DRW50

It's that time again - "progressives" and "common sense" figures dusting off pulling the same "why do you make them hit you?" card they did with Trump a nd Joe Rogan.

That reminds of the news that what the Florida legislature and that pig DeSantis did has helped Disney: It' all about the theater, never about the reality. And so many people just don't see it, or don't want to see it.

Kate Oates is a deeply sick producer. She has told this story on all her soaps, and it always involves very lurid material that fetishizes sexual assault and tells viewers not to go to the police. As long as she continues to be at EE, nothing will ever improve, no matter what her devotees claim.

Thanks @victoria foxton

Yes. She was superb on EE. She also did a Big Finish audio. She deserves better than the racist, sexist hatred she would get here. I hope she says no if she is asked.

Edward and Sophie are the family who are supposedly closest to the Queen. I am not sure how much the Queen is still there, but sometimes I wonder if they are doubling down on these activities for her as I imagine she would take the loss hard. But it's the job of a monarch to accept and face reality. Unfortunately, as shown with Andrew, that is something the Queen increasingly will not do... At this point, as someone who was probably pretty pro-monarchy for a long time, after everything with Andrew and Meghan Markle I think their time has passed. As for Miss Madison, that photo was leaked by a former friend/campaign person, which is not surprising as he is apparently a huge [!@#$%^&*] to everyone. He really screwed up by going around talking about Republicans inviting him to coke orgies.

Yes, but this also happened at Knots, with Nicolette, Lar, Stacy Galina, etc. So I do wonder if it was someone at Lorimar, like Moonves, pushing it.

It makes a lot of sense, especially since the lady veterans were replaced with sweet young things, while the men stayed the same age. Dallas and Knots were lucky that most of the women chosen for these roles worked out. If they hadn't then the shows would have collapsed even more quickly.

Knots also served for a while as genuine competition for LA Law, which was at its peak around that time. Any time they would bring out that video will of Laura's, with another actress dubbing it (as they did in the '97 reunion), you were just reminded again what a mistake they made letting her go, especially when there were a number of past their prime characters still on the canvas, like Mack. As for Victoria, from what has been discussed earlier in the thread, I get the feeling the working environment for Dallas wasn't that friendly unless you were close to Larry Hagman. While I am not saying she and Larry didn't get along (she has spoken of his generosity while they did scenes together), it seems like Pam and JR were two different poles of the show that increasingly could not coexist.

I hope Liza is doing well, I really do, but I am not entirely sure whether to believe all that was wrong with her that night was down to a last minute change in chairs.

This will be my last post on this "story," I promise... The tweet from Ron reminds me that there was a book about The View called Ladies Who Punch, written by Ramin Setoodeh. 10 years ago. Setoodeh wrote an article blasting gay actors who play straight roles, and how gay actors can only play gay roles. That is also the message sent by making Craig gay - it was clearly not based on any real story reasons, and will have no real impact. They just knew Kevin Spirtas was gay, so, of course, Craig must be gay too. I've never been happier that soaps are completely culturally irrelevant, because at a time when this country is hurtling backwards into homophobia and bigotry we are just getting a small taste of (the big taste coming after November's midterm elections), what they have done with this "story" would be pure fodder for so many hatemongers out there, along with so many, many other stories from a writer who penned plots painting gay men as rapists and predators and said they fake hate crimes to get a boyfriend.

He will probably either disappear, or try to sexually assault a younger man for chuckles. The smugness and delusion of those tweets from Jamey and Ron really gets me. No wonder so many men in this industry stay closeted when you have material like this which is so deliberately humiliating and stigmatizing. And neither of them have an ounce of talent to back it up either.

I would be less bothered if they did not retcon a 25 year character just so that we could laugh and jeer at him and his pathetic stereotype love interest. Once again there is zero respect for the past, zero interest in anything from Ron but more hostility toward gay men.

He looks like a Bond villain from the '70s in the climactic scene where he tells Sean Connery and Jill St. John he's going to [!@#$%^&*] them both.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets

Tegan is one of my favorite Doctor Who companions of all time. Some people love to say all she did was moan, but she was actually extremely important in paving the way for the more complex companions of the revival series - we saw various members of her family (at least three, in three different stories) and we also saw a number of stories and key events through her eyes. She even learned to pilot the TARDIS (sort of). I knew there had been plans over the years to bring Ace back but I never thought we'd see Tegan again. I'm very torn about this, because I truly disliked Tegan's exit - it was forced, grimdark in all the ways that epitomize how detrimental Eric Saward was to the show, and felt too small and rushed for a character of Tegan's longevity. I never felt that should be her final moment on the show. I'd love to believe this can be a long-overdue chance to right that wrong. Yet, if she is returning just to be killed off, bait and fodder for a finale almost no one is invested in, then it will probably kill the last bit of good will I have left for modern Who. I desperately hope that isn't going to happen.

The Powers That Be is where I first saw Valerie, David, or John. I still have a vague memory of the theme song. One of the "different" types of sitcoms that NBC was trying at that time that I felt attached to (Grand was another, with the underrated Pamela Reed). When Rami hit it big a few years ago I watched one of the supercuts of all his scenes on War at Home. Michael Rapaport has long been offputting to me (even before he compared Kenya Moore to a gorilla), and the kid they played as the straight son Rami was friends with/in love with was a bit miscast, but once you get through all the cliches Rami's story was surprisingly watchable at times, mostly because of that weird crazy energy he brings and because they phased out some of the sillier earlier choices (like Rami lusting after both his friend and Michael's character). There was one episode later on where he and Michael had to do some kind of father/son performance together that I enjoyed - less frightening than Karen and Diana doing the same on Knots Landing, anyway. I watched Yes, Dear for several years at the time, because I did like the cast's chemistry together and I felt that it was an underdog, but the show ran too long and it was obvious the network kept trying to kill it but couldn't find anything better (the same would happen to that Oliver Hudson sitcom later in the decade). I remember one bizarre episode where they were living in the Big Brother house, which made you despair slightly at just how prominent reality TV had become at this time. Mike O'Malley was always my favorite actor on the show. He's done well for himself as a character actor and producer. https://www.avclub.com/mike-o-malley-on-testing-for-ron-swanson-and-being-the-1847495539 As for John Belushi, I do tend to prefer him as a dramatic actor. I think Twin Peaks and his pre-tapes on SNL are some of his best work. Here's a short film he did in 1980 around the time he was in Second City.

https://www.etonline.com/patricia-heatons-husband-david-hunt-accused-of-inappropriate-touching-by-carols-second-act-writer I think there may have been more too. Yes. Outlets like NYT, IIRC, proclaimed it as one of the best sitcoms of all time. I'm a contrarian too often and this just further pushed me away from the show, which I already thought had become unpleasant and unwatchable after 2-3 seasons, and hugely wasted some incredibly talented people like Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle. It has definitely faded into obscurity and aside from The Middle, no one from it seems to have gone on to much success. I saw more praise from people who thought Ray Romano looked like a DILF/GILF around the time of the Irishman press tour than I have for a lot of his work in recent years. Personally I just stick with my better memories of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist...

I used to sometimes think I was letting my political biases cloud my view, but after hearing about her and her husband on her last sitcom, I don't anymore.

Bleh. One of many moments of the show I have blocked out. I always hated the men vs women episodes.

That makes the whole thing even worse. Julie deserved better. I did watch the montage at the end and it is very effective (I can see why one might think the scenes were filmed for the show as they have that feel to them). They tie into some of Linda's very valid complaints about the way Les Moonves treated women on CBS. I forgot to say, as I was skimming through this now to see Carol Burnett and Marilyn McCoo, I saw a part where the women expressed enjoyment at Ned Beatty "crawling around on all fours," "being tied to a tree," and "squealing like a pig." His character was raped in that film. When an episode that is meant to be about exploitation of women makes such a point of trivializing a man's rape then it just proves the point of so many MRA types out there who diminish the suffering women go through. A great example of why these shows are so impossible to rewatch, especially without the talented ladies (and Meshach Taylor) of Designing Women.

Wow! I tried watching this show at the time because I wanted Delta Burke to succeed and I always enjoyed Suzanne, but I couldn't make it past the first episode. I couldn't make it to the end of this one either. Naming characters Eric and Lyle for a Menendez brothers joke was bad enough, but the dialogue given to Delta was the last straw...once we got to "I don't like S&M, I like M&Ms," I stopped. Patricia Heaton is one of the most unlikeable actresses I've ever seen on television. I never knew Julie Hagerty and Valerie Mohaffey traded off in a role. I've spent decades thinking how similar they are.

What a pathetic embarrassment. Ron has done so much to set back gay representation in entertainment. Self-loathing gay men are a curse to the industry.