DramatistDreamer

Thanks @janea4old that's adorable. The casting on Bel Air was first rate.

Finally, I am getting around to watching that final season of Bel Air and noticed that the beautiful Loren Lott (Anna Hamilton,Y&R) appears as a young Vivian (aka "Aunt Viv) in the "What Are You Doing For Thanksgiving?" episode.

There are only a few characters that we really ever see work consistently: June, Shanice, Laura when we see her none of whom are played by contract characters (Ashley is on contract). Have we seen any of these lawyers in court? We see a client once a season. Nicole spends more time in bed than she does with patients lol. Is something going to pop off between Leslie and Izaiah? I wasn't really seeing it when folks have suggested it but then I thought about how common a trope it's been on network soaps in the daytime and MVJ used to work on B&B where Brooke pretty much slept with at least one of each of her daughter's boyfriends. One too many drinks and Izaiah could end up making pillow talk with Leslie because we know getting drunk and debilitated men into bed with her is pretty much Leslie's M.O. It is presumptuous of Carlton to bring alcohol and candy to Vernon's. Suppose Vernon was abstaining during this time? It's the season of Lent and we know that Anita and Vernon had a hurrah with King Cake before the Lenten season began. Suppose Anita doesn't want candy? When one of my siblings was undergoing chemo they didn't want those ginger chews, they preferred ginger tea. It's presumptuous of Carlton to bring those things without finding out what they'd like. Both he and Kial are f*ckbois and both make it their jobs to lie in wait for Nicole to look their way. Hayley and Randy are making moves that are not very bright but everyone else in town are not bright either. If we're waiting for DoDo Chelsea and Blank expression Tomás to solve this mystery, we're in trouble. Seeing that BTG is getting a limited run on BET reminds me of when PP produced AMC 2.0 got a limited run on OWN.

Thank you.

On other corners of the Internet streets, a lot people are getting tired of Leslie eating the show. (I've also heard other grumblings but I won't get into that 👀) The show needs to start over with the Dana/Leslie character and the first step is to arrest, and convict Leslie for Laura Peterson's attempted murder and have her spend some time in prison. It worked for Michael Baldwin on the Young & the Restless. Have a good ole fashion daytime soap opera criminal trial with witnesses on the stand, a judge and jury and audible gasps from the gallery (with Duprees sitting in the gallery) when revelations are revealed. In the meantime, have it be revealed that Ted (who has been in therapy with a therapist (Napiera Groves) and comes to the conclusion that he has been sexually assaulted by Leslie and having been called by Leslie's defense attorney as a hostile witness, Ted is badgered by the prosecution and holding back tears and shame, has to admit to the sexual assault, to which Leslie, in a panic, admits that she lied because Ted was passed out and couldn't respond to her advances, stunning Eva, Nicole, Martin, Kat and the entire Dupree clan. If Leslie is ever going to be viable, the stigma of her sexual assault against Ted has to be undone, better a liar and a schemer than a r@pist. There is so much more that I could write. In fact, I could write this script, sitting in Lotus pose but I don't give away my writing for free. I could write some fantastic jailhouse scenes between Leslie and Allison (remember her?) and Leslie trying to plot an appeal and trying to beg, beseech and guilt a repulsed Eva on board to help her in appealing her case. But, in the meantime, rest the character and allow the wonder Tricia Mann-Grant to audition for and perform other work in other venues. A word on yesterday's basketball idea. It would have worked more had it been One on One, Ted vs Izaiah, we didn't need the others imo. And not showing the action on court rendered the idea meaningless.

wrong thread.

No problem. Here is Michael B. Jordan's acceptance speech at the NAACP Image Award, which feels especially prescient given what happened at the BAFTAs and our present hellcape of a timeline.

Michael B Jordan won the Actor Award (FKA the SAG) for Male Actor in a Leading Role. The SAG Awards, as they were known, have always been special because as a performer, it's your peers/other members who vote for you. Jordan also won another Actor Award with the Cast of Sinners.

It was cute to see occasional reaction shots of cast members seated in the audience but imo, the segment with the BTG production and partnership between the NAACP and PGP package seemed clunky and out of place during the Image Awards ceremony. Deon Cole completely botched Daphnée Duplaix's name and it seemed as though when she got to the mic with Karla Mosley, Daphnée struggled to recover announcing her category. And PGP lauding their history with daytime soaps seemed disingenuous, considering the fact that they don't care about their archive and they are not actually producing BTG but partnering for product placement purposes (and not even bothering to showcase their products that were actually created by Black founders). I know that the NAACP wants to do Sheila Ducksworth a solid but considering the thin response from the audience, maybe they should have put this package in the Creative awards ceremony or as an online segment on the BET YouTube channel. It just didn't fit within the context of the televised program.

Michael B. Jordan won Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Ensemble Cast in Motion Picture for Sinners and Entertainer of The Year awards from the NAACP.

This is more entertaining than what I'm seeing on this show now and honestly, I could see noveau-riche Leslie trying to get her and Eva on the Drew Barrymore Show, trying to tout some sort of entrepreneur/renaissance woman credentials that she doesn't have, lol.

Since Drew became emancipated from her mother when she was 14, maybe she will suggest Eva make a break from toxic Leslie?👀

Today was so much filler. I kept looking at the time. The same superficial conversations, over and over. Events that are only talked about, taking place off-screen. I know it didn't take place on today's episode but, this blood plasma story, for example, is so poorly done (Jacob plying his trade, while supposedly undercover but in a place where his brother can casually run up on him on the way for lunch?? 🫤🙄). Question: Do today's daytime soaps know how to write an episode that actually has a genuine Friday cliffhanger anymore? Something that actually makes a viewer want to tune in on Monday, besides the preview for next week with the hope of something interesting? And this show has some serious continuity problems too.

That syrupy exchange between Laura and Eva only works if there is some conflict ahead, for instance, Laura ends up turning Izaiah's head. I still cannot believe they haven't found a way to utilize this stunningly beautiful young woman. Then again, this is the same show that apparently couldn't find a place for a beautiful Latina in Cheryl.

Does anybody know how Scott Bryce is doing these days? I hope he is doing alright.

I'm still trying to process the fact that people were idiotic enough to vote for someone who would call into CSPAN and various media organizations using a fake name and doesn't even have the ability to disguise his whiny voice. At least come up with better aliases. 🙄What a lazy guy.

Tamara Tunie has lived in Harlem for a number of years. I know because I used to live there.

Maybe it's because I listen on headphones but the sound for BTG still sounds atrocious to me.

FWIW, I went to high school with someone who had a very Greek name (first and last) and whose family ran a Greek-style pizzeria but was not only blonde and blue-eyed but bore a slight resemblance to a young Meryl Streep.

From what I remember of B&B in it's debut year, the show definitely had the imprint of William J. Bell Sr.'s storytelling at the root of it. Sure, they had a number of actors that could best be described, in the words of Douglas Marland as "hair models" but they had the strong presence of Susan Flannery, Jim Storm and Johanna Johnson and Lauren Koslow (and for the material she was given Nancy Sloan was pretty good) in that cast to pull the weight for the others. Looking at all the preemptions that BTG has had in a short stretch of time, I don't remember B&B dealing with so many preemptions. I feel like Bill Bell Sr would have threatened to take his show elsewhere if they had. Y&R was only its way to become the top-rated soap and sandwiched between Y&R and an Emmy award winning show at that time, ATWT --no doubt, he had a strong hand.

The only consistency with BTG that I seem to notice is that Thursday seems to be a very weak spot for them in terms of ratings.

That is a character they could have just left in the realm of Andy Richards. Just create a whole new character and keep it moving since what they did made no sense.

Completely understandable. FWIW, the genre (although weakened) has outlasted Moyers. So, there's that.

Same. I won't let Y&R get my hopes up again. They said they would bring back Amy Lewis but they don't bring back the beautiful Stephanie E. Williams? When I found that out, I didn't bother with it. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Do tell @Khan 👀 What a weird title for an article though. Irna Phillips was something of a b*tch, we know but she wasn't wrong about the effects of these production companies like P&G trivializing the genre and what lasting effects it would have. I blame P&G for not recognizing what they had culturally and artistically, beyond being a cash cow. Daytime soaps could have been prestige television but production companies and networks didn't think the minds of "housewives" could process more. In the midst of great writing and great performances, these execs always had to force cheap stunts and cheap tricks. And they're even worse today.