DRW50

I think Turner claimed that the producer was drinking (I can't remember) and had been unpleasant to her and a costume designer.

I love how they almost make it sound like Sonia was a lesbian when Martin got involved with her. I'm glad Charlie Brooks isn't being harassed by fans anymore but I can't say she is a standout to the show these days. Janine is bad camp and I feel like the show is often laughing at her and uses her only to get the plot rolling along. Supposedly the actress who played Suzy Branning got into major conflicts with other cast members and had to be abruptly written out. Janine then inherited some of her stories, like running over Danielle. I can't say there's a lot of wit in today's Walford (unless you count Phil as the comic drunk or two years of fat jokes and ugly jokes for Heather), or gritty realism either. The show if anything has become too aware of its own universe. The "duff duff" overly staged cliffhangers, the pointless returns, the fancy music montages. I think there are some very solid points about Eastenders these days -- strong acting, interesting characters, standout solo episodes -- but I can't say wit or realism are among them. Or strong women at the moment. The men are weak in Walford these days but I'm not sure if that's about strong women or just casting which seems to always cast men with stringy hair, no personalities, big sad eyes, and gaunt physiques. Many of the women tend to be baby-obsessed, or obsessed with men who aren't worth the effort. Some of them are very loud and like to yell, but that's not strength.

I thought it was a bit sad that they left Nicole in that institution for good. The character didn't deserve that. I really liked the last MJ (I haven't seen much of the first MJ), I wish they'd kept her around. It seemed like she was one of many female characters on the show at that time who suffered from DePriest's need to write female characters in a degrading manner.

That's right, I'd forgotten about her. AW had such constant upheaval it would be interesting to know what story projections never panned out, and how far they got. I guess some got further than others, like the kiss Ben McKinnon and Thomasina Todd shared. I wonder how many interracial relationships were canned at the last minute. Did they ever plan anything with Josie and Reuben or was that just a deliberate tease? It always kind of bothered me that they never brought Ben back, and rarely if ever mentioned him. I guess this was because they thought Jake should be the only male McKinnon but Ben could have provided new stories.

I thought some of them were just done for the sake of being done, or to try to play with viewers. I remember one where they brought Ian Somerhalder back in a flashback just to sort of jokingly suggest Boone was gay. I don't know if that really informed the narrative.

Does anyone know what the original plans for Nikos, the Lucas lookalike, were? Was he supposed to become quite so over the top ridiculous, kidnapping Rachel and all the rest? What was supposed to happen after that? I know when Malone was fired, they quickly got rid of Nikos, with Rachel shooting him in her studio. Malone also planned to make Toni and Tyrone siblings, right? Then they were revealed to not be related, yet they still never had any story together.

They've only released the first season of Peyton Place on DVD, right? I tried to get it on Netflix and there was a long wait, then suddenly they became unavailable.

What's it all about? http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/news/a201855/shane-richie-returns-to-eastenders.html

Don't they do a lot of flash forwards on that show, and try their best not to use a narrative?

Lost is more of a serial.

It seemed like Fox was moving out of the soap business by then. Preemptions did horrible damage to that show.

Kim Crowther interview, teasers for the next few months. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s3/coronationstreet/interviews/a201476/kim-crowther-producer-corrie.html http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s3/coronationstreet/news/a201477/loads-of-coronation-street-character-teasers.html It's funny that they ask why Molly would want Kevin. I didn't know why Kevin would want her.

I wish more of this era was available. The show went through such a huge upheaval around this time. I think Phil Redmond, who had done Brookside and went on to do Hollyoaks a few years later, was making a lot of decisions at this time. It was only less than a year later that Emmerdale had another violent storyline involving a hostage situation and the two events combined caused the show to basically be smacked down for too much violence. Then they moved more towards focusing on the Dingles, on superbitch Kim, etc. I wish they hadn't killed off Joe's stepson, and that poor Archie, but then I guess it got viewers, so it worked. The most moving scenes here are with Kim and her horses.

No. Not yet, but they might. Nikhil at least. Yes.

saynotoursoap put up a CBS news piece on Love of Life's final episode. A stark reminder of just what a different soap world we are in today. (and dammit, put Audrey Peters back on my TV!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOiimfYtwc8

Sgt. Peppers meets Eastenders. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/scoop/a200774/radio-times-celebrates-eastenders-25th-year.html

Val was a much more complex and dark character early in her run (2004-2005). She became very ridiculous and overly cartoonish a few years ago. I don't know why they had to make that change.

Thanks for the details. I've read a bit about Sean, I can't remember if he was killed or if I'm thinking of someone else. I know they had a guy who dated a man who turned out to be bi and slept with his female friend, and then later they had an Asian gay man and his boyfriend who ultimately returned to his wife and children. Was Marquess part of the team that blew up the whole main family on the boat? It does seem like Hollyoaks was in a rough state from about 2003-2005 or 2006, although I liked what I saw of 2005 (mainly the stories involving Max and OB coping with the fire, and the Justin/Ali bullying and murder story). Do you think that killing off Mr. C was a mistake? What about the Toby serial killer story? I've heard a lot of bad stuff about that. A part of me wonders if there's still a chance for Hollyoaks but I still want to see it succeed. I think when these shows go they leave a void. Like Brookside. From what I've seen of that show, it had a very unique voice. If you want to talk about Family Affairs more or post clips we could start a new thread on it. I'd love to hear more. It's so hard to find anything, especially since that's also the name of the show with Buffy, Jody, and Mr. French.

Thanks for the clips. I was reading this about Conway's death, and the aftermath. :o

Thank you so much for adding your insights! I have not seen a lot of The Bill and have never seen Family Affairs -- why are there so few clips of that on Youtube? I can mostly only find the lesbian stories -- so you giving us more information is a big help. Why do you think all the revamps of Family Affairs never worked? Did he add any gay characters? I know they had some earlier on, although from the Wikipedia descriptions it sounds like most of them were killed or turned out to be bi. Hollyoaks has already changed so much of its identity over the past few years anyway, and is now left a hollow shell, there's no real reason for him not to gut it. I just hope he will keep the better actors around. Like Jessica Fox. I can't stand Nancy, but Fox is a very strong actress. Apparently someone on Twitter said that one of the crew congratulated Andy Moss (Rhys) on staying around, so I guess that either means he has signe a new contract, or Marquess decided not to fire him. I do think Rhys and Neville add to the show with the right stories. Suzanne is OK.

I think Kirkwood's episodes started a month or two before then, but that was the big event. To be fair to Clare , she didn't know what was going to happen (she was even packing to leave town when she heard about the explosion), although she did see some strange man in a hoodie outside the Dog. Those episodes were so harrowing. I still remember poor Joe and his cell phone. The main thing was the day to day episodes were also quite strong.

I guess Marquess is being restrained so far. There have been no firings as of this first week. I wonder if he's just going to let people leave when their contracts are up.

Anita Dobson singing the show's theme tune, Anyone Can Fall in Love. Not much of a singer, but Angie was one of the show's iconic characters, back when they had strong characters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIlCAtNK0Bg

That relationship should have been more than it was, at least in terms of banter and comedy. The show just lost interest, other than the PSA story with Meg. There's nothing more depressing than a once funny, quirky character who becomes serious, which is what happened to Fletcher.