bongobong

Finn: Carter did you bang my wif......fi router over? The internet isn't working.

Did the show ever run a chemistry test for Brooke & Trevor? Or would that have been too much like daytime's version of Al Bundy hooking with Marcy Darcy?

What a fun introduction for Darcy. The scenes where Dylan introduced her mom to Deacon were a hoot. Dylan's reaction to her mom flirting with her boss was priceless. Sydney Bullock was amazing: she effortlessly conveyed joy to mortification to pretending not to be mortified without saying a word.

@EricMontreal22 Thanks for the scoop on how strongly against Mitchell was on playing the heavy in that story. I do think placating him hurt the story, and he robbed himself of having one last memorable storyline on the show. You are absolutely right that the story is forgotten compared to the Bianca's coming out, and IMO its mainly due to Michael being such a forgettable character played by a just OK actor. I get that the point was making him an everyman, but he was just way too generic. I watched the bulk of that story and can't name one of of his character traits. Does athletic count? As a more casual viewer, I admit to not remembering a ton of McTavish's 1998 stint. That could be why I associate Broderick more with the DAYS aping. The 2 stories I associate with being the DAYSiest were both Broderick's: Noah/Julia/Taylor and the show's final story, Project Orpheus, that brought back Dixie, Stuart and some other(s?) back from the dead. Wasn't OLTL's last big story another DAYS plot (John/Roman)? Sorry to go off topic, but it's sad that 2 once powerhouses went off that way. @DRW50 You aren't wrong about your McTavish assessment. I do think she was more skilled at pushing the network's worst instincts of copycatting back, often by offering up other bad ideas, albeit more fitting to AMC. At least her two worst received stories (that I recall) The Unabortion and Zarf were original. There's no defending the former. Being generous you can say it involved the show's history, but I don't want to be generous:) As for the latter, it was pretty badly executed. But I will give her credit for writing the last soap story told that was actually ahead of its time.

I felt the tone & vibe were awry for most of the late-90s until Megan came back in '03. Some good casting choices, but it didn't really gel together. It felt like a glossier GL/AW hybrid with more money behind it than AMC. I know you're a fan a Behr, but I think Broderick would have stood a better chance of succeeding if she had a stronger EP from the get-go. After she got rid of the McTavish, the target was squarely on Behr's back as the ratings kept falling, making it harder for her to challenge the network's notes. I don't think she was particularly skilled at managing talent either. A more skilled producer probably could have convinced James Mitchell that having Palmer come around at the end of the gay teacher storyline would have had more of an impact than Opal of all people learning to accept her husband's step-grandson's gay teacher. Plus the way the whole Collins/Kiberd situation was handled. And of course, when she was the network executive herself she told the press that its best performing show at the time (OLTL) was unwatchable...

Can't wait to see this blow up in Katie's face when Maggie Tawny Shauna Mrs. Dylan hooks up with Bill!

Anyone else notice that RJ & Katie switched personalities since she got blasted at Eric's house? For the past few weeks RJ has been mainly focused on business. He was civil to Will (didn't make a scene at Bikini), collaborative at work (giving props Zende in his pitch), and didn't even try to come onto Electra after her encounter with Will. Meanwhile, Katie has spent her time obsessing over Will's love life while being rude, classist, and hypocritical towards Dylan. I don't mind characters I like being unlikable for stretches, but the writing has been awful. Are we going to have a second-3 day stretch this month of Katie repetitively unloading on Dylan for no reason? Tom is a great actress, but she isn't selling this. Katie hating Dylan for her son could work, but only if it's Katie being Katie, not cosplaying Stephanie. Save the nastiness until there's something concrete to confront her with. Having her bite her tongue during a terse encounter with Dylan then blasting her to Bill, would have worked so much better.

Wow, a 50% rise in W18-49 is probably a record for Bold. It'll be interesting to see if it can retain most of that for the next week, or if this was a one-week wonder like GH had last year.

I'm enjoying the Carter/Steffy drunken hookup. Steffy has been doing nothing but bossing people around or occasionally dealing with psychos for 5 years now, so it's nice to have her in a scandalous story for a change. Pure speculation on my part, but I suspect Carter was chosen at the last minute to do the deed, after they finished shooting the scenes in Monaco. Deacon was in a bad place after the rejected proposal and Will (Steffy's neighbor) has been drunk all summer.... I wonder if Bell thought about really pushing the envelope but settled on the safer choice. Going back a bit, Katie blasting Dylan would have worked better if it happened right after her last confrontation with Brooke. Katie is helicopter parent who probably stops by regularly to do Will's laundry & cut his toenails. It's not believable that she didn't make an effort to meet the rando that was living at his place for months.

Thanks for the tag! Wild to see Brooke tarted up a bit while Erica is dressed for PTA meeting. Barr looks great but buying her as a college student is a tough ask. Palmer's scenes wouldn't feel out of place on Passions. This was definitely the creepy widower fixated on blond daughter template used by both JER for Allistar/Sheridan on Passions and Bell for Bill Sr/Caroline on B&B.

Good for Bold. If it pulls this off it'll be the first show to outright beat Y&R for a season in this demo since GH won 2002/03.

I hear you, but Katie is a people pleaser trying to mitigate the damage from her 21-year-old son punching her 80-year-old brother-in-law. She also has more impulse control than Brooke, so I like that she didn't take the bait (yet!) when Brooke threw her tantrum trying to make Eric getting punched all about her.

Not gonna lie, seeing that she was only 2 years older than Headley was a shocker (if the IMDB '62 DOB is correct). I'd say it was a mixed bag. OLTL recast Rachel very quickly after the original actress left, and added RJ and Rachel's love interest the year before. GH had to deal with the death of Rosalind Cash. But it seemed like Labine kept trying to make Justus work even though he was a dud character badly cast with the Cosby show guy. Depressing '95 GH for sure would have benefited from using Keisha more. She was played by a very likeable actress, and the only young woman not in a dreary storyline. Being tied to pre-brain injury Jason was a path to nowhere back then though. Thanks, I completely forgot she was on this show! I didn't pay much attention to AMC for a few years after mid '96. I thought it started the year great then just got worse as it went on (though TBF it might have gotten better after I bolted). It's crazy Amelia Marshall didn't get more work, she's an excellent actress. She made that one-note role of Liz on Passions more memorable than it had any right to be.

This week has been the most entertaining since the Logan show fallout by a long shot. Heather Tom was excellent today in her scenes with Morrow & later at the viper's nest. I say this as someone who likes Hope, and Electra is easily my least favorite character, but haven't minded the last few weeks at all. There were some great moments in the 2-month period post-Sheila finding out about the affair and the Hope reveal. But for every Brooke/Katie confrontation or fun Wyatt scene there were 10x as many repetitive scenes of Hope being guilt ridden while staring into the camera like a deer in the headlights. It's been a welcomed reprieve from that while checking in with Sheila, Finn, Carter & Daphne.

Do McTavish or the network execs mention losing Black viewers in their ratings discussions? If Google is to be believed, Shari Headley & Tonya Pinkins were both in the W18-34 demo themselves in late '94/early '95 when they left the show. As I recall, they weren't replaced with other Black actresses and only an increasingly cartoonish Taylor recast remained on the canvas as a regular. Meanwhile, Y&R had the most popular set of Black characters ever on soaps at that time. I think it's entirely plausible that a big contributing factor in AMC's demo troubles, which started in '95, was that a lot of young Black viewers who used to watch the first 1/2 hour of Y&R before turning to ABC, started watching the full show.