DRW50

That's a very good point. You wouldn't get a month-long birthday runup for Heather's Lily. I felt like there was a lot of wheel-spinning as well (I struggle to even remember what voice Lily had by the late '80s - she went back to Dusty, then sort of with Caleb, but sort of not, then got a scar, then was sort of in business, etc.). Using the Derek story to harden Lily (which was dropped early on with Heather - not sure how it would have played out with Martha) was an interesting choice, potentially. I think the break from Lily was good for Martha for a while, and vice/versa.

I'm sure Taibbi can still get more embarrassing than this, but it's going to take work.

I think that period of time had some of the strongest Lily/Holden stories in terms of writing (Angel's struggles, the Walsh takeover, Lily's miscarriage, The Truth About Aaron). Martha and Jon had more chemistry, but I never thought most of their stories together were that interesting, even with Marland there. (I'm one of the few who never understood why Lily would choose Holden over Dusty)

More NYT fawning and whitewashing.

Loni never found another part as good as Jennifer. She was in so many TV-movies and failed shows or dying shows (the one that interests me most is her show with Lynda Carter - not enough to actually watch it, admittedly). By the '80s she seemed to be more known for her marriage. Sometimes I forget Linda is 83 now. I don't know how these ladies do it. You're right that Melrose went on for a number of years after that. I think that's when I stopped watching.

Did Kyle say people came up to her and told her that her marriage was an inspiration?

I think most of the blame game is from the usual suspects (Brie Brie and other dead end grifter leftists, and on the right, the usual suspects who just read NRCC press releases. What annoyed me most was when I saw that CNN brought out Andrew Yang to whine about how it was the fault of Democrats. I don't understand how anyone watches that channel. I never have, but I understand it even less today.

This is just incomprehensible. I don't understand the time or money spent on these games when your show is lucky to still be on the air.

All the inevitable talking points (it's the fault of Democrats for not supporting McCarthy, it's because of Ukraine funding, this just shows how strong and big tent the GOP is) are all over the place. I don't think most of the public will care, but I am never sure how much the public even sees how incredibly dangerous the GOP is with so many recent polls. I hope the Virginia results next month might show the public still haven't fallen for all the dark money and corporate media lies.

The most I recall was a very short stint on Melrose, and certainly no one remembers Loni from Melrose Place's dying years. I wonder if Susan Lucci was asked to play this part too.

So well said. Great to see you posting again.

Thanks for posting it!

https://www.vulture.com/2023/10/complete-and-utter-history-of-britain-streaming-itv.html 2 episodes of this pre-Python show were previously known as surviving, but the other 4 were recently found at ITV.

Thanks @dc11786 for the detailed list. I'd never heard of several of those. I'm not sure if they count, but there were also a number of softcore melodramas along the lines of a few you mentioned from the early '80s - one with Callan White and Page Fletcher, among others.

Gavin Newsom has chosen Sen. Feinstein's replacement. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/gavin-newsom-laphonza-butler-fill-dianne-feinstein-senate-seat-rcna118052

That's cute. Thanks @slick jones

Lovely photo @Soapsuds . A brief interview with Sheree J. Wilson from 1996, talking a bit about Dallas and Walker.

Bibi was 4 years older than Jacquie. It could have worked. Was she off Somerset by then? AW had psychics almost all the way through the last 12 years of the show, from Lisa to Remy. Anyway, here is Alice talking about the creation of Frankie: ANOTHER WORLD: AUDITIONS (anotherworldhomepage.com) "Another World Today" asked, "Do you remember your initial audition as Frankie?" Alice said, "I remember the screen-test. I really didn't know much about Frankie from the sides except that she was originally named Francesca. What I was told about the character was that she was going to be brought in to shake up Nicole and Cass, and give Nicole a run for her money." "The scene for my screen-test was a pretty generic scene where Cass and Frankie were doing that quibbling thing they do and at one point I got the idea to inject something a little silly that might bring something else to the table. So I did a silly dance and allowed for a goofy moment. Then I had to wait because it took them forever to decide! Once I was tested, I signed a contract and was on hold for three weeks until finally I got the call. I found out that in those weeks while I was waiting they were tinkering with the character and made her a Frame so she would be related to someone on the canvas (Sharlene) and also made her intro storyline to the show that she comes to Bay City to avenge her uncle's death. Initially Frankie is convinced Felicia is involved and even got her arrested, which is how Frankie and Cass come together initially, at very extreme odds." "Another World Today" then asked, "How much did you contribute to the character's evolution and direction?" Alice recalls, "Well, first my name was changed from Francesca to Mary Frances. Then I shortened it to Frankie because I liked her having a spunky nickname which I also had when I was on another [P&G] soap, "The Catlins," where I played a character named Jackie." "Frankie took another unexpected turn when, in the scene where Frankie and Cass have their first kiss and recognize their attraction, they were at a hot dog stand, hiding from someone [Lucas] they were following and the scene called for me to eat a hot dog with sauerkraut and I told the director I don't eat meat but would make it work with a bun with sauerkraut and everyone felt that worked for Frankie so she becomes a vegetarian. The crystal Frankie wore around her neck was initially my crystal as it was something I wore and the producers took that and the non-meat and decided to take Frankie on a New Age bend. It was very flexible and creative that way. When Frankie went New Age she really took off."

Yesterday I had a dream where Genie Francis was interviewed for some E! type news clip from 1993 about Laura connecting with Bill Eckert and the challenges in making that pairing work. Just as Tony Geary was about to be interviewed talking about Bill, the dream switched to something else.

These are a little over a year apart, yet the show feels very different. I notice when watching back that GL feels more different from one regime to another than many soaps - maybe because of so much cast turnover. Probably the only interesting thing in the first, beyond the attempt at class warfare and the lovely Janet Jackson montage, is seeing Josh and Reva in an old movie fantasy. I didn't know they gave those to other characters beyond Quint and Nola. I had to laugh at Reva and Johnny, in the second episode, having to exclaim surprise at a piano being set up at the rundown bar just so that Reva could pad out a strike episode with a musical performance. I appreciate how in her original run Reva had close relationships with men that were platonic. Other than some of her interaction with Billy, and once or twice with Philip, they didn't bother with those nuances in her second stint. The amount of music playing in these episodes remind you why these can't be repeated.

@Skylover I'm watching from the States as well. I'd heard a few people mention the TV ratings in Australia were very poor so hopefully some of the Amazon numbers balance that out.

Thanks. Vulture has had some great reporting on this story, more than I had expected from them. I don't know what anyone gets out of The Daily, beyond the fascinating soap opera that is Michael Barbaro's personal life. The part about how DGA and SAG were expected to fold (and boy did DGA fold) reminds me of how many did expect the worst of Fran Drescher. At least she's proven them wrong.

I think this is another case of the actor not wanting to do as much. Previous producers gave him nonstop garbage and he eventually quit from being tired of it.

I'm not sure how much anyone expected a change for quality reasons...in my case it was more wondering if this would be down to them finding the right time to make a move and just hiding behind the strike aftermath. I was thinking mostly of DAYS, as Corday has dumped so many headwriters over the years and it feels like Ron has already been there too long as it is. I guess if Corday is more hands off now, he may not care.

I do think Frank was liked well enough in the years he was a major character. It's hard to gauge who the big popular characters of GL were meant to be because most of the big fanbases seemed to be couple fanbases. (I don't remember, say, Matt ever having a fanbase of his own, but he had a very vocal fanbase with Vanessa).