Vee

I'm a little surprised Sally Kirkland's crazy ass said no.

What does Victoria Wyndham do all day, just sculpt?

I think someone wanted a pseudo-primetime name (as she'd been many years earlier) and didn't care about the rest. I doubt they even considered soap actresses.

I don't think anyone could remember Barbara Rhoades for anything, honestly - I don't think it was a Maria Arena Bell type situation or anything. It seemed like such a random choice. And RC and FV, in my experience, generally go for daytime names vs. primetime (even Donna Mills, one of the rare outliers, is mostly known for a primetime soap). So I doubt it was like 'ooh, she has some primetime credits from 1975.'

Interesting idea. Irene was so campy so it could have been a great fit for Zenk as Barbara was quite camptastic at times.

She would've easily been better than Barbara Rhoades, who had her moments but was mostly just very awkward IMO.

Or you could've gone really nuts and dug up Lara Parker or Kathryn Leigh Scott from Dark Shadows, but I digress...

Someone said some time ago that JFP and/or Guza had tried to snag Colleen Zenk when ATWT went down in 2010, to use her as the recast Bobbie Spencer on GH. Tony Geary, who had stepped in years prior when Jill and Megan McTavish had tried to send Bobbie off to Ferncliff and can Jackie Zeman to speed the ascent of Jensen Buchanan's Nurse Melissa during their brief reign, vetoed it again.

I do often wonder if Colleen would've made a better evil Irene Manning on OLTL in 2011 - she's played Roger Howarth's mother before, but I'm not sure she could sell being Erika Slezak's contemporary.

Oh, I remember Michael Maitland on DS very well. He was a trip on the show - this bitchy little evil kid who seemed to take off, and it was almost like they didn't want to get rid of him based on some of the twists and turns, like when I think he was the final form of the Leviathan child before Jeb Hawkes who decided he did not want to "die" and grow into the adult. I was sorry to see him go.

Who wrote this? Pam Long?

Even with that [!@#$%^&*] hair Lynn Herring lights up any room.

Oddly enough, Jennifer Cooke ended up a cult favorite of horror fans for her turn in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (I know). She was sort of a spunky, wisecracking camp counselor who won the day against Jason Voorhees. I can see how she'd bomb on a soap, though.

I think Kristen Vigard herself did an interview at WLS or somewhere recently where she freely admitted she was kind of a bohemian kid and not suited to the daily grind of daytime - wouldn't show up, etc.

Tell me, am I a good man?

I can't recall. I think so. He takes it off from time to time and seems to cover it with his long hair from what I've seen.

My mistake - the time-jump in the comics was two years.

IIRC, the comic just did a time-jump - maybe five or so years into the survivors' new community well-built and sustained, with Rick pretty chill and Carl anywhere between 14-17 (so finally catching up to Chandler Riggs, obviously).

Michael Cudlitz was very good in Band of Brothers, so I have a little more time for his character now.

You could've still done the body in the pool, but while I loved Lexi she would not have gotten attention. Other than Amanda there is no one the general audience who hadn't bothered with Season 5, let alone Season 7, would care about that much except Sydney (or Kimberly). You just could've ended it on Syd turning up alive after all - say she'd faked her death, again. Keep Laura Leighton around.

I didn't have a problem with them changing David's paternity. It gave Michael a permanent role on the show and a new kind of dynamic for Thomas Calabro, and he was sorely needed at all times. Grant Show and Jake would not have given them much to work with. The less said about Brooke Burns's obvious murderer character the better.

Kyle and Jane ended up together on the show. It was a brief triangle with Amanda, and one I liked a lot. I was happy with that ending.

I liked a lot of things about MP 2.0 - the cast was mostly excellent, especially Katie Cassidy and Lauren the soulful hooker/doctor. I thought the Billy/Alison-esque couple, Michael Rady and Jessica Lucas, were incredibly boring people played by incredibly talented actors (and oh my God, Michael Rady looks great naked). I thought bringing back Syd was a great idea that was wasted; I thought Michael and Amanda worked coming back. But killing Syd, and the subsequent Amanda art theft plotline were both pointless and stupid. Still, it was far better than nu90210 that year. It was a waste of huge potential.

I thought Margaery was on enough, really. They killed her new husband and introduced her next objective - everything else was being done above her head, with Olenna and Littlefinger. Her plotline was transitioned out with the second half of the season and I was fine with that, though I love her. She'll be back.

I think Margaery is more clever and overall capable than Cersei, actually. But with Tywin gone and the Mountain in her care Cersei now has a lot more at her fingertips than she used to, and while she's far from a tactical genius she is harsh and swift when provoked. With no protection from the dangerous blunderbuss that is Cersei, and with Cersei having enough powerful new physical resources to insulate her from her own lack of acumen, Margaery could be in real jeopardy. I doubt Cersei cares much anymore about whether the Tyrells and their holdings can keep her and hers off the streets. She just doesn't think that far ahead.

Rickon and Osha were originally apparently slated to appear this past season. I was disappointed when they didn't.

Loras has always been supporting at best, which is fine with me so long as he keeps his clothes off.

I didn't realize Courtney actually did that Jim Belushi show for eight years. That's good money. And then she had some recurring role on Two and a Half Men for years. Well, it's a living. I'm glad to see she appears to be doing well. I remember how hilarious a sport she was to keep up as best anyone could with Norm MacDonald and Conan O'Brien as they ribbed her about her co-starring role in a Carrot Top movie shortly after exiting Melrose. "It's like 9 1/2 Weeks but with Carrot Top."

It also made her career, for a few years, anyway. Wasn't she on that Jim Belushi show for a decent run? She was always a great comedienne and had such a winning personality whenever I saw her on talk shows.

Jake should've left with Jo. They made a horrible mistake not just reuniting those two, and I was a huge fan of theirs. IIRC, Daphne almost did Season 5 and then something happened at the last moment - I can't recall what.

I think Alison did go back and help out at D&D for a hot minute in Season 5, and it was played as this bit of drama for her and Jake as I recall. Then nothing came of it. Let's just hang out at Shooters or in our apartment forever. Boring. I don't know why they kept that going all year long. They gave Alison a great exit with Billy at the airport, but like Jake and Jo, he should've gone after her and stayed gone.

Then there was the business with Stacy Haiduk and Jake's gay little son. That was the character Shaun Sipos was supposed to be playing on the new MP - they share the same name - but at the last moment, they changed him to Michael's illegitimate kid to give Thomas Calabro more to do.

I always found Anne-Marie Johnson just plain weird. But her death spiral storyline with Bobby Parezi was great, although it was perhaps a mistake to off Bobby. John Enos was hot. I did feel they wasted Jasmine Guy, to say nothing of poor Vanessa Williams in Season 1.

I understood what they were going for with Sam - introducing a 'normal' person back into Melrose to try and reground the show in Season 5. And I thought some of Season 5 worked well; I thought the McBrides as a married couple was good, I liked the restaurant, Kyle and Sydney, I liked Taylor as the tension in Amanda and Peter's marriage. But Peter and Taylor's actual affair was gross, and Jake and Alison and Billy and Sam were snoozes. I was a huge fan of Amanda and Peter at the time as well.

I thought most of Season 6 was unwatchable, except the back end when Lexi went nuts and they started tearing up the cast. Season 7 was, IMO, a minor rebirth; Lexi was running the show, Jane and Michael were surprisingly great back together with Jane's somewhat tougher character who wasn't quite a pushover, and I liked the Eve mystery. It wasn't all perfect but it was a helluva lot better than it had been, a much tighter show. I didn't feel it deserved to get cancelled that year, whereas 90210 was running on fumes.

I think Brooke was a great character, but finite. She had a singular, indelible role and purpose, but I think she died at just the right time. What they did with Billy and Alison afterwards was a separate mistake.

Kimberly was totally wasted after Season 4. They'd shot their wad when they could've kept her going as a semi-sane vixen like she was midway through that year - the sex advice radio host, the re-empowered nymphomaniac who was all over every man on the show - for countless more seasons.

I'll have to dig through all Tim's posts tonight; I'm working on a deadline and I shouldn't be too distracted. It's nice seeing some old DL lore brought back, but most of this is new to me and really fascinating.

Am I wrong or didn't Eddie Drueding(sp?) have a lot of Lemay-era stuff back in the day? I thought he used to sell VHS dubs. Is that stuff going up?

I think Jon and the Wall were far, far from an afterthought this season or last.

When would the show have found the time this season to stop dead, dredge up the old story of Tyrion's first wife, and have him and Jaime have a sit-down over it that ends badly?

That spare time certainly did not exist in the finale, or in the onscreen narrative that led up to it. It would've been very kludgily forced in, IMO, if they'd tried to drop it in tonight as Jaime is freeing Tyrion. "Oh, by the way..." They could get to it someday, but it would not have worked last night.

As for Jojen, I thought the scene was quick but realistic - and I thought his last moments, as the fire came down, were great. If, as is alleged, Jojen is all but dead in the books now anyway I can see why they'd want to economize and let him have a good death here and now. Especially since, up til now, he's been the much more prominent of the Reeds, whereas I understand in the books Meera has had a larger role as well. And now, presumably, she will take prominence on the show.

Books can do those things - they can balance infinite time, they can stop dead for little roundelays. GOT already gives so much time over to character scenes, monologues, etc. but when it's time to move I don't think they can just allow something to drag the plot to a halt.

Maybe Bran will go flying around and they'll have him kludgily voice animals, like in Milo & Otis. He can pop up and check in with everyone. One week he's a raven, the next he's a squirrel or a seagull. "Arya! It's me!" As the animal sort of vaguely moves its mouth in some half-assed fashion. I could watch that for a few months.

Speaking of Bran and voice acting, here is his silly-looking new animated film where he plays a boy raised by trolls.

I really don't see the general populace ever picking up the mixed critical opinion of the AV Club of late. Given the overwhelming reaction this year that's just not happening with this show.

I wasn't really talking about the general fans, I meant the critical elite types, who have their own level, and often drive conversation. I was just reading the AV Club review and they enjoyed the episode, but said it showed how GoT is "coming apart at the seams."

I don't think anyone is really giving major critical weight to the AV Club's take on this show at this point - they've sort of been dog-paddling towards trying to create some sort of furor since before the show returned this year. And I mean, it only matters to me as much as I let it.