DramatistDreamer

A couple weekends ago, at random, I watched an episode where Kim invited Barbara, Paul, Betsy and Emily to spend the night at the Hughes home, so I know that feeling that you speak of. Even in the midst of turbulence story-wise, it was a warm feeling to see people coming together, building a protective layer around other characters. Toward the last years of the show everyone was so isolated. Even if there was a storm or some chaotic event, normally an opportunity to have people gather together, characters were often trapped alone or in pairs instead. I know it was likely due to a budgetary issue, not wanting to pay larger groups of cast members to be on set for taping scenes, but the end result of all that isolation in latter years was a cold, sterile, almost impersonal form of visual storytelling, which I personally found depressing.

In not exploring Susan's personal history as a Burke, the show missed a golden opportunity to mine some material for an older character, and Lord knows the show needed some types of meaty storylines for older characters, particularly women of "a certain age". Having Susan explore her identity, and who she is, who she would be, if not a Stewart, if written well, could have been a great story for Marie Masters, worthwhile for a veteran character and actress. Then again, the writers showed they were not capable of writing those types of stories. Instead we got a plethora of stories about characters that, were in Oakdale for all of a minute, before they hijacked the screen. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Janet and Liberty).

Every parent was pretty much a deadbeat by the last decade of the show, 🤣.

Did Allison cut ties with her father? I don't remember whether that was discussed or not. The writing was so bad for teenage Allison. The writing for just about everyone was subpar by then though. Now that it's been mentioned, I do recall a Judge Lowell name drop in a scene between Ellen, Emily and Brock. Just coming off of that book where Irna Phillips discussed why she made so many of her characters from the professional classes, particularly when she decided to create ATWT. Of course, by the time the show had brought back Allison as a meth-head, just about every long time character's reputation had been savaged. Talk about character assassination.

Yeah, but the Lowell bloodline connection was never emphasized as long as I was a viewer. I always hear people rail about the Stewart family being tossed out, as if they were one of the series' original families, with no mention of the Lowells. I actually had to read about the Lowell family to find out that they existed. As much as people complain that the Stewart family were written out of existence, Emily and Susan both continued to go by the Stewart last name, through marriages, divorces, until the end and from what I remember, so did Allison, although she was a McDermott. All were there until the end. As Stewarts.

Two colleagues of mine, that I sometimes, who I have a long-running e-mail dialogue with, are reading the book that I just finished (When Women Invented Television). I had no idea. It would have been nice to have been 'on the same page', so to speak. Oh well, maybe we can have a virtual book discussion once they've completed the book. With our infrequent communication, that probably won't be until New Years.

I realized my wording wasn't the best upthread. I meant Johnson, due to her popularity playing McColl (or, at least she didn't inspire any hate mail, none that I am aware of), I think she could have been seamless as Betsy. Kim had chemistry with Eileen and, as they brought back Scott Bryce briefly in the 90s, they also had an easy chemistry. A lot of people talk about the Stewarts but wasn't it originally the Hughes family and the Lowell family? Why doesn't anybody seem to mention them? Was Ellen the sole Lowell left? I am reading this book and am on the chapter titled "The World Turns" and according to this book Phillips didn't want to work with Procter & Gamble but felt she had no choice. She felt insulted that P&G didn't seem to trust her ideas yet still found a way to adopt them. For instance, they doubted her when she pitched the idea of expanding the soap to thirty minutes from fifteen minutes when she was about to debut ATWT, yet quickly announced that their next soap The Edge Of Night would be thirty minutes. This was after she had to practically fight them in order to bring The Guiding Light to television (P&G once thought TGL would never be successful as a television series). In fact, Phillips had to pay for the pilot to be produced and was never reimbursed for it, even after TGL became a hit show. I'm beginning to see why she may have been so bitter. Another interesting tidbits, a number of actors for the first season of ATWT had been blacklisted actors, which might not have endeared Phillips to the sponsors who ruled television. Fascinating account of the early days of television. In some aspects, certain things have not changed. It makes me wonder what ATWT could really have been if P&G had a little more belief in the show beyond just being a potential "cash cow". Perhaps we would have gotten a better archived and a larger amount of episodes that actually got preserved, instead of wiped.

Last year, I was helping people navigate some pandemic related issues and unemployment was one them. Thank God I don't live in Florida, but even in my state, the computer system was decades old and unable to bear the flood of applications. The state had to bring in people who had retired, some a decade ago, to help process the applications. Meanwhile, I was helping get food boxes to people's apartments, some of whom didn't have bus fare or gas money for their cars to drive out to the designated lots where they could get food boxes. When I tell you people are tired. Eventually, the labor department's computers were updated. I hope that never happens again. I don't talk about it but that was probably one of the most depressed I had ever been.

I agree, but the people who are the most neglected tend to work more than one job. Unless it's a police shooting of a young kid, it's hard to get people together for a cause. It's often the well-heeled people who can drive out to their offices, where public transit routes don't go.

The reality is that many in Congress are going home to their home districts to be ensconced in their offices. I want to see some of them walk home at night with a flashlight through my neighborhood where the buses have stopped running early in the evening but still have hours to go from a low-wage job and not enough money to take an Uber, don't own a car. I really wish all would interact with all of their constituents. I'm fairly active and even I have gotten a tiny bit of a response from one one of my Congresspersons (a Senator) on these issues and I supposedly live in a reliably blue state. Everyone else around me has pretty much given up on hoping that anything will change. I have at least one sibling that says he no longer believes in voting because it changes nothing. What do I tell someone like that? Believe it or not, there are still people out here who are hurting.

Thanks for posting that news clipping. @Soapsuds It's what I have been saying repeatedly, often times in the 80s and 90s, ATWT used to make the effort to bring back long-time characters, if only for cameo appearances, which brought some semblance of continuity, in terms of show history (never having seen Penny Hughes in her original run, it was meaningful for me to be able to see her in her 80s appearances, during which time, I learned about her impact and importance to the Hughes family and to the show's history). The problems seemed to stem from successful alumni not being able or willing to return, for various reasons. By the late 90s, the show seemed to cut those connective ties to that show history and didn't bother to bring back the actors, opting instead to bring back some of the characters, with casting that can best be referred to as haphazardly executed. One thing I wished they would have done with Betsy is to have brought in an actress that was previously on the show, playing a popular character, even if she wasn't Betsy. For instance, Kim Johnson Ulrich, who played Diana McColl, probably would have fit in nicely and long-time fans likely wouldn't have flinched an inch. Henderson Forsythe himself had a thriving career on the stage and could barely make appearances on the show. Sure, they could have recast the role but it would've been akin to a Bob Hughes recast at that stage, with an actor who had become synonymous with the role over decades. Honestly, it was sad to me because I am usually opposed to killing off characters of that stature unless the real life portrayer dies, but everyone might have thought it for the best at the time, including Forsythe.

For me, it's not about chess, checkers or marketing. It's the very real lump in my throat when I see a news story about a bridge collapse or a pedestrian hit and killed because of lack of public transportation, that leads them to walk home at night, on poorly lit streets with no sidewalk or pedestrian pathways, with speeding cars in their midst. It is also about that sense of dread of another days long power failure, as a result of, not some crazy Texas-style power distribution deal but a faltering electrical grid that can't handle the load of increased AC use. There are real, life and death consequences of all this dithering. I haven't even gotten to aspects like immigration because I am not one of those unrealistic people who expect everything to be done in six months, but we repeatedly see news stories of infrastructure collapsing on top of folks and we are being burned and flooded out by climate change. It's past time to do what has to be done.

I tried to listen for about six minutes and got bored. Dude took at least five minutes to get to a single point. It's not rocket science to figure out why Nina Turner (dude bro couldn't even seem to get a proper handle on the woman's name) lost. Although if I am going to hear the reasons why Turner lost, I'd rather hear from people who actually went out and voted for Shontel Brown. Anywho, When is the Congressional recess and why hasn't Congress passed any bills? I have been keeping my qualms to myself about this infrastructure bill as well as the other bills that are currently on ice (apparently), but if I am being honest with myself, I must admit that I am losing patience with this process. It's one thing to wait a long a$$ time for a bill that is truly expansive (ahem, doesn't shortchange public transportation or environmental concerns) but to wait this long for a bill that will cut short some key items and hope they get folded over into a reconciliation bill seems...I am starting to side-eye that prospect, tbh.

So interesting to read about how much adoption storylines were centered by Irna Phillips' ATWT, then to look at one of the most memorable storylines in 80s ATWT centered adoption as well. The more I read this book, the clearer the parallels are.

Yes, it's the NYT but that doesn't make this Op-ed any less insightful. Also, she assesses why the statements about the Provincetown cases should be scrutinized more closely than has been given the lack of data.

More investigations incoming.

Why can't these members of Congress pass legislation? A moratorium will allow some breathing room but they need to pass some type of legislation or get some of those leftover funds from American Rescue Act released to help renters in peril. A bit off topic, I am reading this book on women in television and I didn't know that Meet The Press was created by a woman. So ironic, considering the cavalcade of bro-ish behavior on that show. Sad, actually.

ICYMI:

Why do I remember this TV Guide cover so clearly? Has this been posted elsewhere on the board? Growing up, we didn't subscribe but occasionally we'd purchase a copy. Perhaps this issue was one of them.

Years ago, when James was elected, I said that James doesn't mess around. She is an example of "unbought and unbossed". All those GOPers and right-wingers ought not to be crowing about Gov. Cuomo finally getting some measure of comeuppance. Surely, they must know that Trump is likely next in the queue.

Was just about to post this. It shouldn't be a surprise. NYC was the first epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., and suffered tremendous loss of life. I can imagine the metro NYC tri-state will follow suit.

People didn't like her commentary but I at least appreciated Alexandra Stevenson blurting out that anecdote about how she, Venus and Serena used to spend rain delays rating guys on the ATP Tour according to their levels of "hotness".🤭