DRW50

Oh, and I finally realized what those little pictures/titles at the bottom announcing the story is moving to another housewife remind me of. Did any of you ever play a video game, I think it was on Sega Genesis, where you play poltergeists who haunt the residents of a mansion? In the game they would have little boxes and pictures sort of similar (although with worse graphics obviously) when they would show each person in the house as they were being scared.

Continuing to make my way through Jersey episodes everyone else in the world has already seen... Something I enjoy in these early episodes, and I hope continues, is they have the fun and melancholy family moments alongside the drama. I think it is very balanced editing and I like that it isn't all about hysteria and misery. The time I am most interested in Dina is when she is with her daughter - they have such an interesting relationship and it makes her endless loop of "Should I stop being a party planner to the stars" less stale. Aside from her participation in the episode where Theresa got implants I generally don't care for her in the group scenes. Theresa on the other hand I prefer in the group scenes, mostly because I just think, although she has nice kids, the family scenes are too cutesy and she is also too put-on. I also continue to feel like she is not quite the angel she presents herself to be. One thing that annoyed me was when at the notorious table-throwing dinner, she was VERY loudly saying VERY crude sexual comments (how she is "sore" and on and on) in front of the children, yet only thought about the children when Danielle confronted them over the book. But I do enjoy Theresa in the group scenes and the plastic surgery story was much better than I had expected - it was balanced and the show seems to try to make sure viewers get the chance to hear some who caution against plastic surgery as well as those who are fond of it. Do you think that knowing what will happen in advance spoils the story for you, or enhances it? When I see Theresa in her dream house and going on about money I remember that her husband has money problems now (do they still have the house?). I'm not sure whether I am more interested or less because I know what happens. I think in the case of Jacqueline's daughter I wish I didn't know because when I see the story about their conflict and the car I just keep waiting for the stuff where she attacks Danielle, or whatever. Speaking of Jacqueline, I do like her, and her parents, and I think she's a nice person who sometimes has some fire, but I was really uncomfortable with the whole business about the photo shoot and how her daughter wasn't appreciative enough about the photos and she could be a model or actress if she wanted to do this and why wasn't she more appreciative and so on. I had to actually fast forward some of this. It just felt very stage mother to me. Did the daughter ever want any of this? Was that THE Bernie Kerik with Caroline and her family? I enjoy everything with them, and just her presence in general. I can see that some of the mother hen role is an act and she has her flaws but she's just great to watch. She has a natural charisma about her and some good one-liners. So do her family. I loved when her son Albie called Danielle, "goldfish cha-cha." The dance class stuff was interesting for several reasons. I laughed when Theresa claimed her husband wanted to learn to dance, and then you see him walking into the studio, clearly uncomfortable. This, like the dinner that led to the table-throwing, must have been all set up by the producers. It was fascinating the whole mess of Danielle calling Theresa's husband out for homophobic comments. Did she really care or did she just want a reaction? It was refreshing to see someone not put up with the type of casual homophobia that is so commonplace, but she was so cold about it that she wasn't exactly going to change his mind. I also couldn't help laughing about his comments because he is the type of guy who would probably become popular with some gay men. Everything with the book became tired as we saw the same clips over and over and Danielle's notable absence from most of the group did not help (that scene where her longtime friend awkwardly served as her exposition person was kind of painful to watch), but I did love the big blowup. That's the type of thing you can't fake, and again, it was surprisingly balanced. Danielle is clearly not someone you'd necessarily want to be around but it wasn't evil Danielle and good Dina. Danielle's scenes with her kids were fairly interesting, although it comes across somewhat as who is the parent and who is the child. The only stuff I disliked was the breakup with Mr. 26 going on 62. Come on! What role did Danielle have on AMC? Was she an under five?

He killed Tom. He goaded Matthew until Matthew tried to run him over, but Matthew's fiance was in the way so Matthew swerved into a tree.

Thanks for sharing that. I'm sorry she didn't enjoy her experience more, but it sounds like an interesting role. I know Liz Hubbard said, in 1986, she still had people asking her about Nick. Did Althea have anything to do between the time Nick left for good and when Liz Hubbard left in 1978 or 1977?

I have an interview with Tina from her Search run somewhere, and she says something about she thinks Patti is only pretending to be nice, so she can manipulate Jo. She thought Patti would be another scheming character, like Kate. I'm not sure if this was a story plan or just her own desire.

I wonder how Nancy Barrett would have been - some of her later Dark Shadows characters, like Carolyn Loomis, screamed Lemay. Or they could have brought in for FRFP Maeve Maguire after Edge of Night fired her. That would have received some publicity and Maeve was such a striking presence, she could have been perfect for the type of show they wanted.

I haven't watched much of Let's Dance for Comic Relief this year (the first week was so flat) but apparently Emmerdale daddy James Thornton was a viewer favorite with his tap dance routine with friend Charlie Baker. They and the judges usually only support comedians who try to be daring by dressing in drag (which was daring...fifty years ago) and has-beens/zelebrities, so for the viewers to vote for this shows how much appeal he has. Too bad Emmerdale would rather waste him as they waste anyone with talent or charisma.

I always give most of the credit for 1995 to Caso and Culliton although there might have been someone else before Culliton. Carly was a real live wire who finally made the boring Rosanna/Mike interesting. Eduardo's death and the lawsuit by Lisa was a great story that utilized all the history of the Hughes and Dixon families. Claire Bloom was chilling as Orlena. Even smaller stories like Dawn's death, Kirk and Sam's love story, Jeremy's adoption, Julie and the ransom money, and Jef/Emily were good. P&G took the changes too far and destroyed any progress the show was making. Every single thing that had been working was ruined and they also seemed to have no idea that Maura West might be leaving, which killed the story as she was the main thing in it. If they had backed off then ATWT might still be on today. The only thing I can praise them for is they used the vets they didn't fire, and they got rid of Rosanna. That was about it.

I was looking in a 1994 soap magazine - and I know this has been mentioned before - but they talk about the Dobsons being rumored to go to AW, which didn't happen, so then the magazine was saying they were rumored to be returning to ATWT. Was this ever actually any type of possibility? I wonder what they would have done. I actually thought the show turned itself around by early 1995, and that the changes made by Valente were unnecessary, but I wonder if the Dobsons might have managed to reinvent things in a way that would have kept some of the old ATWT, which seemed to be destroyed in the mid/late 90s and never returned.

I haven't watched lately but will have to see this. There's a reason why I have always had a soft spot for Ian.

Thank you for typing all that. I will have to look over it soon it seems fascinating. I had forgotten Soapcentral had some of those in depth profiles for older characters (Wikipedia would probably delete them). Are they still around?

More honesty from Republicans. The Wisconsin senate majority leader says the union-busting bill is about weakening Democrats. http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/scott-fitzgerald-obama/ And they managed to pass it, so they got what they wanted. They didn't even bother to vote on a budget - they just voted to strip collective bargaining. Since they are usually good at class warfare, my guess is a lot of people in Wisconsin will say it affects those who don't deserve protections anyway, it's all the Democrats fault, and so on. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/wis-state-senate-passes-anti-union-bill-in-end-run-around-dem-boycott.php?ref=fpa

Thanks so much for sharing this interview - I didn't know this. I don't think The City was ever going to be a big hit but I do wish they had marketed differently and given it a little more time, perhaps another year. I think it could have become a cult show. If there was ever a soap that needed writers outside of daytime this was it. I don't think Ava was coming back either. Lisa must have been in negotiations with AW around this time - didn't she first appear in spring 1997? BTW, anyone who wants to see Robert Tyler on ATWT - I can't remember all the episode dates, but on Youtube, but in August 17, 1988 (As the World Turns). He's in the first clip of that and probably several others. I can't embed.

Thank you for sharing this with us. I haven't heard of Soap Opera World. Some of that, like the comments about Mike and Floyd, I wonder about, as she never did anything with them. Was it Jeff Ryder/Gail Kobe who dumped Floyd from the show?

Continuing my journey through May 1988 ATWT - now on May 30. Laura is gone and with her exit was the revelation that she had been sexually abused by her father, a father she and brother Beau had idealized. This was some ugly stuff, and I believe the first of its kind on ATWT. Was this strike material? Or was Marland using this as a test run for Angel and Henry Lange? I really like how normal Beau and Pam seem to be. They're a nice contrast to the drama around them. I also really like Jessica and Roy Franklin, who have a nice, easy chemistry. Did he want to leave or did they fire him? Lisa sings "What'll I Do?" and I love Eileen Fulton but she sounded horrible. I wonder if she had any choice over songs because that did not suit her voice at all. She seemed to be singing quite a bit at this time - in most of the 86-88 episodes I've seen it was Lila. Early Kirk is so different from the ha ha Kirk of later years. I like his early scenes with Iva, as she is so appalled by him. This is nice romantic comedy type of stuff, not her usual misery. I liked Ellie/Kirk too but I'm sorry that this had to end with more of Iva's agony. Shannon continues to obsess over that Margaret painting, while her own painting seems like Elvira in a blue dress. Duncan doesn't want to marry her and she lashes out. Silly material but well acted by Swan and Reed. Emily is sleeping with Tonio and genuinely seems to care for him, which surprised me, as I had always assumed it was just sex. I guess it was for him. It's funny, because, as I've mentioned a few times before, I HATED Holden when I first started watching ATWT. It was not until his 1996 return that I started to like him more. I have almost wondered over the years why I ever hated him. But it is all back in full force thanks to these spring 1988 episodes. - Holden marries Emily knowing what type of history she has (lying, sex, etc.) - Holden profits from her money and goes into business with Tonio - Holden then spends much of his time lecturing Tonio about immorality, when he's right in bed with Tonio! - Holden goes on and on and on in every episode to Emily about lies, even though he lied to Lily for a year! Saying, "Now I know how Lily feels," isn't enough. - Holden goes over to see Craig after Sierra "dies" and says he knows how Craig feels. Really? Talk about narcissistic. Lily didn't die. Something else regarding ATWT that I noticed was when I was looking through a few of the "what's hot in soaps/who's who of soaps" type of publications in 1981, ATWT had some of the least coverage and least expense. In one, ATWT was barely covered, and in the other, which covered all the shows, the only shows that had no color, glossy pictures were ATWT, The Edge of Night, and The Doctors. They finally threw a glossy picture of Eileen and Bob Hastings on the back page, like an afterthought. Was ATWT really that far down in the public mind in 1981 or was this just a coincidence?

Maria Shriver's comments should have been left out - they were not much of a criticism at all and undercut the point the writer was trying to make, since it had nothing to do with any of his policies, it was just a stupid comment on a TV show. So it looks like Republicans are trying to limit voting from college students, and they aren't exactly being subtle about their reasons why. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030602662.html?hpid=topnews So I guess voting based on ignorance and fear is OK only if you are not a college student, since that is the basic strategy of most of today's Republican machine.

I wonder if the Ames family wouldn't have been dumped if he had stayed.

That's a shame. Was he the first Peter? Rough week for Secret Storm actors.

OK. If I have them I will post what I have. I will try to put some Passions stuff up soon.

For many years GL probably had the strongest and most complex men and women on any soap. Even at the end there were a lot of strong and interesting characters. Sadly the message the soaps get is that if you aren't a caveman and if women aren't in their place, the sky will fall.

I never knew he was in the Andy Ferris story. Thanks. I guess someone at the show must have wished they hadn't given him such a dark role, to keep bringing him back. I wish GL had brought him back in the last year to play out story with Lillian and Beth, instead of wasting him at ATWT a year later with the pointless role of Reid's uncle.

No, just subtitles.

That's sad to hear. I hate to see German soaps going the way of American soaps. What do you think is happening?

Are you surprised about the 40 minute expansion? I thought the ratings had lowered.