Soaplovers

Dani and Bill having these constant scenes remembering the past is making me remember Passions and their constant repeating of the same scenes over and over. The writers seem to do this with Dani all the time rather it's her/Andre in bed with her talking of her self-esteem or her remembering the good times she had with Bill even though he made her look the fool. The writers could have cut all those constant repeat scenes involving Dani by 25 % and devoted that time to developing Chelsea's arc... first with Allison and now with Madison. I have said this for almost a year and will continue to say this, but the show has not nurtured nor developed Chelsea's character in the same way that it's developed Naomi, Kat, and Eva's characters. I like that the show is continuing the rehabbing of Ashley's character and it's going well so far. I'm most intrigued with Shanice keeping her friendships with Derek and Ashley without choosing sides. Unpopular opinion, but I think Shanice is the best friend Derek needs and has over the one with Jacob. Jacob can be such a pick me sometimes and the way he talks down to Derek has always been on my radar.. and seeing how encouraging and positive Shanice was this week really drives that point across to me. Hayley Hayley... so messy and sloppy.... liteally with her thirst for Izahiah on full display.. and even Chelsea noted it and didn't believe her claims of just being nice/polite because he's Naomi's brother in law. I think Hayley's comments on Bill's health was the deciding factor in Chelsea opting to do the long distance thing. The way Smitty's contact was carrying on in public makes me think that Jacob would be better off if this contact backs out because the guy seems a loose cannon and would cause Jacob more trouble undercover than be a help. Lastly... this new story with the plasma... I wonder if the new clinic will be a front for it and if Kial, Carleton, and Grayson are all involved. Remember Kial comes and goes and maybe the traveling doctor bit is a way for him to get more supply

Thank gosh for the Hayley/Bill and Kat giving Chelsea some hard truths.. or else it would be too much Anita cancer focus.

I think Simms had announced her leaving right after Eve was introduced so the show had to quickly write her out. Based on the final episodes with Beverlee playing Alex, it did seem as though Alex had a come to Jesus moment about letting her hatred of Mindy/Roger affect all aspects of her life expressing regret over losing Fletcher and now her son Nick. I remember her final scenes with Nick where she was leaving to give him space and that she would be back once he let her know he was ready to talk to her again. The one story I think really got affected when Beverlee left other than Nick/Mindy/Eve was the Jenna taking over Spaulding story. I recall a few scenes of Jenna acting opposite Beverlee's Alex and there was no love lost so I have a feeling that had Beverlee not left.. she would have played a big part in the Jenna taking over Spaulding story and would have probably blamed A-M and used this as a tactic for her to manipulate Nick to work for Spaulding Enterprises, etc. In regards to Eve, I do recall that she even mentioned to Ed about his affair with Lillian as a way to get him off her back when she was gaslighting Mindy. Oddly I liked Ed/Eve together.. they were both wounded and full of remorse over the mistakes made by both in their lives.. and it took Eve about two years to regain the truth of Springfield over her actions.

The core four can't be the whole show, and I liked the episode yesterday because the core 4 weren't in the episode.

I agree Ms. Crampton was wrong in the role of Mindy, but the show made it almost impossible for her to make the role her own with the timing of her debut where she came into story of Eve stalking/gas lighting Mindy and spending the first weeks yelling and being paranoid anytime she interacted with Eve. Granted she had reason to be weary of Eve, but since she hadn't played the majority of the story, it fell flat. And to add insult to injury, Marj joined as Alex and the show insisted on restarting the Alex/Mindy feud instead of putting it to rest and moving the two characters onto separate orbits. The last few months of Ms. Crampton as Mindy showed she had a good handle on playing a Mindy that had matured.. but still had a bit of the character as played by Sims in her. And she was the only Mindy that had chemistry with O'leary as Rick.

One of the complaints in 'season 1' was how isolated Derek was so I'm guessing he's going to be an EMT at either the hospital or at the clinic. And SPS not liking him makes me chuckle a little bit. Call me crazy, but ever since Tracey Thomson joined as co-headwriter.. I noticed that Ashley has improved in terms of how she's presented. Chelsea is giving off Allison vibes to me. Madison... I hope you don't regret including her more into your life.

I think the plan was to put Mark in a triangle with Tiffany and Sean after Tiffany's part is pretending to be Meg was over... but with Tiffany being recast and de-emphasized... he was paired with Gabi (who I thought he had good chemistry with). His death was the final event that turned Gabi from a bitter schemer into a heroine type.

I haven't watched Potomac in a couple of seasons, but I decided to watch the Colorado trip from hell.. and it was so entertaining. It had none of the ugliness of SLC and their various girls trips this season. I think not having Karen on the show this season actually made it seem a little bit fresher because Gizelle and Ashley didn't have their usual target. And Angel is the most obtuse housewife I've ever seen in my life especially planning a huge gathering an 1+ outside of Denver with only 5 hours to spare before the flights started to depart. So much went wrong with the trip that the producers didn't need to manufacture a lot of fights and that's why it seemed to be less toxic than usual. With that said, I do think it's time for Miss Ashley to exit stage left after this season along with Angel (who seems like she doesn't want to bond with the women).

Y & R Jed Sanders (1993 - 1994) - As played by Josh Taylor, he came to town as a red herring during a brief period where Nina was trying to find her father and he happened to have a scar in the same place as her father had. After some interactions between Nina/Jed, she brings him to her place and is disappointed when her mother Flo states he isn't her real father. After that happens, he remains on the show for awhile with a brief relationship with Nikki (lots of chemistry between the two) and also has a fling with Jill (lots of chemistry between the two)... and just as it looked like we might get a Jill/Nikki feud over this... he was quickly written off the show and Nikki went back to mooning over Victor while Jill ended up fighting John to either stay married or get divorced over the next two years.

I always wondered if the characters in a TP production were hard of hearing because they would repeat questions and statements over and over. He would have been better off employing some of the hacks from daytime like Ron C, Dena H, etc... he made them look like Shakespeare lol

I think it was guilt on Vanessa's part that motivated her to want to protect her daughter Dinah, even though she had gone off the deep end and murdered someone. Was Vanessa wrong to protect Dinah? Absolutely. Did I understand her motivation for protecting Dinah? Absolutely. That section was probably the most in character Vanessa had been written in for a very long time. I always thought she and Matt were only bought together because of physical attraction and naturally should have drifted apart long before they had a child together... but the Matessa fans were hella creepy like the Jeva and Manny fans were during this period of time.

I remember Logan, she had potential to be a long term character and she vibed well with Brad.. who was adrift as a character at that time. Rafael Delgado (1999) - Introduced as Ashley's step brother (his mother was married to her biological father Brent Davis) who she had to bail out due to his possession of forged art work. He briefly came to Genoa City, was tested with Nina briefly before he had a brief dalliance with Victoria before he left town. I think part of the reason his character was dropped was due to Ashley being recast with Eileen Davidson and the show deciding to take her character in a different direction.

I remember years and years ago reading an article about when both Zaslow and Garrett were coming back as Roger and Holly.. and figuring out how to make both appear old enough to have a fully grown daughter Blake. If I recall Zaslow, put hints of grey in his hair to appear older while Garrett refused to do that with her hair insisting that she would act older. If you watched Holly in the December 1988 episodes, she's wearing her hair up in a bun and in older matronly dresses acting nervous/timid about being back in Springfield. When she comes back full time in March 1989, she's dressed more youthful with her hair styled more youthful and acting more confident and in charge. She still carried off looking more mature and motherly to Blake without resorting to granny clothing. In regards to Elivira, I think she was 30/31 when she joined the show and she looked a bit younger than that in her first year or so on the show... but I noticed by 1981/82..no matter how youthful they tried to dress her.. she looked her own age.

GH: Victoria Parker (1993) - Played by Terri Garber.. she was an ex flame of Bill Eckerts and part of the whole weird caper that Bill/Holly were involved in. Once it became apparent that Emma Samms was quitting and that Bill Eckert was going to be replaced by Luke... her character quickly was written out of the show. Nikki Langton (1992-1993) - Her character lasted a little over the year, but she had come on and was revealed as Dawn's half-sister through the two sharing the same dad. She sued the hospital for malpractice after Monica took her into her home (in an odd attempt at replacing her late daughter Dawn)... and after that was dismissed.. dated AJ before she was paid off to leave him at the altar. Sheila Cantillion (1991-1992) - In the brief Monty era, the show had tried to get back to the hospital as a setting and she was introduced as a nurse that was friends with Amy Vining and later became her roommate. She briefly dated AJ Quartermaine and another doctor named Eric before she and Nikki Langton are set up as rivals in 1992 before she is dropped around the time Nikki leaves town (in the fall of 1992).

Raquel on AMC had potential once she was recast, and she got tested with Jake & Ryan before she finally was written off the show. I think the audience was sick of the character due to the bad first actress to play her and how one note the character was at the start. Kit being revealed to be Jack and Travis' long believed dead sister was an interesting twist even though the actress was way too young to have played their sister. I think that the concept of the character would have worked had she been introduced in the late 80s when both Jack/Travis were on the show and their feud was still intense.. not the late 90s/early 00s.

I think I remember that Blake was in the hospital and Ed found out that she was Christina and was surprised that she'd returned.... and that eventually led to Holly appearing at Ed's doorstep in the Christmas 1988 episode (it was a cliffhanger). Somewhere in this discussion forum, there was an article discussing the process of bringing Roger back where Long and Calhoun (I believe) were watching the April 1 1980 episode to see if there was a sound indicating that he hit the ground.. and they determined there wasn't anything to indicate he hit the ground so they concluded he was really alive. I also recall Rita being bought back up during this period where Ed and Alan talked about her.. and I think Long had wanted to bring her back to resolve that story thread but Lenore didn't want to come back.

Today was some plot driven BS. The Eva/Kat/Izaiah scene felt odd as if Kat and Eva swapped minds/personalities. These scenes were plot driven, not character driven. Madison - Run and don't pass go. Chelsea is unhinged and you did the right thing breaking up with this psycho. I know you all love your Vernon/Anita.. but not the scene that should end a Friday episode. Give me my Friday cliffhangers please. The snippets from next week look interesting so hopefully things will be back to normal next week.

From what I recall, I think the years that Holly was married to the elusive Dietrich was when the divide between Holly and Blake started. Blake felt neglected and I think mentioned that Dietrich was cold/uncaring.. and I think she did feel resentful toward her mother for taking her away from Springfield and cutting off contact with the people she remembered from child-hood (The Bauers). I know that Blake was meant to be a different character pre 1988 writer strike, but I always wondered if she had mentioned why she wanted to come back to Springfield once it was revealed she was Holly's daughter? And I know the scabs didn't know who she was talking to on those mysterious phone calls or why she was wondering around a playground alot... but did Pam Long decide on a reason or was that all dropped?

Teri Austin was probably one of the last of the decent castings the show did for new characters, and that was due to David Jacobs more-so then the other producers at the time... and it was a one scene character that was expanded because of her presence. Nicolette had raw talent and charisma when she was cast (she was cast at the end of season 7, right before the Lathams took over), but it took awhile before she settled into the role and the writers pulled back on over-exposing her. Her on screen mother Anne played Michelle Phillips worked better as a part time character coming and going. Melinda Culea was an interesting choice on the show and I think she would have worked in the earlier season format KL had vs the more high gloss late 80s/early 90s version of Knots Landing. I watched Penny Peyser on Crazy like a Fox and the civil war mini series, and she was a good actress... but not every decent actress is a fit for a soap opera. Wendy Fulton had a unique look/vibe (she was an interesting presence in Bare Essence -the mini series and short lived tv show), but the character she was hired to play I don't think even Meryl Streep could have made work. I think the thing about Knots Landing was that you need actors and actresses that could be relatable/middle class and also could be glam. A night out at Lotus Point was something middle class and upper middle class families did in the 80s.. but also could live their day to day lives doing things people watching at home did.

Days Alex North (2005 to 2006) - Not sure why the show didn't fire Josh Taylor and have Wayne Northrop reprise that role instead of creating a one note character for the actor to play.

In regards to Genie Francis and Diana Colville, from what she had said.. the character was supposed to be a one or two day part that was to serve as a red herring for a story that involve Patch. When the show found out that they snagged Genie Francis.. they took the role and expanded it without actually thinking about a character. She mentioned that Days at the time was chemistry based, not plot based... so her first love interest (Mike Horton) and her didn't click so they paired her with John Black. She said her exit was very memorable where she dyed her hair, slicked it back, and snuck out of town (even saying 'see... there was no character.. it was all a facade LOL' In regards to SJB, her character on Bold & the Beautiful had promise, but the show was dead set on having her be a spoiler to Bridget/Nick instead of pairing her with the actor that was playing Rick Forrester at the time.. who she had chemistry with nor did the show utilize the rival chemistry she had with the actress that played Amber. Y & R - Adriana Stone (2013) - she was described as a femme fatale that came to Genoa City in order to get her ex boyfriend Noah even though she cheated on him. There was a stolen money caper that was resolved, and she was set up to be a new Nina with Jill thinking she was a scammer and Kay kind of defending her.. and poof, she was let go from the show. Amanda Browning (2001-2002) - She came on as Mac's mother, and I recall at the time that there was anticipation about her mother coming onto the show because of the way Mac described her. However, she came onto to the show and was a doormat and lacked any sort of presence.. and she was written off within a year. Carmen Mesta (2006-2007) - A character that came on with various introductions and being pushed as a major character... but she was killed off within a year.

I remember my parents used to watch Sisters when I was a kid and I remember the reasons my mom stopped watching the show: Breaking up Georgie/John - Although it was a realistic story since a lot of men and/or women leave their spouse and families to find themselves.. and end up regretting leaving as we saw during the series finale. Writing Mitch out - Women viewers loved the actor that played Mitch and the show didn't understand that the men were just as much of a draw as the sisters were. Frankie leaving - The actress had wanted to leave at the end of the five season deal and wanting a life outside of acting... but it did throw off the balance of the show a bit. Not happy with another love interest of Teddy being written off (killed off) though she forgave that when he went to ER. The final episode of Sister's did seem to go back to the basics and focusing back on Christmas and the sisterly bond. Shame it wasn't kept up after season 4.

Zimmer/Wright/Cole - show killers.

I don't understand how writing a character that is supposed to be 50+ and acting like a teenager is someone to root for? When Nicole dresses up in a sexy dress and goes out for a night as a single lady, she comes across as confident and sure of herself. Someone that you would want to have a conversation with and enjoy getting to know. Whenever Dani does the same thing, it's giving off someone that is trying too hard and someone that doesn't value themselves or what they have to offer someone. It's why she relies so much on sex because deep down, she feels that is all that she has to offer.. and it wasn't helped by Vernon being patronizing and babying her (I cringe when he does the same thing to Anita). To me, I would prefer she and Andre be focused on as a couple in love while Bill isn't the end game. @Taoboi I'm not sure if it was you that said this, but someone had mentioned/joked that Ashley was a favorite of MVJ's.. and I'm curious if that was mentioned by MVJ.. or if it was just based on the fact that she's still on the show and being rebooted? Derek going a bit unhinged is a nice change... usually it's the female that goes unhinged when they're scorned (i.e. Dani and SPS/Leslie). Maybe Hayley's pushing the sex thing with Bill as a way to pretend to be into him.. and maybe hoping that he dies while making love to her. Would be the most effective way for her to off him and get the payout.

I think I would prefer Bill/Dani to stay divorced and co-exist as people always in one another's life and not being end game.. unless the show is going to end and both characters have character growth. One of the downfalls of soaps is the constant making up and breaking up that couples do and I would like BTG not to resort to that. Right now, both Dani and Bill have enough going on in their lives where they don't need to interact. Let them return to their orbits and put some focus on their daughters, especially Chelsea (who's been given little to no clear development/focus on-screen). On another topic, I don't understand why some people are thinking Nicole is throwing away her self-respect just because she put on a new dress and went out to get a drink by herself. To me, that shows someone that is secure within herself and isn't trying to be something she isn't. Her conversation with Kial flowed well and the chemistry was between two consenting adults just having a good night out. While I don't agree with sex shaming anyone, I also don't agree with vanilla shaming... which I notice on some other platform/social medias they are doing to Kat. Especially when Kat was still a virgin and wasn't keen on just sleeping with everyone unlike her misguided cousin Chelsea.