DRW50

I still find H&A the best of any current soaps, although that doesn't mean a great deal. It's the main show where I still care about a majority of the characters, and they have a better balance of stories. With that said, they do need a change - I would write out Harper, Tane, Mali, Bree and the members of Lyrik. I don't dislike any of these characters (maybe Harper), but I think their stories are over. The only one I might keep is Eden because of her siblings - Levi's arrival and the show's willingness to have him actually do bad things and be called out for them was one of the best parts of the show this year (his being hot helps). I would also give Marilyn a story again - a much better story than her last few.

I would put some on McTavish, as her writing was so allergic to proper characterization or history, but it was also the end result of recasting Michelle into a generic ingenue and saddling Vanessa with WM's Dinah. From the time she arrived Vanessa just became Dinah's hand-wringing mother, subjected to much verbal abuse she was apparently meant to deserve. The custody battle and Julie scheming to get Frank were the only stories that kept me interested in the show in 1994. I was in and out in those years but I didn't remember a relationship either, aside from through Maureen. I mostly remembered Ed and Ross...Ed seemed so isolated by that point, and maybe he always was by the mid '80s due to the Bauer decimation. The show was, in some way, savvy to try to turn their relationship into a sweeping romance novel in time with Vanessa's return, but that's where it should have ended. I never would have had her pregnant again - it just seemed like they had no idea what else to do with the character, or women in general. I'm surprised they never gave Reva a kid at that time (I mean carrying a child, not the Jonathan retcon). And none of the story was in Vanessa's voice, just as the story where she went back to work and somehow it became about her being told she should get plastic surgery was also not about her.

The show also never really committed to Trina and Gio. He was making cow eyes at Joss even as we were told he was supposed to care about Trina. Many Trina fans loathe Joss, with good reason. The optics were awful and yet again reminded them that a black woman isn't good enough, especially one who so degrades herself to the point of calling herself a "bitch" at Joss' mercy. Frank isn't going to have one of his himbos with someone the show doesn't see as the ideal. Even if the show had actually cared about a Trina/Gio pairing, some fans would have objected, undoubtedly, but that is just how a lot of overzealous fans are. Liz fans have hated all her pairings for many years, and she still gets stuck in them. They were never seriously committed to putting Trina with a white man, especially one we are meant to love. And this C-pairing with Kai will likely just serve as a "well, here's something, leave us alone," until Trina leaves next year, never to be mentioned again. They do. Even Stella, who was used well under Mulcahey and had a good response, is not getting those moments now. The show has been visibly afraid to give anything beyond a crumb of a crumb to black characters, and the election results likely just confirmed every fear or prejudice. I agree that Simone felt more centered, and the show would never make that effort today, no matter how dull Tom was (he was still seen as an important character at the time).

I definitely don't begrudge any of the actors, who are just reading lines as quickly as possible and have no say and no value. It's all on the show, which saw popularity and passion and took it out on the character and actress, then saw racial abuse and again seemingly saw it as justification to just triple down all the more on the show that those same racist fans had been begging for. I guess that's just soaps today...and America at large, I guess. (I suppose if we complain too much whoever at the show was so eager for Spencer/Esme will step in)

I feel like the reason is not just about Trina and a white man, but Trina as a character. The show is fine with a C-heroine like Jordan, similar to the way previous black B/C heroines like Claudia, Simone or Dara had been treated, but Trina had a very prominent place with some fans in the last year or so, and that rocks the boat. I've seen some fans decrying how Trina or Trina's fans ruined the place that Joss had on the canvas, and the wonderful glory days of her friendship with Spencer (and the whole Cam/Spencer/Joss unit). I wouldn't be surprised if a number of people at the show feel the same way. Emma can fit more into that vision of nostalgia which Trina can't, because Trina, like almost all black characters in GH's history, is permanently othered. Emma and Gio and Joss can take the spotlight, and maybe another cornbread piece of ass to join them. Trina can either settle for scenes with Kai that keep them both firmly in their place, or leave, never to be mentioned again, which the show would likely prefer as that means they can recast Spencer and not have to deal with any fan complaints about Sprina.

Thanks. I also liked him with Eve, although I haven't watched them together in 30 years. I forgot Hulswit didn't play the breakup.

I think that was true for most on AW in the '80s, including Nicole and Peter. So much wasted potential. If not for Anna Stuart returning Donna would have gone the same way. She almost did even with Anna. Thanks. What a resource WLS was.

I wonder if they even cared about the Steve and Alice ties. I suppose they must have, as they tried to go for Vicky/Jamie under Rhonda Lewin, but Lisa and Jamie both seemed so generic. When Lemay returned they did bring up the Steve history more but by then Lisa was going.

I think Anne has said it wasn't her choice but I may be wrong.

Didn't she also fake a suicide attempt? I can't remember. I thought Peter worked well with all of his leading ladies (the few he had), but I agree Maeve was better on that front.

Thanks @TheyStartedOnSoaps this looks oddly evil. Lloyd Bridges will rule over us all.

What I've seen of Anna's Donna before she left was very hard to sit through - weak and feeble and losing her mind. I don't think anything improved for Philece's Donna until Harding Lemay returned and they remembered she really shouldn't be pals with Felicia and allowed her to be snobbish again. I can't think of anyone who benefited from DePriest. I guess Rachel and Mac and Felicia and Mitch came out OK. (I know she brought Mitch back)

I will give the show some credit for keeping this and some other recent twists under wraps. I suppose this is one upside of the death of the soap press.

I never thought they were either. I suppose they just wanted to have the moment after managing to get Peter Simon back and Maeve back briefly. I think Maureen's death and the affair were always going to be obstacles in a friendship, one they never had anyway. I was so surprised when I learned they had dated and IIRC were even engaged. Never mentioned in later years.

I wonder if they will even interact.

No problem. So much Madonna content is out there for viewing but when I stumbled upon this, I couldn't find it elsewhere. This little special is mostly another reminder of how much she dominated pop culture, and luckily it never gets nasty the way some of these things could.

Various writers and journalists discuss Madonna's move to the UK and her recent marriage.

Shane Isheev leaving also makes me wonder.

Anna is going to end up like Alice during the tears/flood scene.

I wouldn't be surprised if her return is to help push Trina further off the canvas, and facilitate a Spencer recast once Trina is gone. And probably to cause some kind of drama for Anna/Valentin true love. Charlotte will probably try to kill her.

Jim/Gwyn would have been a very interesting pairing. He was so strait-laced. There is also the whole corrupting a priest angle. Fights with Shana. And wasn't her father a minister?

Adam had a crush on her. They did seem to be pushing for more (I imagine it would have been a quad) if he had stayed. I assume he, Cheryl and Scott were all let go - their departures all felt rushed. Lisa probably should have left after the end of the Sin Stalker story.

Thanks. I'm not surprised. For all the show seemed to think of Lisa and Jamie (just look at their heavy use in the opening credits), they are a very dull, forgettable couple. I don't even know what story you could have for them beyond my wishing Lisa had learned about the time her aunt had tried to get into the hottest Jamie's pants.

Wasn't Joanna Going already leaving by the point where Jamie and Vicky became a proper couple? I don't think Swajeski had any real interest in Vicky and Jamie as a couple either. Vicky had no true romance under her pen until Ryan, although I did enjoy her [!@#$%^&*] buddy relationship with Evan. I do wonder if they were considering recasting Lisa, as the whole daughter retcon with Felicia happened not long after she left, and they also had some Matt/Lisa interaction.

That shocked sitcom mother face on Reva makes me laugh. In the old days she would have given her a backhand. I don't know what it says about my tastes that this version of Dinah is the only time I enjoyed Wendy Moniz's version of the character. (Dinah really was nothing special as a character until Gina Tognoni anyway - she was born to play that part, and I say that as someone who spent years trashing her OLTL runs)