Khan

Yeah, the implication that *I* got was that everyone assumed that he had left town. Kudos to David Paulsen, though, for revisiting that backstory. It brought some much-needed life to the show. I just wish it had been enough to save it.

I feel like that's what they were going for with Tracy Middendorf's Carrie, but there's a big difference between bad and bratty.

I do apologize if it sounds like I'm blaming AS; I'm really not. But, the show really needs to lay down the ultimatum: either agree to return, on contract, or accept the possibility that Sami will be either recast or written out permanently.

Yeah, I'm not buying it. Luke ain't dead. But, at least, Jane Elliot brought back my fave hairdo of hers.

Agree. By the time MADD hired JC to run GL, he was just out-of-touch in general.

Just a thought, but...what if Drake/John was behaving that way for a reason? #thedevilmadehimdoit

You know the end times are near when you have folks wishing Mimi were back. I get why TPTB are glad to have Alison Sweeney any way they can get her, but I agree that her infrequent visits are wreaking havoc on the stories. If she can't (or won't) commit to returning full-time, then don't bring her back. (I would suggest recasting Sami, but I know that's like pissing on Macdonald Carey's grave around here, so....)

Exactly. I felt that that ship (Dex/Alexis) had long sailed. And as for Sable defending Blake against the allegations that he had murdered Roger Grimes, Alexis was right: Sable was only defending Blake, because she hoped to get into Blake's bed. By the time THE COLBYS came around, it seemed like the Shapiros had dispensed with most rules of storytelling. All they cared about was showcasing well-dressed characters behaving abominably.

Same.

Same!

But, in due time, Laura and Lucy will get shoved aside (again) for Frank and the writers' latest creations, Lavender Corinthos and Pilot Cassadine.

Has Chloe ever met her biological father, Tiny the Plumber? I think that could be an interesting story to tell, lol.

I think you're talking about "True Light," which ran during the John Conboy/Ellen Weston era. As I said at the time, the whole thing reminded me of some cheap talk show.

"Colt 45" is the brand of malt liquor that Billy Dee Williams pitched BITD. His ads and commercials for the product are iconic among the African-American community.

I think so. Whenever CBS tinkered with KL's time slot, the ratings always took a big hit. They didn't understand how important its' time slot was to its' success. But were Alexis and Sable fighting over the same man? I didn't consider Dex/Alexis/Sable or Blake/Alexis/Sable to be romantic triangles in the traditional sense.

Well, then, it becomes a question of which scheming bitch to root for, which isn't as awesome as you'd think. Even in a romantic triangle that isn't as simplistic as "good" girl vs. "bad" girl, you still need to be able to root for someone. The writers don't NEED to telegraph which side to root for, but it still needs to be there. If you have two women (or two men) scheming for the love of the same man (or woman), it gets murky. It makes whoever's in the middle look like an even bigger dope than they would otherwise; and you end up feeling no one in that situation should end up with anyone. Which kinda defeats the purpose of the love triangle, IMO. Inevitably, you wind up creating a THIRD rival for the person's affections -- someone who, by default, has to be more virtuous than the other two -- so that that person could, in effect, "steal" the man or woman away from the others. Could better writing and casting have improved the Jason/Frankie/Sable triangle? Yes. Definitely. Frankie, in particular, could have been a much stronger character, played by a much stronger actress. Aside from those issues, however, I don't believe there was anything wrong with how the producers devised that particular story.

Apparently, we are, lol.

It's almost an understatement to say that Y&R is "stuck," but you're right. This show needs a shot in the arm in the worst way. It needs to take some huge risks. Maybe not the kind of risks that, say, JER took with DAYS back in the day. (I don't think anyone needs to see Nikki Newman possessed by the devil, lol). But TPTB need to recognize that they can't coast forever on nostalgia.

Is Kyle Brandt still in the biz? I'm kidding.

Nope. I just think she's a bad actress.

Except, it should have been easier for me to watch PASSIONS *because* it was all new characters, and it wasn't. If anything, it was harder, because it was clear from the start that JER didn't know how to write for characters that he didn't inherit.

Believe it or not, @carolineg, that (Sheridan's ties to Princess Diana) didn't bother me as much as it bothered others. Was it tacky? Yes. But it wasn't the worst thing I'd ever seen on a soap. I think what did ME in was one character (might have been Dana Sparks's) being visited by some bright light and told, in a childish voice, "Evil is coming!". When I saw that, I was like, "What in the DARK SHADOWS is THAT mess!?". It was just so unbelievably silly and amateurish to me. Throw in Theresa dumping food for the first time on Original Ethan's head and I was done. She can make me cry, too, but for different reasons.

As @Vee would say, stop.

Agree. If I was JER, I would have been mortified by how most soap fans responded to PASSIONS. If they didn't write it off immediately as trash and then change the channel, they misinterpreted it as deliberate parody and kept watching, but for all the wrong reasons. Either way, hardly anyone took it seriously, or treated it as the Second Coming of Soaps. That had to have wounded him.

I dunno, I've never been all that impressed by Lindsay Hartley. Or her many layers of mascara.