DramatistDreamer

Absolutely. Amelia Marshall as an actress was just woefully underated. I still have difficulty understanding why she didn't get more opportunities. She and Rick Hearst should've been a no-brainer but I'm thinking there there was some resistance to that pairing from executives. Silly, really!

ABC was better for awhile with their AA characters but they too tended to marginalize their characters in subtle ways. What I don't understand is the notion that 'there can only be one young African American female or male character on the show at a time. Or that all the African American characters basically have to be related. On ATWT, why couldn't Jessica and Heather both existed when we had Barbara, Margo, Betsy, Frannie, Lisa, Kim, Lucinda, etc? Honestly as a Black woman and a writer, as much as I loved ATWT, I resented this. I understand that the subject matter makes some uncomfortable but I think, had people truly brought the matter out in the open, discussed it honestly, changes could've been made that might have brought these shows more in line with reflecting the real world and might have resulted for longer runs for some of these shows by bringing in a wider pool of viewers. It's no mistake that the shows that have the most longevity (Y&R used to have one of the largest AA casts in daytime, Grey's Anatomy in Primetime is still on) and the movies that do the biggest box office have the most diverse casts. People do tend to be more engaged when they see people they can identify with in some way on screen. That's just reality. I do agree that quality should take precedence over quantity but I don't particularly find a lot of the stories written for many of the minority cast members to have been complete stories. I liked aspects of the writing for Jessica Griffin but she had a lot of unfinished stories (virtually any of her stories not connected with Duncan). Heather and Tucker didn't even get a proper exit story. Duncan could talk about curses and murders at his castle every five minutes and his Scottishness to the hilt but Roy talking about his father's anti-cop bias due to his brother Lenny's death was somehow uncomfortable for people to deal with? Oh.

I just couldn't help myself.

Forget about blocking. It would be good if today's soaps could just put up coherent storylines. I guess that's off limits too.

Tomorrow in the Telegraph:

From working in theater, I can tell you without hesitation that those types of scenes require blocking and rehearsal, also an active, knowledgeable director, things which soaps dispensed with in later decades and can't be bothered to do now. I KNEW it was you who complained about Lyla and Casey. I'll agree to disagree with you on that one but I always enjoy reading your posts. Luke's coming out story would've been done a helluva lot better and with more detail and sensitivity had Marland written it. He wouldn't have been as bogged down by network standards as he was in the 1980s. I bet he might have even convinced the actor who played Hank to drop in for a visit. I thought Marland was a top notch soap headwriter but he was not perfect and I do think that almost all daytime soaps had/have a blindspot when it came to minority characters. Tucker's exit was not on Marland but Heather Dalton's exit, Roy's exit, both left a bad taste in my mouth. Especially as both characters were portrayed by terrific actors whose talents seemed largely wasted on the show.

Well, Casey was a little bit arrogant, in the beginning anyway. Remember when he used to jump on Bob's last nerve with his growing list of improvements for the hospital? Don Hastings expressive reactions were so hilarious to me. Of course, Casey's character had room to evolve, which was great because it was character development that focused on the character alone. Someone in some other thread said that ATWT didn't seem to do super couples. To a certain extent, I could see what they meant in that, until Lily and Holden, the stereotypical Luke and Laura "we're gonna save the world while holding hands" type of super couple wasn't really a part of ATWT's DNA. ATWT was more known for individuals who happened to come together because they eventually fell in love. Tom and Margo certainly had their own storylines and sagas before they got together. So did Bob and Kim for that matter. To me, in terms of the big 1980s supercouple, the closest thing that came to that prototype were Betsy and Steve. And even then, I sometimes think that the big splashy Greek wedding (as wonderful as it was and it was a fantastic spectacle!) was more of a reaction to the Luke and Laura phenomenon. Then there were popular characters like Craig and Sierra and Lyla and Casey who became highly popular couples and unfortunately ended all too abruptly for various reasons (Scott and Finn just got other offers to do a great many other projects, unfortunate for the show). I really think P&G should've given their most popular actors more flexibility to do other projects and just rotate the characters and storylines in and out-- the mini-version of the way a Netflix series shoots scenes. The character of Simone- Wasn't the conflict because Cal (you're right, he was engaged to Lyla) wanted to drill for oil on her ancestral tribal land or something? The nation (I feel weird calling it a tribe) Simone was a part of was fighting the big oil company from encroaching on their land. From what I remember. It's too bad, they couldn't seem to integrate the character into regular life in Oakdale. It seemed as if once the cause was fought/won, the character was finished with no effort made toward her doing much of anything else.

Here's another one to add to that list, @marceline. Apparently this man has a law firm that has done property tax appeals for Trump. It's raid city today!

Yeah, I never believed that Mueller was deliberately delaying anything in this investigation. I believe that he is being meticulous, which is necessary for him to do his job properly.

I know that some have said that they thought the couple was boring, but I liked Lyla & Casey. Perhaps because the 1980s became known as the era of the Super Couple (a term I've come to resent), people's expectation of a soap couple was slanted toward some couple that looked lifted from the cover of a Harlequin Romance novel, or something but I thought it was a couple that was grounded much more in reality and realistic problems, although I thought the majority of the couples on ATWT were closer to a realistic portrayal than a lot of other soaps. One thing that I could appreciate, something that today's soaps seem fairly inept at, is that time was taken to build Casey's character on his own. Lyla had a longer history on the canvas so we'd expect her to have a fully-formed character by the time she and Casey got together but I enjoyed the fact that Casey's character was built on its own, outside of a pairing first before he ever got together with Lyla. And their pairing was something of a surprise. Nowadays, from casting, everyone can spot a mile away, who will end up being paired off with whom. I remember watching an episode last week where Lyla was in NYC and Casey was unsure of the status of his and Lyla's relationship. Frannie, who'd just broken off her engagement to Seth, encouraged Casey to call Lyla and sort things out. Casey called but ended up feeling frustrated when he could only leave a message with Lyla's "Do Not Disturb" answering service. I started to wonder how many fans at that time assumed that he and Frannie would get together and how many thought he'd reconcile with Lyla? Even the thought that there was a little suspense surrounding a relationship made me appreciate how many possibilities Marland created with these characters--a few times, it seemed, almost too many! I vaguely remember the Native American woman, I think I was likely watching less at that particular moment. Was this after Casey had passed away, or was he still alive? I think this had to be years after, right? The actress who portrayed the character, Kimberly Guerrero, is more memorable to me for her stint on Seinfeld that that storyline on ATWT.

He also said he had no business deals with Saudi Arabia, which is a whole lie.

@JaneAusten Nothing about the NYT surprises me these days. The AP, tbh, did surprise me a bit but they won't do so, in the future. The New York Times made the mistake of sending me a "random" survey to fill out and boy did I let them have it! Their misleading, click-baity ledes, their obvious lack of diversity in staffing of reporters, etc. and their obvious 'caping' (I didn't use that word exactly) for right-wing and Trumpists' perspectives. I went "awf"! I also have to add that both the NYT and the Washington Post have tried so assiduously, over recent years (before Trump) to paint the GOP as trying to cultivate diversity, Blacks and Latinos, in particular. I can remember articles painting Mia Love as an example of the efforts by the Republican party to embrace ethnic, racial and gender diversity within it's ranks. Also, there was more than one unfortunate piece naming Tim Scott as the conscience of the Republican party for supposedly tut-tutting at Trump's obvious racism. Well, we see what all this has come down to. Stevie Wonder can see the collusion a mile away but Trump's lackeys and fans will continue to drink the Kool-Aid and deny deny deny.

Reading the article last night took my sense of disgust to an even new level but one interesting aspect was the fact that CBS' arrogance in its decision to take on Shari Redstone in an ultra-aggressive manner seems to have provided an extra impetus for Moonves' eventual downfall because the investigations began in earnest as a result of the legal fight that ensued between Moonves and Redstone. The way that sleazy manager used his female clients, particularly Phillips, to leverage his career is beyond the pale. LaRue may be a B-lister (which yes, an actor who has never had a big movie career is regarded as one step below) but at least, she had the integrity to dump the sleazy manager. Wise move.

Although I often decry social media and the nonsense that often seems to transpire on that platform, I have to say that the way that smaller political blogs and independent reporters/bloggers have provided more accurate coverage of what happened with Nancy Pelosi's House Speaker nomination than traditional media. While The New York Times and the Associated Press seemed wedded to the narrative they had crafted of contention and dissension in the ranks, on Twitter, most every other political outlet reported a methodical process of vote-counting and negotiation. One got the notion that The NYT and AP expected a long drawn-out process but it didn't pan out that way, which seemed to disappoint reporters at both outlets, who insisted that even though there was no fighting this time around, surely another fight lurked next month when the vote goes to the full House of Representatives. I'm not surprised by any of it, but it was interesting and informative to see the contrast in reporting in real time. How nimble "new media" can be in these situations (even though they don't always get 'it' right) while traditional media can cling to their crafted narratives and stories, even when it's obvious that they are going in the wrong direction.

All those votes for Grigor, were they before or after his bald-headed makeover?

So interesting that Dr. Baldwin mentions Narcan in the ER. I'd never even heard of it until the opioid crisis started to mushroom. With a few tweaks, Marland's material really does stand the test of time.

This seems like more than just another Trump scandal.

How did I miss this? It's unlikely that anything will come of it, but still-

The Thanksgiving speech by Bob Hughes was/is everything!

Same. I'd like to think that Flavia might be the main reason why he got any of that endorsement gig in the first place.

Bumping this onto the next page ICYMI.

Fabio and Flavia got a new endorsement deal with Emporio Armani underwear.