Vee

Always a thrill when Soap Opera Network can grow its posting community at virtually any cost.

It might be unprecedented tbh, at least in the modern era. At least an en masse creative situation like this might be shaping up to be.

It will be a sight to see whatever happens, lol. It could all go very wrong like Michael Malone's utterly insane (but never boring!) second run at OLTL - he was the legend of my childhood and I was this thrilled and more when his return was announced over 20 years ago, and then it uh, took a turn. This could be great, it could be a mess but no matter what it will be instructive and educational for us all. It's definitely the first moment I've had real hope for GH in almost a decade though. What a time.

idk about that. Korte, Mulcahey and MVJ all go way back there IIRC. But yes, I do think Val Jean is likely back and man is it thrilling to be right about an idle thought a few weeks ago.

There is no chance NBC, Sony or Corday is letting these dudes go dick out, nor would most of them be willing to lol.

Don't get me started. She still looks great. I've long had a pet idea for what to do about that, but OLTL is sadly long gone.

On this you are correct. I've said before that Selina Wu has one expression and one tone of voice. She is a dayplayer fans glommed onto and as far as I've seen has no real range. I am all for the return of the Asian Quarter, more AAPI characters and an Asian mob queen - I just have never seen Selina as having much dynamism whatsoever. She slinks into every scene and always acts and sounds the same to me. But I'm in the minority.

I agree. The Beltway has always been trying to make the last few years about something they want it to be vs. what it is.

Little Ed/Ed Jr. was on a few seasons back played by Noel Fisher from Shameless. I had thought Lonnie appeared early on too but I may be wrong about that. I intend to finally catch up on the show; I know its progression has not been for everyone but I'm glad it's had a strong, long run.

That's been my suspicion for some time, especially since GH garnered a few writers of color in recent years.

Ugh. If (as it sounds) it's just folding FreeVee content like Neighbours into their new ad-supported plan then it's not a major difference, but still. I think these FAST options are important.

I just recalled us discussing this possibility, but you're welcome to go write another 10 years of Brooke, Ridge and the local pool boy! I hear it's good money.

Well well well. Val Jean is out at B&B.

Paging @Khan.

I'm aware that the peak is over, lol. I hear wildly mixed things from many people about the Latham/Lechowick regime, etc. and I am fascinated by the concept of the insane Dallas/KL switch before them which sounds like oil and water so I'm very curious about it all still. I don't expect it all to be awful from hereonin, but it'll definitely be a different experience. I do think it's a real shame we didn't get those HD remasters before I watched the first six years, particularly since broadcast TV took on a different and more current look overall in the late '80s/early '90s where the difference may not be as striking.

I was watching some of yet another Locher Room, this one a recent interview with Kassie DePaiva and her husband James from OLTL. Kassie isn't usually one to talk against anyone in public but she does mention that Grant Aleksander and Michael O'Leary were nice to her 'at times' and that at others they could be 'mean little shits' and she was never comfortable at GL. I had never heard of GA having that rep with anyone other than Judi Evans (and maybe Crystal Chappell) but it's clear the fratboy antics with Judi alone would let not fly today.

I loved Maria, but there is zero reason for Maria to come on this show.

So I've finally found some breathing room in my life after spending the last few months dealing with a lot of work and unexpected health and family stuff keeping me preoccupied (as well as other classic soaps I needed to catch up on), and while I'm still dealing with some stuff it's not as hectic as it was. As it continues to flood in LA and I have nowhere to go I thought I'd finally put a few random, brief thoughts out there on the last 3 episodes of Season 6 written months ago, not that anyone cares at this point (my last post about it is all the way back on page 139). Anyway, take 'em or leave 'em. The Ruth Galveston subplot has felt truncated to me for some time, likely owing to Ava Gardner's limited number of episodes; she just seems to fade in and out of the background throwing bon mots and barbs and then dissolving into the shadows. Ruth calling Laura a failure at the start of the Galveston family dinner and needling her about Richard was hysterical, but I don’t think I’ve seen enough of a build to the two women's now very open aggression. I was amused at how bluntly Ruth told a gobsmacked Abby 'your marriage to Ewing has run its course' and that it was time to mate with Greg. They could've done more with Ruth to close out this running thread for another handful of episodes in the following season IMO, but it's clear with the way this is being handled that the incoming Dallas creative team just wants to clear some decks where possible. (By this time they have likely already gotten the upstairs edict to get rid of Alec Baldwin and Joshua ASAP in S7, which may partially explain why Joshua and Cathy are totally missing from the finale.) For fans of Ava Gardner BTW, her very very strange fantasy romance Pandora and the Flying Dutchman with James Mason has been touring repertory movie houses across the country. It is weird as hell and I recommend it, but i think it's also on Tubi or Prime. Greg and Laura bantering in the bathtub after their latest fight over Ruth was fun, with Devane likely improv'ing hanging himself from his tie. “Tell me something," Laura pleads with Sumner, trying to get him to commit to his feelings. "Anything, I'm easy. Tell me something I wanna hear." "You mean a lot to me," Sumner allows, but adds "some things are not easy for me. Things that I feel. I need you." That is a lot to drag out of Greg in my experience so far, but it is enough to get him to tell Ruth to lay off at least. Abby showing up on the Galveston ranch in a bathrobe for Laura to see it is a stupid, stupid trick, assuming she came onto the property that morning just to do that since Greg is utterly clueless to her presence. It’s sub-Melrose Place, feels like a lazy late-stage Dallas ploy. Again, it just feels like the writers want this done. Amusingly Greg figures out Ruth's paltry scheme and sends her packing all offscreen between the last two episodes, with zero goodbyes or capper on the storyline. I wonder if they couldn’t afford Ava longer or if she was simply exhausted. At least Laura's hair is amazing now. More great work by director Nick Havinga in the equally infamous penultimate episode of this season - I imagine anyone who knows KL exists has seen either clips from these last two shows or from the first showdown with Abby and Val back in Season 3. Another fun soap cameo from GL's own Don Stewart as a shady contact re: Empire Valley. A storyline which now appears to be spinning its wheels in preparation for Season 7 after Gary was supposedly already clued in on the truth, and a story where we know the new writers again got the order to kill this Dunne-crafted umbrella arc as soon as possible. Karen to Mack about Ackerman: "I know obsessive personalities!" No shít! The famous ending of Episode 29 is nicely structured stage-wise, with Mack, Karen and their nurse eyewitness all arriving separately slowly at the bridge tournament for Ackerman to see, with the sinuous music cue building almost like the mounting stakes in that damn card game. The payoff with the chase and parking lot finale we've all seen by now almost makes the interminable bridge game quest over the last 5-10 episodes worth it. And then there's Episode 30 (The Long and Winding Road): The opening from longtime director Alexander Singer is great: Very punchy, handheld Hill Street Blues-esque cross-cutting without music, just sirens and local sounds, strobelit by police lights as Ackerman's home is ransacked while Karen is still in shock over the suicide, being questioned by the police. This is where prosecutor Mack, the most skeptical player in this baby saga of all, commits himself fully by desperately, illegally ransacking Ackerman's house. Again, no primetime soap that I know of, then or in the '90s, was shooting or presenting material like this. Get used to me returning to this tiresome old point repeatedly over the next few items. Because it's time for post-coital bagpipe-playing Ben! Oh, Ben, no. Joan Van Ark gets the hilarious deadpan understatement over this adorable sequence: "This is getting a little weird." There's more character to thirty seconds of this kind of cute throwaway bit in between plot mechanics on this show than anything in late-stage Dallas, which is why the upcoming creative swap is that much more fascinating to me. They ratchet up a kind of Hitchcockian clock-watching tension throughout the finale, as the audience is waiting, waiting, waiting on Joe Regalbuto's Harry Fisher to see the Ackerman suicide headline in the daily paper while Karen, Mack and Ben are running out of time to move on the adoptees. Would Fisher keep a Google alert on this today, or would he be too cautious? The hour beautifully follows one long day as Fisher finally finds out about Ackerman and plans to make a hasty break, and how our lead characters start to come together and prepare themselves for the moment. It's not just a frenzied rush through the alpha plot. Also great: Abby doing the right thing on Val's beach. As soon as she knows she's protected re: the information she tells Val about the babies, but we already can tell Val isn't too shocked, just at peace. This gives us the awkward, beautiful scene of the two rivals in the car, alone with the radio and some tinny country music as an edgy Abby is increasingly unsettled over Val's silence and serenity. "I always knew they were alive," Val says simply. The writers (Joel Feigenbaum is credited in this case) lovingly elongate these character interludes as the episode just keeps building itself up; that's how we get stuff like Gary and Karen hanging out on the Pacific Coast Highway waiting for Mack and Ben, each of them struggling with knowing what to do or talk about. Instead every pair of characters in the mix has the same shared question about the Fishers (or Val): "What are we gonna say?" Again: Sorry, Dallas just cannot compare. The climax at the Fisher house is staged operatically by Singer - it looks and feels like a standoff in an old Western, with everyone planted across the street in various pole positions for the camera. This heightens the drama when Val looks back at all of them as she arrives with Abby, and finally realizes that they all know. Incredible blocking and visual/emotional geography. I've taken a long enough break from my KL/Dallas dive, so it's time to go back and begin diving into the great creative team swap: KL Season 7 and the legendary Dallas Dream Season. I will talk about it (starting with the S7 premiere followed by Dallas' crossover premiere "The Family Ewing") when and where I can assuming people have an interest.

Kristen Alderson is back again being interviewed for her new Lifetime movie (also featuring PSSNS' James Hyde) and discussing OLTL's recent losses.

Yeah, Facebook fanbase groups are not worthy of culling for weak thirdhand gossip (and generally Twitter isn't either).

He's a very mediocre performer so far IMO. He just sort of meandered through those scenes with Sonny tossing off clunky exposition about Karen, etc. whereas Mo actually half-woke up a bit (probably to intimidate the new actor, lol). It's all just so embarrassing. It's nice if an actor is nice to people on social media, but that doesn't mean they should all be employed on the show.

Dex was really out here risking it all in the Claudia Zacchara Memorial Forest just to not dime out Michael over a personal beef between family. Who cares? Give it up, twunk. tf is old man Gregory sleeping in Finn's apartment? The fireplace? Violet the kind of kid to roll him into the flames in his sleep, then turn to the camera for a big close-up on her snaggletoothed grin as Frank smiles indulgently in the control room. If the Finn/Chase clan finally gets banished we'll know Frank is really losing his grip, because it's clear this obnoxious child is his latest young Spencer/Sam Manning/Starr/etc. and he finds everything she does to be a delight. "I need to protheth thith." Ugh. Willow asking Michael if he's told 'the kids' he's staying for good. Plural? You mean not just Pee Pants Wiley but also your miracle baby that is less than a year old? This show makes me so tired.

Nothing about the strike material I saw rocked my world despite what others have said, and I can't see Mulcahey going scab for it. Nor did it seem recognizable to me.