DRW50

I stumbled on this interview from 2009 where a John Maczko says he appeared on ATWT (his character "kidnapped a kid"). His CV has him as "Masons man." Not sure if that means Derek or Niles Mason. MACZKO.com - John Maczko - Resumé A photo of how he looked around those days, presumably.

Another PSA that was new to me or I had forgotten.

Hadn't seen this before. A rarity (to me anyway), and all the more notable as CBS wouldn't have the show on much longer.

Joe Rogan, whom you may remember as being the very, very white whale of the Bernie cultists back in 2019 and 2020, has endorsed RFK Jr. My guess is he is going to backtrack on this before November, as it could hurt Trump given the affiliation of the few bros who are hooked on his podcast and shitty standup. Still, it tells you of what a weak position Trump is presently in that Rogan is even going here. https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/joe-rogan-endorses-rfk-jr-president-1236101220/

Today Jim Muneco uploaded a number of episodes from 1984, 1985, and 1988. Just posting the first.

I think Soapclassics put up one of her final episodes on their website as it was a wedding. It was around Christmas 1981. I don't think they were the couple getting married. I think she may have mentioned being with him or planning to marry him. For some reason I remember this conversation being with Tom, which made me all the sadder they never thought of bringing her back to see Tom again in later years. I think it was Rita's choice to leave so I assume they would have had more plans for Carol if she hadn't as they could have just written her out with so many others in 1980. I wonder how I would feel about Carol/Steve if I saw more of them (this and the episode where they were going to raise Annie's baby, or whatever that plot was, are it). I do prefer seeing Steve styled more maturely and with a woman closer to his age, unlike how juvenile and overwrought they wrote his relationship with Betsy. Rita brings a real sincerity to the part that makes her stand out from the sea of bland ingenues of that period. Jim Muneco put up an episode - it has been up before (I mainly remember because of the temp Lyla recast, and maybe the rarity of Scott's Craig with the wet look), so I won't tag, but I will @DramatistDreamer as it has some Craig/Sierra material. It was clever to have Craig, here in semi-reformed mode, forced back into selfish behavior rather than getting what we would often get in later years - having characters behave selfishly as the writing bends over backwards to tell us how wonderful and perfect they are. Trigger warning for anyone who like me has a limited patience for Lily weeping and wailing. Who is the actress at the end doing that cod Irish accent? They also uploaded another episode I am pretty sure was up before but hasn't been in a while. There are some fun scenes in this involving Lyla and the speaker system...

I can see where the inaccuracies would annoy you, especially as the info was probably available somewhere. You could say that his grandson called himself that to honor his grandfather, if you want to reach, I suppose. I was surprised to finally see a bit of that Rick (Phil McGregor - ? can't remember) when some early 1983 material was uploaded. He wasn't bad. You're right, they had no real interest in Rick. Probably down to Ed mostly having romantic stories with women who had no ties to Rick, while Philip had four parents on the show for a number of years. That's one of the reasons I didn't care as much about Blake/Rick sleeping together in terms of inappropriateness (I did think it was a very hacky writing choice), because even though they were meant to be raised as close, I don't know if I have ever seen them together in old clips.

The trans stuff is another example of his very online handlers telling him what to say even as he doesn't know how to say it. They are obsessed with mainstreaming transphobia, and paranoia over all the atrocities they insist are happening schools. That's why they keep bringing up tampons. This might work to a certain degree (you can see the increase in transphobia in polling and public life), but as shown in the '22 midterms, many voters just find it confusing. You're absolutely right. This is what the GOP always do. They push the media, already conservative, further and further to the right. That's what we have now with them pushing the media to demand Harris do extensive interviews with them, which is replacing any positive press about Harris because the media LOVES to center themselves and genuinely doesn't know why anyone wouldn't want to see them jerk off at all times. Meanwhile, Trump does the bare minimum, and the media ignores his ramblings and nonsense, instead doing the framing for him and making sure the main story is his agreeing to debates and asking her for more debates - similar to the NYT pushing his lies about a new tax cut proposal, they make sure he looks wonderful, and Harris is on the back foot. Another example of this type of framing (Politico of course did it too) There's no real way for Harris, or any Democrat, to cut through this garbage. The best they can do is hope voters don't fall for it. I would be very cautious about continuing to lean into meme culture, especially as dril is, IIRC, another of the dead end left who was raging about Democrats and Gaza. If he comes out trashing her after she quotes one of his overused memes, it's just more negative attention coming her way.

Rick was generally a character I liked but didn't have any real attachment to. I think he was hurt so much by a lack of family, but then if the Bauers had been in a stronger position they may have recast him anyway instead of bringing MOL back in 1995. I thought he worked well with Barbara Crampton, but she was on the way out the door.

I wonder how much longer it will be for Greg Rikaart. I liked Emily on Y&R but the amount of time spent on her at DAYS, with two very unpopular characters, is a great example of what has chased viewers away from soaps.

I know I already said this earlier but I do think he did a good job with Abby's exit, even if there were some odd choices made (didn't they have him do the entire thing shirtless...and did he sink to his knees or am I just making that up). And maybe when he found out Blake's son wasn't his, although I may just be thinking of Jerry. I wonder if Don Stewart also didn't want Mike to have any other kids.

I tend to agree, although I'm glad for Kadeem and Jasmine to get the work. Jasmine was recently so bullied online over her appearance she went to get cosmetic surgery, IIRC, which disgusted me. I do hope they will not have her just doing the old Whitley entirely all these years later. I would definitely enjoy seeing people like Kim, or even "Uncle Ron," popping in at times. A part of me thinks they missed their chance 10-15 years ago but certainly shows much less warranting of a revival have had them (like Murphy Brown - and I didn't even mind the Murphy Brown revival). At least it's happening while most of the cast is still with us so there's a chance for some of them to get a paycheck.

@slick jones Thanks. I was barely watching by then, but I did remember hearing of this and liking the idea (I wonder if they did it because of the very positive response the 70th episode received). @Mona Kane Croft The reason I mentioned it is because I was trying to figure out if the 2000 Meta speech was establishing Reverend Ruthledge as a fictional character she listened to (a wink at GL itself being a soap), or if he was a real person she listened to on the radio, or someone she knew, etc. So the later mention would lean more toward establishing Ruthledge as a canonical character. Ed did have two kids, and if Christina had stayed on the show I think the show likely would have treated her as Ed's daughter, but they did seem to avoid giving Mike another child for a long time. Maybe they thought of him as a hunky leading man and didn't want him to be tied down with kids. This seemed to be more of a mindset with soaps until later years where characters started having 3-4-5 children. Ed also only had one child until Michelle...around the same time Mike had been pushed off the canvas.

I have to admit I also take the "listen to" as her hearing him on the radio, but we are probably putting more thought into it than warranted. Didn't Josh meet a relative of his when he was briefly a minister? Or am I fancrufting?

Maybe the first time they've run this type of promo around the same time. The main problem with the Neighbours version right now is the story just is not involving. Most of the people involved aren't worth caring about.

I saw Mary Katharine Ham, another right wing sycophant (and often on Tapper's show), braying the same thing on Twitter (the hack who wrote a book whining about the left not being able to take a joke). It's pathetic. Some Democrats still get so skittish about even the word "weird" being used and talk about how centrist or right leaning voters will get upset. When you live in a world of wealth and connections, as they do, this is where you end up. Meanwhile, Trump can go around talking saying the vilest things and everyone is just meant to shrug and laugh.

These voters are never going to support Harris, just as they were never going to support Biden. For various reasons (accelerationism, bigotry, financial incentive), they prefer Trump and the GOP. I don't believe that Harris avoided Shapiro solely for this issue, I think there were a number of valid reasons, but I hope her team sees that there is no getting them and redirect resources and time. Even if that means scaling back on Michigan, if Dearborn is that critical to the win. I saw a viral tweet of someone sneeringly saying it was time for vibes to be over and go back to opposing Harris. The truth is most of the brain dead meme crew and "Momala" "brat summer" posers never did. They wanted attention and clout before they reverted to the norm, which is irony poisoned lolposting their way into Trump's next term. That's why I have my doubts about just how many of the performative younger people on social media are really going to show up when it counts. They didn't for their beloved Bernie. I just hope it's balanced out by the voters who do actually give a damn about saving what's left of the country rather than going back to tiktok to read the bin Laden letter again.

From Soapcentral, Michelle was meant to look like Mary, and Zachary her angel boyfriend looked like Zachary who had been in love with Mary. (of course, they also claim Meta went to visit Trudy and Clyde during her late '90s absence, which I do not remember)

I didn't mind Rick through the early '00s, even if MOL wasn't the most dynamic actor, as he still had good moments like Abby's exit storyline. After that the character did further stagnate, with the shockingly rushed Mel pairing and failed imitation of much better stories on St. Elsewhere and GH (among others) with his heart transplant, followed by just becoming a Beth catspaw and getting weirder and sadder and more forced through the '00s. And the completely pointless decision to give him a child with Harley, unless we desperately needed that week or two of tension with Philip. The biggest problem was his being the only Bauer, along with Michelle. They just ended up feeling very isolated and small. If there had been another man in the family to contrast with Rick it would have helped.

They also had a fairly nuanced Playbook on the "stolen valor" smears against Vance, even as some of the GOP tries to spin and spin and various "reasonable" media figures nod along. There's also a lot of "both VPs are so bad!" from the Very Serious set to try to downplay just how nasty and unhinged Vance is. The response would be they shouldn't have chosen Walz in that case, but even though he wouldn't have been my pick, and the military stuff was a clunky error on his part, they were going to do this with whoever she chose.

That's interesting, as some of what she did felt so much like material very specific to her rather than for the show, especially the Bauer kitchen shootout and the whole mess with Selina. It did seem like after those early points the material started to be more generic to Rauch's GL (like the San Cristobel saga rumbling on).

I remember the Trudy rumor. Hadn't heard the Gerard rumor. I can see where she would have been interested in expanding the older Bauer set as she used Meta quite a bit in her run as headwriter. The only writer who did (to be fair I think Mary may have been too sick to work much in the late '90s).

Is he drunk? The New York Times is at it again: No wonder Haberman is retweeting the pouts of Beltway reporters who want Harris to take their questions. They will do anything to get Trump back in. Anything.

It's even worse than I remembered. I guess Camryn is glad she dodged that bullet. Poor Doris.