DRW50

Sorry if this was already posted, but it's a (paraphrased) synopsis of LOL from December 30 1978's SOD. This was Holloway right? Andrew is worried that his son Andy is reverting to his "lying" self about a friend in Europe, as Andy used to have an imaginary friend when he was a child. Meanwhile, Mary tells Lynn that she is seeing Andy Marriott. Lynn is happy for her and says she is attracted to Cherie's "amore" Kentor, The Fox -- who is secretly Andy Marriott. Andy, as part of a scheme, gives Mary a huge sapphire and diamond ring worth 3K and asks her to pawn it. When Mary goes to a jeweler he tells her its worth 5K. She mentions Andy to him, and when she tells Andy she mentioned his name, he accuses of her trying to ruin him and takes the ring and dumps her. Cherie runs into Andrew at the hospital and mentions knowing his son Kentor. Andrew again thinks Andy is still a liar. He confronts his son and asks if Andy has found a job yet to pay back the money he owes. Andy says no, but in a week he will have the money he needs. Meanwhile Vanessa decides she has no chance with Bruce and agrees to go with Andrew for a vacation to St. Thomas, no strings attached. Everything seems to be going OK, but Meg has been eavesdropping and doesn't like any of it. She warns Bruce of the trip. Bruce wonders if he wants to lose Van for good. He goes to her place to stop her and she's asleep, as she had already decided not to go to St. Thomas. Bruce and Van reunite in a "tearful embrace." Meg feels sorry for Andrew and calls him up, saying she respects him for letting Van go and relates her experience with loving her daughter's husband. Bruce has leukemia and the doctor tells him all he and Van can do is pray for a miracle. Bambi begins dating Al Barton and Ray is jealous. Bambi still has feelings for Ray and tells his wife Arlene that if Arlene ever leaves Ray she will be there waiting. Meanwhile Arlene has feelings for Tom, a past love, and although she isn't totally sure, she agrees to be with him and ask Ray for a divorce, but Carrie asks her if that's wise. She overhears Ray telling Carrie he only wants to make Arlene as happy as he can, and this makes Arlene doubt her decision again. Elliott knows Betsy was upset by something in Ben's book and tells her he won't let Ben take advantage of her, he will take care of Ben in his own way. Elliott reads the book and realizes it's based on real life, not fiction and that Betsy must have told Ben about her marital issues with Elliott. He's angry with her as well as Ben. He doesn't want to go to the book party but Betsy feels she must go, and she does, behind his back. He warns her never to do anything like that again. Ben and Mia are thrilled with the success of the book party and plan to go on vacation for a few days. He calls Betsy and Elliott about changing his visitation plans for Suzanne and Elliott says no way, not after what Ben has done to their family. Betsy is horrified. To get back at Elliott, Ben picks Suzanne up on the day of visitation and plans to keep her for the whole weekend. Betsy agrees but Elliott is in the dark. When Suzanne returns, Betsy is upset, because Ben says that Suzanne calls Mia "mommy." Elliott takes advantage of Betsy's bother and says they should test Ben by saying he will offer Ben complete custody of Suzanne six months a year, Ben will have to prove his dedication to Suzanne, not to being around Betsy. Zak meets with Lynn at Scirroco's and plans to take her to lunch. This issue also had a photo of John Travolta's parents, who were apparently big LOL fans, on set with Lloyd Battista (Ray) and Birgitta Tolksdorf (Arlene).

Harriet Winslow - Family Matters

One of my very favorite Stevie/FM songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx9XrpoM9Qo

Attack of the 80s "style", but this song never, ever leaves my head.

Radio broadcast from June 1941.

Bambi was the character that supposedly did bad damage to the show wasn't she? With Holloway's writing? Did Marcus keep her around for very long? Do you think the show might have become more successful if Marcus had had more time? Interesting that Van was getting stories about her husband not wanting her to work. For some reason I thought she already had worked.

Thanks so much. I guess the Gerald clips I'd seen online (there haven't been any uploads in six or seven months) were NZ paced? That story about the man who hates lesbians sounds bizarre. Is any of that online? It sounds like a car crash. What did he think he was going to turn her or something? They certainly don't seem to hesitate at killing popular characters. So are the ratings pretty good?

I've heard of this but mostly in regards to their gay and lesbian characters, like a lesbian couple who caused some controversy over getting married. Are they still on the show? They also have an asexual character, Gerald. Does he have a story? There seem to be a fair amount of episodes online -- do you think it's worth getting into right now?

That would make a fantastic story, I wish the show had done that. Stacey is really just sitting around until her exit storyline.

I love Deja Vu. LOVE it. It's just perfect, it's the type of song which suited Dionne to a tee. Another of my favorite disco songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5EpFPqnC4s Damn good. The big hits from Sister Sledge are a bit too "cute" for me but this one is flawless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-701j53YUCI

Eric you always tell us stuff we don't know. That's interesting. I actually think the vocalist on that song (Argentina) makes the whole thing work. I love If I Can't Have You. I think that is really the epitome of disco and the Bee Gees production style, and Yvonne Elliman. Another Bee Gees production genius. Like a lot of Dionne's most popular songs, she initially turned this down (more than once apparently):

I wish the version of Touch and Go that I love was on Youtube... Anyway, another of my favorite disco songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01hKTxMnjYk

Very odd decision to center so much of the past few episodes on Jem, a perpetually sullen, nasty, rude bore. I don't care about her two minute fling with Ravi which is now being threatened by Tricia Dingle, and I REALLY don't care about her endless bitching about her father. So she went to the pub with Ravi to meet her father and then proceeds to spend the whole time hurling abuse. Why did she even go? Pathetic hypocrite. And why after a decent start have the Costellos become about Carl wanting to be near Jem? A new family who now revolve around a character who has only been on the show a few months? And then, shock horror, Jem, probably after not scowling at her father for half a scene, is then outraged when she finds out he hired a PI? When a character is angry all the time, that makes it almost impossible to ever see any genuine reaction from them. Other than seeing that Carl has a nice butt, pretty much nothing of value can be found in the episode.

Yeah, the sitcom was the same name. It didn't go anywhere but the song did. It's one of my favorite disco songs, just pure cheese and fun before that became something to be ashamed of in music... And of course he did the Dr. Pepper ads. (Did he ever do any with Larry Bryggman?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hkGJ2OjsSg

I think this has been Rita Simons's best work in the role of Roxy. She's become a very good crier (she couldn't cry a few years ago), and she is better than ever with Sam Womack. I know that some Ronnie fans have complained about this not feeling like enough of an "event", like what Santer would have done -- some even think this means Kirkwood doesn't like Ronnie. I guess I can see why they might have wanted more but I think that even with some bumps over the past few episodes they did a good job with the reveal. I do hope we see more of Peggy's reaction because I want more exploration of why she is in denial, not just her being rude about Ronnie. I'm glad they took the time to make it clear that Danielle wasn't Archie's child. I'm also glad that Glenda is trying to help Ronnie and that when they cut to her watching Roxy and Ronnie hugging she didn't have a smirk on her face. I still don't know where this character is going but I'm pleased they didn't try to have her as being scheming in the face of this big ugly secret. The Chryed couply stuff rang a bit false for me (it doesn't help that this new nickname "Clarkey" reminds me of National Lampoon's Vacation), but I did like the scenes with Tamwar and Syed, that Tamwar is trying to support Syed while still not being totally comfortable, and it was nice that they had him ask whether Syed loved Christian more than Amira. Whether that was supposed to mean Syed had loved Amira I don't know. I kind of wonder whether Christian would be training someone in the middle of the Square...

They also can't seem to stop putting Kim in tops where almost all of both her breasts spill out. She must know Melissa Archer. I almost wonder if they did that to try to distract from the extremely tight trousers Lucas is always about to bust out of. If Kim and Lucas were walking down the street you wouldn't know where to look. They're doing a wonderful job with the pacing of this story. They're hitting all the beats. I'm glad they took two episodes to let us see Patrick's POV. It's been a long time. I had almost forgotten that Charlie was still on the show, but I'm glad they dragged him in with Billy for a few minutes, as it kind of shows how isolated Patrick really is. Rudolph Walker is a very strong actor and putting him front and center goes a long way to stop viewers from feeling like this is dragging out. I know the more you look forward to the climax of a story the more likely you'll be disappointed but I'm looking forward to the blowout here more than anything on a soap in the last few years.

I'm never all that interested in Rodney but with so much else he has lost in the past few years (his money, he can't even keep a job, he hasn't had a relationship), I wonder if this might push him into a tailspin. I liked the Viv scenes. I hope we get to see more of this. I am tired of Viv being written as a harridan. There's a very complicated woman underneath all the rest and Deena Payne is an underrated actress. There's so much we don't know about Viv. I hope that this story will start to get more airtime. Do you keep forgetting Sandy is still on the show? I do. Those scenes with Moira and the karaoke were bizarre. I think she was trying for comedy but I was a little scared of her. I loved the reaction to Nicola and Jimmy taking over the pub, especially Chas's reaction. Jimmy is so wonderful though.

All of this stuff with Shirley Sherrod has just made me sick, sick of so many people. Yet again I end up wondering what is going on in our "liberal" media and in our government.

I can't believe they got that on air. Tight, white transparent boxers, in close up. I mean damn. You don't get that very often. I guess it's a good thing he didn't turn around. I can't help feeling sorry for Diane, especially because she has lost everything and been cruelly betrayed. I really hope that we don't have to see her groveling to Doug after this. I wonder if Nicola and Jimmy might give her the Woolpack back. Otherwise what is she going to do? Besides have a nervous breakdown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHRa_bnxxN0&feature=related

A lot of fans would tell you Den's story pretty much carried the show throughout 2005. Considering what amounted to 2006, they're probably right.

Thanks. I'm surprised they didn't have a two-for-one with Kathy

I probably will watch that with Nancy. I watch stuff with Duncan and Cheryl but that's mostly because they are usually foisted on characters I like...except when Cheryl is with the Valentines, and I watched that because Sasha treated her like the trash she is. I think this story annoys me more because I just think that she's such an obvious cuckoo and yet everyone believes her over Jake. Not that Jake is the picture of sanity but it's all too convenient.

Jem continues to be dull, and when she speaks in a manner which is not snotty, she sounds like she has a speech impediment. Sorry but I just don't care about what her father did offcamera years ago. So far I'm mostly just interested in Heidi, who is kooky glamorous yet strangely maternal. I can't get used to Tricia Dingle on this show. Her uptalking, the perpetual perkiness, doesn't help. I can't figure out whether she's on some sort of a con. The Costello sons are just kind of there. The youngest, the blonde one, looks like Neighbours casting, and his line readings are Sasha Valentine-esque. The older one, who looks like a cross between Max and Dan Futterman, seems to be able to act, but I'm not really very interested in him as of yet. The scenes where he beat Zak at football were a bizarre way to try to introduce a new character, especially that weird montage, and while he has a nice body, I think when you have a slo-mo of someone doing their own Lucky Vanous parody (hello 1994!), they automatically look less attractive. Still skipping anything with Loretta. Today was a difficult test, as some of her scenes involved Darren. Sorry Darren! Anyway, I really liked the scene with Darren and Jack and the dog.