DRW50

It feel like we're in a never-ending loop with regards to Trump, Republicans in Congress, and the press giving them anything and everything they can. I can see why a lot of people have given up.

Amazing to me that people in the press still quote this garbage as the gospel truth. This has been fantastic for CNN. Tons of attention and likely big ratings, and they are helping their good friend. Look how giddy his people are:

Of all the Beltway, WaPo reporters remain the most utterly pathetic.

Thanks @safe That's a strong lineup. I may have to watch if I remember. I've never understood why Barry and Rose had the abrupt exits they had, especially Rose.

Another example of the breathtaking hypocrisy of the increasingly irrelevant Intercept - Ken Klippenstein is encouraging harassment of Feinstein's aides while he hangs out with grifters and bigots, one of whom was a part of the far right for years and still clings to them.

@Vee thanks for letting me know. That's lovely to hear. They were making season 2 and the strike halted it so I don't know if that will affect any of her appearances but I hope not. I'm glad they are honoring Marsha while they have the opportunity.

This made me feel sick in a way few things have of late...and there are a number of bad messages being sent here too (don't stand in front of a door!)

I didn't know until reading it in Infinity Magazine (I will try to scan the article sometime) that Audrey Landers had a popular singing career in Germany or other parts of Europe.

The only thing I liked about that character was his last scene where Kate told him he was a lousy lay. I agree the show could have done more with Robin Strasser. Sometimes I wonder if Robin's whole look and persona were too intimidating for getting on established shows for longer runs, although the main culprit was probably just ageism and sexism, or in the case of Knots, already having so many women in that age range. Good as Kathleen Noone was as Claudia (early on, anyway), I wouldn't have minded seeing Dianne put into Greg's orbit instead to fill some of the same purpose.

I wonder if fans considered Jayne's Nicole to basically be a brand new character. You don't get much on fan opinion (outside of letters to the editor) in soap magazines of that era. (Daily TV Serials from a few years earlier probably would have had a mouthful to say on this subject).

With the discussion in the Falcon Crest thread about self-contained episodes, I started to wonder what you would pick for the primetime soap that did the best job with them. I'd probably pick Dallas. Certainly not flawless, but the format seemed to inspire more in the writers and also gave much stronger material to characters like Cliff and Pamela. The serial format also encouraged more of the laziest choices with the central characters. There are some self-contained Knots episodes I enjoy (mainly in season 3), but some are just absolute howlers. Falcon Crest also had some very flat installments in this format, especially if they focused on the Giobertis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW3qrSAB-LA The episode starts around 20 minutes in. It tells you something about how many returns we got in the last years that almost all these characters felt familiar to me, even those we just saw very briefly (like Sharon Davies). I know this was a very clear transition period for the show, but I still appreciate that the younger set seems believable and have believable enough goals and decisions compared to how much soaps in recent decades pile the misery on. I loved the whole sequence filmed in the clothes shop - I know it was just done to be as cheap as possible but something really works for me. (doesn't hurt how gorgeous Guy Pearce looks in that sequence) The main dramatic story with Mrs. Mangel isn't bad either.

My opinion on Kelly, especially Gina's Kelly:

Paul Reubens is probably still too expensive for this show. I was shocked when I saw that 227 only ran for 5 years. I felt like it ran 6-7. Usually you only get the above when you hit that point.

Ned hate? Who? And where were they when I needed them in 1997, 1998 and 1999?

!@#$%^&*] fits in with the hate factory Elon is making Twitter become. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/tucker-carlson-is-taking-his-show-to-twitter/ar-AA1aXZq2

I would say Ron won't forgive him for this tweet, but I can't remember if his stint at DAYS is long wrapped up. If we start hearing about how fat Bo is, at least now we know why.

Even at the time there were some who felt it was difficult to care about BJ herself. I remember MImi Torchin saying she was devastated when Laura died on AMC because she had seen so much of her growing up, which wasn't the case with BJ, but the performances surrounding BJ's death were what got her emotional. You don't have that on soaps now because soaps don't care about showing the grieving or have the ability for raw feelings along those lines. GH showed that with Jake's death, which was mostly an excuse for a JJ Emmy reel and to try to write Liz out of the show. (what does Jake even do now...)

Peacock is or was bleeding badly, so I hope the show can have some type of future outside of them.

Unfortunately it's now COVID on top of the strike that makes me wary. I guess one thing in their favor is if streaming continues to crash, they are ready-made programming already on networks (other than DAYS - maybe they can still be moved back).

This is why it bothers me more and more when I see people thrown AI scripts around online and say it's better than professional writers. It starts to come across as propaganda to me for the industry.

I am morbidly curious as to how many of the soaps will even survive a prolonged strike. Cheap as they are now, there's still always cheaper programming, especially if affiliates just want to turn the hours over to more propaganda.