Vee

I remember the Watros eps of AW. I thought she was fine. Had GL been brought back as a mini or something, my angle a decade ago was always to promo it up and do a few episodes' arc where they close out Annie by having Watros return (the plastic surgery face change would be discarded) and get gunned down by Reva when she goes for the grandkids or whatever.

If you look at the show in the Marland years or later on and you're a pair of new eyes, you just assume Bob and Kim have been together forever. It's beyond me how they kept them apart so long when the social mores of the '70s continued changing and after Dan Stewart was dead. We've often said Susan Bedsow Horgan doesn't get enough credit for her work on various soaps, but IIRC it was her stroke of genius to finally re-pair them and marry them off pre-Marland, correct me if I'm wrong.

Sarcasm and increasingly strange improvisations.

Dang, Trevor got old in the face (which would at least help with what may be a ludicrous recast). He's his typical snarky self in motion and still handsome, but he looks remarkably like Stephen Collins now.

idk about Mad About You but Just Shoot Me, Suddenly Susan, Caroline in the City, etc. all only survived because of Friends.

I would def call Coach a timeslot hit, lol.

Shrink it, baby.

Maggie Haberman has been getting roasted even more than usual for days as the book rollout of her latest conveniently-delayed Trump scoops begins, with the usual feverish wagon-circling from the Beltway press who continue to fail to read the tone and temperature of the country.

Larys was featured before the timejump.

Ava seemed a bit more competent and on top of things in the premiere. She ran that opening meeting well and was on top of things with Melissa - I think coming through in front of the board has her a bit more dedicated, by Ava standards.

I'm always happy to see Frazer Hines. I don't know how they haven't made more use of him.

The Parks and Recreation parallels are interesting in that a lot of fans have twigged the Tariq character as likely becoming a bigger presence a la how Chris Pratt/Andy Dwyer blew up on that show. He clearly has a good heart and is good with the kids whenever volunteering despite also being a layabout idiot. I don't think Zack Fox/Tariq will become as big as Pratt/Andy did on Parks, but I do think there's a fair amount of similarity. I'm most pleased to see Tyler James Williams in a popular lead role - he's been so, so good as an adult performer on a bunch of shows and he deserved a lasting showcase. But Sheryl Lee Ralph, Quinta Brunson, Lisa Ann Walter, the whole ensemble is great.

I had to make a thread for this after catching up with its first short season on HBO Max - it just began its second on Hulu/ABC. Sweet, earnest and very funny. Sheryl Lee Ralph's Emmy is well deserved after so many years of great work, but the entire ensemble crackles and Janelle James steals every scene as Ava.

Frons went to the wall to try to save first Guza, then GH in 2011 from the ax IIRC. He felt Guza was GH's true north, that only he could write it. But he couldn't protect him after a certain point, and he was gone not long after himself. I think JFP stayed on because she was a capable line producer, and because after Guza's grand return with Frons' blessing in '02 and her complete disaster stint with Megan McTavish the previous year that was largely what she was reduced to. Guza had learned from his battles with Wendy Riche and came back with a co-producer credit; he had creative control (beneath Frons), which was unheard of for anyone other than JFP in the mix at that time. And she lost it all. Based on the difference between her past work at other shows and at GH post-2001/early '02, it appeared as though Jill never had real creative control (outside of the '08 WGA strike) at GH again. And she deserved to lose it. She was reduced to getting her ex Kale Browne constant voice-over gigs on the show because he was widely disliked among performers and production across ABC (Hillary B. Smith and Mark Derwin were still taking anonymous shots at him in the OLTL oral history, and he was fired the instant she moved to GH) and she no longer had the power to force him onscreen.

I have no idea what's going on in this thread but God bless.

I've always found it spooky too just reading about it.

That was Ty Tennant, son of (ahem) former Doctor Who David Tennant and Georgia Moffett, as the young Aegon tonight (Tennant adopted him upon marrying Moffett). I was not expecting that scene.

David Tennant's adoptive son Ty (he has raised him since marrying Georgia Moffett from "The Doctor's Daughter"; Moffett, fans will recall, is the daughter of Peter Davison) had a, uh, very memorable debut tonight on House of the Dragon as the teenaged Aegon Targaryen. I was thinking they even looked and sounded alike until I remembered David had adopted him.

It's from the source text which spans a ton of time into the adulthood of the next generation, I believe (and the show is apparently only intended to run 3-4 years). I like it, I think it's really different and surprisingly works. The new approach cuts the fat from the old show's pacing (although that was a very different and still unfinished text), and you don't see it often in television narrative outside of stuff like I Claudius.

I can't fault people for taking issue with another gay death given the rocky treatment of Loras (I didn't hate Loras' storyline but I didn't love it either), but it's something in the Fire & Blood text IIRC and I understood that. I do think it's an unfortunate optic given the past, but I think the show can make up for it any way it chooses. As for tonight, I haven't seen it.

This ain't Knots Landing, I doubt I'll be watching long lol. I did decide I'd try the first week or two, and maybe look at some of the big exits. I know RTD just wrapped work on his Crossroads mini with Helena Bonham Carter.

You know we're in year 3 of a pandemic when I'm watching the first few episodes of this on a bored lark. It's definitely bizarre, but the location and several of the central characters could've worked. I know non-actors were apparently Julia Smith's idea which I understand as a concept (and it often works out for some films), but it obviously didn't play. I wonder how much was changed from Tony Holland/Jordan/etc.'s original ideas, because the structural bones of the British family, the villain and the lounge singer seems sound. The whole thing with Bunny and the young girl is grotesque.

There is definitely more to it IMO and some of it has been rumored for years, rumors I believe, in addition to very real and serious health issues she's spoken about publicly. tbqh and I've said this before elsewhere, I think they keep Kirsten in part for her own well-being at this point. It's speaking out of turn as an [!@#$%^&*] on a message board, but without the show I often wonder what might happen to her. Regardless, I don't think it's good for her or the show, and what made her Maxie take off after a rough start is long gone. The character has been a shadow of herself since the early 2010s.

Kirsten has looked and felt wrung out onscreen for over a decade, and Maxie is worse. The offscreen issues are well known and I don't believe it's all been her physical health. They both need a long break.