DRW50

Bryan Fuller and his egomania are never going to get my interest. I am just glad this wasn't an update of the TV show, which would have upset me.

Thanks @FrenchFan @Paul Raven I liked Laurie. She felt 'real,' which was what ATWT did at its best. Just sitting around talking about her boyfriend, chatting with Melinda. IMDB gives her run as 75-79, I think (they also have some surprisingly exact dates in some cases, like a September 1978 episode - I wonder if someone has more copies out there we haven't seen and added to IMDB with them). Annie is so generic to me I didn't even realize this wasn't Julie Ridley. Martina does fit the part a bit better than Julie did, now that I look again. She also sort of has an Annie Hall chic in her styling that would be lost with Annie later on.

And now Republicans are ahead on the 538 Senate tracker. Ugh. Thanks @JaneAustenfor the Rosenberg links. We'll hope. I agree about needing a liberal - a genuine liberal, not the [!@#$%^&*] New York Times - media. That's what Air America should have been all those years ago.

I'll have more to choose, but just off the top of my head: Worst: Chastity/Cameron, Emmerdale. They began having an affair while Cameron's partner, who was also Chastity's niece, was doing anything she could to keep her young daughter from dying of cancer. The story was shocking, and out of character for who Chas had once been. She has never really recovered (and is now in another wretched affair storyline, which involved her emotionally blackmailing her mentally ill son to leave town right after losing his sister to sudden death)

That's true. I do blame the media for most of where we are - they wanted GOP-friendly landslides and the idea that "gas prices and food on the table and inflation" are the winning message of their Republican heroes. It does make me worry when I read about Nevada's early vote not being good for Democrats, or youth vote in Georgia not being great... I don't care for Nate Cohn's work so I haven't read the article, but I think he may have pushed back a bit on some of the polling. This has then led to more justification along the lines of "Democrats are spending in formerly safe House races and not releasing polling so the polls are right." This guy does push back on some of those talking points.

I remember when Schultz first showed up and she had more energy than she did when the Dobsons overloaded her with material about being frigid and repressed. I know she had the potential for more, but yes, this Dee (Marcia McClain) is a much better contrast to this Annie, and just has more life in general. She also feels very real, which is rare for soaps. I'm sorry we didn't get to see a few more characters who were being mentioned (like Kevin and Sandy), but I was glad to finally get to see Ralph and Beau. The actors remind me a bit of each other. I wonder if the casting director had a type. Beau was more charismatic than he looked in photos. Keith Charles is always charismatic. The energy level does seem less stodgy. Even Mary, who often seemed ready to go into a coma in the 79-80 scenes I've watched, is more present. I wonder if morale backstage worsened and led to what we got by that point. Only Annie is about the same...for better or worse. The scene with Melinda and Beau is nicely paced, allowed to breathe without seeming dead. And his marital problems with Annie seem believable instead of just "___ is his true love," like we got with dullard pornstache Brad Hollister a few years later. I wish that Ariane Munker hadn't been chased off the show. Melinda feels like a special character. I appreciated the moment with Bob and David (although I did laugh when David said walking Annie to school felt just like yesterday - no wonder!). The best scene is with Nancy, Joyce and Bob. The atmosphere is perfectly pitched - the warmth between Nancy and Bob, the initially friendly but increasingly strained interaction between them and Joyce, and Joyce absolutely flailing to try to explain why she wants to go to the party. The part where Nancy, after Joyce leaves, coolly works out that she wants to go to see Ralph is just perfect. It reminds me of everything @Mitch64 has written about how Nancy was written in these years compared to Marland and onward. Can anyone tell me more about Laurie? I have little to no knowledge of her. Watching this I did wonder if they might have let her go for this reason, although I hope not.

I despised what they did with Vision in the comics. How they handled him in WandaVision gives me more hope for where they will go with him here.

I'm glad to hear this. I do trust your opinion. Between my memories of all the women who voted Trump and GOP in 2014/2016/2018/2020 and the latest Cook listings moving even more toward the GOP, it's been hard to have any hope.

I think it's still being modified. Sorry I forgot to tag you. Thanks for not being upset.

Thanks for sharing the link. @slick jones @victoria foxton @Mitch64 @DramatistDreamer @Vee @vetsoapfan @Soapsuds @soapfan770 @Paul Raven @Forever8 @yrfan1983 @jam6242@Soaplovers

Another old pilot with Garcelle. She doesn't seem to be in much of this one, although I didn't watch everything. Her main scene starts around 16 minutes in.

I don't know how much faith to put in those NYT polls, as they were off in 2020, although without Trump on the ballot maybe things will be different. The early vote numbers are more encouraging, although I keep trying to remind myself that I can't compare to 2018 because early voting didn't become as big until 2020, and the GOP no longer does early voting. It's not looking good, but the main question is how much the media is going to be able to rig their way into the landslides they are craving.

Restoration funding provided by ASIFA-Hollywood. Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Laboratory services by Roundabout Entertainment, Inc., Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc., FotoKem. Special thanks to Gosfilmofond, Stanislav Dedinsky, Natalie Ryabchikova, Paramount Pictures Archives. About the film: Eight years after Betty Boop first appeared on-screen to become an era-defining animated icon, the Fleischer Brothers extended her on-screen family with the intention of freshening up the brand. Introduced in 1938 as Betty’s country cousin, Buzzy Boop was Betty’s comic opposite in every way. Where Betty was frequently the fetching victim of unwanted mischievousness, the gum-smacking, marble-shooting, pig-tailed dynamo Buzzy initiated chaos wherever she went. Unseen for 85 years, Buzzy Boop at the Concert is one of only two shorts she appeared in and was thought lost until a print was discovered in Russia in 2019. Production: Fleischer Studios. Distribution: Paramount Pictures. Producer: Max Fleischer. Director: Dave Fleischer. With: Mae Questel, Jack Mercer. Learn more about its rediscovery on our blog, written by animation historian Jerry Beck: ucla.in/3zatbaT

I'm not really sure if he has ever addressed the ugly writing choices for Martha, especially the stereotypes of her father being a no-goodnik and leaving the family for a white woman, or them being forced to dress as servants. @Vee that's a wonderful writeup of the finale - you really put your all into it. Reading it I was reminded of how much I disliked Ten's regeneration, and that era's treatment of UNIT, and why I'm not really that thrilled to go back there, but clearly RTD was one of the only people who could possibly turn the show around, so you take what you get. I'm so mentally checked out of New Who that I haven't watched the finale yet and I'm not sure when I will, but a longtime fan I know offline enjoyed it too, especially the parts with Tegan and Ace and the returning companions. I'm glad it went down well and I will try someday.

This can't go on forever with Musk. Either Twitter will sink into the mire, or he will be bought out by someone.

This channel is having interviews with various soap alum, including a few GL people. (his audio isn't great). Liz Keifer is coming up on Monday. Justin Deas looks and sounds better than I'd expected at 74 (if this is new). He was looking in pretty rough shape by the end of GL. I think he did say he had been putting off back surgery or something while the show was still going. I don't see the first credit he mentions listed in his IMDB.

There's a lot of talk about how Pelosi's attacker was a hippie who got sucked in, but his ugly views seem to go a ways back. I wish I had never found out that the Pitchbot person is pally with that offputting Dr. Thrasher account (a combo of COVID scaremongering and belittling gay men who want to marry instead of living in a Joe Gage film).

@Vee Thanks for finding that. Genuinely very lovely to see Sylvester and Bonnie together again. For many years, as I'm sure you remember too, there was a certain idea of what a dud Mel was, how all she did was shriek, and that nothing improved until the arrival of Ace. I'm glad Big Finish and the passage of time have helped to shake some of that off, and I hope have led to more appreciate of that era (Delta and the Bannermen in particular I think holds up, and of course Paradise Towers is a very unique gem, a mix of sheer campery and black death).

Surprise surprise - Pelosi's attacker has a long history of radical right wing views. Meanwhile, here is what media darling Glenn Youngkin, breathlessly hyped as the future of the GOP, has to say. They are eating this up, I imagine:

Nothing against Val Demings, but Florida is gone. I am more disappointed about North Carolina, where polling has been closer and Beasley has more of a statewide history. The decision to spend money in Wisconsin was a mistake. Polls are never believable there (2016 polling for the Senate race was way off) and Biden narrowly winning doesn't translate to others doing the same.

Emmerdale stopped caring about the Sugdens 30 years ago, sadly. With that said, what they did with Annie was still better than how EE treated Pauline Fowler.