Vee

That is actually something apeshit crazy that Phyllis would do. It's not a terrible story idea, but I am sure (if it's an actual spoiler) that the execution will be terrible and then try to ultimately forgive her too quickly and try to spread more blame on Diane.

Fake Roku TV screensaver skyline aside, the font is giving Terrence Howard's Haunted House Halloween special.

It looks worse than the old GH city skyline from the 2000s tbh, and that didn't look very good either.

Yeah, that city skyline graphic looks amateur hour to me, at least in this raw clip. That isn't necessary if you can't do it well. It looks like the Roku TV screensaver tbh. Real ones know!

I.... dunno about that skyline.

I'm a barely practicing half-Jew myself, but my understanding is if your mother's Jewish you're full-on Jewish. Have I shamed my (partial) people again? Anyway, they ended up casting that Nazi.

14 or so, to be fair.* I think there is plenty to do without Sonny for Brenda. But I would re-pair her with Sonny, have them carefully and slowly work through their issues and his renouncing the mob (mostly), and they would be the Victor/Nikki or Mac/Rachel senior supercouple and that would be it. There is no other plausible romantic story left for either of them when the other is around, not since 2011 and not now. No more triangles, no more outsiders, no more break-ups. Victoria Wyndham(?) knew when to put her foot down about that at AW and she was right. VM would take the lion's share of story and Sonny would be relegated to Victor-esque white-collar schemes. Anyway, we've all talked about this many times.

Such a terrible miscast there, especially of (IIRC) a still somewhat rare Jewish character.

I've never been into Hennig. I never understood why people were so into her.

Dipping into '86 and the seemingly somewhat transitional period where they still had supercouple David and Jenny but Rauch was remaking the show lock, stock and barrel. I didn't know Asa/Buchanan Enterprises ever had this amazing super-'80s set of his giant office, with a global map/sculpture piece on the wall and a bunch of cameras. It reminds me of Robert's old penthouse/spy lair on GH. I wonder how long it stuck around (I assume it or pieces of it later became Carlo and then Todd's penthouse - or was that Dorian and Herb's?). Steve Fletcher looked very hot as Brad with a beard. He should've grown one long before.

JER loved to make everyone race car drivers on his shows back then for no real reason (E.J. and Max were both racers and I'm not sure E.J.'s origins there have been mentioned in aeons), but I actually thought the profession suited the child of an '80s supercouple from an era of high-octane action (and a man like Steve). Once she was dumped I found Stephanie became a much more conventional and boring heroine in both looks and persona.

Oh right, that may be who I was thinking of instead. IIRC the rumors there were specifically about the Morgan actress and Ed Scott. I loved Shayna Rose, the redhaired racing Stephanie too. I found it a unique look and character type. Most people hated her though. I've found every Stephanie since boring.

I was astonished that everyone just shrugged off her being out of that Arab prison and seemed blase about her being back in the world.

Yep. That story got out of hand. I found Willow utterly intolerable but it was clear someone at the show was absolutely fascinated with her. I vaguely remember some gossip claiming the actress was involved with someone BTS but I may be imagining things. And didn't she somehow end up in the DAYS writing credits a few years ago?

(He went down on Colby.)

This sounds hysterical.

I didn't recognize Amber at first. But she's still beautiful.

They still could tbh. But I like Cody, frankly. His introduction was botched and I do not buy the Dominique thing at all but a sexy stablehand who is related to Mac is not so bad.

I get that. I think you can have her run into some PR trouble which helps knock her down for a bit and bring her back to town, but I would never totally strip it all from Brenda. I think some characters are just meant to be the icon.

They could cut 10 people to find money to redo FOTH. It will never be topped and needs to be remade. The original tune is back in style as is tbh.

It's some days back but I did want to say how impressed I was with the extended and emotional scenes they gave Jon Lindstrom, Kristina Wagner and JJY re: their mixed feelings over Ryan's death. The show has changed for the better in some ways in recent years and that is one of them; they really honor those historical friendships with them, Anna, etc. that go back decades. Maybe because the show has run other vets off and it's by necessity lol, but it still is very, very valuable how consistent and strongly featured these characters and their love for each other are. And so unusual now. It's not cutesy lip service like how Frank and Ron would toss off scenes for 'the olds' in the mid-2010s either.

I think she can establish new relationships, sure. But I also think she has enough as is to root her. I don't think you can scale Brenda's stature back at this point though, nor do I want to - there are very few soap characters that become that kind of public-facing figure in their universes and are able to last long-term but I do think Brenda can choose to do different things while re-settling in PC and then most of her bigger public life can be offscreen. And I don't think Brenda losing it all or being humbled is that interesting or fun. Like Victor on Y&R or Erica on AMC, much of her global affairs can be filtered through the lens of what happens on GH and in Port Charles and that is manageable enough, JMO. The Quartermaines adore Brenda, Ned adores Brenda, Lucy adores Brenda and the footprint of Brenda is still massive across the town and in the mob circle. That is enough to make her relevant.

Dex is too old to be Alec Barrett. Let's not do this again like the embarrassment with people trying to make Oscar happen. The obvious way to bring Alec on is find a talented young LGBT teen to play the role, not try to awkwardly kludge existing randos into somehow being able to be the progeny of THEE Brenda Barrett. I would never buy that with Carly, lol. I just can't see Brenda breaking bread with Carly, or with the woman who seduced Sonny after framing A.J. and getting him killed (Brenda had a friendly relationship with A.J. to the end). Brenda is an island unto herself with a lot of the current cast, but that's okay because so many of the longterm vet characters adore her and she has such a legendary image/background as an in-universe celebrity that she generates stories. I would have Brenda involved with Deception and Lucy to a degree (Nina would probably go insane again and leave or die), but I would make it part of something much bigger or just blow the company up again to something even higher-tier than it currently is. Brenda is not meant to be running Crimson, for example; Brenda is the cover story at Crimson. The current Deception, etc. workplace is too small for Brenda's public stature. Sasha and Maxie would cease to exist, Sasha permanently and Maxie for a good few years.

They can try. DeSantis won't win and probably can't get the nomination.

I think Corday was scared of doing anything very different than the usual Reilly-esque playbook they'd been working out of almost nonstop since he first left, and that is initially what they were trying to do. When his power and that house style was threatened by first Sheffer and then Ed Scott we know what happened. Similar mess with McPherson and Thomas a few years later. Not that any of those runs were exactly works of genius, but you could feel, see and hear it any time you'd watch something potentially smart get the DAYS treatment by the time it made it to air - production-wise, editing-wise, music-wise, story-wise. It isn't until the Kristen return IMO that the show began to change its typical rhythm a little bit, and even now it's still insane.