Vee

AMC's was easily the best, and should never have been retired for that Guiding Light Powerpoint-esque thing they did near the end. It had real specificity to that show and was made with detail and love. OLTL's was a total afterthought, terrible, and you could tell how Frons felt about the show. I think the most it had beyond a black stage and lights was a few very vague backdrops of a college campus, the Llanview U setting he briefly tried to put over for the youth set in 2004. I would bring back FOTH today, sequence, heads and all. I don't care. That would be one of my first orders of business lol. You could use the theme unchanged tbh, the sax is back in fashion enough. Or you could re-record it. I think FOTH is timeless and apart from a few cosmetic changes to the look I wouldn't do much to it. I've always felt it was a huge mistake to go away from it, first to the dumb rock version of the theme and then to Frank's even worse series of Powerpoints than AMC's, along with whatever the hell that thing was he used to do with the opening when he first took over in 2012. This show does not need to look like Generic Brand X, and that's what the current opening is. When you watched FOTH you knew where you were, and it was home. (I'd probably even try to get Lynn to do the eyebrow again)

I am not sure if Jason and Robin was already in motion by the time Labine's work was offscreen in March or April. I wouldn't be surprised.

Unsurprising at this point that Dante is lumped together with BLQ and Chase, not Lulu.

According to Labine, it was her. From WLS: The Carly situation has always been more permeable - from what I think Patrick Mulcahey and others have said, Labine had the rough thumbnail sketch of Carly as a vengeful long-lost daughter. Everything beyond that was the Guza team. But Jason's accident was definitely Labine, as was setting Jax up initially for Lois.

I despise them from the deepest pit of my black heart. Stop trolling me and repeating all my opinions from our private rendezvouses.

There is definitely a lot more forced, self-referential camp in recent years, probably a sign of the nostalgia-choked pop culture cycle we live in now as well as to offset the often very grim stories on the show. I agree they'd bring back Roxy and Ronnie if they thought it was possible. Those two are dead dead and those scenes still stick with me. There's a lot of dead weight of course. Like others I am amazed Linda is still there. What are they doing, waiting Danny Dyer out? I'm just waiting for her dead body to drop at this point, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet. They've killed loads on this show for less. I think people expect stunts from EE, especially at the holidays, and that's a fine tradition up to a point. But it becomes numbing when it transitions into rote and the results are too predictable. You have to use those moments and holidays a bit more sparingly. Like, I'm not surprised Anthony turned up dead. What does Chrissie coming back provide the characters long-term? Does she have any truly sensible beef with Zoe given what she did? Unless another kid of Den's turns up I can't see a purpose. Also, since they already let the genie out of the bottle a few years ago with the disastrous first attempt, I'll say it: They should go ahead and recast Michelle Fowler again.

He didn't. Miguel left in 1995. Jax first appeared in early '96. As for an older woman I'm pretty sure you're referring to Ruby Anderson, Luke and Bobbie's aunt and surrogate mother. The madam of a brothel who raised them after their parents died. She ran Kelly's for many years and was a regular character after first appearing in 1979. The actress, Norma Connelly, died in 1998 as did Ruby not long after. Pretty sure the woman on the beach with Sonny is Brenda.

How would you fix it? I'm not being flippant, I'm genuinely curious, but I do think EE has had major issues for years. My background with the show is similar to yours, thanks to PBS and the BBC's very free relationship at the turn of the millennium. It still does many things very well on a standalone basis but I think it got stuck in a loop of trying to top itself not long after killing Pauline in the snow. And then feeding on its nostalgia. I still see stuff I really admire every time I check in, but the nihilism or grinding depressive cycles seem to always be there.

I think if it was just about that they'd do it. It's been almost two years since Spencer, she has the same kind of contract as anyone else and tthey don't need to wait at this point. Kai is already on recurring. I think it's just the lazy, bog-standard plot they do with a lot of young people and their bio-parents too often on this show, even when (as in Trina's case, but she's not the first) they barely know one biological parent. It is crazy and shameful how much Taggert has been totally memory-holed. Marcus is someone who could lend Portia a kind ear right now - even if you had to recast if there is an issue with Real, which I hope there isn't.

Exactly.

Airplane glue, no less!

I've always thought it was a mistake not to use some of her dark history again in a new story. Not that the Laurelton mess was popular, but it's fertile ground to revisit that backstory sometime. Maybe a copycat, or a scheming true crime podcaster (something toyed with re: Felicia in the Ryan revisit, but I don't think much came of it).

That's all Lynn.

I definitely don't think Tabyana was ever a miscast. I do think this incredibly dumb material in the last year has hurt her. But you could say that for a lot of people.

Yeah, Buzz Stryker is also a strange character to me. Everyone seems super into him for awhile and then you never hear of him again. Were all of these Monty initiatives or did some come later?

Thanks for all this. That is a crazy timeframe. Did Celia leave Jimmy Lee because he was suddenly poor, or because of that setup?

I still am trying to understand what exactly happened with Jimmy Lee, Celia and his future wife and when. Were Jimmy Lee and Charity ever actually together onscrene before they went off together? Why did they write Celia out and how did it seemingly happen so suddenly?

GH still consistently has a ton of promising elements and actors in recent years, which is why I stick with it fairly regularly this last year-plus. And when they lock in it can still be compulsively watchable for weeks or months. The shame of it is the BTS biases and lazy habits that drag those good bones down.

They still got a few too many of them on the show, and not just from Martin! But his approach is unique lol. I respect that they want to shine a light on social issues on the show - I remember people being touched when they discussed the Black female incidence of some specific form of cancer or something like that a couple months back out of nowhere - but it can be slotted in a bit less clunkily. Which is not to say the cancer saga on GH back in the '90s didn't have some of that writing. In the end on daytime when you handle this stuff it always comes back to educating the audience, and it should. But it needs a few more passes on this show at times not to sound like Claybon or Tunie or whoever is reading off the prompter. (Ironically I have always used the '-' dash a lot when posting and now I guess it's a cornerstone of AI-written responses. Oh well!) I will say also re: fan engagement, Sean Freeman's IG is consistently hilarious. I had no idea a bunch of the cast did the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk a couple months ago and the many fans on the scene went apeshít for him, MM and even ol' Randy.

That would be hilarious and they should pursue it. Let Claybon have some more lighter fare in between having to do a lot of ChatGPT motivational speeches. He has loosened up a lot in recent months but he is particularly good with Mike Manning, Colby Muhammad and Ambyr Michelle, and they need to play those sibling bonds more for fun. Let us see why people voted for him.

I don't think the online feedback on BTG on social media has been too out of bounds, really. Compared to the savage shít you see re: the other soaps it's tame, and I mostly find it pretty healthy and encouraging in terms of volume and attention. Some stuff is unreasonable or parasocial but most of it is just typical intense soap engagement, which is good for the show. There's a lot of intensity especially re: Eva v. Kat and Leslie - you can tell some of it comes from people who are just not used to a five day a week soap opera with an ongoing villain and are throwing fits over it, but some of the complaints re: the confused POV on the show from day to day on Eva and Kat are valid. The show wants it both ways with Eva especially right now, and it's getting tedious to watch. As is the very blinkered take on Kat and Tomas which I hope will change. Leslie can sometimes be inconsistent too but that's a larger issue with the overall broader writing on the show. I do think they've got something interesting going for her with old Marcel. I have a suspicion someone in here was right (apologies for not remembering who) when they said WinterFest came and went in part because it was a planned exit hatch for the show if they didn't get picked up in order to wrap the storylines, and then they did. They're still playing the Laura angle with Leslie after the fact and that means that sooner or later she has to pay. I am very curious if there was any taping gap between the 'seasons" (a term I despise re: a daily soap opera) per any retooling.

@Errol was there any break in taping between 'season 1' and 'season 2?' (I refuse to call them that re: a daily serial but I know those intervals exist BTS)

Yes, that is the post I mentioned.

I actually became a fan of hers because she seemed so hypercompetent and no bullshít several years ago, and BK had the authority to match unlike a lot of the hospital crew at certain periods. Then they got her involved with Heather and began dragging the character full time, and now she's a mess. In other news Jason Thompson had an intv the other day gushing about Braedyn Bruner and wanting to work with her and explore the adult Emma, but insisting he was very very happy at Y&R. I do wonder.

I also would really like some actual ChelseaKat business drama. Preferably with a rival. I am all for Bill running against Martin, but they need to get deeper into the political arena for that to work and flesh it out as opposed to the vague stuff they did early on. We all knew Martin was never really going to run for president and there's a certain specificity they obviously have to elide, but you can still add more detail to that part of their world. I'd also be very much for a proper courtroom battle between Bill and Naomi.