j swift

Scott, Michael, and Dash were all dullards. Scott's an optometry expert who can't tell that his girlfriend is faking blindness. Michael is dates with every scorned woman in town to feed his savior complex Dash won't allow single use plastics, but he'll abuse women It is no wonder that an alcoholic lawyer with daddy-issues and a failed journalist who prefers to sleep with family members and trauma victims were the most eligible bachelors in town.

Doesn't it feel odd in today's atmosphere to have a mental health story be played for yucks and giggles? Again, where's Cain's motivation?, does he have mental health issues? is he a con? and why is he so earnest all the time, considering that he held hostage a woman in need of medical care?

I laugh at the irony of Richard interrogating her in his hospital gown, she gives up all of the information, without a trial, and clip clap it's all over... Richard never seemed to learn the lesson that an interview and background check are good ideas when hiring an assistant. Wasn't this like the third one that tried to betray him?

I agree great murder setup/great trial/great way to redeem Jake through his relationship with Paulina However, the beats of the story were delayed due to production and Tom Eplin coming to terms on his contract. As a result, Jake was shot, lingered in a coma, and nobody investigated the murder for weeks at time. I think that pacing is a key component to plot, (even if the delays were unforeseen). Thus, I would not consider it a complete success because it felt as if it dragged in the middle and then came to a conclusion when Jake emerged from his coma.

lol on her title How do you know a production company is out of touch? They consider high def digitization an "emerging format"

100% agree, I mean read the room, the McCleary brothers were not lighting the audience on fire enough to devote that much time in the montage to their shenanigans. However, let's give a little notice of the youthful hotness of one Mr Matt Ashford; smoking... And how'd they get that circus horse into the studio?

Also, noted Henry Sleasar's amazing multi-year weaving of plots for Edge of Night. The film version of Mansion of Damned was destroyed due to it's con artist producer. Leaving aging leading lady Nola Madison open to the conniving ways of Elliott Dorn, who then left her for Margo Huntington, who was scheming to keep her long lost daughter April in town which caused friction in her relationship with her son-in-law Draper, who was then convicted of her murder, (which Nola secretly committed). When Draper's prison transport crashed he was left with amnesia and taken in by Emily and her mother, Emily fell for Draper, but he recovered, was exonerated, and returned to April. Emily had an affair with an orderly at Keith Bryson's clinic in order to entrap Draper with a baby, but Draper's law practice partner's wife, Nancy went undercover at the clinic and found that Dr Bryson was giving plastic surgery to criminals in order to allow them cover for a new life, one of the those criminals was Jefferson Brown, who got surgery to look like Geraldine's Whitney's nephew Sky,. Meanwhile, Raven having been rejected by Geraldine due to her affair with Elliot, left her son Jamey (see my username), with April and Draper and went to England. Only to return for Draper's trial and try to regain custody of Jamey to get an inheritance from her mother. However, her mother and Elliot wound up being murdered by a puppet held by Emily's mother; of all people. Leaving Raven susceptible to the charms of faux-Sky, but he was shot trying kill Raven in the Alps, paving the way for the return of the real Sky Whitney who later became Raven's one true love and adoptive father of Jamey. That was four years of plot, strung from one idea to the next, hardly leaving anytime for the audience to breath from each astonishing cliffhanger. In an age when a female character responsible for multiple misdeeds mistakenly shoots her son that she's only known for six months and it is called a twist that has never been seen before, we are reminded that Slesar was thinking three steps ahead of the audience at all times.

I thought it was cannon that Jason had an affair with Mrs. Love? I put it in and then took it out because I was uncertain, but did Mac find out that Iris was The Chief at the trial (I know Rachel knew, but I am unclear how Mac found out)? If so, that is serendipitous brilliance, because it allowed the audience to see Mac's reaction before Douglass Watson died.

I nominate the Another World's The Murder of Jason Frame. The late 1980s were filled with murder mysteries in which everyone in town was a suspect, but usually the actual murderer was some backburnered cast member or a bit player introduced just as the mystery begun. This time the audience saw Felicia Gallant shoot a gun, and then she was seen leaning over the victim, so it would be hard to write her out of that corner. Coming on the heels of the plot-hole-heavy return of Reginald Love, this was the course correction that Another World needed in order to evolve from repetitive serial killers and a revolving door ingenues with a range of talents from Joanna Going (Lisa) to Kristen Marie (Cheryl). The smart twist was that the trial brought together most of the major stories of the day. Cass returned to being a lawyer to defend Felicia, and in order to establish credible doubt he exposed John's PTSD, Sharlene's past as a sex worker, and Vicky's confusion about the paternity of Steven at the trial. We got the exploration of Felicia Gallant's past. It also coincided with the return of Anna Stuart as Donna Love, the introduction of Frankie Frame, (and Derek aka the Beast, proving that not everything was great). Most of all it set the stage for the legendary 25th anniversary of Cory Publishing Party. Mac was forced to be a hostile witness against Felicia, whom he had heard threaten Jason. Soon afterward it was exposed that Iris's motive was that Jason knew she was The Chief aka the person trying to takeover Cory! It was a true umbrella story, the final murderer was not obvious until Cass began to suspect Nicole, and it didn't get boring because it was the center of so many other developments.

It confirms my hypothesis that 1960s Sofia was a bit more conniving. She wanted to make sure that Channing (aka Lionel Jr, aka Brick) would one day own the keys to the kingdom. Meanwhile, supposed bad guy CC still kept Channing's son in the will, even after he found out that he wasn't Channing's biological father, and the son he raised had been switched at birth. I'm just saying, justice for CC.

I think that's a very smart take on the situation. The episodes are also a roadmap on how to produce a soap on a budget. There are few sets, they don't change clothes that often, or they were professional uniforms, the lighting is good, and the focus is just on the dialogue. In my mind, modern DAYS always suffers when they try to do too much with too little money.

I mean it is interesting to look back within a modern context. Mason gave CC all kinds of crap about being a bad guy. Meanwhile, he was a single father of five kids, in the 1970s, in Santa Barbara, with one maid, who didn't live on-site. And, (until the Greg retcon), it seems as if CC had no significant romantic relationships the whole time that he was raising his kids. Talk about a sacrafice Then, Sofia comes waltzing back in costume with a fake mustache, and the kids not only universally forgive her, but they all take her side whenever she blamed CC for their marital problems. I've always wondered if Sophia or CC thought of naming their first born Channing Jr, considering that Mason was a child at the time? Did Pamela not like the name Channing? It is just so odd to name your second born as a Junior.

I have a thing for penthouses and contemporary design. So, my favorite set of all time is the Cavanaugh penthouse on Edge of Night (I know Margo lived there first, for those historical sticklers). First of all, is there anything chic-er than having a private elevator take you right into your own penthouse? Second, those spiral stairs were dreamy, and that fireplace was divine. I'm surprised they didn't use the balcony more frequently, but once Raven's custody letter went flying out of April's hand I guess that was its best use as a plot point. My second choice would be Bob Anderson's ultra swanky house on Days of Our Lives. For being a man of a "certain age", I never understood Bob's sex appeal for everyone including Julie. But, I totally got why any fine lady from Salem would want to get their hands on that house. Through Melissa's inheritance Micky and Maggie lived there for awhile, and never has there been such a poor fit between character and set to have those two country bumpkins living in such lovely home. Last, I have to give it up to my earliest soap crush, architect Robert Delaney, and his design for Steve Frame's house. Those cantilevered roof lines and the floating fireplace are forever stored in my memory. If memory serves, I think Robert also designed the Cory compound, which was a very modern take on a workplace set (obviously he only designed it fictionally)

The mention of Guiding Light themes got me thinking... (A) A radically new soap theme is usually a harbinger of a producer who wants to put their own stamp on a show while denying soap history and pissing off long term fans (B) It is always a bad choice to include couple pictures (as opposed to individual actors) because it implies that they are "endgame", and requires updates when one actor inevitably leaves the show (C) A new theme may be a cheap trick to lure back old viewers, but it gets me every time.

I recall Dolly the clone keeping kidnapped Reva in the poolhouse, or somewhere closer in proximity to her main home That was the kidnapping I was thinking of, but didn't Will also die falling from the lighthouse, and wasn't the denouement of the Tangie Hill fortune-in-a-duffel-bag at the lighthouse? Logically, it would be dumb to build a lighthouse in the middle of a forest, a harbor seems more appropriate, but they rarely referenced what part of town the lighthouse was built. Was it down near Fifth Street, or uptown closer to the Spaulding Mansion?

I'm thinking of at least one kidnapping and one death that occurred at the lighthouse. Can anyone recall how many people died, or almost died, falling off of the thing? Which is why it was odd a few years later that they would build a hotel there. It seems like an bad idea to construct a tourist attraction on the fatality site of many of the town's villains. But, then again, who would vacation in Springfield?

It's an interesting example because the plot also did nothing to advance the character(s). For example, how interesting would it have been for Michael to reflect on his relationships with Laura and Julia and come to the realization that he was using his position in order "rescue" women in crisis and make them adore him? Instead, he goes on to another relationship with a woman who has a complicated past with men, and again tries to be her savior, even though he's left the church. Laura is villainized and goes mad, while nobody seems tried to assign blame or guilt onto Michael.

Do I recall correctly that in order to cheer Julie up during her recovery (which occurred while they were estranged), Doug dressed as a clown? Also the scarring was both horrifically graphic, and magical in its disappearance.

The images of The Chateau fire on another thread reminded me of how amusingly generic the names of the businesses were in Pine Valley. We got The Chateau, The Valley Inn, Erica's the disco, and my favorite The Boutique. Perhaps they were named in order to avoid product placement fees, but they were uniquely plain. Of course, that would exclude the Glamarama.

I always wondered if GH Dawn was abandoned because they couldn't get the casting correct, which is why it is amazing to me that YR Sharon has lasted so long. I mean Dawn could have sub'ed for every story that Emily had as a young adult, given that they were both ista-Quartermaine women. But, with Sharon, it is a quandary because none of the actresses had a particularly different take on the character, (unlike some of the short-lived Daniel's), and none of them were noticeably bad actresses, so it seems like the Y&R casting department screen tested during episodes rather than prior to filming.

I could've predicted that the scale of the show would seem too small, or the casting of Jane Lynch as her mother, or it would look too dark, but I never thought they'd all be so critical of Beanie's vocal range - oof. Probably didn't help that they opened on Barbra's 80th birthday...

I want someone to write the definitive book of soap opera sets and how they evolved with the plots/writers. It is the part of the canon that always fascinates me because the sets tell the story of the financial success of a show, they are often a time capsule of the interior design trends of the time, and they are often handed down (or re-worked) from generation to generation regardless of the actor, writer, or producer. Or maybe someone could start an archive like @slick jones?

Every time I read one of these blogs I am reminded: “No one has the right to judge you, because no one really knows what you have been through. They might have heard the stories, but they didn’t feel what you felt in your heart.” — Unknown Author https://contactprod.com/larrylau/scream/

I had fun watching Meena's trial (except for how it ended). I think it was clever to use the suspicious behaviors and reactions of some of the victims against them in court and have that be the issue that could have set Meena free. Of course, justice is always served on soaps so Meena confessed and the trial ended. However, it is inspiring to think about how other soaps could use a similar device. There are so many "rouge" heroes on soaps who try to solve mysteries and figure out murderers that it would be ironic if their efforts actually created legal situations where the killers escaped prosecution because the evidence became questionable.

Yes, I forgot how often in both Springfield and Llanview oil companies would randomly set up headquarters in suburban towns, hundreds of miles away from their refineries, (as well as maintaining a European office). Because what mid-western town doesn't have a university-medical center, a multi-national oil company, one country club, and a honky-tonk bar? As well as, one nondenominational church, a disco/jazz club, some random gang violence, and a modern high rise hotel.