Vee

I don't think Northam is a bigot today, but I also don't think (and haven't for several days, even before that awful press conference) that he has any choice but to resign. I have no idea WTF to think with Fairfax and his responses so far aren't helping. I don't want to eat our own, but some things we have to do upkeep on.

The instant I saw the name alarms went off.

John Edwards??!! Oh lord.

I know her from both AW on YouTube and a lot of classic Ozploitation film - whatta legend. RIP.

Thread on how Trump spends his days. Not pictured: my lack of surprise.

I'd forgotten about the blatant Falcon Crest spoof mid-Too Many Cooks.

Fück it:

Say what you will, but they got it right! I was born in the early '80s, and I was raised to never, ever, ever say the n-word. And despite gangsta rap hitting its peak when I hit junior high/HS, I still never said the word. Kids today shrug it off which I don't get. If I ever have a kid and I hear even a variation of that out of their mouth or on their phone, they're grounded for a month.

That nails it. (Though nothing beats Too Many Cooks)

I think there was the shoes and then Claudia kept wearing red or something. JFP was big on that red motif thing, I think she'd done it at CBS. Or maybe the shoes. She had done it with Angel as well in any event - Angel came on wearing all white because she was 'mourning' her husband, and then after killing her father dramatically unveiled her new red wardrobe. Nobody gave a shít. I don't watch atm either. I see clips here and there. I think Chris Van Etten is actually not untalented and has had some better ideas in the last year, but I think it's impossible for him and anyone to do a good show with FV micromanaging more than ever. I don't remember when Leyla, the nurse Patrick was into, died. I do know she was played by Nazanin Boniadi, who went on to greater fame as one of the women who escaped being Scientology-mated to Tom Cruise and has since had a solid career on cable.

Oh God - I did not recognize Christine Ebersole when she turned up as the mom in the infamous Mac & Me in the premiere episode of the new season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, despite having already seen Mac & Me when it came out.

Yes, that was the year with Michael the murderer and Jennifer Bransford, which was almost certainly a JFP power move IMO - she had been fairly marginalized once Guza returned, and most creative control was given to him. From what I understand she influenced stories and casting where she could, generally with lesser players. Tamara Braun quit because she was sick of Sonny, Jason and the mob. The Bransford casting imploded fast. Kari Wuhrer was embarrassingly bad as Reese. The Michael story met huge backlash and they hastily did a rewrite involving Michael's doctor, old footage of Billy Warlock from years past, and the outrageous claim that the doctor had been hired by A.J. to kill Jason in his coma in the '90s. This was also the summer of the terrible dancing doppleganger story (because Kelly Monaco had just joined DWTS) with Sam and Meg Bennett and her Sam-lookalike daughter, and Michael hallucinating an imaginary friend, "Jodie" who he talked to in front of other people. TPTB claimed this was their reward to Dylan Cash for being an "amazing" young actor. It did not go well. The Alexis/Sam/Ric stuff was the following year. I believe the Ric thing began as KM began making noise about leaving - so they turned Sam into a villainess for a year or two (her most compelling period, IMO). Emily was raped by Nik's doppleganger in late 04-early 05. Emily had difficulty being with Nikolas after that because of the rape, and gravitated towards spending time with Michael and Morgan at Sonny's house. Nikolas and Courtney was the summer of 2005, and wow was it bad. Guza obviously did not give a [!@#$%^&*] about either of them, that much was clear, but the actors had allegedly been pushing for it. They were B/C characters to him at that point without Frons' continued attention to Alicia Leigh Willis. Guza could be vindictive and the story seemed designed to make them hurt, because the writing drove the characters into the ground. Guza had never had much use for Courtney and iced her the following winter after she spent months offscreen. The affair also ushered in Sonny and Emily; Emily had been caring for the boys with Carly ill - she was basically the nanny - and went to stay with them at Sonny's when she learned of Nik's affair. I saw Sonny/Emily coming very early, like a train wreck. People called me crazy, yet I still could not believe my eyes as it progressed. It was (mercifully) over by the fall of '06, IIRC. They did change some things for the better with the revamp: Laura Wright came in strong and nabbed a surprisingly good (if very sudden) pairing with Jax on the B-list, Robin and Patrick ushered in a considerable new re-focus on the hospital and characters in it, and Robert and Anna began to recur in '06. Robin also became central again despite continued attempts to demean her. I would never call it a great show in those years and mostly ceased regularly watching for years on end around that point until 2012, but Guza's awful second reign was never worse than 2005 for me. On a side note, during the writer's strike a few years later, JFP re-masterminded Claudia's introduction (which Guza had planned separately but was not present to execute) and botched it as well - some sort of color-coded thematic thing similar to the failed rollout of Angel in 2001, and to some work I believe she did at GL, maybe with Tangie Hill. With Guza out of the building she also tried to launch a massive story with Ric and his newbie immigrant wife, all of which fans hated.

2005 was a nadir year, even for that regime. Everything was bad. They had to retool the show dramatically in the fall, which started with asking Kimberly McCullough to come back.

If it's not a legit revival they can keep it. It'd be such a waste to squander the opportunity.

Today in NY Times angst:

This is a wonderful piece on the show overall (and a bunch of quotes from OLTL's own Melissa Fumero):

FH gets a fifth and final season:

Bernie is a cop:

As long as Criterion's device platfoms actually work this time around I'm all for it. Netflix did finish Orson Welles' final film and put many of his works on their platform, which means a lot to me.

Gordon Thomson pinged from space.

Meanwhile, back at CBS: