j swift

1. Certain unnamed podcasts created an unfounded idea that plots and pairings were personal, as if a single actress or writer could create a storyline without going through the vast infrastructure of production and network executives it takes to get a soap on air. Jokes about stealing a parking space became conjecture about disliking a costar being a reason for certain storylines. One is willing to bet that producers who have worked on multiple soap sets over the years don't care about the rumblings of some ingenue who can be replaced and forgotten within a few weeks. 2. It doesn't make you an "insider" when you speculate on how an actor's social media profile (that is probably managed by a PR source) effects their storyline. It just means that you are naive enough to believe everything you read without question. And 3., far too often we accept the exit interview of an actor who is mad about being fired as gospel. Actors are notoriously narcissistic, and just because their egos were bruised by their dismissal, doesn't make their rationalizations true.

Fans who don't accept new families for fear that they will "take over the show" helped kill many of the soaps creatively and allowed old men with single process dye jobs to play romantic heroes when they were far past their prime. A rigid adherence to history is not good for politics or imagination, and it turns away a new audience. Business storylines are usually only good when a female character is in charge and gets an awesome speech to show up her rivals (see GL's Alex at the country club scene). Male business rivals are often too aggressive and both become a-holes in the process (see GL's Billy & Kyle, or YR's Jack & Victor). Mystery storylines only work in the context of a romantic couple trying to solve the crime. The best mysteries are written to allow the fans to know the killer ahead of time, and anticipate their fall to justice, rather than alienating the audience by not allowing enough clues to play along with the solution (see any prior Ron C mystery). Ryan's Hope was totally overrated in its early years. The movie ripoffs of Jaws and King Kong coupled with long musical montages of Mary and Jack in Ireland gave it an inconsistent tone. And (much like Santa Barbara), it really didn't hit its creative peak until the creators were fired and new talent attempted to liven things up.

Inspired by the unpopular opinion thread - one critique that seems pretty common was that Erika Slezak's acting during the 1985 multiple personality story was melodramatic and over the top. For me, using a wig as a visual indicator of mental illness was the clue that the whole story would be bad. However, it always begged the question - Who bought the wig for Niki Smith? In the context of the story, one of the rules was that Viki and Niki were unaware of each other's actions. So, did Niki buy the wig after looking in the mirror and deciding she needed a new look? Or did Viki buy the wig on impulse, wanting to spice things up? Did Viki never see the wig, or the clothes, in her bedroom? Did Niki take off the the wig when she felt Viki taking over? Didn't Niki need a wig cap and clips, or did she just throw it on and hope for the best? Why did Niki choose a wig the same color as Viki's natural hair? The wig just appeared without explanation, but it has bothered me ever since. To be fair, once OLTL did a little more consultation and started using the updated term DID (disassociative identity disorder), the storyline was still nothing close to reality during the Jess/Tess saga. But, at least they ditched the wig.

Did everyone know that Chris Goutman wrote an Edge of Night book in 2020 and just didn't tell me? https://smile.amazon.com/Edge-Night-C-P-Goutman/dp/B08HGTT29J/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=The+Edge+of+Night&qid=1632762004&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-8 NYPD Detective David McIntire never thought he'd see his fiancé again after she left him five years ago. When the two reunite she is no longer Mary Burr but Sister Mary Catherine, a Catholic nun. Despite his resistance, she enlists him to investigate the death of her brother, who reportedly committed suicide while doing missionary work in Argentina. As they work together to uncover the truth, what they find pits them against one of New York’s oldest and most powerful families, the Whitneys, whose patriarch will do anything to protect his and the Church’s secrets. Always meeting at the edge of night in the catacombs beneath the parish church, they discover that the strange underground labyrinth possesses the key to unlock the mystery and bring the Whitney empire crashing down with it. Edge of Night is a high-adrenaline suspense thriller that travels across continents and a hundred years into the past, proving in the end that the corridors of power are no match for the enduring strength of love.

From Jacob Young (JR - AMC) to Kim Zimmer (Reva - GL) an actor shouldn't need to shave their head to get the audience's sympathy for a cancer storyline when adequate acting would suffice.

Circling back to an earlier question, while Johnny has been reading Will's script, he hasn't needed glasses or any help for his glass eye? Has anyone even mentioned it? Is Stephen Nichols pissed that they don't make him wear a patch?

I would add that the power differential has changed between Sonny and Carly as the role has been recast. Brown's Carly usually seemed insecure that she was Sonny's second choice after Brenda. It felt as if she was chasing Sonny to try to get him to commit to her. Brown's Carly came to Port Charles yearning for a connection after the difficulty of learning that she was adopted. From Bobby to Sonny, her motives were always written as if she wanted to hurt others as a defense against the constant fear that they might abandon her. This fit well with the manic energy that Brown brings to most of her acting parts, she always seems on the edge of breaking apart. Whereas Wright's Carly has been pursued by other men and is no longer burdened by an insecure relationship with Sonny, because they share the bond of children together. And no matter who else they date, marry, or have children with, having Michael as their oldest child, and experiencing the trauma of his childhood, as well as loosing Morgan, has created a lasting bond that Carly never needs to doubt. Which fit well with Wright's cooler energy.

I think the status and power issue was present regardless of the actress. Mindy was the child of her business enemy Billy, as well as the step-daughter of her romantic rival Vanessa. And, as noted, Alex was sophisticated enough to know not to blame the mistress when a husband strays. It would be like Roger Thorpe going after Ben Reade or Josh Lewis getting into a beef with A.J. Chamberlain, it would have been beneath them and broken the inter-generational code of civility on soaps.

It is always annoying to me when writers forget the initial specialization of characters. For example, Lucy Coe became so silly and dumb, but started out as a university law librarian. At the very least she should have known that Ian Thorndike was cribbing the works of Irish poets. Similarly, Carly went through the nursing training at GH as a physical therapist, but you'd never know it when she is either in an emergency medical situation or creating a spa for her hotels.

I was thinking about alternative replacements for Beverlee McKinsey as Alexandra Spaulding on Guiding Light. While I agree with the theory that the writing for Marj Dusay was more problematic than the performance, here are some ladies that could have played that part. 1. Dina Merrill - a Hitchcock blond - her own history as the heiress to the EF Hutton/Marjorie Maryweather Post fortune makes her a perfect fit, and by the 90s she was mostly doing daytime celebrity game shows. 2. Louise Shaffer - played iconic business women in soaps, seems like a smart fit for Alex once she became interim CEO of Spaulding 3. Carole Shelby - she pinched hit as a replacement for Beverlee when she played Iris on AW, so she was familiar with understudying a role in daytime 4. Sharon Acker - played Judith on Texas, and was an Iris prototype after Beverly left the show

If Ryan's Hope had been more of a mystery-based soap then there may have been more story opportunities for two crime reporters like Jack and Mary, but that wasn't Labine/Mayer's forte. But, she couldn't move away given that Jack's bonding with baby Ryan was such a huge story point for the character that he never would have let them move to another city without him. Some might say that Baby Ryan was the titular force of Ryan's Hope, so she and her mother couldn't leave. Mary was related to most of the other leading men and nobody needed more sisterly romantic triangles after Jill and Faith. They certainly chem-tested Jack and Siobhan, but I found their fraternal relationship to be refreshing, and I enjoyed many of Jack's other romances like Leigh. Also, Joe and Siobhan had sizzling chemistry. Also, I would argue that killing Mary let the audience know that the stakes were high when dealing with the New York city mob because they were willing to take out a major character. If the mob only killed day players, their threat to the livelihoods of those in Riverside would not have seemed so real.

I watched the latest documentary and it got me speculating about the mental heath of her father, Jamie. His motivations are so suspicious. Although he clearly has lived off of the income of being her conservator, he doesn't appear to be solely driven by a need for money because (1) he lives a pretty simple life without a lot of luxuries, (2) he probably would have still made money by serving other roles like Britney's Mom, and (3) if he only wanted the cash, he was sure using a lot of it on surveillance and security. The surveillance was so over the top that it makes me question if Jamie is paranoid. I mean who needs Britney's daily texts and video throughout her house? It is reasonable that any parent would be worried about a child who was so emotionally fragile as Britney. However, his extreme response made me ponder his sanity. We know that there are genetic factors in mental illnesses such as psychosis and bipolar disorder. Jamie's mother committed suicide when he was young and we know he has had dependency issues with drugs and alcohol. So, I wonder if Jamie's own mental illness was partially to blame for how long the conservatorship lasted?

To be fair, and I know this isn't the AW thread, but, the Lumina Ball in 1998, saw an increase in ratings from the same period in 1997, and the resolution also saw an increase in ratings year over year. Year to year, 23% more people watched in the final week of May 1999. I think we often conflate critical success with ratings success, and the Lumina story was given enough publicity that more people watched it, regardless of the quality of the story. 1997 (source AWHP) October 27-31: 2.2 1998 (source AWHP) October 26-30: 2.4 - Lumina Ball May 1998 25-29: 1.9 May 31- June 4 1998: 2.5 - Lumina blown up

At the risk of stating an unpopular opinion, what would future conflicts be for Mary once she had reunited with Jack? Certainly I would not have wanted to see them struggle through ten more years of marital conflict. And Siobhan had taken up the rein of mob destroyer. So, while it may have been a function of difficulties with re-casting, I cannot imagine a story for Mary that wasn't redundant for Jill, Siobhan, or Faith. Thus, by the time the character was killed off there may have been many causes, including the fact that Ryan's Hope was top heavy with too female leads, and I would not have sacrificed any other character for a third recast of Mary.

As memory serves, (with a little help from Google), Henry and Brandon created Spaulding Enterprises primarily as an oil company in Chicago, with the help of Jenna Bradshaw's father Clyde Wynant. Alan came to Springfield to start Spaulding Electronics, then when Brandon "died" in 1979, the electronics division was folded into Spaulding Enterprises as a whole. When Alex returned she had a clear vendetta against Alan for helping Brandon give away baby Lujack (ne Brandon). She exposed Alan's deal with Beth's abusive father Bradley as a means of alienating Alan from his son. Then, when Alan "died", Ross took over as CEO of Spaulding until Phillip and Lujack were ready. My point being that Alex was not originally interested in working at Spaulding. She came to Springfield with a lot of money from her divorce from India's father. She just wanted to use the business as a means of revenge against her brother. And it was lack of experience in management that Roger exploited and caused her a lot of shame, both personally and professionally.

So much fun. I have to mention a few scenes that were made for the visual medium of TV rather than reality. 1. When Culhane came to thank Blake and then Cristal's plan was exposed. Why Culhane would drive all the way to the manor to have that discussion, rather than just texting Blake? 2. The fake background when Liam and Fallon were at the valet stand of La Mirage? It is 2021, at least do a green screen. 3. Kirby flipping through a copy of her father's diary. Did she really go to Kinkos when she could have just taken a photo with her phone using the Notes app? 4. Crazy Eva has made a photo album using cut out pictures of her and Liam? The girl worked for a tech company, doesn't she know how to make a digital Photoshop album? All that being said, the visual of Dom in Jeff's room with the manic notes covering was super creepy and effective.

Loved that movie, and the play. Isn't it amusing that Will Smith's whole story about making a movie of Cats wound up being so close to the truth?

I never bought the Alex/Mindy rivalry as played by either Beverlee or Marj. Yes, Alexandra was humiliated by Roger's affair, as well as his business fraud, but I doubt that Alex would personally blame Mindy. Mindy was too low in status and power for Alex to care about. She was clearly a pawn, and a mature woman like Alex would have understood that fact. Alex wound up spending far too much effort in trying to punish Mindy, and in my opinion, it was beneath her. I mean when Alan cheated on his wife, Elizabeth didn't get into a rivalry with Diane, she blamed Alan, because she was a smart and sophisticated woman. That's why I don't buy Alex caring that much about Mindy that she would waste years scheming to retaliate. To me the interesting beat that got overlooked in that story is the idea that Roger was able to con Alex due to her naivete about business. When Alexandra was introduced she had no interest in working for a living, and certainly she didn't care about a business that Alan created, but was not her family's legacy (a fact that was often forgotten by later writers). However, I think it would have been an intriguing idea if Roger's scheme motivated Alex to learn more about business so that she would never be conned again.

To my memory, Nancy Sorel was the weakest link in that chain. Her style (80s helmet hair and oversized blazers) and demeanor made her seem much older than Sam or Adam. I always forgot that she was Laura's daughter, rather than her sister, because she acted so mature.

When I think of Marlena, or Erica on Days, Felicia on AW, or any leading female character who never gave birth on screen until later in their run, I am always reminded of this famous piece of pop art by Lichtenstein Because later they all had long lost kids climbing out of the woodwork.

Karen and Victoria were close friends and shared many scenes, including the infamous courthouse scene where Karen confessed her career as a lady of the night. Meanwhile, Larry was like the Perils of Pauline, rather than using him for medical stories, he was always being kidnapped or having chips implanted in his brain. He was paired with women who had been victimized, but he always wound up getting literally hurt by his romances. After Meredith, Larry was the perennial third wheel in every love triangle and was always portrayed as the conciliation prize for most of his girlfriends, which did not make him a very likable character. Until his avuncular relationship with Marty, I always felt like Larry was too much of a nerd to be a leading man and I didn't notice that he was missing until it was pointed out by SOD.

As much as I disagree to the objections around Ben as a romantic hero (because soaps are based on the idea of people being reformed by love), I think the idea that they are already trying to spawn is ridiculous. Ciara has been recovering from a brain injury for months, and before that Ben was recovering from being kidnapped and shot. Maybe they should wait a week or two to establish careers and live as newlyweds before they bring a baby into the picture? I mean has Ciara ever held a full time position or finished her education? And while I buy the reformation of Ben, formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of 27 percent (3x's more than the rest of the population) , according to research by the Prison Policy Institute, so why not play that as a more realistic source of conflict for the couple?

From being de-aged, to finding a long lost half-sister that didn't fit with her established backstory, to the relationship with Geraldine, it felt like Nicole became a different character during her relationship with Miles. The thing with Geraldine is hard to explain, but early Nicole was mature, whereas the Nicole that worked for Geraldine at the TV station felt in need of mentoring and advice. Maeve's Nicole was more like a contemporary of Nancy and Geraldine in terms of status and power, whereas Jayne's felt less evolved; more similar to April or Chris Egan. I remember reading one of the novelizations, and they characterized early Nicole as a bit of a spoiled princess, dependent on her father's wealth, who grew into a more liberated woman through her romance with Adam and their adventures in bringing the mob to justice. As far as I recall, none of those early qualities, nor the cool sophistication that Maeve brought to most of her characters, were present in the character as portrayed by Jayne. I didn't dislike Jayne, and her Nicole was around for most of the period that I watched the show every day after school, but it always stuck with me after reading Soap World and the novelizations that she was more like a version of Nicole's younger sister than being the original Nicole as portrayed by Maeve.

Within the past year or so someone posted a scene between Reva and Alexandra (then played by Beverlee). It was a brilliantly written exchange where Reva was talking about her difficult relationship with her long lost son Dylan, and Alexandra was able to provide insight given her experience with finding her long lost son Lujack. It was just two women, on a sofa, discussing a topic that should have been absurd, (I mean how many friends both have long lost rebellious sons?) but it was played so well that it became memorable. I believe that even as soap fans we have only a certain tolerance for the farfetched. So, once Nick McHenry came to Springfield, and now Alexandra had miraculously found the twin of her long lost son, the character crossed a line for me. As much as I enjoyed the idea of Mindy being Alexandra's enemy after her affair with Roger, and how that was a perfect setup for conflict in establishing a relationship with Nick, the idea of a long lost twin was just too silly. For as ridiculous as the story of Eterna was on One Life to Live, at least it created a viable explanation for how a woman could forget giving birth to a child. Since then, no soap has been able to find a reasonable solution for women who had long lost kids. It is easy for a man to have a long lost kid, because one can always say that the baby was hidden from view by the mother. But, even before digital prenatal care, women knew that they were pregnant, and very few were surprised by multiple pregnancies. There have always been female characters who never had a child on screen, but when a future generation was needed for storyline purposes, stepchildren like India, or a favorite nephew like Alan-Michael served that purpose. However, I think it makes a female character look stupid when they suddenly realize that they gave birth to a twin without knowing it. I think Alexandra was done irreparable damage for the purpose of a plot driven story, and from there the rules that defined her as a character went out the window. Allowing her to become a shrieking, blackmailing, kidnapping, extortionist shrew.

I'm torn whether or not I want episodes with these women interacting, (because it would seem so artificial), versus a BTS show on how their lives were effected by fame, stories about filming, and how they felt about being fired. Putting random middle-aged women together for the sole purpose of watching them fight or form alliances feels very VH1 circa 2004.