Soaplovers

While the show hit pay dirt with Dani/Andre... they best not over-use them at the expense of other characters.. or the show will truly be like Santa Barbara and their over-reliance on Cruz/Eden and the Capwells at the expense of other characters/families. I have to wonder if some of these shifts had to do with the show not being sure if they would get a season 2 pick up hence why Hayley's con artist past was exposed, Derek's 'deception' was discovered, and clues being planted that SPS/Leslie would be exposed in her part in Laura's hit and run were done so if they didn't get a pick up, the show could tie up the plots... but once they got a season 2 pick up.. the show had to pivot (hence why the Winterfest didn't end up revealing anything major). I have a feeling Hayley switching gears and listening to Joey ensures she can stay on the canvas longer, SPS looking Marcel's way ensures she doesn't get fixated on Ted, and I'm sure Tomas trying to get Kat to commit to him more is going to lead to him being written out once she realizes she only stayed with him to stick it to Eva (who has since moved on). I'm hoping for season 2 that Eva/Kat don't fight over another guy (Izaiah) and that they co-exist in a truce of sorts... while Eva has to contend with the disapproval of Izaiah's family while Kat focuses back on her business with Chelsea and has more work related stories.

The first few months of Texas is the show realizing what was working and what wasn't working and starting to course correct in December 1980. Originally Dawn/Dennis were supposed to be the Romeo & Juliet love story with Dawn hating the Wheelers for stealing their house and causing her father to kill himself while not realizing that Dennis is actually a Wheeler. Paige seemed designed originally to be the anti-heroine and her character seemed designed to be the antagonist in Terry and Clipton's relationship... but the show realized that wasn't working and moved Paige into the Iris/Dennis orbit and being the one Iris despises instead of Dawn.

My mom told me about another tv movie starring Suzanne Pleshette called Fantasies about a killer that stalks and kills soap performers on a show that might be connected to the head-writer played by Suzanne.

I can't fault Marj for going where a contract was going to be offered. Soaps save money keeping performers recurring, but they also risk losing them if said performers get another job that offers a contract.

MVJ did work on B & B... so wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that happens a long way down the line.

Falcon Crest is now on Tubi, which has less ads than Plex.

When it comes to Madonna, I found after Ray of Light.. her albums had two or three songs I loved with the rest of each album being Eh LOL My non-single fav Madonna songs:

Vanessa was better written before the newest co headwriter took over, but in regards to Ashley.. I think the show is trying to reset her character. As @Maxim stated, the actress is doing as much as she can with an under-written part.. and the show keeps introducing potential story threads for her at work only to drop it. Hopefully season 2 will bring a more focused arc for her character away from Derek and Andre. Vernon/Anita do have that moral center vibe to them for sure... but I'll see her as Jessica Griffin with a much more vibrant wardrobe :)

I actually think instead of doing the whole Sally's friend... maybe Ginger could have been the ex wife and/or relationship of Danny. She would have had ties to Karen, Val, Gary, and Mac... and it could have potentially opened up more story about how she went from being Kenny's wife to ending up with Danny.

Let's see if they have chemistry before we dimissed this potential coupling. And maybe it's a red herring and he's intended for someone else.

I said Ashley didn't click with Andre or Derek so I guess maybe she's going to get some in the afternoon in season 2.

This soap has become too much of a combination of a Lifetime movie and a Hallmark channel movie since the departure of Guza. I certainly can't wait till the holiday episodes are over so we can get back to some action and plot movement.

I remember Liz Keifer questioned that the pregnant with two dad's story and TPTB showed her proof that this was based on something that happened in real life and she almost fainted that this wasn't a far fetched story LOL Unpopular opinion, but when Reva married Buzz and worked/ran the diner.. I didn't actually hate that story. Not to say I loved it, but I think Buzz/Reva running the diner and being involved in the Fifth Street story with Alan was a decent use of Reva's character. What I didn't love was that the two married with Buzz being in love with Reva. I also though the ghost Reva story could have worked had it just been in Josh's mind because he also didn't deal with a full deck in terms of his mental state and he trashed his relationship with Harley and Tangie, not considering possible contenders like Jenna, and being a bit of closed off with Annie all due to the hold Reva had over him. The problem was that other people could see her and the way that the writers tried to twist it once the show managed to get her back full time never made sense to me.

The moment Tomas and Eva hooked up and then he blew her off.. his purpose on the show was fulfilled since that hook up guranteed Kat and Eva wouldn't be sharing close sisterly moments ever LOL

People always make fun of this for being a Christian soap (which speaks to prejudice against Christianity and also productions done outside the coastal cities/states)... but this soap was a lot deeper than most of the soaps were at the time. The Miriam story was what got the ratings to perk up, and the Kate Phillips character continues that climb.

Sally was such a pick me when it came to Stephanie when she was vastly superior to her. She was a better ally/friend to Stephanie than Stephanie ever was to her... she should have just let Sheila finish her off. With that said, there were so many potential soap plot ideas that were teased and never followed through on during the mid 90s. Sally trying to entice Brooke to come to Spectra with the BeLieF formula. Shame that never happened. Sheila/Connor and Sheila/Grant were interesting chem tests.. especially when Sheila went off at Grant for leading her on when came across him with Michael. Jasmine (played by Lark) and Sally were a comic team that didn't get much focus/play other than the initial time when Sally tried to get her not to sue her. Ivana, the model, was killed off too soon while she made a good anti-heroine.. and made Dylan/Jessica and Thorne/Macy more watchable. Macy/Grant were a good couple that was ended too soon just so Macy could degrade herself trying to get Thorne back.

The problem was that any story possibility I could come up with Ginger would have fit much better with Val and I think the show agreed. In terms of the other women, season 3 was Karen's widow era, season 4 was Val's divorcing era, and season 5 was Laura's divorcing/rebuild era. So having Ginger going through a divorcing/rebuild era in season 5 would have been over-shadowed by Laura's journey. As @Khan mentioned earlier.. Ginger being a grade school teacher and later singer kind of limited her and what the show could do with her. In Season 1 through 4, she could function within the confines of the show structure.. but season 5 was when the show expanded officially beyond the Seaview Circle era and the big stories that season were Val's pregnancy starting up, Wolfbridge, and the Chip story. There wasn't any way to fit Ginger into those main plotlines based on her profession/function on the show while Laura being in real estate made her a natural fit into the Wolfbridge story. And let's face it, even in season 1 through 4... there were episodes where Kenny/Ginger were absent and/or came in at the very end of the episode to ask what was going on while the main player of the episode provided a recap. A spin-off with Kenny/Ginger could have worked if the premise was interesting and there were a collection of interesting characters. I mean Gary/Val were barely seen/featured on Dallas and they led a successful spin-off.. so I could have seen a spin off involving the music scene working (and Nashville/country music scene could have been an interesting world to explore. Country music alone always features soapy over the top stories and tragic happenings).

You know there is a 3rd possible theory here in regards to Houghton/Lankford... the producers lied to Lankford. It wouldn't be the first time that producers would turn stars against one another so they couldn't band together. Odd she decides to wait until after he's dead to slander him when he isn't around to tell his side. Me thinks she's lying a little bit.

I remember at the time that Josh returned in 1993, the show runners even said had Beth E and Mark Derwin opted to stay as Harley/Mallet that the natural thing would have been to do a Josh/Harley/Mallet triangle.. but because they were leaving, they had to figure out what else to do. I thought to myself 'You just admitted you hvae no idea what to do with Josh so why even bring him back beyond just a visit'. With that being said, his first weeks back in 1993 were pretty good with Harley going off on him for the way he ditched her to go after the ghost of Reva and Mallet/Josh instantly not liking one another at first sight... and combine that with Dylan/Julie/Hart/Bridget going on.. and there was a lot of potential for good content. The show bought him on, but instead of doing what Pam Long did with Maureen Garrett in early 1989 (slowly easing her back onto the canvas and test her out with the characters)... Josh was saddled with a brand new character instead of being tested with the other already established characters (the show ended up doing that in 1994 with chemistry tests with Jenna, Holly, and Lucy before finally hitting pay direct with Annie)

I actually liked Reva as a character during the two year period when Josh was off the canvas. It kind of opened up the character to different stories/characters especially in 1986 when she was trying to build a life on her own terms and was interacting with characters she didn't normally interact with.

I think Jill's descent into madness was the only well thought out story that the Latham's came up with that spanned between season 8 and 9 before going into full force during season 10.

I've only been watching BTG consistently this year so I'll give my thoughts only on that soap and on only some choices: Most entertaining character: SPS/Leslie/Dana - Love her or Hate her... but she certainly brings out positive or negative feelings from the viewers. Only thing I hate is that we witnessed her being involved in Laura's hit and run instead of leaving it as ambiguous. Most surprising twist: Hayley's true character/intentions - For 150 episodes, viewers were left stumped and confused over her character. Was she pathetic for begging for forgiveness? Truly remorseful over letting her heart/libido ruin her friendship with her now step daughter? Plus, seeing her various interactions with certain characters like SPS (who called her out as being in the same boat as her), Derek (who revealed he and Ashley didn't really know her that well0, and Ashley (who pegged right away something was up with her) offered clues that only observant viewers picked up on. The reveal at the end of episode 150 of Hayley's true feelings about Bill was a nice surprise and a great swan song to Guza's co-head-writing stint on BTG. Something tells me he was the one in charge of that story, or else why have the reveal be on the last episode credited to him. Worst breakup: Ashley/Derek only because it never seems to end. Most wasted character: Nicole - After a promising start, ever since she found out about Eva being Ted's child with SPS/Dana/Leslie.. she's basically been in the background except as a talk to. Most ruined character: Vanessa - A promising character that knew all the gossip, was in control of her career and life, knew what she wanted, and loved her friends and family. Ever since Guza's departure, her character has lost direction and even with a good actress playing Vanessa.. the character has lost all layers/dimensions.

That's because it was supposed to be one time only appearance. The actress did the bit part as a favor to David Jacobs since she happened to be in LA during pilot season and he called her and offered her the one episode bit part.

There was a reason Bill and Dani divorced, that they loved each other in an unhealthy and toxic way. Dani took out her neediness out on her daughter Chelsea by becoming a toxic momager while Bill seemed to take out his frustrations out by cheating with women and warping his daughter Naomi. I will give the show credit on the fact that they've done a good job with writing Naomi as a character, especially one that was raised by two extremely immature and toxic parents. As we saw in the earlier episodes, Naomi had to basically parent Dani.. and I can gather that was always a consistent dynamic in their relationship while she deep down vowed she'd never be like her mother. It explains why she runs hot and cold in her marriage to Jacob because she's never truly dealt with her own feelings on watching her parents together and also never dealt with the resentment of having to parent her parents when they should have been the ones to parent her. Early episodes even showed she would go to Anita for warmth and comfort.. to someone that could parent her for a change. Opposite of Naomi is her sister Chelsea... who didn't have to be the mature and sensible one growing up. It's interesting that she seems to be the Dupree grand-child that has the most sense and is somewhat the more level headed one.. and I think it's due to never having to parent her siblings nor parents. The show has lots of interesting elements to explore, and I wish the show would keep Dani and Bill apart because I think they work better as a divorced couple. Plus, if you give the audience what they want.. what's the point.

Marland would totally fit into that because his main strengths was complicated and complex plotlines with characters sometimes taking a backseat (His Guiding Light was worlds different in subtle ways to his predecessors the Dobson's (husband and wife team). Bill Bell on Y & R also was very much into plot with character sometimes taking a backseat... and also he had a trusted co-head writer by the name of Kay Alden that did flesh out the characters (i.e Victor Newman, Jack Abbott, etc). Brad Bell has no business being a writer... but he's actually in the plot realm and not the character realm. Perfect example was the Doug/Vanessa/Joey story that had both of them slowly becoming ensnared in Joey's web with Joey using their addictions (gambling for Doug and Sex for Vanessa) to his advantage. Doug's 'death' with his son coming to investigate were the last episodes of Guza's stint and all of a sudden the son was sent back to school and Vanessa is now becoming pathetic without the cunning glint in her eyes that we saw in the first 150 episodes or so). The Hayley bombshell was a great swan song for Guza's stint. but the aftereffects have been a bit lackluster with Hayley since episode 151 with her making such careless mistakes (no way would she be eyeing Jacob's brother in plain sight, nor talking to Randy in public, nor being overly insistent on Bill drinking a special tea, etc)... and now this random chick that came out of nowhere.