DRW50

I saw a tweet that said only about 4 or 5 have said anything. Most of them I'm not surprised by (Justin Amash, Jeff Flake, Ben Sasse, et al.) Sasse will likely be a one-term wonder as I've read that the Nebraska GOP hates his opposition to Trump. None of these people seem to have any particular power either, but I guess at least they said something. What a fraud St. John yet again proves himself to be. Barry Goldwater rolling over in his grave would have more political impact at this point.

@I Am A Swede you've probably already seen this, but I hadn't. It's a 1985 episode, set during the Harvest Festival. There are some technical issues, but some good scenes, especially Annie talking about the loss of her father. It's always nice to see more of Sandie and Jackie, as it annoys me the show never brings her back and never acknowledges them at all. Also some leadup to the impending tragedy with Matt and Dolly. People love to say nothing happened on Emmerdale until 1989 but that story said otherwise.

You'd think today - this whole past week - would make Republicans in the Senate rethink whether to approve his nominees, but we know that won't happen. McConnell is a smart man (if a nasty one), so I do wonder what he will be doing.

It was strange watching those May 1994 episodes because so much was similar to recent years in her performance, but she had a lot more energy, inner life. That's one of the reasons I liked Steffi and yet have felt nothing for her other soap roles. I guess now that she has settled in life (and has apparently finally stopped...having an itch for co-stars), she is less interested than ever in making an effort, but it's too bad. I wish they'd swap her for Heather Tom because Heather has been wrong for Katie from day 1 IMO and Amelia likely would fit the bill of that character. Sadly that will never happen.

Perry was just gorgeous. It's a shame Jack was ultimately a flat role even with all the years he stayed with it.

It was mine too. I thought they were good on both shows, but I also liked Charles a lot (it's a shame Geoffrey Ewing never got a strong soap role - the GL one was the most interesting but Megan McTavish seemed to be at her most dangerously out of control with all of his storylines), and I loved Lorraine. I never saw the story where Frankie became a militant - it seems like a difficult subject for a soap, especially by 1996 when executives were clamping down. No wonder it was cut short.

Yes. He was the son of Gwyn and Clay that she gave up for adoption (I'm not really sure why she did). There are some clips of him on Chip Albers' YT channel and then some longer ones. I'll look in a bit to see if the latter are still uploaded.

I think @juniorz1 when they used to post here, felt Stacey was a weak spot on the show. I don't mind her that much, but I agree that I'm not sure she and Jack were that great as a couple. For me Linden Ashby's Curtis and Roya Megnot's Ava could have been a supercouple. I've always found Ashby boring in all his soap roles so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed what I saw of him as Curtis. Did you ever watch those lengthy clips someone put up a few years ago focused on the Jack and Stacey conflicts when she was with Rick? If not I'll try to see if they're still around.

True, although people said that about the Arab Spring as well. I hope people are protesting outside Paul Ryan's office. He should be ashamed, especially as he loves to speak as the moral voice of America when it suits him.

The oddest story I read about on Egoli (although there were many) was when one half of a loving gay couple suddenly became a bisexual psychopath who shot his boyfriend after a fight and went on to become an assassin and master criminal. Yeah. I really liked it too. I guess the timeslot and the many onscreen upheavals caused a problem. It's too bad as the bits I've seen of the show are good. I'd say it's because soaps of the last 20 years are so much worse, but some of the episodes actually are very good in their own right. But from what I've read it did go off the rails and then come back, over and over, so maybe people just didn't want to deal with it. I remember reading about one story that sounds especially stupid where Clay or someone gaslighted Stacey with a holograph of Jack.

I think people can carry on like this for a while, but I worry about when the crackdowns start - against the press, and with authorities against protesters. I think the only reason it hasn't started in more earnest as of yet is because Trump and Bannon are so disoraganized and abrasive. That's one of the reasons I'm so wary of Pence, because I think he would be able to do these types of things more efficiently.

Egoli. IMDB says 1995 but I think it may have been a bit more. I'm not sure. (Egoli was a wild soap from the synopses I've seen) He did, yes. She had amnesia after a carjacking. Did you get to watch that 1989 episode? What did you think of it? I really enjoyed it. It's a shame the quality didn't hold.

It's still so weird to me that Trisha's exit was leaving with Jeff Hartman. Then she returned with, I believe, no mention of him, and never got her memory back. And he went on to appear, as Jeff Hartman, on a South African soap for several years. Truly one of the strangest soap turns I can remember. I'd love to see some of that.

Elizabeth Mitchell (who has always kind of annoyed me as an actress, namely due to her ER role that made me quit watching the show) took over the role. She was let go when Robert Tyler left. I sometimes wonder if they asked him got come back at all for that strange, brief Trisha return late in the year, or if they didn't bother. Elise was only on the show for a few months. I think she was introduced as a grifter and had most of her story with Frankie and Angie. She stowed away on the plane. I can't remember if she knew by that point she was Buck's daughter. He didn't know until either right before or right after she died. SOD criticized the decision to kill her off so quickly in their best/worst of the year issue. Robert was a gorgeous guy, and as time passed, not a bad actor either. I do think he could have easily gotten on the primetime soap circuit if he wanted. I don't think he's done much in television. He has a Youtube channel where he put up a showreel of old work. He also "liked" this, which he seems to be involved in:

I'm glad she stuck to her guns instead of being one of the Republicans who went with quicker paychecks.

I don't think it was his fault by any means. I just mean that politically speaking it was very tin-eared, so I used it as an example of him losing some touch with the base of politics. Obviously he had to show support for Cameron, so I guess he thought he should be very clear, but I think it gave extremists more of an opening to seem populist and such.

From what I've read, he was imprisoned by Dante, then there was a period where I think he may have been scheming but not hugely evil or psycho (which may be these episodes, which is why he faked an episode in this one). Then (I'm not sure if that had already started by this point) Gilbert, his friend Jeremy's evil twin, began gaslighting him while pretending to be Jeremy. This spiralled into him bombing a plane that Buck and Dinah Lee were on, killing Buck's just-introduced daughter (played by Elise Neal) and facilitating the recast for Dinah Lee. Chris Marcantel was then written out via asylum. I don't think a lot of fans were thrilled with writing Curts out or making him a lunatic. Trucker and the recast Dinah Lee leave in early 1995. Robert Tyler wanted to go, and I think he did retire. I do wonder if he would have been on The City instead of Buck if he hadn't quit, although he may have just been fired like many of the others. Long-term I think the show made a mistake killing off Clay. Dennis Parlato was very very good, and he filled the void that the show never managed to with dull as hell City villains like Sydney's husband Jared.

They may not have a lot of options, even with Trump. I think Obama had a lot of bad luck in geopolitical events, and I think racism made foreign leaders more willing to ignore or belittle him. The only real criticism I had of him is I think he just never really got the base connection that would have stopped some of the bigger gaffes like going to the UK and telling voters, in so many words, that he'd be flushing them down the toilet if they didn't do what he wanted on Brexit. That wasn't what he meant, of course, but that seemed to be how it came across to many over there. I think he did mean well and had a lot of smart plans and was ultimately just somewhat frozen by exactly what to do in an increasingly unstable world. I'd love to say Hillary would have been better, but with Hillary we'd likely be lurching toward a nuclear arms race with Russia. And then of course there's Trump... Anyway, have any Republicans spoken out about the last few days, or gone to any airports or anything? What about those "thoughtful" Republicans who are going to be "a thorn in Trump's side," like maverick McCain and media darling Marco? Or are they mostly just hoping we'll ban anyone from Cuba?

The scary part (well there are a lot of scary parts about this) is that this is one of the views that some on the extreme anti-Semetic left have as well (the need to downplay how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust because "they weren't the only ones"). It's very sick. It's something Republicans used to beat the left over the head with. I have a feeling they won't be saying a word now.

That was the tone I got from some of the stuff about their clean energy plans and so on. The only real problem I had with Obama's approach to China is that I think at best we were able to put on a good public face as our influence steadily shrank and China took more and more control over Asia, especially once Duterte became President of the Philippines. Unfortunately Trump's "solution" is about 5000000 times worse, as he clearly thinks all we need to do is shake our jowels. Regarding TPP and trade, I think both parties, through poor handling of past trade deals and continued ignorance of why many in the public object to them, were backed into a corner, and I'm not sure if we would have gotten anything out of it.

I think China is a big concern - it's more that I disagree when talk turns to how they're going to become some sort of lead or bold innovator in things like the environment. It gives them more credit than they deserve. I think a lot of the war talk is for appearance's sake, but it's definitely something Trump is pushing us toward. And it's quite stupid. What he excels at, sadly.

I think spring or summer 1992. It was done soon enough for them to move Howarth to OLTL.

I don't know if Eric has stopped posting here again, but he or @SFK or @dc11786 may know. I think this may have been during Agnes Nixon's return. The second one has a hysterical scene where Deborah gets an obscene phone call.