Khan

I agree. Charley's recasting and reconception didn't jibe with her backstory as an orphan who apparently bounced from foster home to foster home, or her status as the "outsider" looking into the family's tight dynamics.

Thanks, @dc11786, for that write-up. From the way you've described everything, it DOES sound as if Jason Vinley was whipping the show into shape, understanding that you might convert more viewers out there with solid storytelling than you would with flat-out preaching.

That was my thought as well. I realize Cameron Faulkner always came across as controlling and manipulative, but good lord. They made him do everything short of killing a puppy on his way out, lol.

Wasn't there talk of bringing back Dan Kennicott at some point? Like, sometime during the late '90's or early '00's?

There's also an audio-only clip on YT where Gail lashes out at Monica after learning she had had an affair with her late husband (not knowing or understanding, of course, that, in fact, he had raped Monica). I remember listening to that years ago and thinking, "Wow, now I see why Douglas Marland enjoyed writing for her!"

It's still so wild to see Jake Weary all grown up when I still remember when his mom was pregnant with him (on GL, and IRL).

I agree. Of course, I haven't seen any of her work on DAYS or LIAMST, but I have seen her stuff on other shows (SFT, GH, LOL, FC and KL) and I think she was very, very good.

It does, doesn't it, lol? It seems like Peter couldn't even go to the bathroom without Pat threatening to do herself in. Were the Pollocks writing the show at that time? Because, if they were, that might explain why so much of what I'm reading sounds horrible.

Sadly, that was more than some African-American characters get on soaps today.

Part of me wishes Sarah Whiting had been exposed as a fraud, someone who claims to be Len and Patti's foster child, but whom Patti exposes right off the bat when she arrives in Henderson.

I agree, and I think both could be true: Jane Wyman needed to reduce her work schedule due to health concerns, and CBS/Lorimar took advantage of that in order to cut costs, too.

Sadly, it won't. If anything, it'll convince the donors and others even further that they were right to push Biden out of the election (never mind that Kamala would've been on standby had he been unable to fulfill his duties as president).

I am as well.

I wonder how Mariska feels about "The Jayne Mansfield Story," the late-'70's made-for-TV biopic starring Loni Anderson and Arnold Schwarzenegger that, IMO, was as trashy and exploitative as it gets.

It's "C.S.I.: Port Charles," lol.

True, lol. IIRC, Rita Moreno said in an interview that part of the problem was that Susan Harris was ill during the week they taped that episode and therefore was unable to make needed script changes. I wonder what might have happened had they been able to delay the taping until she felt well enough to work more on the script. I feel like "Nest" might've sold with Moreno and Paul Dooley (although the patient with DID would've needed to be eighty-sixed regardless, lol).

It also helps that he's no longer married to a religious hypocrite. Well, I've always believed that if the mob is going to be a regular presence on your soap, then you can't portray them honestly. Instead, you have to make them more Runyonesque figures, objects of humor and parody, rather than the vicious sociopaths they truly are.

To say that the backdoor pilot failed is almost putting it too kindly, lol. Poor Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno. They worked really well together, but that entire episode was just...ugh.

ICAM!!

Theoretically, I would agree, but it seems like Paul Avila Mayer and Stephanie Braxton did such a number on Hogan, Sunny and Liza that reuniting Hogan and Sunny would've been a toxic situation.

The acronym "HBO" has become like "AT&T" or "American Express." No matter how hard you try to erase it from our culture, it never really goes away.

And then, to finish up the story: Phillip returned to Springfield several years later to clear his good(-ish) name in some ridiculous retcon that is best left forgotten...Beth couldn't accept that Phillip had returned to his family against her wishes, so she divorced him, went wacko and hooked up with jerk whom their grade school-aged daughter later offed...Rick married and divorced Annie in Chicago, I think, and did some other stuff that I tuned out of (on account of being disgusted with the show) before he realized he couldn't get arrested in Hollywood and came back...and AFAIK, Neil Everest stayed dead, but his daughter did not; and in fact, she went on to become a trailblazing, multiple Grammy-winning artist under the name "Billie Eilish."

I think early RH had arguably some of the most complex characters on daytime; people who were truly neither all saints nor all sinners.

All these years later, and Shelly Burch is still one of the most striking women I've ever seen.

A very underrated writer/director, IMO. Of course, not all of his films were successful or memorable, but the ones that are - "Kramer," "Places in the Heart," "Nobody's Fool," etc. - are masterpieces.