DramatistDreamer

It's good that Tiafoe never really worked with the USTA because with the obvious racism in thought and practice, they would've f*ucked him up, the way they did Donald Young. SMH.

I think James killed one of his cronies, Glen Harrington and shot Hank Elliot in March, when Hank tried to stop James from taking Paul (again) when he and Barbara were in NYC for the debut of the Barbara Ryan Originals line. Everyone thought James had died during his confrontation with the police when the helicopter he was in was shot down over the Hudson. James was not dead, of course. He showed up in Oakdale by the end of spring, early summer (I think). Paul shot James while he was beating up Emily by Labor Day. This episode, which is dated September 1, 1989, at the very end is when the series of violent exchanges begin to unfold between James, Emily and Paul and the sequence is repeated (with some slight modifications) in the next episode, which aired next week, the day after Labor Day Monday. It just seemed as if CBS and ATWT, in particular had these special Labor Day cliffhangers due to the U.S. Open pre-empting regular programming. I just thought it was very clever how the show was able to take what could have been a disadvantageous situation like the last episode of the week being on a Wednesday or Thursday and turning it into a reason to make sure viewers came back after U.S. Open/Labor Day episode pre-emptions by keeping them glued to the edge of their seats with a cliffhanger that pretty much came mid-week.

Too bad this wasn't livestreamed.

That just goes to show how many episodes are missing from You Tube. If you go by what's only on YT, you'd think that the only actual suspects were Kevin Gibbs, Jay Connors, Frannie and Kim Hughes. In the episodes posted, Lucinda looked more like a likely suspect in the Marie Kovacs murder than Doug Cummings. *Still hoping that somebody answers my question about where other soaps did special Labor Day cliffhangers or was it just mainly CBS daytime, primarily ATWT?

A brief fling with Kirk would've offered a lot of possibilities because, at some level, Iva had become convinced that she and Kirk wouldn't 'work' and then, add the fact that he'd been married to her sister Ellie (which never should've happened but anyway) but that would've presented a conflict for Iva. Also, what would it have meant to Iva to be pregnant by a man who had all but completely abandoned his first two children in their early years? I would've liked to see that storyline. So, I'm still thinking of all those excellent pre-Labor Day weekend episodes during the 1980s and wishing they were all uploaded to You Tube. Didn't Kim Hughes literally go into labor during one of the Labor Day weekend cliffhangers? Was that episode ever repeated on TV (e.g. during those re-airing of Soap Classics during the holidays?). I feel like I've never seen it since it first aired and such good episode(s) too. Was CBS the only network that did this (due to U.S. Open pre-emptions)? ATWT seemed to be the best at providing a great pre-Labor Day cliffhanger. Also, during a different year, Paul shot his father James Stenbeck after he attacked Emily during one of those Labor Day cliffhangers.

Good Lord, I forgot about that! Julie and Holden had a whole baby together. SMH. Of all the relationships, the Iva/John one had to be the relationship that I liked least. It just didn't seem to suit Iva's character at all. Or at least what we were all led to believe what Iva's character was all about. I understand that that Lisa Brown was such a capable actress that writers believed Iva could shoulder any situation and storyline and still emerge as something of a heroine but her character was really never the same after this. Then again, there were more than one storyline where you felt shouldn't have happened to Iva's character. In a weird way, in retrospect, by putting Iva with John, a much older man, it almost felt like the writers were "grooming" Iva to be with an older man down the road, and putting Iva with Jason Benedict (at least he seemed/looked like an older man) seemed to solidify that objective, which was a disappointing outcome to me. EDT: I'm not even going to get into how Iva had been romantically involved (offscreen) with a Tad Channing who was in her age group, then suddenly switched to Larry Pine, an older actor, to play an older version of the character. Yes, to Tess!! By that time, I'm not even sure the writers knew who Tess was and that she was Will and Adam's cousin but it would've been fun to have Parker Posey back, she'd light up her scenes with everyone with the possible exception of Paul (sadly) because I just could not imagine her in a scene with Roger Howarth's Paul and actually believing that those two ever got together. I couldn't picture it. If only ATWT had kept Scott Holroyd.

I meant the assault case and criminal matter. The tennis PTB continue to try to ignore and minimize the whole thing so at this point, they no longer have the moral standing (they never did, in the first place but at least before, they could pretend) to try to keep Kafelnikov out anymore. Nobody's trying to have a physical affair with Gimelstob, lol. He'll never be that rich or powerful. That's a regular scoreline for one of Madison's matches, it happens so frequently.

Well, if the ATP/ITF is going to try to overlook and finesse the Justin Gimelstob affair, what moral high ground could they now possibly stand on to prevent Kafelnikov from getting in? Wow Li Na must've gotten in the first time she came up for nomination. Some people are shoo-ins given their legacy.

Some random ATWT thoughts/trivia came to mind recently. Was ATWT/CBS soaps the only daytime dramas that used to do Labor Day weekend cliffhangers? Maybe it began when CBS started pre-empting programming on the weekdays before Labor Day but that annual cliffhanger episode kept me hanging on. As big a tennis fan as I became, it was hard to wait for the next episode. Those were some damn good cliffhangers and I miss seeing them, even though it meant an agonizing wait. ATWT had some particularly memorable ones. Did anyone know that Kiertan Coan, who played Hal Munson's sister Claire teaches yoga to acting students? I believe she also teaches at a private institute but here is her bio at the University at North Carolina School of the Arts. I always wished they had brought the actress back over the years. It would have been great to see Claire interact with Will, Nicky and an older version of Adam and even Jennifer, in light of the conversation she and Barbara once had about the agony of Barbara having to be at Adam's christening and watching Hal and Margo take pictures with baby Adam. Also, everyone talks about Craig whoring around but man, the more I watch the Snyders, the more convinced I am that it's really about their proclivities to 'partner swap' and share. Leaving Craig aside... Caleb, Holden and Seth were all romantically involved with Angel. Two of them were married to her!! Craig couldn't even claim to have been married to two Snyder women. Caleb and Holden were both romantically involved with Lily. Iva and Ellie, didn't stop at Craig, they were also romantically involved with Kirk., Not to mention (but I have to) Emma and Iva have John in common. The Snyder clan sure wove a tangled romantic web. One more thing-- I wonder if Cedering Fox, who played the 2nd Judith Clayton will be doing the voice-over announcements for the Academy Awards telecast. Apparently, it's her voice that does those on-air announcements on a number of televised awards shows.

And Gillibrand once had an A rating from the NRA. IMO, she's been very forthright about her previous political positions and why she changed them.

To me, it would've been good if people wanted Barbara to have a moment to slap Margo. It sure beats a bore of a character who is boring and perfect. I don't think that level-headedness or rationality were ever supposed to be Margo's known traits. I mean, when she first came to town, wasn't Margo something of a slut anyway? Nothing against Dolan but her Margo struck me as being far away from the complicated mess that Colin and HBS portrayed in their characterizations. Again, perhaps the writing had more to do with it. Margo was supposed to be a messy character. Good at what she did professionally (which, tbh, were any of the cops really that great at actually solving crimes on soaps?) but messy in her personal life. Probably my all-time favorite portrayal of a TV policewoman detective had to be DCI Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) from the Prime Suspect series. DCI Tennison was meticulous and brilliant (not to mention brash-- she had to be, considering the hostility she faced as the only woman of her rank) but incredibly sloppy in her personal life. The qualities that made her such a brilliant detective are the very qualities that threatened to destroy her ability to make her life as a functional human being. I found this compelling. There were times when, the writing was really good, Margo's characterization came close (not quite ever achieved) this level of chaos and personally, that was when I found the character most compelling. Yes, there were times I wanted to slap Margo too but she was never more interesting in those moments. e.g. it was incredibly messy for her to parade her affair with Hal at the police station (I always felt for Roy, who was left to try to mask his discomfort and confusion with the situation and do some actual police business) but that was damn good soap! And as sorry as I felt for Tom and Margo's miscarriage (particularly the 2nd time around), her dedication to her job to investigate the castle (and to saving Barbara) put ended up putting her personal life into peril and ending her late-stage pregnancy. That story was top-notch and it didn't place Margo as a victim, it actually gave her the agency and the onus in her and Tom's tragic outcome. By the way, I never found it cute that Tom and Margo tricked all those people to the park to their wedding but it was one of the most memorable, one of the most enjoyable soap weddings I'd ever watched (I saw it again last year and enjoyed it thoroughly). If I were poor Lyla, (whose hair likely narrowly missed falling out completely from an over-processed perm) I would have gathered Margo's neck but that was true to the character at her most whimsical. Margo had many aspects to her character. I think she was always meant to be as infuriating and obstinate and she was dedicated and loving. And yes, Margo was always messy. People mature but they really don't change that much at their core. When you lose that, you lose what makes the character who they are. Okay, now I feel like I'm teaching one of my dramatic writing courses, lol.

As a child of divorce, it's too much on a child to be expected to be the "glue" that holds his/her parents' marriage together (I'm glad that responsibility was never placed on me but I suspect, no matter the age of the kid, he/she always feels the pressure"). It's probably a relief to the kid that he 'escaped' by way of college.

It may be a case of the fact that there are so many lies, even the spox has trouble differentiating them and what is genuine. It is a strange situation because pretty much everything else that BF has reported concerning the Trump administration has proven to be true--with the exception of the most salacious details of dossier, which remains unverified (as far as we know).

I completely lost track of Wendy Williams and her personal drama. What happened with her son and her parents?

I don't believe that Obama would've been able to rebound from a BJ in the Oval office either but yes, Trump is a level of madness that nobody has ever seen before. Still, the fact that Trump has been able to get away with so much with what appears to be little to no accountability, even is Mueller's report somehow leads to indictment, etc. --I really don't think this portends good things for this country.

PGP is very stupid and obstinate. They're too busy infighting and engaging in their intra-company 'cold war' to recognize a genuine revenue stream. Even if they streamed these shows for 'free' with their own ads like Crakle, FreeDive and so many others do, there would be no virtual downside for PGP. Then again, PGP never did see the true value of their entertainment properties, even when their shows were financing practically half of their business ventures. Like I said, stupid and obstinate.

Seriously, could you imagine if Obama had done all this sh*t??!! This disparity about what some Americans will make allowances for based on skin color is insane! And please, no one give me that crap explanation about Obama being the one to put up a higher bar because we know that is a smokescreen excuse for a much deeper problem that has existed in America. Knowing what I know about living in America with its overt and under the radar racism, sexism and microaggressions, it is not exactly surprising but still, it is breathtakingly insane to watch this all unfold in real-time. It's truly difficult to hold much hope for America going forward when this is all occurring.

I was going to mention that too. Very true that Colin and Bryggman had genuine chemistry. As for the concept that their father/daughter chemistry felt less and less real as the years went by, I do think the writing going forward helped to contribute to that element as "John" seemed to become more and more antagonistic and toward "Tom" and in return, Margo became more defensive toward John. I remember, in particular that hospital scene after Margo had just had her miscarriage and John was badgering her over her refusal to answer questions and discuss James Stenbeck's return and Margo exploded on him. It seemed as though, by the 90s, relationships were pretty frayed and by the '00s, it was as if people were complete strangers. It was painful to see Lyla with her daughters and Margo and Craig who had always been close (from Colin to HBS and Bryce) were downright antagonistic. And John was on and off but the chemistry between he and Margo seemed off by then too...were they even sharing scenes by his final story arc on the show?

Does the release of Michael Cohen poll rigging saga mean that finally polls can be held at arms length in elections? How many examples must there be to show that these polls actually offer no real insight? When will people understand this?

Okay, okay...tryin' to be diplomatic here.

I absolutely agree with this! Even seeing their work decades later, it still holds up. Their chemistry had range-- they could portray angst and longing when they needed to, smoldering sensual chemistry when their scenes called for it, anger, devastation, all of it. And even when they were being dense (e.g. the Barbara fake seduction leading to near divorce), both actors played their beats with intelligence-- they really sold it. I also happen to think that Greg Marx and Julianne Moore had great natural chemistry as siblings and with Marx's auburn hair and Moore's coppery locks, they genuinely looked as though they could be brother and sister. The more I watch classic Guiding Light, the more convinced I am that Ellen Dolan's best role by far was as Maureen Bauer. I could never fully get used to her as Margo Hughes. Scott Holmes had some truly sweet scenes with HBS' Margo but they honestly pale in comparison to the intense heat she had with Marx's Tom. Also, this. Scott Holmes'Tom seemed to be the prototype of the 'sensitive' type of man that became so popular in the 1980s. Ordinarily, I don't have a problem with it but there seemed to be a distinct lack of "sizzle" which was very noticeable to me. It was like something had gone missing from the character after Greg Marxx departed the role. I only caught the tail end of Margaret Colin's run but I appreciated the fact that her face was so utterly expressive that she could convey a lot with just an expression. Her chemistry with Deas was obvious but sometime Deas seemed to venture into the hammy.

...but he's a Sanders supporter, so I guess that made him aces in some people's books. I've never followed him and I try to avoid his tweets. The ones that I have somehow seen all seem to be videos of black people getting shot. No thanks, life under Trump is hard enough.