DramatistDreamer

While most daytime soaps seemed to focus their business stories more on the personalities in the boardroom and the intrigues, Y&R was really effective at giving equal time to the actual products involved in their corporate stories—at least, once upon a time this was the case. P&G soaps were said to be somewhat stodgy but at their best, soaps like ATWT and GL were surprisingly very effective at broaching taboo topics in a way that was suggestive, risqué but somehow palatable to their audience. Characters who were in an open marriage in the early 70s. In the 1980s, a woman who decided that she’d had enough of love and was just going to build her business “brand” while choosing lovers for her sexual gratification. Also in the 1980s, a woman talking to her husband about their non-existent to lackluster sex life, while the husband squirms. Also in the 1980s, a tearful woman strips down and jumps in a fountain and declares herself the slut of the town because that’s the way she’s been made to feel in front of the man that she’s in love with, as he recoils from the scene.

Well, this seems contentious. https://www.pcmag.com/news/report-meta-is-investigating-ex-facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg

The NYT has begun their 2024 whisper campaign of “Democrats are “whispering” that Biden shouldn’t bother running for re-election. I don’t feel like posting the article. The same news outlet that apparently believes that Trump running in 2024 is somehow viable. Yet somehow they also manage to inject a quote from Howard Dean decrying how much of a trash heap the next generation of Democrats in office are. How subtle.

Who did this?😂

In the Northeast, the problem has been a combination of suburban sprawl and the remnants of manufacturing having left a hollowed out center, at the same time that many Northeastern areas outside of NYC and Boston had been gradually and consistently disinvesting in public transit. Come to think of it most of NYC, especially Manhattan doesn’t really have a downtown but it has districts (Brooklyn, the largest NYC borough does have a proper downtown though), garment, meatpacking, theater, various shopping districts, etc. In the rest of the Northeast where post-industrial degradation has taken hold, the idea of “walkable” cities where amenities are within reach has been floated around for years, with very little action being taken to achieve this. As a kid in the 1980s, whose adolescence occurred in the early 90s, I still have memories of seeing butcher shops, hardware stores and the local skating rink all accessible on foot. Now those areas are hollowed out with some small businesses being built to fill the void that has existed for two decades, mostly bars and cafes. For shopping or entertainment one needs a car that will drive to a neighboring suburb, or do what most end up doing, take a commuter train into NYC.

The result of decades of depending too heavily on real estate, primarily office real estate to support downtown areas. Should there still be a dedicated “downtown” area, or should cities be looking at decentralization of amenities? This piece in the San Francisco Chronicle analyzes what has happened to downtown SF and how it has been accelerated by the pandemic. https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2022/sfnext-downtown/

TBH, I really don’t care what Fox News does since I have never bothered trying to waste time watching that channel. Last night’s hearing aired previously unreleased footage so, who knows what is in the pipeline for Monday morning?

Yeah, I thought about this after I posted last night and thought of my friends on the West coast, one of which texted me earlier that day. I guess this first session was done at that time because at some point in the televised session, it would hit prime time viewing in all U.S. time zones for maximum exposure. The next session, which is on Monday is in the morning though. Fox News channel, like much of the GOP is in serious denial.

Why are these January 6th hearings being held so late in the evening?

Y&R and TPIR are the only two shows that were on the air when that original campaign aired. Two years before B&B debuted. Are they going to have Drew and The Talk crew running around in cheaply done GCI flames too?

^^And as it turns out, nobody killed James Stenbeck but somebody did die.

WLS YouTube channel has episodes from The Willows uploaded, so I actually got a chance to see and understand what you’re referring to. Yeah, Bennett was one strange dude who I found off putting. I didn’t understand what Lisa saw in him. I am not familiar with the other two beaus but based on Bennett alone, it definitely seemed like the writers and producers didn’t know what to do with Lisa romantically speaking.

I’m not feeling it. You can’t turn back the hands of time. Then again, I have given up on these shows so I guess I’m not the intended audience.

Someone from CBS Daytime definitely reads the threads on this message board.👀 👁️ I just don’t believe they’ll achieve what they hope, you can’t turn back the clock.

Maureen was a natural fit to take on that matriarchal role. GL lost far more than they ever gained by killing the character off. In a strange way, had she stayed on the canvas, over time I could have seen Bridget eventually filling out that role as well, but the series would have needed to last longer than it did.

I watched the series and was disappointed when it got canceled. She’s currently on another show called Workin’ Moms.

Mainly Canadian television but she has done some guest stints on Greys Anatomy and S.W.A.T.

Who instituted this policy, Elon Musk?? Insane and very racist.

Interesting that the U.S. helped/obliged Japan to formulate their gun laws.

If someone came out with a “tell-all” exposé of the soap industry (who’s doing what to whom) and named names.😈 That would be pretty shocking. Seriously though, the last two items on that list would indeed shock me the most. The way things ended so badly with the TOLN soaps, I wouldn’t expect many people to sign on, although I know from the reunion livestreams that a few people would still give it another go. Since PGP/P&G has made absolutely no effort in even showing interest in making episodes available to the public since 2012, that would be pretty darn shocking if they were to make episodes available on some streaming platform, even though their soaps were technically the first to do it via the AOL portal and then the SoapClassics website.

You bring up an important point. The budget cuts that lead to a diminished idea of home and hearth, such a big part of seeing characters function as family. Having meals in the dining room, coffee and dessert in the living room, barbecues on the patio in the backyard. Without those things, you lose opportunities to seamlessly present that familial side of these characters as well as their place within the family. I always enjoyed those freewheeling gatherings when family and friends would gather, sometimes spontaneously. You get to see a character like Tom Hughes as a husband, a son and brother, Margo as a wife and sister, Kim as a wife, mother and stepmother and Bob as a dad, husband and stepdad. Put Lisa into the mix for good measure and it really gets interesting, all in one setting.

With conscientious and considerate writing Katherine could have evolved into a sort of matriarchal figure but the writing was just never there to make that happen. For one, Brock only made sporadic appearances and many viewers like myself don’t remember seeing Brock as a regular character onscreen and by then, memories of Katherine “Mothering” Brock were long gone. The memories that are ingrained via flashbacks are Katherine, drunk and bitter and out of control. It’s not hating on the character, it’s recognizing what the writing for that character lacked in order to make most of us see Katherine as a genuine matriarchal figure in the style that soaps are usually known for. Nikki was always much too insecure and self-absorbed to fill out that show’s matriarchal figure. I do think Y&R has an ageist issue in their lack of vision when it comes to writing characters of “a certain age” as both matriarchal and vital at the same time. One of the reasons why I referenced Kim Hughes on ATWT is because for a number of years the writing seemed to be able to strike that balance.

The lack of serve was a huge liability back then. You had the group that could serve hard and fast (most of the American players) and you had the players who served with a bit of pace but veered more toward accuracy (a la Hingis, Henin, etc.) Unfortunately for her, Dementieva’s serve was neither of these. Back then it was inconceivable that one’s serve could be so dysfunctional and be able to win a major title, without massive assistance from the draw.

Enuka Okuma is definitely still active as an actor.

I know that I was asking about shows and characters that are currently on the air but in terms of female leads that evolved into matriarchal figures I would have to say that ATWT’s Kimberly Sullivan’s evolution into Kim Hughes is definitely an example of this.