Khan

Peter Porte is a handsome man who is dead behind the eyes. He isn't a "get" for DAYS; he's the quintessential DAYS actor.

As headwriters, Chris Van Etten and Dan O'Connor have trouble knowing when to cut their losses. They finally offed Peter August, but only after everybody else in the known universe begged for him to be gone. The same thing's happening now with Valentin and Willow. Their take on these characters and others is clearly not connecting with audiences, yet they show no signs of course-correcting or just getting rid of them altogether.

Another idea or approach would be to say that Willow has cancer but goes into remission rather quickly, only no one, especially Michael, knows she's in remission because she's still pretending to be sick in order to continue receiving all the attention from everyone.

Are you talking about her cancer? Yes, that would be good, lol. But what would be even better, I think, would be that she THINKS that she's pulling a fast one but learns later on that, no, she really is dying -- but this time, because she's been outed, absolutely no one believes her!

For me, it all boils down to this: Jack Abbott, as portrayed by Peter Bergman, is not worth faking your own death for. He just isn't. At this point, I'd be okay with Nina dying and Watros returning as her twin; and if you want to pair her again with MB/Sonny, that's fine, although I think it'd be more interesting to see her possibly in a triangle with MEK/Martin and KS/Scotty.

I think Josh Griffith attempted to do just that at Y&R with the Jack/Diane/Phyllis triangle, but it's all gone kablooey now that Phyllis has gone to the trouble of faking her own death, which feels in character for Phyllis, but also feels awfully excessive and cruel. But, you're right, Frank Valentini wouldn't go that route, even if it played to Cynthia Watros' strengths, because he sees her and Nina as worth saving, for some reason. (I like Watros, but I've never liked Nina, and I never will.)

If Lana Turner had been too much of a handful BTS for the cast and crew, then why not just replace her with someone else from that era? Why kill off Jacqueline when it was clear that more could have been done with her?

As a character, Brenda is too savvy and resourceful to be a heroine, and not cruel enough to be a bitch or vixen. In these days, when characters on soaps tend to be one-note, that makes her a difficult character to write for. So, I wouldn't want VM to return under the present circumstances, because I don't believe the current regime would know how to write her in a manner that wouldn't make us hate her in the end. (Look at how they've reduced Tracy to little more than Tallulah Bankhead without the dry martini.)

I wouldn't mind seeing Laura tied (for lack of a better word) to a new family, the same way they originally tied the Quartermaines to Monica through her marriage to Alan. GH could use a new, core family, preferably one with ties to the hospital. MEK has proven to be a worthwhile addition to the show. I wish I could say the same about James Patrick Stuart and Valentin. I know from watching AMC for years that JPS can do menacing if asked. Killing off Will Cortlandt might have been fool hearted in the long run, but we got good work from him in the meantime. I think the problem is how the show sees Valentin. They want him to be like Stefan, when he should be more like Stavros. But I'm even more sorry that Kim Delaney's grand return to soaps in Demi Moore's old role turned out to be a nothing-burger. I saw TR/Scorpio in scenes with CH/Diane and I thought, "He should be doing this stuff with Kim as Jackie."

TG didn't believe that Claire Labine understood who Luke was, but I think she understood him better than anyone (save, of course, for Douglas Marland). When she wrote for him, he wasn't the bitter, child-killing drunk who blamed Laura for his own miseries; or the low-level hood who spouted corny dialogue straight out of a Jimmy Cagney movie; or the queasy action-adventure-sci-fi hero who was dealing with weather machines and mythic swords. Luke was simply a husband and dad who'd grown up on the streets, and now was doing his best to raise his son and daughter not to turn out the same way. That's real, and relatable.

Similarly, I hate the retconned narrative that Lesley knew that Rick was a serial womanizer and just looked the other way. We saw that Lesley was too destroyed by Rick and Monica's affair to be that passive about his alleged, multiple, other affairs. All in all, I don't look at any of Bob Guza's three tenures as a "golden era" for GH. I think Guza and everyone else involved shared a very corrosive view of women that ran counter to how GH (and ABC soaps in general) had regarded them in the past. That's why I like the Ice Princess storyline going on right now -- which, in the History Repeats Itself Department, is climaxing as a real-life WGA strike is underway. Chris Van Etten and Dan O'Connor aren't terribly creative writers, but they get that soaps are a female-centric genre where women should be allowed to take agency over their own fates.

I think this is the best that Laura has been written since the end of Douglas Marland's tenure on the show. For the first time as a GH viewer, I feel like I understand her. Furthermore, I think GF is finally being vindicated after decades of behind-the-scenes mistreatment, and I love it. GH could survive without Luke or Tony Geary, but it can't without Laura/GF, and this current storyline proves it. I only wish Laura had a more interesting husband/love interest to play off of. I also think this is the best that Holly has ever been written. I never understood why people loved Emma Samms so much -- and that includes when she was on DYNASTY and THE COLBYS -- but now I do. I wish there were some way to keep her around permanently and pair her with TR/Scorpio for good.

Done.

I'd have to agree. I'm not proud of the way I behaved, and I probably SHOULD be banned for insulting his looks alone. The thing is, @Darn, I didn't just decide out of the clear blue to go off on him for one statement he made that I disagreed with. There is a history of at least one other encounter between us where he was equally rude and dismissive toward me without proper cause, even if he chooses not to remember it.

Agree. In a way, I feel like Gary and Val's addition diluted Kenny and Ginger. Both couples were young, or young-ish; and both were starting out in life, even though Gary and Val had been married before and were bringing all their DALLAS history with them to KNOTS. Gary/Val and Kenny/Ginger weren't EXACTLY the same; however, when I'd watch the two, there were times when I felt like Kenny and Ginger were redundant, for lack of a better word. Agree! I think the only thing that comes close on American television was the first season of "thirtysomething."

If anything, Ron will make it sound like getting strangled was her fault.

Tessa announces she's undergoing gender reassignment surgery. Watch.

The thing is, I don't recall reading many BTS rumors about DAYS or its' actors on DL. Well, not many, aside from the time Susan Seaforth Hayes cold-cocked Kaye Stevens in the ladies' room.

Nothing about that set says "'70's," lol.

What do you want to bet THAT is the "classic story" that Ron plans to revisit on "Beyond Salem"?

Just like a real-life version of "Soapdish."

And a dressing room with a shower AND a kitchen!

Not just Coltin/Stephen and Jacob, though! There was also Greg Vaughn and the girl who played Summer! Just the image of those two gettin' down and dirty behind the dumpster was hotter than anything that was happening on the show!

Oh, dear Lord, they would have been better off giving that guy a pair of Groucho Marx glasses.

Same.