DRW50

@Vee apparently the guy quoted in the article isn't thrilled.

Cirie is a bit of a reality TV legend. She's been on Survivor repeatedly and a number of other shows, including The Traitors recently. Matt sucks.

A very frustrating article suggesting that two Hartnell episodes, one of them from a Dalek story (likely meaning part of the Daleks Master Plan opus) are in the hands of collectors who will not give them to the BBC due to fear of being prosecuted. Lost Doctor Who episodes found – but owner is reluctant to hand them to BBC | Doctor Who | The Guardian

That was before my time with the show but I had read about his fight. So sorry to hear he's passed away.

Another example of how lawless and dangerous many Republican legislatures are in ways that even elections no longer counter.

He might have, although the heavy voter suppression was probably the deciding factor.

@Vee That's a neat crossover. I still avoid most RTD related projects so didn't know that.

The various analysts like Wasserman had been predicting Democrats would take the legislature, but I was still very happy to see it actually happen, especially after the endless media hype for Youngkin. They were especially obnoxious in insisting he had shown the way forward on abortion. The Beltway keeps doing their best to will abortion away - they will just have to spend the next year trying (already I am seeing that they are saying the results last night show Biden is the problem, not the party) I was sorry that the woman who was subjected to vile attack ads and fliers over doing porn lost her election for state rep, although I wonder if all that time spent ended up hurting other Republican races. Democrats also won a state supreme court seat in Pennsylvania, now having a 5-2 majority. They also did well in New Jersey. New Jersey Democrats notch big legislative wins after bracing for losses - POLITICO Another positive was in a number of places, hatemonger school board candidates, again heavily pushed by the media, lost. The fears over losing abortion access (as many voters seem to sense, no matter what the press and some Republicans tell them, that everything will be taken away) seem to still cross party lines enough to matter, even as Ohio lurches further to the right. It was interesting to see that abortion and recreational marijuana won by the same amount but with very different coalitions (the latter performed much better in rural areas). And of course the state legislature is already announcing plans to try to throttle both vote outcomes.

I'm half-surprised Brad Bell has never tried to recast Thorne again.

Thanks. So lovely to see everyone, especially Carole.

I see what you mean, especially about Siobhan. That first year, before they made her so generic, was a wonderful mix of actress and writing. Mary never quite worked for me as a character, even with Kate, but I can see where Kate helped translate the writing. (I think one of the other problems with Mary was it felt like her story reached a natural conclusion after she and Jack reconciled)

IMDB has her as being on in 1988 (for Mac and Nancy getting married) but not 1986. She does have the somewhat toothy look Kelly had but I am not sure. I wonder how viewers at the time felt about Chris' funeral episode having so much of the histrionics with Lily and Meg (which I sometimes have to skip when I watch that period).

Rosemary Prinz frequently did theater work - that may have been why Penny wasn't back. I am not sure if it was ever said. I am trying to remember if her absence was addressed (did they say Penny couldn't handle going to the funeral?).

Thanks for this nice tribute. I had forgotten he temped on DAYS.

I think you're right, although in that strike consequences article in SOD from somewhere in the late '90s or so Labine did praise the Rae/Michael pairing.

I can see what you mean, but when I think of moments I enjoyed with Mary or Pat, or even Siobhan, it's down to the actors and their charisma, rather than my seeing the characters as being well-fortified. I don't think, say, Pat was any worse when John Blazo took over - I actually liked his Pat a great deal - but he didn't have what Malcolm Groome had for viewers, so when they gave his Pat such flat storylines, Blazo got the blame.

I think we're in the last few years...ITV taking a pause on their soap awards, the ever declining ratings, etc. We'll see. I hope they can have some good moments before the end. I just can't watch the current show, especially Aaron returning to be even more of a thuggish piece of [!@#$%^&*] than ever.

I agree - the Nell story was one of my favorite stories on the show. Or any soap. I am not biased against Michael Corbett, as I enjoyed his run on Y&R, but I hated his RH character and any story involving Kimberley is a non-starter for me. I'm sure he did have fans, but given that the character helped cause Siobhan to lose her baby, I question if he was that beloved. Even if he did have a lot of fans, I don't think killing him was a huge blunder. He wouldn't have gone anywhere noteworthy if he'd stayed on the show. Look at what a hard time they had with other characters like Joe Novak.

I don't even think it was Labine and Mayer who killed him off - Labine gave an interview about watching during the strike and seeing him die, which did not make her very happy. I wasn't there either, so I can't begin to guess, but if he had been that beloved, I don't think ABC would have let him go. Not that long after he was hired by Search for Tomorrow.

Everything said earlier in the thread about how much ATWT and soaps suffered from trying to still cling to old patterns in the OJ era is so true. ATWT was based on complex friendships and family dynamics - they did have one of the first soap supercouples (Penny and Jeff) but that wasn't their calling card. ATWT trying to still cling on while running away from the family units and complicated histories and becoming whatever mutated '80s primetime soap the show was trying to be for so much of the mid/late '90s (aside from some of the stronger moments of 1995) was unfortunate. I remember disliking Mike and Rosanna so much, but assuming they were loved by viewers with how heavily pushed they were. Only years later when I read more soap magazines from that period did I learn they weren't ever very popular. All that for nothing.

On paper, I don't think the idea of giving Eric a Parkinson's story - in older people, the disease can sometimes progress more slowly, so the show can tell the story in more detail; it would also be interesting to see the old Eric (who was so in need of being in control at all times) in this situation. Unfortunately, I have no trust in the show to do the story justice, and with David on the way out, Eric is going to be very isolated.

It was mentioned in the soap hoppers thread but I was waiting for official confirmation. Very sad. He was a beautiful man, along with being a very good actor. I have only seen fragments of his work on AMC, but he was excellent in Boys in the Band, in a very difficult part.