DRW50

I don't believe JFP wanted rid of Donna because she was isolated. She wasn't any more isolated than most characters on the show at that point. JFP just couldn't live out her fantasies with Anna Stuart the way she could with Linda Dano. She degraded the character instead, as happened to Donna under a number of regimes. Donna, Rachel and Felicia were never characters who were all over the canvas. Felicia probably had the most reach of the three, as she ran restaurants for a decade, but they had their own spheres. Rachel had a large role in Felicia's alcoholism storyline, as Felicia tanked her relationship with Cory Publishing and then her drinking caused her to start a fire at the TV studio, meaning Rachel had to fire her from her talk show. Rachel was at Felicia's failed intervention. Felicia and Donna had some back and forth during that strange period where Donna was dating Cass.

Nothing about Joss ever works. I can't blame them for trying a completely fresh approach for her, but she needs to be written out.

Thanks @Paul Raven Some of this sounds strong but it's all so heavy and some elements, like with Felicia and Charles, almost veer on parody. L&L seemed to almost always be a heavy show aside from some stuff we read about with Bill and Tess, but I do wonder if it all became too much for viewers.

Thanks for finding that. I may have been thinking of this blog entry.

A shame the Ben/Thomasina tease didn't go anywhere. I didn't know until last year that they brought Thomasina back a few days before Quinn was murdered. I guess it's nice that they got those last moments of happiness but then you remember they never would have brought her back if they weren't going to kill Quinn off.

I wonder if that's why Valerie quit. I think some of the magazines at the time implied issues with Valerie and the producer, although I may be wrong. Painting Diana as going bad would have made more sense to me near the end of her run.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/05/07/holocaust-museum-board-trump-siggy-flicker-real-housewives/

Thanks. I'd forgotten about that. It is odd she wasn't asked back. Maybe they just gave up. Harley/Philip is one of those relationships which lingered on longer than it should have. I never got the sense the show had any great interest in them together beyond the first six months or so, and there was little to no chemistry between them after that point.

I am probably veering more toward the classic thread, but I felt like her original run had her more as a moral voice for the Quartermaines than was needed (I thought her connections with Sonny and Brenda made more sense). Sonny, Carly and Jason are all suffering the consequences of being too prominent for too long. They are above any relationships due being unable to form human connections. I do still wonder just what their original plans were for Jason this time, if they even had any.

Sharina? @alwaysAMC I am glad you've kept writing about the Brent story all the way through. I think that Beaty may have had to briefly leave again, rather than scenes being aired out of sequence, but I'm not sure. You are right that the reveals of Brent's various reasons for being what he was bog down the end of the story a bit, although based on what is to come in 1996 I still kind of wish Beaty had stayed another year. I'd forgotten J and Michelle were tied to the end of the story. This J is generally just gross. I don't really remember much of anyone caring about Nadine dying outside of her family. The worst part was Frank just giving a rose and saying it was from Harley, which made me very mad at the time. I am not sure if Beth Ehlers was asked to return and declined. Luckily this is addressed when she does return. I felt like it was one of those stories that was done via mandate - trying to keep the ratings gains they had, via more location shoots, more adventures, more secrets, etc. Tony, Annabelle and Jim were thrown in as they were meant to be important to the show at the time.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/shortland-street-fears-speculation-grows-about-shows-future-amid-industry-struggles/T2GECWXTI5AD3AMEV46YYYUE6E/ Still a big cloud over whether the show will get another year.

He also lost the woman he was going to marry, under very sudden circumstances. They are probably surprised Rena has wanted to stay. I think Lois works OK in her current capacity, if they allowed her to have more of a point of view, a bit more life of her own, and not just the reason for Gio's paternity being hidden. The character always felt very thin to me and on paper this dynamic with Tracy, Brook Lyn, Gio, visits from Gloria could be better for her than how overly centered she was on the canvas the first time around. But as of now she could be better used. Somehow the show that was revived due to supercouples seems completely alien to romance. The older cast has this hardest but even with tiers who are younger or middle-aged, they've really dragged their feet about Liz and Lucky, they have contorted themselves in trying to figure out how to pair a man with Joss, Kai and Trina barely get focus...and others I struggle to remember. They also blew up Sasha/Cody so now I guess we're meant to be waiting to see if she finds true love with Jason? The show is so hesitant and when you are this hesitant it means you are incapable of writing romance.

Apparently not. Given CBS/Paramount's current struggles, this is also catnip for anyone at the network who may want rid of the show, or soaps in general. @janea4old I always appreciate how thorough your writeups are on topics like this. It sucks that MVJ did likely try her best to schedule these episodes in a way that would spare them from the preemptions and it still didn't happen.

@Franko Thanks for tagging me. A few days ago I was talking in another thread about the rise of "snarky" critics for TV shows in the '90s online recaps, but this is just more along the lines of a mauling. There's also the unspoken reality that films like Steel Magnolias were seen as movies for women, so therefore they sucked. Pauline Kael also had her share of blunt, at times incredibly nasty remarks, but the vitriol is often balanced by her love for film. I'm not seeing that here. With that said, the comment about Field's work becoming unbearable describes how I felt when I tried to sit through her and Maura Tierney on ER.

It seems like Taggert is less likely to return than Jagger.

That's a big part of it. I think Charles is a better fit for Evan than Jack Wagner would have been. Mary and Thomas would have been fine, but then Catlin and Sally had their own writing issues. I agree there was no need for Amanda to get pregnant so early. Clearly Amanda had a hugely charmed life compared to most young women who have a baby, but there was always a certain air of absurdity knowing she was a highly successful businesswoman and a mother to a young child...and this was after finishing school, no college, IIRC. Even Lily Walsh had a slower path to the top.

I don't think Sandra Ferguson was fantastic but I thought she did well enough with the story she was given. She had chemistry with RKK and with Charles Grant and made it understandable why Amanda was torn between the two men. RKK leaving hurt the story but beyond that they didn't try hard enough to make Evan a viable character. After he was written out we just got the triangle with Olivia, which also wasn't viable because they wanted us to root for Sam/Amanda long after viewers had stopped caring.

Passions also did this with Ethan and Sam...probably some other soaps (Billy and Dylan on GL, maybe). I am blanking through fatigue.

Her assessment would be true for recent decades, but 1991 was arguably the last period a number of soaps were well-written (better written than her film work by that point).

Wasn't it even framed as Monica wanting Jeff out of the way so she could be with Rick?

Thanks @Franko @slick jones You may be interested in the Elisabeth Shue mention. I have to laugh that they apparently didn't even know Teri Hatcher was on Capitol. I have scans somewhere of SPW talking with soap actors about Soapdish. Some, like Mary Stuart, were not happy. I never had a lot of interest in the movie myself.

My view of Evan is that he's smart but not as smart as he thinks he is, not a good guy but not an entirely bad guy - he's a lot of things, the show never quite knowing what to do with them. I never saw him as Iris' follower because Iris always seemed a bit in over her head from the start.

I know Passions used this trope with Ethan and Sam to drag out the paternity, but GH seems to speed through certain stories while dragging others.

@Maxim Great to see your mini-reviews again. There are a number of clips on Youtube of Janice's slow mental breakdown, especially as we go into January 1980. Christine Jones is just superb. She played the hell out of that role. Something which isn't referenced as much later on is how Mitch pushed Janice's doubts and mental instability for his own ends...until suddenly he didn't want to anymore (I guess he caught on with the audience and the show became wary). I don't want to post a bunch of clips, but this one has a very good confrontation between Rachel and Janice. This has a good scene around 7 minutes in where you can see Janice struggling internally with her need to identify herself so much by the men around her, all of which helps lead to her crackup.

I think someone said it did exist, but I can't remember.