Broderick

If taping 200 episodes per year (instead of 250 or whatever) enables Beyond the Gates to manage their budget better than the other CBS shows are doing, I'm in favor of it. One thing I really enjoy about this show is how they seem capable of hiring extras and under-5s, which Y&R apparently is too poverty-stricken to accomplish. (I do worry about how frequent "breaks" impact the ratings though.)

"Dear Lord, please bring that precious little girl home to her triflin' two-faced daddy." 🤣

Yes it has, along with the corrupt cop (Marcel) and the frequent use of the police department and attorneys. Many of EON's attributes are present on this show. Not to mention the literary IRONY and "parallelisms" we saw on Edge. After the introductory scene of Vanessa & the "male escort" in Episode #3, the next usage of the Uptown set (Episode #4) was when Chelsea, celebrating her Ebony shoot and her surge in social media followers, was approached by the man known as "Craig" at the Uptown bar. It was basically a "replay" of the Vanessa/Zeke scene with the "lady" and the "escort", but it was disguised sufficiently to throw most viewers off. At first I wasn't fooled by Craig -- I assumed he was a hooker, too -- but he never asked for money, which made it somewhat bewildering. And then a few episodes later, he introduced Chelsea to his "wife" Allison. It LOOKED like the set-up for a con game (putting Chelsea in a compromising position and bilking Senator Dupree out of some $$$), but it never materialized in that direction, and I slowly decided Allison & Craig perhaps were on the up & up, till that weird "wound" Allison received that required a trip to the hospital.

This storyline was actually "previewed" in Episode #3, back in February. Vanessa was at Uptown with a male hooker, doing some roleplay. He was pretending to be her "greatest fan" who wanted to spend some time alone with her. Dani Dupree came barging in (fresh off her Golf Club Takedown of Big Bill's desk), and she asked Vanessa, "Who is THIS?! Where is Doug?!" Vanessa looked guilty & embarrassed, lamely stated that the prostitute was "Zeke" from her realty office who was dropping off some keys, and the hustler hastily scampered out the door. Sheila Ducksworth (executive producer) did a podcast a few weeks ago in which she admitted she'd gotten hooked on soaps as a youngster, watching The Edge of Night weekday afternoons on ABC. While Michele Val Jean isn't a Henry Slesar by any means, this is 100% an Edge of Night-type storyline, where a fairly naive individual (Chelsea) unknowingly wanders into a seamy underworld of hookers & psychos, and everything is slightly different from the way it initially seemed. It was all right there in front of our faces months ago, just like Edge of Night.

DANI: "If SHE is Barbara's daughter, then I'm Serena Williams!" MISS NICOLE: "Call me Venus." 🤣🤣 And then Wig Mama called Mr. Hamilton "Billy Goat". In the preview she squealed, "Unhand me, demon!!" They were killing me today. Seriously, how on earth did Leslie get a membership in the club? Did she just walk in there, plop down some cash, and someone signed her up, like the ticket window at the movie theater? The country club I belong to has an "admissions committee", and they can accept or reject anyone's application. And you have to wait until the admissions committee convenes to find out whether or not they accepted your application. With that gigantic painting of Paul Cheeks Dupree prominently hanging on the wall, you'd think the admissions committee might BALK at admitting Cruella De Vil when they know she's the wigged nemesis of Paul Cheeks Dupree's granddaughter.

I saw an interview with Sheila Ducksworth (exec producer) a while back, and she made the comment [paraphrasing here] that one of the greatest challenges in launching a daytime serial in this era is determining how to tell the stories in a way that appeals to traditional viewers (those who are accustomed to most of the beats being played on-screen) without exhausting the patience of the 18-49 demo, who've become accustomed to faster paced developments. She didn't get way down in the weeds with it, but clearly it's something that's constantly on their minds in the writing room and in the production offices.

He'll plead guilty to a lesser charge of Breaking & Entering with a Small Concealed Weapon.

During that SLAP, I was hoping Leslie's wig would fly off her head, sail out the front door, over the gates, and it would ultimately land on the bell tower at good ole Banneker U. Nice of Kat & Jacob to announce to the bullpen at Metro PD that Tomas is a dud in the bed. And a couple of weeks ago, Tomas was advising Eva that Kat's a virgin. Not much love, devotion, and loyalty detected in that little relationship.

If Vernon had known what was transpiring downstairs, he'd have probably told good ole Banneker U that zoom call would just have to wait a while. I was glad June said the 5 Dreadful Words to Naomi today. ("This is all your fault!") I'm crazy about Naomi, but yep, somewhere between 95% & 100% of June's broken heart was Naomi's fault. That was some good material for all of them today, IMHO. Really liked the scene when Smitty said, "Don't look at me all starry-eyed." And Martin grinned and said, "Was I?!" lol

My theory is that scene was strictly a (lame) attempt by the breakdown writer to summon Nicole & Vanessa to Uptown. The purpose of their visit to Uptown really seemed to be (1) for Vanessa to put the kibosh on Doug's plan to expose Joey, causing Detective Jacob to hit yet another bewildering dead-end in his pursuit of Marcel Malone & Joey, and (2) for Nicole to wiggle her cute ass in front of Ted, then shoot him down again. Madison basically seemed to be flapping her trap about next-to-nothing, as if she thought a therapy session in a (green) bar would be somehow helpful to her mental wellbeing.

And Leslie immediately barks at Peaches, "Did Miss High & Mighty Nikki Nicole put you up to telling me this?" It never occurs to her that Miss Nikki Nicole ain't studying her stupid ass.

Hopefully, they've staggered the contract cycles of the initial 20 cast members, so they can't potentially have 20 defections in the same month. Presumably, Ted is on a different cycle than the other 19, since he's a recast. But you wouldn't wanna create a situation where you could lose Vernon, Anita, Nicole, Dani, Martin, Naomi, Chelsea and Kat in a single month.

I wanna see Leslie get her just desserts in some "poetic" manner. Maybe in February of 2027, Laura will be driving to work across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, see a WIG lying in the road, think it's a kitty-cat, swerve to avoid hitting it, accidentally strike Leslie's new Mercedes-Benz, and send Leslie head-first into the Atlantic, lol.

As far as I know, they haven't elaborated on whether anyone has yet received a distribution from the trust. Anita knows there are some living relatives, because she commented she "wished" she'd invited them to attend the reunion concert in August, but she failed to. She probably thinks Barbara's relatives are all living high on the hawg on her trust contributions. Right now, as far as we know, 25% of the Articulette's royalties from 1970 onward could still be sitting there in the trust account waiting for Peaches to be located so Peaches can lead the trustees to Leslie. Like @janea4old I'd like to see Leslie fall sooner or later. But not right now. I'd rather wait and see her have a big SPECTACULAR fall after she's driven the Duprees half crazy first, lol. To me that's the fun of a villain like Leslie --- to see them ultimately crash & burn.

I'd be inclined to say Y&R's best years were 1975 - 1979. It was a unique and pretty show, and it always held my interest. 1980-1982 were pretty dreary. Once the Abbotts were all assembled in 1982, it started a second upswing that really accelerated in 1984 and probably peaked in 1988. (Right now, from what LITTLE I've seen of it this year, it's plumb dreadful.)

I expect it's an Irrevocable Trust, which means Anita can't terminate it or change the beneficiary. 🤣 When Anita established the trust, she likely specified the distributions would be made to the "next of kin of Barbara Mitchell", with the assumption that "next of kin" would be a sister, brother, parent, aunt, cousin, or whatever. But obviously the "next of kin" is Leslie. As for how Leslie was located, I didn't bat an eye. I know that on soaps, people are always having Top Secret Pregnancies. But in the real world, folks are apt to notice when a girl looks pregnant. Barbara's mama probably told the trustee, "I'll be glad to take the money, but I believe Barbara's got a baby somewhere. She looked mighty pregnant, but when it was time for the baby to be born, Peaches disappeared and I ain't ever seen a baby." Wouldn't take much work to track down Miss Peaches and then ask her to track down Leslie. Poor TED --- he'll never hear the end of this!!!

I'm surprised Ole Jan didn't just strip nekkid, run on into the Emergency Room, and mount Triathlon Derek while he was stretched out on his back. She's been acting like she wants to, ever since her dull daughter dumped him.

I enjoyed hearing Kat raise the possibility that maybe he just ain't very good in the bed (or on the SOFA, I should say, since her two "encounters" with him have been on someone's couch). I really WISH Eva would take him to bed, too, and discover the same result Kat found. And then Eva and Kat would continue the charade of "trying to be his woman" to irritate each other, with neither of them admitting he's a complete dud in the sack.

I enjoyed the scenes, but I wondered why they burned through it so quickly. Even the reconciliation between June & her sister moved at warp speed. I fully expected June to say, "No thanks! Where were you when I needed you?!" and storm out of the diner. Naomi's time could've been spent encouraging June to give Regina a chance, help her move her shopping cart of possessions to Regina's house, and facilitate a real reconciliation between the two. THAT would've been the ideal time for Naomi & Jacob to discover the kids were Martin and Smitty's.

Didn't Dante start a "smear campaign" against Barbara, claiming that she was too "ghetto" to be singing with the other three girls? Maybe he had some deeper, more ulterior motive for wanting to 86 her from the group.

I bet Bryton James wanted to wet his britches, being asked to appear on a show that isn't as static & dull as his regular hang-out. I really enjoyed the "doomed pizza night" and then the card game. The guy who plays Tyrell has really grown into his role. Shocking that everyone has suddenly decided Ashley is the only woman in the world for them. Lord Jesus, WHY?! Poor Anita. She's trying so hard to do the "right thing" in regards to the late, great Barbara. And now it appears she's about to financially empower the worst (but funniest) woman on the show.

I'm still pretty invested in the whole Kenny ordeal. There are still a couple of corpses floating around, a pistol, a broken marriage, a host of moral/ethical dilemmas on the police force, a sarcastic casino gangster who seems to be a loose cannon, and a formidable lawyer who knows more than he's telling. I doubt we've heard the last of Kenny & Company.

We're all pretty good about criticizing this scene or that scene, this character or that character, this actor or that actor --- but most days, BTG is head & shoulders above what the other shows are providing in 2025, and today was definitely one of those days.

I agree that Nicole, Smitty, Vernon, and Tyrell all laid out their positions well, and made good sense. I could see everyone's point of view. I was completely opposed to Anita's solo, until SHE said that her subsequent "jazz career" is closely associated in the public's mind with the Articulettes, and some fans might attend the concert wanting to see a jazz number. That actually made sense to me, and now I don't think her [one] solo number is such a bad idea, after solos were also offered to Sharon & Tracy. My only problem is how quickly Sharon & Tracy capitulated into tagging themselves as backup singers. If they always viewed themselves as "backups", why did they get mad when Anita left them? Smitty teared-up when Martin stopped by. I'm surprised by how many posters think they should "get a divorce" simply because they're having problems right now. (I also don't think Nicole & Ted should rush into a divorce, although Nicole might disagree with me.)

I'd take that Unhinged One in a heartbeat. She was cute as hell today when she called Martin a "selfish son of a bitch" and when she asked Andre "are you here to ask my father for my hand in marriage". 😀 She might pull out a gun & shoot you at some point, but she's cute & funny.