Soaplovers

Hopefully Alan has learned to not interrupt or interject with pointless information while someone is in the middle of telling a story. I almost think it would be better if Alan was a producer behind the scenes.. and he just had the actors on screen talking and asking one another questions. Those interviews tend to work better.

Yeah, Ben and Evie don't start interacting in a 'we're going to pair them together as a couple' way until Feb/March 1977 when she recommends Ben paint a portrait for Jackie. And Evie's working for Jackie so she and Ben interact and start to become friends. That happens after Tim breaks up with her and she's forgiven her sister.. and he and Hope break up after he covers for his younger brother for a crime that he had committed. Jackie does come onto the canvas in December 1976 and the first months are her trying to snag Mike while she and Justin seem to play a cat and mouse game with one another as he's trying to restart things with Sara again. I often wonder if the Phillip story only came about because the show was going to be expanded to an hour.. and the Dobson's deciding that some of the new characters they were introducing could be tied to Justin/Jackie's back story.

I think the difference between the head writer change at Days vs GH is that the day to day episode quality at GH was still lacking while the day to day episode quality has improved. And now that there appears to be some depth to the episode content... the limitations of some of the performers on Days is more apparent (i.e. Leo, Alex, Sophia, Cat). However, Rome wasn't built/rebuilt in a day so I'm waiting to see how things are in three to four months once some of the threads/stories from Ron's era are tied up/resolved.. and Ford/Cwikly's long term content kicks off

Friday Thoughts: June and Hayley are going to turn out to be related, or else why the casting on June's character if not for that. Their voices and mannerisms are similar and Marquita had mentioned in an interview that we would be finding out more about Hayley's backstory. Tomas/Eva/Kat is for sure going to be moving full steam ahead.. and I can't wait Dani/Bill = yawn Bill/Smitty = Interest reeved up and we all know that means the secret involving Martin/Smitty/Anita is kicking into high gear for May sweeps. Vanessa/Nicole = A satisfying friendship scene.. and Nicole's statement about Vanessa's outside interests.. I did not see that coming Nicole/Andre = I noticed that Andre volunteered knowing about the affair, but managed to withhold the nugget of information where he had convinced Ted not to confess to Nicole. Dani/Ted = This perked my interest Nicole/Silk Press Sheila = A great way to end a Friday episode. Sometimes grandma's soaps shouldn't be discarded, but followed. Martin/Smitty = Kat is right that Smitty is too good for Martin.. and Martin did act as though he missed his afternoon nap. Ashley/Derek = Unpopular opinion.. I actually kind of missed them. I view their scenes as a great way to kickstart a drinking game... take a shot anytime you wonder to yourself what is the point to their characters and/or either one of them says something cringey. You'll be guaranteed to be buzzing by the end of the episode Previews for next week: Looks like Nicole has found out about Dani/Andre's FWB set up? Kat vs Silk Press Sheila looks promising.

It's so jarring seeing the changeover from Sherry Mathis to Louan Gideon. The vibe, mannerisms, and overall personality of Liza changes instantly. The chemistry Sherry has with both David F and Joe Lambie is gone the second the recast happens. I wonder how viewers took the news of the recast since you didn't have time in between airings before the change happened. Quinn/Sarah... One overacts (Quinn) and one under acts (Sarah). Wendy of 1985 is a good mix of the 1982 sweet Wendy and the 1983/84 vixenish Wendy.

I would put Felicia in the 'small dose' auntie category because she means well, but comes on too strongly at times. In small doses, she would be a blast to hang out with.. but in anything larger than a small... she would be exhausting. I tend to prefer lower key people than people that are always 'on' all the time. Those people can veer off into energy vampire status pretty quickly.

So I think I figured based on the end credits who is the script writer for each episode. Thursday's episode looked to have been script written by David Kreizman, and it was a well written episode that flowed well. Today's episode looked to have been script written by Henry Newman (son of Fran Myers and the late Roger Newman). Right now, I've noticed improvements on the day to day scripts and that's a good sign that eventually the long term outlines that we will see in the coming weeks and months will be good. Fingers crossed.

Felicia becomes more layered/balanced in the early 90s (circa 1991/1992/1993). She leans more into the more down to earth element that you like, while still being Felicia of the 80s. The process starts in 1989.. but doesn't really become apparent until the early 90s. Iris was the rare connector character with her having a role at the hospital (I think she's on the board), working at Cory Publishing, and having romantic flirtations/connections with a lot of the male characters between 1988 and 1994. Which resulted in her having interactions with the other female contemporaries (Donna, Felicia, Rachel) even if the three didn't always interact with one another. Writing her off in the fall of 1994 severed one of the main connections/bridges with the different orbits. Irony that the show didn't see her value.

Greg and Paige were an interesting choice for a couple. I do think the lack of focusing on the generational differences hindered their long term potential. I think Laura had learned to keep her feelings close to her vest, especially after the hell she went through in her early years on the show. The last scene of her trying to keep her tears inside as she drove away was the first time we had seen Laura really express what she was feeling after two or three seasons of her keeping her true self hidden from everyone.. even Greg.

Mid 1979 to mid 1981 was A+ quality for the show. I even found things to like about the show in the final year or so when the quality had somewhat declined.

From what I heard, the actress playing Leslie opted to leave so instead of recasting again.. they killed her off. Holly brought it on herself by lying and pretending Christina was Ed's child. Although I do think that Rita's actions with withholding that message from Ed weighed upon her. Even though she won Ed in 1976, she realized over time that she never truly had him. There was no Rita/Tim/Evie triangle. Tim and Evie dated after Rita broke up with him (which happened before Evie and her mother came to Springfield). Ironically Tim did to Evie what Rita previously did to him... leading someone on that you're not interested in.

And for all we know, there might be other siblings that Jacob has that haven't been mentioned yet. It wouldn't be the first time a prodigal son and/or daughter is not mentioned by the family. A middle class family that's involved with the police force and police force adjacent would be a nice contrast with the more wealthy Duprees. There is a lot of story material to mine from that dynamic.

I think that the problem with Laura was that she had grown to love herself and saw her value in both herself, her career, and her marriage. She had this inner strength and confidence that Lynn/Bernard didn't know how to harness/write for because they were more interested in generating conflict amongst emotionally immature people. Karen/Mac and Gary/Val were all immature/stubborn to a fault even though they all had grown/evolved. So the Latham's could key into their essence/history to generate the standard soap opera tropes and stories for them. Even the season 8 conflict with Laura's pregnancy and Greg not being cool with it didn't diminish Laura's fire and strength. You saw how she was able to move on and live her life as a single mother because she'd already done that after Richard took off. I saw her response to Greg's kissing Paige as 'that's my husband and I can't change him.. but once I find something better, I'll toss himself'. She wasn't emotionally tied to him nor his money.. and I think that was partly why she was such a unique and interesting character in the nighttime soap world in the 80s.

As usual, Dani makes everything all about herself. Sweetie.. this isn't about you. I think deep down, the Dupree would be relieved if Dani wasn't around.

Ron C breakdowns usually involve quick snip scenes.. and so far, it is apparent in spades. I wish we had the longer scenes like we had in the previous few episodes. And I see Febreeze appeared again today. More airtime/purpose than Ashley/Derek LOL

I know French Fan had released monthly summaries for all the soaps from 1975/1976/1978 that helped to put focus on who wrote what. It's somewhere in the message boards (not sure if in archives or not). From what I recall, Labine did start the Ben/Betsy/Arlene triangle, the Jamie/Diana story, the Felicia story, and Rick/Cal/Meg stories. When Depriest came on, she kept the ball rolling with all of those tales by having Arlene's mom starting to work for Meg as there was blackmail from Arlene to Ben, Felicia's story became more psychological where she was being stalked.. but you couldn't tell if she was truly being stalked or if it was in her head, and I think Arlene also had an admirer that ended up dying in a struggle. The months she was writing sounded interesting and full of tension. Once the Schneiders came on... it seemed as though what had been started by Labine and built on by Depriest was reversed by this team. Looking at the imdb for at least Margaret Schneider.. it appears as though she had no soap experience and was more experience writing self-contained stories. That could have contributed to their inability to keep the momentum going. I wonder if perhaps Upton had to partially rebuild the canvas because of decisions made by them.

Breaking in to report a new development and event is fine... it's the massive amount of time where the newscasters will talk and analyze it is what I have a problem with. People have brains and can work out for themselves what this event/development means to them. @DemetriKaneI remember Jacob mentioning he had a brother.. and I believe he, or his dad, mentioned the mom and her name. To me, I would have made Andre his brother since the two actors do look like they could be related. And having Andre sleeping with Dani would have more potential for conflict since it would affect Jacob/Naomi's marriage, Jacob's relationship with his brother.. and possibly the parents relationship with Anita/Vernon. Alas... not to be.

I think bringing Dano back to OLTL as her original character Gretel/Rae was a last minute thing because P & G wouldn't let ABC use the Felicia character. So even though she had ties to OLTL from back in the day, she just didn't fit into the OLTL of the late 90s/early 00s.. nor did she really fit into the other soaps at ABC either.

I think Evie came in mid 1976 after Rita broke up with Tim because she realized she was leading him on. And Evie became upset with Rita because she didn't tell her that she had previously dated Tim before she came to town.

RI has Newport.. which is sort of their version of the Hamptons. And they have Providence as their main city.. which is very diverse and pro LGBTQ... and it's a 45 minute train ride from Providence to Boston (people usually will commute from Providence to Boston for work and vice versa). So I could see one of the housewives being from MA.

This Sarah/Xander Lake Geneva weekend getaway trip will either be where Xander finds out that Sarah knew about the Phillip situation, or an emergency happens that prevents them from going. Brownie points for the Lake Geneva mention since that's the getaway for a lot of people that live in northern Illinois/Chicago. EJ is kinda hot... though I never thought that about him when the previous actor played him. I do think a Dimera owning the hospital would be interesting since the Hortons/Brady's have always had a rivalry with the Dimeras... and carrying that over to the hospital would be organic.

Phillip/Harley made more sense as friends (as they were portrayed to be during the Pam Long era).. and I could even buy them being a short-term couple.. but end game they were not. Didn't GA say he thought it out of character that he would choose Harley over Beth.. or that he would leave Beth/Lizzie back in AZ in order for him to chase a vendetta? I know that when Beth Chamberlain came back as Beth in late 1997, she was told instantly that the writing would be slanted toward Phillip/Harley.. which surprised her as well. When the Lorelei story came up, it actually made all of her out there/out of character behavior Beth displayed from 1997/1998 through the early/mid 00s make sense. I liked that the final months of the show, Beth became more like Beth of old so at least the show ended on a positive for her character.

I remember this funny bit with Donna in 1989 or 1990 where Michael had asked Donna why she didn't have a female friend and/or really any friends. I laughed when he mentioned how she was close to Iris, but backtracked by saying 'ok that was my fault' when she gave him the looks that could kill look. I remember there was a bit where Donna then tried to befriend Rachel and I believe Felicia in separate scenes with the two both looking at Donna in bewilderment. It didn't seem to work. After Felicia and Lucas married, I do remember a few scenes between Felicia and Iris where they were being nice yet throwing subtle shade at one another. Then Donna would come into the scene and then it seemed as though Iris and Felicia would both focus on their annoyance at Donna. I do recall Felicia did get silo'd into her own orbit at times... and that Lorna and Jenna had more interactions with other characters outside that orbit.. moreso than Felicia. I think the isolation of Donna/Rachel/Felicia became more pronounced/obvious once Iris was written off the show and JFP came into the EP position in 1995. Even after JFP departed.. the isolation of characters into bubbles continued until the last few months of the show when Amanda started interacting with Cindy, Paulina resumed interacting with Rachel/Amanda, Vicky/Lila began sparring again after being in separate orbits for over a year, etc.

I think with the Silk Press Sheila/Eva/Ted/Nicole situation fully out and in the open (for the most part)... I have some predictions for May/June: Kat/Eva/Tomas: With the revelation that her father, who she held up as a hero, is not as perfect as he's presented himself to be.. I see Kat focusing her energy on supporting her mother and pushes Tomas away (she had mentioned to Vernon about how Tomas had asked her to step in and talk Naomi into dropping the lawsuit and how she didn't feel comfortable with that). With Tomas pushed away from Kat.. he becomes the one individual that's nice to Eva and also feels a bit of guilt since his telling of what she confided in him to Kat ended up being the spark that made Kat resume investigating Eva. Eva will also go to Tomas for comfort... and that will cause even more conflict/issues between herself and Kat... and Kat and Tomas. Nicole/Ted: As we've seen for the last 2+ months... Nicole is not anything like Dani and her response to Silk Press' bombshells proves that. Even if she opts not to file for divorce.. I predict a messy War of the Roses type of situation. Although she kind of bought this on herself with the bottomless pit of trust she had for Eva irregardless of the fact that she came recommended by Mona. Martin: I have a feeling that his memories of the being Silk Press Sheila's little brownie friend will also revive the nightmares full stop.. and May will have this be the A story with Smitty and kids affected by this secret of his from the past. If found out.. will Smitty leave him, or will Smitty continue his unhealthy devotion to Martin (and it is unhealthy)? My wishlist for May/June for the B and C stories: And also, I hope we get some more focus/development on the Joey/Vanessa/Doug situation.. and also connect the threads of that threesomes to Jacob/Jacob's partner/Jacob's dad thread... and also get to see who else Joey starts to set his sights on (perhaps a Dupree.. since they're vulnerable right now). Naomi/Jacob: Cute couple.. but why are they together. As the late Agnes Nixon would ask if she viewed them .. why are they together? What is it about Naomi and Jacob's pasts pre marriage has led the two to find one another and get married? Naomi seems a control freak... is it a way to not be like her 'weak' mother Dani so she calls the shots? What draws Jacob to Naomi? Is it her sense of justice and passion? Is it the Dupree last name? Ashley/Derek: The last time she was on, we finally got a bit of personality from her that isn't so perfect. She's high strung/anal about her surroundings and her life. Is she like this because she was a latchkey kid due to her single mother working all the time? Is she only with Derek because he's 'simple' and 'uncomplicated'.. someone she thinks won't try to upset her routines? As I say... I don't know if the writers/producers have the 'why' figured out for these two.. and if they can figure that out.. story can generate from that.

In regards to Sam and Amanda... both of them were immature and crappy people. She was a spoiled daddy's girl while he had a chip on his shoulder. Both were stubborn and pigheaded... and I'm thankful I've resisted wearing the 2025 lens of assuming women are empowering and men are toxic.... when quite frankly both men and women could stand to be a little less toxic (in real life, of course).. not on my soaps where toxicity should be the norm.