Franko

It's a stretch, but Judith Light was on the Dallas revival.

I spent my afternoon trying to come up with alternative story path for Maggie. Suppose she became an alcoholic because of her fish out of water situation. Here she is, feeling like she's coming up short as a wife, potential mother, member of Salem society, etc. A story about anxiety and low self-esteem tells itself in 2020, but it could have worked in the late '70s, too. Maggie could end up befriending every young woman in town (Trish, Margo, Donna, Melissa) with maybe a little jealousy about the liberation she was just a little too old for/isolated from, but also genuine friendship for her mentees. Maggie will still make mistakes (yes to the idea of a fling with Jay), but she's also learning to appreciate herself (and Mickey) along the way.

With a heartwarming visit from Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter for the Christmas episodes.

Which run are we talking about, Bev's or Carmen's? If it's the former, I've heard it said that the Iris and Alex Wheeler storyline wasn't that great (wasn't it intended as TEXAS' initial marquee storyline?). If it's the latter, @j swift was talking not too long ago about the oddity of Iris falling for everyday kinda guy Hank Kent (which I think was her last story before the mess with Carl).

Ha, so she's become Johnny Carson?

Ha, that's brilliant! Also, I know Biden's too much of a gentleman to do so, but in response to the "clown" question and if he gets blowback for not agreeing to do another debate, but he has the right to say, "M**********r tried to kill me!"

I've been in such an EVITA mood these past few days, but I'd argue we're actually in the last 10 minutes or so. (And, yes, I know, he'll never say any of this out loud, but ...)

Meanwhile, at the White House ...

When I first heard the name Monticello, I assumed it was somehow related to Jefferson's place and thus in Virginia. Kinda fitting, since EDGE and CAPITOL frequently come up in discussions of soaps that could/should be revived.

One more schadenfreude clip:

Theme song for this evening. If it wasn't evident already, this feels like Toto pulling back the curtain on Professor Marvel.

Wow, Pete & Diana had a courtship on steroids! Especially when there weren't mitigating circumstances (pregnancy, greed) involved. Were P&D the flagship young couple for their time? Looking at late 1981-early 1982, I see Kit and Joey, then Rick and Marianne, left a few months apart. Then there was Sally and Denny (didn't last long), Jamie and eventually Christine (also short-lived), Cecile and Sandy (ditto, with Cass eventually coming a few months later) and Blaine apparently between men.

I see that one of Poyner's AW storylines as Dennis was having an affair with Cecile's mother, Elena (one of Iris' friends). Perhaps his interest in older woman could have continued on TEXAS?

Thank you. For some reason, I got really concerned about Cass' happiness.

Donna's misfortune extended into ATWT. She had skin cancer, then Vicky died and her ghost needed to be put to rest, then Jake remarried and ultimately died, too. According to the AWHP, Donna and Marley co-raised twins Michelle and Bridget with Jake's widow, Molly, but I'm willing to bet the ladies Love have spent most of the last 18 years with those girls (which, depending on how you look at it, may be a happy ending). Slightly off topic, but did Cass and Lila eventually breakup, or was she just off-screen whenever he'd make his later appearances on ATWT and GL?

SPOILER (Watch at your own risk. It seems to serve as a shallow but evocative coda.)

Oh, I dunno, I'm sure he would have made a fine bit player on any of the New York soaps during his theater years.

An instrumental version would have worked well, but maybe they wanted to use Carly since she had a (different) hit song at the time, "Let the River Run" (which would have been all kinds of strange playing against Felicia's makeover). If we haven't already, we should do a list of soap characters who died (or "died") while attempting to kill others. Reginald, James Stenbeck (the plane plunge in '83), I swear it happened to Carl once or twice ...

As a Broadway fan, I'm getting a kick out of the song. It's "Sleight of Hand," which was the theme to the short-lived play of the same name. The clip fades out *just* before Carly sings "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (no, really).

For no particular reason, here's Reginald falling to his death from the Love Tower. (Karma's a bitch, Reg.)

According to the AWHP: Donna, November 1987 - June 1999 (Michael, Vicky, Matthew) [Bayview Towers] Iris II, October 1988 - May 1995, remodeled in winter 1995 (Evan) [Bayview Towers] Felicia, January 1987 - June 1999, remodeled on June 8, 1989 (Mitch, Lucas, Jenna) [Love Tower] Grant, summer 1990 - June 1999, remodeled in November 1998 (Spencer) [Referred to as a hotel suite. Love Tower]

Bobbie looks like a little girl playing dress up with those shades! The Laura "lookalike" is Julie Piekarski, formerly of The Facts of Life. In my (primitive) screengrab, she looks a bit like Kristina Wagner.

No worries. I was getting a kick out of the idea that Georgia was hardcore into disco and wouldn't accept anything else.

There is nothing I would have loved more than the Campus Disco to have become the Campus Honky-tonk or something like "PCGBs." Even if Georgia doesn't approve.

Great topic! When I was middle school age (as well as watching DOOL and PASSIONS religiously and before I learned a few things about myself), I imagined a show, Seaview Heights, that I would not only headwrite, but star on. I'd play Alan Stevens, the troubled son of making a new life for herself Jan Barton, who gave me up to her sister, Sydney and husband, Victor, because she was married to an evil man named Martin (as an adult, I'm now thinking, "Martin Barton"?). Jan's best friend was Lionel, a Ned Flanders type (in decency, not being especially religious) who she relearned love from. Anyway, Alan and his sister, Sabrina, had a best friend, Bobby Green, who Sabrina liked. But he also caught the attention of scheming Janet Randall, whose sweet sister, Cassidy, became Alan's girlfriend. There was also Martin's trophy wife, Shelley (who was anorexic); Sydney's older son, Charlie, and his wife, Annie (I sure seemed fond of names which ended with vowels); and Bobby's mother, Florida, a talk show host. And these were just some of the characters. I thought an hour long show needed 32 characters, so we had a family in the fashion business (Welch Worldwide), the Randall girls had an older, slightly feminist sister (who entered into an opposites attract relationship with Martin), there were a handful of doctors, etc. Hey, I was in middle school. And it was slightly better than my idea in college, which was the reverse of Glee (student actors). Now that I'm an adult, I'd love to go back to basics, write something simpler. More organic, too -- think of the stories about COVID-19, people understanding the effects of systemic racism, new attitudes sexuality (a few years back, a community not too far from me had a hazing scandal that may or may not have been fueled by gay panic), political divide (I'd love to have a leading lady who's a newly appointed state senator), etc. that aren't being told, at least not beyond the surface. I think I'd set it in a town striving to be more than a bedroom community to a nearby city.