Liberty City

The only positive about this promo are the classic clips.

😲 We could have gotten Lane Davies back?! Wow. Missed opportunity, but I respect Davies' decision to not return.

Just watching the March 2005 intervention with Dinah... and whew. Gina Tognoni did some amazing work. David Kreizman & Donna M. Swajeski really wrote a good script.

I often what could have happened if Kay Alden had been head writer and Sally Sussman had been storyline consultant, and if that would have faired better.

The true casting for Victoria should have been Tamara Braun.

Colour me SHOCKED about Vail Bloom's return!

Just noticed, Amazon is allowing the purchase of the fifth season in HD.

I did not mind Donna Reed's take on Miss Ellie. It just was not as warm as Barbara Bel Geddes' take on the role. I'm excited for the HD remaster. I'm hoping Knots Landing gets one eventually.

Yeah. That was not one of Mal Young's finer moments. I feel like Devon's passion changes with every regime. One moment it's music producing, one moment it's being the party boy, next it's running a family company. It's so wishy-washy.

Exactly! I know AJ wasn't in his life for that long, but Michael cares more about Sonny banging Nina than he did about Sonny shooting AJ and killing him. At least post-AJ's death, Michael became Michael Quartermaine (a far improvement from Michael Corinthos) and took Avery from Sonny, and even was going to give her the name Avery Quartermaine. But this...? All because Sonny followed his pecker to greener pastures? Sure. Michael, honey, you are not a child anymore. Act like it.

It is B.S., and why I was so off-put by Sussman's 2016 interview. It read as "I was fired. I'm back and I am undoing everything that's been done that I hate," and honestly, Josh Griffith's efforts have felt the complete same. She was picking and choosing stories she wanted out and stories she was going to acknowledge. Devon did need a goal, but she had no vision on how to provide it. Exactly. I mean, what happened to Gloria working as Jack's secretary? There is no one at that desk anymore. Hell, from what I can tell, no one is outside of Eric Forrester's office on The Bold and the Beautiful anymore, either. You can just walk into these offices at any given time. It's hilarious and unrealistic as f**k. Networks still think middle-aged housewives are the majority of the ones at home watching soap operas. And most are likely DVRing or waiting for On Demand to upload the episodes. We don't necessarily need social issues, either. We just need smart writing. Nothing about American soaps are smart! Ava vs. Esme is going to happen in regards to Esme's pregnancy. But it'll be child's play in comparison to what could be told if Disney-ABC weren't so shiny and clean. Imagine if we got something like this: Saying you don't care about the baby? Esme mentioning Ava's parenting of Kiki again? That would never air on American daytime. Of course, British soaps air during primetime hours, but still.. that alone would be some awesome material. I'm not saying this exact scenario needs to happen, but something like this would be... refreshing for American daytime. The problem, especially with The Young and the Restless, is that there is zero depth to the dialogue. It's all at face value with no real emotion or intent behind it. Ashley, Nikki & Phyllis vs. Diane could have been great had it been rooted... but it's just a high school-esque hallway drama-rama playing out, and it's so not worth it.

Jacob Young: Rick Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful (1997–1999, 2011–2018) Lucky Spencer, General Hospital (2000–2003) JR Chandler, All My Children (2003–2011) Rick Forrester, The Young and the Restless (2014) Linsey Godfrey Caroline Spencer, The Bold and the Beautiful (2012–2018) Caroline Spencer, The Young and the Restless (2014) Sarah Horton, Days of Our Lives (2018–present)

I wouldn't say all of it has been absolutely awful, but even her tenure was a freakin' slow-moving mess. Both CBS and Sony need to step back a bit. Even Jill Farren Phelps stated (and I believe her) that she was brought onto the soap⏤replacing exiting Maria Arena⏤to "modernize" the soap and make it "financially feasible" for CBS to continue producing. And she tried doing it. Unfortunately, that's not the canvas of The Young and the Restless, which even Sally Sussman alludes to (a.k.a. its older audience). This seems fine until you get to the second paragraph. One day to begin, even though I'm not a fan of Sussman's tenure, is simply unrealistic and unfair to her. I know news broke on September 13 that Sussman was "in-talks" to become head writer, and two days later it was announced she was in as head writer, because Pratt quit. HOWEVER, wasn't she up for the position in 2015, but Phelps wanted Pratt instead? So, surely, she should have had some ideas from those discussions one-year earlier, no? Hmm... I don't know how much I believe this. We know CBS has had control since Phelps' hiring, and I'm sure there was some kind of story planned to be told, but I'm also wondering how this Black Lives Matter story would have come about in regards to Devon. She announced all of these plans in her November 2016 interview with TV Insider (her one and only interview while head writer/co-executive producer), and the only time she mentioned Devon was the mistake of making him Katherine's grandson, because, due to the inheritance, it "left him without drive, without a goal. What does he want? What does he strive for? I don’t think those questions were ever asked, so we need to fix that." The characters she mentioned were: Nikki, Victor, Jack, Ashley, Nick, Sharon, Billy & Victoria. She also mentioned: Jill, Lauren & Michael, and her intentions of undoing Jill & Lauren's connection. But not once did she mention anything regarding Devon beyond retconning his family, which she never ended up doing. Would retconning that story have brought on the planned storyline? Because, a lot of what she said she was going to do she did not end up doing. Was it CBS or was it her? I don't know, honestly. That TV Insider interview felt very "I'm getting back at you for not keeping me in 2006, and for not bringing me on last year" and it was off-putting to me then and to me now. I don't buy this. Sorry. In her August 2017 interview with Daytime Confidential, she said: "The executives at CBS who oversee daytime enthusiastically approved this story; I think they saw the value and the freshness in the way it would be told. They did however note that they have a very conservative audience and this story may offend some people. CBS knows their audience very well, which could be the reason Y&R never did a story like this before, except in the early 70's when Bill Bell tried it and it was very negatively received." So, either they enthusiastically approved this story, despite noting they had some very conservative audiences and it may offend, or they were simply just upset and did not support the storyline? Which is the truth, Ms. Sussman? She even stated, in regards to CBS being skittish about the Mariah/Tessa storyline: "This is something I have no knowledge of. Now that I'm not with the show anymore, I have no idea how it will play out in the future." I know sometimes a person's storyline can change after time, out of not being afraid to speak, but these are two completely stories being told by someone who genuinely seemed done with daytime when she retired in 2017. That storyline sucked, any way. LOL. I'm all for having an opinion, because Bradley Bell is inept at his job, but this seems like this was a targeted attempt for her to bash Bell. And that, to me, is unprofessional of them. Generations rebooting as some kind of limited-series could be... interesting, but I wonder how it'd work in the grand scheme of today's world. I really do. I just don't think Sussman has the chops to make a serial work like it would need to. This in not 1989 anymore. One-hundred percent. Networks want what they want, and it isn't about a forward-moving, well-executed soap opera. The fact we can watch episodes from the 1970s, 1980s and even the 1990s, and it's more cutting-edge and forward-thinking than what has been airing the past five to ten years, says something about American daytime as a whole. And I don't think a single head writer/writing team currently can do what needs to be done, especially with the current state of the networks (and platforms) involved. They don't look outside of the daytime world to bring writers in. Yes, it's a difficult medium to write for, but they won't even attempt to look outside, especially since writers would want to change things. The only time I think American daytime got it right in the past ten years is when All My Children went to TOLN. Marlene McPherson & Elizabeth Snyder did some fantastic story-telling with the trafficking storyline with Cassandra, and when The Young and the Restless played it years later, it read like a badly told bedtime story. McPherson & Snyder were able to tell a grittier and darker storyline than what CBS allowed them to tell. And the acting was one-hundred times better.

My thoughts, except for what I've stricken out.

Began watching Emmerdale today, via BritBox, and it's a very unique soap. Love the setting of it all. Feels quaint, yet current. Acting is pretty solid, too!

No. I meant Val Jean, in terms of Santa Barbara's cancellation.

Shame Trish didn't stay in Springfield. According to Michele Val Jean, they found out six-months prior to the series finale that the series had been canceled.

I think, if they could find a way to keep her team, this could be a genuine win for her and the talk show! I just know I need a tour and a new album this year!

They really took their time waiting to renew this series, but I am SO excited we are getting a third season THIS YEAR! The second season was insane, and I can only imagine what's coming, especially since their teacher is now involved!

Or they could even do Ladies of New York, a-la Ladies on London, etc. which was easily Real Housewives in a new format. I don't think she was necessarily lecturing and/or preaching. I think it was her trying to get her POV across to women who, quite frankly, did not give two-sh*ts (a.k.a. Ramona & Luann). Sonja seemed to care, listen and understand Eboni's POV, which I loved and showed Sonja was capable of being more than the coddled "child" that Luann & Ramona wanted to keep her as. Had Eboni come in the year before or the year after, I do think she wouldn't have been as disjointed in the group. I really do not. The end of 2020 was not the time of year to film a franchise that relies on the City itself as its unspoken main star. Let's be honest: Bravo / Andy Cohen jumped the gun, because they wanted to protect two of their so-called stars, who people are still wanted to see go; one who isn't even returning for Legacy and one who has been demoted before, and the franchise did not suffer because of it.

Either that, or have everything planned for that six-month term. The one-month term for Emma Samms' Holly was fantastic. It had a beginning, middle and end, whether people liked it all or not. It worked. And the pace, for me, was great! Charles Shaughnessy's Victor is falling on the line of Wes Ramsey's Peter and Jon Lindstrom's Kevin: overdrawn by one or two Sweeps periods. Mhmm. Which is also why the Cassie-Mariah reveal on The Young and the Restless also seemed off. UNLESS.... Marcus Coloma is item #2 on this list, and that's why he's now M.I.A.?

Mhmm, and I think had the season not aired right after the election, too, it would've faired better. At that point, I think everyone was over the election and everything surrounding it, and the season was filmed during the HEIGHT of that, and it just... looked wrong. I loved her connection with Sonja; you could tell she genuinely wanted to be there for her in way that I think was more nurturing than Bethenny/Heather were during their seasons, and I loved that. I cannot help but feel like, instead of RHONY: Legacy, they could have just done RHONY: Next Generation and kept the main cast (with some major changes/cuts) without the Legacy name.

Pretty sure. They probably extended his stay to continue telling a story there was no end decision made for, and it's now dragging... much like everything else.

Eboni's arrival was at the wrong time; it was during COVID and a major presidential campaign. Had she come on a year before or even a year after, I do think she would've been better received. All that needed to be done was a bit of re-tooling of the franchise and all would have been fixed. It happened before and it would have happened again. That being said, I'm open to welcoming the new housewives and giving them a chance. COVID did not help RHONY at all. New York, as a setting, is the unofficial final housewife each season, and it was pretty much standing still during filming, so it just lacked that lifestyle we'd seen for the series' entire run. Even their time in Salem was... lacking. I've been to Salem and it's HOPPING 24-7 during the Halloween season, and what we saw was.... not it.