applcin

It was a nice chat with Bolger, DePaiva & Goodwin. They told some stories about Beverlee and Bernau. And I agreed with Kassie...JB is a handsome dude, always thought so. He kind of gives off a Scott Bakula-type vibe to me. I saw him in all 3 of the soaps he mentioned but I especially liked him as Gabe on AW. I hated that they killed Gabe and it was during that period (not long after Frankie's death) when they were still going for the shock value so Gabe was gunned down in the street and then shown on the slab splayed open. Cute how he was asked about Ray Bolger. Would be cool to see an AW chat with Bolger, Linda Dano, Robin & Matt Crane. Or a GL Lewis chat that included Jordan Clarke, Maeve and Jean Carol. I honestly hadn't recognized JG from the picture and had to look up who it was; then I was like, oh, that's Johnny Bauer!

R.I.P. James Hampton https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/james-hampton-f-troop-teen-wolf-actor-dies-age-84-n1263433 I also remember his stint on DOOL in the early 90s playing Rev. Saul Taylor, father of Melinda Clarke's character, Faith. He was part of Marcus' story, where Marcus was remembering the bombing of a black church when he was a kid. Marcus was treating Faith's blindness and she developed a crush on him, which did not please her racist father. Steve got a prosthetic eye to go undercover as Taylor was running a drug operation.

On April 8. First time I saw John Bolger he was playing Phillip when I started watching the show.

Just got my first Moderna shot this afternoon, at a local pharmacy in Queens, NY. I'm in the 50+ group and was on a wait-list for about 2 weeks. The injection site is a tiny bit sore but not too noticeable. They didn't tell me I had to stay afterwards, I asked them if I should, but they weren't strict about it. But I stayed for about 10 minutes just to be safe. Just put my 88 year-old mom on their waiting list. She was hoping her doctor would have gotten a supply by now but they're not sure how soon it's coming. But either option is close by and would be good for her.

As screwed up as Brenda could be, she was actually a good friend to her girls. Maybe not iconic since it didn't last very long, relatively speaking, but watching Lucy and Dominique become friends was poignant and ended up being very crucial to developing Lucy's character away from selfish villainess mode. They were rivals, in Lucy's mind, as Scotty was in love with Dominique. But Dom was a very good person and that touched Lucy, especially when Dom was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Dom saw the good in Lucy, when most didn't, and they became close friends, with Lucy even carrying their child. Lucy may have hoped that, ultimately, she might end up with Scott some day but she wasn't motivated by that and she was heartbroken when Dom died.

I really enjoyed it. Too bad that Fiona's connection had so much trouble. It's nice that Brynn Thayer was able to send a message and sort of represent his time on OLTL. It would have been cool to have incorporated a few more of his OLTL costars, like Robin Strasser and Erika Slezak, but it probably wouldn't have been practical to combine the soaps like that and he did have the longer history with GL. And that video they showed at the end of Zas winning the Emmy is one of the few uploads of mine that I left up on youtube. I don't think I ever got copyright-slammed for anything related to GL.

GH - I had watched from the first L + L on-the-run-story until some years after the Sonny/Jason-ification of the show, which, on top of the latter-day Cassadine presence that I also could have done without, just finally turned me off. I think I checked back once or twice, during a Nurse's Ball time, Richard Simmons reappeared, Finola and Ian Buchanan were back...but I had no familiarity with the younger crowd and not much interest in catching up on what happened in all those years. DOOL - this is the only other soap left on air that I had watched. My history with it wasn't actually that long, about 5 years, during that late 80s, early 90s period when Steve & Kayla were first coming together up to shortly after he "died." I lost interest shortly after that and only returned to the show when they were brought back to be reunited. I watched for a short time and then ended up dropping it again anyway and haven't seen it since. OLTL - the situation was slightly different. Forgive me, but I was never a fan of Roscoe Born, mainly because I didn't like the characters he played across several soaps starting with RH, and I wasn't entertained by them. A couple of times that Mitch Laurence was brought back and the crazy uber-devil caca happened again were times I went on hiatus from the show. Then they had him kill Jared Banks when I had really enjoyed his story with Natalie and I was done. I briefly checked out OLTL 2.0 but the thrill was gone. GL - I started to get really bored with it in the mid-2000s and left when DAM was fired, which was about the only reason I was still watching at that point. I did check out when they briefly brought him back but, between the bad writing, Peapack and cheap-looking production, I just couldn't.

One thing I'm noticing from watching the late 60s episodes of The Doctors is how well the actors either masked using it or rarely seemed to use it. I mean, on top of learning just ordinary conversation lines, they had to sound convincing with all the medical jargon and gravitas. Plus they had the added pressure of getting it right the first time. I mean, you can see all the technical booboos, mics and cameras failing to pull back in time, the actors occasionally making eye contact with the camera, but it's hard to pick out anyone who relied on cue cards so heavily as to be obvious. And the fact that an actor might have misspoken a word or name or even ad-libbed a little just made the dialogue seem all the more real, as people do make errors when they talk.

Even the potential appeal/value of cast interviews on the app has diminished with Locher's interviews available for free on youtube. I appreciate what they did in the first place just by offering the show on demand. It just seems they keep doing things sort of half-baked, things left unfinished or neglected, including the general Retro TV site itself. It just makes me confused about how committed and capable they are.

The e-mail does say all available episodes will be there on demand. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me that the issues with WTD had more to do with human choices and not so much the platform's performance. The delay of the final years' episodes due the pandemic, the lack of expansion with the originally promised features, the mislabeled episode dates, likely lacking in hoped-for number of subscribers....I think they overestimated the audience that would pay for it. Drawing an audience watching a classic soap on a channel for free vs. paying even a small fee to essentially binge one show (and partake of the other features that didn't come to be), plus when people finish the series they likely wouldn't renew...they probably should have done originally what they're doing now. I don't know how interactive or community-involved the site will be or whether it will be essentially just a collection of streams and on-demand content. It keeps feeling like they want to aim high but the result doesn't quite make it.

Got an e-mail today, as a subscriber to the app, that the episodes will soon be moved to another platform called It's Real Good TV. So, basically, The Doctors content won't be its own island soon. I suspected something was afoot as the WTD app seemed neglected on both sides. As cool as it was to be able to have WTD on demand (even with many out-of-sequence episodes), I had my doubts about the sustainability and appeal of a subscriber app devoted to a single series, let alone a soap that many people aren't even aware of. Heck, if GH or DOOL were to put its 1970s episodes on a devoted subscription app, I wouldn't expect a huge customer base there either. I am curious about what the new cost might end up being, since it will include more content. I'm actually about 2 months away from where I started the episodes over (shortly after Carolee and Dan's wedding) so I still haven't seen most of the show.

R.I.P. actor Cliff Simon. Stargate SG-1 fans remember him as Ba'al. https://www.facebook.com/cliffsp/posts/10208176652289566 https://bleedingcool.com/tv/stargate-sg-1-veteran-tv-actor-cliff-simon-passes-away-age-58/

Five episodes into Sliders. Now this one looks like it's gonna be a fun ride! And it's cool to already see so many guest actors I recognize from the Stargate universe.

I'm trying to watch The Expanse but 6 episodes in I find it mostly boring and the only story track I haven't ff-ed is Holden & crew. If the whole series is like this, I'm probably going to watch 1/3 of each episode until even that becomes not worth it anymore. Also started Sanctuary because of Amanda Tapping. I'm only a couple of episodes in...not feeling this one much either but at least I'm not ff-ing whole chunks of it. I don't know, maybe I just like my sci-fi less dark and gritty.

I don't think George McDonald may have been known outside of NYC/NYS but he did a lot to help the homeless in NYC, including providing them work, food and housing. I used to see "Doe Fund" workers cleaning and picking up litter along our main avenue. I remember him being on Oprah once back in the day, along with some of the people his foundation had helped. https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-doe-fund-founder-george-mcdonald-20210127-5nut4kp3ujhijdolmiv25mauui-story.html

I was always ambivalent about his casting. I was familiar with both actors and liked both. CR had been my favorite on the show during his prime in the 1980s and I enjoyed the original trio of Buchanan men. Part of me was happy that JvD was given a prominent role on another soap with which I was familiar after languishing at the end of his GL tenure. I reasoned that, with CR's retirement having taken him off the show years earlier, it freed them to get a different spin and additional stories out of the character, not unlike what GH did with John Ingle's Edward Quartermaine after David Lewis left. That being said, it was kind of bittersweet to me to have a new Clint....new actor and new spin. Had I not already liked JvD, I may not have cottoned to nu-Clint at all.

On OLTL, I can't picture Jerry verDorn doing the real cowboy-heavy stuff that Clint Ritchie had to do some of back in the day. For sure, I could never see him in the Old West 1888 story. But the Clint B. of that time, and for years, was heavily molded around CR.

I started binging "The Masked Singer" from the beginning. I'd never seen the show up until a few days ago. I finished season 1 and just started season 2. Cute and crazy idea and basically a fun watch, even if I've never heard of some of the celebrities or guesses the judges make. The judges can be a bit tiresome at times (I particularly want to tell Ken to stfu at times because he beats a joke to death, skins it, and crushes the bones.) I was able to guess a few of them, though. Yeah, it's silly but it's in good fun and the celebrities seem to be getting a kick out of it.

I haven't seen post-1981 in years so my memories of Pierson and, especially, Sanderford are not too vivid, especially since I was in school and not able to see it every day. I mostly seem to recall Pierson being on the loud, overbearing side. As a kid catching it here and there during its original broadcast, DHK was the first Frank I saw but I couldn't warm up to him because (unpopular opinion coming up) I couldn't stand Rae and I perceived him as her boy-toy. Having had the chance since then to see the prior two Franks, and also being familiar (and probably biased) with Andrew Robinson from both prior and later roles (esp. DS9), I'd have to say he was my favorite. That being said, I mostly enjoyed his Frank's interactions with his family, showing him being a lawyer, etc., than the romantic stuff. I found him very believable and natural as part of the Ryan clan, he played well off of them and his chemistry with Kate felt like real siblings. He also did well with the lawyer lingo and I could totally buy him as one. His confrontations with Seneca were also worth watching, two very strong-minded men. Michael Hawkins was handsome enough and looked good with Nancy Addison but it's obvious watching him on the show why he's called "Plank-Frank." The man had serious life problems back then and, apparently, still does.

Deidre Hall popped up on the Beekman Boys live stream tonight. Love their products, btw. That goat milk soap is so soft on the skin! Anyhoo...she appears around the 23:30 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3sDazw2-UM&t=1485s

Having just posted about him another topic and not seeing him mentioned here, I just remembered that John Bolger (GL, AW, OLTL, GH) is the great-nephew of Ray Bolger. Sally Gracie was once married to Rod Steiger. Sam Behrens is married to Shari Belafonte (for over 30 years now), of course also making him Harry's son-in-law.

On Season 2 of Crikey! It's The Irwins. I've never really sat and watched them or even Crocodile Hunter. But I got the urge to see cute and even not-so-cute animals in Australia. Now I'm kind of envious of what they get to be around every day. 🦓 🐯 🐨 🦏

I wish Robert Gerringer had gotten to play the final shows of Woodard's discoveries and death. It would have packed more of a dramatic and emotional punch. Instead, it just felt kind of hollow. They had some weird cameramen on this show. Zooming in and out abruptly, panning the room when dialogue is going on. Sometimes it's like FUI...filming under the influence. Add it to all the cameras and mics in view and shadows of cameras and poles holding fake flying bats, guys coughing. And I particularly liked Anthony George coming out of the door at the top of the Collinwood stairs, only to be told to do it again, so back in he went and came out again. 😄

I watched parts of it because I didn't want to be spoiled much with stories I haven't seen yet, although I did have a question. The actor that played the first Willie (James Hall?)...did he return to play another part? If not, he was on the show so briefly. Mitchell Ryan looked so frail. I didn't even recognize him right away and I have seen him through the years. David Henesy was a pretty good child actor. The stuff they gave him to do was pretty out there and, when he was involved in story and not MIA, he had a ton of dialogue. He did better than some of the adults. Heck, I wondered what he and his family thought when David had to climb into a coffin, lol. Unless I missed it, which is possible, did he mention Louis Edmonds at all? Everybody seemed to really love Louis and they did play father and son. I'm up to Oct. 67 now, Burke's plane crash. This show has so few younger men or romantic potentials anyway, age appropriate or otherwise, and they keep killing them or sending them away. And the way they play out time is funny. On the one hand, Maggie's "two week" disappearance (that made no sense at all even in their time frame) to me seemed like it took a couple of months, at least. (It may have, I didn't track start to end.) At other times, characters jump from one location and time of day to another in the next scene. I don't remember who it was (or even if it was about DS or The Doctors) who said on one of these interviews that there are only 5 of the main players on per day and I find myself sometimes counting them, lol. I was researching a bit and read about the NABET strike that resulted in the departures of Robert Gerringer and the first actor playing the cemetery caretaker. The new caretaker looks like Larry Hagman in old man makeup. And why did they have him play Woodard's ghost instead of that actor? I've been wondering, for anyone in the know, with some of these fairly long (by today's standards, at least) periodic absences from the screen of the various actors--Louis Edmonds, Joel Crothers, David Henesy, Nancy Barrett--was that more often because the actors were involved in other projects or because they just weren't being written for at the time? BTW, I love Julia showing Vicky Barnabas in his coffin while Vicky's hypnotized: "never forget and never remember." So, basically, be creeped out by the guy but have no idea why!