All My Shadows

Exactly this. The phrase "gay boy joy" has been on my mind ever since last week, and it really does come down to that. We've all seen so many movies and shows roll out obstacle after obstacle, so much so that it's become a cliche, and we've gotten accustomed to accepting endings that are "happy enough." To see a true happy ending, one where the couple gets together and stays together, no one denies or tries to run away from his own sexuality, no one is disowned, family doesn't have to get cut off - I don't think many of us really knew that we needed this, and at this time of year? Amazing. And to speak on what Vee said, all of this happened within a very adult realm. Shane and Ilya didn't get a happy ending because they were cute, innocent, carefree kids who just like each other. These are grown men (because by the time we get to the cottage, they're like 26 years old) who were initially drawn together by pure lust. Ilya was already someone who loved sex and loved giving and receiving pleasure. Shane was less experienced (and supposedly the book goes more into how his attempts at straight sex were not enjoyable) but he had a sex toy. At no point do they fit the earnest gay role model archetype, but guess what? They still deserve sunshine. This whole thing really just spoke to me in ways I did not anticipate. The Shane/Yuna scene at the end? Again, something that on the outside would seem almost perfunctory hit me like a sledge hammer. Any gay man who had to come out to his mom, whether it was a good experience or not, wishes that it would have happened that way. Seeing it happen that way for Shane fed my soul. That the story stretches from 2008 to 2017 speaks to my millennial soul. I graduated high school in 2008. These characters are my contemporaries. They came of age and developed their sexual identities at the same time I did, and I know what that was like. Watching them go through young adulthood, hitting up the clubs in the recession pop era, the busy busy busy world of working hard and building your life while also relishing in your youth, and then growing to the point where sitting by a fire at that damn cottage becomes way more exciting than any night out could ever be. Baby, they are livinggggg! The switch-up in who's hands are on the steering wheel across the whole series. When it was meant to just be a sexual relationship, Ilya kept bringing it back to that. Any time Shane tried to have those conversations to deepen the relationship, Ilya pulled away, left, kept his distance. But by the end, Shane makes it clear (in his own way) that this is no longer just a sexual thing, and even when Ilya tries to get into his pants right away, Shane holds off just a little bit longer because he refuses to let the actual affection/romance get lost in the lust anymore. And the music! I will never be able to hear literally any of these songs ever again without being whisked back to this series and everything it made me feel. Like, just the opening bass line of "My Moon, My Man" gets me out of my body at this point.

Openly weeping over that fckn cottage, man. I feel so incredibly grateful to have been able to watch this series. You never want to attach the word “perfect” to anything these days, but gosh, it was about as perfect as you can get in this genre. I may or may not have the energy to write a full reflection later on, but I do just have to say that the decision to put the final credit roll not over a black screen but over a good old-fashioned AMC-style beauty shot sequence seems like such a small matter but god, what a stroke of genius. They literally rode off into the sunset.

Yes, and I am utterly obsessed. It very quickly went from “I’ll put it on while I’m cooking just to see if I like it” to “okay let me pause it so I can watch later and give it my full attention” within the first ten minutes. My ADD brain wants to word vomit so much all at once, but so many of you have already hit all the major points. What I will add is that as someone who needs things to make sense and for beats to play out naturally, I typically don’t invest very much into shows that want us to care so much so soon, but these people paced everything perfectly and sucked me in immediately. Plus Connor and Hudson?! Fire.

Yep, it’s definitely still available through Roku and I think Pluto. I see ads for it all the time. Just turned it on, and yepppp, still showing episodes from “Season 58,” which is what…2020-2021? Who is begging to watch those again.

Thanks for the tag, @DRW50 ! It came across my feed earlier today, but I’ve only watched the DAYS ep so far. Definitely planning to watch the rest within a day or two!

At the very least, put the damn wedding online to stream. There’s also a General Hospital FAST channel that cycles through the same episodes from like 7 years ago that nobody cared about then or now. There’s literally no way to slot classic episodes in there for a just a week or weekend? These people act like classic soaps are poison.

I’ve never been a GH watcher (though I’ve oddly been watching some 60s episodes this past weekend), but it’s very sad to think of how many big stars from the show have passed in recent times. I remember knowing who Luke and Laura were before I ever got into soaps. I think what will annoy me greatly is how many outlets, ABC included, will write about how iconic he was and they were, but there is still literally no legal means of watching the wedding or their best work together or literally any of Tony’s work at all. It’s almost like…if you don’t see the value in providing access to this stuff, you shouldn’t get to talk about how great it was.

I honestly thought I was misreading it when I saw it on my Instagram feed.

Thanks! I feel like one or two of the segments that were originally posted forever ago has been missing for quite some time, so it's great to have it in its entirety. Things that always stand out to me when I watch this one: that plucky little number they play at the very end of the prologue as Ginny contemplates taking the money is one of my favorite pieces of ATWT music of all time, mannnnn they aged the heck out of Nancy in just a matter of five years because she looks and acts much younger in the 1973 episode, and it's so very hard for me to look at Barbara/CZ as a your typical 70s P&G soap heroine. Oh, and this is definitely Michael Nader at his hottest.

Twenty years ago, I had my VCR set for AMC and ATWT on a daily basis while in high school and usually watched them nightly at around 6pm or right before bed. I usually watched the Friday episodes on Saturday morning. During the summer, I'd let my dial-up connection take the 2-3 hours it needed to take to stream one 6-minute scene of a classic soap on WoST (which is pure insanity to even think about because it really would take an entire week to watch one episode). Today, I watch no current soaps. If I'm home and in the mood during the weekday, I'll put on CBS via Paramount+ to check in on their daytime lineup. Otherwise, my soap-watching exclusively consists of streaming classics on TV via YouTube.

Yes, I agree with all of that. Ridings really was hard to watch, especially because his JR was so angry through his entire run. I think of him, and all I can see are scrunched eyes and his lower lip jutted out to overcompensate for an almost non-existent upper lip. Let me just have my moment and say that I wore an AMC shirt to the last show Jesse played near me, and he just about died when I referred to him as "Adam Chandler Jr" when I went to take a photo with him after.

When was Joni's last appearance? I thought that would be easy enough to look up and find, but it's not. I feel as though she was written out in McTavish's general overhaul of the cast. The "original" grown-up JR and Jamie were Jonathan Bennett and Micah Alberti, respectively, with Andrew Ridings taking over as JR in 2002. I can't find how long he was on, either, nor can I remember when he last appeared, but I do recall that JY first debuted in the role in October 2003. It seems like out of the whole set of younger cast in the two or so years before McTavish returned, only Alberti and Ridings haven't gone on to some level of lasting success.

Just finished “The Mothers-in-Law.” Very pleasant and worth some good 60s chuckles. The next short-lived but still remembered sitcom I’m going for is “Angie,” which I’ve owned on DVD for years but have never completely watched from beginning to end. As for long-runners, I’m planning to complete “Leave It to Beaver,” the second half of which somehow became a big comfort watch for me over the summer. I have plenty of the first three seasons to watch. Drama-wise, I am already obsessing on a constant basis over “Heated Rivalry” while still making my way through “Knots Landing” and “Falcon Crest.”

I swear, as I thought something, each one of y’all said it lol I remember back when TV Guide was celebrating their 50th anniversary, they had contemporary TV stars recreating classic covers. Reba recreated a Lucy cover with her squashing the grapes, and I’m sure at that time, many probably disdained the idea of dolling Reba up as Lucy, but she is definitely the redhead who rules syndication in the 21st century.

Roku Channel as well now! It's my preferred streamer between it, Tubi, and Plex, so I'm excited. Well, the ultimate excitement would be if they quit being dummies and just put it back on Prime.

Sharon Gless also recurred in the last two or three seasons of "Marcus Welby, MD," another show that brings up some folks that fit the thread. Robert Young hit it big with "Father Knows Best" (1949-1954 on radio and 1954-1960 on television), followed it up with the "Peyton Place"-adjacent one-season wonder "Window on Main Street" in the 1961-1962 season, basically took most of the 60s off, and then hit it even bigger with Welby at the very end of the decade and into the 70s. Since Welby ended in 1976, James Brolin has had three hit series: "Hotel," "Pensacola: Wings of Gold," and "Life in Pieces." He's only ever starred in one TV flop, 1995's "Extreme," which might've done better had it been made for Saturday afternoon syndication. Elena Verdugo played the doctors' secretary, and her only other regular TV role was as the star of "Meet Millie," which was a hit on both radio and TV for five years but is almost completely forgotten today. Pamela Hensley joined the cast in the final season as Dr. Kiley's love interest. She then did "Kingston: Confidential," which was Raymond Burr's short-lived follow-up to "Ironside," before having a three-season hit with "Matt Houston." When it ended in 1985, she retired from acting.

I can also see her as one of the recurring semi-regulars on Murder She Wrote, but her ego probably would have been too big for that. Aaron was right to be regretful, but who can blame him? He was HUGE at the time, but getting a chance to produce for Lucy still had to be nerve-wracking, especially when you consider that she had produced her last two shows herself. Plus, Aaron guest started on ILL early in his career! His producer instincts might’ve known better, but his instincts as a Lucy admirer probably told him to just shut up and let her do what she wanted to do. Had LWL never happened, her last big shots on TV would have been hosting the “Three’s Company” clip show (which was a big get for them and something she was glad to be a part of) and the TV movie where she played a homeless woman. That would’ve been a fine end to her career.

"The Cosby Mysteries" made sense for the time, IMO. His sitcom had just ended, he still had a huge following with older audiences, and between Andy Griffith, Carroll O'Conner, Tom Bosley, and Dick Van Dyke, it was all the rage for former sitcom stars to become crimefighters (which you could even say stretched as far back as Buddy Ebsen as my boy Barnaby Jones). And then there's "Life with Lucy" lol The whole thing makes me sad because you watch the opening credits, and it's all this stuff about living life to the fullest, aging with dignity and grace, keeping that fighting spirit, staying open to new ideas and experiences, etc. and you can tell Lucy was really ready to be "back." The show flops hard, and people were not very kind about it, plus Desi dies just a few weeks after it's cancelled. It's no wonder she just wanted to be left alone at that point. I've read that they were trying to get her to do something more like Golden Girls, and while I hope it wasn't a complete rip-off, I think it could have been a different story for her final series. Back when they were developing "Here's Lucy," it was a conscious decision to go in a new direction by having it be Lucy as the mother of teenagers, and I personally think that worked very well for the most part. Lucy as a grandmother, not so much, which is why I guess they leaned once again on "Lucy pisses Gale Gordon off" as the basic premise. I'm not sure what would have been a good set-up for her in 1986. Maybe something like "Waiting for God," with her and Gale finally working together in cahoots to piss other people off. That way, the whole idea of them being too old for the slapstick but still getting into trouble anyway would be part of the plot.

I think the problem for Fran is that the NBC run of Mama's Family had too large of a cast. Mama has three kids, two in-laws, two grandkids, and a sister. Even if you didn't have everyone present in every episode, it still had to be tough to develop a place for each character. IMO, the syndicated run tightened it up and yes, it was more cartoony, but the cast just seemed to gel better as you knew what role each character was meant to play. Another actor who had more successes than failures: Lee Majors. You really forget just how busy he stayed over a 20 or so year period. The Big Valley, The Men from Shiloh (the final season of The Virginian), Owen Marsall: Counselor at Law, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Fall Guy. After that many hits, you really don't need any others.

I agree with your assessment of the cop show satire angle. I know there was a weariness for the genre by the time TBWS began, but by then, so many of those shows, especially the type TBWS was trying to lampoon, were winding down. By the 1977-1978 season, "Charlie's Angels" was the one and only crime drama pulling in big numbers, and outside of the Caren Kaye character, that's not really the kind of cop show TBWS was going for. Like you said, it might've been enough for a sketch on Carol's show (which was also at its end!), but to build a whole series around?

I remember watching a few episodes of Musical Chairs on YT one night a few years back and really enjoying it, so I'm glad more of it has popped up. The mid-70s really was a wild wild west when it came to game shows. They were debuting and ending at a higher rate than primetime TV, and it seems like shows were given just a few months, some times really weeks, to catch on. All of that would come to an end as soaps began to expand. IMO, the true golden era of daytime was when soaps and games co-existed in almost equal measure.

I usually avoid the final season like the plague (while still committing to finishing the whole series), but I finally saw a big chunk of an episode where he has this big romance with a blind 19-year-old. VOMIT. Miss Beadle should have been Walnut Grove's casually loose woman that was mysteriously accepted and encouraged by her contemporaries in the 1870s-1880s. Bring her back to have an affair with John Carter. Man, I just get so frustrated when I think of what they decided to do as her post-MTM comeback. A show within a show where 55-year-old Betty plays an actress who plays a TV action star, and the whole thing is shot on videotape!?!?! Just foolish. I maintain that they should have just spun Sue Ann, softened the character, and made her the executive chef of a Stratford Inn type of country house in the Midwest or New England. It might not have endured as long as the MTM Show did, but it would have been a better showcase of Betty's comedic talent, plus you know there would have been a great ensemble. Betty White Show was just her, John Hillerman, and Georgia Engel. All three TV greats, but stuffed together in such a dumb premise?

Gosh, I love all the colors in this photo so much. KL aired exactly one episode in the 70s, but those first two seasons were 70s A-F! I think the only outfit I don't like is Diana's. Re: Paige. I still haven't gotten to her arrival yet, but just based on when I look in on the later seasons on the FAST channel, I know I'm going to tire of her very quickly. I loved Nicollette on Desperate Housewives and absolutely adore Paper Dolls as a whole (especially her and Brenda V!), but just that snotty voice alone is going to drive me crazy. Maybe it's because she was rarely more than a secondary character on DH and PD was over and done so quickly but on Knots, she was front and center for soOoOoOoOoooo long.

IIRC, people had very low expectations for Chad Duell when he was announced as Drew Garrett's replacement on GH, but once he appeared onscreen, fans accepted him. Some AMC examples: - I want to say Nick Benedict as Phil on AMC is a good example for this thread, but I'm not sure if Richard Hatch's Phil was popular or if we just view him as popular because he's the only Phil we have any footage of today (and a good bit of it, relatively speaking). Considering he survived the initial recasting spree the show had in its first year, I'd say he was popular. There were many more examples of recasts who took on roles after original cast members who didn't quite make their mark (Richard Van Vleet as Chuck, Judith Barcroft as Anne, Peter White as Linc, etc). - Vasili Bogazianos as Benny Sago. Larry Fleischman had originated the role and played it for several years, including a fling with young Brooke English. I believe Benny was written out for much of 1979 before VB brought the character back the following year. - Christina Bennett Lind as Bianca. I remember the general consensus being that if Eden wasn't going to commit to sticking around long-term, then CBL was a more-than-decent recast. There were people who actually preferred her to Eden. - Lee Meriwether as Ruth. Considering Mary Fickett was officially retired due to health reasons and they weren't doing much with Ruth anyway, LM was perfectly fine and acceptable as a recast. I think it helped that they mostly leaned away from the character's real history and relationships because it just wasn't going to hit the same with someone else in the role. Sometimes I wonder how big the audience overlap was between Mart Hulswit's heyday as GL's Ed vs. Peter Simon's. I know it was a pretty quick turnaround in 1981, but by the time PS returned in 1986, GL was extremely different from the show it was during MH's run. I also imagine Robert Gentry's Ed was popular in the late 60s. Still on GL, I figure Jone Allison's Meta was a pretty big draw on radio in the early 50s and brought the character to TV, and then Ellen Demming took over as Meta moved from being the show's young heroine to supporting character. Love of Life had three popular actresses in the role of Vanessa back-to-back-to-back with Peggy McCay, Bonnie Bartlett, and Audrey Peters, plus a popular Meg with Jean McBride in 50s and then a hugely popular recast with Tudi Wiggins in the 70s.

ML was an egomaniac, but for every story of his [!@#$%^&*] behavior on the Little House set, there are at least five more stories of how positive the set was, especially for the child actors (regulars and guests). Most conflict was contained to the people who had the conflict with one another, and I think it’s a testament to that that so much of the surviving cast has continued to reunite for events beyond all the 50th anniversary celebrations from last year.