j swift

On 7/29/2022 at 9:42 AM, danfling said:

The role of Vinnie was created by Antony Ponzini, and he was given a wonderful exit.   The role was later played by Jordan Charney.    (Both actors had worked with Agnes Nixon and Doris Quinlan on Another World.)  His portrayal of Vinnie was not all that much different than the way he played Sam Lucas on Another World, except he sounded more ethnic (not particularly Polish, though).

I recently read that Erika Slezac dated one of the Vinny's, I assume it was Anthony Ponzi?

On 7/29/2022 at 9:42 AM, danfling said:

Ms. Chris departed the show, and her replacement was Lee Lawson.   Ms. Lawson tried her best to be Wanda, but she was lacking so many of the attributes of Marilyn Chris.

I first watched around the time of Marco Dane murder trial, but I had no idea that Wanda was ever played by another actor.

Did they establish Wanda's familial connection to Asa from the start, or did they later figure out that they were cousins?

One last set of questions to round out September

Does Dr. Rolf live in Salem? Is Rolf his first or last name? Are we to believe that Kayla and Jennifer could see him at the grocery store or in the town square?  Does he have a spouse and a family, or has he committed his life to science?

Because why is Rex going to solve the medical crisis rather than Dr. Rolf who developed the toxin, so he could more logically develop an antidote. 

Or, why don't people blame Kristin for not asking Dr. Rolf to develop an antidote?

DAYS - Ava and John - do they remember that they were romantically involved during his robo-John era?

Whatever happened to Johnny's movie? Is he ambitious or a con?  Does he have a job?  Did he have money prior to moving to Salem that somehow got taken away, so he is forced to couch surf?

Did Johnny and Allie graduate from college in Europe, or was Allie just there to party? Does she share any of the same body issues that plagued her mother (which would suck given that she owns a bakery)?  Did Chanel grow up with as much access to privilege as Johnny and Allie?

I bring up all of this to say, one of the errors that I see in the writing/casting of legacy family characters is that their character traits are assumed by their generational status rather than established through dialogue and acting.  DAYS has the luxury of time to tell stories but both of the twins have been on screen for a awhile and we know so little about what makes them tick.

When she was on her first screenname

& I've never regretted it for a minute

On 9/28/2022 at 5:23 PM, Melroser said:

I've recently started streaming this show from the beginning.

Whenever someone mentions streaming the series from the beginning, I am always interested in their experience of Miss Ellie.

Because when I re-watched the early seasons it was interesting to see that she was written a bit more sinister at first (sinister may be a reach but I couldn't think of a more appropriate adjective).  I really enjoyed how she played into Sue Ellen's insecurities and warned her to have a baby before Pam was able to worm her way into Jock's heart by giving birth to the first grandson.  Ellie was still prim and proper around the poolside breakfast table, but she wasn't as benign as she was written in later seasons.   

It also fun to see the tonal shifts as writers and production changes.  The costumes become more glamorous.  The scripts contain more humor.  And there's far less sweat, Ray and Bobby are drenched in those first few seasons, until they give up the manual labor and move into management and there's that early hostage episode when Pam and Sue Ellen are glistening until the pressure. 

6 hours ago, te. said:

Not sure why anyone's looking at broadcast ratings when it was never what kept it alive in the first place...

 

Meanwhile, it's #2 worldwide on Netflix, two days after release of season 5: https://flixpatrol.com/title/dynasty-2017/

Totes Mcgoats, but I am endlessly fascinated by how few people actually watch The CW.  I mean I would have no idea that Patrick Dempsey has another show on TV if it weren't for the commercial breaks during Dynasty

8 minutes ago, MichaelGL said:

Jhud I assume got Ellen's old set? I can't help to feel that it is. 

The soundstage feels smaller, with the audience being closer to the stage, but production's IG shows that the entrance to the studio is the same, so (much like Sherri), I would guess that camera angles are doing a lot to make it look different.

I watched the first week of each show, and while this is often not indicative of the direction of the production, I felt it was a good indicator of each host's ability to make me into a repeat watcher.  Overall, I still think Kelly Clarkson is the best at the genre currently.  Her mixture of music and games feels fresh, and she has a good rapport during interviews.

Karamo - to be honest I had no idea that he even had a talk show until I saw a promo on the local news.  He seems to be like this season's Nick Cannon, a charming guy who is a poor fit for daytime.  His advise and expertise have yet to be grounded in any authority.  He is very impersonal and not engaging.

Jennifer Hudson - the entire first week felt like "Can you believe I got a talkshow?"  Every story was about how she met the nurse doing the COVID testing, or the prop guy who gave her a new tea cup.  She is poor at extemporaneous speaking and frequently inserts "umms" and "ahhs", even with the benefit of editing.  Beyond her American Idol judges, Randy and Simon, the other guests were mostly human interest stories, that weren't very interesting.  A little girl who was star struck by JHud and a kid with no real story were not good choices, and JHud seems to be ill-prepared as to why they were on her show.

Sherri - by far the most professional of the three.  She is working hard to distance herself from Wendy, even though the set is exactly the same but with a new coat of paint.  For me, the let down is that I don't think we need another hour of round table discussion about pop culture.  We know what everyone's opinion is going to be ahead of time (even if you've never heard of them, it is easy to figure out the role that each person takes) and the jokes are hacky.  I enjoy the Regis-type opening of discussing the happenings of the night before, but Sherri doesn't have as active of a social life, so I fear it will devolve into recaps of primetime TV.  Her producing partner lacks any charisma as someone who she should play off of.  I understand why Sherri wouldn't want a panel after her time on The View, but it feels like there's a missed opportunity for a female duo in daytime to become our new best friends goals, because Sherri obviously has deep relationships with those who surround her.

I had forgotten what Karen's haircut looked like until now, which upon reflection, is silly on a couple of different levels.

(A) Why would Phil make her cut her hair if he was going to kill her?

(B) Karen gave herself quite a stylish hairdo for having to use office shears while under duress

(C) Why would a kidnapper give his captive a weapon? (and why didn't she use it?)

I think the new Stephanie is charming so she lends romantic credence to Alex, in the same way that Ciarra was compelling and that gave Ben routing value.

To me, RSW is a handsome guy with very limited acting skills, if Fanny Brice had 36 expressions, he's got two; squinting and smiling. So, most of his appeal has been based on his 'hunkiness' and his scene partners.  Unfortunately, soap actors with those credentials usually don't age well as characters because they are unable to convey any development (see GH-Jason, B&B-Liam, and even DAYS-John).

This is a sad coda for the future of primetime soaps on the CW (and elsewhere...)

A rerun of Whose Line is it Anyway got 48% more viewers than the penultimate episode of Dynasty, with the same lead -in

9/23

9/9

It was always interesting to me that AW hired both John Considine and Lewis Arlt to play two different roles.

Arlt's first role as David Thatcher was relatively short, but memorable, given that he played a key role both in the lives of Sally and Donna and was part of the introduction of Marley.  So, it was surprising that six years later he was cast Ken who, of course, introduced Paulina.

I never recall who was in charge during which story, but one suspects that separate production teams hired both actors twice.  I would hazard to guess that they were either available for the right price at the right time, or their auditions out shown their actual performance.  But it remains a quandary why those two were chosen twice.

1 minute ago, Xanthe said:

I don't think anyone has ever figured out who quit as Reginald before John Considine was brought in either.

excellent question, and worthy of an investigation, unfortunately it pre-dates all goggle references and most of the parties involved are no longer available as resources - but I hope someone will crack that case...

1 hour ago, Xanthe said:

A Ben could easily have kept the McKinnon spot warm for him even if they had decided to swap the character out when Tom Eplin returned.

Wasn't that spot taken up by Scott?

It could be understood that Cheryl and Scott were supposed to be a gender swapped Jake and Marley (despite the fact that Cheryl was a bit of snoozefest)

Also, Ben lacked charisma or many romantic hero qualities.  I've never valued populating soap town with characters who share a last name, but don't play a necessary role in the plot.  Just having more McKinnons, Loves, McGowens is not enough if their identities are not unique.

Mike was so intertwined with Nancy and Craig in his quest to become Chief of Staff at University Hospital that it would be fun to see his reaction to their current circumstances.  Perhaps he'll help Nancy after her failed romance with Clyde? Because I doubt that DAYS would pair him with Craig.

2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

The singer is Shawn Stevens as Zack. He was also on Days as Oliver , one of those teen idols the mags pushed, who didn't really have much success.

This sent me on a whole rabbit hole of Zack on the QEII trying to steal Liza's jade necklace, to DAYS Gwen's brother Oliver building underground passages between Doug's Place and Stefano's house, to Shawn's YouTube page with videos of him singing on SFT, and finally to a list of famous LDS teen idols.

It's funny how a 12 second promo from 41 years ago can provide the best reason to procrastinate from doing anything production.

49 minutes ago, dc11786 said:

I think it was introduced by Don Chastain when he was aiming for a younger, hipper "Search for Tomorrow"

Yep, nothing says hip and young like Stu opening a fern bar

Also, Wendy had terrible taste in men

I need some context clues.

Who's the singer?  Why does Liza look surprised?  How long did Stu's club last? Is that Cynthia Gibb?

If the DAYS murders are actually related to the events of Leo and Craig's wedding then I would be very disappointed.

Regardless of the fact that those were fun and soapy scenes, it did not have enough gravitas as a traumatic event to motivate serial assaults

I was just thinking about Phillip's disappearance since it was brought up at the custody hearing.

Has that been resolved and could it have a connection to Abby's murder?

Every time I read an article about how Princess Kate is honoring the Queen by wearing her jewels, I think if the shoe was on the other foot the headlines would say, "Meghan riffles through the Queen's closet looking for hand-me-downs."

Also, do we think Harry packed his military uniform just in case, or did they have one ready for him at the palace?

On 9/11/2022 at 9:07 AM, Vee said:

That's a nice touch. I just wish there was more direct address or acknowledgement onscreen in dialogue or material on the shows.

Not to go too far off on a tangent, but this article has a great summary of how all the soaps acknowledged 9/11

https://amberelfwagner.com/new-blog/2019/7/16/the-effects-of-911-on-daytime-drama-college-paper-1-written-from-oct-2001-feb-2002

General Hospital changed a long-term storyline, and paid dearly to do it, but on Dec. 23rd they did a tribute. It is pretty well unheard of for a soap to acknowledge the real world in such a direct fashion.

September 17", Port Charles featured the cast holding candles.

Days of Our Lives, a planned plane crash was edited out, and on Sept. 17th, the cast members sang “America The Beautiful” to the end of the program.

I can't believe after watching DAYS for 40 years that I am still fooled by latex masks!

17 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Had Nate been set up as a hot shot egotistical surgeon who for some reason is fired from the hospital or chooses to leave because he feels hard done by -  then Nate feeling he is well qualified to be a business leader. would play.

I agree that there's no conflict as it is written.

It's like, "Oh no I can't be a surgeon!" "What's my backup plan?"  "Oh, I'll help start a tech/communication/social media company with someone else's money" Problem solved

Once again there is no economic diversity in Genoa City.  Everyone is either a nepo-baby with zero liability to create every new club, hotel, or online business they want, or a gold digger living off of the spoils of a nepo-baby.

From the Deadline interview with Dynasty producer Josh Reims (he's joking, but it would be fun)