BetterForgotten

The thing is, Madonna was there to present Video of the Year, not to do a tribute. Somewhere along the line, she or someone at MTV thought they should acknowledge Aretha somewhere in there and that was the net result - something slapped together with no purpose. MTV promoted Madonna's appearance as the presenter of the final award, not as an Aretha tribute.

Even BET ended up mostly walking away from music (which comprised a huge part of its schedule until the mid-00's). It used to be an alternative option for black artists, but it no longer serves that purpose. Was it Viacom ownership, or was it that music programming was no longer financially beneficial? The rise and fall of music television is interesting. No one can deny the impact it had in the 80's through early 00's, but since then....? I guess we can blame it on the internet, but still...

A this point though, you're lucky if MTV even acknowledges it was once a music network...

Aretha did few music videos, ultimately, her impact wasn't in that genre, and she wasn't a big presence on the network. Donna Summer and Tina Turner did receive significant MTV airplay during the infancy of the network. However, it wasn't until Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson did MTV start playing black female artists in heavy rotation - and both were marketed to appeal to pop audiences. Also, unless you were Prince or your last name was Jackson, the record labels were infamous for not producing or funding much videos for black artists.

Madonna wasn't even there to give a tribute, she was there to present Video of the Year, she and MTV just tacked on a long ass speech that referenced Aretha and an in memoriam graphic/tag. It was oddly produced and slapped together and I wonder why they even tried - they shouldn't have bothered. MTV is also not the proper venue to pay tribute to Aretha, not like she was ever much of a video artist nor does MTV even care about music to begin with.

Madonna is presenting Video of the Year at the VMAs tonight. Fitting that she was once the queen of this award show, and once put the 'M' in MTV when it used to matter.

Gladys was one of many black women Aretha has unnecessarily shaded in the past, so glad to see her being classy and remembering good times. This article recounts Aretha's issues with other female artists: http://gawker.com/aretha-franklin-is-the-queen-of-soul-and-shade-1658013219

Teen Motherhood, Losing Her Dad and Her Quiet Health Battle: Aretha Franklin's Personal Struggles

And we know she took that Queen thing literally. That whole Beyonce/Tina Turner situation was not her best hour.

Or Zoe Saldana...

Aretha's ego was enormous, that much was true. She had a very interesting personal life, would make a good movie one day.

Occasional guest appearances from Bebe Neuwirth are also a requirement.

RIP - she was trailblazer and influenced many. However, as I noted before, I wish she hadn't been as miserable of a person in her latter years, and was confident in her legacy rather than trying to bring other black female artists down.

I always thought Pam Long needed a strong producer to reign in some of her tendencies. Her and Gail Kobe were probably too similar or wanted to really put their stamp on GL, even if that meant disregarding it's history. I vastly prefer her second stint on GL, mostly because I think Robert Calhoun was really able to reign her in, and having Curlee has a Co-HW during that stint really helped to ground her work in ways her first stint wasn't able to achieve. I also think the return of Roger and Holly is what the show really needed at that time - and it was Curlee and Calhoun who were responsible for that, as Curlee said Long didn't even know who those characters were...

I don't know if I or much of the audience will ever be able to buy Dan with another woman (if they go that route). To me, he doesn't seem like the type that would entertain another woman in his life (even if his wife is dead). They really need to lean heavily on Laurie Metcalf/Jackie as well and tone down the bizarre element of the character. Laurie doesn't have 2 Tony's, 3 Emmy's, and an Oscar nomination for nothing...

It was probably cut down because production is beginning a bit later than it would've had the original still gone on.

I also believe people have said Nixon struggled with writing corporate intrigue and gothic-type stories.

I don't think you can ever underestimate the impact Leslie and Den had on this show (and British soaps overall). His second stint may not have worked and Den may have went out as a nasty old man, but Leslie was always 100% committed as an actor. RIP

Well, congrats to Laurie Metcalf on her second Tony win tonight. Further cementing herself as one of the great American stage actresses.

Some of the awards are fan-voted, which the two categories they won are. It was Greatest Moment of the last 20 years (as the BSAs celebrated 20 years this year). That award should have gone to the Kat/Zoe reveal on EastEnders - by far the most iconic of the nominees, but because it was fan-voted, no wonder it went to something more recent.

Like any soap there are up and down periods, but I think Corrie was generally pretty strong and stuck to a lot of it’s roots through the mid 90’s.

Not sure there's enough Ambien in the world for that...

I still don't care for Tom Arnold, he's an opportunist and wouldn't resist the opportunity to add his voice to any debacle involving his ex-wife, regardless if he's right or not.

Roseanne is a strange one. Even as a self-professed Jew, she's also made remarks that were highly antisemitic. It's as if she wants to check all the boxes for communities she can offend.