EricMontreal22

This was great. I know they'd never point out that the AMC reboot was centred around her and Jesse. I wish she'd get out of the Tyler Perry orbit and be somewhere else (Beyond the Gates?)

Love your recaps Maxim. This would have been just right around when I started watching. Is Josh Griffith in the credits yet?

Pretty much full 1980 OLTL (and GH). Interesting, Gordon Russell's name isn't in the OLTL credits--this is Oct 1980 and he died in early 1981. Was he already off OLTL with the plans to move him to GH?

The idea of Anita being so missed after... a week? that she has to return for one on one check ins with her extended brood is hysterical. And I'm here for it. I also am enjoying how petty Nicole has been. I have a well regarded shrink in my extended family--who I haven't had much interaction with during my life (mostly just because I'm much younger and she's always lived on the other side of the country.) But from all I've heard, she is the most to quick to judge other family members.

To be fair hasn't this been the way it's been? When we got repeats or no episode in the past (I think it happened twice?) we still had new Y&R and B&B.

I'm curious why they haven't (so far) also portrayed Kenny as a homophobe. Would that just be making the biggot too cliche? It just seems like if he has resentment towards "Black royalty" that would go as well to feeling he has "gay privilege" a theory a lot of resentment homophobes seems to think is a thing that exists.

I fully agree but this has been an issue with American soaps for a long time now it seems to me...

Eve and Thomas have so much in common--they both like reading (print and audio books) and wow they both like reading *fiction*! (Also I would never pick up a book called Mercy and Goodness yawn )

Right. The reason we get Y&R a day ahead and have for ages (and I think at one time did with DAYS too?) has something to do with the fact that it airs very late afternoon (it used to be 5pm where I live but now is 4pm) so at some point because it aired after the US air time--or so I was explained--that would default to the next episode. Or something. At any rate, this isn't the situation here.

Oh and love how Leslie seems fixated 24/7 on her agendas but finds time to chill out with a horror film...

Oh I actually like that Vanessa has an sex addiction (or more to the dangers of it it seems)--there's a lot that they can do with it. I just find the interactions we've seen with her and the men she roleplays with, always in restaurants it seems, are really weirdly scripted. I mean I know a bit about roleplay, and this is just weird *that's all I'll say* LOL "The breakdown for the episode was ok, but some of the lines were a bit off (except during the Anita scenes and the Smitty/Bill scenes)" Completely agree with everything in this statement. (And yeah, actually I find myself enjoying the low-stakes Anita storyline a bit to my surprise. Far more interesting than just hearing them yet again bragging about how important they were to "the cause" and at all these marches, etc. Even when Vernon proved such a bad singing--which of course we know the actor who has sung on Broadway isn't...)

I'll add that I did think the Bill/Smitty scenes were the best--played really well.

I got the feeling she's always been slightly too flirty with him? But this brings up a comment I've had whenever I see Vanessa with these weird men (or was this one we've seen before) who she has role play sex hijinks with... They always just come off as plain bizarre. This guy followed her in the middle of the day to a cafe? The dialogue always seems like they want to push the boundaries too with what they can say but then just comes off as incredibly weird (something about what she did with her foot?) And oh yes, let's go to an underground/backroom casino to try to raise money for our new upstart agency? I hate to say it, and I didn't catch the writers for this episode, but I felt this was another episode like some past ones where the dialogue throughout sounded off and not natural--and too filled with references and metaphors that maybe looked nice on paper but not so much when people say them. (Oh and random--why cast a day actor as a surgeon for a tiny scene and then reveal in the next hospital scene that he can't do it because of a family emergency? Just... kinda weird.)

I'm not a Derek fan at all (and not even all that much of an Ashley fan, but man has she become awful in their relationship--like she's not even trying. But also I admit, I don't think I'd ever live with someone, even someone I was married to (I know they're not married) in a bachelor apartment unless I had to. Even just a one bedroom would make a big difference. I'd probably end up hiding in the bathroom a lot

I think it was largely done because they championed OLTL (even when it didn't deserve it) and saw the shows as up against each other in terms of which would be cancelled, so seemed to think any success AMC had would put OLTL in danger.

I really don't understand Leslie. Cutting off her daughter now leaves her with absolutely nothing and no bargaining chip...

Yeah, they have my sympathies but this only works as high camp. I dunno, have her angrily febreeze her room or SOMETHING (ok that's not much better but...)

I felt so sorry for the actress... What was her motivation? I usually like a good dream/fantasy sequence, but so far am not too impressed with any BTG has had...

I'm copying and pasting the entire post because, while I enjoyed the watch, I agree with every single one of your points (as I posted above I thought the dialogue tried for clever sophistication without sounding realistic throughout, in fact.)

I haven't read it since high school--but it has stuck with me and is a pretty important book (as a kid I did always assumed it was related to the Wells work too )

I love a smart literary reference in my soap dialogue, but I just laughed at that *picks up book* Martin: "Ralph Ellison--The Invisible Man." Smitty: "I see you" They also apparently have copies of The Glory and the Dream (which I haven't read) and Paris in the Terror which I did read parts of in high school actually. But I wanted them to show them putting back on the shelf at least a couple of fun, trashy novels. C'mon! (or maybe at least something gay if they're gonna focus on titles--Baldwin's Giovanni's Room?) And yes, it was me who said there should be more singing and I loved the final montage, but I kinda wish they had just had her singing solo instead of the family all gathered around the piano which... I'm sorry, I don't think in one of the niece's shoes I woulda stuck around for at that time. (And wow--locking Eve out? ) YES Another pointless nitpick--weird barndoor closing end fade.

Yep Edmund and Tad went under cover to infiltrate the... Willow Lake (I think?) old folks community scandal that was exploiting Phoebe, etc. (Which at one point led to Edmund rescuing Brooke from quicksand--common around Pine Valley I guess ) EDIT maybe I'm wrong. I found the quicksand scene But for the story all I can find is Edmund going undercover as the gigolo "preying" on older women, Eduardo (no one would recognize him with that disguise and name ) so the drag must have been.. a different story?

But then he HATES the original Heather Webber (Cher's half sister played her, right?) and we know what happened when Robin would step into the role a year after this. He does seem pretty spot on about actors who show promise otherwise. It's interesting he knocks OLTL early on (though I loved all the recently released episodes from this era we got) but does give a lot of credit to the actress playing Cathy despite earlier complaining about her story. And over all, while quite negative, his various pros and cons on the shows sounds about right with what I know of the shows at this time. This was a July dated issue of the magazine but and I know they date mags a month or two in advance--obviously when he wrote this he didn't know Lovers and Friends was gonna go off the air (in May I think).

That was all true behind the scenes, but didn't affect the show we saw in front of the camera which (particularly in the case of AMC) was much stronger than AMC had been in years. As well as her co-HW Elizabeth Snyder (who I just read passed away at 60 in 2021!)

Found this Best and Worst from the July 1977 Daily TV Serials Magazine that I had posted years back.