FrenchBug82

That's what that line "I hope you remember it was thanks to your buddy Vinny" my mind had to go there because otherwise that line is too stupid.

Well those things have been her trademark for a loooong time. This was something different. She looked disengaged.

Not that I'd want this to be the first gay storyline on B&B but I'll allow the Vinny nonsense if it turns out his motive is a crush on Thomas.

And she was probably cheaper for the show too. GT was always the (much!) better actress but I was gobsmacked by how lazy MS' acting was today. Even by her usual standards, she looked like she wasn't even trying.

I hadn't watched a Phyllis scene in a while and all I will say, because I am trying to be charitable, is what is Michelle Stafford doing? Does she even want to be there at all?

I sort of understand why she would have looked at the role of Drucilla as written when she came in with suspicion but I'd be counterintuitive and argue that Drucilla ended up being the much better stereotype breaker. Specifically because she succeeded at making something of herself while still speaking and carrying herself as a proud black woman. Not that Olivia wasn't proud - and I miss her and the Winters clan - but her character could be read as code-switching to succeed. Drucilla was unapologetically who she was and she did fantastic with herself, breaking a lot more stereotypes in the process. That's a bit of the parallel between the DS vs CK debate for Lilly.

I choose to see it as Cameron propping

Random thought. I know Skye was never well used on GH and few people probably miss her like I do (and RA probably has moved on) but I have been watching 1990 episodes of All My Children and I really like the chemistry she had with JPS. Wouldn't mind revisiting this with him as Valentine. I dunno. I dislike Franco as intensely as everyone else but I am not bothered they are establishing Cam to be a very kind sweet-hearted well-adjusted guy and the stepfather relationship, even again if it is with Franco, is an interesting layer. It is rare enough that current GH - or any soap really - is establishing a male bond that isn't around murdering people AND a male character who seems to be fundamentally a good person so I will take it even if again, Franco is not a character I want any part of. Saccharine is part of soaps after all. I will take it over any villain-rival-of-Sonny-of-the-year any day.

It could even be that she would have declined anyway but simply wanted the "courtesy" of first refusal. Actors are weird sometimes.

But it is my understand she was really pissed they didn't ask her first when they brought Opal back and went straight to recast instead. That was long after of course but the story of why they did that if she was open to returning is an open question.

Well, as I said earlier, Bell is clearly relying on the trick of switching Taylor/Brooke with Hope/Steffy and reproducing the Ridge triangle with Liam instead of relying on the fact both Annika and Jacqueline are strong actresses and have tried to give their characters layers. It is just so much easier to write the same dynamic he has been writing for thirty years instead.

I did at the very beginning when ED was playing her because there was an intriguing quality to it But that's typically the kind of pairing that should have not have been a long-term thing.

Dack Rambo's history of losing jobs abruptly is quite a thing to behold (setting aside Another World which is rather sad since it was linked to his AIDS-related decline). I have always wondered to which extent it was his homosexuality and to which extent he may have been a problem behind-the-scenes for a reason or another.

Yes. I have to amend my initial post as I had forgotten about it but Constance Ford is absolutely someone who was visibly and conspicuously reading cue cards. Check this scene: The acting is good but boy is she obviously constantly looking to the side at cue cards.

Inspired by Franceska James "revealing" (confirming?) that AMC's Ruth Warrick was relying on teleprompters, here is a new topic: which actors/actresses are known to have relied or rely on teleprompters to deliver their lines? Which ones do we suspect do so? Anyone ever caught a eyeline in the wrong direction? And do we have a problem with it? Only confirmed case I know of is David Canary but that's pretty sad because it was due to the beginning of his dementia. I once remember reading somewhere the cast of Y&R did it more than the others (back then at least) but I don't have any factual information. But the floor is open to those who know better

I very much dislike Steve Burton - both him and his acting - but once Dylan was Paul and Nikki's son, I am OK with the character being on the canvas and getting an actual actor who can act in the role might make him slightly more interesting. It'd be Rey but with ties to the rest of the characters. Imagine the current storyline, flaws and all, but with the added wrinkle that the man Sharon is playing around on with Adam is Nikki's son and you immediately get at least a couple extra fun scenes out of it. And unpopular opinion: almost all her storylines were duds but I love Jessica Collins very much and I wouldn't mind having Avery back, especially if she is written like she initially was.

Isn't that how the character is written, more than anything AN is doing herself, though? To me, the lamest part of the Liam/Hope/Steffy is not how unending it is but that it exactly mirrors the Taylor/Brooke/Ridge dynamic. Taylor later became less saintly but during the height of the triangle she was... earnest and annoying like Hope. And Steffy's vibrancy mirrors Brooke's. I mean, inverting the daughters from the mothers when it all started was a fun idea but now, ten years later, we are still on that basic dynamic and it is lazy.

That's why I said "reasonable" success LOL I am well-aware there isn't a gazillion dollars on the table for it. And that's why my pitch included a lot of things on top of the archives - including content surrounding the current shows. I am not deluded all this would happen but if I had Bill Gates money, I'd create that foundation

I sometimes wonder if it is a case of them genuinely believing the metrics or them knowing the metrics are flawed but since the metrics are what advertising rates are based on, it doesn't matter to them. They are probably aware that a LOT more people watch soaps - on various platforms - than what official ratings show but since the shows are only worth it for them if they get ad money from them, it is irrelevant to them. And I get it; I mean it is a business and they need to get revenue. But they are leaving SO much money on the table by taking the metrics at face value: CBS or PG could put all their years of archives online, the new shows as they air, special featurettes or extra online-only scenes, charge a reasonable Netflix-style fee for accesss to it all and I bet it would be a reasonable success.

I was not referring to these early years at all. It is my personal opinion that these later years where he got too broad is when Tuc started phoning it in. Maybe because the writing of David as a buffoon displeased him. But I don't think in the last few years he was making the same kind of effort he made early on - as you describe - to balance the comedic with the serious. He is talented and David was a great creation, that's not the point I am making. On the contrary that is because he is talented and David was a great creation that the later years sting.

That confirms Chris' theory (particularly the one extra week equals one extra month on the contract) but there is a contradiction in the article. If her contract ended in 1987 then it was a three year contract, not a two year contract. Other than that, the math matches perfectly.

The irony of GH to me is that it has been written for decades - especially in the Guza Pratt era but we still see the remnants of it to this day - as a man's man show. With violence glorified and awful "antiheros" being celebrated. Female character playing support to male characters. When in all reality most if not all the good characters and great performers of the show are the female characters. And most of the great scenes are between the female characters. Even with awful writing and bad characterization, I'll take Ava, Carly, Alexis, Laura any day over Jason, Sonny, Luke. Even with the problems there has been with Nina's writing, the interaction between her and Carly today was ten times more interesting and better acted than the endless mumbled fake-macho d***-measuring interactions between Cyrus and Jason/Sonny we have had to endure for months put together. I could go on with examples but I think the gist of it stands for itself.

And admittedly the bad blood from what happened with her then-boyfriend (whatever that might have been) may have made her extra salty as she was being interviewed when those wounds were still fresh (and as she was probably also pissed that the show had muscled an extension out of her if she wanted to do TPB). I think her quotes are pretty awful, even taking into consideration her youth and her bitter battles with TPTB, but I appreciate that while she still doesn't pretend SB was a great experience for her, she has mellowed and talks about it diplomatically enough to give comfort to fans of the show. That's all we can ask of them, really.

You mean embarrassed by the nod to it on Days or what happened at AMC? Because after she left AMC she was incandescent and disgusted that she got killed off that way. She has said many times that the writer/producer team at the time hated her and wanted her death - despite having been on the show forever - be as humiliatingly pedestrian as possible. I agree with everyone. I can live with them killing off Laura in theory but for her to be killed in such an unremarkable way to further a bad storyline and a pretty dreadful character that will be gone in 18 months does not register as the death worthy of a legendary character, recast or not. It is reducing a core of DAYS history as a footnote in the B-level storyline of a mediocre villain. Really insulting.

I am fascinated (in a bad way) by the way they are writing the big storyline they are starting for Abby while having just fired Boaz. Must have been hella last-minute that they chose to go this route - including pretty obviously using Tricia Cast for the interactions that should have been between Abby and Chance - rather than recast. The real story of this firing must be even juicier than we thought! I like Sally and her portrayer but so far I am struck by the fact they don't seem to know where they are taking her and what they are trying to do with her. Feels like another last-minute choice where B&B didn't want her anymore but they didn't want to lose her so someone upstairs had Y&R hire her before they even had a plan for her on Y&R. I was reading on the Sunset Beach thread how the headwriters on that show never made any plans in advance and I replied that it was very unusual and shows usually are pretty planned out at the six months and one year mark even though things change. I am starting to think Y&R writing team, right now, is just making it up as they go along.