Khan

I will never understand how or why Cowen/Lipman believed they could get away with such a blatant change to one of their characters. It would've been more believable to say Reed returned to Winnetka with Halsey after she discovered Kirby was having an affair. Oops! Thanks, @janea4old , for the link!

True, lol. Ironically, I think "Three's Company" actually improved once Suzanne Somers (and Jenilee Harrison) left, even though, by all accounts, Priscilla Barnes was handed a very raw deal on that show. Of course, I'm also the only viewer on the planet - and certainly, the only African-American viewer - who thought "Good Times" actually got better once John Amos was fired, so I'm probably not the best judge here, lol.

David E. Kelley's departure (to his own series, "Picket Fences," on CBS) was a real blow. His successor, Patricia Green, had done incredible work on "Cagney & Lacey," but she - and later, John Masius & John Tinker ("St. Elsewhere") - couldn't fill Kelley's shoes.

This morning, I heard on NPR that Latino and Hispanic voters in TX feel they were played by the Trump administration and that the administration's tactics regarding the rounding up and detaining of "illegal immigrants with criminal records" was not at all what the voter base was promised. Me:

IA! I'm particularly surprised to see CBS' Sunday night lineup still landing among the Top 20, even though "Alice," "Archie Bunker's Place," "The Jeffersons" and "One Day at a Time" all were showing signs of age. (ODAAT, in particular, had changed so much by 1982, I'm not sure even the producers knew what the show was about anymore, lol). Of course, it wouldn't last, but the fact that none of the half-hours had fallen out of the Top 20 yet says a lot about how attached viewers can become to certain shows and actors/characters.

Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman were like Lynn Marie Latham and Bernard Lechowick in that they wanted "Sisters" to be unpredictable, so that the average viewer wouldn't know what to expect from week to week. First of all, that isn't exactly how (primetime) television shows work. Most shows, no matter how well-written, are designed to be at least somewhat predictable for any number of reasons (episodes have to hold up to multiple viewings, they need to be produced as efficiently as possible in order to keep down costs, viewers' innate need for comfort and familiarity, you name it). Second, unless you're Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, and you maintain a very firm grip on all aspects of your shows, including the characters and storylines, your show will become too uneven for even hardcore viewers to keep up with.

Someday, someone's gonna make a horror film about a demented stamp collector...and when they do, I'll be among the first to see it.

Not only was it sickening, it also was irresponsible. I realize False Memory Syndrome is real (and really unfortunate) in the field of psychiatry, but that storyline made psychiatrists look, at best, like charlatans; and at worst, like sexual predators. Then, to make matters worse, once Dr. Caspian discards Georgie, she comes dangerously close to becoming Winnetka's answer to Jill Bennett, stalking the man and even pounding on the window outside of a restaurant as she begs him to take her back! Cowen/Lipman: "But we're not a soap!" Khan: "No, you're not a soap. You're a BAD soap." By the time Charley decides to run a sting operation in order to expose Caspian - right on the heels of Teddy and Lucky running their own sting to trap Falconer's killer - I was just ready for it all to be over.

nm

"Get me out of here!" Are you begging to be released from Faison's clutches, Anna, or are you begging to be released from this stupid story?

They all went upstairs to polish their skis.

Yeah, I miss the '80's, too. ;)

Thank God! Amanda Setton loosens up her wardrobe...as Steve Burton clamps down once again on love scenes. Supreme being giveth, and supreme being taketh away.

And that, I put on Ben's biological father, Kyle Sampson. Even though he didn't raise Ben, it was definitely in Ben's genes, lol.

OMG, I can't believe this girl outlasted Kelly Clarkson and Sherri Shepherd:

In a move that will surprise absolutely no one except those who have had their heads lodged inside their you-know-whats, WaPo owner (and Charles Foster Kane worshipper) Jeff Bezos has laid off about a third of the workforce at the paper that (in)famously helped to bring down a president (who now looks like JFK compared to the Oval Office's current occupant): NPRBezos orders deep job cuts at 'Washington Post'The Washington Post embarked on severe cuts despite appeals by the newsroom to owner Jeff Bezos. The paper is to narrow its focus largely to politics and national security.

I'm not sure Carlo Hesser ever works for me, lol.

I'm surprised they don't just cut to a shot of the ocean (or the docks) whenever two characters are about to make love.

That's their master plan for Sonny: to turn him into PC's answer to Cesar Millan.

What else? Mainstream credibility. It's not enough to be a "niche" show on Saturday nights; you gotta up your game if you wanna hang out at the pool with the cool kids ("Law & Order," "NYPD Blue," "Picket Fences," etc). Plus, as fascinating as the four Reed sisters had been (due more to casting, I think, than to actual character development), I don't think there was much more you could do with any of 'em after S3 without feeling like you're repeating yourself.

I agree. I've watched the entire series I don't know how many times, and I still don't feel like I know anything vital about Kenny, other than he was once a surfer (who lived out of his van?) before he decided to give marriage and a career (as a record producer) a try. To me, guys like Kenny Ward end up leaving their families behind because adulting is too hard for them, and they end up living out of a van with some chick half their age in a vain attempt to recapture their youth.

IMO, if "Sisters" needed to transition from being a quirky family dramedy to a full-fledged "serious" show or soap, it needed a stronger producer who knew how to do that without letting the stories go entirely off the rails. IOW, it needed a Peter Dunne.

I agree. Even David Jacobs had Richard Avery dismiss their backstory as a joke - "they got married on an incoming wave" - and Jim Houghton and Kim Lankford just didn't have any real chemistry with each other, or with anyone else. (Houghton really should've stayed on Y&R). There's no WAY anyone would've been able to do this on primetime TV in 1979, but I think I would've written (or, rather, rewritten) Kenny and Ginger as a couple where one of the spouses (maybe Kenny?) is gay, and the other spouse knows about it, but agrees to be their "beard," because of their deep friendship and their fear of being alone.

I think Hogan Sheffer was good at structuring his storylines, but I think his worldview was too dark for a genre like daytime drama. I don't think he had much hope in life; and to write effectively for the soaps, you gotta have hope. You have to believe that people are innately decent, and that good will always triumph over evil and love will conquer hate. Sounds corny, but it's really the only way that a genre of storytelling that thrives on its' audiences "tuning in tomorrow" can operate.

I tend to blame that on the casting woes. The original Hart, Jeff Phillips, was a dud. His successor, Leonard Stabb, was more promising, but the injuries he sustained in an accident left him unable to continue with his acting career. Sean McDermott, who replaced Stabb, was just a temp recast until they could write the character out; and when they did bring back Hart, they did so with one of the most bland actors GL ever hired (Marshall Hilliard). By the time Grillo and his "goomba" accent and demeanor took over the role, it was clear no one at GL even knew who Hart Jessup was anymore.