Howdy people! Hope nodody minds, but thought I would try my hand at a character thread...took awhile to come up with someone--then...after watching the first season...I thought...hey...let's talk about the big bad Bob-cat! :)  I don't know why--but this time around, he seemed to stick out more in my mind after the episodes...hmm.

So...

For me...the first time I saw Bobby in the pilot, I must admit I liked him right off the bat. A badboy...a rebel. And Dana played him so...how should I put it?...intensely. He's like the cork on a champagne bottle that got shook up a little too hard...full of pressure and ready to explode. He likes to live on the edge...hugging that line that dares to be crossed.

Some of the facial expressions he has are gold--he just nailed that character, IMO! The thing I really like about Bobby is how he changed as the series progressed. Most of the characters did--but Bobby really came a long way.

A few fave scenes that come to mind...when goofing off with the gun while Shelly is on his lap, "Shelly tells me you don't like her cooking...well here's what's gonna happen...we're gonna sit here, while YOU cook breakfast for US...you hump!" And the other one with Leo as he and Shelly throw him a welcome home party...when he claps Leo on the back, sending the resident cabbage patch kid into the cake! HA! "Oh jeez...good thing we didn't light the candles." Lightness aside, a few others that stick out are when he breaks down in Jacoby's office...the breakdown at the funeral...his reaction at having the conversation with his father after hearing his vision of Bobby...and then my personal fave, the sadness that he feels after Maddy is murdered. Wow. He knows that something is going on...it's almost like he can SEE it...but is afraid to look.

Something that haunts the back of my mind...which brings one more fave scene...toward the end of Fire Walk With Me...when he is making out with Laura on the couch...and she is just somewhere else...and asks her if she's doing him for the drugs...when she can't anwer, he just says, very gently, "It's okay..." and gives them to her anyway. Deep down...I think he really loved her. Do you think Bobby was such a cocky punk at the beginning of the series because he was very hurt by her?

The things that make you go, hmmmmmm....

Please discuss!

I think the way he was treated by Laura had a lot to do with his attitude at first.  That and wasn't he still using drugs at the beginning of the show?  They don't really go into when that came to an end....

I really liked how much of a smart ass he was.  It sort of annoyed me at first but now I find it entertaining.  I like when he and Mike are in jail together and they realize they have to get that money back to Leo and Mike asks what they're going to do and Bobby's response is "We could try selling lighbulbs door to door."  It's a cheesy line but it cracks me up everytime I hear it. 

He's complex... there are a lot of sides to Bobby Briggs.

I'm just a little fairy princess.... I am mad with the power.  MUHUHUHUHAHAHA!!!

I'm sure Dana Ashbrook looked at Bobby Briggs as his Hamlet. Just so many sides, so many swings of emotion, a true test of an actor's range.

As far as the series, I was always struck when Bobby seemed vulnerable... in Dr. Jacoby's office, the convo with the Major in the RR, and shooting the dealer in FWWM.

His was also one of the few storylines that had a neat-and-tidy ending at the show's conclusion. Back with Shelly, and Leo, umm, incapacitated, and I suppose still in Ben Horne's entourage.

Yeah, but overall... it ends up fine for Bobby. 

Man...I wonder what it would have been like if Earle and the Log Lady had actually met? Maybe she'd kick his ass..."My log has a message for you...do you know it?" BAM!

Anyway...Earle hit Bobby because he could. He wanted no interferance in his master plan. I don't think it was because fate had caught up with Bobby, Earle is just Earle and takes care of anyone who gets in his way. Bobby probably had a nice headache...

Hey, cool thread Rocky!  No, I certainly don't mind, and I'm sure Gordon and Ditte won't either.  We were all just kind of taking turns after Gordon stopped doing them.  I was struggling thinking of who to do next!  But I will try and do another couple sometime though..

Bobby is indeed more complex than meets the eye.  He has that punk-ish rebellious streak in him, but then aren't most teenagers his age like that? (Except for James who thought he was god's gift of course..).  I thought Bobby was a bit of a hypocrite though.  He really had no right to go on about how he was going to "fix" James when he was doing exactly the same thing with Shelley all the time behind Laura's (and Leo's!) back!  If he had been faithful then his jealousy and reaction would have been understandable, but I just thought that was totally wrong of him and he needed putting in his place!

At the start, he really did seem like an arse.  but as the show went on and we got to know more about him, I did like his character a lot more.  Of course it goes without saying that I thought Dana was hot, but then I think so did most girls!  One of my favourite episodes with Bobby was in Dr. Jacoby's office, when he was talking about his relationship with Laura, and what it said in her diary, when they made love for the first time, he cried, and she laughed at him.  I was always pleased they delved into that, because he did such a brilliant job of portraying Bobby's feelings. 

I just always felt he loved Laura more than he had ever loved anyone, including Shelley, he wanted to save her, but after that point, and the drugs, he felt like he had lost her, and couldn't love her the way he wanted to, because no matter how he tried, she just wouldn't let him in.  His reaction, the tears, the crushed heart and the humiliation of losing Laura's love, all rolled into that one scene were, in my opinion, defiently some of the best of Bobby.  It is the first time and really, only time, we get to see him being so vulnerable, and feeling his pain.  I used to just want to hug him so bad every time I saw it!  I felt so sorry for him!  It's then that you finally realise that his whole macho act is just nothing but bravado. 

I also loved the funeral scene, because I always thought that, even though he was the "troublemaker" and everyone was so mad at him, you could see and feel his pain.  He wasn't making up how he felt about Laura, and had every right to be angry with people for putting on the pretence.   "Everybody, KNEW she was in trouble, and we didn't do anything...all you "good" people".  You really feel the hurt, sarcasm and downright anger in his statement, but whether people liked what he said or not, they can't argue that he had an extremely valid point.  Pretty much everyone knew Laura was in trouble, yet none would help her, and why?  Bobby was the only one in the whole town with enough balls to address that question and the response he got (ie, none) to me, just shows he was right.  They didn't know how to respond because they couldn't deny it!  Brilliant!!!

I also loved Bobby's relationship with his father too.  Especially when we see how much it progresses from almost deep-hatred in Season one, (which I again think is just bravado- pretend hatred because he is angry with his father for loving him so much)to the closesness they share in season two, especially the scene in episode 8 (which I just watched today, oddly enough!) where Garland has the vision and shares it with Bobby, and he cries with love and gratitude for him, he just seems overwhelmed that anyone loves him that much, but accepts it at the same time.  That is also one of my favourite ever scenes.

I also think that as for Shelley, he does love her, but his heart is still broken and fragile over what Laura did and how she pretty much ripped it to pieces, which is why he seems so wary of Shelley, specifically when she says in the hospital she loves him and he's holding back, like "I guesss...I love you too", but there's a part of him still trying to play it cool, as if he's afraid of Shelley laughing at him also or leaving him, because THAT'S how badly Laura treated him.

That'll do for now!

"watch out for my cousin.."