DRW50

Sorry, I should have read the article you linked to. My DSL's a little on the fritz and it takes a while for websites to come up so I don't bother as much. Part of me thinks they should just retire this franchise but I guess they see it as name value. And I guess they still have Melissa, who has her fans, presumably.

If it were me, I'd get rid of Jacqueline, but I guess she still has fans and has the story with her son.

I wonder if there will be any reason for Kathy to be there. Is she popular in her own right? Or is it just because they won't be able to make too many changes?

If something happens and Teresa can't film, and Caroline is leaving, what are they going to show?

I think the writers in 1978 or 1979 (was that still Soderbergs?) had a woman named Tina faking agoraphobia to get Grant.

Chris Cilizza, shilling for the Beltway pets yet again, tries to tell us how awesome, wonderful, moving, and important Ted Cruz's ego trip blabberfest was. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/09/25/what-ted-cruzs-speech-accomplished/

I guess they felt the show needed more strong men, I just tend to wonder how much this worked. James seemed to be popular with viewers immediately but I've never gotten the impression Nick was overly popular. One of those soap magazines from 1980 had a letter from a fan talking about how they were tired of that "ass" Grant dealing with Joyce, and the editor basically said oh, don't worry, now the show has stronger men like Nick. Brad Hollister seemed to be another attempt at a "strong man" which went haywire.

I don't know if there was any definitive Annie. I think this has been talked about before, but I don't know. Dee seemed to be written as more insecure than Annie. That 1979 clip has a terrific scene between Betsy and David. If you haven't watched it yet you should. It's beautiful. And Ralph throwing John out of his office (and I mean throwing) for being an ass. That scene had a lot of energy not quite in most of these clips. I don't mind the slow pacing of the mourning for Dan. I think it's more that the overall show at this time seemed sluggish. I think it depends on which actors can carry this type of structure off. Many of the younger actors couldn't. I think she was just a troubled woman, apparently not a prostitute. I don't know. I might have been mixing her up with the prostitute in the story with Kevin and Sandy.

Hate this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNJCyN4mkwo

I read that they also used a Greek crew. It's a wonder P&G didn't write Kim out when Nick went, since they were phasing out so many vets. I'm glad they didn't.

1991 episode. Some is on Youtube via Oakdalian but some looked new to me. (best part is Bob's dream about Kim and Susan) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATCUkTPZwxY Another 1979 clip. Funny that Ralph Mitchell is in both these clips/episodes, uploaded the same day. Weird.

His SB character was a villain/clown, somewhat. I do wonder why P&G never tried to improve the look of the show. I guess they did go on location more starting with the Greece remote, then Mr. Big, but the sets, hair, and clothes are still awful up until the mid-80s. Speaking of the Greece remote (the Kim/Nick one), I read that they made the actors fly business class. Geez.

He's a little wooden. Is that the prostitute Tom had a story with? The pace is very slow and stiff, although like you said, some of the actors make that sing. I just don't care for this Annie at all. I'm not sure what they were going for, especially the affair storyline. I guess they wanted her to be hurt before she realized her true love for Jeff. She mostly just seems awkward.

Ronnie is only back short-term isn't she? I think I read something at the time of the exit about it not being Pam's choice, but I'm not sure. I think it was a bad idea to kill Pat off, especially since it had no real impact on story and her death was overshadowed by Derek Branning's arrival (still one of the most pointless stories I can remember on this show). Does Carol ever have anything to do? I think DTC was one of the main people who destroyed what was left that was keeping Eastenders from being very stale camp, so I hold no real interest in his return. He's lucky that the show is so far down now anything he does will be seen as an improvement.

Is there any reason Cora is still around if everyone around her is gone? Is she just there for Lauren and Abi now?

Never seen those with the wine bottle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEHQms1jSZo

I sort of liked what I saw of AJ when he first started, but haven't seen the show much since.

I wonder if that was down to DTC, as he clearly loved the character. I'm always glad when soaps don't just kill people off of send them to prison for shock value, or have them leave in misery. It's stale as hell. EE has been very bad at this, especially in recent years. Jean deserved a happy ending.