DramatistDreamer

Here's some cool news.

Speaking of needing no words-

The only thing that surprises me is that we haven't heard a similar statement about some counties in Georgia.

Boy am I glad I never got into WhatsApp!

So when are folks going to get sick of all of this "winning"?

Considering the fact that the EPA has become nothing more than a corporate shill and a shell of its former self, this is unsurprising news.

From what I've read and heard from other artists from that time, gay and straight, it was painful to lose so many friends. I would imagine that Marland felt it keenly. And often the most poignant written words are the ones that came from what you know. The storyline with Hank Elliott and his lover Charles, who dies of AIDS was very detailed about how Hank had to commute back and forth-- there was so much specificity in that story that I'd guess that he knew someone who was going through that experience. Still, even the tone of the Hank Elliott story didn't feel as somber as some of the storylines of his last couple of years, that writing felt quite intimate in its preoccupation with loss. Yes, you can write from observation (and write very well) or even from research (I've had to do this for a historical drama script) but there is something about a topic that is feels so close to you that compels you to write about it and it's just a feeling I get everytime I watch that those aspects were very much a preoccupation with Marland. I actually try not to think about it too much when I've watched those episodes.

+1 I agree with your assessment, but I know from personal experience that writing at an intense level can be taxing on your health. I remember in grad school, there would be times when I'd be up at 3 o'clock in the morning and my heart was beating at a rate that I knew wasn't good and frankly, it unnerved me. What if that were my experience several days a week on a regular basis? And I can't imagine putting in those type of late night grinds in my 50s! IJS that it might have spared his health had he had someone else who he could truly share a vision and the creative load once they hit the early 90s. Once I got my M.F.A. whenever I got an assignment, I'd make sure to limit late nights, get some regular exercise and eat as healthy as I could because when you're really focused on writing and you almost don't want to stop to take a breath, it can get intense and you can neglect your self-care without even realize you're doing it!

I meant consistency in characterizations by the way. The change really should come in the situations and plots (tweaked for the change in times) but changing a long time character to do some wild sh*t just because you want to "shake things up" tends to alienate viewers. I'm of the opinion that even when you have a head writer, at some point that HW should take on an emeritus role where trained talented writers write the script under supervision. In fact, Marland most likely should have had a co-HW like a Susan Bedsow-Horgan, who had been there and knew the characters and the show's creative landscape. Relying on one writer to do all the heavy lifting on a show that airs five days a week is the surest way to kill that writer, which is essentially what happened. If you look closely at the storylines, there is a morose morbidity running all through the show in the last couple years. That should've been a sign to someone at P&G that all was not well. Marland was not well and he telegraphed it, but no one was paying attention.

Oh wow, I think the last time I saw Carrie Mitchum was during her final guest appearance on B&B!

Marland's health was also likely deteriorating over the last two years of his run. Soaps had a weak to non-existent awareness of the idea of apprenticeship. With all the prestigious pre-professional writing programs in the country, some just a stone's throw away from CBS, you would've thought these writing programs would've provided a feeder for apprenticeships for these soaps' writing rooms but nope. In the worlds of visual art and architecture, the master painters and master builders all had apprentices who learned how to recreate and mimic their style so that they could finish the projects that were started and the master artist could move onto a different project. People don't honestly believe that Michelangelo, DaVinci and Frank Lloyd Wright did all those works on their own, do they? Having a long running-show spanning decades, it should've dawned on these production companies and networks that if they wanted some continuity, they had to create a formal pipeline of trained talent but the soap industry was content to operate in a helter-skelter fashion. And that lack of professionalism is part of the demise of countless numbers of these daytime soaps.

We know that this happens in other industries too. When POC speak out about lack of diversity, they generally get penalized.

Speaking of insane and dangerous... Every day we sink further and further down the rabbit hole of absurdity.

Ineptitude. After Marland died, ATWT was left with a series of hacks, to put it mildly. So much so, that by the time the show got to Hogan Sheffer, it was in dire straits. People praise Sheffer for doing the least (basically making the show watchable) but Sheffer knew nothing about the actual characters, who he wrote as completely OOC-- half the time Sheffer thought he was writing for AMC, as mentioned in his Emmys acceptance speech. After that speech, people should've seen the signs on what was to come.

The Town Hall has officially jumped the shark.

By the way, Trump couldn't win his home state but that didn't stop the snake from slithering into the White House. I suspect that if Trump had held an actual position in public office, people would have gotten a glimpse into his abhorrent governing style and crossed him off the list. Of course, NYers would never have elected him mayor.

Bill DeBlasio campaigned on and boasted of his progressive credentials but many of his policies haven't necessarily followed, so the backlash has been direct and long-lasting. FWIW, many voters are not in favor of most of NYC's mayors. Giuliani and Bloomberg's presidential ambitions came to naught. On the bright side for DeBlasio, I doubt he will ever be detested as much as Giuliani. Speaking of a figure who people really detest right now- Brian Stelter is getting cursed the hell out in response to some condescending comments he made to Amy Siskind some time ago. Well, turned out he was wrong.

From what I read Terry Lester (Royce Keller) was a friend of Doug Marland and after Marland died, things went awry. I guess somehow Lester didn't fit into the newly evolving show structure without Marland. AW had offers to keep it going but P&G didn't want to sell or make any type of agreement that would save the show. Looking back, it's obvious they gradually aimed to divest themselves completely of their entertainment properties and they didn't want to turn over their properties to any other entity. ATWT also had an offer from CBS to save it and P&G refused. P&G gave a limited amount of time to the SoapClassics people to convert some classic episodes from their titles to digital (like, what eight weeks or so, if that?) before they snatched it back. Not even a year. Not even a season. A big part of the problem of what happened to these soaps rests with P&G and the dysfunctional ways in which they operate.

From what I heard, the Osaka/Bencic match was a highly competitive 3 set battle. Why wouldn't that be shown on the main network? Because it's a women's match? Tennis fans can really be sickening sometimes. The sexism and racism inherent to this sport never ceases to amaze me. On other topics involving actual players, not numbty dumpty fans.

I knew Monfils was going to f*ck it up. He's so much better in best of five sets than best of three. If Madrid clay courts in any way resembled Roland Garros, I'd be much more upset.

Chris Hughes is trending on Twitter! I know, not that Chris Hughes but still-