Gray Bunny

This! Bloomberg's ads are GREAT. I'm hoping the next one will target his non-Christian behavior and his love of money, not God. Plant seeds of doubt and chip away at those evangelicals. And what better way to ensure they hear the message than to air it on Faux News, the mecca of lies and propaganda. Bonus points if they used direct clips from Fox News' Mother Tucker Carlson or Sham Hannity in those ads.

Haha! Hilarious. Sam & Billy are the worst, but their pick makes more sense since they were both long-running popular characters.

Perfectly stated. RHONY is always a breath of fresh air, and those women hang and party together whether the camera crew is there or not. Meanwhile, I'm itching for POTOMAC to return too!

In 2016, I was in a state (Illinois) that was heavily pro-Hillary but I still gladly voted (I'm ashamed to admit, it was my first time voting in a presidential election, despite being able to vote since '04). But this year? We're in the almighty important Wisconsin. And I'll be damned if I don't vote against Trump -- even if it just means cancelling out my dad's....

Looks messy good! I will admit, there's something missing with Bethenny gone, but these women still know how to throw it down! Sonja peeing in the cornfield... lawdy... at least, I *hope* it was just peeing she was doing...

Ditto. We gotta stop falling in love with our candidates and simply fall in line.

Turn around Warren & Klobuchar and it'd be perfectly ideal. That thought that used to rattle around in my head that Biden would pick Kamala as VP doesn't seem to matter much anymore, but who knows what SC, NV, and Super Tuesday will bring...

He did well! In fact, he got more lines in the live episode than all previous episodes combined! I kid, but not entirely... I loved the live episode! It was flawless. No mistakes. There was a few prolonged pauses as they cut between scenes or to commercial break, but nothing noteworthy.

I noticed that, too. I guess it was important in terms of people's motivations, re: Kenya, Cynthia, Cookie lady. Kenya going after Tanya is like a pitbull going after a toy chihuahua (see my tiny lil angel in my avatar). This fight just isn't necessary. Tanya may be a Patty Simcox overly positive suck-up, but she's harmless. Oy. Mama Joyce is back to hating on Todd? Ugh...

Agreed 1000% I love me some Michelle Obama, but the whole "when they go low, we go high" approach is not working! We are living in a different era now, and by going the high road in the political field, we are getting our asses raped day in and day out. It's time to fight dirty or else we'll drown.

Honey, I'm right there with ya. With Trump looking like he's high as a kite on painkillers and Bernie looking like the grim reaper is knocking at his door, God may finally prove to us he exists by ridding us of both this year. C'mon God; show us that prayers do come true.

Agreed. The ball is in her court if she can make enough noise to warrant another year. Albeit, another year at a reduced salary, no doubt. Otherwise, Bravo has set themselves up quite nicely to phase her out without it causing a huge hole in the show's overall canvas. To be honest, I don't miss her when she's not on. If she comes to the reunion with the same stank attitude as last year, she's done.

Agreed! They had only one good scene with Amanda/Sydney bunking together. And, forgot this lil tidbit until now as I'm watching, but for a short while in season 4, Sydney and Kimberly are living together at Melrose! That could've been milked, but we got nary a drop.

... Yet when Hillary coughed, it was all over the news that she's dying. Here's to hoping whatever is secretly plaguing him takes him out this year. Does that make my karma rotten? So be it.

I would love to see how they originally edited the season 3 finale, since the explosion was supposed to air at the very end until Oklahoma City happened in real life. I wonder what the last shot would've been before they faded/froze to black.

Which, by the way, it's funny how post-explosion once the apartment is completely rebuilt, the establishing footage shown is like nothing had ever happened. Everything looks the same; same weathered look, whether it's old or new, and even the same exact plants, trees, landscaping as it was before. I guess it's like Family Guy, Simpsons, or any other cartoon where the characters wear the same clothes because it's comfortable and familiar to the audience.

Haha yes, the random people in the first 1 or 2 episodes. In some of the early episodes when they show establishing shots of Melrose, you see some random stranger slowly about to make their way down the steps of Rhonda's studio (Amanda's eventual apartment). I say slowly because the shot is clearly in super slow-motion. The apartment complex building itself is a mystery. If you look at the layout, Matt's apartment simply could not exist unless it was a tiny studio. Alison's apartment/bedroom completely overlap his apartment. Meanwhile, in the first season, the luxurious steps up to one apartment (Amanda's eventually) went to Rhonda's studio. Funny that the single studio apartment would get the fancy entrance way. If you were to do a layout of Melrose, I'm sure some placements of windows wouldn't work either (i.e. Jake's bedroom next to Jane/Michael's bedroom, etc.). I am putting way too much thought into this [!@#$%^&*] lol

I was just referring to Jo & Billy interaction in the FIRST season. @Huntress I *think* they establish Sydney is 21 years old when she first appears, visiting Jane in the first season. I was always under the impression, based on the first season, that Jane and Michael were slightly older than the rest, and by slightly older, I mean like 25-26. It's funny how in the first season, they showcased every day problems and focused on all the little nuances (well, in Alison and Billy's lives anyhow), yet so many fine details of every day life are completely glossed over once the plot goes into turbo-drive. For instance, we never saw Alison do any kind of adjusting to moving to Hong Kong. We never even saw where she lived, much less figure out how to get around in a country completely foreign to her. Instead, all we saw was her in her office and some occasional street shots in LA with her male co-worker. Also, in season 4, remember when Alison and Billy were flying in a private plane that crashed and went down? Oh that's right. It all happened offscreen. Instead, Brooke and Hayley get word the plane is missing, and the next scene is Billy and Alison enjoying a cozy fire in the wilderness as they casually await being rescued. Season 1 Alison would've been losing her mind with worry and wonder.

:::shrug::: Pack a swimsuit. I hear Hell is hot.

I agree with a lot of what you said. I didn't mind Andrew Shue's limited acting in the first 3 seasons. Yeah, there were a couple clunkers, but it kind of went with Billy's then-naive nature. I see what you mean how his being new to the Melrose building allowed us to be introduced to the whole gang. [Side Note: I TOTALLY noticed the repeat storylines re: Dylan vs. Jake and Brandon vs. Billy] I haven't gone back through the beginnings of this Melrose thread (and Lordy knows I contributed A LOT to this thread!) but I found it funny how the first season established many characters as being just out of college. You are correct about Billy. Moving in with Alison was his first step into adulthood, moving out of his parents' house. Meanwhile, the pilot episode has Alison saying she's a 23-year-old young professional. Hard to imagine that 2.5 years later, with multiple missteps in her career plus a recent rehab stint along the way, she's suddenly President of D&D. But by the time they hit the third season, they leapfrogged everyone into middle & upper management. With that change, people like Billy were no longer naive and optimistic. Instead, he became one with the bitter and sardonic. For as much as Billy enjoyed a very brief return to being carefree when he proposed to Brooke on the pier, almost immediately after they got married he seemed like the most miserable person in the world. It's like the character had instant buyer's remorse after he said, "I Do." The one bad acting moment I recently saw that definitely took me out of the scene was when Billy accused Brooke of cheating on him with Antonio Sabato Jr.'s character. His "you're cheating on me?" remark seemed more like a smarmy joke than an actual accusation. Yes, Billy's mom carried a torch for Alison when he got married to Sam. I wasn't a huge fan of the actress who played Billy's sister. Every time she said the phrase, "little brother," I cringed. As I'm halfway through S4 again now, my mind isn't fresh on the S5 & S6 messiness, but Billy & Sam was the worst pairing on this show ever. Ever. In the 1st season, there was one single interaction between Jo and Billy in the episode when his father died. Maybe they were chemistry testing the characters, or it was just character development, or maybe they just needed to fill time. But yeah, that was their only scene alone together. I also enjoyed how Billy and Amanda maintained a friendship and always looked out for one another, even if for selfish reasons (usually on Amanda's part).

Yup, it's casually "revealed" in the pilot episode when Billy moves in and Matt and Rhonda introduce themselves. After Billy exits, Matt says, "he's cute." And Rhonda says, "Nuh uh, I saw him first!"

@Brolden Love your assessment of Alison. When Melrose started out, it was indeed Alison, Billy, and Jake as the main characters. Jane & Michael usually had stand alone storylines that were wrapped in one episode (as nearly all storylines were during the first half) or weren't featured at all, just as Matt, Rhonda, and Sandy had intermittent storylines. What I loved about the first season and to a lesser degree the second season, is that we really got to know the characters. Especially Alison and Billy. We understood their values, their ambitions, their hopes in a romantic partner, etc. Despite her raging alcoholism (which was actually pretty organic to the character and all she suffered leading up to it) and her brief stint being a corporate monster, Alison was always one of my all-time favorites. The ad-exec-turned-Shooters-waitress is one of the biggest WTF's for character development. Seeing all the back 'n forth misses in the 3rd and 4th season between Billy and Alison is aggravating as a viewer because you knew they were meant to be together in the end, just as Jo and Jake should've been endgame.

@Antoyne +2 I think RHONY is in a much stronger, stabler place than they were in Season 4 when Bethenny left and they tried their best to make rivalries that went nowhere (Ramona vs. Kelly, Sonja vs. Cindy). Plus, the Season 5 purge.... Nowadays, you've got strong anchors with Ramona, LuAnn, Dorinda, and Sonja. The ups and downs they've been through make their history and present-day interactions intriguing. With Bravo cleaning house at the OC, BH's anchor gone, NYC's main anchor gone, and ATL's Nene being phased out (?), I can see why veterans like Ramona and LuAnn might be worried. It was reported that within days after Tamra was fired, Ramona was calling her in a panic, fearing she could be next. But here's the thing (may be just my opinion, but): To me, New York City has never felt played out these past five years. Their real life drama and their on-screen antics are still entertaining. The fact that so many of them are actual friends in real life helps keep this show chugging along.

RHONY season 12 trailer is dropping next week!!! According to Ramona on Insta

Agreed! I too was surprised when she finally made the opening credits because in all honesty, as much as I loved Kimberly and Marcia Cross, I think anything post-explosion was a stretch of anything reality-based, including her being a free woman a mere two months after the blast. Quite honestly, at the time when I originally watched, it would've been a satisfying crazy ending if she hadn't survived her own bombing. Richard Hart (Muldoon) was the biggest Debbie Downer and dragged the mood down in every single scene. From the moment the 4th season began, any scene with him and Jane was just a cesspool of misery and petty barking at her. And Jo/Richard? That was an oddball pairing. Some of the male characters brought on in later years (Richard, Craig, Coop) were such Negative-Nancy Debbie Downers. Thank goodness we had devilish & dopey Michael, or even dumb & clueless Billy to balance it out.