Soaplovers

14 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

RHoDubai

 

Oops!!! LESA!!!

 

 

One thing I will say about Lesa is that she seems too be upfront with her likes and dislikes.

She possessed some degree of objectivity last season when she basically told Aylan that she needed to say sorry to Stanbury because she was the one in the wrong... and she didn't like Stanbury.  

6 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

Yes, that's right. I loved that set.

I remember that set lasted into the 90s... with Alan Michael/Harley living there during their brief marriage.. and then Mallet/Julie lived there in the early 90s until mid 1992.

I think Eve also lived there briefly in 1993 after she was released from the mental facility.

I second what @Khansaid...  MSW is a cozy mystery series with only one firm rule... Jessica Fletcher is spared from anything too intense and major.

Though I do admit the one episode with Andrew Stevens as a man interested in her and the underlying darkness of the episode was interesting.  And it was early enough in the run of the show where you could get away with something like that

I liked Jill...but it.was due to the actress and not the character.  

Mary was just a shrill unlikable character no matter who played her.  She put her family over her marriage...and that's a no no in my book.  Once you marry..you start your own life and family.

On 5/23/2024 at 11:00 PM, vetsoapfan said:

I found her to be quite colorless and unsubstantial as Mary Ryan on RH and Kathy Phillips on SFT. She was far too green ever to replace strong performers like Kate Mulgrew (especially) and Courtney Simon.

Her Meredith didn't do anything for me, either.

It's amazing to consider how many irrelevant and disposable characters TGL foisted on viewers in the 1980s.

That's what I thought, too. And frankly, I much preferred Maeve's quiet and demure tone to Reva's endless loud-mouth, ham-in-the-can behavior.

I think once Maeve was moved out of the Reva/Kyle orbit.. she improved as a character.  She became the head of the Springfield Journal and was a calming influence on Fletcher.

I always thought that Holly basically filled the void left by Maeve with her more sarcastic style running the tv station and later the Journal.  

She's trash.. and maybe next time she'll think twice about which wallet she next aims for.

On 5/12/2024 at 4:55 PM, Khan said:

No, that's Kathryn Breech, who originated the role.  Not to take anything away from her, but from the little I've seen of her work, she doesn't bring the psychological layers to Karen that Light would later on.  In a way, she reminds me of Catherine Hicks.

It's always a treat to see pre-1978/9 OLTL.  It was such a different show from what it would become in the '80's; yet, in some ways, it all feels familiar.

In the few episodes I saw of her Karen, I think the actress establishes the foundation that Judith Light is able to build from when she takes over the role later on that year.

I viewed Kathryn's Karen at this stage as finally obtaining what she thought she needed.. which was prestige as a doctor's wife and was aiming to keep up with the Joneses by utilizing the decorator that Dorian was suggesting.   I have feeling if we saw other episodes from summer/fall 1977 that we could have seen how Kathryn B played Karen once her need for attention and gifts takes root.

12 hours ago, Cat said:

 

If she were wanting to go back to BH.. she wouldn't have been so shady... but since she has no intention of going back... she threw out the shade in a big way

Hopefully Eva is more interesting then Eileen was.. if this rumor is true.

1 hour ago, Taoboi said:

But she could have feuded with Kyle. 

 

That said...is it for real...or just a storyline in itself? 

I believe it's for real.. and TPTB finally told her she needed to be upfront and honest about it.. or kiss her job good bye.

Shame they didn't bother to do that with Vyle Kyle

Jersey needs to lean more into the family element like in the early days and less of the constant fighting when most of the cast can barely stand to be around one another.

20 hours ago, Liberty City said:

Jenna is ICONIC and I love her.

She's uncomfortable to watch and over-rated

1 hour ago, Taoboi said:

LOL. I feel you on that. There is no reason...NONE...RHOA isn't filming with the twists and turns to Porsha's divorce. They should at least be test filming newbies with her and Kenya. It makes no sense.

 

And I was just about to ask if you heard the Julia/Guerdy rumor. Make THAT make sense because Julia was THE pot-stirrer last season. Boring...WHERE??? If Guerdy leaves, it better be by her choice because she is over it. 

Julia is the best kind of pot stirrer.. because she is a sweet person.. yet also asks questions in a way that could be viewed as pot stirring.. or just curious about what had happened.

Guerdy.. only reason I could see dropping her is if her cancer battle isn't going well.   Despite what she proclaims, stress is actually a bad thing when going through cancer.

Only person I think should be dropped is Larsa... only because the money from this show is most likely going to all that bad plastic surgery and why enable that.

1 hour ago, DynamiteKiddo said:

The RoHNY residences were so central to the show in a way I haven't seen on other cities, except maybe BH.  Like, sure, everyone thinks about the McMansions on Jersey and the early days of OC in Coto, but the NY women's properties were truly extensions of them.  The aesthetics or lack thereof almost always reflected where they were in their lives and how they perceived themselves and wanted others to.  Just like New York was always the other housewife on the show, so was Sonja's townhouse, Bluestone Manor (and Dorinda's underwhelming apartment, which starkly contrasted her pre and post-Richard life), Carole's downtown apartment, Kelly's loft in the Police Building with the horse, Ramona's ever-changing Park Ave. apartment and Hamptons McMansion, BOTH of LuAnn's incredible Hamptons homes and taking it all the way back Bethenny's IKEA apartment and Alex's Brooklyn townhouse.  It's why we missed so much with 'wives like Heather, Aviva and Tinsley--they didn't have proper home scenes . . .  Heather wasn't allowed to film in her apartment (but her Berkshires house was an amazing contrast to the other wives' vacation homes) and neither was Aviva, so she staged a rental as her home in s6 and it did not land . . . the only thing that landed worse was Tinsley's stupid residence hotel that she used to fake living in NY.

Losing the townhouse is losing a character in the story--I am very sad from that perspective.  But omg Sonja has needed to free herself of this for sooo long.  Realistically, Sonja can't ever fully let go of her past . . . but the townhouse literally had her living in it.  I, too, pray that she realizes enough from it to give her a future.

I even liked Kristen's Tribeca apartment when she was on as well...had that converted warehouse/studio vibe.

6 hours ago, Cat said:

It has long been an albatross around her neck, especially in terms of maintenance. So for that reason, I hope a burden will be lifted for Sonja. I also hope that she is not in such terrible financial straits that she absolutely must sell the place for a song. It is in an amazing location, and with the right renovations, it will become an absolutely stunning, Gilded Age-esque residence.

And truthfully, I will miss it a little bit. That townhouse was RH folklore. It defined almost an entire franchise.

Hope Sonja's already got a place lined up somewhere in Manhattan. 

I won't miss it because I think that townhouse has been like a ball and chain on Sonja... and she's been unable to truly move on from her previous marriage and/or delusions.

I

4 hours ago, Khan said:

No problem! 

As you can see, the majority of atypical episodes happened during the Peter S. Fischer era (1984-1991).  Once he departed as showrunner, and especially after Lansbury took over production in '92, MSW became more risk-averse.

Two of the season 9 episodes you mentioned... I remember my late mom raving about both of them for being different.  She much preferred the one you mentioned had the twist ending (she was in the camp that liked the clever twist)

5 minutes ago, Khan said:

That's an interesting idea, @Soaplovers, but I think the show's overall tone would have changed even more than it actually did when she acquired the NYC apartment.  Sort of like when "Diagnosis: Murder" shifted locales (from Denver to L.A.) between seasons with no on-screen explanation.  When they moved to L.A., the show itself became campier and harder to believe.

No harder to believe then Cabot Cove being the murder capital of New England.. and people still opted to visit or move there LOL 

18 hours ago, Khan said:

Thanks for posting that, @DaytimeFan!

I could be wrong, of course, but I suspect Lansbury butted heads more with Moessinger than she did with Peter S. Fischer.  Say what you will about the first seven seasons of MSW - especially in the last two seasons when, to quote Fischer, Cabot Cove was getting too cute for its' own good - but they did retain a "literary quality" that Moessinger's lone year as showrunner lacked (J. Michael Straczynski's scripts notwithstanding).  Which isn't to say that S8 was a terrible year!  Moessinger and his team certainly broadened Jessica's world and put the show back in the Top 10.  But whenever I watch reruns from that particular season, I often feel like I'm watching a Dean Hargrove-produced series (like "Matlock" or "Diagnosis: Murder") rather than classic MSW.

In general, the period between 1990/91 to 1992/3 is a weird transition period for most of tv.

Murder She Wrote went in a more procedural/gritty direction in the early 90s before settling into that mid 90s minimalist vibe (where the guest stars were no longer Hollywood Starlets.. but mostly unknowns)

I think season 8 was a transition season and the tone just didn't fit with the more 80s comfort vibe.  Personally I understood why Jessica would have more then one residence... but I would have had her in LA instead of NYC since her books were starting to be adapted to movies/tv... and East Coast Jessica in West Coast Hollywood would have been an interesting element to explore.

On 4/7/2024 at 9:42 PM, DRW50 said:

 

Remember ABC's Townies, which was also meant to be a comeback for Molly Ringwald?

Ironic that show was supposed to be a comeback for Molly Ringwald..but both Jenna Elfman and Lauren Graham got more notice during the brief run.

I always thought of it as being loosely based on Mystic Pizza

23 hours ago, Khan said:

OMG, yes!  Yes, yes, a thousand times, YES!!  IDK where Bekins would fit on the current GH canvas, but if I were Elizabeth Korte, Patrick Mulcahey, Frank Valentini or Nathan Varni, I'd make the room!

Thanks, @DRW50, for that recap!

Hospital admin... the heavy at GH.   

4 hours ago, Cat said:

 

Monique!!  I will never stop wanting her back on RHOP! She is so badly needed for the show -- SO needed. I wish she and Candiace would make up, too.

Never forget:

 

 

Why would she want to go back on RHOP.. that show helped end her marriage with the paternity rumor.

Only a sadist or someone  wanting pain inflicted on them would want to go back on that show... or any of the Bravo reality shows.

1 hour ago, Taoboi said:

OC

 

And just in case...

 

 

As Alexandra Spaulding of GL fame once said 'I'm sure this time it's forever' LOL 

January 2025 is far enough into the future where TPTB can get that Bible written, casting, sets, studio space, writers, and a strong EP/producer between now and then.

15 hours ago, Xanthe said:

I think they thought Amanda was taking up that space and Nancy would be superfluous, especially after Paulina was introduced. But I think there could have been room for Nancy as well if Amanda had had a properly defined character. 

 

At first, when Sandra F came on as Amanda.... Depriest did seem to make an effort to provide some layers to the character of Amanda.  She had Amanda/Rachel have mother/daughter conflict with Amanda not wanting to do the traditional things all girls with money did which drove Rachel a bit crazy because that was all she had wanted for herself and wanted to provide for her daughter.

And I think Amanda wanting to develop her identity beyond being a Cory was promising... as well as her relationship with the more working/middle class Sam helped with that.  I think the 1988 writer strike really kind of derailed that characterization of Amanda.. and she never really had much direction as a character.   I think Sandra F's take as Amanda was probably best and infused her character with some sort of spark/character.. which got lost with the two other recasts.

Reason I thought Judi Evans would have made a good Nancy was because her version of Paulina eventually evolved into a more Ada-like character.   Fiesty, fighting tooth and nail for her family.. worked at the Italian restaurant.. was the advice giver, and down to earth.

I would have kept Cali Timmons as Paulina.. and brought on Judi Evans as Rachel's half sister Nancy.  That way both actresses would have had a place on the show.. and co-existed since both actresses put something special.

Not recast Lorna... Once Alicia C opted to leave... I would have kept Lorna off canvas.  If they insisted on hiring Robin Christopher.. have her darken her hair and have play a recast Lisa (Robin's Lorna seemed more like a Lisa type then Lorna).