Khan

Although I don't feel the same way as you about PASSIONS or JER, I am glad that both have had such an impact on your life. That's important to remember as more and more of this genre disappears.

LC looks so frail. I pray she's on the mend.

I remember her from her brief stint as Pamela Capwell Conrad on SANTA BARBARA and from a guest appearance she made on "Murder, She Wrote."

Let me be perfectly clear: I am against abortion in all cases except where carrying the fetus to full term jeopardizes the life of the mother. But I am also against anyone, especially the government, telling any woman what she can and cannot do with her own body. To me, that's what the GOP cares about - not whether that child is allowed the opportunity to be born, but whether they can dictate what rights its' mother has over her own person. It's appalling, and it's dangerous, and the further they encroach upon women in that way, the more it's going to lead into an epidemic that jeopardizes the future of this nation.

Get it, Dr. & Mrs. Hardy!

Sure, I've heard about those events. The person who could convince me that that was the apex of good comedy or good satire, let alone good soap opera, has yet to be born. There are soaps that I love to this day, and there are soaps that I am lukewarm about. But PASSIONS is but one of two soaps that I have a seething hatred for. Not only because the writing (or what I saw of it) was so awful, but also because it was racist, ageist and misogynistic trash that never should have seen the light of day. JER was a hack who conned NBC into giving him too much creative autonomy, simply because he managed to "save" DAYS (in the ratings, if not creatively) with the few, the VERY few tricks he held up his sleeve.

JER was still at the point where he wanted people to take his show (and himself) seriously. The writing, however, was awful. Viewers, I imagine, started regarding it as parody or satire, because either they couldn't see how terrible it really was, or they didn't want to. Between that growing perception and the constantly low HH ratings, I think JER just gave up and started writing whatever, regardless of logic or taste, because he knew the show was going nowhere. I never saw the DirecTV-produced episodes, but if they were anything like what was broadcast on NBC....

That has ALWAYS bugged me, @yrfan1983. Even back then, I was aware of Eve's history, so to bring her back without anyone reaching for the phone to call the authorities was just odd to me. Did Bill Bell think it was so long ago that nobody would have remembered or cared? Or was that a sign that his mental faculties were beginning to fail him?

I like that old-school Bell/Nixon/Marland style of writing, and I'm a Gen-X'er.

Was it all really absurdity and satire, though, or was it just bad writing?

My fear is that we'll have to create some sort of "underground railroad" for women who need abortions.

The last one has me thinking of this song...

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It's possible Sheri Anderson went Fi-Core and wrote for DAYS during the strike as a favor to Ken Corday, as it's probably likely she's otherwise out of the business.

Thank you, @beebs, ICAM. In fact, I was going to add that to my last post, but time got away from me. But, yes, it seemed like every other scene would climax in a shouting match between characters. In the past, AMC always had been about the "brotherhood of man," with a community of people who loved and cared for one another, even when they might have been at odds. With Megan McTavish as HW, however, Pine Valley became a cold and dark place to visit. Lorraine Broderick restored some of the show's warmth and humanity when she came back as HW, but it never was the same. You also have to take into account that Pamela K. Long was the HW for most of Calhoun's run and that, aside from some major storylines, the magic with her might have been gone.

I don't think the show was ever the same after Janet dumped Natalie down the well. The ratings were back up, but, IMO, Megan McTavish's work was so gimmicky and not at all in keeping with the show's best years.

Which pretty much describes the writing at that point, lol.

Ron Carlivati must have been paying homage to JER with that fake-out.

I think Ben Matlock made an oblique reference to Charlene when Leanne first arrived, but I can't be sure. As on "The Andy Griffith Show," however, Ben rarely, if ever, mentioned his late wife.

I have to hand it to her: she did all she could to protect her financial investment in that show.

Elizabeth Hubbard was right: in a sense, because we live with these characters for so long, we do know them. In fact, we probably know them better than we know some from our real-life families!

I agree. The thing is, Agnes Nixon wasn't the kind of writer who'd read about some current event in the newspaper and then graft it onto one of her stories. For example, when she wrote the cervical cancer story for GL's Bert Bauer, she didn't write it just to educate women about the need for regular pap smears, or just to give Charita Bauer material to play. From what I've read, Bert's cancer also served as a catalyst to bring her son, Mike, back home after a period away from the scene. And when little Molly on AMC became ill with leukemia, it wasn't just to raise awareness about bone marrow donations. Molly's leukemia, and how Travis and Barbara responded to that, also broke up Travis and Erica and Tom and Barbara and reunited Travis with Barbara. If I learned anything from Agnes Nixon, it's that stories borne from topical issues have to flow from the characters and their circumstances if you have any hope at all of enlightening the audience. Otherwise, you're just preaching to them.

As someone who believes that freedoms of speech and of the press are the bedrocks of a true democracy, I am heartbroken to see what has become of the so-called "fourth estate" in this country, as the media is corrupted more and more by dollars. There was a time when you could count on journalists reporting the facts while simultaneously speaking truth to power, but no more. Now, it's all about what raises the numbers, or what gets the most clicks or likes online. In the process, the media is delivering this country straight into the hands of fascists on a [!@#$%^&*] silver platter. America owes you an apology, Paddy Chayefsky. We thought you were being ridiculous when you wrote this movie. We didn't know you were, in fact, warning us about the future. So, they're gonna jeopardize a woman's health and life, to protect a fetus that probably will die anyway. Why doesn't the GOP admit that this is not about protecting unborn lives, but controlling women's bodies?

How do you know, @Toups? You say you've followed her career and life very closely, but is that the same as knowing her? For all you know, Taylor Swift could be playing her fans for chumps. She wouldn't be the first celebrity in any field who's one way with their public and the total opposite in private. Furthermore, @Soapsuds might have been wrong to call her a b_tch, and Travis Kelce's mom "ugly" and "fat," but I've seen people who aren't Taylor Swift or Travis Kelce's mom get called far worse on this board. Hell, I've done my share of the calling! But I really don't understand why you're taking it so personally in this instance.