DRW50

Honestly, I think many of them enjoy Trump, because he fits many of the boxes that irony-poisoned leftists appreciate. He's "funny," he hates "neolibs," he is a racist and a homophobe and transphobe, he blathers all over social media, he's prone to conspiracy theories. They just don't want to openly say they support him, so they do a little dance. I still remember how many of them spent 2020 saying that he was going to run to the left to beat Biden. That was what they so desperately wanted. And it's the same old garbage this year - he and Biden are just the same, Biden is worse, delusions of how Trump will force Netanyahu out, on and on and on.

This was my favorite part. I do appreciate Marland making sure viewers did not think Rita kept quiet about Roger's bugging devices, although my guess is some grandma in Topeka was still muttering, "That evil whore Rita." I think Pence also said she preferred the comedy. Pence was a good actress but I do tend to agree that she was better in the lighter material. On the one hand, it kind of made sense for Katie to have the abuse story with Andy, because she was such an isolated character, but given Hillary's history of already loving an abusive man, I wonder if it might have made even more sense for her. I wish more had been done with Andy. The optics of Barbara having a son who was so much like Roger are absolutely brutal, and could have produced a lot of exploration for her. Unfortunately, she was packed off, and Andy, unlike Roger, seems so one-note.

I will never understand the reason for killing Melinda off, even if Arianne Munker wanted to leave. Such a waste. They should have brought her back years later to cause trouble - maybe be a bad influence on Chris.

Marland really used Vanessa as a prime plot device, which could be a lot of fun, but gets confusing. She was with Ed, she was with Ross (I think that's who she wanted here, although she DID have designs on Ben when she first got to town, IIRC), she was with Tony, I think she might have been with the PI Joe Bradley, she was with Mark or whatever his other name was, she was interested in Quint...all in about two years! Jennifer's flaming brother Chet was stalking Eve. I like Kathleen Cullen but I don't think we ever got to see her play the harder edge of Amanda that they should have given her (maybe that is in the missing 82/83 episodes as I remember a few glimpses - I get the sense by the time that started she was fired). I also liked Toby Poser - I saw her before I ever saw Kathleen. She did a lot with some very silly and at times insulting material (I remember Liz Keifer saying she felt guilty for some of the comments she had to make about Amanda's appearance). She was starting to blossom into a more nuanced character when Rauch dumped her. I do wonder if things might have been different if not for Michael Zaslow's illness, but I think she would have gone anyway.

Clearly he well-loved by those casting people... I wonder if there's a listing for just how many soap people were on FoL.

I think he created some good characters and helped to tailor the show into a new era, while dealing with the changes P&G mandated. I also think that so many of his available episodes being washed out in print quality doesn't help my enjoyment because this adds to a lifeless atmosphere. (some of the Dobsons-era episodes are too but more are available in higher quality). I really do love a lot of his work on ATWT, even if I am critical of some elements, so I was surprised at how much I generally don't gel with his GL run - what I have seen of it, anyway. I think there's just a very stilted nature to most of the canvas, even when on paper the show was moving toward a much younger, more vibrant atmosphere. The major contrast between the show's scheming characters (who are often one-note, hissable, and aggressive) and the "good" characters (often incredibly bland, passive) is also striking to me. Some of that is on the cast, but not entirely, because I think some of the same cast who come across as dreary in this time frame had more life before and after (if they weren't fired soon after). There are attempts at more complicated figures, like Tony, but unfortunately, I just don't find him appealing, even if most of the women his age in Springfield did, and any time he starts thrown another tantrum I just want to see somebody kick his ass. (maybe Sara's son Tim could finally put all that offscreen karate training to use) The example that says with me most may be the whole Amanda/Morgan/Jennifer setup. You have a woman who has been broken free of years of repression, leaving a marriage, and is now running a major company, the long-lost mother who spent years toiling and is now happily reunited with her daughter, in a high-powered job, seeing a younger, handsome man, and her other daughter, who is living out a Barbie dream life (married to a Ken doll, working as a model)...and they are all wet blankets. That isn't entirely Marland's fault - Kristen Vigard brought so much more presence to the role of Morgan, and whoever replaced her with Jennifer Cooke (possibly one of the all-time blandest heroines on GL) sapped his writing of some of the complexity Vigard found. And he also inherited a show where a number of vibrant actresses who played heroines/anti-heroines to a tee were leaving (Cindy Pickett, Maureen Garrett, Lenore Kasdorf). If he had stayed longer, then more layered female characters brought in by him, like Maureen, might have had a chance to shine. Still, I don't mean to ruin anyone's enjoyment of that era, and at least I guess through certain moments we can say he was the closest we got to John Waters penning a soap:

I was going to tag you to vent about Dingle protection, but I figure you get tired of that. I don't hate the Dingles, but this is an episode where the shield annoys me a great deal because it makes so much more sense for Noah to die - Samson would have to be more of a father to his kid with Amelia, Amelia would have more angst, as would Charity, etc. I know he's a Tate too and we don't need more dead Tates, but it's not as if the show ever plays into that side of him. The worst part is that while the actors who play Wendy, Bob and Brenda all gave strong performances, the production felt so exploitive and overwrought that I couldn't even properly connect. So many wrongly killed characters on this show.

Some very rare footage via promos of A New Day in Eden and Loving Friends Perfect Couples. The second video is just a few seconds long. I should warn one of the promos (not for the shows) has a shot of someone's ass crack. (there's also a promo for a Broadway play featuring Andrew Stevens and Maxwell Caulfield - I assume that audience was very gay male heavy...) @Vee @vetsoapfan @dc11786 @Khan @Paul Raven @Donna L. Bridges @Soapsuds @soapfan770 @Soaplovers @Franko @te. @Chris B @SFK @Bright Eyes @Broderick @j swift @Joseph @slick jones

Kelly Wood as Mary Hughes.

Marland's ATWT 1.0 material is stronger than most of what I've seen from the Dobsons' tenure, although there is so much missing of the latter. Anyway, I'd be curious to know if Marland ever had more plans for Buck (Nola's boyfriend here) - if he was in the role Floyd ended up playing. The third episode has some good character-based and everyday material with Lainie/Ross/Eve, Katie/Mark, and Diane/Greg - lots of details here I never knew about (like the Diane/Greg relationship). It's funny because Eve is the type of character and actress that I often find tedious on soaps (indeed, there were a slew of women like this on ATWT in the early '80s that make me want to nod off), but there's something I just like about Janet Grey. This era of GL is very rare for me as I don't think there is anyone I dislike watching, and no stories that I find completely worthless. Everything has a sense of inner life to it. One moment from Marland here that is very him (clunky and clever all at once) is that you already have Nola confusing movies with real life as we have Kelly telling Hillary that he doesn't like movies because they are a waste of time compared to real life - telling us even before they meet that Kelly and Nola will never work. (that's a very weird point of view, but honestly watching these years Kelly seems like a kind of weird/stunted guy anyway, just in the body of a god)

Promo around an hour and 26 minutes that I don't think I've ever seen before. (big few days for Search promos)

Oh I think Pam would have found some juicy material for Diane, but as you said, there's Gail Kobe, and also some huge cast culls on the way for three successive years.

Promo at 50 minutes. It's my and @Mitch64 's favorite, Brad!

Promo at 50 minutes.

Another Liz/Stuart promo at 50 minutes.

ATWT was struggling, as GL had been before the Dobsons were hired. On paper, it made sense to move the Dobsons over. @slick jones Not sure it will have anything you don't already know, but there's a full cast crawl.

I got your point, I just don't think it was worth it long-term. I appreciate that Marland wanted to end the stories he inherited, but I think what replaced them was, in most cases, not really up to the same standards (like what he did with Amanda).

I haven't seen enough of the full story to completely weigh in, but I don't think the Carrie story was worth Diane's murder, especially as Carrie was boxed into a corner early on. Admittedly, Diane would have just been dumped in 1982, 1983, or 1984 if she had lived...

It was an awful move - Diane was a spark plug character who could have easily fit into many parts of the canvas. Marland was a brilliant writer but he always (in my opinion) struggled with complex characters, aside from some terrific exceptions like Lucinda Walsh.

Opening the New Year with a dead teenager. Bleh. And it's one of Viv's kids, which makes it even worse. If they wanted more impact they should have killed off Noah.

Rose DeVille - not sure who the guy is. Someone else will know.

Kudos for diving in - I'm sure it must be a mix of confusing and underwhelming at first, but there's a lot worth watching (nothing before or since in Emmerdale history matches this period in seeing the show tear itself down and build itself back again). Sadly, the way Frazer was treated is par for the course with Emmerdale, but it was a very bad mistake, and I'm sorry they never tried to rectify it.

Promo around 50 minutes in.

Promo around 50 minutes in.