DRW50

I love Cali Timmons's work in this May 1991 episode, especially the way she brushes off Iris on her way out of Tops. Cali and Carmen were so believable as sisters. Iris is great in this episode too, making the most out of her brusque treatment by Sharlene. I always liked Sharlene, but this story doesn't do a lot for me, aside from the truly hilarious acting of the woman who plays Taylor Benson ("JUST LIKE I DID TO JERRY!"). Sharlene's constant drumbeat of "How dare you chair the ethics committee and you'd better be impartial so I'm going to hurl abuse at you just so you'll be impartial!" is also self-defeating and annoying. The great thing in this episode is the wide variety of strong female characters. There are more in this ONE episode than in all of daytime today. I miss AW so much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yWoxBd6thk&feature=channel

Eric and Elizabeth Pollard say -- been there, done that. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s3/coronation-street/news/a277952/corrie-planning-tram-crash-murder.html

I had seen a negative-ish reaction to this episode at several boards so I was surprised at how much I liked it. Probably because I liked how much time was spent on everyday little scenes building up to the christening, like speeches being prepared, women getting ready, men being impatient. I understood what Jodie was trying to get across and I thought the actress did a decent job but the dialogue was odd and having her say those things while she was doing that strange crying was an odd choice. The scenes with Dot were very good (poor Jim, that was a bit of a low blow she made bringing up his abandoning Paul and Anthony). The scene where she talked about the Slaters reminded me a lot of Corrie for some reason, although it was a nice nod to history. Great that Kat's back. She's brought out the first spark Mo's had in years, and seeing Charlie and Stacey greet her was nice. Jean's reaction was also a bit odd... I'm going to miss Sam, there's something very interesting about her this time around, how she is very selfish and sometimes tries to fight this.

The first Burke left because of alcoholism. He just stopped showing up, I believe. Anthony George stays for the rest of Burke's run.

Can't wait to hear what you have to say. I guess soaps are a faith.

Thanks for posting that. (I hate the way she wears her hair! She reminds me of Tinkerbell). Looks like the fight between Stacey and Janine will be rougher than I thought. Weird seeing Kat just standing there. She loves a good brawl. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3144507/Brawling-Branning.html

I think they knew killing off Jackson wouldn't have had the same reaction. The show has not done anything to make us believe Aaron cares about Jackson. This isn't new for Emmerdale. Cain killed, I believe, two dogs, to try to hurt people. The Reynolds family dog, and then he poisoned Sadie King's beloved dog, Damon. What bothers me is that this whole "let's kill someone off to make us pity the thug that cares about them" is so close to what American soaps do, like Todd on OLTL. Between this and the asexuality it's just tough to care about Aaron now.

I'm looking forward to the stuff with Charlie. I just wish Lynne or Little Mo could also pop in for a visit while Charlie is still there. Kat can play anything. A lot of people forget that. When you watch the 2003 episodes, for instance, she goes from some casual one-liners to deep pathos. Like the episodes where she thinks Alfie sees her as a whore. There were many moments when Kat was not shouting at anyone. That's the secret of a character like Kat. The quiet moments building up to the big ones.

Yes. Julia carried the show at certain points. She was supposed to be Dr. Julian Hoffman, but a typo made it Julia and Dan Curtis said "Why not."

Thanks for finding that. Sounds like it could be good. I know a lot of fans hate the loud type of comedy or theatrics and I can see why but if anyone makes that work it's Kat.

Billy was beaten as a child and also put in a home, I think. Billy then went on to beat his nephew Jamie Mitchell. Billy has moved on from that though, although sometimes I wonder what would happen if he began beating Jay. In terms of current reasons Janine isn't very popular, she schemed to get the car lot from Jack Branning, and she schemed with Archie Mitchell to get the Vic from the Mitchells. This involved making Ian think they'd had sex and blackmailing him into signing control of the Vic or the money for the Vic or whatever over to Archie. Archie threw her out of his life as soon as he got the Vic. Janine then began acting like his grieving widow (although she did seem to genuinely be fond of Archie) until she learned he'd left her nothing but one of those things where the metal balls tap together. Didn't she cut the strings off that? I can't remember.

Looks like the 91-92 episodes will be off Youtube and Hulu at the end of the month. I guess I'd better start watching them...

I think Fatboy works fine as comic relief, but I'm sure they will probably develop him further. Otherwise they likely would have fired him. I hadn't heard that about Emma Rigby. I can't picture her as Lucy Beale at all.

Most of those characters were gone within a year or two anyway, those you said should have gone. I think Huw and Lenny were two of the show's more underrated comic relief characters. People like Minty show just how awful comic relief characters can be. So Jimi Mistry is on Strictly Come Dancing this year. He played a gay doctor on Eastenders ten years ago, although it doesn't seem to be something most people cared about (he mentioned it for some reason last year, as I think he was surprised they had another gay Asian). Anyway, I had also totally forgotten about Josie McFarlane. Apparently the actress unloaded on the show...to say the least! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josie_McFarlane#Criticism It's a shame that she, and the woman who played Audrey Trueman, and Yolande, all had so much to complain about. All the British soaps have struggled to have compelling and leading black female characters. Of all of them Eastenders have come the closest, with Carmel and Denise, but they also have a lot of room to grow.

I know the ratings weren't great and the show was seen as being in a lull. I don't know if it ever reached the level of hostility which 2003-2006 seemed to reach. Or 1989. I think that a lot of the stuff on the show in 1996 and 1997 was OK, especially with the Jacksons. It did seem kind of aimless, and I was so annoyed by Sarah Hills, and a lot of other stories were kind of dull (like Kathy's affair with the vicar). Probably the time when I thought the show was getting really bad was when the Irish relatives came in. My reaction to Mary and Conor was HATE HATE HATE. I did enjoy the wrapup to Cindy taking the kids, which happened in summer 1997 I believe.

Who is the punk? Sue is one of those characters where the aggressiveness doesn't bother me as much because you see the pain and insecurity. I always enjoy that scene where she kicks Mary out of the cafe. The early episodes have a lot of fun moments with Lofty and Ethel. I don't think that happened as much later on. I don't know if you're looking for Dot but she isn't in the first 20-30 episodes... Mark's death was kind of a copout because Louise Berridge said she didn't want people to think you wouldn't die from AIDS, yet Mark didn't even die oncamera. I wish they'd just had Mark leave town and have him return for visits when the family needed him. Todd Carty would have, and I think it's a message of hope. I was proud of GL for having Susan Bates, who had HIV, leave town alive and healthy, instead of killing her off. This is a good article by someone who is watching the PBS episodes even though they know everything which is going to happen later on. It reminds me of about ten years ago when I was watching 1997 episodes on PBS and then learned that most of the characters, some of whom I loved, were leaving or had left, and some had gotten awful exits. I ended up stopping my viewing, and didn't get back into it until a few years later with the Slaters on BBC America. It's hard to believe that 1997 EE and 2000 EE were only three years apart. It seems like a lifetime. http://www.walfordweb.co.uk/item.php?id=1680

Mark died in 2003 or 2004. Mark was initially supposed to have a storyline about being a white supremacist, but the actor was very upset by the story and by the show's popularity and very quickly left. He remained on the show in a recurring capacity until he committed suicide in 1987 or 1988. Ian and Sharon, yes. Sue isn't annoying, she's wonderful

Yeah. I often wonder if Lisa Brown would have returned if asked, since she's close to Martha, or if they never even bothered to ask. I also wonder if they bothered to ask Rosemary Prinz, who was never mentioned in the show's last year, even when her mother was buried. Wheeler made many mistakes and she should have done a better job actually giving the returning favorites more story but she did bring them back and she let us say goodbye and know most of our old friends were well. The cheap format also enabled stuff like Lisa Brown ad-libbing some great moments. And again, while I wish the story had had more time, she gave Vanessa a happy ending I had long ago given up on.

I think it is much more dramatic to have him die from his own actions when everyone assumed he had grown up and if he was in any danger it would be in the army. If I bought his army story then I might be more invested in him being killed in action but the whole thing was so poorly written I think it would be a disservice.

That's good news about Charlotte. I hope she comes back. I don't see the point in writing her out. It's not like the students are full of fascinating names. I read a comment at DS saying it was OK she left because she didn't live up to her potential and was not part of a unit. I'm not sure what units have to do with it -- the Valentines were a huge part of the show and a big family unit, but Marquess still knew they had to go. The show isn't really in a place to where they can just keep firing people, especially since many of the new characters have been iffy.

Wow, thanks for finding those!! The best years of Eastenders, and of any soap ever.

I feel the same way. I also remembered how much more Wheeler, for her many faults, seemed to care about GL. Even when I did get some great stuff I wanted in ATWT's last year, I never sensed a lot of caring from Goutman. I felt that strongly in the finale.

I'm thrilled but also surprised. I'm sure people might say this is some sort of issue that Kirkwood has with Devon Anderson but IMO the truth is that Devon is a terrible actor who never should have returned in the first place. Everything with the yoof gang story and Billie/Whitney was awful but Devon's performances didn't exactly overcome the material. I think that Billie has more dramatic material dead than alive, and I say that as someone who hates killing off characters for a stunt. This should be amazing material for Lindsey Coulson and for the rest of the Brannings. I can't wait to see Alan and Blossom again!! I imagine the reunion between Alan and Carol is going to be ugly but should be riveting. I'm really happy the show remembered them. That whole era of Eastenders, 1996, 1997, I have very fond memories of. I'm not sure I'd be watching now if I hadn't seen all that on PBS years ago.

Nice bit of comedy with Heather, Minty, and the vicar. They are both pathetic characters but at least Heather is starting to get self-respect as Minty is almost gone. Not too thrilled with a lot of this stuff with Phil getting the Arches back so quickly. I don't believe Pat would be so easily convinced to give the garage back to a man who has barely started recovering from a crippling drug addiction. Phil could cost someone their life -- actually he has already done that with cars when sober... Enjoying Sam, especially when she's rude to Heather. The simpering I don't care for as much but I did like her scene with Ronnie and the baby clothes. I also liked the scenes with Ricky and Liam, Liam's insecurities are something which have been going for a year now, it's a nice little story thread. The stuff with Kim and the pub was a fun filler story. Nice to see Patrick again too. I get that the scenes with Shirley ordering Billy around are supposed to show that she's in charge but I don't think they're coming across as intended.