Khan

There's nothing wrong with depicting relationships like Todd and Tea's -- or Todd and Blair's, or Roger and Holly's, or Luke and Laura's -- so long as all the complexities are acknowledged by everyone observing. You only run into trouble when you try to paint the lovers in question as star-crossed super couples of the same level as, say, Phil and Tara, or Jeff and Penny.

Also -- and please, take what I say with a grain of salt -- but David Jacobs has said (and maybe everyone else at Lorimar agreed) that DALLAS and KL began with self-contained episodes, because he didn't believe that audiences knew enough about the characters yet to invest fully in ongoing storylines. As a matter of fact, I think he said that's why he thought BERRENGER'S failed: it jumped right away into ongoing stories, and there were too many characters who were too new to the audience for them to follow along. The initial seasons of DALLAS, FC and KL with self-contained episodes can be real slogs to get through, if only because the quality varies from episode to episode -- some are well-written; others...aren't -- and you know that very little of it will be recalled as the shows move forward. If you're watching for the first time, then I do think you just have to push through, because they'll help acclimate you to the shows in general. But if you've seen it all before, watching them all over again is definitely unnecessary, lol. Now that I'm thinking about it, didn't I read somewhere (maybe it was on here) that when ratings for DALLAS and FC began to fall, Lorimar considered returning to the original, self-contained format, but soon decided against it?

I was just thinking the same thing earlier today, @kalbir. In the beginning, of course, you had daytime vets Ted Shackelford and Jim Houghton in the cast; then, in the second season, there's Donna Mills, Jane Elliot, Barry Jenner (as Abby's ex-husband, Jeff Cunningham) and Allan Miller (as Laura's boss, Scooter Warren). But there were also Alec Baldwin, Sam Behrens, Philip Brown (as Brian Johnston), Maree Cheatham, Jon Cypher (as Jeff Munson), Robert Desiderio, Kathleen Noone, Peter Reckell, Douglas Sheehan, Robin Strasser and Peter White. And that's all off the top of my head. I'm sure there were others. As a matter of fact, I still remember spotting Vasili Bogazianos (ex-Mickey, EON; ex-Benny, AMC) and Warren Burton (ex-Eddie, AMC; ex-Jason Dunlap, AW; ex-Warren, GL) in different episodes as blink-and-you'll-miss-'em under-five-ish parts. It's just a shame that they couldn't figure out more to do for JE and RS. Once Gary and Judy's affair was finished, there was nowhere else for Judy to go that would have made sense; and as for Dianne, I think more could have been gotten out of her as Karen's producer and nemesis -- perhaps, bring in a son of hers, who bonds with the McKenzies and dates Paige, which makes Dianne more furious than ever -- but it seems as if they didn't have any use for Karen's talk-show career beyond that stupid stalker mess.

Only Bradley Bell would have the audacity to tell the story of a young woman who potentially falls for her one-time stalker in these post-#MeToo times. (I'm sorry, I totally forgot about Ron Carlivati for a moment. He'd tell this story, too.)

Yep. Next up on every black grandmother's list: bringing Luther Vandross back from the dead (and, of course, making him heterosexual, too).

The heffa chewed the scenery in a Swiffer commercial! A Swiffer commercial!

Never underestimate the power of senior citizens who watch network TV because they hear the word "streaming" and think it has something to do with incontinence.

I can't say I blame him. Carolyn Hennesy is just too severe an actress for this kind of work. She'd be much better off portraying some over-the-top diva in a Joe Keenan sitcom. Of course, you could also ditch Diane and Gregory -- one chokes on a tweed outfit, the other leaves to co-star in ABC's "Trapper John, M.D." reboot -- and give Sclexis (?) a try. Or not.

It's not just the fact that Alexis and Diane once shared the same profession (and client). Alexis and Diane are redundant, because they're also the same kind of female -- again, if you ignore how Alexis had devolved into an alcoholic mess, lol. It's just that Diane is easier to replace. (See my earlier post about how you move out Diane in scenes with Scorpio and put Kim Delaney in her place.) And Alexis as Editor-in-Chief at The Invader is a'ight, if a little too OLTL, but I'd much rather see her either back practicing law, or teaching law at Hursley Law School. Or, have one be the Chief of Police, and the other be Police Commissioner (take your pick).

Diane seems almost redundant with Alexis around. Well, if you overlook the toll that years and years of awful writing have taken on Alexis. (They really screwed the pooch when they had Sonny and Alexis hook up.)

I want to love Spencer & Trina. I really do. And maybe I would love them, too, if I had watched more moments with them. (I only got back into GH when I'd Googled Jane Elliot recently and learned she was returning, so I sat myself down and watched what clips I could find online so I would have SOME sense of what was going on in Port Charles). But, so far, for whatever reason, I'm just kinda "meh" about them.

Which is stupid, because that's EXACTLY what they SHOULD be doing: revamping Y&R for a platform like Paramount+. B&B could leave CBS for there tomorrow and probably not even bat an eyelid. I mean, the show is awful, but they've somehow figured out how to produce an okay-looking show on little money, so.... Elizabeth Hubbard is dead?

Malcolm's show, which Mama Khan loves, has been cancelled, and he's got a new mouth to feed. If I were Josh or Steve Kent, I'd be thinking about offering him a sweet deal to return to Y&R and fill the void that KSJ's passing and Victoria Rowell's unceremonious exit has left.

Oh, man. I had no idea.

...Pulls through with what?

It's long past time for the Consumer Cellular Generation to rise up and save network TV. When you say DAYS is doing well on "The Cock," is that really saying much, considering how poorly the rest of its' offerings seem to be doing?

Yeah, except Eric Braeden already says "You got that?" and "I'll be damned!" enough times for it to be the world's longest drinking game. I'd hate to think how much more often we'd hear those phrases (and god knows what else) if he were left to his own devices.

Those aren't the outfits of a lady mob lawyer. Those are the outfits of someone who is determined to make this year's Christmas at the Plaza Hotel the best ever.

Nah, it's better to off her and have Carly not remember she did it until she recalls it at the trial.

I love Jane Elliot, and I wish KL had figured out how to keep her and not saddle her with a dead-end character like Judy Trent, but I guess Donna Mills made too much of an impression on me to see anyone else as Abby. By the way, another actor KL let slip through their fingers? Robin Strasser. Again, you've got an actor who can make you sit up and pay attention; yet, you give her a character that ends up not having much mileage beyond one, rather silly storyline. That was a good choice, as having characters just sitting and talking over issues can be rather static. Having characters do stuff like giving home perms or folding laundry while dropping exposition and exploring emotions really helps the viewers feel connected to the characters onscreen. The only times when sitting-and-talking scenes ever worked for me was David and Maddie on "Moonlighting," and that's because the bantering between the two kept the conversations from becoming dull.

Even worse, Josh decides to be REALLY bold and turn Y&R into the very first, semi-improvised soap opera on television. He provides the actions for the actors through the breakdowns, but the actors themselves have to come up with the actual dialogue for their characters.

Mr. Bacardi is frantic that her daughter not die...so he abducts the doctor who's doing everything he can to keep her alive. Make that make sense for me, Frank & Doris! I can see why GH and THE DOCTORS eventually pivoted away from the "patient of the week" format. For one thing, you always run the risk of running out of new maladies for your patients. But, more importantly, those stories tend to feel plot-driven and don't have a real impact on the major characters' lives either. (I mean, just two weeks after nearly getting killed by Mr. Bacardi, Steve is vacaying at some ski lodge with a thot named Denise. Talk about your speedy recoveries.) Of course, that doesn't mean you have to de-emphasize the hospital element and focus instead on mobsters and the teenaged murderesses who love them. You just dig further into the personal and private lives of the hospital staff and have all the medical stuff play in the background.

Oh my God. Unless Y&R is secretly preparing to cut back to a half-hour, writing five, one-hour (give or take) breakdowns singlehandedly per week is nothing less than insane. What's next, Josh? Are you gonna fire all the dialogue writers, too? As a matter of fact, why stop at the writing? Why not also fire the directors and direct every episode yourself? Even better, you can dump the writers AND the directors and even all the male actors, so you can play all THEIR parts yourself? "The roles of everyone without a vagina will now be played by Josh Griffith." Jesus. Firing one-half of your writing staff. I haven't heard anything so unhinged since I listened to Vicky Lucas on WHERE THE HEART IS say she was glad Mary Hathaway and her "nasty little baby" were dead on YouTube.

I swear this show has no short-term plan for anything, let alone long-term. Ron and his team are simply making this [!@#$%^&*] up, one illogical line of dialogue at a time.