applcin

The Soapnet run would recycle at the very beginning of the Egyptian storyline.

I think it's like DeliaIrisFan said. RH was trying to emulate what the other ABC soaps were doing successfully, as well as copying movies (Jaws with Joe & Siobhan, King Kong with Delia). That period of 1979 through the mid-1980s saw the ascendancy in popularity of GH, mainly due to the story of Luke & Laura and them running away from the mob. AMC had the youth storylines featuring Jenny, Jesse, Tad, etc. OLTL had the Buchanan cowboys. This was also the time of Dallas & Dynasty, so there'll eventually be more wealthy people showing up on RH, which kind of took the focus away from the Ryans, not mention the creation of the Crystal Palace...somewhere else for the characters to go than Ryan's Bar. There's even an Egyptian queen storyline coming up later which, I imagine, was influenced by the King Tut exhibit and fascination in the late 70s. I think they were in an unenviable position. The other soaps seemed to have found their sizzle. If RH stayed too close to its original style, maybe they would bore the audience by comparison. If they strayed from it, they risked alienating them.

I've never seen True Blood. I added it to my watchlist just the the other day but haven't started it yet. If it's anything like this, I don't know if I will. This show is trying to do too much too fast, some of the acting is just bad...like I said, it feels more spoofy than serious, like let's throw in everything about the genre we can think of. I tend to compare it to Grimm because I was a fan, and because it seems NBC was offering this up as a replacement to retain the fans...the promo even aired during the finale of Grimm. But they're really apples and oranges...different writers, the main character was slowly learning about what he was and the world in which he lived. The idea of going to a town full of special people also reminded me of "Haven" but, again, that was less about monsters and demons than it was about ordinary people with strange abilities or "troubles" they were trying to control. It's probably closer to "Supernatural" but that is better written and paced....13 seasons count for something.

Monday nights on NBC, 10 pm eastern. Basically, it's about a bit of a roguish guy who's a psychic medium. He sees dead people and they can also inhabit his body. His dead grandmother sometimes rides shotgun. He goes to this town called Midnight where there are other strange characters, like a vampire, a witch, skinheads, guys who sprout wings, turn into tigers and other weird stuff happens.

So, I guess I'm the only one here that's watched this but that may change. Second episode in and I'm finding it a bit too over-the-top, even for a supernatural series. I hear it's based on books that I have no knowledge of, so none of that for me to compare it to. They throw so much in there, events happen too fast, the acting is somewhat cringe-worthy, it makes the whole thing feel kind of caricaturish, almost like a spoof of the genre. Was hoping it'd be a worthy successor to Grimm but I'm not feeling it.

Actually, it's Call. That family of networks seems to love his voice. They've used him on so many shows, especially those having to do with crimes and the paranormal. He does have a great voice.

So...watched first episode and haven't decided yet. It felt like they threw too much in all at once, no buildup. Don't hate it but don't love it either. Def will give it another chance. Right now it feels like a mashup of Supernatural and Haven. They even have a character of the "Rev" like in Haven. So the main guy is a real psychic medium whose career depends on people believing he's real yet he tells people he's a fake? The vampire is the dude from season 3 of "Sleepy Hollow." Hopefully, they'll slow the pace down a bit now that they've made sure we know who everybody is, what their oddities are, who they're hooking up with and who they want to hook up with.

I think people were expecting more stars from current shows, like the old one had. But, honestly, it was the past tv stars I recognized on the first one, not the guy from The Middle or the young woman. To look at those first teams (sitcoms vs tv kids), it did seem heavily favored towards the younger team but they actually went back and forth with the lead. I do wish the teams had a few more people on them. When an event is for 2 males or 2 females, it's slim pickins when you've got only 2 or 3 to choose from. Pitting almost-60 and overweight Bronson Pinchot against Corbin Bleu in the obstacle course was absurd....but the other options were Tom Arnold (who seemed like he was on something) and Dave Coulier. Some folks complained about the lack of the live crowd but I wonder if maybe they just didn't want people recording the events and spoiling them online. Didn't have that concern 35 years ago. Maybe it'll be a surprise summer hit like all those old game shows ABC revived. I'll keep watching. It's entertaining enough. But coming up later on...Lou Ferrigno is still built like a tank and I don't think the other team has a chance in the tug of war.

I know there are other soap stars that will appear on episodes...Actually, I just found an article that lists 50 from daytime and primetime, although some aren't known mainly from their soap gigs: http://www.inquisitr.com/4332960/50-soap-stars-on-battle-of-the-network-stars-whos-repping-daytime-nighttime-drama/ I watched the first one and, while it is a pale retake of the original and has some people calling it Battle of the Has-Beens, it's a bit of silly summer fun. The teams are smaller, there's no live crowd, most of the stars on the first episode are not currently on tv series and some are not in that good of shape.

Cornelius Smith, Jr. (Frankie Hubbard, AMC) will be on the 7/13 episode of Battle of the Network Stars.

I thought Siobhan's infatuation with Jack, while Sarah was still in the role, made her too dependent on him...she looked to him for guidance and his opinion mattered more to her than it should have. And even though the sibling rivalry with Mary wasn't taken to the level of actively trying to seduce Jack (at least while Mary was still alive), she was more interested in being Jack's confidante and being close to him than in seeing things from Mary's view or trying to help their marital situation.

I kind of liked Ken. But I was never that into Frank & Jill as a couple. Still, there are some cheesy moments to it. And, as intelligent and sophisticated a woman as Jill was presented, her justifications for some things boggle the mind sometimes. Not just with KGJ but in her relationships with Frank & Seneca as well. As for Barry, wasn't that crazy about him but he did have a genuine love for Ken, his best friend. That'll come out more, and his involvement in that story (if not others), will show an honorable side to him.

Joanna Going (Lisa Grady, AW) on Hallmark's Home & Family last week. Apparently, she's on a show called Kingdom on something called the Audience network. It's on Direct TV.

Anybody else seeing the late Frank Maxwell (Dan Rooney, GH) popping up on that Optimum Cable commercial?

Her nephew.

Don't know if this has been mentioned but Kamar de los Reyes (OLTL) has been playing a demon on "Sleepy Hollow" since this season premiered.

The LAPD once again went to Richard Simmons' (GH) house to do a welfare check on him and they report that he seems fine. All the speculation, podcasts, etc., are like way out of control. The man just wants his privacy. Side note...his old studio space, Slimmons, has now been taken over by DWTS' Kym Herjavec for her new dance exercise studio. http://people.com/bodies/richard-simmons-perfectly-fine-according-to-police/

Jeff Branson (Jonathan Lavery, AMC) did an episode of Grimm. Rachel Melvin (Chelsea, DOOL) started as a regular on "Sleepy Hollow" this season.

David Chisum (Miles Laurence, OLTL) pops up again. He was in a recent Supernatural, playing a fictional POTUS and "meatsuit" for Lucifer.

Recognizing John Brotherton (Jared, OLTL) on tonight's "Timeless." He's playing Gene Kranz of NASA, the same person Ed Harris played in Apollo 13.

Roma Downey (Joanna Leighton, OLTL) and hubby Mark Burnett have a new over-the-air "faith and family" network premiering in December: http://deadline.com/2016/11/roma-downey-mark-burnett-mgm-light-tv-faith-based-network-fox-1201855425/

David Chisum (Miles Laurence, OLTL) was on tonight's "Timeless" for about a minute before his character was shot to death.

Tony Call (EON, GL and probably most known from OLTL as Herb Callison) this past summer at Awesome con representing the Destination America series "A Haunting". He's been the narrator since 2005. First I think of him as Dave Bailey (Star Trek), then as Herb Callison and now he's like the voice of Destination America, lol. He's done so much voicework with them. (And we've read the same book.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr-MeaPVsUs

There are all these "stories" popping up now about Richard Simmons (GH) and people speculating about his mental and physical health because he's been out of the public eye for some time. Friends claiming he's cut them off, thinking he's under witchcraft by his housekeeper, etc. He's had to get on the phone to explain it but some folks still aren't convinced he's not being abused in some way. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/richard-simmons-explains-year-public-absence/story?id=37628041

Mike Minor (Brandon Kingsley) has died. http://www.examiner.com/article/tv-actor-mike-minor-has-died