DramatistDreamer

I'm all out of kudos to give to a genre that, in 2021 still can't bring itself to push past the idea that the mythical Midwestern house will catch the vapors if she sees anything that wouldn't get past a 1940 censor. I mean, soaps are still afraid to have a black man in bed with a white woman onscreen?

ATWT 30 years after the fact (the Reagan years, at that) gets a lot of criticism for what it/Marland did and didn't do, while look who slips under the radar-- Y&R, B&B, still on the air, neither has featured a relationship between two men. Y&R, which features a relationship between two women, finds this more palatable. I ko longer actively watch either show so I couldn't tell you what goes into the decision making on that end. It's laughable that two soaps that heavily feature the fashion and the cosmetic/skincare industries feature no gay men among their characters.

In a nutshell. The sad fact of the matter is that every single P&G soap has been off the air for a decade yet the problems of representation still persist.

At the risk of belaboring this topic, I wonder how much the daytime execs considered their viewers who were gay men vs. their fans who were women? It seems as though many of these writers/producers/network executives were catering to what they believed their core audience wanted, which is why you had a Hank, a confidante to Barbara (not a threat to Hal) and Iva (not anywhere near a romantic possibility) , defacto big brother type to Andy and Paul. You could argue that, to bring up that mythical Midwestern housewife who they often cite as the reason they put the kibosh on certain storylines, tptb probably assumed that characters like Hank could best be introduced to that audience as the milquetoast confidant with no possibility of being anyone's romantic rival by presenting them as close to a asexual as humanly possible.

Definitely understandable and I thought about that. One never knows how others will perceive something. Norman Lear and Carroll O'Connor thought most Americans would find Archie Bunker repulsive and were shocked at the reception he got. So you just never know and in the case of daytime soaps and that mythical Midwestern housewife, the stakes must have seemed too high.

The Biden-Harris administration YouTube channel doesn't seem to be getting a whole lot of action these days but it really is a useful resource for getting up to speed on cabinet picks and proposals and this idea seems a natural progression from what has been started from the DNC convention, through the inauguration into the present. It sort of reminds me of a digital version of the letters that Obama would get from constituents that he would read every night and often responded to.

It's a waste of time but Biden knows the optics of dismissing someone with a platform, if a platform of diminished value like Ice Cube's. Hopefully Ice Cube will at least take the time to read up on the issues and solutions that the Biden administration has already proposed so he doesn't look quite as ignorant as he did the last time. Ice Cube is likely trying to save face from all the mockery he encountered the last time. If he comes off as badly as he did last time, there will he no chance of ever looking like anything but a dumb muthaf*cka from hereon out.

Same. He always seemed so vivacious in public appearances.

These networks and soap production companies didn't seem to have much confidence thst anyone but a straight White person could garner much compassion from daytime viewers, from the sound of things, irrespective of show or network, it seems.

Who was the first onscreen character to have AIDS on a soap? Was the character heterosexual or homosexual? I ask because it seems like Daytime TV was very conservative in who the genre chose to represent certain aspects. Jessica Blair (Y&R) a straight White woman was portrayed in a very sympathetic light. Stone (can't remember his last name/GH), a straight White man, who was cast as a hearthrob, was also portrayed in a very tragic and sympathetic light. "Charles" preceded both characters, in the '80s when the virus was highly stigmatized and even cast as a type of moral judgement on certain people, chief among them gay men, and minorities soon after-- unless he was a star basketball player like Magic Johnson, which didn't come along for another two years after the AIDS storyline on ATWT. As tame as the story seems today, Y&R and GH may not have decided to write their own stories had ATWT never written one, maybe?

Interesting that this came up while I was scrolling. I remember when I saw this thinking that Sabrina was likely good practice for Moore doing a British accent here, she was so natural with her manner and speech.

From what I have heard, Marx got tired of the grind of doing soaps and wanted to focus on singing and voice over work. I once worked alongside a V.O. artist and it is a lot more laid back than doing a soap gig.

Lawsuit season is in full effect, at least where right-wingers are concerned.

It seems as if many Republicans are willing to bide their time, while they play both sides against the middle, hoping to ascend the chain of command. Some Democrats want to do this too but aren't as naked in their desire to do this. Also, most Democrats tend to tie their image of being a successful politician to the relative well-being of their constituents. Most Republicans seem not to care as much.

Facts.

Of course, but does John Q. (😬) Public know this? I'd be willing to bet a small amount that most Americans don't even think about Congressional committees and which one their representative sits on.

It was elements in the GOP screaming for Liz Cheney's head, not Democrats though. That's an internecine war, that looks to already been won by the most extreme elements. All Democrats should do is focus on their/Potus Joe's agenda and prosecute the case at the impeachment trial. So far, they seem fairly focused. That's what it looks like to most people, I would believe. Also, MTG is not even being expelled, she is being removed from a couple of committees. I'm not even sure that most Americans know what this entails-most would probably see a committee seat as a privilege anyway.

I hope that there will be counseling services made available for these families. Making them whole again (or at least the attempt to) entails more than reunification, although this is obviously an important start. From what I am seeing, Speaker Pelosi's letter is having some impact. Folks seem to be coming for McCarthy right now. The Q-CA label was a masterstroke.

Manchin looks even more foolish by comparison now.

Not since the days of tape delay have I gotten this much sleep at night during the Australian summer season. I think I have watched about 1.5 matches so far.

🎵"...every time I turn around..."🎶

Ming-Na was such a great find. I'd like to not believe that soap audiences were racist and homophobic but sadly when I see that the black family before Jessica's even came on was shelved just as they were finally getting good story, it didn't surprise me that/if viewers had a fit over Hank and Lien, both werr compelling characters, even if a bit too tolerant of other people's nonsense. 1989 really picked back up again though.

Yes, you and I mentioned the performative aspect of this. Manchin and his ego are both very annoying.

That next episode was briefly on YouTube, one of the many P&G episodes that were pulled following disputes. From what I remember, Beau and the police, which included Roy and Lt. McCluskey got to the house in time. I'm not sure but I think Laura had some silver letter opener, (which belonged to Bob and/or Kim) and when it appeared that she might stab Bob, she turned it on herself and claimed that everyone would assume that Bob killed her. She accused Bob of giving her no other choice. As she's about to stab herself, the police and Beau arrive to stop Laura. Beau and Bob contact Dr. Michaels who sedates and counsels a catatonic Laura, who is hospitalized at Memorial, where I think she was questioned by the police and she admits to killing Herb Petrie (can't believe I remembered his name!), the general manager at WOAK. It is determined that it is unlikely that Laura will ever be mentally capable and will have to be institutionalized. That year was interesting, not just because of the WGA strike but also because Laura exits and a few short months later, Lillith arrives and that, Marland did write.

Barbados should not have allowed it. Australia, that barred their own citizens from entering the country for months, got a lot of flack recently for allowing tennis players to enter on chartered flights, even under strict quarantine and frequent testing. Australia, with less than 1,000 deaths over the past year, has handled the pandemic much better than the U.K., which should not ge allowed to export disease to their former colonies that have yet to get access to vaccine for their population. Great Britain to a large extent, as well as the U.S. is the reason why any of the islands in the Caribbean even have COVID-19 in the first place. It's really very thoughtless and entitled. And a colonizing instinct.