j swift

This intrigued me because I recalled Brenda leaving after the Michael Grande murder trial. She was involved with Larry, then had an affair with Dan (his son). Michael Grande wanted to be close to her baby, who had been switched by Gabrielle and Tina, and the baby was later reunited with Brenda. Michael got rid of Dan through a fake malpractice suit, and then married and drugged Brenda. Here's soap central synopsis of Brenda's exit Dan figured out that Michael had been drugging Brenda all along and rushed to Michael's home, where he found Brenda unconscious in the foyer. Michael was murdered by someone else who had an axe to grind against him (Roger Gordan, Megan's dad), and Brenda was free to move on with her life. She took Steven and moved away, bidding Dan goodbye in April 1991. Although that doesn't match the Classic OLTL SOD synopsis from Tumblr On April 30, 1991 - contemporaneous with Gabrielle's exit after being threatened by Carlo Hesser and rejected by Max Then from May 14, 1991 But then on May 28, 1991, Larry's back from Hawaii with no mention of Brenda So, I have no idea how/when she left.. What I didn't recall was that Brenda had a brother Tyler who was initially involved with Andi Harrison when they moved to Llandview, but was later killed off the same year. Brenda, Gabrielle, and Tina were all artifacts of the end of the Paul Rauch era that didn't make the transition to the Malone/Gottlieb era.

Ok, I think we can agree that the Daytime Emmys have always been a bit wanky. At this point, including the mid-1980s, they have not been broadcast as often as they have aired on TV. The nominations and voting are notoriously suspect, and more people probably viewed this forum's best and worst lists than watched the show when it was on The CW. There is zero evidence that it effects ratings and it is consistently the most low rent red carpet in celebrity magazines. This year's eye roll moment came from Tam'ron Hall who submitted as "informative talk show" and "informative talk show host" in an effort to get a nomination against most of her competition who submitted as "entertainment talk show" and "entertainment talk show host". I defy anyone to report what "information" they've gleaned from Ms. Hall's talk show, which has included her mother as guest on multiple occasions. I look forward to next year when Wendy Williams (who sadly lost out to a show about eating hot sauce) submits for "outstanding culinary host" in order to gain a nomination.

Do we need to find a new term for the immature 40 year old's in Salem? Perhaps we could call it SOSEPAS (soap opera sluggish emotional & physical aging syndrome)? Why doesn't DAYS allow Sami, Nicole, Ava, Lucas, Shawn, Belle, and Brady to act like they're middle aged? Most of them have kids in their 20s. Shouldn't they be concerned about not having to live with their parents, settling down, or saving for retirement? Shouldn't Nicole or Sami lament their inability to maintain a stable relationship this late in life? Shouldn't Brady and Lucas worry about their virility given the age of their partners? Does even one Dimera dismay at the dwindling generational fortunes brought on by multiple divorces (Stefano had a lot of kids, but never owed this much child support)? I was watching a scene from 2008 (the Sami/Nicole baby switch), 13 years ago, and the character have not matured at all. Marlena, John, and Maggie were allowed to age gracefully. In comparison, this generation of characters who peaked at their prom, seem stunted. And don't get me started on those single shade dye jobs to cover the guy's grey hair.

I appreciate that they are going to talk about Robyn's depression. Her symptoms of lethargy and anhendonia have been present in prior seasons but never addressed. RHOP lacks a sense of place. OC, NYC, BH, and Atlanta have personality as a geographical place, but Potomac remains a mystery. It is a suburb of DC, but only Wendy seems involved in politics, and they rarely enter the beltway. It lacks the small town gossip aura of Cota De Caza in OC, where everyone would be expected to know each other's business. And it doesn't have the aspirational aspects of BH (despite it being a very wealthy community) because Robyn, Candiace, and Ashley all live middle class existences. I'm also not looking forward to a new housewife because there is so little history between the existing women, that the addition rarely has much impact on their relationships.

I wonder if the sudden onset of EJ's exit story as a drug dealer, coupled with the later retcon of his demise, leads to the idea of DAYS being caught off guard by Mr. Scott's decision to quit? Certainly, Sami's exit felt more planned, due to the groundwork which had been laid for weeks prior to her exit, and Gabi was in place as a suitable replicate as the romantic, yet somewhat morally corrupt, heroine.

I forgot how much the bar set shrunk after the bombing. The end of the bar almost reaches the door. It feels as if they played with the depth of that set a bit over the years because in the final episode when Maeve sings Danny Boy, I recall more of an entrance corridor and more room between the bar and the back window. Here it is 1976 (compare it to the prior clip) It is also always amusing to me that, (like Roger in this episode), nobody on a soap set can hear what is happening two feet away, unless they are obviously snooping on someone else.

I think DAYS has actually done a good job at setting up the canvas for EJ's return. Obviously, he'll be a spanner in the Lucas/Sami relationship, but this time there is enough fan support for the reunion of those two characters that it makes that a viable triangle. Also, we have former lovers Nicole and Kate being single. Nicole tends to wallow as a character without a love interest, and Eric has been gone for nearly a year, so she needed something to do. BTW does anyone in Salem recall that Rafe and Kate dated? The emergence of Jake and Brady in business sets up some interesting story potential for EJ. The recent Susan shenanigans, and her subsequent exit, means that DAYS won't need to deal with EJ's odd origin story. Also, given Clyde's part in EJ's exit, it sets up some story potential for Ben, aside from Ciara. SO, while he could have been a number of other characters, strategically, this seems like the correct time for EJ to return. I just hope he isn't wearing a mask.

I think we need to differentiate between dropped and unresolved storylines. Deveney on B&B was really neither. It was an unusual story because it was so time limited and it had a distinct beginning, middle and end. Stephanie began making mysterious phone calls, it is established that she was conned into believing that Angela Forrester was alive, there's an accident, and the doctor and Deveney were apparently dead. Then, Deveney returned, vowed revenge on the Forrester brothers using the knowledge of the real unresolved story; Thorne's shooting of Ridge. However, before she can reveal her plan at the Queen Mary fashion show, Thorne befriends Deveney, offers to pay for her plastic surgery, and she leaves to go get reconstructed. Thus, it wasn't really dropped, and there was no need to revisit it, it just ended. As far as unresolved stories, I would say that Passions was the guiltiest of the genre. Why did Chad's adoptive parents disappear? Why did Antonio abandon his siblings? Whatever happened to the guy who Ivy paid to say was Grace's first husband (and his son)? These were all plots with no resolution but they were not dropped in the same way that Mitch's brother on OLTL suddenly disappeared without a mention.

So, I still like it and I am willing to follow along but I have a few nitpics. The primary issue may be true of soaps in general. From Fallon's agoraphobia, to Alexis's faux cousin, and Blake's pursuit of Krystal, the character's motives are so obviously telegraphed to the audience that the others in the scenes just seem dumb. How could Liam not tell that Fallon wasn't going on their honeymoon the second time she made an excuse to stay home? He's written a book analyzing Fallon, so why would he suddenly be so oblivious? Why would Jeff need face tracking software to tell that the cousin was lying when he was such a bad actor? All of these scenes were amusing, but it was at the expense of the characters seeming to be too stupid to survive. That being said, I enjoyed the psychological exploration of character motives. OG Fallon's "breakdown" at her wedding to Jeff was so over the top and hysterical that one could never develop empathy for the character. But, new Fallon has routing value because she seems more grounded. The pace is also remarkable. The entire cliffhanger was resolved before the first commercial. And it was all done through exposition, we never saw Evan being arrested, there was no doctor attending to Kirby, and it seemed like there wasn't enough time for Blake to get an MRI. Adam just stood there and told us what happened; which was not very satisfying. Finally, and once again, I am going to call BS on the whole diamond thing. While the name AC/DC is cute, why wouldn't she call herself Alexis Colby? It still fits. Is the diamond mine really going to be right next to the pool? Because wouldn't they have found something while digging the pool originally? And why does it seem like each season there is a new company (the soccer team, the publishing firm, etc..), rather than just focusing on Atlantic Carrington? Any hoo, see you next week, when Jeff will probably leave the mansion within the first twelve minutes...

This part of the plan amuses me in retrospect. I am willing to suspend disbelief that this was the plan of a 17 year old girl and her boyfriend, who had no prior scam experience. However, was Victoria expecting to be handed a large lottery style check? I think some ID, beyond wearing a similar wig, would be required for most bank transactions.

I admired Dominique's ability to wiggle even while standing still and discussing mineral rights. Although, somebody needs to work on that lacefront, in 4k you could see her widowspeak and her hairline did not match. I also thought the mineral rights thing was very Dallas. No matter the size of the Carrington Manor, one doubts the neighbors in Buckhead would allow drilling. Which is how I predict Blake will rescue the house. Alexis will overspend on excavation and be forced to sell it back to Blake. They are doing an awful job of hiding Cristal's pregnancy. However, given that the actress will likely need maternity leave, it made me wonder if she'll get killed off? That feathered barrette certainly didn't do her any favors. I was certain that when Culhane attended the wedding in the high school that was when he would be killed off, but it looks like he survived another episode, while only being given two lines of dialogue. I'm guessing the next episode will rule out Evan as the potential killer of whomever is in the casket. The costumes are once again remarkable. Jeff and Alexis wore Versace to the wedding, Kirby's dress was lovely, and Sam's tux was enviable. Also, Lachlan Buchanan's hood, under his jacket, was so perfectly placed it could only have been put there by a costumer. Anytime I try to layer I look like I am wearing a straight jacket while being strangled by my own hood. The cliffhanger was not as engaging. As @te. noted it is unlikely that Blake's wounds were fatal, and Kirby will have to exonerate Adam (especially because Evan left his handprint at the crime scene). Those lighting rigs with the theatrically large switches seem to only be found on TV. Why do Sam and Liam write everything in little notebooks rather than just use their phones? And how was Fallon's ankle magically healed by the time she was taken hostage? That being said, Elizabeth Gilles continues to amaze me. Her singing and comedy were on point. I love a character who wakes up in full eye makeup and she is truly the highlight of the whole series.

@Soaplover I'm left with some nagging questions to resolve. (1) Why did Andy and Jake have the last name of Harrison, if Max and Steve's last name was Holden (I'm guessing they shared the same mother, while Steve and Max shared a father)? Were all of the parents dead, or did any of them appear in Llandview? (2) Was the issue of Max being the son of Asa and Renee ever discussed while one of his siblings was in town? (3) Did both Steve Holden and Drew Ralston die in wedding cake related bomb incidents? (4) Was Al named after Gabrielle's father?

I recall enjoying Andy, even though it meant retconning more siblings for Max Holden. It has been a long held pet peeve of my that writers defy logic by having characters come to a new town, then years later their long lost relatives happen to appear in the same small town, despite the fact that their family has no established roots in that city. Max lived in Argentina for years, why would his half-siblings from Texas try to find him in Llandview? That being said, Andy was an ingenue for her times. She was very late 90's in her aesthetic and character. The kind of girl who didn't care for fashion, but had a meticulously curated thrift store closet. Every plot was about her desire to be treated equally based on gender norms, and yet she was always in need of being saved by Antonio or Max. The recast didn't do the character any favors. I guess by that time it would have been implausible for Max to have three long lost siblings. However, not only her looks, but her whole characterization seemed to change with the new actress. Then, when Antonio returned she was totally thrown under the bus as having a marriage ending affair off screen.

Admittedly I didn't watch the final two seasons, nor do I remember them with any detail. However, I was watching clips and it made me wonder about Alexis's housing during the series. I know she started living in her art studio on the grounds of the Carrington estate because it had been gifted to her by Blake. Then, (after she married Cecil?) she moved to her highrise apartment (penthouse?). I recognize the establishing shot as a condo building on Wilshire in Los Angeles. Finally, she appears to have moved into the hotel she owned. Here's my question - was that hotel the refurbished La Mirage or a different hotel? Did something happen to her penthouse that caused her to move? When she took over Blake's house after buying his loans, followed by Blake choking her on the stairs, how long did she live in the Manor? art studio her penthouse throwing blake/crystal out of the mansion

Reading 1992, I forgot about Michael and Rachel's brief dalliance. Now that would have been a fun foursome later with Donna & Matthew and Rachel & Michael sparring and interacting.

From today's LA Times which seems to contradict Page Six https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-05-13/what-the-end-of-ellen-says-about-the-changing-tv-business Several TV executives familiar with the matter said Telepictures has no plans to hold onto its “Ellen” time periods with a new show this time around, even though it was well-known inside the company that DeGeneres intended to leave at the end of her three-year contract. It's a very end-of-an era analysis which reminds me of when Passions went off of NBC and there was no soap scheduled to replace it.

I think there are a variety of "missed opportunities" when it came to John Hudson as a character. First, despite the build up there was really not a lot of animosity between John and Michael. I cannot think of a memorable fight, there was no backstory to support a rivalry, and they never seemed to differ on moral or ethical issues. Second, it was odd that Michael had three long lost children, (Marly, Vicky, and Nick) while John had none. A recently arrived older kid for John would have made more sense given that he was missing for so many years. By the time Michael found out about Nick it seemed suspicious that two different women had kept Michael from raising his children. Nick was never my favorite retcon to begin with, but he seemed like a better fit for John than for Michael. When we first met Michael he was a famous entrepreneur, so the backstory of Nick didn't make sense. Also, his character struggles with volatility and fidelity seemed more like John than Michael. Finally, there was the thing that is always an issue for me with soap characters, a question of age. Was he the same age as Jamey? Because they shared romantic partners. Or was he older because Jamey was only slightly older that Vicky and Jake? He was a war vet which seems to make him much older, but it couldn't have been Vietnam because the twins were born after fall of Saigon? I am a stickler for ages of characters on soaps but the ages rarely stand to reason.

https://www.passionspodcast.com/ Very amusing recap of Passions from the beginning. A nice balance between appreciating the genre and making fun of the absurdity of this show in particular.

I understand why it feels this way, but here's an interesting tidbit from the same article about Ms. Lazar's firing For better or for worse, it is a reminder that Cruz and Eden emerged out of audience support. It is further evidence that whatever the original plans/bible were for SB were re-written and re-thought. Which may be why re-watching the first year feels like a mess, with tangents, huge events with no consequences, and dropped storylines all over the place.

Recently someone posted scenes from Kelli Maroney's turn as Tina prior to Andrea's 1984 return to role which I'm sure are searchable. Of course, Kelli turned out to be a poor fit for the role. However, your musing about Tina being present for the darker phases of the plot reminded me of those scenes. When Kelly/Tina first returned it was explained that she was working on an advanced business/marketing degree at UCLA during her time in Los Angeles. Bo noted that Asa was keen to make Tina his right-hand-man because Chuck had recently left the company. Obviously, that entire thread was dropped, but imagine if Tina hadn't become comic fodder and was a real intellectual threat to Blair and Todd, that could have been great.

It's just so fun to feel the suspense about a soap again that I am going to ride the wave and try avoid spoilers

My reasoning for Culhane was that we didn't see any of the rest of the family, and surely they would attend the funeral of either Jeff or Steven...

It is undoubtedly less, because current budgets also have to account for licensing fees to Sony. By contrast, NBC paid New World to license SB at 30% of the rate that Sony gets today. So, the networks used to make more money through ad revenue then they do today because (just as a gross example) they used have a 30/70 split with New World (in NBC's favor because of the relative demand for distribution), versus a 60/40 split in Sony's favor today, because growing means of distribution through streaming has reduced the power of the networks. Last year's Dateline articles about the DAYS renewal cited the licensing fee as one of the largest budgetary items for the production, and Sony's willingness not to seek an increased fee was one of the main reasons it got renewed. Sony has very little risk because they get 100% of the money they spend on production back, up front, from NBC. The licensing fee is on top of the production fee. Whereas NBC has to depend on the market value of ad sales to cover the expenses paid to Sony and try to make a profit. So, Sony gets the first dollar, and everything else has to pay for actors, lighting, sets etc. The cost of labor goes up every year, but NBC is only willing to pay a certain number to Sony. So, DAYS has to produce the show for less money each year to account for how much Sony takes upfront. Note: they didn't reduce the fee, despite NBC taking in less ad revenue during a downturn in the economy, they were just willing not to increase the fee in a year when Sony booked $600 million in profits from TV production alone, not counting movie and video gaming revenue.

Evan was the guy touring the flooded church with the wedding planner (who conveniently told the whole event strategy of a "gold package" wedding to a stranger she had never met before) at the end of the season premiere? It is total soap logic that Fallon, daughter of Alexis, would trust superstition over sabotage as the cause of events.

At risk of repeating myself, I just ran some numbers on the cancelled soap thread that were interesting. Santa Barbara debuted with an estimated production cost of $30 million for the 110 episodes produced in 1984 (it debuted in August). Which is the equivalent of $76 million in 2021 with inflation. DAYS entire production budget for 2020 was $26 million, meaning that they tried to produce almost 188 shows at 1/3 of the cost of SB in its first year (equal to how much SB spent only on sets). It is no wonder it is so dark in Horton Square, they can only afford to put on 33% of the lights.