Chris B

Ugh you're right! I guess I really will have to buy that movie collection lol. I did see JR Returns and War once ages ago but I don't remember much beyond them not being very good. Just from the lack of cast members that returned, they seemed like lazy, thrown together projects. The Knots mini series wasn't great but at least we got to see a good amount of characters return. You mean to tell me even Charlene Tilton wasn't available for either Dallas movie? For a show as big as Dallas they definitely deserved better.

As I reach the end of the Dream Season, I realized that AppleTV includes The Early Years between season 9&10. I'm excited to get a chance to finally see it! Out of curiosity I decided to see if any other extras are included and at the end of season 14 they have the Return to Southfork reunion an War of the Ewings. Unfortunately, JR Returns is omitted. I wish it were there for completion sake but it's available in physical media so I'll buy that box set to watch that. Now if only the Knots Landing mini-series was available in any format.

I agree. They should've tried to license The Doctors out because they didn't have the infrastructure to build their own streaming platform. To be fair to them, I know they did mention trying to get more soaps to create a soap channel, but they didn't find anybody willing to license them their soaps.

I do wonder how B&B got around that because they didn't cut music when they streamed the show on YouTube. For ABC, some of that work might've already been done for the post-2000 episodes at least. I seem to recall when the soaps would re-air on SOAPnet that they already replaced the popular music.

Dark Shadows and The Doctors led the charge and it's nice to see B&B continuing it! I hope this is successful and encourages others to do something with their soap library. I feel like the no brainer would be ABC which has a full library that could easily build out it's own platform. My dream though is Days or Y&R. I'd love to see the first 10+ years of those soaps.

This season squandered their ratings and as we know, it's not easy to fix that on primetime soaps. THe fact that the dream season came next sealed their fate. They just went too far away from what the show was supposed to be about.

I'm finally in that second half of the series quality-wise, the Donna Reed season. I'm not going to sit here a bash her either. She was put in a difficult position and did the best she could. I do appreciate she had her own take on Miss Ellie and don't let it bother me since I know it's just one season. The show is still very watchable but it's not elevated anymore. JR and Cliff are becoming more comical, Sue Ellen has turned into a boring stepford wife and we're in our second season of them not knowing what to do with Lucy. The biggest problem this season is Jenna Wade. I always found Priscilla Presley's version to be one of the most boring characters in the history of the show. The story with Charlie's dad was boring and he was miscast. This is a show about wild Texans...why do you throw an Italian man in the mix? The story of his murder drags this season to the pits of hell. Then you have Pamela who has been isolated from the entire cast on a wild goose chase searching for Mark Graison, who wasn't around long enough to merit this type of attention. A highlight for me has always been Jamie Ewing. I thought she was an interesting character, moreso than her brother Jack and I feel like she should've stayed long term. I wish they'd kept her main focus on her love of oil and the business instead of turning her into a doormat for Cliff. I do think they had good chemistry but like with many of the women, they don't understand how to let women be strong long term. I am looking forward to wrapping this up and getting to the dream season. I know that has endless issues but I do find it to be a fun fantasy to watch. One thing I will say I'm not looking forward to is the destruction of Donna and Ray. He ended up with Jenna's boring ass and I found them to be such a grounding element to the show. I'm very curious how I will feel about Donna's exit season this go around. It's always upsetted me in the past.

I wouldn't have been mad had Ben stayed long term and been Val's main love interest. Val and Gary have chemistry but I never thought it was believable they'd be successful long term. One of the few things nuDallas did right was breaking them up. It's not that Gary is an inherently bad guy but his demons were so heavy plus he was a Ewing. I didn't even buy them in Back to the Cul-de-Sac. No way Gary went that many years without acting up.

I will say, they won me back over with Morgan Fairchild. Still talked over her but it was an interesting convo. I will say, for all of my complaints about The Locher Room, we get so many more BTS stories there than we do here. Morgan has been on so many soaps and we got very little about that beyond a story about her early days at SFT and her work on The City. Dallas, Falcon Crest, Flamingo Road and the others were largely overlooked. I also feel like they could've left out any talk of B&B considering how minor her role is.

ViewerAnon, an insider on Twitter, said that Buffy only appeared in the pilot for 30 seconds and it was written where her story arc would just cover season one. I imagine that had something to do with their hesitation. I'd also seen a few weeks ago that they were pushing for a longer episode order (18 episodes) and Hulu only wanted to do the standard 8-10. I'd love to see Buffy return but only if it's right. Some things are better left in the past. Especially the way tv works these days. I do think if you're going to do a Buffy reboot she has to be a central character and also, you do need a longer episode run to have those monster-of-the-week episodes. Hopefully they give it another pass and come up with something good.

Ron has had his ups and downs but I do think he makes sense as a guest and I'm interested in hearing what he has to say. Now on the Ron subject, I will say I was disappointed in the Donna Mills episode. I feel like they brushed over so much of her career and seemed unprepared and I hated all the focus on GH. Instead of asking if she'd return to daytime in general, they kept pushing her to return to General Hospital and said how Ron loved her and created this character and blah blah blah. Finally she said the role was one-dimensional and not satisfying to play. I was so happy she said that and shut it down. They could've gone into more depth about Knots or Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, her tv movies, her work with Jordan Peele, etc. but instead wanted to focus on a dreadful role she got on GH.

What I would do is have Jacob/Naomi and Ashley both live in the same building and use one set that can be redressed for both of them. Then the extra space can be used for something else, like a place for Vanessa. I also agree with you suggestion that Eva should move in with Leslie once her set is ready to go. I did love having Kat move in with the Grans. I love how soaps tend to have a bunch of people under one household. If these are supposed to be big mansions it does make sense and is good for character interaction. They could've easily had Dani/Bill (now Andre) living there as well and that would open up even more space. That could literally be Vanessa's set. I also wish they'd come up with something else for Joey instead of that ugly casino set. Couldn't they just make it a seedy looking bar or restaurant instead?

Yeah...she might be the weakest in the cast when it comes to those heavy emotional scenes. I was surprised at how Deanna ate her up on what was likely her first day.

The introduction of Deanna was better than I could've ever imagined. They really struck gold with both Deanna and Donnell and I really hope the show takes notice and makes them a real family. Vanessa is overdue for a home set (which they should've build instead of giving Joey a home) so the family has a place to ground their scenes. I find them more interesting than Chelsea, Madison or Martin and Smitty's kids. Vanessa gets decent screentime but I do think the show would benefit from expanding her role more which Deanna and Donnell give her the opportunity to do. I didn't love them having the ceremony at Uptown but with the budget constraints I'm not surprised. It kinda worked but it makes me wonder if a clinic was even a good idea if it isn't something we'll get to see. Plus, do we really need a hospital and a clinic set? I aint gonna lie, I didn't really care that Samantha was missing but I did miss Derek. I can't believe it but he's really come around on me in recent months. Dare I say it but I feel like he has stronger chemistry with Leslie and Eva than any love interest either has had thus far. I feel like Ashley and Derek both have so much potential and likability now that they're apart. Another thing I wanted to say is that I am starting to become sick of this cotillion story. Is it just me or have they been talking about this forever? For a teen centered event on a show where the teens are recurring, it's taking up too much screentime. This should've happened by now but they keep talking about it with no end in sight.

There was a big reveal with the impaler storyline. I wonder if that could be driving the ratings increases.