Soaplovers

The bible for Dark Shadows seemed to indicate it would be a cross between Peyton Place and Edge of Night...with a Nancy Drew esque character at the center. People didn't bite sadly...but I do agree Dark Shadows could have lasted had they ventured more into a Gothic mystery show and adjusted to color like Edge of Night did.

On paper it sounded interesting and it did fit with early 90s California and their environmental forward thinking. However, making it a start up company was the kiss of death plotwise. Start ups are long hours, little money, wearing multiple hats, and always trying to get funding/capital. I think it would have worked better if it was a product and/or start up purchased by Sumner so that Paige, Karen, etc could have been integrated more into the story. Only upside of the Tidal Energy story was that Gary lost the ranch..and Val/Gary moved back to Seaview circle...and Karen quit the talk show.

I always thought the change of show-runners kind of hampered Empire Valley because it was first mentioned in season 6 back when Paul Galverston was alive.. and it became the focus of season 7 once a new show-runner came in. Has anyone ever interviewed any of the people in charge in season 6 and 7 to find out what Empire Valley was supposed to have been.. and when it was decided to make it more of a Dynasty type of plot vs a more organic plotline. Still... at least it wasn't as bad as the Tidal Energy company arc in Season 13 LOL

Agree to disagree about Ceara.. and actually was realistically written based on several people I knew that went through the same thing as her character did.

When you looked at how Laura was created, it was a given that she would be a very important viable character for many years to come.. partly due to her being the long lost daughter of Lesley.. a mainstay of GH in the 70s. I think Genie being away so long on maternity leave in the late 90s was the beginning of the lack of respect she was given by those behind the scenes..imho. It's nice that the show is finally correcting the error of making Laura as secondary to Luke... when it reality, Luke was always secondary to Laura.

Executive producer can make or break a set backstage. I think Calhoun and Caso as EP's from the mid 80s to mid 90s seemed like a good working environment backstage. All the performers hired during Caso's reign seemed to really love him..and how close/supportive the crew was. Goutman was no Calhoun nor Caso..so I imagine backstage was not all that supportive. And I'm wondering if Kim and Todd were both caught up in the environment and it resulted in both of them not trusting one another. It does seem like both have matured and moved on from the industry.

All I remember of the spinoff (a few episodes were shown on Tvland years ago)...was that it focused a lot on Mary's husband coping with life after Mary...while Shelley Fabares played the sweet in the outside/sinister on the inside female lead that was scheming to be with Tom while making her sweet sister suffer.

Her Gabi was originally written as a goody goody.. but Camila had an edge to her that helped make the Gabi character not be so insipid (unlike the late Paige). I think it was MarDar that started placing Gabi in a darker role with her originally harmless crush on Chad turning into an obsession..and she tried to have her rival Melanie kidnapped... which ended up resulting in that disaster story right as MarDar was fired. I'm glad the show managed to find a healthy balance for the character where she still had an edge.. but wasn't all evil.

I remember on one of the Locher Room AW reunions that one of the actors mentioned that Douglass Watson was going to have a big front burning story in 1989 and was off work on vacation when he passed. Apparently he was going to the gym to get in shape to prepare for it... so whatever was being planned must have been huge.

I never understood why Bryant was killed off... especially when it seemed as if the show was looking to do a triangle with him, Jennifer, and his cousin (Cricket's son). Would have been an opportunity to maybe have bought back Cricket for an arc... just to see where she was in her life and perhaps to have some conflict between her/Craig with Margo being peace-maker. And to see how she would have interacted with half sister Katie (who I think was a lot like Cricket was it sounds like)

So lather, rinse, and repeat?

I think Gina, and to a lesser extent, Noella are examples of what a OC reboot would offer....and that makes me not want one. Season after season, I see viewers curious why Gina is still on the show..and season after season..Bravo keeps trying to fix the show. Perhaps maybe axe Gina as an idea

I don't know all that much about Jamey... but didn't they create a show with a lot of potential, but poor execution?

Labine wasn't the right fit at GL.. she seemed to do better with more urban soaps..while GL was more mid size mid western town. The one thing I did appreciate about Curlee and Simms watching those 1991 scenes was how both now understood what Alexandra was going through and why she had a vendetta against Roger/Mindy. She was hurt, humiliated and felt like she was treated like a fool/idiot by both of them. Curlee and Co really slanted the writing to Alexandra the antagonist when she was the one hurt and was the victim....that played out all the way until she quit in mid 1992.

I think YR was more the issue then Eileen..imho. She had great chemistry on Days with Drake/Eric, friend chemistry with Melissa R/Rinna, and adversary chemistry with Diedre. She had great chemistry on Bold with Ronn Moss, decent friend chemistry with Felicia, and potential adversary chemistry with KKL. So I think it's the environment of Y & R and Eileen not mixing well.

@Cat do you think Margaret was always like this on the show or did she become that way to survive on the show? I think she wasn't calculating as much in her debut season because Siggy was crazy and I think Margaret didn't have to calculate since Siggy was doing the work of looking crazy without any help. I think after the Teresa telling Ms Staub to go for the hair is when Margarey embraced the dark side

There was a 2 week writers strike in 1985.. and this was back in the day when soaps only had scripts 1 or 2 weeks in advance... so that might be why there wasn't writers on the episode.

Lucinda's breast cancer story and how EH choose to play it was well done. My late mom was going through the same thing at the time and she said how EH choose to play the realization when she felt the lump, finding out the news, choosing to tell Sierra over Lily first (since Sierra was calmer and didn't make everything about herself), trying alternative treatments, and when she lost her hair. My mom said it was very accurate especially seeing the hair when brushing her hair.

Had Eboni been hired and told to be herself on NY, it would have worked out differently. She had potential...and oddly I liked her and Ramona's love/hate relationship. I think Bravo set Eboni up to fail..imho. One of the things about RHONY was always seeing how Ramona would piss off a new housewife..and also seeing how the new housewife would react to Ramona. Season 5 was the best example of this where Heather instantly didn't like her, Carole tried to use logic before using reverse psychology with her, and Aviva embraced her until she finally had enough of her.

Maybe her TvQ rating is lower. I think if 3 of her co hosts have quit...I think she's the problem.

Facts of life on Tubi now

I always thought it a waste to let her (Georgia) go when the character still had story to tell. She had that push and pull connection with Lucinda while she was to Lily what Lily was to Sierra. And she was a nice bridge between the Walshes and Hughes family since she interacted with both.

RHUGT3 Gizelle should never be allowed on these shows again. Candiace needs to control her emotions...both Alexia and Marysol were right about her. Seems like both like her and are concerned/annoyed at her at the same time. Porsha is that girl that you smile at and then ignore. She thrives on attention..but Candiace does have Porsha pegged. I wonder how Porsha would be if Gizelle wasn't on the trip. I think for season 5 and later seasons..6 should be the cap on how many can go. Lastly, I've seen no bonding scenes on this season. Season 1 had Ramona/Teresa bond, Kyle/Melissa bond, Luann/Kenya bond. Season 2 had Taylor/Eva bond, Tamra/Phaedra plus Tamra/Brandi bond...and Phaedra/Jill/Brandi bond. I've seen little bonding..just drama and shade throwing.

During the Laura funeral episode/s... the performers were allowed to do some improvising. Jill was still mourning her brother that Paige had killed by mistake..so she was at the funeral either drunk or grief stricken with her brothers ashes..and she went at Paige. Latham and co saw how well Teri Austin played that and decided to make her go crazy as a result. That was the rumor I heard awhile back

Joanna was on dancing with the stars in the states and did quite well..so people knew of her from that. I think season 2 had several different people...but the only one really doing stuff was Joanna. She got on Adrianna's nerves, she was friends with Karent/Lisa/Lea...while also being friendly with Ana. Ana/Joanna and Lea/Adrianna seemed to be the only link between those 2 cliques. Season 3 got rid of Ana/Karent...and added back Alexia...but Alexia wasn't so front and center because of Frankie...so all that was left to focus on was Joanna vs Adrianna