DRW50

I saw that they're still giving them scenes together even if any possible plans didn't go further. That's nice. It's good to see Tracy just relaxing and trusting people and nice to see characters on a soap talking without any plot motivation.

I don't think Marland ever cared about similar names. Ellen Dolan once spoke of how confused some of the actors were during the Carolyn Crawford murder story because you had a character named William and a character named Billy, etc. When you have writers or producers who focus too much on that type of thing, you end up with Y&R, where a character was rechristened "Chance Chancellor" because they didn't want to have two Philips on the show at the same time (which they only had for a very short time anyway).

Thanks @Forever8 . I'm glad that channel keeps occasionally putting up new early/mid '90s content.

Nuzzi's pot-stirring was so naked, especially as she was pushing an article early on about how he didn't recognize her and is senile. She clearly didn't think he was going to drop out and now has to scramble and actually do her job. This made me laugh: https://bsky.app/profile/maxberger.bsky.social/post/3kxsydmwtoy2d

Howard Rollins hosting Fridays, ABC's short-lived version of SNL, not long before he joined AW. Fridays often didn't do very much with their hosts, but Howard is heavily involved in a number of sketches and even a pre-tape. He does a great job. This isn't the full episode but most of it. (one sketch has brownface [involving Amos & Andy])

Whitney Rydbeck had guest spots on Party of Five and Sisters, among his many other credits. Whitney Rydbeck Dead: ‘Friday the 13th Part VI’ Actor Was 79 (hollywoodreporter.com)

The only reason I remember him is because I wondered if they were trying to capitalize on any appeal Bronson Pickett had in his (awful) ATWT role. They could have just given Cory Ewing a nickname I suppose...

He did backtrack after Biden dropped out, but it's another reminder of what a fantasy world West Wing was.

I think we're going to at least get the pretense of one to fight accusations of her being handed the nomination. I don't think they would want to allow for a truly open situation though.

This was an odd week for me in that I feel like stories which should have had more focus (like Aaron and Logan and Jane and Mike) were wrapped up quickly, while stories that didn't warrant as much airtime got the focus instead. I hope the show will consider bringing Logan back for more with Aaron, as I do think they had genuine chemistry and the idea of two men who loved (or in one case was obsessed with) David finding each other is very soapy. And Logan could also pull Aaron toward being a somewhat darker character, which would be interesting, especially with a potential custody battle looming. Wendy wanting to live a life she never got to have makes sense for her character, who has always tried to be a bit cutesy and young, but going as far as they did with the huge house party and binge drinking in her own home feels like a step too far. To be honest I think it's actually worse than if she had gone out drinking with her friends and kissed Quinn, because she brought all of this into her own home, she moved pictures, everything. One thing that annoyed me in this story and annoys me on any soap (I've seen H&A doing it more lately too) is pointless slo-mo or sped-up moments. Seeing Wendy playing peer bong in fast forward doesn't make me thrilled, it just makes me annoyed. I also feel like, while I don't hate the story, too much time went to Kiri/Nicolette compared to the much more interesting story with Byron lying to get what he wanted. I want to see more exploration of this and not just a story where Leo finds out and they fall out for about two episodes. The Byron we first saw was much more of a grey character than what he has been on the reboot - why not take him back to that? I loved Nicolette's pride in him for scheming and plotting, but I wonder how she would feel if he started truly turning. The best part of the week for me was the Toadie material (very rare to say that these days). It's a bit contrived to have all these memories of the past drop at once, but they did address this by having him admit he'd known about Sonya's Nursery woes for a while, he had just been ignoring them.

He has lost a chunk of support since 2016. It's more all the rise in support for the right and their ugliness, as shown with younger men through the appeal of people like Tate, that makes me wary about how much more support he's picked up. And so many who, with help from the media, have rewritten his Presidency into being peace and prosperity. Hopefully Kamala can get through. And hopefully they will make a strong choice for VP - yes, it likely has to be a white man, probably from the South (maybe the Rust Belt, but not Shapiro, not in today's climate), but they have to pick someone who won't just be an accent or a "telegenic" face. JD Vance is so wretched and hideous I need to see someone wipe the floor with him. Regarding Obama and Pelosi not endorsing Harris, I would guess they feel they have no choice but to go along with an open convention, probably due to donors. I think they would still support Harris, but I do wonder if some of those donors or Carville (I can't see him caring for her) will try to interfere. Some of the ideas, like Aaron Sorkin trying to get them to nominate Romney for President, are so out of touch.

I definitely agree he is incredibly diminished from where he was 8 year ago, or even 4 years ago. I am just not sure it matters to those who are going to support him, especially now that we are going to have 24/7 racism and misogyny (two things this country loves). I certainly know she is going to do what she can, and I do think Biden was right to drop out. It was an agonizing decision, but ultimately the only one left.

It's Trump. He's had constant and at times glowing media coverage for 40 years or more. He's also hollow to the point where many on the left and the right can make him what they want him to be. He's worshiped as a god by millions of people. He's the strongest candidate Republicans could have run in 2016, 2020, or 2024. Beating him will be extremely difficult.

That character lasted longer than I remembered. The most memorable thing about him was his exit - wasn't he turned to ash or something? The actor went on to take over for a thankless role on OLTL after Brandon Routh had that supposedly messy exit.

Forever one of my GL favorites.

Even pointing an arrow at his crotch might have been better. This show is earnestly trying to talk about sex in the '80s, which I appreciate, but the execution feels like a parody. Still, it's a memorable way to finish... I wish the actual full scene was available, but I didn't even see that until browsing on Youtube yesterday and realizing I'd missed it. That's probably one of the reasons these shows didn't perform well on Showtime - people could just wait to watch the more blatant softcore that also aired on the channel. I wish they'd done better as there's a whole potential genre here that never really happened.

Oh that's right. Thanks. And Joe Barbara did his voice, IIRC.

I remember that too. Wasn't there some initial hint of Felicia being involved? And then Jordan Stark was originally known as Mr. Shoes, wasn't he, and not shown?

The music is incredibly grating - I don't know what instrument that is (trombone?). I do appreciate that they were presumably trying for a different type of audience. I've rarely seen a promo just lay out every single character that way. If only any episodes from that time were around, beyond Papa Bauer's funeral. Whenever I see Lynn, I think of Maureen Garrett's interview about when she first came on and how Lynn used to come around and watch her film because Lynn hadn't actually wanted to leave the show (she only did because of her husband).

I would guess NBC wanted to try to have yet another JER-esque story similar to what they were pushing on DAYS at the time. Lumina wasn't especially bad, but it was also not overly interesting. It could have been a B-plot on Dark Shadows. Back to what @Xanthe mentioned, I do wonder how I would have felt about just how hard into Carl/Rachel the show went if I had been a longtime fan. It's pretty remarkable. I know Victoria Wyndham was a big factor but the show itself also seemed to totally commit in that 93-94 period.

It was just stupid and "soapy" to the point of hilarity, but it did give Victoria Wyndham a chance to act again after being in the doldrums (and then that Justine fiasco).

@dc11786 Thanks so much for your help with the date. I have not watched a lot of the Karen Harris period of PC but I need to. My main viewing was the Latham era (which felt very unpleasant, dark [who wanted to see Lucy blind her daughter???], and full of agendas) and the Hamner era (which was just a big mess). Then some of the arcs, most of which weren't that good aside from Time in a Bottle. You are right that too much of The City focused on unpleasant younger characters sniping at each other. I think the young people they created for the end of Loving to take over to The City weren't the best choices - I don't know what happened with Alimi Ballard but Frankie should have been a no-brainer. Characters like Danny were powered solely by the charisma of the actors and had little to offer themselves.

I'd never seen this before today. I don't think whoever wrote it was jabbing at OLTL itself, just taking cheap shots at all soaps, but still, I feel some satisfaction when I see shows that went after soaps in such lazy terms and then flopped. (I still find Susan Powter hilarious though, so this isn't an attack on her)

It was, yes. I do wonder how it played onscreen - on paper it's just another reminder to me of what a hollow core AW had by that point. You have a major Hollywood movie, gangsters gone wild...what IS your show? At least when Lemay made the show more Transatlantic and threw in the Chadwell scenes too he still seemed to try to tie into bread-and-butter moments in Bay City. You're right about Vicky. The twins were kind of a dumb idea when you think about it. I think RKK did a good job as Sam but I agree the character didn't need to return. It's just if you are bringing him back, I think you may as well bring him back in that part, especially as (even if she wasn't on the show then) Amanda was still an important character. It's not like Sam had a rich backstory and he also had an edge to him so if they wanted RKK to come in and smolder and be bad-ass and rock his beard and all the rest they still could have done it. They even could have paired him with Vicky if they wanted it that much. Imagine Amanda's fury over that.

Thanks. I did too. They have changed the photo again, this time to a solo photo (the last was of Esta and Amelia Marshall at an awards show).