Vee

Both! Charlotte would be de-Spencered as well on the way out. I mixed her and Violet up, they're both unwatchable. I would make Joss into a schemer/comic relief vixen and keep her on a low-burn for awhile. I would recast eventually when it's time for her to have bigger story again. Dex would be gone. I have a few ideas on how to handle Chavez's inevitable exit, but probably not what people are expecting. I forgot to mention Nina, I added her in above. But I would do a long psycho arc exit with her so Watros can do what she does best, with Nina losing her mind again finally over Brenda.

I'd honestly have to go into the wikipedia page to keep track of all the fuckin' losers and randos still on this show I could cut lol. But for starters: Willow Faked Her Cancer Michael (several years' break and recast!) The Artist Formerly Known as Maxie (same) The entire Chase family including Finn and that demon Billy Joel (Valentin) and his mutant hellspawn (Charlotte) Old Man Cyrus Hat Man Good Morning America host Cameron Mathison (might recast Drew again after a minute) Test Pattern Curtis You Can Tell I'm Not Willow Because They Changed My Hair (Sasha) Nina (after a Cynthia Watros psycho arc with Brenda) I'm sure I'm missing some obvious gimmes but that's a start! Diane would be banished to Horny Jail and only come out when a lawyer is needed. No more romances for Madame. I would also finally write Sam out after a not too long period. I love when people always then ask 'oh, but where will you get more male/female characters'? Here's an idea: If characters don't work or are burnt out, write them out instead of just plugging away with the same safe faces. Add new characters!

They can fire a minimum of 8-10 people and dump at least half the recurring losers tbh. And if Rena wants to stay on regular recurring like all those other schmoes we see constantly instead of contract, fine.

IIRC it's been said Rena and/or Wally vetoed any onscreen romantic reunion, which I can understand. But they don't actively deal with the elephant in the room re: Ned marrying a virtual clone of his ex-wife with identical backstory who was and is her close friend, when it should be a goldmine for story. It 100% needs to be discussed and played out, even if Lois and Ned don't get back together (and while they're at it they can have Olivia tempted by Scorpio again). And Lois, a supposedly successful music tycoon, could easily set up her business back in PC again and get a new man if Rena is willing to commit to the show. At first I thought there was no point having her around for long unless Ned and Lois could reunite, but seeing her onscreen I just find it to be such a waste of talent. She can do more. Lots of partners in UK soap supercouples have gone on to strong pairings outside of the big couple, because those shows can and will divest themselves of those when they choose to. Rena could be the same, but they have to write full, strong material. The problem is GH doesn't write robust material for virtually anyone at this point. Beyond a handful of house rules and favored actors they have no commitment to anything but marking time.

They did actively try to retain/migrate things over from Billy Miller's Faux!Jason to Burton's real Jason - the much closer relationship with both Jake and Monica, which Miller's Drew had, became something they tried to patch onto Steve. Didn't work for me, but regardless Jason and Monica's relationship changed from then on in a good way.

Yeah, them playing this whole thing like the Claudia or Dante reveals is so silly. I love seeing Rena but I fail to see what purpose they have for her if they can't seriously dig Into the Ned and Olivia of it all with her (which they should, even without a reunion). They could make her work on canvas sans Ned, but it would require real investment in her, her business and probably a real love interest, not the tossed-up recurring players and C-plots they throw at half the show. Have Ned and Lois had any serious scenes talking about their past or him and Olivia?

I think that's deliberate by the writing, again. If they can't end the pairing with Sonny they'll keep her pathetic to appease a portion of the audience (or themselves).

It's very weird. It got pulled from both Amazon then Tubi at the end of 2024 - I'm not sure when Amazon dropped it.

That reminds me: New year, new season for me!

This isn't exactly a new phenomenon - writers (Korte, Guza) were often teflon-ing Carly long before Ron Carlivati.

To be clear: These March episodes are from right after Marland took over?

I don't remember that being nearly as much of a factor as Nina. I thought the Jason thing was mostly swept under the rug the instant Sonny returned (which I agree was idiotic, but the Jason/Carly romance reprise was also super rushed and inexplicable to begin with - that story with Sonny back could've been legitimately good), but I barely paid attention. The entire Sonny/Nina situation has always been super strange tbqh. While I like Watros and think she and MB have chemistry, I do not care about Nina and actively hated her when Stafford had the role; she could leave tomorrow. That said it's almost like the show has to endlessly humiliate her because they want Sonny/Carly back together for the FB hausfrau audience, or want to make sure that audience is appeased, or like some of the writers (Liz Korte still?) are hardcore for Carly, but they’re seemingly stuck with this pairing because Maurice wants it. Like, there’s never not been a period when they are not making Nina out to be the worst person to hit PC just because she won Sonny - she is always either apologizing for something or embarrassing herself or being scorned by half the town. It's like if they can't have S&C back together they still have to make sure the new love interest eats shît. it’s somewhat similar to the resentful writing for Robin that cropped up at times, which was never as bad as this. But there were many, many scenes where she was told how lucky she was that Patrick could ever want her, how close he and Carly were, how sanctimonious she was and so on. They could never do Robin like they did Nina and they were clearly invested in her still, but there was an undercurrent there sometimes from Guza or someone under him. They even had Anna tell Robin over and over how lucky she was to have a catch like Patrick, lol.

Carly and Drew did in fact break the insider trading laws re: ELQ or Aurora or something. Nina just reported it. The show has made it into way too big a deal considering they were actually guilty lol. No one knows. They just needed a pairing for Laura Wright tbh. It's awful. They broke up a couple years back not too long after Sonny returned from Nixon Falls with Nina. I don't remember how long - maybe six months? Maybe nine? Sonny realized his feelings for Nina were still there and ultimately left Carly for her. I don't love any of it either.

The superior Sam returns.

I think some sources have said Sly opted to move back to be with Paul and Jenny around that time. I don't know if it was ever depicted onscreen, or just mentioned in dialogue. I have always wanted him to reappear, but I live in mortal fear that Liz would fûck him too and that's just a few Lucky connections too many.

I really liked Viv and her doomed husband in the plane crash episodes. But I wasn't surprised to hear that all of them and even the amazing Shirley at the Woolpack had croaked in the intervening years, and many of the young characters had met dire fates. (I thought the original child Scott also did quite a good job portraying PTSD, clinging fearfully to his horse) The complaint here reminds me of when EE killed off Dennis Jr. a few years ago - a huge waste of future potential given his lineage.

I'm still steadily catching up on my Neighbours backlog but I glanced at the 2024 preview recently posted and I have to say it's remarkable that Guy Pearce appears committed to making semi-recurring appearances as Mike for Jane vs. their immediately breaking up or him being killed off, which is what I'd expected. What a class act.

John, we both know we could line up at least 8 useless people on contract at this show and still not be done making room.

Not that confusing - I knew a fair bit of Emmerdale background on some stuff going in, and the rest was easily researchable. I do think it's a shame both next generation Sugden boys are gone atm but what are you gonna do. Frank Tate is even sexier than I remember, sorry not sorry. It's a very strong month-plus of episodes.

Tubi had a good selection of past Emmerdale - until today. Not sure where it'll end up next. Fortunately I'm still able to finish watching the plane crash saga and its January '94 aftermath, as part of my holiday soap viewing. I want to thank @DRW50 among others for providing a wealth of knowledge, it's been interesting digging into other key events in Emmerdale's past. I can't believe they killed off Frazer Hines not long after this. I know he's supposedly been rallying to come back; they could do (and have done) far worse.

Good riddance! I've never understood that recast. The last guy was fne.

Yeah, I am pretty certain it was Wheeler/Kreizman who undid Sandy as Jonathan. I may be wrong but I don't think so. They were right to do it, it was so anticlimactic and he was such a lame character. I always thought it was a huge mistake not trying to get Billy Kay back. He seemed poised for big things with L.I.E., etc. (with Brian Cox and a very young Paul Dano) but sort of vanished.

Tom Wilkinson was an absolutely towering talent. (Small soap note: That is a very young Austin Williams, Shane Morasco from OLTL, glimpsed in the scene with George Clooney above.) I saw him live in Guys and Dolls many years ago. What a talent. I recommend people see him and his brother at their best in Francis Ford Coppola's recut version of his own Cotton Club film - The Cotton Club Encore - which centers their characters more than the theatrical version and is now free on Amazon Prime.

He wasn't. He got written out early in the 'second season' (actually mid-Season 1, but they broke them into two when it debuted in the summer) and replaced on the show by Don Michael Paul's character. I actually liked BG on Models and was bummed about that. Gaskill had been presented as an early-mid 20s young professional on Models, and as a kid I was not used to such intense daytime soap SORASing yet. So I was flabbergasted when maybe a few months later (if that) he turned up on AMC on a high school set opening his fuckin' locker! He looked way too old to be playing someone near my age.

It was obvious from the jump the stalker was supposed to be Jonathan, whoever he turned out to be played by. The choice (under Conboy/Weston IIRC) of his being Sandy was always bizarre to me. I didn't like the character and his strange introduction as a voice-over DJ with a hand puppet or something was just another bizarre flourish of that team.* Plus Sandy just seemed too pedestrian a guy to be Reva's long-lost tropical prince of a son. He was a boring guy with a bit of generic spunk. It was a nothing event. Which is why it didn't surprise me when the next team changed it up and found Pelphrey, hellbent on revenge. *(Ironically, OLTL '03 had one of its few successes around this time with Al Holden as radio DJ The Voice of the Night, following in stepmother Luna's footsteps - but we knew fairly quickly it was Al, a character the audience was invested in, and there were no fúckin' puppets.)