DRW50

It's a nice photo. They all look very dapper (Rick would look even better with a bit less hair). I had forgotten Wendy Kaplan filled in as Eleni. I don't remember that. I often forget exactly when Melina K left.

From an early '95 Update.

I love the look on Jane's face. I wonder if any of her future co stars ever found that and humiliated her.

From the August 13, 1985 SOD. Network Publishing Co

What stood out for you with Linda Gibboney? Did she leave or was she fired? From the August 13, 1985 episode, SB's 200th episode. Network Publishing Co

From the August 13, 1985 SOD. S. O. D. Publishing Inc. Was this story any good? I am not a big fan of Nancy, from the little I've seen of her.

I actually think Nick works as a character with the proper writing. I think all of his returns were OK until the last one, which made him into a joke and like so much of Santer's run, was far too self-aware.

Dot was also basically on her own, she lived her life for Nick and kept hidden, in some ways, because of him. It still surprises me that Nick's first story, the one where he drove Mark towards racism and tried to get him hooked on heroin and Mark fled town and Nick was run out, was done entirely without Dot onscreen. I think they would just mention her, like saying her flat had been turned over by Nick, or whatever.

I know there was a lot of Ethel/Lou stuff but I usually remember Lou with the Fowlers/Beales and Ethel with Dot and with Lofty and in the Vic. Ethel was a very mobile character in her best years. I think that photo out there of Lou/Dot/Ethel is misleading, because they were never really a Martha/Minnie/Ena type of relationship.

I think Lou was too tough to ever really be a close friend to anyone. Ethel was also very close to Dot after Lou's death.

Why would they be?

Yeah, I won't be surprised if all the characters you mentioned leave. I think Alan and Betty might stay because they are old and the show might just keep them on as long as they are still able to act, but still, I can't even assume that. And I also wonder about Terry. I keep forgetting he's still on the show. He's one of my favorite vets but geez if Viv is going he probably would too. Emmerdale has so many new characters now and many of them barely even have a purpose - they have barely given the Sharmas one story in well over a year, Ryan and Faye still seem pointless, the writing for Jackson is awful and he is basically only used to make Aaron into a sympathetic sociopath - and I really don't know what the village will look like with these random faces who come and go, while those who help make the constant of village life are written out. And yet Katie goes nowhere...

Holy s***, it looks like they fired Deena Payne. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s12/emmerdale/news/a281332/deena-payne-to-leave-emmerdale.html Viv was such a fantastic character when they actually wrote for her. She was also one of the few ties left to the old Emmerdale, one which did not revolve around characters who tend to leave after a few years. When a show loses touch with its roots it pays a price in ratings and in quality. It was obvious that Blyth had little use for Viv but to actually write her out, especially when she is one of the longest serving female characters, is sad. This makes me wonder about other women he has little time for, like Val. I have had an increasingly difficult time being invested in Emmerdale, and decisions like this are an example of why.

I looked it up, and it's Shirley Stelfox, who has been on Emmerdale for years as the one of a kind Edna Birch. She was also on Keeping Up Appearances as the first Rose. And on Brookside for a while. I never knew she was on Eastenders. I just hated Sarah Hills...the story where Rob was falsely accused of rape was good though.

BTW, Amello, you can see Charlotte Bellamy/Emmerdale's Laurel at 2:58 or so.

http://www.igs.net/~awhp/special.html

Carol had kept this from everyone for quite a while after the family moved to Walford and David showed up. She and David had issues but no one except Pat, I think, knew why.

I wasn't watching on a regular basis when Tiffany and Simon had their mother around. Was she as annoying as she was in this clip? (and bleh to Alex Healy -- such an annoying accent).

Michael Jackson joke, really? That guy is kind of oddly hot though. Thanks for posting this. I didn't know about the video Carol watches. That's going to be so tough to see her reminded of the contempt Billy had for her. Poor Alan. I guess this explains why Sonia and Robbie don't return, even if Alan and Blossom are there. She might ban everyone from the funeral but Alan refuses to go, or he goes after an argument with Carol. So I wonder if Whitney and Peter are going to be a long term couple. Does that woman from Billy's past remind anyone of Laurie Metcalf?

I think there are places to go with Ronnie if they try (PPD, or moving on from Jack) but it's tougher for me to see with Roxy because she was basically just defined by Archie and by being immature, not a lot else. The whole baby story was such a mistake. I can see that. I guess the big change came when Bradley got Stacey to have an abortion. I think it was Santer who really changed that relationship and who had little interest in Stacey/Bradley, besides will they/won't they. Bradley was just an attachment to Stacey's life while they tried to put her into bigger stories. Kat and Stacey both cheated on the men they loved, but whereas Kat only seems to do so if she has no choice or if she has been betrayed, it seemed like Stacey often just didn't really want Bradley enough to stay faithful, she always wanted more. I never really believed Stacey actually loved Bradley. He can do anything or be anything. Sometimes I think a producer is almost scared of that type of character, as the show kept Max on a very tight leash for several years. This year they had no choice but to let him loose and he proved to be invaluable, and held a lot of stories together. I hope this is just the start because he's like no other soap character. The best thing about him is his effortless chemistry with everyone, which is easy to take for granted.

That's true. I think if you shape a character to fit an actor and if you give them time to grow, they can be something special. I think all the soaps sometimes fall too much into tropes, like oh look at the feisty female, look at the hardman. One of the good things about a continuing drama is that people can change. If you push too much too quickly you end up with a character like Roxy, who is pretty much dead because they played everything out so fast. Eastenders at its best does have characters who are like no one else, and people we can love and hate. Like Max.

I wonder sometimes if the soaps can really create iconic characters now, or if the shows themselves are the characters now, trapped in their own history. I guess a lot also depends on marketing -- I don't think Stacey was ever anywhere near what Den or Angie or Kat or the Mitchells were, but she was marketed as a face for the show in the last few years and Lacey's talent also helped. I think if it's anyone it would be someone unexpected who just happens to capture the audience, and who is defined by themselves and not by any prefab outline (the one used to create, for instance, Zsa Zsa). Of the more recently added characters, I think Fatboy could become a pretty good character (not iconic, but pretty good) with the right material.

I guess they just figured they should fit him in as long as they could whether they had a story or not. Did he help the ratings any? I never liked Grant very much, although I did appreciate his charisma, so I was never attached to him the way a lot of fans were.

I kind of feel for Kirkwood because people start to say they don't want to hear anymore about transitions and everything has to be on his shoulders now but it's not quite that simple with a many-headed dragon like Eastenders. I think the show's generally quite good at the moment and my only main complaint (aside from making Kat pregnant and bringing in Michael Moon so quickly) would be pacing, which probably does have something to do with transition. Some stuff that people complain about is longstanding or from stories Santer started (like Jane being baby-obsessed and crazy-eyed). There's also the whole oh what has been done to Ronnie and Jack, when Santer pretty much destroyed that relationship anyway. Hopefully a fuller picture will come when Lucy is recast and when the Masoods get more storylines -- I know some fans are upset they have rarely been seen but after the butchery on Zainab and Masood thanks to the Syed story, they needed a break. I just hope their future material is better for them. Do you think Little Mo/Billy would work if he stayed on the show and she came back for good (I hope she has better hair now)? They seem to have extended the exits of Charlie, Jean, and Stacey. I wonder if that means they have something else planned for Christmas. It was cheap. They were saying goodbye to Ross Kemp (too bad they couldn't have given him anything interesting to do). Their personal issues came out again when they didn't give Pauline a Julia's Theme because they didn't like Wendy.

I'm still going through June 91, which means I probably won't be done with most of the episodes before they're removed, but anyway, the one episode was just a bit bizarre, with Paulina telling Jake she was going to join a convent to get away from him, and then they actually show her and Jake outside the convent (although it looked more like a cemetery). The best part of the episode was Ada meeting up with Carl for the first time in years, and Carl trying to schmooze her. "The pleasure's all YOURS," says Ada. Love her. I can't imagine her being able to grasp the idea of Carl/Rachel, although if it made Rachel happy she would have gone along. The guy who is dating Amanda is kind of hot. For some reason he reminds me of someone who used to be in those soft porn movies on Cinemax. I am VERY annoyed when people stop by Cass and Kathleen's place to harangue Cass about how he could hurt Frankie. The smugness of Dean, who, for all his talk about Frankie, barely ever actually spends time with her and instead "helps" her by paying Kathleen's wages and berating Cass at random moments, is especially grating. The show has no one to argue Kathleen's point of view while Frankie gets to have Ryan there to hold her hand as she moans about how she wants to sell her house and isn't she sad. I was going to ask about Lorna. Did people in Bay City ever learn that she worked for Carl? And how did the show keep Lorna around after they made it pretty clear that she had no problem helping to plot Kathleen's murder? Was this ever brought up later on?