Khan

In a way, reuniting her with her twins became a sort of dead-end for Val. Aside from shrieking "I HAVE GOT TO THINK OF MY CHILDREN!!" every fifteen minutes and wringing her hands over Gary possibly finding out he was their father - not to mention, having to dodge various psychos who were after her or Ben or those damn brats at any given time - Val had absolutely nothing left to do. Her writing career, like her pursuing a college degree, fell completely by the wayside, probably because Val as a writer never made sense to the producers (or to anyone else) and never yielded anything in the way of storylines. If you think about it, what did we REALLY know about Val, aside from her tragic backstory (abandoned by her mother and, we presume, father; married and a mother at a very early age; forced out of Dallas and out of her daughter's life by J.R.)? What interests did she have besides raising children and running everyday on the beach? I mean, Gary could've married another woman before moving to Knots Landing, and Val could've remained just another part of Ewing family history, and it wouldn't have made any difference.

I agree. Of course, Greg didn't really take much of a role in raising Mary Frances, so I could understand why he shouldn't have raised Meg; but if KL had been more like "Family" or "Eight is Enough," then I would've been interested to see how Mack and Karen, who were "of a certain age" and had grown children of their own, cope with raising another at a time in their lives when they probably assumed they were done with raising children. KL wasn't like "Family" or "Eight is Enough," though, and hadn't been like "Family" or "Eight is Enough" in at least a decade; so the entire scenario of Mack and Karen raising Greg and Laura's baby (with the needless wrinkle of keeping Meg from ever finding out the truth) becomes a big ball of "So what?" for me in the end. (Just as I never understood why Abby, Ben or Val always panicked at the thought of Gary knowing the twins were his, and why Gary took so damn long to figure it out. I mean, what's the big damn deal here, folks?)

Sequences like those are something of a signature for Latham (and for her husband, Bernard Lechowick, as well). The Lechowicks employed them all the time on KNOTS LANDING, HOMEFRONT and other shows they've written and produced.

It's actors like Andrew Ridings that really made me miss Joan D'Incecco as AMC's casting director.

OMGosh, Mama Khan LOVES binge watching those that are available on YT, lol. They don't offer much in the way of character development - a deficiency I chalk up to laziness on the part of the filmmakers - but they are a fun, convenient way to get one's "soap fix." And you're right, it wouldn't take much to produce 15-minute soaps like that: just good casting, directing and writing. Absolutely!

I feel another chapter of Megan's autobiography coming on.

Avery Pohl reminds me of every character on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" who helps some pervert trap and molest young women.

Same here. 15-minute soaps would be ideal, especially for those who tend to stream shows on handheld devices (phones, tablets, etc). Viewers might return to the days of catching up on their "stories" at work during lunch and other breaks; and even if you're the type who prefers to binge watch an entire week's worth of shows at once, doing so in 75 minutes (with commercials, less without) might be preferable to 150 or 300. Moreover, if I were writing and/or producing my own soap, I might even repurpose each week's episodes into a sort of "omnibus" edition every weekend that would feature even extra scenes or moments that might've been cut from earlier in the week due to time constraints.

ICAM!

I think it was lusty and bold at times. My main issue with FC, however, was that it never was consistent. Just when they were on a roll with something, it seems like someone would interfere and mess it all up. Moreover, it never could decide whether it wanted to be like DALLAS or like DYNASTY, so it tried to be both, which meant the tone would be all over the place.

Perhaps, in another thread?

Oh, dear. Something must be very wrong with me if Gloria Monty and I are in agreement. But seriously. I think it was the way Mary O'Brien would deliver her lines that irritates me whenever I watch old clips on YT. To me, she always sounds like one of those flighty chicks who'd hang around the Sweathogs on "Welcome Back, Kotter." Even when her Heather is at her most cunning, plotting to drive Diana Taylor insane so she could get back Steven Lars, I never can take her seriously. (At best, I roll my eyes at her like I do at Lucy Coe/Lynn Herring). She couldn't cry for [!@#$%^&*], her hair and wardrobe were the cringiest of cringe and her LSD-induced breakdown is just about the most laughable performance ever, too. (She's supposed to be trippin' balls, y'all, not turning into the female Charly Gordon.) That's why I prefer Robin Mattson's Heather to anyone else's; her Heather might have been harder and more noir-ish, but she meant business!

Agree. She and Stitch made such little impact on Y&R that you forget they were even there.

IDK why, but Mary O'Brien grates on my nerves, lol. I thought Kevin Tighe would've made a good recast for ATWT's Dr. Bob Hughes. (Yes, I wanted to fire Don Hastings. Sue me.)

I liked it better as FLAMINGO ROAD. ;)

I think that was the case for me and my immediate peers as well. Those who did watch soaps tended to watch DAYS or the ABCD shows. I personally didn't know of anyone else (besides my mother and grandmother) who watched the CBS shows, let alone the ones P&G sponsored.

Frankly, I felt the same way about Greg Sumner's biography that I did about "Capricorn Crude": why is Val writing that book, lol? I had no qualms with Valene finding herself as a writer. IMO, however, she was better suited writing children's and young adult books than family sagas and tell-all biographies. Plus, what could Val possibly have uncovered in researching and writing about Greg that we didn't know already? Unless she were to discover that Greg once killed a man or had a child even he didn't know about, I don't see where that particular story could've gone. Ironically, I think one reason why Mack/Kevin Dobson was added to the show was to make Karen appear less shrill. Whether or not that turned to be the case, however, is a matter of opinion, lol. Douglas Sheehan was another actor whose more natural approach helped separate KNOTS from the other primetime soaps - a modern day Henry Fonda or James Stewart, if you will, a type which you never saw on most other soaps, daytime OR primetime. That's why I hated Ben's exit storyline: not only was it far-fetched, but it also did not play to Sheehan's strengths. Granted, this is just my observation as a viewer, but I sense his boredom was more a struggle with the producers over who Greg Sumner was and what he was supposed to bring to the show. Clearly, the producers wanted Greg to be their answer to J.R. Ewing or Richard Channing, but Devane likely fought that because he saw more dimensions to Greg than they did. His monologue with the late Paul Galveston's portrait, in particular, feels like the show setting him up to be the major antagonist - bigger than even Abby - but in the end, it comes across as a promise that's never quite fulfilled.

There are about as many reasons to despise JFP as a producer as there are actors employed at GH...and there a lot of actors currently employed at GH.

If Clint Ritchie resented Linda Gottlieb for the homophobia storyline, then he isn't alone. I just never believed that Clint Buchanan would be homophobic.

I'll let you and everyone else in on a little secret: I've never loved Lucy. I respect her as an actress and as a television pioneer; however, all her shows, including ILL, have always set my teeth on edge. Even when I was a child, before I had discovered "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in my sixth grade year, and I was just watching one mindless sitcom and drama show after another, I never sat through an entire episode of Lucy, because I just couldn't believe that anyone could be that looney tunes.

LOL!!

How about Flash? ;)

And I watched it only because I'm a fan of Robert Benton's work.

I think the only Billie recast accepted by DAYS' audience was Krista Allen, but Billie had changed so much by that point, she might as well have been playing a brand new character.

I've heard that as well. And wasn't MTS pregnant at the time, and Bill Bell needed some way to write her pregnancy into the show? Or am I getting that mixed up with some other backstage drama, lol?