DramatistDreamer

Talk about hubris.

From what I am reading, 44 House Republicans voted with the Democrats for the $2K stimulus checks. Now the laser-like spotlight will be on the Republicans in the Senate.

Speaking specifically about Christmas episodes, for me, Y&R came off as somewhat remote (even as I found it entertaining) because most of the families were wealthy and well-heeled. If Victor gave Nikki or Ashley a gift, it's usually going to be some expensive bauble. The heartwarming "miracle" of Christmas usually did not involve a regular character but an outsider like a homeless person, etc who would be off the show by New Year's. The Williams family, who were middle class were also somewhat remote ad Mary Williams was seen as attending church and doing charity, usually off-screen, in addition to being portrayed as a judgemental busybody. The warmth was just not there. The families on Y&R could be seen as intimate and tight-knit, which can be seen as cozy or they can be seen as insular, not particularly welcoming to strangers. One thing that I can say of ATWT, particularly during Marland's best years is that events and occasions seemed welcoming to the outsider (sometimes to the detriment of a certain character, here and there). Just last week, I mentioned Lisa always being the great connector, introducing and welcoming new people. She once mentioned feeling like s stray who had been taken in by the Hughes, which explained why she was so welcoming of others, as I saw it. If you like at Bob's Thanksgiving toasts, there was always someone new eho hadn't been there in the previous year. It's possible that because those gatherings were more open, less insular than other soaps (which really seemed to tightly close ranks around their family unit), that ATWT seemed colder in comparison but I liked that the characters seemed more welcoming to outsiders. I also think that the show acknowledged the very real aspect of loneliness, despair and alienation around the holidays.

All of a sudden this phone seems incapable of embedding a YT video in a post and I'm annoyed. Also, out of curiosity, I typed in Beat Street in Twitter and am shocked at how many people insist that it is a Christmas movie and watch it almost every year.😮

Joe Biden spoke with brutal honesty about just how hollowed out some governmental departments became in the past four years.

Aww, thanks for starting this Topic, such a great idea, @All My Shadows 😚 Kristoff St. John on Charlie and Company. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lazesl-Bq8Q&feature=youtu.be

1983's Christmas episode seemed pretty stiff and formal to me, from what I saw. Maybe because I also watched Y&R, whose celebrations seemed much more choreographed, ATWT seemed warmer. I guess it's all about your perception.

This father needs to make formal charges of assault and risk of endangerment to a minor against the woman. Her actions were completely unacceptable.

Didn't Mal also kill Hilary off and called it a "gift" to the viewers? I'm not sure where this nostalgia for Mal is coming from. Personally, I could see there being a greater likelihood that MY and SS would have clashed, repeatedly. And for any creative project to work, there must be some synergy present. A constant battle of wills won't work.

Hopefully GA Democrats ignore that and continue to go to the polls to vote, the same way they ignored Trump's incessant whining about so-called rigged elections.

No need to apologize at all @JaneAusten I know that you are definitely pushing back against cynicism, which is an important reminder. Personally, I fight cynicism daily when I read the newspaper but try to remind myself that perhaps, I personally wouldn't be here if cynicism had been allowed to take hold. At times(if you remember a salty post that I made just before the general election about wanting to avoid negativity), I have forcefully pushed back when I thought I was seeing hopelessness, perhaps more for my own mental health, more than any other reason, but I definitely understand and relate to what you're saying and took it no other way.🙂 It will be interesting to see if, and when the needle can be significantly be moved in Texas, which is definitely 'Bible belt' territory and although the evangelical movement has lost a lot of people, still has a hold which is not easy to shake loose. People don't think of Florida as being connected but, spend any genuine amount of time in that state and you will see that Florida is part of that 'Bible belt' configuration (God, guns and football, NFL, that is). Whereas in GA, NC, AZ and increasingly, TX, you see those states being transformed hy the people that move in, Florida seems to have the opposite effect, those that decide to stay anyway.

The AZ comment was mentioned as a somewhat tongue in cheek utterance, as I know and have read about Indigenous/Native American groups and Latinx organizers working to get people registered. Having close friends and people who are 'like family' who have lived in GA since the early aughts, I know that GA has been slowly transforming for the past two decades and should be the least surprising of these Southern states that flipped. Abrams definitely gave it a jolt by bringing together what is essentially a loose confederation of grassroots efforts and bringing them together via her organization, she said as much in her tweets. ...when she acknowledged other groups that had been doing this work.

My thoughts exactly. Also, I am not sure that people realize that, even in the last election, as Abrams didn't get the governor's mansion, there were actual breakthroughs for a few Black candidates in GA at the local level. The media, so fixated on Trump supporters, rarely takes notice. Now Arizona, I can possibly see the miracle claim being attributed to that state!

Thank you for saying that. Unless someone comes at me, my comments have never been about being mean-spirited, just blunt. I admit, I have never been the most faithful viewer, I've taken "breaks", either due to business or academic pursuits or heavy calendar of events but I grew up loving many of these daytime dramas and had hoped for them, but the business and creative malfeasance is pretty hard to ignore, especially now that I have more knowledge of how "the sausage is made". This message board differs markedly from others because most people on this board are not afraid to have honest discussions about the good, the bad and the ugly concerning this genre. We discuss what we like and what we don't like and why. On other boards, you're not really allowed to do that. We use humor and we drag but even then there is a point behind it. I get that people might be sensitive about these soaps, as they see them hanging on by a slim thread but as I see it, giving bad storytelling a pass, even in the midst of ratings drops won't spare these shows anyway, it might do the opposite.

It's hard to know how much of this is "inside the Beltway chatter that will never truly reach, let alone penetrate the consciousness of the masses. Just a few weeks ago there was talk about the so-called Squad going down to GA and campaigning for Warnock (which always seemed a dubious assertion, at best), which never materialized and seemed the invention of one shady blog. Here is one reason why I disagree with the notion that this result was the product of some miracle-- this election result was not an isolated incident, it was the product of years' worth of organizing. This is not to sound haughty but I just don't think most of us know enough of what's truly going on in GA to make the assertion that these gains weren't already in the making as a result of other factors that had little to do with luck and miracles, or some outside force.

The guys who commit atrocities such as the massacre in Nisour Square will never be the ones to face the death penalty.

There is a very high probability that by the time Biden takes the oath of office there will have been so much suffering that there will be enough concensus to push through a bill that is at least equal to the size of the one passed in the spring. Do you think that what happened with GA in the presidential election was a miracle? Personally, I don't. I saw it as the result of a lot of work.

P&G brings back Susan Bedsow-Horgan as a co-HW, alongside Douglas Marland around '91, which might have lightened the load on Marland, lightened the mood of some of the stories, as many have observed that there was a darkness and heaviness apparent in some of the storylines. Having a co-HW might have even prevented Marland's premature death, as the strain of headwriting the entire show since late '85 may indeed have taken a toll on his health in those last years of his life. If worse comes to worst, and ATWT lost Marland, as was truly the case, the show would have at least had in SBH, someone already in place that truly understood the show, its dynamic, its characters and had the capability to write reasonably compelling stories. With SBH, the continuity of storytelling would have had better consistency, and viewers might have been spared some of the ridiculous stories that followed in the next decade and a half. Even had Marland survived his health crisis, it still would've been wise to have SBH as a co-HW, as she wrote for the show before and during Marland's tenure and he could've come to rely and trust her as a partner in the HW's position, maybe even take a vacay, which I doubt he really ever did as ATWT's HW.

Black people (who l must remind myself can also fall within the ranks of blue-collar workers) also caught hell (despite what we saw on 'The Cosby Show'). As a little girl, I remember family members who were often being laid off from their jobs. They were fortunate to return to work eventually but that type of financial instability took a toll. Most were never able to amass the amount and type of savings that they could/should have, if only their jobs were more secure (and paid better).

So are Kentucky voters that dumb or are voter suppression efforts that effective? I could've even overlooked Susan Collins' cowardice self slithering back in, but McConnell's reelection is unforgivable. For months now, I have been under the impression that no further relief will get passed until Biden gets in office. Each day that passes without a bill being passed strengthens that belief. Very sad to have to say that.

Jennifer Gatti (a.k.a. Original Recipe Dinah) didn't bother me the way I guess, she may bother some. It's just that the efforts to make her look more "carni" mixed with 80s styling did her no favors. When you see her photo stills from other show appearances she made like "Full House" and her stint on Y&R (controversial casting, though it may be), Hatti looked perfectly fine and comparable to her peers on the show. The styling for her Dinah, however was awful, with those bulky sweaters and lion's mane coiffure.

Well, you know, I've been accused of having a negative attitude where today's soaps are concerned, so I was trying to find something positive to say, 😁. If truth be told, I got through about one and a half episodes and didn't return to watch the rest. As nice as it was to see Nina and Jill, the writing is just not compelling enough to lure me back to watching on anything close to even resembling regular viewing.