DRW50

No one is going to confront Goutman about any of those things as he would not agree to the interview otherwise. Much as I find Locher to be cloying, it's not as if he is an outlier. The soap press of the last 20 years has been a shambles, and helped kill the genre.

Soaps at their best served an importance in entertainment nothing else can touch, due to the daily format, many years of continuity and history, making us feel like we are part of a family. I have missed that so much in the Trump years and now with COVID and all the instability. Speaking of classic episodes - these aren't exactly "classic" (especially not the second), but as you have watched quite a few of these I was wondering if you'd seen these or know if they had already been online. The dates are off for us due to them airing in the Netherlands, but they would have aired in the US in fall 1992 and fall 1993. The '92 is only about 15 minutes, sadly. I do understand the complaints people have about Marland's last years as headwriter, but something about 1992 is so rich for me, so fascinating in its bleakness and the sheer weight of stories he built up slowly, slowly unraveling. The 15 minutes there have some wonderful scenes with Emma and Julie (probably looking about as chic as she ever would). I really wish they had done more with all the bitterness Emma felt about the Aaron lie - it would have been interesting to see more exploration of her very dysfunctional relationship with Iva. Marland came full circle in that instance as his tenure started with Iva/Emma dysfunction. The mention of Grace and Logan in Wyoming also shows how important the years of history were in this period, and how much ATWT died when that aspect was dumped by Jon Valente.

Maggie Haberman is pathetic and spiteful beyond belief. That "the paper of record" sees her as a gold standard just tells you why they should be dismissed.

I know some of the people who want to break up big tech tend to see that as lip service, especially from the EU. I guess at this point it's impossible not to see everything as lip service.

I would say Abby was more of a JR, just with more of a conscience. The Lewises were an interesting hybrid because they were obviously Dallas-inspired yet due to the heavy involvement of Reva and her being involved with all three main Lewis Men, they also had much more of a florid, pulpy vibe. The Ewings were more of the "new South" compared to the Lewises.

I think she's just going to move to sunnier climates. This makes me sad for the Sugdens but also because the show has let its older cast leave with no replacements over the last decade. The sense of community is gone. And the soaps now tend to write everyone as being mentally 18, which doesn't help.

I saw that Andy Cohen had Rinna and overexposed Sarah Paulson on to talk about how wonderful Erika is. Bravo really does have a lot invested in that woman, even at the expense of their own show and viewer base.

I felt like they were going to try to make her relationship with AJ real (what with the endless comparisons to Alan and Monica) if Hannah/Sonny hadn't bombed. She was written as being in love with Jason, but as much as they would try to write Jason as having feelings for Carly, Steve would usually do his best to push it back.

I think given the last time the recall happened, there was a lot of blame over a Democrat running a major campaign on the second ballot (even though I doubt that was the deciding factor), some of the concern was justified. Silver just made it too much of an absolute and came across as insufferably smug, yet again.

I don't even entirely disagree with Nate Silver about t he recall - not having a backup candidate was a very high-risk strategy - but you'd think an election forecaster would have better insights, and he has completely destroyed any credibility or goodwill.

That's great news. I wonder if this is what JLB was asked to return for a while back. I just hope they won't kill Leslie off. They are so lucky that Janice Lynde is still alive and well and willing to participate.

RSW wearing the beret would probably be one of his better moments. Let's have them recreate Brian and Ginger - leave and never be mentioned again.

@victoria foxton Thanks for sharing, but that photo really pisses me off. If you are going to cosplay an iconic soap-related magazine cover, then you should try to have two people who can at least act. That broken ab machine just looks constipated, as he has on all his soap work, and she just looks like she's trying to figure out what died on her head. I'm not sure if one image has better epitomized the death of this genre.

@Vee Thanks for mentioning Norm. As a lifelong fan of SNL, there end up being too many comedians I was simultaneously torn between finding talented and also being repulsed by some of what they said and did on the show. That was probably truer for Norm than most, as that whole era of the show is very ugly, but he was a brilliant sketch performer and impressionist and writer, and was always a searing, one of a kind presence at a time that really needed it. Stuff like the sketch where Bob Dole (Norm) goes to live in the Real World House still makes me laugh, many years later. I had not followed his career as much in more recent times, but saw him in some Youtube videos a year or two ago and didn't think he looked well. I had no idea he had cancer. I am glad he is now at peace. I was also glad to see Julia Sweeney (who was on SNL with him toward the end of her run and quit partially because of his behavior) say he apologized to her when they met for the 40th anniversary. This is a fitting farewell he wrote in his book:

This Politico man's replies are embarrassingly stupid. I don't know whether he is just that dumb or pretends to be, but it's enraging.

In the long run, this is just part of their plan to suppress all votes that don't go their way and declare elections null and void.

The most interesting results out of the California recall are the Orange County numbers, which isn't even very close right now. The GOP mostly just did this recall for fundraising, to push more voter fraud lies, and because they always need to keep the outrage machine going, but they still blew a real opportunity and ideally this will crush them there in 2022, especially the above two homophobes.

Gavin Newsom is crushing the recall, but a media that already had "liberal elite" sneerfests written out months ago will not be stopped.

Thank you for those @NadineC

Me too. Those first 3 or so seasons are great.

So many who died of AIDS would have given anything to survive, and rotting corpses like this pissed away their very easy chance. Good riddance.