Vee

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.

Missy returning... to her hometown!

I just think there's room for both Sheffer's many flaws and the long, long, long-running institutional issues at DAYS, particularly in that era where Corday would micromanage and whenever in doubt, always rehire Dena or Gary Tomlin.

I absolutely adored early Nick. It was inspired material, and they took pains to show he was not a pushover or a schmuck just because he was a geek. Then they destroyed him in record time. I never got behind Dark Nick because I hated how the show had fùcked over a character who was not a stereotypical DAYS hunk. He and Rachel Melvin were great together.

So as we noted, a classic 2000s-era SOD issue. They did that for years.

Yeah, Hogan Sheffer was big into pairing Max and Mimi and Chelsea with Nick, his creation. He talked these story plans up with real game in the soap press, and openly mocked DAYS' tendency to pair up cousins and relatives like Max and Chelsea. I was all for it as well as his planned Mimi/Max/Abby triangle. Cut to a couple months later: Farah Fath quits. Nick sleeps with Chelsea's mom and begins a series of spiraling stories designed to humiliate him and marginalize the character that end in insanity. Max and Chelsea are eventually re-paired and written off together. All with Sheffer still at the show. I don't think those were his ideas, I blame Corday. Not that Sheffer is an untouchable genius by any stretch of the imagination, and he did a lot of bad shít at that show too, but I liked many of his early ideas at DAYS (not the E.J./Sami car rape!) and I think he got run over trying to do anything intelligent with the show post-JER. He was not the first nor the last.

If it wasn't Frank it would happen, IMO. I'll be amazed and pleased if she turns up, but I don't expect it. I think Frank is convinced he can hang the show on Joss, the ever-compelling Valentin, Maura and Howarth, Liz plugged in to stories or characters he wants to support, Spencer (Trina optional), Esme, Carly and Drew, Sonny and Cynthia Watros.

I think she just knows her value to the show and is not afraid to throw her weight around, as she has before at GH. I think that irks FV and did especially in 2013, as he has always sought to control the show's biggest stars (like playing hardball with Burton in 2012) or supplant them with his favorites where possible. He and ABC went round and round with Genie and to a lesser extent Finola on certain things in years since. Vanessa has always been volatile, and he can't control her or what she says. I would be in more support of an EP making it clear no one person is bigger than the show if it wasn't clear VM is a boon to the show, is willing to play ball and if FV had not made it his business over the last decade to push his preferred non-GH favorites while trying to shaft other longtime hugely important female leads in lieu of them. In this case, and almost none other, FV seems to have an ego about a big star. He made peace with Burton when the time came, pre-COVID because he knew what he thought was the bottom line of getting him back. (Even though I didn't want him back) He bowed to Tony Geary. He did these things because he felt keeping the key stars happy and in place was the right thing for GH and had net value. But Vanessa Marcil makes it clear she's not going to get screwed and he (seemingly) refuses to have her back. That's not the right thing for GH.

Definitely, lol.

LMAOOOOO

I'm not convinced Vanessa isn't just doing Vanessa and going rogue. I know she'd return if asked. I'll believe Frank lets her back on-set when I see it. The rest is welcome.

We all enjoy when Eric does his thing for a righteous cause. This was not it. Eva has always been humble about the soaps and her origins (soaps, flipping burgers at Wendy's, etc).

Tatyana Ali, who Y&R couldn't find a real story for.

I still cannot believe this show, which was hard up for nickels a few years ago, is now able to spend money on an actual live fùcking horse. The production value is not perfect but has majorly come up in the world in the last couple cycles, esp compared to Y&R and DAYS. Back in the Carlivati days Frank would've just shown us the silhouette of an abandoned plastic carnival horse and had some vague whinnying noises offscreen. You know that when COVID Steve comes back Comet is headed to the Elmer's factory though. I'm just waiting for this horse to end up in the terrible Powerpoint opening just like every local core child who utters two syllables. Valentin whining about Lucy makes me want to murder the Mr. B Natural of the Cassadine clan that much more. Also, Marshall is the only man I've ever seen who seems disappointed that he is not schizophrenic and has been laboring under a martyred delusion for decades. He also regularly possesses the same singular facial expression as Morn from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Every time he enters a scene I finish his dialogue for him: "Just wanted to let y'all know I have a new hat... me and the hat wanted to stop by and check on you."

Who among us? I remember multiple people insisting for over a decade that Devon and Abby was the wave of the future for this show that only ignorant cowards could not see, presumably by way of their family lineage and little else. How they calculated this with Melissa Ordway in the role (and Bryton is, as you say, complicated) is beyond me. If Abby had had a fully-formed personality, say a decade ago, you might've been able to create something. She hasn't and never will have one beyond third-tier ditz. Her only value is her parents' bloodline and that is not enough to keep her around.

Utterly unsurprised that Puck News is mixed up in this. I didn't even know there was a Kaitlan Collins/Don Lemon feud or that they had a show - thanks Chris Licht. Meanwhile:

I assume most of the available coin also went/will go to SNW and would also go to a new show. PIC's last cycle just got the short end. I thought everyone last week was great including the guest I will reluctantly elide mentioning for a day or two more, but I will say I think Gates especially plus Jeri Ryan, Frakes, Dorn, etc. are all doing excellent work too. I don't think anyone is being left in the dust atm.