Chris B

Losing Alex is a huge blow that I can't get over. The show is clearly missing something and the idea to make it more like Beverly Hills was a bad idea. As it stands, that's not what we're seeing. It's five episodes in and we still haven't seen Carole or Heather's homes. Using that as a mandate to get rid of Alex was dumb. She has her businesses and is doing well and would fit so much better with Heather and Aviva whether as friends or enemies. LuAnn is doing NOTHING and I doubt she'll do anything interesting all season. One thing I notice is that all the gossip column reports about this season (like last season) are true. First we heard the drama was low and Bravo wanted to bring Alex back recurring, possibly full time but she turned it down since it wasn't guaranteed full time. It's obvious they saw what everybody else see's. Then you have how they kept extending filming several times because they didn't have enough material. I'm sure we'll see that. I'm also sure we'll see when the original ladies refused to film during the last time they extended filming. The new girls are interesting, but not the type to bring the drama that'll give them the ratings they had. They need a more dynamic MIX of ladies. Even having Jill mixed in would help. Their failure is who they decided to bring back, not who they hired. Honestly, keep Jill and Alex and dump Sonja and LuAnn and you have a show. Jill would've mixed better than LuAnn, plus you break up that power vortex of hate that was LuAnn/Jill.

I think there is more long term potential if Ramona doesn't go to London. She will be in New York stewing and it'll officially be on with Heather. I'm praying for that lol. Poor Aviva being stuck with her. I also can't wait to see the new housewives start to fight. I also want to see somebody have a conflict with Carole so Carole can eat them alive with her common sense and wit. Did anybody watch the Vancouver reunion yet?

Ramona is so worried about this trip because FOUR housewives were fired lol. Now we have the new housewives and her plan to be condesending and have them bow down to her has failed. Now they're going to London without her and typically these shows only have one international trip per season. Last season it was like 3-4 episodes, same with Scary Island and these episodes are always big ratings hits. She's worried about her screentime and future and status on the show. It's GREAT seeing all those layers play out. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ramona this season. LuAnn is another one who is imploding because she's been a total disaster all season. Those forced scenes with her kids to prove she's a good mother don't work. The baby storyline doesn't work. The fued with Ramona makes HER look crazy and is also overshadowed by Heather/Ramona. LuAnn is on shaky ground. Don't be surprised if you see luAnn and Ramona teaming up just to stay on the show. The three newbies are all doing great IMO. They all need to return with more new wives. It's a shame the ratings aren't higher.

Heather is HILARIOUS. She was killing me not budging or acknowledging Ramona's desperate attempts to get an invite and that was fun to watch. She just slayed me.

NYC continues to impress, but when I saw Rich with the four girls having cocktails, I immediately thought of Simon lol. Then hilariously, Ramona finally mentioned Alex and Simon in comparison to Aviva. I keep getting too much memories of Alex and Simon, a perfect sign something is missing.

I won't be watching next season. Kesha was a GREAT addition and to fire her makes no sense. At all. This is so transparent. You fire the three people who DON'T fight in order to send a positive image? It's BS. And not only that, but I think they fired 3 of the most interesting ones with actual careers and friends to show.

I find NYC entertaining, but I always prefer the more lowkey seasons. In general, I do think they should've dumped LuAnn which is VERY obvious now and kept Alex and Jill.

I'm finally watching the NYC premiere and it has potential, but it seems too fast so far. They jump in with Aviva meeting LuAnn, then immediately into Sonja's party, then immediately introducing Heather and Carole and the approach is like they've been there forever and it doesn't work. I need an adjustment period. I need them to show me the new girls home lives before they start showing how they entertain. It feels very mid-story and poorly edited. With that said, I'm instantly LOVING Carole. Her outfit at Sonja's party was flawless and she's a firecracker. Aviva is kinda annoying a tiny bit, but I fully expect to love her. I still stand by my sentiment that something is missing. They should've kept Alex for sure and I'm thinking maybe even Jill. Then let the three new girls duke it out for new HW and have one (or two) as a Friend ofthe HOusewives for now.

You know, I can't fault her for just moving on. It takes balls, because like you said, she's NOT established yet. She's grown so much from the social climber in season one. I appreciate that she's used the show and knows when to move on. This is the worst news ever. She was brilliant.\

Like last season, this was a troublesome season to film. They DID ask Alex to return as a Friend of the Housewives with the idea that she'd become a full housewife if one of the new wives didn't work out. She turned them down, either wanting to return full stop or not at all. Then they sent the housewives on multiple trips and extended filming (which the original housewives boycotted at one point) to try and get better footage.

I didn't find the reunion to be that bad. It was decent and showed me enough and also a wide variety of characters. It's sad that Dallas was the high profile show, yet they only brought back a total of like 5 cast members between two movies. That's ridiculous. I don't think a reboot would have to ignore much from a Knots remake though. Only Kate and Gary's daughter would have to be remembered, maybe Paige leaving.

I agree they've missed the boat not releasing more seasons on DVD.

I haven't seen NYC yet, although I can't wait, but ratings were not good! Especially for a heavily promoted premiere of an established housewife show. It got 1.6 million for the first airing and 1.0 for the second airing. Hopefully with word of mouth it'll improve. The previous season was pretty big ratings wise. I think they definitely missed the mark in dumping Alex, who is probably more relatable to viewers. Now we have to wait and see how people take to the new wives. I'm in love with Carole and Aviva from what I've seen.

I was reading a pretty standard article about Dallas, which had some surprisingly good details. One thing I noticed is that the article says the producers reached out to Joan Van Ark and Ted Shackelford to appear in an episode. It would've been a small appearance, but imagine how nice that would've been! We could've had Gary and Val reunited with Lucy and hell, seeing them at all would've been amazing! Ted is the reason they didn't appear. He said the role wasn't big enough and turned it down. Now we know where the rumors of JVA appearing came from. I wonder if there's a chance she DID film the cameo by herself. What do you guys think? Personally I find it short-sighted on Ted's part because who knows what this could lead to. They might be thinking of a Knots Landing spin-off and could do that by testing things out with guest appearances by Gary & Val and maybe Bobby and Betsy if Dallas is a big enough hit. Or even on Dallas there might be a place for them. I think it's great the writers tried to include Knots even if it wasn't successful. Here's a link to the article: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Dallas-TNT-Ewings-1048494.aspx

If you were going to include originals, I would focus on Paige and Greg since they would make it easy for the Mackenzie's and also Abby to make appearances. Then you can include Gary and Val by having the twins around. Olivia, Brian and Kate are also options. I'd simply have most of the originals living elsewhere and their homes inhabited by their children. Would be a little contrived, but could work. There are so many different ways you could go. Another option would be to redo the Scenes From A Marriage theme of the early days and pick five couples to lead the way. Could do Brian & Kate (with their teenage daughter Molly & Grandma Abby), Olivia with somebody new, Bobby and/or Betsy with somebody new, Meg with somebody new, a recast Michael with a love interest and considering how Kent King has aged, I'd certainly have Julie around.

If Dallas is successful, I think for sure we'll see Dynasty done as a revival. With Knots Landing or Falcon Crest, I definitely see them being considered as well. Whether it's a revival or continuation is to be seen, but these shows will be on everybodys radar. Viewers seem to be gravitating more towards the pure drama soaps and less of the dramadies that dominated during the Desperate Housewives days. I think Falcon Crest is a nice, dark concept that is ripe for remaking.

I find it shocking a series hasn't picked up Donna Mills or Michele Lee the way soaps are coming back. In all the pictures Michele Lee looks great on Fumbling. She'd fit on Revenge. I dream of this Knots Landing remake if Dallas is successful, but even then it probably wouldn't include much of the originals. If anything, I could see Mills and Lee fitting in on new shows, if somebody is smart enough to hire them.

I think there needs to be a balance. So far the balance has been too skewed for older episodes, which is great for me since that's what I wanna watch, but I accept that more recent stuff would make more sense in building profits so you CAN release that older stuff. IIRC, in their research, the 80s were a decade fans wanted more of for ATWT. I think the focus on James is probably what caused this not to do as well. Barbara was there until the end and had lots of major storylines and a huge resurgence towards the end. To anyone who started watching the show after 2000 (like me) James was a recurring villain, often in bad stories who came in and out. He was hardly a major presence, so I can see why newer fans wouldn't rush to get this. Newer fans will know Holden/Lily or Carjack or Barbara or Tom and Margo. I don't think it was a bad idea to do this DVD, I just think the same episodes with a heavier focus on Barbara would've sold them better.

It should be no surprise that the Farewell DVDs did well. Most of the fans on the internet are young and only know the show from the more recent years. Things like Carjack, Gwen/Will, Olivia Spencer on GL or Katie for ATWT are clear sellers. I suggested a while back, a way around this would be a set pairing one older couple with a newer one. Say 10 episodes focused on Olivia Spencer, plus 10 episodes of an older character that may be similar. Or Quit/Nola, plus a newer couple in a joint boxset. That would allow newer viewers to still buy the set, become familiar with the older couple and they might be more willing to buy older leaning sets later on. I also think it was a mistake focusing so much on James Stenbeck for this new set. I would've given Barbara equal footing, since she's a character the modern fans are more familiar with. It could've been Barbara and James: Volume 1, then a Volume 2 could've been their stuff in the 90s, 00s.

I feel like the only reason Brandi wasn't full time is because the cast had more power with Bravo not knowing what viewers would take to. Now that we see how well liked Brandi is, it's easier to make her a housewife, even though you have others threatening to quit if that became a reality.

John Pleshette was brilliant and his arc ended so well. I do think he could've worked in the later years, but not the glamourous middle years. I'd have enjoyed a pairing with Richard and Robin Strasser's Dianne, who was foolishly overlooked as the Abby replacement. I found comical Anne to be a total bore, I only liked Anne when she originally arrived as a darker character, or her more serious turn in the final season. Funny yall are asking about season 11 because that's the season I'm watching right now. I also believe it was the season John Pleshette was fired by Lynn Marie Latham and her hubby for criticising one of their scripts lol. I've always found it to be a boring season, but re-watching it and it's very well written. The show is very domestic again, but it works. I like Sumner Group and all the recurring characters like Bob, Mort and Harvey. They've done a great job transitioning Michael into an adult character, Linda is amazing and Paige is maturing as a reasonable speed. I like that they brought in Tom instead of having Paige pine away for Greg. A major downside is keeping Paula and putting her with Greg. She was such a dull character! As yall mentioned, Sally's Friend was a bit tiresome, but I found Penny Peyser to be a good actress and re-watching it the story isn't bad at all. The problem I have is that Val had been dumbed down and victimized so much at this point that the story can't work. As a Val fan it's insulting. I don't recall her doing anything last season after the rush-wrapped up the Jill story and to throw her into ANOTHER Crazy Val story is just stupid. But looking at it objectively it's not a bad story. Mack's story didn't bother me either. I wish it was Lilimae instead of Aunt Ginny, but I do enjoy Mack and Frank (and soon having Tom involved) in their work stories. I loved everything about Karen's talk show, which gave us Robin Strasser as Dianne. I just can't understand how they didn't cast her full-time. She was the PERFECT foil for Karen, which is what they needed when replacing Abby. Claudia was friends with Karen so that didn't work, Anne was a joke so that couldn't work either and Linda was too young. As a result we ended up with Karen winning constantly, being nosey and preaching at everyone.

A new 10 episode James Stenbeck DVD has been released. It only covers the 80s, which is a great idea IMO. I think that Carjack DVD worked so well because there were less years to cover so it was able to give you a good scope of their relationship. Since this just focuses on the 80s they'll be able to condense the story better, plus if it sells well you can do another set. I'm excited!

I think the Vancouver casts and the new NYC housewives are just what this franchise needs. Beverly Hills has some good ones too, but it getting too dark and trashy with Taylor.

Wow, so she was on Love of Life for two years AND Search For Tomorrow, yet when she joined DAYS all that was downplayed so much.

Bringing Sydney back just to kill her makes no sense, but yall have to remember---it's AMANDA who was supposed to die, which makes even LESS sense. I highly doubt the idiots running that show ever watched the original. They also didn't know how to write Sydney or Amanda. In general that had a poor handle on the original characters and the show was too dark and just plain boring. They should've just hiring Chuck Pratt and let him write it. Considering he's currently writing a teen show, he's obviously still in the mindset to handle a show geared towards younger viewers. I would rather risk what he would've done to what we got. Bringing Sydney back just to kill her makes no sense, but yall have to remember---it's AMANDA who was supposed to die, which makes even LESS sense. I highly doubt the idiots running that show ever watched the original. They also didn't know how to write Sydney or Amanda. In general that had a poor handle on the original characters and the show was too dark and just plain boring. They should've just hiring Chuck Pratt and let him write it. Considering he's currently writing a teen show, he's obviously still in the mindset to handle a show geared towards younger viewers. I would rather risk what he would've done to what we got.