j swift

I was wondering WEHT to Sri Rao and according to IMDB, he has a deal with Netflix due to writing one of the highest rated shows in India last year.  So, good for him.

He also wrote a pilot for Kelly Ripa and the screenplay for a great book I am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell aka the taller one of the Beekman Boys.

4 minutes ago, Efulton said:

I’m pretty sure it was Wanda De Jesus (Santana)

She dates Jimmy Smits, so it tracks and the three-month part could have been hyperbole

5 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Ned shouldn't be the bad guy if he turns in people actually breaking the law.  A hypocrite?  Perhaps, but turning Drew/Carly in isn't inherently a bad act. 

Morally, Ned trying to save the jobs of hundreds of ELQ employees and thousands of ELQ investors by avoiding an SEC fine should be celebrated over the need to maintain a romantic relationship between a man with a computer chip in his head and his middle-aged girlfriend who has already been married five times.  And, Olivia, of all people, should recognize that fact. 

9 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Carly/Drew are the idiots and the people breaking the law.

And, to reiterate, even if they didn't intend to engage in insider trading, they consciously obstructed justice by hiding their relationship, and there is no defense for that fact.

1 minute ago, Khan said:

I don't understand why Ned is all in a huff about people believing he's the one who turned in Drew and Carly.  If I were Ned, I'd be more like, "Well, whether I turned them in or I didn't, Drew and Carly were idiots to think they could get away with keeping their relationship under wraps, so whatever happens to them, they had it coming!  Now, what's for lunch?"

As they say in Bangladesh, totes mcgoats (aka I agree)

GH has such a weird relationship with legal authority.  The spies are constantly trying to eschew their superiors in order to get illegal convictions.  The police commissioners from Burt Ramsey to Mac Scorpio are either corrupt or former eco-terrorists.  The rich constantly threaten to bribe judges to win custody of their children.  And, of course, the most eligible bachelor in town is a mobster who won't sell drugs, but once owned a strip club with teenage dancers.  As an audience, we're never supposed to root for people who value civil rights, just those who want justice for personal reasons.

Unless GH writers didn't bother to Google conservatorships AND obstruction, it feels like they've written themselves into a corner.

Around Thanksgiving, Ned had a conversation with Drew that his relationship with Carly would appear as if they were engaging in insider trading.  Then, Drew and Carly decided to hide their relationship in order to avoid the appearance of wrongdoing.  Multiple people know that they continued to engage in an intimate relationship while lying about it.  If all of those people testified, the SEC would be able to convict them both of obstructing justice. 

As an audience, we saw all of that happen, so it would be difficult to suddenly write themselves out of this conflict, regardless of blackmail or lover's quarrels.  Also, I fail to see how ELQ would be liable for any of this, given that Ned told them not to do it.

Going back to Martha, all she did was tell a friend that it was good to know people with information, then she erased that phone call from her diary, resulting in her conviction and a sentence of five months in prison.

We'll know that GH writers have no access to Google if Drew shows up in Pentonville with Cyrus rather than at a federal penitentiary. 

1 minute ago, carolineg said:

I think she was trying to be honest in her relationship? 

Isn't Sonny keeping his deal with Dex and the warehouse a secret from Nina?  Seems like a double standard...

You know how sometimes soap opera characters lie for no good reason?

It feels like Nina's compulsion to tell Sonny the truth is equally unmotivated.  Except for the fact that it is a soap, there is no way that Sonny would have found out the truth.  It's not like the SEC is going to tell Sonny.  She's not going to have to testify, because her evidence is purely hearsay.  And the only other person that knows is Ava.

So, why would she ever tell the truth when there are zero consequences to keeping it a secret?

Equally, why do Carly and Drew think that knowing who told the SEC will clear their names?  While there is some reasonable doubt about their intention to engage in insider trading, they obviously tried to cover it up, and Ned can testify to that fact.  As Martha Stewart will tell you, it is often the cover-up and not the crime that gets you in trouble (she was convicted of obstruction, not insider trading).  So, why focus on who reported them rather than establishing a reasonable defense?  It's not as if a court would care that Nina only called the SEC because she hates Carly, one assumes that is how they get most of their anonymous tips. 

I wonder why the script keeps specifically referring to Colin "poisoning" the biscuits, rather than "drugging" them.

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I think the rights issues and the Bill Cosby issues are a big factor.

Agreed.

While I think a contemporary drama set on a HBCU would be very interesting in 2023, I would also find it very distasteful to watch anything that could potentially fund Bill Cosby's legal defense. 

From Deadline -2019

In 2004, Carsey-Werner shut down its production operations. Carsey-Werner became a sales/distribution company, with Jim Kraus, President of Carsey-Werner TV Distribution, and his team, mining the company’s library for off-network sales in broadcast and cable syndication.

But two of the shows in the Carsey-Werner library have Bill Cosby's fingerprints all over them and raise ethical questions about whether it's appropriate to benefit the imprisoned star. Any deals for those shows would likely add to Cosby's wealth, ranging from a percentage of the rights fees to residuals for his acting work.  Earlier, Forbes estimated that Cosby earns $4 million per month from syndicated reruns of the show. He also composed the theme music for both sitcoms, which could add another revenue stream.   All six seasons of A Different World are currently part of Amazon's Prime Video catalog but the rights are up for renewal in 2020.

Also, I had forgotten about Grown-ish which Kenya Barris cited “A Different World” as an influence.

I'm slightly concerned for Nicole

Although it would be creative if this was the origin story of Nicole as the new Salem superhero, Iron Woman.

While I agree that Cindy's prison death seemed oddly convenient, her daughter's entire story was based on her mother's death.  And, given the lengths that Cindy went to kidnap Ian's other kids, we'll need a lot of exposition to explain why she wouldn't have been part of her daughter's life. 

Does all of this mean that Stephanie is two years older than Brady?

Dude's gotta lay off the sauce because it looks like he's got more than a decade on her.  Or, all of that fast race driving really snatched her face.

I'm not the only one that sees the resemblance, right?

If the door is left open for Gabi that would create an unfortunate effect on both Will and Ari because any future stories involving them in Salem will need to explain her absence.  For example, if they choose to SORAS Ari, they would need an exposition of Gabi's absence at every significant life event. 

Could they SORAS Ari without mentioning Gabi? Of course, they could. Would members of this board bring it up every time it happens? You bet your sweet bippy.

At least she got a prettier dress out of that wedding than the one with Herb

And, to be fair, there were enough press photos to suggest that JFP supported the promotion of the event (I know that I'll get dragged for the mere mention of supporting JFP, but as a producer, she had a say in the promotional budget).

Given that the Talia character rehab has already begun, I wonder with whom she'll be paired (given that she has no interest in a romantic relationship with Chanel).

I'd like to see her return to medicine and be paired with Tripp at the hospital.  A Wendy/Johnny/Tripp/Talia quad could be fun for summer.

Also, good to see that DAYS is getting its money's worth out of that rooftop/Marlena's deathbed set.  Maybe Tripp can move up there when he returns from Seattle?

56 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Tbh, Talia was completely unnecessary in all this.  Colin could have came to town and killed Paulina on his own.

Especially, given that Chanel bounced back from a six-month relationship with Allie pretty quickly, I don't believe that one roll in the hay would be heart-breaking

6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

If Colin was willing to kill Paulina, why not just start with that? 

Also, his hatred seems misguided.  Given that they think Chanel killed the Mother, and Paulina covered it up, why would they kill Paulina and just break Chanel's heart?

I had no idea that Dianna Christianson, the character played by Faye Dunaway in the film was based on NBC Daytime executive Lin Bolen.  Bolen is heavily featured in Harding Lemay's Eight Years in Another World because she pushed for the expansion to sixty-minute episodes.

There's this tidbit for the Washington Post about the first time Network was shown on TV:

"Even before CBS could schedule its showing of "Network," NBC began airing its answer to the film, a perfectly terrible series about a mythical fourth network. Trans Atlantic Broadcasting, called "W.E.B." The tidy irony here is that the program was created by producer Lin Bolen, who was said to have been (and who has said she thinks she was) the model for the Diana Christenson character played by Faye Dunaway in "Network." Bolen was formerly a programming executive at NBC.

Chayefsky has denied repeatedly that he based the character on Bolen or that, as was reported, he followed her around taking notes he did follow around such network news luminaries as John Chancellor(NBC). "I wouldn't know Lin Bolen if she were sitting here right now." Dunaway did meet Bolen, Chayefsky says, but that was after the script was written."

And she continued to deny the connection right up until her obituary in 2018

"Bolen worked for NBC in the 1970s and was responsible for commissioning the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune. She also is credited with bringing long-form narrative to soap operas, expanding them to hour-long formats.

It was long rumored that the ruthless Faye Dunaway character of Diana Christiansen in the 1976 satirical film Network was based on Bolen, something Bolen denied.

She was appointed VP of daytime programming at NBC in 1972, rising to become the VP of programming in Sept. 1975. NBC thrived under her leadership, becoming the No. 1 network in ratings."

It is understandable that Bolen would deny being the model for Diana because the character was described as soulless.  Also, spoiler alert, she conspires to murder a man due to low ratings (no wonder Pete Lemay quit as the audience began to wane -lol).

On 5/17/2023 at 7:06 PM, Soapsuds said:

I find Cathy and Joshua so dull. Cathy is just a dull version of CJ.  Joshua is an [!@#$%^&*].

I thought Joshua had a terrifying intensity that fascinated me at the time.  It seemed so contemporary to have this charismatic evangelical and his gospel-singing wife who eclipsed his fame (I doubt a network would dare to risk alienating its religious base today by telling a similar story).  Everyone around him is thinking about profits, but he is a manically true believer  I really enjoyed that plot, and I thought it was a creative and unique story for primetime.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Network and this plot reminded me of Faye Dunaway and Howard Beale dynamic. I really liked Abby's subtext throughout the story.  At first, she approaches Joshua like he's a rube that will be easy to manipulate, a mistake that she often made about the men in her life.  Then, she tries to bond with him as if they both know that all of his preachings are fraudulent.  And, finally, she comes to realize that he's nuts. 

I'm not an expert in the subject, but if we follow the timeline of Sweet Bits closure, Nicole's been pregnant for less than a month.  And she hasn't even missed her first period.  So, why is she experiencing morning sickness and taking prenatal vitamins?

And, how does Sloan recognize prenatal vitamins (it's not like that is the name on the prescription)?

A "no strike" clause is only in place during a contract period, meaning that SAG members cannot join the strike of other unions, but they can strike between contracts, which is what they voted to support.

I know Louis was lying on last night's RHoNJ because P.I.'s only exist in soap operas and DAYS Patch has been too busy in Greece to take on a new client.

Besides, what would an investigator be able to find about women who are public figures, on a TV show, that one couldn't glean from Google?