DRW50

David Gregory is helping to get another show canned - he started a recurring role on Constantine last week.

It's a little messy, but it's one of my favorite Barbra Streisand songs. I can never go for long without listening to it.

Well, it's a start.

That would have been interesting. I guess JWS was still too busy in primetime to be around during Nola's 95-98 run, but it would have been a cute cameo at the end of the show if he returned to the hospital just as she and Quint popped in.

Great episode. I like how we see the class differences throughout the episode (Agnes Nixon was great at making those such a central part of her soaps). Langley, who never had servants, pouting over not getting that type of treatment. Langley reverting to his huckster voice and persona while on the phone with that guy who was going to obviously bilk him. And Opal scamming poor Kate, who doesn't know any better. Imagine how confused AW viewers must have felt, as Dorothy Lyman had played the very dour Gwen Frame a year before this. Opal saying she doesn't know how Jenny would live without her made me feel a little sad. I didn't ever realize that Jenny and Opal had arrived just as Tad had run off to be recast. How long was he gone? Pretty sure that's the first time I've ever seen Carla Dragoni, AKA Sylvia from Intervention. I can see why the Kenicotts weren't overly popular with fans (aside from Mary I guess) - the character is just a little too twee. Dragoni has some presence. I wish they'd gone another route with the role. I love how Palmer cuts his eyes in the presence of Nina's happy home life. It's just perfect. His plan is sloppy (I was shocked he was even calling Sybil at work), but I guess that's to set up Sybil's murder. I wish they'd held onto Linda Gibboney, as she has a good edge to her. She's so much like some of the mob moll types of '30s and '40s films. She was born in the wrong era. It's just so horribly perfect that the first phone call to Nina is Sybil dropping the bomb. Nina should be cloying, but Taylor Miller cuts through that, somehow. Harriet Hall is OK, but she's not very Brooke-ish. She's very polished and perky, like wife on a TV commercial. She doesn't have Julia Barr's more wry qualities.

I guess I just don't see why someone's opinion of a show is invalid if they weren't watching at the time. If posters came here and were belittling the show and the people involved, and they'd never watched, then I'd be upset. If someone hadn't watched the show at the time and just wants to ask questions and give their opinions, I don't think it's a bad thing. I think GL had the best logos and themes of any soap. I enjoy pretty much all of them - even the disco theme that many deride. And I think that logo is nice too, especially the glitterling gold leaves as the credits roll. I do think it can look a little like a detergent logo at times too. And that's mostly how the comment came across to me - a harmless observation. Not a putdown of GL or its theme. I'm not trying to jump to anyone's defense. I mostly come here to talk to her and you and everyone else about the show, because GL was my favorite soap and I still like to relive memories and learn new things and see new things. I just don't think she said anything that awful. I'm sure she can speak for herself, so I apologize for speaking for her.

It's a lighthearted opinion on a logo in the closing credits. She wasn't damning GL to eternal hellfires.

I just don't believe dozens of groupies would all pop out at this time because they want to pay him back. I could see that with a few women, possibly, but not this many, especially the women who have said they're speaking up mostly because they saw other women being attacked.

That's if you assume all the accusations are the same and claims made 40 years apart have to affect each other.

Thanks so much for finding these. And the 1981 episode is during the strike, right? I've always wanted to see more of that period. I wonder if this has any of when Sean and Nina were trapped in the bank vault.

You'd have to pay me to get me to watch that era of OLTL again...

I regret going to DS most days, but seeing the state of the Emmerdale posts (always the worst part of the forum to be honest) is saddening to the point where I never want to go there again. I hope no one at PTB takes them seriously. The usual glib, annoying in-jokes are still around, along with even more of the same old endless bitterness. People not watching the show anymore other than to talk about why they hate it, people who hate the show and mostly watch to hate it. It's too bad the only fans who ever post there who like their show are Eastenders fans, and they always sound like PR drones, not human beings. I think my favorite part is the poster who keeps insisting it's terrible that Robert was somehow turned gay for a story, when they were one of the most vocal cheerleaders of "Stendan," a story where Ste was turned gay with zero foundation, solely so that Paul Marquess could have a mushmouthed thug beat the [!@#$%^&*] out of him on a daily basis. So essentially, it's OK to magically go gay if the man you're going gay for is acceptable enough, if his fists drip blood the color of gold, but it's not OK otherwise. Maybe when Aaron breaks Robert's ribs, he'll pass the test. It's kind of sad seeing what's become of the Sugden farm, with Cain (Jack would have been mortified) around, with the Barton uncle who has that weird grey clump on his head and seems constipated (he was much better on Corrie). Ross still seems a little stiff to me, but I can see his appeal now. Pete is OK. I can't see Debbie staying with him - she will get bored eventually. I like Finn, but the fans out there who see him as this huge wasted resource are being generous. He mostly works as a supporting character with sardonic quips. Moira is a somewhat pathetic character, even more now than when I stopped watching, but Natalie Robb gives her all. She's a very good soap actress. That meltdown in the pub after Adam was put inside was fearless camp and I loved it. And the scenes where Adam was going to prison and they told him they were signing over part of the farm to him moved me. They still work well together as mother and son. Adam is such a broken character and it really works, especially when you remember how he was at the start. It's nice to see Pearl and Edna are still around, and Edna still have a strong presence in stories. I guess Sandy has taken over some of Alan Turner's old role. He's more tolerable now because he doesn't shout all his lines. His bond with Edna is touching. Chas and Charity still have awful hair. Debbie looks like Heidi. I still have a soft spot for Chas, even after years away. I guess I am lucky to have missed some of her lesser moments. I don't think the show does the crime stories very well (what was all that with kidnapping some woman who was extorting Moira and having Adam beaten up? It's so...random), but that's not new. I think the Whites are good choices for Home Farm. They have a bit of chic and style which isn't typical of the village, yet they aren't too ridiculous. Chrissy is a very interesting character...so nakedly vulnerable, covering it up with aggro. I loved Robert with Karl Davies in the role. I don't quite see Ryan Hawley as Robert, especially not his interactions with the Sugdens, but I think he's doing decently enough. His scenes with Aaron are full of sexual tension and layers in a way most gay couples on soaps are often not. The story is much more in the vein of the Kim Tate era of Emmerdale instead of being misery and tedium like most of Aaron's previous stories. I hope the show won't make this about love. Let's just have it be high class trash with Robert taking off his clothes a lot. Can we do that? I see that Paddy still has no hair (is the actor doing that for medical reasons). At least I got to see him around Chas and Aaron and not that snappish woman Rhona. Is he still married to her? Are he and Marlon close again (I hope not)? Victoria's such a spark plug. The show's lucky to have her. With some changes and pruning I think the show could still be saved, which Eastenders and Corrie probably can't, but then I've always liked Emmerdale the most of the British soaps, so that's my bias talking. It's at least nice to know that even with all the destruction Gavin Blythe and Blackburn wrought onto the show, it still has that familiar feel to me, like home.

I didn't remember that Lemmons was still playing the role at the end. I thought she was on AW by this time. I guess it may be that I haven't seen her 1986 work and just remember the first Nella who was there until 1986. I wish they'd explored more of her feeling restless and rebelling somewhat at the end, that they'd kept her around. The show was very, very safe and quaint at this time and could have used the edge. I loved Julie but when she's the edgiest person in Oakdale...I'm not sure what to say.

The key word here is "submitted." These women gave no consent to do anything.

Thanks. I don't think I ever saw most of that with Roy and Amy. Just a little, maybe. So who did Palmer Deane play? Was it Heather's father? I do agree that Marland slowly built up diversity in Oakdale, to the point where Jessica had the potential to be a major heroine. I wonder what might have been if he'd lived. I guess Tamara Tunie may have left anyway, but the last year or so of Jessica's material can't have enticed her to stay.

I think they probably still would have done the Opal/Palmer story. Lyman wasn't a clown. She could play serious characters with some comedy, as she did in the first few years of Mama's Family before they destroyed her character. I think Opal/Palmer was a very bad idea long-term, as James Mitchell apparently did as well, so I would have never gone there. I would have paired her with someone like Chuck Tyler, which would have infuriated Phoebe to no end and caused some angst for Donna. Either that or something random like Jeremy or Stuart. Opal at war with Adam, with Stuart in the middle and Erica putting her two cents in, would have been amusing. And anything had to be better than what Jeremy had by this time.

Nella isn't a character that gets much writeup, as she never had a major role on the show. After Marland or Joe Calhoun or whoever wrote out Heather's boyfriend's/Steve's construction partner, Tucker, they brought in Det. Roy Franklin. Several months later, they introduced his parents (his father was played by Palmer Deane, of The Doctors, I think) and his kid sister, Nella. Nella resented Heather as being perfect and fake. Heather worked hard to win her over, and by summer 1986, Nella confided in her that she was pregnant. The father was a gang member involved in an operation Roy was trying to bring down. I think Nella got caught up in this. She asked Heather to keep quiet about the pregnancy. She ultimately lost the baby, and the tension over the secret helped lead Roy and Heather to break their engagement. Heather went away for a while, and since Tonya Pinkins was fired with some acrimony by Calhoun (she claimed she left for a vacation and they essentially just told her not to bother coming back), Heather was never seen again. At some point, Roy's father died, and his wife became involved with helping run charity services at the hospital. Nella joined the nurses' programs. They were seen in that capacity, and sometimes with Roy and his new girlfriend, Jessica Griffin. Roy left in late 1988, presumably due to being upset over how much time his fiancee Jessica spent helping Duncan (as he was one of several people who thought Duncan and Jessica harbored feelings for each other). Nella and their mother soon followed.

Thanks. I saw it on DeviantArt, but I did credit the person who made it. It's the Fourth Doctor. I like your festive SB avatar too (is that Amy/Brick again?).

No, she wasn't the last Nella. That was another woman I don't remember the name of. I assume Rowell was in the role very briefly, and likely during one of the many periods where Nella had no real role beyond being another nursing student who chatted with Meg and Pam. munecojim has some spring or summer 1989 episodes that also have Nella. She was sort of involved with Pam's boyfriend, Beau (she's one of the reasons they split up, although there were many reasons, like him pulling away after he lost his singing voice for a while). Nella also had a lot of apathy toward nursing, leading her to get kicked out of the program and the woman in charge telling her she was pretty sure Nella had no real interest in being a nurse, but if she wanted to prove her wrong, come back in 3-4 months or something like that. Nella and Beau decided to move to LA, although I don't think they were a couple, or they were at most possibly going to be a couple down the line. I think Marland may have either just been trying to prune down his cast (Pam also went, and with Meg and Lily leaving because of the actresses' choice, the young adult group became limited to Lien/Andy/Paul/Duke for the rest of 1989; Marland also wrote out the entire Franklin family, although I wonder if the guy who played Roy wanted to leave so the rest soon exited as a result), or he was getting viewers prepared for interracial relationships (I think this was the first black-white relationship ever even suggested on ATWT) and they were a test case.

It does remind me of that too. It also looks very garish.

She seemed to get along with Kelly well enough in the few clips of that era that are around (like when Quint was in the hospital after Rebecca made them crash their car). She and Hillary seemed to have little interaction, even when Hillary was dating Nola's brother, but I guess they got along OK. I think Morgan had little interaction with her as she wasn't in the hospital setting, so their only tie was through Floyd. And by late 1982 or so Morgan and Kelly split for good so her stories were through her family and Josh, who had even less to do with Nola than Kelly did. Marland was fond enough of Lisa Brown that he worked overtime to make sure she wasn't judged by viewers for her actions with Morgan and Kelly, which meant cutting off most of her interaction with them. They kept her secret (I'm not sure if Floyd ever found out about her lies and schemes and that she'd just been using him for sperm - I'm sure he must have but I don't know when) so as not to hurt Floyd. Nola despised Morgan, utterly despised her, so I give Morgan some credit for moving on as well as she did.

A DW advent calendar, including a new e-book Twelve adventure, and a funny interview with Jenna Coleman. https://www.doctorwhocountdowntochristmas.com

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=755110214544051&set=vb.743811225673950&type=2&theater http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s7/doctor-who/interviews/a612497/peter-capaldi-confessions-of-a-doctor-who-fan.html

Billy. They could have brought that from his past for a story in one of his later seasons.