DRW50

The first few seasons of Sisters were more lighthearted. John Whitzig, singing in his bathrobe, all that. It did become much too serious later on, and I got sick of it. The same happened with QAF. The first season was pure campy trash, sleazy and loving it. The stories that tried to be more issue oriented, like Emmett's attempt to become straight, did not work, and were half-hearted at best. Then they started wanting to become "serious" and it just didn't work. I stuck with the show, mostly because of some of the cast. Sharon Gless, Hal Sparks, Robert Gant (no comment on Brian/Justin -- they seemed to repeat the same scenes for five years). Emmett and Ted had their moments, although I agree they seemed to enjoy degrading Ted. And poor Vic. Leap Years was a mess. The only part I enjoyed was when they'd find reasons to strip off their leading men (robbers are at the party, everyone has to strip!). Aside from always boring Bruno Campos, who never wanted to show anything. One of the guys probably got a show out of that exposure (it was called Naked Josh, and he did get naked a few times). It's a shame Michelle Hurd has never had more luck in TV.

I loved Sela Ward on Sisters, at least the first few seasons. Leather jacket, bitter Teddy, rebel with the heart of gold? Loved her. I still have that scene in my head where she protested when an art exhibited was going to be closed -- "I don't want to take a trip on the SS censorship." Even with the cliched writing and ridiculous stories (Alex's husband being a crossdresser for like three episodes, never to be mentioned again) I think the first few seasons of that show were very entertaining. I have very fond memories of them. The episode where Georgie went back to her old family house for Thanksgiving especially. And they managed to make the conceit work of the scenes of the sisters as kids/teens, the visions of the past talking to the present characters. It went to hell when it started taking itself too seriously. Georgie's oldest son going bad + the story where Georgie had an evil psychiatrist who lusted after her and made her think her father had molested her (and this man was played by Patricia Kalember's real life husband!) were enough to drive me away from the show for good.

I think she was co headwriter? So what did people think of the McLeary brothers? I loved David Forsyth on AW, at least the first few years of the character. I remember the last credits for SFT, he was in what seemed like every other shot.

I didn't know Anita Gillette was on SFT. I always remember her for her brief role as Mrs. Westphall on St. Elsewhere. She was also one of the very ill-fated Sheas on AW. I haven't seen a lot of SFT. The last months of the show sound very different. I'd like to see what the exercise club looked like.

Thanks for typing up those articles, that type of thing probably takes forever.

Welcome back Carol!! One of the all time best.

That's neat. Peggy's expression is my favorite. What are they so shocked by?

I voted. Poor Donna never gets a break.

Evan Bayh is not running for reelection to his Senate seat. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/15/bayh.retirement/?hpt=T1 The Republicans as a party have done little the past year but run far to the right, pander to a very limited voter base, highlight clowns, and wait for the Democrats to screw up. And yet again, the Democrats screwed up. Say goodbye to Congress this year Dems.

Wow, their second longest serving character has only been there since 2005? Talk about turnover.

James Thornton, gorgeous farmer John Barton, has been hit by a car Thankfully, he's going to recover, but they're going to have to rewrite stuff for a while. http://entertainment.stv.tv/tv/157482-emmerdale-star-james-thornton-hit-by-car/

I think Santer's ideas may still be in place up to summer or later, I'm not sure though.

I don't remember most of the story. I did like some of it. I was just confused as to the point.

It's too much of the same scenes over and over, too many obvious red herrings, and the cops telegraph everything to the residents of Walford. Danny will be back, I think he just left to try to manipulate Roxy and Ronnie into feeling sorry for him, I don't know. He needs a haircut and some acting classes. I don't know why so many of the men brought in over the past few years have been so weak and empty (Syed, Danny, Callum, Ryan, Dr. Al). It's hard to care about any of them. I like Ian and Jane, mostly because she seems to genuinely love him and he also tries to love her, instead of getting sick of her. I like them in comedy stories more than the baby stuff. I hate the baby stuff, it's too much, and lazy writing. I don't like it when the show goes overboard on Ian bashing, which has been one of the stronger points with Santer, I think generally he's had some respect for Ian as a character. I hated stuff in the past where someone would flush Ian's head down a toilet, or they would have Ian kick a dog.

Thanks. This was also the time of the Grant/Jane affair I've heard such bad things about?

Was Carla that woman he was living with while he was in Spain? That must have been more of the 2006 I didn't see.

I think it depends on how you feel about certain characters and what they're doing. For instance, I have heard that Santer's run was a golden period, but I thought 2008 was a huge waste of a year, in part because most of the characters I had interest in were damaged or given boring stories, and also because that was when Santer's inability to plot a story beyond shock value flared up the most. Chelsea gets hooked on drugs for a week and is then cured! Clare is thrown out of a taxi and...reads a black book for a few months before simpering out of town! Lauren runs over Max and...nobody cares. Tanya buries Max alive and takes up with Jack and becomes such a shrew that it's hard to watch any scene she has, even years later. Steven Beale is a quasi-bisexual loon who tries to smother Nana Pat after the worst hit and run sequence ever, then disappears. Stacey and Bradley stuck in go-nowhere stories with dull romantic partners because the show is too afraid to actually let them be happy, as that is "boring" in their mind. Endless garbage with Sean/Roxy/Jack, culminating in a poorly acted, not all that well directed Christmas/NYE revelation borefest. I've heard that 2006 was EE's worst year. I haven't seen any of that year, beyond Dennis's funeral. From what I've seen of the awful Kevin Wicks, if he was a major part of 2006, I'm not missing a lot. I've heard 2004 wasn't good either but I've never seen that year. The odd part is that the year which ended up with a new producer firing like 20 people, 1997, I actually enjoyed, generally. Not all of it (I hated the Irish relatives they brought in for the Beales), but some was quite good.

That show sounds pretty decent on paper.

I remember those somewhat. I mostly remember Kindred because the lead actor in it, Mark Frankel, was very good on Sisters as the handsome, suave British mysterious type who romanced Sela Ward. Sadly he was killed in a wreck not long after Kindred was off the air. That show also had Stacy Haiduk. Profit was very critically acclaimed and seen as ahead of its time and so on. I usually dislike anything critics tell me is ahead of its time or, worst of all, "too good for TV," but I know a lot of people did think it was underrated. That was the one where Adrian Pasdar slept naked on the floor of his apartment or his office, wasn't it?

It looks kind of like the Kate & Allie theme. Poor Rose Alaio, she never got the success she deserved on soaps. There's something oddly touching about that theme. I don't know why. The music probably.

Was Jessica Savitch dead by this time? It's funny they single her out as the highlight when she was supposedly fired in 1984 because she cut her hair. I do think Patricia is a very good actress (she was my favorite on Sisters before they butchered her character), I'm surprised they didn't keep her around.

They want Donna dead too? Do they just kill off all the classic 80s characters?

Yeah, this would be relatively fast by UK standards. Eastenders and Corrie have been having a handover for months and even then the new work will not show up until autumn. I also think the flash forward episode is the cause of this. Even then I think we will see changes.

2001-2004 was a big time of change from change at Coronation Street, a way of telling new stories but not going too far from the established traditions. I think 2002 was when Carolyn Reynolds and Tony Wood took over. 2000-2001 had seen quite a bit of upheaval, as there were some "gritty" and not all that well told stories on subjects like rape and cervical cancer which offended some viewers, and even some of the actors. The show had become increasingly dark. 1999-2000 had an extremely harrowing storyline where many of the twentysomething characters were blackmailed and terrorized by a drug dealer who had already murdered one or two characters, and he was only stopped when one of their fathers beat him to death. This was also the time that Sarah Louise Platt had a baby at age 13 or 14. 2002-2004 was a big era for the show. Richard Hillman psychokiller saga, Todd Grimshaw coming out, Mad Maya's reign of terror against Dev and Sunita, the blood feud between Karen Macdonald and Tracy Barlow, Peter Barlow as bigamist. Toups has some January 2008 credits listing Trina so she must have joined the show not all that long ago. She may have joined with Carolyn and Tony. I think they also left Corrie around 2004.

The police seem to just think arresting random people is the way to get results. That and aimlessly wandering around the Square. Like a lot of Santer stories, the scenes repeat and repeat.