Khan

Oh, just admit it, Anderson: every time you, along with every other journalist, fail to have real discussions about Donald Trump, you fail the American public; and you fail the American public, because all you give a damn about is ratings.

In a way, I think it's good how people are suffering PTSD from 2016 and are now hypervigilant. Far too many of us had become complacent, for lack of a better word, never once considering the possibility of someone like Donald J. Trump running a successful campaign for president. (Hell, even I had said on FB that the man was likely to win the election, and I was only partly serious, lol). Despite the decades of ill will that the GOP and the mainstream media had sown against the Clintons and against Hillary Clinton in particular, I believe that the majority of us believed she would win against Trump, because decades of election history said she would. But what folks didn't realize or didn't WANT to realize was that America was no longer the America most had grown up with (or thought it was). 2016, IMO, was when America finally had to accept the truth. Regardless of what happens this Election Day, I really hope we (meaning, Democrats) come away from this election cycle with a new understanding of the fourth estate, one that won't be so willing to appeal to their so-called better angels, because they'll know now that those better angels no longer exist.

Exactly. Again, I don't want to suggest this is true for ALL Black men, because we aren't any more of a monolith than any other group in this country. However, it's been my experience that many Black men are drawn to men like Donald Trump, because, to them, men like Donald Trump project strength and self-assuredness, which is more important to them than morality, or lack thereof. Black men, in general, are terribly concerned with emasculation. After all, much of hip hop/gangsta rap culture has been built on images of Black men wielding power - not just physical and financial power, but even sexual power as well, to the point of misogyny. Ergo, Black men don't want a leader who will appear "soft" or "sissy" to the rest of the world, or else they're afraid they'll get "punked" by their enemies. From the very beginning of Kamala Harris' campaign, I said it would be difficult, if not impossible, for her to win over Black men, because, when it comes to the notion of ANY woman being in charge, let alone a woman of color, Black men are less progressive than even our white, male counterparts. Even though most of us have been raised by women who had to work (long before feminism, I might add) in order to keep the family afloat financially, we still hold onto the outdated, conservative belief that it is the man, and not the woman, who is the head of the household - or, in this case, the country. Such beliefs are one of the outcomes of the African-American community revolving around "the church," and it isn't likely to change anytime soon.

Let me put it this way: I don't necessarily believe that Trump is gaining ground with Black men, but on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually were. Speaking as a Black man, I know how many of my fellow Black men (and even some Black women) can be swayed by a Victor Newman-esque "badass" like Donald Trump, who is wealthy (or, in his case, pretends to be) and who says and does whatever the [!@#$%^&*] he wants and doesn't care at all whether you like it. I realize it sounds like I'm denigrating my fellow African-Americans...and I don't know, maybe I am. (I'm certainly not suggesting that the AA community is a monolith, however).

I know I wanted Ben/Douglas Sheehan for an episode during S14, when Gary was looking for Val. I thought it would have made sense for Gary to run into Ben in Florida and have the two try and track her down. In the meantime, Ben would have explained what had happened to him, and he and Gary would have found closure (with each other, and with the now-presumed-dead Val).

One thing I love about old school Y&R - and about Bill Bell's writing in general - is how you can close your eyes and still get so much from his (and Kay Alden's) dialogue. Bell knew how to make every word in the script count.

At the very least, they should consider it. Rhonda would be old enough to have had a daughter who stirs up some drama for everyone, lol.

Too bad Arnie isn't still around to bask in all this glory, lol.

"DALLAS Does Disco," lol.

I'm glad Obama brought up that incident between McCain and the woman who called Obama an Arab and so forth. Say what you will about McCain, but I thought his response to that lady - basically shutting her down, as Obama says - was perfect. Others (like Trump) would've reinforced her ignorance and prejudice, but McCain wouldn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad McCain ultimately lost the election, but if not for the fact that he had an absolute loon for his running mate, I think I would've been okay with him becoming president.

By and large, women aren't going to forget how SCOTUS reversed their reproductive rights. That's going to influence how they vote - not just in this election year, but many others to come.

DAYS succeeded in making Shane and Kimberly's daughter such a repugnant piece of trash that I actually pray this will be the last we ever see of Jeannie Theresa.

I'd be okay with bringing Duncan Eric back from the dead, but only if it's made clear that Duncan (or whatever name he'd be known as by that point) was raised in a good home by loving parents. I think that would be more interesting to write for and to watch than to suggest the poor lad was abused all his life by folks who were total scum.

I think one of the biggest reasons why soaps remain an endangered species is because TPTB refuse to allow characters to mature anymore. They don't seem to understand that watching characters in their 50s, 60s and 70s do the same, stupid [!@#$%^&*] that they did when they were in their 20s and 30s just doesn't appeal to the average viewer.

Erika Slezak echoes your sentiment in her Archive of American Television interview, @Paul Raven. IIRC, she tells the interviewer (and the viewers who download the interview) how upset it makes her to hear people denigrate acting on soaps, when - as she puts it - it isn't easy work to do, and that many from film/theater have tried to do it and couldn't. (IIRC, too, even her own father said doing a three-day stint on OLTL as her godfather was his most terrifying experience as a performer, lol).

Texas is like my home state (OK): in both cases, you're fighting against generations of deeply ingrained, ultra-conservative thinking from people who resent liberals, whom they perceive as looking down at them. More often than not, they'll knowingly vote against their own interests, because it's more important to them to put liberals in their places. (As I've said before in this thread, Democrats do pretty well in OKC and Tulsa, but once we head into the smaller towns, we're officially dead in the water. I suspect a similar scenario always happens in TX as well.) I'm not saying liberals can't make inroads in TX and "turn TX blue," but I think it'd take a different sort of strategy than what most left-leaning politicians are used to.

I feel like that's where Ed Scott could make the most difference. We know budgets aren't what they used to be, but a smaller budget is no excuse for scenes that just lay there on the screen, with no dramatic or visual appeal whatsoever. If anything, not having the money you used to should force you to be more creative in that aspect, if only to distract the audience from the rest of the shitty production values, lol.

Kamala Harris isn't just running against Donald Trump, she's getting inside his head. THAT is how the game is played. I am, too. I'm waiting for that moment when he turns even on his own followers, and no one, not even the NYT, can bail him out.

They were recurring, so they count, lol.

I believe so, @applcin. It's weird how most of the MTMS cast (minus Ted Knight) lived for so long; and then, in the span of a few years, they all passed away.

Of course, there's still my "Keith Barron comes back from the dead (as a homeless person)" storyline idea in my back pocket.

Jamey Giddens.

That's true. I also think - and I might have said this in the past - that those who've tried to revive or reboot DS really didn't understand that part of the original series' appeal was seeing just how long Dan Curtis and his team could keep the crazy train going before it all fell gloriously apart. They always attempt to revive the whole Collins family saga with clear-eyed maturity instead of just going for it, lol.

That's a tough question to answer, since I think SFT's canvas was so damaged at the end (much like how I think DAYS' canvas is damaged today). Naturally, Jo and Stu would have remained the show's center. (There'd especially be a cute, little storyline for Jo, who'd decide at her age to go to college, lol.) For sure, I would've phased out the McClearys, minus Hogan. To me, they always came across as RH rejects, completely changing (in tandem with the Kendalls) the tenor of the show. Casting Jacqueline Schulz as Patti screwed up a lot of timelines - with Patti now in the same age range as Liza and Sunny, for example - but on the other hand, I think she and David Forsyth worked very well together. Ideally, I would've coaxed Millee Taggart into returning as Janet, if only on a recurring basis. I'd also recast Liza, as I think Louan Gideon was just too wan for the role. (In a perfect world, either Sherry Mathis or Meg Bennett would have agreed to come back, but probably not, lol). Of course, I'd keep Marcia McCabe on the show. I'm likely biased, since she's been one of my faves for many years, but I think if anyone could have taken Mary Stuart's place as SFT's tentpole matriarch once Stuart either passed away or retired, it was McCabe. On the other hand, I'm not sure what I'd do with Lee Godart's Bela. I'd probably write a storyline where Sunny discovers she's pregnant - she wasn't infertile, was she, lol? - but Bela dips, because he isn't interested in being a dad. Sunny herself might deliberate over whether to abort the baby; eventually, however, she'd decide to raise the baby on her own. Beyond that...? Well, I would have LOVED to have introduced (maybe through Hogan and Patti?) an African-American family to the canvas. And I would have loved to have introduced a new, young troublemaker in the form of Travis Sentell's long-lost illegitimate son from a relationship he had before meeting Liza. He would've become very attached to Liza and to his half-brother, Tourneur. He also would've stirred up a lot of trouble by becoming involved with both Estelle and T.R.

I agree. Stories on TLB and "Fantasy Island" could be poignant at times, but "Hotel" really brought the drama, lol.