DRW50

1 minute ago, Contessa Donatella said:

There is a meme that says that the Bennifer wedding changed the timeline & asks what you would reset in any of your fandoms. Well, my #1 is that Danny Santos was discovered to be a grandnephew of Mike Bauer but my #2 is that Rachel Miner & Bryan Buffington are together in all ways & the promise of the youthful Bill & Michelle is realized. I won't go on to any more numbers. 

That's nice. I know that you can't go home again, but Miner and Buffington were the ones with the history. You can't fake that. 

Danny as a Bauer and this being discovered early enough to put the kibosh on his relationship with Michelle would have been a relief.

I didn't really care about their pairing, but I didn't object to Bill and Beth, probably because I never saw Cosgrove as the Bill I cared about anyway. That's also why the attempt at pairing up Bill and dullard Nancy St. Alban did not mean anything to me - that wasn't the Bill or Michelle anyone needed to see together.

10 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I haven’t forgotten about this, hopefully I can watch this before the weekend is over.

They also put up the episode after this one.

Watching them both, it looks like they have been up before, but I still enjoyed seeing them again, especially all the buildup to "The Truth About Jennifer." Immersing in Marland's world again also reminds me of how much I took for granted the feeling of community and continuity that would be ripped away (yes, the variations on "where is Holden/I hope he's back soon" can be a bit repetitive at times, but the actors tend to make it seem fresh).

@slick jones Thanks. It's unfortunate how often soaps easily discarded longstanding servant characters. I don't know if Louise or Vivian ever got exits on AW. I'm glad Wai has done well for herself.

I didn't even realize Carolyn Hinsey was still around...and using a 20-25 year old publicity photo. Good for her, I guess.

4 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Susan Sullivan has recently battled cancer. I think she posted that she's beaten it. 

Thanks. I'm glad to hear it. I see on her Wiki that it was just last year. So maybe she is not doing much.

1 hour ago, marceline said:

So Clarence Thomas spent some time doing a public event where all he did was whine about how mean people are being to him. But the thing that really makes me angry is that there were no protesters. These leftists will disrupt events in support of a terror state 7,000 miles away but won't show up to do one of their "peaceful" protests for a man who is directly responsible for doing harm to millions of people in THIS country.

They know they won't get away with it if they protest right wingers. 

I saw that there's a NYT article going around that is trying to shame or put a spotlight on HBCUs not being more involved in protests. They really are desperate to paint a narrative in the press of all students wanting to travel back to 1968.

8 minutes ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

Interesting that there were very few Lemay era (his first era) actors at the reunion.  There were several from the Nixon and Cenedela (pre-Lemay) eras, and many from the post-Lemay years (of course).  But no Susan Harney, no Leon Russom, no Dorothy Lyman, no Maeve Kincade, no Susan Sullivan, no Robert Doran, no Mike Hammett, etc. Are Gail Brown and Ariana Muenker the only two actors from the (first) Lemay years who were there?  I feel sure Nick Coster would have attended, if the reunion had been held a couple of years ago.    

I don't think Maeve has happy memories of her time at AW, but I'm not sure about the others. Wasn't Susan sick a few years ago? I hope she is doing better.

2 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Interesting; IMHO, Laurence Lau looks significantly better in these new pictures than he did when he appeared on AW. (He'll always be Greg Nelson to me, LOL.)

There were not many actors present at the reunion from my favorite era of the show, but it's nice to see "old friends" looking well!

He has looked better everywhere than he did when he was on AW. I am not sure if he was just struggling then, or what happened.

29 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

I would have preferred to see him get a shot at headwriting ATWT or TGL, over many of the inferior writers who ended up being hired by P&G in those soaps' declining years. HL's character-driven style would have been similar to Irna Phillip's original handling of ATWT.

Even if the ratings never increased enough to save them, it still would have been nice to see the remaining P&G soaps die a graceful death with quality writing and producing...instead of what they got handed by the likes of Jean Passanante, Chris Goutman and Ellen Wheeler & the Peapack experiment.

I definitely think he would have made the show more compelling than what we got - I just don't think he would have been given much of a chance. 

6 hours ago, VelekaCarruthers said:

Recently been reviewing April 93 through Dec 95 and I'm impressed how Caso tried to keep Marland's writing team together for so long after his deal (18months approx).  At first, he brought back (in June 93) John Kuntz who had been with the show for six years (departed six months prior) and added Mary Ryan (who would last 2 years as outline writer) then return for 2 years in 2001. Garin Wolf returned December 1993.  Then 1994 started a big influx and exodus of writers, just as happened on GL.  In Jan 94, Richard Culliton came in as an outline writer followed by Millie Taggart who wrote a handful of scripts in early spring of that year before she was pulled over to GL to write by committee when Curlee quit.  Then, this surprised me.  Lemay returned as story consultant from May to July of 94. This is when they also added Scott Hammer as dialog writer and Christina Covino (outlines and scripts) who had been a writer and production assistant on ABC nighttime show, The Commish.  By August 94, vet writer Nancy Ford was gone (but returned in April 1995 as outline writer, lasting 9 months) as was editor, Koechl.  End of August Sally Sussman was added as an outline writer (she lasted less than 4 months) and Susan Kirshenbaum as a script writer. By late November, Backus was out, Wolf/Culliton/Packer were head writers.  Lorin Wertheimer (assistant to writers) was added in spring 95. Caso was replaced by hack John Valente by end of June 95. (Tom Wiggin wrote a few scripts that summer as well). By end of August, Valente had started to disassemble the writing team. First to go was co-head Wolfe (after an 18month return post Marland death), leaving Packer and Culliton as co heads. Addie Walsh was added as outline writer and longtime writer, Meri Post was fired (having worked on the show since 1985 with a small break or two during that ten year period. By mid December, Packer had been fired, leaving Culliton as sole head writer (for the next year or so). Ford and Mary Ryan were also out. Demorest was added (after a 1 year sabbatical after ten on GL) as was Iacubuzio, both as outline writers. Franz was also out after ten years as script writer, replaced by Bisogno and Louise Shaffer.  Then, we enter 1996........I have to say P&G/CBS were big into throwing the kitchen sink at the writers' rooms of both ATWT which lost Marland in spring 93 and GL which lost Curlee spring 1994. Neither show easily recovered, if ever. 

31 minutes ago, kalbir said:

By June 1994 both shows were not in a good place creatively and thus effectively over in the aftermath of OJ. I wouldn't say both shows limped along in their final 15 years though.

There were highlights in those final years, but ATWT lost its identity after 1995 and never found it again (GL had lost its identity in the early '80s). 1994 is bad and I don't really connect a ton with 1993 either but I do appreciate more now that those were still moments when the show remembered what it was and there was a chance of still being that show. One of the reasons I felt so betrayed by FMB is because she talked a good talk and I genuinely believed the show could improve again. Then Alyson Rice Taylor's firing in favor of an ABC pal, plus just how awful the material of that period was, reminded me you could never go home.

I do wonder what might have been if Lemay had had more involvement. Probably nothing much...I mostly just remember the interview where he complained (this was after he'd moved on to consulting at AW again) that when he was at ATWT too many characters had their own jets.

53 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

The Daytime wing of N.A.T.A.S. lacks the sense that God gave to a flea, which is why the show spent years being banished to the HLN wilderness.

Can you imagine, if they would have given Kathryn Hays a Liftetime Achievement Award while she was still among us? I bet they could’ve gotten Julianne Moore to present, if they planned it properly and promoted well, that could’ve gotten a bump in ratings too. But now, it’s too late.

The Daytime Emmys often just thought it was a smarter idea to drop in primetime cameos or have endless jokes about how stupid and sleazy soaps are. I remember their main "tribute" to GL being Betty White. I loved Betty White and she was extremely gracious, but beyond a promotional campaign for AW, she had no ties to P&G and it was obviously just trading in GL's name one last time for clout. 

That's lovely news for JJY.

2 minutes ago, Khan said:

He wasn't talking about Patrick Mulcahey (or Elizabeth Korte).

Just now, I Am A Swede said:

I could be wrong, but I think that DRW50 was referring to Ron Carlivati, not the HWs at GH.

Thanks. I should have made that clearer. I was not talking about any head writer at GH - I was mainly talking about DAYS, which has a headwriter who is obsessed with "soapy" moments. I don't feel like going through all the rest of that post but it was my mistake for being vague.

4 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Back to the current show - I think PM/EK are really struggling with some of the soapier staples that are needed narratively. There’s hardly ever any true cliffhangers anymore, and it feels like each episode ends on an awkward note. There’s a lack of suspense and passion, or someone’s creative vision (if one exists) is being f.ucked over somewhere. And yes, Frank’s sterile and passionless production doesn’t help. 

The show has been in such a lengthy malaise, to the point where I'm not sure anyone could help, but it does feel like there was a lack of basics that could have been there for their early moments. They are clearly setting up plans for Jason and his kids, and probably Jason and Sam, but I do wonder how many of the fans they were courting with his return that they lost by not having more of Jason and the harem, or Jason and Spinelli (have they shared scenes?), as more of a priority on his return.

It's unfortunate that the current soap headwriter who focuses on soap staples is a bitter and delusional hack who sees the genre as a big joke.

6 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

How Kathy Hays didn't even get a nomination at the height of the Marland years is criminal enough. Kathy, Marie, and Don should've gotten nominations for the Bob affair story alone. 

Kathryn always underplayed her material, which probably hurt. 

Liz was likely seen as difficult, so that probably hurt her.

5 minutes ago, Aragorn said:

TA's contract expires in March 2025. I don't think that the show will renew it. They might let her go 3-6 months before her contract ends like they did with NAC and AKP. The last few months have shown that Trina is not a necessary character.

I think Trina had the potential to be a necessary character, but I don't think the show ever saw her as one. Many of her fans only seem to watch for her as well, so the show would have less reason to care about keeping them rather than just continuing to push "important" characters like Joss and waiting for them to click. I have a feeling Tabyana will not renew and they'll let her save face because the optics are bad otherwise.

5 minutes ago, Vee said:

According to Google (grain of salt) this kid is about to turn 19 and turning 20 next year, so I really don't think pairing him with Trina (TA is three years older) or whoever else would necessarily be an issue. Maybe he just is graduating late? He looks older.

That's a good point, and of course you can't base decisions on Twitter rage, I just don't know what direction they plan to take Trina. I have a feeling she may just quietly be in support until the actress leaves.

Just now, Vee said:

I hope those rumors are true tbh. It would not be the first time the soaps have paired a younger person with an older one. Hi, Kimberly McCullough (or Genie).

I don't think either of those relationships would have audience support these days due to how much focus goes on age gap discourse. 

33 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Lucky should never have been played by soap hunk types. It was a strange fit both times. I didn’t hate Greg, but as you say he had one terrible story after another.

It is so strange to read Guza’s manifesto was something like “love among the ruins” when it seemed to me to be about misery. I know it got darker and more miserable after his child died, which is very sad. But the show was just hard to watch.

I thought Greg Vaughan did a decent job at balancing out the softer side of Lucky along with the Spencer temper and the generic hunk duties. Guza just never gave him a chance.

JJ Lucky was a mirage, something that never could have been sustained if he hadn't left in 1999. The flop that was his return cemented that for me. Beyond rape fetishists or people who just really love making tumblr gifs of men crying, I have no idea who that was meant to appeal to.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

I seriously can't remember much about either tbh.  One of them (ex-Cooper) pinched hit for Greg Vaughn recently on Days and he was very good and very hot still.

The main thing I remember about Logan was all the rumors about just why he was written out.

6 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

It also proves why you need characters (like Tracy, for example) to be the voice of the audience and call characters like Jason and Carly out for their hypocrisy, without the spin of said characters being comedic relief or stupidly unhinged. Right now, that doesn’t noticeably exist on the show. Elizabeth Korte has always been a Jason/Carly fangurl, so this writing doesn’t surprise me either since she and PM are billed as equal HW’s. 

When Sarah Brown was in the part, any sense of hypocrisy from Carly over a power position was muted by how many characters in Port Charles loathed her as well as by just how much disdain Steve Burton had for playing scenes with Brown. That era is one of the reasons it's impossible for me to ever believe the whole BFF/true love/ride-or-die mentality. Back then, it was clear Jason was only interested in "saving" Michael, and Carly was a part of the package. 

48 minutes ago, Vee said:

I thought Cooper was a block of hard cheese tbh. I didn't get it at all. Logan, I thought he was wasted but allegedly Duhon was an problem on set. They squandered the character regardless and poor Georgie. I'm still not over her death. But Guza, Phelps, Frons, etc. were infatuated with their find in Julie Berman and instead angled all youth story around her (with virtually every young man infatuated with her at once) for ages until Spixie became a thing.

As others have said, Berman does remind me of EM's Joss as both come across as so entitled and unbearable. This is a reminder of how much worse it could be with Joss, as I imagine Guza would have had Spencer chasing after her along with Dex, Cam (Cam probably would have tried to rape her and Dex and Spencer would have covered up Carly killing him). 

Given how much Luke despised Carly and how much of an outsider she was for a number of years, it's strange sometimes to remember that she and her children are now the only real Spencer family left. There's Aidan, of course, but he's never going to be a major character, and will be lucky to live to his 20th birthday. I guess Lulu has kids too, I don't know, but they don't seem to have much purpose. 

If Geary, Francis, etc. had not been so allegedly precious about JJ as the only Lucky, I wonder how different things might have been. Geary in particular was awful on that front. And now it's pretty much too late for Lucky or Lulu to ever be whatever they may have been intended to be - they would likely meet the fate of perpetual dead space like Belle and Shawn on DAYS.

Thanks @slick jones . Heartbreaking to hear, but he did what he could. I will avoid the site from now on.