DRW50

I agree with all of that, really. I'm seeing people say Charity should be with Frank, but he's too laid-back for her. I wish they'd do Ross/Charity, although after this controversy over the dognapping storyline, that's even less likely. I wish Jai and Holly could have started months ago. They're very sweet together. Jai works better this way than as the villain.

I'm reluctant to focus on the poll sampling because I remember the "unskewed" movement in 2012 for Romney. The media loves Trump and a lot of people will never support Hillary. I think it will be a very tight win for her at best, and we are pretty much seeing that. My main concern is if the "Trump wins" debate headlines tonight and the general fear and anxiety gripping the country help push this further toward him.

Kim and Vincent raising a child Denise would have to be a reluctant aunt to would be a disaster for the kid though. And Kim is too immature to raise a baby. I can't see this story going on that long.

This is a trip. Marcy Walker Long John's ad. I'd never seen it before.

This is a trip. I'd never seen it before. Marcy Walker merrily singing and speaking for Long John Silver's.

Colby Chester (Michael Crawford) in a Ford ad.

Thanks. I was sure his work showed up earlier, like late summer. Oh well.

I hate the Denise story. There's no reason for her to keep the baby. None. We are getting "miracle of life" type talk which makes no real sense for Denise to listen to because she knows it's not that easy. Look at the trouble Chelsea had in life. And that was when Denise was a young woman, without a monster living in the neighborhood waiting to snatch his child. It's one of those stories that makes the character look stupid just to serve the plot - and what plot is it, really? I don't care about how Phil will react or how Sharon or his kids will react. I don't want to see him stealing another child. I don't want any of it. It's well-acted, but that's it. Did you see the post I mentioned you in on the last page?

NBA when I saw this I thought of you: http://walfordweb.com/topic/30027986/6/#post11015855

KKL as you've never seen her before...

Another good Politico article (I was reminded of this because of that Flowers fool) about when Hillary was essentially damned in the public eye. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-2016-60-minutes-1992-214275

Absolutely. The media doesn't give a damn whether the world burns, or even if America burns. It's all about the $$$ and about feeling important. I'm not even bothering with the debate, because Trump has already won. He can get onstage and say he will be putting millions into death camps, and the press will say he showed Hillary that people respect honesty and forcefulness.

2004, wasn't it? I think he was kind of done with the show anyway.

Big spoilers on the Ronnie and Roxy exits:

That said, I'd never let an election come between me and my friends. My friends have the right to make bad decisions and this makes for fun debates on facebook. I debate my republican friends on FB all the time and we barely agree on the time of day, but to stop being their friend because they disagree with me? That's crazy talk if you ask me. Part of the problem is that it's not really about a candidate this time around as it's about his views. Trump's views are very clear - hate hate hate hate hate. He doesn't even especially try to hide that this is how he lives his life and his vision. Hatred and fear of the world, of everyone but someone who looks and acts just like him. And this means many who are supporting him are very open that they are the same way. They have essentially "come out." That's why there's been an increase in hate crimes, like the Muslims in NYC who have been attacked by Trump supporters. The people I know who are voting for him I generally just don't say anything to because they are very old and they mostly just believe what they hear on Faux News, and I want to be polite. The other people I know who are Republican and likely voting for him have gone oddly quiet this election season, and I just don't push it, as I figure if they're being polite I'm not going to rock the boat.

I think part of it is that, as Mitch said, there was no real opposition to Steve. There's an episode on YT I think from 1984 (?) where Steve is just berating Kim and she doesn't make a peep, which was not in character for her at all. I can see why the relationship was popular and why Steve was popular - I guess it's part the surroundings that drag them down for me. I mostly remember some of the Duke details because I marathoned a lot of summer 1989 episodes a few years ago. That was when Pam was about to leave, and when Julie first popped up. Lucinda was desperate beyond belief with the Lombard stuff. She told Philip Lombard that if he lied for her she'd use the City Times to champion him while he was on trial for Brock's murder. Needless to say, this did not pan out, and he spitefully told John everything.

I agree. There are some posters at Digital Spy who talk about how the show's real problems are with Kieran Roberts, who oversees the show and is likely why nothing ever really changes. The main thread that talked about this I can't find, but here's another one. http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2176650&page=3

They could do a lot with Steph and Andy, as they're both so attractive and such decent people (well Andy is now, anyway). I even think Chesney would be alright with the proper material - maybe a relationship with Gemma.

The show has a lot of attractive, charismatic men in that age range who are so ill-served, especially as the women are so dreary in comparison. This is one time wehre making a lot of men gay or bi would not be the worst idea.

I like Yasmin (Alya has potential but the whole thing with Jason and Gary seemed to hurt her character), but I won't be shocked if she does go. That would suck for the actress though...

The guy who plays Sharif Nazir was fired for a racist tirade on Twitter. I liked the character before this current wretched affair story. It now being wrapped up hurriedly will not do the show any harm. http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/coronation-street-actor-marc-anwar-8909333

Because Lucinda had walked all over John, lying her ass off to him. The breaking point (IIRC) was her trying to ship Duke out of town, right? Or was it the Holden thing? I think by the time they could have maybe reunited them, the "family" dynamic they had with all the assorted family members bunking at the Walsh estate at one time or another had disbanded. Lily was gone, Andy was living with Julie and boozing, Duke obviously couldn't live with Lucinda, etc. Plus, Lisa Brown and Bryggman were dating and Iva and John hooked up. Then Marland died, and both Lucinda and John moved on. It was a combo of bringing in Julie + bringing in John's sleazy brother and bribing them both to try to get Duke out of town and then finally getting Brock Lombard's father to lie that John wasn't Duke's biological father. I think Marland knew Lucinda worked best when she was knocked down and had to pick herself back up. Losing John and later the company did that. The unfortunate side effect was that John was stranded as a character. Part of the reason Steve "took off" was obviously the pairing with Betsy. But also I think there was a bit of fascination with Greece and the Greek culture in the '70's-early'80's in general, due to the Jackie Kennedy/Ari Onassis marriage. Sure, in retrospect, he comes off as an overbearing chauvinist pig (and his brother Nick wasn't any better with Kim), but at the time, he was a character that shook up whitebread Oakdale. The show had a thin slate of men around the time Steve came in. Watching some of the late 79/early 80 episodes, for younger men it was mostly Tom (who isn't that bad but I guess was dumped by the Dobsons for not being exciting enough), and Jeff, who was always landlocked in the story of the many Annies. Otherwise it was Don, Bob, John, Grant, all of a certain age, and Jay, who was on his way out. I have no idea if Brad was popular (he repulses me), and I have no idea if Nick was (my mother always liked Nick and Kim together, but I know Kathryn Hays said she got hate mail for the pairing). I haven't seen any of Carol's relationship with Steve, but that was his first real relationship on the show, and I get the impression Carol was pretty popular with viewers. I have to admit Betsy and Steve don't do anything for me, although they do have chemistry. I'm not sure if Betsy was matured when Meg left or if they tried to write Betsy the same way but Lindsay Frost wasn't that type of actress. The bits of the show I've seen up to early '85 still have Betsy written as somewhat subservient to Steve and in peril, and so on. It seemed like with Marland we got more of her career and they also started pushing the Betsy/Craig stuff a lot more.