DramatistDreamer

I agree with those who think the plaque with Sharon Newman was a bit weird. It makes Nick look especially presumptuous gifting it to her and I realize that wasn’t the intention but logically, it makes Nick look rather presumptuous. Most of the greater GC area would know Sharon already so she wouldn’t need to affix the Newman name/brand to her new company, especially considering the fact that the last time Sharon Newman was in charge at a high powered corporation (i.e. Newman) it was as Mrs. Victor Newman, ranting and raving around the Newman boardroom. I would think they’d want to shed Sharon of that Newman association based on that alone and allow her to begin anew. The subtext of Nick gifting Sharon that plaque with “Newman”, not Rosales or at least Collins as her identity, makes him look territorial, like he’s staking his claim. I can see why some viewers are jumping to conclusions regarding a possible reunion between the two.

This looks like a “The Devil Wears Prada” meets the art gallery world but it was probably fun and a healthy paycheck for Marisa Tomei (Marcy Thompson, ATWT)

Not sure how long this will be the case but… https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-overtakes-apple-worlds-most-valuable-company-2024-01-11/

This is exactly how it looked on YouTube. I clicked on late, so I missed most of the draw unveiling but I am glad because, I wouldn’t have been able to stand watching this for 30-45 minutes, it’s headache inducing.

They need to say something, if this is the case. It’s negligent, akin to a storytelling dereliction of duty to leave this point of a major long-running character’s story hanging like this.

I am not a fan of most social media platforms these days but there is something about the inherent nature of the public forum that can make people reconsider their views when confronted by the actual words on video, even if it doesn’t get them to eat their words.

Is anyone watching the draw ceremony? I am watching the Australian Open livestream on YouTube and people are complaining about the screen resolution, with some asking in a mocking tone whether it’s being livestreamed in 360p. The names on the draw board are impossible to read. Maybe those watching on a network are getting closeups.

Or maybe he abandoned her. It could actually help repair the relationship with Victor who had his own abandonment issues growing up. It still doesn’t sit right with me that we never heard about what happened to Sharon’s mother.

Thanks @Soapsudsthat was truly a joy to watch. Excellent find. Seeing the set pieces made me a little misty-eyed. It was also great to see a great conversation between actors and the head writer- they genuinely seemed to enjoy sitting down and talking about their show. And yes, that clip of Marland talking about daytime soaps acting ashamed of their roots seems especially relevant like @DRW50 said. Someone needs to send a clip of that discussion, especially that snippet across social media and to every soap vlogger out there. Wasn’t Hendrickson also a caregiver to two family members who were gravely ill? As someone who was a caregiver to loved one who passed away less than a year ago, I can tell you that it can leave a deep and painful impact that you struggle with, it can also be depressing and if you don’t get help, devastating, I would imagine.

^^Those are names that I had forgotten existed. And when did Christina McHale retire? I haven’t thought about these folks in years!

Only a couple of years at most and the chess matches were sprinkled throughout the last year or so, which is enough to establish a bond between characters. It’s the reason why I think when soap fans make excuses for these writers who can’t even write a decent story that sees family members interact on a regular basis, I always see them as being full of sh*t. It doesn’t take a superbowl budget to write a handful of mini scenes and sprinkle them in on occasion. Yes, you have to plan them but it’s not rocket science. I do think Marland may have been trying to write against type, go against the expected route. Hal would have been the expected choice-beer loving, bowling and avid sports fan, a blue collar cop who openly was unrefined and often felt awkward about fitting into Barbara’s world. I think that’s why Paul was probably made the homophobic one in the piece. No one would really expect the son of a fashion designer, especially one so young (with the assumption that his youth and milieu would make him more socially progressive). I also think, Marland probably realized that because Paul was so callow, he could more easily reform Paul’s prejudices without permanent damage to the character, whereas with Hal, who knows? I think that the Kirk Anderson character was able to reform from his homophobia but he was a jerk at that time, he wasn’t supposed to be seen as the kind of guy that Hal was.

I remember that. I appreciated and liked that the storytelling made space for showing the multi-layered personality of Barbara, she could be more than one thing at a time, she could show different parts of herself. Still another side came out when she began to date Hal Munson. I also loved that the writing made space to develop a relationship between Andy and Bob’s parents by the time of Chris’ passing, Andy’s grief felt genuine. They used to show Andy on his way to play chess with Chris (and sometimes even Steve), so those characters bonded. I really miss when characters had that type of communal connection. In todays soaps, so many characters are siloed. Did Hank come out to Barbara on one of their trips to NYC? It’s not clear in my mind but I feel like I saw some episode years ago. Unfortunately there are a number of episodes that got pulled over the years, for one reason or another.

HBS said as much a few years ago, without explicitly saying so. She seemed to take it in stride with good humor but even through her diplomatic words, he seemed to act a bit like a petulant jerk to her in her earliest days in the role. It seemed like she was hazed too. They probably didn’t take hazing as seriously back then but what she described as a playful prank by Deas definitely comes off as hazing by today’s standards. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F1982-Christie-Brothers-Fur-Coat-Fashion-NY-Woman-Vintage-Photo-PRINT-AD-1980s-%2F263460920582%3F_ul%3DIL&psig=AOvVaw33t7urZqjEqUtigZGHmQWz&ust=1704904360466000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBIQjRxqFwoTCKCTze_d0IMDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

There was a YouTube channel (don’t know if it’s still active) that was filled with videos of women wearing fur coats. the ATWT ladies featured prominently on that channel.

Although, it can be viewed differently— that ratings were so poor last year that this year was a marked improvement. Still pales in comparison to 2020 ratings.

Never forget that at one time many of these shows were cash cows for the companies that produced them as well as the networks that broadcast them. Something else that hasn’t really been mentioned but should be factored in is the fact that these shows were ostensibly created to sell product, so the intersection of commerce and entertainment was very strong, and unlike other shows of the period (variety shows etc), it seems like the people who produce these soaps never quite got past the mentality that nowadays the entertainment aspect should take a higher priority than the commercial aspect.

It’s been years since I saw those scenes, I don’t know whether they are even still up on YouTube but from what I remember, it seemed as if Deas was halfway checked out by then. He likely knew he wasn’t going to reup his contract, maybe HBS wasn’t aware.

Someone posted an early 1980s episode of As The World Turns over the weekend and I posted my appreciation for the detail contained in a sequence involving a veteran actress on the show. The intricate camera work highlighting the actress’ facial expressions, the subtle music. It was so subtle that, if you didn’t know what to look for, it might pass unnoticed but for me, the timing of it all…it was art! Do the people making these shows today believe that they are genuinely making art?

Good topic @Mona Kane Croft. Lots of food for thought. If people haven’t read the book When Women Invented Television I would highly recommend it, it’s worth a read but the sections on Irna Phillips would be particularly relevant to this discussion. From what I read, it appeared that Phillips felt that the executives, P&G, et al, never had much faith in her and didn’t trust her instincts. There is that story of Phillips wanting to do away with the organ music that led to ad breaks for televised soaps, insisting that it was only really necessary for radio broadcasts and if it continued on television, she feared that it would only become something that would be made light of and mocked. Obviously, TPTB didn’t agree with her and felt it was a signature of sorts, for a soap and left it in. Who was right, who was not? I don’t know if the answer is that simple but think of all of those sketch comedy shows that parody soaps, what’s the first cue that they use? Organ music? I think though that there was always something of a hierarchy within entertainment with television somehow being at the bottom, that has changed with the era of prestige prime time television that began around the end of the 20th century. Meanwhile, in daytime, it feels as though people making the dramas were determined to either be in on the joke or make a mockery of themselves lest they be mocked by others. There are other elements that went into it as well, sexism, misogyny, chauvinism, arrogance, lack of vision, lack of foresight, too much of a willingness to go with the trend and toss out the fundamental tenets of good storytelling, seeking cheap thrills. The other part of it was that once the genre developed an inferiority complex (I would agree that it was likely industry wide some time in the 1990s) the companies that produced these shows started chasing screenwriters who couldn’t find work in films to write for these daytime dramas, whether these writers knew anything about the shows they were writing for or not. Of course, there is no rule against genre hopping —Paddy Chayefsky was a writer that many writers wanted to emulate (minus the horrible health issues) because he was successful writing scripts for television, theater and film. But many of these writers didn’t know or seem to care about the history of the genre they were entering into.

From what I have observed, it seems as though, after Margaret Colin’s departure from the show, Deas may have either developed some bad habits or became a bit lazy. Hillary Bailey Smith, in one of those reunion discussions done during the pandemic, was very diplomatic when describing what it was like to replace Colin in the character of Margo. She basically said that Deas wasn’t too happy working with someone else. Episodes of HBS’ “Margo” and Deas’ “Tom” are pretty rare on YouTube but you can definitely tell that Deas’ energies are somewhere else, definitely not with his onscreen partner.

Yeah, I noticed that someone in the comments section commented on her Daytime Emmy and Tony awards. I guess mentioning the Tony awards might have been a bridge too far, at least they specified that she won her maiden Primetime Emmy.

I decided to skip it. To be honest, I can’t really remember when I last watched anything close to a full awards show.

I ❤️this!

I missed the match too. I saw highlights on YouTube.

That title was a long time coming for Grigor Dimitrov.