DRW50

Sorry. I uploaded the wrong photo on the last one. I will change it. Thanks for the kind words, and helping me catch my error! I do wonder why they would write Doug that way. I know the Hayes said they later regretted leaving, but I guess I can't blame them.

Various Emmerdale and Corrie actors and producers mourn Gavin. http://www.southportforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50447483

I've enjoyed some of the episodes, mainly the work from Sue Cleaver and a few others, but probably what I notice most is how upset some at DS get whenever anyone criticizes it. For instance, this Sun article: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3265311/We-recreate-1m-Coronation-Street-crash-for-9950.html

Recap from the November 6, 1979 Digest. Mike takes Sara out of the hospital for a night to enjoy a romantic dinner. As the violinists play and the candles glow, Sara feels that everything will be alright. But later that night as he tells her how much he loves her, Sara asks, 'How much time do we have together?" Mike holds her in his arms and tells her the truth: "We have very little time. You're very ill, Sara." Although Sara suspected something was wrong, she was not prepared for dying. At first she refuses to believe it. Then she becomes furious. She takes the flower pots on the hospital lawn and starts throwing them. "You took me out knowing this! How can you call yourself a doctor if you can't help me!" She starts to cry softly as she paces. "Why me? How could God do this to me? He's evil and bad. What did I do? I want to have babies. I want to watch Michael-Paul grow. Who is going to live in my house? Who is going to take care of my things?" Seeing his wife sobbing on her knees, Mike climbs out of his wheelchair, joins her on the ground and holds her closely. The next day Mike has the hard task of telling Luke and Barney that Sara is dying. Nola is away on a buying trip in New York and Mike is furious with her. The whole time Sara has been in the hospital, Nola didn't call once. Barney immediately feels guilty. If he had been around more, if he had been more loving, perhaps this never would have happened. But when he sees his daughter later that day, she pleads with him not to act happy for her. "If you pretend this isn't happening, you're leaving me alone. And I don't want to be alone now." The nurses have been complaining that Sara has been impossible to deal with. But Maggie reminds them angrily that Sara is different! "She is not like other patients. She is not getting better, she's dying. She's angry, wouldn't you be? She feels differently and she is to be treated differently!" Mike finds the comfort he needs with his father and M.J. He asks M.J. if she ever got over the pain she felt when Tom died. "No," M.J. answers quietly. Mike admits to his father that he wishes he could die. He doesn't want to live in this world without his wife. TROUBLE FOR MISSY AND LUKE Luke has been so angry at the prospect of having Kim for a business partner that he can't concern himself with Missy's worries. When she tries to explain to him that she can't relax in bed because she is jealous of Kim he screams at her. "Don't give me that, we made love and it was good. You loved it!" Instead of discussing her sexual problems with him, calmly, as she wanted to, Missy finds herself screaming the truth. "It wasn't good, I was faking it!" The next day when she tries to apologize to Luke, he ignores her. He just found out about his sister's condition and he is no no mood for Missy's problems. Colin gets the distinct impression that Mona knows he is Jessica's father and is just toying with him until she finds an opportune time to pounce. She has arranged an engagement party for Colin and M.J. and he is very suspicious of her motives. Meanwhile, Mona has decided to raise Jessica. She is sure that Nola doesn't give a damn about the baby. Dr. Bennett is very impressed with Greta's mind. She has organized his professional life and made very intelligent suggestions on his research. But Greta wonders why Dr. Bennett never talks about his wife. As Carolee tries to help Monnchild deliver her baby, she is thwarted every step of the way. Moonchild belongs to a strange cult that has brainwashed her. The hospital is "tainted," certainly not a place to have her baby. When Carolee visits Moonchild, she is lying on the floor surrounded by people who are changing. Moonchild is stoned and incoherent. Still, the cult members will not let Carolee take her to the hospital. Far Wind says she must stay there, and Far Wind is the leader of the group! Carolee is terribly frustrated and angry. Moonchild is not having normal labor pains and if she isn't taken to a hospital quickly she and the baby may be in danger! She calls Dr. Bennett, who convinces the cult members to let Moonchild go to the hospital. John Bennett explains to Carolee that these people are incapable of making decisions for themselves, that's why they latch onto someone like Far Wind. But circumstances at the hospital are no better. The group follows Moonchild into the labor room and chant around her. There is a serious infection in Sara's body, and because of the hepatoma, she has no antibodies to fight it. Mike and Sara both realize that she is dying quickly now. And though some doctors want to try and fight the infection, Sara declines. She can accept dying now; Mike stands by her decision. Sara wants to go home. To make love with her husband, to see Paul (Michael-Paul wants to be called Paul now), to cook dinner for her family. But most of all she wants Mike to walk. "I want to know that you really have forgiven me so I won't have to feel guilty anymore," Sara tells her husband. Later that day he appears at Sara's door holding onto canes. He is able to walk! Matt and Sara both greet him with tears of joy. Mona decides to confront Mildred. She isn't really a practical nurse as she said she was, is she? Mildred admits she lied. She took all the courses, she wanted to be a nurse, but she just didn't have the money to complete her schooling. "Fine," says Mona. She will help Mildred get her license, if Mildred will help her. All she has to do is be completely honest. Then Mona visits her lawyer. What are her legal rights concerning Jessica? She explains that Nola is an unfit mother. She abandoned her baby to go to New York. She doesn't even know that her sister is dying because she is too busy buying clothes. Does Mona plan to adopt Jessica? Sara has decided to take matters into her own hands. She only has a short time left and she doesn't intend to spend it in the hospital, so she walks out! She hires a taxi for the day. Her first stop is the Medicine Man, to visit Luke. She tells him how proud she is of him. Proud of what he's done with the restaurant, proud of what he's done with his life. She tells him how much she appreciates having this time alone with him. She is going to go to the bakery and smell the bread, go to the jewelery store and try on expensive diamonds...As Luke holds her, tears stream down her face. But Sara's calm eases his pain. And when she leaves, Missy is there to comfort him. She apologizes for her previous insensitivity. "I'm so glad you're here. Just to hold me, just to be here," Luke tells her. Sara then visits Barney. When he sees her he's overjoyed, convinced that she's released and better. But Sara explains to him what she's doing. In a way, Barney has it harder than she. "I'll never get old, Daddy. I'll never be sick again. And I'll never have to watch the people I love go away." Lying in bed together, Mike tells Sara how much she has given to his life and Paul's. "I was so angry and you taught me not to waste my time with that. You taught me to believe in myself," Mike says. "Just hold me," Sara replies. "Just hold my hand." Mike puts puts his arms around her and watches as his wife peacefully dies in his arms... Just after dawn Mike goes to his parents' house to give his son the news. "Mommy won't hurt anymore. She isn't sick anymore," he tells Paul. But Mike expresses his rage to his parents. The men from the funeral home came and took Sara away. They pretended sadness, but how could they feel it? They didn't know Sara, they didn't care! Mike doesn't want to have a funeral, he only wants to be with his wife. Gently, Maggie reminds him that a funeral is not so much for Sara, but for her friends and family. It gives them a chance to say good-bye. Mike understands, now he must call her family. Slipping into the Aldrich mansion in the middle of the night, Nola reads Sara's farewell letter. She assumes that Sara must have gone on a trip. When Mildred tries to explain that Sara is very sick, Nola dismisses it. How could she be sick if she went away?? Nola is far more interested in all the clothes she bought in New York - clothes she charged to Mona! Mildred tells Nola that Mona has become very close to Jessica, but that doesn't worry her; she's glad. The closer Mona becomes to the baby, the better chance they have of staying on at the mansion. When Luke gets the news that his sister died, he has Missy at his side to comfort him. Nola visits him, showing off her clothes. When she casually asks where Sara is, he answers softly, "She's dead." Nola is outraged! "How could she do this to me? How could she leave me? First mama leaves me, then Joanie (another sister who died) then Jason, now Sara!" HOW LOW CAN NOLA GO??? But when Mildred tells Nola that Mona is furious with the bills she ran up in New York, her sorrow for her sister is forgotten. Instead, she uses it to appease Mona! When Mona starts to admonish her for the money she spent, Nola says, "You're right, it's just been confusing for me since Sara died." Mona is immediately apologetic. She didn't know Sara died. She'll do whatever she can to make it easier for Nola. In the middle of her contractions, Moonchild yells out, "I'm Lisa Blaine!" Lisa delivers a normal healthy boy. But Far Wind is making trouble. After Steve stops him, Far Wind sends a crow's foot with a message. "Let my children go!"

From the November 6, 1979 Digest (SOD Publishing Inc).

I still wonder if this out of nowhere stuff with Mercedes and Riley/Carl was supposed to be Mitzeee. They claimed Later was going to have Mitzeee and Riley together. Now right after Malachy is in the ground, Mercedes is thrown right into this story. Riley is so dull, and most of the idea of this story - will she hurt this young guy - is ruined by casting an actor who looks so much older than the role. Mercedes and Carl do have chemistry. They should have Carl take his clothes off and have less of the closeups of his frozen forehead. Why is Ricky back? Marquess dumped all of the good new characters and kept this dead-eyed frump with the Orphan Annie hair. If it's to make Duncan less worthless, it isn't working. Anthony Quinlan was really bad in this last episode. The whole show seems so underrehearsed. I get the idea that a lot of people are loving the show because of Brendan. That might be why I can't get that involved. I just don't get Brendan's appeal. He has a nice body, but otherwise all he does is mumble in a quasi-Terminator accent, with a blank look on his face. And Ste is in the Craig Dean role, where, for someone who is supposedly struggling with his feelings, he certainly looks happy to be around Rae. Warren looks so ridiculous in that coat. He looks like a penguin. He waddles around with his arms sticking out. Jamie Lomas has never been a good actor but he was better than this.

DS tends to go in cycles, but this time it's even more pronounced because a few Corrie fans are stirring the pot, spending a lot of time going on about Eastenders not being very good. But to be fair to them, Walford Web also has a lot of complaints about the show at the moment. I haven't really seen Eastenders as being what it should be in a number of years, so I'm still enjoying the show more than I did when Santer was around, and the ratings are holding up, so there's that. I do think a lot of people are so into the idea that death is what a show needs -- there was a lot of heavy focus at DS on the pub fire, and a lot of anger when no one died (I thought that was a brave choice). Now Corrie is killing off a few characters, so, even if it's being done clumsily, has been telegraphed for months, and for no real reason other than shock value, that means Corrie gets the hype.

I wonder if she knows that the guy who plays Gary was badly beaten a few years ago and had, I think, heavy facial injuries. The list of the 50 moments was good, and I'm glad they focused on the lighter stuff too, especially since that seems to be gone from soaps now. I think that Elsie's one night stand's wife actually destroyed Elsie's whole house, not just her clothes. That was one of my favorite scenes. I really loved Elsie.

According to the ratings thread at Digital Spy, over 13 million watched the Corrie stunt, with a peak of over 14 million, 46% share.

I know. I was shocked. The face is still the same but the Emmylou Harris type hair is a big change. There's a color photo of her on the cover, a small one - I'll try to put that up sometime. I wonder what her wardrobe was on WTHI. Her clothes on Ryan's Hope were so horribly unflattering and then it got even worse when Kimberly arrived.

I don't really think this is what the characters would do ( ), but I guess it's fitting for the current storytelling. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3263416/Tyrone-to-give-Sal-a-thorough-servicing.html

This is really interesting stuff. So when did Winsor leave? I forgot. When did the ratings start to slide and not come back up? How long was the stuff with Laurie and Hugh before the story with the priest started?

Two episodes. Sylph, Kim Crowther is another who, while a terrible producer, I think got some extra criticism based on gender. Collinson has continued many of her worst stories and made some of the stories somehow even worse , yet he is praised for them. James F - someone posted the crash on Youtube. I actually don't think the effects look bad. The only change I would have made is to just end on someone unconscious, and not Ken or Stape looking into space. I expected one of them to start singing.

He seems very popular at Digital Spy's soap forums, and the ratings are up somewhat, so I guess he's doing fine. I think generally the male producers also get a little more leeway. Not always (like with Kirkwood right now in Eastenders) but Lucy Allan, Anita Turner, and Louise Berridge got some tough reactions from the boards and some of the press.

Emmerdale usually does better when they have a half hour or so head start against Eastenders.

I hope some of you will review the big stunt episodes they are doing this week to tell me if they're worth getting through. I'm going to need a positive review to sit through Grampa Nick. Interview with the effects supervisor. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s3/coronation-street/interviews/a291575/danny-hargreaves-sfx-supervisor-corrie.html I think he came from Doctor Who, as did the director, Graeme Harper, and of course Collinson. BBC has less of a budget so they must be like kids in a candy store.

Thanks. I've heard some of those stories but didn't realize Weiss was behind them. I guess that makes sense, as his time at WTHI seemed to have some risque stories (did he come up with the priesthood and the artificial insemination stories at Secret Storm). It's too bad this didn't help the ratings for The Doctors. Perhaps by then a lot of people had left and weren't coming back.

From the July 1976 Daytime TV (Sterling's Magazines Inc). This is the article on pilots that I thought was in the Digest. Is Janice's pilot available? I've seen some of the one Tom Hallick was in.

From the November 26, 1991 Soap Opera Weekly (K-III Magazines). I have a tough time scanning Weeklys so apologies for the quality. I decided to crop around the words on the first page and just type that up. If you can't see the second page clearly I can type that up too, let me know.