Khan

There was a point early on when it seemed like Michael Malone was making Viki far more snooty than she had been in the past. I certainly felt that way as I was watching back then.

I agree. Didn't Lesli Kay land the role instead? Lord, what a mistake that turned out to be, lol. It's almost as if you'd have to change either Lois or Olivia in order to have a real rivalry, depending on who's supposed to be endgame with Ned. Frankly, I had enough of Lois behaving out of character when she hooked up with Alcazar. Sometimes, when you watch GH these days, you DO get the impression that Chris Van Etten and Dan O'Connor have watched the show for years; that they love the show and want to do right by it. They're no "dream team," but they're trying to be. That's why, at the end of the day, I hope I'm not coming across as being terribly hard on the two, because it's better to have a HW or HW-ing team that carries genuine affection for the show they're writing for than to have one who clearly has never watched the show before and probably wouldn't under any other circumstances.

Nothing -- and I mean NOTHING -- could ever be as bad (or as boring!) as Tidal Energy. David Jacobs should have shown John Romano the door the minute the idea was proposed to him and Michael Filerman. I suspect Empire Valley was always supposed to be a front for an underground espionage operation. I just think the execution of that premise, along with everything leading up to it, got out of control.

I feel like that, more than wanting to bring back Patrick Duffy as Bobby, is why Leonard Katzman and others wanted to write off the entire season as a dream.

Kristoff's death left a hole on Y&R's canvas that only Malcolm and Shemar Moore can truly fill.

A Lois/Olivia rivalry might sound good "on paper," but I think the two are too similar for any rivalry between them to be effective. Often, I'll watch scenes with LLC/Olivia and think you could exchange her for Rena and barely notice the difference. I won't argue with your current assessment of GH, @Vee. The show ain't nowhere near being perfect -- the overall writing still feels shallow and superficial to me -- but I do think they're at least trying to give their audience good, old-fashioned entertainment (...even though I think many of their choices are questionable). That's more than you could say about Y&R, which feels like it's on auto-pilot at this point; or B&B, which is running on fumes and needs new blood, stat; or DAYS, which is just so batshit crazy now that it feels like watching a Japanese game show without subtitles.

The networks (and the corporations that own them) have always been about the bottom line. Yet, there was a time not TOO long ago when those in charge knew that you could produce quality work and STILL satisfy the stockholders' needs. Somewhere along the line, TPTB forgot about that philosophy, or decided it didn't matter anymore (and I'm not talking JUST about daytime here, I think TV shows across the board have experienced a decline in quality over the past few decades). Will they return to that philosophy someday? Maybe. But, even if they do, I'm afraid it'll be too late to save the shows that are still on the air today. I'm afraid that the remaining soaps -- GH, B&B, Y&R, even DAYS on "The Cock" -- will have to die before the genre redeems itself. I don't know whether CM is still battling cancer or has entered remission, so I won't criticize his facial or physical appearance. I just wish he would remember that he's supposed to be an actor portraying a character, not a media personality who's auditioning to host the new version of "Tic Tac Dough."

No, they can't. They're all too far gone. But, it's a free country (for now). Knock yourself out.

That's when you know Ron Carlivati has officially entered the building, lol.

I wish I could feel that creative about GH - or any current soap - but I just can't muster up the fanfic anymore. They are what they are.

Who would chuckle? Heather? Last time I checked, she still wasn't allowed to play with scissors!

Isn't A.J. dead...again? Oh, well. Maybe Steve Burton will come back when he's through with DAYS and play him. ("So what if he used to be Jason? That was then! He's A.J. now! Deal with it!!")

Just don't put her with Valentin, okay? The last thing anyone needs to hear is that sap serenading her with "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World."

If VM can make that happen, then Jesus can kick rocks, because Vanessa is clearly the messiah.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Biggest, Baddest, Most Dangerous Cassadine of Them All: Stacey! She's come all the way from the Sherman Oaks Galleria and she is, like, so totally pissed!!"

Or if the "Nanny" revival still doesn't happen. Fair enough, lol.

So, while Lana's initial appearance on the show did give FC an enormous ratings boost, later appearances failed to match those results. (I don't count the S2 finale, because it was, after all, the season finale, as well as the climax of the "Who Killed Carlo Agretti?" mystery. "Climax" would have rated highly whether Lana appeared again or not.) I think that data reinforces my initial point: FC could have recast Jacqueline -- if not with another Hollywood legend like Miss Turner, then certainly with a formidable actor -- and the show would have been fine. They could have brought in someone like Barbara Rush or Dorothy Malone.

But, you see, Brenda would be just the woman to bring that spark into his life. Ah, well, it's all hypothetical anyway, lol.

Oh, God. Vanessa Marcil with the Hallmark/GAC dude who always thinks he's hosting "The Newlywed Game." She'd lose her [!@#$%^&*] mind if that were to happen, and so would we, lol. Now, if they weren't so busy giving Gonzo Gates a depressing, incurable disease, I would say that a Gregory/Brenda hookup has potential. Certainly, Finn and Chase could raise objections to their father falling in love with and eventually becoming engaged to a younger woman, especially a younger woman with a past like Brenda's. I didn't say the incest storyline wasn't well-written, or even well-acted. In the long run, though, I think it took a lot of the fire out of Ceara that had been there in the beginning, when she arrived in Pine Valley as the scheming, bed-hopping fundraiser lady. That, and her relationship with Jeremy, really watered her down to the point where she became yet another weepy, hapless heroine; and I'm really hard-pressed to remember what she did once those stories played out. There was some stuff with Erica at Enchantment, and that one time when Janet beaned her with a hospital desk lamp, but that's about it. But, on the plus side, at least AMC gave her an actual character at first, which is more than you could say about what DAYS did for her, lol.

Genie herself has said that the lack of respect goes all the way back to Luke & Laura's peak. She learned just how much (or how little) TPTB cared about her when she developed a serious drug problem, nearly died, and all they could do was remind her that Tony, and not Tony plus Genie, was the reason why the show was number-one. That's why she quit GH the first time: to prove everyone at the show and the network wrong. ABC also showed their lack of respect when they fired her from AMC -- a job that Genie loved (even if I don't think Ceara was much of a character) -- and told her she was worth more to them as Laura on GH than she was as Ceara on AMC.

I can't see how anyone could bring back Brenda and NOT have her reunite with Sonny. Even if they chose to delay the reunion for the sake of drama and suspense, with Nina and [enter temporary love interest for Brenda here] as interlopers, you just know that, somewhere down the road, a Sonny/Brenda reunion has to happen. If it doesn't, then Frank Valentini would officially become the dumbest person alive -- that is, if he isn't already.

Easy. Carter Mills wasn't really Matt Clark. (By the way, I'm not saying I love the idea of bringing back Matt. I'm just offering my hunch.)

Let's just say that there are parts of the Empire Valley storyline that I loved...and then there are parts of the story that I didn't love, lol. I think my biggest problem with the Empire Valley storyline is that it all felt too disconnected from the cul-de-sac and its' residents -- even more so than everything else going on at that time. The Wolfbridge Group was such a complex entity that even David Jacobs himself struggled in interviews to explain it. Yet, it turned into a fabulous umbrella story, drawing in most of the cast, with emotional stakes aplenty. As a viewer, you're never 100 percent sure of what Wolfbridge is or what they do, but you know that whatever it is, it's scaring the [!@#$%^&*] out of everybody, and that's enough. When I watched the Empire Valley storyline for the first time, I kept hoping that would happen again, that it would become another Wolfbridge, or Ciji Dunne, but it never quite did. Did the producers know going in how the story would end? I think they had an idea, yes, but I also know that story bibles aren't written in stone and that storylines often take on lives of their own. So, it's possible that Empire Valley, as a storyline, just got away from them, and that they didn't know how to pull it back on track. However, I will give the team props for not just sweeping it all under the rug and pretending like Empire Valley never happened, the way DYNASTY tended to forget about their stories once they were over. IIRC, Gary's decision to blow up the complex carried ramifications, including people getting sick from water contaminated by the explosion, and even a murder or two that Mack investigated in the aftermath. In retrospect, maybe it would have been better if they had forgotten all about EV and simply moved on, but you can't fault this show for attempting to make a silk purse out of what had become a sow's ear.

It's Eddie Cibrian. Watch.

Quality never has anything to do with B&B. In fact, whenever B&B sees quality approaching, it runs for its' life, like the lone survivor in a "Friday the 13th" movie.