Contessa Donatella

Well, one hallmark of soaps is relatability. The more the characters relate to real life the better the soap, as a general rule. The way we talk about their characteristics & dilemmas as if they were real, again, the better the soap. I personally think "as if they were real" counts. YMMV.

He had finished at Y&R & gone back east & spent time with his grands, Leo & Rocky, by then. There would've been time in between easily since GH wasn't casting that very instant. Ashland was dead dead. (Ashland? That right? Anyway.) RN would've been rested & have spent time with his people.

What did you think of Friday, Jan. 20th? Rooftop, slideshow, green screen, ...

Last year on #SoapTwitter we ran a fan campaign to Frank for 4 weeks as soon as it was foreseeable that they would need Liz's parents for them to cast specifically RN & Zenk. Zenk even took part. RN doesn't do anything online. They really should have listened to us! It would be a very different story.

Back last year I saw a poster use it as a pejorative making fun of her last name. It stuck with me. Now I need the evil laugh emoji!

Happy Birthday, Kim Zimmer!

Things to blame Rice Chex for: Killing Laura & Ruining Jack!

And fgsake, what in the heck was up with Jack advising Chad to jump back into the dating pool?!! Hello, son, as your father-in-law I just want to have a little talk. GMAB! Then, they gave us really cheesy music for Chad & Steph to boink by. Ewww.

Uh-oh, Charlotte & Thomas & Henry could've been abducted for all anyone would notice!

And, that's the only thing moving. What ought to be the primary focus is missing entirely. We still haven't seen Shawn. We haven't seen Brady since Marlena died. No sign of any white light. It was good to see Challie come back together

"The boldness of DARK SHADOWS in bringing characters b ack from the dead and allowing actors to play different roles opened the door for other soaps to draw upon similar devices, although such practices were uncommon before the late 1970s and would not be embraced to the same extremes until the 1990s." So my paraphrase was inelegant & sloppy. The error is on me.

I recalled reading about DARK SHADOWS doing the first back from the dead storylines so I looked it up. Elana Levine's book HER STORIES p. 101. DARK SHADOWS began two things (1) back from the dead and (2) single characters playing multiple parts. Example, someone playing their own ancestors in a different timeline. I suppose the back from the dead is with the vampires. She goes on to say that soaps in general did not include these till the '90s. Then she talks about soaps as early as the 60s beginning to use comedy. Some examples, etc. Then the Dobsons increased comedy even more, first at GL & then at SB. Just a little tidbit from academia, offered strictly FYI if anyone finds it of interest.

Well, I got that from her, in print. I feel a laugh bubbling up inside of me. I can't imagine how she fits that together. Maybe a juicy rationalization. Maybe she worked the rest of her contract & then quit but made the decision that night. I suppose that one could be sued for quitting before your contact was out. Hey, that's my best off the top of the head. I mean it's a perfectly good story without the dramatic "I quit!"

Another thing we have not touched on that pertains is that NBC very aggressively dictated story, specifically & generally. Probably the most famous example which I'm sure you all know is dictating that Jake would rape Marley. Swajeski refused. They insisted. Finally they pressured her to the point that she wrote it & then she quit. I believe the words were ... wrote the damned story & quit & walked out. So, they easily could have dictated crime stories, piece of cake, right?

Someone has suggested to me that P&G asked King to do crime stories because of what GH was having success with at that time. And, later, NBC wanted AW to be more like what DOOL was at that time. I think it was an impossibility but NBC felt they couldn't promote AW & that they could promote DOOL & if AW were more like it, sort of a DOOL jr or DOOL Lite, that they could "brand" advertise. I believe that Agnes Nixon saved AW from an early cancellation, very early. It could easily have been one of the soaps that was cancelled with around 6 years tenure. There are many in the history books. She changed Rachel & Ada & made them into her first put upon mother with selfish daughter. And, she created the first famous romantic triangle with Alice, Steve & Rachel. I adore Pete Lemay & have combed over all of his interviews in addition to his book with epilogue. I disagree with him on one thing, only. I understand the necessity of firing George Reinholt & I think a lot of his problem stemmed from self-loathing. And, supposedly everyone was going to Paul begging him to get George to stop saying the things he was, to everyone. I understand the necessity of firing Virginia Dwyer. She refused to learn lines, or maybe she could not, and instead made up what she thought Mary Matthews would say. That kind of insubordination can poison a group of actors. Then, the issue with Jackie Courtney was that Lemay did not think she could act. I feel they should have put her with an Acting Coach to get her to deliver what they wanted. Frankly, many people thought her acting was fine. I love Donna Swajeski & her work on AW & her work writing for Otalia at GL at the end.

If it were DOOL she'd really be the devil, disguised as Harmony. 🙄

I watch DOOL & GH. I watch Y&R certain special episodes - Neil Winters tribute, Teriah 2 day wedding, Chelsea suicide crisis 4 days. I enjoy GH & DOOL even though I also enjoy complaining. For me to watch Y&R they'd have to bring Teriah on a whole lot more & actually write to some diversity. For me to watch B&B, again as I have watched it in the past, Brad would have to write Taylor & Brooke as a romantic couple, like THE L WORD meets DYNASTY with two of the most beautiful women in the world. And, I am worried about losing the diversity on DOOL. Raven's the only queer character on contract now.

@AbcNbc247Yes, total nonsense. I balked at a Mitch/Rachel pairing. And, I also wanted to think that he began as a Lemay creation, no telling what happened to him after he was spun around like a Spin The Bottle game with many different writers. I want to thank everyone for the discussion. I've brought Mitch up before different places & gotten no interest. 🤔🫵🫰👏👏🔊NOW HEAR THIS: Mitch Blake has left the building.

Oh my! That was fantastic. I'll have to re-read that & I might have to go soak my head. While I'm here, have you ever heard that Swajeski had trouble getting along with the other writers on the team then? All of whom are mentioned here.

Thank you! That is always the way I felt about Mitch. Suspicious! And, later I was unsure whether he was a worthy suitor for Felicia. But, I definitely questioned "credibility" with Rachel being romantic or sexual with him. And, then we were seemingly stuck with him as a good guy. Of course, Wm. Grey Espy was a good actor, so it wasn't that. It had to be the writing. Do you know what different writers wrote him? I can figure that out, of course, but you might know off the top of your head.

Ayup. Best of the Bad? 🤨🤔🫵🫰😂🔊NOW HEAR THIS: It's Peacock for the Pretty Good.

I get a word a day in email from dictionary.com & last week one day the word was retcon. Naturally I thought of sharing with my soap friends. WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF RETCON? Retcon, “to later revise (an established element of a fictional story),” is a shortening based on the first syllables in retroactive continuity. This type of shortening is called syllabic abbreviation, and other common examples in English include fro-yo (from frozen yogurt), hazmat (from hazardous material), and sitcom (from situation comedy). Ultimately, retroactive is from Latin retrō, “back, backward,” combined with agere (past participle stem āct-), “to do,” while continuity is formed from Latin con-, “with, together,” combined with tenēre (combining stem tin-), “to hold.” Retcon was first recorded in the early 1980s. EXAMPLE OF RETCON USED IN A SENTENCE Though the first season showed the doctor naming the family spaceship after her favorite Norse god, later seasons retconned this and gave all the ships that same name. Now, my opinion about soap retcons: Worst soap about doing retcons, IMO, DOOL. Worst DOOL retcons. IMO, Tony/Andre' #1 with John Black being #2 through #5! Or, as I really like to call him, Forest Alamain. At one point in DOOL history, it was clear that Tony was Stefano & Daphne's son & he was a relatively good man who loved Anna, who was nice to her daughter Carrie, who enjoyed the finer things in life like wines, etc. Also clear was it that Andre' was a distant cousin who resembled Tony & who had plastic surgery to enhance that to impersonate Tony. Andre' was not a good man, not nice to anyone unless he was pretending for some grifter plan, etc. At that point in Salem time, Tony & Andre' made sense, or at least DOOL sense. Then, they retconned both of them ONE MORE TIME & now it makes no sense at all. Daphne & the gardener?!! Argh.

As a soap fan who appreciates soap history & admires people like Agnes Nixon I find on days like today that I fervently wish she had just NOT said, "Make them wait." I don't want to wait. I want to go back to the white light, the white space, wherever it is, and see Doc NOW. And, furthermore, the lyric "Then take a ride in the Wayback Machine"? Is that cheesy or what? I did not think very much of Chad & Steph's "FIrst Time" musical montage. But, then, I'm not on board, so there's that. Maybe it's me.

Just headed now to log on to peacock & see. I hope we're back in white space with Charlie's Angels today! Sometimes they are just unrealistic. At least he just wears classic black. You have no idea what you're gonna see with Alex. Red, blue flowered?!! And never the same pair twice. Hey, it's my #1, too!

Well, MC as Nik just looked that good because Shawn Reeves is an excellent Costume Designer. He'll be able to dress a NuNik! Believe me, in his TikTok shows & Instagram shows he usually just looks like a schlub.