DramatistDreamer

If they wanted Victor to be American so badly, they could've just had his father be an American, maybe a serviceman who swept his German born mother off her feet brought her to America where they married and they quickly conceived Victor before the father has to deploy (or so he claims) and the mother struggles to get along without her husband. She eventually decides to return with Victor to Germany but finds she is no better able to care for Victor and leaves him at an orphanage. As a 20 year old, perhaps Victor makes his way back to the land of his birth.

My first thought is to wonder what South Asian Americans think about what she said. Do they not count as Asians? If she meant East Asians, she should just have said so, even though that would be opening up an entire Pandora's box worth of division.

Yes, her tenures seem very testosterone-laced. As an aside, I think she would've been great at writing Brooke Logan as she seemed adept at writing sexually charged vamps. From what I have noticed, she seemed to write two archetypes of women, hard-charging, full-steam ahead in career, and hard-charging, full-steam ahead in the bedroom. The same way that many criticized Maryland in how he wrote '86 Barbara and Lucinda, I would see Long writing similarly for both characters. Lisa is a character that seems straight-forward and easy to write on the surface but was a bit more complex beneath, which is my guess as to why the writers didn't bother with her at all towards the end (they should have at least tried though). Due to Fulton's Southern heritage, I fear that Long may have been tempted to write her as some sort of ageing Southern belle or grande dame and that wasn't Lisa. Despite all her sparkly, fancy attire, Lisa wasn't a reclining grande same. She was a successful business woman but she wasn't an Alexandra Spaulding, either in business temperament, or in disposition (she was not as concerned with socio-economic standing and class as Alexandra). Lisa was a romantic but not a camp like Reva. Lisa was, on occasion down for a good scrap. Another thing, is that Lisa was fiercely loyal to her women friends. Most of Long's best known creations had stronger friendships/relationships with men. So, I would've handed off writing duties to another writer, as far as Lisa was concerned. I think Long would've done fine with John Dixon (no one has ever truly flopped with him) and she probably would have written great conflict between he and Bob.

Nobody mentioned writing for Lisa.😬 I realize not everybody is capable but Lisa was a major character.

FWIW, Moderna has a slightly higher efficacy % rate than Pfizer, but again, a minuscule difference. A little but much needed humor.

Another forgettable storyline. I did love Eric Steinberg and thought Kim Ji-Min was such a charismatic, smart and sexy character, who could of been viable individual, separate from a pairing. Why is it that anytime there was a hot pairing for Jill, the guy just disappeared or got killed off? So many poor choices, it's incredible. I don't know if this was part of that same scene but I also remember a throwaway "joke" Colleen had made about her ability to gain weight just by looking at food. That was the comment that made me wonder how she felt after uttering it.

The "good guy with a gun"? Wouldn't that be the cop that was shot and killed by the gunman?

Whooh, are you speaking 🗣️ some truths! Thank you for mentioning the unbalanced power dynamic between Colleen and Prof. Korbel! I always found that relationship to be skeevy but on the soap message board that I frequented at the time (which shall remain nameless), they loved it🙄🤨. Although I loved the chemistry between Lyndsy Fonseca and Thad Luckinbill (which was even better when the two coupled on the series Nikita), I liked the fact that Leon had some physical traits of Traci. I remember when Leon's Colleen mentioned weight in an off-handed manner, which seemed natural enough, yet I wondered if the actress was alright with expressing that idea-- did they talk that through to make sure that they weren't somehow undermining her confidence? But seeing who they replaced her with says a lot about how they truly felt.

The differences between Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are miniscule. The real issue, IMO is with AstraZeneca, which has been problematic throughout this entire pandemic.

Rachel Kimsey seemed like a bubbly, effervescent person, but she was already miscast as the sometimes melancholy Mac, and good gawd... Victoria??! She shouldn't have even been an afterthought for that role! Adrienne Leon was a pretty good recast, I thought but all I see, in my mind's eye, is that stupid reliquary story when I think of her time on Y&R unfortunately. It seems like too often these execs and some writers want to, in essence, create a new character, without doing the work of creating a new character. Even when they create a brand new character, they don't even give serious thought as to how integrate that new character onto the canvas in a way that makes sense.

I agree though, that Tomei was definitely broadening and heightening the Bklyn speak. I think for comedic effect.

Unfortunately this thread should be bumped up. Given the tragic events in Colorado.

If you've only seen what's been uploaded up on YouTube, you have missed many spicy scenes. No offense to the uploaders, who have provided fans with lots of entertainment, but if you really look at who is featured in the majority of those episodes, it's mainly Lily and Holden, lol. The sultry stuff from Tom and Margo is not even on there.

I used to live and work in Brooklyn, lol. I have family that still live there.

It's money and it's also ego that have driven some of the worst decision, imo.

As someone who has written pieces and casted them myself vs. writing pieces and *having* them cast by a director, a bad casting choice can truly wreak havoc on even great quality writing. I have experienced this personally. Also, television is a different process than theater and even film. In film, a power-hungry director can really pull the entire project down the wrong alley but at least, a director is connected to the creative process. Executives in T.V. have too much say, imo and it has a tendency to ruin things. Casting an actor to achieve a certain "lewk" is idiotic and deserves to flop. Trying to achieve the aesthetic of a competing network sounds almost as idiotic. Y&R had been #1 for over a decade by the time AH was cast as Victoria and where was AMC in the ratings? I know, I know demographics but, Y&R didn't just have the Glow By Jabot "kids" who were ageing out...they also had the group behind them who consisted of at least two legacy kids in Colleen Carlton and Lily Winters, that would have given them at least two more years until they could have then planned to build for Cassie, Noah etc. I think $$$ was more of a factor than many are willing to concede. Cold hard cash ruled a lot of the decision-making but poor money choices, since none of these choices were ones that would lead to bigger ad buys.

I saw your post @JaneAusten about the Democrats missing a golden opportunity to use the border situation as a rallying cry for immigration reform and this, I think, is one example of the attempt at this.

But...but, Tomei really is from Brooklyn, lol. I'm sure she played it up for comedic effect though.

Following this discussion made me think about just how much is the function of the writing and how much is tied to the actor's ability. First off, I'd say that PB benefited from at least a few years more of better writing overall than AH. Then again, I just can't see TL putting up with a storyline like Jack/Marco-- TL likely would have walked away from the show first. Aside from that, TL had a a charisma that allowed him to play Jack as having an easy, breezy charm, so much so that he was endearing despite being a cad at times. Putting aside whatever she is doing or not doing at B&B, HT had the ability to portray Victoria as steely, yet vulnerable. Back then I took it for granted that all actors had this ability, future soap actors would prove me wrong on that one. I think an aspect that both actors had in common (and I guess good actors in general) is the ability to convincingly show different emotions, especially contradictory emotions at once. I get the sense that either the actress or the director, showrunner, etc. seems to prefer that Victoria be played one way at a time, and it usually involves being fragile. And it had been that way seemingly since the show brought Victoria back to GC as some boho-incarnate. Jack has also grown increasingly fragile, in a way, seemingly almost never with emotions in check, a ready tear waiting to spill out of the eyes. Again, I have difficulty picturing TL's Jack being Phyllis's 2nd or third choice of romantic partner. His Jack wouldn't even have waited for Phyllis to get the words, he would've immediately started pursuing someone else.

True. I am relieved that TPTB never dumbed down the relationship the way they eventually did to Margo and Jessica. I guess this was partly a function of the lack of interest in writing storylines for the elder set, particularly Lisa, which, otoh, is sad too. It was interesting to see that relationship deteriorate, even before Barbara's deception was revealed, on account of Barbara's growing bond with Lucinda, who Lisa could not stand. The friendship weathered that period of turbulence. I do think that Lisa was an incredibly loyal character, when you think of how protective she was with her stepchildren, as well as Tom. She was also the least judgemental of any of the Oakdale residents of her generation, when you think about how helpful she was to Julie and Carly, even when Emily was a pariah after fleeing town with James, Lisa didn't object to her working at Fashions.

Oh the irony of all those soap bloggers and soap-themed magazines not being able to cover that soap-adjacent news item that is right in front of their faces, even as the industry struggles for relevance!

A few have already been posted, so I won't repeat them but one that I haven't seen is Lisa & Kim, ATWT Quite a complex relationship (considering the fact that both characters married the same man, with one still married to said man) that came off as being so easy and organic, which I credit the writing and the ability of the actresses. EDIT: I see @Soaplovers posted them up thread. And @P.J. Thought I'd give an explanation why for those who may not be familiar with the characters.

These f*ckers, lol.