Vee

Try holding your breath.

Probably starting with the documented trail of WB clumsily trying to bully the estate out of a creator credit for Crichton on the revival. It wouldn't shock me if a script or pitch with Carter existed though.

It may be a licensing thing with Falcon Crest. Though I'm sure someone noticed Knots trending for a week.

I was much more enthused about Drew and Nina (and the Willow factor) when Mulcahey was here. Unless they continue to really lean into Drew Q the smarmy power player and cad and make the couple or triangle what it could be, I'd probably write them out together after a certain interval - 6 months, a year. If it's a budget issue though I'd cut them immediately. Dex can go at any time. Sasha must vanish. Natalia (if she's on a contract), of course. Wagger, gone. Same with Michael and Willow, possibly after a blowup over Drew and their subsequent divorce. Michael would be back recast in a year or two; Willow would not. Joss I would leave where she is - maybe she returns after a brief absence following either Dex's death or a breakup - and move into a secondary and more comic spoiled role for now. I'd probably recast with someone stronger down the road, but I think Eden has a certain raw facility and register she can work in. It's just not what they have her doing. Gio I would give a shot with an actual story and character, none of which he currently has. But if nothing works, bye. Cody is fine by me and stay the mischievous but sweet stable himbo. No notes. I'd also quickly cut Curtis, T.J. and Molly, Jordan and Chase. Bring on better characters who aren't played out. Chase would probably die, or he and BLQ would leave for a brief period - six months, maybe - and again only BLQ would return (recast if necessary).

This is wild:

FYI @All My Shadows and all: According to Plex, KL resumes on the livestream from Season 1 next week on September 2nd.

I had plenty of issues with Berman's Lulu - she was talented but they were clearly trying to make the character into the mini-Carly because they thought was the apex female of the show, and I never thought she had a ton of heat with any of her partners. But I do think Lulu is an essential character. I think the adventurous journalist angle is a good idea with the right actor, and I think she and Dante can still work well. It's a question of who they cast. I am not exactly enthused about the possibility of Stephanie Gatschet, who I've always found deeply boring. Fingers crossed. I always enjoy seeing Ric and Rick Hearst. He's just such a weird, duplicitous and damaged character who you can make do just about anything. He's very lucky he didn't get killed off several times. RC intended to kill him before he was fired in 2015, and Silas got the knife instead.

I don't know about Florida, but I can buy GA and NC. I think people are underestimating the vote again like '22, and I think it serves the Harris campaign to keep expectations tight.

Posting Dirty Soap episodes in this thread is already totally OT, but multiple posters have complained before about links being posted to the reprehensible right-wing Rumble site on this board. Please stop. If you have to send these links to people do it privately.

Yeah, I'm not really taking right wing Twitter accounts and Don Lemon's anecdotal chats as a great indicator of a trend.

Carly got a great line in about the panic room to Ric. I'm glad she brought that up because he was prepared to straight up kill her for her baby.

In addition to other soap alums listed on the last page, I hadn't realized Eric Morgan Stuart (Chris Madison, AW) voices Commissioner Gordon on Batman: Caped Crusader on Amazon. It's pretty decent. (Speaking of: Did you know Bob Hastings, a.k.a. Burt Ramsay from GH and brother of ATWT's Don Hastings, voiced Gordon on the classic Batman animated series from the '90s? I sure didn't.)

Contract players cost money. Recurring ones don't. I'd fire almost all of them. And Kelly too.

Since I'm already wildly behind and only watched part of the livestreaming marathon up to where I left off, I'm curious: Is there a general consensus (or at least varied opinions) on which of the Latham/Lechowick seasons are the best, if any? I know they're polarizing in general, and I can't go just by the blog opinions of the great Tommy Krasker and so on (who I think has spoken up for Seasons 9, 10 and 12) and of course I'll make up my own mind. But I'm curious about longtime fans' overview.

I've always heard so much about this. I might check it out.

I think a lot of soap twitter people (including but not limited to Hinsey) come in with their own spin both for and against their favored or disfavored actor. I suspect the truth is caught somewhere in between the BTS gossip about KM's alleged troubles or behavior, and FV's own axe to grind. Again, this is another example of how soap twitter is not real life. People acting like this will 'shake GH to its core!!' and be some massive shift have not been paying attention to how marginalized Sam has been for years and how much Kelly has phoned it in - or they've just been stanning too long to acknowledge it. Sonny, Carly, Jason, Laura - that is a massive shift. (I'd argue even Becky/Liz would've been a blow too simply because like Laura she is so foundational and ubiquitously popular now, JJ has just returned and they have tried and failed to fire her twice before.) Sam would've still been a huge shock too even ten years ago. But now, after the last four years or more of disuse, she has merely suffered the same fate as Courtney or Reese almost 20 years later.

Frank tried to cut Becky around 2015-2016 and learned the same lesson JFP and Guza did around 2010-11. I don't think it happens again unless Jonathan goes (who made it very clear last time that he wanted to be reunited with Becky, and that he left in large part because the show failed to deliver while giving him depressing, ugly stories), but I've been wrong before. I know they allegedly were gunning for her earlier this year, but I had a feeling it wouldn't happen. Becky is the third rail at this point IMO. I think when Kelly came to work she was very good. She just hasn't much over the last 15 years at minimum IMO, and even before then at times. She got comfortable with Steve, until she wasn't. I think she had periods with real potential again after Jason's 'death' in 2012, and again with Drew/Billy Miller but it has never lasted. I think she worked hard with DZ this year, possibly because she knew she was in jeopardy. But Sam has been a spent shell for me for so long. Her best period, again, was when they thought she was leaving the show in the mid-2000s and therefore leaned into making her a villain and town shít-stirrer opposite GV's Lucky. If they'd let her do what she's best at she could've become not unlike Ava is now - I think it was @titan1978 that said Ava should be a Roger Thorpe-esque character, not a heroine, and that's where she works best and how she has survived on the margins. That, and Maura always comes to work.

It really does. I think this must have happened very fast - what is the tape-to-air delay now, a few weeks? A month tops? Maybe slightly over? I always assumed if Sam died she'd get it from one of the mob's enemies (or now, the WSB's re: Dante) but I am beginning to wonder if she might get some old fashioned Irna Phillips-style traffic accident exit lol. It depends on how long the air delay is. If Sam goes digging for help for Lulu she could easily run afoul of whatever is up with Lucky.

I see we're back to this again, like clockwork just like I mentioned on a previous page (I'm not blaming you for it at all, to be clear - I agree with you). I had plenty of criticisms of Zimmer in the Rauch years, but Kim laid out that story re: JVD and others very clearly in her book and it was always BS that they tried to blame her for the other exits. She had a contract and she stuck by it. No matter how much folks try to rep for Marley on Another World, she was the hatchet woman for those departures and she contributed heavily to getting GL cancelled, period. Now back to Kelly Monaco!

Now VM coming back under Frank would actually floor me, lol. I don't see it though.

Agreed. But IMO Molly and T.J. have no longterm use at this point period, and Molly needs a long rest off-canvas. Like I said the other day, soap twitter has its uses but it is not IRL. Everyone has fans on there, everyone thinks they're huge based on some handful of scenes. They think every mid couple or C-tier pairing is big game, and it ain't. It's the same principle here. Acting like Sam/Dante/Lulu was going to be some major gangbusters triangle that could spike the show's ratings and be great story - please. It is a foregone conclusion set against a stopgap C-pairing the show has no investment in. We are in the 2020s. We need to be getting more serious than acting like weak tea like Sam/Dante, T.J./Molly, Sonny/Nina, Brennan/Carly, Kristina/Blaze, Dex/Joss, etc. are going to drive the ratings. GH at its modern height, in the mid-late '90s or even early 2000s would not piss on these weak setups.

I can't remember who made her face their avatar a mere eight months ago but it holds up!

I knew this would be uniquely satisfying for you! I haven't had that kind of hatred for Sam since the Guza years ended, but I have been ready for her to go since at least 2005-2010. She's had intermittent periods of my thinking she could be and do more since (like when she turned villainess during the Liason reunion, her best era), but it's never lasted. And honestly Kelly has been phoning it in for a lot of those 21 years.

All true, but it's a common (and lazy) practice in modern daytime tbh and I think in the end it worked well for her and for Alexis and the girls. Unlike, say, grafting Julian onto them. Oy.