Vee

I can't totally hate According to Jim, though. It gave Melrose's own beloved Courtney Thorne-Smith another umpteen years of solid employment, and Jim Belushi did go on to do great work on Twin Peaks. I could swear I remember the cast or maybe just the lead of Yes Dear losing their shít and openly sparring with the critics who loathed them in print, lol.

Which became such a subgenre by the time of "Kevin Can Wait" that it led to the AMC dramedy "Kevin Can F**k Himself", which is doing two seasons. I personally don't think that project sounds like a work of heartbreaking genius, or something that needs to be more than a one-off episode on some other show or anthology, but it does have a point to make about that schlock.

In the 2000s TV critics acted like Patricia Heaton was Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore and Roseanne rolled into one. I'm fairly certain I am not exaggerating this. The way they went on about her for endless column lengths in print you'd think she invented situation comedy and would reign until the end of broadcast. Everybody Loves Raymond was treated like it was the heir to all the great sitcoms and a legend in its own time. Now no one remembers the show, as far as I can tell anyway, and Heaton is all but a footnote. Baffling. Whatever LBT's flaws, and I'm sure there are many just based on the work I watched back in the day and have been recently, I think it's still a tremendous loss to CBS and to television in general to lose that very unique and singular female creative voice. We talked about it when her Moonves story first came out, how he blackballed her, and how that went hand in hand with the systematic deconstruction of all the female-centric programming at the network, which has had a cascading effect across network TV in general since. Today sites like Vulture, etc. rush to crown every new diverse or non-male voice that comes through the door as the next big TV/streaming auteur, hoping to remake the balance in record time, but few of them last long or have anything truly original to say. People like the Bloodworth-Thomasons did and they don't come along every day, even though we're constantly breathlessly told now they are right as their 13-episode orders are wrapping up and their shows are already burning out before the ends of seasons 1 or 2. That's not to say there aren't many of those new, more diverse voices who can last and stand the test of time, too. But I do think we should treasure what we have, or had.

Oh, now I'm intrigued. I'll give it a shot. I did read up on the Hagerty/Mahaffey thing and it is extremely bizarre. They originally wanted Hagerty, she wasn't available, so they recast, then brought her back, then dumped her again for the recast??

A lot of the talent worshipped Zucker and believed he was a genius. They still do. They were shocked and hurt by the public reaction to his firing and disgrace. I'll enjoy 'media reporter' Brian Stelter, who never reports on media scandals at CNN or about his friends until there's literally no other option, tapdancing around this fiasco for another several weeks. He also has a show on CNN+ I believe.

I don't fault you for feeling that way. But I also can't honestly say that if they decided to go whole hog, like Agnes and her proteges did at AMC, and like Frank and Ron had planned to do with many characters on GH in 2012 had the show been cancelled that year - if they did what @Bright Eyesjust suggested, going so far as to resurrect everyone from Bill and Laura to David Banning, presumably as part of yet another labyrinthian DiMera scheme against the people of Salem - and then used all that to reset the entire show, revamp the entire canvas and tone, and have these elder and veteran adult characters back as part of the foundation on a more mature DAYS with less fantasy: Would that be so bad? IMO, it worked for AMC.

Doesn't surprise me at all, tbh. It was Zucker's brainchild.

My assumption is that Bo being back and their being off together is the perfect vehicle to keep Hope off-contract and largely offscreen except for any return engagements KA might entertain in future. It's the only good excuse and it worked well for Sami and E.J. when he was finally resurrected but they hadn't yet recast.

I seriously doubt they are promoting a spinoff with Bo and Hope as the stars only for it turn out the incredibly popular supercouple lead is still dead.

A long history but nothing of actual value. Jordan has always been a very weak utility player of a character only somewhat enlivened by the talented and sparkling Vinessa Antoine. And I don't believe for a second Teschner has done most of the casting since 2012. I think a lot of it has smacked of Frank's heavy hand (which he wielded a lot at OLTL), with a few exceptions.

Another for the "Who Could Have Predicted" file:

I briefly thought Chris McKenna had suddenly aged about five years, but checked his social media and thrillingly he has not (he is doing PassionFlix though, @DRW50 in addition to his more esteemed recent works).

NuJordan is unbelievably awful. Let's not play, soap twitter.

I don't buy Kayla lying about it (unless Bo was under some extreme life and death mess). I can buy someone conning her. I respect people's feelings about the cheapening of death on soap operas (which is probably why the X-Men comics at Marvel have now made them functionally immortal, to subvert the cheap shock deaths that constantly recycle themselves in that industry). But I think it's a case by case and show by show issue. With AMC, as campy as aspects of that network finale arc got, it was apparently in full accordance with Agnes Nixon's wishes and creative consultation re: story points and deaths she personally wanted to undo. I can't fault that, but I know some people felt Orpheus was too much. To me it was a device for a redress of fundamental errors, to reset the show for the future. YMMV, but that's fair enough.

You can do a hell of a murder mystery with Gwen. But Ron hates letting go of villains and antiheroes, he tries to force them into becoming the protagonists. We're 6-9 months away from Leo's abuse backstory a la Kevin on Y&R. Which in theory isn't actually a terrible concept, but the problem is how Ron tells these stories on his soaps - he slants everything to make the dangerous, volatile characters the good guys in a scenario, and forces the 'good' characters to become what his storytelling clearly views as prigs, hypocrites, etc. to try to make it all work. He's been doing this for most of his career. Ron has a formula and he follows it. He didn't retcon Ben's crimes when it is extremely easy to do on a show like DAYS, because, like Victor/Todd II on OLTL, he stubbornly believed the audience can and should accept the character as a romantic lead regardless of their grotesque crimes simply by the force of his writing talent. It's ego. Jesse was an angel on at least two soaps (AMC and Loving), lol. But it worked out. The resurrection story for Jesse was full of holes and not very good, but the performances carried it and the net gain for the show going forward with the Hubbards re-cemented was huge. Same goes for bringing back Dixie, or Will or Jack on DAYS, or Bo. The longtime value to the foundation and the families and history can't be overstated.

It was the same principle with Will, that was also a mistake. I can think of a few others! But the point is, yes, they're right to do it especially since Kristian is, I suspect, unlikely to return on a contract, or an ongoing status that doesn't have a lot of outs or breaks like this silliness with Chandler Massey. At least with Hope you can say 'she's off with Bo'.

Exactly. It's a little late to start grounding DAYS in reality. And even if you did reinvent the show, I wouldn't start by sealing this pointless death in concrete. AMC had the right idea when it resurrected several key people before going off ABC, then clean slated a ton of the show to reinvent it on Hulu. They had much more room to grow.

I am not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. It was a mistake to kill off Bo, particularly when there was no good new man or story for Hope let alone solid writing. The way they were mishandled is one of so many black marks on the show (not unlike the many deaths of Jack Deveraux) and it's in their interest to fix it.

We've had these discussions in the MP thread - I think a lot of S4 works but once Darren Star leaves and the stories and characters he set up begin to go sideways, it gets pretty nuts by the end. S5 was an intriguing attempt at a more grounded change but a lot of it doesn't work while only some did. S6 is awful, and S7 isn't perfect but is a pretty decent recovery season (again, brought to us by former Knots Landing creatives). MP should not have been cancelled given the success of S7.

I thought it was a brain tumor.

I knew they'd be back someday, and I hoped it'd be before the end. This is lovely news. It's uniquely DAYS that the show is experiencing a bit of a new media renaissance and may or may not have more network commitment behind it now than in many years while still being deeply backwards in its storytelling and a mess day to day. The rising profile of the show with all this stuff is good news for the genre and for DAYS' longevity and I'm happy for that, but it has yet to translate well to quality.

Lee Grant! Did she ever do another primetime soap (not counting Peyton Place)?

What a thrill. Spoilers for the Thirteenth Doctor's upcoming finale: The end of this sorry era cannot come soon enough, now for two more very good reasons.

It was a brand new show IIRC. I don't remember the plot details but there were some.

Berfield has a kid but is very private re: any family, though I have heard he is in fact allegedly married to a woman and not gay as was rumored for aeons. But yes, Unhappily Ever After - so creepy.