Khan

In the past, Susan Lucci has been somewhat critical of unscripted shows. Remember her comments about "Survivor," for example? Frankly, I was shocked she even agreed to appear on "Dancing with the Stars," lol.

I agree. Patrick Mulcahey might not have total creative control, but given his history, I can't see him being controlled to the same degree that Frank Valentini has controlled all his HW's - at least, not without a fight, lol.

Spending your quiet nights alone with a (former) SOD editor does not make one an expert on all things soap opera. And that's all I'm going to say.

I don't think this writing team understands how crime fiction works.

You know, maybe some of y'all were right? Maybe the network DID look at the shows that were scab-written and realized how much better they were than the ones head-written by Van Etten and O'Connor.

LOVING (or ABCD's promo department) was trying too hard to be hip.

Aaron Spelling never was the type of producer to want to work again with anyone who had caused him too much grief in the past. So, for me, it's quite telling how he was willing to work again with Shannen on "Charmed" after everything that had happened BTS on "90210."

Would anyone know what was happening on OLTL during the week of 7/6-7/10/92?

And who will sleep with anyone (unlike AMC and OLTL, who have much too much self-respect).

If nothing else, I want Mulcahey and Korte to be able to bring back dialogue that reveals character and doesn't just recap the plot for the folks who aren't paying close enough attention. IMO, you shouldn't even need exposition if you're writing for the characters. If the audience is smart, they'll figure out what's going on later.

I agree. WKRP's creator/EP, Hugh Wilson, always maintained that WKRP was not an "8:00 show," where more family-centered shows tended to dominate. CBS, on the other hand, believed that the "Top 40 radio station" premise (and, of course, Loni Anderson) would appeal better to teenagers, so they encouraged Wilson, at least in the beginning, to steer the show away from the kind of character-driven humor that Wilson had envisioned and that MTM shows had been known for, and to do broader, more farcical shows, like the one where WKRP's mascot gets into a bathroom brawl with the mascot from their rival station.

Say what you will about Alyssa and Shannen, but I've always believed that Holly wasn't the one to be trusted. I can't tell you why - I have no evidence to back up this claim - but it's just a feeling that I've had about her going all the way back to "Picket Fences."

Well, I'll just sit back, wait and see who loses their [!@#$%^&*] and who doesn't when this girl gets cast as not-dead-after-all Karen:

Can't argue with you there, lol.

I can't recall who said it, but it's so true: they could have hired Adam Harrington to play nuJax instead. At least Jax still has connections on the canvas that could shake up storylines in meaningful ways.

ICAM, @titan1978.

Well, you can't get more 180 than Whole Foods Jagger, I suppose. BTW, @carolineg, Brenda recast:

Perhaps, if I had followed GH more closely at that time, and I had been more aware of those castings or recastings, I would have been outraged about that, too. Now that you have brought those to my attention, however - yeah, those instances were heinous as well.

I hope Olive Garden Jagger gets axed with them.

I'm sorry, I don't blame him taking the job, but yes. Fire him. If only because he shouldn't have been given the job in the first damn place.

Thank you! Thank you to you both! Look, I'm not trying to start an argument here. I've done enough of that on SON, lol. But I really think some of y'all are allowing your opinions about ASJ to color (no pun intended) your opinions about this particular recast. IMO, you don't need to be a fan of Jagger's or of ASJ's to see that what Frank Valentini has done here is nothing short of whitewashing, which is absolutely the wrong thing to do, especially in this day and age. Instead of holding him and the network accountable, however, you'd rather look the other way or prattle on about relatively trivial matters, like whether this means Jagger's son is coming to the show. So, then, you're totally okay if Frank were to decide one day to recast Jordan again with, say, Jessica Tuck or Melissa Archer. Got it. Thank you. You can't tell me that Frank couldn't have recasted Jagger with someone who was equally talented and Italian or Latino. That's bullshit and y'all know it. It sure as [!@#$%^&*] is off-putting. Thank you again, @carolineg! Nothing they might have planned for Jagger will excuse this casting. Nothing. Nothing against Adam Harrington either, but I wish enough of a fuss were raised to force ABCD to do something about this. Fire him, fire Frank, fire them both, I don't care, but do not allow this to go on unchallenged.

I definitely agree that one of EiE's biggest issues was that, with so many regular cast members, it was hard to write enough material for everyone and justify having them all under one roof at the same time. Eight might have been enough to fill their lives with love, but it was just too damn many to service on a weekly TV series that wasn't DALLAS or KNOTS LANDING.

No offense to anyone, but I don't think you can compare Great American Family Jagger replacing ASJ to Billy Warlock succeeding Sean Kanan as AJ.

Another example of a "tank job": CBS's "Kate & Allie." That show was a Top 10 hit before "The Cosby Show," something which isn't mentioned very often in the media, who likes to pretend that the sitcom was all but dead before Bill. (It was, but the fact that K&A did as well as they did in the ratings in 1983-84 doesn't fit their narrative so neatly, so it gets overlooked). Toward the middle of their six-season run, however, ratings began to soften. By the time Allie (Jane Curtin) remarried, at the end of the fifth season, I don't think the show was in the top 30 anymore, although I could be wrong about that. Nevertheless, in order to push the show closer to its' end, CBS moved K&A from Mondays to several places on the schedule, prompting Susan Saint James (Kate) to quip at one point during an interview on "Late Night with David Letterman" that it's somewhere on the schedule. Wow, I had no idea, lol! You know you're toast if you can't compete against "Webster," lol. It's a shame K&A got overshadowed by those shows, too. Even as a kid, I thought K&A was much better than WTB or GP. TCS might have been the juggernaut, but IMO, FT and K&A were better written. If Danny/Jonathan had had his way, this would have been the theme song: