Did they rush "Manny?"

by Jennifer H

August 12, 1999

Did "Guiding Light" rush too quickly in bringing Danny and Michelle together? I think so.

As much as I love all of these lovey-dovey, sexually charged scenes between the two, and as much as I adore the exploration that "GL" is doing of their marital life, I think they threw the towel in too soon regarding their "courtship."

I think it's telling that when a recent thread brought up "when did Danny fall in love with Michelle?" there were many, numerous posts and almost all contained a surety within. That thread was followed by "when did Michelle fall for Danny?" and there was a disproportionate amount of responses and almost all waffled.

Even the recent "when did Michelle's feelings change?" has produced more bewilderment rather than locking down the answer and I think the reason why is clear. We really did NOT get that transition.

Yes, we could infer from small moments, from in between the lines, from looks and phrases, but unlike with Danny, we really couldn't pinpoint any one moment or even one series of moments and not have to explain the reasoning behind it.

I think that if "GL" had held off on Michelle falling for Danny a month -- maybe two -- longer we would have had much, much more viewing pleasure and a stronger relationship now. I've always been struck by Michelle's line to Drew when she confronts her about the D/D deed, "after waiting for months to sleep with him you bedded him in one night."

Why am I struck? Simply because we never saw those months or anything even resembling them. I realize that soaps allow time to pass differently, but there was NO semblance of time passing. Going by the episodes and what happened in them, this was the timeline.

Day One: Danny and Michelle get married in civil ceremony

Day Two: meet mama

Day Three: perhaps a day in the house

Day Four: family meeting at the country club
    Danny/Jesse fight
    Michelle's "this is not the beginning of a great love story ..."
    Getting ready for bed

Day Five: Michelle talks to Abby at the Santos home

Day Six: Michelle and Danny go to Pre-Cana
    Come home and find Jesse there
    Danny suggests they sleep together and have Jesse catch them
    They fight about her not playing her part
    Danny confronts Jesse
    Drew and Michelle talk, Jesse shows up
    Danny goes to confession
    Danny and Michelle meet at the Lighthouse, Jesse finds them
    Back at the house, Michelle vows to bring the Santos Family down

Day Seven: Michelle explains her plan to Drew, Drew suggests using her family
    Michelle tells Danny she wants to make the marriage work

Day Eight: Michelle brings Danny to the Bauer house, announces wedding is set for day after tomorrow
    Michelle tries to contact the F.B.I.
    The "I am a Man" speech

Day Nine: Carmen foists her wedding dress on Michelle

Day Ten: the wedding

Day Eleven: Mrs. Silva pleads with Danny, Michelle overhears

Day Twelve: a day passes, perhaps this is when Danny got his haircut.

Day Thirteen: Danny has lunch with Carmen, Michelle meets with Mrs. Silva
    Danny confronts Michelle at the church
    They almost make-love back at Casa Santos

Day Fourteen: Danny gives her flowers/sets her up with info about the cigars

Day Fifteen: Danny and Michelle go to Millennium
    Michelle admits she is having feelings for him to Drew
    Michelle asks Drew to call the FBI with the cigar info
    Danny meets with Grandma and Michelle overhears that he loves her
    Michelle fakes her blindness to keep Danny from going to the docks
    They go to the hospital
    Carmen has Dietz' s girlfriend call FBI as Michelle
    Deitz shows up and has the pics of the FBI at the docks

Day Sixteen: Danny and Carmen talk, she basically says "kill her" and Danny knows he must
    Michelle admits that she doesn't want to hurt Danny to Drew
    Drew finds out she's adopted
    Michelle comes home; she and Danny have the "Othello" scenes
    Danny overhears Dietz; he packs and decides to go the Bauers with Michelle

Day Seventeen: a day at the Bauers passes

Day Eighteen: Rick/Abby and Danny/Michelle go to Millennium
    Danny and Michelle dance, she confesses
    Danny sends her away, gets wasted, does the deed with Drew

Okay, so from their civil ceremony to the deed, there was a passage of only EIGHTEEN FRIGGIN' DAYS!!!!!!!!! Where did the MONTHS come from? Why, oh, why didn't "GL" give us more scenes with Michelle and Danny talking, playing a game of pool, let us see Michelle see more of who Danny really was. Why did they have Manny forced to be wed, both fall in love, lie to and cheat on each other in the course of eighteen days?

No wonder some people don't buy the Danny/Michelle love story. Yes, PAS and JL have fabulous chemistry and yes Conforti did a great job of giving us those in the between lines, but imagine how much better it would have been had we actually been giving many, MANY more transitory scenes. And how about Danny getting to know Meta, Abby, perhaps even Rick better? Think of how much more resonance and weight and power the looney bin scenes would have been (of course this is wishing that they had actually been written with any resonance or weight or power, but I digress ... ), had we known that Rick liked Danny, knew that Danny loved Michelle but felt he had to keep her from him to protect her? Think of how much more intricacy and depth we could have gotten between the Danny and Abby scenes?

Imagine how much more depth and power Michelle's words of love would have now had we actually WITNESSED her falling for him, and not had to infer it from little hints and clues and the chemistry between PAS and JL?

And heck, while we're at it, imagine how powerful it would have been had we actually heard Michelle tell Danny she loved him for the first time? I still remember the first time Alan-Michael told Lucy and vice-versa and both were magnificent in their different ways. I don't think it was necessary with Danny, but we should have heard the words from Michelle, damnit!

And while we're really at it, imagine how much more heated (just with the memory and our trusty vcr's) and wonderfully charged all of the intro-into-sex scenes would be had we actually had a first time love scene ... wait, let me amend that, had we actually had a LOVE SCENE ... to go by?

I really do love much of the Manny storyline and I really love much of what we've been given. I just think that they missed mining a hell of a lot of material with them and as these summer months are going by they just keep missing more and more gold in them there mines.

P.S. I'm not gonna be able to check this board until the weekend is over, so could someone keep bumping this up to the top just so I can read responses and not miss it when I check the board on Monday? Thanks.

Jennifer H.