KMan101

😂 Ugh. Phil. I'd love for him to take a really long extended holiday somewhere. And just forget to return. LOL. I've always had the most interest in EastEnders followed by HollyOaks. I have a love-hate with HollyOaks. They often dump the wrong characters. They can hook me for a few weeks but then it completely derails. It's also hard to invest in that show because they're so quick to axe folks (or they used to be) I've never gotten into Emmerdale as much as I had wanted to. Coronation Street ... I'd rather watch the older years. I think most soaps, even the UK ones, are just ... existing. They also seem to suffer another issue we've long suffered from: recycling hacks.

That works too

Exactly. It was *so* dumb. I hated it all. You go through all that and then kill him off again? For what? Ugh. I'd rather have had Tony Lord with his son Victor Junior brainwashed to be Todd. EDIT: You could have even 'teased' "Victor's" arrival and have it come out that "Walker" is really Victor Jr.. Mitch could snarl "Victor's already right here in the room", Viki could gasp and slowly turn towards Walker ... I mean, it writes itself. It's not difficult. Still dumb, but it's better than what we got.

Yeah, true. Same thing for Melrose Place, remember circa Season 4/5 (which is 1995-1997, when the daytime soaps started their decline), everyone just started hated each other and slept together? Lots of yelling and slapping and bed hopping, not saying it was Shakespeare before but it really just threw everything at the wall. It seemed to be 'the trend', which we have finally seemed to get past I suppose. But it took a long time. The daytime soaps all started to try and become Melrose Place and Reilly's DAYS and it never suited them.

I've thought the same. Instead of that dumbass Victor Lord is alive [!@#$%^&*] in 2003/2004 they should have brought Tony back. Trevor St. John should have been revealed as Victor then and Howarth should have stuck around and not killed anything I ever once liked about him as the worst recast ever on ATWT. But I digress ...

Generations feels like one big pile of "missed potential". Shame.

It's interesting to hear that. I was watching a few 1984 episodes of GL and I think one of her earlier episodes as Reva and she was soooooo different. I don't know what the hell happened. Justin Deas must have rubbed off on her around 1995/1996 because ... lord. Difference is kinda staggering. Random thought but do you notice how all the soaps just started having people yell and scream at each other all of the time? I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work as Nola on The Doctors.

I have to agree. I still try to keep up with the goings on but that was the last period I had any interest in. EastEnders greatly suffers from what the US soaps do (among other issues, of course): missed and wasted potential at every turn. I keep waiting to hear about something that would get me to come back and try and make the effort to watch but nothing really has.

Yeah, it wasn't. I hated his ass as producer of ATWT. Lord. He had no use for Eileen Fulton either (and I'm guessing the feeling was more than mutual). I also think he was butthurt by Byrne that she fled. So he was petty (IMO). And yep, I believe Moore asked. Goutman almost seemed to resent his time at ATWT, yet, he brought Sharlene back to AW in 1998 and I don't think he was the worst they ever had, he had a lot of mess to clean up. Was he bitter? And honestly, maybe he should have just stayed a director 💅

That's such a good idea!

I've been immersing myself in a lot of old AMC. God, I miss it. So many thoughts. You can very much tell Agnes' influence in 1990/1991. It went downhill from there, honestly. 1992-1995 are decent but they drop a lot of 'the old guard' and you lose a lot of recurring players, long-term veterans and it's taken over by unfamiliar people, albeit they become popular. It's a different show, but still familiar, mostly. 1995 into 1996 feels really "glamorized" and you can tell they're starting to try and mimic the Reilly-esque stuff and the show really starts to lose itself. I don't have anything nice to say about 1997 and 1998 except like most soaps it just started sliding in quality and never recovered (which is when I can remember watching it when it originally aired). Oh, also caught some random LOVING episodes. Yikes. Just ... yikes. (I'm talking circa 1991-1992 which isn't remembered as a good time if I recall). God bless Lisa Peluso doing her best bootleg Erica Kane. Love her. And I miss actresses like Kay Campbell (Kate), Mary Fickett (Ruth), Nada Rowland (Kate Rescott). LOVING feels like one big missed potential after another. Some good characters and castmembers but it's all so ... flat. It feels like a budget strapped poor-man's AMC/OLTL hybrid (at that point in time in the series, the earlier years sound much more interesting and better). Jean Dadario is as terrible of a director as she is as a producer. Just sayin' ... yikes. And poor Genie Francis. First of all, the red hair didn't really work. I appreciate Ceara looking like a mess but lord ... Genie traded down big time going to Loving. The writing for Ceara also quickly went down in quality. Was Ceara just ABC Daytime's way of saying "we have Genie Francis on contract so *blows raspberry* to the other networks? AMC's Ceara is much better and I feel like they dropped the ball on her. I can see why they thought to purge Jeremy and Ceara from AMC (which had a ton of castmembers between 1989-1992) to Loving to boost some interest but it didn't end well ... LOL. Just some random thoughts ... lol

I'm excited for this and hope it sets a new trend. I mean, DAYS is like #1-#5 most popular on NBC's streaming site, the audience is there. AMC and OLTL were often top on Hulu in 2013. They were just all a bit too before it's time. I had always hoped GL would have been the first to move online but alas ... I do agree the P&G/AOL streaming thing was just too early and "before it's time" so to speak. It's a shame.

I thought she bore a slight resemblance to Stanis but I can see why some were upset. I thought she was fine, nothing great. I haven't seen the AITF portion yet. Didn't watch it live last night.

This has been one of my biggest issues for just about all the soaps for a long time

Agreed. BM and Douglass Watson looked like siblings next to each other. It was pretty laughable they were father and daughter. The dynamic was great but lol. Her best role was Alexandra Spaulding. I loved Duncan as Iris and was pissed they left her to rot in jail. I find it hard to believe Goutman cared that much but he seemed better suited for AW than ATWT, but who knows how AW would have turned out had it survived and he lasted 10 years there instead ... lol

Fantastic news that they'll be streaming the series.

Excellent casting.

Yeah, that's all very true. They were young and felt the pressure on themselves to be "big". Courtney and Josie did seem the most loyal. Courtney probably would have been in the finale had things worked out.

Randomly started watching a 2002 episode and [!@#$%^&*] whoever decided to replace Scott Holroyd with Roger Howarth. And such a waste of Lamman Rucker.

Ah, I do recall that now, somewhat. Thanks. I always liked him so it irked me he had such a chip on his shoulder towards the show (I get it ... and even back then actors were still being told not to get stuck and they feared always being identified as said character). I feel like he probably would have done a proper revival, if it had come at the right time. David shouldn't have been Michael's, SMH.

They all look so good I'm still so pissed the CW fucked us out of real revivals of 90210 and MP (both also unfortunately well before the brief "revival craze") Grant always seemed like he was thrilled to be away from Melrose. But considering he's doing the trash that is Dynasty ....

No lies here. I didn't mind Edmund for a while and even Richard was tolerable in the beginning. But no thanks to any of them. Danny sucked once Bethany Lenz left and we had Pod Michelle. They also failed to capitalize on the chemistry Laura Wright and Paul Anthony Stewart had. Danny/Cassie would have been far better (thank you for trying Millee Taggart!). While most of them were "fine" in the beginning they all ended up helping drive me away as well. Not to mention the awful writing, of course. (Although I'd take Danny Santos anyday over Jesse Blue) Jonathan was the final nail in the coffin for me. I somehow stuck through San Cristobal and The Santos' takeover of Springfield but Jonathan was trash. No lies here. +1 A lot of those characters/actors could have worked had the writing/story direction been better.

💀

Honestly they sort of did the same with Mallet as they did with Buzz. Harley existed for Mallet as he whined and screamed and petted his dog. I wasn't impressed with him either. Early Mallet is FAR better. It really is sad watching such a vibrant show become what it did. Phelps absolutely rips the heart out of every show she's on and just stomps all over it. Re-watching Curlee's GL and Labine's GH this past week and then immediately watching some later stuff, I just want to cry at the destruction. You know about it, see it, but for some reason, comparison just really makes it hit home. Heck, even by 1996-1998 GH was on the decline without Claire and it was clear as day ... her return of Luke and Laura? Re-establishing Laura. The house of Laura's dreams. My God. It's amazing to watch. We are such a far cry from that. And to think how Phelps just destroyed it. Such strong relationships were just battered to the point of no return. Under Claire you could literally go from a sitcom sequence to such human drama with Luke, Laura, Bobbie, etc. Sigh. Anyway, back to GL ... Gone is the care and devotion and effort at really putting on an amazing show. I mean, this is no new revelation, but the destruction was truly devastating. EDIT: It always bothered me they dumped Nola (but they had no idea how to write for her anyway) and then slotted in Selena (who I liked at the time) and made Drew Selena's daughter. Would have been better if Drew were Stacy and Nola's daughter. I wonder what could have been with Nola had Curlee still been the head writer and no Phelps around. It's like Phelps shrugged and said "here's Nola so shut up about Maureen"

I'm sure there's that too of course.