te.

Interesting. Makes me wonder how the day to day looked for Secret Storm at this point in the run. This seems very to deal with the psychological aspect, I guess the "inner storm", and the music is almost sinister. If this is from 1974 there's not much room for dates it could've been from as it ended on February 8th. It's hard to tell from an edit featuring just one storyline, but if this was the day to day it might've been heavy for the casual viewers. ETA: Stephanie Braxton is credited to have appeared as Laurie from 1970-1973. David Gale is credited only in 1973 and Alexander Scourby from 1972-1973. I know IMDB isn't always right, but I'd say this is likely 1973 - I'm guessing all these characters exited before 1974 and this might be a part of their final storyline.

I really wonder how they'll handle Netflix's usual long breaks between seasons. That girl is going to grow up fast... makes me wonder if this wouldn't have been a better fit for HBO Max considering they're leaning into a more broadcast style of production model with The Pitt.

Well, that was down to CBS being weak and not being willing to just pulling the plug entirely. They didn't want to commit to cancelling the show in case they needed it for their schedule basically; plus they kept showing that they were willing to make cuts if needed to be.

Yeah, and quite honestly, are there really that many scenes that are flashback-worthy at this point in the run?

I think the party reveal was what made them recast Ted since they saw he couldn't handle it and the fallout. It'll be interesting to see if the same will happen once Martins secret and the ensuing fallout is set to happen - it might give an indication with how far their patience for green newbies is.

I think Jason might've posted some numbers for the syndication a while ago and the numbers for Falcon Crest was horrible. Like 1.5 rating or something, which was terrible. ETA: it was actually Paul Raven: New to syndication 60 min Fall Guy 67 markets 3.1/8 Falcon Crest 110 markets 1.1/5 To get into the top 40, you needed a 4.6/9 rating for reference - and Falcon Crest managed to get into a lot of markets to begin with. In the fall of 1985 Dynasty, Dallas and Knots were syndicated (show / rating / share / coverage % / markets): Dallas 3.4 10 51.7 92 Dynasty 3.4 10 48.7 47 Knots Landing 3.3 10 12.5 20 So, Knots as an example trippled Falcon Crest's rating with 20 markets - I'm sure those were major ones but it just goes to show you how much Falcon Crest bombed in syndication.

I suspected that the performance with the reveal was the reason why the Ted actor got the axe and it looks like I was right. He wasn't really good at conveying what needed to be conveyed in those scenes. Claybon is at least slowly improving (but I agree that he still needs to work on his line delivery), but I do wonder what will happen when his big reveal is coming up.

The title track from the follow-up album Hot On the Trail is also co-written by Val Jean:

I always felt like they struggled to write for Edie since they originally only meant for her to be in the pilot. I think they should go with four main housewives again. Since I think in this timeline all should be moved out by now, I hope they just use the original street. It was implied as much in the series finale that people moving onto the street were doomed to repeat the cycle of keeping secrets. With that said, I wouldn't mind them just starting from scratch without the Desperate Housewives bagage. It's hardly a unique concept...

John Dye started starring in Touched By An Angel in January that year and his character quickly seemed to become popular. I'm sure that had something to do with it.

For me it works, but I'll always advocate for writers to start noticing what's happening on screen and adjust more. I think this Gabi could benefit from it is what I'm saying. Yeah but Belle's kind of a hoe tho'...

I'm pretty sure Belle was five years old in that alternative timeline and also a mother of five. Jada was rough in her first few months, but the actress have grown so much over the years. And yes, I want her and Shawn D to be end-game. She's a good recast, but she's more ice as opposed to Camilla's fire. I hope they start noticing that and write to the actress in the role more because I do think she's good.

Did anyone notice the odd cut in Wednesdays episode with Phillip / JJ / Sara / Xander? As Xander's telling JJ that he might want to murder Phillip, there's an odd jump-cut to Sara saying he just "has a dry sense of humor". I wonder if that was an adjustment towards the new writing regime?

I think it has to do with overall demographics of the networks - ABC has always skewed younger, CBS has always skewed older. CBS was the first network I saw talking about the 25-54 demographic in prime time - and that was for a reason.

I genuinely wonder if the actor must've bombed during the reveal scenes or something that seems to be coming up with Ted & Nicole's anniversary party. It seems a bit odd to replace him right in the thick of it. I'm also confused by both Ashley and Derek's ages - both feel like they're in the 35-40 bracket, but at the same time she's meant to be contemporary with Naomi, who is in her late 20s (??) and has just graduated from nursing school... which would put her in her mid-20s maybe? I feel like her having issues in the past and turning her life around in her 30s would be an interesting angle to explore. It would also explain the hyperbole surrounding her becoming a nurse. The thing is that it feels like a lot could be done to integrate them - as others has said, have Silkpress's interference with Laura come and bite Ashley in the ass. I still feel like Hayley / Derek forging a friendship would be an interesting angle. And of course, Ashley and Naomi are supposed to be best friends - have them talk more. And of course, her mother is connected to Silkpress.

Killing Linda off was such a mistake as she was one of the stronger characters of the young generation, especially once they went full down the Paige-the-damsel-in-distress route. It's also obvious they sort of realised that they made a mistake as they tried to introduce Vanessa (whose acting left a bit to be desired lol) as sort of a femme fatale/young antagonist. Wouldn't surprise me, especially since she was so frank about not particularly caring for them pitting them against each other. Because from everything we knew about Abby, someone like Paige would've been more like an annoying bug. And of course, she's been pitching the "homeless Abby" story for years as the logical next step for her, so I think she also felt like the character had no real direction left to go.

Susan originally "died" in a fiery car crash off a cliff caused by Ava, but Clyde had kidnapped her and sent her to her ex-husband Edmund, who kept her captive.

Well, the answer is 90210. Doogie Howser was never strong in the overall rankings (#24 at its highest point), but I assume 90210 just about stole all those young viewers - especially those that might've started watching it as younger. They probably could've tried moving it away from the Fox halo, but I guess they had no other open slots.

Maybe the other girl just didn't want to act anymore? Doesn't have to be that deep tbh.

Well, we know they had to refilm a lot of scenes, especially since they had some production issues early on with equipment not arriving on time plus no real soap veterans on the daily production that knew how to shoot a daytime soap. IIRC, I think either Daphne or Karla said that CBS told them that they couldn't continue to delay filming which is why the lightning was odd in the first or so week since the proper equipment hadn't arrived. So, to me it's been pretty clear that it was likely meant to debut a bit earlier which seems to have thrown off some planning. Good to hear they're making a bit of adjustments to the scripts but I'd assume that cliffhangers might be thrown off for another few weeks at least as there's only so much they could adjust.

See, I think there's an interesting perspective here, which is how some gay people try to fit into the heteronormative and Martin, being a politician, has gone too far in that direction and effectively suffocating his partner. But so far it's been sort of blah - they're not talking about it other than Bradley wanting to go back to work... which could be any soap heroine story. I feel like there's a lot to mine there, but they're so far not doing it. Bradley's being written like a hausfrau - odd for a show with gay writers.

Heidi Montag is a nasty peeper: Please have her perform B&B writers!

I think this is the issue with the in media res storytelling they're doing - clearly they're acting as if the show has been on for 30 years and sometimes that works and sometimes it don't. Sometimes it hits that cozy feeling of having to known these characters for a lifetime... but sometimes things don't feel deserved even if they're acting as if it should be. Again, growing pains and I'm hoping it'll even out in a year from now. Soaps are a marathon and not a sprint after all.