Ben

On 9/22/2020 at 8:30 AM, InLoveWithSoaps said:

What's the thing with Joel? Is the actor busy elsewhere because Joel should be a main character.

No, they just don’t use him. He should be a main character leading story, but when they do use Joel, they often waste him on offensive religious storylines that sees the character jump around from being a priest, to leaving the priesthood, to going back, to converting to the Anglican Church and becoming a vicar. I don’t think they know what to do with him, which is a shame as Joel is a very viable character. 
 

I’m not sold on Joel/Goldie (or Goldie in general - I am thankful they have gotten rid of that awful red wig that they used to try to pass off as a weave), but I accept them as a couple because I think without Goldie, Joel would be seen even less. He should be hanging out with Brody and Damon, Sylver, mixing it up with them; having more scenes with Warren.

I find the show quite flat at the moment, and the Toby/Celeste plot is awful and dull. Tony/Diane/Edward is also awful and boring, and Edward must be the worst character on the show.

On 9/13/2020 at 6:37 PM, j swift said:

I barely recall any scenes between Cole and Annie. 

They shared loads of scenes - after all, they did live in the same house.

On 9/13/2020 at 6:37 PM, j swift said:

Similarly, Meg, (who was arguably the lead character), seemed to have no defined relationship with Caitlin, (the secondary lead).  I think they were both on the boat that sank, but I don't remember if they liked each other or if Meg judged Caitlin for her baby switch.

Meg was promoted as the lead female, but I think Annie was the lead character. She interacted with the majority of the cast, and had the most storylines. I think that meant Meg was the secondary lead, not Caitlin. Caitlin was on par with Gabi. 
 

Meg and Caitlin weren’t on the sinking ship together. But I have a vague recollection of Meg giving her condolences after Gregory “died”. They were acquaintances at best.
 

On 9/13/2020 at 6:37 PM, j swift said:

Cole seemed to exist on a island all of his own and mostly shared scenes with his wife and mother-in-law. 

Cole shared scenes with Olivia, Caitlin, Gregory, Annie, Bette, AJ, Francesca, Sean, Ricardo, Antonio, Elaine...

A few scenes with Bernie, Hilary, Philip, Gabi, Paula, Tyus, Michael, Casey, Amy, Brad...
 

I do agree with your overall point. In some way it felt believable that not all of the characters would interact given they came from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The Richards were rich and unlikely to want to hang with the Surf Central gang, so it made sense that Cole and Caitlin rarely interacted with Casey, et al. But I don’t think they made the most of the big set pieces, like the earthquake/tsunami, in mixing up the interactions for those moments. 
 

The Richards (who are the equivalent to OLTL’s Viki) were too self absorbed to care about what was going on in the town. No way would Gregory and Olivia give a damn about Vanessa losing her baby, or Casey and Sara getting stranded on an island, or Derek abducting Meg. They only cared about what affected their children or the business/property that Gregory owned. I have a vague reference of Caitlin passing comment on Vanessa and Michael’s break up, mostly in relation to her own life. 
 

On 9/13/2020 at 9:28 PM, Soaplovers said:

On the other hand, I do wish Virginia had been allowed to mix it up with other characters.  She had some interaction with Gabi and Casey..but she was islanded off by herself unless it was with Michael and Vanessa.

Yeah, Virginia had some interaction with the Surf Central gang (Casey, Gabi, Meg, Antonio, Mark...), but the majority of the time it was always with Michael, Vanessa, and Tyus. It would have been great to see her mix it up more regularly with the others, but in what capacity I’m not sure.

On 9/13/2020 at 9:28 PM, Soaplovers said:

And Sean Kanan's character came on in the last few months..and was tested with Sara,

I really disliked that pairing. Jude and Sara had no chemistry and felt so mismatched. 
 

Speaking of Sara: she really should have had more crossover with Annie given what she did to Meg, and Sara was a feisty, confrontational character, so it would have been believable.

4 hours ago, YRBB said:

In any case, all the playlists have been made unavailable/private thanks to someone adding videos to a public playlist despite the very clear instructions not to do so.

I see. I didn’t realise that had happened. People not following the rules - shocker! Such a shame others spoiling it for everyone else.

4 hours ago, YRBB said:

I'm not sure about putting that info (name, website etc) here so openly. The poster has also asked NOT to share the links.

Apologies if I made an error in judgement. I was only asking because I did have access to the links, which wasn’t a lie. 
 

I do get where the poster is coming from, as I had uploaded the entire series of Sunset Beach, as well as a huge collection of Days promos from 1999-2003, which ended up being deleted a few years ago. So, yeah, I get it.

I was wondering if someone could help me out. I don’t keep up with the thread, but I assume some might know of DaysEpisodes (this being there Twitter handle, I think) who had uploaded loads of episodes in private playlist form on YouTube. Anyway, I had subscribed to a few playlists and was in the process of d/l episodes from 2001 when other stuff came up. By the time I re-engaged I had forgotten my login details and which email I had used.
 

If anyone has access to these playlists, could someone PM me the links to 2001 and 2002. I really want to have certain episodes from that era, as it was the last time I properly watched the show.

On 5/16/2020 at 10:21 AM, EricMontreal22 said:

Whose writing did people like the most?  I remember enjoying much of Margaret DePriest's run. 

Yeah, I think I liked most of her work, too. I wasn’t a fan of the teen scene and how they were written. I never really liked Ricardo’s revenge, either, and I thought they wrote Gregory into a corner. 
 

But, everything before that was great. I loved how they gave Virginia a big send off; I liked how alive Francesca felt right up until she was murdered; and I thought they gave Gregory and Annie some brillent material early on in ‘99. I adored Antonio/Gabi. I enjoyed Francesca’s murder, and I also thought the Maria/Tess/Derek stuff was great fun. 
 

I was not a fan of her decision to axe Francesca, Virginia, and Leo. The excuse they used was two many characters confusing the audience, and then they went and added in Tess and Benjy. 
 

Francesca was great. She was good at mixing it up with everybody, who could be a real bitch but also convey some sympathy. She was the sexy villainess that the show never replaced. I get that they wrote Virginia into a corner, but did she really have to be written out? Leo had a lot of potential, especially as they had the option of building up a relationship with Cole. I guess he would have been too good playing against Sean, who was letting the team down by Randy Spelling’s bad acting. 
 

I also didn’t like how they put Vanessa/Michael on the back burner and dropped Tyus to recurring, just because they wrote Virginia out. They could have picked up the aftermath with them and had Vanessa blame Michael for brining Virginia into their lives and not believing her suspicions (she moved on from the rape way too easily), and had Michael wrestle with his guilt and anger towards Vanessa for lying. Tyus could have been there as a shoulder to cry on. There was more they could have done instead of just dropping them.

Apart from all that, I did enjoy most of her run.

On 4/10/2019 at 7:24 AM, te. said:

Say what you will about Passions, but it seems like they mostly left it alone for the first few years and let it do its own thing,

 

Do you think that had something to do with NBC owning Passions outright? Or did they just learn from their mistakes?

9 hours ago, chrisml said:

I'm feeling quite nostalgic for the show. There's something utterly depressing about a show with so much potential that never got the change to right the wrongs.

 

Me too. I think it’s quite sad how the show had a lot stacked against it, tried to be something to everyone, and was cut down before it had a chance to really get going. 

It was an international hit (especially in Europe), and I think it tells you something of its popularity that it recently had a complete rerun on CBS Drama in Poland! It’s sad that the US audience wasn’t there. It’s also sad that NBC kind of short changed it in the end by moving its time slot and not having every state air the show.

I loved how Sunset Beach had real location shooting every week. It really made the location feel like another character, and something that really set it apart from every other US soap. 

42 minutes ago, te. said:

I suspect they wanted a love triangle where neither Leo or Sean were the "bad guys" and actually having Emily conflicted when it was finally unveiled that Amy had schemed to break them up in the first place, but I suspect they knew that Randy would lose that one with the viewers so instead they opted to focus on having two really  bad guys (Amy + her sidekick) and ditched Leo all-together.

That’s how it was being foreshadowed on screen. Leo and Sean became friends, and Leo started getting feelings for Emily in secret. Amy figured out that he liked Emily and wanted his help to break them up, but Leo had morals and did the opposite by becoming a thorn in her side. At this point, Brad was a spare part. 

Sean was the problem, or more specifically, Randy Spelling. He was horrendous in the role. If they had pushed a quad, Emily/Leo would have been the more popular couple for sure. But they wanted Sean/Emily to be end game, so they dumped Leo, and moved Brad into his role by having him catch feelings for Emily. 

And so the boring, tedious quad laboured on and on and on. Amy was whiny, dull and drippy and a pain, while Brad was a simpering sidekick. Sean worked best within his family. The only decent thing about their storyline was Mrs Moreau and Annie getting involved. Amy and Brad had no development throughout their stints. 

Leo had potential, but was dumped en masse at the same time as Francesca, Virginia, and Jimmy, while Tyus was dropped to recurring when they had a head writer change.

1 hour ago, Vee said:

I lost interest when they got rid of Virginia (Dominique Jennings). Insane.

Virginia was insane and so was the decision. I get that the character needed a comeuppance and for everyone to find out about her schemes, but they could have kept her on. I know Dominique Jennings turned down the offer of being recurring.

4 hours ago, j swift said:

 

I may be conflating the dates a bit,

 

I think you are conflating dates. Susan Ward took a break during the later half of 1999, when Sydney Penny was brought in as temp Meg. It was during the point in the story where Derek returned and he and Tess were half plotting. I think it worked fine, as Susan came back for the denouement, so we got to see original Meg work out that Derek was back. I liked Sydney in the role; I thought she brought some much needed energy to the character that was lacking.

Eddie Cibrian left around about the same time, which was after Trey’s real paternity had been revealed. So we did get a resolution of that story. However, Cole was written out in a very jarring way. Gregory was masquerading as Tobias and he had engineered for Cole to flee underground to avoid being caught by Interpol. It was clunky on screen. I thought Caitlin being down and anxious afterwards and being drawn to Jude platonically felt believable. I definitely felt Jude was a Cole replacement. But then the show got cancelled and Caitlin, Sean, and Trey were packed off to London only to return for the final episode along with Cole.

4 hours ago, j swift said:

I still don't know what Tess planned to do with Benjy as he grew up?  Was she never planning on raising her own son?  

I got the impression the plan was for Derek to kill Maria and Ben and claim all of  his money, leaving Tess to raise their son together. Derek didn’t seem the settling down type.

4 hours ago, KMan101 said:

It was a fun show. I hated them killing Francesca off.

I felt the same way about Francesca. She was a fun, energetic character who had chemistry with everyone. She was so good at mixing it up. It was a mistake killing her off and writing Gregory into a corner. Two great characters reduced to nothing. It was worse because they started pushing Amy/Brad, who I didn’t care for and who were weak characters in a repetitive story.

4 hours ago, KMan101 said:

I liked the diversity the show had. I was also disappointed Kelly Hu's character was swiftly written out. 

 

Also felt there was more potential with Leigh Taylor Young's Elaine.

 

But I can also why they axed them all and why maybe they didn't connect with focus groups (still not sure focus groups should be deciding soaps ... lol)

 

 Meant to add in my other post but poor Russell Curry never got much at all to do.

The diversity was great. I can see why they let go of those characters, although I think Rae had some mileage and untapped potential. 

Elaine was wasted. It always felt like she didn’t really do much, and then she left town after discovering her son was alive, which never made sense.

Russell Curry was thrown material his way, but it never amounted to anything substantial. There was his guilt about Jackson Harrison’s death that went nowhere. There was his unrequited love for Vanessa that rendered him inactive. They probably could have pushed more of a connection between Tyus and Vanessa due to the baby and have him step up more in opposition to Michael. The story had a lot of depth that wasn’t really mined, and you could see that in how they handled the aftermath of Virginia being sectioned with Michael and Vanessa being  put on the backburner and the focus being on her lying. There was a lot of blame that could have been proportioned out to Michael as well that was avoided.

One thing I have wondered is if introducing Mrs Moreau and making voodoo quite a prominent plot device throughout 98-99 might have turned away viewers given how Christian and conservative America can be?

19 minutes ago, pdm1974 said:

For those of you who watched throughout the show's run, do you think the addition of "traditional" families came too late or did it take away from the show (by making it TOO traditional then)?

I don’t think adding traditional family units took anything away from the show, but I don’t think they did it in the right way. They always had the complicated Richards family which tied in nicely with the Deschanels. I’m not too sure Gordon Thompson was the right choice to play AJ, but he was a natural fit in expanding the family (I think Leo was a good choice, too, who had potential).

The Torres family was a great addition and they really felt like a family unit. Antonio, Carmen, and Maria was excellent in giving Ricardo some much needed depth, and they felt like natural additions.

We still had the Surf Central family which was there throughout the show’s run. I think where they went wrong was introducing Meg’s family. I liked Sara, but I don’t think Hank and Joan were needed as regulars, who felt very out of place most of the time. They were also bland and didn’t interact with anyone. They should have only ever have popped up for events. Instead, I think they missed a trick not introducing Emily’s father when they decided Bette needed some family. He could have bought the Waffle Shop instead of Hank & Joan. 

All in all, I don’t think the show was conceived with having multiple traditional family units in mind, and that showed with how many characters they had where you couldn’t imagine bringing in parents as regulars because what would you do with them? It was a young show trying to appeal to the traditional US soap audience. 

On 3/11/2019 at 8:25 AM, slick jones said:

Lorenzo Martinez   Never Seen (father Gabi)

Actually, Gabi’s father was seen, briefly in her hallucination on Terror Island. He was clutching her doll and being creepy. So, you have an actor to find!

On 7/6/2018 at 2:47 AM, John said:

Ok why were the roles of Tiffany, Caitlin and Cole recast

 

Was Kelly Hu, Niick Stabile, Leigh Taylor Young & Laura Harring Fired?

The characters played by Kelly Hu, Leigh Taylor Young, Laura Harring, and Adrienne Frantz didn’t test well with focus groups, which is why their characters were let go. Tiffany was recast with Jennifer Blanco simply to play out the storyline - she appeared in a recurring capacity with a limited number of episodes. 

Adrienne Frantz was happy to leave as she said at the time she was forced to cut her hair short which she found traumatic. 

Mark was a popular character, but I think they knew they were bringing in Antonio (a move to be more traditional by having families) and he kind of took Mark’s place in the Surf Central family and as Gabi’s love interest. It also gave Derek’s killing spree some gravitas by killing off a major character instead of a load of nobodies.

Cole was recast because Ashley Hamilton wasn’t working in the role and not clicking with the audience. Best decision they made signing up Eddie Cibrian. 

Caitlin remains a mystery. Some say Vanessa Dorman was demanding more money; some say she was difficult to work with; some say she wasn’t “hot” enough. Kam Heskin came in and Caitlin’s IQ dropped significantly...

9 hours ago, Khan said:

SUNSET BEACH tried everything and then some to get more people watching.

Wasn’t the show going against the tide in the latter part of ‘99? Changing time slot, not airing in some states, airing at 3am in some states, etc? 

Some promos I really liked. From Australian soap Neighbours

Home and Away

Sunset Beach

They also did the ‘Does Your Mamma Know You’re Watching?’ campaign in 1998. Anyone remember those promos?

I haven't been here for so long! Don't know if I'll be back on a regular basis...

Just really wanted to give Carl a different perspective, as I don't really agree with Ed on many points.

I loved the Fake Dee story. Sure, I was super disappointed that she wasn't the real Dee, but I really loved the drama and the writing for everyone involved; it also helped give the awful surrogacy story some purpose and depth. There were actual cliffhangers and real shocks, something that I thought Neighbours had forgotten how to do. Madeleine West really infused depth and nuance to her performances, which made watching her all the more easy. It was a melodramatic story, but I feel like it worked. Not everyone was going to like it. Clearly it's been a success seeing as the ratings are up in both the UK and Australia.

I didn't like want they did to Sindi and Stu, who broke up off screen. They could have explained this more, but instead Sindi was treated as a plot device.

The episode that Sonya watched Toadie sleep with Fake Dee via Skype was shocking and surprising. The show hasn't  delivered that kind of episode for a long time. The acting has really improved, too. Scott McGregor (Mark) has really come into his own playing Mark's grief. I loved the scene where he told little Nell about his baby's death; it was so emotional and sad. So glad they didn't shy away from writing this; it showed maturity in the writing that Neighbours hasn't had for many years.

I don't feel the show relies too heavily on the past. I guess it just feels like that now with Dee's return and the Tanaka twins paternity being linked to a 1980s story. They reference and use the past brilliantly, I think, which shows good continuity.

I think the actor playing Leo can be ropey. He's OK with general material, but ask him to emote and he's not so good. David is better, but his coming out story is so under played. Kim's actor is the worst I ever seen. I don't care about who's their daddy, or the mess they've made of connecting them to the past in such a way that messes with continuity. Paul doesn't need any more children. They could recast the ones he has.

Love Aaron. He has so much potential, but it's wasted. It's like they can't see past him being gay, so he doesn't get much to do. I don't mind him being a social media manager, as it's a modern profession. He's also Toadie's legal assistant, and I feel that works, too, minus any reality of Aaron not having any qualifications to be a legal assistant. I can suspend by disbelief with that one.

Love Tyler, too. I also love his pairing with Piper. I'm a sucker for a good romance story, and theirs worked for me. They are a believable couple. He does need more to do outside of Piper, though.

Andrew Morley (Jack) is mediocre. He has chosen to play Jack in such a dull way, with no charisma at all. His acting choices are off the mark. Paige is one of my favourite characters, but she's stuck in this Jack story, wanting a man who treats her badly. Jack is a terrible character with no redeeming qualities. He relies on other people making the decisions for him. 

So NZ is a week behind Aus/UK.

Not just what Nick did to him, but he also battled depression last year after Kate's murder, so you would think he'd have more empathy for those with mental health issues. I think it shows underneath all the excuses and reasons for his behaviour, he's actually not a very nice person at all. I can't wait until everyone finds out what he did to Steph. I was disappointed she didn't want Lucas/Vanessa to know that she wasn't having a psychotic break after all, something I would have thought she would have been more concerned about.

I loved the Shay twist, too. I didn't see it coming at all. I'm interested to see where they go with this story.

I don't know why they always burn through these types of characters so quickly (except for the Braxtons, who they continue to milk to death). Do you think killing her off was premature? It always seems to be their go-to plot of choice.

That's exactly how it'll all go down. This Jordan story has failure/predictability written all over it. I really don't get why Denise is such a difficult character to write for? DTC puts more effort into Kim than he does Denise.

Thanks Carl. I stopped coming here b/c I got busy, dropped B&B (I couldn't take any more of the awful Steffy/Liam/Ivy/Wyatt mess, or the equally bad Ridge/Caroline/Thomas garbage), and the soaps became mediocre/started to really suck, so I had nothing to contribute. I did miss you guys though. I'm loving Neighbours ATM, and will try to post more, even if it's just to criticise EE and ED (although, ED is in a more healthier place than EE). LOL

I really hope Jay's major story is not going to involve a love interest. I have a feeling it isn't going to be as major as the hype suggests.

They were silly episodes. The whole stunt was laughable. Mick was scared of water and can barely swim, but he manages to dive down and rescue both Shirley and Dean like he's been swimming all his life, and no-one bats an eye; Buster randomly and pointlessly jumps in, instead of just helping Mick out of the water; Linda's dress got so dirty it looked like she had been crawling through the mud, despite her staying glued to the same spot throughout. I hate how badly plotted the Mick/Shirley reunion has been, and how he's already calling her 'Mum'. The wedding was kinda sweet, but it was ridiculous how Mick changed into the pink bath robe - what was that even doing there? And all the guests stayed glued to their seats despite the drama unfolding directly outside. All of it was so hollow.

I haven't watched for a while, but did see one NYD episode, and was surprised to see Glenda back. Love Glynis Barber. Love Glenda. The show (and Ronnie) needs someone like Glenda. But of course EE disappoints. Glenda makes an unnecessary one-ep guest appearance, yet we were subjected to 3 months of the awful Elaine. And Jack's back for no real reason, only to disappear again, only he'll be back, b/c Scott Maslan is permanent. Why can't they pace story properly on this show?

I have nothing to add to the mess that was Mick/Dean/Shirley or the disappointing wedding. NBA has already said it.

Why is Sharon so pathetically weak? What's with the awful writing for her and Gavin? She texts him she misses him, too, complete with kisses, then acts petrified when he randomly shows up?! She shouldn't want anything to do with him; she certainly shouldn't be sending sweet texts to the man she's literally just met, whom she knows is a nasty piece of work. What an awfully silly character Sharon has turned in to.

Also, how much more of the awful, tedious, repetitive Bobby/Ian/Jane story are we going to be subjected to?

The only positive thing on the show is Denise (and possibly Shabnam bonding with Jade, but that could easily get over shadowed by the mess around it), and she's stuck in a possibly dead-end story. Don Gilet (Lucas) is contracted to Holby City, and while both shows are with the BBC, thus allowing him to do double duty for guest appearances, I can't see this going anywhere important due to that fact. Plus, I think they've pulled Lucas out of the woodwork just b/c they don't know what to do with Denise.

Is anyone still watching Neighbours?

I think it improved a lot late last year. Steph's story was awesome, and played brilliantly by Carla Bonner. Paul gaslighting her the way he did has to be the worst thing he's ever done. It was such an unnecessary act of cruelty and horror. So glad he lost everything in the finale. Having Shay revealed as a plant all along was such a good twist, and a good use of recent history.

That's a blow to the show. From what little I recently saw, the show had improved a little. Marilyn's amnesia story was quite engaging, even if there was missed opportunities in not bringing back past characters for the story, and Charlotte's story seemed interesting, and reminded me of Josie Russell's intro back when Dan Bennett was in charge.

Totally echo everything you said. But...

BIB: ED likes to avoid that kind of thing these days. I think that's why a lot of HF families fail, b/c they are never allowed to be the rich, scandalous characters they need to be. The Whites are better than the Maceys in that respect, but no where near the level of rich and scandalous as they should be. By scandalous, I mean the inter-family skeletons kind. So, I don't have faith that Sadie would be written like she should be.

I haven't been following the show as much lately. I watched for the Shabnam/Kush story, which was brilliantly acted, but I just couldn't stomach the thought of sitting through Carter-centric episodes.

So, it turns out Babe is part of a baby black market, and Mick calls Shirley 'Mum', and Babe is offered a place to stay.

What did people make of all that? Was it the right time for Mick to forgive Shirley? Babe's secret sounds random, and why did they invite her stay after learning such a thing? All sounds like typical Carter theatrics. I wish they would get rid of Babe.

Omigod! Nikhil is returning! So happy about this. He was always the best Sharma family member - and the hottest.

I bet it's not permanent, so I hope for a reasonably long guest stint. I don't want it to be for one or two episodes like with Paul.

Back to the show: Really hated that Robert was behind the set-up. 1. It was predictable to the point a blind person could see it coming; 2. It would have been so much better to have Robert acting out of compassion instead of selfishness and ruthlessness. The character needed to be seen doing something decent, like helping Lawrence, not b/c it would benefit himself, but b/c it was the right thing to do. Robert could have earned Lawrence's gratitude the honest way, instead of standing on yet more deception that when revealed will have him kicked to the curb, again. Boring. ED really needs to start remembering the characters again, instead of being tempted by the lure of sensational plotting.

Carl, I think you're right about Vincent/Ronnie. Sadly, I think Vincent's whole character was better conceived on paper than he is on screen. Same with Claudette, who feels like she was cast before she was fully conceived. I just find Vincent so dull.

I've mentioned the Alice band before. It's super annoying. It's such a 90s thing.

The writing for Paul and Les could be so much better. It's just so hollow. The whole story is a drag (no pun intended!).

I'm with Bright Eyes: the more they talk about his secret, the more I'm literally speculating that Les is either a crossdresser, or is the proposed transgender character who has yet to transition. I really hope it isn't the latter; that would be such a stereotype, and it really wouldn't do the story justice at all. I think Les is one of the worst characters to ever grace the show, especially in the acting department.

The majority of DTC's new characters have been disappointments. Aleks was the best, and he got rid of him for no good reason.

A rare episode from 1998, when Marilyn, Irene, Selina and Steven filmed in England for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLLHPmGYpfk