DRW50

You saw that start again last year with the hype about how fantastic Corrie was and how Eastenders couldn't compare. Corrie then went on to effectively collapse, so the press and most of the fans can't really do the comparison now, as both are seen as very uneven (I read that some of the press that normally support Corrie have trashed some of their recent stories). That was also when they gave Sarah Louise so many "issue" stories one after the other. There was a rumor that they wanted her to have a sexual abuse story with Martin, which the actor refused to play.

From the 1978/1979 Daylight TV Yearbook.

Wasn't this story loathed by fans? I wish I could remember all the reasons why. DS doesn't have a lot of talk about Corrie's past anymore, it's mostly just cheerleading or talk of the present. I know this and Alma's death both drove away viewers and were panned.

Thanks. For some reason, I don't know why, I thought this was a sexual abuse story. I guess that would have been way too much. Who was MJ with after Tom died?

For some reason I thought that the child abuse story was revealed after Tom was gone. So did he abuse Ricky or was he just suspected of it?

A very...Robin Strasser interview. August 2, 1983 Digest. http://www.soapoperaworld.com/soap-opera-digest-michael-zaslow-robin-strasser.html

If this were Brookside, then I would say, sure, but nothing is realistic about Corrie. To suddenly have all this hostility about the royals, to the point of smashing plates of them, seems more like the agenda of a writer, than any attempt at realism. It doesn't help that everything on Corrie now is so nasty. There is no humor unless it involves deriding people, and this is the same. Besides, if the people who do Corrie now hate the Windsors that much, then they're hypocrites for allowing Camilla to participate in the anniversary last year. I doubt the people in working class communities liked Camilla more last year than they do this year.

Not a huge fan of the couple, but a beautiful wedding.

I have some articles with Barry somewhere. If I ever find them I'll post them.

I was really surprised to read about the bitter anti-royal rants on tonight's episodes, with someone even smashing a plate of the Windsors in anger. Say what you will about the Windsors or the monarchy, but Corrie has always had a long and happy relationship with them. Now the show is apparently so full of bitterness and bile that they need to go to this extreme just to prove it. Collinson has ruined anything that made Corrie unique.

I'm ashamed to admit that whenever I picture Barry Jenner I get some image of Bruce Jenner.

I wonder why they even kept Vince around so long after Ponzini left, it seemed like he was the only one who was popular.

Everything with Kat's fear, her scene with Jack, her acceptance of the name and that last scene with Alfie, it was so nicely done. Why doesn't Kat get this writing more often.

Wow I can't see that at all. Then of course her predecessor on GL later became Delia.

That's fascinating. This was after Frakes left?

Someone said the last few weeks have been his work.

This has been going on for quite a while and has gotten worse and worse. While I agree with some of the praise for Blyth, he was the one who took away the sense of community and replaced it with this cold and empty place. Once the shock value stories wore off, nothing was left. So many stories are just prolonged misery.

I'm glad he's gone but the stupid decision that created him in the first place is still there. The show continues to fail horribly at bringing in new characters. I saw a comment at DS praising this decision because it was getting rid of someone who had no story, but why didn't he have a story? Because the show slapped this awful family together as quickly as possible. They either refuse to write for new characters, or when they do, it's garbage (anything with Leyla's sister). Poor Nikhil is on the show only to be laughed at, the latest being the derision heaped on him by the brain-dead and whorish Barbie, Katie. Why is she even on the show? At this point you could dump about 3/4 of the cast and it wouldn't matter...

That story never made sense to me.

What a laugh. Declan's father is already leaving the show. I wish all the rest could go too. http://www.itv.com/soaps/emmerdale/newsandgossip/farewellfrank/

Thanks. It's crazy when I read some magazines from 1976 or 1977 and Search is the second highest rated show, and gets around 9-10 million. I wish CBS had remembered that and not canceled so casually. I was reading some old magazines from the 50's and didn't realize Terry O'Sullivan had left the show for a year or two (IMDB mentions it - I guess I didn't read IMDB first). There's a photo of his replacement. There are also two or three photos with Terry and his wife, Jan Miner, wearing silly outfits to celebrate winning the TV Radio Mirror medals for their work. I didn't even know they were married - her profile doesn't mention it. She went on to be Madge the manicurist. Mary Stuart also won those over and over, and made the cover (as one of many never a solo cover) several times. It's easy to forget now just how iconic she was at that time. I will never understand why the producers started trying to dump her in the early 60's.

I remember reading about Toni Bua joining the show. I think Steve and Carrie ended together though. It seems like Somerset had found a niche in its last few years - if it hadn't been on NBC (whose soaps were losing steam at that time) I wonder if it might have had more success.