FrenchBug82

16 minutes ago, Khan said:

If I were hopping aboard Y&R as their new HW or EP, I would MAKE bringing back Phillip Chancellor a top priority.  I didn't care for his back-from-the-dead story (which I jokingly guessed (minus the "gay part") weeks before it hit the air, btw) but he's out there, he still has ties to GC and (unlike a certain, former "naked heiress" who shall remain nameless) I think he still has story potential, too, even under those weird circumstances.

And even though I'd be VERY reluctant not to recast Phillip, if bringing back TB were part of the bargain that I'd have to strike with CBS or Sony, then fine, I'll work with what (little) I've got.  But my point is, if they went to the trouble of bringing Phillip back from the dead (and as a gay man), then they need to use him.

And Jill!  They need to use Jill, too!  I've always held in my back pocket a story where Jill loses everything and has to go back to working in a salon to survive.

I think Jill has plenty of story potential in her but I think JW is happier the way her life is now so I don't think we will ever see her in a full-on heavy story again.

I agree with you about Philip; just like I feel about Diane. I hate the stat someone mentioned above because as I said back when Diane's return was rumored, I concur that all of this doesnt feel very YR at all.
But now that it is canon, then let's make use of it and there is potential.

That said, they have dozens of second and third generations characters they should be building up to take over once the veterans start walking away and while we talk a lot about Abby, it is striking how absolutely zero of the newer generation characters have worked: Chance, Scotty, Fen, Noah, Heather etc.
A good writing should hit reset on all these characters and rebuild them into something interesting. No offense to anyone but nostalgia for Bell Y&R is not going to sustain the show for much longer as these veterans age and retire if there is no newer generation to take over.
And the new generation need the veterans to be still around while they are being grounded. If they don't do it now, it will be soon too late

2 minutes ago, Khan said:

Yep, just as we had suspected: Taylor has been a figment of everyone's collective imagination the entire time.

We go back to the 

theory.

But man for them to bring back Sheila in a well-received story, get Steffy away from Liam in an unexpectedly well-received pairing, and do the impossible and recast Taylor successfully and 
 

would be insanely all-that-for-that? Bold and Beautiful stuff. On brand but man so stupid.

7 hours ago, Broderick said:

Of all the Post-Bell Back From the Great Beyond Storylines, the one that struck me as the most egregious was Phillip.  That was horrible.  The whole time it was playing out on-screen, I noticed that neither Jill nor Kay never hugged him, stroked his face lovingly, nor had a moving conversation with him.  They lectured him a LOT for tricking them (understandably), but they never showed him any affection whatsoever, and they never seemed genuinely relieved that he was alive.  After all the years they spent fighting over him, and all the years they spent hovering over him and catering to him, he got a couple of stern lectures from them about playing dead, and then he moved on to another continent.  No emotion. 

SURELY there was a way for Maria Arena to expose Cane Ashby as a hoax and imposter, without going the extra mile of resurrecting Phillip for -- nothing! -- except a short-term stupid storyline with no emotional impact at all.   

And the notion that he did all this... broke all their hearts... let his son grow up without a father, enduring what HE had so suffered as a child... because he was scared to come out? I don't care that it was the late 80s, this just was stupid and another example of "we will have out gay actors on the show now but they can only play gay" (see what they did to Craig on Days).

And all that not to never use him again. I know TB is complicated but they knew that when they came up with that dumb story.

Talking of TB just two days ago, while killing time with YT recommendations of old YR videos, I had the most random spotting of him in the comments of an old YR promo about Leanna?
And recently posted too! So random

12 minutes ago, MinnaH said:

I mean, even if the camera literally broke, it’s still odd they would go through the trouble of removing Finn while leaving all the advertised extras we haven’t seen in months. Though I suppose removing them would draw attention to how tiny the current cast is.

I agree.

Although technically DR and  KB (and DB) are still part of the cast even if we don't see them anymore.

The actor who plays Finn has been officially fired.
 

2 hours ago, Aback said:

I thought they were just supposed to snap some glam photographs?

I love Krista but I don't believe that story one second. How can a show like this have a "glitch" while taking hundreds of photos that would make none of them usable? How does it take months to reschedule a photoshoot?

There is a story there.

There is a long list of actresses who should not do Botox or whatever and for whom it is both somewhat distracting and also heartbreaking because I love them too much so I don't comment on it.

On the plus side, I learned from Maura West that either by not doing it anymore or having it done better, it can settle in a way that doesn't look as unnatural. So unlike straight-up plastic surgery it can be somewhat solved - if someone in their lives gives them good advice which I am not sure I'd dare do if I was her friend.

She is 60! I can't believe KKL is 60. 

4 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

 

Well here Victoria says that she was offered a lot of money to stay.

 

Yeah, she changed her story several times over the years so I never take any of her version at face value.
I do believe that she was underestimated and scoffed at by TPTB and not well-treated generally, even if some of it might have come from her, hum, quirks.
How she came to exit though is probably a comedy of errors and ego on both sides.

9 minutes ago, Melroser said:

Carrie on Central Park West

Heather on Titans. 

Peyton on Savannah.

 

10 years seems like a long run for a soap. Even Dynasty and Melrose went under 10 and they are pretty iconic on their own. 

I think we have the exact same taste in characters
EXACTLY where my mind went too.

Madchen Amick's work on the first season of CPW is a forgotten gem. 

Sharon Case reminded everyone today of why she has managed to endure despite having one of the most consistently poorly written character on the show.
I don't care about Sharon and Rey but I care about Sharon so it worked for me. As skeptical as I am of where this is going: both in terms of Sharon and in terms of that crash story.

3 minutes ago, j swift said:

Still brilliant, but agreed with @FrenchBug82 that this would never air today (thank goodness)

Sue Ellen Ewing:
Tell me, J.R., which slut are you going to stay with tonight?

J.R. Ewing:
What difference does it make? Whoever it is has got to be more interesting than the slut I'm looking at right now.

Dallas' dialogue wasn't always great but this is indeed brilliant.

26 minutes ago, Khan said:

The only reason why Sue Ellen got to leave with any dignity is because Linda Gray basically bullied Katzman into writing her as something other than a pathetic, falling-down drunk.

I think we have heard over the years that the reason LG managed to get them to write Sue Ellen better is because she had Hagman's support when she went upstairs to complain.
This was Katzman's show but Hagman's set. If he liked you, fine. If he didn't, then you might have the choice between benign neglect like with VP's Pamela or outright hostility that would lead you to not to last long.

50 minutes ago, j swift said:

These days they'd make Victoria Principal do a coda PSA about distracted driving.

"Whether you're dreaming about your husband's death or your long lost half-sister is scheming to steal your man, always keep your eyes on the road." We've got the touch, you and CBS...

It is an interesting purely theoretical question but I reckon of the 80s supersoaps the one that would be unlikely to be made today as anything resembling the original would be Dallas

I am not foolish enough to believe Hollywood has solved its gender problem and that toxic sets don't exist anymore but the obvious macho culture on that set and in the writing room, I believe, was too over-the-top to be acceptable in today's environment.
So it is hard to pile hypotheticals upon hypotheticals but I think nowadays a showrunner - and a network - would recognize the value of Pamela to balance JR and the overly male cast and she would have been unlikely to be written out at that stage unless she wanted out.

Just now, Faulkner said:

The Sharon/Rey/Chelsea triangle was likely a dead end, but you’d think they would have developed it more before *killing* the guy.

Oh yeah this feels very much like they decided to do a triangle to keep those three busy and then two weeks later had a better idea and scraped it.

19 minutes ago, Khan said:

Nah, I still think Ashland's the one who killed Rey and he's just framing Victoria.

I agree that if the recaps provided in this thread are accurate, that's the conclusion to draw here - and probably the one that makes the most sense from a dramatic point of view.
That said, I hope Chelsea is the one - so that she can finally be written out.

I have no confidence I have any interest in any of this and that it will be written in an even remotely compelling manner BUT I have to disagree with everyone about the randomness of it.
 I actually like when soaps create events that intersect apparently unrelated character bubbles and make people that have no reason to interact, interact.

She is good at playing crazy, angry, evil. Not compassion and sadness.

Insert joke about her politics here.

10 hours ago, Khan said:

Chances are, Josh will have Diane pass through Adam and (for the second time) Nick before getting killed again.

Maura Diane and Muhney Adam looked like it could have worked.
SW Diane looks great but she looks significantly older than MG or JM

4 hours ago, Cheap21 said:

I wouldnt say MP declined quickly after the bombing. Season was great. It didnt really become terrible until Season 6 and well it was cancelled in 7

The bombing was the peak but I think the season after that was fine. It is when OGs started leaving and new characters that didn't always work were introduced that things started going pear-shaped.

It is not the right thread to discuss this but personally I remember the Jake/Alison pairing being the moment where I knew it wasn't just a temporary weakening of the show but the beginning of the decline.

2 hours ago, Antoyne said:

Why are they acting like Diane is a crazed serial killer or something

My main problem with this whole thing.

Although I will say that I just rewatched last night an old confrontation between Phyllis and Diane and already back then Phyllis had the gall to say "Nothing I ever did ever went as far as you did, Diane". 
Coming from someone who tried to kill two people that was already a wild exageration back then.

But yeah they are setting up to write Diane like Sheila along the way and I don't like it. But I'll enjoy the ride. Diane being treated like a pariah by everyone is in character.

26 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

All told, I feel the show is better than when I left four years ago.

The show is better than four years ago but not as good as it was a year ago.

I'm nice so I'll put it that way: I am OK if Bell wants to use Liam. Fine. Write for him.
But why does it have to be Steffy/Hope triangle over and over and over again.
Give him business storylines! A health scare! 
The Vinny murder mystery was written disastrously on the merits but on paper: fine. It was something *else* for Liam to do.

He is not my favorite character but it is the triangle being repeated ad nauseam that's infuriating. 

1 hour ago, soapfan770 said:

It’s pathetic that this show which had been finally refocused a few months ago is back to utter drivel again. Twist or no twist this is getting painful to watch again. 

They had a good six months and it is derailing

Which fits my earlier theory of Brad Bell: when he gets a bright new idea, he makes everyone move everything to fit that idea and drop everything.
This again feels like he had the idea for the twist so the nice slow smart way they were writing a decent soap has been forced to adapt to quickly go to the narrative place he wants them to go because he is a child excited by a new toy.
He was excited by Sheila's return then no new idea for a while so the team was able to write some normal decent soapness and THEN boom here comes Eureka Boy.

2 hours ago, j swift said:

There have been many scenes from the final season posted on TikTok recently and it got me thinking. 

Alexis seems to be wearing a lot of Chanel in those episodes and I wonder if (a) it was actually a Nolan Miller knockoff with Chanel accessories, or (b) if it was actual Chanel because it was cheaper to buy off the rack in the final season than have Miller's couture house whip things up.  I did some googling, a ready-made Chanel suit in 1989 was $1800.00, in comparison Mr. Miller's costume budget for the 1984-1985 season was $30,000.00 per episode.  So, if budget cuts necessitated that Joan Collins could not appear in every episode of the final season, it would stand to reason that they also cut the costume budget.

There's a distinct change in wardrobe from the fantastical creations of the pre-Modavian season (like Dominique's all white entrance ensemble) versus the final season where they all seem to be wearing suits that one could buy at a high end department store.  And, most disappointing, Alexis goes entire episodes without a single costume change. I mean, does anyone expect me to believe that Alexis wore the same suit for both lunch and dinner?

I know the only couple of really nice outfits I recall from the last season were evening gowns worn by Sable.

And then there are the horrors they put on Tracy Scoggins

36 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

Pretty sure this is the twist, I thought B&B producer on twitter said it was upcoming(which would have been last week or so). Their idea of a twist and ours clearly differs lol

No it is obviously not the twist.
There is no amount of overhyping that would square "amnesia" with never-been-done-on-daytime before. Come on!
Everyone was also convinced FInn dying was the twist two weeks ago.
I concur the wait is getting annoying but NONE of this is even "a twist". We will know it when we see it. We probably will find it lame and all that but these ordinary soap events are not a twist and are not the twist.

9 minutes ago, watson71 said:

Has this so-called "twist" aired yet, because nothing on the show is original or "twist" worthy right now.  

No twist of yet.

They hyped that s*** way too early compared to how long it is taking to air

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I actually think the Jill story in season 10 would have been stronger if we didn't know whether Jill tried to kill Val or not.  Would have made the audience speculate because Val had issues with her mental health..and Jill didn't seem the type to want someone died because she felt threatened.

As I mentioned above, I genuinely believe it is indeed sometimes better for the audience to be in the dark and along for the ride.
In this particular case though, the spectacular aspect of that storyline were those last episodes of the season. The meticulous planning, the tension that rises in us wondering where this is going and those spectacular one-on-one scenes.
I woudn't trade that for a mystery on Val's sanity, even if I head on paper that it would have also been a good way to tell the story.
 

3 hours ago, Khan said:

- personally, I would have had Val develop an eating disorder

Of course I wouldn't dare suggest this is why they never went there but I think that considering what we have seen of JVA's real-life body dysmorphia, it probably would have been delicate for them to write - especially since her thinness which could have been natural gives a different vibe in retrospect.

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Except that wouldn't have fit KL...that would have fit on Dynasty or Falcon Crest

Agree. Once more that is why I somewhat defend the Waleska story. He was a very very ordinary villain. The kind of a*****e that every Walmart has probably one of and every Trump rally a hundred of.
He was a good fit for what Knots Landing was - more than drug runners, or snipers through a window or if I am honest the shenanigans on a talk show set or in the offices of a conglomerate.
Granted KL had moved some from the initial concept of middle-class folks once Gary got his inheritance and Greg Summer became a leading character but nevertheless even Lotus Point had the feel of an ordinary workplace with ordinary people going about their lives. 
So very few of the plots that tried to take it up a notch worked well; KL was at its best when it was ordinary people in sometimes extraordinary situations.