Soaplovers

With the writer strike ongoing, I was glad to see that a majority of the 1988 writer strike episodes were still on YT for AW. On an episode to episode basis, I think the scenes and dialogue are not too bad. There seems to be more of a focus on smaller moments/filler then having actual ongoing plots.. other then the Jamie/Lisa/Vicky situation.. and the start of the Drew Marston arc. I just finished watching the June 1st episode and it the perfect example of this smaller/filler moments. You have newlywed scenes with Sam/Amanda, the high school graduation scenes involving Matt, Ada/Jamie scene, Lisa/Cheryl hanging out at Tops, and the introduction of Chris. I'm intrigued with the Chris character only because she was randomly introduced during the strike.. and I wondered if she was a planned character pre-strike or if the scab writers needed to fill up time so they created the Chris character. In her debut episode, she seems over wrought.. yet demanding an equal chance of working in construction. I'm not sure if the writing intended to show this clashing of first impressions, or if it was an acting choice.

From what I understood...Dan curtis paid the fines the actors got for crossing picket lines during this strike.

Early Frank had a chip on his shoulder as surrogate father/big brother to Harley. Up to 1993, that element made his character workable. Buzz coming on actually made Frank's character redundant. After the Eleni/Julie/Frank story ended in mid 1994...Frank had no story or presence

I think I remember once a long time Jen Lilley saying that she wasn't playing herself.. but a character.. and that there was motivation for Theresa being the way that she was (i.e. at her core, Theresa is a good person.. but has been burned so many times that she strikes first before someone strikes at her)... whenever people were going after her for playing a character like Theresa when she was a Christian.

RHONY: Twitter seems cool with Jessel.. calling her the sober Ramona... and with her tendency to insert foot in mouth, I can see why people think that. She does seem to know a lot of people in the fashion industry.. she had a lot of people at her event. Erin seems to think she's the expert on all things New York.. but I swear she is a dog with a bone LOL While I'm an introvert and I do commend Jenna for setting boundaries, I do think that Jenna tends to play up the introvert tendencies in order to get out of trouble (i.e. when she claimed she didn't know why she stirred the pot, saying she had an event when it was just time with her son and god-daughters) and out of filming with the other women. And she does kind of seem elitist. I confess I would have preferred seeing Brynn playing chess against that guy instead of another scene rehashing the Jessel/Erin coffee chat. Chess playing.. rather at parks or in buildings.. is a huge thing in NYC and I would prefer seeing more of the city. Not much from Ubah in this episode... though I like her way better than her witch of a cousin Aylan. I liked the segment showing Sai at her job.. and her backstory on how she developed into a pretty successful influencer. She would have to be pretty successful if she's able to offer her assistants/employees health insurance.

If this show comes back for season 5...either Heather or Whitney need to go. I would vote for Littlw girl since I want to see Heather vs Lisa so bad. And Lisa...I'm happy seeing her out in the wilds of society. Her fishing, trying to cook, and her obsession with Taco Bell.....she is reality tv gold.

I know Sara Dancy did end up working at the hospital..I think as a patient advocate..and she did end up marrying Mike Powers...tying the two families together...but the actress quit and she was killed off quickly. In 1979, the show did attempt to refocus back on the hospital with the 2 doctors that were brothers, the hospital administrator..and it looked like an unhappy doctors wife was introduced....however..the timeslot changes..regime changes and production company changes did the show in.

We already kind of know Angie K so at least the show won't spend too too much time introducing her to us.. except maybe to show her family life. Her instagram shows she's fully embracing her Greek heritage and that will be nice to see on the show. Newbie Monica looks like a spitfire. Mary is to SLC what Kim Richards was to BH.. the quirky/eccentric energy that a housewife show needs.

Quite frankly quality of a lot of shows has diminished so maybe a raise will actually motivate some of these writers to do good work.

I recall Bell always made mention of Nina's mom on and off between 1986 and 1991. Most memorable was right before Nina's wedding to Phillip where Cricket suggested inviting her mom and Nina flipped out. If I recall, she was kicked out when she got pregnant as a teen and it cause her to have her child stolen. I was expecting some mean, cold and trashy character..but we got Flo...whose heart was in the right place, but was almost a kid at heart. So it was nice to see Nina/Flo's relationship improve during most of the 90s. Shame the show never brought her back when Ronan was revealed as Nina's kidnapped son.

Next week preview had Jessel making an error by calling Tribeca up and coming...and Erin basically in her talking head is saying 'yeah, you don't know New York' in a dismissive tone. Shades of Ramona/Luann about Alex season 1

RHONY: Erin thinks very highly of herself though I do admit she does seem to take pride in her work.. but she thinks she knows all... probably the reason she and Jessel don't seem to vibe well together. Brynn's boo hoo story was very effective with some on Twitter thinking they misjudged her, but she's the type of person that you don't trust with anything. Ubah's segment was so sad, and I'm glad we finally got to know her a bit better. So far she's way more likable than her entitled witch of a cousin Aylan (who lacks personality). Jenna.. a little pot stirring and claiming 'old age' when the producer questioned her on why she did the pot stirring LOL Sai's hubby is a keeper

I'm assuming Althea is in the midst of grieving hence the oddness and randomness of her scenes. This MJ seemed annoying, not at all likable like the original MJ Kim Zimmer wore stranger hair styles in the mid 80s (I think she had her hair in odd spikes when she won her first Emmy) so this hairstyle seems normal. I do like the gothic vibe of the scenes and she was much more subtle here then she ever was on GL.

Focusing the last few years on Sky/Raven hurt the show.

Soaps usually tend to improve during strikes because the fi core writers are left alone..and can actually write and craft short term stuff as a stop gap. Only positive of a writer strike..imho

Kathy was the heavy/anti heroine of the soap in the 50s. From what I have 4ead, apparently Irna Phillips grew tired of the character and killed her off in the late 50s. However, it would have been interesting to see how her character would have fared in the 60s especially with the teen romance between her daughter Robin and Meta's nephew Mike that happened...maybe Robin would have given Kathy as much grief as Kathy gave Meta.

Considering everything that has gone over the last several years with colleges (Lori Loughlin scandal, affirmative action being ruled as a no no by the supreme court, now tackling legacy admissions at Harvard).... a soap set in a college town that focuses on students, family that founded the college, alumni, townies, etc would totally be a relevant soap opera. It's just that Nixon was again ahead of the curve and it's a shame her ideas were diluted by the network and to a lesser extent Marland (who eventually became like a Thomas Kinkaide painting by the time he worked on ATWT).

Rita Mae seemed like she would have been a perfect Nixon esque character.. and I wonder what Nixon would have done with her character vs the untapped potential when Marland was headwriting

Jessel is blunt and probably stand to maybe filter her comments a bit. At the same time, maybe she felt comfortable enough to be honest with how she felt. Ubae is much more fun then her cousin. Sai is like every gay guy friend I have where they pack way more than needed (options for every mood they might be) and one of my 'friends' is an aspiring content creator and I roll my eyes sometimes at him..and he does so with me since I only pack 3 sets of clothes for a 2 day trip (and I try to keep everything to one medium bag). Jenna is more an introvert so she's slow to warm and relax

Corday's mom is turning over in her grave. She was the one to save the show in the mid to late 60s after her husband passed...and helped keep things going till the mid 80s when her son took over after she passed. Maybe time for one of his 3 kids to take over

From what I understand Colgate exited out of the television production business in 1980 and NBC probably offered to resume production/owernship of the show.. hence why it continued for 2 more years or so until it canceled it. As it turns out, maybe it wasn't for the best to let NBC have ownership of the soap since the quality declined and now believed 'lost'.

Grace was supposed to be the nurse with a heart of gold that provided the nurturing the interns needed while Ellen provided them with the ins and outs of being doctors. I remember people liking Grace..but felt she was wasted as the loser in the Ellen/Matt/Grace story.

Just from watching the 1 full episode, I can see why it didn't take off. It's beautifully shot, but there's nothing that sets it apart... no distintive hook or identity unlike the following big 4 soaps: Dallas was about the oil and rancher businesses with two feuding families. Knots Landing was about upper middle class families in a Calfornia suburb Falcon Crest was about a family that owned a vineyard Dynasty was about new money in Denver that deal with oil, hotels, and especially about manners. With that said, I thought Jessica Walter was a worthy recast for Lee Grant while Muffin had a much bigger part it seems in the show. She seems more like a grey character... or is she.

Matchmakers should make a comeback... because most people in their 30s and younger don't seem to have good judgement/taste when it comes to picking someone to date. Some of my friends were matched unofficially by a mutual friend and are still happily together so maybe tinder, etc isn't exactly a good thing

Sai is new money..which is why I can sense a warmth and good natured humor in her...because she grew up working class. I love that Brooklyn is be all end all in NYC now...after years of Alex being made fun of for living there. I think Alex would have fit in better with the crowd..imho. Ubah being the exact opposite so far of her bitch of a cousin Aylan is why I like her so far. She seems less snooty and laid back. OC: Tamra has been right about Brooks, Gretchen, Jim, etc..so she's probably right about Jen's boyfriend. She needs to back off because she's looking worse than the other person...maybe she take a page out of Meghan's Nancy Drew playbook. Jen is interesting to me...she seems calm and has a backbone. She understands Gina's issue with her, but also has said 'it's not my responsibility to not be a trigger for you.'. And she riled Tamra up by saying 'watch your step'...which makes me think Jen knows something about Tamra...or else why Tamra run off like that. Emily was being a good friend by nicely pointing out to Heather that she does talk down to people and can lack self awareness...which Heather did not like. (She can dish it out but not take it).