Vee

I am no big Reagan fan and have no illusions about these people and how they'll turn if we win, but the ad the Republican Voters Against Trump cut juxtaposing his "shining city on the hill" speech with footage of 2020 was one of the best and most brutal political ads I've ever seen.

Marcy seemed to have a very clear, unsparing view of why her GL run failed with no patience for niceties. We could use her candor today, unfortunately she's a fundie now. Barbara Crampton is a goddess mostly known for her brilliant work in genre film these days, where she's having a huge career resurgence these last ten years. But she was a genre legend in the 80s too, before and during her soap years. I don't know why she didn't work on GL but any show that could fumble her versatility and extreme engagement is beyond me. That woman can play anything.

ABC's latest "Trump pivot?" article is ratioed into oblivion already and the piece may not last the day. But here's some background on its author:

A little amazing The Conners finished a full second season pre-pandemic - I have another seven episodes left! It’s lovely to get reacquainted with the show after several months, and of course it was already renewed for.... whenever. The live episode about the February New Hampshire primary was great. Michael Fishman remains an uncomfortably hot adult. Lecy continues to get the best one-liners, re: Harris’ computer warranty: “She’ll just send it back where she bought it. She’ll mail it to ‘guy on offramp with old army jacket.’” The big applause for Jackie commenting on Trump exposing the military via tweet and Becky mocking Putin was a surprise (and Lecy and Ames McNamara’s tickled reactions were cute). The kids surprisingly carried so much of the episode (even the “live from a studio audience” voice over); I wonder if McNamara has a theater background. The running joke about Mark supporting Buttigieg was cute. I did wonder if he broke when Emma Kenney (Harris) imitated him and the camera was behind him, I thought I heard him laughing. They’ve managed to make the Mark/Harris relationship three dimensional in its own right like Becky and Darlene, albeit very different. The new kids are coming into their own and they’re both strong actors now that the dialogue has gone beyond gags and platitudes. Kenney is tough but not a teen Darlene copy, and McNamara has the same sort of raw emotion and precise verbal articulation Lecy had as a kid and teen that always differentiated her from the rest of the family, though her Becky could be far more cruel back then. “I have no one to talk to now! I told Grandpa I had a boy crush and we ended up watching Spartacus and eating a bucket of fried chicken!” Becky on Louise: “A woman in this town with that waistline and no meth problem?” It was nice to see all three kids get behind getting Dan to get Louise to stay and commit to her. It was nice to see D.J. get a lot more to do. D.J.: You’re gonna get Dad to tell Louise that he loves her in two days? He’s never even said that to me. Becky: Take a hint and move on. Jackie impersonating Hillary and the kids catching her was a hoot. And I liked the cast voting PSA at the end. Becky: After voting we go to a pizza place and have an embarrassing public fight about how we voted! Darlene: But you cant make people feel stupid about their vote, unless you vote. This show and other good sitcoms (like ODAAT, or my recurring Cheers binge on Netflix) are a real steady comfort in this time, just like classic soaps have been. I hope others will catch up too (hint hint @DRW50) I also need to catch the Parks and Rec and 30 Rock pandemic specials...

The ODAAT midseason finale (or perhaps now Season 4 period, given the circumstances - it was the last episode they filmed before the pandemic) was really emotional, with them scattering Berto’s ashes on the roof. You could tell the actors were fighting to keep it together, especially Rita Moreno and Justina. Given the state of all the relationships (minus Elena and Syd, who now seem poised for a college breakup despite their claims to the contrary) it could easily have been a series finale, but I am for once confident it won’t be - Pop seems committed to the show. I don’t know when the show will be back, but I’m glad it’s still doing so well. It is odd to me how they’ve hyped up an “unexpected” romantic development for Penelope this season, when all that’s happened so far is her recommitting to Max and now their happily agreeing never to marry (which I think is a mistake, but we’ll see). I am happy he’s back but I was expecting a bigger surprise. Still haven’t seen the animated episode - I’ll watch it soon. Now to catch up on the latter half of Season 2 of The Conners.

That is nuts. And makes me more set in the belief she could anchor a digital GL someday. Bye, Keifer.

You should check out the OLTL reunion with Erin, Melissa, Kirk Geiger and McKenna, @DRW50.

Mike, thank you. Please submit your story to an outlet, any outlet. Soap twitter, if nothing else, needs to see it. Your story and some (but not all, as I'm not Black) of the prejudices and lazy nepotism it discusses are intrinsic to why I never seriously considered writing for daytime. Film was my first love and is the field I still work in; I adore the soap opera, but I consider it a dying art form stewarded by burnouts, disinterested people and bigots. Creativity goes there to die. It does not have to be this way; I said it in 2013 and I will again, soaps can have a future in the streaming age. But they have to have a revolution first.

Block and ignore like all the others when they give themselves away. On a side note, @Errol @Toups : The previous known and proven sockpuppet accounts for a notorious troll need to be banned, period. Not allowed to return to posting every few months for a few days. I'm talking ones that have been around for the last year or more and share the penchant for identical grotesque photoshopped avatars. You know who they are, so Ban. Them.

3/10.

Parker got ratioed and dragged.

"Probably" is a stretch even for pessimists given the current polling.

Erin has not aged.

I did too. I don't know much about Erica's time in NYC but it sounds wild that she lived out of PV for a year or more? I don't know the specifics. It was brought up again recently when we discussed how she might have been a better fit for The City than Morgan Fairchild (though I liked Morgan).

I could swear the aforementioned interview with SBH (was it for We Love Soaps?) dealt extensively with her time at ATWT in detail, and her early years with P&G at large.

I am not seeing anyone saying that because Kanye West said that. Again, the widespread public reaction to him right now is ridicule. His rhetoric is dangerous regardless, yes, but you're always going to find gullible idiots if you go looking. Random outliers do not a trend make, and Kanye is largely regarded as a clown.

Kanye just gave one of the most demented and incoherent interviews to Forbes that I've read next to when Randy Quaid lost his mind. I'm not going to link to it, all I'm going to say is that if anyone thinks that interview and its content is going to move any serious numbers on the left we live in very different worlds. He's a laughingstock online and he needs to be put away.

Wasn't it Horgan who actually reunited Bob and Kim? She teed up a lot of what I think Marland was able to use to fly. I remember her giving a very in-depth interview about her long and storied career some years ago, maybe just before or after OLTL 2.0. She's been all over daytime and worn many hats. To me she's always come off as a capable steward of talented visions; maybe not the most inspired on her own, but smart and very experienced. She took on the thankless role of following Linda Gottlieb (after years on staff as a writer) and having to keep the ship Gottlieb/Malone/Griffith had built steady in '94; it definitely wasn't perfect or as measured, but the show stayed on the same brand/style and full of popular couples and stories for most of the rest of the decade. Her 2.0 was not perfect, but solid and mature again. I appreciate her wealth of knowledge and experience.

I understand people's issues with the LM or the trajectory of the show overall. I can stipulate some of it. As to one point though, I personally think the Gwyneth reveal is consistent. I don't believe she had DID or didn't really know; it's clear on some level she consciously does while trying to delude herself. She can't keep herself and "Trisha" straight while talking to Steffi, and her first bonechilling line when she's found out and Steffi asks her if she's "Trisha" is "sometimes I am." That's not DID, where Viki on OLTL had no conscious agency or awareness of what Niki, etc. did. They were not intertwined in that same way. Gwyneth knows she is Gwyneth, and Trisha is just some sort of cognitive device. To me, moments like when Gwyn tells Clay outright "Curtis didn't kill Stacey," with a very dark look on her face, or the fascinating scene near the climax where she visits Neal in prison and begins to disassociate, saying she sent "Trisha" away but she's also decided to go away and 'get some help, make some sense of all this' are quite pointed. Or when she tells the real Trisha herself not to use the candles that killed Cabot and Isabelle (a huge tell to the audience - how does she know?). Or when she keeps insisting people read her psych evaluation of the killer, or demanding the killer kill her next. On some level she knows and wants people to know her pain. I think her lucidity and understanding comes and goes, but I don't think it was DID and I think she often knew. I wish we could hear Tudor's thoughts on it, but I don't feel it was a copout in the writing - I feel it was keenly pitched, but ambiguous without being lazy. YMMV.

Same.

I have no problem believing Dee threw her weight around, but Crystal ended up having issues at every single show she ever worked on.