Khan

It's weird seeing the Paramount TV logo at the end of the credits. Isn't DALLAS owned by Warner Bros. today? Also, I've always wondered whether Production Coordinator Andy Ackerman is the same Andy Ackerman who directed episodes of "Cheers," "Seinfeld" and other sitcoms.

Well, if it was spoiler-free, it shouldn't have been. Viewers could have used the warning.

I'd do it like how they killed off Cathy Craig's little girl BITD on OLTL: Rachel falls ill; Marlena, who has been left in charge of her for the evening, has an accident on the way to the E.R.; little Rachel succumbs; Kristen lashes out and blames Marlena, screaming that her daughter would still be alive if Marlena hadn't been so reckless (even though everyone knows Doc was just rushing her to the hospital); Kristen wages a new war against John, Marlena and all their loved ones.

Agree.

My bad!

Perhaps, but I feel like Kristen has been softened too much in recent years. Like @KLN said, Stacy Haiduk's Kristen is not the same as Eileen Davidson's Kristen, and I feel like ED's Kristen would come closer to fitting the bill of supervillain than SH's. Now, one way they could bring Kristen BACK to being a true supervillain would be to have her suffer the worst loss imaginable - namely, the death of her and Brady's daughter - and have someone from one of the town's main families be inadvertently responsible, thereby causing her to swear vengeance against the entire family or families, like papa Stefano would.

You know, these issues you've brought up, @carolineg, would have provided some good story. It's just a shame that the show we're talking about is DAYS and not RYAN'S HOPE.

Word! True dat, lol. You know, maybe it's crazy, but if DAYS is actively seeking a new supervillain, why not follow GH's lead and make that supervillain a woman? After all, it's 2022. Who says a woman can't be as all-powerful as a man? Yup.

In a way, that's also how I feel about SANTA BARBARA. With both shows, the acting, directing and production values are there, but, with the exception of Patrick Mulcahey and Frank Salisbury's scripts, the writing often lets them all down.

Exactly. Let us get to know him under seemingly ordinary circumstances; then, at a certain point, reveal (to us, not to the other characters!) his true identity and reason for coming to Springfield (i.e., to terrorize the mother he feels abandoned him when he needed her most). Then, once WE know, let the suspense continue building, as we wait on the edges of our seats to see when Reva and everyone else learn the truth.

Hope the aliens don't take it first? (I know, I'm like a broken record about aliens taking the baby. I can't help it, lol.) I'd like to say that Ron Carlivati had bigger plans for JoDevil that got changed as the story progressed...but I know I'd be lying.

Here's that season's rundown (courtesy of wikipedia). No, it wasn't one of their better seasons, lol. Karen's kidnapper is revealed to be Phil Harbert (guest star Louis Giambalvo), an old friend of Greg and Mack's from law school, who had become bitter towards Mack, having blamed him for causing the death of his wife. Karen escapes and Phil is killed after being hit by a car. Ben returns to Valene, promising to make their marriage work but faces problems from Jean Hackney (Wendy Fulton), who tries to trick Ben into doing a mission for an underground organization to kill Greg. When Valene's babies are threatened, Ben reluctantly agrees to assist Jean. With Mack's help, Ben foils the plan, although Jean continues to threaten him and his family which prompts Ben to leave the country at the end of the season. Laura angrily blames Valene for not telling her about the plot to kill Greg. Laura also tells Greg that she is pregnant, but he is not enthusiastic about it, and she refuses to have an abortion. In the meantime, Paige reveals that she faked her death in order to escape the control of her wealthy grandparents, although Karen doubts the story, believing her to be an impostor. Also, Paige had developed a romantic relationship with Michael, Karen's son, but she soon tires of him and starts romancing Peter. Abby's daughter Olivia's drug addiction has worsened, eventually leading to the injuring of Lilimae in a car accident, and Abby resorts to desperate measures to get her clean. When her drug dealer beats up her younger brother Brian, Olivia finally admits to her addiction and decides to get clean. Olivia then becomes friends with Peter, and develops a crush on him, although he is interested in Paige. Peter, having become state senator with Greg's support, goes to the extreme to hide the fact that Jill is his sister, who has started a relationship with Gary. When Jill and Peter have an argument, Jill is injured in a fall from and Peter flees the scene to avoid any link to her or the accident. Paige's mother, Anne Matheson (Michelle Phillips), whom Paige had said was dead, appears and tries to rekindle her love affair with Mack. When Mack refuses her advances, she turns her attention to Greg, who also turns her down, and she therefore leaves town. At the end of the season, Abby finds Olivia standing over Peter's dead body. With both assuming the other had killed Peter, Abby frantically buries his body under the soil at Lotus Point where cement is to be poured the following day. Some weeks later, believing she had successfully hid Peter's body, Abby is informed by Karen that there is a crack in the cement foundations and that it has to be pulled up and redone.

David Reynolds, a.k.a. David Renaldi.

To me, Sean McDermott didn't come off as gay so much as he came off as wooden.

Yeah, the DALLAS coverage was pretty huge, but Sean and Madonna? Now THAT was a soap opera, lol! And, of course, we all knew who Oprah's "Secret Guy" was. (Hi, Gayle!)

LOL!! But seriously. I, myself, felt that FC became too crime-driven under Jeff Freilich's watch. The vineyards, and the fight to control them, became almost an afterthought. Melissa's gaining control of FC was a brilliant idea, but I think it came two seasons too late. That, and not the Kim Novak [!@#$%^&*], should have been Freilich's first, big story for the show. But I have read that critics - well, SOME critics - praised the show during those years for "taking risks," or whatever, and breathing new life into FC and primetime soaps in general; and how even SOD named them, and not DALLAS, DYNASTY or KL, Best Primetime Show at the SOD Awards two years in a row. Personally...? I think the music and sets got better, but that's about it, lol. Imagine, for the moment, if DALLAS and DYNASTY had aired those two episodes - "Swan Song" and "Royal Wedding," respectively - opposite each other on the same night? Between those two shows, it would have been The Greatest Night in Prime Time Television, lol.

If this madness ends with Abby's death, you know what that will say? That the devil won. Is that REALLY the kind of message a show needs to send its' audience?

Agree!

Well, think about it: in JER's twisted mind, John and Marlena's affair helped open the door for the devil to come and take control of Marlena's soul the first time. From a storytelling standpoint, therefore, it would make sense for the devil to return (after being defeated by John and Marlena's love) and seek vengeance by attempting to claim the soul of their now-grown daughter, who was the product of that "original sin," so to speak. It's like "unfinished business" and bringing the saga full circle at the same time. This is why everyone at DAYS should have held off on Possession 2.0 until Belle had cheated on Shawn with E.J.

Word. I'm sure James Wolk is a lovely person IRL...but yeah, he's bland. And he keeps getting these roles - "Ordinary Joe" is one; "Lone Star" is another - that require actors who can provide more layers than he's capable of. Yet, the networks keep giving him these chances...and he keeps proving the networks wrong. He'd be much better off working on the Hallmark Channel. That's another thing: OJ seemed to me like yet another one of those shows where the novelty of the premise is supposed to make up for everything else. TV series do not live by premise alone.

Or... They could just accept that the '80's are over and that supervillains belong in the past.

True. Although, if Ross Hunter had worked in soaps, I think he would have had the good sense not to let Henry Slesar go.

LOL!! But seriously. Wolk is certainly lovely to look at, but as an actor, he's about as exciting as mayonnaise. (I take that back. He's LESS exciting than mayonnaise.)

Ah, CAPITOL. That show had so much potential. But that damn John Conboy.

I realize times have changed and that production values aren't ever as important to good writing as good writing...but I totally hate those generic-looking sets, lol. It's as if DAYS is now taping episodes after-hours at some Ashley Furniture store.