Vee

I didn't look as closely at the rest of this list. It's so much worse! It feels like an SNL sketch.

This is the dumbest thing I've seen in a long time, and most likely/hopefully is a trial balloon from a very clear outlier group (two randos, one being a venture capitalist) that goes nowhere. Oprah, MrBeast and Zendaya. Katie bar the door. Tim McGraw, Common and Yo-Yo Ma? Lin-Manuel Miranda, Henry Louis Gates and Doris Kearns Goodwin?? Condi Rice and McChrystal? Ben Sasse???

Wild. I hadn't seen her since pre-Code Hollywood.

Good luck with this.

The gossipy stories get worse and worse, I suspect many are overblown and I am not going to rehash them all. I will simply say that if, as reported, Pelosi or anyone else high up in the apparatus think that an open convention or 'blitz primary' is an option going forward they are far stupider than I thought. AFAIC if neither Biden nor Harris is the nominee we all might as well start making intercontinental flight plans now. Things admittedly change by the moment, but atm I think it is more likely than not that Joe goes. I think the way he has been treated by the party and the way this whole thing has been done is disgraceful and shameful. I think he is competent and able to serve. But the fact is that being holed up in Rehoboth coughing up a lung in your 80s, cursing the fates and (allegedly) grumbling about how Obama and Pelosi are Judases is not a good look for anyone. The intra-party situation is not recoverable from what I have seen, thanks to the behavior of so many on the inside. By the same token I feel both Joe and his people have mishandled a lot of this all month long before now. I understand why the resolution runs so deep. I think Joe is deeply haunted by the fact that Obama (again, allegedly) asked him to stand aside so Clinton could run in '16 against Trump. I think this was a profound miscalculation by the Dems. I think Joe believes if he had run he'd have won, and all this misery could've been avoided. And I now think he's right. But this situation is untenable. I suspect a lot of ink will be spilled in days and years to come about how unfair this whole backchannel op was (in addition to the WH's own mistakes), but it's happened. None of this had to happen or should've happened this way but it is where we are now. We can't change it and neither can anyone else. Something has to be done to cauterize this situation, hard and fast, and then it will have to be Harris IMO. I saw Trump onstage the other night. Everyone did. Against him, now, not in 2016 or maybe even in 2020, Kamala can win. Joe can win too IMO, but I fear he has too many disadvantages against him both inside the party and outside in the media to continue. So if this is going to happen it's got to happen now. But one way or another everyone has to cut the bullshít and stop going by the wishboard in some rich donor's office (looking at you, coked-up studio execs withholding cash) and move forward with Kamala. Now. Nothing else is an option or ever will be.

It's giving flopsweat. I'd ignore it (as I have for years). I think GR is a talented guy and on paper the idea of a venal gay villain is great and long overdue for daytime. I think going there with a regular on the show, played by an out gay actor, is a bold idea and also overdue. But Ron doesn't understand or at least accept any moderation or dimension for his favored characters, and Leo is at the top. Leo became his kind of avatar - all the hot guys or good characters have to learn to accept him, or sleep with him or both. That's not how you put that kind of character over, by making everyone else subjugated to them.

Oh wow, thanks for this. I've always wanted to see more of this heyday.

I think we can win, but we can't do it without either Biden or Harris, or both. Passing both over means the base is gone for this cycle, and the party will have earned it.

He was supposedly among the several folks who went to him saying the numbers were bad and he should step away. I don't believe that didn't happen. Jeffries is a politician and this is another day of the week, so he can easily be doing both. Meanwhile:

Who knows? It could've been any number of things. The Julian story, while I didn't love it, had not gone off the rails by then. The dagger/murder attempt thing (designed to write him out) didn't happen til 2016 IIRC after Ron was gone.

That's what I was thinking of. Dear God.

Donna is wrong. SK was fired by then in early 2014 (and had no power). The group at the time that revolted in late '14 and '15 included Maurice, NLG, I believe Michelle Stafford and probably more. I'm not sure how much Tony weighed in since he was leaving anyway, he just paid him dust in the press and acted out on set re: the storylines (tanking the alcoholism revisit and LNL)

I think Ron's clear imprint and voice is certainly imbued into the show at DAYS, probably more than any of the past examples we've cited. The problem is it's often so symbiotic with the same rotgut tone and style that has been perpetuated since late-stage Reilly, Langan, etc. That's a big part of why he lasted so long. He was in a tacky way often a perfect fit. He could've been much better overall (IMO) if he'd had any brakes and moderation of taste, or if the show had. Neither did or do. I remember rumors that the actress playing Willow was dating someone higher-up at DAYS. That would've explained a lot. (Or was that the girl who played Morgan the sorority sister? Either would've made sense.)

I forgot to add Hogan Sheffer. That definitely happened with his run too, and I'm not defending it lol. He did plenty of messy shít at DAYS on his own terms and by his own choice, to say nothing of the Y&R debacle later. But he also had some good ideas at DAYS that did not go to fruition in large part due to Corday, and he and later Ed Scott both attempted to elevate the show (or in their way of thinking 'elevate', anyway) and both hit a brick wall and imploded. I remember knowing something was off when the supposedly adult, mature soap Sheffer was previewing in the mags suddenly collided with a Very Special Week of episodes in which John and Marlena were snowbound with special guest Smokey Robinson serenading them in a cabin in the mountains. I can't believe they fúcked up a Possession revisit. That is a lay-up if done right, slowly and carefully during an anniversary period, the way JER actually did it back then with the run-up to the '90s storyline. Especially in an era when audiences are more into supernatural/religious horror than ever with the Conjuring franchise, etc. If you'd played it straight, like JER did back then and in these recent movies, you could have grabbed people.

And I'd assume that back then Ron maybe came in with some semblance of a longform bible for a year or more at least. I'm not sure most HWs at soaps have been given that space and leeway since. I'm certain Mulcahey wasn't at GH, and we know Sussman at Y&R had zero time as well.

All of that is exactly what I mean in my post, yes. I think McPherson/Thomas? and Josh Griffith in particular both tried to change the show stylistically and tonally, and both bombed out in very different ways.* But you could tell in each case that the post-JER DAYS house style re: chintzy music, corny editing tricks, day to day simplistic storytelling, stunts and Corday's own preferences heavily colored what was going on there as well, in addition to the mistakes the creatives themselves made. Griffith in particular often tried to make a very dark, gruesome show (Jigsaw is John's dad! Ciara raped on the family couch! Hope guns down Stefano! Serial killer on the loose!) and it also came off looking like the Disney Channel After Dark. *(I am well aware I am one of quite few McPherson, etc. era defenders here, and my viewing of that very flawed run was brief but hey, I loved her AMC 2.0.)

Oh good lord.

I think he is, and I think unlike many others still in this business (or occasionally visiting/slumming) Ron does love soaps. The problem since the old days that has developed more and more over time is both his taste and his ego. At some shows RC knows their history well as a viewer; at others he does not (like Days, I think). But his approach is often the same, a mix of fundamental retcons or just retcon tourism. If Ron can sprinkle superficial history in to get brownie points (like GH still often does now, with things like the return of White Jagger) he will, or he'll go too far with crass characters or outsize, grandiose sociopaths because he came to believe the early hype that he is the final remaining apex of the genre and the audience will either go with him or shut up and suck it up. He much prefers vixens or schemers to any conventional 'good' characters, and if he can't turn the good ones crazy or give them dopplegangers he will leave them as sort of clueless dupes and himbos and try to prove they are more sanctimonious and hypocritical than his favorites. We saw what a hash he made of GH's layered Guza-era young cast in particular, we've discussed it recently in those threads. I will always cherish some of the work Ron did at OLTL and at GH, despite very very flawed times. I was one of his very first supporters at OLTL, before Daytime Confidential knew who he was (and before most of them frankly had ever bothered watching the show for very long). I knew it was something special in that early period after many years in the dark. But he also had a multitude of sins at OLTL and then at GH, he got high on his supply and he's stayed there. I think he loves soaps, but I think he loves them entirely on his own terms and within his own tastes, and if a soap doesn't share those he'll break it. I would not leave him in charge of a soap anymore without a counterbalance in the writers' room. None of which are going to exist.

I honestly expect very little to change. DAYS has not had a major change tonally, stylistically or structurally since Jim Reilly. Every aspect of the show's production (what's left of it), music, editing, etc. is geared towards that sort of camp or post-camp aesthetic, to chase that dragon. Any attempts to mature the show or update it are generally killed in their crib. We've all seen it happen with other HWs more than once. I wish Cwikly in particular well and I'm glad Ron is out, but I just don't think there is any will to ever truly change DAYS at this point. Not while Corday is there and not while much of the current audience has been geared to only remember JER and post-JER.

I'd like to know more about this. I know it was another soap within a soap or something. The Pickle Lila relish wars on GH in 2013 were a very pointed meta jab at Prospect Park - two competing outfits fighting over Lila's pickle brand and Tracy or A.J. vowing 'you'll never be the real Pickle Lila!' Oof.

It was an earful. I wonder if they got rid of that one. It was in the spring or summer of '15.

I'm afraid I won't be shocked if Varni asks him back given the current circumstances. I wonder if he and Frank can bury the hatchet, assuming they haven't already. Ron might be able to juice GH for a few months, but I don't want him back there long-term. At the very least not without a strong co-HW, which he has never had and I don't think ever will. Ohhhh, dish! Can we play Charades?

Maurice was one. Daytime Confidential in their prime (when Jamey was still there) was in Ron's pocket and very close to him, and spent most of that period subtweeting about shady actors betraying him not long before/after he was fired. The impression I got is the group may have included NLG, Stafford and others. Either way a lot of actors were (rightly) unhappy, the show was a debacle in 2015 especially and Ron was fired. I will never get over the DC meltdown in that period where Jamey went on a totally unhinged high-volume rant comparing Ron in-depth to Gloria Monty in 1991 with actors turning on her. He never seemed to grasp that in both cases the casts had good reason. (He also briefly admitted while speaking too quickly that he'd 'lied' that Ron's recent stories were good to be supportive, then walked it back)

LMAOO! Oh, Days.

I do. One or both can, but it is going to require real work after the last month. Van Jones has been a running online joke since Obama won and cast him out. He's not relevant outside of cable news producers and most people don't care what he thinks. And as for the public, not enough of them are fine with the old Trump - that's why he lost and kept losing since 2020. Without serious extenuating factors he has not had the numbers since '16. He bleeds support. A lot of the Beltway or the donor class loves to listen to online pundits or idiot contrarians/right wing adjacents who already hate the Dems (Yglesias, Nate Silver, Jeet Heer) because they fear actually looking at the party's positives means they're not in touch with the heartland, but that's not the real world or the reality of the race. Those contrarians, or the legions of Trump fans on Twitter who follow them, are also not possessed of some unique knowledge and should not be engaged with as though they have a legitimate take. This is winnable, but it means ending the party self-own cycle. One way or another.