Khan

So, you, too, had a thing for Gilbert Blythe, eh, lol?

Actually, @Mona Kane Croft, I think AW did the best that it could under the circumstances, but I really think the fix was in for them at NBC, no matter who was in charge at the show.

Martha, honey, just accept that your husband is a scuzzball and move on.

Y&R doesn't seem to be doing too bad either, lol.

If you think about it, you could compare all of today's remaining U.S. soaps with crappy restaurant chains. GH? Red Lobster. (Endless cast members!) Y&R? Olive Garden. (Trying to do 'classy' on a budget.) B&B? California Pizza Kitchen.* (Trying to be ‘hip’ but looking instead like a poseur.) DAYS? T.G.I.Friday's. (Because, there’s no rhyme or reason to any of it.) (*But will accept Cheesecake Factory as a substitute!)

Exactly! See what I mean? The RL analogies totally work, lol!

Anything was better than Josh Taylor's Roman and Marlena.

And Frank Valentini's tastes are as wrong as...well...as wrong as serving year-round Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster. (I apologize, but the RL analogies just fit!) That definitely goes without saying! If CBSD hadn't picked up THE GATES*, then I would have campaigned hard for Michele Val Jean to come back to GH as PM's co-head writer. (*Which will totally save this genre, God willing!)

I'd love to know the full, original cast list for ATWT. It seems like they had a very small cast in the beginning.

Cool! I'm gonna check this out when I get the chance! Thanks for the heads-up, @DramatistDreamer!

I think that was intentional. Pam was pregnant in that episode, just as Maggie claimed she was pregnant. ("I've got life in me, Big Daddy!") It's funny how David Jacobs is clearly playing homage to Tennessee Williams' play, and look who they have essentially playing Big Mama? The original "Maggie the Cat," lol.

It really wouldn't surprise me to learn that was Frank Valentini's doing. That man really doesn't know what to do with writing that's NOT plot-driven, campy and utterly devoid of wit or intelligence. He's truly what happens when you let a general manager at a Red Lobster produce a soap opera.

To me, it feels like Josh Griffith might not have expected CZ/Jordan to shake up the show as much as she did, so he keeps expanding her story by adding all these ridiculous twists and turns, not realizing that it's only going to hurt the character in the end.

Off-topic, but... Morgan Chesky (a.k.a. the NBC reporter in the clip upthread) used to be a local anchor in my neck of the woods. At the time, people often noted the similarities between him and "Saved by the Bell"'s Mark-Paul Gosselaar, right down to the bleached blonde hair with the bangs you could hang ten on, lol.

I agree. From the start, David Jacobs envisioned DALLAS as a modern-day "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," with Bobby as Brick, J.R. as Gooper, Pam as Maggie, Sue Ellen as Mae, and Jock and Miss Ellie as Big Daddy and Big Mama. You also saw a little bit of George Stevens' "Giant" in the Jock/Digger/Miss Ellie triangle, and especially in how Jock and Digger's falling out over business AND Miss Ellie turned Digger into a bitter drunk; and even some of "Romeo & Juliet," too, with Bobby and Pam becoming husband and wife, despite the decades of bad blood between their families.

I think a big reason (aside from the usual network/sponsor interference) why Laibson didn't work out at GL was because it wasn't his choice to leave AW. Similarly, I think Megan McTavish came back to GL as HW with a major score to settle with ABCD, who had dumped her from AMC in the wake of the OKC/Murrah Building bombing. In turn, I think their bitterness over their respective firings infected GL.

Wow, that sounds awfully judgmental of her, lol.

No, you weren't.

By the way, Donna, the correct sentence is, "Who ARE you calling flighty?!!"

The first season's tone is interesting to examine, as you can see how Peter S. Fischer is determining the right tone for the show going forward. For one thing, as has been mentioned upthread, Jessica herself is quirkier and decidedly more New England-y than she would be in later seasons. Furthermore, the mysteries themselves are more "serious" and cerebral, with more clues than you'll ever see in subsequent years. (In the final season, you're often given only one clue!) Look, for example, at how Harry McGraw is presented for the first time (in "Tough Guys Don't Die") and then compare it to his subsequent appearances. In his first go-round with Jess, Harry isn't nearly as offbeat as he would become later on. Aside from his brief disguise as an oilman to get some info from someone, a lot of the heavy comedic lifting falls more to Jessica/Angela than it does to Jerry Orbach. You don't hear the unique turns of phrase that, for better or worse, would come to define Harry's way of talking. The pacing isn't as comedic and the music isn't played for laughs either. Even the police detective, played by Paul Winfield, isn't as comically combative with Harry as subsequent leadfoots would be. Instead, it's a fairly straightforward introduction for McGraw, one that goes along with the darker and (for lack of a better word) grittier tone of many S1 episodes, when they still toyed with Jessica exposing herself to real danger from time to time. And as for the other guest stars in S1 - they're probably the most motley crew you'll ever find on this show, too. I mean, only in S1 will you see the likes of Gabe Kaplan and Jo Anne Worley, lol. In subsequent seasons, perhaps as a result of the show's success, there seems to be a more concerted effort to hire guest stars of a better caliber. By S2, though, the tone that will come to define MSW at least until David Moessinger's arrival is set. Jessica is more the "everywoman" that Angela wanted her to be. As such, it falls more to the guest stars and recurring characters to be comical and quirky - which, in turn, forces the writers to write more lighthearted (and perhaps, less challenging) mysteries. A format or approach that works pretty much until S6, when MSW becomes almost TOO cute - a corniness that isn't helped by the presence of the bookend episodes. In some ways, then, the changes that Moessinger and his team make in S8 are welcome, but the show itself is "dumbed down" a bit more in the process.

Seriously, is it December already? Because that's been the time of the year when we have so many frequent, high-profile deaths.

I agree. At one point, the interest rates on my graduate loans were TWICE that of a mortgage on a new house. That should not be a reality in any country, let alone this one. I'm not someone who believes all student debt should be wiped out. If you take out a loan, I believe, you have to do your best to repay it. But I do think something needs to be done about lowering interest rates so that college graduates and others aren't stuck paying off loans into their so-called "twilight years."

I like this a lot!

Mine's 9%. (God bless Navient, lol).