BetterForgotten

Not to mention Kelly Clarkson in the mid 00's, which basically took Christina's formula and had much better success with it ultimately. Christina's pop career trajectory has almost followed that of Paula Abdul's - one strong debut album with multiple #1 hits, a second successful album (though not as successful as the debut), and then everything else after that being a blur and flop. Then the singing reality show era, which helped with a public renaissance, but did nothing for the pop career. Only Paula can actually dance, and Christina despite having terrible form, does have decent vocal ability.

Only Genie and What A Girl Wants were back to back, I Turn To You peaked at #3 before Come On Over hit #1 in the fall of 2000.

Britney was marketed by her label in the same way Sony marketed Celine Dion in the 90's - as an albums artist vs. being a singles artist. Jive released very few singles commercially from Britney's first two albums. In the late 90's and very early 00's, the singles market was still huge business, and at certain points, you needed to release a physical single to even chart or to chart highly on the Hot 100. RCA released released all of the singles off Christina's debut album commercially, which resulted in high charting positions for her on the Hot 100 - Jive only released like one of two singles commercially from Britney's debut (including Baby One More Time, which went to #1). They did the same with BSB - their priority and strategy was to drive album sales, so they held back releasing physical singles to not hinder that and to increase sales of the actual albums. Christina never had the same success on the Hot 100 again after her debut, when the chart rules changed again and radio airplay became more important to chart in the early 00's. 'Beautiful' was a huge radio airplay hit, which allowed it to hit #2 on the Hot 100. Toxic would have definitely gone to #1 had Billboard had the appropriate rules in place that accounted for more relevancy of the streaming format in 2004 - it was a huge iTunes hit.

I mean, was that supposed to be anything significant? Madonna, Whitney, Janet, Paula, and Mariah had all gotten multiple #1 singles off an album prior - and 3 of those women did it with their debut albums.

The thing is, I don't remember Sophia being any of that. She was so damn forgettable and boring, like everything else from that era, even when they tried to be "shocking."

Tonally, her work and her style just seemed all wrong for this show. The stunt casting towards the end also drives me mad.

I see MAB haps been updating her Wikipedia again and removing mention of any criticism, lol. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Arena_Bell

GL had also gotten to an odd point in its last 15 or so years where it felt like they only considered Reva and Harley as their tentpole characters. If you weren’t connected to those two, you usually warranted little investment. That’s partly why the early 90’s is looked back on as the last great era, it was the last time the show felt like a full ensemble piece.

I mean, by the time anyone cared, they were likely being told by CBS and P&G that those characters were too “old” in age and that “no one would remember them.” 😑

Yes, I feel the same way about Millee Taggart as well, who has also been spoken about recently as well. Maybe not a creative genius, but reliable, smart, and loves the genre.

I think Horgan left the show in a stable place with all the correct moving pieces for Marland to come in and take advantage of.

VR mentioned in her podcast that one male producer told her that she "cared too much." Which I guess was code for "stay in your place!" I'm guessing that was Ed Scott...

There was a maturity Heather brought to Lilly that I appreciated and that went away when Byrne came back. I was never wild about Lilly/Holden, so I appreciated the pivot the character took in the early 90's. And agreed, the Damian storyline was the saving grace for Byrne's Lilly when she came back to the role.

I liked what Courtney said about writing for the show in the early 90's and how vivid and clear all of the individual characters voices were during that era. You don't often get that. Great dialogue and strong actors to match it just goes a long way.

I did, because I could actually stand Lilly with Heather in the role...

She mentions Ellen Holly in that clip. I’d love an hour with her and Ms. Holly.

It doesn't surprise me that he missed the mark on what he did well as opposed to what he didn't though...

Pelphrey and Zimmer trying to out-diva one another almost every day was when I knew there was no saving this show. Peapack was just the final nail.

Yeah, she's Tweeted about it before. Alan is such a hack that would never dream to ask the specific questions fans want to learn more about.

Did anyone even bother to ask Courtney about writing the Maureen/Lillian kitchen scenes or what it was like writing for the show during the Curlee/Demorest era?

James Harmon Brown is ancient. 🤐

Phelps and Derwin hated each other so much that she later hired Derwin at OLTL so he could stink up that show too in a front-burner romance with Erika Slezak?

Sheffer got a lot of hype because he made the show so plot and stunt driven. Anyone else would have gotten torn to shreds for some of the things the soap press let him get away with in the early 00's. The equally AWFUL Leah Laiman did him a favour in many ways - making the show so boring, yet ridiculously plotted. People had become accustomed to the show having a ridiculous element, but Sheffer's hype machine and stunts were better done.

And I could watch Maureen Garrett play anything. No histrionics or annoying tics, always a believable and realistic performance. It's sometimes hard to reconcile this Holly with the one who returned a decade later, but the heart of the character was always there and Maureen never phoned it in.