Faulkner

Yeah, OLTL’s theme/opening also felt reminiscent of the classic ‘80s theme in a subtle way. It felt very in keeping with the show and its identity.

Grant Goodeve 🇺🇸

I always hated that ER-style AW opening. I remember the soap press gushing about how sleek and modern it was, but like you all said, it’s pretty generic. And cold. The music sounds right out of a stock library. (There were so many cheap, ugly, nondescript daytime openings in the late ‘90s and into the ‘00s.) Say what you will about that stylized Crystal Gayle/Gary Morris opening: it was memorable and distinctive. I suppose AW was in its do-or-die stages after so many years of neglect, and JFP has a good way of selling her shallow visions to upper management by using reference points (the big NBC primetime hit of the day) that will resonate with them.

The time for Sally/Nick was when Sally was feuding with Phyllis. This “romance” is a several days late and dollars short.

Boss from Thailand 🇹🇭

Looks like something Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos would produce…

Good to know…

Alcaraz is still injured and won’t be able to play at the Australian Open.

One of the best mother-daughter pairs on soaps. Of course none of the dialogue at the end (“Look at your coloring”) would have worked with RC in the role.

The gay porn one seems to have done OK. OUTTV has renewed it. It’s sad that it’s on such a niche outlet. Most people are signed up to too many streaming services already. ($3.99 a month isn’t bad, though. It’s just hard for these programs to find audiences.) Drag Race fans are LIVID about RPDR being cut to an hour and WeHo getting sandwiched between it and Untucked.

And a guy who isn’t that appealing, even on a superficial level. But the Dallas cast were more willing to share their flaws, which I appreciated. The likes of Reichen and Mike Ruiz on the original A-List were too prissy and vain to share the darker parts of their lives, and what they did show (mostly their “professional” lives—the quotes are for Reichen as MR is a legit photographer) wasn’t compelling enough. I don’t know if a Housewives-style all-gay-male reality series would ever be embraced. There has to be a greater concept behind the show for it to work, à la Drag Race. Otherwise, these series are DOA. Having Todrick involved is especially a no-no unless he’s getting dragged left and right.

Haha, sorry to pigeonhole you LOL. I just hate seeing these stunningly gorgeous black men (as a black man myself) go by unnoticed. 😝

Sterling in Los Angeles 🇺🇸 @Gray Bunny @Taoboi

What!??

I’m all for some messy gays for entertainment purposes (à la the best of Drag Race and Untucked), but few of the gay-focused reality series have really worked, partially because the group dynamics felt forced and inauthentic. The A-List and Fire Island shows were snoozes (although A-List Dallas had potential). Prince Charming was unbelievably sanitized for respectability politics. Yes, we know reality TV is fake, but this group feels particularly manufactured.

In the words of Gia Gunn: Um, ladies?

Wow, he does look a lot like current-day MEK. Which isn’t a bad thing these days.

DZ and Billy Miller are such weird outliers. (Although BM was technically playing Jason then, so you can lump him in with Burton.) I do remember The Dante Show well. It’s funny that Mo was still No. 1 during nearly the entirety of Carlivati’s run.

Hugo from France 🇫🇷

I was thinking about that the other day: how dumb it was for B&B to name a new character after an iconic figure in the show’s history whose portrayer passed away. Brad is so thoughtless. It would be like Y&R naming some random character “Katherine Chancellor.”

I like Sally and think CH is a solid talent, but she’s becoming another Chelsea. Just throwing whatever story they can at her, and this “Who’s the Daddy?” story is beyond desperate. Her type of character used to be the bread and butter for these shows. A social-climbing go-getter. Totally agree on the clunky, expository dialogue. I get that soaps often spell things out in a blunt way to catch viewers up, but the clunkiness of dialogue feels part and parcel to the whole current vision for the show.