DRW50

Wow! What a treat! And I think this is during the writers' strike too, a period that always fascinates me when I see more of it. Thanks for letting us know.

I think it may have just been an attempt to honor the show's past. He also made sure to talk some about Stan Richards in his Calendar interview.

Thanks. I always enjoy hearing more from those who were watching at the time. I feel like Loving is a show you can only appreciate if you were there in the long haul (even though generally I enjoy watching the show).

I wonder how much input Agnes had on the early, factory girl version of the character.

I'm with you on the most important thing being Trump losing. I'm not sure what will happen in the future - I feel like if we survive the next 4 years, the 2024 election is going to have to be completely different as Bernie and Biden will be so old and Trump can't run again, and neither party has any real heir apparents. I never thought Obama could win the primary in 2008, so I try not to guess what will happen since. I think Cory was one of those candidates who was always talked about as being fantastic without ever really proving so on a national platform. He would try to go viral ("I'm Spartacus"), he would date a famous actress, he would give us platitudes, but for the most part I never felt he really connected. We would be told he said the right things, his debate performances we were told were incredible, but I just never felt anything. I don't feel anything for anybody running (other than disgust, in some cases), but when you are running a purely emotional campaign, as he did, then feelings should be easier to cultivate. And now we have this absolute hell with Elizabeth Warren's campaign people apparently leaking stories that Bernie told her a woman couldn't win, and Warren confirming it but then asking people to move on. I don't understand what her campaign is doing. They're just so reactionary but as always in ways that do nothing to help her or get her message out. And Bernie's campaign continues to exist just to do the superiority dance and trash other candidates and the usual media figures they pretend to be above. What any of this has to do with actually winning an election, or finding a coherent message, I don't know. I guess about as much as Bernie's #1 cult member, AOC, doing back-patting about how she's going to spend time and money on primaries because purity must win out. Have you ever seen the William Friedkin movie, Sorcerer? I saw it about a week ago, and it's haunted me ever since. I'm not usually that thrilled with nihilistic pieces, but it's superbly made, and the message of it (four men who are trapped by bad decisions, or by their own beliefs, or their own greed, all desperately race to their last chance, even as fate stands in their path over and over and over) feels more relevant than ever today. There's one sequence in the movie where two of the men who are traveling together end up having to go across a treacherous bridge. One of them says, "We took the wrong road!" They try to get across the bridge as best they can, their lives in their hands. A bit later in the movie, we see the other two men, who are also traveling together. They took a different road, the "right" road...yet they still ended up at the exact same rotting bridge. When I see these, beyond feeling like I'm going to have a heart attack, my main thought is why does this remind me so much of where this primary and campaign are? We were supposed to be in a better place in this party from 2016. Instead we're just in the same place - only even more rotted away, even more fragile. How did we get here? Why are we still in the same wretched Bernie wars, with no way out, with Trump and the media and all his other allies waiting at the other end, licking their grotesque chops? Is there ever anything to stop the same damn thing on a loop?

Watching the 1994 episode, and the disconnect between the quality of dialogue and performance and the stories on display is just as glaring as I remember feeling at the time. It was only the baby Peter custody saga that kept me watching at the time, and that is still the standout material now, although I do still appreciate seeing Julie's wheels slowly, slowly turn in her plans to win Frank. Peter Simon is a superb actor, but he is so backbreakingly heavy as Ed - I love watching his work, but I do think overall Mart Hulswit got the balance right. Anyway, Ed's scenes with Lillian and especially that last scene with Bridget are just terrific - that Ed and Bridget scene is downright phenomenal, as it's freed of some of the writerly shackles of his earlier monologue to Lillian. All these years later and I still can't watch Lucy. She did become a better character during the Brent story, but she is just unbearable around this time period - so grafted in and so ridiculously entitled. Going on and on about sewing her own clothes to prove herself. Who gives a [!@#$%^&*]? This isn't Ma Perkins - and she would have had no time for your me me me either. Marcy Walker is wonderful here but she is playing absolutely nothing. I can see why she was so embittered about this experience.

This promo is certainly a better pitch for Falcon Crest than some of the actual stories they'd find (like Vicki's dull, dull love life).

I'm not sure why she left...I think Ava left for a little while after Egypt arrived? Maybe a few months? I'm not sure. The 1988 episodes are so hard to find.

Laura seems to be heading for one of the career Oscars - she's been acting in acclaimed films for 35 years now, always giving good performances, rarely forgetting her place in the Hollywood system. She also had a lot of buzz from Big Little Lies, which is the type of thing that would probably get Oscars if it wasn't a TV show. She's waited her turn, so unless, say, Florence Pugh continues to get more and more support, she's probably getting the gold.

Another forgettable year, with a somewhat embarrassing token nomination thrown in by way of Cynthia Erivo (her performance, Harriet, and her past comments set off many firestorms). No real surprise at some of their snubs, even when the nominations were deserved (like Eddie Murphy for Dolemite, or Lupita in Us, or Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems). More interesting this year than the nominations is who didn't get nominated - no Frozen 2 (presumably a finger in the eye to blatant cash machine cinema), no JLo (I guess they already had a please-please-please type Oscar campaign with Gaga last year and didn't need another), very little Knives Out in spite of RIan Johnson being made a martyr of the ages by liberal critics in the last few years, no Greta Gerwig Director nomination in spite of an extended strongarming campaign from woke Twitter, etc. I'm most annoyed at the Bombshell nominations.

Great. I hope you'll share your thoughts with us.

Is this Wendy Moniz?

Great find as always.

I read about that yesterday. What awful timing. And then a number of people point out many parts of Canada aren't exactly "bone-chillingly cold."

The first 15-16 minutes of this has some behind the scenes looks at AMC circa 1988, as well as several interviews with Susan Lucci. A few years later there's an interview with Genie Francis.

A news reporter put up various behind the scenes clips of trips to AMC and Loving. The Loving material, which includes short interviews with John Gabriel ( @safe ) and Roya Megnot ( @SFK ) airs starting about 16 or 17 minutes in. @dc11786