Contessa Donatella

That's right, she & Stephen had been hired to co-HW GH next, a big deal, but one they were looking forward to. I think she has a slightly different outlook looking back at not writing any more serials & how she feels about that lack, and who doesn't change their perspective looking at something from the front & then again later after the fact. From Wendy Riche I got an earful (in text) about how exhausting HWing a soap is, in answering me why Labine left GH when she did. I know that JFP had used Lemay as a Writer's Consultant & she could've used even a preggers Curlee. KZ was very protective about whatever was in her contract and if anything was going to change it was going to change at contract time, at work cycle points, and NOT in between. I think most if not all of the industry made mistakes in casting models who were actor wannabes. Sure, some of them actually turned into good actors & many of them were mentored actively on the sets of their shows. I know that mentoring went on at AW & at GL. Okay, Alex cartoon screeching, is that what the fan reaction at the time was to getting used to Marj Dusay's vocal mannerisms & volume? And, whose a troll? They wanted Peter Simon back for so long & for so much story that they wanted to tell. I know that they didn't really want to go forward with Sebastian without him & then they just got stuck & had to change things. They even had Courtney plead their case, which I gather was really considered over & above. And, Rauch just had a set look in his head of the way things would look. And, that applied to sets & costumes & even minute details & he would fight everyone. He fought his foes, of course, but he also fought his friends. Downight pugnacious. Never has one man had more interest in the colors & styles of women's garments without being IN the fashion biz. About the only things they had in common were having to fight CBS without an Exec-in-charge of Production/P&G going to bat for them & the edicts that CBS had handed down when they backed off their plan to cancel GL way back, relatively speaking. GL had the new production model and ATWT had changes in storytelling.

Wasn't it 8 yrs till the reveal? That number is stuck in my head. Not surprising that there would be some change in the players. I was just re-reading about that time in the book Ken Corday put out back in the day. Actually that's not true. I was reading my blog of that book. And, even at that remove, my paraphrase - of Corday's writing (or whomever was ghosting if he had one) - of Bill Bell's storytelling, and it's just so heightened, complex but understandable, and elegantly stated. If anyone wants to read the text I just referred to, lemme know & I will PM it to you. It's all typed up so it's easy. I feel like these episodes were my secret initiation into a society of soap farers.

When the supercouple began there weren't any battling fanbases fighting for their couple to get more airtime, etc. Doug & Julie were the first supercouple, literally the first to be dubbed so by the press. And, Julie was a Horton by blood if not by name. And, the couple was an extension of the Horton family as Doug's gateway in had been that he was Bill's prison cellmate. Back in the day it wasn't just GL's Betty Rea who cast experienced actors. All the NY soaps did. Pete Lemay & Paul Rauch would go to plays together & they would always be on the lookout for possibles to cast. I think in general when shows get cancellation orders that a question is always asked, who do we want to bring back for the final days. I don't think that question is asked when plans are being made for regular time upcoming stories. Maybe it should've been asked.

They, of course, were learning as they went how exactly to do 60 min. shows & OJT in front of an audience can be very painful. Ordering chairs, bwa ha ha. 🤪

In November 2009, Emmy winner Susan Flannery (Stephanie, B&B) shared in an exclusive interview with We Love Soaps what her thoughts were on the change to the hour format on DAYS OF OUR LIVES: "I said to them, 'I’m glad I’m leaving. It’s so rushed that you’re no longer in control of your performance. And that doesn’t make me happy.' So I did the first six weeks when the show launched for an hour. That’s the reason I agreed to do BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL [a half-hour show]. I like that form. That was Bill's favorite form too. He hated the hour. He thought they had to pad too much story."- We Love Soaps Net Well, that, the latter, would've sucked. But, it could have been.

It was only one MOTW-type movie but I thought the one with Jameson Parker was quite good. She played a cougar to him, where he was her best friend's son. I think it was called Anatomy of a Seduction. It was complicated.

I'd say she is nuanced. But, she seems to have this calm belief that she can play anything, and because she believes it, I believe it. I thought I'd found her in an INFERNO trailer the other day, but upon second glance it was just Faye Dunaway, how disappointing.

Loved loved loved Brando explaining the 1st Amendment! Will posters finally believe?!

He seems to fit the job & the job seems to fit him. A shame in that sense to see them part. 🤔

Bummed, yes. It was really really good. So be it, cancellations will always be with us, like death & taxes.

In college, an excellent professor Dr. Frances Bolen spent the first 5 minutes of every class talking about anything we wanted to bring up. One day a class member asked her what Shakespearean play, "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." was from? So, she didn't know & it was unusual to stump her! We talked about how much it sounds like Polonius's advice to Laertes in Hamlet and then she assigned it as homework to find out which Shakespearean play it is in. The next day plenty of people were sitting with s*it-eating grins on their faces. It's by Sir Walter Scott & appears in his long poem "Lochinvar."

On her birthday the other day I caught a file of 30 quotations by her. This is my favorite: "The audience is the best judge of anything. They cannot be lied to. Truth brings them closer. A moment that lags—they're gonna cough.” - Barbra Streisand

Soap Classics DVDs ATWT Switched at Birth is not about Lily. It begins with Lily & Holden getting home with their daughter who has been with Reed Hamilton for almost a year. Lily's World Crumbles is the classic scene, Lily & Rob Landry are in the barn shouting & he's shaking her by the shoulders & Iva runs in with a pitchfork raised screaming, "Let go of her; she's your baby!" GL Wedding is self-explanatory. Sins of Nola Reardon begins with Nola in a room & Kelly comes in & he lights into her about having played him all along & they're gonna have a big fight.

Looking at the ATWT DVDs Secrets & Scandals, Disc 2, Episode 2, Lily's World Crumbles. The Lily & Holden Story, Disc 2, Episode 7, Switched at Birth. maybe she's in those 2. I'll look at these 4 episodes & see. I beg your pardon for quoting myself. I wanted all 4 of these to be in one post.

The wedding of Quint & Nola is one of the 5 weddings, I believe. I'll look it up. Okay, it looks like 2. Disc 1, Great Weddings, Episode 2, Quinton Chamberlain Marries Nola Reardon. Disc 2, Secrets and Scandals, Episode 1, The Many Sins of Nola Reardon.

OMG. If that is truly what they're going to do, he*l, have done since it's bound to be in the can already, then they should be ashamed of themselves. Next thing you know they'll write Mariska Hargitay into the scene, get just as much poor taste as you can cram into this stunt, this event, this nightmare. Next thing you know, they'll be minting a Memorial coin & hawking it to the fans. NBC can stand for Nice But Crass. 😱

If you say gruesome & murder, you're saying, The Murder of Frankie Frame, Bay City, Illinois, wife, mother, PI, spirit of the universe, legacy character, core family member, friend

AZ has some of the most unflattering hairstyles and clothing on the show consistently. I think it's her choice lol. ... And, her hair! My god, I could do better hair for her. She reminds me of a Madeline Kahn or a Catherine O'Hara. Only Ari doesn't play the one going for laughs.

I just saw her in a promo for it & felt all fan-grrly inside. I have to make time to see it.

I read just the other day that, I kid you not, NBC was of the opinion (group mind think, I guess) that violence got them better ratings.

YES, THIS!! Finally a real explanation for why Laura went off the rails.

So, I guess this means that the perpetual rumor that it is Gwen in an Abby mask, is just air. D*mn and the character is a good character. She will be missed.

Nancy Curlee Demorest had intended to stay out to have the child she was pregnant with and then get back in the game but she got pregnant again and stayed out another year to have this, their third child. I guess at that point life just happened because it turned into her permanent retirement. I think daytime could've used her and I think that is an understatement. In the Locher room chat she said that she really misses writing serials.

Loved that! But my own choice is Dante, again, for the same, talking to Sonny. No one else can seem to have a good talk with him. Honorable mentions to Michael for his final-for-now blow-up with Sonny. And, for Sonny himself for that "Here's Sonny!" moment a'la The Shining.

Great! Ed Mallory is one of my favorites from then. I thought he was very strong, as well as nuanced, has a great voice, and certainly played so many different emotions that were called for in Bill Horton, especially later on in Bill Bell's first rapemance.