Khan

This is how that storyline SHOULD end:

One ill-fated game of "Don't Drop the Soap" in the prison showers can really traumatize a man.

I smell a sexual harassment allegation or several coming.

I agree, lol! I'm just sorry that Chuck Todd will leave behind a show that he has helped tarnish with his utter refusal to speak truth to power when the viewers and the nation needed it.

The main thing that I remember about the period immediately before Claire Labine's start was the many "resets" to Bill Eckert's character. Whenever one characterization wouldn't work, the show would come up with another in the hopes that Bill would somehow take off.

I never understood why Cliff hated J.R. so much other than his daddy told him and his sister that J.R. and Bobby's daddy took his woman and screwed him out of a fortune when they were wildcatters. Unless I missed something, I felt like Cliff and J.R.'s feud needed to be more personal than that.

I agree. I wonder, too, what their original intentions for the story were (that is, if they had any intentions at the outset). Did they intend for Joseph Adkins to kidnap Bobbie and take her on the run or something?

Wow, even ChatGPT wants to create a backstory for James and Lucinda out of thin air, lol.

Frankly, @GLATWT88, I don't think J.R. cared, because there was no way to exploit it financially. The only things that mattered to J.R. Ewing were Ewing Oil and John Ross. Everything else was inconsequential. Now, if John Ross had come out of the closet, that would've been another matter, because his homosexuality would have threatened J.R.'s ability to pass onto the family legacy someday to his grandchildren.

I couldn't have said it better, @DRW50. Here's another favorite of mine from Cynthia Weil's catalog:

What's with the "Jeopardy"-like titles for that promo?

I agree, @j swift. She's like the female Arsenio Hall. I tried watching an episode of her show the other day, and I couldn't. She was going on and on about how meaningful it was to be nominated for the NAACP Image Award, and I was like, "So, winning the Oscar, the Golden Globe, the SAG, the Grammy, the Tony, the Daytime Emmy, the National Board of Review and the BAFTA were small potatoes?"

One of the most fantastic songwriters of all time, IMO. RIP.

I agree. You're basically just wrapping up your predecessor's storylines.

Cameron must not have TOO much cash at his disposal, though, or else he'd be able to afford a razor and buy his own clothes instead of raiding Chance's closet when he isn't looking.

That's interesting, @Paul Raven. Immediately, when I read your post, I thought, "Well, maybe Douglas Marland didn't receive on-air credit, because he was technically still employed at GH," kind of like how Frank Salisbury admitted to writing for GL some time before actually being credited on-screen because he was still writing scripts for GH, too. But I don't know exactly when Marland quit GH, so that theory might not be plausible. (Also, hasn't Bridget Dobson said in the past that P&G had them switch shows, because they found Marland's bible for ATWT unsatisfactory? Of course, I'm presuming Bridget is correct and not misremembering.) I agree with you, @Paul Raven. I think when Marland became available after leaving GH, P&G snapped him up, rather than lose out to another, non-P&G-produced show. P&G's plan was for him to replace the Dobsons at GL, and for the Dobsons to replace Ellis & Hunt at ATWT. However, for contractual or other reasons, the Dobsons were unable to leave GL before the start of the new year. (Perhaps, they needed time to wrap up their stories before leaving; or perhaps, they needed time to watch and create a bible for ATWT before officially taking over). So, P&G gave Marland the ATWT gig with the understanding that it was only temporary and that he would be moved over to GL when the Dobsons were contractually able to move over to ATWT. Thus explains why Marland didn't make any major changes at ATWT during the 13 weeks he was there. Like you said, @Paul Raven, it's a mystery, lol. I'd love to know, though, if any fans here remember what the Willows mystery was like when Ellis & Hunt were still the HW's. I think it was Christopher Schemering who described it as being "limp" before Marland took over the story. I think the issue was that Douglas Marland was too locked into his job at ATWT being a temporary one until Bridget and Jerome Dobson were ready to take over (as I've said above). Under those circumstances, he probably couldn't shake up the show TOO much, in case it interfered with the Dobsons' plans. So, he kind of had to continue on with what Ralph Ellis & Eugenie Hunt had left behind, and maybe tighten up the stories in the meantime. But you are right, @Soaplovers: compared to what soaps give us today, late '79 ATWT is a joy of watch, but in the context of the times, the Willows storyline, in particular, never quite gets off the ground. ETA: Maybe it's because I'm watching those scenes decades after the fact, but it seems silly to me that the show invested so much airtime in someone (Doug Higgins/Bennett Hadley) who clearly has no long-term potential, either as Lisa's romantic interest, or as anything else.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get the joke of Abe seeing women who resemble Kayla and Marlena playing feuding females on TV. Where will it lead to? Will Abe be so addled-brained that when he sees them IRL, he'll freak out? And why am I suddenly uncomfortable with the notion of an older African-American man who suddenly can't distinguish truth from fiction?

Do any ATWT fans know who Douglas Marland's associate writers were during his brief, first HW'ing stint with the show? Did he use Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt's former writers, or did he bring aboard his own?

True, lol!

I agree. Cameron could have blackmailed Grace into setting everything into motion. Of course, with Cameron being Cameron, I doubt Cameron would be the type to allow Grace to live once she had served her purpose for him. He'd probably strangle or stab her and frame Nick for the crime (or he'd frame Sharon, making it seem as if she killed Grace in some bipolar frenzy).

I still say I'm okay now with the camp as long as it's well-written camp.

No, seriously, what was going on in that promo? Is Abe watching a soap opera from the '80's? Because, judging from the way Dee and MBE looked, it played like a sketch from "Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters."

That's why I've always felt this opening worked best: You never needed to update it whenever there was a major cast turnover. You just needed to "refresh" it every 10 years or so. Plus, it totally evoked the theme and mood of the show; and in an era where it's all about keeping everything short and sweet, it's easy to shorten the length of it, too. I'll say this much for DAYS: they have been wise to keep their original opening sequence intact, with only minor changes throughout the decades to keep it from looking too stale. Another classic opening that would work just as well today as it did back then (again, just refresh it every few years with new footage of an ambulance driving past the hospital):

What have I just watched?

If these shows are forced to use scab writers in order to keep producing new episodes during the strike, will the scabs have to attend story conferences with the networks? Or are the scabs usually left alone to write what they have to in situations like these?