DramatistDreamer

Or you would have had a character calling her an "old bittie", "old bat" or "old battle-ax", any number of names similar to the ones Jill used to call Katherine. In any case, it wouldn't be pretty.

Vanessa Simmons definitely seemed surprised by the offer. Wheeler was probably doing the Maria Arena Bell thing of "show-casting" in hopes of juicing up the ratings. Now I'm curious to see how she fared on GL. I'm unused to the concept of Lawrence St Victor having a love interest, since it hasn't happened in such a long time.

At random, I decided to go on the PlutoTV App and saw that MTV series Run's House and clicked on it to see that Rev. Run's older daughter was meeting with Ellen Wheeler and the casting director at Guiding Light (you can probably guess how old this episode is). Apparently, Vanessa Simmons (the elder daughter) had screen tested with Lawrence St. Victor and Wheeler offered her a longer role for the summer as his love interest. I only have a vague recollection of this episode and I don't think I had time to watch much TV at that time, so I definitely didn't see her on GL.

So, the masses are finally beginning to see how much Politico has been scraping the bottom of the barrel.

@victoria foxton No problem at all. So many different YouTube channels with videos and no master archive, it's not easy to keep track of what's out there unfortunately, so confusion is a given.

This was recently posted, although the interview itself took place in 2004 (I think). I know some people despise her but it does say something that she remembers all the characters names. Not to step on toes but there is a much clearer copy of that Christmas Eve episode on YouTube. The AsTheWorldStillTurns channel has it, I think.

Oh yeah, I knew about her, I just thought it was cool that there was a look-alike actress/dancer that was meant to be her. The actress who portrayed Chita Rivera was quite good too. I read the original source material a few years ago, so I recognized quite a few scenes in there from the biography. The actor who played Paddy Chayefsky portrayed him pretty much how he comes off in his biography. That wryly dark Bronx-onian sense of humor.

This is, not a surprise.

Sorry, I meant judge me for watching it so much later than it debuted on air. I got that free trial offer for Hulu for a month (and HBO Max, but only for a week) and I am pretty much bingeing all this shows while I have access. I think it might also be on Netflix which I have access to, but oh well. It's a well done series and, actually I read the original source material years ago (the biography, written by Sam Wasson, which, ironically, I briefly made a post about on this message board), which I found very compelling. I had read Paddy Chayefsky's biography, which talks about his close friendship with Bob Fosse, so that intrigued me and led me to read the Wasson biography of Fosse. I guess, I should have been reading Neil Simon's biography next to complete the set. Another very interesting factoid, Valerie Pettiford (AW, OLTL) was a choreography consultant for this series. In a nod to her presence, one of the dancers in the series bore an obvious resemblance to her. The series was well casted and written, imo. I didn't mean to suggest that the series was low-caliber, or anything, only that I have waited so long to watch it, long past the buzz. Also, Michelle Williams was so good and probably could have played Lucille Ball, instead of Nicole Kidman. IJS.

The parents were openly defiant of the school officials (refusing to take their son home when asked) and the school let them get away with it.

Okay don't judge but I just recently got the chance to watch Fosse/Verdon and in episode 6 I noticed Michael Genet (Lamar Griffin, ATWT) as an emergency doctor. Did anyone else watch this series?

You know how reaction videos have sort of become a "thing"? I never really saw the potential for them with episodes of soap operas but I would be into it if former soap actors were doing them. It would be fascinating to see Danny Pintauro react to this episode, maybe hear whether he remembers anything about this episode or his time on ATWT in general. Same with Colleen Broomall. Does she have any memories or recollection of her time on the show?

Until this weekend, neither had I, lol.

You'd need a William J. Bell for the 21st century to pull this off and Y&R has yet to find such a person. For all the tinkering that Bell did with characters and format, he didn't seek to reinvent the wheel, in terms of storytelling. Mal, Chuck, Maria and others, it was as if they either wanted to reinvent the wheel, totally change the sets, but the basic structure of storytelling just seemed to get worse and worse over time.

So, from what I'm reading, it seems as the turmoil took place behind the scenes, while all was pretty calm on the ratings front?

From what I have seen, this seems to be the 'Cuomo Way'. I never really got to see much of his show, other than clips floated about on social media, but what I have seen of Andrew (including that documentary of how he 'helped' run his father Mario's Democratic primary campaign for NYC mayor against Ed Koch. Entitled is a mild way of looking at that and it appears that Chris is cut from the same cloth as his older brother, just packaged in a better looking wrapper.

You're welcome. I mentioned unthread that I wished these vlog podcasts would get with the idea of time stamps. It's time. This one, in particular has a running time of 2 hours but the interview itself doesn't get started until about the 35 minutes mark, or so. Still, at this this host knows how to conduct and maintain a worthwhile discussion. Can he interview some other former soap stars? Many former East Coast soap stars live in CT, NY and NJ.

He talks about Beacon Hill (speaking of Hillary B. Smith) at the 52 minutes mark, so perhaps that's when they come back to soaps and ATWT? You're welcome. She's always a delight. She was the Margo I remember the most. Her chemistry with GM was off the charts. @Vee At around minute 38, they talk about changes in daytime television and his last time on ATWT and how markedly different it was.

Unfortunately I don't. I think it was nearly 30 minutes before they even discussed ATWT and then they circled back to his time on the show about 1 hour 35 minutes, so it's likely to be sometime around then. Nope, I am wrong. I don't remember where it is right now. If I can find it, I'll let you know.

Before I forget, I don't know whether this has been posted here previously but I am posting it, although I have yet to hear the full discussion, just for the cute picture of HBS as a kid at the very beginning.

I don't know where to ask this but, does Mishael Morgan do voice-over work? I could've sworn I heard her voice in some ad the other day.

That information (including his personal investigation of one of the women who had made allegations against his brother) had already surfaced before he was suspended. I was expecting new information. Also, I am not quite sure that he will drop this and move on. He is claiming to understand CNN's decision now but it wouldn't surprise me if he consults a lawyer and tries to fight his termination somehow, either that or get some type of compensation for the duration of his contract, that is, if he isn't already being compensated. The terms of his dismissal haven't really been discussed and they probably won't be.

Thanks for posting this @kalbir. I knew some of, but not all of this. Bell took a calculated risk with how built the Williams and the Abbott families, but he used two characters, though marginal, who had been imbedded in the fabric of the show's canvas. It wasn't like the Rosales family where they had one minor character for a few months, then brought on his family, then basically switched him out for his brother as a major character. That was so weird. It seemed as if Bell gave the viewers a bit of a breather with Paul and Jack becoming more prominent. If it really is true that Y&R lost no market share after basically dismantling the Brooks and Foster families, then I guess that speaks to how the changes were received overall by the viewers, they may have been disappointed but they obviously kept watching. Also, the storytelling was so much more methodical back then. Characters had to prove highly popular before landing magazine covers and photospreads in soap publications. It's not like when the Rosales were posing for photospreads when nobody even knew who half the characters were. It seemed as if that family was introduced with lightning speed.

I'm not willing to go that far... yet. China is drastic in the way they deal with dissidents but they're not Russia...yet. China has been known to 'disappear' people who they feel are interfering with the way they run their government business but not usually such high profile individuals (and usually not famous women, who they consider their flowers). Also, unlike Russia, China only seems to take the most extreme measures when some serious criminal charge is made (like the man who was charged with tainting the milk supply, who was executed). Ai Wei Wei is a dissident artists who makes dissident art that is openly critical of Chinese politics and government and he is treated as a hostile force, but even by his own admission he is deliberately provocative, as he believes agit-art is the best way that he can try to get the attention of people who would force change. China is not really in the business of disappearing people like Russia does. At least, not permanently. Jack Ma is one example of someone who went missing for weeks, if not months, then suddenly turned up on his yacht out in the middle of somewhere. You've heard of "Too Big to Fail"? Well, Ma was too big/famous to disappear. With her level of notoriety, I think it would be next to impossible to just do away with her, she's not poor anonymous "Tank Man" in Tiananmen Square. She is Han Chinese woman whose notoriety has only been growing, she's not the unfortunate Uyghurs who are often locked away for months in "re-education" camps, but I suspect that the government will try to 're-program' her mind to forget her allegations, likely under pressure if not all out threats made to her and her family. If she emerges publicly, if not living in anonymity, there will likely be every effort to have her appear timid and cowed in public, much the way she appears now, with broad forced smiles, in front of a menagerie of plush toys.