Contessa Donatella

Yeah, you said it! I really really liked Carmen Duncan, RIP. But, she could never be the goddess that was Beverlee, also RIP. GL got to have Bev setting some new standard for Spaulding women & I'd just 'druther have had her back with us. I feel like TEXAS robbed the mother ship & then it didn't turn out so good for her! Beverlee & Victoria are my two grudges that neither of them ever got an Emmy, although both did get nods, 4 yrs in a row for Beverlee, and one strange yr when both BM & VW were up & Irene Dailey took the statue home. I mean, who knew?!! Aunt Liz was a Supporting Role! 3 nominees in one category from AW?!!

Well, as it happens the subject of P&G & their dealings with other companies as well as their own vaults is near & dear to my heart & is a subject I have followed very closely since the late 90s. I had wanted to talk to you about it out of the glare of Kleig lights, so I sent you a PM. You never replied. If you have any interest in having a different kind of discussion, climb into the mailbox that comes with your acct here & read my message to you & if you dare, reply. What have you got to lose?

I went to Daytime Confidential yesterday to listen to part of their podcast. I was after the part about 2 August passings - Michael Malone & Nelson Branco. I did not stay for talk about B&B or any other show. Began with OLTL & MM's first tenure there. Some of the best era of high drama, story-telling & situations. Some magazine said that the work was too good to be called a soap & wasn't that a grand compliment & a horrible insult at the same time! Billy Douglas & his friends, coming out, the AIDS quilt, the backlash against Andrew & the quilt, Andrew's brother. And, then Todd, Marty, gang rape, trial, Nora. Then they said they got pushback from the network & MM felt it was no use to fight them but JG who was nothing but a breakdown writer on the team was passionate about it & went into battle with the network for MM's vision of the writing. The conflict escalated because ABC saw huge chemistry between Todd & Marty & wanted to make them the next Luke & Laura. MM not only said NO but, HELL NO. Absolutely not. We will NOT be making a hero out of a rapist. MM was said to be passionate about the work, an artist & very sensitive to issue like what had happened at GH with L&L. Next up, EW (OLTL was) "airing some of the most literate drama". By the time MM was ready to leave, the show as averaging 5 mil a day & then there was a huge loss in ratings when he left. About Nelson Branco, they said that first off they, and many people, thought it was a hoax. One said, Nelson was pulling a Sally Field, to find out, "You like me. You really like me." Another said he was pulling a Katherine chancellor. They said, of course, what a loss it was & how he was too too young. 48 years young.

Clyde is just too lucky by half! I just can't see past desperation which does not incline me toward liking Nancy. I just hate Jan Spears so much that being found guilty of murder sounds very appealing! The idea that hired peeps took care of Stefan's body for 4 yrs while Rolf was in prison make me think that someone writing this badly wanted it to be, even though it's not credible. I have no idea who did it.

Don't you think he's "in like Flynn" for no other reason than Ken likes him? Ken doesn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. He claimed a first for DOOL going from half hr to hour, which is AW's first, Jan 1975 with DOOL 2nd. And, he doesn't know Canada's same day now. He used to know everything! Something's changed.

Okay. Now suddenly I no longer feel a grudging confidence. But I went shopping anyway & I got little Johnny DiMera a new suit to wear on the big day, Mon. Sept. 12th.

That would have been splendid! Their strongest point of interest then was two things: in owning part of any new soap they got into and the other shoe drops, that any new soap they got into have international possibilities. Besides being a Pete Lemay nut & a Donna Swajeski nut I am wholly taken with Claire Labine, so that would have been my personal pick. Of the different DOOL spin-offs mentioned over the years, I've no idea which one was up for this.

How long was Leo in the tunnels or room off the tunnels? How long was Gwyneth away from prison & where did she go? Is Clyde going to pay any penalty for fencing stolen goods? How bad is Nancy's desperation that she makes every excuse for Clyde? Could Jan Spears please be the doer? So, do you think it was Li?

If you talk to writers online who are not working, whether that's because they don't have a job & there are only 4 soaps out there or because they've retired they miss the good stuff & that's comraderie, collaboration, collegiality, IOW, they miss working with other writers, but they don't miss the hassle, the pressures, the time constraints, the utter exhaustion they get from the job the way it is, etc. so whether they'd rather NOT write or write at DOOL is about those factors. I doubt they'd care about the sets or the stupid blue light filter, but the way they have to rotate cast in & out, yeah, that might bug them!

I was reading a book & came upon an offhand remark that NBC went with BEACH instead of a DOOL spin-off. (I recall NBC holding a competition for show proposals & then ended up letting the affiliates make the choice & they chose the Aaron Spelling beach soap, which became SUNSET BEACH.) Other contenders: a Stephen J. Cannell lawyer soap, a Claire Labine soap & there were 4 altogether & that makes up 4. The Labine soap was to have been set in lower Manhattan & involve two families living right next door to each other, one black family & one white family, close friends & I think it had a name, a working title, Heart & Soul.

That fellow, the one with the Colleen rumor who thought he knew better than anyone else when he was really in over his head, did anyone know who he was? And, #2, I had the pleasure of eating pizza & playing board games on some few occasions with people including Lesli Kay & her husband & I really liked her. Very real, smart as a whip, very competitive but everyone was. Long ago. Nice memory. And, Roger had said that they were gonna do AW next so I'm still mad that the plug got pulled!

I was a lapsed viewer but I think I said so. At any rate I'm back streaming free now & soon for 8 cents a show. Okay, I'm going to go stream my first paid DOOL episode! Just had to share!

Doesn't everyone? I love Judi Evans & I watch her with her horses on her IG acct. & I have to remind myself that it is really her who I hate as soon as we're in Salem. Never should have killed Adrienne. So I upgraded my acct to Premium & watched Friday's show on Saturday & marked "My Friend Dahmer" for My Stuff because it's an Anne Heche movie I haven't seen. And I had two criticisms. One, too much Bonnie, and Two, too much Alex. Oh, no, I forgot, it's Three because I can't stand Nicole being stupid about Eric! That only leaves Sonny being savagely stabbed in the back to feel good about & I like Sonny, so nope, not that either. The whole show was a wash. ... Better luck next time.

Swajeski was so good at AW even when she was fighting with NBC. So much but the tops was probably Who Shot Jake? And, at GL at the end, not as one of the co-HWs, just on the team, she wrote the best Otalia scene of all time, that in the snow, at the graveside of Gus, in the gazebo when the ladies finally declare their love for each other. I knew AMC had gone awry. Mulcahey & Val Jean would be very interesting. And, I was intentionally thinking new blood for DOOL. Mulcahey wrote some for AW before being on the team for TEXAS & he wrote at SB, so there's some NBC. I did not know that Lorraine Broderick had retired. Doggone. If only she could have gone on forever! Editing in to say: Anybody have their IG acct suddenly render headings & sub-head in a Cyrrhlic (spelling?) alphabet? - Never mind. I found where to change it back to English. Excuse my dust.

Happy Birthday to Cynthia Watros! Born Sept. 2, 1968.

How about Donna Swajeski? Or if not her, Patrick Mulcahy? Several qualities in both. Good really good, get along well with others & available.

Pretty long history of animosity betw NBC & their affiliates, and that's going both ways. Come to think of it, NBC has a pretty long history of animosity betw them & lots of other parties!

To me the beginning of the end was when GL, ATWT, OLTL & AMC were canceled. It had been a blow to lose 4 so close together. Only 3.5 hrs of soap was left. No Agnes Nixon was left. No Irna Phillips was left. No P&G was left. No NY soap was left. So to me we have been living in end times. And, some of the things that have been done in the name of staying on the air reflect that. Presumably the shows will continue to decline. For DOOL will this mean sharper, faster decline? I don't know. I just get that it has to be tried. It would seem that DOOL is in the best position to be the guinea pig. It's consistently at the bottom. In 1978 Gloria Monty did something unheard of & threw out a week of show on tape & done. I wish Corday was bold enough to throw out some of that vetted & taped & edited show tape! I think they need an edge. That would be one. But, of course, I don't think they will do so.

Oh, well done! I love that one. My fave so far.

I just saw an ad for Hobby Lobby, in this topic. I am horrified.

Gosh, we used to have so many ways of zinging NBC. Began with the ubiquitous NBC Sucks which was often rendered in crossword fashion. Boycott NBC was big, as was doing at least 2 yrs without NBC. Ended up something clever with a fan or fans blowing letters & student ... something. Too bad.

I feel like someone just noticed him & decided to give him something to do! And it was an excellent impulse.

When NBC canceled AW, they did nothing. I've met tons of fans who were not online then who are online now who literally were shocked when they tuned in the Monday after the Olympics & AW was from their perspective "just gone, vanished." I would bet the same things happened to offline fans of BEACH 6 months later. No idea about PSSN because it was more complicated, like this is, a move to DirecTV. It seems to me that NBC is one very rotten apple in this fruit basket and it is their blasted pattern to do nothing, zip, nada.

I mean he really seems to be a nice guy. He would probably be a great product spokesperson. But, he just cannot act to save his soul. I tho't maybe it was just Ryan. But, that would mean it is both Ryan & Drew.

I can watch it over & over, but I feel that way about Ada's death, too, and her getting to sent to Peoria. Who wrote Mac's death? Was that when Swajeski was HW? So I spoke Lahoma's name yesterday & I love her & AnnW & today in a rabbit hole I fell right on top of a Lahoma episode. Loved it. Also loved what a comment said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCfZjKVQC4M Erik Andrus: I honestly feel Ann Wedgeworth as Lahoma Vane paved the way for characters like Opal Gardner, Calliope Bradford, Egypt Jones, Nadine Cooper, Sally Spectra, Luna Moody... Just that iridescent gem of a character who made the canvas more unique.