Vee

Wow. This is a new one on me.

Kamala seems to do this with kids everywhere she goes. It's wonderful.

Catching up on last night. Bill still got jokes.

I can't really speak on much like this til I've seen the whole of the show, but my own early thoughts were to use Greg and Laura's daughter Meg who the MacKenzies raised as a hotshot political operative caught between two worlds and moral compasses, as well as maybe either Diana or Michael's (or Olivia's) gay son named for Eric, and maybe Daniel Avery. How you would weave any of them organically back into that locale is hard to make plausible, obviously. I thought about the twins but tbh my idea for Bobby Jr. was tied mainly to an idea of a brief, one-season revival and conclusion to Dallas, where eco-crusader Bobby II (or Betsy!) would go back to Texas and clash with one of J.R.'s sons over the future of the business and the climate crisis at large. Like Gary, he would be kind of the fairhaired boy with a pristine vision of the future. But that's for another thread. (The better idea, inverting the 'good/bad' Ewing boys and making Christopher the baddie as David Jacobs suggested, is obvious, but I was operating as though Dallas 2012 is canon and therefore Christopher is dead, so you had to use other heirs of J.R. while I would have John Ross in a more conflicted and soulful role.)

I'm fine, just taking it day by day with a physical issue lately.

I just got home (well, hobbled home). What a touching moment with Gus Walz during his father's speech.

And electrocuted his father. I'll never get over them going out and hiring the literal Omen kid. But because the budget at that point was about a buck fifty that story went absolutely nowhere.

On paper using Lucy is a good idea. In practice I think Charlene Tilton is televisual napalm and I can barely tolerate seconds of her.

I doubt it, tbh. Dunn just seems a bit unhinged. There will be plenty of exposes about the last few months - there have already been a few revealing articles, and there will likely be a movie or a TV miniseries down the road (I vote Harrison Ford for Joe in July 2024!). But whatever comes out, Dunn can't touch Pelosi.

Years of frustration with Politifact and Glenn Kessler's pedantic nonsense appear to be boiling over: Now his own paper is roasting Kessler:

Oh Christ, they're back to Church Guy Cyrus.

Hoo boy:

He made himself totally radioactive, to be fair. The stories about his downfall in Game Change would curl your hair. He could've had it all and he destroyed himself with his repugnant behavior.

Of course Frank and the gang bring back Cyrus.

Thread:

Exactly. I think KL could've potentially reinvented itself in a different environment, but CBS became a wasteland around that time and its attempts to do new soaps flopped. Nothing more homespun or scaled-down was going to compete with the heat coming off the Spelling soaps. Especially nothing that already had done 14 years.

Ludicrous how cooked Fox is in this cycle.

I for one am very curious to watch the Latham/Lechowick years, which I know are very divisive among fans - people either love or hate them or have very complex feelings, I guess. But they were the foundation and vision for much of the latter half of the show. I'm curious to see them finally add a Black family, Paige, etc. And it does seem to get back to the cul-de-sac while also adding in more corporate intrigue, but not nearly in as dated a way as Dallas. The trick will be getting through a couple allegedly dodgy seasons (8? 9?) to see where it maybe hits something of a groove, lol. I do think Pat Petersen and even poor Steve Shaw could've done more, but Petersen was allegedly not too interested in continuing acting as he grew up and Shaw of course passed away. Their skills also were not nearly as honed as the older cast. I love Tonya Crowe, but I haven't seen much of her teen or adult years yet so I can't judge. I like the sandcastle intro and smooth sax too. I just think it's missing the visuals of the cast. I know they allegedly considered rebooting the show near the end with just either Karen and Mack or Gary and Val and all-new young couples on the cul-de-sac. I guess it might've worked if they'd gone the Melrose route but with more mature writing, sort of a thirtysomething or Picket Fences-esque tone/age range but more serialized and soapy. But I don't think there was ever going to be any stopping the juggernaut of shows like the Spelling soaps let alone ER. Any of us who were there know they owned the night, all week. When people talk about reviving Knots today I am divided - I think it's a fertile concept that has been harvested for many shows like Desperate Housewives, but without some of the old favorites and an entirely new cast (or maybe some of the kids/grandkids) it could be any show, and there is no plausible way any of the vets would still live there (except maybe the MacKenzies). Melrose Place's first revival had a similar issue, though I liked it more than most. (They talk about rebooting it now and I just don't get it - are they all going to come back and live in that complex at 50-60?)

Here's someone I never expected to see again.

I didn't realize Sean Astin did the roll call for Indiana. And Wendell Pierce for Louisiana!

I believe this is the full roll call (though they unforgivably cut the Lil Jon Georgia intro which is already upthread): This is definitely the most fun roll call I've ever seen. As a DC/MD hometown boy I am very proud they played DJ Kool's "Let Me Clear My Throat" for DC's vote.