DRW50

Yes, this was the most I've seen of Marguerite's Mamie actually doing anything, and I immediately got that vibe as well. I can actually believe it a bit more with her than with VRF, who was much warmer than the often very cold Abbott dynamics. The Mamie/John idea was extremely daring, but something that Y&R was likely too conservative in viewership to ever pull off. I think if Bell had been more on all cylinders the idea would never have gone through.

With a man who has been accused of domestic violence. Probably better to just dump this.

I love how bizarrely feverish the normally staid recast announcement is here...talk about a harbinger for the next four years. This whole sequence is peak Bill Bell Y&R. The opaque camera angles creating such an oppressive atmosphere and making the Abbott home feel as much like a prison as a refuge. How deep in character and drive and yet how off Jill, Dina and Mamie all are in their own ways, which makes the scene feel increasingly delirious as we go from Dina spying on Jill to facing off with Mamie to facing off with Jill. As Camille Paglia once said about Nikki, the scenes represent the essence of femininity and womanhood, but in this case, in nightmarish ways. Everyone is trapped in their own hell and either trying to get out, or just don't know how. I didn't realize Bell just ended up re-using the hiding letter idea with Dina, John, and that Constance Towers character 13 years later. Now I have even more disdain for that plot.

Thanks @Soapsuds I do think Caso was one of the last producers who tried to keep some of the last vestiges of the ATWT identity alive, but he really wasn't a strong enough producer nor did he pick strong enough writers at key moments after Marland passed. Anyway, this is off topic now, sorry.

Thanks. I probably will, although it's going to be tough to watch. Yes. Even though 1993 was a decently rated year for the show, I imagine the budget cuts were kicking in, and characters who had been written into a corner or who had not been central players in a while were among the first to go. Not that it's really the same but this is also when Lucinda's daughter Bianca left and forgotten about by everyone at the show but Liz Hubbard. I know Marland and Lisa were very close, so I wonder how much their friendship had helped keep Iva on the show up to that point as she could have gone after the Aaron reveal (I wonder if that's another reason he also had her get pregnant with John's baby).

Lisa was fired in fall 1993 around the same time Anne Sward was. Iva gave up fighting for Aaron (which I really hated and it made me hate Holden for years because he barely spent time with that child) and left for a new life with Jason Benedict. I'm sorry I missed the tribute. I hope it went well. I think Iva made some appearances in 1994. I can't remember about 1995.

I think he will deny to the end, but I won't be surprised if he does drop out of office, issue a vague statement about "loving everyone in the name of freedom" and then going the Schock round, amped up even further, by posting thirst traps at every America First convention he attends.

He feels like he is straight out of one of those "the Nazis were all gay" propaganda pieces. The whole thing with the wife he just happened to "meet" while in Russia, or whatever that story was, makes me wonder if he was being set up for heavy blackmail material that is now being blown up because they've realized he's too stupid and unreliable. He also seems like the type of guy who desperately wishes he could just [!@#$%^&*] himself. (as far as I'm concerned he CAN go [!@#$%^&*] himself) He has repeatedly shifted the scrutiny by blaming "the left." I wonder if he will again now or if he will retire. This last dump feels like a warning of what will be next.

Another day, another media dump on Miss Madison.

Don't bother.

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.