BetterForgotten

Really happy that Michael Park was able to transcend being a "veteran soap star" and find great success on Broadway, and continues to be a consistent presence on streaming and TV shows. He posted this recap on Instagram of the past decade for him. Kudos to him for continuing to find work and diversifying his portfolio.

Corrie lost a lot of its identity by the late 90’s. I guess you can look back and say Julie Goodyear’s exit as Bet in 1995 was the end of classic Corrie as we knew it. The show floundered throughout 1996, which led to a massive overhaul in 1997. The show became more sensationalistic and less about the vivid characters and community that had defined the show before then. That shift just continued on. They had some great years in the early/mid 00’s, but that classic Corrie sensibility was hard to find by the mid 00’s. But, it’s heaven to revisit just about any episode from the 60’s through mid-90’s. Corrie just had these vividly drawn characters that you couldn’t find anywhere else. Even if the plots weren’t always the most exciting, the characters were often exceptional and you couldn’t stop watching or caring about the ones you found most endearing.

To me the show is completely hallow and very plot driven - specialties of Kate Oates. EastEnders has been bad for so long that this may seem like an artificial improvement, but something just isn’t clicking for me and ratings continue to be in the gutter. The funny thing is, as awful and soul-less as Oates’s Corrie got, I don’t think it was ever this incoherent and messy.

Kym Marsh looks back on almost 14 years of contributing absolutely nothing to this show as Michelle:

Julie’s This Is Your Life episode from 1980 was also recently posted in its entirety. For years Julie has told the story of Pat Phoenix giving her encouragement and advising her to pursue training in rep theatre to hone her skills when her initial contract with Corrie wasn’t picked up. It’s nice to see Pat tell that story herself in this.

The 'Coronation Street at Christmas' special aired last night. This person uploaded it in 12 parts, here's the first and last part. Nice to see Julie Goodyear wishing everyone a Wonderful Corrie Christmas at the end...

Vanessa Marcil's personal life has always been a mess.

Slightly off topic - It would be great if Meryl could get her sister-in-law a minor role in one of her films. I've always thought Maeve could have been a classic movie star if she moved in that direction.

She's pretty much a Christmas artist at this point, so might as well (no one has been checking for new un-holiday music from her). I also think Billboard really needs to examine these chart rules - these Christmas songs will completely fall off in 2 weeks time.

The bigger question - how did spending time in Europe make Iris turn Australian?

Tiffany Haddish will just be playing a damn variation of herself, like always.

Yes, the beginnings of the Who Shot Roger stuff was her last hurrah.

AKA An insider's look at white privilege at it's most elevated level!

A lot of Jackie's co-dependency had a lot to do with Roseanne never being able to let go of her too. They kind of tried to explain it as Roseanne always seeing herself as Jackie's protector after their sh!tty childhood with an physically abusive father and emotionally abusive mother. However, it just never stopped.

The original show had intentional serial-like elements because Barr wanted it to reflect her own life and how certain themes played out over time as opposed to being resolved in a matter of one 30 minute episode and then quickly forgotten (like most sitcoms would).

To me, B&B didn’t really kickoff until the arrival of the Spectra’s (Sally in particular).

TPIR isn't Y&R's lead-in in many markets though. It may have played a part, but is one of many things. Ironically, Y&R went to #1 and stayed there when H. Wes Kenney went over to GH to produce it. Kenny later said he regretted leaving Y&R for GH.

I do wonder if ABC ever wondered why or were dumbfounded why AMC wasn't able to succeed GH as the #1 rated soap when the later started to run of of steam in the late 80's. Looking at these ratings, it seems Y&R's #1 status was becoming inevitable, even if other soaps were sometimes nipping at its heels. They really held up throughout the 80's and cut right through the ABC dominance, to the point where they would topple GH completely by the end of the decade.

This was a nice interview (despite the annoying panel), and glad Beverly gave respect to Julie Goodyear and said her best times were in her beginning years.