DRW50

This episode should have been much better than it was. I wonder if they had no plans to reveal the secret until Preeya announced she was quitting. Even for a "reveal" episode, this was a lot of repeat. Yet again Christian degrades himself for Syed, Syed whines and does his usual boo-hoo routine and runs off. It was disgusting how Syed sees himself as such a martyr and such an object of pity. It sucks that as a gay man I can't even feel anything but contempt for the gay men in this story. There is no love here, and I hope the show will not have them get together. I guess Christian was supposed to be the heavy here but I thought Syed was much worse. The acting from Syed and Christian has also gotten worse and worse. They both seem like they are in a bad "woman's picture" from 1943. The miscasting of Syed and the decision to pair him with Christian because Christian was the only other gay character on the show were mistakes. I don't believe that Tamwar would call Syed "brave." Syed isn't brave and Tamwar loved Amira, he would have hated seeing her hurt. They just forced that line on him because they didn't want everyone in the family to hate him. The Julia's Theme was much better this time than with Bradley's dud of a funeral episode. This one fit the exit and was moving, instead of "insert LOUD music here, FEEL SAD NOW" like with Bradley. I will miss Amira. Stupid and embarrassing comic relief with the boozing. They seem to have no idea what to do with Bianca now. Lucas turning crazy over Chelsea's abortion talk, and Chelsea being so disturbed -- much better scene than I would have thought. Nitin interview. Even he doesn't get some of their stories. I love his small little comments on Treadwell-Collins and Santer... http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/interviews/a216643/nitin-ganatra-masood-ahmed-eastenders.html

I always thought it was odd too, although I do remember one shot of a younger Brandon, so maybe there were flashbacks. It must have been shocking for viewers at the time because they saw Brandon die in 1979 or 1980. And at this time soaps didn't do things like this very often. I guess Brandon and Victor Lord kept trying to top each other...

I don't ever remember hearing about a lot of flashbacks but I thought I did see a photo of a younger Brandon Spaulding (the guy out of old age makeup I guess). They rewrote Brandon's history so many times, and yet never did anything with it. This, and then Amanda being his daughter. If you're going to rewrite history so drastically at least do something with it. I think the idea of this story is in some way touching, although I wish they hadn't killed off Hillary. I was going to say they should have had a black Bauer but then I remembered Leah. Apparently they did have black Bauers, and they just aged very, very quickly...

A few episodes with Brandon and Sharina. Part 1 of 11/28: Part 1 of 11/29: Part 1 of 11/30:

How does Alexis keep her dignity after a slap like that The idea of a heretofore unknown, black sibling joining this elitist, upper crust, conservative family is so dramatically potent, and yet, Dynasty, and especially GL, they never went anywhere with the great stories this could have, should have told.

I don't know if we ever saw her immediate reaction, I'm not sure. Len was such a big character for such a long time, probably the strongest male character the show ever had. His relationship with Elsie was often raw and powerful, especially in the 60s. It sucks that the backstage conflict between the producers and Peter Adamson led to not only a fairly weak exit for Len, but also character trashing (after Len died they revealed that he'd been seeing another woman for some time). 1983-1984 were such huge years of change for the show, it's almost a bit impossible to conceive now.

Claire I could take or leave, but I really like Ashley. I think Steven Arnold is an underrated dramatic actor (he was wonderful when Fred died), and he has a lot of chemistry with characters like Peter and Graeme. It's also nice to see a normal character on a soap. When I think of dead weight I think of Michelle, Sean, or Nick.

Not at all. They can be very emotional and effective, especially when a soap cares, as Corrie usually does. Some of their most moving were in their earliest days, like Martha Longhurst. And I'll never forget when poor loveable Jerry Booth died, and his best friend Len was sitting at the bar, quietly, telling Betty it was so difficult. Betty just said that's what life is about, you just get through (her own husband had died only a year earlier). He just nodded, finished his drink, and walked out.

There are a lot of shows that were highly rated but then forgotten afterwards, especially if they are rarely seen again. ADW actually had some runs on major cable channels, whereas I don't know if Chico and the Man, Maude, Falcon Crest, etc. did (I guess Falcon Crest had a few years on Soapnet).

I liked Caress, I enjoyed her chemistry with Alexis. I loved when Alexis called her "Cassie." Poor Dominique. I wish the show had done more with her. They just gave up after a short time. And her daughter, zzzzz......

I think they're just having this stuff with Kevin and Molly and Tyrone and the car to amp up the drama. I thought it was a bit much, because that car went FLYING and Molly wasn't wearing a seat belt, yet Tyrone didn't have a scratch (you'd think that huge head of hers might have done him some damage) and Molly was also relatively uninjured. I think they might have been better off just having them crash into a hay bale or something. They're probably also doing this to try to even the score, because Molly came across as a psycho for most of her relationship with Kevin, and after they broke up. Even now it's still hard to sympathize with her. I just wish they'd bring up the son Kevin already lost, who died at birth about ten years ago. When they first started with Gary I thought he could have been gay, since he didn't seem interested in women beyond conquests, and he had that weird chemistry with David. All that stopped though. Sophie and Sian are a nice little couple, it's nice to see, for a gay story on soaps, a relative lack of drama. You also get to see the double standards of a soap world -- they showed Sophie and Sian kissing, several times in one scene, but on soaps you're still lucky to get two men touching lips for a second. I'm mostly wondering how Kevin and Sally will react. A lot of people think Sally will be upset, but with the conflict they keep building between Sophie and Kevin, I think it will be Kevin. And of course Sian's father will hit the roof. The plans for Blanche, Corrie deaths over the years:

I felt like Tempest's story in the last season was a little too serious for her, although I liked the idea of it. I know what you mean about the kids. Olivia was great, in certain doses, but they also had her friends, and then they brought in Sandra and Elvin's twins...

Bill Cosby's mugging had gotten way too OTT by then. I had blocked out Elvin's rat tail. Thanks a lot I didn't know Terri Guaneri was a producer on the show. She was at AW a few years later wasn't she, the year they were disqualified from a Best Writing nomination?

I didn't know Gary Dourdan played Shazza. He was always so good on CSI, probably too good for that show. I didn't care for Shazza or most of his relationship with Freddie, perhaps that's why I didn't remember who played him. I remember when they had the love scene in Jason's Lyric, in a field or something, and they had the nice shots of his butt, instead of the usual "look, you can see his hip, maybe." Maybe Tyler Perry was a fan... Ron/Kim -- I never liked that pairing very much, it just didn't spark for me. I think Kim was better off in stories that weren't about her love life. I did feel like she got shortchanged in the last season, but I liked her doctor boyfriend (wasn't he from Jamaica or somewhere) and they had good chemistry. The first season was a lot quieter and more typical sitcom than most of what came later on. The "nerd" stereotypes, for example, which were seriously diminished after the first season. I do seem to remember that even when Denise was still there the show moved more and more away from being about her. I actually thought Lisa Bonet and Kadeem Hardison had good chemistry; it punctured her generally sleepy nature. I would have loved a Whitley/Dwayne/Lisa triangle.

I had forgotten about that double episode. Jasmine was so hilarious in that role, especially when she went from sweet to "seductive". I loved that lisp she used in the role. Yes, Dorian was religious, he was saving himself for marriage. The main times I didn't care for him was when he would try to use some sort of sexy voice, as the audience would do the early 90s/late 80s "OOOO!!!!" sound. I wanted to hear him start reading some Velvet Jones or something.

My favorite Dynasty catfight, aside from the early Krystle/Alexis ones, was when Sammy Jo and Samms Fallon were fighting in the mud over Jeff, then they both said, "What are we doing? He's not worth it!" and began playfully throwing mud at each other and laughing.

Did they ever have any plans to put Erika Alexander on ADW? I liked her a lot on The Cosby Show, although I know some didn't. She seemed like she might have fit in on ADW. At least she got to play that hilarious role on Living Single.

For some reason I thought the madonna line was at the studio. Did she bring up Krystal's miscarriage at the studio? Was it the studio where Linda was so rough that Joan wrenched her back and never wanted to do any of those fights again? Later on it became a self-parody and they should have stopped, like the one where they threw mud packs at each other or whatever.

Fallon has such crazy eyes in that first clip. That whole thing is weird...Pamela Sue seems so subdued, especially compared to her true bitchgoddess early years as Fallon, while Heather Locklear plays the whole scene like she's drunk.

I think it's the whole idea of the women fighting in the water which gets notice. The studio fight was very, very good. Made even better because of the horrible remark Alexis made to her right before the fight, the one about the "fallen madonna," I can't remember the rest. Joan Collins was so charismatic you almost forgot what a nasty person Alexis could be. It's too bad Krystal became so dull and narcotized. I did like that at the end of that, she punched Alexis. Even today there's often this idea that women only slap each other.

I liked Millie. I have always felt sorry for Marie Alice Recasner because she has played so many thankless roles (especially Ellen on PC). I did not care for the idea that Whitley and Dwayne needed nerdy sidekicks, but since they expanded Ron beyond that in the second season I wish they'd done the same with Millie. I remember her standing up more to Whitley as the first season went on, which was interesting. As for ADW's views on whites -- I rarely felt like the show was trying to say most white people were racist. I felt like, after the first season, someone at the show said, "Why do we NEED white people on our show? Just to show we're not anti-white? Please." So they wrote out Maggie and only had white characters in minor or recurring roles. I thought that worked. Sometimes they had characters make remarks against white people, but most of the time I didn't think that was the show's point of view, just certain characters. Probably the closest I got to being annoyed by a political viewpoint on the show that I did not think came from a character was when they had a child basically try to put in a dig at Ava Gardner because she replaced Lena Horne in Showboat. That wasn't Ava Gardner's fault, it was MGM's, and I wish they could have mentioned Lena's struggles without having to mention who replaced her.

The first season was the Phoebe Snow version (which was OK, but I'm glad they changed it). I liked Freddie until she became too one-note, which I thought she was around seasons 4 and 5. Before then she had a certain sweetness which she lost as time went on. They'd have her very shrilly champion a cause and then have various people talk about how shrill she was, which just made it even worse. They started treating her as a joke. I liked when they had her change because I didn't think there was anywhere else the character could go. I think they did have her go back to her natural hair a few times, although they could have done it more often. I liked the last season because I thought they were trying something different, and while there was a more confrontational edge to the humor, I thought that was almost necessary, in a way, with the huge racial confrontations going on in America around this time. I didn't care for some of the "Listen to me, woman," turn the Whitley/Dwayne relationship took, but overall I thought they took the older characters in more interesting story directions. I didn't care for most of the new people but some of them had potential. I wish they'd let Jada Pinkett have a little more warmth. Jada Pinkett in all her work I've seen has tried to have a tough edge but she's better suited to some sweetness. Lauryn Hill was more believable in that tough role...but then she went on to lose her mind.

I liked Jaleesa, but that relationship was very random and not ever developed. I do think they probably should have written her off, which is a shame, because I thought she added a lot to the show, she was a very strong presence. I think she was by far the best thing about the show's first season, along with the various house mothers, Stevie, and the woman Mary Alice played. (My favorite scene in that season was when she and Lisa Bonet and Marisa Tomei sang to Rockin Robin...that and the beautiful little moment between Rudy and Whitley when Whitley talks about the Snow Queen) I think she was just supposed to be offcamera, still married to Col. Taylor and raising their son (?), in the last season.

Wow, Phylicia was really buff then! I love the disco atmosphere, I think that music still works so well today. Did Debbie or Phyl have anything with the Josephine TV movie Lynn Whitfield was in? I watched that over and over when it first aired, her performance hooked me. Thanks for the Showtime at Hillman clip. I wish they had stopped acting like Whitney couldn't sing, Jasmine Guy had a great voice. I loved Kim, but her performance of my favorite Natalie Cole song would probably make me do the hand-waving get off the stage motion if I'd been there...

I think Murphy Brown just ran too long, the characters lost most of their purpose, they did not have a reason to exist beyond four or five seasons. The only one I thought had the legs to last was Frank. I did like Miles but they seemed to run out of purpose for him and I didn't care for the relationship with Corky. The show just seemed to go on forever. I love Lily Tomlin but that character was very odd. The show became increasingly odd, and then stale, like Northern Exposure and Picket Fences. I have some memory of an episode where Miles talked about riding a dolphin with a gorgeous man...I think I would have preferred that to Corky/Miles... I remember some people being annoyed because in Murphy's last season when she had a big party in honor of when she was 16, she had Fabian there and she dressed up in a poodle skirt. Some said that was a slap in the face to the old days of the show, when Murphy was so in love with Motown. It didn't bother me, because she was obviously too young to listen to Motown at 16, it wasn't really around then, but it did show how homogenized the show had become. I hope you share some of your thoughts on ADW.