DRW50

Promo around 50 minutes in.

At times I felt like 2023 would never end, but I always had this place to come to - so much of my enjoyment at SON is due to our collective past with soaps, trying to reclaim a world we once had, one many of us never actually knew. In that sense we are making soaps live forever, and any little morsel, an episode, a scene, a script, an article, even a photo, is a priceless gift. I hope 2024 will give us so many of those gifts, but above all else, I hope you and those you care about have a good year. 2024 won't be easy, but you can still find a way to make it special, as soap fans so often have to do.

Promo around 49 minutes in.

A promo at about 49 minutes.

A promo at about 49 minutes.

A great end of the year gift! The last few minutes are missing but that's definitely nothing to complain about as this is one of those transition periods that we don't have much of. Two more episodes after this as well. @Vee @dc11786 @Khan @SoapDope @soapfan770 @vetsoapfan @Khan @Mitch64 @Dan @Donna L. Bridges @slick jones @FrenchFan @Soapsuds @MichaelGL @jam6242

Thanks, as always.

I think it was more along the lines of Robert or Ross - a complete sociopath and sadist we were supposed to see as hot. Then once that seemed to spin out of the show's control, the human trafficking and ugliness, they put him more into misery mode.

I'd forgotten about him singing this on the show. (I can't even remember if he had an exit - by the time I stopped watching around the time of Althea's amnesia story he was barely appearing). Was Link on ATWT at this time or had he already left? (funny as I think someone named Colson also played Tom a few years after this) That or "Groovy Kind of Love."

A David Frost Show performance of "If You Let Me Make Love To You Why Can't I Touch You" from the off-Broadway musical Salvation (the song became a hit through Ron Dyson - too late to save the show). C.C. Courtney (Jody Lee) co-created Salvation, and was in the original cast, although I don't think he's here (it's been so long since I've seen Jody maybe I'm wrong).

I enjoyed reading all the posts about 2002-2004...more than I enjoyed watching any of that period, when I managed to watch (I think late 2002/early 2003 was the one time things started to click into place for me). The investment even in discussing the bleak last years of the show just reinforces for me that GL could have gone on for a long time if the level of investment had been there for P&G. I was watching this 1986 Christmas episode. Was this the Christmas episode? Sad to not see Ed and Maureen, or even Ross. I can't imagine how I would have felt watching this back in the day, especially when the closest they get to nostalgia is using Grant Aleksander's return (he'd returned this very month - not sure what exact date) to dust off Beth and Philip flashbacks. I did not know Grant played Philip during any of his writer phase. I had to laugh at Nick's "help" for Philip, as Beth was alive and he told Philip she was dead (I guess Nick can't guess future scripts) and he urged Philip to keep writing, which clearly didn't last. This was essentially a Shayne Christmas. No matter how many times I see Rusty I still think he was gay, especially in the early scenes. The best part of this is probably Reva and Roxie talking about how they have no money to pay his bail - not even $500. Something you'd never get with Reva in later years. Jennifer Gatti wasn't a very good actress, but this rougher Dinah is more interesting to me than Paige Turco's generic turn. Dorie is OK but she is very child actress. I do enjoy getting the full closing theme, but I have never understood the choice to have this era's closing screen being that bright white background.

So many in this country take things for granted, just shrugging and saying well it can't get any worse, or saying they will take sacrifices in the short term for a brighter long term (the delusional Susan Sarandon approach). Many of these people are cheering the plans that some Arab-American groups have to go to each state and urge votes to support a third-party candidate because they want Biden to lose so the party will learn a lesson. (a number of the people in that movement are right wing and Trump supporters, but as always, the dead-end left eats it up)

I've had no use for Ben ever since his return - the human trafficking and him threatening to torture and murder an old woman and make her son watch (and all of this being treated as fun and hot are the big reasons why, along with Bowden having no chemistry with any of the people Ben was meant to care about) - but it has been obvious for a few years now Bowden was going through things. After last year when he ended up getting into it over Walford Web's character rate, I was especially concerned. I feel like they have been phasing Ben out for a while, to the point where I wonder if this is why they finally brought Johnny back. Still, this seems abrupt. I don't really have a problem with Callum, but I won't be surprised if he heads out as well, if not with Ben than later in the year. Ben needs a very long rest as a character. Harry Reid wasn't the greatest actor but he did fit the two sides of Ben and had good chemistry with those in Ben's life. Max Bowden mostly represented many of the fetishes that the newly arrived producer tends to put out in her work. He quickly replayed a number of the same stories she gave that type of sneering, sociopathic "hunk" when she was at Emmerdale. It was very unpleasant to watch.

@Vee @I Am A Swede This may be what they were talking about. Glad Malandra seems to be looking well:

I couldn't remember if he was still on that show by the end. I never got it either. My loathing of the Rafe/Alison pairing pretty much made that a permanent thing.

Linda Henry is not with a morning show, but I don't think she will be back anytime soon. (if it means she can avoid all that cackling, good for her)

I always associate Gaskill with looking too old for his AMC role (I still have no idea why he was cast in that part - he couldn't act and was extremely unlikeable onscreen), so I'm glad he is at least cast in an age-appropriate part and seems to be fine with aging naturally. As for being a soap killer...joking aside, every soap he was on that ended was in its last breaths anyway. And B&B is still around, in name only at least.

2016, which was, unfortunately, slated, leading to a return of episodes like this one - months of bad stories stalled out for the sake of one episode a year that has many viewers who immediately stop watching again.

This is another reason I think the show could do well if it's revived today.

'General Hospital' Temporarily Recasts the Role of Maxie Jones with Nicole Paggi (soapoperanetwork.com)

Seeing Patricia Mauceri in one of those photos made me feel sad. I don't even know what she's been doing since her unpleasant exit from the show.

I'm still pleasantly surprised that the show remembered Laurie after it had ignored so much of its past. I wonder just why that happened. I wish they had also remembered Timmy Faraday.

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/elections/lauren-boebert-jumps-to-colorados-4th-cd-in-bid-to-improve-reelection-odds/article_26d119d8-a4db-11ee-86bc-ffa4c977b4e2.html With Trump likely on the ballot to juice turnout, Boobert had a good chance of winning reelection (although she was facing a competitive primary), but the NRCC would have had to spend massive amounts of money on her. Now they have a better chance of keeping her seat, and are likely rid of her, as she's running in a district that is nowhere near hers, going against many other candidates with local ties.

Emmerdale has never been a well-rated soap on Christmas. Corrie hasn't either. EE was the main Christmas Day soap until it bottomed out in recent years (they have recovered somewhat now but still struggle, in quality or ratings).

@slick jones The closing credits, complete with lengthy cast crawl, for January 25, 1982 General Hospital were uploaded early in this video. I think there is at least one I did not see credited for GH (Paul Rossilli) but my searching skills suck so I know I may be wrong.