Khan

Thanks, @DramatistDreamer, for letting me know about the interview!

IIRC, Rodney Dangerfield didn't want to do a sitcom, so he and/or his team negotiated some kind of arrangement where, if WR? had been picked up for series, he'd appear only in a scene or two in each episode. As you can see, the entire premise was just stupid. (What '90's teen is gonna stop and ask, "What would Rodney Dangerfield do in this situation?") Add the fact that the other characters were stock sitcom characters and you can see why Phil Doran and Sy Rosen, who created the series and wrote the pilot, were so embarrassed by it that they actually used pseudonyms on it, lol.

Possibly. I believe KL outlasted the other '80's primetime soaps for three reasons: 1) like you said, @Vee, it was less glam and more down-to-earth (that is, when you compare it to DALLAS, DYNASTY and FC); 2) it had better actors, which allowed the show's producers to give characters more psychological layers; and 3) it took more chances when it came to upending viewers' expectations, so that you really didn't know what to expect from week to week.

Remember when the networks would "burn off" the unsold pilots during the summer or whenever there was a hole to fill in the schedules? I think it was Ken Levine ("Cheers," "M*A*S*H") who referred to it as "Failure Theatre," lol. Anyways, here's one notorious pilot with a convoluted backstory you'd have to read to believe:

ICAM! IMO, ADW is that rare, socially-conscious sitcom whose relevance never dipped, especially within the African-American community. If anything, you could watch an episode today and get depressed over how little has changed. I know Bill Cosby is a big reason why all attempts to reboot ADW have failed, but I also feel like the times have changed a little bit even from when he still was in the news everyday. As a country, we're still outraged by his actions, but we've also had time to put some things in perspective, too. I think we're at a place now, hopefully, where we can separate the man and his deep, psychological issues with women from his output as an entertainer, including ADW. We get that still watching and supporting ADW or even "Cosby" doesn't mean we also support Bill and condone everything that he has done in his personal life.

In both cases, you had a show built around a comedian who had first seen success in the '60's and '70's (although, Cosby's act lent more material to his show's writers than Flip did his - unless they had plans to bring on "Geraldine" later, lol). You also had, in both cases, a co-star with a musical background, with Gladys Knight having the obvious edge there; and an oldest son (Malcolm Jamal Warner on "Cosby"; KSJ on "Charlie") who was good-looking, popular, and who seemed to care more about his friends and his girlfriends than about his studies. And then you had the parents in both shows as full-time professionals and not like the Jeffersons or the Evanses on "Good Times," where the mom stayed home while the dad went off to work. I don't recall "Charlie" focusing much on the parents' work lives beyond an episode or two; but, then again, I don't recall "Cosby" doing much with Cliff or with Clair's job after the first few seasons either. Ironically, I've heard or read somewhere that Jaleel White was supposed to play Rudy before they changed the character to a female or that he was in serious contention. So, "Charlie & Co." kinda, sorta gives you an idea of what, if anything, "Cosby" would have been like with Jaleel playing the precocious, younger child instead of Keshia Knight Pulliam. And of course, before Kristoff St. John portrayed the older son on "Charlie," he played one of Denise's many obnoxious boyfriends on an episode of "Cosby," too. (Seriously, it's a toss-up as to which Huxtable daughter had the worst tastes in men, lol). The only place where there is real difference between the two shows, aside from income levels, is in the depiction of the sole daughter on "Charlie." To me, she's a more stereotypical (black) teenage girl, obsessed with boys and gossiping about boys on the phone with her girlfriends and always there for a sassy, snappy comeback about how her parents just don't understand what it's like for teenagers these days. Sort of like Brenda and Tiffany on "227" - but, now that I think about it, Vanessa Huxtable could fit that type pretty well, too, lol. Oh, and "Charlie" had the better theme song, I'm just saying:

Exactly. Usually, the TV industry responds to the culture, rather than influences it, so I wonder if Reagan-era fatigue might have been setting in sooner than the latter shows would suggest - like, say, 1985 or '86?

TBH, I think Peter Simon was right: Ed and Nola were too different to be successful as a couple. He never would've understood her need for fantasies, and she would've been bored to tears being a doctor's wife (which is also why Kelly and Nola never would've worked out).

Actually, JM wanted to name him "Kegger" but his wife talked him out of it. I'm kidding.

Kinda puts the whole situation with whatshisname in a completely different light, doesn't it?

Kind of like how Roger was drawn to Meg. IIRC, there was a scene where Roger spoke to the baby and said he understood how it felt to be "different" from everyone else.

And I would be like, "Welcome back, Bob and Tony, all is forgiven!"

Amen!

Why are Trina and Joss sharing a pad? So Trina can help Joss into her corsets like a good mammy? On a show called GENERAL. HOSPITAL.

OMG, I so [!@#$%^&*] hate social media.

Thank you! That's exactly what I'm saying! You can't get on your high horse and tell TPTB what you won't do as Jason when we've seen what you did do as Harris! Steve's just playing power games with GH/ABCD and, like I said, he can [!@#$%^&*] off.

Maurice should just write a book called "Respect for Soap Acting" and be done with it. And Steve should just [!@#$%^&*] off.

You'd look tired, too, if you'd just gotten over being radioactive.

And to think that the Soderbergs (or whoever actually created Roger Thorpe) envisioned him as a blonde, Ivy League type.

EB gets it. He knows it's his job to make the material come alive for the audience, no matter how ridiculous that material is.

Better yet, DAYS should just crib off the final months of SFT and have everyone in Salem live in the same apartment building. That way, there's a damn good reason why everybody's home looks the same, lol.

I doubt his work as Nico Kelly or as Desi Arnaz makes MB the next Lee Strasberg, lol. I thank everyone who filled me in on BC's history...I think, lol. And WTG GH! I used to believe that "Baby M" was the most hideous story about surrogacy that I had ever seen. But no more!

Ah, that kinda tracks with the backstory that I had made up in my head years ago to explain/rationalize Heather's behavior. I figured that Alice's first husband (and Heather's biological dad) had walked out on them years before, and that Heather's stepfather was a drunk who had abused Heather sexually from the time she was a little girl. Furthermore, I figured that Alice was a decent person at her core, but that she had felt overwhelmed by being left with a young daughter to raise and no money or support from her family. In turn, because she was so busy ekeing out a living, Alice never had the time to give Heather the attention she really needed, turning Heather into a very needy child, who learned to "stretch the truth" if she wanted any attention from others. Also, Alice was always afraid of being left alone again, so when Heather, now a teenager, finally found the courage to tell her mother about the abuse, Alice called Heather a liar and believed the husband instead. Even after Heather decided to leave home (by forging that recommendation letter that got her the job as Peter and Diana's nanny) and the stepfather ran off shortly thereafter with an underaged neighbor, Alice still believed that Heather was just a sick person who lived in a world of make believe rather than admit she let down her own child.

Those flashbacks remind me once again how there used to be so much heart on DAYS. It felt like a show that was written, produced and directed by people who actually CARED. Oh, I'm so glad, lol! Seriously, @JAS0N47, if I were head-writing or producing DAYS, I'd definitely have you on staff as official historian.