Soaplovers

Between August/September 1975 to fall 1976...you'll have 3 headwriters....Cendella, Depriest, and Marland... very different writers and styles.

Laura was the voice of the audience. I always contend that the Lathams wrote in specific tropes (Karen the moral one, Val the long suffering victim, and Abby the villianess) and Laura was not a character you could fit into a trope. Donna Mills did say in an interview on either Arnesio or Joan Rivers that she felt Abby ran her course. I think it was a nice way of saying she was struggling to keep Abby human and redeemable with the Latham writing making Abby act bad for the sake of acting bad. In the later seasons, Paige was the only next generation character to take off so the show had no choice but focus on her (show dropped the ball with Olivia, Jill, and Linda..imho). And I did like the show did create a semi believable friendship between Kate and Paige... but Kate only worked in connection to the core characters (whenever she had her story like her relationship with the environmentalist or with the hot drifter Alex..it fell flat).

And agnes Nixon employed that template to AMC with the wise all knowing elder (Kate Martin), the hospital, homes, and courtrooms... though she did take advantage of Pine Valley being not too far from NYC by having the boutique...that led to buying trips to NYC for Erica, etc. I noticed OLTL had that same type of opening in the later 90s like AW. However, on OLTL, it fit because of it's history as a more urban edgy show (pre 1984's Rauch era)...while AW was never that type of show (it always read as a more Masterpiece theater type of show in the 60s,70s, and 80s.).

I think it was an environmental issue that resulted from Gary blowing up Empire Valley. Lotus Point was a family resort with environmental friendly elements.

It should have been 10 years minimum. I have heard the show is starting to plan season 4. And with Mary, Jen S, and jennie not on the show..they need to cast someone dramatic to play opposite Lisa Barlow

Regarding Salt lake City.... sorry.. but Mary is no pure angel. In fact, she's a racist herself with the derogatory remarks about asian people, hispanics, etc... and she is most likely a cult leader. Season 2 of Salt Lake was fascinating to me because Jennie and Mary hated one another at first sight obviously because of prejudice. Who knew the absence of both of them in season 3 would be so noticeable.

Action/Adventure: Barbados in fall 1984

I found an archive of the bible. The vibe I got from the bible is a gothic Edge of Night/Peyton Place with Victoria winters as the Nancy Drew. Interestingly, Maggie is never really mentioned except as a sounding board. No indication she would have a romance with anyone, or a life outside of being Victoria or Carolyn's sounding board. https://archive.org/details/shadows-on-the-wall-1/page/n96/mode/1up

Basically she had no life when she wrote solo..and she had school age kids at the time.

I seem to recall the show kind of hinted that Katie was making that up when Lyla came back in 2000 for a visit..and she was comparing notes with Craig/Margo about what Katie said....and then they all confronted her about it

1989 was a transition year for Y & R and I do agree that most of the female cast were not front and center. Ashley had been recast so the show probably wanted audiences to accept her while they figured out how to write Ashley with BE in the part. Nina/Jill/Katherine were affected by the actor playing Philip having to leave the show quickly..which probably threw off story that was being planned. So all 3 were being tried out in different stories (Marge, David Kimball, etc). I also wonder if maybe Jill was originally intended for the Kimball story because he had been wooing her before Phillip was killed off. And maybe Bill Bell figured Nina would make sense so he shifted it so David Kimball started pursuing her once she inherited money. Lauren..I think was being paired with Scott so the show was setting that up. Traci was coming and going in 1989 after the whole Brad/Lisa story. As for Cassandra... she was the perfect 40s film noir character. She wasn't all good nor all bad so she could fit in anywhere she was needed. Her death in early 1991 was unexpected..as she was going to meet Paul after getting her divorce from Brad. I do think her tricking Brad into marriage made no sense..and it would have made more sense if she had tricked Victor based on past history between them....and would have meant more Nikki/Paul interactions.

Diane just came back so I don't get why she's #1 on the list. And I actually like that Sharon is doling out coffee and advice. It harkens back to her Crimson Light days in the late 90s/early 00s...and the show needs a character with life experience giving wisdom...sort of the 2020s answer to Gina Roma. And I don't get why Rafe is still on Days.

My fav JK novel and mini series was 'I'll take Manhattan '... and I think it would have made a good tv show..especially with the decline of print media.

BH: Brandi is too much of a liability to be a full time housewife and she should never been hired back.. especially after the horrible pathetic way she acted on the Girls Trip. You need someone like a Joyce or Camille that isn't afraid to call someone out and not care about being on a 'dream team'. Salt Lake City: I'm hoping Jen Shah gets 10 years minimum in prison and that the show moves on from her toxic unhinged presence. Lisa is the only one I actually enjoy watching in a reality tv gold sort of way.. with her odd taste for Taco Bell, her attempts at mothering, her attempts at being a wife, and her dismissive way of talking to the other women (which I don't think she does with malicious intent.. she's just clueless about reading a room). Lisa vs Heather has been the undercurrent of the show since season 1... all the way back to when Heather claimed they knew each other.. with Lisa not remembering her except as the good time girl LOL

A lot of times how a performer plays the words written can affect how the character becomes long term. I do recall Lydia almost mirrored Bethel's take on Maggie..but she had a harder edge when doing so before she softened her portrayal to become more the mother figure of the show. Nurse Kathy was another example of how the character change based on the performer. Kathy #1 was more a no strings attached woman, Kathy #2 had a more calculating person that was a co schemer with a scheming doctor, and Kathy #3 that was a passive weaker character.

I have it on DVD because of greedy corporations like Apple.

If you saw Heather's facial expressions when Whitney was explaining why she was upset with her..you could tell she was trying to figure out where this was coming from

It's odd that Bravo finally is not rewarding a criminal. With Jen Shah, she really should have been fired after season 1 due to her violent outbursts, threatening cast members, etc. After stealing from the elderly, I'm glad Bravo finally had a line that shouldn't be crossed. Even if Jen Shah was invited to the reunion, the show seems too toxic to have a reunion.

I'm happy to hear that Kiki's confessionals were used this season since I heard she had some last season that never aired. Regarding Lisa, I have a little bit of sympathy for her.. but at the same time, I don't. There comes a time someone has to take personal responsibility and not have their head buried in the sand.. which she's always had when it came to Lenny.

I have a feeling it was due to a recurrence of previous mental health issues... made worse by the Pandemic/isolation.

I also think the Hallmark channel adds also helped with subscription increases since there were a few cable providers that dropped Hallmark.

I loved her Pier 1 commercials

The thing about MSW was that there wasn't a lot of graphic violence, no swearing, no nudity nor anything sexual...so younger couples with kids could safely watch the show as a family. And all the crazy murder mystery movies on Hallmark channel is partly due to the success of MSW. It was comfort Tv

Finally someone new (how many times can he have delusional Kim Zimmer on)...and he does better with 1 on 1 interviews.

Oddly in regards to Ashley..my opinion changed based on who played her. Eileen's Ashley worked best with Victor and not so much with Brad...imho. Brenda's Ashley would have worked best with Brad if she played Ashley during their marriage and her Ashley was almost too confident to be Victor's wife.