DRW50

Luke is probably one factor. I think the Dobsons may have also been attempting to recreate Roger Thorpe and failing miserably. I'd give Calhoun and Susan Bedsow Horgan a lot of credit too. The show in late 1984/early 1985 seemed to improve markedly and many pieces they put in place Marland could use to his advantage. If he had taken over in 1982 or 1983 I'm not sure what might have happened. Even when you watch his work in the brief period he was writing around 1979, although it's much better than what is to come, the incredibly moribund nature of that time and the large amount of deadly dull characters shine through.

You can see where Faux News is scrambling from not having as many connections to the rotting base of the alt right without Tucker there. Jesse Watters is also incapable of making his persona believable. The toxic elements are instead just road testing everything on social media and then it will eventually bubble up further. The one I saw going around on Twitter was faux outrage over some Kamala backers saying [!@#$%^&*] white women in an old video.

Thanks so much @Forever8 Marcy Walker is chillingly good as Liza - all the more amazing that she managed to play Eden Capwell, such a different character. The way she knows just what to say to trigger the vile Enid is extremely strong writing. The acting in those scenes from Marcy and Natalie Ross is especially striking when compared to the poor work from Mike Minor later on... Speaking of Natalie Ross, I am assuming her last credit is NOT her, but can anyone confirm? Rage (1999) - IMDb

I don't know what will happen but since you seemed to suggest I thought he was going to win big in PA, I was saying I think if he does it will just be by a few points. There's just too much for me surrounding Shapiro - the cover up stuff stinks of a lot of the Clinton era baggage which rightly or wrongly will overshadow him.

Thanks for the Enten clip. The attempts at pushback were amusing. He is just a fundamentally awkward and deeply unlikeable person. His newest line about how Harris has a social media team who were bullied in school tells you how malevolent and insecure he is. I wouldn't claim he is up that much in PA. I do think it will be very tight in all those states and I won't be surprised if he wins them, but it won't be by more than a point or two. I just hope that type of polling doesn't influence a Shapiro choice, which seems like more and more of a bad bet.

Thanks!

You're not wrong but compared to what we often get from that time (Barbara worrying, Betsy fluffing her lines, Steve flaring his nostrils, a high camp moment from Karen or Ariel, and then sometimes Margo and Tom), I wasn't sorry. I have to admit I am not really that enthused about seeing more of 1980 ATWT (this is about the Melinda clips) but I'm glad for the newest as it's the only time I have seen Melinda with Kim or Betsy. Given that I never even remember Kim mentioning her, I appreciated the moment. And I was reminded again of how much I prefer Suzanne Davidson in the role, although I'm not surprised they recast with a more typical ingenue.

@Xanthe Thanks for the Italian video. I remember seeing one of those 4-5 years ago or more but could not remember the title. @mikeaw1978 Not sure if anything in that video can help AWHP.

Any Peter Reckell fans may want to know he pops up a bit here in his ATWT part. There isn't a ton of his role there available online.

Likely so, yes. It's OK. It's difficult to know about sites like that as they are good at fooling people. If you or anyone else ever want to see more of that particular story, the videos came from here: https://www.youtube.com/@WeLoveSoapsVideo

The article (in spite of not being all that well written) was poignant in seeing how much Biden was trying to help other people even as he was being torn apart by many in his party and facing the end of his career. This is such a cynical country, but Biden has never been guilty of the same. So many responses to this have just been focusing on Republicans and Trump saying that this somehow "proves" Putin is afraid of Trump or trying to gin up outrage over an out of context clip over Kamala Harris chiding people for saying Merry Christmas. Biden knew he'd get nothing in return for his actions, but he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do. In a country full of so many people who worship Trump and would let everyone else burn, I should appreciate that while I can.

Jill Larson really played the hell out of Ursula.

Amazing that DAYS has managed to waste Blake Berris three different times.

Thanks @soapfan770 for tagging me. I never went to the boards (and yes those MediaDomain boards were a mess too), but as others have said, Dan was very nice in the few times I interacted with him many years ago. None of the ego trips and nastiness of some soap board bigwigs. I just hope someone will save the recaps and profiles. Much as I complain about the fancruft in the profiles, they are still years of work and are some of the only resources around. I'd say this is the end of an era, but the era ended a long time ago. Still, it's a moment to mourn, and remember where we came from.

I thought the same but figured it was a repeat.

That's true. Add in an attempt to get John in earlier and you could have had some good conflict.

I suppose Margo's antics early on (like the affair with James) make Cricket seem modest but by this time she had centered herself and Cricket is still a mess. I think they only had her get pregnant this time because Lisa was pregnant, but it screams lack of interest/ideas. Given that they never bothered to bring her back later on (although at least they mentioned her, unlike Maggie), I appreciated these rare sisterly moments here. I know what you mean about the music. Reminds me of when AW suddenly couldn't get enough of Tangerine Dream in the mid '80s. Must be later than that as HBS arrived in November of 1983. Or bring Melinda back from the dead. Hell, even remember Frannie, Sabrina or Andy existed. Then again look what they did to Dani... I know I was frightened of Dusty in his last incarnation, albeit mainly due to that awful accent.

They did, yes. Lucinda's involvement helped end his marriage to Karen, IIRC.

I haven't heard him yet, but she seems to be from the US, or at least spent a lot of time there. She may just be trying to put on more of the cliche posh American Dynasty type of accent. Anica Calida - CMC - Creative Media Careers (cmctalent.com.au)

Finished watching... I'd never heard of that Sam character - I guess I must have as she is in the credits for the bullring episode, but I only remember the bullring scenes from that one. She seemed to know Betsy and Steve and had a fair amount of dialogue. Was she Tucker's girlfriend before Heather arrived? I can see where Meg's Betsy would appeal to viewers, but I just find her a bit exhausting. I am glad to have them acknowledge she was all over the place during her pregnancy. This must be heading into the exit for Annie and Jeff. Still a mistake to write them out long term, even if they do feel spent. Until the very end with the sinister closeups the fantasy didn't feel very much like James. So was James paying that woman to pretend to be Dusty's dead mother? There were quite a few plots in this episode so kudos to them for that at least.

Thanks! A shame it didn't work out for him after he had a successful run on The Doctors.

Thanks! Karen on paper was a real mess as a character but Kate McNeil makes her fascinating to watch. This was clearly very early HBS as Margo with that longer hair (and of course Deas still being there). @Mitch64 You have to watch that bizarre scene where Tom tears into Cricket (in absentia) saying you can't expect anything from someone named after a bug and then very pointedly saying, "SHE'S A TERRIBLE ACTRESS!" I wonder if some writer was venting about Lisa Loring (RIP). @DramatistDreamer trying not to annoy people with all the heavy tagging but I know you're always on the lookout for vintage ATWT too. Which Brian is this? Here he looks like Barry Bostwick.

Maybe just an extra? I'm not sure.

As soon as I saw Brad, sucking the air out of the room as always, I mentally checked out. I appreciate any new scene, especially as we have none of Melinda's exit, but he must be one of the worst soap characters of all time. This must not be too long before Jay leaves.

I don't disagree with you about the abruptness of a number of changes, in careers, and outlooks on Sonny, and how sloppy the handling was, and trying to slowly reset the show in certain other ways. The show briefly flirted with trying something new and then reverted to norm at whiplash speed, in a very ramshackle way, but aside from the extra sloppiness I don't know if I can say it was different than other attempts along these lines over the years. Late Guza, or the brief tone differences with Wolf in how characters like Carly were framed, or the tonal jolt of the early JFP period followed by the other jolt when Pratt/Guza came in, etc. all come to mind for me. What was so jarring about the GL shift at the time was that while the show had been bad and had been full of whiplash before her arrival and the struggles with Rauch, it had never been quite...like the way it was. Selina going in a few months from Buzz Cooper's girlfriend to having her mob moll tea spilled in Blake's book and TV interview and being beaten up by Tony Santos before fleeing Springfield for good is still disorienting to me all these years later, whereas with Sonny, I never thought the changes were anything but lip service anyway. Taking away any GL mentions, the rushed exits of Finn (although surprisingly I thought that was well handled) and Austin do show a much more out of control backstage element, although it's another case where I wonder if something is just reverting to type after relative stability for most of Valentini's run (the increased network interference in this case as I imagine Valentini desperately wanted his OLTL pals to stay).