Khan

Yeah, as much as I adore CM as an actress, her Y&R work proved to me that even she had limits. I think she's too centered as an actress and person to play someone who isn't.

No no no, I wouldn't have delayed it that long, lol! You can get away with delaying for 6-7 years on a daytime soap, but the rules are different for primetime soaps. Audiences there don't have as much patience. I'd say maybe a season, at the most.

Take it from me: Badderly deserves every criticism you can lob against it and more.

And IIRC, Bill Bell ultimately had no say in the matter: "Y&R is expanding, with OR without you."

I agree. As Gary Tomlin once said, nothing lasts forever. I miss all my old, favorite soaps, but there comes a time when you have to accept that they're gone and not coming back (except as reruns).

I think this has been discussed before elsewhere on SON, but didn't Beth Ehlers leave AMC without even a proper exit? Like, her character just stopped appearing with any explanation, even though she was in a relationship with (I think) Tad? I don't know how popular Cady McClain is with the general soap audience, but I do believe her run as Y&R's Kelly - the only time thus far that she's been allowed to portray a psycho - was a rare flop in an otherwise stellar career. Then again, I don't think Kelly was a popular character even when Cynthia Watros still was in the role; and between that and GH's Nina, I think CW's name definitely belongs in this discussion, lol.

Which I actually thought was a good idea, lol! If only because they needed something to keep the audience tuning in as long as possible. I'm not saying a reunion with both babies never should've happened, but the longer you delay that gratification, the better off you'll be.

When is a Landers sister NOT downright embarrassing, lol?

I feel like Sharon Gabet was on OLTL just to play out storylines that had been intended for Robin Strasser. Her Melinda seemed to be nothing at all like the Melindas that came before or afterward. For sure, Genie Francis has had a tough time with any character that isn't Laura Spencer. She had some success playing opposite Drake Hogestyn on DAYS, but AMC's Ceara and especially Y&R's Genevieve don't seem to be remembered very well by fans.

So that's what we're calling 8mm stock footage shot on somebody's busted camera? Moodiness? Okay. And I will never, ever, EVER be here for smooth jazz! I miss Stephen Kay. (Shut up, Vee!)

She (and you) were right on both counts. Abby would've never done to Val what was done to her; and the audience never would've forgiven her for doing that either. To this day, I wonder why they ever thought having one woman kidnap another woman's children was a good idea - but I guess that's what happens when you have men writing for women but not thinking as women would think.

Exactly. Her loyalty was with Falcon Crest and Falcon Crest only. If any of her family objected to her actions, "well, they'll come around eventually." Now, contrast that with Alexis, who never had any motivation beyond getting even with Blake (while looking gorgeous); and J.R., who SAID he was all about preserving Jock's legacy, but who would've sold out the entire family in a minute if it meant getting richer. The only other primetime soap "villain" I could root for was KL's Abby Ewing, because she was, at heart, a woman who'd come of age during the women's liberation movement and now was determined to be a major player in a world dominated by men (and who was willing to use even her own sexuality to get her there). It was feminism run amok, but again, totally relatable.

In a way, Mack cheating on Karen would've been too predictable. On the other hand, circumstances forcing Karen to cheat on Mack...? Now, that, I think, would've been interesting! Gary and Anne were supposed to have an affair during Val's "brain virus" storyline, but Michelle Phillips went to Co-EP Lawrence Kasha and asked him to nix it, saying Anne can't be someone who just goes from man to man. As Tommy Krasker points out in his blog, however, Anne Matheson WAS the type who'd go from man to man. After all, she once was a spoiled heiress who was desperate not to end up poor (or worse, middle class). That's why I wanted them to bring back John Pleshette at some point and have Richard and Anne end up together, but that's a different fanfic, lol.

Besides, Erica Kane would admonish us all for giving her only one day. "I'm Erica Kane! I'm worth celebrating for at least a week!"

I chalk that up to their realizing that they had cast for looks and not for talent, lol. Which is ironic, because Earl Hamner, Jr. was the force behind the original show about family togetherness, "The Waltons." In that way, Angela Channing was not unlike my own mother: "Why do you need me to reassure you every minute of the day that I love you? I've given you a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food to fill your stomach. If that doesn't prove that I love you, what does?" And just like with Angela, any time me or my brother disobeyed her or ignored her advice, we usually paid the price, lol. As I've said before, what made Angela Channing different from Alexis Colby and J.R. Ewing was how her motivations were rooted in something that most people could relate to. Angela spoke to that part of all of us that believes there is something greater than ourselves that's worth preserving. For Angela, that was her grandfather's legacy. People come and go, "but the land, always the land." True, but I hate how it was so easy after awhile to write her off as unbalanced, especially when that never played to Ana-Alicia's strongest suit as an actor. (To put it another way: she was terrible at playing crazy!)

YES, lol!!!!! For years, we've had to be messy vicariously, through larger-than-life characters like Erica Kane and Victor Newman. Not that I don't still love me some Erica and Victor (or some "Miss Chancellor" with those fabulous nails and diamonds), but now we're up in the big leagues, gettin' OUR turn at bat; and I, for one, cannot wait. Thank you, thank you and THANK. YOU.

Kim Zimmer herself didn't annoy me, but I did grow annoyed with how TPTB continued to write the wrong kinds of stories for her and for Reva. It's as if TPTB thought they could keep giving her the most OTT material, because KZ was/is an actor who swings for the proverbial fences in every performance. But what they never understood was that KZ and Reva worked best when the show kept it small and real. Reva's breakdown over being humiliated by wheelchair-bound Josh? Riveting. Reva jumping in and out of time through old paintings? Not so much. If anything, I would have told KZ (nicely!) during those frustrating times when the show would put Reva through one ridiculous ordeal after another to tone it down, pull it back, play it much smaller than usual, so that the storyline becomes more relatable (although, how crap like Clone Reva ever could be relatable, lol....). "Watch Genie Francis," I would've said. "See how she handles all the unbelievable things GH keeps handing her."

ICAM!! If anything, even the "Autumn Breeze" opening would've been too long in an era when shows like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" would just cut to a title card and then to commercial. In that case, all GH would've needed to do is fade to the ambulance passing the hospital as the title comes up onscreen. You wouldn't even need an official theme, as you could have played out the sting from the teaser instead. And you're absolutely right about the FOTH close. It's so "smooth jazz," which any jazz purist would tell you is not real jazz, but jazzy elevator music. Because it's a new year, and because I'm an Okie, and because Okies never mince words about anything, even when they're dead wrong, I'm going to admit something for the first time: I hated the "Hold on to Love" opening. Hated it with a passion. I thought the visuals were too messy, and the theme song sounded like something John Williams would've cooked up for one of George Lucas or Steven Spielberg's films. I was so glad when they finally retired it, even though the "Life Savers" opening, the "True Light" opening and the 12 different openings during the Ellen Wheeler era were awful in their own ways. IMO, the only GL opening that worked even a little bit was "Ritournelle." And even that opening suffered from all the [!@#$%^&*] dead leaves being blurred on purpose in the shot!

See, I'm not fond of any opening sequences that include actors' headshots, simply because soap casts are so fluid, and it's almost impossible to update openings fast enough in order to keep up with the changes. You'll often see cast members on openings weeks after their characters have left or been killed off - and I hate that. I really, really, REALLY hate that. My all-time favorite soap openings - AMC's 1st opening, GH's "Autumn Breeze" opening, OLTL's openings in the '70's and early '80's, EON's first two openings, "As the World Turns On and On," DAYS - kept it brief and to the point: the theme song, the title, maybe an object (a family album, a spinning globe, an hourglass) that evoked an emotional response of some kind, maybe a little narration (as in DAYS' case), and that's it. The only exception would be Y&R's openings, and that's because Y&R's cast, for the most part, was pretty stable throughout most of the Bill Bell era.

It's weird seeing Y&R near the bottom of the rankings, considering that it has been the #1 show for most of my life, lol.

I'd almost forgotten that Holland Taylor once was on AMC as a fashion designer. Was she doing the show at the same time as she was co-starring in "Bosom Buddies"?

TBH, I never cared for the "Faces of the Heart" opening. I didn't think it was "high energy" enough for a show that was all about energy. Plus, the first time I saw the opening, with the visuals and the safe-for-the-'90's music, I thought, "This is gonna look even more dated than the old opening five years from now." And in a way, it IS dated, although it certainly holds up better than the openings that have come afterward. IMO, all Wendy Riche needed to do was to film a new shot of an ambulance speeding toward the hospital and maybe get a new arrangement for the Urbont theme. Otherwise, just leave the sequence as is. I think it's ironic how the larger our TV screens have become, the more reticent GH, DAYS and Y&R are to do those intense close-ups that they used to be known for. Maybe they're afraid HD will expose all that cosmetic surgery to the light of day, lol?

I'm sorry, but I just can't stop looking at Clifton Davis without getting the theme song from "That's My Mama!" stuck in my head, lol.

Of course, I love the modeling stuff from the '80's. I thought those sequences were so well-produced. But if I had to choose the quintessential "Erica Kane" moment, it'd have to be when she posed as a nun while on the lam for Kent Bogard's murder, hands down. In fact, it's one of the reasons why I balked at the show's efforts years later to ground Erica in more realistic storylines involving drug addiction and childhood rape. You might be able to tell those stories with Brooke, or with Natalie, but Erica was too larger-than-life for gritty dramas such as those.

I've often joked that if I ever wanted to do a soap-within-a-soap, I'd call it "Upon This Rock," since it seems to have the same sort of cadence to it as FTR.