BetterForgotten

I think Doug Marland could return from the dead and struggle to write GH with stakeholders he'd have to contend with.

Regardless of who is the HW, no one is empowered to put their best work forward under ABC, Varni, and Valentini. The show will continue to be what it is with this power structure still there and no one successfully challenging it.

ABC tended to (and still) dominates the big markets like NYC, LA, and Chicago. CBS's big markets tended to be in the lesser Midwest markets and South.

The thing is the audience already knew Natalia was homophobic and couldn’t accept Blaze’s sexuality. She was never a sympathetic character, so this “scandal” doesn’t do much in the way of endearing her to anyone or highlight anything new about this unbearable character.

Nina and Maxie often feel more like mother/daughter than Felicia/Maxie, and obviously Nina/Willow.

I can somewhat understand why he didn’t as he’s always known Natalia is struggling to accept Blaze’s sexuality. Her feelings aren’t that much of a surprise to him.

I loved Chrissie/Tracy-Ann Oberman, but I think too much time has passed for this return to have any impact. Why would Chrissie ever return to Walford anyway? Other than Sharon, Kat, and Stacey (who all hate her), she doesn’t really know anyone else or have any real connections left.

He’s also Samantha Womack’s husband. I can’t say I was all that enthused by his role on Corrie, but he’s ok.

I assume Mulcahey will be removed from the credits sometime in the next two weeks.

Not directly EE related, but I was randomly watching an interview with Joseph Quinn (who stars in A Quiet Place: Day One and will be Johnny Storm in Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four film), and he credits Tony Jordan with giving him his big break by casting him in Dickensian.

It’s upsetting that that they don’t see how horrible the optics of those scene and the way they’re staged look.

Trina, unfortunately, still largely feels like an afterthought anytime she appears. I wish they'd give her a completely separate friend group - they can still keep her friends with Joss, but give her other characters to bounce off of. Otherwise, they're not going to even bother with her given how they currently use her.

I wonder if MB pushed to work with ELR more and that shifted things a bit. Similar to his push to work with CW prior.

I feel like throwing a parade now that it’s officially confirmed. I thought this character was awful, and I resented FV for forcing ME on this show several times over. I guess this is how they’ve freed up some budget to pay for JJ as well.

I try to not acknowledge fatuous and frankly stupid rhetoric, but what the hell… JJ’s crying was an exhausting hallmark of his entire last stint. Hardly a new critique or something that’s not been complained about before. But I doubt you were watching yourself to even have any relevant opinion on this discussion, much like most of what you post about anyway in a desperate attempt to seek attention that goes nowhere and is pretty much ignored by most on this board because it’s so transparent. But carry on - the attention I just gave your inane rant should give you an energy boost for the next several days!

At the very least, I hope this means the writing for Laura will improve. She feels so damn irrelevant these days, and is used to to rehab characters that don't require this much investment. But, who knows how this show will play up Lucky's relationships.

I don't think giving him an African wife, maybe one that's also doctor and can work at GH, would be such a bad idea. Something needs to explain why Lucky's been such a deadbeat dad and what's been taking up his time...

casting/returns alone will not boost ratings - Jason’s return is proving that out. The same will happen with JJ. Only consistently well-written material that gives the audience reason to invest will do that - but that’s asking for too much from these shows these days.

I just hope we don’t have Lucky crying nonstop every single day again. Also, I do not want to see Liz and Lucky repaired - that relationship is too far gone at this point, IMO.

Those shows were more niche successes though as a whole, no? Full House didn’t really seem to catch fire until it was moved to ABC’s more successful Tuesday night lineup, and was the 90/91 season the only season Family Matters ever made it that high? I think the TGIF block was more of a niche programming block. That probably made the downfall for Dallas look more severe given it was much more of a mainstream success than the niche counter programming that was now beating it in its timeslot. Oddly, Lorimar/Warner-Brothers produced both Dallas and many of those corny Miller-Boyett shows on the TGIF lineup.

In all fairness though, by the late 80’s/early 90’s, networks had long considered Friday night as a graveyard or filler night. The ratings certainly reflected that as a whole - I don’t think Family Matters, for example, ever finished a season in the top 20. Dallas was really the last show that brought such a significant audience to that night, and when that started to fizzle, so did network programming for that night largely.

It’s remarkable what a vibrant presence Tracy is these days. It also doesn’t feel forced or inauthentic. Even if I don’t give one f.uck about Finn, it was great to see Tracy act with so much agency and insert her way into that situation. I do miss some of Tracy’s deviousness and her dark humour, but for someone who was always treated as the black sheep of her family and then lost in Luke-land for so many years, she has a totally new vitality as a character and is single-handedly keeping the Quartermaine presence alive on this show. I know you made the comparison between Tracy and Laura a while back and what spare part Laura often feels like these days while Tracy doesn’t. It’s true, at least the show can get one veteran female character right, for however long that last… They are indeed lucky to have Jane, and I hope she continues on for as long as she possibly can.

MVJ was always respected by the actors on GH because they knew they’d get a quality script when she’d write it. Even Tony Geary, who doesn’t care much for dialogue writers, was very fond of MVJ.