Contessa Donatella

And, as has already been said, some of us are interested in seeing the Gottlieb/Malone/Griffith pilot episode of 13 BOURBON STREET. Just seemed needing to be repeated. Is anyone here local to North Carolina? Michael Malone's papers are there, at Duke. And, a tape of that pilot episode is said to be among his papers.

When I read words like these I become positively giddy! “We wanted to have a show on the air that spoke to a different side of the Black experience,” Val Jean tells Entertainment Weekly over a joint Zoom with Ducksworth. “Not the downtrodden, not the ghettoized. We wanted to show rich, Black people doing messy things.” Yes, please, we will be happy for you to give us rich black messy ... oh I don't know maybe bitches. 🙊🙈🙉 However, at this point, apparently I have to go look up this Karen person.

All of what you've said: Co-sign. Me, too! Stubbornly, doggedly, refusing to give in to these people who seem to actually be trying to get us canceled.

You're right. The Beverly Hills 90210 franchise did get going at that time. DAWSON definitely a soap. PO5, a family drama if there ever was one - and there were many. I was a huge fan of ALLY MCBEAL. Some of us got together online weekly, during & after the new episode would be aired!! We even met in person in Manhattan & of course my pedigree as a soap fan first & foremost is clear. And none of us thought of McBeal as a soap.

YES EXACTLY! In some ways its as if some odd phenomena is at play when during the 80s there is such abundance in primetime soaps but in the next decade, the 90s, no new primetime can succeed at all! What a difference a year makes, hmm?! Her appearing & just laying out all of those was such an unexpected bonus! WTHI ✅ BP ✅ RtPP ✅ HTSAM ???? 🤷‍♀️

I don't think any fans knew this until Kim revealed it herself several years ago in a Locher Room zoom chat!! And, she was having fun with it & did it as a tease. First she dropped the bombshell that she'd not been Long's choice at all. Then she did NOT reveal who Long had wanted & left that hanging. Many of us left that afternoon beginning to try to figure it out. I know that I was intrigued. And also, later, it was gratifying to figure it out & then get it confirmed. I'm not sure I would categorize them as not getting along. Yes, they had an odd relationship but that was because regularly they battled it out over what the character would or would not do, think & say. However, once they were done fighting, then they were like conspirators & collaborators who had such high opinions of themselves & their "other". FROM THESE ROOTS and THE BRIGHTER DAY are two soaps where I love them dearly because of their epigrams? "The microphones can't pick up any voices & soon the picture will fade. If, on occasion you think of us, we hope your memory will be a pleasant one." - last line, last episode of the soap THE BRIGHTER DAY 1954-1962. "From these roots grow branch, leaf and flower, children of the sheltering earth, ripening into the tumult of the seasons--generation unto generation." - From These Roots epigram

https://www.tvinsider.com/1165410/new-soap-romances-2024-ranked/

I have PAPER DOLLS, FLAMINGO ROAD, DIRTY SEXY MONEY, FILTHY RICH & I have half of THE MONROES which I loved & they only aired half of its episodes so it seems like I'm never going to get my hands on any of the missing 6. I still find it amazing & fascinating that it was not, at all, Kim who was in Pam Long's mind when she was creating Reva. It was Carla Borelli who played Reena on TEXAS & who declined Pam's offer to her because she said she thought Reva was going to be a lot like Reena & she preferred at that point to play something different instead of the same kind of thing. As I understand it Pam had to be talked into even considering Kim!! Of course they got over that pretty quickly & became collaborators on the character.

Totally love her as actresses go. Oh, sorry, didn't know you didn't know. When I saw who was in it & some of the people who worked on it I nearly flipped!!! It's pretty clear to me that it was well on the way to being greenlit but then since ultimately it did not apparently something drastically changed when they were farther along in development than any of us AW fans realized. On one hand it seems like an interesting show but then I think about Shane & Lila & am right back to thinking it was crap. Gottlieb & Malone & JGG had another project in the same time frame in development but not as far along as 13 Bourbon Street was.

Well, I've seen Susan be very funny but it's all according to whether she's written in a situation that is naturally humorous. When she & Bonnie were kidnapped & tied up in the garden shack & it was the first time she'd seen Bonnie & realized that she looks just exactly like Adrienne, she was hilarious! But, any random regular day, totally right, not funny. And, SIGH Leo, Hattie & Bonnie, plus Vivian? Absolutely HARD AGREE with your assessment. What's that famous line? It's going to be a bumpy ride! I have a feeling we're in for it.

Well, just crap. Recasting Rachel?!! I just got through posting that she was soap gold!!! She does not to be made older, at least not yet. I get so sick & tired of them pulling out those old SORASING virtual aging hormones!!! Rachel works as a character & the actress is so good just as she is. And, then, we're going to have to put up with first Theresa & after that, with Gwen RiceChex. There's not even any Dimitri & she'd better kick Leo to the curb, that is if the character continues to exist. Sometimes I hate spoilers. I mean it's not the spoilers' fault. As was once said, they're just written that way.

Well, ya know, supposedly Ken Corday said that they began doing "modern digitizing" about 10 years ago. In that time they should have made a huge amount of progress of getting all those vintage episodes in shape for even HD. I'm sure they've used some of that in flashbacks. But, still, that leaves SO MANY EPISODES that if they would just pull the trigger on it, they could make legal episodes available to fans.

Oh, you! Yes, that is she of the anecdote. So that is one that lived with her for a long while & has now been digitized but I have no idea who has access to it. I believe it is held by a private cadre. My fervent hope is that we can get those special folks to make these jewels more widely available. I know some of these guys. One of them even just, out of the blue, gave me a clip of the opening to MISS SUSAN. See, he did not charge me for it!!! Totally gifted it for me. Now he did it because he knew her show is the first example of star billing & he knew I would immediately do a new version of the Star Billing Blog to include it once I had the clip. I can't tell you how much I appreciated that generosity on his part as well as the fact that he previously did not have it, so somehow he found it!!! And, then, of course, I appreciate people being that helpful & interested from the historical point of view.

Okay, I have no idea what that means. What makes something a 'baked' copy? In the vein of people having treasures & our hoping they're taking care of them, I know of an actual event that is amusing about that. A certain actress had a videotape of an AMC episode that had originally belonged to Agnes Nixon & it was in the bottom of her closet just being kicked around for a long time till she finally thought about what that was that she kept accidentally kicking & made a decision & took action right off the bat & got it to someone (a soap fan who was a friend of hers) who immediately made a copy of it, etc.

Just been posting about this elsewhere. Must be something in us as we ponder closing out one year & welcoming a new one. Thanks for creating the topic. For me, immediately, it is STRONGLY anything from Pete Lemay's original tenure at AW. And, of course if any of that included our divine Beverlee McKinsey it would obviously be icing on the cake. I offer prayers up to the universe & to Soap Jesus for some person with a vault chockfull of kinescopes to come to their senses & realize that material is deteriorating by every second that goes by & rush all of it to a video lab. Then, at that point, in this theoretical I'm stringing along, I panic that the owner of this private video treasure dies & their people have zero clue what all that old stuff is!!! BTW, this is just my first dip into this, here. "I'll be back!"

I've long thought that there is a certain delicious quality to the fact that both the Dobsons & Marland wrote at GL & at ATWT. That they both played in those two specific character sandboxes. And the time periods were close & juxtaposed. Of course, yes, I know that so many writers had commonality on not only P&G's soaps, not only the New York soap scene but ALL soaps! All that said I find the ATWT/GL Marland/Dobsons commonality much more interesting than others. Finding out that Scott Bryce & Robert Newman auditioned for Betty Rea at the same time for the same role/s was quite exciting to me. I've continued to ruminate about it & now I think I can imagine them playing the 'other role', when initially I rebelled against the idea. Although the KZ factor still works against Scott, to me. One more thought! Who wouldn't seek Lyla's approval?!!! I KNOW I would.

Okay, this is perhaps the 3rd or 4th time I've seen reference made to some unknown persons who apparently are thought for some unknown reason to have taken advantage *somehow* (that also seems unknown) of the edit function, presumably before it was changed so drastically as to make it unfortunately ineffective. I'm just going to ask even though this neither seems like a good place or time to do so. (Sorry about that.) What is this about? In fact were there actually posters who made some kind of nefarious use of the edit function?!!! Obviously I find it difficult to give credence to it. I would really appreciate it if someone would be so kind as to try to explain this to me. Thank you for your time & attention.

I know 2 things about Taggert that I find very interesting. On GL Cassie read Mary Oliver's poem "Wild Geese" at Richard's funeral. Then, also on GL Ed read an ee cumming's poem. Both of those things were done because of Taggert. So Taggert has a poetry thing. "Wild Geese" is my favorite poem. In it Oliver makes the point that the heart wants to love what it wants to love. Then she makes another point which is that you are not required to walk through the desert on your knees to prove that you are worthy of love. I just thought other soap fans might be interested in this because, you see, I am.

Sure it is. 🙄 Hmm, looking around, I heard that there was someone here who is just full of it, wonder if I'm in the right place, at the right time. Ring, Ring. Hello, is this the office of the NAACP in Atlanta? Yes? Okay, I'm writing an article about the new daytime drama on CBS, BEYOND THE GATES. Yes. Thank you. Now, I only have 1 question for you. Can you confirm that this is going to be "black porn"? [Line goes dead.]

Jane, excellent! Great share! LOL

Well, we know that Brady considers her to be a mother figure. It's apparent & then there's evidence & he & Eric have discussed the blended family several times. Marlena & Isabella, if you ask me, had a really awkward relationship since they both loved John at an overlapping time.

At GENERATIONS she wrote the best catfight that ever existed. At GH she wrote the revisitation of the Luke & Laura rape using her own rape, Liz's rape & Audrey's rape. She paired Kevin & Lucy as a couple for the first time. At B&B she was one of the writers involved in telling Maya's story. That leaves Santa Barbara which, sorry, I don't have any info on. If you do not respect Michele Val Jean as a writer because Sally Sussman was unable to pull a rabbit out of NBC's midday half hour show with no lead-in you're certainly entitled to hold that opinion. Me, I am positively thrilled every single time I read, "Michelle Val Jean is the creator, headwriter, an executive producer and showrunner ..." What people currently writing on a soap do you have respect for?

Okay, in the category of deaths that are sad but also weird, a state judge in GA committed suicide in his courtroom yesterday. It was going to be his last day in office, which it also turned out to be. https://www.newsweek.com/steve-yekel-suicide-georgia-state-court-judge-2008184

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/chad-duell-on-his-gh-exit-sometimes-you-have-to-take-drastic-steps