Broderick

I never thought Catherine Hickland was anything special. Other people liked her, I guess.

From day one, I've never detected one iota of chemistry or passion between Ashley & Andre. I'll never buy the two of them as "star-crossed" lovers. He's got no reason in the world to give a rat's ass about her, and she's got no reason in the world to think he's anything spectacular. That's a thread that needs to be developed more carefully or else dropped entirely IMHO.

I dunno. I gave Capitol a half-hearted chance but just didn't care for the show at all. If I remember right, Julie & Jordy were the only two characters who appealed to me. Then Julie was recast with an actress I've never especially cared for. And the writing never seemed to gel on the show, so I abandoned it. I'm surprised it lasted 5 whole years. Y&R was a mess from the spring of 1980 till the spring of 1982, and any actor would've probably fared as well as another on the show. It lacked purpose and direction until about June of 1982, when it started another upswing.

In my opinion, they previewed all of the Samantha/Tyrell "sex business" (and the motivations behind it) a few days ago in a conversation between Vernon & Anita. Anita was always "in charge" of Nicole, because all Nicole ever needed was a little nurturing. Vernon was always "in charge" of Dani (the "Dani Whisperer"), because Dani was far more impulsive and non-thinking. (It wasn't necessarily said out loud, but what I gathered was that Vernon had to spank Dani's ass sometimes.) Tyrell is more of a Nicole (who only needs a little nurturing), and Samantha is more of a Dani, who jumps the gun without thinking and might occasionally need her ass spanked. I believe that's why Martin came down so hard on her about her impulsive decision with the lil boyfriend.

Of course. But then again, the old mop in my utility room would've made a better Ashley than Shari Shattuck.

We recently learned there's a LOT more to Hayley's motivations that what had been shown to us. I think the same is true of Vanessa. Right now, I believe Vanessa is on a "revenge tour", because she appears to blame Joey Armstrong completely for Doug's death. The day after Doug's funeral, we saw her slithering around with her perky hooters bursting out of her dress, begging to become "Joey's full partner". I think she wants to infiltrate Joey's organization deeper so she can discover if he hauled her out of town while he had Doug killed, and so she can discover who actually did it and the extent of Joey's criminal dealings. The "mind-blowing orgasms on the pool table" that she told Dani about are likely to make her appear more sincere about still being attracted to Joey. I may be wrong. We'll see.

Poor Carlton. He just can't get out of the Incidental Supporting Character role. Today was his BIG MOMENT, but every time the camera lingered on him, the Febreeze sitting on her desk upstaged him.

Michele Val Jean has pitched us several clues since February that Hayley's goal was strictly bilking Big Bill out of his money. As you pointed out, the way she acted when he was deceitful was a big clue. But the BIGGEST CLUE was the show's steadfast refusal to show Hayley's point of view at any time. We know that the "A-List Characters" on the show are Dani and Nicole. We were constantly given a point-of-view from Leslie (the demon who broke-up Nicole's marriage). Leslie's been everywhere, telling us exactly what she thinks about everyone and everything. On the other hand, aside from an occasional movie night with Caroline, there's been ZERO insight into what Hayley is thinking. Posters here on the board have even commented about it: "For someone who opened the show and is now married to Bill, we know NOTHING about Hayley. No family, no friends, no discussions with herself in the mirror. Zilch. The writers have really dropped the ball here." Seemed pretty clear that was an intentional choice, and they'd be dropping the bomb on us eventually. I assumed all along she was stealing from the college fund Bill established for her "pregnancy ruses". There was so much discussion about the college fund (a rarity to hear that discussed on television) and Bill's large deposits to the growing education fund, and I always suspected that's why she was so blatantly faking a pregnancy and a miscarriage. I assumed she'd fake one or two more of those, and then skip town. The large life insurance policy was a big surprise to me.

I think the writers are purposefully ignoring the potential rivalry between Ted & Carlton simply because Carlton is such a "non-entity". He doesn't really seem positioned to have any lasting impact in Miss Nicole's life. He's barely worth Ted getting mad about, lol. Izaiah's head-bobbing wouldn't have been as noticeable if that little pom-pom wasn't bouncing around on top of his head every time he moved. If he continues doing it, it probably won't look as strange with his hair down. Plus, it's our first time to see Eva with a guy who actually moves his head and his hands -- we're getting accustomed to her usual Robot.

Just got caught up on a week's worth of shows. I could have THROTTLED the Hideous Wig Hag for pulling that fire alarm & ruining the reunion between Ted and Miss Nicole. That was a good episode. I sure enjoyed the contrast between Dani and Nicole in the following episode. Dani is such a chatterbox and wears her heart on her sleeve at all times. Meanwhile, poor ole Mona had to meticulously d-r-a-g each tiny detail out of Miss Nicole, who never wants to tell anyone anything. It's really great to see a character as reserved & discreet as Nicole in a medium where the emphasis is on talking TOO MUCH.

I'm kinda thinking the same thing. If I remember right, Mona Wilson was manipulated (by Leslie) into vouching for Eva's "upstanding qualities" and "virtues", convincing Nicole to hire Eva as a temporary replacement for Laura. Then when everything blew up, Nicole turned in bewilderment to Mona who lamely said, "I didn't know these folks had ulterior motives!" The whole situation made Mona look as though she was involved in the deception. Jan was exempt from all that. I can see Jan being more compassionate toward Leslie, while Mona likely hopes to never see Leslie again.

I enjoyed Mona and Jan having differing viewpoints on forgiving Leslie. Mona was treated worse (and used more flagrantly) by the horrible bitch than Jan was. I can see Jan forgiving and forgetting, and I can see Mona NEVER getting over it.

Y'all understood Smitty & Martin's "thin, gray" hair differently from me. Martin was talking about where he hoped to be 10 years from now: "I see myself still in love with my handsome, sexy, kind, generous husband. And we get back to sharing our first love -- politics! -- and our son is chess champion! Our daughter, who modeled a bit, has decided on something else she loves just as much, but way SAFER! And we're older, our hair is grayer and thinner, but we still love each even more than that day I lent you a pen and you wrote your phone number on that card. We dream big." (That's the way I heard it.) And then Smitty looked at him all starry-eyed, because he was enraptured by Martin's idea of the future. (But I wasn't sure "Gran" would let Sweet Baby move back into the brownstone, because she loves tucking him in at night.)

That's exactly right! Hayley was snarking that Dani is in Bill's past, and Dani retorted that sometimes past is prologue. Thanks! (I remembered the line when it was said, because I thought it was a wise observation, just couldn't remember who & why.)

WHO previously said, "Past is prologue", and what was the context? I distinctly recall that line having been said a few weeks or months ago, but can't remember the context. Was it Anita who said it earlier?

Watching the scenes between Dani & Miss Nicole, you'd think those two had been playing sisters for 7 years (instead of 7 months). I don't want Donnell to stumble into any additional Gloomy News, but the evil part of me hopes he's about to find out Real Estate Barbie is WAY worse than he'd thought. It's bad enough to lose your daddy, but then to find out right after the funeral your mother is the Dollar Store Gangster's whore, that'll be an awful lot for the kid to digest.

I think it's Martin & Smitty (of all people). They've had trials & tribulations from Day One (well, I believe it started on Day Two, to be exact) and haven't really "connected" the entire 7 months the show has been on the air, despite the fact that they're in love with each other. It's an unusual situation for a soap, because (a) they're a same-sex couple, and (b) their problems involve honesty and trust issues, rather than the usual soap trope of a "villain" keeping them apart.

They can't afford to give Alex Cheeks a contract; they tied up their payroll allocation on the award-winning Tomas. Real Estate Barbie is mighty cute, and I always enjoy her scenes with Dani Dupree & Miss Nicole. Real genuineness among them. I'm glad Carlton finally got a thin shred of personality today. It's sorta a shame that Dapnee Duplaix is wasted on a "relationship" with some recurring character who's barely even given a storyline crumb.

That's an excellent example of a line that should've never seen the light of day. I'll fix it for them. VERNON: Which Jackie? ANITA: Jackie Tyree -- the Anita Williams Impersonator from Vegas. VERNON: I hope you told her she shouldn't have conducted that --- ANITA: What's the point? It's too late. Dani and Andre are married. VERNON: They were drunk. ANITA: What we need to concentrate on now is getting the marriage annulled. She offered us an open invitation to come see her act the next time we're in Las Vegas.

The same thing happened to Chelsea that happened to Martin a few months earlier. Neither of them (RhonniRose or Brandon) was very good in the first weeks of the show. Someone on the board pointed out in the initial episodes that Brandon Claybon delivered all his lines like a Southwest Airlines flight attendant telling us where the emergency exits are located in the aircraft 😉 ) Chelsea wasn't much better. Late in the spring, Martin was given a storyline in which he was required to express fear, desperation, anger, remorse -- sometimes all in the same scene. At times he did fine, and at other times he was pretty awful. But by the time the storyline came to its temporary conclusion, he was like a whole new actor. He found his character, he found his range, and now he exudes the confidence of an actor who knows what he's doing. Chelsea got the same treatment during the kidnapping storyline. She had to express a host of different emotions all in the same scenes. It was a tough job. Sometimes she was good; other times she came across as an absolute amateur. But by the time she was rescued and brought home, RhonniRose's confidence in her character and in her talent range had increased 100%. Those two storylines were the best experiences that could have possibly happened to those two actors. They were "baptized by fire", and they survived it. I hope we're not subjected to a storyline like that with Alex Alegria. lol. It won't do any good.

Leslie called it wrong. This hare-brained fool ain't a "Bad Bunny". He's just a plain ole Dumb Bunny.

I liked his stories, but Douglas Marland's dialogue was often laughable. ("I ran into Lisa earlier, and she said she'd talked with Bob and Kim, who mentioned to her that Frannie had learned from Kirk that Duncan and Shannon are out of town until tomorrow" -- instead of just saying, "I think Duncan and Shannon are out of town.")

I cringed at that one too. I believe literary folks call it "over-writing", when extra words are haphazardly thrown in, making the sentence (or question) clumsy, awkward, and repetitious. In theory, the dialogue writer should've caught that line when he reviewed his completed script with an editing pen. Then the script went to a "script editor", who should've caught it if the dialogue writer didn't. Next, it went to a member of the headwriting team, who definitely should've caught it. And lastly, it went to the director, who would've scratched out the clunky, unnecessary words immediately. But somehow, on Beyond the Gates, those glaring errors often slide right through the entire editing process and end up on our TV screens. Hopefully, they'll become more proficient in fixing them.

BIG BILL: "So ... why aren't you with your nearly-incestuous, underage husband?" 🤣 I'm mighty impressed with that little boy who's playing Donnell McBride. I wish TPTB would suggest he give some acting lessons to that grown-ass Tomas. I'm sure we'll find out more about Hayley's "pregnancy" as time passes. In fact, if she was lying about it (and I still suspect she was), that might ultimately be what pushes Bill back to Dani Dupree for Round #2. I can always find something to complain about with this show (June's warp speed move from the underpass to the soul food cafe), but typically they never drop a storyline thread. Even immediately after Doug's death, when Vanessa was in the police station with Jacob, she was being assured that if any foul play was involved in Doug's wreck, Jacob would crack the case. She said, "What about Laura Peterson? Did you solve that?" Everything that's happened seems to still be on the writers' minds and comes back into play at some point.

Good Ole Banneker U has been hovering in the background since the first day. It's a make-believe HBCU in Washington. Ted and Madison both got their medical degrees there. Big Bill got his law degree there. Vernon is an instructor there and is on the board of trustees. Vanessa's kids go there. And we're being led to believe Jacob might have a close relative who's on the staff. I'm expecting we'll soon be seeing Good Ole Banneker U, because back in February, during their "get to know Beyond the Gates" specials, they kind of teased that the university would come into play later on in the series. It's named for Benjamin Banneker, and they made a point of letting us know that, along with Orphey Gene's being based on the Florida Ave Grill in DC.