Vee

I don't think I ever suggested otherwise. I've been pretty pointed on what I feel are the show's major issues. But I do think they also have something that is simultaneously a unique advantage and a unique struggle given their new and 'untrained' audience. I don't think it will be solved by importing more of the B&B or off-brand Bell house style for the dialogue. I applaud having a majority Black dialogue staff, but I would be leaning towards more the GH voice vs. modern CBS. The scripts wildly vacillate between hypermodern that's either fresh and fun or at the point of cringe/therapyspeak, and just stuff that may be goodhearted but creaky, or ancient as the hills exposition. We completely disagree on Vanessa, but that's fine. I think she's one of the most well-realized and dimensional characters even when she's being terrible and I think LB plays every facet to the hilt. And while Joey is (intentional) scum, I think JL plays it well enough these days and Joey at least moves plot. Unlike a number of characters on the show. The storyline may not be to everyone's taste but Vanessa has had a real character arc onscreen that has been both externalized and discussed in her character building dialogue, with an actor who can meet the moment. Not every character can say the same. Many are static, and some have just done 180s. As for Hayley, I just don't think there was ever intended to be the kind of character there that people imagined for her sight unseen. She's always been just this. Could she be more, sure, but she's kind of an afterthought and plot device to me atm. I'm focused on the characters I feel have actual layers and strong performances, including Bill, Eva, Dani, Kat, Vanessa, etc. I think Martin has evolved too. And yes: No way CBS dumps the first Black creator of the first majority Black soap opera. There aren't enough MAGA trolls bothering with it (they have bigger fish to fry atm), let alone angry gooners. Nor should they. But I do think the writing staff and several stories need major changes, and I would not say no to another strong co-head. I remain unconvinced by Tracy Thomson. Hopefully she'll surprise me.

Yeah, it's just not realistic for anyone to expect MVJ to step down from the show bearing her name that she started less than a year ago lol. It would also be a PR debacle. Nor do I think she should, but I do think the dialogue staff needs an overhaul. I think a lot of the grand pronouncements and expository dialogue are straight out of the Bell school (or worse, Brad Bell), as I've said many times. It seems to work for a lot of audience that's either used to that house style or not used to soaps at all, but it doesn't work for me. I also am not impressed by Thomson, but hopefully she will surprise me. That said, I also think Guza's influence shows in what is easily one of the deepest and most richly characterized stories and arcs, namely Vanessa and her descent into crime with Joey and Doug. Unlike a number of other core characters, Vanessa is fully fleshed out in a way that reminds me a great deal of Guza's better work even as the underworld stuff is also very much in his wheelhouse. It's one key reason I don't have the issue with it other people do. Because it actually feels cohesive, well-performed and often decently scripted, even if the Golden Corral casino is hilarious to me. That really sums up the show's dilemma, which Ducksworth laid out explicitly a few months ago in an interview. BTG has actually succeeded in gaining a new audience for daytime and is cultivating it. The problem is a lot of that audience has no experience with watching a 5-day daytime soap, and expects one fast pace while the classic audience wants something else. BTG is struggling to marry these two audiences' tastes onscreen and it hasn't figured it out yet. Despite my issues with the show, I sympathize with that a lot. It's a totally new frontier - a good one for the future of soaps, but a very tricky situation.

The optimal solution for managing Sonny and relegating him to a supporting role where he can still be active (and I agree the show can't risk the hit of dropping him) will always remain Brenda. It doesn't have to be writing them off the show together. Humble him, reunite them, marry them off and she is on contract and takes the bulk of active story. Sonny keeps his hand in story and on the canvas but they'd no longer be desperate to find something for him to do and a good position for him to play on canvas or to stay relevant. It would be Mac and Rachel status from AW (although Mac Cory was not backburnered). Meanwhile the show likely gets a ratings bump from Vanessa. But Frank doesn't want to do that, so we have Mo romancing Sidwell's animatronic wife in a bad C-story Sonny has already played maybe 3-5 times.

A longer TV Insider piece with Erika.

Doug was a nuisance who threatened to expose him and threatened his growing sexual obsession with Vanessa. That was more than enough for Joey.

More from Erika. If it gets removed, so be it.

A very earnest interview with Steve.

Another angle on the Erika/Tuc Watkins/Roger Howarth visit, with Erika visiting with Tuc's kids. As Errol noted on the main page, Erika has wrapped at GH. From her website:

Glad to hear.

Lots of people have had issues with FV and then buried the hatchet and come back. His weren't that serious. But I don't think he'll ever leave B&B.

You know where to find these eps in early November, but I think you can see most of the Viki/Clint scene after the fire in one of the 30th anniversary episodes in early July '93. The fire department has to demolish the hidden entrance to Victor's old secret room to get to Little Al and C.J., which triggers panic for Viki (an early hint to the DID saga) and then various flashbacks, including that scene when she fears that Llanfair will collapse entirely due to the controlled explosion. I'll see if I can find it for you, though. I really don't know what happened BTS when and I'm not sure how many would recall today. I wonder if Susan Horgan (who is credited already at this point BTS) might have some input if she's still active online. I know Joey Thrower apparently told a fan years ago that Robyn Griggs was a headache even then, and I assume that's what got her swiftly canned despite them clearly testing her with Jason and Joey in Malone's first month and adding her to the opening. (She is Jason's unknown 'dream girl' he spots at random on the street before Carlo hires him to chaperone her, which leads swiftly to their fúcking on Malone's official first day in September and just as quickly to their burgeoning connection largely disappearing afterwards, as the focus shifts largely to Lee Ann with both Kevin and Jason in the month before JDP returns.) Griggs had chemistry with Brettschneider but was still pretty stiff in other ways. It is what it is, and you couldn't really argue with focusing in on Yasmine Bleeth and other new hires or priorities at the time. One of the first overt mask-off hints that Blair is actually an active schemer (as opposed to just having a secret roommate and poring over Banner files) comes when she and Cord hit Japan in the second week of November, where Cord asks her to ask the hotel busboy if they can get separate bathrooms and instead she asks him in Japanese 'do you think it will rain today?' (The answer, of course, is no.) It's hilariously underplayed onscreen, but from there they have Blair going full tilt into seduction mode, her hair is down and she's starting to show the other side. I do wonder what would've happened had JL stayed. I hadn't realized that it seems like Jake was deceived into providing security for an arms dealer - I thought he was deep into illicit business as a mercenary to make money, but from what was presented over the last couple months during first Joe Lando's occasional appearances and then the plot material here, it seems like Jake thought he was running security for a legit Japanese businessman only to fall prey to his boss' enemies and get abducted by Jaba when the boss turned out to be crooked. It is hard to watch Megan's swift decline in captivity after Doug Eber takes her and Viki hostage, as she is clearly miserable and terrified and now has less than 3 months to live. Knowing the ending you feel differently, especially as she pleads for Jake to come home and we know exactly when and how that will happen, maybe less than an hour before the end of her life.

Nah, she cut plenty. I can't name them all.

They're probably starting the story because we'll be expected to indulge Nathan with Lulu or something as Frank drags out reuniting her and Dante vs. more of Queen BLQ.

I'm pretty sure more flashbacks will be in the next two days, as they did with Bobbie's memorial eps. I'm giving them time for it - I haven't really had any issue with its handling so far myself.

It would be one thing if it was the first time. But it's not even the fourth.

Just outrageous. But that's what you get if you have baby oiled pecs and are from a family made up largely of FV/RC creations.

I just feel so bad for Van Der Beek. What a grueling illness.

I guess it's good there's another Watts out there.

Many of them have been vague and frankly unconvincing based on a lot of stories over the years. I have no doubt many of Kirsten's medical issues are real. But few require her to be gone as long as she often is.

It's obviously FV and the cast's commendable loyalty to KS that's kept this going on. I would probably write Spixie out together for awhile too if she can't commit to returning and staying. I couldn't care less about Nathan though, a bland pairing with a boring block of concrete. I think they're all worried what will happen to her without the job though tbqh. It's a no-win scenario.

Paggi sucked.

Exactly. I think this is just a move to take some of the pressure off their one-stop shop.

I agree with most of that. I think at the end of the day with Kirsten it's always been about the things they explicitly don't talk about - her mental or physical health or other long-rumored issues, and GH and FV feel responsible for her (and might consider themselves liable if they did terminate her). It's been this way since before Frank got there. When he did take over she was on another long break, and he almost let her go then. I don't know what is the right or wrong choice at this point. If not for her remarkable comeback onscreen in the last year I would say fire her. I've said to fire her more than once myself in the last ten years. I do think her taking off for six months is unacceptable after so many ups and downs, especially when (once again) I don't feel she or GH are being transparent about the reasons.

I am pretty frustrated with the situation, especially as she had a very strong comeback last year. Would I let her go, not yet but if she can't commit to being there ASAP, well...

November '91. A great bit with Max and Little Al: Max telling his tiny son "you're doing a fine job of raising me." Amen to that. The scenes following the Llanfair fire contain some really beautiful stuff, especially some lengthy, very deep scenes with Megan and Andrew at St. James Church, as she reflects on the tragedy and the mess of her life with a scattered family, MIA husband and failing health, and he calls her 'something of a pilgrim' both as an actress and a woman, searching for truth. "You see that in me?" she says, touched, and you can tell someone's never looked at her that way before. The clearly bereft Buchanans listening to Andrew's sermon is also really touching, as you can tell Joey and Jessica are beside themselves re: recent events and Viki and Clint are also spent. This leads up to a sequence in the smoky wreckage of the Llanfair drawing room that they later clipped for flashbacks during the 30th anniversary, a beautiful twofer with Viki and Clint where she sifts through various destroyed mementos - being at a state dinner at the Kennedy White House, her first byline for her father, etc. - and Clint tells her that the memories are inside of them as opposed to material things. Some of Erika and Clint Ritchie's very best work together, and very intimate. If you've never seen these scenes I do recommend them. Even Viki and Lee Ann get some lovely bonding scenes after Lee Ann risks her life to save Jessica from the fire. We all know that won't last. Bizarrely, Stephanie is back again after leaving town with a recuperating Carlo for Chicago maybe 2-3 weeks ago just in time to leave again, in the same outfit she last wore to the airport! She shows up for a single scene with Joey, Lee Ann and Jason at Wanda's to wish Lee Ann the best as she gets out of the hospital, then says she is 'leaving town.' Again! Somewhere! Sure, why not? I wonder if it was a contractual thing. Regardless, they did swiftly remove Robyn Griggs from the Tour of Llanview opening recently very shortly after adding her, Lee Ann and Jason (and then JDP a couple weeks ago, but strangely they never bothered with either Luna or Blair despite both having major roles these last two months). Meanwhile there's a full end credits on the 11/11 episode, and it still lists both Griggs and Ken Meeker (Rafe) as contract (also listed as contract: Christopher Cousins as 'Heinrich Kaiser'). Whatever! The Lee Ann/Jason relationship is also deepening, as he weaves a story for her doing her home recovery since he very obviously cannot read her beloved copy of "Black Beauty" to save his life. This connection is strong despite Max being back trying to make his play and Kevin being offscreen for several weeks at the Buchanan ranch, and it makes you wonder how far out that were planning or just improvising and experimenting with different combinations of characters and actors - most likely the latter, which was healthy early on. For example, Luna, Lee Ann's new bestie, merely clucks about 'this Max fella' taking up all her friend's headspace: "I can feel his aura just as strong as I can feel yours!" Once again they have Asa alluding to his 'first love' Rose Smith (how many did he have?) during the drama with Max, Renee and Wingate Holden's will. She came up in passing a few times in October and maybe September with Kevin and Clint when the Buchanan men went up to the cabin, and I think I know what it's about; the baffling thing is if it all ends up ultimately being a full remake of Asa's link to Max and Patricia Holden with a very similar set of characters. But more on that another time, as the truth about Wingate which Max came to town all fired up about comes out, uh, pretty quick! Only for Asa to finally chuck the incriminating document in the fire in front of Max and his wife. Moving right along! In the middle of this, Cord heads off to Japan with Blair in search of Jake in prep for John Loprieno's big exit. His relationship with Tina is still a bit frayed but tender and they have a sweet farewell that is neither over nor underplayed, followed by a bracing hard cut to the increasingly less mousy Blair's long legs draped across the backseat of the company car taking Cord to the airport, surprising both Cord and Tina. Nicely done. I have to wonder how their longtime fans would've felt though if they knew this exit was coming from the magazines, as this was the Cord and Tina even with the (well-received) KW recast. But I do think they'd been on the mid-tier of activity for some time now, certainly the last 4-6 months. The increasingly tiresome Doug Eber (apparently not 'Ebert' per the credits) saga hits its climax as Viki and the ill, still undiagnosed Megan are abducted in the second week of November. The Eber stuff has only been going since mid-October or so but has moved very fast, and while I still feel it has not overly dominated the show's traditionally long-form storylines, it has taken up a fair bit of time, half the cast seems preoccupied by it and I am ready for it to wrap up lol. Jane is just such a drip.