Soaplovers

This episode shows how juvenile and emotionally stunted Dani is. I have to admit, I will always be intrigued to see what Daphnee would have done with the role since she tried out for Dani originally. In regards to Lia, I find the actress striking and doing more with the character then what is written on the page. She's able to play a more professional and capable character while also being able to play moustache twirling. Sometimes character performers can elevate a recurring/short term role in a way that a seasoned soap opera veteran can't do.

In regards to the last Sandy Horton, there was another interview the actress did where she had stated she had read for Sandy back in 1982 and didn't get the part.. and then ended up on Little House. She also said that when she went back in to audition for Sandy again in 1983, that she partly was cast because Dierdre Hall was going to be off filming something for awhile and the show was looking for Dee Hall type to basically stand in. She mentioned the show trying to pair her with Chris (Josh Taylor) and then tested with Tony Dimera before the show cut their losses. She also mentioned how she and Dierdre Hall were in scenes together and the show would try to contrast them by having them in opposite color outfits and opposite hair stylings... but that eventually that friendship was not expanded upon. She said the moment she heard from someone that Sandy Horton was going on a conference to Africa, that a pink slip was coming. Looking at a few clips, she wasn't a bad actress at all. She just was in during the supercouple era. I think had she joined a New York based soap, she would have had better luck. As @Khan mentioned, Days in the 80s was all about chemistry and not as much about character nor plot. Genie Francis even said that about her experience at Days where she was given a character that was originally a 2 day part and expanded once she was cast in the role. She had stated that her original pairing was supposed to have been with Mike Horton (Michael T Weiss), but the chemistry wasn't there and she ended up having chemistry with Drake and so she ended being paired with him and ended up becoming part of that coupling instead of the initial planned coupling. And she had to struggle to create a character because there wasn't a character provided to her.

Kial is too good to be true so he'll probably be the Impaler while creepy stalker man Carlton will remain sadly.

I don't see anything wrong with one soap being male oriented, you had to have something for the men. The women could watch the other three soaps that were geared toward them. As a gay guy, I much preferred Dallas. though I did enjoy the sociological elements of Knots Landing. At the same time, Knots Landing definitely had some strong male characters that made the show memorable. Greg Sumner was my mom's favorite character and she was a major Greg/Laura stan as well as a Ben/Val stan too boot. My dad was a Karen/Mack fan while he tolerated Abby/Val and got a kick out of Laura. Paper Dolls was a good short-lived soap that sadly appealed to fans that weren't Nielson viewers. I remember Morgan Fairchild saying that she met a lot of college students that had Paper Dolls watch parties every week and that they were bummed it was canceled. The soap does seem more teen/young adult oriented and it came on during a period where networks didn't really focus on that demo (which is why Fox became such a thing in the late 80s/early 90s because they tapped into that demo).

I think it wouldn't be so noticeable if they spaced out the story climaxes better. I was looking at episode summaries between 120 and 151 and was surprised at how much things were moving and hopping along. You had the Chelsea kidnapping in the early part of the summaries, you had Eva and Tomas finally hooking up with Kat coming across them, you had Eva stating she was going to fight for Tomas, you had Doug dying, you had the start of Derek starting to get feeling back in his legs and not tell Ashley, and you had Hayley revealed as a con-artist. Since then, there hasn't been too many climaxes/movements in the story with high stakes. I don't blame MVJ, especially given that the first five episodes she wrote when presenting the show bible to the network had a lot of hints of family tension within the Duprees between Nicole/Dani, Dani/Anita, Anita/Vernon in regards to Dani, Dani/Chelsea, Naomi/Jacob, and even between Martin/Smitty. Now it seems like they're some big happy Hallmark Channel family and I'm wondering if having CBS, P & G, & NAACP with their hands in the pot is also causing some issues.

Tik-tok addict = shorter attention span, instant gratification. The original Devil Wears Prada was more about a character journey, but the movie was watered down from the book version where Miranda was pure evil without any layers nor that final scene in the movie. Also, the actors playing Grayson and Ashley are being interviewed on the Locher Room... hopefully the interviewer doesn't interrupt too much :)

For recommendations for 90's primetime soap operas, I would suggest either Savannah ( 34 episodes, decent acting and plotlines, and ends with a satisfying conclusion instead of cliffhanger), or Melrose Place (Started as a thirtysomething aspirational drama, morphed into a Knots Landing soap in season 2, then morphs in an over the top crazy show in mid season 3, and tries to ground itself like Dynasty in its final season).

So I binged the whole Pasadena series on Tubi (it's on there in the states), and it's a shame that it didn't last because it was a very well written prime time soap that could have revived the genre had it aired in a better time slot in a different year (not right after 9/11 happened). Watching it, you could tell when TPTB realized that they weren't going to get an additional pick up beyond 13 episodes because by episode 11, it seemed like the show decided to drop/resolve new threads that were just introduced in episode 9. Two new characters were introduced in episode 9 that seemed to be kick-starting new threads (i.e. Nathan Fillion as a minister and Austin Nichols as a classmate with a crush on Lily). By episode 12, those two characters are no longer featured and whatever arcs they were going to have are quickly resolved. The final episode revealed the details of the mystery that kick-started the series, but it didn't resolve anything. The ending was kind of sad, and I have a feeling that had the show gotten additional episodes that more would have been done with the mystery and the other characters.

It depends on what you're in the mood for. If you want to watch a soap with an Ingmar Bergman vibe.. Knots Landing would be your soap. If you want to watch a soap about a family saga with feud, business, and strong male characters... Dallas would be your soap. If you just want some mindless fun where there are pretty clothes, melodramatic emotions, cat fights, and bitchy lines... Dynasty would be your soap. If you're in the mood for a family saga that isn't rugged, but can be both mindless fun and intellectual in certain periods... Falcon Crest would your soap. If you don't want to invest too much time and you want a short lived soap to invest in... Flamingo Road or Paper Dolls would be the best prime time soaps to check out.

When I was very little, the first memories of a soap opera was watching Patch and Kayla's beautiful wedding in the summer of 1988.. and that event actually got Days to the top of the ratings for a brief period of time. My mom planned her schedule at work around watching it live. The other thing I remember watching live was Reva driving off the bridge in 1990, only because my mom was wondering how she was going to be written off and wondered if Reva would vanish or end up dying due to the PPD story that had been playing for weeks. As it turned out, that story was pretty realistic even though at the time people thought it was far fetched. Marlena possessed by the devil. John and Kristen's 'Nightmare in Graceland' wedding where everything came out.

I've missed Ramona, Sonja, & Luann. Glad to see them coming back.

I love her music, but it's sometimes sad to see someone trying to fight against the realities of aging.

I do like Grayson and Ashley as a couple, but I'm curious as to why she just accepts his explanation instead of calling him to task. She had no trouble being a shrew to Derek, and he did far less than Grayson ever did. One thing I do like about the soap is that the Duprees aren't this perfect family though they're a tad delusional thinking they are. The only Dupree that has bought up a few good points to SPS has been Chelsea of all people. Chelsea rightly said that SPS has been blessed with money and that she could go somewhere and build a new life for herself. It was probably the most compassionate and logical statement made. SPS was alright to label Chelsea as a nepo-baby LOL.

It struggled during the initial first season, but the show was more like a Thirty Something for teens than an actual soap opera. It was when the show committed to Brenda/Dylan's tortured romance with Brenda's dad being against it that the show started to really get going. Tarkioff was also the one that championed for the Dark Shadows revival to be put on the NBC schedule, so he was still trying to find a primetime soap opera for the network and he assumed that maybe it was a remake of an actual soap opera, it could work. The show was great and flowed well... it just got put in a timeslot that got pre-empted due to the Gulf War and never regained it's momentum. Plus he left the network and his replacement didn't see the value in that so it was canceled instead of given a second chance.

Loretta Switt was the one that ultimately got Cagney & Lacey made because the creators couldn't get it made as a movie, tv show, nor a made for tv movie until the network realized that they promised Switt a movie of the week as part of her MASH contract and she apparently wanted to do this. Even working to make sure it was authentic and not just some made up glamorized Hollywood treatment of female cops.. and even added the backstory of Cagney's dad and how important he was to the character. Had it not been her, who knows when Cagney & Lacey would have gotten made. Oddly, I would have been fine with a Switt/Daly led Cagney & Lacey as a tv series... but I'm glad we ended up with Gless.. who was ballsy, sexy, and funny.

BTG isn't a fair comparison because that soap has so many hands in the pot, that it can create a big mess. Not only do you have CBS, but you have P & G and the NAACP.. so I can imagine MVJ is probably stifled a bit about how she presents key moments. If only people listened to Irna Phillips, who would only reveal enough about a story to get it approved and then put in the twists and gut punches. That's what writers need to do, they need to present just enough where they get the Ok and then throw in the real story. As convoluted as the Sonni story turned out to be, the scenes of Sonni unraveling as she reveals the guilt she felt over the suicide of her late sister Solita was memorable, or the scream of terror coming from Holly's mouth the second she sees that Roger Thorpe is alive.. or the intensity of Phillip as he tries to dig up Beth's grave.. and Reva driving off the bridge was a scene for the books after weeks of build-up. And Long had the ability to write strong male and female characters as well as male friendships. Soaps sadly don't have the ability to recreate those scenes due to budget, filming out of order, and the writing not allowed to go deep.

I think Long was an inspiring choice to become a headwriter because she offered new blood. She was lucky to have been at Texas where the show was consistently on life support so they were apt to take risks. From what I understood, I think it was Beverlee that had encouraged Long to offer her ideas to the writers and producers.. and I guess they took them and eventually made her the head-writer in the last weeks of the soap. The flood that hit Texas (which resulted in her character being washed away) certainly had a lot of emotional intensity and who knows what the fall out was going to be had the show not been canceled shortly thereafter. I also think because she knew Kobe, that was another reason she ended up with the job on GL in 1983. I also think one of the Cullitons was her co headwriter for the first several months of her stint, and I think it was why the first year of her stint was so good because she had a co head writer that could structure her ideas. The one thing you could say about her GL was that it wasn't boring LOL

I think I'll like it better than White Lotus, which seems more obsessed with the celebrity cast as opposed to writing and presenting a show. Pasadena is what Desperate Housewives could have been without the forced whimsical vibe (after watching the first two episodes) .

Mona was so dull, and yet she used that helpless act in order to be homewrecker. And till she was dull

The original rumor at the time that Edmund was introduced was that he had a past with India and that he was tied to her money issues, but of course, the show couldn't do that because Reva needed story 24/7. Edmund was a character like India, that should have stayed on for a specific arc and then written out when the arc was over. He over-stayed his welcome and the actor just didn't fit the vibe of GL.

It's odd that Victoria was used as a love interest for older men during the 90s instead of casting guys her own age to act opposite of. Even in 1992, it was odd that Nina was talking of becoming friends with Victoria since she didn't see Christine (Cricket) as much as before.... and I kept thinking (Nina's in her mid 20s while Victoria is barely 17).

My favorite of the USA Made for Tv Movies was Tainted Blood from 1993... the end of this movie has always stayed with me. It used to be on Youtube. USA made the best tv movies in the late 80s and early to mid 90s. A tradition they did for a few years was on NYE and New Years Day, they would do a 48 hour marathon of their original made for tv movies. I know they started focusing on tv shows and being more classy later on.. but these early days with their tv movies, Saturday Nightmares moniker, & Up All Night can never be topped.

The Tori story was quite interesting with an interesting twist at the end. It was probably the last time where Blake showed some backbone and pro-activeness. The issue with Blake was that LK couldn't play the devious and mischievous vibe that SS could play nor could she play up the more tragic angst that ED played up in 1988-1989 pre SS. LK had a wacky element to how she approached playing Blake that the writers eventually toward that and did away with the fierce backbone that Blake had in the 90s and earlier.

True Blue was a wonderful tribute to 50's and 60's Motown era music with an 80s twist, I'm Breathless was a wonderful 30's era tribute, Confessions Part 1 was an awesome late 70s/80s tribute with a 2000s twist, and it looks as though Confessions Part 2 is going to be an awesome 90s House tribute with a modern day twist. Sabrina/Madonna make a good team on this song.

Unpopular opinion, but I'd rather have good acting and writing.. then men with good bodies. If Timon doesn't want to remove the shirt, he's perfectly entitled to that preference and his acting more than compensates for keeping the shirt on. @DramatistDreamer Co-sign on your perspective on Ted and being around the individual that SA'd him.