DRW50

For many years I have had a memory in my head of Eden and Cruz on a boat - I think - and Eden talks about how she keeps seeing hands. I guess this was about a murder. What was that about?

Thanks for keeping this up, Huntress!

I'm glad Roman seems to be getting a new story on AWZ. He's a great character. If he's away from Deniz (a mouthwatering specimen of man, but a horrible $%$ of a person), even better.

The story is better than my description, but, basically, Debbie and Jasmine first met a few years ago when Jasmine moved in with her uncle (her parents left her in boarding schools most of the time). Jasmine was shy and repressed. Debbie, who had grown up in foster care and then when she found her parents, they used her and abandoned her, was just happy to have a friend and relive the fun years she never got to have. Slowly they fell in love, but Debbie's unbalanced father, Cain, who was disgusted by the idea of Debbie being involved with another girl, seduced Jasmine. Jasmine got pregnant, but to get revenge on her father, Debbie persuaded Jasmine to have an abortion.

They fell out, but a few years later repaired their friendship. They moved in together, and Jasmine started dating a crooked cop because she wanted to write an expose of the crime family he worked for. When he found out the truth, he tried to rape Jasmine. Debbie tracked them down and hit Shane over the head. A few minutes later, he came to and tried to attack Debbie, but a hysterical Jasmine beat him to death with a chair leg.

With the help of Debbie's cousin Eli (who was in love with Debbie), they covered up their crime and threw Shane's body into the river. At this time Debbie and Jasmine began to fall in love again, sharing several kisses. Eventually the body was found and after Eli realized Debbie and Jasmine were a couple and he sold them out to the cops. They tried to run away, but the cops got Debbie.

Jasmine hid out for a while, but eventually she turned herself in to spare Debbie. Debbie visited her in prison. She asked Debbie to move on with her life, and told Debbie how much she loved her; Debbie said the same. Then she gave Debbie her ring and said now they would always be together.

Debbie's a fascinating character. She's at the center of the show at the moment, and they're bringing her parents back, which should be great drama.

Eastenders has become all about stunts. Months and months of dead space until the next stunt. Unfortunately those stunts have very little payoff, or peter out through confusing storytelling. Why was the aftermath of Danielle's death about Peggy and Phil? They're useless. Aside from a way to get headlines, was there any reason to have Tanya bury Max alive? Or for the hit and run involving Max? They have ruined the Brannings. Why did they keep Billy and write out Honey? Why did they keep Patrick and write out Yolande? Why do they keep pushing dreadful Jack Branning at people?

Why did they bring Janine back?

When you watch some of the 80s clips which are out there, the amount of strong characterization and the complexity of the drama and how they mix comedy (so many different types of comedy) in with drama is incredible.

Now we get these big dour stories mixed in with Heather gawking at a yogurt lid.

I enjoy Emmerdale, at least what I see of it. I'm not a big Dingle fan but I don't think they're hillbilly caricatures. Debbie's a wonderful character, and Chastity is, when written properly, a fascinating character, a broken woman who desperately tries to be "good" even as she knows how hollow that idea is.

I also respect that they try to give story to their older actors, sometimes just comedy, but it's better than most of the gloom on other soaps.

The Debbie/Jasmine story was soap at its absolute best. And so was Matthew King's death.

You are right, Shawn, it was probably a blessing in disguise that the show was cancelled when it was and that it went out on such a high note.

If only the same were true of Guiding Light...

RH was coasting on fumes for most of the 80s. A high note might have been around 1980.

I think many soaps, even when they're very flawed, still have good qualities, so for this reason I'm glad RH still stayed around, and why part of me will always wish the show had had a few more years. Claire Labine dearly loved those characters and she'd barely had a chance to make her final return before the show was gone.

Nancy was so annoying back then.

Very, very, very good casting news.

They always have great promos now. Remember the one where Max was run over?

Those arms reminded me of the arms in that Doctor Who episode from a few years ago. Bad Wolf.

Sophie's desperate for attention from her family, but I don't think she ever really had any romantic relationships with men. Not yet. She's done several things to try to make her family notice her. Last year she sent herself threatening letters when Rosie was missing. After Kevin and Sally were near their breaking point, she admitted she'd written them herself.

Tony did kill Liam. He paid a man to run Liam down because of Liam's relationship with Tony's fiancee, Carla. Tony didn't know Maria was pregnant, if he had I don't think he would have killed Liam. Tony kept trying to get Jed thrown out of his home, Jed refused, finally Jed had a stroke and when he was sent to the hospital, Tony took his home. Jed was found in the hospital by Emily Bishop, whom he knew from when they both lived on the Street in the 60s. He went to stay at her place. He was constantly harassing Tony, and then he saw Tony meeting with the man who had killed Liam. He began blackmailing Tony. Finally, on Christmas Eve, Tony snapped and strangled Jed with lingerie. This was in the knicker factory. He had to stuff his body in a hamper, as the workers were returning. They had their Christmas party and danced around the hamper, not knowing he was inside. The next morning, Tony was surprised to see Jed was still alive, and he paid him to leave town.

If anyone wants to see some on-set diaries from the woman who plays Kirk's girlfriend Julie.

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/a149493/ka...gh-day-one.html

Sally used to be extremely snooty, and put on airs. She doesn't seem to be quite as bad lately. I really like Sally and Kevin, they're a very believable couple, and they do drama as well as the funny stuff.

Kirkwood brought so much to the show, but the stories became so dark and some of the pacing was so off. I still wish they'd kept Kieron around. I think he had incredible potential outside of the relationship with John Paul, which always seemed too plot-driven.

I think a large cast change is almost guaranteed, given the size of the cast and Kirkwood's exit. I just hope they get rid of the right characters.

It's frustrating because I think some of their best actors play characters who are lost at sea, like Nancy. I don't think any of this "bisexual love triangle" has worked. Kris is better at comedy than romance. Or they could have paired Kris and Nancy and never involved Ravi. He could have gone with Russ. Or they could have written Ravi out and made his brother Ash bisexual. I think that would make a better story, since he's more straitlaced.

I keep forgetting Justin's on the show. I will never understand why they gave him almost nothing to do for all of 2008.

A casting cull is on the horizon. 10 actors.

I can't believe OB's left a year ago. He came back to see Max die, but his real departure was last February. I feel like so much of the heart of the show left with OB and Max.

Now they're left with all these undefined characters who go between bad and good too many times to mention, or characters they seem to have run out of stories for, like Steph. They could also do with not focusing so much on Calvin or Warren.

This Christmas 2004 clip of Craig, Steph, and Debbie (the forgotten Dean) is funny. Also very weird, since Steph and Craig have changed so much since then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCoWlg3SFb4

Original cast member Wendy Richards, who played Pauline Fowler for over 20 years, has passed away.

Don't let those bad later episodes (or any of the bad later years of EE in general) make up too much of your mind. Pauline was a great character in her prime.

A deal has been reached with Amazon On Demand. 200 episodes, set between Christmas 2007 and July 2008, which be available by the end of the month at 50 cents an episode. 20 more episodes will be added per month. If they do well enough then they may eventually have older episodes available.

I admired the original Dark Shadows team for getting what they did on such a small budget (some of those sets in the time travel stories are beautiful, as are the costumes), but you could definitely see the squeeze. I think the 1795 story was better in the primetime version (with the big exception of Angelique, who is nothing without Lara Parker), one reason being that they kept going back between 1795 and present-day, and because there was less filler. For the time travel stories my favorite was 1840 (so many fascinating characters and over the top stories), then 1897.

I wish Barbara Steele had done more TV work after the primetime DS. No one can replace my love for uber-camp Grayson Hall, Woman of A Thousand Faces, but Barbara was excellent as Julia and absolutely brilliant as Natalie du Pres.

BTW, does anyone remember the brief 1995 DS storyline....when Barnabas and Julia found Collinwood in ruins and Carolyn with more than a few screws loose?

I remember. This was a very brave storytelling attempt, and mostly they pulled it off. Gerard was extremely menacing and the way he tormented Julia was gripping. I also liked seeing the old Mrs. Johnson in her last days, even if she blinked after she was supposed to be dead.

The followup story in 1970 wasn't as good, but had some very strong scenes, like the one where Julia and Barnabas realize Quentin has gone mad.

Hard times have hit the cast and crew. Bill Roache, the only original cast member left, unexpectedly lost his wife Sara, who was also very close to most of the people on set. Kym Marsh, who plays Michelle Connor, had to deliver a premature son at 18 weeks. He died soon after birth. One of the show's mixers has also died. They've shut the set down for the first time since 1999, when longtime cast member Bryan Moasley died. Scripts have to be rewritten because Bill and Kym are both in major storylines at the moment.

Meanwhile, ITV is so bad off financially that they may have to sell Coronation Street to another production company. Some rumors even say an American production company, which, if the American soaps are any indication, should make the older cast feel very nervous.

Guza wrote for Loving? Did he suck there too?

Laura Wright, Michael Weatherly, and Paul Anthony Stewart are all such charismatic performers (and Laura Wright had such an earnestness back then and in her early years as Cassie on GL), most soaps would have been lucky to have found even one of them, much less three at the same time.

Betsy Durkin is the one who looked like Ruth Buzzi? I liked the third Vicki, just because she had that genteel quality.

The Quentin story is probably Maggie's best, or one of her best. She gets to be strong and in the middle of the drama, knowing most of what's going on, instead of always being in the dark.

My favorite period on Dark Shadows was the time right before they went to 1795, and then parts of 1897 (some parts dragged horribly, others were pure deliciousness), and finally the 1970 parallel time story. I can't tell you why, but I have a very strong attachment to the parallel time story.

I also adored Vicky and to this day I'm still bummed about her just vanishing into the past, followed by Peter Bradford showing up a few years later saying she'd been killed by the Leviathans. I wish she'd had a stronger exit, if they could have just brought Alexandra Moltke back for a few days.

I've been trying to get through the pre-Barnabas episodes, which isn't easy. I'm near the murder of Bill Malloy.

I used to watch the primetime version during the original airing. I've started again. I flipped when I realized Liz Foster (Julianna McCarthy) was Mrs. Johnson. I did not remember that at all. I think what stands out for me most is while they did a good job of casting actors who could play the roles (Barbara Steele, Joanna Going, Ben Cross all did fantastic work), they didn't match the quaint charm or distinctive personality which Grayson Hall, Jonathan Frid, and Alexandra Moltke brought to their roles. I think they should have moved away from the show in ways which would have helped create a new yet still familiar identity. Like keep Daphne Collins around (Rebecca Staab fit the part perfectly, which I can't say about the women who played Carolyn or Maggie) and write out one of the other young women instead.

Can anyone tell me why some of the nighttime scenes in those early episodes of the primetime show looked like they were filmed in broad daylight?

What role did Myrtle have on Loving?

Cesar Faison appeared on Loving several years after being "killed" on GH. He kidnapped Ava and I think they went to Disneyworld or something.

Rosie's affair with her teacher (John Stape) started around autumn 2007. In 2005 and 2006, Rosie had been a more gloomy Goth-wearing girl, to match her Goth boyfriend, Craig Harris. When the actor who played Craig left Corrie, they began to make Rosie into the sexpot, since their young female sexpot, Sarah Platt, was leaving the show at the end of 2007.

Rosie and John started sleeping together before he became her teacher (they met when he was giving lessons to her mother, who also had a crush on him). After he became her teacher, he wanted to break things off, and stay with his girlfriend, Fiona (AKA Fiz). Rosie enjoyed having power over him and blackmailed him into continuing to sleep with her. At Christmas of 2007, through a Christmas gift mixup, Fiz realized John was sleeping with Rosie. Rosie's father Kevin beat the tar out of John and was sent to prison. John lost his job and left town.

Around summer 2008, John returned. He wanted to reunite with Fiz and tried to steer clear of Rosie. By this time he and Rosie had no feelings for each other, but the whole fling and the lies still stayed with Fiz and even when she tried to take John back (against the advice of all her friends and family), she couldn't go through with it. John blamed Rosie. First he yanked her into a cab and demanded she leave town. A few weeks later, Rosie went missing. At first everyone assumed she'd just went off for a vacation without telling them, but eventually they started to get worried. Meanwhile, Fiz took John back, and they were very happy together. John kept telling her he had to go to his grandmother's house to feed her cat (his grandmother had recently died). One day, John left the keys at Fiz's apartment, and she decided to feed the cat for him. She found various items which led her to believe John was sleeping with Rosie again. John showed up and she confronted him. He told her he'd been keeping Rosie in the attic, just to keep her out of the way. Fiz said he had to let Fiz out. Fiz and John went up to the attic and Rosie hit John over the head and fled the house. John was arrested and sentenced to prison. Rosie sold her story to a magazine for big money.

Tina's current storyline involves her father, Joe, who is dating David's mother, Gail. Joe has bad money problems that only Tina knows about and he's having a mental breakdown from the stress of it all. Meanwhile, there's a new family in town, the Windass (yes that's their name) family, who hate Joe because they tried to cheat him when he built them a new kitchen and then David forced them to write Joe a check. The Windasses have a son, Gary, who is Tina's age. He loves winding David and Joe up, and he does this by flirting with Tina. Tina tells him she's not interested, but she still talks to him and is polite to him, which means David is becoming more and more angry with her. This is all going to end with a big fight between David and Gary, which David won't see the better end of, given that Gary is an amateur boxer.

I try to keep up with the show as much as I can, since in many ways it reminds me of what American soaps used to be. There are still some things that drive me crazy, especially Michelle Connor, who is a very cold, selfish woman, and yet everyone on the show constantly talk about what a wonderful person she is.

The best story on the show right now is the return of Peter Barlow, the son Ken Barlow shipped to Scotland when he was a little boy. Peter is now all grown up and is a very tortured alcoholic, trying to raise his own son, Simon.

Do you know what story plans are ahead for Jacqui?

I'm not crazy about Calvin/Carmel or Zack/Michaela, but I hope they can keep Mercedes and Malachy together.

All I really want to see is they give something for Max's exit, or OB's exit. They were my two favorites, especially OB. I miss them so much.