Soaplovers

The Stephanie Martin arc always interested in me and it sounded like it was one of the first times Nicole was in peril. I wish I could see that arc in full.

RHOC: Bringing Gretchen back as a 'friend of' in season 19 reminds me of why I was happy when the show did a soft reset for season 9 when Alexis/Gretchen were let go and Shannon/Lizzie were added. Sadly, Andy is out of touch with the world and viewers that I wonder if maybe he needs to be replaced by someone younger and with more perspective on what is popular in 2025 vs 2010. OC20 will be a bust if there isn't a soft reboot. To me... Tamra needs to be put on pause, Gretchen/Emily need to go bye bye, and Gina needs to be downgraded to 'friend of'.. and Heather can decide what she wants to do.. but she is so checked out. Seeing part 2 of the reunion, I can see Katie's husband is the brains in that relationship. Katie keeps making the same mistakes without really learning (i.e. bringing up tidbits like Shannon talking to the producer about firing with her only source being Jenn... the same Jenn that threw her under the bus during the season). I almost want to have Katie being fired for not being smart... but I do admit I would like to see the Shannon/Jenn/Katie dynamic explored more and I think perhaps the show should scale back on the cast trips going back to the final cast trip being the only trip the women go on together.

Naomi is such a miserable bitch, I wish Hayley was poisoning her. SPS and Anita = Great on screen chemistry SPS scaring Laura will never not amuse me, but I do wish they keep SPS from being exposed for causing Laura's accident. It could be something that flares up on occasion, but never being able to prove it. Phyllis and her role in the hit and run against the Bug and Paul took years to be exposed... but the show doesn't seem to understand proper pacing so I'm sure she'll be exposed at Winterfest. The one thing I noticed about this show is that characters will pop up in the middle of the episode that weren't included in the cold opening of the episode. It's a nice surprise. Lastly, it's been a month since Guza left his position... and I notice some subtle changes in some of the stories (i.e. it seems like Ashley/Andre are not going to be a thing except for an awkward encounter here and there, Derek's ruse was exposed, and Eva/SPS seem more like a close mom/daughter than a toxic situation).

I thought Ben had more layers,especially when more of his backstory came out that involved Selena and their daughter Drew. I also liked his friendship with Beth, and it was the rare times when Beth Chamberlain didn't do the weird acting tics that she was doing during that period of time. She acted more like the old Beth when she was around him, and it was a shame that the show wasn't interested in mining Phillips relationships with his Marler relatives since I thought stories/scenes would have worked better if the show had remembered his close relationship with cousin Dinah and uncle Ross.. plus his thoughts on his half uncle Ben hanging out with his ex wife Beth. Plus, I think he would have taken his newly discovered cousin Drew under his wing because he would have understood how she would have felt finding out who her real parents were.

He and Jake took airtime away from veterans so they always felt like intruders

Pacing is still an issue with the show and the whole Derek/Ashley arc is a perfect example of how the pacing is off. Had we seen Derek progress from hiding his progress in a misguided way of surprising Ashley on their wedding day to trying to keep her tied to him... then I could buy Ashley's reaction. Instead of seeing that slow descent play out, the story was fast tracked to where Ashley discovered Derek just as he finally managed to stand without falling... so her reaction is out of whack and over the top. I'm not sure if the writers intended for this to be the case, or if this was a change after the change of co-head-writers. The story as I was seeing it seemed like something Guza would have suggested and cooked up... and now I'm wondering if the story was fast tracked in order to free up Ashley/Derek to move into different orbits. Speaking of which, Derek had more chemistry with his female co-worker than he did with Ashley...imho

I actually think Diana from season 1 to 4 had moments when she was likable and warm, which balanced out when she was acting like her shrew of a mother Karen. Diana was partly sacrificed at the altar of Karen. And yes, I liked Karen Fairgate during the Sid era and her widow era.. but Karen of season 5 through season 14 was just a horrible individual. I was usually team Mac when the two had conflict.

Paige was a shot of energy that the show needed, the problem was that there was a lack of viable other characters in her peer group that could have helped sustain the show. Michael and Eric were created for a show that was originally supposed to be Family esque so they didn't really work acting/story wise when the show transitioned into a primetime soap opera. They always seemed kind of out of place to me. To me, Olivia vs Paige could have been an interesting story since we witnessed their warm friendship implode at the end of season 8/early season 9.. and that element could have been revisited in season 10 and season 11 since Greg did become Olivia's step dad in season 10 and I'm sure having Olivia working at the Sumner Group in season 11 would have ensured she wasn't islanded off.

I agree that the early 2000s Reilly serial killer story looked as though it was going to be a legit serial killer mystery. The Maggie arc especially was well done and gothic with some call backs to vital elements from her past (and the way she was 'killed' was by a demon she thought she managed to control). Melaswen (New Salem spelled backwards) as a location was probably planned.. but what that location was going to be was re-written/adjusted once the show did a 180 and had all the victims really live on the island. Reilly did love his offbeat and gothic locations... anyone remember Aremid (Dimera spelled backwards). I did think the lady in white had a promising start in Aremid.. but it was a major letdown. As the World Turns: Oddly as a kid, I remember the gothic period with Duncan's castle where someone was pretending to be Earl Mitchell.. which drove Lisa crazy while it look as though Grant Colman was behind it (I don't recall who actually did that.. perhaps it was James Stenbeck?). The other story I wished I could see involving Lisa was The Willows story from 1979 (which I believe was a Marland tale during his brief stint head-writing before he switched to GL). Guiding Light: Though the Dreaming Death Story was an odd story... I still think the scenes where Lesley ann succumbs to the illness and she's up in heaven is creepy.

The problem is that the writers are thinking Ashley/Naomi are the good guys and Derek is an evil entity that is holding poor sweet Ashley back with his manipulative ways. Thankfully most of the audience still have working brains and eyes and they aren't buying what the writers are selling. Ashley will be that individual that'll wake up one day when she's the same age as Jan and be regretful about where her life is... but unlike her mother, will naturally blame others instead of herself. Naomi, on the other hand, is being a world class witch to all men because she hasn't dealt with the anger she feels at her father over how he treated her mother...and I think she lashes out and never fully trusts Jacob because deep down she fears she'll be like her mother when she actually is more like her father than her mother.

It's a wonderful and haunting song about a gay guy that leaves his small town to find freedom to be himself in a bigger city. Surprised that the show decided to play that during that particular scene with a hetero character.

I know that pop music playing on soaps was a thing in the 80s... but did the producers understand the lyrics of this particular song? I'm going to assume no (most people in the 80s didn't understand what She Bop by Cyndi Lauper was about.. so doubt if they knew what this song was about)

Basically.... I'm team Todd, Team Jared, and Team John after watching the season and the mid season trailer. Unless there's physical abuse and/or cheating, I always side with the guy over the woman when couples fight. That trailer solidifies that for me.

I know O'leary came on in May 1983 after the Long/Kobe team came in... even though the other Rick was very cute. However, the other Rick probably wouldn't have worked chemistry wise with Mindy/Beth so I can understand why the decision to recast was made. Oddly, the brief stint where Temu Morgan was interacting with the original Rick and Philip pre Kobe/Long worked and was the first time where Temu Morgan had a bit of personality. While OG Morgan would have been out of place in the whole Josh/Kelly situation that developed in 1981/1982.... I think she would have been very effective in the whole Amanda/Jennifer/Mark story.. moreso than Temu Morgan was.

Eva entering without an invite because the door is unlocked makes me chuckle since entitled Dani loves to do that all the time, but also makes me think security needs to be beefed up. Chelsea being unaffected is a symptom of what's wrong with modern day soap opera telling... plot over character. She should have been the one to fly off the handle for Eva just randomly showing up.. but she was calm and rational. Bad writing. Samantha is a moron and a waste of airtime. Can she just go live with June and the two be written off? The look Caroline gave during her 1:1 scenes with Hayley makes me think she knows a lot more than we think (maybe she's more aware of Hayley than she, and the viewer, assumes). Martin flying off the handle is pretty in character.. and I've always thought that Martin and Smitty had an abusive undertone to it. The man tried to sabotage a job opportunity Smitty had because he didn't want him to work.. if that isn't a symptom of abuse, I don't know. What I like about the Kat/Eva dynamic is that both of them have good points and bad points. Kat is a spoiled and entitled princess, but she also knows how to read people and was/is right about Eva while Eva can be underhanded, but she's got drive and has had to hustle in a way that Kat has never had to do. It's been established that Hayley hasn't known Naomi and co for very long.. perhaps two years at most so it would make sense she wasn't aware that there was a 3rd brother.. especially if he's been off the canvas for awhile. Hayley being thristy is funny.. but she needs to stop being so sloppy.

Unpopular opinion, but I think the ship has truly sailed on a revival and I think this cultural obsession with revivals tells me that people have a difficult time letting go and moving forward. It was a great soap opera, but sometimes you need to let things rest in peace and move forward with new content/material.

Based on some of the episodes floating around Youtube, it looked as though Marland remained as head-writer until September 1982 (Mid September) with Pat Faken being headwriter in the October and November 1982 episodes (where the main focuses of the few episodes available online showed a heavy focus on Nola/Quint/Silas.. and Amanda/Mark/Jennifer with Josh/Morgan as support). The Christmas 1982 episode seemed well down with the various families all interacting with an interesting set up at the Marlers with Justin, Evie, Hope, Alan, Philip, and baby Samantha all together.. with Philip butting heads with Justin while Alan/Justin exchanging looks over their shared knowledge about Philip (plus, I believe there was an episode in December 1982 where Jackie's father had passed away with the theory he was in distress having to keep the secret of Philip's true paternity). The 1983 episodes from January through June 1983 for Philip are interesting where we saw Evie and Helena both being surrogate mother figures for Philip at different intervals. I believe Evie lasts airs in June 1983 after spending the first half of 1983 being saddened because she was missing Ben, who had left town while trying to be a buffer between Philip and Justin/Alan. I was surprised she lasted so long, but I have to say that I think she was the one character that was unaffected by the writer changes (in other words, her character remained a sweet and gentle individual without being insipid through the Dobson, Marland, and the brief writer regimes before being written out at the start of the Long/Kobe era).

I will confirm that it was a rom com/chick lit tv movie.

https://www.instagram.com/clarkpb01/

Sharing Richard - 1988 Tv movie A tv movie that featured soap actresses and one not talked about much. Basically these three women are good friends that each meet a man that turns out to be the same guy. So naturally the three women decide to share him without letting him know that this is being done. What can go wrong with an arrangement like this LOL An interesting bit of trivia that one of the writers of this tv movie went on to create CSI Miami, CSI NY, and CSI Cyber.

I had read that Marland quitting in a huff hurt the show because his stories were often these complex and intricate stories. While that can be a positive when things are going well behind the scenes, it can hurt a show if said head-writer quits and doesn't really leave any sort of visible way to resolve the stories. The reason Marland was able to come in and quickly get to effectively pick up where the Dobson's left off was because their stories were easy to pick up and run with. From what I recall, there were three short-term head-writing teams that tried to make sense of Marland's stories with varying degrees of success. Perhaps one of the short-term writers ( my guess is the L Virginia Browne/Gene Palumbo) that decided to combine the Mark and Mona/Rebecca stories... two birds/one stone. The fall-out was Amanda alienating her new found family of Jennifer and Morgan with her deceit, which sadly we didn't get to see followed through because of backstage issues once Long/Kobe were established on the show. My guess is that it was more Kobe that had an issue with Amanda than Long... especially when the actress that played Amanda theorized in her Locher Room interview that the new team wanted to move away from the European gothic elements of the Dobson/Marland era.. and her character didn't fit where they wanted to take the show (though there was an interview that Pam Long did in early 1984 where she raved about the actress that played Amanda.. so I'm sure Kobe was the culprit).

From watching the 1984 episodes, it seemed as though once the show came back from the two week hiatus (during the Olympics), it seemed as though the show went back to the basics with two pretty good mystery/plotlines: The Locked Room murder mystery and the mysterious backstory of newbie Liz, who was putting constructing a skull she had discovered. Only one of the two mysteries were concluded before the end of the show, but the Liz story did result in the return of Laurie Ann.. and her determination to find her child as the show concluded.

It sounds like the lady in black that the Dobson's introduced in the last few months of their tenue was going to be someone tied to the Spauldings (probably Amanda's bio mom). I'm curious who the Dobson's had in mind for that part of the story since I doubt very much insipid Jennifer was who they would have created.... they probably would have had something gothic/creepy without it veering into camp (most of Marland's gothic attempts were campy at best). In regards to Lucille, since she seemed intent on eliminating any man that got in the way of her control/hold over Amanda so I imagine that either Amanda would have killed Lucille in self-defense to protect herself and/or Ben... or Lucille might have taken her own life and framed Ben for it (figuring if she couldn't kill him, might as well frame him for it) had the Dobson's continued on beyond late 1979. Another question I had was did Elizabeth learn Phillip was Justin/Jackie's during the Dobson era, or during the Marland era? I find it hard to believe she would just give up the child that she'd raised for many years to a woman that had lied to her from the start. Unpopular opinion, but I'm glad Jackie died before Phillip found out he was her son because all of this mess was due to her and I think it was a nice karma that she never got to truly be a mother to him. She's the true villainess of this piece/story.

Was Alan married to Hope at the time? If so, it's possible that he and Hilary had interacted off screen. The Roger story was sort of a connector during the Dobson era, but the interactions/mentions were more realistic like how it would be in real life where you might know of someone and offer them good luck and/or pulling for you before returning back to whatever you were doing in your day to day life. Yeah.. I did remember thinking how Amanda was nice.. but also had a devious side she kept hidden/repressed. However, the whole Lucille element was creepy in 1979 especially when she was trying to kill Ben. I always wonder how the Dobson's would have resolved the Lucille element and how they would have revealed that Amanda was really a Spaulding.

The one element I liked about the Paige character was that she was one of the few characters that didn't treat Karen as if she was the second coming of Christ. She usually was polite to Karen with Karen also being polite to her. I think Karen knew if she was her usual 'Karen' self with Paige that Mac would have been pissed at her so even Karen knew when the reign in her toxic interfering ways. LOL