask. Anyway, it's not any of their business.

Lucky for me, virginity has made a comeback. Given today's public health problems, abstinence is becoming cool. Still, I'd prefer it to be by choice.

Actually, I suspect the reason I don't have a boyfriend may have less to do with sexuality than with the conventions of communication, which I haven't exactly mastered. My never learning what you say and what you don't, or how to cover up what I really think until it's safe. And maybe I'm attracted to Mike Cates because he mostly can't be bothered. I guess living on the street doesn't equip you much in the way of niceties.

It's not that I don't know how to be polite. It's the space between "manners" and genuine connection that gives me trouble. Maybe I'm missing a gene.

And maybe Michael Cates is, too. Which is why he wouldn't give up his seat for me the night I met him. September, the match between A.J. and Jagger. (I loathe boxing as an institution, but this fight was almost a class struggle.)

Mike was sitting next to Brenda on the aisle. I came in late and she introduced us. I knew who he was, of course--Jagger's lost-and-found brother--but I'd never seen him. We said hello I asked him to scoot down so I could take the aisle seat, and he directed me to the empty seat on the other side of Brenda! I said I liked the aisle, and he said so did he--and he got there first. "What a gentleman," I said, meaning what a creep.

He's been on my mind ever since.

Vintage Suds: The Robin's Diary Book Club

During our General Hospital: 2008 in Review, Becca was still gleeful over the fact that I outed myself as a former soap crazy last summer, admitting that I own a copy of Robin's Diary, the companion piece to the Stone/Robin saga in 1995 and have, for some reason, held onto said copy.

IN MY DEFENSE, (a) I was twelve (b) I am not the only one who still has my copy (Reader KLe and, I am sure, other Serial Drama readers, shares my shame) and (c) it is awesome.

Looking through this book instantly transported me back to middle school, when GH was awesome, and I survived long, boring bus rides anticipating the soapy goodness that was in store for me. My friend Jill and I, being preteen girls, spent loads of time in and out of school writing notes back and forth. However, we were exceedingly paranoid and never used our real names, or the actual names of anybody we knew, instead opting for code names based on a certain obsession of the time; we also changed the code names every once in a while just in case someone caught on (we were like the effing CIA with our top secret communications). During the GH obsession era, we were Brenda and Robin.

This time also makes me think of mixtapes and, while not specifically GH related, I must take a minute to share my jealousy over this generation and how they can just download songs to burn CDs. I used to have a blank tape ready at all times just in case I heard a good song in the radio to record. Those song were invariably ruined by the DJs yammering at the end of the song. It took me, like, six weeks to finally get a good version of TLC's "Waterfalls". The moral of this pointless digression is that I love technology.

So, Robin's Diary: the book is, as you might guess, a novelization of Robin and Stone's love story, starting in January of 1994 to Stone's death in November of 1995. It also has adorable pictures.

I will be posting excerpts of this work of literary genius over the next few weeks so that we can reminisce about the golden era of GH and cry a little bit about what once was. Like, for example, the list of Robin's Friends and Acquaintances that is at the beginning of the book as a primer for non-GH readers...