Vee

No relation to Y&R:

Neither Nikolas nor Esme is a dark-skinned Black performer.

Not surprised.

I don't think Disney is super conservative at this point despite many valid criticisms of representation in their main line content. And I don't think Disney or ABC are exerting much oversight at all; they don't care much about GH at this point, it is a timefiller. But I do think Frank Valentini in particular, who is a producer bent on survival for his soaps above all, is very concerned about turning off the last of what he believes is a remaining core audience of white seniors in red states. GH was far bolder about interracial love onscreen 20 and 30 years ago than they are today. FV has a history of running from diversity when he thinks it affects the bottom line. Y&R and B&B have the relative protection of international money.

In fairness, that (streaming with ads) is what Hulu was at the time for AMC and OLTL; it was a cash flow/management issue there. But FreeVee is more explicitly ad-based and has no subscription fee or payment required whatsoever, which is even more convenient. You were ahead of everyone on FreeVee.

Which is why I'm very glad we passed an excellent climate bill when we could. This ventriloquism act is growing more bizarre and embarrassing by the hour:

It's obvious what is happening, and fans should be on their ass about it every single day on that GH hashtag tbh. Remember #WhyRatingsAreLow in 2015 when Ron got canned for Denise, Fluke, etc? That hashtag got heat and IMO the relentless pillorying did contribute to the drumbeat. People need to start cataloguing every day they fail to let their central young interracial couple kiss or be intimate after close to 18 months. They should find a hashtag and hit it every day, and see how long GH handles it. Because I am not convinced they'll kiss this month, next month or New Year's, and even if they finally do I'm skeptical it'll happen again any time soon. They seem scared and hesitant as hell, and I think it's cowardly and pathetic in 2022 when this show was doing onscreen interracial couples over 30 years ago.

We have been sleeping on F.A.S.T. a bit. It occurred to me not long ago its possibilities might be strong for soaps when I got very, very bored and began watching a lot of Dallas on FreeVee. I'll probably never fully recover from how close AMC and OLTL were to making it work, but it can be done again with many soaps. It's what should save General Hospital along with a complete creative overhaul porting it onto streaming, but that will likely not happen tbh. With the exception of Days, which may succeed against the odds some of us were predicting not long ago (due to Peacock's instability and poor quality) if their renewal news is true, I think the remainder of American soaps will have to be dragged off network TV to their deaths.

I don't think so, I think she just is appearing in the Tennant/Tate anniversary specials. But who knows. Over on IG, RTD seems very chummy with Bonnie Langford in the comments on his post of this which makes me wonder if it's definite Mel is back for more during the anniversary.

Heads up @DRW50@Faulkner:

Another (very graphic and violent) trailer for The Callisto Protocol, the upcoming sci-fi/horror game starring Josh Duhamel (AMC).

Same, which is why I've never had an account. I'll also really miss the more lower-case elements of film twitter, wherein you can plug in the name of virtually any film or director and find people with new or unique appreciations of anything. I think Musk bought it genuinely thinking he could conquer. Men like that will almost always stay well-off, but his ego is imploding and will continue to do so.

As happy as I am to see Twitter potentially go on many levels, I think in the short term at least the effect on both political/corporate activism and media criticism will be negative. Things like the Ukrainian resistance, the Arab Spring, BLM, #MeToo, etc. could never have reached so many nationwide or worldwide and demanded notice and action from the powerful, or connected to parts of the world that might have had no real idea, without the platform of Twitter. Activists, freedom fighters, could not so easily have communicated or reached a wider audience. China and Russia, American law enforcement or corporate media in America, would not face the constant pressures they do, and Trump, etc. here would not be facing such strong headwinds against them today. I would love to keep the good and leave the toxic, but that's not how human nature works; you always get both. I can only hope that what comes next will still find an easy way for people to connect and challenge injustice.

Another take on recent events. I'm agnostic on this but I trust Stern, so I'll do the reading. Meanwhile:

Mitt Romney all but openly pleads for SCOTUS not to screw them again. Meanwhile:

Coming next week:

Granted, it is a guest op-ed from the right-wing AEI, but:

Fantastic news.

This is really beautiful and a prime example of what soaps do at their best. They provide a service in people's homes and educate everyday people, adults and children, who might not have perspective on a social or political issue, or in this case a chapter in our history. When Doug Williams can listen to Clary's story and call him friend and learn and be emotional with him, that tells an audience who has watched and loved Doug for years they can do it too. That's the textbook that soaps used for decades. This kind of education is obviously more important than ever today (which is part of why I feel the US soaps have completely abdicated their responsibility re: depicting the pandemic, among other things). And sadly the clip's even more relevant now.

I'll be goddamned. I hope @Erroland the main news feed will take note - it's pretty remarkable, and as DRW notes, very important for the genre worldwide IMO.