DRW50

That sucks, especially since, from what I've heard, some people felt that movie was a copout, especially the ending. I wonder if this is one the reasons Marland left.

I guess it must be. I didn't know they were forced to end it. That's odd, since ABC was more progressive than ATWT/P&G, yet that show allowed Marland to do a long, very painful incest story. Or perhaps this was because Loving had just started out and they wanted happier stories for ratings? Were Jack and Stacey the couple from early on or was Lily his original love?

So Steve was killed to bring Trucker in? I know Shana and Jim were written out around 1993 or 1994. Shana seemed very unique to me, so it's too bad she had to go. One of the reasons I was drawn into Loving when the show was winding down was their interesting female characters (Ava, Gwyn, Deborah...even Steffi and Ally, to a degree). In the 1987 episode I didn't know what that was about with Gwen and the young man Ann and Ava accused her of having an affair with. So apparently he was her son. Did they ever bring him back? I'm surprised he wasn't killed in the Loving murders. What did you think of Robert Duboc as Alex? I was looking at the 1991 recaps and saw that Ally had been involved with a man who was falsely accused of rape. That's interesting, since she falsely accused Danny of rape later on. Ann Williams' children put up a few clips of Ann's work as Lily Slater's mother. It's interesting to see Jennifer Ashe as Lily. I think Meg suited her a bit more. Patricia Kalember has a unique style for a young soap heroine. Was she the one with the priest brother? And Patricia was fired because she cut her hair, right? That seems silly.

The part I most liked, aside from getting to see more of Roya's Ava (she's quite striking, and she reminds me of Judy Tenuta for some reason) is the confrontation scene between Ann and Gwen. Ann seems like an interesting character. Why was she written out? Did they think Gwen was the only somewhat older woman they needed on the canvas? That Lily is annoying. She replaced Jennifer Ashe, right? I was surprised at how good Mantooth was as Clay. Or "Clay".

I love this part at the end. Margo Huntington asks Cliff Nelson if anyone has ever told him what a rude young man he is, and he somewhat sheepishly grins and nods.

Thanks for posting this, and mentioning the Youtube account. Someone had mentioned that earlier this year but I'd forgotten. I was very impressed by how raw those clips seemed. Jennifer's madness and gunning Eunice down seems so stark. And the scene where she believes John has cheated on her is amazing, especially her work when she called the lodge. Do you think it was a mistake to kill off Eunice? I also read about a serial killer story in 1986, which killed off Stephanie. Who else was killed? Do you think that was a good idea? I guess that was just about the end of the show anyway wasn't it?

Russ still has the baby, Jacqui keeps looking but hasn't found him yet. I just wish they would do anything with Jacqui, anything of value. I liked her with Tony but now he's stuck with Cindy. There were rumors that Amy's absence was due to personal reasons. Or it may have been part of the story. In the story, Amy just vanished right after she gave birth. Ste had to take care of the kids on his own and this led to months and months of a story about a couple named Daniel and Abi and their plans to steal his baby. It was confusing, so I'll just link to the Wikipedia writeup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_Hollyoaks_characters_%282009%29#Natty

Amy vanished for much of the year. No one is entirely sure as to why the show did this, as it wasn't really announced, although I guess it was for story reasons. Amy is struggling with post partum depression and this also somehow has made her not even want to see her older daughter, Leah. Ste is raising both kids. I imagine this will turn around by next year and we may see them go back to Ste as the villain, but who knows. I really like the actor who plays Ste. I loved Jacqui when she first arrived. I still love Clare Cooper, who plays her, but I think they took a wrong turn with Jacqui when she became all about babies and when they took away her heart.

Did you think the move to supercouples (Liza/Steve and all that) and the trips to exotic locations modernized the show anyway? I haven't seen a lot of SFT but from what I'd read it seemed like people felt the show suffered from a loss of identity.

I was just thinking about how much I used to love the closing credits from around Christmas, showing the crew, with Jerry very Dorn saying, "From our family to yours..." I still miss Ross so much

I wish I could see the show from the mid-70s as I'd heard that was a good period for them. It does seem odd to me that P&G never really made the effort to find a stabilizing writer. If they and the networks had taken better care of their soaps, what might daytime be like today? Thanks for the article, Paul Raven. Interesting stuff. Here's the last moments of the 1983 Christmas episode. They also have an episode from December 16 1986. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYZhN-ID2nM That's Jennifer Gatti in the holiday party at the end right? I didn't know she was on SFT. I always thought she had such an exotic beauty.

CBS had moved the show around to different timeslots and the show had gone through many different styles and regimes. Schmering said CBS felt the show was a "dinosaur." They replaced it with Capitol, which didn't last the decade. Then B&B, which has been more successful because of Y&R than because of itself. I wonder if CBS ever regretted cancelling the show, given some of the erosion their lineup underwent later on. And Mary Stuart lived another 20 years, Larry Haines for another 25 years (using the time of the CBS cancellation), so with a proper overhaul, with Jo still in a good role, the show could have run for a long time.

Santer says the Mitchells are "the premier family in British soap." All I could say to that is, "That doesn't say much for the others, does it." I really can't wait for this Christian/Syed stuff to be over. They both behave in horrible, selfish ways, made even worse because we saw no buildup to their relationship and we see no affection between them. If this story was supposed to be done to address how Muslims feel about gays, then throwing around an assortment of anti-gay stereotypes was an odd choice. Here's his year in review. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a189593/producers-perspective-2009-diederick-santer.html

Mostly teens and gimmicks. Calvin and Carmel suck as a couple, why they are hyping them getting married again baffles me.

The story which some felt was too close to a recent child killing in the UK has been amended, after the boy's mother went to a screening of the episodes and asked them not to proceed. http://www.clickliverpool.com/news/national-news/127208-hollyoaks-drop-james-bulger-storyline.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704240504574586271381624280.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular Deconstructing TV's No. 1 Show

Lucy Allan talks about 2009. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s13/hollyoaks/news/a190454/producers-perspective-2009-lucy-allan.html She seems a bit prickly, although with some of the criticism HO has had this year, no wonder. I did laugh when she said she got rid of Ash Roy because he was becoming "panto." If Anita isn't a bad caricature, or panto, these days, I'm not sure who is.

At the time I did figure she'd been fired, just because she had stayed for so many years and I couldn't see why she would have left of her own accord as they were launching a new version of the show. I think they wanted to make Alex more hip or sexy or whatever, and pairing him with Danny's sister (who was given the "mental illness makes her a prostitute" story so we could see how hot she was) was apparently supposed to do that. Alex/Jocelyn never did much for me.

In that first clip, was that Rob Bogue (the last Mallet on GL) as the bartender? How random.

I hate the dramatic irony style of writing, and I thought the wrapup to the non-Edmund murder story was a mess. I did like her goodbye scene with Vanessa, and her last scenes with Mallet, but yeah, it should have been better. I guess it could have been worse. Who was your favorite love interest for Rick over the years? I was watching some of the 80s stuff and he seemed very natural with Roxie, although that may have been only a few episodes. I was also watching this episode from August 1989. It starts here. It seems to be an episode when the show was in transition, as the Will Jeffries story was winding down, Beth was on the way back, Holly had just returned and was offcamera trying to get WSPR from Phillip. Still, there are some golden moments. I really love the playfulness with Alan-Michael and Phillip (I wish they hadn't rewritten them to be rivals when GA returned in 1996). And the moment where Reva asks Dylan if it killed him to see his adopted child...one of Kim's best performances. I have such a hard time imagining Ross and Nadine together.

Yeah, they say that every year now. It's a shame. Soaps used to have some happy moments on Christmas. On Corrie, for years they would spend part of the time watching the Queen's speech.

I don't think Ellen Wheeler could have done that, she seemed to adore Jeffrey. The idea of Jeffrey chasing Edmund forever isn't the worst, although I did want better for Edmund. I was hoping he might have a happy ending. I hated that he came back only to be the crazy foil for the saintly Shaynes/Lewises yet again.

Yeah, I have to give GL credit for the returns. They weren't all satisfactory but I never imagined we would ever see people like Nola and Bridget again. I needed to see them, to say goodbye.

Blanche's best one-liners: http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s3/coronationstreet/scoop/a189626/a-look-back-at-some-classic-blanchisms.html This is touching:

This has been a hellish year for Corrie. I think they will be thrilled to say hello to 2010.