Planet Soap

I think Maura could have worked as her own character and not Diane. I could see why the producers would want to cast as Diane given the troublesome role she played is Carly. The work she's doing now as Ava would further lead you to think that she'd be effective for a villainess like Diane Jenkins. Ultimately it didn't work. I could however definitely see someone malicious but vulnerable like Ava Jerome taking on Victor and Nikki etc.. She would've been an effective recast of a resurected Faith Roscoe on GH.

did a thread about this a while back. certain characters I think are unrecastable: Victor Y&R, Stephnie B&B, Stefano DAYS, Erica AMC, Viki (after Erika Slezac) OLTL, Sally Spectra B&B, Jason Morgan B&B, Todd Manning OLTL. The actors who played the characters I've listed, owned their role to a point where it'd be hard to except anyone else playing such character. Steve Burton is the only person that can effectively play Jason. His recast did not go well. Likewise, despite Trevor St. John's great run, Roger Howorth is the only person who can put Todd's comedy, violence, and animated mannerisms on full display.

Never realized Thomas had all those things on his record! I doubt that flashback will be brought up in a recent episode. SB: Brooke looks great these last two episode!

Agreed that his gray streak was natural. He had it on the UPN sitcom The Parkers as well.

Hard to argue with this list. A big asterix next to Amelia Heinle as Victoria. that's Aiken to re-casting Emma Sams versus Pamela Sue Martin to play Fallon Carrington. Attitude and boldness to demure and quiet strength. I don't mind David Tom given that he was the second best Billy (based on his early 2000s tenure) after Billy Miller. He probably needed more time to warm up to the role. I would have to agree. I like Gina Tognoni but she was not Phyllis for me. She just came off so hard (for lack of a better term) in the role. I didn't see much of her tenure on Guiding Light but even then she had big shoes to fill after Wendy Moniz's Dinah. Firstly Sandra Nelson and secondly Michelle Stafford were better as Phyllis.

fingers crossed that MTP gets a new host

Agreed. AMC and OLTL had much more fanfare at the end of their runs. they had fantastic sendoff episodes on The View. As for CBS, I at least saw clips online of The Early Show covering TGL and ATWT's finalies. This just feels way too low-key.

My question is what does daytime TV become in the next 5 to 10 years? Certainly all news all day won't work. I hesitate to believe that broadcast TV will go extinct because we still have radio after all.

Not just soaps but talk shows seem to be struggling. What is the future of daytime just, short of all news?

According to TV passport WNBC will be showing Dateline (syndicated daytime version) to make up for Ellen and DAYS' departures. Dateline in daytime on an NBC station rather than the CW, My Network Tv or a small market Fox station. That's how you know local stations are running out of programming options.

Why did Malone leave OLTL the first time? There was a noticable quality drop after his departure in 1996.

I agree in the sense that news overload is killing daytime television. Stations these days have news from 3-7:30pm! HOWEVER I support this move because prime time has been struggling for about the last decade. Broadcast networks must fill three hours of prime time Sun-Thu compared to cable and streaming who can just put something out when they have something good (even though they too have a fair share of s***ty shows). I say give the affiliates 10 PM for news and either move the late night talk shows up to 10:35 or 11 PM Eastern. To avoid this being another "Jay Leno Show" 2010 situation, ABC and CBS might have follow suit -- and they should -- because primetime television is dying.

Agreed. Sidebar: a problem modern GHS is it they try to tie new characters to the existing canvas very sloppily. Example: Franco is Heather & Scott's son.

Who's tenure (under JFP) did you all think was done better, Garin Wolf or Bob Guza? EndlessForms1 did a video comparing Robin's HIV writing under Labine vs Wolf:

okay, because I've always wondered just exactly how Tricia went crazy. i'm about to rewatch that storyline where she raped Victor and then accused him of the act. It was surreal seeing "almighty" Victor taken down down by this small young woman, but then I remember Eve back in the day, and Mary Jo.

Dr Landers is barely ever even mentioned today. His death had a bigger impact on the show than his life. As you mentioned, surprisingly the '98 shooting & reunion doesn't get that much revisitation in classic Niktor montages. To it's credit, the '98 Niktor reunion gave us a decade of evil Diane. I did like the execution of the hospital scenes. These days the writers would just say that the character's in critical condition then show them in a hospital bed, no in between dramatics. After the shooting we saw the paramedics pick Nikki up in a pool of blood and the doctors trying to revive her. The scenes where Nikki was bedridden and pale were mildly graphic and realistic. Soaps today cant pull off making dying and a shooting feel and look that serious.

So if she was presumed death an opening for rumored cross over to Y&R? KB looks great, like she lost weight.

For Y&R's 50th I'd to see the three Ashley's together and the three Phyliss' like what GH did with the 3 Carlys. Have Mary Jo come back. Do a new Sheila versus Lauren storyline, and the reappearances of Drusilla and Olivia. Bring back the David Kimball actor as his twin brother or something to terrorize Nina.

Why would they name the butler who was in cahoots with Clint Radison during the Marge storyline the same name as Kay's driver? Ahhhh my favorite storyline! I thought it was cruel on Victor's part to lure Diane away from Jack only to leave her once Nikki recovered... and then a further slap in the face because he and Nikki lasted about a year before Brad and Ramona came in the picture. I suppose it's just desserts for Diane because of the Patty fiasco in the 80s and leaving Jack for Victor.

what i'd like for the 60th🤔 60 episode release on Hulu, let's say 10 of the best episodes from each decade, or some thing like that. some sort of major talk show promotion either on GMA or The View (perhaps the view because they did well for All My Children & OLTL finales). Fat chance but.....a week of classic episodes on abc itself. Get rid of several useless charachters, Brenda & Lucky's returns, Luke to be alive and some sort or tribute to Monica. Is the actress that played Audrey doing well or available?

Exactly what was Luke Spencer's source of income in the 90s forwards. I know he owned a club but was Luke exactly a mobster or mob affiliated? this is why im a weary about following soap stars or even news casters on social media. I dont care to know about your politics or personal drama, I just want to enjoy your work on screen and that's it. I might question their personal life when an actor departs a role or something along those lines.

I revisited this old episode from 2002 in which Eric finds out that Deacon is Hope's father. There are so many paralelles between 2002 and 2022. Sheila causes a major shooting death and a character turns out to be alive. Brooke & Deacon are the subject of scandal. In this episode, Deacon is wallowing at a bar, drinking alcohol (literally happened this week on B&B). I've also just started watching early Brook/Ridge/Taylor in depth for the fist time, now that the endless triangle has been revisited on the current show. In many ways 2002 parallels 1992. Brooke is at the center of paternity drama once again involving Bridget. Brooke gives birth at the Big Bear cabin, and someone involved in the paternity drama hast to deliver her baby. (First Ridge in '92 for Bridget then in '02 for Hope). And of course Sheila is stirring up trouble surrounding parentage. Finn in 2022, Bridget in 1992.

So this Oz guy is lucid enough to testify withing hours of being awoken, if I have the timeline correct???

fair points. With DAYS gone, to put things in persepctive you can now watch every daytime soap live in the same day (presumably) with no timeslot overlaps.

I'm glad we got to see the verdict on the east coast before ABC News once again unnecessarily interrupted programming. What is this, the third consecutive day of a special report during General Hospital's time slot? This has to be negatively impacting the numbers in some way. Networks have gotten so trigger-happy with special reports, some of these things could easily wait until regularly scheduled newscast times or could be streamed on their 24/7 news platforms. A lot of these "special reports" aren't just a few minutes, they end up taking up the remainder of the show's timeslot.