j swift

Wait... its not a song about a guy going bird watching at night so he has to wear something reflective? I feel so naive.

@Soapsuds, @DramatistDreamer I don't know if you both saw her on Access, but her chatter was painful. She may be a good news reader, but she has very little charisma to be able to articulate her opinions. Which makes her a good Julie Chen replacement, but she is not someone who I could ever see someone saying, "I wonder what Natalie Morales has to say about this?..." As for why she would do it, the obvious answer is cash. However, ever since she moved to the west coast she has kept a low profile in the news department. She can't do celebrity profiles, because she doesn't have those skills. So, unless they were actually keeping her around because of the rumored Matt Lauer issues that NBC didn't want to see come to light, there wasn't much of a future for her in the news department.

I always file her under people whose charms with the American public have been vastly overrated

To be fair, he was both a porn actor and a disco star I would dare any modern soap to be so bold in their casting choices

Isn't that a classically ironic actor's statement? "I quit daytime, because I got bored, in order to do more daytime" I wouldn't buy that statement with a plugged nickle. In the 1984 thread on Soap news, there is plenty of suggestion that he was fired in order to bring the younger character of Miles into the leading role, much like the actor playing Bill was fired so they could bring on Derek.

Also, now that she's pushed back the season opener for weeks, I wonder if she'll need to work late into next summer to fulfill her order? It certainly doesn't look hopeful the NY Post said "she didn't show up" today, and the decision to postpone was made within the "past 24 hours". Has Nick Cannon's show started? I haven't heard one word about it. edit: found the answer, well at least Wendy doesn't have to worry that he'll replace her

Well, we know it couldn't have been Pat or Frank with their respective partners because then the baby would have been named Ryan Ryan

Given her bravado, it is hard to know if Wendy suffers from a lack of self-awareness or denial. But, either way I feel sorry for her because she looks broken.

Given the Writer's Guild changes over time, pre-1981 was the wild west in daytime TV when it came to writing credits and they were not standardized as they are today. In fact, the term "created by" wasn't standardized for use until the 1990s.

Given that Draper married April and got a house in Oakdale and a penthouse in the deal, one could say that the apple didn't fall far from the tree. However, I'm pretty sure Draper's eye never wondered, and he would have been willing to give up the penthouse if it meant that he wasn't accused of Margo's murder. 😉

I feel like such a sexist pig for thinking that Ansel had all of the money from the Saxon case, that I forgot that Nadine had her own supply. The dates that you mention for the recast track with the YT availability of episodes because I think most of the episodes were posted by a specific fan to facilitate a re-watch with Ms. Gabet through her Facebook account, which is why there is so little of Ms. Clay's material available. What do you make of Nadine saying to Raven during her affair with Ansel that her father never wanted her, and then seemly contradicting herself on the day of her death by suggesting that Raven's father was too attentive? I smiled in watching Nadine's final scene over two nonsensical details: (1) she would drive herself to the airport, everybody knows that after a fight with Raven you should never drive yourself to the Monticello airport, just ask Kevin Jamison, and (2) that she would have rented a brown hatchback as shown at the end of the episode.

Holy storyline contradiction! FEBRUARY 7 - 11, 1983: To delay her wedding, Raven lied to Ian that her stepfather Ansel Scott is seriously ill. Raven left for London, but planned a secret rendezvous in New York with Sky. Ian ordered Camilla out of his house after she insinuated that Ansel isn't really ill. FEBRUARY 14 - 18, 1983: Ian called Ansel to disprove Camilla's accusations, but Ansel confirmed that he's in perfect health Didn't Ansel die in 1980, before Nadine? Otherwise, why was Raven so concerned about Jamey's trust from Nadine's will right before her mother's death?

@Broderick I found the part of the recap that you mentioned, but youtube doesn't have the video for that date: MAY 9 - 14, 1977: Nadine confronted Raven about her affair with Ansel, and when Raven blamed her for taking away Raven's father when she was a child, Nadine stunned her with the news that he didn't want her. It is interesting because there is a minor contradiction in Nadine's final scene three years later in 1980. Raven talks about her memories of her father being over attentive in response to Nadine's neglect and Nadine says that he loved her too much. I couldn't figure out from the 1977 recap if Mr. Alexander abandoned them, or died, and in which order? But, it cleared things up for me because I had always assumed that Draper and Raven were raised as stepsiblings, so their flirtation seemed gross, yet now I see they didn't meet until they were adults and before their parent's marriage. When Raven left Jamey with April, she intimates that she's going to London because she knows Ansel will care for her financially, which is a little weird to say to Draper, his son. It is also interesting that Ansel left such a large amount of money to Jamey, given that he was only married to Nadine for two years, and Raven lied that Draper was his father. Also, Draper doesn't appear to have gotten any money in the will. Then, when Nadine dies, Raven doesn't seem to inherit any money from her mother, but Jamey's trust is still in tact. @DRW50 Laurie Ann's son John Victor, and Serena's son Timmy also seem to disappear. Apparently, Monticello was an adults-only kind of town 😉 Nadine's final scene

I've fallen into a EON homepage wormhole of 70s recaps and @Broderick, @DRW50, and @Soaplovers I need your help. 1. Did the Forrest Compton also play Ray Harper, Timmy's uncle and 2. What happened to Nicole's baby Adam Jr.? One minute Miles is saving him during childbirth and then they never mention him again in 1978. 3. This may be a relic of the times and their antiquated terms, but was Kevin impotent or sterile?

I feel like my age is showing on this issue. As a gay man, I think there is power in coming out, and this feels like a justification. I'm willing to accept that Brooks hasn't consolidated his sexual identity, regardless of how he presents. But, to suggest that equality is about not "needing" to come out to your family says, to me, that Brooks' Mother feels that his sexuality is not a significant part of his identity, and that as a public figure, he shouldn't use the opportunity to support the cause of equality when he can demonstrate his pride about being gay. It seems tone-deaf to suggest that kids who are strong enough to come out at the risk of losing their parent's support are not as progressive as this guy who uses his family's exposure and money to promote a business rather than the cause of equality.

One other moment of praise for Henry Slesar, if I may. I really appreciate that he usually had multiple suspects for every crime, each with their own motives. If you think about other soap crimes like Zach's murder on AMC, most of the other suspects were viable simply because they had the opportunity and a circumstantial motive. But, a character like Miles was set up in the Wade Meacham case to have a propensity for jealousy, and by the time we got to Margo's murder we learned that he was fearful of developing psychosis as inherited by his mother while his water-cooler had been drugged, so there was always some doubt about his innocence as a backdrop to both cases. Also, he wrote great courtroom scenes. Most soaps have a hysterical witness who spews exposition during a trial, (except for James Reilly's DAYS which oddly seemed to avoid trial scenes). But, Slesar peppered the trials with great characters like the nosy sisters who testified against Winter Austin, or Margo's doorman in Draper's case. In addition, each lawyer usually had a motive to win the case. AMC/OLTL's Paul Martin never had a personal stake in Vicky's innocence during Marco's trial, but Cliff and Draper had something to prove in court which added to the richness of the outcome. Also, the courtroom stunts were awesome, from the videotapes implicating Winter to Raven's surprise return, the events weren't telegraphed days in advance so you could predict what would happen, they were well earned surprises. Finally, given EON's turnover in actors, the verdict was never predetermined. Today's audience is sophisticated enough to know that if a lead character is accused of murder, there will be some way for them to be proven not guilty, but on EON anyone could be carted off to prison at anytime.

Then you would get final story of Dr. David Hayward from AMC, where the people not only rose from the dead, but apparently their corpses never decomposed....

Just posted on the Bravo ratings twitter regarding Sunday night #RHOP S06E12 - 0.996 million viewers (0.30 18-49 demo) #RHOSLC S02E03 - 0.613 million viewers (0.19 18-49 demo) 38% of the audience for Potomac doesn't watch Salt Lake City, that is very unexpected.

@DRW50 Logan was compelling. So much so that I wish we got more backstory. I was watching the final episode of Nadine and Raven (no spoilers), and I appreciated that at the start of the Clown Puppet Murders, Slesar still took the time to fill in Raven's backstory. They talk about Nadine's neglect of Raven, particularly after the death of Raven's father. We got the story that Raven was placed into a boarding school at 7, following her father's demise at 6. We also got the other side of the tale, when Nadine defended herself by saying that she didn't wish to neglect Raven, but she was devastated by her husband's death. That episode is a great bookend to my aforementioned favorite episode when Raven drops Jamey with April and discussed how she got her nickname. It fills in all of the blanks of Raven's attitude toward Jamey and Logan, as well as setting up Raven's relationship with Sky and Geraldine. However, correct me if I'm wrong, but we never got the same amount of details about Logan. I am interested in his attachment to Geraldine. Her desire for a replacement for Kevin makes sense, but what did he get out of the arraignment? I want to know more about what attracted him to the lethal women he dated, as well as how he developed his Madonna/Whore complex that compelled him toward both April and Raven. He was so much more interesting of a guy than Draper that I can see why woman were attracted to him, but it also made me wish we knew more about his motives. @Soaplover It is funny that until I reviewed 1980, I always thought Molly was Emily's mother not her maid (she was an awfully devoted employee). There's something so cosmopolitan about Monticello that everyone (except Nancy) had household help. However, I was wondering what you meant about Emily's story being dropped? Are you referring to the fact that we never saw her again after the Bryson Clinic plot?

@danfling It is remarkable how much writing matters because I was never a fan of Mr Lambie on either GH or SFT. He was always so stern and curt that I was surprised by the lightness and humor he brought to Logan. Also, my recollection of Logan #2 was that he was on the show for such a short stint, and was clearly meant to be a spoiler for Raven and Sky, that there was no chance for him to have any rooting value. One loose end - What ever became of Sara, Margo's British maid that had an affair with Elliott and insisted on calling him Duckie? I miss all of the household help characters on soaps...

I was also a fan of Cali TImmins so I enjoyed her portrayal of Maggie. It was unfortunate that she started as sort of a replacement for Kimberly after the Kirkland debacle (young pretty actress striving to make it in the big city by any means necessary). Then, Maggie got caught up in the worst parts of the Max DeBujak saga, including hidden rooms and plans for world domination. So, her romance with Dave was a highlight. On a personal note, I'm a sucker for Jewish representation, and the fact that a New York based soap had no deli or Jewish characters seemed like an oversight. Although, if internet boards were around at the time, I'm sure many fans would have been up in arms that the deli diverted attention away from Ryan's Bar as it was reconstructed after a bomb. Heaven forbid! She was the titular Ryan of Ryan's Hope. What would they all have hoped for if she was killed off?

After some recent postings, I began to watch Mansion of the Damned, which interestingly started the day after my favorite scene ever of EON, when Raven gives Jamey to April and Draper on her way out of town. My recollection is how cruel Logan was to Raven. Even though his anger was justified at her neglect of Jamey, telling her that she was incapable of love always felt so final and mean. However, my attention drifted from the Mansion storyline back to the Winter Austin trial which happened earlier that year. By the way, it is remarkable how much story was told in 1979, first Winter's trial, then we got the Paige's trial, the Mansion of the Damned, and then Margo's murder. On Y&R that would be a decade worth of scripts. Any way, the reason for my post was to remark on how charming Logan could be during Winter's trial. I would encourage any soap fan to go to YT and watch April 30, 1979. The concerned citizens of Monticello are having lunch during a recess in the trial before Winter is going to take the stand. Cliff and Logan are at a diner . They are secretly slipped the tape of Winter at the crime scene. The dialogue between Logan, Cliff, and the waitress was golden. Cliff is the ADA and he is worried about Logan trying to usurp his authority on the case because of his connection to Winter. There is one anachronistic touch in that when Wade taped his "make out" session with a drugged Nicole and Winter, it is never referred to directly as sexual assault. However, one scene later, we see Mike, Nancy, and Draper eating together at a much classier establishment. Logan rushes in to try to warn Draper about the tape, but Cliff stops him, again their interplay was delightful. What struck me the most is that this should have been a filler episode with everyone having lunch during the trial recess, and using exposition to catch up the audience on the progress of the plot. However, with such a capable writer and actors, you can't help but become fascinated in all of the details of the scenes and their various interactions. The snappy reportage and the speed that they deliver lines makes it seem like a movie from the 1930s, but the content of their speech seems so contemporary, especially as they openly discuss porn. So good, 10/10 would recommend!

From a Washington Post article about Valley in 2005, when he returned to American University to complete his undergraduate degree. He noted that he left American for Julliard, and then booked Another World as his program ended and he needed money to fund his theater career. After a few years of bad choices and good, he felt "tired -- used." He asked for a hiatus, but the producer "was kind of nice about it" and offered to let him out of the show entirely. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2005/10/22/another-world-indeed/ca0f509b-e3dc-423c-9912-d739e00d0583/

I agree and disagree on this point. On the one hand, it would appear the there was a Nielson based research project published in 1974 that suggested that young people should be a target audience because they had less brand loyalty and were therefore more suggestive when it came to advertising. The immediate result was seen in CBS's historic "rural purge" where they cancelled older skewing shows like Green Acres in favor of the Norman Lear shows like All in the Family. However, in the 48 years since that study nobody has ever tried to replicate the finding. Grocery shopping has changed so much with the advent of big box stores and online shopping, that basing decisions on how people did their marketing in 1974 seems obsolete. Also, given how few young people today watch linear cable, promotional strategies have shifted to micro-audiences that consume certain types of media. On the other hand, I think that fans have over exaggerated the misuse of legendary characters. In fact, Don Hastings credited Goutman on his achievements in the final episodes in the NY TImes and Kathryn Hays said in EW, "We had been given six months warning, and our executive producer Chris Goutman absolutely insisted that we veterans drive story all the way to the end." So, while I can see that fans of Lisa would be disappointed about her ending, the same was not true of all legendary characters, nor was it the universal belief of the actors.

Whenever I read this theory I feel the need to squash this myth based on the excellent reporting by Alecia Swasy in her book Soap Opera:: The Inside Story of Proctor & Gamble. The P&G soap ratings had not changed significantly in years and most were still profitable at their cancellation. However, civil lawsuits based on faulty product science began creating huge losses for the company. Fans tend to personalize the decision because of our devotion to the shows. Yet the truth is that toxic shock from faulty tampons were much more of a concern for P&G than the production of television. We may think that the company is at fault for ignoring the wishes of fans, but what we should really be mad about is their willingness to foist products on to consumers when scientific testing was either ignored or subverted.