I was just in middle school when this soap first aired. I remember my best friend and I racing home everyday after school to catch the very next episode, it was that new and exciting. We were thrilled that Beverly McKinsey had left Another World to star in this new show. And so many other terrific actors/characters were introduced here. My friend and I fell in love with Rikki and Max Dekker. They were like the Daytime Duke boys (Bo and Luke)to us. And we also loved Elena Dekker. She was my all time favorite. I cried when after she got beat up by Billy Jo, and then left the show shortly after. Promised she'd be back. And I waited, but she never returned. I cried even harder. At times the writers could have done a much better job with story lines and character development. Some great actors left, and other mediocre ones replaced them. After Elena left, I was almost losing interest as well. What really flung out was that this soap was never given the half chance to blossom into a successful show. Too many dumb things began happening after only its first year on the air. Rena comes along sometime later and begins throwing a monkey wrench into things, including her doofus future husband Justin (whom we really hated). And the Paige Marshall romance joke which also helped to spoil events. This show just wasn't given a fair chance to succeed, where it could have. Given better writing, stories, character-development. Who knows? It could've last another 10 years, maybe. McKinsey, I believe returned back to AW, from here. Texas deserved much better longevity than it was allowed. The original characters were fresh, exciting, and wonderful to watch. Some of the earlier stories were very interesting. Kept us glued to our TV sets. A sad pity that it only lasted 2 years. Should have been much much longer.
