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I totally understand the Kirkwood bashing, I'd like to know why you think it isn't justified, Carl, as I do respect your opinion.

For me the show has become unwatychable in many ways. A lot of people seem to have a problem with Santer's era, but it was a lot better than the show currently is IMO. The main things for me are that:

- he's ruined Kat and Alfie. I dread them appearing in an episode together because they're so dreary and depressing these days.

- very few of his new characters have worked.

- he brought in Derek Branning (panto villain with no purpose, cringeworthy and pointless)

- he has made nearly all characters unlikeable

The only good thing I can think of is the fact that Janine is finally a brilliant character again - I think she was trashed under Santer.

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I think the show was unwatchable for most of Santer's era - just plot plot plot and most of that plot made everyone involved look horrible. I think the structure of Eastenders in recent years has just made it very difficult to have strong quality. It's the nature of all British soaps now - Emmerdale and Corrie are disgusting and offensive, as is Hollyoaks. I think Eastenders is more capable of some standout moments than these three, and it's not sending messages that domestic violence is sexy or that women ask to be raped.

The Kirkwood bashing started before he ever made any story or casting decision. That is why I will never agree with the stuff about him. I have my own issues with him as a producer based on Hollyoaks, but the level of bile against him as a person as well as a producer has been OTT from the day his name was announced.

Edited by CarlD2
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Interesting ... I have not been watching regularly, just reading synopses and catching little clips, so you are definitely more informed about the current state of the show. I definitely think it's more than Janine though that has been good. Bringing back old favorites like David (even if it was just for a couple weeks) and now Sharon are definite good things! I never thought I would see David Wicks in the Square again, never mind holding his mom's head as she died or running away while Carol chased after him and tripped, crying. Wow! There is a feeling of EastEnders truly using its 80s and 90s legacy now that I did not sense in the mid- to late-2000s when everything was Roxy and Ronnie Mitchell, tons of new Brannings, Stacey Slater, Sean Slater, writing out the Fowlers, etc. Also even if Kat and Alfie have not been written well, at least they are back -- they probably made the biggest splash of any new characters on the show from the 2000s so they need to be on the Square. They are EastEnders icons.

Even with so much of the cast different from "the old days," I feel the EastEnders now "feels" EastEnders to me in a way that it hadn't for awhile. I do think some of the groundwork for this was laid while Santer was EP too though, like bringing back Carol and Bianca.

Having said all that, I'm still not happy about the rumor about Heather's exit.

Edited by jfung79
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It's interesting to read your thoughts.

Carl - I think you're right that Kirkwood doesn't deserve the hate he gets, it can become OTT and unnecessary, I guess he is responsible for the direction the show takes which is why it's difficult not to blame him.

There are definitely things other than Janine that Kirkwood has done that I didn't mention. For a start I think Lauren is a completely fascinating character and the recast has been wonderful. Bringing in Janine's grandmother was also wonderful, though I would have liked her to have stayed for longer. I don't necessarily agree with Janine being left millions in her will though, somehow it doesn't sit right with me. You're right, having David back was great for the show, not really a character I was too bothered about, but I know he is a massive favourite so it was great for the show.

I agree with you Carl, that there were certain aspects of Santer's era that were unwatchable, Darren being the father of Heather's baby etc, and it was very plot driven during his tenure but I still prefer that era to Kirkwood's overall. I'm finding it difficult to get my point across because I've lost so much passion for the show that I find it irritating to have to bring up the reasons why because it makes me frustrated with the state of the show.

I've switched off totally now and the reason was solely Derek Branning. I can 't stomach him. I literally feel like watching him would be a total waste of my life - what's he going to do? Threaten people, bully people, everyone's going to do what he wants, despite the fact he doesn't look scary whatsoever. I literally cannot comprehend the producers decision to bring in Derek - what does he bring to the show? A rivalry/alliance with Phil is something I couldn't give a hoot about. Rather than bringing in another pointless character who will get away with murder and not get their comeuppance, how about sorting out the character they've already got who fits this description, i.e. Phil. Phil is a legendary character but he just makes me cringe these days. Someone here posted a link to a thread on DS about the future of the Mitchells, well I personally feel that Sam needs to be brought back (played by Kim Medcalf) - Phil lacks chemistry with any of his family members, he and Shirley are one of the worst soap couples of all time, they don't have any chemistry and are mis-matched, she sticks up for him no matter what low act he does, it's just not right. I'd rather he was with Kate again. I don't think he should leave, but if Sam or Kate or someone came back I think his more endearing side could emerge again, being with Shirley seems to bring out the worst in him.

Talking of the Mitchells leads me to another point - people being 'family' when they're not family. Jay 'Mitchell' is one of the worst ideas they've ever had, I hate that soap cliche of families taking in randoms, I hated it when they did it on Neighbours but it's more annoying on EE because the characters actually act like they're family. The Kim/Denise/Patrick trio winds me up no end.

I also think that even though many of the storylines were plot-driven in Santer's era, they were character-driven at the same time - Syed and Christian's relationship, Zainab's behaviour totally fitted in with her character, she cares what people think about her and has strict morals, therefore she wouldn't have reacted well to the news that Syed is gay and I think, yes, it was a dramatic storyline, but character-driven. Well, on Zainab's part at least. I know Christian and Syed's build up to their relationship could have been better.

However, another thing I've liked during Kirkwood's era is Ian and Mandy's relationship - I find that fascinating. My main gripe though, as I wrote on DS, is that there are too many 'antagonists' or 'villains' - Michael was supposed to be a villain when he came in, now I don't know what he is. I think EE just needs more 'nice' characters who are likeable. I dislike nearly everybody thanks to the writing and that never happened during Santer's era. The Yusef/Zainab storyline is one of the worst in years. If there have been any plot driven storylines recently, that's it - the moat predictable, crappy storyline you could imagine - everyone knew how it was going to end, and like they've pressed the reset button, Zainab and Masood get back together like nothing has ever happened, like the story has been erased from the history of the show. Zainab has a lot of explaining to do for her actions but Masood, like a fool has not questioned any of her horrific behaviour. That is unrealistic because the man would want answers.

Why does the show also have this obsession with couples being unhappy too? Kat and Alfie, Ricky and Bianca, don't even get me started on the Whitney/Tyler/Fatboy triangle, is that supposed to be entertaining? I can't even follow it anymore because it's so boring and I hate Whitney as a result of her selfish, slutty behaviour.

I do agree it's great to have Kat and Alfie back, but I don't know if I'd rather they never returned. They are the second reason after Derek why I've stopped watching. I literally can't stomach them anymore at all, they are so despressing I'd rather watch the shopping channels. They have been universally ruined. Hardly anyone likes them anymore, it was totally unnecessary for Michael to be the father of her baby. Their stories don't make sense anymore. They left in 2005 both blissfully happy, and return to have their baby swapped (I don't have a problem with that) but it seems as though they've fallen out of love with each other and constantly wish they could get a divorce. I know that's not the case but if you watched on a casual basis you could be forgiven for thinking that.

P.S. I worry for Sharon. It's the wrong time for her to be coming back. I'm going to be devastated if she has to share any scenes with Derek Branning which I'm guessing will be the case. I really hope they don't ruin her by assocation with the dislikeable cast.

Edited by Edward Skylover
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I hope they don't overdo the Tragedy Queen/Black Widow thing with Sharon this time, which was getting tiring during the end of her last stint.

That said, this is a nice montage video of it. laugh.png

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KakyNEzJKBA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I believe Sharon still owns the Bookies, which she left Pat in charge of while she was gone, but that seems forgotten now and Pat is dead.

So, I wonder if she somehow buys The Vic from underneath the Michelle's again, or if she'll buy the club from Janine and turn it into Angie's Den again. I think Sharon worked best in the club during her last stint.

Also, Little Dennis is an American, so let's hope they can find a young American actor, so we can avoid another Vicky Fowler situation. Though, his accent change would be more believable than her's, as he'll be 6 when she comes back with Sharon.

On the topic of Vicky, I wonder if they'll recast and have her join Sharon eventually. We know Michelle returning will never happen.

Of course, there's Sharon also exploring her biological family again, and she does have biological half-siblings she's never met.

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I like the business ideas!

Eventually, the "Mark Fowler Jr is Grant's son" story needs to be told too ... even if Michelle is never coming back. If Ben sticks around, I think he and Ben could be rivals, or they could gang up to take down Phil. The show doesn't need to keep inventing new Mitchells and adding adopted Mitchells when there is a Mitchell out there just waiting to be discovered. Sharon could be coming back to warn Phil that Michelle let the secret slip and tell him Grant has a son before Mark Jr shows up. No one would believe Sharon that Michelle never told her either (even though as far as we know that is the case). Various people would be either mad at Sharon for keeping such a big secret or happy Sharon was back. It wouldn't just be the Mitchells who were mad. Ian could be mad too since he would feel left out of a family secret. Sharon would be the target of financial, emotional, and perhaps gangland attacks, but she would give back as good as she got and not be a victim.

Then 3 months later Mark Jr gets there and hell really breaks loose. Michelle would have done a good job raising him but he would still be an angry young man. He would try to reach out to the Mitchells and they wouldn't know how to handle him so he would act out.

Then they would need to lure Ross Kemp back for a few months soon after that for the story to develop further. It would also be good for Peggy to make an appearance for a couple weeks during this story, perhaps at the end of an arc to set things straight in her lay-down-the-law Peggy way. I don't think Barbara Windsor is entirely averse to a cameo return.

I think Sharon coming back is the first step to Grant coming back again sooner or later anyway.

When/if everyone is mad at Ben, Sharon could also be the one person who forgives him and reaches out to him, and whose help he accepts, starting him on a healing path, because she sees similarities between him and Dennis -- spent time in jail, angry at his dad, mother dead. It would be totally a motherly thing only though, obviously, no cougar relationship with Ben being gay (although the show did end up making Tony Hills bi after he was established as gay; Tony is Ben's cousin BTW, just realized)! I still wish they never killed off Kathy.

You're probably right, Edward Skylover, that Derek will have to be involved. But it doesn't have to be that bad. He could offer Sharon and Mark Jr protection ... Perhaps his motivation would be that Bianca or one of her kids has a medical issue and would need Mark Jr's blood (although that is too American-soapy). We might see a softer side of him emerge. BTW Bianca is related to practically everyone on the show LOL.

I don't think Sharon will be ruined, any more than she was ruined by Den's so-so return and Jack Dalton/Andy Hunter/Johnny Allen gangland blah blah. The character can outshine anything. The show does need to remember her fun side too though.

Edited by jfung79
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They can never tell the Mark Fowler, Jr story without Michelle (and Sue Tully), it wouldn't have any impact or make any sense without her being there.

I think it will be a dropped plot forever, unless Sue Tully decides she wants to come back and start acting again.

There's a better chance of Ross Kemp coming back as Grant though, but that won't probably be for a while. Sharon is the love of Grant's life and he never got over her, but the same can apply to Phil. mellow.png

If the show ended tomorrow, they would probably have to reunite Sharon and Grant and have them running the Vic together. Sharon would be Courtney's surrogate mother, and Grant would be little Dennis' surrogate father.

But, I think Sharon got over the Mitchell's and moved on from them in a way they haven't been able to do with her. Grant and Phil will always be a big part of her life and the connection will always exist, but she's evolved past them.

I think it's best to concentrate other areas of Sharon's character and not her love life until she settles down after a while.

I, for one, hope Sharon's return is a catalyst for bringing Chrissie back eventually, if only for a short-term stint.

There's a lot of mileage left in Sharon, she's a very adaptable character.

Edited by Y&RWorldTurner
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I was watching the episode immediately after Den's funeral, and, as much of a cliche as it is, the show truly did not have anything else going for it outside of Den's murder plot. The Juley/Gus/Mickey "drama" was like confused homeless people reading lines, the beginning of the Sonia estrangement from Martin was boring...the Nana Moon death buildup was OK but kind of sad and remote. I'd almost forgotten how much I loathed Garry and Minty together.

Barbara Windsor, charismatic as she was, was not a good actress - some cringeworthy scenes with Charlie about the alibi.

I was so impressed by the writing and the acting in the scenes like Chrissie facing off with Peggy in front of everyone at the Vic, and turning things around on Peggy. The scenes with Sharon and Dennis talking about grieving. The last scene with Dennis at the grave was also well written, just not very well acted (Nigel Harmon wasn't good at crying scenes).

I was so sad at the sight of Pauline and Pat sitting around the Vic offering commentary and background for Den's funeral (Pat had a good line about how Chrissie, after falling in the grave, was "down there with Den and Angie"). That's what Eastenders has so little of now - those years of history which are unspoken but powerful.

Do you think Chrissie ever liked Sharon? Could they have been true friends if things hadn't happened?

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Word to 99% of what you said, Ed!

One of the reasons why he lacks chemistry with his on-screen family is b/c the ones that are left are the ones Phil has never cared for. Phil has always treated Billy like someone who is beneath him, and he's never cared for Roxy. The only times he pays them any interest is when they play the "family card" or he needs something from them. These three don't gel, and never will. It's illogical that Roxy would be living with Phil and Ben after all they have done, especially considering Phil stole Roxy's money (the ending to that was completely vexing), and Ben accusing her BFF of molestation! She just would not live there. Phil and Shirley are not a super-couple and never will be, and really they should have been broken up ages ago. Shirley has lost all sense of herself, and he's just nastier when he's with her; it's time for some character development for these two, pronto! Phil is the type of character that needs to be paired with someone who is nicer than he is, b/c pairing thug with thug just doesn't work - I loved Kate, so seeing her return would be great, and I'm wanting screen time for Sharon and Phil, as I think she will soften him a bit.

The Jay story has never made any sense - well, it did in the beginning as it looked like Phil was trying to replace Ben and mould Jay into the son he always wanted, but having Jay coldly push Billy (the man who he built a relationship with after his dad, Jase, died) aside in favour of Phil was so out of character, and the TPTB never addressed this at all. Jay would have never have changed his name. The basis of this story made sense of why Jay has been adopted into the Mitchell family, it's just the settings are all wrong.

I have no problems with the Denise/Kim/Patrick trio, as that actually makes sense. Denise and Patrick thought they were father and daughter, and bonded during that time. I love how that bond has stayed strong so long after the truth was revealed. He is the only father she'll ever know, and Patrick has sons who are either dead or MIA. Kim is someone who gets on well with him, I like how he's embraced her like Denise b/c she is Denise's sister and Kim is happy to embrace that set-up. Family doesn't have to be about blood, and I believe these three are a good example of that on this show. IMO, it wouldn't make sense if they didn't act like family.

BK has said many times that couples must be unhappy and miserable in order to create drama. According to him, stories for couples cannot come about unless they are based in relationship angst. He doesn't know how to write for happy couples - Syed/Christian and Kat/Alfie are a case in point.

ITA. I think she's coming back for all the wrong reasons, and I don't want to see her get ruined. You know she'll have scenes with dodgy Derek. * shudder*

Carl: Just b/c the BK bashing has been OTT at times, and started out with what seemed prejudice at the beginning, doesn't mean that the current criticism is unfounded. I really don't like the direction the show took last year; there are just so many things that he and his team have done that have been wrong. All of the same issues that were present under Santer have never been addressed by BK, and these issues (continuity, pacing, plotting, etc) will continue to drag the show down the longer they are left un-addressed.

What is the deal with Ben? He has been ruined due the constant need to throw every plot at him without developing anything. And now they have dodgy Derek. Why? He's been so badly crafted from the get go and I don't understand why that is. I think they made a big mistake with writing the character like this, and even with the casting. I find Derek's scenes with Ben so creepy, and not in a good way. I just feel this character has no business being on the show. If they wanted to create an enemy for Phil to go head-to-head with, someone who commands fear and has proven that he is a serious villain, then they should have developed Qadim Shah - now he had depth and was seriously scary at times, plus you could understand his motivations; a villain you could love to hate.

Whenever I think about all the good BK has done, Janine is the first person that springs to mind and all that is associated with her. I do think about the positive changes in Syed, but that was all undone a few months ago. Yes, he produces some great stand-alone episodes, and I particularly liked the one this week that had character driven material and a good use of history, but these don't come along often, and the next day we're back do the same ol' crap with dodgy Derek, psycho Ben, and the useless Moon brothers. Of course there are a load of characters that need to go, and sadly Fat Boy is one of them; he's been ruined in this tedious triangle with Whitney/Tyler.

Edited by Ben
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To be honest I've never seen this Billy/Jay "relationship." Yes, Jay stood up for Billy and at one time sort of called him a dad, but he was barely seen for about a year during the time he was living with Billy. Billy was also the man who did nothing as his father was beaten to death. And Jay never had his father's name anyway, so he was basically changing his last name from people he never seemed all that close to in the first place.

I think the idea of Jay being a Mitchell made some sense, it's just nothing was ever done with it.

The only time the Mitchells were believable as a family was Peggy/Phil/Grant/Sam. The hybrid version has never worked.

I agree with you. I don't even watch the show all that much these days. The problem is BK was trashed before he made a single decision about the show. That means any valid criticisms of him are canceled out. And to this day, you still mostly hear people going on about the horror of firing the awful actors who played Lucy, Lauren, and Ben. Is that really Eastenders' biggest problem? If Melissa Suffield came back to raise an eyebrow and woodenly bark her lines, would Eastenders be saved?

As for Derek and Sharon, he's about the same as most of the people Sharon had to deal with in her 2003-2005 years.

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She rationed ideas and story lines by doing the same thing.(27)     Phillips, herself, was a highly eccentric woman, possibly more than any of the thousands of characters she created during her career.She consulted fortune tellers from time to ti me and changed the spelling of her name from the original Erna to Irna when a numerologist said it would ease her life.(28)     She was also a hypochondriac. She visited doctors nearly every day of her life. A physician who lived in her apartment building in Chicago stopped by several times a day to listen to her complaints and take her temperature.(29) Her trips to New York City were often mixed in with trips to different hospitals and specialists in Manhattan. Once, while staying in her suite at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, she insisted that storm windows be installed to end the drafts. The windows are still there.(30) Frequently, she asked to be pushed around in a wheelchair.(31)      Not surprisingly, Phillips's preoccupation with illness and disease became evident in her work. Doctors and nurse as characters, hospitals as settings, and illnesses as subjects for drama were vintage Phillips characteristics.(32) Phillips's treatment of actors who worked on her shows was rather odd as well. She seldom bothered to learn the names of the performers, knowing them only as the characters they portrayed.(33) Actress Helen Wagner, who has played Nancy Hughes (now McClowsky) on AS THE WORLD TURNS since it premiered in 1956, was a friend of Irna's and remembers just how typical that was, "I was always Nancy to her. Any reference to my husband always meant Chris, my on-screen husband, not my real-life husband. I never became 'Helen' until very late in her career, after knowing her many, many years."(34)     Similarly, Phillips did not like the off-screen lives of her actors to interfere with the on-screen lives of their characters. Helen Wagner, whose character of Nancy was in the early days something of a homebody, was for many years denied a vacation from the show because it would mean writing the character out for a few weeks. Phillips told Ms. Wagner, "Nancy is a housewife, Nancy does not travel." It was several years before Nancy was allowed to go visit a sister out of state so that actress Helen Wagner could have a few days off.(35)     Like her characters' lives and her plots, Phillips rigidly controlled her home life and went to great lengths to keep it simple. She lived far away from the network TV industry in her Chicago apartment. Until she was in her late thirties, Phillips shared a bedroom with her mother, and she never learned how to drive. Though her sponsor once gave her a 1940 Plymouth to celebrate ten years in radio (and Phillips named it Sheila), it is doubtful she ever drove it.(36) Even her weekly menus were preset: on Sunday there was leg of lamb; Monday, chicken; Tuesday, steak; Wednesday, meatloaf; Thursday, lamb chops; Friday, spaghetti; and Saturday, stew.(37)     Phillips seldom had anything to do with the press, which she believed (perhaps rightly) dismissed soap operas as second-class subculture, snickering at her success and her fans' loyalty. She permitted few interviews during her entire career.(38)     Also not surprising was Phillips's flair for melodrama. In 1960 interviewer Peter Wyden related the story of the day Phillips's son Tom arrived late to meet her: "She does not just become vaguely uneasy. Her concern is translated into imaginary but stark disaster - he's been run over, his body is lying at the curb, he is bleeding badly."(39) Irna Phillips labeled herself a compulsive worrier and believed she would never get an ulcer because she turned all her worries into scripts.(40) "I do quite a bit of projecting," ahe told an interviewer.(41)     To oversee her programs, Phillips moved in 1940 to New York City. After seeing the toll the war was influcting on the country in 1941, she fashioned the serial WOMEN ALONE to dramatize the plight of women left on the home front. Her experiences in New York also served as the model for yet another new drama, LONELY WOMEN, which had a short on-air lifespan beginning in 1942 before Phillips recycled an old title and the show became known as TODAY'S CHILDREN in 1943. After six  months, though, New York was not to Phillips's liking, and she soon returned to Chicago. A similar move to California in 1943 did not work out either, and she returned to Chicago after only nine months.(42)     With so many shows on the air at the same time, and wielding as much power as she did, Irna Phillips put forth a revolutionary idea for soap opera broadcasting in 1943. THE GENERAL MILLS HOUR, as she foresaw it, would consist of three ofher shows running back-to-back - each in different lengths, from fifteen to twenty minutes depending on the plot - with characters from each occasionally overlapping and interacting. A narrating voice-over would navigate proceedings. It endured for a few months until Phillips abandoned the concept.(43)     By 1943, only a little over ten years after she began, Phillips was single-handedly responsible for five different daily dramas. Her total income from them was $250,000, and her literary output was estimated at two million words per year, the equivalent of forty novels.(44) She had established such a factory by this time that she found it necessary to have a lawyer and two doctors on retainer just to act as consultants.(45)     It was only later that Phillips reached the need for support writers, or "dialoguers," who filled out the basic story lines she devised. Many young writers who began with Phillips went on to successes of their own. In 1946 she hired a young recently graduated writer named Agnes Eckhardt, who later married and changed her name to Agnes Nixon.(46) Nixon would go on to create ALL MY CHILDREN and LOVING. Phillips also had a longtime collaborator in writer William Bell. After cocreating ANOTHER WORLD with Phillips, he went on to found with his wife Lee Phillip Bell two of the most successful soaps of recent years, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and, later, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.     Also in 1943, at near the same age her mother was when she herself was born, Phillips, unmarried and a career woman, adopted a child, Thomas Dirk. A year and a half later, Phillips adopted Katherine Louise.(47)     Throughout the 1940s Irna Phillips reigned as the undisputed queen of the radio soap opera. By the end of the decade a new medium was on the horizon and it would be that medium that Phillips (somewhat reluctantly) would conquer next.      By all accounts Irna Phillips was not anxious to move her shows from radio to television. With television, a fog horn could no longer substitute for the deck of a ship, and actors could no longer be brought in and replaced so easily. So reluctant was she to give up radio that after THE GUIDING LIGHT debuted on television on July 30, 1952, the scripts were rebroadcast that same day on radio. The two GUIDING LIGHTS ran concurrently on the two media for several years until finally the incredible success of the television version made the radio outlet obsolete.(48)     Around this time Proctor and Gamble [sic: My Note: This book spelled Procter and Gamble wrong over & over.], the soap manufacturer and a longtime force in soap opera broadcasting, began its long association with Phillips. Phillips sold the ownership of her current TV dramas to Proctor and Gamble Productions. Between the two of them (Phillips and P&G) they formed the biggest, toughest alliance daytime television had ever seen.(49)     In 1956 Phillips, in association with Proctor and Gamble, stormed onto television with what was to become her most popular (and some say, personal favorite) creation, AS THE WORLD TURNS. The continuing story of the Hughes and Lowell clans of Oakdale, Illinois, began on April 2, 1956, as TV's first half-hour soap. It was produced live until 1975 when it was lengthened to a hour. The show revolutionized daytime drama by gaining more viewers than ever before in the history of the genre (sometimes as high as a fifty percent share of the audience), and it launched soapdom's first all-out lying, scheming villainess, Lisa Miller (later, after marriage/s, Lisa Hughes, then Coleman, then Mitchell, then others). She was played by actress Eileen Fulton, who continues on the show to this day. Fulton's and the show's fame were so intense in the mid-1960s that CBS created a nighttime spin-off titled OUR PRIVATE WORLD. It, however, would only last a few  months.(50)     Irna Phillips's actual writing for her series, radio and television, was rather unusual. Every day at  nine in the morning Phillips sat down at a rickety, brown card table - the same one she had used for years - and began to devise that day's scripts from projected story lines often set down months in advance. From there she would dictate dialogue to her secretary and close friend, Rose Cooperman. "I really don't think I write," she said "I act."(51) Occasionally sitting still and occasionally moving around the room, moving as the character would, Phillips assumed all the characters in the scene - male, female, adult, child - changing her voice to indicate a change in speaker.(52) This process worked so well for Phillips it was later adopted by many of her proteges, including William Bell.(53)     As Phillips would talk, "Rosie," her secretary, would take down every word, following the various characters by following changes in Irna's voice and gestures. Rosie filled in the punctuation along the way. Both women became so involved with the story line they were creating that they found themselves in tears.(54)     The average time for Irna Phillips to dictate a half-hour script was about an hour and forty-five minutes. It usually took longer to type the finished manuscript than it did for Phillips to dream it up.(55) During Phillips's "writing" she seldom lost her place or became confused.  If she did, she could always consult one of her various genealogical charts she created for each show. They consisted of squares containing characters' names with solid lines connecting relatives, dotted lines connecting in-laws, and "X"'s over names of dead or missing family members.(56)     After the writing was finished Phillips would sit down and watch not only her shows but those of her competitors as well. While viewing her own shows, if she found something she did not like in script, performance, or production, it was switched immediately. This often meant a phone call to New York and a list of demands. A few times actors found themselves jobless after a phone call from Phillips. Not surprisingly, many actors, writers, and crew members feared Phillips's wrath. Once, when an actor playing what many thought an indispensable character asked for a raise in salary, Phillips refused and solved the whole problem by simply killing off the character. The show went on without him.(57) Don Hastings, who has played Dr. Bob Hughes on AS THE WORLD TURNS since 1960 (and wrote for the show for many years under the name J.J. Mathews), remembers Phillips as a tough but fair mother lion, ferocious in protecting her creation: "She was very tough on her writers but would protect them if the network or the producers criticized them. She always said that if she okayed a script it was as good as her writing it herself."(58)     Though Irna Phillips could be difficult, and a great many lived in constant fear of her, nobody would deny her skill. Don Hastings remembers a time when AS THE WORLD TURNS ratings had slipped. Owners Proctor and Gamble asked Phillips - then at work on another Proctor and Gamble show - to return and help WORLD. "Can you bring us up to a thirty share by the end of the year?" they asked. Phillips delivered the thirty share in thirteen weeks.(59)     Additionally, Phillips was not as difficult on a personal level as she might first appear. Throughout her career she was instrumental in starting other writers in their careers. Agnes Nixon, Bill Bell, and many other names benefitted from her support and guidance. Phillips was also known to take many young actors under her wing, sheltering and encouraging them.     In her life in Chicago, Phillips had a small but tight-knit group of friends and a fiercely devoted household staff. They admired and respected her enough to overlook her dramatic nature and her many pseudo-illnesses. Producer Lee Bell, who with her husband Bill created THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, was a friend and coworker of Irna's for many years; she remembers an eccentric but likable person. "She was a genius," Bell said, "A brilliant, intelligent woman. You wanted to be around her. Whatever eccentricities [she had] didn't matter."(60)      In 1964 Phillips formulated a new series for NBC titled ANOTHER WORLD. The title referred to the separate "psychological worlds" of its characters and the two separate economic worlds of the show's two major families. Not accidently, it also drew comparison with the previous Phillips creation AS THE WORLD TURNS.(61)     ANOTHER WORLD was the first daytime soap to run one hour. It was also the first daytime show to address the topic of abortion.(62) Phillips invited controversy again in 1967 when she attempted to introduce an interracial story line into LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING, a show she was also writing at the time. When the network bosses balked at the idea, Phillips walked out. She abandoned the show, and it was canceled in 1973.(63)     Despite Phillips forward thinking, however, she did not always approve of the direction daytime shows were taking. She said in 1972: "The daytime serial is destroying itself, eating itself up with rape, abortion, illegitimacy, men falling in love with other men's wives, all of which is often topped by a murder, followed by a long, drawn-out murder trial.(64)     In 1964 ABC-TV put Irna Phillips, at age 63, on the payroll as a special consultant for its primetime soaper PEYTON PLACE, the serialized twice-weekly program based on the book by Grace Metalious. By taking the PEYTON PLACE job, Phillips achieved a rare triple play: she now had her hand in, and was receiving paychecks from, shows running on all three major networks.(65)     In 1965 Phillips cocreated DAYS OF OUR LIVES and composed what has since become arguably the most famous opening line for any show in television's history: "Like sands through the hour glass ..."(66)     All did not always flow smoothly, however. The early years of ANOTHER WORLD were filled with complications: major characters were thrown out with little explanation, and actors were replacedal,ost weekly. Frustrated, Phillips left ANOTHER WORLD to concentrate on a show for ABC that she was cocreating with her daughter (and was based on Irna's own life). That show would only air for a few months when it premiered. Agnes Nixon was later brought into ANOTHER WORLD as head writer to whip the show into shape.(67)     Since Irna Phillips had almost single-handedly created soap operas as a dramatic form years ago in radio, they had begun to change. The incedible success of her own AS THE WORLD TURNS made daytime soap operas an important, highly profitable part of the network schedule. To gain viewers and therefore money, soaps became more and more sensational. Gradually they became more scandalous, sexual, and action-oriented; Irna Phillips's stories of women sitting around the breakfast table were becoming passe. Phillips found herself being left behind by the genre she had created. Allen Potter, who worked on ANOTHER WORLD with Phillips during its difficult years, summed up the problem: "She was from a different era. [She was] still writing kids going down to the malt shop."(68)     Phillips was asked to rejoin AS THE WORLD TURNS in 1972.(69) She simplified some of the plots but failed to turn the recent ratings dip around. Proctor and Gamble, the show's producer, fired Phillips in 1973. Back in Chicago she began work on an autobiography, but nothing was ever published.(70)     On December 23, 1973, Irna Phillips died in her sleep at her home in Chicago. She was seventy-two. In accordance with her wishes news of her death was kept from the press for several weeks.(71)     What made Phillips a success - the Queen of the Soaps, as she was often called - is somewhat difficult to answer. Helen Wagner recently explained it this way: "We [AS THE WORLD TURNS] premiered the same day as EDGE OF NIGHT [a now defunct mystery-based soap on ABC]. What was important on that show was the story. For AS THE WORLD TURNS what was important was the character.(72) Phillips realized early in her career that the success of serialized stories depended on her audience becoming involved and knowledgeable about the characters on the show. She told BROADCASTING in 1972: "Characters have to be multidimensional. The story has to come from the characters, to the point where your viewers will get to know a character so well they can predict his or her behavior in a given dramatic situation."(73)     Phillips believes there were several reasons for her success, not the least of which was her self-described limited vocabulary ("my greatest asset"), which, she believed, made her programs universal. She also attempted in her writing to appeal to the basic instincts of self-preservation, sex, and family.(74)     Perhaps Phillips's greatest personal achievement, however, was creating a world. fully and believably, that she did not really know herself. Though she never married; nor did she give birth; nor did she ever own a  home. But somehow Irna Phillips knew enough about all those qualities to entertain millions for generations - to spin endlessly involving tales of day-to-day life; tales about the simple joys and daily dramas of paying the bills, raising children, belonging to a family, and falling in love.      Irna Phillips wrote in McCALL'S magazine in 1965, "None of us is different, except in degree. None of us is a stranger to success and failure, life and death, the need to be lovedthe struggle to communicate..."(75)     Four of the programs Irna Phillips created - AS THE WORLD TURNS, GUIDING LIGHT, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and ANOTHER WORLD - are still on the air today.  IRNA PHILLIPS July 1, 1901        Born in Chicago, Illinois 1922             Graduated with bachelor's degree in education. 1924             Graduated with master's degree in speech; began career teaching school in Missouri and, later, Ohio. May 1930        Returned to Chicago; joined WGN as actress and ad hoc writer.  October 20, 1930    PAINTED DREAMS, radio's first "soap opera" debuted;created by Irna Phillips.  June 16, 1932        TODAY'S CHILDREN, second Phillips creation, premiered; departed WGN. 1934            MASQUERADE premiered.  1935            MASQUERADE aired last broadcast. January 25, 1937     THE GUIDING LIGHT premiered.  1938            TODAY'S CHILDREN aired final broadcast; ROAD OF LIFE and WOMAN IN WHITE premiered. October 16, 1939    THE RIGHT TO HAPPINESS premiered.  1940            Phillips moved briefly to New York City; would return to Chicago after six months.  1941            WOMEN ALONE premiered; settled court suit with WGN.  June 29, 1942        LONELY WOMEN (title later changed to TODAY'S CHILDREN) premiered.  1943            Resided briefly in Los Angeles; adopted son, Thomas Dirk. 1944            Adopted daughter, Katherine.  Summer 1948        WOMAN IN WHITE aired last broadcast. October 11, 1948    THE BRIGHTER DAY premiered on radio.  January 31, 1949    THESE ARE MY CHILDREN premiered. March 4, 1949        THESE ARE MY CHILDREN ended. 1950            Second incarnation of TODAY'S CHILDREN ended on radio. June 30, 1952        THE GUIDING LIGHT debuted on television. 1956            BRIGHTER DAY ended  on radio. January 4, 1954        THE BRIGHTER DAY premiered on television.  December 13, 1954    ROAD OF LIFE premiered on television; show ended broadcasts on radio. July 1, 1955        ROAD OF LIFE aired last broadcast on television. April 2, 1956        AS THE WORLD TURNS premiered. November 25, 1960    THE RIGHT TO HAPPINESS ended on radio. May 4, 1964        ANOTHER WORLD premiered.  1964            Worked as consultant on primetime's PEYTON PLACE. May 5, 1965        OUR PRIVATE WORLD, AS THE WORLD TURNS spin-off, premiered in primetime. September 10, 1965    OUR PRIVATE WORLD aired last episode. September 28, 1965    THE BRIGHTER DAY aired last broadcast on TV. November 8, 1965    DAYS OF OUR LIVES premiered. September 18, 1967    LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING, soap opera, premiered.  March 23, 1973        LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING aired last broadcast. Late 1973        Fired by Proctor and Gamble.  December 23, 1974    Passed away at home in Chicago.  NOTES 1.    "The Creators," TV GUIDE (Commemorative Edition) (July 1991), p.59. 2.    Dan Wakefield, ALL HER CHILDDREN (New York: Doubleday, 1976), p.27.  3.    CURRENT BIOGRAPHY (1943), p.590. 4.    Irna Phillips, "Every Woman's Life Is a Soap Opera," Mccall's (March 1965), p.116 5.    Ibid. 6.    Peter Wyden, "Madam Soap Opera," SATURDAY EVENING POST (25 June 1960), p.129. 7.    Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green, NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN: THE MODERN PERIOD (Cambridge: Belknap, 1980), p.542. 8.     "Script Queen," TIME (10 June 1940), p.66. 9.    Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green, p.542. 10.    "Writing On: Irna Phillips Mends With Tradition," BROADCASTING (6 November 1972), p.75 11.     Madeline Edmundson and David Rounds, THE SOAPS (New York: Stein & Day, 1973), p.43.     12.     CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.590 13.    Sicherman and Green, p.542. 14.    Robert C. Allen, SPEAKING OF SOAPS (CHapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1985), p.111.  15.     "Writing On: Irna Phillips Mends With Tradition," p.75. 16.     Edmundson and Rounds, p.44. 17.     Allen, p.112. 18.     Wyden, p.130. 19.     Ibid. 20.     CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.590. 21.     "Queen of the Soaps," NEWSWEEK (11 May 1964), p.66. 22.    Sicherman and Green, p.543. 23.     Wyden, p.130. 24.    Sicherman and Green, p.259. 25.    CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.519. 26.     "With Significance," TIME (11 June 1945), p.46. 27.     CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.590. 28.    Wyden, p.129. 29.    Interview with Lee Bell (4 September 1991). All other information and quotes from Mrs. Bell in this chapter were taken from this interview. 30.    Interview with Don Hastings (5 December 1991). All other information and quotes from Mr. Hastings in this chapter were taken from this interview.  31.    Wyden, p.129. 32.    Robert LaGuardia, SOAP WORLD (New York: Arbor House, 1983), p.20. 33.    Wyden, p.129 34.    Interview with Helen Wagner (10 October 1991). All other information and quotes from Ms. Wagner in this chapter were taken from this interview. 35.     Ibid., p.130. 36.    "Script Queen," p.66. 37.    Wyden, p.127. 38.     Wagner interview. 39.    Wyden, p.127. 40.    Phillips, p.117. 41.    Wyden, p.127. 42.    Ibid., p.130. 43.    Ibid. 44.    CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, P.591. 45.    "Script Queen,"p.68. 46.    Wakefield, p.28. 47.    Sicherman and Green, p.543. 48.    Wyden, p.130.  49.    Ibid. 50.    Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, THE COMPLETE DIRECTORY TO PRIME TIME NETWORK TV SHOWS(New York: Ballantine, 1981), p.571. 51.    Wyden, p.129. 52.    Phillips, p.168. 53.    Bell interview. 54.    Wyden, p.30. 55.    Ibid. 56.    Phillips, p.168. 57.    CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.591. 58.    Hastings interview. 59.    Ibid. 60.    Bell interview. 61.    LaGuardia, p.81. 62.    Ibid. 63.     Jean Rouverol, WRITING FOR THE SOAPS (Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books,1984), p.11. 64.    "Writing On: Irna Phillips Mends with Tradition," p.75. 65.    "Queen of the Soaps," NEWSWEEK (11 May 1964), p.66. 66.    Rouverol, p.11. 67.     La Guardia, p.81. 68.     Ibid. 69.    "Week's Headliners," BROADCASTING (17 January 1972), p.9. 70.    LaGuardia, p.81. 71.    Landry, p.71. 72.    Wagner interview. 73.    "Writing On: Irna Phillips Mends with Tradition," p.75. 74.    Sicherman and Green, p.542. 75.    Phillips, p.116.
    • So, Roman admitted that everything he did was to protect Johnny. I like that. It adds another dynamic to this storyline. And it’s also a much better use of the character of Roman. He’s been stuck in the Pub for too long lol I’m also really liking the way that Roman and Kate’s relationship has been written lately. As for Josh Taylor’s voice… no comment

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      And speaking of relationships, I’ve also been seeing improvements in the relationships between Johnny and Paulina as well. I enjoyed their scenes today. They really feel more like an actual mother in law and son in law. I’m cringing a little at the way that Paulina would’ve been written had Ron stayed on a little longer. This type of writing is the exact thing that the character of Paulina needed, especially for a storyline like this.  I am a little intrigued with the idea of EJ and Xander going head to head over buying the hospital too, mostly because of how it could drive other storylines, couples, etc.,like EJ and Belle. Him basically using Belle as his own personal fixer, both with Johnny and the hospital board could lead to something interesting happening in the future. And Philip, doing whatever he can in order to get back in Xander’s good graces is a good addition to this storyline as well.  Btw, I don’t dislike it at all but I still can’t believe that they’re 

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      And yeah, sorry, I know that Days means well but I think they’re making a little too much out of this Xander/Felicity thing. But Xander and Sarah were sweet today. I’m looking forward to seeing everything between them get blown to hell.  Seriously, one of the worst, if not the worst, team in soap history. 
    • Thanks for letting me know! I thought there was a preemption until CBS confused me by uploading Monday's episode on Friday.
    • Lucky Day is an awfully good Doctor-lite episode focused on Millie Gibson and Jemma Redgrave - I am glad the show brought in Varada Sethu who continues to give major Caroline John/Liz Shaw vibes, but Millie was always very good in what felt designed to be a single arc companion and she's very good here too. She deserves a bit more somewhere in the franchise. The depressingly relevant storyline aside, I was most impressed by the showcase for UNIT and Kate Stewart. Jemma is always good but she was amazing here, noting the Doctor would've stopped her from going all the way re: Think Tank if he were there. Yet it's the kind of brute force her father could and did resort to in extreme situations back in the day. I almost hoped she would allow Conrad to be killed right then and there, which is something I think the Brigadier also would've done when backed against a wall over operational control and the safety of the Earth. She came very close, and the steel Redgrave exhibited (as always) was amazing. Whatever spinoffs can still materialize given the current streaming climate and DW's uncertain future (I do think it will continue somewhere, but I would not be shocked if it's back to a run of holiday specials for awhile a la Tennant's and Whittaker's), aside from the upcoming odd Sea Devils miniseries that's in the can, I still hope UNIT and Kate can get a proper one sometime.
    • I think it was just him  And it gave good explanations as to why Alistair was the way that he was. By the time the series ended, he was just evil for evil’s sake 
    • To me, that made no difference. The point stands whether Eva wants to be a Dupree or not. Anita was 110% on top of things. Also it's a logical inference that Eva might be interested in having a place in her supposedly real family. Frankly though I wonder if Eva knows how to feel ... yet. She could really be confused. What I am thinking is if it were me I would be confused.
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