DramatistDreamer

Wow, I would love to hear the backstory behind all this! If there were still a SoapNet, surely a documentary would have been done on this.

I'm seeing the dismal turnout in some of these local races and it becomes obvious why in certain races, the incumbents kept their positions. There were some genuine gains for Democratic candidates of color, in particular. Having friends in Boston, MA and having travelled there frequently and having experienced some of the Boston-style racism up close, it really is something for my mind to get around the fact that Boston now has a Taiwanese American mayor. The racists won't disappear (it is Boston, after all) but hopefully she can get as much of her agenda accomplished as possible- she will have to, or they will come for her in full force.

And now Janet is trending in the Entertainment category. What is going on? I mentioned both upthread!

Whew, Britney Spears basically told her mom to go f*ck herself, as Britney stated that it was her mom's idea to do the conservatorship since she doesn't believe her father smart enough to come up with such an idea.😵💥

I was talking about ATWT specifically, and using music rights issues as the primary reason for not being able to show episodes, streaming or otherwise. Years ago, SoapClassics sold episodes of ATWT on DVD. So they obviously got around the music issue by using alternative music. The reason why it didn't continue was because they didn't extend licensing to the distributor. My contention was that music rights was not the primary reason why we no longer get to see episodes of vintage ATWT episodes. There is nuance that is missing but it is not all about music rights. Unlike B&B, ATWT was being fully digitized by the SoapClassic people. B&B is simply putting out their analog episodes. This is especially evident when you look at the screen ratio, as it is not formatted to today's LCD type screens. The number of people who had been complaining about B&B's screen ratio without realizing that, in order to fit today's screens they would have to go through the process of digitizing episodes like ATWT did with their collections. It's not all down to music rights, that's what I have been contending. If B&B had been digitizing episodes, instead of throwing them out there on analog, as they've been doing, perhaps it would have been a lot trickier for them to do as well, but wisely, they just threw the episodes out there, as is. I think putting the issue down to music rights, and music rights alone is an oversimplification if the issue.

OMG, if this is true.

It seems cruel to keep 17 cats in a studio apartment in NYC, but maybe it's just me.

Aww at Venus and Serena getting their own emojis. The Beyhive is starting to get on my nerves though,lol.

ICYMI, Tonga recorded it's first ever case of COVID-19, sadly.

Whitney Houston, for reasons that seem inexplicable, is trending. She was mentioned upthread in my post, lol. It's a crying shame that so many key episodes are missing from YouTube. Every single episode from 1986-1987 should be up there, at the very least. It's a damned shame that they're not.

I mean, I already did my civic duty and voted. What others do (or don't) on this day, I have no control over. No use in me obsessing about it.

Eric Adams defeating Curtis Sliwa is not a difficult prediction to make. NYC is overwhelmingly Democratic and Sliwa is a kook who offered nothing on his platform but bizarre campaign ads. I predicted he'd win before anyone even voted during the Democratic primary. Not to sound rude or dismissive, I'm just not in the mood for further predictions, as I feel like it's become a kind of game, and this is real life.

Too bad P&G just doesn't care about these shows, not the fans who supported their products and their programming for half a century. I have been watching The Bold and The Beautiful, From The Beginning and they basically proved what I have been saying for quite some time now: music rights are not the issue as to why we're not seeing classic episodes from ATWT's available catalog( '1979-), nor have they ever been. B&B streamed (which I had been suggesting ATWT do, rather than selling DVDs, which could easily run afoul of copyright laws) episodes, which includes highly popular songs from Janet Jackson and, wait for it... Whitney Houston! So guess what, it is possible, as I have said, more than a few times. As long as I'm going out on a limb, my theory is that previous episodes of ATWT that have gotten pulled from YouTube were more likely due to other so-called "fans" of the soap, who are carrying out their petty grudges with other fan accounts on that platform as they believe they own these shows because they posted first and want all the views and clicks reserved for their own channel(s). I don't understand this either, since the only entity who actually has intellectual property rights to these episodes clearly could care less. But go awff. Some fans indeed deserve our gratitude, while others, I suspect may be the reason why we are not seeing even more episodes up on YouTube.

People carping about music rights being the reason why soap production companies are not streaming these classic soaps are listening to whatever excuses they are being fed. Seeing B&B From The Beginning episodes using songs by Janet and Whitney proves that those that care about making their episodes available, will find a way to do so, it's simpler than most believe. The rest who don't, simply don't care. That's it.

Got a break and decided to watch a few episodes and hoo-man, all that build up about how Ridge would react when he found out about Caroline's rape and when the moment came, Ron flopped it! Those weird visual effects, which, I get it...in the absence of decent acting, tptb felt compelled to do something, but those visual effects just came off as odd and loopy- it actually undermined the gravitas of the moment, almost as badly as Moss' acting choices. Also, seeing those scenes between Katie, Rocco, Donna and Mark at the Dance Factory and they played Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston, one after another, proves what I have been saying all along-- streaming allows for the use of popular music, as long as copies not being being sold commercially. Whatever else is being said about music rights being used as an excuse not to stream old episodes of soaps is bullsh*t. Just say you don't care about soaps and go. It's why, for years now, I have been saying that it makes more sense to stream, rather than sell DVDs of classic soaps. The issue is lack of interest, rather than music rights.

The ideal time to have saved the planet was likely several decades ago but this seems promising, at least. It had to chortle at the fact that China, which couldn't bother to show up, is now grousing about not being able to tongue-lash other countries by video message, but was instead limited to a written message, which no doubt, will lack the impact Xi will have wanted. No word from Putin, the other no-show.

There have been some who have been critical of her acting choices, casting them as being OTT at times, while seemingly forgetting that a director can influence those same acting choices. Maybe there were other daytime soaps that had menopause storylines but Lisa's was the first and only one that I remember (I was in elementary school at the time it originally aired, I admit) and it seemed fairly detailed and vivid. In fact, it may have been during a conversation between Lisa and Nancy, where Lisa stated that she refused to take any of those drugs, which would turn out to be prescient since, decades later, it was discovered that there was a link between Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and certain types of cancers in women. Looking back on those scenes made me wonder if that piece of the dialogue was personal to Eileen or was there some deeper research involved. In any case, I thought Fulton shined in these episodes, which is why I posted at least one. I wish there weren't so many missing episodes on YouTube for August and September 1986, in particular, as I think Lisa was very active in storyline during this particular period.

Chris Christie is a big No, where I am concerned. He was a bully as governor of NJ, and that's not even discussing the worst of what he did during his administration. Just. No.

As many gripes as I have with the theater industry itself, I have to say that theater tends to keep people sharp, more than any other dramatic performance medium. Prinz has been faithful to theater for decades, even leaving television stints, at times and it really seems like she made a wise decision there.

Yeah, I think this has been posted several times in the "Where Are They Now?" thread over the last several months. I think I may have even posted about it very early on.

Mal, Maria and Pratt are all guilty of this. In fact, of the CBS soaps that I had watched since the early 00s, I doubt any soap writer did thorough and detailed story projections for their shows. With those messy stories that came out on screen, I doubt anyone was looking at long-term consequences.

Absolutely. Just speaking from personal experience, when you write out a fairly well outlined story projection, ideally, it will give you a solid enough foundation to make adjustments when necessary, in service of the story, rather than plowing ahead with an ill-shaped, poorly plotted story, making things up as one goes along, then "painting" characters into a veritable corner. I've said through enough writing workshops and unfortunate table reads where questions are asked but left unanswered because the writer gets lost "in the weeds" and has no idea where some of the characters are headed. I can usually tell when a writer is writing as they go along. With soaps, it's not that difficult to tell when it's being done, so clumsy is the execution.

This sounds like the denouement of a good old fashioned soap opera storyline.

Having an Oscar and Emmy award winner announce with excitement a song on the star-studded movie "The Harder They Fall" is another feather in the cap of Lauryn Hill. No wonder she's trending.

For the love of Eileen Fulton, I wish these episodes were of higher visual quality (they're not the worst, but definitely not the clearest visual quality) but "Lisa" is in rare form in this episode. Her scenes with Barbara, Tonio and Lucinda, which extends into the next episode are standout, imo, despite the occasional over the top outburst (meant to evoke menopause and Lisa going through the "change of life"), Eileen is really quite good here. I especially enjoyed the scenes where Lisa goads Tonio (who begins to suspect that Lisa knows about he and Barbara having had an affair). The way she needles and taunts him is actually fun to watch--she does the same thing to Lucinda in the next episode too (also fun) and Eileen looks like she is in her element.