DRW50

I think any writer tends to deplore cliches in others but uses them in their own work. On GL, wasn't Carrie and Diane meeting up again in Springfield meant to be a coincidence? Unfortunately, thanks to miscasting Jackie and then all of those characters becoming so defined by Carrie for Marland's run (and Alan on redeeming himself, although I think that would have regressed even if Marland had stayed) the layers and power of the story were completely taken away.

Thanks guys. At around 55 minutes you have a Peggy McCay ad for A1. She is using a French accent. Very amusing.

I think BtG will be better quality than GH, and I think GH has a very set audience, not likely to trample over BtG - many of that show's potential viewers would never go near GH these days. I just feel like the genre is in such a weak state that any of them will be lucky to survive, let alone be in competition. That's more a soap world of 40 years ago. And given how many at BtG helped make GH what it is today, I think people who are expecting a big change may be in for a surprise. Given how cold and selfish she tends to be, I'd think she'd be more suited for DVX.

At around 2 hours and 22 minutes you get a minute or two of the show. I think this is a fragment from an episode that may have already been on Youtube years ago but I may be completely wrong.

Sorry if this was already put up (I searched but that isn't always enough) - this Italian channel interviewed a number of alum. I think the Frank Beaty interview may have been posted here before, but there are some others, including a few who don't get as much attention, like Carolyn Ann Clark (Lesley Ann) and Katell Pleven (Dana). I do see that Clark was on Locher Room, but I don't think Pleven ever was. I skimmed through both a little. Clark gets some dates wrong but that's understandable given how many years have passed. She also mentioned that they killed Lesley Ann to make viewers feel sorry for Warren. Whatever attempts at making him sympathetic the show had clearly didn't last long as that character was probably one of the biggest haters on GL.

Bringing in Mulcahey.

I feel like some of the ideas of GH being terrified are inadvertently setting BtG up for a fall. I am reminded of a few years ago when Neighbours was revived and some Home & Away fans who were sick of the show were saying Neighbours was going to hurt it and Home & Away should be scared, etc. (it made no sense as they weren't even in competing timeslots) And look where we are today. GH has many problems and has for a long time. ABC had the opportunity to step in and backed down, probably in part because viewers seemingly rejected the attempts at change. So now we're stuck here, and likely will be for the rest of GH's lifespan.

Having Jackie as sympathetic was a much better idea, as it adds so much more of an ache to the story - attaching herself to Alan for the sake of her son, a secret no one else knew, and yet losing Philip all over again anyway. The moments where she offers support to Elizabeth in spite of Elizabeth having all she ever wanted for herself are achingly beautiful. Adam always feeling guilty about making Roger who he was does make some sense for the blindness, until he just couldn't anymore (and unlike many others, never forgave Roger). That would explain why he wrote Philip out. The poor recasting of Jackie, writing out Elizabeth, etc. took so much out of a story that should have been at a peak.

There are some people who only start to care if a child is in the picture, so that part was realistic. I know Lisa wasn't from the South, but I think Eileen often played her with a certain Southern flair, Scarlett O'Hara tones at times, which must have had some impact. I agree with @Reverend Ruthledge that Nancy being against the relationship would have made sense, but beyond her volunteering at the Earl Mitchell Center she had little involvement in their lives. Her being uneasy about Hank being close to Andy would have made a lot of sense, but Marland didn't ever seem to want to write her in a negative or judgmental manner, other than moments here and there like how put off she was about Emily/Paul.

Kim's back on Locher Room, with Paul Fitzgerald (who played Reva's doctor in the show's last few years).

Yes. Thanks for your kind words. I have so little to say about EE these days, but I figure I may as well say it in both places when I do.

Martin's last years, and death, are if nothing else a reminder of the idea of "legacy children" vs the reality. There may be no greater "legacy child" than Martin, but he was never quite given that treatment - ill-used for parts of James Alexandrou's run and then underused for most of James Bye's. Everything finally seemed to be in place for him when he and Stacey married - one of the few strengths of SOC's run - and then it was all ripped away, only to be brought back, at the last minute, to serve as a funeral shroud. I don't see this as a damning moment for Chris Clenshaw, partly because I never had him on a pedestal in the first place, but mostly because he's just continuing what has long been in place. The problem for me with this type of death in this type of moment is that it serves more of an anniversary moment, or the end of a producer's run, when the characters, who do not know of any producers or anniversaries, will not face that same awareness. Most of those close to Martin are going soon, and by the time they return, those who do return, Martin will be a distant memory. If it's a death meant to shock viewers, I think that approach made more sense in the soap world of 2010 than 2025, where they have much less cultural relevance. I can't see any of this moving most viewers beyond those who are already invested, and even many of them may not have a big reaction given Martin's irrelevance to the canvas for much of Bye's run. To be honest, although I think Lacey and James did their best, I didn't really feel the same response I felt when Bradley died. I think I've just seen this so much with Stacey, with EE, with soaps in general. There was something raw in that moment which has been, for me, lost. If it's a death meant to mark a certain emotional endpoint for EE, then I suppose it does, but I'm not sure the message is what the show intended. The Fowlers were intended as the normal family when EE began, our glimpse into the everyday. They have trickled away, some given poignant, powerful exits, some among the worst in the show's history. Martin's death is just another reminder of how that sense of reality is gone, maybe can never be allowed in today's soap climate. Then I think of what's left of the early Fowlers. Kathy, who only seems to get story in the last few years if she is involved in murder coverups or, if she actually did attack Cindy, is committing attempted murder (and leaving the mother of her great-grandson, currently pregnant with another great-grandchild, to suffer untold stress), and Ian, who is trapped with Cindy in repeating a loop of earlier, much better storylines, in material that is often a struggle to get through (In my opinion). The family, and the normality they brought to EE, may be at their lowest ebb, and I don't see that turning around anytime soon. And with Martin gone that is just even more of an uncertainty. Wonderful as it was to see Angie again, and it was, indeed, wonderful, one of the most effective returns the show has ever had, her presence was also a reminder of how much more comfortable modern EastEnders has been in referencing back to the past for "moments" than it has been in actually using that past to benefit the current canvas. Another anniversary. Another death. Another moment. Those pass. Unfortunately, the damage left by relying on those moments lasts forever.

A Rituals promo at the very end of this video.

Very sorry to hear that. You're right - he did record Hold Onto Love with Roberta. A lovely song.

Just any of the early '50s soaps that only ran for a year or two (or less) and only have one or two episodes available. Thanks. So not in New York then.

Emmerdale's social team were very smart to upload so much of this on Youtube as otherwise I wouldn't be watching any of it. I haven't really been able to muster up interest in anything on most of the soaps lately, but I felt like I owed Leyla this, somehow. Was the scene of Mandy's drink splashing in her face intended to be so funny? It was like something from that old Madonna "Music" video. Watching the video with the limo crash aftermath and the acting was overall better than the material deserves, although Michelle Hardwick, veered between passable and extremely hammy. I didn't believe anything she was feeling. Amy is stronger than me because if I had Tracy yammering in my ear that much, I don't think I could make it. There was a bit too much going on at various points where Liam and Amy were both near-death and Kerry and Leyla were also near-death. The whole Liam/Chas star-crossed aspect did work for me. Liam looked very dashing when he was near-death. He would be perfect in one of those Victorian-era pieces, dying of consumption. I'm surprised Liam is still here, but when the village gets some good community dick, I guess they're not going to let it go without a fight. I actually liked the idea of the stunt. I wish they'd done it in the years when they actually had a budget. It's unbelievably miserable to see Leyla realizing that she is going to die and watching everyone around her get saved. She doesn't get any last moment. Everyone else was worrying about somebody while she was just alone and lost, dying before our eyes. They couldn't even give her a moment with Jacob, because in death she had to be a plot device for the angst of others. Nothing was about her. It's not fair. Then we see Kerry...dragging her corpse, and way too much of Kerry crawling. Harry Hill would have been in ecstasy. This whole situation is very grim already, but I think there would have been more dramatic power if Kerry had died too. Have a shot of everyone who had escaped looking on numb as the limo with Leyla, Kerry and Suzy goes under. What annoyed me most in all this is the cliches, moments we've seen so many times they take me right out of the moment. Everything with Vanessa's reaction to Suzy. And Jacob's to Leyla. This is a relationship I always wanted to see properly developed but it never really happened. So any time he calls her "mum" I don't think that ever felt genuine. When they had him doing the chest compressions, all I could think was why do we always need to see this on television? When was the last time you reacted to it? Every single moment was a cliche, and not a very well-executed one, with the exception of the moment where the lady doctor hugged Jacob. She's a good actress. I loved Leyla from the first time we saw her, hitting on Pollard in his old factory. I stopped watching Emmerdale on a regular basis years ago and even by that point it was clear the show was done with the character. I never really stopped caring about Leyla, even if the show did. I'll always think of what should have been. If I think too much of how special the old Pollard/Metcalfe family unit was and what was done to it, I just get deeply sad. Farewell, Leyla. We won't forget you, or how much better you deserved.

"As the World Turns" Promo (1990)

Thanks. Any time you hear of an interracial relationship on a soap you hear about death threats. You hear so much hostility now about interracial relationships and how they are establishment and selling out and so on that it can be easy to overlook just what a risk the soaps were taking, especially one with as conservative an audience as ATWT. The show didn't do right by Jessica in the end, but there were a few years where you saw all the possibilities. I'm glad Tamara is able to speak out about her experiences and the pressures she was under.

Thanks. That whole period seemed to revolve around which character Guza or Guza/Pratt wanted to minimize.

https://variety.com/lists/anonymous-oscar-ballots-2025-brutalist-conclave-anora/supporting-actor-and-actress-are-both-predictable-and-chaotic/

Thanks. Saying it was one of the oldest soaps after 3 years. I guess at that time they didn't expect any to last.

Thanks @chrisml . I had never known anything about that final theme or who wrote it, or maybe I had just forgotten because it was never very memorable to me. I'd say scoring a theme to a soap about to be canceled is another sign of his industry fortunes, but he did win an Emmy and we're talking about him 40 years later, so who am I to criticize? I have to say I prefer the instrumental. Here is the video for the album version, which features four of the stars of Search's final year. If you ever fantasized about Matt Ashford starring in Grease, this is your moment. I wish more of those early short-lived soaps were available, although the scraps we've seen haven't exactly been enthralling. I'm not sure they ever said the state. I used to think it was New York but I am not sure why.

@Paul Raven Thanks for all your answers and kind words. Makes sense as to why Burr would leave in that case. I sure miss the New York soaps and what they were able to do for theater actors. I always get confused over the other Bergman child. Makes no sense to just forget/rewrite/forget, although I know that was much more common in these years. Speaking of that, when Jo was saying all she had was Patty (very poignant), I thought this would be the perfect time for her to mention losing Duncan Eric, as he was Arthur's son. I guess he was out of sight, out of mind. Something else I appreciated in these episodes and don't see often on soaps past the '70s or so is the characters having little moments like crossword puzzles or card games to help ease us into their conversations. They wanted us to think of these characters as being real. @SoapDope I didn't know that. Wish IMDB could combine them. @vetsoapfan That clip is perfect for what we were talking about. I can even see Emily in there... Thanks for your kind words. I don't have the best turn of phrase but when I actually do enjoy soap content as much as I enjoyed these episodes, I need to get the words out while I can. If you were watching the episodes at the time they aired I hope they bring back good memories for you. I totally forgot Jo and Stu were step-siblings at one point. @chrisml That's such a great find. I didn't even know of this other sister. Those blurbs are the closest we'll get to seeing many of these episodes, unless we develop time travel.

It's just naked Russian propaganda. He is beholden to Russia and China and we aren't even meant to care. Oh that's fear-mongering, crying wolf. He is putting out one executive order after another to remove any power over him, President Elon is going to gut social security, the VA, etc. but no, we're still just hysterical.