Chris B

He has soap experience. He was on A World Apart with Susan Sarandon.

Oh that was lovely! We got out eyes on another set as well which looks nice. Based on this I'm guessing they will likely have some of the cast attend/present at the NAACP Awards. Hopefully they also run promos for it as well.

Courtney was smart to leave considering it left her open to Ally McBeal. I did find it interesting to hear Daphne confirm she was fired. I always assumed she decided to leave after season 4. Considering her movie success prior to the show, it's not surprising to hear she was the second highest paid.

I wonder if they won't hold an extended trailer for February. Whatever the case I'm just so excited for the next couple months. Of course, the premiere is the most important date but I'm so excited for all of the interviews and promotion we get for the project. I can't wait until they start sending the cast out for interviews.

It's good that they aren't filming too far ahead so they'll be able to make those adjustments as needed. Can you imagine if they filmed ahead like Days and something wasn't working? That could be the end of a new soap.

Ben and Cathy was such a bizarre story. I felt Cathy long outstayed her welcome, but surely they could've come up with something else to run out her contract. Val risked Joshua potentially hurting her or her kids to defend Cathy and that's how she repays her?

When it comes to past soaps and old episodes, I do think there is value for them in streaming. The amount of content is perfect for a binge and long term subscriptions. Dark Shadows has been a staple since streaming began, B&B has been a success on YouTube and The Doctors has been trucking along. I feel like that should be the future of most of the cancelled soaps. In terms of reboots, I think AMC is the only one that I could see coming back and having potential to be a real success. I could maybe see a form of GL returning, but the problem any returning soap is going to have is endless complaints about things that are different, people who aren't there, continuity, etc. Launching a new soap that has something new to say was definitely the best thing they could've done.

Well, Michael Filerman also suggested Val only get one baby back lol. We just have to be thankful that David Jacobs was around to push back on his more over the top ideas.

2024 saw some exciting finds and I'm hoping 2025 continues the trend! My ultimate hope is one day seeing a episode of Return To Peyton Place. I've been waiting so long for this. One of the soap highlights of 2024 for me was discovering there was a pilot shot for a show called Peyton Place '79 and I even managed to find clips. Hopefully that is a positive sign and Return To Peyton Place isn't far away.

Mack was supposed to cheap on Karen with Anne during her first run but Michele Lee put a stop to it and Anne was written off. Other than that, the only thing I can think is Donna Mills changing the baby story which had her kidnapping the babies. Something that always makes me chuckle is Joan Van Ark's dislike of Lynn Latham and Bernie Lechowick turning Val into "the village idiot." She mentioned wanting to talk to them but they did not allow any communication with the cast.

It's sad to see this trolling in this thread but we need to get used to it. I'm sure once the show premieres the vultures will be out. I'm just going to continue to ignore that negativity.

Wow! Karla Mosley looks *amazing* and I love that they have Karen Huger in a guest spot. Not the best time in her life, but it definitely makes sense to include one of The Real Housewives of Potomac and can bring more eye balls to the show.

Jamey is still at Days because he's mentioning being there within the last couple weeks.

Oh I 100% agree on both of those! Rebecca Elmaloglou is amazing even in the smallest throwaway scene. She is one of the main reasons I got hooked on Neighbours.

I'll admit, I'm not worried either. On the subject of Emmy nominations, I do hope they really go for it this year. I recall an interview with someone involved in the show (I'm guessing the EP or Headwriter) and they said they didn't find out until the last minute that they were even eligible so they didn't submit in many categories. I'd love to see them get nominations across the various categories. Things like Writing and Directing seem like no brainers and with the right reel I could see multiple actors getting nominations. I feel like Georgie Stone and Majella Davis would be the two women I'd really push and Ryan Moloney and Stefan Dennis for the men.

I absolutely crashed out when I saw the end of the Christmas episode with Cindy appearing dead. While I'm thankful she is alive, that is such a ridiculous way to handle the character. I've disliked a lot of the writing for her since she returned, particularly surrounding the fact that she wasn't around for her kids. As I recall it, this was some sort of witness protection thing so what do they expect? The Junior affair reveal was strong enough on it's own. Why did they have to throw in an attempted murder? She is a soap vixen, hardly someone worthy of being beat over the head with a shovel. I feel like Eastenders had a strong 2023 but 2024 has felt very disjointed like they're just throwing anything to the wall and seeing what sticks. There is too much going on and it doesn't feel like it's that well thought out. We have some fantastic episodes here and there, but overall I have been disappointed. I'm at a place now where I'm excited for the anniversary only because it means the new writers will be starting shortly. The show isn't in a terrible place but it definitely has room for improvement.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Brittany Allen from AMC on the new Dexter prequel as his mother. I know she wasn't the most popular on AMC, but I enjoyed her on that show and have enjoyed watching her in projects since then. I love horror films and she's taken a focus on that area and has done some great work.

I'm towards the end of Jill Bennett's reign of terror and if Peter Dunne were writing this, this would've gone the entire season. I must say, the early scenes with Jill tormenting Val post attack were hysterical, but they gave up on it too soon. I would've made Gary and Jill stronger than ever, even let her get pregnant. I would've let Val continue to spiral and let Jill think she won before just jumping into the reveal like they did. Gary quickly lost interest in Jill which knocked the wind out of the story. At that point who cares if she did it or not? She's now an isolated character with nobody to interact with.

That is definitely interesting! From watching Still the Place, they mention that the show was relatively drama free and it's clear they all got along. I guess once they started shaking up the cast things changed. This isn't that far off from Hunter Tylo being fired. My guess is that whoever was responsible for that probably had a hand in glossing over this.

What?! Who was he accused of harassing? I somehow missed this nugget.

Latham and Lechowick didn't seem to understand the complexities of Abby. They got her relationship with Olivia mostly right, but completely failed at all other aspects of the character. I also think they failed when it came to writing Olivia post-Abby. I never understood why they'd go with a broke storyline for her when there is no way that Karen or Val (who was alone) wouldn't have taken her in. It would've made the most sense to put her with Val to help with the twins and that would put her in close proximity to Kate and they could've involved them in a story together.

Peter Reckell was doomed with a terrible character. He did have strong chemistry with Nicollette Sheridan but there was nothing he could do to make that role work. Maybe if the Sumner Group was around they could've made it work but there was no long term potential for a conman when he joined.

The crazy thing about this is that it was also meant to launch a summer spin off and it was just an awful story. I don't understand how they thought it was strong enough to try and develop a spin off around. It's no surprise that it didn't go anywhere.

I'm almost done with season 9 and this is the first season I feel didn't work as a whole. It has some series best highlights but overall a lot of clunkiness. Highlights: - Lilimae's exit - If she had to go, finding love with Red Buttons was the right way to do it. Looking back I'm very satisfied with her arc although I wish she had returned at some point. - Noises Everywhere - While I didn't enjoy Laura's exit, I did love these episodes. The first episode narrowing it down to the core cast and then the second episode bringing the broader cast in was a nice touch. John Pleshette was wonderful as always and Teri Austin stole the show as Drunk Jill. - The Williams family - It's a shame what happened, but this was a 10/10 introduction. I loved the mystery surrounding it and once the mystery was resolved we discovered that Pat had really nice chemistry with Karen and Val. I wish racism hadn't gotten in the way and these characters, particularly Pat, were able to live up to their full potential. - The finale - I haven't reached this in my re-watch yet, but those final two episodes of the season are among the finest tv I've ever witnessed. The Bad: - Laura's exit - While I find it believable that Laura would leave the way she did, I think they did a disservice to Constance McCashin by not giving us enough on-screen build up before she was written off. She deserved a major storyline that lasted at least half the season before sending her off to die. - The Mexico mess/Manny Vasquez - Nothing in this story worked. Not Manny, not Harold and Olivia, not the kids in Mexico looking for treasure. In order for this to have worked they would've needed to develop Manny as a more complete character so we could even care. Maybe they could've skipped the Charles foolishness and made Manny the new love interest for Abby. - Charles Scott - Michael York is a wonderful actor but casting him as the man who made Abby how she is made no sense. I would've presented the character more as a womanizer with power like a JR. I just couldn't believe this milquetoast man stole her heart like that. Not to mention, it went nowhere. Today my goal is to get through everything except the final two episodes so I can enjoy those by themselves. Then I'm looking forward to season 10 and saying goodbye to Abby!

Hopefully they use this to announce something about the Lifetime movies.