Khan

I am so terribly sorry, @janea4old. Please allow me to echo @carolineg's thanks for your input.

Between social media and the MeToo movement and its' fallout? More people than you would think, lol.

I literally said the same thing as I was wrapping up that post, @carolineg, lol. And I hope I am not offending anyone here with my admittedly strong opinions on Luke and Laura and the rape revisit. It would be one thing if Gloria Monty had discovered the chemistry between Tony and Genie only after the assault. You could say, "Well, that was just a miscalculation of epic proportions." By all accounts, however, TPTB had changed their minds about killing off Luke when they saw how well Tony and Genie worked together. Yet, the rape was allowed to go on as scheduled. Therefore, I think there was plenty of time for someone - Tony, Genie, Gloria, Pat, Jackie Smith, but someone - to say, "Whoa, let's turn this from an assault into something that is consensual." If they had, things would be a whole lot different. There is a part of me who will never, ever, ever want Sonny reunited with anyone, let alone with Brenda. If you love Brenda Barrett like you and I do, @carolineg, you would not want her to spend the rest of her life with scum like Sonny Corinthos.

I enjoyed Luke and Sonny's friendship, too, as long as TG adhered to Claire Labine's vision of Luke as a reformed husband and father who had not entirely lost his "street sense." I think that version of the Luke/Sonny relationship was more interesting and appealing than it what became later on: the pitiful barfly and the "coffee exporter" with control issues. That is what happens when you grant any actor the right to change anything in the script as they see fit. You give an actor an inch, and they will not think twice about taking the rest of the mile. Wendy Riche and ABC did a lot of great things for GH in the '90's and '00's. That was not one of them. As I see it, Luke and Laura are a conundrum that never quits. They should be endgame. Nothing else makes sense. Yet, because we have acknowledged openly that Luke, indeed, raped Laura, reuniting them at any point will look offensive, especially to real-life victims of sexual assault. Again: that is why I never wanted the rape officially acknowledged as a rape. I do not think Gloria Monty and Pat Falken Smith should have acknowledged it initially as a rape in '79, when they had it in mind already to keep TG on the show and with GF; and I do not think Wendy Riche and Bob Guza/Michele Val Jean should have acknowledged it as a rape in '98 either. Because, when it was acknowledged as a rape, I knew that something like this would happen. I knew GH would reach that point when neither reuniting L&L nor allowing them to grow out of their relationship with each other and into new ones would satisfy. I am sorry, Ms. Val Jean, for the trauma you suffered as a rape victim; and I understand how much it offended you personally to see Luke and Laura happily together given their dark past, but what you did in the name of rectifying that just made it so much worse.

How GH went from being a soap that featured some of the most complex female characters in daytime history to one where a mobster could shoot his pregnant wife in the head (as she is giving birth!) with no consequences is a story for the ages.

Wishful thinking, perhaps? "The role of Victoria Newman will now be played by Susan Haskell."

Don't even mention Craig's coming-out story to me, @Joseph. I'm still attempting to recover from that travesty, lol.

I agree. TG could not stand playing Luke as a family man, with the wife, the two kids, the dog and the big, roomy house, but I thought it made perfect sense. And I thought it also made sense for Luke to do everything he could to hold onto that, rather than piss it all away, so he can sit alone in his bar and drink himself to death, which is what he did, like someone in a [!@#$%^&*] Merle Haggard song. I mean, it was not as if Luke was ever in danger of turning into Ward Cleaver. But I think the problem was that TG never wanted Luke to move past being Bobbie Spencer's ne'er-do-well big brother. I think at least part of him really dug all that Left Handed Boy/Ice Princess/Sword of Malkuth crap and wanted to keep doing it, even though he looked ridiculous doing it at that point in his life. Well, Tony, I get the midlife crisis, but it ain't 1977 anymore. Doing crazy [!@#$%^&*] like running a disco for "the organization" is okay when you are in your twenties, or even thirties. But when you are in your fifties, and a grandfather, and you are spending your days drinking and mixing it up with glorified sociopaths like Sonny Corinthos* and Helena Cassadine, you are not even an anti-hero anymore. You are a pathetic waste of minerals, who is not worthy of my time, or my interest. (*Sorry, @carolineg, but I have to call them as I see them, lol.)

Ironically, @Vee and I talked earlier this week (in the thread about the maybe-it's-not-dead-after-all AMC primetime reboot) about Paramount's ongoing financial woes: I actually laughed when I saw that both Showtime cable and Showtime streaming had been rebranded as "Paramount + with Showtime." What a cumbersome ass name, I thought, for an outlet that probably will have to rebrand itself again if/when Paramount + goes under. So, what would they have to rename it as, should this latest merger come to fruition? "Max and Paramount + With Showtime, Too!"? Better yet, just leave it blank, but with the tagline "Call it whatever the [!@#$%^&*] you want." Either way, I don't envy anyone who works for WBD or Paramount Global one bit. Meanwhile, according to that THP article, Byron Allen has resubmitted his $3.5B offer to buy BET Networks from Paramount (who sees BET as a "non-core" asset, b/c, black folks). Reason? Because his janky sitcoms have to go somewhere!

Thanks, @janea4old! If I were a betting person, I would bet that Bradley Bell already has Krista's replacement lined up. It could be Hunter Tylo again, it could be his sister in a cheap wig from the Vivica A. Fox collection, it could be someone entirely different. But - mark my words - she's waiting in the wings.

I'll just come right out and say it: Luke with any woman who isn't Laura makes no sense to me for one reason and one reason only: GF is the only woman who can generate chemistry with TG. The only woman. I'm sure JE would balk at the notion of Tracy finding genuine love out of fear that Tracy would become boring to play, but I don't see it that way. I think Tracy is much too complicated of a woman ever to be boring, lol. Besides, I'm just sick of watching my girl get beaten up by love all the time. All Tracy ever wanted was for someone to love her for what she was and not for how much money she had in the bank. Edward told her as a little girl that money was the only thing in the world she could count on - which, in my book, is a dreadful thing to tell your own daughter, lol. I'd like to think there could be someone out there to prove that s.o.b. wrong.

I remember his explanation/apology, too, @yrfan1983. And you're right: MAB and her team had plans for Phillip that were scuttled by the poor quality of TB's acting. But I say, if you go to the trouble of resurrecting a character who died on screen, then you need to do something with them. Recast Phillip if you need to - heck, we all can think of actors who could play that role pretty well - but get him back in Genoa City and get his story up and pumping (tm MAB).

"Should I ask? Oh, hell, why not?" What did KA say about Bradley Bell and B&B?

Just where the hell is this thread going, people?

I've come to accept Amelia Heinle as Victoria, but only because I'm at the point where I just don't care anymore.

ICAM. Watching Marty Saybrooke regress into a psychopath (and over John [!@#$%^&*] McBain) was an insult to anyone with even half of a brain. It was enough to make you want to sue everyone involved.

Here's another story to add to the list: the "LOVING Murders," which were used to end one show (LOVING) and launch another (THE CITY). Most of the killings occurred in a somewhat gentle fashion (poisoned powder puffs, toxic candles, etc.); yet, at the same time, it was so unsettling to watch so many long-time characters meet untimely demises at the hands of one of their own. (No spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen or heard of the storyline, lol).

I'm sorry, @Vee, but we're just gonna have to agree to disagree on this issue. I still believe that acknowledging the rape as a rape made it impossible for Luke and Laura ever to reunite. Not just because of the terrible messages that it would have sent, but also because how, IMO, it tarnished memories many held of those two for over thirty years. Americans might have been fools to fall in love with a love story between a rapist and his victim, but that's what they did, even if they knew how it all began and just never admitted it to themselves, or cared. Either way, reminding them decades after the fact amounted to shaming in my book; and I'm just not the type to shame millions of people for liking what they liked (in entertainment, not in politics, lol). Well, I know TG and JE enjoyed the heck out of Luke/Tracy, but I sure didn't, lol. Not once did I ever find those two believable as a couple. Close friends and confidantes? Yes. Lovers? No. I've already stated in the past how very much I would love to bring on Justin Deas as a new, mature love interest for Tracy, someone who clearly doesn't value herself enough if she keeps hooking up with losers (Larry, Mitch, Paul, Luke), and who would be beside herself to realize that, at this stage of life, she is finding herself falling for someone who appreciates her and isn't just in it for her money or whatever.

I agree, on both counts.

Once the show acknowledged that Luke had raped Laura, there was no way that they could put them back together. Which is why I was dead set against acknowledging it. I think there was a long-term plan in place for the Cassadines and others, but that plan was ruined primarily by Bob Guza's forced departure from GH to work on SUNSET BEACH. Unfortunately, in the time that he was away, that plan was changed to the point where, even after Guza had returned for round two, GH was never again as on-track as it had been before he left.

Fine with me! You know, that is the best part about the [!@#$%^&*] that is not working today on soaps: you do not have to come up with any grand plan to get rid of it. You just stop showing it or stop referring to it and you never miss a beat.

Joan Collins knows what works for her and she sticks to that. I admire her greatly.

Finn literally could stop appearing on screen today, with no explanation whatsoever, and nothing would be affected. Not even the "romance" with Liz. She (and viewers) could just pretend she had gotten ahold of some bad clams that made her hallucinate him and move on.

Man, if the news of KA's departure/firing can generate 12 pages of board discussion (and counting!), I'd hate to see how many pages we'd run to if someone more integral to B&B were given the heave-ho. Either way, the bandwith's likely to explode at any moment.

For me, "Our House" was nothing special, just something I watched whenever the NFL ran overtime and pre-empted "60 Minutes." Ironically, for someone who fought hard at the beginning to be seen as more than just an "ethnic type," many of Susan Lucci's TV movies and miniseries seemed to trade on her Italian-American looks and background. I mean, she was "Mafia Princess" and "Lady Mobster"! Not to mention, she played Italians with (questionable) Brooklyn accents on "The Bride in Black" and on "Double Edge," a TV movie that did the impossible: drained all the chemistry between her and Robert Urich. Oof! "The Palace Guard"! Not one of Stephen J. Cannell's finer moments! Remember when MW co-starred in a TV movie with Genie Francis, Leigh J. McCloskey and, strangely enough, Victoria Wyndham? IIRC, MW's character was this garden-variety psycho who was obsessed with Francis and McCloskey's characters for some reason; and at one point, she even kills Wyndham's character, who was friends with Genie, to keep her from...I don't remember what. The plot's a bit hazy for me after all this time, but I still remember watching it and thinking, "This is too surreal. Eden Colby/Liza Capwell is chasing after Laura Spencer and the dude who raped her (Eden), and now she's killed Rachel Cory. It's like being on a soap opera acid trip!" She would have fit in much better with that cast, I think, than Marilu Henner.