Soaplovers

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.

I'm going to get some push back for saying this, but I truly think there needs to be a male head-writer to balance things out. If we go by how men write stories/books vs how women tend to write stories/books.. it's as different as night and day. Women tend to be more about character development and the day to day details while men tend to be more interested in world building as well as writing action. I think Guza leaving has diluted whatever action/momentum the show had going on and it feels like I'm watching some great scenes and a promise of a good story without any sort of clear thread and/or direction... more now than at the start of the soap where there seemed to be clear main plot lines (Dani/Bill/Hayley, Nicole/Ted's house of cards marriage, Joey's slowly developing character being almost like a puppet master with his hand in a lot of plots, SPS using Eva as a way to get into Ted/Nicole's life, Joey slowly working his way into Doug and Vanessa's lives through their addictions). I just think that Guza and MVJ made a decent head-writing team.. and I'm noticing something is missing with him gone and the new head-writer joining in the last two months or so.

Kim tends to sound like a bully

I guess the lack of a coffee house set was why Anita/Nicole were meeting for coffee at Uptown... which wouldn't be a place I would think would be a place to meet just for coffee. Bill possibly running for office would throw a wrench into Hayley's praying mantis moves, but we all know how subtle she is when scheming (sarcasm as I type this LOL) Dani/Andre seem happy right now so I wonder when the other shoe will drop. I think having Anita possibly having cancer can be a good story if it's done realistically and also be a motivator for women to get their exams and advocate for their health. I remember reading about how Bert Bauer on GL back in the 60s and her health issue back in the day inspired women to focus on their health and perhaps this story with Anita will do the same thing.

The one thing I do remember when reading the blogs about each season written by Tommy was that Dunne had no intentions during his time there of reuniting Gary and Val. To him and the other producers there.. they were to remain divorced yet always connected through no only Lucy and the twins.. but because of their history. Nothing shows this more than when after she was found in TN and came back to Knots Landing that Gary had to break it to her that they weren't sure married and that they had attempted things a second time as adults and it didn't work with the two crying on the beach over what once was. Having Val's memory totally return only became a thing once she was around Ben and it was played up in an end game sort of way. Paulson, or whomever was the show runner, in season 7 totally switched gears and started to make Ben the antagonist instead of Gary.. even having him cheat on Val with Cathy.

Agree that great minds can think alike :) In terms of Derek, I see the show doing one of two things based on the most recent episodes that featured him. 1) They do the gradual fade-out of the character until he stops appearing and is occasionally mentioned by Jacob (i.e. still living and existing in town, just not being seen). We saw some evidence with him having a group of co workers he's friends with, plus a female co worker interested in him... so possibly we see him regain his walking and go back to his life with the Fire crew and eventually we stop seeing them on air. 2) His mentioning to Jacob that he hopes to win Ashley back signals that perhaps the dark side we saw glimpses of has been hidden and will rear itself if she appears to be moving on with a new guy. In terms of Ashley, the show seems committed to keeping her character on the show especially since she was shown in the Thanksgiving episode having a quiet day with Jan and Mona as they discuss Black Friday shopping, food, and other day to day matters... so I think delving into her backstory in terms of who her father is would be a good place for the show to go while keeping her as a good friend to Naomi, Shanice, and a good nurse during medical stories. Perhaps one of the children of the handsome new doctor could be her love interest down the line.

From what I understood, I think Empire Valley was supposed to be a Lotus Point only in a much larger scale. Lotus Point was supposed to the 80s version of a Green resort and office complex that was energy efficient and safe... while Empire Valley was going to be a housing complex that was built to be green, energy efficient, and on a community level. I remember Karen in season 6 being excited about the development and she was one of those annoying environmental feminist nuts

I think the Ashley character can be salvaged, but it seems as though MVJ and co don't want to take the time to refocus the character. She works in the hospital scenes when interacting with Shanice and the other characters.. and could be used effectively in medical stories... but the Mary Sue persona is what needs to go. With Dani/Andre taking off, I think the writers are trying to figure out what to do with Ashley.. and perhaps maybe keeping her in a supporting role or focus more on her family background would help.

I think had the showrunners not been switched out, I think we would have seen a slower descent for Joshua in season 7 and perhaps the cliffhanger would have been the rooftop confrontation between Lillimae and Joshua.

I thought the first year or so of Krista's stint as Billie made sense for the character because she was supportive of Bo/Hope, told Kate to back off, and seemed to have a life of sorts where she was... and then the kidnapping of Billie and being made to go back on drugs by her captors was well done. And Bo being a supportive person as she went through withdrawal recalled their rapport back during the Curtis storyline... and after she got through the withdrawal and getting back on her feet.. she realized that she still loved Bo and became determined to get him back. In her defense, Bo and Hope weren't exactly a strong couple so I can see why she saw her chance to be the person that Bo deserved. After that, the character became one note and only in her last few months did Billie start to develop layers as a character. Had she been the first person to play Billie, it would have been a good stint.. but she was following up on Rinna's superior 1st stint. Julie didn't have the humor and grit of Rinna nor the vulnerability of Krista.

Other than Dani/Andre.... the show can barely build a believable romance between characters on contract... and Dani/Andre was a happy accident. @Taoboi I don't know if awshucks Derek is fully back... the darkness could be under wraps and could come out down the line again.

I think the Dobson's would have had a field day at SFT especially in 1980 with the whole Stephanie/Jo/Wendy/Suzi orbit, plus I could have seen them have a field day with Liza, Sunny, Stu, etc. I remember reading somewhere that the Dobson's said it took them being head-writers of GL for eighteen months before they felt confident about what they were doing on the show.. and reading monthly write-ups of the show.. you could see them trying to figure out how to update and modernize GL during those early months. The difference was that P & G probably gave them time to find their footing and put their stamp on GL in the mid 70s vs ATWT where it seemed as though P & G wanted instant results. Plus, GL in 1975 had a mix of younger characters with Holly/Peggy being in their mid to late 20s and Roger being in his early 30s along with other characters that were being focused on at first like Tim and Pam.

So the whole Derek holding back his progress in order to surprise Ashley and then being found out long before he was deceitful wasn't a pivot/adjustment? Wow! I'm on the fence on whether this was all MVJ's vision (that she said played out in her mind all these years), or if the abundance of EP's/Production companies have somewhat muddled the waters.

I actually think Orphey Gene's should have been a cute and trendy coffee house instead of a sit down restaurant. People will hang out at a coffee shop over a restaurant especially during work days. Laura is getting more story and focus than Chelsea. I would cut my losses with Chelsea and just focus on developing Laura's character. Derek/Ashley trying the friend thing too quickly. I do like SPS and Marcel together.. and it's a nice break from her mooning over her Teddy Bear. I see the show is still playing the Tomas/Eva connection... but I hope nothing further is done with them until both do some growing up.

Lisa was a really good movie especially the relationship between the mother and daughter.. and the twist was that the daughter was basically stalking the serial killer with him being a bit uneased about not being the one in power.. and the mother/daughter teaming up against the killer at the end was effective as well. Great soundtrack as well. USA made for tv movies were the thing back in the late 80s and early 90s.. Morgan Fairchild was in at least two

Soaps used to be 15 minutes so I think as long as each episode has something interesting happening in each episode... those 50 episodes will fly by.

Bill collapsing could have been done at Winterfest. Wasn't he supposed to co host the auction with his ex Dani? Bill could have collapsed with Dani panicking and going back into wife mode with him while Ashley and the handsome new Doc get to work with making sure he's breathing and alive while Andre notes Dani's reaction to Bill's collapse while Hayley gets a panicked look afraid that she'll be exposed. That would have been more than enough to make Winterfest an event with a payoff.

Everyone saying it was nice that the Winterfest didn't have any drama need to go watch a Hallmark Channel and not a soap opera LOL I truly think the Winterfest was a mutual event that MVJ and Guza came up with in order to resemble the Nurses Ball on GH.. but with Guza gone and his replacement being hired without proving themselves... it just became another ho hum event... just like Thanksgiving and that fashion show earlier this year.

It should have stayed like a soapy Walton's instead of trying to be like Dallas or Dynasty. I still get a kick out of Earl Hamner saying his favorite scene was when Melissa told Lance after they married that she was pregnant and he wasn't the father. He may have said he didn't want Falcon Crest to be like Dallas/Dynasty.. but he certainly could write a guilty pleasure moment.

There were episodes of Jan mentioning how she wished she could go to Winterfest, Mona saying she wished she could invite her, SPS/Leslie inviting her... plus there were episodes where SPS was taunting Laura while it looked like Anita had ulterior motives for having SPS help with setting up the event while having Marcel and Elon help her with SPS... and than we got nothing. Maybe tomorrow will still have some after party for Winterfest

Dani is obviously still insecure due to her digs at Ashley.. which is so sad to see in a woman that's old enough to be Ashley's mother. Greg Vaughn is handsome and I liked his rapport with Daphnee... and I saw a jealous Ted looking on. Drunk Vanessa sticking her tongue out at SPS with a baffled SPS looking on was my favorite moment of the episode While it was a nice event, I was hoping for a secret or two to come out. I still think the co-head writer switch affected this because Guza was all about big parties and secrets being revealed when he was head-writing GH and who knows what the new kid on the block specializes on.

Unpopular opinion, but I actually liked Budig as Michelle. I was so happy when that annoying Rachel Miner was recast because she had a very whiny voice that was like finger nails on a chalkboard. The problem was that Budig joined the show after it's peak, but at least she was on the show when Ed was on the canvas (both times) and the show eventually picked up the Holly/Michelle friendship again as well so she at least was interacting with characters that had interacted with Miner's Michelle. With that said, Joie's Michelle was a natural progression for the character of Michelle based on how Miner had played the role. The downside was that her Michelle hardly interacted with the characters that had ties to her character (i.e. Jenna, Holly, Vanessa, etc) and it felt as though her character was on an island most of the time story-wise except her final weeks in the role when Claire was bought back onto the canvas and the two interacted some. I also gave some thought to how the post Mick story would have gone had Budig stayed on. Most likely Danny would have remained the heavy and the forced marriage probably would have still happened... but the show would have most likely resolved that story beat with Jesse/Drew and the Bauers rescuing Michelle from the marriage and either phasing out the family.. or moving them to another orbit (i.e. interacting with the Spauldings, etc).