FrenchBug82

I mean... can't argue there. But I would imagine the confrontation that is coming should set up JMW's maternity leave instead. A coma or something. Another element that would make little sense would be to give Steffy a showcase by turning her into a grieving widow if she is going to be imminently written out for months. But I mean... I can't argue with your logic and I have been very very wrong very often lol

On the underlying criticism, I fully agree. But I am going to play Devil's advocate a little. For instance, Nikki's first marriages may make sense because of her flighty nature but I don't think they make as much sense as she got older. The experience she had with Jack and Victor should have made her less marriage-happy. Her marriage to Steve Landers was in particular plot-driven and never made sense to me. And inversely I think Jack being marriage happy can in a way be explained by his overcompensating for his irresponsible youth now that the Bergman recast had turned Jack into a forever-looking-for-love kind of guy. Victoria being marriage-happy was also established when she was focused on marrying Ryan despite there being no rush and being underage. I thought it was stupid at the time but in a way one could say that set up this as being part of the character. But in the end I agree. I think the reason it stands out a lot more for Victoria and Ashley, as well as Jack to an extent, is that a lot of their marriages were to minor characters who disapeared quickly and didn't make much of a mark (and often for plot-driven reasons and little actual chemistry).

Is this really where everyone thinks this is going? Coz it would be really weird to set up an elaborate retcon to give Sheila an insta-son only to kill him off after a few months.

The story would definitely have been a little bit easier to be invested in if they had had even some minor chemistry. This instead was cold fish and pretty obviously a relationship created artificially to set up the story which is a no-no. Get people invested in the couple and THEN create obstacles. And soaps overmarrying their characters is definitely one of these things I will never understand. That has died down somewhat but Bell was the worst offender. All the drama about Victoria wanting to underage-marry Ryan for some reason used to drive me nuts back in the day.

I checked because I had always assumed Blade was just a nickname based on his last name and his birth name was indeed Alexander Bladeson.

The very only thing that was a positive in that whole saga was that it gave Brenda Epperson some really really nice scenes once she found out. But since that was basically the end of the story and actually if I remember correctly her own exit as well, even those were bittersweet. Although I will say that considering the avalanche of absolutely horrible doppleganger stories Y&R inflicted on us in the subsequent twenty years (Sarah Carter as Lauren, Sheila as Phyllis, Patty as Emily, Marco as Jack...) this story seems quaintly mundane in its mediocrity in comparison.

I mean Kim wasn't wrong...

I am an incorrigible optimist so if this is the setup for them to leave in the sunset together, I will accept it.

As a general rule there should be a Godwin's law for adding anything Nazi-related to any show not set during WW2. It never works.

She was so perfect for Y&R acting-wise, just not in that role. Alas we can't rewrite history. On a side note, I am always fascinated that they never found the time or interest to revisit the identity of Sharon's father and all the possibilities on that side of her family.

I think I am going to call it the Krista Allen PR strategy but there is really something to be said for actors*resses who sound super friendly and enthusiastic about the job but have enough sense of humor to show they don't take it all too seriously. I don't know how much it is worth in the end if what's on screen crashes and burns but for me it puts me in a space where at the outset my potential goodwill for a story/recast is significantly increased.

Firing Maggie and Melissa were definitely misfires but in all fairness if Moses and Foxworth didn't want to stay there was nothing much they could do. I think it would have been too weird not to have either of Maggie's grown children around but can't deny they needed to write Vickie a lot better. Can barely remember anything she did and yet she was on the show, in one incarnation or another, for three quarters of the run. My criticism, which rejoins what I was talking about earlier about turnover, is that they should have less time on incidental characters that ended up not mattering - like Greg and Jordan despite the actors being wonderful - and spend more time writing characters like Julia and Vickie a lot better. The DID storyline, cliche as it was, could have easily been given to either of them. Heck it would have been a great way to keep Julia around even after she was revealed as the killer.

Right? Bringing back Kyle AFTER they resurrect Diane and including her revival inside another seemingly unrelated from-the-past-story all feels very trying to make it all fit after the fact rather than a well thought-out plan. Bringing Allie on and reviving Diane were two fair enough options in isolation from each other. Combining them gives me too much of a whiff of improvisation to be entirely convinced there weren't BTS changes involved, even if titan's point makes sense.

Fair. Not that it would necessarily make much sense for MaryJo to be out and about AND to be around Keemo anyway since one of his last scenes is him telling Jack to stay away from her as she is bad news. But Diane in the context of this story feels... random.

Yeah mid-2000s is when it went from weak-spots-but-still-Y&R to what-is-this-show-Iam-watching. Also: what are the chances the current story was initially pitched with Mary Jo but when they realized Diana Barton wasn't acting anymore, they figured recasting would lessen the impact and they switched it to Diane?

I think Margaret Ladd and Susan Sullivan also qualify. And Ana-Alicia last more than three-quarters of the way. I looked at the people listed as main casts of all the shows and unfortunately my plan to do numbers is thwarted by the fact the lists provided don't compare the exact same things. But still it gives a good indication. I am not wrong that Falcon Crest had a high proportion of one or two seasoners - a high 17 out of 27 "main contract cast" were on contract for only one or two seasons (a handful of those were also recurring) and only 8 did more than 5 seasons. However it does seem that Dynasty had a similarly small core cast and an enormous amount of one-season supporting contract players: 26 actors only did one year or two!!!!! And that's without counting the numerous recasts of main characters. Now I suspect that list is more complete and covers more characters than the ones I found for the other shows but it does seem that Dynasty had overall more turnover of supporting cast than FC. Dallas had a more stable cast - 21 characters were "main cast", only 7 of whom only did one or two seasons and six of those were at the tail end of the last two years; so the heyday period of the show was pretty stable. Finally Knots Landing had the benefit of running much longer than any of the above which boosts raw numbers but out of the 24 "main credits" cast members, only Lynne Moody lasted less than three seasons - and a cool half of that were there for at least half of the show's run. I would have bet it was the most stable cast so I am patting myself on the back there. To be fair, I think the lists I am working from were comparing apples and pears: I think Christopher Atkins and Sam Behrens for instance would have qualified for that enormous supporting cast list if Dallas and KL credited the supporting cast in the main credits the way Dynasty and FC chose to. But nevertheless interesting and I think it does fit the way each show was written - and cast. The latter two had a lot more stunt casting which explains why they were eager to credit people in the main cast more generously.

I generally try not to discuss the looks of actors because I wouldn't want the reverse but fourty years later I feel I can bring it up. Am I the only one who... didn't really find Bobby that attractive? I mean I can see why a lot of people did and all - not my thing but sure - but his hair always looked like a wig to me and I used to find it so distracting. It was such a heavy unflattering hairstyle

Would I be wrong suggesting Falcon Crest had the highest main cast turnover of the primetime soaps? Or is it a function of it having been more generous with granting supporting actors a space in the main credits? Every season it feels a good third of the cast lasted only one to two seasons at most.

Sorry but I dissent on this (see what I did there?). Since when do Supreme Court Justices ever feel the need to respond to any news report at all? They don't do press conferences and don't interact with journalists. They didn't need to fake a health care to avoid this. They can just do what they all have done... stay silent and wait until it fades away from the news cycle. SCOTUS Justices do not ever have to answer to anything; hence the impunity with which Thomas behaves. Noone can force them to recuse etc and while they technically can be impeached, the nuclear reaction of Republicans would make this toxic but the most obvious clear-cut proven accusation (he raped a child or something) I have no question this is a real health scare. The rest of my commentary on it will stay in my head out of human decency, even for someone who doesn't deserve it.

In 2010, Ginni Thomas CALLED Anita Hill at home to demand she apologize and explain who put her up to "what she did". She isn't slipping. She has already been at the very bottom of the sanity and decency pond for a long while.

I would direct your attention to RC's Twitter interaction a week or two ago when he scoffed at the idea that viewers were his boss. The implication being: his boss is KC, not the viewers and he is the one RC cares to keep onside. I thought it was very telling then and it is even more so when you imagine that he then reproduces that dynamic with the people under his own supervision. Popular culture like to celebrate crazy geniuses and loners and rebels among artists but we can't be fools that success in show-business is often as much about who you know, who likes you and how you handles the people who have power than raw talent. People with no social skills rarely thrive and a lot of stars are just mediocre people with great social skills. And I'd say a good creator would use that brown-nosing to then give himself more space to do creative things and the problem here is that instead it seems things are being created to brown-nose

I will go to my grave arguing that while I get Brooke/Ridge as the end game, Thorne was the best pairing Brooke had. Spending two years making me root for them only to break them up in a week because of an off-hand comment Brooke made is still one of my bitterest soap moments ever.

The timing of these revelations is extremely interesting for sure. THAT SAID, Ginnie Thomas had "volunteered" just two weeks ago that she had "briefly" attended the 1/6 rally but left early because "it was cold". It felt like advance damage control then so I think she knew this was coming, before CT fell ill.

I have read you mention that analysis before and let me tell you: I fully 1000% agree that this is exactly what happened. No question in my mind that you are absolutely right. And that the Tessa/Mariah fanbase thing is a convenient excuse. But just like DG proved a convenient excuse can last a long time when TPTB don't want to do something. It will take a writer who comes in and sees the potential to rip the bandaid and, hopefully give Mariah a chance. There is still so much that could be done with this cast of characters more broadly. You don't need a big budget if you know how to write. I just watched clips over several weeks of Diane agonizing over whether to take Victor's divorce settlement or hold out for more money and various character pitching in. It is as low-stakes drama as can be on the merits and yet those scenes have so much weight, so many layers for every character that gives their opinion based on their thoughts on Diane and on Victor and I wasn't bored at all twenty five years later. And it only takes a couple of living rooms, a decent script and a bunch of good actors. It is not easy but it should not be that hard.

That was my reaction. All of it felt very... Nick and Jack Wagner-y so it didn't really jump at me as being more cringeworthy than most of the fare we got on that damn boat.