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I've never seen the point of Sarah Brown returning to GH as anyone but Carly, and I still don't. I think she did very solid work, even if it was often very redolent of Carly. I think there are some very watchable moments in her run despite it mostly being very dark, ugly story; if you can accept that then you can enjoy some of the material. I never really cared about Claudia or what she wanted or her in any pairings; I saw her as strictly an antagonist and I thought the gothic, incestuous Zacchara family was an interesting, kooky bunch at first that ultimately got overplayed (especially Anthony). I thought she did well and didn't embarrass herself or bore me like most of the soap twins we could cite. But ultimately I didn't need Claudia, I wanted Carly.

Few, but some. Kevin on GH is the one I can think off the top of my head, which is frustrating since I was just thinking on this the other night. People could make an argument for Maggie Stone on AMC but I wouldn't necessarily agree. The character only worked when stuck to Bianca, like Frankie, and even then was a muddle. I wouldn't know enough about Francesca James' Kitty/Kelly to know if that was a success, but she was in a prominent couple with Linc.

The Salem Stalker did one thing well - it got eyeballs on the show. JER was very good at that. He wasn't very good at much else after the '90s. The deaths were often played for laughs and executed in the most cartoonish way possible, both script-wise and in embarrassing production value. You got to watch essential characters brutally slaughtered in comic ways while knowing the writer was giggling his way through it. I am a big fan of slasher movies; I think a serial killer story on a soap can be a lot of fun and good when done well and I am all for one that works right. (Some portions of the Music Box Killer story on OLTL a year later, ironically featuring Matt Ashford as the culprit, did a decent job.) But the SS as executed was just exploitative trash. This extended to the character and dialogue work, the endless dream and fantasy sequences, the 'clues' and omens that went nowhere. JER wrote for sub-literate children after he left DOOL the first time, not that the dialogue was in great shape before he left (everyone talking to themselves or monologuing about exposition non-stop). In the early 2000s a lot of young fans online gave him an immediate pass because of their memories of their childhood. But once the millennium hit it was all his Catholic guilt over sexuality and fetishes, all his psychosexual obsessions with rape, gender, misogyny, the Church, etc. all at once, all the time. It's a fascinating subject for an academic paper but as a soap it was unwatchable. Nothing JER did onscreen at PSSNS in the last years of his life could ever make it to air today, nor should it. And the Salem Stalker was a precursor to torture porn. Just nihilism, because he clearly was wrestling with some of that at the core of his nature.

She tried this again at OLTL in 1999, where she went without a HW for most of the year after Pam Long split in either late '98 or early that year (I still wonder what if anything Long wanted to do at that show - I only remember her commenting on Roger Howarth being difficult to write for in '98). ABC ultimately made her take McTavish, and they became a gruesome twosome.

Mulcahey was a key and prominent part of the writing team at GH in the late '90s often name-checked by actors and other writers and journalists (like Karen Harris, or Michele ValJean who created the Liz rape saga from her own experience, another close friend of PM's who is still at B&B), but he was never HW. Before that, his storied resume goes on and on in this thread - Santa Barbara, GL under Marland and Curlee, etc, one of their key writers too. He apparently had a tough co-HW stint at GL with others(?) in the early-mid '90s but my understanding is that by then there were many, many cooks in the kitchen and JFP micromanaged everything. @DRW50 would know more. Or @Khan perhaps.

He couldn't act on GH. He was embarrassingly bad in the role. Twinkdom or former twinkdom does not entitle you to a job. Frankly I'm still not convinced he can act. He got a lot of attention on AMC but a lot of that was just yelling to me. Well, first, Mulcahey would never have permanently killed off Lucky. He wrote a lot for the Spencers. Second, he was a staff writer at the time, not HW. And third Lucky's death was always shown to be a fakeout; Jonathan pre-taped material showing him imprisoned before he exited.

It was very well-known Jonathan Jackson was capitol-G Gone the instant his contract was up - he was thought to be a movie star (and almost was). It was all his choice, there was never any question the show would've killed to keep him if it was up to them. But they knew he wanted to spread his wings. Neither Tony nor Genie wanted Lucky recast at all and pushed against it, but eventually I think they got TG at least behind Jacob Young, a more network-ready hunky choice for a recast, who was still hot from B&B at the time. How they did so is beyond me as Jacob was in no way equipped for that part.

I'm not going to debate what Trump would do on Israel and Palestine because I do not believe he's not getting back in office.

I like America Ferrera, but it feels like a very condescending nom; like, 'oh, we'll give them something for the famous monologue'. It was a great scene and she did great. Do I think it needed a nomination, no, but that's the weird giveth and taketh mentality of the Academy.

It's pretty ridiculous that both Gerwig and Robbie got snubbed IMO (Gerwig was also snubbed for the equally excellent Little Women). And probably an angry response from the Academy's senior members. Thrilled about Anatomy of a Fall, but this is dirty pool to me and we're probably going to see another round of anonymous ballots with grumpy Academy members bitching about wokeism or something re: Barbie. Never mind that it was the biggest movie of the year, and not exactly coasting on woke capital and tear-stained online social media posts (like other movies in recent past I could name). The rumors today that Paul Thomas Anderson ghostwrote KOTFM are wild.

Oh, he was great in a lot of things. I didn't even recognize him for hours when I finally watched some of ENT - he totally disappeared into that Vulcan character. Sort of a TV version of Scott Glenn. What a talent.

This may possibly be another interesting, instructive moment in the genre to examine. I've talked about a few of them in the last decade-plus where we've gotten to see soaps either reconstruct themselves or soft reboot, either on streaming (Neighbours on Amazon, OLTL and AMC on Hulu) or in attempted onscreen revamps (Sally Sussman's troubled return to Y&R, where she opened on a classic Abbott family breakfast episode to try to cleanse the audience's palate and evoke the past). Even recently, looking at the recovered Edge of Night episode from 1975 where they jumped to ABC with a special event, much of that episode's story was devoted to recapping ongoing plot for new viewers and did it fairly seamlessly using a variety of devices (court testimony, a character telling a doctor about his patient, etc). McPherson and Thomas' infamous DOOL run also attempted a soft reboot with the Horton Square gala or whatever it was, in 2011. Will Mulcahey and co. attempt something like these gestures in his opening hours to give GH a touchstone to what it used to be back when soaps had some authenticity? I think it's entirely likely it will be much more low-key and we may not have a big fanfare at first. But who knows. Into the bathroom!

I knew when they covered the move with an endless onscreen dance marathon to save on sets the show was fûcked.

I wasn't that shocked (though the simultaneous axing was a bit much). I knew they were not likely to can AMC without first taking OLTL out, on principle. It was the stronger show and was doing well but ABCD has always had a specific mindset about OLTL regardless of quality or numbers, and that bore out. AMC had been on life support and everyone knew it, but OLTL was tossed with it because of network bias. That's if Frank still has that leeway. Recent events suggest perhaps not. And no, Frons begged Disney/ABC to save GH. They originally wanted to cancel all three en masse for the glory of The Chew/Revolution/etc. but Frons had always championed Guza's GH. He had to sacrifice Guza to keep it. That's the version of the story I know.

It's a real possibility, but I haven't heard any rumors or seen any major warning signs in the offing for GH whereas AMC had the stench of death around it for some time. Then again, I don't pay a ton of attention these days. But I will be back for this regime.

I was poking around classic OLTL since Kamar de los Reyes' untimely passing, and a hilarious LOV reference aired on OLTL in early October '95 that I never knew existed: Todd Manning muses aloud whether Viki and her alters had 'been whacking everybody in Corinth.' "I got a reporter down there who says they're piling up bodies like firewood!" Good old ABC Daytime.

A hard pill to swallow for Y&R fans, especially given this week's GH news.

When did they start clearly, actively moving towards or hinting at the affair and unfinished business? I've heard a lot about the weird happy families ending to the Two Romans and I believe I heard the pit, Stella Lombard, etc. began John and Marlena's reconnection but I'm curious on the timetable. And whose idea it was (I presume all JER).

In honor of the return of Patrick Mulcahey, I can't guarantee this essential scene is his but I feel fairly certain; nonetheless it is a stellar part of his GH tenure, as Luke tells Lucky about his rape of Laura. A masterwork of editing and sound design, and one of the best and most layered, dark pieces of work Tony Geary ever did as Luke clearly either relishes or fetishizes the worst moment in his life he has dreaded returning to. I've been looking for this scene in decent quality for years and this is good enough. It's timestamped; watch to the end.

I'm convinced @carolineg is still unconscious re: this news. I know I saw her hanging.

I don't know that that's any more than usual tbh, nor will it produce a huge new youth vote than before IMO. I am not horribly worried about November, yet at the same time I'm incredibly nauseous about facing down the rest of this brutal election year and even daring to take the risk. If that makes sense.

I'll be stunned if Sony ever gives two shîts. But then I sure didn't expect this announcement either. What a wild, difficult and very occasionally joyous decade for soaps so far. There was a rumor going round that Mal Young was lobbying to take back Y&R. But who knows if that's true.

In fairness, wasn't he also part of the Curlee, etc. writer corps at GL for many years before being promoted? Those were several brilliant years and I believe he's been credited with some big stuff - some of the blackout?

Like I said: It's a retirement plan. Which is why I'm shocked PM returned, though I gather he left B&B a few years ago.

I am curious why they give a shít now. I could understand finally flushing Roger Howarth twice given the rapist-killer baggage of Franco post-#MeToo and then needing to pay for Steve, but this is a systemic, creative sea change and for years ABC has been mostly happy for GH to simply keep the lights on at 2-3 PM, which Frank has done while doing little else for many years. I don't see a reason it couldn't continue to simply trundle along half-alive, as it's done for years. It has improved a fair bit since the Passanante/Altman days, but it's still often very moribund and safe. So why now? If it's true other staff writers are out, that also indicates something more. Virtually anyone left on staff that I know of other than Korte is either a Frank/Ron-era hire or post-Ron. It shows. Dan and Chris were FV/RC proteges from OLTL (and one or both were allegedly once asked to take over at OLTL 2.0 as part of its revolving door of micromanaged HWs in summer '13, right before the whole thing went kaput). Several young writers of color, I believe, were hired in recent years and I'd heard some were fired but I think several remain. Today I was reminded of course about Mulcahey's somewhat-curtailed plans for the Avants on B&B (referencing the Great Migration, etc.) and his attempts to get Wendell Pierce hired on SB. What a wild world. MVJ congratulated PM and EK on Twitter, so I doubt she's in. Wouldn't entirely shock me though. Thank you for adopting my name for that simp. Cannot believe he gets behind the ivories and does this over and over. You know Stefan's Force Ghost is out there in the fog muttering Russian slurs.