DRW50

Yes. Thanks for your kind words. I have so little to say about EE these days, but I figure I may as well say it in both places when I do.

Martin's last years, and death, are if nothing else a reminder of the idea of "legacy children" vs the reality. There may be no greater "legacy child" than Martin, but he was never quite given that treatment - ill-used for parts of James Alexandrou's run and then underused for most of James Bye's. Everything finally seemed to be in place for him when he and Stacey married - one of the few strengths of SOC's run - and then it was all ripped away, only to be brought back, at the last minute, to serve as a funeral shroud. I don't see this as a damning moment for Chris Clenshaw, partly because I never had him on a pedestal in the first place, but mostly because he's just continuing what has long been in place. The problem for me with this type of death in this type of moment is that it serves more of an anniversary moment, or the end of a producer's run, when the characters, who do not know of any producers or anniversaries, will not face that same awareness. Most of those close to Martin are going soon, and by the time they return, those who do return, Martin will be a distant memory. If it's a death meant to shock viewers, I think that approach made more sense in the soap world of 2010 than 2025, where they have much less cultural relevance. I can't see any of this moving most viewers beyond those who are already invested, and even many of them may not have a big reaction given Martin's irrelevance to the canvas for much of Bye's run. To be honest, although I think Lacey and James did their best, I didn't really feel the same response I felt when Bradley died. I think I've just seen this so much with Stacey, with EE, with soaps in general. There was something raw in that moment which has been, for me, lost. If it's a death meant to mark a certain emotional endpoint for EE, then I suppose it does, but I'm not sure the message is what the show intended. The Fowlers were intended as the normal family when EE began, our glimpse into the everyday. They have trickled away, some given poignant, powerful exits, some among the worst in the show's history. Martin's death is just another reminder of how that sense of reality is gone, maybe can never be allowed in today's soap climate. Then I think of what's left of the early Fowlers. Kathy, who only seems to get story in the last few years if she is involved in murder coverups or, if she actually did attack Cindy, is committing attempted murder (and leaving the mother of her great-grandson, currently pregnant with another great-grandchild, to suffer untold stress), and Ian, who is trapped with Cindy in repeating a loop of earlier, much better storylines, in material that is often a struggle to get through (In my opinion). The family, and the normality they brought to EE, may be at their lowest ebb, and I don't see that turning around anytime soon. And with Martin gone that is just even more of an uncertainty. Wonderful as it was to see Angie again, and it was, indeed, wonderful, one of the most effective returns the show has ever had, her presence was also a reminder of how much more comfortable modern EastEnders has been in referencing back to the past for "moments" than it has been in actually using that past to benefit the current canvas. Another anniversary. Another death. Another moment. Those pass. Unfortunately, the damage left by relying on those moments lasts forever.

A Rituals promo at the very end of this video.

Very sorry to hear that. You're right - he did record Hold Onto Love with Roberta. A lovely song.

Just any of the early '50s soaps that only ran for a year or two (or less) and only have one or two episodes available. Thanks. So not in New York then.

Emmerdale's social team were very smart to upload so much of this on Youtube as otherwise I wouldn't be watching any of it. I haven't really been able to muster up interest in anything on most of the soaps lately, but I felt like I owed Leyla this, somehow. Was the scene of Mandy's drink splashing in her face intended to be so funny? It was like something from that old Madonna "Music" video. Watching the video with the limo crash aftermath and the acting was overall better than the material deserves, although Michelle Hardwick, veered between passable and extremely hammy. I didn't believe anything she was feeling. Amy is stronger than me because if I had Tracy yammering in my ear that much, I don't think I could make it. There was a bit too much going on at various points where Liam and Amy were both near-death and Kerry and Leyla were also near-death. The whole Liam/Chas star-crossed aspect did work for me. Liam looked very dashing when he was near-death. He would be perfect in one of those Victorian-era pieces, dying of consumption. I'm surprised Liam is still here, but when the village gets some good community dick, I guess they're not going to let it go without a fight. I actually liked the idea of the stunt. I wish they'd done it in the years when they actually had a budget. It's unbelievably miserable to see Leyla realizing that she is going to die and watching everyone around her get saved. She doesn't get any last moment. Everyone else was worrying about somebody while she was just alone and lost, dying before our eyes. They couldn't even give her a moment with Jacob, because in death she had to be a plot device for the angst of others. Nothing was about her. It's not fair. Then we see Kerry...dragging her corpse, and way too much of Kerry crawling. Harry Hill would have been in ecstasy. This whole situation is very grim already, but I think there would have been more dramatic power if Kerry had died too. Have a shot of everyone who had escaped looking on numb as the limo with Leyla, Kerry and Suzy goes under. What annoyed me most in all this is the cliches, moments we've seen so many times they take me right out of the moment. Everything with Vanessa's reaction to Suzy. And Jacob's to Leyla. This is a relationship I always wanted to see properly developed but it never really happened. So any time he calls her "mum" I don't think that ever felt genuine. When they had him doing the chest compressions, all I could think was why do we always need to see this on television? When was the last time you reacted to it? Every single moment was a cliche, and not a very well-executed one, with the exception of the moment where the lady doctor hugged Jacob. She's a good actress. I loved Leyla from the first time we saw her, hitting on Pollard in his old factory. I stopped watching Emmerdale on a regular basis years ago and even by that point it was clear the show was done with the character. I never really stopped caring about Leyla, even if the show did. I'll always think of what should have been. If I think too much of how special the old Pollard/Metcalfe family unit was and what was done to it, I just get deeply sad. Farewell, Leyla. We won't forget you, or how much better you deserved.

"As the World Turns" Promo (1990)

Thanks. Any time you hear of an interracial relationship on a soap you hear about death threats. You hear so much hostility now about interracial relationships and how they are establishment and selling out and so on that it can be easy to overlook just what a risk the soaps were taking, especially one with as conservative an audience as ATWT. The show didn't do right by Jessica in the end, but there were a few years where you saw all the possibilities. I'm glad Tamara is able to speak out about her experiences and the pressures she was under.

Thanks. That whole period seemed to revolve around which character Guza or Guza/Pratt wanted to minimize.

https://variety.com/lists/anonymous-oscar-ballots-2025-brutalist-conclave-anora/supporting-actor-and-actress-are-both-predictable-and-chaotic/

Thanks. Saying it was one of the oldest soaps after 3 years. I guess at that time they didn't expect any to last.

Thanks @chrisml . I had never known anything about that final theme or who wrote it, or maybe I had just forgotten because it was never very memorable to me. I'd say scoring a theme to a soap about to be canceled is another sign of his industry fortunes, but he did win an Emmy and we're talking about him 40 years later, so who am I to criticize? I have to say I prefer the instrumental. Here is the video for the album version, which features four of the stars of Search's final year. If you ever fantasized about Matt Ashford starring in Grease, this is your moment. I wish more of those early short-lived soaps were available, although the scraps we've seen haven't exactly been enthralling. I'm not sure they ever said the state. I used to think it was New York but I am not sure why.

@Paul Raven Thanks for all your answers and kind words. Makes sense as to why Burr would leave in that case. I sure miss the New York soaps and what they were able to do for theater actors. I always get confused over the other Bergman child. Makes no sense to just forget/rewrite/forget, although I know that was much more common in these years. Speaking of that, when Jo was saying all she had was Patty (very poignant), I thought this would be the perfect time for her to mention losing Duncan Eric, as he was Arthur's son. I guess he was out of sight, out of mind. Something else I appreciated in these episodes and don't see often on soaps past the '70s or so is the characters having little moments like crossword puzzles or card games to help ease us into their conversations. They wanted us to think of these characters as being real. @SoapDope I didn't know that. Wish IMDB could combine them. @vetsoapfan That clip is perfect for what we were talking about. I can even see Emily in there... Thanks for your kind words. I don't have the best turn of phrase but when I actually do enjoy soap content as much as I enjoyed these episodes, I need to get the words out while I can. If you were watching the episodes at the time they aired I hope they bring back good memories for you. I totally forgot Jo and Stu were step-siblings at one point. @chrisml That's such a great find. I didn't even know of this other sister. Those blurbs are the closest we'll get to seeing many of these episodes, unless we develop time travel.

It's just naked Russian propaganda. He is beholden to Russia and China and we aren't even meant to care. Oh that's fear-mongering, crying wolf. He is putting out one executive order after another to remove any power over him, President Elon is going to gut social security, the VA, etc. but no, we're still just hysterical.

Thanks for sharing the old MST3K cuts. My favorite comment is from someone who wanted to see the rest of the story. A reminder of how soaps can reel you in even when you are just laughing at them as many of those fans were. On another topic, reading Wikipedia reminded me that they briefly teased Liz/Jax while she was carrying his baby with Courtney. Was that ever going to be a story? Did it just get dropped?

A new official channel for 2012 episodes. https://www.youtube.com/@NeighboursRamsaySt

Barbara never had a good hair day... @Maxim if you ever get to 1993 there's an Opal and Dixie scene you would love.

Finally finished the first of the summer 1966 videos and watched a little of the second. - What exactly is the backstory with the Reynolds family? I got something where Sam had to lie and take the blame for something he didn't do. And Len having a brother. Did the brother die? Was there a fire? - It's funny how these soap blocs of episodes work. I've read so much about Andrea, and about all the Patty Parade, and when a ton of episodes appear, it's with an Andrea I had never even heard of (Virginia Gilmore) and a Patty I mostly knew from a photo in an old soap magazine (Melissa Murphy). I am pretty sure the photo came from one of these episodes as the pose is exact (it's one of her staring into the distance in her nurses' uniform). - Looking through some posts from about 15 years ago I see why a few bits of this are vaguely familiar - saynotoursoap had posted an episode that must be from this same set (the one where Jo vents to Bob about the burden Sam was putting on Patti and talking about how Sam was replacing her relationship with Arthur). - The Patti/Andrea/Jo/Sam/Len story seems one-note on the surface but is surprisingly rich underneath - Jo and Sam on opposite sides, but also on the same side, but Jo struggling to get past her anger toward him over Arthur's death. This all slowly boils under the constant melodrama with Patti, Len and Andrea. I don't really know why Patty even wants Len, given how childish he is (Dino is a good actor though), but I do enjoy seeing her fight what is a constant losing battle against Andrea. - What makes this so delicious to watch is the writing having respect for the characters and for us. Most soaps would write Patty as a fool, with Andrea running rings around her, but Patty clearly knows just how manipulative Andrea is, and even manages to convince those around her who would have given Andrea the benefit of the doubt. This awareness means that you don't just see Patty as a cipher. - Thanks to @Paul Raven we know why Gilmore left (for a teaching position). I am glad to know it was her choice to leave because she's great in these episodes. She's very believable at 'nice nasty,' so you understand why Len is fooled by her. She underplays the poison even when alone. I know nothing of Gilmore or her career, but I'm extremely impressed with her work in this first batch of episodes. - I appreciate how the writing, and most of all the measured work of Mary Stuart, brings out the psychological aspects of the Sam/Len/Andrea mess and the Len/Andrea relationship, without feeling like the characters are reading from a textbook. - This is by far the most I've seen of Stu and Marge together. I'm glad that even with the 15-minute runtime there's enough to allow for glimpses of their married life, natural even as they recap plot. I can see why viewers loved them. I've rarely seen such a simple but effective quasi-comedic duo on a soap, especially in these years. There's a lot of talk these days about "positive masculinity," which unfortunately seems to mean shooting up steroids while listening to Rogan, but we get the real version with Stu. He watches sports (we even see him watching TV - I wonder if we ever see Jo watching TV) and doesn't know what a "boutique" is, but he loves his friends dearly and wears his heart on his sleeve. I'm reminded again and again of just what an understated but brilliant actor Larry Haines is in dramatic moments - just watch his work when he tells Jo that Arthur's land struck saltwater, not oil. Yet Melba Rae matches him beat for beat. - "Junior" is their baby, right? Is this after Janet was off the canvas for a while and their son was made into their nephew? Is the son/nephew already gone? - I notice that Patty and Emily are both full of what used to be called having "pep in your step," or what Marvel used to call "snappy patter." I'm reminded of how Leslie Jackson was the same way on GL in the episodes from around this same time. I think @vetsoapfan or others have mentioned that Alice on AW was portrayed in a similar way early on. I wonder if the P&G soaps were trying to react to the 'youth craze.' - Something else that stands out and which I think is very smart is having the younger set all bursting with life, anxieties, resentments, hopes, dreams, while the older characters are restrained, scarred by the years, but still alive. This is an inverse of soaps in modern decades, where the younger characters often feel much less vibrant than the older characters. - A few days ago, I was reading an old Youtube comment thanking Mary Stuart for how much her work had meant to this viewer, how she had always felt like someone they knew. That's very much on display here. She makes you feel every bit of Jo's inner turmoil, playing the pain so subtly, honestly. This is some juicy melodrama, but Stuart never plays it as such. - Melissa Murphy does a very good job playing all the different sides of Patty, but...silly as it is for me to say she's "wrong" as Patty given how little I've seen of the character, I just don't think she suits as Jo's daughter. She's missing the haunted quality I think makes sense for Patty, and I don't sense a big connection between Murphy and Stuart. - I've said for years that I believe soaps should try a 15-minute format again, and these episodes I would use as a chief example of why. They are able to keep a small canvas and focus almost exclusively on one story, a story that would be exhausting if the show ran for 30 minutes (don't even want to think about an hour). - Of the few stories on display that aren't the big one... - I am very glad to get to see these glimpses of the Allens. As mentioned, I do wonder what plans the show even would have had for them. Were they planning early for a half-hour extension? They seem a bit younger than Jo, Stuart or Marge. I'm not sure if that was intended. I can't see any big couple swap going on here. Maybe Bill would have caused Stuart business trouble? I wish they could have stayed around. I like the idea of the two of them living in Henderson, offcamera, years earlier, having stories with "our" characters that we never saw. (I also feel stupid for thinking their son, played by Bobby Breen, was the child star, as I didn't realize he would have been about 40 at this time) - Does anyone know if the story with Emily dating (?) her college professor was ever an actual story or just something that happened offcamera? - You can see what a disaster is on the way with Emily's love for Nick (and Nick leading her on). On paper, it's a story I'd have a difficult time watching, but there's something I can't look away from in how earnestly Pamela Murphy plays Emily's devotion. She also has a regality about her. I see that she was on Dallas as a character named Marie. Did she and Ken Kercheval interact? Do we know why Nick was recast? Did the original actor want to leave? I wonder just where Ken's mind may have been in these early episodes. Only about two or three episodes into his run as Nick he is having surprisingly intense tonsil hockey with Murphy (you can decide for yourself at 8 and 33 minutes). Anyway, I've been enthralled by these episodes, helped by their being in easily digestible form. I haven't ever read much about this time, other than the Andrea climax a few years later. Sometimes I get the feeling this period would be seen later on as old hat and the early '70s would bring the refresh, but this all seems very strong to me, much more than I had expected.

Thanks as always @slick jones Didn't realize Alice Hirson was on Loving.

I kept meaning to watch, at least until I heard how difficult the schedule was, but I did wonder when the hook would come. I'm sure there may be some wealthy people who love Knots, but in this economy, reintroducing the show to the public only through paying is just a bad idea. I don't have the money to pay and I won't be doing so. I have my memories of Knots and some clips here and there - that will be enough. And I have the first two season DVDs in a box somewhere. I know the rights are complicated, but I don't know why these shows can't start putting episodes on Youtube, even just assorted episodes, to whet the public's appetite.

Julia was a wonderful actress. Extremely intelligent and always underplaying what she was given, in comedy or drama. I think she was much better than most of what Brooke became by the mid '90s. I remember the character being a laughingstock to a number of fans by that point, through no fault of Julia's. I'm glad the last year of AMC 1.0 as well as 2.0 allowed her to go out on better terms.

Thanks @Joseph and @te. . I've never seen anything of this show.

I think it's meant to be the Sabrina Carpenter look. It does remind me of Morgan.

I like Chase well enough but when he sings, he reminds me of someone from a Disney band. I thought the character background of that family was meant to be somewhat grimy. The little shown of them was sweet. I have to admit I was distracted by whether or not Aiden was wearing a wig.