DRW50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyU8kicoOZM

Will Ian be around? It's time to bring back a few original characters to interact with Sharon. I am going to unfurl my BRING BACK SUE OSMAN banner.

Unfortunately most of Barbara's time in the story is not around, and most of what we see is her hovering over Holly, and complaining about Roger, and bitching about Rita, which gets on my last nerve, although apparently Rita was despised by many viewers at the time, so I guess Barbara represented them. She isn't a mother figure in my eyes, as she has no real role in that capacity. She mostly just reacts to Holly. I'm not sure if she was a better character when Stanley Norris was around and she had both Ken and Holly to interact with. I think that she's probably a very realistic character, and soaps did need those. But when she's in scenes with Bert you can see the big difference in how vital the characters were.

I think Lee Lawson was miscast as Bea. I have not seen a daily grind of her character, just episodes and clips here and there, but she always seems too perky to make me believe she's a hard-working, poor-but-proud, single mother of 4-5 kids. Barbara seems like a pill to me, although apparently that was her role.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmZ5NWY7H60

You can see the rest at their channel.

There's Linda Cristal at the end. Too bad they won't do Heather/Scotty again instead of the trash with Luke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A9bUJh5X2s&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe4OJFr1kvY

I guess we see Dot so infrequently anyway. I wish they'd have her film a few episodes to save up before she goes.

In spite of myself I did grow to enjoy the Myrtle/Santa story, especially EH as Mrs. Claus. Eileen Herlie had such panache, I miss her.

Reading an SOD from fall 1998, they mention plans to bring in Amber's mother, then-named Elaine, as well as a sister, to romance Thorne. They also say they were recasting an actress currently in a storyline.

The first part of this was posted a few weeks back. I'll just post the next two parts and you can see the rest at the channel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOo3j949LO8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlqYv7geTO0&feature=channel&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F23-shmQRrc

Sid looks great there. I'm glad Pam got this. I would do a whole tribute special just for her, interviewing past actors. But this is still very special, and I'm glad it won't have some of the edge of Wendy Richard's tribute.

Some good, layered (moreso than usual even for this time, IMO) Katherine/Jill scenes in this, back when the writers gave a damn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfwJ_jn47og&feature=channel&list=UL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmRTp3pmK8

Same actor, but I don't think it's the same character.

I guess this promo tells you all you need to know about the show's plans on Jake/Paulina. His return promo is almost entirely about VIcky. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMs9Z9RI2i8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMs9Z9RI2i8

Hey that's Sandy Gabriel in the credits. I didn't know Edna was still around at this time.

They are in the last few years. It may just be a coincidence but right around the time Santer (who loved PR, as Corrie's Phil Collinson does) left Eastenders, and Kirkwood came in, there was almost what seemed like a campaign to bash Eastenders at every turn and praise Corrie to the skies. Some Corrie fans just seemed to rattle off a list of buzzwords and accomplishments, with little discussion of the show itself ("War of the Websters" is the one I always cringed at most, with fans heaping praise on a story that supposedly did so much for Sally Webster - so much that she took up with her daughter's pornographer). Meanwhile, Eastenders was constantly trashed in a way which may have partially been fan discontent but which also felt like something else entirely. That set the tone for the last few years, although it's gotten a little better recently. Is Eastenders good? No, although that has been the case for a number of years. But it's never been the dross DS claims it to be, just as Corrie has never been anything worthwhile in years. Corrie is just better at shell games. I was LOL at comments like, "I am tarring Eastenders fans" for voting for the show. If anyone can vote for the detritus that is Corrie, a show that relies on nothing more than miscarriages, shrieking women, cheap affairs, bad PR stunts, and stories that tell viewers women ask to be raped, then they don't need to talk about tarring fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu_aS56nBys I don't want to clutter the thread, so I'll just say there are two more short clips at the Chip Albers channel.

Bwahaha. I will have to go to DS and see the meltdowns over the husk known as Corrie not getting Best Soap. It's those damn teenage fans who are so stupid and shouldn't be voting! (until Corrie wins a fan vote, then it's fine). The "sexiest" awards are about as sexy as a corpse. Given how destroyed Carla was as a character and how much Alison King has just become a coarser Sam Janus, she was lucky to win. I hope that win was worth Carla becoming so worthless to watch. Andrew Lancel was awful, he just slept the whole time. Jackson's story was a huge piece of [!@#$%^&*] and only won because they had to give Emmerdale some pity awards. A deeply offensive story which made a mockery of assisted suicide. Danny Miller didn't deserve that award. Then again where are the good actors on soaps now? I'm surprised Lorna Fitzgerald won, but she is OK, she doesn't deserve some of the criticism she gets. I hope Pam was there to accept her award. I sure miss Pat.

Some of those old magazines have such a mix of beautiful, personal photos and stories, and thinly veiled hostility/lecturing (from Louella and Hedda and others). I guess the last of that era was Rona Barrett - she was younger, obviously, but had the same tone. All the magazines seem to start out with some quality and independence and then become trash. The soap magazines of today are so garishly styled, they're not too far off from the dying days of these magazines, as they went on and on with the same tacky covers of Elvis or Jackie and the same headlines about so and so's "love tricks" or their violent arrest. I guess at least now we have message boards and memories, to help balance out how tabloidy and shilish magazines are now. I'll never stop believing that an honest and critical soap press could have helped soaps stave off at least some of their decline.

Apparently they lost sales due to People, and finally ended as a bimonthly publication in 1985. I think that the increasing loss of true stars and the decline of Hollywood probably played a part too. It's always a little sad seeing how trashy the magazines became starting in the late 60's, although they are still priceless, especially regarding soap content.