DRW50

Paul Krugman talks about the woes of Putin. Remember when those America-haters like Palin and Guiliani were gushing over him? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/opinion/paul-krugman-putins-bubble-bursts.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1LY1W1ERBc I guess Alan saw Diane as a loyal pet, not a person, but it's kind of sad to see how hurt he is by her betrayal. And it's also kind of sad to see that Diane was blamed for Vanessa's actions (stealing Rita's letter from Alan's apartment). They really weren't being subtle about a murder mystery being on the way. It's nice to see those Diane/Joe scenes within the full context of the episode. Pure melodrama, but very compelling, especially her cry of pain when he outs the Rita/Alan affair. Diane thought she knew everything but in the end she knew nothing. The other interesting thing about this is that aside from Vanessa (who was mostly naughty), Joe and Diane were the only "bad" people in Springfield at this moment in time, so you see their wickedness catching up with them in the most brutal fashion. They can't even enjoy what they're doing. They're self-destructing on every level. What a contrast to today's soaps, where everyone in town is a thug and a murderer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeQRzZ_F0QE Quint's first scene? Those Carrie/Ross scenes are sweet. Eve is dressed like a kids' show host, or a Doctor Who companion from some years earlier. She also reminds me a lot of one of the main characters on the BBC show Survivors (who had about as much luck with men as Eve did). Poor Jackie. I can feel her pain and loss here. I wonder if Jarod Ross was onscreen for any of this material or if he just ran away offcamera. Roger had been gone over a year by this point. I wonder how many new viewers they'd gotten (via things like Kelly/Morgan) who had no idea who he even was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhh_pGJAhS4 I guess this is the last time we'll see Diane wander back and forth to the closet. I'm getting so nostalgic. And the last humiliation from Alan, who handled her terribly. I kind of wonder what might have been if they'd gotten involved - if she would have been satisfied or if, with her dream now realized, she would have felt it really wasn't enough. Sofia Landon and Chris Bernau are terrific there. Vanessa is wearing one of those vampire victim outfits I always like seeing on soaps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC2Rd5O-RLE You kind of have to laugh at the melodramatic pronouncements from Jackie and Ross. Poor Diane. Her last secrets came out of the closet - literally. I feel so sorry for her there, in her final moments. I'm always glad to see more of when Vanessa and Henry were partners in crime and he could read her like a book. And the setup just makes her real killer all the more shocking, which is a clever twist on the typical murder mystery.

And here are the forums! I came up with the thread titles ( in the area where they asked people to submit new threads), for better or worse. http://forums.previously.tv/forum/1351-emmerdale/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html?_r=1 http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nebraska-oklahoma-sue-colorado-marijuana-legalization A great example of just how meaningless the "small government" line is with the GOP. It's only small government when big business wants it. That they are suing to kill a law in another state, that the people of that state voted on, is jawdropping.

Pathetic. I was thinking about Max's shock value death and how the show was never the same for me.

Thanks for sharing this. Having same-day flashbacks, over and over, is extremely annoying, as is the music they have in the last scenes, and deadly dull Hutch and Rosanna, but otherwise it was a good episode with a good cliffhanger. This episode is a good example of how MDM managed to give Caleb an edge that was unique in a fairly placid male cast. I've never known why they made Caleb a sanctimonious, self-righteous do-gooder after MDM passed away. His confrontation with Angel here shows that Caleb could never be "good" and "right," even when he wanted to be. (and what great work from MDM and Alice Haining). Surprised Andy let Caleb drive drunk. I love seeing Andy and Julie's friendship. It was so refreshing and not something you would have expected, especially since most soaps would have had her as the bitter bad girl spitefully wrecking his relationships. And Julie predated the "wassup?" trend by about 10 years. I also had to laugh with the girl who came by just to say goodbye and thank Andy for making her first time special. I'm glad Courtney at least commented on the weirdness of the whole situation. I'm not sure why later writers assumed that Hal shouted and bellowed. As we see throughout this episode, Hal was often a very quiet, somber man, with a wry sense of humor. Episodes like this remind me of how much I miss Ben Hendrickson. I really like the bit of absurd humor with Frannie and Hal having to pretend Frannie isn't there. I do wonder where the show was taking their relationship. Very powerful scenes with Margo and Tom too. This was when the show still knew how to make them seem like a normal couple facing serious problems. Her trying to be strong and then breaking down and telling Hal really got to me. And I like how we see the romance and banter with Duncan and Jessica before we get to the reality of the racism they still face.

I put in the details to start an Emmerdale thread, so if they accept, we can chat there.

A lot of trans people also see it as an insult when it comes from gays... As for Whoopi, I would agree with her about race, but as with many other topics, her view is tainted, given that she was fine with Ted Danson parading around in blackface.

This is another Who's Who in Daytime TV? I think this may be the cast circa the end of 1968. I'm not sure. That bit about Carolee and David O'Brien amused me.

Bright Eyes, as one of the only other Steph fans in the world, I thought you'd want to know I'm sporting a Steph Stokes avatar at Previously TV.

There's no way it could be, anyway, as Congress wouldn't allow it. He'll be lucky if they, or the courts, don't make it worse than what we have now.

I'd love to see that. A lot of the material from this era sounds exciting. I also would like to see people learning Carrie did it. The murder setup isn't as polished as Marland's ATWT murders, which makes it a little more unpredictable. Hulswit probably has a point about weakening the Bauers. Watching these you'd think Bert and Mike would be there forever...even Hope. Obviously they weren't responsible for what happened to Charita, but losing Mike and Hope was such a dumb decision that really took away so much of the show's core. Hilary too. It's such a shame they didn't bring Rita back in 1989.

I thought Simon did well against Zaslow in his return, but then, that was almost a decade later. I guess they wanted to make the younger seem younger or brand new (as they'd done with Tom Hughes on ATWT), but I can imagine it's jarring. And it makes me feel a little sad, because I think Hulswit's still doing good work, and still seems fairly vibrant to me. I can't even remember what they did with Trish in 1982. The person uploading these said they only have one more for September (September 25 - Diane's last day) and then a few more from later 1981 and from 1982, but will hopefully get more 1981 episodes in January.

I imagine this will be a big rallying cry for the GOP, and faded relics like Jeb and media darling Marco, but it's an outdated, pointlessly obstinate policy in a country that can ill afford it at this point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORbPVmxwr8E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akni9OMAfYQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akni9OMAfYQ You have to laugh at Carrie miraculously mentioning every single thing that will anger Jackie. That dancing extra steals the last scene (his biggest moment of glory is around 7:50).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORbPVmxwr8E I like seeing all these believable conflicts between Kelly and Morgan. The later stuff with Josh and lying about the stolen bracelet and mugging, or whatever, didn't quite fit. Looks like Carrie found more people to introduce herself to. She has a knack for it. The Diane distorted audio flashback with Jackie reminds me more of a Y&R scene. Mowery reminds me more of a Y&R actress, a Lorie or a Jill.

Other than Tracy, Jane has never stayed in a role for long. I don't know if I can see her as Felicia's sister though. She and Dano are very different actresses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD_lEr6BTJA So Trudy was leaving? That's odd. I thought she was in some of the 1982 episodes when Tony was teaching karate at the disco. I wonder how many takes William Roerick had to do speaking Spanish. Love seeing Nola give it to Tony. This is such an odd group to picture as hanging out. Katie, Tony, Hillary and Kelly are all mid-20s or older, while Morgan, Tim and Trudy are 18. They seemed to address this more when Morgan and Kelly first interacted. I guess that may be why they don't have the chemistry of some other young people groups on GL. Vanessa is so hilariously pushy with Mike. I kind of wish they'd thrown them together, just to see him crack down on her.

I think Simms tried out for some soaps but that was it. They took away most of Mindy's quirkiness and heart and drive in Simms' last year in the role. By the time they recast, she was just a whiny woman who loved Nick. JFP seemed to have no real use for her otherwise. Barbara Crampton also didn't seem to know how to play Mindy, not helped by being visibly too old for the role. I remember cringing a little at the country line dancing scenes, because it came across as a suburban matron trying to cut loose, not an Oklahoma girl having fun. I thought toward the end, when they brought Rick back, she was getting better and more believable as Mindy, but Crampton was already leaving.

I think she wanted a year contract. JFP wanted at least two years. Simms walked.

They had their share of fans. I'm just a bitter person, especially when I get overinvested in a show or a character, so I wasn't able to move past it. I just hated the whole thing at the time and it's tough to watch now. Many people did enjoy him with Simms, which is why I'm not sure why JFP was so fine with letting her leave. Arrogance.

I agree about the sense of community. I have mixed feelings, because community and history are important, but if the stories and relationships don't work, then that's a huge tradeoff. I do think her last year or so had more somber, believable material, and had more heart, but the show itself had taken on so much water because of her mistakes in 1993 and early 1994. I don't think Josh ever really worked on his own as a character, aside from his story with Harley. He was just too petulant and Reva balanced that out. I think by the last few years of the show, Newman had developed enough maturity that he could carry material (and I think the idea of him wanting to be a minister was interesting, although I'm not sure it suited the character), but 94-95, I don't think it was there. On the one hand, Annie shouldn't have been demonized, but on the other hand, I thought Watros was so drab and overly mannered (a weird combination) that, much like Wendy Moniz (also very poor as anything but a bitch), the show did her a favor putting her in this light.

I liked him with Susan too, maybe because she wasn't made to be needy or pathetic. By that time he was being written out, but I thought they worked well together. I'm glad they got a happy ending.

A number of my favorite characters, like Alex and Mindy, were ruined for him. He had no real chemistry with most of the people he was paired with. He was smarmy and sanctimonious. I hated the way he preened and posed all the time. I hated the sound of his voice. I hated his pretentiousness (the worst of the soap cliches about journalists), I hated the way he said "Alexandra" and "Melinda" so we'd know he wasn't like everyone else. I hated the way the words came out of his mouth. I hated having to hear "Cambray" a million times, and hear endless backstory about Cambray and New York and his super duper parents Kip and Mary, who sounded like they got their names from a kids' detective book from 1940. I hated that many months of plot were based on the idea that of course Mary couldn't have had him, because she had a photo from the time he was in the womb where she had a flat stomach. The idea of Lujack having a long lost twin should have been far more interesting than it actually was. Without Beverlee, the story was nothing, and it was clear that JFP saw Beverlee as a disposable third wheel plot device, just as she later saw Marj. A shrieking, hysterical mommy from hell.