Khan

IKR? Imagine: Lexie is back, and The Artist Formerly Known As Whitley Gilbert-Wayne is playing her. It's a story and situation that [!@#$%^&*] writes itself. Y'all better stahp. You know Ron Carlivati will steal from anyone.

I think people missed Bobby greatly, but I don't think the producers trusted the show and its' cast enough to let it evolve without him. They wanted DALLAS to remain a global phenomenon, even though the law of averages dictates that every long-running, successful series will fade eventually. Nor did the several other course corrections in seasons past that ended up being short-lived and inconsequential. There reached a point when its' audience realized the Shapiros and Pollocks didn't know HOW to fix their own show, so they moved on. That's what was so great about KNOTS LANDING, IMO. David Jacobs and his team regularly took risks, and not all of those risks paid off; but you could count on them to recognize when they've gone off-track and do their utmost to fix things before they got TOO out of control. It only really faded during S13 when the show had become so unrecognizable.

Frankly, a Twitter hashtag isn't good enough. GF and Laura deserve a lot more. A whole lot more. Trust me, if this were TG's anniversary, and he were still on this show, we'd have to suffer through yet another, Emmy-baiting showcase where he gets a whole hour to himself; spouting more, dreary monologues about how it's all Laura's fault that he's such a miserable bastard. ("How DARE the woman I raped ask me to settle down and be a good husband and father!?")

Agree. With everything.

Unfortunately, whenever a show makes a move out of desperation, it rarely, if ever, works. So what happens? They end up making another, even more drastic move in order to course-correct from the first, drastic move; and on and on it goes until they've chased away their entire audience for good. Just look at what happened with DYNASTY and FALCON CREST for examples.

I've come to the conclusion that DAYS resorts to such cheap tricks, because they know their characters have about as much depth as a roll of paper towels that you've bought at your local Dollar Tree. (Which, coincidentally enough, is also where DAYS gets most of its' decorations and props.)

Don't worry, Genie's used to getting the shaft from this show by now, lol.

Agree. Many music artists came and went during that period. He's just the only one who hit Donna Martin.

Donna/Tori only would've looked like an idiot if she had gone back to Ray even after he had rehabilitated himself. But, you know, in order for a redemption storyline like that to have worked, 90210 needed to be a show that could do that kind of story well. Unfortunately, aside from maybe "Family," Aaron Spelling's shows were lightweight. I could be wrong, but I fear that Ray's redemption arc just would have come across as the tritest thing ever, lol. Moreover -- and this is just my personal opinion -- but I feel like it's difficult, if not impossible, for ANY series to redeem a character once that character has been written into that specific corner. I mean, you can get away with a seemingly nice person gradually becoming unglued, but when he (or she!) starts assaulting other people (especially women)...? The audience, I think, has a hard time forgiving OR forgetting. I think that's why soaps, in particular, typically resort to explaining away the abusive behavior as the result of a brain tumor or chemical imbalance. (That is, when they don't just gloss over the matter entirely...hey, Luke, wassup?). It's a lot easier for the writers to deal with the issue that way than to put in the years of work that it would take to redeem an otherwise irredeemable character with no guarantees that the audience will ever accept him/her as a protagonist again.

Agree! Memo to Ron Carlivati: stay the hell off social media.

I think the house looks gorgeous. I hope the new buyer knows what he's getting.

Even when a soap says it's a soap, it's still reluctant to be a soap, lol.

That would have made more sense. Especially the former option. John's pre-Pawn past is both convoluted and a blank slate. Anything could have happened during those years. Anything.

I just wonder why the show felt it was necessary to give John yet another child in the first place.

Okay, who is this supposed to appeal to? Former GL/Josh (& Reva) fans?

Another reason why undoing it all later with the "dream reveal" was the worst move Leonard Katzman could have made.

Thanks, @Vee, for the link. I think I might have come across those interviews in the past, but I'm not 100-percent sure. Regardless, Larry Mollin's comments re: the Andrea situation pretty much confirm or reinforce my suspicions. I never suspected that they hated Gabrielle and wanted her gone, but I could tell from what I was seeing that what was happening ON-screen was being dictated by stuff that was happening OFF-screen.

Agree. There are times when it's all-too-apparent that storylines and such are being driven by BTS agendas. To me, Andrea's marginalization was one of those times.

Fred Silverman was an idiot.

Thanks much, @Paul Raven and @hendersonite! It seems kind of...pointless (sorry) to have this "Joey" character pull a knife on Tony if you're going to have Tony succumb to a heart attack anyway. I mean, why not just have Joey fatally wound Tony? It's sort of like what Chekhov said about the gun: if you're going to introduce in the first act, it better go off in the third. (Or...something like that.)

If, by "interesting," you mean, everyone watches with baited breath for the moment Brenda (and not Jill) literally has a Mary Hartman-like nervous breakdown in the middle of a scene, then okay.

I know, but what I'm saying is, there were OTHER scenes that could have been cut "for time," but probably weren't, because TPTB felt those scenes were more "compelling." Exactly. We don't need another scene of Ben and Ciara sitting on a bed, being all lovey-dovey with the bun in her oven, and totally ignoring the fact that neither has a damn job to support the little brat-to-be. They're even LESS important to this show than that scene upthread with John and Marlena.

I'm always reluctant to place the majority of blame on Pam Long's shoulders. I've heard from various sources over the years that the elimination and/or marginalization of certain characters and families were not really her doing, but Gail Kobe's and P&G's. They -- and not necessarily Pam, or her co-head, Jeff Ryder -- were the ones who wanted to dump the Bauers and others, because they felt those characters to be passe in the era of glitzier shows like DALLAS and DYNASTY.

Would someone remind me (and others) the circumstances surrounding Tony's death? Also, who was writing the show at that point? From the looks of things, that scene must have been in the actual stairway at CBS. I love the fact that music was used very sparingly. Nowadays, the music would absolutely intrude on such a scene to the point that it takes you OUT of the scene rather than put you in it. And that last shot of Bob and Jo walking down (I assume) the hospital hallway and past those swinging double doors? *chef's kiss* Thanks for sharing, @Joseph! I can't wait to see what else has been uploaded on that channel!

I dunno, whenever I hear about a proposed TV series or movie set in NOLA, or any city or town in the South, I get the willies. Like, I just know the one, token Black character is gonna be an older woman who, like, wears 38 layers of junk jewelry and is always threatening to put roots on people. Call it "In the Heat of the Night" Syndrome, if you wish.