Soaplovers

I think the reason her first run was pretty successful was because she was 2nd in command for months on the show before she became the official head-writer in August 1992. Although, I do recall her first months were a mixed bag and i think it was because she was finishing up stories that Agnes had started (i.e. Edmund vendetta against Dimitri, Galen/Carter story, and Dixie's breakdown). I do remember the blind date between Maria/Edmund that McTavish referenced in that except.. and I happened to be home from school that day as a kid watching with my mom.. and I remembered thinking 'oh they make a good couple' so not only did she notice the chemistry between them.. but so did viewers. Although I do think a Maria/Edmund/Brooke triangle would have worked better then the storyline where she married Tad and degraded herself for him when he was hooking up with Dixie behind her back. If I recall.. it sounded like the character of Risa ended up being split into two characters (Becca and Greenlee). And if I recall, Tim Dillon was also supposed to have been the guy that Risa was supposed to go for in original plans.. or that could have been just a rumor.

Here's a blog about that show https://zebradelic.blogspot.com/2013/02/lynne-moody-in-charleston-1979.html It starred not only Delta Burke.. but it also starred Lynne Moody and Jordan Clarke (of Guiding Light fame).. with Clarke/Burke playing a Rhett Butler/Scarlett O'hara enemy to lovers story while Moody is in love with Burke's brother. I wish I could see it because it sounds like awfully soapy.

If I recall, Malone was more interested in short term arcs rather then long term stories so it's possible he might not have had an end game in terms of a love interest in mind for Luna at first. I recall that Luna had a crush on Max when he returns to the canvas, but it was unrequited. I think once Cord leaves, Max/Blair are tested and the show opts to go with them with Asa thrown in as a big obstacle with Luna waiting in the wings until she has a brief love interest of her own (Suede.. I think was his name). Mia Korf also quit the show suddenly in early 1993 and I recall that the writers had to scramble to re-vamp their Feb 1993 sweep plans since she was heavily going to be featured along with Max/Asa.

Dani... yawn. One note character played by a one note actress. Andre/Ashley/Derek = Not working Hayley has potential, but I would love to see her mixing it up with other characters in town.. and not just isolated to Bill and Dani. Tamara is a great actress.. is that why she's given the most cringey words to speak because she has the ability to make them sound good?

Considering that Reena spent months on AW with a simmering feud with Pat, it would have made sense to carry Pat over onto Texas instead of Iris. However, wasn't Beverlee talking of leaving AW due to burnout so her being added to Texas was a way to keep her on as Iris?

Mctavish sounds like a major witch, toxic to the very core. Her first stint was pretty good though it did move away from the Gothic touches of Nixon's AMC, but it did have some strong stories that brought the show into the 90s. Her other two stints were horrid

Her worst was the 2nd stint of AW. However, she did a load of good during her brief stints on The Doctors, AMC, and Sunset Beach... and from what I understand, her stint at Days in the early 80s was also interesting. But I liked her stint at AMC because she made some changes that made sense such as moving Skye out of the Erica/Travis/Jackson orbit. She broke up Barbara/Tad and paired him with Dixie and put her back into the Erica/Travis/Jackson orbit. She also made Natalie less of a victim and closer to her original 1985 version of the character in terms of her relationship with Jeremy. And she started the process of writing Nico/Cecily off the show, and @Maximwrote some other interesting things for Erica/Mona in the 2nd half of 1989 before Agnes returns as head-writer.

The first year of the show was derailed because of ABC interfering with the Lily Slater tale and forcing the show to wrap it up earlier then planned, plus the Merrill V story was not popular with fans either. So I have a feeling this Jonathan story was an attempt by Agnes and co to make Loving stand out and to establish a new identity. Had she continued this more supernatural/gothic vibe for Loving, it could have been the ticket to giving the show an identity. Corinth could have been the daytime version of Derry Maine with all the weird and random going-ons mixed with the typical soap opera plots.

That last little twist with Eva was a nice surprise, yet made sense since Silk Press Sheila looked like she was going to be causing some trouble. And the thing is that I kind of felt for her even though she's the baddie in the situation.

Problem with Phantom Erica was that the show treated it like a joke instead of actually using the car accident and scar to really delve into Erica's constant need to be beautiful and the best. This could have helped Erica realize that she was definitely more then a pretty face and that she didn't have to rely on physical beauty in order to be taken seriously. I kind of think Agnes Nixon seemed unwilling to evolve nor mature Erica

Maybe it was an acting choice after the affair with Lillian and death of Maureen.. to show Ed's remorse/guilt over what happened. He did finally lighten up a bit at the end when he and Holly got back together.

Wasn't Riley involved with Tina's daughter (when she was in her gothic era) and then later Jen? If so, Riley was Jen's best pairing and it was tragic that she was killed off just as her character finally had purpose and the actress had finally learned how to act. And I think the Daniel Colson story would have worked perfectly in the first half of the 80s, and I even think it could have worked in the 2000s if it were better written and developed. Even back in the 2000s, I can't tell you how many times there were married straight men looking to have a guy on the side and the lengths they would go to in order to ensure no one knew about his private activities. So the story was realistic.. but the serial aspect was an interesting twist on something that was the norm in 00s suburbia. It just wasn't written well.

Ashley has barely had any scenes with Eva, Jan (her mom), nor Silk Press Sheila yet. And Derek is very isolated, and I think a scene with just him and Jacob is needed since the two are good friends (or so it's been mentioned). And the gambling storyline has barely had any focus nor has Vanessa/Doug so when they get their once a week focus, it's hard to be invested in it. The shows obsession with showing every single second of the Dani/Bill/Hayley story has prevented the show from fully developing a strong C-story. They've hardly focused and developed the B-story involving Nicole/Ted/Silk Press Sheila/Eva, but due to the acting of all the performers in that story.. it's more successful in my eyes. Logically the Martin cover up story would be the C-story with Ashley/Andre/Derek & Vanessa/Doug being the simmering stories waiting to take one of the top three story slots once the simmer develops into a boil... but the show's obsession with Dani has made all those stories underdeveloped. The only thing I notice in the scripts are that scenes are barely more then a minute long before cutting to a new scene. I understand the attention span is shorter then what it used to be, but there are times I start to get into a scene and then it flashes to the next scene suddenly. Also.. I kind of wonder if maybe a 30 minute soap format would have worked better.. and then expanded to an hour down the line. It's hard to launch a new soap, but any hour long soap that has launched has struggled and not really succeeded long term.

Early Tad and Dixie were a pretty good couple, but eventually Dixie lost any sort of agency and character development as time went on. Partly due to the actress opting to leave and come back the show on and off, but also because both characters kind of outgrew one another over time. Lighting on AMC in the late 70s, 80s, and the first half of the 90s really defined AMC to me since it had a Gothic element that really defined the show. I think the lighting in the later years of the show was too bright and the sets were basic without any sort of personality. In regards to the Gothic storytelling attempts after the early 90s... the Camille Hawkins story and Erica's Phantom of the Opera story in the late 90s was the last time the show tried to do some sort of gothic storytelling... but those stories made the Goldie/Silver/Damon story from 1987 look like a quality Gothic story... and that story had a lot of issues.

I'm sure Eva will turn out to be Ted's, but is Eva actually Silk Press Sheila's child? I'm getting a vibe that maybe Silk Press Sheila did some stealing. And I wonder if maybe this Alan individual that Silk Press Sheila mentioned losing six months ago could have been a patient of Nicole's? I didn't see the point of Andre being in the episode. Vanessa/Doug have an interesting vibe, and I'm wondering if Joey's interest in Doug will cause issues for Vanessa and her business. Also, curious on if this Vanessa/Diego situation is going to go somewhere or if it will end up being a way for Joey to blackmail Vanessa? Ashley/Derek = no comment Smitty/Martin finally kissed and seemed like a couple today

In regards to the Lewis family, I wonder if Robert Newman leaving at the end of 1984 threw a wrench into plans Long/Kobe had for the Lewis family since him staying would have continued the whole Josh/HB/Reva situation with Billy fighting against Reva being in the family with Trish trying to be peacemaker. Since Josh was gone, and Kyle coming onto the show trying to take over Lewis Oil caused a shift in how the family was written since the Lewis family united against an outside enemy.

Clint was a hothead, but he wouldn't have been homophobic based on the character we saw at play since he came on in the late 70s. I could have seen Asa having some issues, but never Clint. I do recall seeing a NYE episode in 1992/1993 where Vicki seemed committed to Clint and reviving their marriage so I do agree that the end game was going to be Vicki and Clint working on their marriage.. and Sloan would be just a passing infatuation/friendship. The only time I could have seen Vicki wavering would have been doing the Roger Gordon era, but the actor they picked to play Roger didn't have chemistry with Vicki.

Yeah, I'm bored with the whole Dani/Bill/Hayler hamster wheel story. It's like I'm watching Passions all over again. Please end the story, and backburner Dani because putting all of your eggs in that characters basket will lead to disaster. I guess even the showrunners disregard Nicole for the one note theatrics of Dani. Karla said in an interview that she views Dani to be like Reva Shayne, but I don't agree with that comparison. Reva had layers and was played by a good actress unlike Dani.

I understand that MVJ has said that this show/characters has been formulating in her mind for years, but sometimes things that look good on paper doesn't always look good when written and filmed. Today's episode wasn't horrible, but it wasn't as good as the previous episodes were. I didn't think that Derek/Ashley were necessary to show though I did like the interaction between Eva and Andre.. plus Eva figuring out that Silk Press Sheila will be more of a liability then a help. Dani treating her arrest/mug shot as an opportunity to model just underscores how one note her character is. Karla can bring it, but she can only bring it if there is something on the page for her to play. Hayley showed some spunk and good sense. I'm intrigued to get a one on one with her and Naomi.. plus, I'm curious to see if Ashley knows Hayley or not. I would assume Hayley at one time had to have known the have nots at one time and she was kicked out of the club after her home wrecking. I welcome a faster pace, but we're still getting to know the characters so doing all these plot twists doesn't work if we don't know nor care about the characters.

I bet the 10 episodes reaired on BET will have a higher viewership then whatever it's replacing. It happened several years ago when the revived AMC and OLTL had a syndicated run on OWN (after the backlash Oprah got for not airing new episodes).. and the ratings for each episode was significantly higher then the programming they replaced. Any exposure can help a show get exposure and more $.

With the most recent lost films found, maybe one day London After Midnight (1927) will be found. While it's been told that it wasn't very good, the change to see a Lon Chaney film is always welcome.. just to see the creative lengths he went in playing his characters during the silent movie era.

For me, the period between 1939 and 1943 during her final years of MGM provided her with her most diverse array of films. It was the period between her shop girl years and the film noir older woman roles that dominated most of her Warner Brothers era. The Women was a play on her shop girl persona by making her the heavy instead of the heroine to great effect. The one silver lining of the Hayes Code was that writers and performers had to be creative within the strict limitations of the code.. and sometimes I think the lack of controls has made movies/concepts less creative. A Woman's Face is her first crack at doing film noir to great effect.. playing a role that from what I understand was originally intended for Greta Garbo. To me, her biggest departure was doing 'They All Kissed the Bride', which was originally meant for Carole Lombard to play before her untimely death. While the script was changed to play to Crawford's strengths.. she certainly does well with the physical comedy parts in her rare attempt at a screwball comedy... that mostly lands.

I think there was a throwaway line that Jan (Ashley's mom) heard about Dani throwing the coffee cup from when she was working at Vanessa's house. I'm also curious to know if Ashley knows Hayley and she opted to side with Naomi.. or if Ashley/Naomi are friends only because of Derek and Jacob being friends.

I wonder if that was part of the original plan when the character of Vanessa was planned to be named Stacy and was meant to be older (late 40s). From what the actress that plays Vanessa said in a podcast interview, she came in and provided a flirty and mischievous approach when auditioning for the part and the show liked her so such that they cast her. Part of me thinks maybe Cady should have been cast as Vanessa and Lauren Buglioli should have been cast as Pamela since I could see Cady vibing with Daphnee more then Karla. But then I recall how Cady is more free spirited and likes to leave/come back to a soap at random while Lauren is Atlanta based. So Cady could play a character that comes and goes like Pamela while Lauren is guaranteed to stay long term as the character.

I think it was mentioned before that Vanessa comes from money so maybe Joey knows about that and is using the hubby to get to that money. That's my money. While I liked Dani getting what was coming to her, I was really hoping that we could have gotten another Bill and Dani free day so that we could have focused more focus time on the other characters today. I have read on other boards that people are kind of annoyed with the overexposure of Dani, and I have to agree. Nicole's family and story is more interesting to me then Dani's, plus would like to see a bit more focus on Ruben/Anita outside of handwringing about their kids and grandkids