Vee

As always, apply salt where needed.

It's a shame, but Degrassi is immortal. It'll be back sooner or later.

That much-posted clip of her and Cowles together on AMC is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen on a soap. Just batshit.

I haven't, no. But that would jibe with Gollance's discussion of how much he trusted in her ability in his interviews.

Oh yeah, I've seen it. (I can't listen to longer than maybe a minute of the death tape from the following day) There was going to be either a HBO TV treatment of Tim Reiterman's excellent Jonestown expose Raven (a must-read for anyone interested in the case) a few years ago from Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad - Reiterman was one of the journalists who covered the Peoples Temple heavily in SF before heading to Guyana with the rest of Ryan's group and taking several bullets for his trouble. Amazingly he survived. The Raven project seems to have been derailed, but last I heard Leonardo DiCaprio had snapped up a Jim Jones feature script last year and planned to play Jones himself. We'll see what happens. But we're way off-track, lol.

It's the same old troll who likes to do those. Block and report.

I was a far too intrigued student of the Jonestown case for a few years. There were definitely press stories in the mix about Jones and the Peoples [sic] Temple for a large portion of the '70s - mostly in local press in San Francisco, CA, etc. and at one point they even had Rosalynn Carter's ear. It was a cause célèbre, Jim Jones was a flamboyant public figure so I would not be shocked by Slesar knowing of him. The Peoples Temple had a sophisticated PR apparatus and propaganda machine, and had garnered positive coverage and very public relationships with major California politicians for most of their existence despite IIRC clashing with other government agencies over their tax status and the growing suspicions re: ex-members, families, etc. In the later years the repeated rumors, whispers, and so on from concerned families, outcasts and various agencies finally began to drag them down with some more incisive press coverage, and that's when Jones moved the bulk of the Temple to Guyana in '77 (the settlement existed years before then, but the mass migration came late). A little over a year later, the massacre followed. This came close to happening at OLTL, where they had to very hastily scrap and reshoot what I presume was already-filmed material with Todd and Blair's plane crashing in Mexico the week of 9/11. They did it again in 2007 because of Dena Higley's planned school shooter storyline with Jonathan Groff following the Virginia Tech shootings. Sadly, in '07 those kind of shooters still seemed like a relative novelty.

That's a fascinating recollection of the cult storyline, thank you. I'd always been curious about it. It was very topical for the time given the ongoing controversy over Jim Jones and other cult movements like the Peoples Temple in that era, but unfortunately it ended up being too topical given what subsequently happened at Jonestown. You can't fault them for dropping it at all, but in another time and place it could've gone far further story-wise.

A few idle thoughts on Ep 11 of Season 6 (Distant Locations), where Val's finally gone AWOL: I love the almost direct-address-to-camera testimonials by the ensemble to the cops re: Val that open the show - more than most primetime soaps, KL always seems willing to experiment with different kinds of filmmaking and narrative technique in any given episode. The voice-over of them with Val wandering further and further is also well cut together. This is another great episode from series director Larry Elikann, who apparently only has a few left after seeming to cover so much of the show for so long. That's gonna be a big blow. I'm not sure when Bill Duke's last ep is but Nick Havinga, a recent addition, has done great work on the childbirth ep and a few other recent ones since. Gary's crypto-paternal relationship with Paul Galveston continues to develop in fascinating ways: Galveston tells Gary 'you'll be the one they remember, not Bobby, not J.R.' and Gary tells Abby, 'he gave me a vision of myself I never had before.' He's also got a lot to do with mysterious satellites, which again makes me wonder about what little I've heard of the Empire Valley plotline, which apparently spun out of control later on - I'd love to know what its original conception was if it indeed was created by this writing team, and what changed. But there'll be time for that when I get to it, I suppose. Karen doesn't stop being Karen even with her failing body, which I was pleased to see; just because she has a terminal illness storyline doesn't mean she is out of the rest of the action, whereas later primetime soaps (Melrose, etc) increasingly islanded characters. Both elements of the character are balanced off of each other, and it's heartbreaking to watch with Michele Lee having Karen soldier through it by simply trying to switch writing hands while searching for Val. There's nothing I can say about JVA's performance in the mirror, etc. throughout this ep that I'm sure many haven't said over 40 years. It's amazing work, and I had to go back and watch her one-take, no-cuts transformation into "Verna Ellers" twice. This episode was written by longtime series scribe Richard Gollance again, who we know was enchanted with JVA and her ability and has said in his interview with Tommy Krasker that he'd often let her do whole scenes in 'reveries,' with silence and minimal to no dialogue. But I was even more amazed by her channeling Val's conception of Abby in the bar as Val's fractured mind slips from madonna to whore and back again, with Val even quoting Abby's famous 'affair' speech from Season 3 back to the married woman she runs afoul of. I hadn't noticed until I did some digging that Val is going by the alias here of the main character from Nashville Junction, her second novel which was a critical/commercial? flop - another recent failure in her life. Her wardrobe and hair also very, very noticeably regress at the end back to that of the Val we met on Dallas and in the first two-three seasons of KL, the '70s country waif in peasant blouses with barrettes in her blonde mane. These are all such specific character and stylistic elements, such attention to detail you just don't get on most primetime soaps where plot comes first. Abby's amazing short bob has taken a turn! I hope it will recover from this unfortunate sidelong path down Mullet Way. I do truly believe Abby when she tells Lilimae and Gary she wants to help find Val with a P.I., but we already know before the reveal that he's her inside man that it's more than that - just as in the past seasons Abby has to control things, has to help in 'her way' to get what she wants first, which is Val not endangering her marriage. I don't necessarily believe the guilt-stricken Abby of the last few eps (who I've discussed a lot here recently) would try to keep Val gone forever, but I do think she wants Val in hand, wants to manage the situation with Val and the babies where she can keep Gary and keep the secret while also seeing Val doesn't come to worse harm. Maybe I'm naive, we'll see soon enough. Joshua's turn towards TV evangelism is slow and well-studied, and very topical for the time. They've done a clever job with Joshua so far in that he seems very benign and kind, but he will always interject some note of severe repression or Old Testament judgment in his attitude that will throw you just slightly no matter how pleasant he seems. He does it here this ep when he casually mentions to his preacher idol that his sister who he's so worried for had 'made mistakes.' Apparently Laura wants to go to D.C. with Greg Sumner after all, because we see them talking about post-coitus at her place as he meanders around her kitchen. This is the first time I think we've seen Greg inside the house, excepting his drunken stumble onto the premises when he showed up looking for her with only Cathy there. I wonder if the Avery boys know about Laura and Greg. Sumner starts prodding her quickly about Scott Easton after his name comes up re: Lotus Point, and Laura wisely seems to twig onto his intrigue, remembering how he used to feel her out about Wolfbridge. It's the tiny hints and intricate connections the Dunne team build slowly that work so well on this show, three seasons running. That is Jerry Lacy from Dark Shadows as Lilimae's surprise shrink!! I hope he returns. "Everything Scott Easton told me about you is true," Galveston tells Abby when they meet. The reveal that those two know each other and that he's clearly deeply involved in whatever the hell is going on with Val, the babies, etc. must've been a shock for the audience back in the day, even if Easton's disappearance had already led Abby back to Galveston Industries. I was slightly clued in, but I don't mind that as I was far too preoccupied a few eps ago trying to figure out why on Earth Easton would go out of his way to traffic Val's babies. I still don't know what this is all about with Galveston, but it's very intriguing. I don't know how many of these I'll produce more individual notes on ep by ep - I don't want to go on forever like before - but we'll see what I can maintain. Happy to be digging back into the show.

I agree. He still could be more! And he was sort of in the very early teen scene but not really, IIRC. I can't recall if he was still in town when Nik turned up.

In fairness, Sly lasted til like '96 so I don't count him as a casualty, and I'll never forget the beautiful scene Labine gave him and Luke after his father's death, and the supporting role with Lucky was fine. But yes, I think it was a very necessary purge.

I watched some of '92 a while back and found Bill and Holly pretty tryhard in an attempt to recapture Luke/Holly. It seemed like they went hard at it. But I think they were just searching for anything new that could work that year after the Monty II debacle.

I thought Bill and Holly was a big deal for the show in at least a portion of '92 - I seem to remember seeing them hot and heavy and even getting promos in eps from that spring or summer. I don't think they aimed to can Bill til sometime in late '92 or early '93, but I may be way off. I don't think losing either character was a factor when they started it, I think the newly arrived Riche was just throwing anything they could in the mix to see what might catch heat (Bill/Holly, Scott/Dominique, Jason?/Karen/Jagger, A.J. and Nikki, whatever). There was no good reason to bring Holly back at the time period IMO but I'm glad she didn't stay dead.

Me too. Which makes me wonder if he ultimately reconsidered the Bill/Holly thing and was happy to strike it from the show's memory. I can't recall specific quotes on Bill and Holly, I'd have to look it up, assuming the site with those clippings from the time is still up.

I can't see him covering for any writer. Maybe he was just so worn out after his recent medical troubles of the time and the drudgery of his final storyline that he was too checked out to care. But during Bill's run and not long after, Tony could quote every permutation of his story, life, romances and mindset chapter and verse in multiple interviews.

The hysterical shot of Tina's empty chair spinning as the camera cuts back during Dorian's interview has stayed me with for years.

It's wild that he couldn't IMO. He was deeply engaged with that material back then and remained bitter for years. Exactly. But I don't think Tony would cover for Ron given the same interview I think I recall now.

I remember this weird shít - we made a lot of fuss over it on PTV, because Bill and Holly was their attempt at a big romance for awhile and Tony Geary was obsessed with Bill Eckert. I had a very hard time believing he wouldn't step in on this in the script unless he completely was checked out at this point.

And there's been talk it had to do with a more serious illness I hoped wasn't the case. If someone can provide an link to it being a recent injury that'd be good to know.

I edited my post above, but that being said, Cunningham himself is not producing this. Other parties are. And like every other potential Friday project in the last decade I'll only believe it happens when it exists.

If it's set before the movies, it is a prequel. Miller does not have the rights to anything beyond the material in the first film. The story now indicates other parties are now involved which do have more of the rights to Friday, but also that they can only do use of those things in the context of a streaming series vs. a movie and frankly, I'm not convinced that will hold up in court. Cunningham is litigious and possessive.

A nice idea, but the Friday the 13th rights battle between its producer Sean Cunningham and ex-AMC scribe Victor Miller (who wrote the first film) has been going on for years now and I have no faith in this actually coming to pass (and let's not even get started on Peacock). I have several of the scripts various people tried to put in production over the last decade. One was a wonderful draft by ex-Hannibal and Channel Zero writer Nick Antosca, who later did Antlers and now works on Chucky, which was sort of half Richard Linklater, Dazed and Confused-esque coming of age film, half daylight slasher movie. That was going to be directed by David Bruckner, who just did the brilliant The Night House and the decent Hellraiser reboot. Didn't happen. Then there was a weird draft by the guy who wrote Villeneuve's Prisoners, which tried to sort of mash together a prequel and the first two films all into one script, with three killers - Mrs. Voorhees (in a role written for Vera Farmiga), her previously-unseen husband and finally the undead Jason, all across multiple time periods, all in 90 mins. There was also a found footage take floating around. Everyone from Blumhouse to LeBron James has wanted to acquire the rights and get these movies back into production. None of it came to fruition because of the fight over ownership, which also sank any future updates for the wonderful PS4 video game. Here they're trying to get around the rights snafu because Miller now technically owns the right to the intellectual property of the first film he wrote (i.e., Mrs. Voorhees, Jason only as a child/ghost, etc.) but cannot use the 'real' Jason or anything else from the sequels. I suppose it's workable, but why? The only reason I have interest is because Bryan Fuller is attached, and that's a whole other can of worms. As with any other project Bryan Fuller has attached himself to in the last 5-8 years, I will only believe it exists when it actually goes into production and he's still onboard for longer than six subsequent months. He's still very talented but I knew his queer-centric Christine adaptation he's been writing would likely never come out (and I'm pretty sure it won't), and given the ongoing rights drama here I have serious doubts this ever will let alone with him still involved. If he doesn't want to end up just going back to more Hannibal he needs to actually produce a new project to completion. A Friday the 13th legally-enforced prequel project at a flailing streamer is not the best bet. But I guess we'll see!

Joe Locke, one half of the adorable gay couple at the heart of Heartstopper on Netflix and a very notable dead ringer for the grown version of Wanda's gay son Billy/Wiccan in the comics, is joining the Agatha spinoff. If nothing else, that cast's recent experiences with insanely entitled and toxic fans over a very sweet little show will prepare Locke for the stans of the MCU. Meanwhile: "Vision Quest" was the name of the controversial arc in John Byrne's West Coast Avengers (or as he called it, Avengers West Coast) where Vision was destroyed and rebuilt as the cold, all-white version you saw at the end of WV. This has already happened and a version of the 'good' Vision already began to return, so it seems this show is about that Vision continuing to rediscover his humanity and self.

Thought so too.

It's Melissa's Scarlet Witch getup and Barbara calling the Thanos-disguised candy thief "Baby Theranos" for me: