Soaplovers

Betty White was too one note and limited as an actress to have given Sue Ann Nivens layers. Even her one role that was against type (Rose on Golden Girls eventually became passive aggressive and not as innocent/sweet as she was at the start of the show). Betty White worked better as part of a cast of players and never as the sole lead. In fact, her Hot in Cleveland character was kind of the weak link on the show and I preferred the other three actresses over her (She was no Estelle Getty, who would have given Elka layers).

Sara Gilbert, like her big sister Melissa Gilbert, had an interesting attempt trying to get lightening to strike twice post Roseanne. Welcome To New York (2000) - She co-starred on a short live sitcom that starred Christine Baranski & Jim Gaffigan After that, she had two recurring roles on ER & 24 Twins (2005) - She and Molly Stanton (Charity Passions) were fraternal twins working at their dad's lingerie company with their parents being played by Melanie Griffith & Mark Linn Baker. Cute show, got the axe due to the WB & UPN merger Had two recurring roles on both Big Bang Theory & a short lived sitcom called The Class She co-created The Talk (talk show) Bad Teacher (2014) - Short lived tv version of the far superior 2011 classic Living Biblically - Short-lived sitcom where she had a recurring role as a smart aleck work associate Finally, she found long term success in the revival of Roseanne before it morphed into the inferior The Connors.

I always said Lauralee was the one to inherit her dad's vision, but sadly was dismissed for obvious reasons. She should be the one show-running B & B, not her brother.

I remember there was a casting call to recast Gilly, but I remember the show putting it on hold because they wanted the audience to get used to the new David before re-introducing Gilly.. and obviously things changed because viewers didn't accept this David at all. I remember the original Vicky started out as Michael's assistant who was somewhat kept in the dark about his cloning plans and eventually it was revealed that she was a Spaulding wanting to get a piece of the pie that her mother had denied back in the 80s. Just after that, her character vanished and then came back as a recast that always grinned and smiled all the time and didn't have the coldness of the original Vicky. I remember people thought the original Vicky was stiff and couldn't act.. but once the recast happened, people were wanting the original back on.

Hayley is messing up big time being unable to hide her thirst in public. I can't buy her being so successful being a con artist with such easy mistakes like we've been seeing.

Kimberley Simms as Melinda Sue Lewis was accepted as a recast right away, it was just that the character had to finish out story that was started by Krista T before being allowed to fully be her own Mindy. My late mom called her the sexy Mindy. Gina T as Phyllis on Y & R was a better Phyllis than Michelle Stafford (as we've seen since she's taken the part over again.)

Except he turned Jack into a wimp with all his crying all the time.

Betty White had a few missteps in between MTM & Golden Girls and in between Golden Girls & Hot in Cleveland (which she was the weak link in). The Betty White Show where she played a Sue Ann Nivens like character and it showed that she couldn't lead a show playing such a vile character. Mama's Family - Recurring character.. another Sue Ann Nivens type Maybe This Time - She and Marie Osmond were a good balance for each other, but bad timeslot killed the show. Hello George - Show set to go into production where she played Melanie Griffith's mom.. but it fell through. Ladies Man - Standard sitcom.. bad writing

Out of all the Turkey Day scenes, I think the one I would have gone to was Mona/Ashley/Jan's where they were dressed casual, cooking, and were plotting out Black Friday deals. It was the most relatable to me. Although, my family always went to a nice hotel for Thanksgiving weekend (checking in on Tuesday and staying through the next Monday.. .and we would always have Thanksgiving at the hotel where you had choice of turkey, ham, roast beef, fish.. and lots of different potatos, pies, and other goodies. It was the only splurge my working class parents did since my mom's also fell during that weekend usually. So I can relate to the location of the country club, but not the bougieness.

Ah the Ted and Shanice chemistry testing looks to be commencing next week.

I always thought that Guiding Light looked more fun to be in during the holidays while ATWT looked more like somewhere my grandparents would be for the holidays LOL.

Realistically the characters that have the potential to run their course are as follows: Tomas - After the Eva hook up, his airtime has decreased.. while Kat vs Eva has focused back on their dad Ted then on a guy. I could see Tomas being phased out after being dumped by Kat and perhaps fired by Bill. Hayley/Randy - She's poisoning her hubby Bill... so I could see her being carted off to prison and Randy being 'sent away' by Joey. Derek/Ashley - Normally I would say they are next on the chopping block.. but because they're the token white couple.. they might be spared until a more compelling white male and female are introduced. Chelsea - The show seems unable to consistently write for her character since day 1 and since there are numerous Dupree women on the show.. it would be best to phase her out and re-introduce her later.

The character of Morgan was just a typical naive teenager and didn't have a lot of layers... but Vigard was such a unique individual that she basically was the character of Morgan. Once she was let go and recast, the character basically was a plot point and not a real character. Marland was great with intricate plot, but his characters were basically paint by number unless there was a talented performer that breathed life into the character. Vanessa, Nola, Morgan (as played by Vigard), and to a lesser extent Maureen were basically paint by number characters that had strong performers that added texture and layers to the characters. Long, on the other hand, could really write a compelling character and was a pro at writing male friendships and characters... but her plots could be hit or miss and all over the place. A character like Holly is interesting to see because she was written by the Dobsons, Marland, Long, and Curlee... four well known head-writers that established totally distinct and unique eras of GL over an almost twenty year time frame. I saw notable differences on how Holly was written by Long in 1988-1990 vs how Curlee approached Holly in 1991 to 1993. If you watched episodes of Holly in 1989/1990, she appeared confident and decisive with little conflict over how she felt about Roger while Curlee seemed to focus more on her neurotic tendencies and her unhealthy attachment to Roger. It was still the same character, but each head-writer decided to highlight different facets of her personality. Also, Nadine had a visible change in how she was written by Long vs Curlee. Nadine was more a schemer and social climber hosting the Love Bug and having a fling with Billy under Long while Curlee presented a more desperate Nadine trying to keep a hold of Billy instead of cutting her losses and focusing on her next prospect/scheme.

I liked season 9 of OC, but I always have a soft spot for season 8 because it felt like a fitting finale for the original version of OC with season 9 the debut of the next phase of OC. Season 8 had Tamra being semi nice, Andales in full display, the women actually having fun events without toxic fighting, and lastly the last season where Tamra/Gretchen were friendly.

I like that there is a brother out there in Detroit and is on spare for when the time is right to introduce him onto the show. I also would like to see Darlene (Mama Hawthorne) cast and introduced to get her perspective as a woman surrounded by men.. as a true blue boy mom. She wouldn't be afraid to push back against Naomi and the other entitled Dupree women. Ted/Kat was a good scene.. and I liked that she tapped into her dark side in order to get Tomas wrapped around her little finger. SPS and Marcel had a nice rapport and I'm wondering if maybe he's sweet talking her in order to entrap her into saying something about Laura's accident. Bill acting awkward around Dani was such a let down. He left her for a very good reason and he should always remind himself of that.

Season 3 started off strong with the kidnapping of Little Blake with Claudia being a red herring.. and the scenes between Pamela Sue Martin and Pamela Bellwood on the rooftop were quite strong. And the bombshell that Alexis and Blake had a baby that was kidnapped helped explain why the two started to grow apart over the years because a loss of child is a hard thing to come back from. And Adam seemed promising when he was introduced. Also having Kirby coming on continued the Have Not element that had been a thing for the show since season 1 and she was played by a good actress. Sadly.. the show devolved into over the top plot drivel instead of maintaining the character study of the first two seasons as season 3 continued.

Most likely, Holly would have been used in a way where Ed was spending time with Holly and Blake for purely innocent reasons.. and Rita's insecurity would have driven her to be with Alan. That whole element did play out in the late 80s/early 90s between Ed/Maureen/Holly I had read weekly synopsis of this period, and the only thing I could have seen her doing in 1981 was being somewhat involved in the whole Andy Norris situation since he was her brother and probably in conflict with their mother Barbara because Barbara would be blind to Andy and his true nature. And there were some interactions in the weekly synopsis between her and Joe Bradley so I imagine perhaps she would have been occupied with that while the whole Ed/Hope/Rita/Alan story was going on in 1981

We barely get any videos from 1980 especially anything between summer and Christmas of 1980 so seeing Holly being on the verge of leaving town is a nice gift. From what I recall, the actress had only signed a 1 year contract in November 1979 and wanted to see how she felt at the end of that contract before deciding if she wanted to stay or not. Sadly, the timing of a regime change and Michael Zaslow leaving and being killed off basically made her character almost a background character through most of 1980 so I could see why she opted to leave. Someone a long time ago had posted an interview with the actress after she left where she stated that after Roger 'dying' that she hoped the writers would focus on Holly rebuilding her life, getting her strength back, and having more agency in her life. And she stated that most of what was written for her had her playing someone meek and almost defeated by life instead of someone rebuilding their life. Even this episode showed a worn out and zombie like Holly as she was preparing to leave.

In regards to the whole Delta Burke and Loni Anderson 'sexism' opinion, I was around when all of that went down. People were team Loni at the time, she and Burt mud slinging ended up costing both of them their sitcoms and their careers. So I think both got grief back in the day for the divorce, but nice try re-writing history. Delta, on the other hand, was constantly absent and/or late.. and while I do think mental health should be looked at... when it affects not only your job, but other people's jobs.. decisions have to be made.

To me, I think the Kat vs Eva feud is going back to where it should have stayed in the front place.... Ted (their father) with Nicole and Anita finally giving her two cents on occasion when it comes to both of the girls. Unpopular opinion, but TT had a much better written character and story arc on ATWT as Jessica Griffin than she's had as Anita Dupree on this show thus far. With that said, she and Tisha have strong on screen chemistry as Anita and SPS.. and it's nice that she can sort of be cordial to Eva recognizing perhaps a little of herself in Eva (since we all know Anita did not come from money and wasn't the nicest of people back in her youth). Dare I say it.. but I like that the show has a strong set of supporting/B characters that I kind of enjoy better than the Duprees. The Have Not duo of Jan/Mona have a good friendship chemistry... and @Taoboi you might get your wish to see the Have not duo seeing SPS being exposed since Jan did get an invite to Winterfest and Mona is going to be there as well. And Jan said that without proof, she isn't going to condemn SPS so an exposure of some sort would need to happen in order to get Jan to back off yet again from resuming her friendship with SPS. The Have Not going ons are one of my favorite of the C stories. Laura has been a wonderful addition as a supporting/recurring character and given the type of focus/layers that I wish the show would give Chelsea. The PTSD she feels after her trauma is realistic considering the accident and then her heart issues at the hospital.. and her feeling uneasy around SPS (with good reason) while having a warm relationship with Mona, Nicole, & Anita.. and even was nice to Eva. Dare I say it, but I'd rather Samantha be written off and more focus given to Laura since I think there is story there with her character and her occasional mentions of her boyfriend, etc.

John Ritter did serious work in a lot of tv movies in the 90s... I think he even played a killer and he was creepy. Shame people didn't pay attention to tv movies back in the day because back in the 80s and 90s, they were an outlet for comedic actors/actresses to play more serious and darker roles (i.e. Meredith Baxter, Joanna Kerns, Judith Light, Kirstie Alley, etc). Streaming has caused a huge uptake in quantity, but the quality has kind of diminished in some ways. It's why a lot of older shows from the 2000s and earlier seem to do well in streaming despite a loud minority proclaiming how out of touch those classic shows are. Bringing it back to a soap opera focus... William Devane had trouble finding a successful series after Knots Landing ended. Phenom - An odd coupling pairing with Judith Light where the two had a good comedic chemistry.. but didn't survive past one season. The Monroes - Prime soap where he and Susan Sullivan played well opposite one another... but bad time slot and a slow start killed the show. Turks - A short of Blue Bloods esque show about a family of cops in Chicago that came out in the late 90s The Michard Richards Show - I understand work is work, but the Seinfeld curse was still a thing in 2000 LOL Crumbs - He and Jane Curtin were feuding exes with Fred Savage as their gay son... Such an odd pairing of performers LOL The Grinder - I believe he played the father of Rob Lowe and Fred Savage.. lasted just a season. His best success post Knots Landing was a strong recurring role in 24 and also some good tv movies.

It probably would have been paired with Touched by An Angel (the female version of Highway to Heaven).

Linda Lavin after the success of Alice had some decent tv movies in the 80s/90s... but her choice in tv series post Alice weren't exactly good choices. Room For Two (a mother/daughter comedy with a than unknown Patricia Heaton) in the early 90s. Bad timeslot did the show in, but it was kind of a cute show. Conrad Bloom in the late 90s where she was an interfering mother from hell. Sean Saves the World in the early 2010s where she was the best part of that show... but lousy writing did it in. 9JKL - I don't remember this 1 season wonder B- Positive - She was only in the 2nd season... but I don't remember it. Mid Century Modern - I actually thought she was the weak part on this.. and she passed away during production so who knows it it would be have been successful.

So the story arc with Laura is what the show should have done with Chelsea after her kidnapping arc.

The thing about CB's Alan was that he could be just at home in an upper crust establishment, yet also had a warm down to earth aura about him. He seemed like he could be someone you would run into if you ventured into a more high end department store and/or neighborhood. Ron Raines was too much of a cartoon and too Broadway to play Alan properly.