DramatistDreamer

Can’t believe, I am going to post this before @Soapsuds lol but I am intrigued as to whether he has any memory of his time on ATWT. He has good guests but the delivery of the questions is🤨. Guess I’ll have to grin and bear it, hopefully Danny Pintauro will take the lead in conversation. Maybe Colleen Zenk will make an appearance. @DRW50, @Khan and @Vee, @vetsoapfan, you might also be interested.

I don’t know how many people watched the Tony awards (I sure didn’t) but the In Memoriam segment is up on YouTube and both Ellen Holly and Nicholas Coster are featured in it.

Exactly! And if you don’t laugh, you cry. Thank goodness we’ve been able to laugh. I mean, Shazza Zulu is still very much alive and thriving and adapting Dr. Sebi’s recipes for his own blogs. If you can’t laugh about hoteps, you just are incapable of laughing. Hell, racism, colorism, sexism…take your pick or all of the above…all evergreen.

Ever heard of the Howard scammer? The jokes write themselves. Some of the creative finessing that has happened at some schools (not just HBCU) as a result of financial constraints brought about some mayhem. I think there is quite a bit of comedy to be mined beyond stock characters. Some of the thorny issues within the Black community that had a quick comedic turn the first go around in the original series that are still with us and can be excavated in even more depth, from the lens of 21st century perspectives.

The entire interview is worth a listen but what Allen has to say about ADW is very interesting. Her tone is believable when she says that a reboot is something that she is still working on. At 13:14 is when the discussion turns to ADW.

Ugh, I was hoping it would be Grigor. I swear she just hangs with Reilly because of the height. I bet he doesn’t even know where she lives. lol Was Sabalenka injured at Roland Garros? She said she is skipping the Olympic Games in Paris because she wants to prioritize her health. Is it physical or mental health? I realize that Belarus and Russia aren’t the most welcome nations at the Olympic Games for the past few years.

Failing up, I guess. Fox News Promotes Jacqui Heinrich And Peter Doocy To Senior White House Correspondents

The irony of said “journalists” reporting on the ethics violations and conflicts of interest by public servants and figures when they are bribing, blagging and hacking for information to use in reporting the story. I remember the reports done mainly by the BBC on the phone hacking scandal. The most disgusting aspect was hearing about the hacking of the phone of a girl who had been murdered. At that time, the news media had a laser like focus on News of the World and The Sun newspapers and figures like Rebekah Brooks, someone who honestly came across the picture of venality.

Over the years, there have been are so many intriguing stories worthy of quality soap opera storylines, if only the HW of those struggling daytime soaps would pick up a friggin’ newspaper and read. You cannot convince me that those people read with the sh*tty stories they tell.

Yes @DRW50, it’s good to see people recognize Ms. Bofill’s amazing gift. Even though she couldn’t sing anymore, at least she got to perform onstage with her show, and get recognized for her songwriting skills while she was still present to receive the award. Here’s an obit from The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/angela-bofill-dead-i-try-im-on-your-side-singer-1235923690/ And years ago, the TV One program Unsung did a profile with Ms. Bofill. https://vimeopro.com/user15889254/unsung/video/300397465

The fact that the Surrey, of all places, is where one of the best known Tories is staring down the barrel of defeat is quite something. UK Chancellor Hunt Admits He's 1,500 Votes Away From Historic Defeat

Dang, Bofill had been for a number of years after suffering multiple strokes yet this is so sad. Thanks to radio stations like CD 101.9 a large number of kids and youngsters became aware of her music, which is so beautiful and so was she. R.I.P.

And right on the heels of the high school graduation ceremony of the kids who survived the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, with empty chairs dedicated to the kids who were mowed down as first graders-and speeches from the survivors about how they will carry that day and the memory of their fallen classmates with them for the rest of their lives. Similar to what happened to the original Sandy Hook Elementary School, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school, the site of yet another school massacre, is set to be demolished next week. So…yeah, SCOTUS is serving up more opportunities for these types of tragedies. Sadly.

Not even TFG… Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era ban on bump stocks on guns

It’s my opinion as a Black woman who has experienced something related. It’s definitely part of a pattern, however, I do agree with you on the rest of your post.

It may have seemed like I was joking when I said to leave that woman alone to do her show but I meant it. I don’t know why this often happens to Black women but it does. Everybody runs to us to fix their grievances. Black women are not your mammies. I stopped watching the soaps because I didn’t enjoy them anymore, people could always simply stop watching. How is it her problem that these other shows are bad? Already, I’m hearing that people are not willing to give her the leeway that they’ve given other showrunners who debut a soap. Give the woman some space already. Damn.

This is not so much a ”Where Are They Now?” as much as a “Where They Were Back Then” but I am reading a book entitled The Swans of Harlem. There is a chapter discussing the origins of the Dance Theater of Harlem and its founder Arthur Mitchell who was distraught in the wake of the MLK assassination when he called to friends in the middle of the night to help him work out a plan that would utilize his gift in service of his community. The two friends he called were Cicely Tyson and Brock Peters. Fans of 1980s Y&R might remember that Brock Peters played Commissioner Frank Lewis, Carl Williams’ (the father of Paul Williams) boss and Amy Lewis’ dad.

Currently reading The Swans of Harlem about the forgotten story of five Black ballerinas who blazed a trail that and the reclaiming of that history. I just reached my first mention of a soap opera star and it isn’t who you think it is.

Just shameful. Oklahoma Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit of last Tulsa Race Massacre survivors seeking reparations

From the files of the least surprising item you will read today. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/musk-spacex-lawsuit-former-employees-sexual-harassment-fired-rcna156854

Yes, I saw that this morning. I don’t know who he is but I read that they do a podcast together. Congratulations to them.

Lord, I forgot that the French Open had pushed back their tournament to the fall in 2020. I don’t remember who even won that year. Tennis has become predictable, even in its unpredictability (i.e. the WTA results). I will say, I do find Paolini’s personal story very compelling and except for that final, I enjoyed watching her play, despite who she plays double with (I am glad that Coco and Katerina won the title, and believe it or not, this was Coco’s first major title in doubles). I don’t want to disparage anyone’s game, it obviously works for her but Swiatek’s game has never been very interesting to me and that’s okay, that’s life. As much as I like Coco and the person she is, I don’t always enjoy her tennis either. I wonder whether tennis as a sport will continue to lose ground (I am paying far more attention to cricket these days than tennis and not because of the U.S. team, cricket is part of my heritage, lol) or will something happen to revive it. There have been times when the sport seems to retreat from prominence, then you have an era full of interesting people with some swag with big game bringing more attention to tennis.

I’ve never cared for Tennis Channel’s coverage so I can’t honestly say I’m sorry. TC has raised their production values from where they were originally but the standard still seems less than ideal. TC gives Challenger scale values, so maybe they’ll focus on that tour and pickle ball, of course. I forgot to mention that, I actually missed the end of the men’s final but when Alcaraz won that fourth set, I pretty much knew that he’d only close the door on Sascha in the final set. I do wonder who TNT will get to do commentary. I am almost afraid to find out.

It’s been a long time since I ate at a food court but this is yet another activity that takes place in a public space to worry about. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/11/us/peachtree-center-mall-shooting-atlanta/index.html

I have started to rethink the idea of chemistry. Over the weekend, I watched one of those roundtable discussions between actors and interestingly enough, Nicole Kidman said she hated the reliance on chemistry tests because she believed a “lack of chemistry” was usually due to a lack of rehearsal and/or a lack of a director doing their job properly. One of the questions I have continually been asking about daytime soaps over the last 15+ years is whether the director is actively working with these actors to produce the best results on screen. I think sometimes people dismiss the role of the director in television but it is still important. Speaking of afterthoughts, I don’t think Abby or Devon or Noah Newman or Chance for that matter have been written for with much consideration over the past several years. For Noah and Devon, the most comprehensive stories which centered their characters (I’m not talking about stories where they were involved in, alongside a bunch of other people) were done in their teenage years. Chance, well, did he much of a chance? His relationship with overpowering Chloe-had they kept her as Kate Valentine, the daughter of the maid involved with Chance, the son of a Chancellor and grandson of Jill Abbott, corporate impresario- it should have been interesting but both characters are underwritten, (Chance more than Chloe) so it was forgettable (I admit to tuning out during most of that time). Cassie could have been a well developed character, as we got to watch her grow up but the show decided to inexplicably kill her off in favor of giving Nick yet another avenue to jump into bed with someone other than his wife (and let’s face it, wasn’t that what the story really boiled down to? Oh yeah and we got the runaway teens storyline, which wasn’t half bad but not worth flushing an actress who could actually act). I know people say they are bored with the Devon character (which sometimes reads as them not liking Bryton, it’s hard to distinguish which one) but Devon and Hilar worked as a couple and the actors had entertainment value as those characters interacting with each other, that’s something you don’t always get on Y&R. Okay, to actually answer your question, I see it as a combination of factors but lack of consideration for writing both the characters and situations (sometimes it feels as if whoever is writing doesn’t know these characters at all) as well as poor direction in terms of how scenes and stories play out is another. One thing I always want to know is, what is said character’s fears, dreams, what do they want? I don’t mean professionally but as a human being. Does Abby or Devon or Noah have any fears about their personal relationships? Look at the way Abby and Devon got together…are there any fears about the fidelity of their relationship? Because there should be, given each of their histories. Are there any temptations? There should be. There ought to be some tensions there, or else, why even have them be a couple? This is not the time to have them function as an offscreen couple. If there is no conflict, there’s no drama and there’s no point. This goes for every other character. Most of what I read gives the impression that many of these characters are treading water dramatically.