DramatistDreamer

I was thinking about what I wrote yesterday and I think that this was an industry-wide problem, not just a Marland problem. Soaps relied too much on one HW figure to write an enormous canvas full of characters and I doubt that staff writers had enough backing from the production company and network execs to truly offer a "corrective" vision that may contrast with the showrunner's projections for the characters. Did anyone read that book "The Checklist"? There is an illuminating chapter on the Korean aviation industry in the 1980s that has an interesting correlation (albeit not nearly as life and death with the soaps) to the way the daytime soaps industry operates. You simply cannot expect a middle aged white man to successfully write a full, rich interior life of a neurotic middle-class girl without some help. Writers, like everyone else have blindspots. Bill Bell and Agnes Nixon had them also. And unlike them, Marland was not the creator, so it should have been easier for the producers, execs and network to intervene, but their ranks lacked diversity and likely would have made things even worse. The problems that ATWT had were numerous, systemic and not limited to one or two regimes. As we see now, in the remaining soaps the problems remain and certainly outlived Marland, Bell and Nixon. That promo set at Dreams' End is really good. The P&G soaps were adept at filming these exterior sequences for their stories.

It is too bad that CNN wasn't this quick off the mark when Trump kicked off his campaign of lies in 2015.

This conciliatory tone from some Democrats will only work if they are being ruthless in executing the Democrats' agenda behind the scenes and having a "it's nothing personal" attitude in public. Elections have consequences. The Republicans don't get to set the agenda after gaslighting the country for four years. Or, at least they shouldn't. Seth Meyers does a fairly good job of crystallizing what has been going on within the last 24 hours, as well as a recap of the situation that we are all in, in this video.

I do remember reading this interview, somewhere. It might be nice to have her on a livestream with some of her colleagues, like Hayley Barr and Karina Arroyave to discuss their time on the show.

I think that was a common device on serial dramas, especially soaps to have a character become so deeply unlikeable, that when they are sent off the canvas, they won't be missed. It's kind of unfortunate because the character could have evolved. I don't know what the reasons were behind the actress's/character's departure but between her and Tess' eventual departure and, it doesn't look like much was done with Bianca, that age group of young women seemed like it diminished rather quickly.

So I guess that was the Marcy before the blonde one, who got married to Linc? Funny how some names get repeated- I almost said the "first Marcy", but to me, that would be Marcy Thompson who was portrayed by Marisa Tomei. I'd like to see more scenes between Susan and Lyla. I was on and off with my viewing of this show at this time and no doubt missed conversations between the two about being in a relationship with a younger man. Lyla's relationship with Cal does not seem to be of the kind that has permanent possibilities. I wonder whether it was always intended to be for a finite period of time. I really hope someone can do a vlog or livestream interview with Parker Posey about her time on ATWT this year. Any interview with her that I have seen or read has never been boring. I am going to say something that might be shocking and many will, no doubt disagree but, I don't hate Courtney. Is she overwrought, melodramatic and whiny? Yes, but she was deeply insecure and had the character stayed on the canvas a bit longer, she would have matured to the point where she could've played a more useful role especially seeing as Andy never married or had a solid relationship after she left, which imo, diminished his prospects for longevity on the canvas. Lily and Roseanna found a place on the canvas, I think with more work, Courtney could have too.

You're welcome.

LOL.

Anyone who missed any part of today should visit the Biden Inaugural Committee channel on YouTube, it's probably going to be archived there, but I make no promises on how long.

New White House, who 'dis? Seriously, that Inauguration ceremony was truly so well done. I am relieved that it went off with virtually no hitches. So many captivating moments.

I really need to not hear that man's name, at least for the rest of the day.

So far, Trump has pardoned 2 rappers, likely the only black people who will get any pardon from his pen, the rest, likely all white men. Let's not pretend otherwise. He put many more to death. Speaking of the loser, yet another Trump-era EPA rule has been overturned and thrown out.

I get that Stenbeck was originally meant to be a goner in '83 but his return in '86 was done so well-- probably the best written and executed return of a character that I have seen on a soap. So, I get that the temptation was there for another writing regime to bring the character back but by the end of the 90s, the writers knew so little about that far back in the show's history that, honestly, they should've just left it alone. The last regime to write him, wrote him as a complete caricature.

As someone who has written scripts, I see what you are saying but until I see the script, I can't make a judgement on whether it's about the age difference, or a difference in ethnicity, which could be an equally important or even bigger issue. Lopez had the say so and apparently, Duhamel was one of her first choices for replacement, so that's... something. Also, scripts get rewritten many times over ( which can be a bad thing as often as it can be good). If they are still in pre-production, it's possible that some of the ideas were ever evolving anyway. If people really held firm to things like age, the movie version of The Wiz would've had Stephanie Mills and not Diana Ross.

That's a great print promo. Hard to imagine any media outlet paying this much attention to promote a daytime soap for a print ad. Production companies do this in the trade magazines to promote their Oscar contenders but short of some miracle, I think we're past soaps ever doing this again. '89 should have been the last time we saw James Stenbeck, when Paul shot him, unless there was a damn good story to bring him back. The one that brought him back over a decade later wasn't it though.

If Duhamel is starring opposite Jennifer Lopez, I doubt the bump up in the actor's age will make much of a difference, tbh.

Biden and Harris starting out on a respectful note, remembering the 400,000 lives lost to COVID-19 this evening.

Today's remembrance service was brief but very moving. It's incredibly sad that in the US alone 400,000 people have perished from this virus.

Get 'em Ms. James! On another note,

That news about him fleeing to Florida, at the same time that Palm Beach County is trying to get out of their lease for a branded golf course (thus following NYC's lead)

Probably because they decided that voter suppression worked so much better for them, with far less effort.

On the one hand, I am relieved to know that this VA man has been apprehended. On the other hand, it is more than unsettling to think of the others who lurk, waiting to attempt the same thing. Internicine conflict has been quite a long time coming for the GOP, when you remember the rifts that were forming with the emergence of the Tea Party. Like they say, "Winning covers a multitude of sins" and the Republicans taking over the Senate during the Obama administration and Trump capturing the White House four years ago, briefly obscured the fracturing of the GOP. Personally, I could care less if that party goes away forever. I just think this fracture did not just suddenly spring up. It's been there for over a decade.

Reading reports that newly elected Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis, is considering hiring a special assistant to oversee an investigation into Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the election results for the state of GA. Someone mentioned both Leticia James and Fani Willis and said that Trump and co. have been worried about the wrong squad 😃.