j swift

I watched the Dancing Queens premiere.

1. I wonder if it is a Canadian production given that half of the cast lives up north.
2. I hate it when a reality show cast member always talks about how busy they are.  People who are actually busy have no time to pursue fame on a TV show.  And people who are really perfectionists wouldn't want to be on a messy reality show.
3. It was cute, but not appointment TV for me.

Today's cliffhanger was intriguing.

It is funny how much better the overall quality of the lighting, sets, and even writing is when they are outside of Salem.  Which begs the question - How big is that boat, and why are they always chopping fish?  And why is there no time difference between Salem and Greece?

Kate and Steve make Paulina and Abe seem like they are acting in a community theater production of DAYS.

Also, not to speak ill of the dead, but Victor's an SoB for talking to Shawn like that.

1 hour ago, Gray Bunny said:

From what I understand, Luann and Kelly have remained friends over the years, not just for TV appearances. 

Most housewives regress to high school when they start filming.  I predict when Luann sees that Ramona and Sonja are acing Kelly out, she'll join with them, just to be a part of their coalition.  Bethanny's attacks on Luann were usually based on the idea that her relationships were superficial.  So, it stands to reason that she'll toss Kelly aside with the understanding that they'll become cordial again when they return to Manhattan. 

I'm really wishing for a Kelly photo shoot with Kristen, a la her time with Alex (fast, fast, slow, slower...) so funny.

Also, amused that this headline from Page 6 didn't age well, two days later

And, poor Dorinda still on pause...

The pilot always made me think that all of the good stuff happened off-screen.

I would have preferred a flashback to Sophia's drowning followed by the first months telling the story of the summer that lead to Channing's murder.  In that scenario, we could watch Peter's double life as a teacher and gigolo (hired by Augusta).  The beginnings of Joe and Kelly's romance.  Channing's gay love life and his affair with Santana.  Gina adopts baby Brandon and lives as a sugar baby. The adventures of Channing and Warren to find the coins.  Culminating in Channing's party where Lionel returns to town, Channing plans his revenge, and Sophia sneaks back in disguise.  Then, Channing is murdered, Eden returns to help investigate, and falls in love with Cruz. 

To me, Channing was such a black canvas.  Eden and Mason envied him.  Santana was his beard and had his child.  His presence was felt so deeply, that it would have been nice to get to know him a bit.

It held up well enough for them to re-use many of the best quotes in the re-boot, plus they "fixed" a lot of the anachronistic stuff

That's some Shakespearian stuff right there

Poor Kristen, nobody on that cast likes her and Ramona will probably form a coalition with Luann and Sonja.  Meanwhile, nobody likes Kelly, but at least she won't notice.

I think The Colby's lacked the foresight that Dynasty's popularity was waning and they needed a fresh approach; rather than leaning into more glamour and old bitches.

I would have played off of the idea of the pipeline deal that introduced the crossover with Dynasty and made ColbyCo West control the method of oil production thus creating conflict with Alexis and Dex down the road; if needed.  Then, I would've shifted the focus from Sable, Connie, and Jason to Bliss, Monica, and Miles by casting stronger actors and giving them more LA-based stories like Melrose Place. 

The pilot would end with an amnesiac Fallon standing next to a dead Jason, setting up a "Who Killed Jason?" mystery. The competition for the inheritance would now have more gravitas.  Bliss is an eco-warrior whose friends oppose Jason's pipeline, and she wants to shift ColbyCo to be more eco-friendly.  Monica is a talented executive with an eating disorder who is mad about all of the attention Miles gets from her parents, especially because she is better at negotiation.  And, Miles is a get-rich-quick kid investing his inheritance in hip-hop fashion and vitamin supplement pyramid schemes.  Jeff would still be an executive at Colby-Colorado, setting up a competition between the two companies.  Sable is pulling the strings, adapting to being single, and aging in LA while fighting with Connie for control.  And there's no need to focus on the nauseating aspects of Jason's love life.

Get rid of the Nolan Miller designs and give them a more youth-oriented look.  Get rid of the orchestral theme and give them more synth in the score.  Loosen up the hair and makeup, and make the lighting more natural.  And make it respond more to the times.  So the marketing focuses on the fact that this is Dynasty for the younger audience.  Which, to be fair, was the idea for the Dynasty re-boot.

And, of course, that's why 90210 and Melrose Place were on Fox

It is funny to think that Susan Seaforth Hayes was really only on her initial contract from 1968 to 1984, so I could see why her episode count would be so much lower.

The New York Times review of Finder of Lost Loves is predictably harsh (but amusing)

Also working in the office are Rita (Anne Jeffries), the trusted manager, and Brian (Richard Kantor), the young assistant who is always reminding people that he is simply gaga about girls. For some reason, Miss Jeffries, a handsome actress who is, let's say, over 55, has been given a young, pre-teen son to contend with. She describes him breezily but pointedly as ''the last of the litter.'' Meanwhile, Daisy keeps interviewing potential clients, picking up her work calendar and warning that ''we're really swamped.''

Mr. Maxwell has started his rather odd business because he wants to help people experience the kind of joy he once shared with his wife. How much are his services? ''Don't worry about it,'' smiles motherly Rita.

Somehow, the episode managed to end with a wedding ceremony featuring lots of flowers and a private orchestra but no noticeable guests. As the wedding vows were being solemnly exchanged, Daisy, the maid of honor, gazed longingly at Mr. Maxwell, the best man, but he just went on looking blithely sincere and debonair.

@JAS0N47 Has Deidre Hall been in more episodes than Bill or Susan Hayes (or Suzanne Rogers)?   

9 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

By doing so, she still looks like herself..she's aged gracefully

Certainly true in comparison to her co-stars.

Sorry, that's so reddit of me to post.  All women are lovely and are free to do whatever they wish to their faces in order to feel better.

Also, wasn't Capricorn Crude a roman à clef?

I had not expected the Colin story to hit its apex within three weeks.

In story-time, he's only been in Salem three days.

Also, I noticed that every Aaron Spelling soap in the 80s used an establishing shot of people working at the now-demolished ABC Entertainment Center in Century City.  Which is amusing because Spelling's offices were a few miles east in the Miracle Mile district (Candy decorated the place with millions of dollars in art and shag carpeting).  And an office in those towers would have too expensive for a detective agency or a magazine.

Somebody just invoked the name DL Brock in the Jackie Zeaman thread, and it reminded me - has anyone ever successfully developed the waterfront property in Port Charles?

DL, Damian, and countless others have promised to develop the area, but it still seems to be mainly warehouses and manufacturing plants. How many people have tried to gentrify the docks?

13 minutes ago, Noel said:

The meeting scene with Stephanie, Alex, and Mr. #MeToo Man is really stupid. 

This is one of those good idea/lousy execution issues for me.

I'm happy that someone pointed out Maggie's lack of experience running a multinational company that manages everything from shipping to medical research and technology. Still, the context and performance were subpar (at least the guest star provided his own wardrobe).

As I mentioned, it seems evident that Alex will be hesitant to tell Maggie about the client's attitude toward her.  Stephanie will step in and save his job. Thus extending the Stephanie/Alex/Chad triangle.

Were Christopher Mayer and Christopher Norris in the cast at the same time?  I wonder if a PA ever got confused and gave them the wrong script.

I know he went by Chip, but it was amusing to me.

BTW @Khan the most epically awful opening in primetime soap history is Finder of Lost Loves.

Dionne Warwick and Glenn Jones (aka low-rent Luther Vandross) sing the title to a smooth jazz groove that could not mask the clumsy lyrics needed to shoehorn in the series title.  It is like when Tina Turner had to sing about love Beyond the Thunderdome (another bop with bad lyrics).  Also, note that she's singing Finders (with an "s") of Lost Love (no s), but the title was Finder of Love Loves

Also, Tony Franciosa and David Birney's appeal were vastly overestimated in both series.

6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

It was an awkward excuse to pay tribute to Deidre's 5000th episode, but it wasn't made to be taken seriously.  I am not trying to be argumentative, but the show was not making it out to be an accurate assessment at all.  Just John boasting about how awesome his wife is.

Totally agree; they had to find something that reflected the number 5,000

Do we also agree that the production model stood out in today's episode?  Marlena's never shied away from eating in the same place as her clients.  Some of them have come over for the holidays.  But the Alex scenes were shot on another day, so they couldn't be on the same set.

Also, I didn't get the logic of Maggie talking to Roman rather than attending the business meeting.  I guess Alex will save his job when Stephanie tells Maggie what happened.  But, there's no other reason that she wouldn't have been there.

2 hours ago, j swift said:

The math isn't mathing on this whole 5,000-client thing.

An average insurance plan allows each client 25 psychiatrist sessions per year.  That would be 125,000 client hours.  Most clinics only will enable you to bill 30 hours per week because doctors need time to attend meetings and other administrative duties.  So, seeing that many clients would take 4,167 weeks or 80 years.  Even if she only saw each client ten times, it would still take 32 years to complete.  Given Marlena's PTO for kidnappings, demonic possessions, comas, and travel, it doesn't seem possible that she's seen 5,000 clients. 

Correcting my earlier math, John specified that he was including Marlena's talk-show callers as clients.  However, given that short amount of time that the radio show was on the air (not counting her time in the pit), she would still have needed to work every week for over 50 years to see 5,000 clients, and we know that wasn't the case.

Also, if I were Marlena, I would highlight Micky, rather than Ben, as most her successful case.  Time will tell if Ben ever gets the urge to strangle again. But, Micky recovered well, raised two daughters, and never needed therapy again.

I'm watching Shrinking on AppleTV and it is fascinating to me that Harrison Ford has two TV show airing in the same season (Yellowstone 1923).  It is as if every other actor his age is either dead, cancelled, or incapacitated.  Or, he just really wants to get away from Calista Flockhart

Retro TV, which owns the app, filed for bankruptcy in 2021 after being dropped from 120 affiliates to 80.  Of course, I would not attribute that only to The Doctors. Still, there has never been a successful media company that re-aired soaps (including Sony's SoapCity, Disney's SoapNet, and Viacom's PopTV).

I assume they anticipate the need for unscripted content because of the strike.  This is good because I am old enough to recall the 1988 strike when ABC resorted to Full House re-runs multiple times per week.

Another example of the poor profitability in reairing classic soap episodes. I hope we remember this the next someone suggests that if a production company were "smart" they'd re-run old daytime dramas on a streaming service.  I enjoy the nostalgia, but the track record suggests it is not a good business model.