j swift

I really liked the writing for Spencer today. Nicholas Chavez is a captivating actor and I find myself fascinated by every choice that he makes. His range from romantic, to conniving, and then vulnerable, make him a unique male character on soaps today. The real surprise for me today was Molly. At first it seemed like a child playing dress-up as a lawyer, but she won me over. Molly seems bright and driven, without some of the questionable values of Alexis. Alexis is a fun character, but a little too judgemental of others at times, for me, especially given how easily she is drawn to malicious men (she needs some analysis of her Electra Complex). The only thing that struck me as humorous today was Molly recusing herself from Liz's case because Nikolas is her cousin, without mentioning that Liz is her father's former wife, and after she's already taken her statement. But, if the entire Port Charles legal system needed to divest themselves from cases involving relatives, there'd be nobody left to solve or prosecute crimes.

And I guess despite the longevity of the Password franchise (classic, plus, and super) it never really sustained the rest of the lineup similar to CBS's gameshow success

@Paul Ravenor in retrospect maybe NBC should have kept Jeopardy, given its popularity and longevity, and it may have propelled the entire lineup, much like Price is Right did for CBS

Dark thought of the evening. Given its recent history we can bet that The Oscars will forget to include someone for the In Memoriam segment, resulting in the usual social media rigamarole. I was wondering who is most likely to be passed over this year. The excuse is usually that the actor was famous, but not a member of the academy. So, my forecast for this year is that they'll fail to include either Olivia Newton-John (who may have been a member since she attended in the past, but is famous enough that people would notice her omission) or someone a bit more obscure like Adam Rich or Melinda Dillon. I doubt that they'd forget Raquel Welch or Burt Bacharach.

I was struck by the comedic tone of the episode that was uploaded this week of Tina and Niki shopping. As I recall Tina (as played by AE) was usually played for laughs, with her high pitched voice and absurd wardrobe. But, given that the later reoccurrence of Viki's DID in the 90s was so dramatic, it was remarkable to see how silly those scenes were written. I also noticed that Erika Slezak began to interweave some of Niki mannerisms in her later performances as Viki. I don't know if that was a conscious choice, or if those traits were closer to who she was as a person. But, mid-80s Viki usually spoke in a clipped, haughty, regal tone, whereas later we got a more relaxed vocal quality and even a lower pitch with a bit more humor. It was almost as if Viki chose to use her more formal voice when speaking younger people, and employees, and then was more casual with lovers and friends. Which seemed notably different from how ES played Viki when she was married to Joe, or even in her early romance with Clint. I also totally forgot about Joey and Kevin's nanny. Did she ever get an exit story? One more: Besides Marco Dane, (actually his brother), how many times was Viki on trial or arrested for murder?

That was a special extended episode, correct? So what happened to the other show that was normally broadcast in its place after AW that day?

Two questions: Was John Randolph's death a 60 or 90 minute episode (I recall it was an event)? Also when they experimented with 90 minute episodes before committing to the experiment, what played during the other half hour? In other words, was another soap an hour and it had to scaled back, or was it when they had two half hour sitcom rerun blocks and just ran one?

On today's edition of: "Is Lynda Hirsch Watching the Same Show as the Rest of Us?" - where I read Lynda's column and try to decipher what she means https://www.creators.com/read/lynda-hirsch-on-soaps

Just to prove men on soaps are universally dumb, Rex (a doctor), instantly assumes that he is the father of Sarah's baby, despite the fact that they just had sex the night before, and he knows she's been married to Xander, and somehow he doesn't see her face which telegraphs everything to the audience.

@xtr-excellent point, well made, thanks for clarifying Does Spencer still live with Victor at the hotel? I don't recall seeing where he's been living since that one scene when he got out of jail. On another note, isn't ironic how history repeats itself? (sort of, I mean I don't think Esme's not faking it, but...)

That Sonny/Spencer scene made no sense. Why was Sonny at the hospital visiting Esme's baby? I know he just visited Willow's baby, but is he permanently on the maternity ward? Why would Spencer discuss his hopes and fears with Sonny? I know they're related, but it's not like they've been close? It was just too random. It was also an odd contrast to the Joss/Dex scene, because Sonny hardly seems like much of a threat when he is constantly shown cuddling babies. However, the Ava/Spencer scene where she was given all of the exposition to explain Ryan and Esme's relationship and how that motivated the plot to terrorize Ava was really well done. Of course, it is slightly unrealistic that after going through her own trauma, and looking for Austin to hide her own crimes, that Ava would take the time to sensitively tie everything up for Spencer. But, as a viewer I found it helpful to understand the plot.

You know the cast is aging when the villainess whose intro shot was probably written as wearing a six inch stiletto heels instead is sporting a three inch Easy Spirit pump...

Does anyone recall the name of the facility that Heather went to originally during the Anne/Jeff story? Also, I've always assumed that references to Miscavige were dropped when Michelle Stafford was hired.

Can anyone help orient me? On the new Q set, are we supposed to be looking at the living room from a different angle, or is this another room in the mansion? BTW, I know it is a production/sound issue, but I don't like the flooring.

A day later, after the shock has worn off, I can't help but wonder how this reflects on the management structure at CBS. Back when CBS daytime had a dedicated VP, with a PR department, do you really think they would have let Griffith give a statement that implied he fired people in order to do the job himself? Because it is hard to read that headline and not respond negatively. As much as people dragged former daytime executives, I think they would have spun this to be more palatable, or at least drafted a statement to counteract the unnamed source in The Wrap. My opinion has mellowed given the knowledge shared by those on this board that other soaps have tried and failed to eliminate this role. But, it really made me reflect on the idea that (nepo-baby - her father was close with Les Moonves) Amy Reisenbach and Eric Kim who are in charge of all programing at CBS, don't prioritize daytime or the way that it is covered in the media.

Not an old article, but a fun T&C article about the 50th https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a42759307/the-young-and-restless-cbs-soap-opera-fiftieth-anniversary-interview/ Some highlights for the TLDR crowd If you grew up in the 1990s with a bunch of Ashleys in your school, you can thank the show. Eileen Davidson helped turn the name into a sensation a decade earlier, when she stepped into the stilettos of a character named Ashley Abbott, a glamorous heiress-slash-chemist. (The name Ashley, which previously had mainly been applied to boys, topped lists for baby girls for the first time around then.) Early reality TV? Y&R was in the vanguard, for sure, when it aired the first live face-lift on TV, back in 1984. It happened when the show’s resident battle-ax, Katherine Chancellor, went under the knife in real time—and at the same time—as her portrayer, the extraordinary Jeanne Cooper. Not to mention all the coifs that have come and gone. “My hair has its own dressing room,” jokes Melody Thomas Scott. She is the soap diva who since 1979 has played stripper turned trophy wife Nikki Newman (half of the eternal super-couple Victor and Nikki), and whose dos arrived in increasingly colossal formations, particularly during the 1980s.

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/02/archives/a-retirement-home-that-retains-a-bit-of-hollywood-dazzle-names-not.html I thought this was an interesting bit of trivia. Dewitt Bodeen, a screenwriter who had been Val's lover in 1960s moved to the Motion Pictures Country Home (aka the movie retirement village) in 1979, the same year that Val left SFT. I have no idea if they were still together, because Bodeen died in 1988 while Val died in Manhattan in 2000, but I thought it was an intriguing coincidence that might have gone unreported in 1979, even by JMR.

File this under contrarian/optimist/conspiracy theories - but I wonder if consolidating the writing and producing is an effort to reduce costs in order to increase options for streaming revenue? In other words, will they increase efforts to stream the show on foreign platforms and thereby negate the need to pay residuals to WGA writers?

Thank you, now I am intrigued... It's ironic that in the screenshots used for the recaps it looks like Alley Mills is playing Heather like a raving lunatic (which is what I expected after seeing her work on B&B), but when watching her performance it is actually much more nuanced, not subtle, but still layered with humor, desperation, and malevolence. I don't know if I would recognize her as Heather, (if the other characters didn't say her name every two seconds), but I enjoy this characterization. It also made me realize that between Heather and Nikolas, GH should be applauded for carrying off such strong scenes with recast actors. I mean Alley Mills has been around for a few months already, but her chemistry as Heather with Ryan and Esme is part of what sold those escape episodes. And, needless to say nu-Nik had a huge task to pull off those final scenes. They really made the best of out of a less than ideal circumstance.

My "rose" of the show from this week's episodes, (which were undeniably poor in terms of quality), is that unlike the past "wacky" plots, this week I appreciated the dynamic between the real and the absurd. For example, the contrast between the cryo-pods and Anna's grief has grounded the drama in a way that was not as well balanced during the possession or the nu-Renee plots. I realize that's not a strong defense, and I don't expect others to agree, but it was notable to me, so I wanted to share it.

Do we know if when Britt and Austin were hooked the hook was poisoned? I assumed since Austin has survived that there was no poison used this time. And, Britt was already in a weakened state so just the trauma of being hooked could have fatal. But, I may have missed some discussion of if they tested Austin for poison. Because if the times that we saw Heather hooked people there was no poison involved, it may lend credence to the theory that that there was more than one killer. Although, today's episode indicated that everyone was positive that Heather was the killer, I can't help but think that it would be an odd mid-week resolution, and there has to be another shoe that drops.

I've not always been an Alya fan in the past, but this was an excellently written scene.

I was interested in the tidbit about the WGA negotiations in article, so I wanted to search further. Three interesting things about his relationship to the union. First, as already mentioned, in 2007 he took fi-core status during the writer's strike, in order to become the head writer and interim executive producer. Then, 2008, TVGuide.ca broke news suggesting CBS chief Barbara Bloom was angling to replace Griffith because he was re-writing Maria Arena Bell’s scripts. However, after the Writers Guild of America sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Y&R studios, “Josh stopped hijacking scripts immediately, but everyone still wanted him fired,” points out a snitch. And finally, in 2022, the WGA nominated Amanda Beall for writing for Y&R, and omitted his name. (https://www.soapcentral.com/young-and-restless/news/2013/0816-griffith.php). https://daytimeconfidential.com/2008/08/18/josh-griffith-given-walking-papers https://www.goldderby.com/forum/daytime-tv/writers-guild-2022-nominees-for-daytime-drama/

https://www.thewrap.com/young-and-the-restless-fires-breakdown-writing-staff/ The move comes just short of WGA negotiations, as well as the series celebrating its 50th anniversary Sally Spectra’s brutal firing from the fictional Newman Media may be nothing compared to the real-life pink slips just handed out in the writing department at CBS’s top rated daytime drama “The Young and the Restless.” “Y&R” co-executive producer and head writer Josh Griffith has sacked all five writers that comprised the daytime drama’s breakdown writing staff, multiple individuals with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. According to one insider, Griffith said eliminating the breakdown writing staff — those writers responsible for mapping out story lines across multiple episodes — is a cost-cutting move, and that he will take on the task of writing breakdowns himself. “The timing of the firings is suspect given that WGA negotiations were coming up and the show is celebrating a major milestone with its 50th anniversary,” the individual said. “Even more brutal is that four of the five writers of the breakdown staff are all women, one of them being African-American, who was hired with the intended purpose of expanding diversity behind the scenes per CBS’ directive.”

It's an exceptionally silly detail that the ladies are in their white outfits in the cryo-pods.