DRW50

Thanks to both of you for the extra info.

7 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

Perhaps Australia was exporting rather than America importing. 

Probably both. I assume someone at ABC was a big fan of Heartbreak High.

The usual NYT projecting and condescending moments. I loathe that they simultaneously chide Democrats for thinking Biden might win even as they bend over backwards to remind us of how well Trump is doing. I don't know any Democrats who are blithely assuming Biden is going to win - whether you believe the polls are not, they are very clear in most of their narrative, enough to cause angst galore. 

On 4/19/2024 at 2:48 PM, janea4old said:

Preview for week of April 22:

 

@DaytimeFan @Khan I am convinced Eileen took inspiration from that time Angela Lansbury played Jessica as a barfly.

On 4/22/2024 at 2:02 PM, Xanthe said:

Another World had Carmen Duncan and Julian McMahon in the 90s. (I do not mention Joy Bell because I am not aware of any other soap credits for her.)

ABC also made a run in the mid '90s with Corey Page, Ingo Rademacher and Vince Poletto. I suppose this was another case of the ABC-ification of CBS.

New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne Jr. dies - POLITICO

10 hours ago, Ben said:

I don’t find the situation with Paul/Krista any different to his past crimes, especially the time he gaslit Steph Scully and tampered with her meds so he could drive her out of town because he believed she was a danger to his grandson, Jimmy. But out of those ashes developed a friendship between Paul and Steph after he was framed for the hotel explosion, a friendship that ended up being the best thing about that storyline.

I haven't watched as far back as many fans, so I can't compare to most of his past crimes, but what bothers me about the story is I just don't think there was any real fallout for the severity of his actions. I don't need Paul to be drawn and quartered, but the most we got, beyond Aaron being mad at him, was Leo moving out for a few months. This was undercut by how much of the framing was on how he suffered, how Paul got his groove back, etc. 

There was no real need to tell this story - they could have had Eden find out about Krista another way, and David still die defending her. Then he and Krista would still be at odds and eventually he'd come to care about her. Chelsea would still scheme and exploit his grief. 

The way the story unfolded to me was the show having him inadvertently kill his son and somehow this be treated as a way to make us feel sympathy. I just find that a little grotesque, and unnecessary, and it didn't work for me at all.

I do think Finola and Maura both try their best, but both their characters tend to suffer from still being dictated by the plot - Anna in particular often feels far away from what she was in her first run for this reason. 

I think this happened with Tracy as well, during her marriage to Luke, but with him gone now, she doesn't have as much constant degradation on her back - also due to the choice to not have her as the whipping girl of the family as she was for many years. 

On paper, any survival of the Quartermaine family runs through Jason or Michael, but Tracy just has such a compelling arc, even if a great deal of it was not intentional on the show's part. The longtime outsider of the family is now essentially the last one left to remember what once was and trying to guide them into a new world. 

I remember Leslie Charleson talking about how Gloria Monty had done her best to minimize the Qs during her second tenure and how fitting it was that most of her last creations in that second run ended up having their scenes in the Q living room. 

I'm glad that after all the unforgiveable damage Guza did to the family, they have still somehow managed to survive to be a focal point for another potential new era. 

5 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

That makes sense. But per the book, there were no younger Ryan leads, so it made sense for EJ to be shoved down viewers' throats as she was the only other Ryan on the cast besides Maeve and Johnny. However, I have found that an issue could've been that all the younger Ryan women took on Mary's characteristics. Even Siobhan lost her spunk and became a Mary prototype. You can tell that Paul and Claire grieved the loss of Mary and never truly got over it. 

Siobhan was also there at that time, although I agree EJ might have been their attempt at bringing in another Mary. The problem is so much surrounding the first Mary was lightning in a bottle. And Mary just had more interesting relationships. I remember some lesbian undertones with Rae and EJ (which likely were not intended), but otherwise you just had self-righteous, smug Roger, and a lot of humiliation of Delia.

I should say that I did think Ron Hale was a real talent, as shown in the early years of the show (and maybe the later years - I haven't exactly locked those down) and his thankless part on GH. Any criticism I have is not based on Ron's work.

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Were the cousins established from the outset or just written in ?

I would hope the former as Labine/Meyer seemed to have a comprehensive backstory/bible. It's always smart to have some characters available for down the track.

I never found Richard Backus particularly appealing. He never got a long lasting role.

Maybe a different actor could have made Barry work better?

I think Richard did a good job as Barry when he had the chance - he was extremely smarmy, but we also got some of the more tender sides of the character. He didn't stand out to me from that era of the cast as a weak link, although I guess viewers might have been put off, especially compared to most of the other men on the show at the time.

I don't remember any mentions of EJ and Barry, although someone might know more than I did as I haven't watched those in a long time.

1 minute ago, Paul Raven said:

The only actor I recognized was a young Douglass Watson as the Private.

Thanks! I'll mention that on the video. I thought he looked a little familiar (easy to say now...). And now that I listen he sounds just the same.

Sad. My parents were big fans of McCloud.

The last surviving cast member of Sgt. Bilko.

Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but as this thread and the soap hopper thread have such detailed bios for many soap alum, including their anthology show work, I wondered if any of you might recognize any of the cast in this (and it could be added to their bios). The uploader was looking for cast info. IMDB does have William Post Jr, who was on a number of soaps (Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Where the Heart Is, Young Doctor Malone).

1 hour ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

 

Perhaps.  Even as someone who loved Sonny BITD and still has a fondness for MB, it is impossible to center a show around this character, then let alone now.  And the way MB is playing Sonny at this point is not what I believe he is or at least was capable of, and I have no interest in seeing 60-something Sonny continue to lash out at all the women who are obsessed with him for "betrayal."

That said, some kind of downfall for Sonny, even if he stays on canvas with fewer defenders, could work for me.  I like a lot of the scenes with various characters turning on him, though the pill tampering angle is sloppy and does make me fear it won't go anywhere.

Of course, even if Sonny is knocked down several pegs, it's all for naught if Jason is still going to be the hero, after decades as being complicit with Sonny's worst deeds.  And I have no love lost for that actor.  So you may be right.

If nothing else, this might be the last time a really smart, talented writer gets to try and restore a daytime soap opera, so if nothing else it's intellectually interesting for me to watch.  I'm also not convinced ABC or any network is still topheavy enough anymore to micromanage Mulcahey to death to the extent that networks did when soaps managed to nab big names behind the scenes at the turn of the century.

I do wonder how soon it will be before they panic over the usual fan complaints over what ship or character is not getting enough love, or if the numbers don't go up - if they don't have those expectations and they just allow Mulcahey to paint his own colors in the show's very limited canvas, maybe he can last.

I do think Burton is trying harder this time around, helped by choices like not focusing on his love life. That's given me a more positive impression than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, I am still not going to have any real interest in a show led by Carly/Sonny/Jason. Back in the Sarah Brown era I might have, but the bravado and hard edge of her Carly was balanced out by what a pariah she was to PC residents. With that gone, Carly (and Joss) are just vultures circling over the town with ever-increasing entitlement. 

5 hours ago, janea4old said:

To be fair, the announcement and ensuing discussion inadvertently got
posted onto the Days April 2024 spoilers thread,
(even though this is a November 2024 spoiler).
So there has been some posting about it.

I mean it's not *wrong* --  in that it's 
a spoiler announced during April.
It's just not a spoiler that will air during April.

I would guess this is also why Melissa Reeves' announcement got little mention. Once upon a time that would have generated a number of pages.

Valeka Gray told Daily TV Serials that after How to Survive a Marriage's cancelation, she was auditioning for Edge of Night.

Reading a Daily TV Serials goodbye to the show, where they talk about the show's problems, including interesting or prominent characters not staying, in some cases just vanishing (they mentioned Brad Davis' character suffering this fate). Two bits I hadn't heard before or had forgotten - that Michael Landrum was fired after "violent disputes over his interpretation of the role." And Steve Elmore "left in a huff and wrote about it in TV Guide."

I'm surprised the show has waited so long for any interaction between Spinelli and Jason. Is that another budget issue? 

(not that I'm sorry)

I saw the clip of Tracy on the dance floor. Never thought I would see Tracy Quartermaine throwing it back. Yet somehow Jane makes it believable. I'm glad that she is getting the chance to have fun and not be written as the scold or butt of jokes as she often was in past years.

12 minutes ago, Chris 2 said:

The problem with the Ryan cousins, Barry and EJ, is that they were cousins. Not siblings. Cousins are boring, dramatically.

Jack on ATWT was able to provide some drama, although he was horribly used for most of his run on the show and mostly saved by Michael Park's charm. I'm not sure it has ever worked on other occasions. I think the idea made sense as the Ryan siblings felt very tapped out by then...but the show didn't try or just lost interest.

@Vee 

Cousins is a good actor and did a lot with a part on OLTL I would have found tiresome otherwise. Good luck to him with Y&R.

57 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

I didn't realize my beloved Maureen Garrett was on the show as Barry's sister. I might need to go and look up some clips of her time on the show. I am interested to hear what some of you all thought of her time on the show. Per the book, it seems the character wasn't well-received b/c it was at the expense of Delia. 

Oh they said that? Wow. I never knew, although I did know she wasn't well received as she was only on for a year or so. Her first months are on Youtube. I love Maureen Garrett but the character did not work for me, because of the Delia element, and also being tied to tedious, sanctimonious Roger. 

It also made no sense that they wrote her in right after Barry left. 

I enjoyed Trent Jones' work but Ken was best in that one story arc. Barry could have stayed longer though.

15 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

I have only seen the actual ape story on YouTube and while it was shot beautifully for its time, I can see why many of the actors felt the story was absurd or how quickly it was wrapped up. It is the aftermath with Delia supposedly thinking about some past life and it causes her not to connect with Roger, which is odd for me. 

I don't really remember any of that. Most of the material given to Delia by that point was not good, although I did enjoy her pairing with Barry before that was trashed for no good reason.

I loathed Roger by this point. Couldn't even watch his scenes.

39 minutes ago, John said:

Some of the Sprins fans need to be careful on Twitter/X. Some are saying no Spencer if Not NAC & no other love interest for Trina unless its Spencer played by NAC

GL fans did this back in 2005 with Danny & Michelle. The end result: Both actors & characters written out. 

I  do not want that for Trina. 

I would guess the show will look for any reason to not do much with Trina anyway. 

4 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

OK. I am halfway through the book and some of my opinions are changing on Claire as writer. Do I think she's still immensely talented? Yes. However, the Merit Kara plot and the ape plot... Yeah. I can see that Paul was the one that kept her grounded at times. I think without Paul, Claire probably would've crumbled to the network long before she did. 

I still think the King Kong plot was perfectly fine. It was mostly centered on Delia's loneliness and was short. I'll take that over the endless mob saga, Faith's years-long pity parties, or the obsessiveness over Kimberly's love life and tantrums.

This "reporter" did a puff piece on Nancy Mace. 

As for Jane Mayer, who presumably is missing those sugar high days with Ronan Farrow, these are the death throes of an establishment media that went out of their way to be as gossipy and small as possible and don't understand why no one takes them seriously anymore. 

14 minutes ago, Vee said:

IIRC Hannah was cut in 2001 by JFP. They literally shipped her off to Alaska or somewhere lol. I have no idea with AM but I suspect the Guza team and ABC both wanted no part of him after JFP's failed Roy Hospital.

Oh that's right. I suppose if she had stayed Guza might have used her. 

I do think there have been changes to the show, which is a very good thing, it just seems like barring an earthquake, we're never getting past the basic standards of a Carly/Jason/Sonny-led GH.