DRW50

I never saw this "selfishness" and I still don't, but oh well. I'm very happy to be in the minority on that here and in the fandom in general.

Maybe she didn't like the pregnancy story, or all the time Lucy spent whining or being far on the outside of her own story. I'd also totally forgotten that Norma's stepfather was around through the end of that Renault storyline. Unfortunately I did not manage to block out any of Ben Horne shouting his way through mental illness.

I'm up to mid-season 2 in my rewatch with my father, and I had totally forgotten 90% of the Little Nicky story. I don't really know if they ever had any plans for this or not.

When Tina isn't onscreen I forget she's there. Even when she is, sometimes I forget she's there. If you have to wear kooky clothes to have a personality, it means you're a failure as a character - just like her boring daughter with the wandering accent. I tend to wonder if one of the reasons they brought Sonia back was to try to cement Tina's place in the show, similar to bringing Ben back for the insta-pairing with Johnny (yet another reason I'm glad Sam Strike quit). I had to laugh at that bizarre "they could be a great couple just like Peter and Lauren, who just left!" segueway. The papers seem to really dislike Gillian Taylforth for some reason. http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/eastenders-gillian-taylforth-set-full-time-5292499#rlabs=1

Do you think they're heading to a Sally/Kevin reunion?

Are you enjoying the show? I've heard a few people say they've enjoyed it more lately. Why is Eileen working in the pub? Are they desperate?

Brighter Day and One Man's Family just de-aged everyone. I guess it was a good thing that GL's radio cast was fairly new and young and so were their stories, so there was no need to turn the clock back. (I do wonder why Jone Allison didn't last on TV as Meta)

If ever an article warranted nothing more than a great big LOL!!! it's this one. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s13/hollyoaks/news/a633856/hollyoaks-wins-award-for-maxine-and-patrick-domestic-abuse-storyline.html

The mushy timelines in this are amusing...they make it look like Maggie and Sheila fought and soon after Sheila left with the baby, when actually Sheila and James were together for about a year (with Maggie going nuts, then disappearing) before Sheila lost it and left with Mary. Amber was pregnant, I think, at the time she fought with Sheila, whereas they make it look like she hooked up with Rick after Sheila left town. What a loss for you guys watching this channel that you missed such "highlights" as Thorne helping a family of illegal immigrants for about 3 months, Thorne dumping Macy by fax, Taylor getting bad burns for about 5 minutes, Brooke running around Barbados clutching baby dolls, Rick shooting Ridge because of violent video games, Taylor being hypnotized into being Pierce Pierson's lovesick girlfriend by singer/songwriter Paul Williams, and so much more.

Robin Christopher. I wonder if this was filmed during one of the Skye coma periods.

Ian Ziering not too long after his Doctors period, rocking a Bob Ross 'fro.

Lisa Peluso from her Search days.

May 1994 Weekly

I normally don't agree with a lot of these types of op-ed soap articles but this one I think gets almost everything right - the only thing I would have added is praise for Roxy Shahidi, who has been wonderful throughout the aftermath (especially Leyla's scene telling Alicia not to stop dressing the way she wants to dress). http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s12/emmerdale/feature/a633505/soap-spy-why-emmerdale-was-right-to-air-alicia-and-lachlans-story.html

A preview of Gemma Atkinson's first day as Carly Hope. I can see that I'm probably going to have the same horribly mixed feelings about her here that I did on Hollyoaks. At least they had Bob mention Jamie, which is nice. I miss Jamie. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s12/emmerdale/news/a633827/emmerdale-spoiler-video-gemma-atkinson-arrives-as-carly-hope.html

I actually do think they've done a decent job showing Andy grieving and struggling to cope. Everyone is trying to help, but most of them are incapable, as ultimately it's down to him. That scene where he was crumpling Sarah's drawing into nothing, and didn't even realize it - so sad. I'm trying not to see him as being in the wrong for treating Tracy as a prostitute, as he's clearly not well, but I can see where it would put some viewers off. I just hope this isn't an excuse to reinstate Andy as the welcome wagon for any and all female characters, like he was for years. They may as well give that job to someone like Ross now. That's why I put it in spoilers. It hasn't happened yet.

I think it has more to do with Finn having a boyfriend who has HIV. That's not Andy's house, it's where he's staying because of his brother's hospitality (you know, because he accidentally killed Andy's wife...), which makes it even skeezier. Skeeziest of all is that Robert laid pipe into Chrissie on that very same couch.

It's funny, because some of the main comments I hear about Emmerdale from new viewers (that relationships are so confusing - like Bernice and Paul saying today that they're siblings) is what many often said about ATWT during the Marland years. For me it adds complexity and history, but I can imagine it would be mindboggling. You should have seen the Dingles when Eli and Shadrach were around, among others. They were a skeevy lot for many years, with a few held up as "good" Dingles. You'd have Dingle court, "Dingle law," and so on. Fortunately most of that has waned as Zack is no longer able to be the head of the family. Charity and Cain are distant cousins, yes. The show phased out this side of the Dingles (aside from Cain and Charity of course) when Gavin Blyth came in in 2009 or so. Not long before that you had Chastity throwing herself at cousin Marlon and making out with him, Eli pining for Debbie and her stringing him along to help her cover up a murder, and Chas and Eli sleeping together. Eli also had the hots for Chas' sister Gennie. I'm not sure why they don't do more with Victoria. I think the actress has a limited range, but when it's properly written for (often in her scenes with Finn), she does fine. Even when the show was heavily focused on teen heroines (Holly Barton, Amy Wyatt), she didn't get a big role. The King brothers - well, the baby of the family, and my favorite of them, Max, was killed when the actor wanted to leave. Matthew and Carl were killed because the actors were fired. I've never understood why, as I thought they both worked fine. Carl was very popular with fans and Tom Lister likely would have stayed forever. I've always felt like Stuart Blackburn killed him off just to show he could do what he wanted and to leave on a big shock death. It was a stupid decision and the ramifications of that are still felt - imagine how he'd be with Chas and Aaron now? Imagine him back with Chas instead of shackling her to that dead tree with the dead animal on his head. Jimmy was very different in his first few years on the show. Sour, spiteful. He was, contrary to what some fans claim, ALWAYS an idiot - that was the point of the character. It's why his wife Sadie hated him - she'd never wanted to marry him (she'd wanted Matthew). It's just that after a few years, they stopped going, "Ew, he's an idiot," and started going, "LOL, he's such an idiot, isn't he adorable?" I saw a fan say that he got a personality change after Sadie hit him on the head in that show home explosion. That's pretty much the point where he started getting the dopey Jimmy stories and started parading around in his shorts.

You're right. I mistyped. Thanks.

TPoS, Finn/Darren isn't about Aaron, it's about

I read about that yesterday It says a lot about our current culture that not only is this man not going to face anything for what he did, but one of his colleagues even went on a threatening tirade against the reporter, telling him he'd "burn in hell."

Just watched the 1982 episode, or the parts I hadn't seen. The person who uploaded said if anyone knows the correct exact date, they'll change it from October. I'd never seen the Katherine scenes in this before. Terrific stuff. I love seeing Katherine spar, even as she showed some of her softer side in fighting Nikki's corner. And Allison was a good for for her - the repressed society lady from hell. I had to laugh when Katherine said she was never so drunk that she would have had a child and given it up during that period. Clearly no one ever told the hack "writers" this 20-25 years later!! I never knew Katherine's maiden name was Spencer. It sounds odd.

I guess it makes me a bad fan but I think I'd actually prefer a Zoe recast - Michelle Ryan was suited for the moody teen Zoe but she's shown nothing in her work over the years that makes me think she has to come back. She's just dull. I feel like DTC did a lot of assuming with Linda in that I think he believed she was much more sympathetic and likeable than she actually was to many viewers. Don't get me wrong, she has fans, and I'm sure she'll win the BSA, but I don't think she ever was this icon he wanted her to be (the same goes for Mick). I just don't care about Linda. And that's one of the reasons the rape story failed (one of many). Is it awful that she was raped? Yes. Am I going to watch months of her staring at a wall? No.

March 5.