Michael

Deep cut here, but does anyone recall what Linda Dano's Rae did when she appeared on PC in 2000? Was it more of a cameo to get her to hit all four ABC soaps, or did she have some story? I remember her on the "big three" all too well, the way they twisted history and backstory to cram her in on those, but she doesn't seem to have had any footprint on PC at all. I'm loving this conversation, btw! I don't have a ton to add, but it's fascinating to read.

I gave up on RHONY but figure I can always go back and binge once the season is done. Is it seeming worth my time? Mia's chaos is eating Potomac alive. I thought the season began pretty strong, but it's almost comical how every episode lately just devolves into Mia and Jacqueline revealing some other unhinged aspect of their shared sexual past. RHOBH feels very watchable right now, but I'm getting that usual mid-season fatigue from there only being one storyline. I am loving Erika's role this season, though. She's both a supporting player and the fulcrum of the entire cast. It's a good, redemptive look for her.

Has this been confirmed? I ask because it's the production company who contracts and pays the actors, not the network. Sony/Corday would've had a contract with RKK for DAYS, and his AW contract would have been with P&G. The network licenses the shows to air them but doesn't pay for production.

It’s also been established that she doesn’t cook!

I suspect they're just not going to address the Steve part of it, or they'll throw in that he didn't actually know the purpose of the mission and had to be kept in the dark, or something that won't really make sense but they see it as tying up loose ends. This story is so overly complicated and nonsensical that I'll just be happy to be done with it, although the fact that Cat & co. are Konstantin's grandchildren remains insane and something I struggle to process. Totally agree about the Stephanie/Philip/Sarah business. Why did Stephanie and Philip have to be rekindling their relationship in order for her to overhear what was going on? One thing I haven't enjoyed about the last few years is that they overload everything with so much plot that nothing gets space to breathe. I sort of like the idea of Sarah keeping this from Xander, but it doesn't feel super-motivated, especially with how she was crowing to Stephanie about how Xander has changed (how and when has she seen evidence of this?!). Kate doing some heavier manipulating would've done wonders here.

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You mean... THE FENCE? 😄

I know hindsight is 20/20, but I wish they'd just had John be away on a mission, and Marlena's in Salem but occasionally offscreen visiting him. Later on, we can find out he died during the mission or suffered a stroke or whatever they land on, but months of this when they knew the actor was terminally ill feels like very poor planning.

BLOOP. No lies detected. Karen is and always has been a clown. I've never really understood the deference to her, as if she's some paragon of class and virtue. She's good reality TV, don't get me wrong, but the level of delusion is STRONG, and her behavior in the aftermath of the DUI has been both embarrassing and bad for the show. Not once has she shown any remorse over what she did or the damage it could've caused. Anyone who dares to voice that drunk driving could have injured or killed someone else gets hit with a tone-deaf, "And it could've killed MEEEEEEEE!" She's finally shown her ass for real.

I thought the Julie/Chad scenes were great as well. Chad works really well in this mode.

Fair! I'm only defensive because I feel like Julie's emotions are about the only thing that does make sense lately. I do wish they'd connect her easy acceptance of NuDoug to how readily she took in Eli upon learning of David's death.

I don't know if I'd say Julie is alone in the world. Yeah, her husband and son have passed, but she has Eli and Lani and their kids, Hope, Shawn, Ciara, their children, Jennifer and her family, Maggie, Marie, Steven... she's a widow, but she isn't alone just because she's one of the last surviving members of her particular generation.

At the point they wrote the stuff that's airing, they thought Drake was coming back. Given his diagnosis, though, it seems very strange and even tasteless to have done another "John is under deep cover and has left Marlena alone" thing. Just say he's away on a mission and have Marlena go visit him a few times.

The fact that no one is mentioning adoption is insane. It’s such a glaring hole in these conversations. Brady could offer to pay for Sophia to have the best private tutors to finish high school while she goes through the pregnancy and prepares for the adoption.

"Big Momma" is how they've always referred to Olivia. And Allie was established as dating a man quite a while back. I know @janea4old and @carolineg beat me to it, but for once, those are actual consistences in the script writing.

This preview basically confirmed all my feelings on Janet Drucker and on what we're going to get with this new head-writing team.

Yeah, I could be over-stating it, but I just found a quote where he said he didn't get "a fair chance to show [his] ability" and was critical of "the collaborative process" at Days and then immediately said he wasn't talking sh*t and just being honest. It felt like a lot of that around the time of his exit. I'm sure some of it was trying to save face, too.

He made some comments in the media about how he was better than the show, etc. Then I think tried to beg his way back into the job later. Nathan would be very recastable. As mentioned above, he was engaged to Stephanie, Maggie's his grandma, Sarah's his aunt, Holly is his cousin, he had a little rivalry with Philip, plus he has the Horton ties *and* a dad who was never identified. Mostly he could be a useful relatively blank slate.

Thank you, @JAS0N47! This is awesome. Appreciate all your hard work and responsiveness.

Thanks for the clarity! Would be so cool if you happened to have any more detail on the Mike/Linda stuff.

I think Margaret Mason was the original Linda. And yes, that Mike event gets a lot of chatter online -- I'd be curious to see how it really played at the time. Elaine Princi took over as Linda in the 80s, I believe.

Wasn't Phyllis the Anderson wife, at least originally? They had her get with Neil and lose a child with him, I think. Some of the stuff with Linda/Bob sounds pretty delicious and soapy, at least from my reading. That mid-80s return of Linda as a madame always struck me as insane.

Sounds pretty accurate to me. They were a solid B-family who kind of ran their course. In some ways, folding Melissa so fully into the Hortons *was* the way of bringing the Anderson clan forward into the 80s era. The Brooke/Stephanie character, Bob's other daughter, always reads to me like she could've been the real standout, but they killed her off that second time. And it doesn't sound like she had a ton to do after she came back as "Stephanie" with the new face.

The directors don't really direct performances anymore, though. They handle blocking and guide camera moves and make sure coverage is handled. There's no time to direct performances.

Didn't the whole thing with Amanda Howard and the brain tumor (which was Neil's intro, no?) ALSO happen in that short period?