Wendy

Rest in peace to Eric Preven. Sixty-two is so young to die! That ending was nice...until Paul Rauch had to ruin it.

I knew Ray Wise looked familiar (beyond How I Met Your Mother, which I also watched, where he replaced Eric Braeden!).

The Days spoiler thread details a casting rumor, and that may tie into the discussion here. If true, it would surprise me, but time rolls on.

Gotta disagree. The possession is what turned Days into an unserious circus. Sure, it got eyeballs, but it also eroded the show's basis in reality. The car wreck effect. And in the long run, those viewers only stayed to see how stupid things could get. But that was never sustainable, and people drifted away. The flashbacks shown told me the exact opposite. Early Days WAS more like AMC, small town families with relationship/moral dramas and crises, not riffing on The Exorcist. The one reason I was fine with James Reilly getting his own show full of schlock was the fact that he couldn't shred every last vestige of Days' roots. And it showed schlock only went so far. Passions, which WAS complete absurdity, obviously couldn't sustain itself with almost zero reality. As for the DiMeras, they worked fine when they would come to town, cause drama/trouble, then split. But trying to integrate them as a core family is ridiculous. Ship them all the hell out, then create a new villain - who won't become part of Salem society.

Hell NO. Time to let Stefano DiMera GO and let poor Joe Mascolo rest in peace. This show needs a new villain. Says a lot that TPTB keep the Stefano vibe going because there is not enough creativity or talent to create a new big bad villain.

Another thing, too, is something Dan Rather touched upon in a Substack e-mail: Most US presidents are motivated to get the government going so as to not let Americans suffer. But Trump is NOT a normal POTUS. He THRIVES on hurting others. He's HAPPY to make people suffer. So there would be absolutely no sense of urgency from him to reopen as long as his enemies feel the hurt. If politics were perfect, yeah...I'd be all for keeping the government closed. But with the hand this country dealt itself - thanks to low-info and/or selfish voters - there's really no winning. The only question, once it opens back up, is how long Johnson will try to not seat the Arizona House member who is #218 in order to release the Epstein files. That's still in play, and I bet that IS one thing that scares Donnie schittless.

Well, as I said, the episode has SF's Laura, with scenes with father-in-law Tom Horton and her story with Tom's sons Bill and Mickey, if you're interested!

If anyone is at all interested in seeing young Susan Flannery as Dr. Laura Horton on Days of Our Lives, today's episode on Peacock features many flashbacks due to the 60th Anniversary (which was actually on Saturday the 8th) with her and other Hortons. Nice to see so many vintage scenes and in color!

And in another bit of shocking news (but in sort of a miraculous good way - I know, so rare!), SCOTUS has denied Kim Davis' (you know, the Christian married multiple times to three different men that denied gay couples marriage licenses because of her belief in the "sanctity of marriage"!) request to abolish same-sex marriage. Early Christmas miracle? Whatever it is, I'm stunned - this time - that SCOTUS did the right thing.

It sucks the Dems broke - although Rethuglican in Dem clothing John Fetterman was no surprise - but frankly, I don't see where Dems had much choice, what with talk of abolishing the filibuster and also talk of obliterating the ACA. (Yes, I know the GOP is trying to ruin health care regardless, but losing the ACA entirely would be catastrophic for millions of Americans!) This is why one party controlling everything - well, when the party is MAGA - is never a good idea. Holding the line is fabulous in theory, but when you have a leader and a party that spits on norms and thinks nothing of ruining lives, there is only so much Dems NOT IN POWER can do, realistically.

Criminals stick together. How sweet. Martha Byrne disgusts me.

Knew this guy looked familiar!

Swamp Baby Georgia Brady - stillborn ON SCREEN - with Krista Allen's Billie even using the baby's remains as a way to blame Hope for the baby's death (with Billie having those remains IN A SUITCASE - who DOES THAT?!) suddenly shows up as a young adult named Chelsea. And no. She was dead. But James Reilly and/or Tom Langan, who had some grudge against Bo/Hope and their family with Shawn (Douglas), had the need to even the playing field for Reilly's Bo/Billie. Ridiculous and insulting.

Per NBC's site, Mango Mussolini is blaming all the GOP losses on the shutdown. LOL! Isn't this asswipe POTUS? (Regrettably, I might add.) HE can end it at any point. So, in a sense, Donnie Depends is blaming himself, then? I can get on board there. It would be the first and only time I'd agree with Felon 34 on anything!

Some stooge is on NBC now, bleating how Trump has lowered inflation, while trying to downplay the big blue wins tonight. Whoops, not cable, it's NBC proper. Explains everything. Network that made Trump a reality star.

Yeah, Soap Digest had an article about Suzanne Rogers' cancer battle, and it detailed how both Paul Telfer and Linsey Godfrey and another dear friend came through for her. Very sweet, especially since - as the article made a note to remind people of - Linsey Godfrey is also a cancer survivor. DAYS Star Suzanne Rogers Opens Up About Cancer Diagnosis - Soap Opera Digest

Wasn't it Samantha Eggar who was first cast as Pamela Capwell Conrad on Santa Barbara, but then she could not handle the pace of daytime and dropped out? Either way, may she rest in peace. A bit of trivia: Eggar's daughter is actress Jenna Stern, who has played multiple guest roles across the Law & Order franchise over the years.

My older brothers as kids loved Kiss (I like a few songs of theirs, too.). May Ace Frehley rest in peace. Tough year for rock musicians. First Ozzy, now Ace.

The ironic thing is, Chip Mayer was married to one of the Kelly Capwell actresses in real life - Eileen Davidson (in the 1980s, her first husband), who obviously was the final Kelly, and she was already divorced from Mayer before taking over that role.

Yes, Sophia was involved with younger TJ, played by the late Chip Mayer. And so was Kelly, around the same time. Whole thing seemed sort of sleazy, to me. Once Carrington Garland was cast as Kelly, the whole thing with TJ seemed to be swept under a rug. Best place for it.

Well, Sophia was easily taken in by con man, Ken, before the show wrapped. She was a loving mom to her kids and stepson, Mason, and wife to CC, but Sophia also had a streak of needing attention/excitement/validation, which is how I think Ken got to her, since she and CC were estranged. (Maybe it was also part of her being a former actress, the need to be seen.) So it would have been interesting to see how Sophia approached her truly "golden era", especially dealing with CC's death (since Jed Allan obviously passed away a few years ago and Judith McConnell is still with us!).

Scotty Banning can always be recast and de-aged appropriately. (Rick Hearst was a good actor even then, but the show made the same mistake with him that it did with Mike Horton decades earlier by aging him at warp speed. For Julie's GRANDSON, he was much too old, since around the time Hearst played Scotty, Julie/SSH was only in her 40s!) Find a decent younger actor and try again, I say. There needs to be more Hortons on the male side, whether they explicitly carry the name or not. They are still blood related!

I can say Moonlighting S4 was atrocious. I'm not surprised the ratings started to tank then. And no, it was NOT because David/Maddie got together a season earlier: The fallout was just executed as sloppily, stupidly, and horribly as humanly possible.

Yeah, although as of now, only seasons 5 through 14 are shown. I say this because I remember the late Benjamin Hendrickson in a Season 2 episode, "Wages of Love", the franchise's take on the Betty Broderick case, playing a defense lawyer for a character named Doug Phillips, played by none other than Angela Lansbury's nephew, David Lansbury (who also was once married to Ally Sheedy. Small world!).

As always, thanks for the shout out! Humes was also Maddie Hayes for Bruce Willis' screen test for Moonlighting! (I posted the video a while back in the prime time ABC thread! Frankly, I didn't know it was her, but I was filled in!)