wonderwoman1951

some thoughts on the vp derby: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/us/politics/kamala-harris-vice-president-attorney-general.html?smid=url-share

setting aside the delay, the whole thing just has an odd, hokey vibe to it. even if the obamas were in different locations, there was more than enough time to record a proper endorsement. here’s the ny times take: ”Somehow, the Biden-turned-Harris campaign managed to make former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, once America’s coolest political couple, sound like parents in a Lifetime movie calling their child at summer camp.” wonder if there’s some subtext that will eventually emerge.

exactly! why waste money in a state you know you can’t win. but, as i said, new hampshire is a swing state next to a blue state. so in a presidential election year, we here in eastern massachusetts are barraged with political ads, both for the primary and general election. can’t wait for what’s coming:)

agreed. however, this isn’t just about gender. i live in massachusetts — a very blue state — but new hampshire, a swing state, is in the boston media market. and in 2016 hillary’s ads were nothing more than how catastrophic trump would be — nothing about what she would do as president — just that she wasn’t him. and her campaign carpet-bombed the media with those ads — sometimes 6 in an hour — so much so that for some undecided voters they may well have been counter-productive and they either voted for trump, or not at all. assuming this was the case in other swing states — this strategy may well have played a significant role in her defeat

yes, we do! kamala has really learned from hillary’s missteps in 2016: this ad is such a striking contrast to hillary’s in 2016, which focused only the threat trump presented — absolutely nothing about why to vote for her

yes — and i hope that along with the bidens understandable frustration, anger, and disappointment, there’s also some sense of relief.

Was that when Corday declared war on SOW because they named the Gina and Submarine sex stuff as Worst Story of 1999 and was mad SOW kept pointing out the plummeting ratings? don’t remember the details — it’s been a while:) — but certainly could be.

iirc, it was ken corday @ days…

free ny times link: renauld white obit

as the world turns: jessica and duncan 1992

i’m confused. please explain.

free link. not mentioned, one of my favorite roles: the father in ‘dirty sexy money.’ donald sutherland’s ny times obit

re tony lo bianco: according to his imdb page, his first tv roles in the early 1970s were on ‘love of life; and ‘the doctors.’ thought i remembered him as rose d’angelo’s father. on ‘world turns; turns out that was tony musante:)

some interesting soap connections in that episode: the physician who performed the abortions was played by judson laire, who was on both love is a many splendored thing and as the world turns; kathleen widdoes (another world and ‘world turns) played the young woman who had the abortion; augusta dabney (too many soaps to list) was also in the cast. also remember that episode being featured in a mad men episode.

not surprised that james mitchell would refuse to play a homophobic bigot. i wasn’t a regular viewer at the time, but, according to soap central, it was palmer and opal who took kevin sheffield in and helped him deal with his parents, who were not taking the news well. what i do remember is a powerful scene in which palmer confronted kevin’s mother, judith, in public place — country club, restaurant. always thought how satisfying it must have been for james mitchell play that scene. while mitchell may have been in the closet, according to both arthur laurents’s and farley granger’s memoirs, he was extremely popular back in the day.

years ago, i was digging through the p&g holdings at the wisconsin historical society, and have a vague recollection that on atwt, margo was originally called julie.

i think ‘who you calling flighty’ is what they called a colloquialism.

this is such a huge issue for soap writers. years back, i had a friend who wanted to break into soaps. she could spin two years of story without taking a breath, but couldn’t write believable dialogue if someone were holding a loaded pistol to her head. so, she never got anywhere despite the fact that she may well have made a great headwriter. conversely, i had a conversation with the late gene palumbo, who told me that while he had not been a great script writer, having done it made him a better breakdown writer (and ultimately, headwriter) because he knew what scriptwriters needed in a breakdown. as toups pointed out, there are different skillsets involved. of course, that while like football head coaches, headwriters capture the media’s attention, the fact that a great script writer doesn’t have the capacity to shape longterm stories, should in anyway diminish their success.

that was the vibe i got, as well.

the guy interviewing don stewart was beyond obsequious — nauseating, and a little creepy.

it actually began in 1995, when john valente replaced laurie caso. there was a lot of pressure from cbs, which had engineered the executive producer shuffle, and it was les moonves who ‘suggested’ valente hire black&stern as head writers. i was on the set the day they shot the 40th anniversary episode and the constant refrain from tptb was ‘we’re not 40 years old; we 40 years young!’ and for the second time, the hughes family was pushed to the sidelines. the first time was in the early 1980s, as atwt chased the luke and laura phenomenon. ironically, it was laurie caso who righted the ship with bob calhoun and doug marland, which he discusses in the locher room interview (amazed that it’s been a week and no one has commented). things deteriorated further when goutman took over and brought on hogan schefer. the [!@#$%^&*] really hit the fan in 2003, when barbra bloom took over at cbs daytime and start bringing on actors she worked with at abc. although, to be fair, the abcification began in 1997, when felicia mini behr took over from john valente and immediately replaced allyson rice taylor’s connor walsh with susan battan — possibly the worst recast ever!

re maureen and roger: i always thought that rather than driving off the road and dying, had maureen gone to a lawyer and begun divorce proceedings against ed, things could have gotten very interesting between the two of them. not a romantic relationship — though they could have teased that — but their friendship would have deepened. ed would have fallen off the wagon into a bottle of scotch, and maureen and roger aside, dealing with michelle and that fact that maureen wasn’t her biological stories. jill farren phelps squandered so much potential story by killing off maureen. but… since buzz cooper arrived in springfield less than a month after maureen died, i’ve always believed it was to free up enough money to bring justin deas on board.

don’t know why they even bothered. and as far as dramatic — not knowing her father could (should) have been a real issue for katie; finding out that margo was the one who pulled the plug could have created an emotionally authentic rift between them. instead it was as though tptb said, ‘well, i guess we have to say something,’ then just checked it off the list.

exactly! all that history that was never explored. cannot recall katie and margo ever discussing casey’s death. and i don’t think katie and craig — her brother! — ever had a scene together.

i had always assumed it was a straight-up money issue between martha and goutman. but on one of the early locher room reunions she said something — don’t remember exactly what — that may me go ‘hmm.’ didn’t say anything at the time, but shortly thereafter, a friend mentioned that she had heard martha on another podcast and wondered if something had happened between her and gountman. that got me to wondering about goutman’s unholy obsession with katie as the show’s ‘little sweetheart’ (his words). so…