DRW50

I've never understood that either. This was Pam Long, right? I wonder if she had some sort of issue with anyone from GL's past who was on the show when she started as a writer.

Do these episodes have the scene that offended SOD, where there was a closeup of Reva's bare breast as Roger took photos of her?

It's too bad they didn't find another role for Dennis. I think he would have been perfect for Passions, or Sunset Beach.

Did Vanessa have post-partum depression after Little Billy?

Dennis Parlato? Isn't he the same as as Ben Masters? I wonder if ABC chose Terrell Tilford as Greg deliberately knowing he wouldn't be able to deliver a great performance.

Thank you for finding this again. I couldn't for some reason. Mary Grace Canfield repeatedly subbed for Lucille Wall on GH in the early 70s.

So that's why she has been foisted onto OLTL? It really is the redheaded stepchild of ABC

Yes. Have they mentioned this since she left? It seems like mostly just him playing around and looking for someone to mother Ben.

Who wrote the episode? I'm surprised they mentioned Sharon. I thought they would not ever acknowledge the love Phil felt for her.

Oops. http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/03/10/house-republican-caught-on-tape-jokes-of-give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic-bill/

Yeah, I'm not too surprised by that. The scene came across more as Danielle wanting to control things/get camera time than any real moral objection. Repeated comments like Joe's (he made at least three throughout the evening) probably aren't intended to hurt, but they can...but she just handled it in such a cold way and her type of reaction is likely to make someone make even more comments.

I don't think they will ever give Gennie or Nikhil a story, so if they are together it will likely be by default. Emmerdale would rather throw stories at dead weight like Katie and the Maceys and the 30 year old foster child, or overexposed, unpleasant bores like Aaron and Hazel. Nikhil and Gennie, who always bring their best to scenes and who are entertaining (and Nikhil is one of the most stunning men I've ever seen), just aren't good enough for Emmerdale.

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.