DRW50

Thanks so much for these. I never thought I'd get to see any of this material. Are these some where we saw the little clips from the Retro Ontario channel? Watched the first one... I had never remembered or read much about Lucas' exit. Does he leave Genoa City with that woman? It's good to see more of the character as he always interested me. Who was playing that woman? That Lance really is a prop, right to the end. The scenes are a bit twee but Bill Bell probably felt Leslie, and her fans, deserved a blissful goodbye after years of angst. Victoria Mallory did have great screen presence, beauty, and a lovely voice, in spite of not feeling quite right for the role. You can really feel the changing of the guard in this episode through - can you imagine Nikki singing her happiness? Speaking of Nikki, MTS did a wonderful job in the scene with the woman who couldn't have a baby. You can see why Bill Bell had enough confidence in her to keep building her up. I also loved seeing a glimpse of the old rough Katherine. The actress playing the woman who couldn't have a baby is very very good - who played her? I had to cringe at that dialogue from her about the baby - I'm reminded throughout this episode of that Chris Schemering comment about the cheesy, bad dialogue being cleaned up as the show went through changes (Conboy leaving, presumably). I had to laugh when she said a child could go on to cure cancer. Instead Nikki's kids grew up to be huge losers. Sad. It's good to see the beginnings of Lorie's manipulating Victor to get Prentiss back. JLB and Braeden worked well together and Jaime seems restrained here. If she'd wanted to stay I think she probably is one of the few from the early Y&R days who could have made the transition to the more subtle and less hyper-emotional material. Who are the women with Nikki and Vanessa in the closing credits artwork? I wonder if Nikki and Vanessa ever interacted...

I don't think Morrow is always all that bad either, or that bad-looking. The main problem is he got lazy and the show indulged it. But this isn't a show that has ever been full of phenomenally talented and gorgeous men so I can't single him out. Aside from Braeden (ugh - I can't stand him but I know he's iconic) and sometimes Doug Davidson and Terry Lester, etc. I'd say it's mostly women who have carried Y&R on their back.

Tarantino is such a narcissist and so unpleasant. It makes me cringe that Amber Tamblyn is so close to him.

I also wanted to say I'm so glad you put that little shot of Frank on his guitar. Frank and Larry Riley were also a very underrated element of the last years of Knots Landing and in adding some freshness to a group we were beginning to know a little too well. Now that I'm seeing these again I'm reminded of how many episodes those seasons had. I think it was like 27, 28, 29 at one point, wasn't it? These days dramas struggle to even produce 20.

I remember how it seemed like Danny went to psychoville in the blink of an eye. The Sumner Group is one of the most underrated parts of KL in the late '80s and early '90s - it's one of the things that kept me interested as I had less and less time for characters like Mack and Karen. I sometimes wonder if they created that setting to compete with LA Law, as that was it's main timeslot rival. Either way, it was fun and exciting and fresh. It's interesting to compare it to Lotus Point (which I also enjoyed) in how they were written. I'm just sorry Laura never got to be a part of it.

Bill and Susan Hayes from the early '80s (I think 1983):

That's pretty much what they did with Ava. Some soap magazines at the time criticized the decision and said that it was OOC for Ava to react that way. I'm not sure I agree, but I do think she deserved a better exit. I think Lisa wanted to leave but I wonder if it was mutual as there was a push for new, hot faces, even though Ava would have fit The City very well. I think Jocelyn came to Corinth to help Danny after he was arrested when Ally lied that he'd raped her. I think Tony arrived after Stacey was murdered - he was brought in to help with the case. The oddest part of everything with Trisha wandering around as an amnesiac with her psycho ex Jeff (I can't see an ending like that being put through today) is that Jeff went on a South African soap, Egoli. I don't believe there was mention of Trisha and I'm not sure they mentioned Jeff when Trisha popped back up on Loving. Apparently Jeff was a good guy on Egoli. I'd love to see some of that. Knowing what I have seen of South African soaps, which have some men who make Victor Newman seem like a pussycat, I guess I can see why he might have mellowed out.

I can see why @dc11786 said this was a good period for the show, as I enjoyed that episode quite a bit. The writing felt very intelligent in a way you wouldn't get much of the time (not now, and not even then), like Dinah Lee still having a tangled relationship with Jack even as the attraction with Trucker was growing. Giff sort of egging it on and pushing Trucker's buttons while also being a pal to him was interesting. Giff had the potential to be a strong and complicated leading man, like Alex - it's a shame they threw that away. The scene where Kate comforts and supports Matt's mother is also very good and helps the material feel more heartfelt than the usual young couple against a mean mother trope. The only part that drags a bit for me is the Carly stuff, as her material is always so heavy, although Colleen Quinn was a good actress. Who was the woman she saw at the end?

An article on this: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/12/niger-shadow-war-africa-243695 The last quote just makes me shake my head, as it seems to describe every single conflict the US is involved in now.

More from Kristof about North Korea. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/opinion/north-korea-kim-jong-un.html

Looking back it actually is something that they had her sleep with Jeff AND Trucker (at least she stayed away from Steve). You'd think Trisha would have been upset over this for a very long time. Maybe they had some kind of "the dick was just that good" bonding conversation and moved on before the next recast kicked in.

Can @SoapDope or anyone else tell me if this is Gail Ramsey or is it someone else? She is so familiar to me but I didn't want to put the wrong name on it.

Ugh. They should be more worried about stuff like an article I read (I think it was Navy Times - I'm not sure) about the lack of morale in sailors on one of the main ships watching North Korea (and in many other parts of the Navy presumably), so much so that the studies have some worried they won't be able to respond to an attack at all. This has been going on for a number of years, apparently, but it's much more important to worry about now. I would like to hope that having all these generals in powerful roles means that they will try to address this before it's too late.

Never seen this one.

Was that Kristof? I read his column after I saw your post. Or maybe it was someone else who went with him. Kristof's piece is very disturbing. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/opinion/sunday/nuclear-north-korea.html

Football was ruined a long time ago - it's a toxic, dangerous system that uses people and spits them out. Wouldn't he have to be confirmed? I wonder if the Senate would do it at this point. I guess he could just make Bolton a recess appointment. After you said that I looked it up and it looks like we're down $2.7 billion. https://www.bustle.com/p/is-trump-hurting-us-tourism-the-numbers-basically-point-to-yes-2416020 I wonder if some of that will come back when people get numbed to Trump or if they will never come back. I think a lot of people believed Trump would somehow calm down at some point but he just keeps going and going and going. The news cycle today means that if you do the same thing a lot and then pause the media and the public will move on to something else. That never happens with Trump because he's always finding something new to trample over.

Is that Inquisitr reliable?

I can ask for you on Daytime Royalty if you want me to.

Sometimes I feel like I’m too hard on Hollyoaks compared to other soaps in regards to homophobia, because at least they consistently have lgbt characters in multiple stories (and seem to be trying to bring in more POC queer people as well in roles that go beyond third wheel), but…but...but… The scenes with Ryan killing Amy actually made me feel sick to my stomach. I haven’t seen such blatantly homophobic material since I watched Celluloid Closet. I have to question whether this was the original plan, as Ryan has enjoyed emotional as well as sexual relationships with three different women over the last 5-6 months. Yes, closeted gay men can and do have sex with women, obviously, but I can’t say I’ve gotten a huge impression that he was gay and in denial. I got the impression that he wanted everyone to believe he was straight and not bisexual. This also means that his efforts to help protect Armstrong early on make even less sense. Beyond that, let’s just talk about the virulent homophobia and misogyny in that scene with Ryan killing Amy. A woman being reduced to yelling about her gay men (never mind anything else in her life over the 12 years we knew her) before being snuffed out by a gay man, shaking and weeping as he repeatedly says he isn’t gay. What this scene tells viewers is that gay men are not only self-loathing, not only disturbed, but violent and dangerous. They’re murderers. They don’t just use and hurt the women they lie to (which is bad enough in of itself) - they kill them. If this aired on a major show, I imagine it would get a furious reaction from Stonewall and other groups. It’s the very core of what homophobic outlets have spent decades telling people about queer people. I’m genuinely shocked and also disgusted at this and I can’t believe this is what they decided to spend months of material as well as a major marketing campaign on. That women are there to be killed by psychotic, violent gay men.

She did tell him today, thankfully.

How sad when even Faux News questions you. https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/hold-on-kellyanne-conway-snaps-at-fox-friends-for-calling-pence-nfl-walkout-a-political-stunt/?comments=disqus

Watching this reminds me of Michael O'Leary's many jokes about the homoerotic relationship between Rick and Philip. The joke being that at times it didn't really feel like a joke...