Khan

AFAIC, Liz Hubbard can go fly a damn kite. Douglas Marland gave her the best material of her entire soap career -- stories and scenes that were miles ahead of the putrid mess the Pollocks typically handed her on THE DOCTORS -- and she has the nerve to trash. Woman, please.

IDK if this has been posted already. If it has, my apologies: https://deadline.com/2020/12/phyllis-mcguire-dead-lead-singer-last-living-mcguire-sisters-89-1234663467/

Agree. Honestly, @JAS0N47, I don't know WHY Ken Corday doesn't have you on DAYS's payroll as staff historian or something. You do such incredible work keeping these archives intact and up-to-date. May you have a FANTASTIC new year!

That wasn't a WTF? moment so much as it was a 'Bout Damn Time! moment.

Wait, is she wearing a WHITE dress?

YES. Especially the last part. I STILL remember Marlena De La Croix comparing MW/Carly back then to a young Carroll Baker and agreeing with her 1000%. MW/Carly was truly one-of-a-kind, and the fact that ATWT handled both actress and character so badly in its' last decade, never giving her material that rose above generic, is one good reason why AS THE WORLD TURNS turns no more.

You mean, they haven't? In retrospect, I think GH should've just killed off Jason in that accident. Changing his personality like they did only created another show-eating monster in the end.

Agree. Furthermore, the discussions about Allie's rape are a bit hard to take from characters who've been through the kind of only-in-soapland ordeals that characters like John, Kayla, Marlena, Steve, etc. have been through.

LOL!! But seriously. Melanie Smith was like ATWT's answer to Susan Lucci: no matter what else was going on in the scene, or who with, your attention invariably drifted toward her. Not the greatest actress in the world, mind you, but certainly one of the more captivating. Actually, I think KMH was on the right soap -- and if not ATWT, then certainly GL, or even AW. OTOH, Roger Howarth DEFINITELY belonged on ABC soap, lol.

Exactly. I'm sure Melanie Smith wanted to leave ATWT, but I'm also sure ATWT -- and Laurie Caso, in particular -- didn't fight very hard to keep her. As an EP, Caso wasn't awful, but his choices tended to be so conservative and safe. Case in point: Darryl Crawford. That character DESERVED a dynamic actor to bring him to life. Someone along the lines of, say, Roscoe Born (ex-Joe, RH; ex-Mitch, OLTL; et al). Instead, Caso gave us Rex Smith, who was about as fascinating to watch as a root canal.

Agree.

Agree. At its' peak, AMC was a show that had a "little something" for just about everyone. Sometimes, the mix was a tad unwieldy; but when it worked, it was a breathtaking show to watch.

If they are planning an "L.A. Law" reboot, then I hope they'll land a writer/producer who was as good as David E. Kelley. He MADE the original series, IMO; and when he left to create and produce "Picket Fences," the quality went down FAST.

But, again, I wouldn't care that Y&R's (or any show's) production values have gone to Budget Hell if the writing was any good. It's like what Bill Bell once said (and I'm paraphrasing): "All you need for good drama are a man, a woman and a waterfall -- and who in the hell needs the waterfall?".

Oh, there's no arguing around that fact. But, the bar has been set so damn low.

LOL!! Lord, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Mannequin Hope turned up pregnant in the new year. But seriously. That's always been B&B's number-one problem: stuff that could be really good gets wrapped up in a hurry, while stuff that needs to be over and done with goes on forever. Not to mention, totally not needed on a show weighted down with extraneous characters (with DREADFUL names) and byzantine plots. Chris Van Etten and his co-head writer need to learn they are NOT Wisner Washam. They don't know how to write a show that has enough characters to fill a freaking phone book.

Ugh. I adore Michael E. Knight, but his character and insta-connections to Cyrus and Laura are complete misfires. And they missed an opportunity to see if he and Genie Francis worked well as a romantic duo, NOT as a pair of half-siblings.

Jack and Laura's affair suddenly makes all kinds of sense, lol! SAY WHAT?? Is he Gordon Grey's son? If so, then why da fuq did they drag up the David Hamilton murder case again? I'm not saying I'm not down with Laura finding a long-lost sibling, but...Cyrus? He's a short-term villain who has outlived his usefulness -- but, hey, when has THAT ever stopped Frank Valentini? When some people just can't let go of the '80's, you get crap like B&B's twisted homage to "Mannequin."

KNOTS LANDING's creator/EP, David Jacobs, once revealed that Alec Baldwin's character, Joshua Rush, was intended from the start to become mentally unhinged, a total one-eighty from the sweet, vulnerable "country boy" we saw at his introduction. Yet, the show took almost two years to make that transformation in Joshua's character; it happened in stages and not overnight. That, more than anything, is what I miss about DAYS and soaps in general today. They just don't take the time anymore...with anything. They're so afraid of boring viewers with the process of getting from point A to point B that they've forgotten that soaps are all about the process. (Or, to quote Miley Cyrus, of ALL people, "It's the climb."). We don't watch a soap opera because someone's suddenly become psychotic; we watch, because we want to see how, through gradual circumstances, they got there. That's why I can't get excited at all about Charlie's storyline, just as I can't get excited about Gwen's story, because they've misplaced the suspense on revealing her real identity and motivations. I couldn't care less about Charlie's connections to Ava or Allie, because Ron took zero time to get him (and us) where he is now, skipping over some important, character-developing beats in the process. And while I am so, so glad to see Jennifer portrayed again by an actress who puts some actual thought into her performances, I totally [!@#$%^&*] HATE the revelation of Jack and Kate's ONS, because at no time did anyone on that writing staff take any [!@#$%^&*] time to GET us to see how those two sleeping together would make sense AT. ALL. For me, it ain't enough that Jennifer's husband slept with the woman who torpedoed her parents' marriage and caused her mother's mental breakdown. If Kate wasn't out to ruin Jennifer's life again, then why did she even give Jack the time of day? A. Men. At their best, soaps remind people that we all are in this together; that, as bleak as our real-life dramas might seem today, there is always, ALWAYS tomorrow. Unfortunately, today's soaps would rather chase after the "Maury" demographic with ever more tired WTD dramas. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Ron has conveniently "forgotten" about it. Because, number one, viewers' reaction to the twist was, at best, mixed; and number two, where da hell do you GO from jumping ahead one year? Especially when little actually changed on the show as a result? It's like I hear the ghost of Agnes Nixon saying, "Okay, so you've jumped ahead one year. Now what?"

See, that was a PERFECT opportunity to incorporate real-life (COVID-19) circumstances into the storytelling (provided, of course, we can forget about that stupid time jump). Will could have said he wanted to be there, but was practicing social distancing and avoiding potentially large gatherings. I mean, I know some prefer their soaps to be more escapist, but I tend to think such attitudes are almost anathema to what soaps are fundamentally about. But, again, that's just me.

Usually, that's because there's little, if any, build-up to the misunderstanding or manipulation that precipitates the infidelity. It USED to be that writers would take the time to reveal the flaws inherent in the relationship, so that when one would cheat on the other, it would be believable and inevitable. But, now...? A couple could be blissfully happy on a Monday, have a ridiculous misunderstanding on a Tuesday, cheat on each other on a Wednesday, and find out they're both having out-of-wedlock kids on a Thursday. Not even "Three's Company" was that trifling in its' plotting.

Agree! Things like the inscrutable episode guarantees would not matter as much if what we saw everyday on-screen with whoever was available for that episode or that week was generally compelling. I think it was Jean Passanante who called daytime a "first draft medium," and right there is part of the problem. Most writers in her position take a similar, slipshod, reckless approach to the work, because, "hey, soaps come at you fast!". I swear, if Ron Carlivati spent more than ten minutes plotting any one story, he'd actually write something halfway watchable (maybe!). But, you can tell he's coming up with much of his crap right there during the story conferences because he's too damn lazy to sit down and write a [!@#$%^&*] long-term story projection -- and he (and other HW's) can blame it on network interference all they want, but Irna, Agnes and Bill faced similar levels of interference in their day (and sometimes more!) and still managed to churn out compelling drama.

Dear God, 2020 refuses to die, lol!

If there was a decline in the quality of KMH's acting, then I blame it on the fact that directors and producers have stopped actually working with actors to get the best performances from them. Now, it's just hit your mark, point the cameras, shoot the scene and then move on. It's been AGES since I've seen a truly worthy performance from anyone on daytime, and that's because TPTB just don't take the time anymore to work with them.

I guess that's the price you have to pay for taping 56 episodes per week. Nevertheless, it just annoys me how...careless the whole production has become at DAYS. The "old Hollywood" studio system of the 1930's and '40's had a similar, just-crank-'em-out approach to filmmaking; yet, even their shoddiest B-movies displayed more care and attention to detail than do most soaps nowadays. Just because they don't have the money or even time that they used to, that's no excuse to be so haphazard in putting together even the simplest episodes. They stay trying to give us '80's soap opera on a '50's soap opera budget. It's maddening.