Khan

The subject matter was certainly grittier. Angela Lansbury's non-MSW TV projects tended to be more sentimental fare, with her roles in "Lace" and "Rage of Angels: The Story Continues" being possible exceptions.

LOL!! But seriously. It's one thing to leave the show, but to drop out of previously scheduled public events, and on very short notice? Either there's something in Mesure's private life (such as a sick loved one) that needed attending to ASAP, or yet another actor has f'ed up royally BTS. Either way, I'm inclined to think Chris McKenna's just filling in to finish out the storyline and send the character to his watery grave (or, worse, to New Jersey).

By my count, Jessica Fletcher traveled to New Orleans four times; and out of those four, Olivia Cole ("Roots," "The Women of Brewster Place") appeared in three - "Jazz Beat," "Judge Not" and "Big Easy Murder" - as essentially the same character, lol. The music and TV shows are about the only things that I miss about the '80's, lol.

Don't get me wrong, there were instances when incorporating trends into the storytelling actually worked for a soap. For example: when DAYS went all in with the MTV/"Miami Vice" stuff during the run-and-gun '80's. Al Rabin and Shelley Curtis did phenomenal work producing those moments, often outdoing GH, which thought anything could be made better if you edit it like "Saturday Night's Main Event."

Okay, now THAT...? Has me feeling more than a little suspicious, lol.

I agree. Once ratings for AW and TD fell, it was curtains for the NBCD lineup. I don't think NBC was all that invested in TEXAS or GENERATIONS - Brandon Tartikoff might've been high on the latter show, but I don't think anyone else at the network was. Whatever enthusiasm they might've had for SaBa likely evaporated in the wake of all those lawsuits; PASSIONS only ran for as long as it did, IMO, because they were paying JER through their noses and they needed something to fill that time slot; and once SuBe proved to be a non-starter, they pretty much washed their hands of that show, too. The only real successes they've had post-1970's were courtesy of DAYS, which had a resurgence in the next decade. But, as you've said, @kalbir, it all fell apart toward the end; and in the meantime, DAYS turned itself into a completely different show (and would again during the JER era). People like Brian Frons never understand that emulating whatever is "hot" atm just makes you look pathetic and like a poseur. Don't ask AMC to copy whatever SATC is doing, because if viewers want to watch SATC, then that's what they'll watch (God help 'em). Just let AMC be AMC, and the viewers will come.

Well, you can't say Ann Marcus didn't do all she could to save the show, lol. I always feel a twinge of sadness whenever I watch Larry Auerbach walking through the LOL studio for what might have been the last time. He had been an integral part of the show for so many years, through good times and bad. Next to Audrey Peters/Vanessa, he might've been LOL's most consistent, stabilizing "voice."

I realize you can't judge a series from one promo, but this new series feels a little too "Saved by the Bell: the New Class" to me.

Which is tragic, because, for many years, ABC and CBS appeared to be very invested in their soaps. More so, I would say, than NBC, whose interest, IMO, was half-hearted.

Frankly, I think Brennan is a dead-end character and a waste of any actor's time. But, hey, if it helps Chris McKenna get a few paychecks under his belt....!

I'd say EON was the most salvageable at the end of its' run, if only b/c the show was still recognizable. All it might've needed was a stronger HW (or the return of Henry Slesar).

It's funny how some troll on YouTube called MVJ a "bootlicker" and a sellout when YT is nothing BUT bootlickers and sellouts, lol.

They weren't particularly kind to Lucille Wall and her voice either. In Wall's case, however, it's really not her fault. The quality of whatever videotape they had access to for the segment distorted her voice something awful.

The writers on GH should read and attend more plays and learn what drama itself is all about. And the lady in that thumbnail looks very, very surprised, lol. Oh, MST3K was so merciless toward those early GH episodes, lol.

I agree. People tend to forget that every work is a product of its' time. If you look at anything that was written or produced even 10 years ago through the lens of 2024/2025, it's not going to hold up well, because norms and attitudes are always in flux. I still remember when I showed my friends in NYC "The Philadelphia Story," and they objected right away to the opening scene where Cary Grant shoves Katharine Hepburn to the ground by her face after she breaks one of his golf clubs. "You have to remember that this was 1940," I said, "and back then, misogyny just wasn't on a lot of people's radars. "Besides, the scene needed a 'button,' and how else was Dexter supposed to respond to Tracy breaking his golf club? Any other ending to that scene would've been anticlimactic." Personally, I would feel more outraged if the producers of this reboot decided to go the Shonda Rhimes/"Bridgerton" route and have their cast be more racially and ethnically diverse, just so someone could make some points about inclusivity. It'd look really silly and too "try hard," for example, to have a Charles Ingalls who's Asian, married to a Caroline who's Black, with no one in Walnut Grove acknowledging their biracial marriage or "Blasian" children.

Not surprised, lol.

Unfortunately, I suspect "Taylor Sheridan" is just what the team in charge is going for. It's been years since I've watched anything on Netflix, and that's down to the same issue I have with many streamers: quantity over (good) quality. So much of what gets produced today is just so dreary to me. Most of it is heavy, and plodding, and in those cases when the shows have anything to do with our military, they're also patriotic to the point of becoming propaganda. I've kind of resigned myself to watching classic TV I can find on Pluto. For sure, there are aspects of the novels that feel very "pro-whites," but I think that's to be expected, given how little white people still knew or understood about non-Caucasians in general when the books were first published. But do I think Laura Ingalls Wilder was trying to indoctrinate school children and others into white supremacy, like Thomas Dixon, Jr., who wrote the novel upon which "The Birth of a Nation" was based? Frankly, I think she was just telling (fictionalized) stories from her childhood.

I think Douglas Marland wanted to bring back Chuckie, but as Eileen Fulton has famously said, "Nancy Hughes buried Chuckie - and when Nancy Hughes buries someone, they STAY buried!". I didn't realize until earlier this afternoon that the young lady who played Kate also played the heroine in the 1984 slasher film, "Scream for Help," co-starring none other than Marie Masters as her cuckolded mother, lol!

Yeah, that never works with me, lol. I'm not going to like Leo now just because Marlena has become his f*g hag. If anything, her friendship with Leo makes me question Marlena's sanity. (Y'all sure she ain't really one of the clones, lol?) At this point, I'll be happy just to see them "cancel" "Body & Soul." W.E.B. DuBois' ghost is still crying salty tears over what that "story" has reduced Abe to.

They all discover that they, their show and even DAYS itself are all part of Tommy Westphall's imagination. But seriously, who gives a crap?

I can't remember who said it - maybe it was someone on this board? - but whoever said it was correct: DALLAS epitomized the first Reagan administration and the ascendance to wealth; and DYNASTY epitomized the second, with the consolidation of it.

I truly wish someone would "reboot" this damn show, take some characters and relocate them to the nearby town of Medford, where they can form relationships with characters who aren't related to them. Salem has become so incestuous, it's a wonder there aren't any albino children and grandchildren running around.

Just one of the many dangers you run into when you live in a town where everyone is related to everyone else, lol.

Just imagine if, for example, Joyce had been the one to learn about Scott Eldridge's existence. Imagine, too, if Dan still had been alive during Steve and Betsy's romance. I think Dan would have been LIVID to see his daughter involved with someone who was several years older and had a sketchy past. That could have caused conflict between him and Kim, who might have shared Dan's point of view, but who also felt that interfering would only result in driving Betsy further away.

I'd definitely check out the first 10 or so (B&W) seasons, along with whatever's out there from the original radio show. As I've said before, "Gunsmoke," in those years, was very much a western for adults (and I say that as someone who generally doesn't like watching westerns, lol). Very character-driven, and very hard-hitting, too. I think part of my problem with LHOTP - aside from Michael Landon's penchant for maudlin, unearned sentimentality - is that the novels they're based on had a harsher, more clear-eyed view of "prairie life." At least, that's how the novels, and Laura Ingalls Wilder's writing, came across to me when I read them as a kid. Reading "The Long Winter" in particular made me very glad I was growing up in the 20th century, and not the 19th, lol.