DRW50

Thanks for the photos. What story are Roman and Deniz having right now?

I wish they'd mentioned Jake or Belinda. I guess this dashes my hopes of Belinda returning. I was very fascinated by the way they put the special together. It was seamlessly done with the right approach to humor and to hard-hitting topics like Kat/Zoe. They had a few lines in there which were in the Revealed from 2001 or 2002, like talking about the story ideas for the Slaters, but they also had some new material. Did you notice that they had Jessie Wallace trying to add some humor to the tragic stuff with Kat, so that people wouldn't be too depressed in a lighthearted special? I hadn't heard a lot of those stories before, like the one about the girls saying Kat couldn't be dead because she'd put her lipstick on. I wonder why they didn't include Danielle among the Mitchells who have been on the show since Kat and Alfie left, especially since she was a biological Mitchell and Danny wasn't. I liked some of their jokes about how things had changed, especially the joke about Sam. That stuff with Kat having to sleep with Andy seemed so unpleasant. I've heard those stories weren't very popular. Poor Nana Moon. I wonder if their mentioning Spencer means he might return at some point. Was anyone else surprised they didn't use the special to talk about Michael Moon? I wonder if Kacey Ainsworth not being interviewed in this means that her appearance at the studio might have been for an episode.

From May 1 1990 SOD. News America Publishing. Too bad Marlee never appeared on LOVING, she's a good actress and that might have helped give them some more publicity. The second photo was part of a "Thumbs Up." I'll type that out in a minute.

Thanks both of you for filling me in more on the sets. The living room does look like a Bell set -- I guess that's through Conboy. Funny to hear about the raccoon coat, which I always associate with Archie for some reason (Archie used to wear them in the old old days). SFK I love your descriptions of the scenes. I should look for those. I can imagine Myrna on all those phones. The quote is very funny, although you do have to feel sorry for him, as he basically says at the end that the sets are better than the scripts. There was another brief line in there about Capitol that I can't remember right now.

That's a charitable way to put it! I'm going to put a fur fashion show from ATWT in the tribute thread for ATWT, and if you have a chance I hope you can make some comments on it. It's just so random, the middle of this very suspenseful stalker story, and then suddenly there's Kim emceeing furs on parade in Caroline's. It's kind of weird seeing Julianne Moore in fur, although I think hers might have been "fun fur" or whatever it's called. As Kim says, perfect for a ski trip! You're right about Ben getting some sort of sexual pleasure out of it. The whole scene is so weird, and hilarious, and somewhat pointless, as you know Alexis isn't going to die.

Dallas is better written but to me JR is just exhausting and not overly entertaining when so heavily featured, and I think they started reusing a lot of stories very early on (poor Pam, drunk Sue Ellen). I think Dallas was a better show in quality, but is a tougher show to replicate. Dynasty was a weaker show, but I think the elements of the show at its best, just pure camp and star power, can be recreated with the right touch. Even when the writing was poor Alexis or Sammi Jo or some of the others could get your attention. Dynasty's worst sin was those years when it just became flat out boring.

I thought it was a nice touch that Heather said the stairs at Ethel's place were a burden -- I think that's why Ethel had to move out. Seeing Dot talk about her relationship with Charlie and how she kept a blind eye to criminal activity so she could take care of Nick was a great scene, an unexpected moment. I also liked her, "What did I do?" type of reaction when Heather decided to go along with her idea. I'm also glad that they didn't have Heather crush on Alfie or anything. Seeing Alfie meet various people again is the type of thing you should see with a returning character. I'm glad they got most of the relationships right, and that he even remembered Darren. I'm sorry that Barbara wasn't there long enough for Peggy and Alfie to meet again. For some reason I get the feeling that Eastenders is much more comfortable writing for Alfie than they are for Kat. Does anyone else get that? I thought it would have been the opposite. I know some people think Kat is too angry and I can understand that, hopefully it won't go on for too much longer. I think more than anything she's just scared, because of her past history and whatever happened with Alfie. I guess the BBC has little budget these days but I think that Kat and Alfie could have done with a spinoff which would show them six months ago, or however long it was before Alfie was sent to prison. The scenes with Charlie, I'm glad they are having some of those before Charlie is gone. Yeah the whole "I was never good enough for you" is old history but history never goes away and new viewers can be caught up on a bit of this. I enjoyed the Bianca/Kat scene because it wasn't anything seriously nasty. I can see where it was superfluous but also felt believable, people who are frustrated taking things out on the closest target. Unlike Roxy/Kat I can see where Bianca and Kat might become friends. I hope Kat might get to have some bonding moments with other women, or with Stacey. This week was the making of Big Mo. Or the remaking. I was ready to write her off but she's still got life left in her with Kat and the old Slater schemes around. The Glenda/Leon stuff wasn't as bad as I had expected. I don't think Leon is attractive BUT he does look better with the new haircut, so I can see what Amello means about him. And I can see where Glenda, feeling worthless, ends up trying to charm him. The conflict between Glenda and Carol was interesting, I wouldn't mind seeing that become a longer-running story, as they are very different women who took very different paths in life yet are somehow in the exact same place. I didn't quite buy the whole thing about the Golds going to eat at the cafe, although I guess Harry was trying to make Vanessa as uncomfortable as possible. The scenes with Max and Darren felt slightly unfinished. I really liked that last Stax scene, I wish I could see them just sitting around drinking and laughing. I never thought that would happen.

I remember reading about that song when it came out but had never heard it. She's a great singer. Some of the lyrics are hilarious, I'm not sure if they were supposed to be or not. I love that they have him wearing that awful red suit when they want us to know he's gay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSg1Z4AwDCw

I do wonder about Heather lately. Beyond some surgery issues, she just doesn't seem to have as much spark, perhaps because of personal problems. I agree with you that Dynasty seems more timely, and timeless. Dynasty and Dallas were both about oil but oil was blood on Dallas and I don't know if people really want to see that right now after BP, and Texas cowboys are still not overly popular after the last decade. Dynasty, oil was more generic, an excuse, not something Blake really cared about. I just wish we could see REAL glamour and REAL beauty make a return. I also think there's a lot you could mine out of Dynasty. I think it would be interesting to have middle-aged Steven still confused about his sexuality and then you have his son as being openly gay and proud and exasperated by his father's endless vacillation and pity parties. And Fallon would be his indulgent aunt who hides behind attempts at youth to mask her pain over bad choices.

That fur coat of Krystle's looked so cheap. I think Jill has that same coat on Y&R. I always wondered why they had Ben hold Krystle back. Did he want Alexis to die? I sometimes wonder about a remake. I think a remake would be better than remaking shows which were way too recent, like 90210 and Melrose, and I'd rather see this remade than Dallas, but is our culture ready for fun and camp? Fun and camp today seems to be one frozen-faced bimbo muttering insults to another frozen-faced bimbo through lips that don't move. And I have this awful image of someone casting "Speidi" or twits from Jersey Shore.

Thanks for posting that clip. When you see Charlie now you might think oh that's just Charlie, poor Charlie, and forget that he was a somewhat dark, and not overly pleasant man. I had to laugh when he went on about how nice Zoe was. And that's back when Kat and Zoe had flat chests... I had forgotten that Derek Martin was a pretty decent actor. Kat was in so much pain and the show always did a good job of putting that across and trying to keep a balance with her instead of writing her one way and saying something else.

Yes, why all the black cabs, why did no one die?? Why didn't Minty get a better exit, why didn't he get Julia's Theme?? He had an entire story devoted to his departure and he got a happy ending, walking off to a new life with an old friend. Would some random death or some piece of music slapped on have made a difference? They're lucky I wasn't writing, as I would have dropped a house on him. That whole big reaction is one of the reasons I'm surprised Kirkwood is still going on This Morning, as some of the fans are probably upset and might call in to speak their mind. Or do they do call ins? I can understand some of the reaction to too many baby stories, but stuff like "Rack is ruined!" or "This is out of character for Jack" I don't get. What character?

I think it is done now. I can understand the idea, as it helps get attention, and the ratings for this week were pretty good. I think Peggy had a lot of cliffhangers right before she left. I know some fans were upset about Alfie not getting any duff duffs. Speaking of that it's interesting to see how disparate the DS forums and the Walford Web forums are right now. Both have fans who don't like Kat and Alfie, and I can understand why someone wouldn't like them, but it seems much more heated at Digital Spy, where pretty much anything they say or do is automatically hated. The WW forums seem to be more accepting even if some don't like the characters. I just wonder where all the "This show is so bad now what happened!!!" people were in 2008 and 2009. Then again maybe that was a beloved era, I don't know.

How nice that Jo Joyner managed to get in yet another inappropriate smirk... I just don't really get this character.

Leon would have to wear a bag over his head...

It's bizarre they didn't even keep Jake around long enough for this. Why do I have a feeling that a lot of the funeral will be about Cheryl?

That is Tanya and Max. Ugh, can't stand Tanya, she's so stuck up and self-righteous and cold and uses her children as weapons while trying to take the moral high ground... So did you see the buried alive stuff?

It's one of the worst I've ever seen. There's another one in there too.

Corrie cast photo. See if you can guess who's been Photoshopped in. http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c71692/media/image/201009/phpKkCkbACoro_St_Cast_Photo.jpg

Jack is Bradley's uncle. Don't worry, the show doesn't know that most of the time anyway. The blonde, Clare, is blackmailing Ian because she set the whole thing up from the start. Clare was first on the show back from 93-98 or so when she was a young girl. She was generally nice. They made her a bad carbon copy of the actress' Hollyoaks character when she returned. Lazy and counterproductive.

Also in this issue is an article on soap sets. The photo is of the sarcophagus, which is Styrofoam painted gold. That's sculptor Frank Lincoln Viner and scenic artist Stuart Boughton. I will type up the sections which talk about RH.