DRW50

@SFK Ruth Warrick is one of the soap legends interviewed in this. There's a hilarious question about eight minutes in where someone asks if she and Louis Edmonds are an item...

Mary Stuart and Larry Haines are among the soap legends interviewed in this. The first seven minutes have two clips - even if Donahue annoyingly talks over them (especially the second one). I think I've seen that one before but the first one I'm not too sure about.

The Billy/Vanessa pairing and integrating Vanessa into the Lewis family was important for her long-term status, but other than that and Little Billy I'm not sure if Long ever did a great deal with the character. (to be fair I think Maeve was not there for a good chunk of Long's second stint) Even the Dinah story, also very important to Vanessa in the long term, only happened after Long's first exit.

That's fair. If I'd been watching at the time I might have the same reaction. My first memories of Vanessa were from around 1990, so it was a jolt to go back years later and see her earlier material. There are some moments of cold scheming early on with her I enjoy but it feels like they start taking her in a more hysterical direction once Quint/Nola are a focus.

I feel like the Vanessa pre-Billy couldn't have been viable as a long-term character, although I don't really care for some of what they did with her in that timeframe (like the pill addiction and running over Reva).

March 12, 1986.

Last 26 minutes of an episode from March 12, 1986.

The smile when the NPR hack claims that Trump is behaving "normally" is one of the clearest reminders I've seen of just how dirty and complicit the Beltway is. They are still, after a decade, here to tell us that Trump is normal and in the center.

I also loved them, but you're right. I don't know how many times I ever remember seeing them in happy scenes.

Feel free. I would enjoy reading them. I have never seen this far back. My viewing mostly just went to the Africa Channel days.

Thank you to @vote4llama for telling me of this and @Toups for reopening the thread. The first 51 episodes of Isidingo are now on Youtube!

A sitcom pilot featuring Laurie Heineman a year or so after she left AW.

I think that was another case of an actor abruptly leaving, which is probably why they still had the whole hostage crisis with Laurel and his father after he was already gone. I have a feeling the show, or Claire King, may feel Kim has aged out of affair stories with much younger men, but I agree Billy/Kim would have made sense at one point.

Thanks. I don't remember hearing of this show. Or if I did I've forgotten it. The early '90s is such a clear identity crisis for primetime soaps as they try to move into what was seen as a more scaled-back, "intelligent" era. It would take Melrose Place blowing up (in more ways than one) for that to stop.

Sometimes I am disappointed because the stuff I want to see is never likely to materialize, but I should be happy with any new find. Speaking of which: Fans get rare chance to see lost Billy Connolly Big Banana Feet film (bbc.com)

Thanks for your help.

Glad it was new to you. You can see why the ratings were strong at that time. There was so much going on, new stories building even as old stories were winding down. Not a moment to breathe yet the canvas doesn't feel cold and dead due to constant heavy plots.

I assume these episodes are already around in English, as much of this period seems to be, but if not I thought some might enjoy:

I saw someone saying that many want to assign values of nobility to many Russian decisions that can really be boiled down to just wanting savagery. That is probably not entirely fair, but I would say it is in the case of Putin and a number of other leaders before him. We see that over and over with so many in the West who hate their countries and cling to Putin as some embattled hero fighting for their future, only for him to say, over and over, it's not about any of that - he just wants to conquer and conquer and conquer. There is not going to be any moment of uprising or reckoning for Putin, especially not from his own people. I can understand why Navalny, who likely knew he and his family were facing death if he did stay away, may have wanted to return and possibly be part of that change, even at cost of his own life, but it won't happen. Putin waged decimation against millions of Ukranians and yet so many inside and outside of Russia still cheer him all the way. This type of response, against Grandpa Bernie (who is now part of the evil establishment), sums up today's left:

This starts with a loud, annoying song. The interview is probably several years old.

That's great for Margaret.