Soaplovers

It sounds like Alice was totally a supporting character, sort of like a greek chorus or a talk-to.. with occasional stories for herself that played like a B or C story. Do you think had Jacqueline Courtney not been fired, that Alice would have continued to flourish well into the 80s instead of teetering out as the 70s ended? I know her replacement Susan H was a decent replacement and a good actress.. but lacked the charisma that JC had possessed.

I think the producers will decide ahead of time who rides in cars together but they don't control how the women react. So far this season, Brandi has said out there things to lisa v, Eileen and Kyle. Lisa V basically doesn't take the bait, Eileen looks at her as a super fan while.Kyle just takes the bait. What interests me more is how.a person reacts to a crazy..not the crazy themselves. There is a brief preview scene on.bravo for next week where Lisa r tries to broach the subject of Kim with Kyle...but Kyle won't go into it. Lisa r says in a talking head that both of harry Hamlin's.brothers died of alcoholism within six months of each other....which explains why Lisa R quickly picked up on kim 's state..and is being so.honest about it. In that respect, I think Lisa r is serving the same role that Adrienne had in season 1 in regards to Kim and Kyle...imho

1993 had some interesting stuff with Jenna winning spaulding, nadine's scheme of pretending to be pregnant with Billy's back y exposed, Julie/Dylan's wedding being crashed by Bridget, and I thought Eve Guthries descent into madness then fight back to sanity was quite good...plus holly and Michelle at the cliff house with ed rescuing roger from falling over the cliff. Some good stuff in 1993..imho

1991 to 1993 are good years..some of the best..but I do think 1989 has some great moments like the climax of Sonni/Reva/josh...will jefferies downfall...Roger Thorpe being unmasked at Blake and Phillips wedding..etc. to understand 1991 to 1993....I think you'd have to go back to 1989 and even 1990...build up.years to the golden era of 1991 to 1993.

What interests me is that Alice is basically a supporting character in the first few years..did she do anything of.note pre Rachel's arrival in 1967? Or even after Rachel shows up.but before Steven comes on in 1968?

Last night's RHOBH was a BH version of Jekyll & Hyde.. http://www.chicagonow.com/confessions-coffeeholic/2015/01/rhobh-jekyll-hyde/

I guess this was right before Sonni left the show.. and right before Beth was revealed as alive. Shame Sonni left because I could have seen her and Blake feuding for years. I think Sonni was correct in telling Blake she was destroying her marriage all on her own given what she had gone through months before.

I think it was the beginning of the end. Had San Cristobel been a short term locale used then it wouldn't have been so bad..but it was featured for almost two years. Plus the Santos family.never got integrated with the rest of the show either.

So I've watched some of the episodes of the Doctors on Retro Tv.. perhaps modern day writers should take a look at how the show writes Carolee.. the good girl. She is neither dull nor weepy. She has her moments of insecurity, but she is intelligent, sarcastic and holds her own. She is how you write a nice character without making her boring.

Lydia was too nice, and I think she might have returned had Brianna's husband not gone off on her mother. I think that was totally unscripted and I think that was the final straw for her. Even Lizzie was quoted last year as saying she was kind of boring and probably wasn't a good fit on the show. Though I think it would have been nice to have filmed her in Kentucky at the family horse farm. Would have been some nice scenic porn at least

Well apparently one of the rumoured new.wives for OC Meghan married the baseball star Jim edmonds recently...whose ex wife Allison was suppose to be a cast member for season 8 of OC but backed out at the last minute thus Alexis came back. Also, a link to possible info for the other rumoured new housewife on OC... http://www.playerwives.com/mlb/los-angeles-angels-of-anaheim/josh-hamiltons-wife-katie-hamilton/

I figured Lizzie was out...after all that went down with her and Tammy judge. Jeana could still be on but as a friend of. She was used quite a bit during season 6 in that position

The Reardons seemed to have a decent presence up through 1985. From what I can tell, Pam Long said she would have continued writing for Nola and Tony.. but the actors left so she wrote them out. There was an interview from early 1984 where she said she loved the character moments where you sat at a table with a cup of coffee and talk about anything.. but that TPTB (proctor and gamble) wanted her to focus more on plot. She also said that she couldnt see anyone playing Amanda except for the actress who played her.. and indicated that the actress choose to leave on her own. I actually like the Pam Long era better then the Marland era to be honest.

Yeah...my parents gave me 200 per month...and I had to budget my meal plan as well. I had to get a part time job as well since 200 didn't really stretch the whole no.the despite budgeting. I'd have killed for 500 a month..let alone per week.

So citing the cast massacre of 1983/1984 where a majority of characters that helmed the show from the late 70s through that period were written off.. how would you have written for them to survive into the late 80s and beyond?

Tonight's RHOBH episode should be titled Empty Nesters R Us

I think instead of killing Mo, they should have had her leave town or even been put in a coma. Once viewers backlashed, then the show could have easily bought her back. With that said, I do think the show in 1997 had a chance of moving forward from Maureen's death since they had spent two years building up Rick and Abby as the next anchor couple. However, the show was intent on cloning, time travel, that stupid island, and the mob. I do think the mob aspect could have worked but it was executed all wrong.

True, but Nene showed her weakness last night. She, like Porsha, can't verbally keep up with someone so they resort to physical or cheap shots.

Maddie was very different from Laura. She seemed more mature, more innocent, yet also kind of confident. I don't think Laura would have felt guilty if she and James had kissed like Maddie had. I do wonder if rumours of the third character had been true.. if she would have been different from Laura or Maddie.

Cold and Sterile is what I'd describe the writing of Marland. For some reason, I think he worked better on ATWT then he did on GL. To me, Marland had all the elements of a Norman Rockwell painting on the outside, but there was no heart and soul on either of the shows. While I think Pam Long had the family, heart, emotion, etc of a great family drama... which can be messy and inconsistent. I do think Marland/Pam Long would have been a dynamite team. I was a kid during the Pam Long era, but I can see how people who grew up on the Dobson/Marland era might have had trouble with Pam's Long vision of the show.

I do think all four actresses who played Faith played up certain aspects of the character. Faith Caitlin was great as the passive, sheltered Faith.. one who preferred reading/medicine to socializing with those around her. You could buy that she was totally a daddy's girl, pampered, sheltered and afraid to face the world. You could buy her Faith thinking that her fling with Pat would become more then it truly was. I think her having a breakdown after the Kenneth situation made perfect sense, plus being off screen for several weeks recovering also made sense. Nancy Barrett, brief as she was in the part, served as sort of a bridge between passive Faith and stronger Faith. She had the quirks of Faith of old, yet seemed more confident in a way. She had more chemistry with Bucky then she did with Pat.. it seemed like she was too mature to be mixed up with Pat.. which is why I questioned the show putting them back together when it seemed like this Faith wouldn't give him the time of day. Catherine Hicks totally morphed the character into a less strident Mary Ryan. She was very confident, yet you still saw hints of the old Faith flare up. She had chemistry with Pat, but you could tell her Faith wasn't willing to put herself back in the place she was in before with Pat.. nor be like Jill was with Frank.. I did like her chemistry with Tom and I do wonder had she stayed in.. if Tom/Faith would have gone in the same direction as it did when her replacement took over. KMG had the the difficult task of taking over just as her character agreed to marry Tom, plus had to deal with the climax of the Delia/Pat marriage in her first few weeks in the part. I'm sure the writers/producers would have preferred to have her take over after that had gone down. With that said, I think she handled it quite well all things considering. It seemed like Faith was still written in those first weeks as if Hicks were playing the part still, but KMG had a colder read of the words.. and a more passive delivery of the words as well.. so it stands to reason that the writers eventually tailored the character to her strengths.. hence all the victim stuff with Tom, plus the alcoholic stuff.. and I don't think Hicks' Faith would have gotten involved with Frank since she knew playing second best wasn't for her anymore. Just my two cents is all.

I think the Maddie change was due to a red herring thrown out to the audience (i.e. Vertigo) to make viewers wonder if Maddie is perhaps Laura in disguise. Thinking about it, I can buy Donna shifting in personality.. but it just happened so quickly that it seemed jarring. Perhaps if the show didn't have the structure of each episode taking place in one day's time and advancing day to day... it wouldn't have seemed so jarring to me. I do agree Audrey went from the last episode of season 1 with twisting the cherry stem in her mouth, to acting almost demure by the 1st or 2nd episode of season 2. Perhaps the shock of seeing her father walking in to sample the new goods snapped her back into reality.. and realized her games have a price? Just a theory Just finished viewing episode 2 of season 2. It's interesting that Windom Earle was mentioned so early in the season. I did read in the previous posts that the show regretted not introducing him earlier.. and seeing that he was referenced this early makes me wonder why they held off. This episode would have been a perfect way to start the ball rolling on this so that by the time the Laura Palmer mystery was wrapped up, this story was already kicking into high gear. Then the show wouldn't have had to panic when it had to derail the other plots. I know that both Lynch and Frost were doing other things, but surely they could have left detailed outlines for the writers to pick up the slack? Lastly, I still think the Annie character could have worked even with Heather Graham if she wasn't instantly paired with Dale Cooper..imho.

I think.nene has met her match.

Watched the last episode of season 1 and the first episode of season 2 is almost like watching two different shows. Donna and Maddy especially are like two different characters. I am going to guess this was done on purpose to spoof characters changing on a dime to.fit the plot..just like soaps do?

Watched the 7/21 through 7/28 episodes on youtube. It seemed like the storylines were all pretty separate with very little interaction between the stories. Perhaps it was an odd week and Marland was still trying to tie up the Dobson stories. I can see why Maureen Garett opted to leave since Holly really wasn't doing anything and was islanded off on her own. I did like Morgan.. she was quite fiesty! I think I like how Pam Long wrote Nola better then Marland did.