DRW50

I wouldn't be surprised @I Am A Swede Since this thread is back, keep Jane Rossington and her family in your kind thoughts: https://www.atvtoday.co.uk/202418-atv/ @Joseph there are some 2003 Crossroads episodes here:

I found this on an old disc and couldn't find it on Youtube at present (I might have missed it, I don't know), so I reuploaded.

I would agree if I thought it would matter, but I think the end result would just be the choices they ask people to donate money to being nitpicked into oblivion, or a lot of responses along the lines of, "Well you gave money to Henry Cuellar, so why don't you just spend your own money and leave us alone." So many of these attacks are in such bad faith and so coordinated - seeing MSNBC platforming that dangerous Rise Up cult to blast even the idea of fundraising for Democrats rang huge alarm bells for me. I do think the response has been a mess, and I've been complaining about their choices since a good while before Manchin killed BBB, but so much of the response on social media is very top-down from people who are motivated and compensated to depress Democratic turnout. I wish Pelosi had been able to hand the reins in the House over to someone a while back. I wish a better choice than Biden had been Bernie's main opposition in the primary. I wish Democrats were better at strategy and communication. But more than anything I just wish people would realize Democrats are not going to be near of what they want and, trite as it is, they just have to still keep voting and try to change the system as best they can, even if realizing that makes them look bad to their edgelord friends or means they have to see that they actually can't change the world through sarcastic tweets.

Priscilla talks about Dallas around 7 minutes in.

Another example of how H&A seems to be throwing things again the wall with the sudden departures of Logan and Jasmine. It could work...not sure if just adding bands onto a soap ever has a great hit rate. I assume the one woman is there to replace Jasmine's role in Cash's story. https://www.backtothebay.net/news/2022/06/29/home-and-away-announces-the-arrival-of-4-new-characters/

@Vee The idea of Diana the theater kid seizing onto the whole Chip saga for the sake of drama adds a lot more believability to how generally insufferable and stupid she was.

Looks like Manchin missed getting attention. We'll see if the can actually lands anywhere this time.

They will never rest until all lgbt people are silenced, likely for good.

@Vee Pathetic stuff. Reminds me that earlier today Jordan Charlton, yet another Bernie dead-ender/accelerationist, was tweeting out Puck News as the gospel truth (an article about how shocked Republicans are at Democrats not doing more after the Dobbs decision). I don't think it will sway many, because those who fall for this tend to be already be unlikely to vote for Democrats anyway, but the full court press from the garbage dump left, desperately working to drown out any sense of motivation or activism, has been staggering, and shows just how in bed they are with the right. Here is Jezebel blatantly misleading people that Biden is soon going to appointed an anti-abortion judge: Media Matters: There is so much more where this has come from, including deadenders pushing people to boycott Planned Parenthood and instead donate to cult groups like Rise Up.

Great finds @JAS0N47

1990 is an odd year - 1989 is a big transition year for Marland and 1990 is trying to come to grips with that - and this story is a great example of why. Having Frannie return and immediately become involved with a volatile man with a chaotic past was clearly a turnoff for viewers. Burke Moses was very attractive, but I just remember Sean losing his [!@#$%^&*] a lot.

I think of the four characters, Gary and maybe Val are the two I might have kept. Mack was ruined for me in the late '80s, I just...had seen enough of Karen, and Diana and Michael weren't compelling enough to be leading figures. If they had brought Sid's daughter back, maybe, but Karen Allen probably wouldn't have returned and there would less point in bringing the character back if you couldn't have Karen Allen. Season 13 was something of a revival for Valene (although I'm not sure Joan Van Ark would agree...but I think she was just demoralized by what had come before), and I think Valene would have made a better mentor figure for younger neighbors than Karen, who had become very cold. Underneath the sea of questionable choices made with Gary in the last 2 seasons, there was still a compelling character, plus the Ewing name meant potential appearances from various Dallas figures. I would agree with you about Knots up to around 1988, but after that point I feel like they started either writing out the wrong characters, or squandering potential until they had little choice but to write out the characters. And one character in particular (Claudia) lingered on two years after possibly the all time worst decimation I've seen on a soap. As for Doug Sheehan, I would agree he was lucky to get a job on a well-written (at that point) show after taking a risk on leaving daytime, but I do think he did a good job and did a great deal to help keep the Val/Gary dramas sustained for 3-4 more years, while being a viable partner to Val. I feel like it's very easy to take for granted how good he was until one remembers just how many poor male characters there were to come.

@Vee I think Doug Sheehan was hurt by that period of GH so often focusing on "dangerous" or exciting men, while Joe was safe and stolid. He certainly could have been more, if he hadn't been hung up on Heather, or on perpetual virgin Anne. Gary and Laura are one of those relationships you couldn't have gotten in the early seasons, not until the show became more upwardly mobile and the class systems shifted. Yet it's also the type of relationship the other "rich" shows wouldn't have bothered with. Constance and Ted work well together and she helps bring out the subtler side of his acting.

Normally I would agree as I tend to find this type of role, and takeover of large portions of a show, offputting, but I never mind Greg that much...I think because he's usually called out for his actions and he does suffer, while not being defined by suffering, all of which makes him more relateable to me than Val, Mack and Karen as the years pass. I do think the Greg and Paige stuff got too much focus but I'm not sure how much of the last 4-5 years of the show I would have finished if not for Greg.

Devane is a massive shift for the show, albeit in a direction they were heading anyway (especially Abby). 1982 Michele Lee interview: https://twitter.com/cbsKnotsLanding/status/1541013409101033472

It seems like EJ's backstory and story in general became a huge mess by 1982, but her 1981 material is all I have seen. I think the struggles of the character are down to just how poor the structure of the show was by then. Having her brought in as Barry's sister immediately after Barry left (which makes me wonder just how abrupt his departure was). Throwing her into a romance with Roger, most of which seemed predicated on another round of isn't Delia terrible, poor noble Roger. By that point I hated Roger and I hated the manipulative writing so much that I literally cannot think of a worse way to introduce a new character. Such a huge waste of Maureen Garrett.

@Vee I am so glad you have kept these recaps up. You have provided us better analysis than many paid reviewers have for any show, let alone a 40-year old soap. You've also given me so many insights into characters I generally saw as plot devices, like Lillimae. And when you have no real use for a character I liked (such as Ginger) you don't beat a dead horse about it. Seasons 5 and 6 may be the show's overall strongest, if my memory serves, a time when I could invest in the travails of nearly every character and the umbrella stories flow naturally. I hope you enjoy them. I am glad you have appreciated Richard so much as a character. I tend to agree with you that he had to go in order for Knots to evolve, but John Pleshette was easily the best actor on the male side of the character, and Richard was an endlessly fascinating character even at his most pathetic. His exit from the show is very moving. He does get a few good little moments when he returns, although, unfortunately, the lazy choice to never properly age or develop Jason blunts impact that would have been there if the show had been more invested in Laura.