DRW50

I guess that explains why Jack and Louis have such hair changes. A few of us were wondering about Michelle. Is she gone for good? I can never tell with this show.

I think the producers wanted a fresh start - my guess is they didn't want any characters too closely identified with Loving. Alex had been around for a good while, but he was also played by Randolph Mantooth, a name in his own right.

The news about Peter Scolari really got to me too. I used to sit and watch the Bosom Buddies reruns on USA over and over. I just thought he was cute and funny and he had such screen presence. I haven't watched a lot of his later work but whenever I saw him he'd make me smile. So sad.

Frances Fisher (DAYS, GL, EON) is also in Rust.

@Nicholas BlairThank you for the details that synopses can't cover. I felt betrayed when P&G/Valente dumped many of my favorite characters in 1995, so much so that I never fully connected with the show again. Yet I can at least step back and acknowledge many of them had reached a natural end or needed a rest. That does not seem to be the case here. It's a shame so many have no interest in soaps beyond the basics, as Irna's brief return to ATWT is a story that would be fascinating to see in a docuseries form. I guess at least we will always have the tribute episode GL did for her in 2007.

She left Search before it was canceled, although she likely saw the writing on the wall. IIRC, she was offered the part of Amanda Spaulding on GL in 1995, but declined, as she needed a rest.

https://www.salon.com/2021/10/20/meghan-mccain-fumes-over-her-princess-of-arizona-snl-portrayal-laughing-stock-of-the-country_partner/ These parodies were extremely mild, especially compared to SNL of many years past, which would have roasted her alive. She has no talent, no value as a human being, and is married to a hideous lump of dogshit. Now that her father is gone, she can only get by on being a professional victim for people who probably spit at her whenever she leaves the room.

I have never liked Greg Berlanti or his assembly line shows, and this is what you get with an assembly line. Still I am horrified at these stories. Ruby Rose was painted as some kind of a diva for what are clearly very unsafe working conditions with a sea of bodies to show for it.

If this is true, I really do loathe her and what she represents. She is not only hurting people, but she is demoralizing countless voters into believing the two parties are the same. I think if Democrats lose the majority in 2022, she is switching parties immediately.

Manchin has denied a party switch, for now anyway, but the gleeful media reaction is, if not surprising, still nauseating.

I've seen some speculation Sinema is gearing up to join a third party. I wouldn't be surprised - she would fit right in with Andrew Yang, a man whose idea of a political position is an insipid grin.

I think by that point it was impossible to break up Mac and Rachel again, and then after Mac died and Rachel went through a period of mourning, Espy was leaving. If he had stayed I wonder if we would have had more with Rachel and Mitch. I think Felicia and Mitch were fine together, as he was a support for her yet not so heavy that he got in the way of her lighter moments (as Lucas did), but I think Felicia was really too much of a camp construct to ever fully work with a love interest. She was the closest soaps got to the old Crawford/Davis/Stanwyck type dames, who in their 40's tended to feel too rigidly defined to be viable with any love interest.

The court expansion commission Biden called released their findings several days ago. They essentially just mouth Stephen Breyer's position - we can't do what Republicans are already doing because that's wrong. I'm not surprised, there was no way we were getting any kind of expansion, but the framing is done in a way to further demoralize many who are already giving up.

The media has gone wild reinforcing to people that he died of COVID even with the vaccine (John Roberts giddily pointed out that this will make people more resistant to vaccines), so you're right, this will have a very bad impact.

Thanks @vetsoapfan. I can definitely imagine viewers being drawn to Mitch but not really wanting him to be with Rachel. I think Mitch was too dynamic a presence for the show at that time (or Espy was, anyway). It's a shame Beverlee had left as an Iris/Mitch pairing might have been compelling.

I thought I read somewhere that the ratings did improve in 1986, which helped stave off cancelation, but I guess that was from a low base. Did Rachel and Mitch have any fans at the time? I know it never would have happened, but I wonder if they would have had any success pairing Steve and Quinn. Was she ever meant to have feelings for him?

Manchin just keeps ruining lives, sending poor people past the point of no return, for his corporate donors.

I know I used to joke around a bit about Chandler Massey with you but I did appreciate your enthusiasm and you always kept the place going. I'm not going to ask you to stay unless you want to, because you should do what is right for you. If you do stay, that's great. If not, then, as Maeve Ryan said - have a good life.

Sorry, I meant the Lemay episodes you mentioned. I haven't watched this period because 1980 put me to sleep and I haven't rushed to go back.

I really cannot stomach the Val/Gary pairing. I don't think it's a coincidence that the strongest years of the show are when they are not together. Gary/Abby and Val/Ben are their ultimate pairings as they got to be more rounded people, instead of still pretending they were 20 years old.

Thanks for letting me know. I will, sadly, never be seeing any of this material, so when I read about the high production values Rauch insisted on, I had assumed they did not have Chromakey. That isn't fair of me, as I know it was an industry standard at that time. I just associate it with, frankly, Julia Hoffman screaming to Barnabas that the parallel time room is changing.

That reminds me - I saw this tweeted today. Even just the tweet looks awful (especially that Chromakey). I don't know, I haven't seen this story, maybe I am not being fair. I just don't know why they thought the remaining fans who knew Alice and Steve would want to see strangers.

Horrible man. He and that opportunistic headcase have ruined so much of this bill that we are reaching the point where even it does pass, most will just remember all the posturing and selling out that got to this point.