DRW50

I don't watch much now but you should try and see what you think. I'm trying to get back into EE again.

AWHP mentions that Gwen had mentioned bouts of mental instability in her first run. So I guess it wasn't entirely off, but none of this fit the very serious woman available to watch in the scraps of 1979 and 1980. They did say she had had a breakdown and at the end she was remorseful to Rachel, but the whole thing was just plain bad, a huge waste of Dorothy. Dorothy was on soaps 4-5 times in the late '80s through the '00s and yet she was wasted every time. I remember Anna Stuart saying Donna Swajeski did not like Donna, and she went to TPTB to complain about the writing. You could see it in that story. Michael was meant to be the innocent party (even though he'd dumped Donna it was just for his stupid secret agent assignment), while Donna had slept with Jake and gave away their son to keep the secret. But Anna Stuart played the anguish and self-loathing so well, and Michael was just such a sanctimonious ass. He also had zero chemistry with Stacey.

Bowen Yang Among Cast For Michael Ausiello's Childhood Soap Opera In NY Renee Elise Goldsberry is involved in this. When I saw soap opera, I thought it might lead to more, but it seems to just be a reading for charity.

I'm not entirely sure why they brought Stacey back. Cass needed law partners, but why not bring in someone new? I wonder if there were other plans for Stacey. Clearly the Derek pairing failed, which seems to be on the actor, but I didn't think it was that great anyway. I thought she came across horribly in taking Mikey from Donna, and then bedding Michael - clearly viewers were meant to be on their side but I loathed them. And I like Hilary Edson. I haven't seen much of Russ but he doesn't seem that different to me than how he was in the glimpses of David Bailey available from 1980. Dorothy Lyman also said they made the character strange. I think they were trying to make her "kooky" like Opal. I think they may have also given her some of what they had planned with Willis as the actor declined a return. Speaking of Stacey, I remember SPW or SOD around 1995 or so claiming Stacey would return.

IIRC, when Barbara crossed her over business matters, Lily sent Hal a letter - I think saying that Barbara had known he was Adam's biological father? I can't remember. It definitely wasn't in character for her. They'd started having Lily tied to Walsh in Martha's last year, but you're right, she never seemed happy there. I guess the idea of all this was Lily had changed because of Derek and the burns, this was her breakdown, but I don't know how well it came across onscreen.

I keep seeing memes of that - I wonder if it is as terrible as it looks. More Eva: https://deadline.com/2025/08/the-last-sunrise-movie-eva-longoria-amazon-mgm-1236481210/ Speaking of Jesse: https://deadline.com/2025/08/jesse-metcalfe-mitchel-musso-jeremy-london-mister-fun-cast-1236479888/ Robert Adamson (ex-Noah, Y&R, ex-Michael, GH) was on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia last night, reprising a role he played in the first season.

His friendship with Marty could also play into that transition. I guess it may be more down to Jason being written into a corner and most of those close to him being gone or moved into new plots (they were not going to get anything out of Dorian/Jason compared to what they got with Dorian's schemes to win Joey), but Malone preferring the oh-so-noble serial rapist is a dividing line for so many mistakes.

I do think the story choice did have some of those elements, but I will agree it could have been worse. I don't want to go back and forth though.

Eva Longoria appeared in Eddie Murphy's new cash grab Amazon film, The Pick Up. She also has a new Welcome to Wrexham clone show called Nexaca. Cary Christopher: https://deadline.com/2025/08/cary-christopher-cast-lanterns-dc-series-hbo-1236480788/

There are other ways, yes, but some of the moments I did see as her being hurt and feeling violated, like when she confronted Jamie about the book before she left. She did keep her dignity in those moments, and her exit.

I felt like they tried to double down on that toward the end, which just ended up turning me off. I check out of any show that kills off random characters just for the sake of doing so (it also annoyed me when the original show did this too much).

For me Pat didn't get that chance as she was run out of town due to Jamie's book. Still, she could have had a worse exit.

I wonder what they would have done with Lily sans Holden. Would she have had the story with Linc that Connor had? I did think she and Linc had some chemistry. The thing with Hensley is I don't even believe he had chemistry with Martha when she returned in 1993. He just felt completely checked out long before he left (again). I suppose not getting any parts in his last exit beyond a bodyguard on 90210 helped energize him a little more when he came back in late 96. To me, MES did have good chemistry with Rex Smith. That's the only reason I believed the rushed Frannie/Daryl pairing as much as I did, which was otherwise too plot-driven a story for Frannie, just trying to recreate her story with Douglas Cummings. I wonder if Marland went back to the well because his other stories for her had never clicked. I wouldn't have minded seeing them try more with Larry/Frannie, but there was no story. By this point in ATWT's run Marland seemed to favor plot over character in many cases. I wonder if, say, Lyla/Casey would have been a pairing if the story had started in 1990 instead of 1986. I can agree sometimes with the error in giving identical roles to two actresses - I would much rather AW have recast Vicky and Marlay than what ended up happening - but with Sabrina and Frannie it didn't bother me as much because they were only together on the show for about a year and a half, and only really interacted in story for half that time. I agree that MES didn't have Julianne's vulnerability, but there was still a certain softness and natural family connection I appreciated. They did Beckman dirty with Sabrina. There were at least a few glimmers of manipulation and resentment under Moore's Sabrina, but there was nothing with Sabrina when she came back. I think Moore's Frannie worked better in the everyday scenes with her family than in the high profile storylines.

I would have loved to keep Denise Alexander, if they could have worked out a deal. And to do more with her kids, which she rarely got a chance for.

True. That was a mistake anyway.

I suppose if AW was good at one thing it was finding reasons to fire people... As Denise Alexander was leaving, I could have seen them writing her out earlier.

Pat was very close to Liz and to Mac, and I could see her fitting in well into the whole Chief story, but I agree Iris had more natural ties.

How did you feel when Iris returned?

This seemed to be a P&G-wide mandate. The biggest difference is AW never managed to find any successful young characters quickly - it would take 2-3 years, and even those were few characters who could not carry a show on their own (Jake, Marley, Vicky). There's some irony in only a year after Pat's exit, the show seeing the arrival of Donna and Felicia, two woman who weren't too far off Pat's age, who became loved by viewers very quickly, and who would then stay to the end, even though they were much harder to write for than Pat and had far fewer connections to the canvas than Pat when they arrived, forcing the show to have to work very hard to maintain them.

Thanks @te. I know little about this show.

There's always Cathy Hope, who has had a much happ...well, never mind.

If you're in the US, Emmerdale is now available to watch for free on the show's Youtube channel. This is a day I would have been happy for about 10 years ago. Not now, but given the cost cutting at ITV, they are smart to try to find whatever amounts of spare change they can.

If you're in the US, Corrie is now available to watch for free on the show's Youtube channel. This is a day I would have been happy for about 15+ years ago. Not now, but given the cost cutting at ITV, they are smart to try to find whatever amounts of spare change they can.

I don't think Claire Beckman was anything great, but Sabrina was always a very wan character and the show never tried for more. A while back @Mitch64 suggested she should have been very frank, a crude British in-your-face type (compared to the "BBC English" type). I would have preferred that, at least early on. I like Heather Rattray and Mary Ellen Stuart. I think the issue was the writing. On paper, Lily becoming a darker character makes sense, and had had a lot of buildup, but I don't think it played well onscreen and I don't think Martha could have sold it either. The choice to take her to ingenue status again and just pining for Holden was a suggestion of the show losing interest in her, but I thought Heather played most of that well, in spite of not having chemistry with Jon Hensley (I didn't really think anyone had chemistry with Jon Hensley at that point). Mary Ellen Stuart being put into the Sean Baxter story, again I think just a bad storyline, maybe one of Marland's biggest misfires. Burke Moses was hot, but he'd have to go around apeshit to try to convince us he'd beaten his ex, or whatever the story was trying to sell. And again, the central relationship was not compelling. IIRC this was another backstory-heavy relationship, which is rarely a great idea. 1990 is, aside from Kim/Bob/Susan and Casey's death, so often just a setup for future stories and an awkward year, Marland reassessing the show and taking us towards his darkest run. Thanks @kalbir for the scans. That part about Kathryn Hays being a likely Emmy nominee is sad.