Cat

Wow. Charles Bateman was a GREAT CC. His reaction throughout that whole SL was spot-on. I grew to love Jed Allen and he absolutely embodied CC for me, but CB had chops, too.

And Lane Davies memorizing so much dialogue, some of it theatrical and overwrought, and delivering it perfectly. Judith McConnell was also great. We really took for granted back then just how good most soap actors could be.

And the theme tune and music between scene transitions -- awesome, thumping soap music.

OMG! ROTFL! I love early 90s cheese and boy did I get it with the dress rehearsal for Dean's "music video" and Olivia expressing her emotions via the medium of dance. Not going to lie, I sort of miss the fact that soaps are now too cash-strapped to pull "hip" stuff like this.

I am working my way through AW episodes, watching them for the first time. Right now I am at 9/6/91. Carl tried to have Rachel killed, and Jenna is in love with Dean (a mullet-haired RPG). Oh, and Jake is in a marriage of convenience with Paulina (Judi Evans) and currently making cow eyes at Marley but I think he's going to end up falling for Paulina. God, I really love this show! The only person I miss is Anne Heche, though I will give Jensen Buchanan props. Her Vicky is cringeworthy, but her Marley is spot-on.

Damon's one-liners are just "Ooo. Cover up, Fabio."

Stefan: Katherine is going to try and play us against each other. You do know that, right?

Damon: Brother. Don't you worry. Our bond... is unbreakable!

If y'all want to talk about inappropriate sexual chemistry, surely the tension between Damon and Stefan is the most hoo-ya of it all. Followed closely by Damon and Elena.

Zach Roerig. Steven R. McQueen. Damn, I love the eye-candy on this show.

Kinda reminds me of that Bob Mackie Cher wore to the Oscars when she won for Moonstruck.

Did VW and CK have something going on off camera? I know they did Couplets and stuff together off hours but something about their body language in that clip made we wonder that for the first time.

Not to sound like those crazy peeps who think everybody in show business is gay but... I just assumed CK was as gay as Christmas!

I figured they had a very close friendship, like Linda Dano had with Stephen Schnetzer et al., both being NY theatre people.

Anna Stuart can do NO wrong as far as I'm concerned. She is Diva gorgeousness.

Viv's hair reallyreallyREALLY bothers me. It's like a cross between a beehive and a mullet, and she's got hair that sweeps down in front of her ears and... ugh. I just want to take the gardening shears to that mop.

And you both seem like fans of Viv/Bob/hazel etc. Can I ask why? It's an honest question, not a snarky one. I tend to FF whenever they are on. I love Diane and the old biddies of the village who gossip about everybody else at the Woolpack. I even like crazy religious Edna and her yappy dog. Love the Wyldes, of course. But V/B/H leave me cold, for some reason.

I'm misunderstanding something about the Aaron spoiler... Aaron doesn't kill Jackson and his dog, does he?! *alarmed*

Probably not. Griffin didn't really have a happy ending. I don't want to spoil it if you really do come across it one day and want to watch, but pretty much, the title of the movie comes true, though not on purpose. It's really a good movie. Like JP said, it usually gets play when LMN does their every-so-often teen movie weekends.

And to go OT just for another moment, I just have to sing Lois's praises a little bit more haha. I just wish some production company would get it together and do movies for all of her major YA novels. All of them would be excellent little teen/supernatural movies, and if they could squeeze a TV show out of one or two, I'd fall over with happiness. Daughters of Eve and Summer of Fear are my favorites. And I'll stop gushing about Mrs. Duncan now.

OMG, I *loooooove* Daughters of Eve. I think I reread it every couple of years because it is so well-written and nuanced and balanced. The version I got given was the one written in the 1970s and I think I could only accept a film adaption set in that time period because the whole point of the book was women's rights rubbing up against the "old order."

Janey killing her abusive dad at the end... my god, I still get chills from reading that last chapter and then the epilogue which shows what happened to all the Daughters of Eve.

Speaking of endings... Vampire Diaries season finale had the twists coming thick and fast, huh? And here I was, thrilled that Damon kissed Elena. When it was nothing of the sort!

An episode from 1970. Even with the hazy film quality, I found out rather gripping -- especially the confrontation between Victoria Randolph and her mother, Amanda.

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Also the closing credits from the mid-70s. I love this theme.

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Oh, jp, LOL.

I loved the way Another World was written out in cursive handwriting at the end. And the way Constance Ford embraced Sandra F and Vicky W. All that sparkly hand holding and the way the voices diverge with "you are the one who lets me fly SO high."

JFP's AW opening was just so... generic. I usually defend JFP as an EP but she has a mighty big flaw and that is her shame in Daytime. She is referncing Primetime because that is where she'd really love to be EPing.

People complained about AW's opening with its rainbow colors and 80s song but I used to singalong to it and loved it. LOL.

ITA about Dean he used to bother me so much. His mullet was irritating, his keyboard music was the shits and he was just so annoying, always having to win every scene with his "tuff guy" overacting. Come to think about it, RPG still makes me cringe on AMC.

Donna is my favorite. I just love Anna Stuart. And Victoria Wyndham's English voice... she and Cal had sparkage.

Yeah, great interview. ITA what she said about GH -- at the time she emphasized what a soap fan she was on AW, and how she used to watch GH in her dressing room and wish she could land a part on it. What a disappointment.

And I wonder who the "inappropriate" actor on AW was? The one she kept having to report to the EP.

I think he played a cancer patient, but I didn't see a lot of that story.

With a body like that it's a shame anyone would notice the hair...

I thought Schnetzer was fantastic. He was theatrical, yes, but in the quiet moments, he knocked it out of the park every time. My all time favorite was after he found out Nicole had killed Jason Frame and let Felicia go to jail for the crime, and he got sick from wandering around in the rain. While he was delirious, a vision of Kathleen appeared with him and stayed with him, talking about good times and bad times, until he was found. The scenes where he was in the hospital mourning Kathleen all over again were exquisite.

Yes, I do like Schnetzer, there was something very urbane and "I've lived in Paris and Vienna" about him. His voice is incredibly distinctive. When he was torn between Kathleen and Frankie and hopped from one to another, I think that hurt the character because it was such a Ridge Forrester move -- having his cake and eating it, too. But IA that when he got the material, Schnetzer would be point perfect. And that Felicia-Cass-Wallingford friendship was made of awesome.

That's true about JB overplaying the two roles. She apparently really disliked playing Marley and insisted if she returned, Marley would not return. That did a lot of damage to the Vicky character, as she just became a generic ingenue. After JFP destroyed Donna, killed Bridget, and killed Ryan, Vicky floundered for material, especially when the Shane/Vicky story tanked. Vicky stabilized again as a character through old ties with Jake which were built up by other actresses.

I also thought Jensen had good chemistry with Mark Pinter, but the show sure wasn't going there.

Was Shane played by Robert Kelker-Kelly? Because pairing them together two seconds after Ryan's death was mega stupid of AW.

Also I never liked Vicky-Jake even though he was a reformed character and everything, and that was because he raped Marley. Vicky was so outraged and protective of her sister at the time, I cannot imagine her developing feelings for Jake McKinnon again. I get why they paired what they considered their two most popular stars, though.

Also Vicky/Grant -- annoyingly bad.

I think Paul Michael Valley made a conscious decision to leave the soap biz. He went into teaching acting, I believe, and theatre acting and directing were prob always his first loves. Also, his hairline receded and he prob didn't want to bother with painful hair plugs so the "soap hunk" parts prob dried up.

Somebody once said he played Reva's cancer doctor during the last year of GL? Anyhoo...

Question: Stephen Schetzer -- insanely good or theatrical as hell?

jp, they didn't just pay her travel expenses, they literally hired a helicopter to ESCORT her door-to-door from her home in Westchester somewhere to the AW studio. And back again. And only on certain days, because Jensen liked four-day weekends or some such nonsense. Don't we all.

I cannot wait to read your interview with Sandra Ferguson. That should be an amazing read. I cannot believe AW caved into so many of their stars demands. I guess they were really desperate to keep ratings in the final decade of the show.

CarlD, SJB did get some bum SLs but she also got to pick and choose her co-stars once fans began responding to her character -- hence heavy rotation with Steve Burton and Maurice Benard. Plus they also threw some scenery-chewing Emmy-reel SLs her way -- post-partum depression, losing a baby, etc. I think the nearest Tamara got to Emmy reel-worthy material was when she thought Michael was dead and she broke down at the PCPD. But she wasn't even nominated that year. Everything else? Panic Room? Sonny's "Love" Bullet in the Brain? Palling around with Courtney? Eh. Charles Pratt really was a rotten co-HW.

P.S.: I love that story of Anna Stuart giving Heche a vibrator! On one hand it is TMI but on the other... she was just trying to help Heche out so she wouldn't have issues with sex. And what a testament to Heche's acting, because she and Paul Michael Valley radiated white-hot heat together. Case in point:

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Jensen Buchanan... I just... can't. I cannot believe the story that JFP spent $$$$ just to helicopter her ass to and from the studio at a time of her choosing. So much wasted on somebody wrongly considered to be AW's sole asset.

Plus Anne Heche cast such a long shadow. People talk about Sarah Brown's Carly making a mark, but Heche's Vicky was both a precursor AND broke the mold. She was incandescent. Her talent jumped off the screen.

Her life story sounds beyond tragic. Kudos to her for living her life, turning her back on her past and carving out happiness for herself.

When Aaron opened his eyes halfway through the gassing, it was like 6 months of story just passed right through his eyes. Then he just closed them again.

Chas bugged me until I saw her running to Aaron like her life depended on it. When she gulped "Oh my God" open seeing Aaron, she sounded like a true mother in distress.

The episode was really well constructed, especially the way people passed the shed without noticing anything was wrong. Like when Aaron's friend was walking up to it, but then got called away. It really rammed the message home about people being wrapped in their own pain and others not picking up on it.

Nikhil seems to work well with an older woman, it seems. I always thought he had chemistry with Faith, Charity and Natasha. Speaking of Natasha, Amanda Donohoe is another actor who, like Danny Miller, produces the most multi-faceted performances in the most mundane and dialogue-light scenes.

I know there's been some complaints about how the press for the story has focused on being "groundbreaking" or on Aaron not being "stereotypical," and I can understand why some might resent that, but I think the story has been very strong so far. I don't think it's just been a "look at us, we want attention and isn't it shocking to do a gay story," it's been a story that seems very, as you mentioned Cat, organic. The episodes last night took that up to a whole new level.

The anger and denial in Aaron seemed so palpable and he was in as much agony as poor Paddy. I was disgusted when I read about what he was going to do to Paddy, and I still am, but the scenes made perfect sense for the characters. And Paddy continuing to try and get Aaron to accept himself and be happy, even as he was so obviously in severe pain, it just broke my heart. Seeing actors who can turn on the tears so easily and make it believable tends to get a similar reaction from me. Dominic and Danny were so damn good. The scenes were so well written and filmed, they were some of the finest I have ever seen on television or film.

I get so annoyed at how often Emmerdale is overlooked by the public and by the press, and episodes like this are the reason why

TOTAL WORD. I personally find EE and Coronation Street snoozeworthy but even with a "light" Emmerdale episode, I always find something to keep me watching. IMO, Emmerdale is the best soap airing right now. Even compared with my US regulars!

There was so much "right" about yesterday's episode. I, too, was upset to hear that Aaron would be beating Paddy up. I thought the violence would be unneccessary, that it would be painting all young people struggling with their sexuality as somehow criminally psychopathic. It did not come across that way at all. Aaron beating up Paddy WAS shocking for all the reasons it was meant to be -- because it was an awful act of violence. But Aaron's contrition afterwards was equally powerful, and Paddy's forgiveness of the boy who is, for all intents and purpose, his son, was the most moving part of the whole episode. Paddy understands Aaron. He understands that he is a boy whose first instinct is to lash out in anger. He also understands that this violence is not the sum total of who Aaron is, and that once he can accept himself, the anger will become a thing of the past. Because Aaron hates himself so much, and feels like such an outsider and a freak.

I also thought that the actor who plays Paddy hit all the beats -- some of which were not even in the dialogue. Paddy has always been that chubby guy he gets beaten up on. He's always been an underdog. This was his worst nightmare -- somebody he cares about beating him up like back in the schoolyard or when he went up against Carl. Paddy overcoming all that baggage in order to empathize with and support Aaron was a HUGE step for this character. It was actually a perfect soap moment, IMO. And this is why Emmerdale is so strong! It showcases Paddy in both comic and serious story arcs and, in doing so, presents a multi-dimensional character.

What can I say about the actor who played Aaron? Honestly (and I know I'll get booed for this, but it is JMO) he puts the Nuke and Kish stories to shame. This guy is so talented and Aaron feels so real because he is both completely unsympathetic and totally heart-breaking. His face when he looked in the mirror and told Paddy about how he used to beat up on a kid at school because he was gay... and later listening to Paddy talk to him from behind the door. I haven't "felt" so emotional when watching a soap in a long time. This story is not going to be some banner-waving, trendy SL. This is going to be about Aaron learning to accept himself for the first time ever. And I'm psyched to watch!

Um, WOW. Paddy just figured out that Aaron is gay. The scenes between them are really good, and quite shocking because Aaron just pummelled on Paddy. This coming-out SL feels quite organic because this seeems to be as much about Aaron despising himself as his realisation that he might be gay.

Oh, God, Eurovision. Is it that time of year already? I can't get into it anymore because the songs are no longer so-bad-they're-good, they are just forgettably bad. And the voting is so political that no good song ever really wins -- Cyprus gives Greece douze points and vice versa, all the Scandinavian countries vote for each other. As a Kylie fan, EricMontreal, you may already know this but the UK entry (which managed to scrape nul points the last few years) is being penned by Pete Waterman of Stock, Aitken & Waterman fame -- the guys who produced Kylie's early hits like I Should Be So Lucky and Especially for You and, my personal fave I Still Love You (Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi).

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Little Boots! I'm not a mega fan but that "New in Town" song was the song of last summer for me. That and this trashtastic summer gem ("I Know You Want Me - Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro") by a one-hit-wonders Pitbull:

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Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over (2010 Version)

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I still listen to it from time to time while running. It just makes you want to move.

It's not quite fair to compare him to Gaga, because he's a DJ and she writes her own stuff. But it's hilarious that the people interviewing her are, like, "OMGZ! What is this strange music? It's revolutionary!!" Have these journalists listened to anything other than John Mayer? If so, poor them! I feel the need to e-mail them links to Kylie's songs of the past decade.

I do like Gaga's fabulosity, though. We all need glitter and drama in our lives.

How can you be old if you grew up on Armand Van Helden?

Well... more like getting into my early 20s. I was an innocent college grad, and then somebody brought me to a club. "You Don't Really Know Me" (followed by "Professional Widow") was playing on the sound system. And out of nowhere I found my rhythm. LOL.

Gaga... I have a hard time completely warming to her. While I admire her sartorial choices, sometimes I wish she'd stop acting like she's this walking art installation. It's dance music, girl, not a political manifesto.

Also, I grew up on dance maestros like Armand Van Helden, so it's hard for me to embrace the Gaga stuff as this brave new world of music. Has she never heard of Swedish dance pop?

Maybe I just don't get her. Sigh. That makes me feel old. I don't want to stereotype but practically every gay man I know thinks she is the bee's knees. I pretty much trust their judgment on all things fab and poppy, so what am I missing here? Why can't I shake this "Emperor's New Clothes" feeling -- like in a few years time, most everybody who loved Lady G will be hiding their head in shame? I want to be a lover, not a hater!

That said, this is her most accessible video to date because she actually looks like she's letting the audience in on the joke. Beyoncé sounds better here than on a few of her recent albums (I mean, on "Irreplaceable, she is singing off-key, right?). And she LOOKS amazing. That whole video is funtastic.