Soaplovers

Some thoughts on the episode for today: - Andre is too good to be saddled with the entitled and toxic Dani. - I'm interested in seeing Cady as she molds the character of Pamela, her first original character. Pamela is nothing like Dixie nor Rosanna today... she reminds me of Olga (the modeling guru that helped Erica Kane with her career on AMC) and the late Carrie Donovan (Link) - I'm team Hayley. Dani is just so unlikable that I'm glad Bill cheated on her and dumped her. - Jacob and Naomi have a nice chemistry and rapport with one another. The thing Naomi refuses to see is that the reason she's such a pragmatic/logical person and is good at her job is because of her father Bill. It underscores the importance and contributions of fathers to not only their sons, but their daughters. - Bill was a little scary in his scenes with Mike, but you need those scenes to contrast with the scenes of Bill as a father. The show is at least recognizing that you need a strong male character that you love to hate. - Smitty/Martin need a recommendation for a good marriage counselor from Nicole

I know Cady says she's trying to channel Opal to Dani's Erica.. but I'm seeing that she's more like Olga then Opal.

RHOBH: I haven't watched the show in a season or two, but I had some thoughts on the Garcelle departure situation. - Ericka stating that Garcelle doesn't share her life on the show made me laugh considering Kyle and Ericka have both been guilty of not sharing any details and becoming almost mafia like when anyone broaches the subject of their personal lives. - Garcelle's first season on the show was basically her sharing her life and not being around the group quite as much. In fact, some of the women made it a point to paint Garcelle as being stand offish and not wanting to associate with the other women.. so Garcelle course corrected in the follow up season. - Garcelle became a target starting with her 2nd season on the show when she rightfully raked Rinna over the coals for how she threw Denise under the bus. What was telling was when Garcelle asked how she could be sure Rinna wouldn't pull the same thing on her like she pulled on Denise.. and Rinna said 'I'm better friends with you'. Garcelle knew to be on her guard after that conversation, especially when Rinna admitted she isn't trustworthy. - I think the dragging Roz did to both Garcelle and Sutton put Garcelle in a bad headspace.. and when Sutton seemed willing to go back for more abuse from the other women.. she basically was over the whole reunion and walked out as quickly as she could once the toast was completed. - If Tilly is smart, she doesn't come back for another season in a friend of nor housewife role... because she might have a Rinna pulled on her by Sutton.. or she could pull a Rinna on Sutton.

Of the Marah's, I actually thought Lindsay McKeon's Marah seemed the most like Josh with little to no traits of Reva in her. I thought that version of Marah was more interesting when interacting with Reva.. as opposed to the Laura Bundy version that was too Reva and too Broadway for the soap.

For some reason Salem was established in Illinois even though it seemed more New England than the Midwest to me. There is an actual Salem in Illinois, but it's not the massive urban city that is portrayed on the show. So I'm just going to assume it's Salem in a different universe. Based on past accounts, even though the new regime doesn't start till next week, I do believe that the breakdown/script writers usually handle episodes a few weeks after the head-writer outlines them. So I'm sure that the breakdown/script writers are working under the direction of the new head-writing team this week hence the somewhat improved flow of the most recent episodes.

Unrelated to Santa Barbara, but on Tubi.. Marcy Walker's short lived series Palace Guard is there to view in all its short lived glory https://tubitv.com/series/300004619/palace-guard

From what I understand, this soap was supposed to be CBS' answer to Days Of Our Lives with the focus on the sexual and psychological exploits of the Hathaway family. My late mom sample the show when it aired, and she said it was awkward/slow at the start and didn't pick up till later on (I assume once Depriest/Scofield stopped head-writing). Depriest actually got her soap writing career started at Edge of Night and wrote alongside Scofield. That soap and this soap would explain her deep fascination with serial killer mysteries and with the psychological/sexual dynamics between men and women.. which carried over into most of the soaps she head-wrote. Maybe she couldn't focus on just the psychological elements that CBS required for this soap so she was replaced by writers more able to write that.

I saw that once on Encore Mystery... it was intense and she kicked butt. Some of my favorite tv movies from the 1980s Deadly Messages from 1985. Don't Go to Sleep from 1982.

The Georgie story made sense up to the Dr. Caspian plot. She was the peacemaker, she was the one to cover up her mother's alcoholism, she was the one that kept the family together. She had this need to always be the one for others to depend on, and realistically having to deal with her husband being unemployed, her son's cancer, and then her other son's issues caused Georgie to break. I actually think Georgie's story was in character.

I know a few people that are attorneys, and cases like the one Naomi is handling generally settle out of court and usually the settlement is a bit less than what was offered by Bill. Casting needed to do a better job with the three plaintiffs because they didn't act as if they're competent at their jobs.

Run Andre Run! You're far too young and sweet to attach yourself to someone damaged and pathetic as Dani. Shame if Eva does turn out to be related to him, because he has the best chemistry with Eva..imho With that said, there was no point in featuring Dani today. It's basically rinse, lather, and repeat...and the viewers deserve a break from her. Vanessa/Diego stuff would have been more effective if social climber Hayley was on and discovered the two together. It would have been an effective first step for Hayley to gain entry into the country club world without Bill's help.. and she's already shown that she has potential to be a problem solver. Bill/Naomi had some great father/daughter scenes. I've always believed that Chelsea is going to be a tougher nut to crack for Bill than Naomi. Chelsea has the added weight of being caretaker for Dani.. so she has to have some resentment toward Bill that runs deeper then Naomi's (whose resentment is far greater for Hayley than Bill). Martin/Smitty family scenes were well written.. but I'm more interested in whatever Martin is hiding and how that will affect his marriage, career, and his relationship with his kids. Tyrell and Samantha shouldn't be leading story.. they're teens. Maybe the show should have held off introducing them into the summer (the traditional time when teens were featured in stories).

Even though this show seems shy about showing off their men sans shirt so far, here is what we might have to look forward to from this actor from a physical stand point

There's a Youtube channel with some video shorts of this particular individual. While he isn't exactly Shakespeare, he does seem to have some acting ability.

What I loved about the show was that the first two or three seasons reminded me a spoof of a primetime soap opera with the close knit family and all the various men that came and went from the sisters lives. When the show veered into the darker subject matter, it lost the charm/whimsy of the earlier seasons. In regards to the Georgie/John story... I remember the high school or college reunion where John was wanting to get back together with Georgie because he realized how badly he was treating her.. and she turned him down flat because she was 'in love' with the Dr. I think the final episode where the two looked to be taking the first step toward getting back together was a good ending. Since she did push away her husband and realized once she was single that she really threw away her marriage.

Of Erica's contemporaries.. Brooke and Barbara were Erica's best fued. Of the next generation down, Annie was Erica's best feud... especially when both were at Oak Haven. The way Annie kept reminding Erica that she was no better then her, that she also had stabbed a man, and then wondered out loud 'And people think I'm the crazy one' once she found out about Janet/Erica's burying Kinder in her backyard.

Ironically, Rachel regained some of her spirit and former personality during the year that Carl was presumed dead. The way she helped run Cory Publishing during a spell, quickly deduced that Jordan Stark was not to be trusted, and during the time he was holding her hostage, she was trying to figure out ways to escape to help save her daughter Amanda from him. Those actions reminded me of the Rachel of old instead of the Rachel that seemed in a trance once she/Carl got together in late 1993/early 1994. The one smart thing the show did do on the final episode was have the final scene be Rachel looking at all of the photos in the Cory living room before she and Carl head upstairs to bed.

This story has/had the potential to be very nuanced and not so cut and dry. All three women have proven to not be very bright so I'm betting that the performance reviews all three received at work were legit, but because slimy Mike had harassed all three women.. they have a case. The ironic thing is that Hayley might actually have deserved the promotion, but because of the actions of Mike and also her having an affair with Bill.. that is called into question. There have a few instances where Hayley has displayed skills that would make one a good paralegal. She's detail oriented (she figured out Dani had broken into their house), she's rightly questioned certain statements from Bill, had a few good points in her interactions with Naomi, and today's pregnancy talk was in an area where she's manipulating him.. but also be upfront/pro-active. Maybe they'll be a twist and Bill won't let her opt out of the case because of his pride and wanting to go up against the best. In regards to todays episode: Today was a character development day, and Danielle Paige is settling in nicely as a soap opera script writer. The ironic thing about Kat/Tomas is that they might not be a long term couple because of her persona/looking down on Eva.. not because of anything Eva is doing to them. Dana is still the breakout character..imho.

Jessie and Calla could have worked if they'd kept the original dynamic and backstory of the characters. Calla was very cold and manipulative.. especially when she was guilting Lillian about helping her with Beth when they were penniless. Once Long left the writing team, Calla became just a love interest of Ross' and sucking up to Alexandra as her personal assistant... while Jessie was paired with Simon (which I recall even the actors that played Simon and Jessie were surprised about because it happened randomly). Staab, as shown later, was quite capable of playing a grey character.. but since this was the start of her acting career.. she probably didn't have the confidence nor instincts to apply layers to the character. Follyworld! I had completely forgot about that fan fic series, which was created by a Fletcher/Holly fan originally in order to give them story/airtime that the show wasn't giving them. If I recall, the fan fic writers wrote some interesting stuff for Holly, Fletcher, Beth, Nick, Phillip, and even Tangie had an interesting story arc. I believe that the owner of the website welcomed freelance writers, but it's been so many years that I don't recall if that memory is accurate or not.

Rebecca Staab as Jessie, Beth's cousin. As everyone is aware, Beth's cousin was supposed to be named India Raines, or something along those lines. She was supposed to be a mischievous trashy cousin of Beth's that would come in and make life difficult for her cousin and aunt. When the role was originally being cast in 1984, both Mary Kay Adams and Kristi Farrell read for the part. The casting people liked both actresses and decided to create two characters for both actresses. Adams got the mischievous traits in a more posh/upper crust form while Farrell got the fun traits in a more trashy form. By the time that Long did introduce Beth's cousin.. the character had no interesting traits because those traits were given to India and Roxy and she was introduced a few weeks before Long left the show. Also, Staab was not able to make the character interesting and the writing didn't help either. The initial episodes that introduced Jessie and her mother Calla had a Toddler and Tiara type of set up where Calla seemed to have pushed her daughter into that world (even hinting at Calla pushing Jessie into unsavory things in order to win and be successful). That aspect seemed to have been dropped once Long left the show and Jessie was subjected to a Simon/Jessie/India triangle that went nowhere.

There was one or two scenes where Samantha and Royce embraced.. and there was a moment where they felt uncomfortable because they enjoyed the embraced too much. And I remember the therapist said to both of them that it was normal for such a thing to happen because neither were raised together. I think that was to set up the later story where Samantha was a con artist, and I wonder if she was originally supposed to be a con artist and that was changed.. or if that whole arc was a red herring to provide conflict for Lucinda. The only other time where Emily, as played by KMH, was written decently was during Culliton's brief stint as head writer when she was dating the teacher Jef. She was written as trying to be a good person, but her past baggage was so massive that she ended up driving him away because of her ability to be her own worst enemy. After that story, the character didn't really get consistent writing nor layers.

Simms, like Melanie Smith of ATWT fame, had this ability to be sensual and tortured at the same time. Both women would have thrived in the 1940s during the film noir era as the femme fatale and/or anti heroine. Both actresses made their characters on GL and ATWT so distinctive/memorable that it was virtually impossible to recast both parts. I'm still confused as to what the show was going for when Ann Hamilton was cast as Mindy. Her Mindy seemed like an Annie Oakley type with a bit of the spoiled/princess vibe that Krista T played... but without the sensual/tortured vibe of Simms. Barbara C was known for playing quirky and comedic characters.. but her Mindy was almost too mature and angry.

I think to Boomers like my late mom, she would have though the Royce story was a great Marland story. She was bummed about Neal being murdered though since that meant that the character couldn't come and go like Adams other character India. If I recall, Royce realized in his integrated persona didn't really love Emily in the way that she deserved to be loved. There were scenes of him having dreams where he was with Emily and she turned into Julie so he did the right thing by not marrying Emily... but I think choosing to do it at the altar was in bad form. The Royce leaving Emily at the altar story, to me, altered the Emily character and how KMH approaching playing the character. Before that event happened, she played Emily as more level headed, guarded, and more of a grey character. After that event happened, the show and actress really delved into her neurotic tendencies.. and the character never returned to how she was written pre-Royce. After the marriage altar event, he spent the last few months of his stint flirting with Julie a few times, getting to know his twin, a brief situation where Royce/Samantha felt something when hugging, and then was tested some with Shannon before he left the show.

Pam Long wasn't writing the show when Josh returned in 1986. When I watched the scenes where Reva and Josh came face to face in late 1986, I was baffled at how quickly Reva just accepted Josh back in her life and arms.. especially after the conversation they had where he admitted he knew of her suicide attempt and didn't even care to reach out to her, etc. When she returned as head-writer in July/August 1987, she was the one to bring on Sonni as his thought to be dead wife.. and also split Josh/Reva up. He was written as more judgmental. In regard to Josh/Harley, the set up for the two started back in late 1989/early 1990 with the two clashing with one another during the whole Dylan paternity story.. and Reva deciding to hire Harley with Josh not liking nor accepting her. Harley didn't really act like Reva because she didn't put up with his attitude and would push back against him. Had Robert Newman not opted to leave, or if he had an extra six months on his contract, I think the coupling would have been done more gradual. I always suspect that Pam Long and Calhoun were the ones pushing Mallet/Mindy because once both were gone, the show opted for Mindy/Nick and Malley/Harley.

I hope he comes on again because

The one weakness that Ron C seems to employ in his episodes are the all too short scenes. To me, I'd rather have seen the Andre/Ted, Eva/Shanice, Eva/Silk Press Sheila, and Vanessa/Joey scenes be longer.. and cut out the Doug scenes and the Dani/Chelsea/Samantha scenes. We got some backstory from Ted's perspective on what was going on with Silk Press Sheila and Nicole. Now do we believe he only had that one affair? I'm on the fence about that. Shanice and Eva were a good combo, but I'd rather they be frenemies then friends since they're both so nosy and all Eva and Silk Press Sheila are a good mother and daughter duo. So Joey was previously married....hmmmmm. The show doesn't mention something like that unless it will come into play later. While I hate making characters related, making Joey the long lost father of Ashley would actually give her character some purpose since lord knows the show seems incapable of giving that girl any sort of purpose other then as the perky nurse. There was no need for Dani to be on today, and I feel that the writers will make her the Reva of the show.. and that isn't a compliment.