All My Shadows

I gotta go with the glory days, S4-S5. S3's new music to go along with the original vocals were a drastic improvement, but thank god they got rid of the kiddie choir (the lead singer was fine). But yes, nothing brings me back to JHS and HS like the Jackalope version of the theme. There's this great undercurrent of tension that just builds and builds until the last chord with my boy Marco poppin' that collar. Runners-up would be the last two full versions of the opening theme. I hate the first version of the "rearranged" theme because that girl's voice was SH!T, but the all-male version was awesome and different at the time. The final full version, I think I like just a little bit more. The original closing theme was perfect.

That original gang really did go through a lot and grow with me and my friends. When it premiered in the US, we were in the 6th grade, and somehow, through them screwing with the timeline, I graduated the same year as Emma, Manny, Liberty, etc. It wasn't the same after I grew out of the target audience, but I think it's a huge deal to last 14 seasons and the whole company should be proud. What I wouldn't give to see Sean one more time, though...

I imagine there won't be much fanfare if it's ending next month. The hourlong special seems like a standalone that they may not have produced yet.

Yeah, I see Zarf too. His facial structure is very similar to Jeffrey Carlson's.

Westerns are notoriously high-rated in daytime slots, so they ain't going anywhere. I'd personally love to see Gunsmoke have a go in a post-primetime slot just for fun. Re: Summer of Me. Once again they barely make any differences when they should be shaking things up. The nighttime blocks are all shows that we've had for years now. I'd rather each night be themed with several different shows. Only thing I'm looking forward to is Laverne and Shirley. Low-key looking forward to Happy Days, too. They need to be shot for putting SBTB: The College Years in primetime. The dumbest thing they've ever done.

You can't say that she can't do the oldies circuit then refer to Vegas as the oldies circuit after it's been established that she's a huge hit in Vegas. She's got tons of money and her main priority is raising her sons right now. There's absolutely nothing sad about that. And a song doesn't have to be overplayed to death to qualify as a hit. Three of the four singles from Femme Fatale charted highly enough (top 10) when they were released and were successful. I don't understand what more is needed for a track to be called a hit. Please tell me how Christina has exhibited more staying power, because I'm looking, and I can't see it. She's found a place as a featured artist, but that's a far cry from her heyday.

Hallmark movies and series are generally good, too. Very positive, feel-good stuff, which is perfect in an era where everything else is desperate to be dark and moody. I need to catch up on season 2 of Cedar Cove before it returns this summer.

Another show that should have been a mini-series loses steam. Sad, but we saw it coming. I loved it in the beginning, but it just became too much.

I agree with all of the above and would add the Rovers fire, Valerie's death, and the Elsie/Ena row above.

As much as I've watched that scene, I never realized Elsie called Ena a bitch to Jack. That had to be a big deal at the time. And yes, Dennis is fit as f!ck in those early episodes. Quintessential "angry young man."

Bet just embodies Corrie to me. She was absolutely at home behind the bar at the Rovers, trading barbs with the punters, making eyes at eligible young men, and just being this great, feminine, feisty, fearless woman. It's no wonder she became a huge gay icon.

On a shallow note, Bet consistently had some of soap's greatest hair, US and UK. I think I'm gonna buy those DVDs. All of the comments seem to be from Americans. I've been watching tons of eps on YT, but I'm paranoid about having physical access to shows vs. strictly digital. Things get yanked all the time, and I don't watch fast enough to get through all of something right away. I just need for them to start releasing Prisoner: Cell Block H in Region 1.

Speaking of Corrie's superior years, I've found several entries on Amazon for classic DVD sets that seem to be Region 1? Does anyone know about this? I want to be sure before I order any.

This is an interesting conversation. Anyways, I forgot I posted in this thread long ago when I finished season 2. I've just started 3, and I won't bore you with my episode-by-episode commentary (I save that type of nonsense for the Shameless thread), but I'm interested to see where things are headed. Season 2 was a high-water mark so far, IMO, so if they kept that momentum up, then I'll be happy. In regards to the above conversation, I think it's foolish altogether to put so much stock into what critics have to say. I got into GoT because my friends told me it was a soapy good time, and that did more to spark my interest than countless articles telling me that I needed to watch.

The one thing I've noticed about FH is strongly evident in this thread -- the people who dislike it dislike it strongly, and the people who like it will defend the sh!t out of it.

I think she just doesn't care anymore lol She's more concerned with her kids, and I think music is just a means to keep up their standard of living at this point.

Those promos must have been shot over several years. Esta and The Curly One were never on the show simultaneously. Seeing Gillian just takes me back to when I first started watching 14 years ago. If I'd known the show would be over just a decade later...

Tamwar is still on the show? Oh dear, I can't imagine that being good.

I believe the show kept the title card over the first scene opening sequence until the late 70s (1977ish). The music was changed in '71. This is all based off of articles written for long-dead soap websites, so it could be inaccurate. IDK if this has been discussed here or not, but apparently the show gained a primetime hour on RetroTV back in December. I'm reading that they actually started that airing at the same point in 1967 that the daytime run began with. It would have been interesting if they'd taken this opportunity to start at a later time period (maybe ten years later) just to provide a means for comparing and contrasting.

Yeah, I'm very strongly against using physical violence to teach a child right from wrong, but even I want to vomit when I see the promos for that nonsense.

"some show called The Rookies" !!!! The Rookies was one of Spelling's best crime dramas! It ran for four seasons, but it's remained very underrated and not aired much in reruns. TV Land had it about 10-15 years ago, and I watched it religiously. Georg Stanford Brown, Sam Melville, and Michael Ontkean as rookie cops, each from a different background, with Kate Jackson as Mike Danko (Sam Melville)'s wife, nurse Jill. It was a basic police series but with very strong characterization of the leads and a great cast.

So sad about John and the Winters being phased out in March 1968. It's interesting, when reading stuff about soaps from this era (and on episodes of shows that mention soaps), you always here about how a character is written out after their "storyline ends." It's weird to actually see that in play. Ruth and Bill got their happy ending, so they're written out. John is getting his, so he's being written out. They really do just have their core set of doctors with everyone else coming in and out. It would have been cool if they'd reintroduced John and Bonnie some kind of way later on. Also, the concept of "a new storyline starting." I'm surprised Retro didn't decide to start in late March, there's a very clean beginning with the Starks and Andersons joining the show. Of course, I'm very glad they started in December. Karen really is an awful bitch, and I wish this was a 2000s soap so that Maggie could just call her one. Nick: "What are we gonna do? Speen-foo....spoon the guy?" Matt: "...spoon-feed?" :lol:

The rainstorm episodes, with Karen finally coming clean to Matt while Maggie (looka Bethel with her new 'do), Althea, and Nick waited around, were incredible. I've always enjoyed storm episodes, but I hate that they've basically become launching pads for outrageous tragedies. You can do so much with a group of characters trapped in a house because of a storm, and it's ideal for big confrontations with the denouement taking place once the storm's cleared up. Sad that the sound clogged up and the video skipped through a lot of this stuff, but still, very enjoyable.

Damn, even I can see how stupid this is. They spent most of a year building up motives and means only to squander it on having the killer be a kid? In a few years, he'll be a "hardened bloke" who can't act for sh!t. Stupid.

OK, so I've decided to just soldier on. Judging from my research, I'm up to the episodes that aired on Retro back in November, and when I look at it that way, I'm not THAT ridiculously behind. Can't believe we have to suffer through the temp for these confrontation scenes between Maggie and Karen! She's a good actress, but you spend months building up to this, and part of the excitement is because you know Bethel is gonna just read the hell out of Werner, but then we get this. Ugh. John and Bonnie Sad that he'll be leaving soon, because he really does bring a lot to the show.