BetterForgotten

Eplin had a lot of problems at ATWT (and at AW really), which led to P&G being over him when their contractual agreement with him ran out in 2002...

I hadn't seen the press coverage of Julie's last day at Corrie in 1995 before. I didn't know the set was mobbed with fans and press the day she taped her last scenes (40:05 in), or that brewer Carlsberg did a special commercial in honor of Bet's exit (39:45 in). It all starts 38:52 in. It's in this ITV documentary on Julie that aired in 2002 - not all of it it is flattering to Julie and her ill-fated return that same year btw.

I mostly remember VB's Heather for Victor always slamming the door in her face.

Any betterment at Generations was likely because of former AMC producer Jorn H. Winther, who came aboard later and by most accounts, sharpened the casting and story execution.

I don’t think what she says about the state of the show and how it’s managed is untrue, but SSM has never had a successful HW-ing stint ever. This adoration from the internet community seemed to start with Jamey Giddens, and I still cannot pinpoint why exactly because none of it ever made for a cohesive show whenever she was at the helm. This is including her own show, Generations - which deserves praise for its significant black cast, but was largely a plodding and uninspired mess story-wise. At Days, ratings noticeably tanked during her stint after Reilly had taken it to #2, and again, the show was largely a plodding mess. She was never set up for success at Y&R, but I have a feeling many of her ideas would have sounded better on paper vs. how they were executed onscreen based on her actual track record.

How many months did SB have to wrap up? Wasn’t it rather abrupt? Regardless, JFP used the money she got from firing Ellen Parker on Justin Deas, so a SB connection nonetheless.

It's a shame she returned to this genre in its dying days and is saddled with such a pathetic character and main scene partner. She really rises above so much of this sh!t on a consistent basis (which, truthfully, she did on GL as well).

It's ridiculous at this point that people are so threatened by a woman in her 60's. The Sheila well ran dry a long time ago - but this speaks to how horrible these shows have been at creating interesting new characters.

Elvis has 7 as well, but some of those may have come in the era pre-dating the establishment of the Hot 100 or been double-sided singles. Swift would have the record in the Hot 100 era, edging out Madonna's 6 #2's. It's all very convoluted depending on what the chart rules are at the time, which is why I caution comparing artists from different eras and their commercial peaks.

Oh, I was talking about artists with most songs that peaked at #2, just missing #1. I think Elvis had 7 of those and Madonna had 6.

Perhaps, because Rihanna would have definitely moved passed Elvis and Mariah by now if she has kept up with releasing music. Though, it's really hard to even compare a #1 in this era vs. one from the 80's and 90's. If Madonna and Janet were operating under the same chart rules as Swift and Rhianna during their commercial peaks, they likely would have had a lot more #1's. Hell, Madonna herself had 6 singles that peaked at #2 on the Hot 100, which used to be a record (maybe it still is?). Fair or not, it was a lot harder to hit #1 in that era than it is now for a super popular artist. It was also very unusual for female artists to have huge singles success until Madonna and Whitney Houston's emergence in the mid-80's. They broke a glass ceiling of sorts that rivaled and surpassed success of male artists of that time (and before). Before Madonna scored her 10th #1 hit with 'This Used To Be My Playground' in 1992, the only female act that had amassed that many #1 hits was The Supremes in the 60's (they had 12, which would also be the amount Madonna would amass on the Hot 100).

Ava is an interesting situation, because when Marland wrote the character, it also felt heavily influenced by the work he did on GL with Nola. But Nixon seemed to view the character as another Erica Kane.

I believe Irna herself told a variation of this story on one of her radio soaps. I believe the radio soap was 'The Road of Life' and had a Doctor character suffer amnesia and he ended up on a farm where he fell in love with a widowed woman - who also had a disabled sister-in-law living on the farm. I don't know if Bell had been working for Irna at this time, but evidently, this seemed to be a story he must have noticed and would later repeat twice to much success.

This Lily pregnancy story surprisingly has wide reaching effects, and the actors involved seem very committed to it. Stacey in her maternal mode also feels weirdly similar to Pauline in her more likeable days. EastEnders, in recent years, also has a bad tendency to hit you over the head with everything. Jessie Wallace and the directing team did an amazing job of subtly conveying Kat’s inner turmoil in today’s episode as she learnt the news of Lily’s pregnancy. They didn’t even have to mention Kat’s own experience with Zoe for you to get how triggering this news was to her, it was all in her face. If only they would get Kat out of that poisonous relationship with Phil.

And given the circumstances of his own birth (granted which he doesn’t know about yet) it seems like a odd choice to have that type of sh!t come out of his mouth.

The Freddie actor, while not the most skilled, is charming, charismatic, and cute so that makes up for his lack of skill. It still makes no sense why this character is on the show without Little Mo, and I can’t honestly say I buy him as part of the overall Slater dynamic.

I can’t believe poor Stacey is now on the verge of becoming a grandmother. It will be interesting to see how much of Lily’s pregnancy story is similar to that of the one Sarah had on Corrie over 20 years ago.

Back on Janine - The Scarlett actress sucked, but I never believed Janine would have intentionally been such an awful and vile mother given her own parental trauma. I think this is something they got very wrong in this return - I could see her still screwing up as a mother, but it would have been because of her own overprotective instincts, not because she was totally intentionally incompetent as a parent. Most of the time it felt like she couldn’t be bothered with Scarlett and that she felt being a mother was a curse.

Thanks for these - I hadn’t seen those Alan and Carol scenes in years - fantastic work from Lindsey Coulson.

They really fucked up Janine this time around. She’s never felt more generic - something I never thought she could be. Janine is sometimes a difficult character to get right, but you typically understand her motivations and she’s not usually vile purely for the sake of being so, which seemed to be the case in this stint. It’s like they only read the Wikipedia description of the character and decided that was enough. Putting her in the Mick/Linda vortex of piled on drama didn’t help either. I’ll always love her and she’s an important legacy character to have, but I hope the next time Charlie Brooks comes back she’s truly dedicated and whoever’s in charge can see below the surface of this complex character. She badly needs a new direction the next time we see her again. This exit also felt a bit like a retread of Janine’s EXCELLENT 2004 exit - but much more hollow. Instead of begging Pat to change her story with the police, she was begging Scarlet.

55 is too young. RIP

Y&R is a classic example of people not caring what goes into the actual product as long as it remains #1 in the ratings (which are awful across the board anyway). The people with any decisioning power just want to ride it out for as long as they can, and it shows in the actual quality of the show.

Because the last time Griffith was sole EP, it worked out so well….🙄 Goes to show no one really cares and they’re just riding out this ship until these shows are finally put out of their misery.

Some pretty horrific acting from this Trina actress today.