DramatistDreamer

The last reports of Ashraf Ghani were of his alleged fleeing from Afghanistan (possibly to Uzbekistan) with a load of money. What's wrong with Afghanistan is more than just its military.

We who reside here in the U.S. and other Western countries don't usually get news of elections in African countries unless there is violence but this is a noteworthy development, even if it is not getting much notice at the moment.

From what I have been reading about Irna Phillips over the last month, it seems as if she had been trying to extricate herself from Procter and Gamble since the days that Guiding Light began to air on television.

Lots of vapid people winning titles lately but at least there is some meaning in it here.

The calls for Biden to be impeached are from a sketchy small group of likely mostly bots and some trolls trying to start something. There are other concerns, like the pandemic and how many kids will actually be showing up for school. I am interested in Afghanistan, as I am in what goes on globally, but beyond that? The biggest mistake was getting in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place and having the hubris to believe the U.S. could nation-build, but what's done is done, staying wouldn't make anything better. Also, the people who use words like vindication are not being helpful. Many of us protested the wars and occupation. Congress authorized it anyway. And?

Afghanistan has had disputed elections where nobody wanted to leave, even when voted out. In this case though, the leader can't leave fast enough, I guess. Given the propensity of some of the leaders of Afghanistan's government toward cowardice I can't say I'm surprised. Flight or fight and most of us would take flight, but when you're the leader, isn't more usually required?

This is moving at lightning speed.

Not gonna lie, but when I saw this headline/lede, one of the first things that came to mind was that, if only the Marshall family had this sort of backdrop for their ice cream business, maybe that aspect would have been more interesting. I doubt that their writing staff would have had the skills to pull it off though. That could have made an ace tagline for a promo though.😉

It would have been nice for viewers to actually find out how she felt about it (Susan too). These types of details would have played out onscreen once upon a time.

P&G definitely made, I guess the word might be choices that led their productions down the path to the state they were in when they cancelled by them. Wiping, for instance. We're there other non-P&G soap operas that were as assiduous "wipers" as P&G soaps? If Y&R archived all their episodes from the beginning of their serial in 1973, shouldn't P&G at least tried to archive episodes from as far back as, maybe 1974-? Choices. My first job out of college (before Graduate school) was in the office of a producer and she was a prolific one. I have worked for one or two people (in the arts) who were both good at what they did and we're not assh*les. One can be both. That is also a choice. Choices.

Soaps are unlike any other entertainment media, in the fact that many continue over many years, over decades, in fact. No actor would dictate to me how I write one of my plays. I know best, although a workshop where actors do a table read of my script, all the way to a staged reading, can massively inform how I "tweak" my play. If a writer goes into an existing soap, most of the actors have been there long before that writer and in that case, they would have more information than that writer and an intelligent writer would lean on those actors as guides, in addition to archived scripts and video episodes to continue stories. Of course, many actors want to have plenty of story and are more likely to view a show favorably if they are actively being utilized on the canvas-- they want to work, and frankly, that's their job. Unless they have interest in directing, producing or writing, it's not their job to know how the other parts of production work. They also know and care that everyone is doing their jobs effectively- they don't want the show to be cancelled, especially due to some BTS f*ckry.

Of course he's right. We're it not for the expletives, this would have made a perfect PSA for vaccination and proper adherence to anti-COVID-19 protocols. As for Laura Osnes, there is likely an understudy waiting in the wings to replace her. Oh, scanning the article (I loathe the NY Post, lol), I see that it is just a one-off performance in some weeklong festival and Osnes has already been replaced by an actress who previously played Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Problem solved. Osnes now has a reputation that will impact her career going forward.

P&G never, I mean never truly learned how to properly promote their talent. Fulton was daytime's O.G. 'Bad Gal' and should have been promoted as a pioneering character. Lisa was doing what many avid readers of the "Feminine Mystique" book must surely have fantasizing about doing during that period of time (despite the public backlash to the character, especially when she temporarily abandons Oakdale) Meanwhile, you had AMC, OLTL, Y&R, GH all far better at promoting their talent. It's really a shame. Barbara Ryan was one of the most stylish characters in all of daytime "Not a hair outta place" as was often said by various characters of Barbara-- who should've been almost as well known as Erica Kane and yet... no, despite being one of the most consistent characters on CBS daytime. Again, a shame. Perhaps Holden and Lily were on par with Nick and Sharon. That's all I can think of. P&G was better at promoting their daytime lineup, but looking back it irks me that they chose to do entire promotions where they'd use stand ins, whose faces were blurred, instead of the actors who portrayed the actual characters, and this was at one of the heights of the show's popularity. So generic. Who does that? I was speaking specifically.

Keating's character on ATWT, Niles Mason was an absolute villain, lol. He plotted with his son Derek (Thomas Gibson) to court Lily, then kill her for her money. When Derek decided to back out of the plot, Niles barreled through with the plan anyway, setting a bomb to go off when Derek was supposed to be out of town, which backfired when Derek discovered the plot, rushed back home and, you guessed it...

Perhaps this could set a precedent for other such cases?

It looks to be by design but that's my opinion, I guess. The way Goutman treated a number of the show's talent, on the other hand, was very much within his control and he chose to treat a number of the talent in a very sh*tty manner. The interviews are out there with a Google search.

Oh, I definitely got the sense that she was personally revolted by what happened, the visceral nature of it leaped off the page when I read it and when I listened to her podcast interview ,(with a different soap blog), I got that exact same sense of revulsion. She didn't want to go into much detail and I respect her desire not to revisit that particular time in much detail. I also got the sense that it was somewhat traumatic and she wanted to push past it. Another aspect that comes to mind about that particular sequence of years and events is that, when a soap opera is on its "last legs" as ATWT obviously was at that time, TPTB usually put the production in the hands of less than fully capable people.

Well said. JW's family seems like a strong supportive group so, as they grieve, may they be able to draw strength from one another.

On one hand, it seems clear that the nation building that the Bush administration tried to convince everyone they were doing, clearly never happened. On the other hand, some Afghani women felt a measure of autonomy and security that they hadn't felt in generations. I likened it to Pakistan, where women once had freedoms until religious zealots came in and forced implementation of Wahhabism and much more severe forms of religious beliefs. Even with the U.S. occupation, it didn't even bring Afghan women back to the sense of freedom that they enjoyed in the 1960s, but it was better than what it had probably been in the the 90s after the Taliban kicked out the Soviets. Once the Taliban and Al Qaeda each took over various regions, neither women in Pakistan, nor Afghanistan have been able to enjoy the full measure of the freedoms they would have enjoyed in the 1950s and 60s, U.S. or Soviet occupation or not. Iran is similar, but they are mainly Shia, not Sunni, the particulars are somewhat different.

It was more than just money for Martha. It started out as contract negotiations but spiraled and disintegrated. She alluded to a type of psychological warfare that was being practiced, she said it was very damaging and hurtful. Hurtful was also the word that Eileen used to describe the way she was treated. Yes, actors can be sensitive, but from working with them, that's why they are effective at what they do. Their feelings are close enough to the surface that they can be easily accessed. Anyone working with actors ought to know this, or their in the wrong profession Bryce has worked with a number of professional s and personalities in his numerous film and television work, he likely has far more professional experience than Goutman has. Years ago, in an interview, Bryce basically talked about how unprofessional Goutman and co. were. I believe him. I have a connection to the very same department in which Goutman work(ed) on and off in academia and he's not so stellar there either.

A few less expletives and this could be run as a PSA.

Goutman was a very divisive figure, there is no room for debate about that. It's no secret that he had conflict with a few veteran actors. Long-time actors Martha Byrne and Scott Bryce had very negative experiences with him. Both Byrne and Bryce have spoken about their experiences on the show when he was EP. Byrne was a bit more circumspect, not wanting to divulge too many specific details, Bryce was more blunt. From my understanding, having listened to their actual words, they were marginalized, as was Fulton. Fulton also spoke of how hurtful her treatment was. As EP, the head of what goes on, day to day in production, if he wasn't at the root of this, honestly, I don't know who would be. I also know of his reputation along other spheres, that are not ATWT-related. It's not good.

Came across this. I'm seeing typos already. Cicely Tyson came on in 1996 and left Guiding Light in 1997?? Oh.

Also, binge-watching is the way streaming is done now. You can't say you're doing streaming and offer viewers the chance to binge-watch.

Would love to get some verification on this because, from what I remember reading in interviews, Fulton didn't have much regard for Goutman. I thought she felt disrespected by him.