titan1978

I think the difference is that now the act of production is more important than the product. Getting it made quickly and efficiently is the overarching goal it seems. So generic writing and stories not well thought out, easy to fill time, etc are where we are. I have said it before, but they mostly used to be produced under the idea of how great it is to have so much time to fully tell a story. Take it slow, make them wait. Even Monty, while paced faster, still played the beats. Now it’s more like a pain in the ass to fill all that time.

Deidre has not always gotten the credit for how good she is as Marlena. I also liked her a lot on Our House. I was thrilled she got asked to appear on Hacks. Now this. Just really sweet for her, and by osmosis, the show. There is a list of absolute titans in acting that the Emmy’s didn’t honor because they didn’t start soon enough, or they just didn’t get nominated enough. People like Beverlee McKinsey who was an undisputed powerhouse, and both she and Zaslow should have had lots of Emmy’s like Geary, Zimmer, Slezak and Flannery. But you also have the talented actors/big stars that had long soap careers and were often leads, and just didn’t get nominated enough/win. People like Deidre, Jackie Zeman, Denise Alexander. Had the younger actor category been around I bet Genie and Kin would both have Emmy’s from their early GH run. Huge stars and all of them got to play from light comedy to tragedy. Marlena is one of the handful of soap legends that the wider public and pop culture knows. Folks like Luke & Laura, Victor Newman, Susan Lucci, Marlena. She should have won a couple of Emmy’s.

He just seems like a nice guy to me too.

Which was one Labine story I was glad didn’t make it to air, beyond maybe a couple of scenes. While it would have been wonderful for them to use Steve and Audrey, after Stone that was just too far. Rosalind Cash’s death really took a lot out of the Ward family. Had she lived I think there would have been more great stories centered on the Ward’s. I thought that story was beautifully told. Laura finding their old house and seeing the images of the family there before we knew they were real. The Bradley mystery, and Edward’s connection. It was one of the better new family introductions in my soap viewing lifetime.

I don’t know. Rewatching during the lockdowns gave me a new appreciation for the earlier part. I think the story with Kate/Billie/Austin/Curtis was well told, and bringing Laura back during the trial was fantastic. Carly buried alive was incredible. The entire Roman/Marlena/John story culminating with Belle was also pretty good. Sami’s villain origin story with her mother issues, Alan, bulemia, and kidnapping Belle was a good run of stories. Characters like Kristen and Peter, Billy Reed, etc were awesome. It starts to fall apart for me around Maison Blanche. While a fun story and I was thrilled Hope was alive, Roman was at that point too harsh and childish, and the rot of characters only existing for the plot and starting to get stupid starts to settle in. The Desecrator was spooky and gothic, and the initial Marlena reveal was shocking. But that story began the full shift into camp and characters being stupid, constantly talking to themselves out loud, etc. and they just all got dumber and dumber. As much as I loved Bo and Hope, it was very sad when Billie realized she wasn’t going to get her happy ending there. So they were doing something right! And she didn’t hate Hope like later on. It was nuanced.

Riche made Karen Harris and Richard Culliton use Guza’s projected story and they filled in the gaps. IIRC it took them up to Leslie being alive and Laura faking her death, including the Miranda character and her unknown backstory. But the stuff with Stefan shooting Katherine was added because I assume Shelly Curtis thought they could capture some heat again. Which was wild because before all that and Genie’s extended leave Laura and Stefan were hot as hell. My favorite part of Miranda was that Guza came back but wasn’t credited yet, and in one episode Luke just told Alexis about her own past and all that was supposed to be part of the Miranda story. Brenda was supposed to have Sam’s story had she stayed in 2002. The dead Sonny baby, falling in love with Jason. It was ready to go and then Vanessa didn’t come to terms with ABC/Jill. I don’t know if this was ever supposed to be a a full story on Y&R, but I don’t think we ever found out who called Ryan, Nina, Cole and Victoria and had them meet at the restaurant (Colonnade Room?). Nobody knows what was supposed to happen with the original Salem Stalker story. By the time they killed Alice the cast knew they were not really dead. What the Marlena endgame was supposed to be fascinates me. Would Reilly have gotten rid of his OG muse?

I am behind a few episodes, but I want to say this quick pivot with Chase was a huge mistake if they don’t go back to it. He was fully under Willow’s spell and they were building to something there. Shame to just drop it.

I did. The most dangerous and scary Cassadine ever is such a sap.

It’s hard now for people to understand at first what a big deal that was and that story was played deadly serious. The winks started the longer the story was stalled out because it was popular. Deidre had to sell a lot, both the earlier darker part and then as the time shifted the camp. I will be honest, I lost interest in the show pretty much halfway through the original possession. Even as a teenager when it went from gothic to more camp I was more annoyed with how stupid the characters became almost overnight, and truthfully stayed that way or got dumber until Reilly left. But I will never deny that DAYS was the young person’s show at that time, like GH was for Monty’s first run. It was fun to watch, and I totally get why Gosling loved it when that was going on. And the mention of the two Bo’s was hilarious.

I was in and out a lot during that time. I watched until Genie was gone, came back for Brenda. Then I was pissed at JFP again and quit after Vanessa was gone. I would catch a few episodes here and there, watched the PC Hotel fire event. The train crash event and Robin’s return are what got me back as a mostly daily viewer for a few years. I saw very few glimpses of stuff like Alexis as a man, Heather in love with Luke, Reese, Connor Bishop, the middle Courtney years, AJ on the meat hook, etc. And when I did see those things I usually quickly turned the show off again.

All this Bobbie talk had me looking at scenes on YouTube. Can someone who was watching explain to me why Bobbie was helping Heather Webber hide Laura in 2004? I just saw scenes of her preparing to inject Skye with something to keep her quiet about catatonic Laura being alive, and I have zero memories of this. I vaguely recall Heather being obsessed with Luke and marrying Edward. But not the Laura stuff. JFP really did Jackie dirty.

This is really great. I wish I enjoyed B&B but I just don’t. But it’s a huge step in the right direction for the genre and a real treat for BOLD fans. I know I would pay a peacock premium if the Days catalog was available. Or if Sony/Corday were to create their own version for both DAYS and Y&R.

One of the reasons I hated the Spencer flashback anniversary episode, though well cast and incredibly acted, was it kind of muddied up the timeline and circumstances for me. Plus Ron of course had to pull a name out of obscurity just for a hollow twist and quick death with Pat. Some things not mentioned in decades and rarely before then should just stay that way. Bobbie is clearly still a young child in those flashbacks, so them going on the run at that point was strange because they seemed a little closer in age before that retcon. Luke was supposed to be older but not Geary’s age. To me, the way they spoke about it for years was that they had a hard time getting to Ruby. I assumed they had already been exploited before they got there, and their rational of being safer with Ruby than on the streets was the face value of what they always said about that time. Doesn’t mean Bobbie wasn’t trafficked and that Ruby should have protected her from the life. But they never explored it that way onscreen. Being poor and desperate always seemed to be what was traumatic and lingered for both of them. Bobbie ended up looking for establishment, and Luke for money/power and autonomy.

The whole situation was not thought about the same way on tv or in real life. Look at Jackie’s article- it’s about shaming them. Now it would be about the trauma of the trafficked person, and hopefully about their resilience. Especially Bobbie’s resilience. As far as Ruby is concerned, had Norma lived longer and been in good health they could have revisited this just like they did with Luke/Laura. But on the show, up to her death, her past as a madam was sometimes used to try to shame her, and she was pretty consistent in the fact that they lived a hard life, and were trying to survive. But she wasn’t ashamed. If Bobbie had trauma about it as an adult (and of course she would), she loved Ruby more than she felt traumatized by her. But again, had the show invested in Bobbie really at all after Carly as far as depth of the material things might be different. Jackie Zeman doesn’t get enough credit for her work as Bobbie. She should have at least one Emmy for her early work, or for BJ’s heart story. But then again, Genie should have won for lead when Lucky “died”, or the year she was nominated for the Nikolas reveal, or both. Jackie’s own bright personality is there sometimes, but so is Bobbie’s grit, and her compassion. It’s fascinating to watch her early years, because Bobbie is vicious towards Laura, sexy with Scotty, often combative with Luke and almost bubbly as a student nurse with Jessie.

I don’t recall her being called out exactly. Sometimes Bobbie would talk about what she had overcome, even in scenes with Ruby. Luke seemed to take offense at questioning their past, but some of that was because he didn’t think any of them should be ashamed for having to survive. And especially later Ruby was very happy Bobbie had Tony and such a stable life.