DRW50

I do think Finola and Maura both try their best, but both their characters tend to suffer from still being dictated by the plot - Anna in particular often feels far away from what she was in her first run for this reason. I think this happened with Tracy as well, during her marriage to Luke, but with him gone now, she doesn't have as much constant degradation on her back - also due to the choice to not have her as the whipping girl of the family as she was for many years. On paper, any survival of the Quartermaine family runs through Jason or Michael, but Tracy just has such a compelling arc, even if a great deal of it was not intentional on the show's part. The longtime outsider of the family is now essentially the last one left to remember what once was and trying to guide them into a new world. I remember Leslie Charleson talking about how Gloria Monty had done her best to minimize the Qs during her second tenure and how fitting it was that most of her last creations in that second run ended up having their scenes in the Q living room. I'm glad that after all the unforgiveable damage Guza did to the family, they have still somehow managed to survive to be a focal point for another potential new era.

Siobhan was also there at that time, although I agree EJ might have been their attempt at bringing in another Mary. The problem is so much surrounding the first Mary was lightning in a bottle. And Mary just had more interesting relationships. I remember some lesbian undertones with Rae and EJ (which likely were not intended), but otherwise you just had self-righteous, smug Roger, and a lot of humiliation of Delia. I should say that I did think Ron Hale was a real talent, as shown in the early years of the show (and maybe the later years - I haven't exactly locked those down) and his thankless part on GH. Any criticism I have is not based on Ron's work. I think Richard did a good job as Barry when he had the chance - he was extremely smarmy, but we also got some of the more tender sides of the character. He didn't stand out to me from that era of the cast as a weak link, although I guess viewers might have been put off, especially compared to most of the other men on the show at the time. I don't remember any mentions of EJ and Barry, although someone might know more than I did as I haven't watched those in a long time.

Thanks! I'll mention that on the video. I thought he looked a little familiar (easy to say now...). And now that I listen he sounds just the same.

Sad. My parents were big fans of McCloud. The last surviving cast member of Sgt. Bilko.

Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but as this thread and the soap hopper thread have such detailed bios for many soap alum, including their anthology show work, I wondered if any of you might recognize any of the cast in this (and it could be added to their bios). The uploader was looking for cast info. IMDB does have William Post Jr, who was on a number of soaps (Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Where the Heart Is, Young Doctor Malone).

I do wonder how soon it will be before they panic over the usual fan complaints over what ship or character is not getting enough love, or if the numbers don't go up - if they don't have those expectations and they just allow Mulcahey to paint his own colors in the show's very limited canvas, maybe he can last. I do think Burton is trying harder this time around, helped by choices like not focusing on his love life. That's given me a more positive impression than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, I am still not going to have any real interest in a show led by Carly/Sonny/Jason. Back in the Sarah Brown era I might have, but the bravado and hard edge of her Carly was balanced out by what a pariah she was to PC residents. With that gone, Carly (and Joss) are just vultures circling over the town with ever-increasing entitlement.

I would guess this is also why Melissa Reeves' announcement got little mention. Once upon a time that would have generated a number of pages.

Valeka Gray told Daily TV Serials that after How to Survive a Marriage's cancelation, she was auditioning for Edge of Night.

Reading a Daily TV Serials goodbye to the show, where they talk about the show's problems, including interesting or prominent characters not staying, in some cases just vanishing (they mentioned Brad Davis' character suffering this fate). Two bits I hadn't heard before or had forgotten - that Michael Landrum was fired after "violent disputes over his interpretation of the role." And Steve Elmore "left in a huff and wrote about it in TV Guide."

I'm surprised the show has waited so long for any interaction between Spinelli and Jason. Is that another budget issue? (not that I'm sorry) I saw the clip of Tracy on the dance floor. Never thought I would see Tracy Quartermaine throwing it back. Yet somehow Jane makes it believable. I'm glad that she is getting the chance to have fun and not be written as the scold or butt of jokes as she often was in past years.

Jack on ATWT was able to provide some drama, although he was horribly used for most of his run on the show and mostly saved by Michael Park's charm. I'm not sure it has ever worked on other occasions. I think the idea made sense as the Ryan siblings felt very tapped out by then...but the show didn't try or just lost interest.

@Vee Cousins is a good actor and did a lot with a part on OLTL I would have found tiresome otherwise. Good luck to him with Y&R.

Oh they said that? Wow. I never knew, although I did know she wasn't well received as she was only on for a year or so. Her first months are on Youtube. I love Maureen Garrett but the character did not work for me, because of the Delia element, and also being tied to tedious, sanctimonious Roger. It also made no sense that they wrote her in right after Barry left. I enjoyed Trent Jones' work but Ken was best in that one story arc. Barry could have stayed longer though.

I don't really remember any of that. Most of the material given to Delia by that point was not good, although I did enjoy her pairing with Barry before that was trashed for no good reason. I loathed Roger by this point. Couldn't even watch his scenes.

I would guess the show will look for any reason to not do much with Trina anyway.

I still think the King Kong plot was perfectly fine. It was mostly centered on Delia's loneliness and was short. I'll take that over the endless mob saga, Faith's years-long pity parties, or the obsessiveness over Kimberly's love life and tantrums.

This "reporter" did a puff piece on Nancy Mace. As for Jane Mayer, who presumably is missing those sugar high days with Ronan Farrow, these are the death throes of an establishment media that went out of their way to be as gossipy and small as possible and don't understand why no one takes them seriously anymore.

Oh that's right. I suppose if she had stayed Guza might have used her. I do think there have been changes to the show, which is a very good thing, it just seems like barring an earthquake, we're never getting past the basic standards of a Carly/Jason/Sonny-led GH.

Was Hannah already gone by then? I did wonder if A wanted to leave or if he was fired. I just fully assume Frank and ABC are still going to call the shots and PM/EK will work around the edges.

When she kept saying she couldn't remember his name but it was a strange name I kept wondering why that sequence hadn't shown up in any "shade throwing" compilations.

I was reading the Rialto Report interview with Juliet Graham from about 7 years ago. I would link the article but that site is very NSFW as it focuses on the "golden era" of adult film. Juliet, under the name Chris MacLeod, went on to host a few NY talk shows, and do acting work. The talk shows were apparently enough to get her this ad for her AMC run:

@DeliaIrisFan Oddly the show has since Frank came in painted the Nurses Ball as a huge PC-wide, or even national, event. I know Lucy can be frustrating, but similar to when the character was trashed on PC to try to prop up others like Eve, I just can't sit through any of that. I do think, from the clips I've seen, PM is improving some elements of GH, but the core is just too rotten to be worked on, and we see the inevitable result of that.

Sorry to hear of her passing. All I've seen of Meg's work as Julia seemed to be another example of the more nuanced and multi-faceted level of performance that helped shift Y&R's female characters into a new era. I wish her Search work was available (beyond one short clip).

Great to hear your thoughts. I have had mixed feelings on the revival, which is inevitable for any soap, but I do think the quad and the decisions made with Haz have hurt the show. The quad is just so hollowed out and feels so unbalanced to me - Toadie and Melanie were dragged through the mud to the point where I find them both very difficult to watch (Melanie's only solo story being Karl shitting all over Erinsborough kind of says it all - what a great use of Alan Fletcher when there was a perfectly fine plot in place about Susan's absences and their affect on him), while Terese and Paul are written as good and right. Somehow Paul throwing a thug at a pregnant woman got him about two or three weeks of backlash (all of which was framed as us needing to feel sorry for him) followed by all kinds of material about how wonderful he is, complete with singing "This Little Light of Mine" and leading funeral services. I just don't buy it. I get the feeling this story is written on the old Agnes Nixon "make 'em wait" idea for Paul and Terese. I don't know how their fans feel, as frankly I don't really care about either of them, but how many times have they done this with Paul and Terese? 4? 5? If we are also meant to want Mel and Toadie back together, I think that ship has sailed for many fans, who at best just went along with the pairing because Sonya was gone and Dee was never coming back. Chelsea is such an unpleasant plot device, and on top of that, a complete idiot, which just makes her getting away with things more of a suspension of disbelief. I don't mind suspensions of disbelief, but that's in a story I actually care about. They also missed an opportunity to actually write a real relationship with Chelsea and her sister. I would agree the only scenes that have any real value are some of her interactions with Krista. Krista is also pure plot device, she doesn't seem to have a personality beyond graciously suffering, but the actress who plays her has done a great job. I actually did like Haz at first, when he was the sweet guy who was pining for Mackenzie, but that started to change when he just started using women and treating them badly, and this was never properly addressed. We were meant to feel somewhat sorry for Holly, but she got over the whole thing quickly because she too is basically a plot device. His other girlfriend, who was introduced as a kind person, suddenly became so horrible that she let his dog out at night and later came back to try to sabotage him in a competition. That pattern returned with this hacker story, where the emphasis is not on the terrible things he did to people, but on how the person he hurt is in the wrong (along with Mackenzie, who is, as is often the case, just there to suffer from Haz's behavior rather than have much of a life or voice of her own). It doesn't help that (to me) the actor who plays Haz just isn't suited for this type of material. He comes across as a kids' show host put into a soap opera. I think the show has done well with the Varga-Murphys/Rodwells, but I feel like that story has been rushed through compared to everything else. Maybe they thought - understandably given the increasing levels of homophobia out there - viewers wouldn't accept the family or their stories. I do like that recent episodes have been mixing up characters more often, and had some side plots that I can feel a little more invested in (like Byron/Sadie [even if that doesn't feel like it's going to go beyond support material] and having Byron there for counsel Dex), but I wish the show's main stories were not so hard to get through.

When Daily TV Serials announced Ted Danson's casting for Somerset, they mentioned that months earlier he had filled in for Jerry O'Sullivan for a few days, due to illness.