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The music they used in the German dubs was atrociously bad. Just really--really--horrid.

I love--love--Diana. A great and honest portrayal of a teenager on TV.

Did I just spy Bobby from TWIN PEAKS as a drug dealer on KNOTS LANDING? How fun! And David Palmer from 24 using his booming voice as a cop lecturing parents on drug-abusing children.

Mary in general had issues with mostly anyone who dared come close to her beloved Paul! But she eventually ended up adoring Christine to the max, just like everyone else did. Barf. You're lucky! lol Problem was, she was a very basic character, who was ridiculously propped for decades. But at least the writing for the show in general was good, and the direction much better, so that helped her. Back then when I was watching,I liked her well enough but the huge problems with her are obvious to me now.

I mean, even mad hater Mary Williams was singing Christine's praises! (It made sense with the characters involved but I certainly could do without it). Thank God she didn't get it, if that's the case. First, it would have been completely OOC and, secondly, she wouldn't have pulled it off. So we were probably better off.

But she's beautiful, angelic, virtuous, does-everything-right Christine... Which means, she's always going to be victimized by everyone around her and will need to be handheld and babysat. She'll take a quick break to lecture us on some Very Important Social Issue... and then she'll go back to same old, same old. I mean, what else is sweet, perfect Christine gon do?

I don't know, I guess what we define as useful is different because Lauren, as a recurring character, was exactly what was needed for Mac/Billy/JT/Raul/Brittany/etc, provided a great setting with them, and also had time for romance with Paul and Michael, getting involved with Isabella, etc. Would I have loved more? Sure. But what she did I still remember and like. Granted, they've spent almost the last ten years giving her zero, so... If she ever went back to B&B, I think Bell would give her back her fangs. He managed a reset of sorts for Ashley as well, so I'm hoping he'd go back to a Lauren with personality.

You're welcome. Phyllis and Diane got involved several months earlier. Phyllis became jealous of Diane/Michael & the rest was history lol. The stuff with Victor and Jack came later. She and Jack were friends with benefits although I don't think Phyllis would have minded being more than that. lol SN actually made PB seem extremely hot and desirable. Phyllis and Michael did indeed make up before she left and... well, I'm not gonna put that out there. Loved your post except Lauren wasn't a bore when she returned, at all. In fact, 2002/2003 Lauren was extremely cool. She had fallen into this role of being the chill adult that the kids got advice and help from. I loved the setting of Fenmore's and having everyone work there. Lauren was the perfect character to do that and felt like a great progression of the character: More mature but still not out of touch with the younger ones. It's not until the Baldwins saddled her and started ridding her hard that Lauren ceased to exist as a person.

SN's last airdate was Feb. 22, 1999.

Jeff loved Fallon and wanted to be with her from the very first second he appeared on the show. Fallon didn't stay with Jeff, or even marry him, to produce heirs. She exchanged herself for Cecil's helping Blake with his financial problem but I do think she slowly grew to love him. I'm rewatching season 2 so I will get a more definite answer on that soon, in case memory doesn't serve me right. It wasn't about rebelling. Quite the opposite -- she loved Blake so much she sold herself to Cecil Colby for a few million dollars. She had the affair with Michael for the same reason she slept with every member of Blake's football team, among others: She was something of a hedonist. And he was hot, he was there, he wanted her, she was bored... So, ultimately, Jeff got the impression that she wasn't that into him because Fallon really just didn't like him. She found him boring, pathetic, and told him clearly that she only married him for the deal she made with Cecil. Oh, the time I can spend talking about Season 1 Fallon....

I spoke too soon! Samms has just appeared, crying, begging the police detective to help her. That's what I'm saying too!

No, she hasn't appeared yet. It's towards the end of season 5 and they didn't show her.

LAWD! Jeff spots supposedly dead, amnesiac Fallon in a picture of a rock concert taken by Lady "Dead Is Me" Ashley! The insanity!

I've been re-rewatching Season 1 over the past few days and, once again, I am stunned at how marvelously it's constructed, how well everything fits together. I marvel at all the surprising character connections, the rich, well-developed arcs, the simple beauty of it all. Just gorgeous. By comparison, I'm continuing my Season 5 journey for the first time and, my God, the show just finds new depths of hell to sink into in every turn. Dex and Daniel's putrid undercover missions are done but only to be followed by yet another homoerotic and utterly ridiculous--visually--fight between Blake and Daniel, during which they manage to knock out the pilot and get their plane to crash. Of all the ways to do a crash (including bad weather that the show mentioned just two minutes ago), this is what they do? I guess anything to give Krystle a reason to forgive Blake, following her annual Carrington mansion walk-out, right?

OMG I immensely enjoyed that. LOOOL! He is easily in my top five sexiest men in the world.

Martin says "F.uck you" to those who think he'll die and never finish the series :lol: http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/07/09/george-rr-martin-f-you/

Oh, I was thinking the same thing about that pink sweater/legs photo. Just, woof! And, although I don't generally like stuff like that, you don't easily see a man wearing a pink suit so well. Agreed about the height! One of the very few exceptions. lol And I shall watch them!

SPLOOSH! And I refuse to believe he's only 5'3. I refuse!

Hot damn! Brilliant.

Thanks! I can see both of what you said, especially the lack of stability. Even from week to week, the show seems to go from terribly exciting to snoozeville (although the acting remains good throughout). But it does have some great stuff in it and certainly blows most of current soap out of the water. Whether that's a compliment or not, I'm not sure. Glad to see this is other people's impression as well. I was trying to figure out if AW was great but a product of its time or if it genuinely looked bad. Which it did.

That's a great take on the character. But going from that to saying she's nuts and twisted is a stretch. I didn't even realize Margaery was gone that long, and I love her. I don't think there was any kind of issue with that absence. Ought she not to learn how to play the game first? It would be a bit too much if you threw her in with Cersei, Tywin, etc., at her age and with her experience and she automatically started 'winning' without any sort of effort. She's in over her head? Perfect! I'm looking forward to her efforts to come on top.

It's been a while since I started watching 1981 AW but I'm glad more of those episode became available, jolting me to continue. About 50plus episodes later, I'm oddly fascinated by the show, at least on the writing part. Can somebody tell me the reception L. Virginia Browne's writing had from critics and audience alike? Doug Watson and Victoria Wyndham give tour-de-force performances on a regular basis (there's a particularly great one as Mac confronts Rachel about sleeping with Mitch and his tears keep building and building). Mitch is fascinating. I still can't believe, considering all the history they have, that Rachel chooses Mitch and leaves Mac. Or maybe it's because of that history. But the actor is intriguing. There's so many actors/characters that I just love. Other than Rachel and Mac, Ada, Liz, Lee, Jamie, Cecile, Sandy, Blaine, Melissa, Jason, Sally... and it goes on. I am stunned that they had Jamie Frame, such a legacy & important character, rape Cecile. I have no idea what happens to the character from now on, so it will be very interesting to see how they follow this up. I think production-wise, it's horrid (the lighting, those God-awful sets for the most part, actors flubbing lines, calling the wrong name, interrupting one another before the previous line has ended, etc). And Paul Rauch is supposed to be some producing genius? You can't tell from this work!

Oh, that is brilliant.

Showrunners talk Season 5 (very minor spoilerishness): http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/06/18/game-of-thrones-season-5/

God... I'm trying to collect my thoughts here. The opening scene was breathtaking, wasn't it? So many fantastic shots of the Wall as Jon Snow walks to Mance Ryder's tent. The size of Stannis' army was immense. How does a TV show even pull this stuff off? Beautiful. I wasn't expecting to get a funeral scene for Ygritte, but considering they've spent three seasons on this love story/relationship, it's not totally surprising. What can I even say about Bran finding the tree, only to be attacked by that skeleton army and saved by one of "the children." Very cool stuff. Not to mention the man. Heartbreaking moment when Bran thinks he will be able to walk again but is told he won't. I wonder if there's any chance the "fly" part was literal! Probably not but it is a fantasy show. I loved the nuances they played with Cersei's desire to see the Mountain cured. And her blackmailing of Tywin. What a bad ass bitch Cersei is. That scene was SO well played by LH and CD. OOOooh, and are we finally seeing the WHOLE STORY in regards to that supposed rape scene a few episodes back? Have we finally seen that it was done that way to show Cersei's journey from wanting to hide her love, her true self, who she is to now being able to openly, unashamedly proclaim it? Shock when Brienne saw Arya. The actress played the realization of who Arya was so perfectly. And that Hound/Brienne fight? Unbelievably brutal but oh-so-good. They even managed to give the Hound some truly humanizing last words. There was something SO gripping about Shae hanging upside down from the bed, strangled. It was so great to see Tyrion initially shocked and then his look changes and he goes for Tywin. I swear, Dance must be the only man who can act with dignity from the shitter. A shame, though: Earlier in the season, they put the line in about "Lannisters shitting gold" and I could have sworn they did that because, when Tyrion kills Tywin in the book and Tywin releases himself in death, the chapter ends with a proclamation that the Lannisters do not, in fact, sh!t gold. Maybe it was too flippant a thing to say at that moment? Daenerys! I thought her coming to the realization that she can't control her dragons and locking them up was heartbreaking. Once again, brilliant FX with the dragons and very sad. They didn't give me the cliffhanger I was hoping for Part of me knew they wouldn't, anyways, and I'm fine with that majestic scene they ended on, so pretty please don't dismiss be as a book-loving-nagger, but you really have zero idea the HUGE season-ending shock that scene would be. Ah, well, there's always Season 5. They'll keep me waiting. I love that I honestly have no idea what's going on cos I've only read up to Book 3. My little "book first" experiment has been concluded and I've decided I definitely do not want to have read the books first. I have never had an issue with book changes in movies but in GOT a lot of them annoy me, so TV show first, books after LOL. Unless I read them this summer so I forget most of the details.