Soaplovers

I saw Mary S on WWHL a few months ago and she looked great... so perhaps she was throwing herself into a role of a working class woman that spent more time working than trying to keep up with the latest trends.

Even good writers aren't a good fit on the show, no matter how talented he was. I'm curious if Penny will be featured in story between November 1976 and her departure in mid 1977... because if not, than I don't blame her for bailing.

I noticed when Cendella first took over that he really focused on the hospital with a couple of recurring patients (especially that daffy lady that always annoyed Althea) as well as starting the paramedic unit to help lower income areas (which is when Penny first met Jerry and saved Joan Dancy's life)... as well as Dr. Tom dying.. which all but ended the focus on the lab. Depriest had a good balance between the hospital and the personal lives of the characters.. and I do wonder how she would have concluded the Joan Dancy story and the Carolee story. Marland has concluded the shift away from the hospital to the personal lives of all the characters. Quite frankly, he isn't the right fit for the show. I think General Hospital was a better fit for him (hence why he worked wonders on that show) because that show was always about the romantic/personal lives of the staff at General Hospital... while the Doctors was more about the innerworkings of a hospital with some romantic/soap plots going on.

S4....the only person that defended lvp was Joyce at the reunion. Carlton gave good advice to LVP by saying to cut them out of your life as much as possible. In other words, I think carlton advised her to quit without saying so..if that makes sense Dallas needed to add a new person for s3. Keeping the same cast season to season never works cause things ge55 stale. I vote for s14 of OC to cut vicki or tamra. Shannon is strong enough to keep the show going with the loss of either of those 2. She's the only good 5hing for s13. Divorce has done wonders for her.

I'm one of the few that buys Ann's change...the Pollocks started it in spring 1975...and Cendella continued it with Ann siding with Steve even when he was wrong...and when he pursued her...he awoke her repressed sexual side..and she went to desperate means to keep hold of that...and Depriest had a scene where she couldn't believe what she had to do to get Steve..and was beating herself up being unable to help Matt because of what she did. I've noticed the new scriptwriters lack fun and snappy dialogue....I dread Paul and Ann interacting because these new writers won't write their scenes as well. I wish Marland kept Depriests script writers because I liked the ene3gy and psychological tone Depriest brought. Lakin and Edelstein provided that as well as being forward thinking. GH was more. Marlands speed...it was more about harmony and community...the doctors was more emotional with conflict and more forward thinking (right to die was a hot topic, and feminism was huge in the mid 70s.).

I like to 5hink they didn't end up together...2.0 didnt mention Jack only Erica...and I believe her dreams came b4 a man

Well when you get to late 1976, you'll going to think what you're watching now is lightening fast LOL

It's about time the franchise go back to non housewives getting talking heads. I think it adds dimension to the proceedings to get other peoples point of views... and Mama D needed to have her point of view expressed.. so I hope this will continue The OC still has occasional talking heads from non housewives (even Shannon's twin daughters had one or two).

Is the new show going to have a Halloween episode? I hope so because season 10 didn't.. though they had a nice nod to that tradition with the family going through boxes full of their Halloween decor after their basement flooded.

Jeana quitting at the start of season 5 was both a surprise and yet not a surprise. You could tell that she wasn't down with the nasty/conflict tone the show was turning into so she exited stage left. She was one of a kind in a weird way... and Shannon replaced her in terms of the relateable factor.. but not the low key/laid back style that Jeana eluded. Plus, Jeana was on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.. what other housewife has had that honor? In regards to LVP... like I said before, if RHOBH hopes to grow and not keep stagnating... LVP needs to go.. so that we can finally get a new storyline. Brandi/Kim leaving after season 5 was kind of a game changer because the women turned against one another in season 6. However, I wonder why LVP keeps getting targeted season after season.. is there perhaps some truth that she isn't all sweetness and light? And in regards to Rinna, I saw her reality show that she did years ago with her hubby/kids... and she was warm, fun and likable. I recalled being excited she was joining RHOBH.. and the first half of the season, Rinna was still warm and likable... but than she got onto the Kim obsession wagon and never got off of it... with Kim gone, her focus has turned to LVP. If she'd stayed how she was in the first half of season 5.. I think she could have become one of the main faces of the BH...imho. I will be interested to see how Denise R will fare since she wasn't too big into conflict on her reality show. Still.. she has three kids, her dad was a positive influence, and did she recently marry? I can't recall. I think Denise Richardson would have fit in well in the earlier version of the Housewife franchise.

Because danielle is too crazy to make a housewife. I think lvp needs to leave rhobh, the only that show can evolve. With her gone, that means Kyle is even more useless and than she can go too

Hopefully Darlene and David never reunite, it was a mistake to marry them off when Darlene was better off without that noose around her neck. Juliette Lewis... I'm in When I was thinking of possible people to play Blue, she popped in my head LOL

NBC scheduled Saturday nights up till 2000. The late 90s on NBC on Saturday had a fairly strong schedule with The Pretender/Profiler getting decent buzz.. while the network could never find a strong third show to start the night off no matter how hard they tried. After 2000, NBC went to repeats.. with CBS following suit by the mid 2000s. Friday nights in the late 80s till the mid to late 90s had TGIF on ABC... it was done as CBS started losing their grip on the night.

Pre-porkchop Natalie.. that is

Brooke was kind of a judgmental shrew.. so I loved it when Erica would always burst her bubble. With that said, Erica/Brooke consistently didn't care for one another and that was maintained up till the end of the ABC version of the show. One time when my mom tuned in (late 90s).. she noticed Brooke and Erica didn't interact at all and wondered if the two had somehow made peace until Erica said she wouldn't trust getting a final meal from Brooke if her life depended on it.. and my mom said 'well that answers my question'. Since Brooke was Erica's best female sparring partner.. let's select who would come in 2nd after Brooke? Erica vs Annie was entertaining.. Erica vs Greenlee was slanted where Erica would come out on top. I would say perhaps original recipe Natalie or Barbara would be a close 2nd to Brooke for best sparring partner for Erica.

Shannon and QVC are a natural fit. She ended up on that channel while the dubrows were on Evine lol. QVC, in its day, was the high end of the shopping channels.

Gosh the OC had a better pre season trailer and an even better mid season trailer. Still.. it could be better than it looks. #openmind

Where is it written that you have to talk well of previous jobs. In her defense, she had mentioned that there were two or three writer changes so the whole focus/motivation of the character fell by the wayside. I did laugh about how she said Nola was incredibly stupid, since the Nola of 1976 seems pretty with it and smart.

I believe you about AHB... I watched her brief stint as head-writer of Days circa 1989 to early 1990.. and she was quickly fired with the show doing a PR explanation that her writing didn't match what they were looking for (claiming it going from action/romance to just plain action.). However, she is a good script-writer based on what I saw of her stuff on the show. From what I've read, Marland does have her and Paul running the hospital after Matt's resignation.. with Paul plotting to unseat Althea so at least she does get into the action before being fired. And this 'Bob Cessna'.. not impressed with his script writing.. but soap writing is different than stage plays.. so that's probably why.

I do agree that the last week of Depriest's stint was edited a bit by Marland. I think she was credited because I think she did the outlines for that week and each episode for the script writer to write.. and he probably just added some little details. I'm not too keen on the new script writers thus far.. I liked L. Bertram the best and I actually thought Anne B Howard's scripts were quite good. For me, I just don't enjoy Marland at all. He isn't my cup of tea.. and he may be critically good.. but ratings weren't always great, nor horrible, under his regime. I think the sudden whiplash shift in tone from Depriest to Marland didn't help the show in the long run. It is interesting that all the things people assumed Marland created on this show (Dancys, Billy/Greta, etc).. weren't created at all by him.. but he inherited all of that. Depriest gave him a good template to work with on the show, but his tendency to drag out stories do him in on this show (the Joan Dancy story is dragged out for several more months when Depriest set it up to probably be resolved by November... and Carolee/Steve don't reunite for many months when it looked as if Depriest was ready to get going on the story.) Still... I do think every soap writer appeals to different people.... Pam Long/Dobsons/Depriest appeal to me.. while Marland/Harding Lemay doesn't really appeal to me. It's the opposite for other people.. and that is what makes the world go round

I think depriest quickly ended the conrad story. Marland said he didnt realize he could end a story quickly when he started the Doctors. When watching the Doctors under Depriest..it seemed the show was on uppers...lots of energy and cliff hangers at the end of each episode. Almost two weeks into Marland's stint...it feels like the show was given a triple dose of prozac.. too low energy and slow. I do think he probably edited her last week of episodes she was credited in...but the energy and dialogue were still at higher levels. I think Depriest was ahead of the curve in terms of energy and excitement. It also explains why she had longer stints head writing in the 80s (Days from 81 to 84..and AW from 86 to 88.) The 80s were all about energy and OTT. It's also why she fit when she co he wrote Sunset Beach in the late 90s.

Late to the Gretchen news... I still remember when Tamra backed off of going after Gretchen.. and than Gretchen revealed her true colors. If only Tamra had thought to do that from the start, we probably wouldn't have been subjected to filler Gretchen for five seasons. I was actually thinking Emily reminds me of Jeana, but it's a shame her hubby is kind of creepy. Jeana's husband was hardly ever shown, and I wish the same for Emily's hubby.

Well Marland stint has started.. and the pace has slowed down quite a bit. The words are good, but it just feels off to me.. kind of cold and lacking of emotion thus far. Marland may have the knack of good stories/plots, but he doesn't have that magic touch in terms of emotions and warmth.

I recall reading an interview during her script writing days at Y & R.. and it wasn't a shock that she was canned the second Latham left the show. She seemed kinda vapid and shallow... perfect for Bravo and Housewife land If there truly is a #metoo story with Cohen, I hope no one will be surprised. Just by looking in his eyes, you can tell there is something off about him..like he lacks empathy or something.

She wrote some episodes of the Doctors that was pretty good. Marland's episodes start in today's Retro reruns, but Depriest left the show in a really interesting place for him to pick up the threads. Depriest even wrote two or three episodes (one which talked about a patients right to life vs their right to die with dignity.. and the other episode had an interesting speech about women's rights, etc). I think Depriest quickened the pace and that might have turned people off that were used to a more leisure pace. Marland even admitted he kept the Joan Dancy story going longer than he should of. If Depriest had remained, I think she would have resolved it much quicker (hints were dropped in her final episodes writing where Joan's true killer admitted nervousness over the return of her step father Jason cause she was unable to lie to him.). The Joan Dancy story reminds me of a Columbo mystery where the audience knows the identity of the killer including their motive, but we watch to see how they're caught. Perhaps Marland wasn't sure how to proceed with that type of story (and he was known for dragging a story on too long... hello Carolyn Crawford murder mystery on ATWT anyone?). I think you should review 1976 (Feb through September 1976) because she had some strong script writers that helped flesh out her story and outlines.