Vee

A very mediocre tenure, sadly.

Lesli was decent. The story sucked.

Say what?? This is news to me. That aside for a moment, I've said this before, but as much as RC often loves to reunite favored couples for fans offscreen this is one case it shouldn't be left at that. Sami is viable, James Scott is not coming back. They need to reunite Lumi IMO, and then perhaps consider recasting E.J. for the DiMeras much further down the road.

Murray Bartlett?? Murray Bartlett's not tryna come back to daytime!

I also think James Reynolds has always been underestimated and poorly paired.

Archive.is link of the WP story above.

I don't think Andrea's return to OLTL was awkward. I thought the stories failed her in the first run and were subject to the insane budgeting and scheduling dark magic Frank practiced, but once you put her with her nieces or later Viki and Howarth's Todd, especially in her second run in 2011, she was gold. (I know Frons evidently ordered her gone in '08 as well)

@DRW50

As @Khanreminded me, black-ish leaned in on using COVID in story. So has The Conners, and both shows made it pay off for them dramatically as well as in some ways comedically. It's a shame soaps in this country won't, but Emmerdale did it right.

I remember that too. It was unfortunate and sad to watch.

AFAIC it's a disgrace how American soaps have largely ignored COVID-19. I think it's the medium's responsibility to educate and empathize with the public in real time and it's a feature daily soaps can cover like no other television. I know there's a lot of people who say "oh, I don't want to watch that when I turn on TV" - well, too bad. As Jamey Giddens said, Agnes Nixon would've done it and Emmerdale was right to do it. Lovely speech.

I think it's unavoidable that daytime as has always been produced was, is and will remain a first draft medium at least in terms of the day to day - I don't think Passanante is wrong about that. Lemay, insanely, seemed to write or rewrite virtually every AW script, every day, for years while presiding over what seemed like the collapse of his IRL family to addiction and mental illness. I am convinced he had to be on some 70s-legal version of amphetamines to pull that workload off. And Passanante, while one of the worst modern HWs I have ever seen, has always been hailed by so many as an excellent breakdown writer - she knows at least part of the craft very well. The fact is there's so few who can keep up the pace of daytime and do it on time, and if there's one thing I've learned writing for hire it's that writing on time is what matters first, not always writing perfectly or at times even well. Sometimes it's just about making the day. What they can and should fix is the grind in terms of lack of long-term projections or bibles, or rehearsal time for actors, or time with directors to craft an episode, or not shooting bite-sized scenes on the run. There is a lot in the OLTL oral history by Jeff Giles from the cast and crew about the collapse of those safeguards in the later years (and how the PP version brought rehearsals back, IIRC) - Frank Valentini telling longtime director Peter Miner 'what you did was great, but we don't have time now' - and that's the truth; that's the reality of the budget and constraints the networks give these shows. The bigger reality, of course, is that daytime as was can't exist on its current budget or market share and soaps should IMO go to streaming in a seasonal/arc-based format, like PP attempted, four to six weeks on and off. But that's not happening any time soon.

Me neither. I always thought it was so ridiculous. But that's Dena Higley (IIRC) for you.

Britt has the personality of tinfoil and the performer the range of an off-hours crosswalk.

I think soaps have a responsibility to work with COVID-19 and educate the public. It's what GH should be doing today.

It's the five blond Aryan children with Spanish names for me! I couldn't breathe.

Still need to catch up! Candice Bergen is debuting as Ben's mom:

Speaking of: It is not lost on me that the current version of Ben Mitchell (while played by a talented actor) is ruggedly masculine and as far removed from any prior nerdy, more intellectual or potentially pretty/effeminate incarnation of the character as possible. I can't tell him and Callum apart in many shots tbqh. I miss Harry Reid.

I think we have a shot at Georgia. It's tough but possible.

Maxie should never have had any kids, period.