DRW50

October 10 1991 Weekly

October 10 1991 Weekly

October 10 1991 Weekly

Sometimes I think he's been on every soap, but I guess it really hasn't been that many.

He's joining DAYS so at least you can see him on there.

October 10 1991 Weekly

Oh. Thank you What a shitpile that was.

The best example yet of the craven pandering of The Beltway, and nothing epitomizes the hackery of the Beltway like The Fix. Don't criticize pander bear politicians who talk about prayers after gun tragedies...if you do, then you don't give a damn about Syrian refugees, you hypocrites you! And someone was PAID to write this. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/12/03/the-hypocrisy-of-prayer-shaming-after-san-bernardino/

I'm no longer uploading Corrie episodes on Youtube due to copyright strikes, so here is my Dailymotion channel. http://www.dailymotion.com/StephStokes One of the episodes is June 12, 2002 - the second day of Bet's return. This is the first: These are the third and fourth: You may want to watch these while you can as Youtube will probably be taking them down soon enough. I guess this return is called a disaster because of Julie abruptly quitting and throwing the show into the lurch (frankly I am impressed that they invited her back for a brief return the next year - many shows may not have), but otherwise it's not that bad, really? The story is a little thin, she's a little too coarse, and obviously she isn't as well-written as she was in the '90s, but they remembered her key relationships and the basics of the character. I think it was BetterForgotten (?) who said they tried to make Becky into Karen, and you can see that in the June 2004 episode I put on my Dailymotion, where she has a meltdown after Steve doesn't show up for the surprise birthday meal she has planned. It's unpleasant to watch, but you can still feel for her, whereas with Becky, she was just made to be too grotesque.

The last few weeks and the episodes this week in particular have been a big improvement and haven't felt like a slog, with the exception of the White scenes, which continue to embarrass me, as Chrissie proves to be a huge dumbass in ways I can never begin to count, and the show's insistence on Lachlan being a scamp with a heart of gold, rather than a serial rapist, continues to carry an unbearable stench. Having Chas see Robert but "hear" Carl was a compelling touch (even if it would have been better if they'd actually brought Tom Lister back) and even if some of her acting was ropey, it's good to see mental health being treated seriously compared to most of Aaron's mental health stories, and to see her family trying to support her. And all the Sugden family scenes have been just wonderful, and so very, very long overdue. It always annoys me when I hear fans constantly [!@#$%^&*] talk them and go on about how worthless they are compared to the Dingles, and so on. They are the only thing making this story more compelling for me and not just another stunt of the week or health crisis of the week. Diane learning her cancer had returned and trying to be brave but being so scared - it was very powerful, human drama. And even now when I should be sick of Eric's wallowing, the broken bond with David and David still wanting the best for him and fighting for him - it's powerful stuff.

To me, yes. He didn't have to be, but I felt he was. I remember for months, with the "secret" of Dani and Nikki both wanting him without knowing the other was involved with him, they would each say, "my guy" when they were talking to each other about him. To me it summed up how shallow the whole thing was.

I didn't know he was back in acting. If that's a new headshot, he hasn't aged much in 20 years. He had a very soulful quality, which suited ATWT, which at its best was very soulful and strong in contemplating the joys and sorrows of basically decent people. This is something the show never really regained with the many vapid 20-30 year olds playing teenagers who started popping up around the time of Ryder.

They show everything from a distance and never, ever show the musical performances from the parade (no big loss as 90% of them are fried ass). It also means a lot of time talking to confused paradegoers, celebrities on the platform, and some prerecorded musical performances.

Watching my recording of the CBS version of the Macy's Parade (AKA - we have to film everything from 500 miles back as we don't have the rights), and there were a spattering of soap alums - Lonnie Quinn doing the weather and awkwardly chatting with people (complete with unfortunate crotch shots of a magician, people who do not want to be oncamera and barely get words out, et al), Renee Elise Goldsberry talking about Hamilton, and in a cast performance of the Carole King jukebox thing Beautiful, Paul Anthony Stewart harmonizing on You've Got A Friend.

Nikki was moody and petulant and whiny, and Dani was needy and clingy and whiny. Both beautiful ladies though. It's a shame Jordana butchered her face. That flop Dallas reboot was a showcase of bad plastic surgery.

I think she played some parts of Lily well but she was just a little too generic. There never was any mention of Jeremy again, no. I tend to assume annoying-ass Nikki and Dani made him realize he was gay and he moved to Portland or something.

Yes, Biggs was Pete. I thought he was a lot of fun, and added some life to stale Oakdale without the show trying to make him too much of a woobie, like they did with Eddie Man at the end of the decade. Marland created Jeremy and Dawn but I think they recast/aged him a year or two after Marland's passing. I do wonder what might have been if John Dauer hadn't wanted to leave. Goutman/Sheffer wrote Andy out in 2000. Some might say it was because of the awful fake paralysis story, but I think it was because he wasn't a "man with balls," AKA one of Sheffer's wet dreams, like Craig.

But didn't FMB bring him back a year later around the church fire? And he was tossed in Molly's orbit shortly after? He left in November or December 1995 and returned around summer 1997 for the fire. Then he stayed for a few years. Probably one of about three positive decisions FMB made. At the time I was angry about the mass firings at ATWT in summer '95, as I knew that the last of "my" ATWT was now officially dead (which it was), but looking back I can understand the decisions to get rid of most of the people they got rid of, although I do think they made a mistake in writing out Pete and Julie (I would have killed Caleb and left Julie as a scheming widow) and a big mistake in writing out Andy. The real problem was the people they replaced these characters with were absolute horseshit.

He was fired in the fall, from what I remember.

I think Jeremy still had a fair amount to do as a character (he was in the love triangle with Dani and Nikki), but the actor left for school. Instead of recasting, as they should have done, they instead just forgot the character ever existed. They were teasing a Samantha/Scott pairing or triangle with Kirk for a lot of 1995. The original plan was for Kirk to die. When John Valente came in, they brought Kirk back from the dead, and Scott was put into story with Rosanna, then written out. I don't think they ever really had plans for Carly and Andy, but I guess that would have made sense (if she was with him while wanting Mike), so who knows. Just another reason why firing him made no sense.

Francine looks very ethereal there.

Cindy visiting Scott before she died just devastates you. These scenes reinforce what years of change 1988 and 1989 were for AMC (often not in the best of ways...). So many people in that clip were gone by the end of the year. So how did they handle Karen's role? I guess they realized having her there as Cindy died would have been in poor taste. I wish the show had done more with her, if they were going to create her at all. Where was Skye at this time? Was she still in her coma?

Not much of a surprise. Everything about her behavior reminded me of the actress Kaley Cuoco, who went on for ages "proving" to the public how much she loved her husband and how he was her world, and so on. And very quickly I began to feel she was "proving" it to herself, because deep down she knew it wasn't working. I guess at least Yolanda got more years, and plenty of PR and a TV gig, out of it. Personally I never felt like David Foster (whom I've always disliked ever since he used to smarm on American Idol) had much love for her any time I saw them onscreen together. He looked bored. Not that I can blame him...