OLTL: Discussion for the week February 15

[bbmm]

Today was great, I love RC and the history he puts into the show

Can we have a day without TnT? I use to like TnT but it's gotten so old.

I love when Marty gets mad, and IA she needs a real storyline.

Since we all know Stacy is going to die, can't they at least have her go out with some dignity and not be obsessed with Rex? After Stacy told Kim, that she loves her, I was hoping for once Stacy would say she LOVES her daughter but of course she said she loves REX.

For once I like something Rex did. I'm glad he didn't bring up that Sierra Rose isn't his, while Gigi was about to fall through the ice.

Dorian was amazing today. Vicky has become such a one note character.

ETA: I think a custody battle with straight vs. gay people could be interesting and would be a first for a soap. But considering Fish is the father, would there even be a custody battle?

[Juliajms]

I guess the idea that Fish needs to "win custody" of his son disturbs me. Once he proves paternity he should have automatic custody

unless he is deemed unfit. If being a police officers makes him unfit, that seems very hypocritical of us as a society. We need you to protect us, but we won't let you raise your own child? Screw that.

I have no idea what the state of the law really is on any of these matters. Too often soaps tend to act as if fathers have minimal rights and should just get out of the way if the mother says so, which I really hate. If Fish has to take a back seat to GiGi, I'm going to be outraged. I guess it would be soapy, but it would also be incredibly unfair and make GiGi look like a b!tch.

Adoption is a whole different animal. Last I knew gay people weren't even allowed to adopt in my state. Fish would have a lot better chance getting his kid without Kyle than with him, if the same standards applied to custody of one's own child.

[Mr. Vixen]

I agree. I am a passer on this Natalie/John/Martie storyline. Havent we done this 5, 10, 100 times before? YAWN. I think him an Natalie are a better suited couple. I used to love Marty...Not lately. Shes just boring.

I like that Gigi and Stacy kind of bonded, since

I wouldnt mind Gigi raising this baby...As long as Fish gets to have a relationship with his baby, too. He deserves thatt.

[Scotty]

Well, for one thing....the baby is a girl, not a boy. And secondly, I think that it is more of Fish not being sure if he wants to raise a kid being a gay man, and if it would fair to the child to grow up in that kind of household. So, I think it's more of Fish letting someone else raise the child, then him wanting/fighting to raise the child himself.

[wingwalker]

Well I'm not an expert, but since Rex knows he's not the dad, Sky thinks he is, so unless the truth of Oliver being the dad come out before a birth certificate is signed, Sky will probably be the name on the birth certificate and already name on the will, so legally I think the child will be his and once the truth comes out, that doesn't automatically mean it goes to Fish. Sky would either have to give it up voluntarily or get forced by a court to give it up. I imagine there's going to be some sort of custody drama involving Sky, Gigi, Kim, Fish, Kyle...they've hinted at it a few times.

Not sure I like the idea of Gigi helping Fish or having co-custody. Sure she should be in the kids life, being the Aunt, but single straight fathers can raise a child on their own, so why can't a gay dad? Plus he'd have Kyle to help out. Once Fish gets custody, Kyle if he wanted to, could adopt, since Second-parent adoption for gays in legal in PA.

[DRW50]

If the choice is between being raised in a home of a gay man, being raised by Schuyler who repeatedly chose Gigi over the baby, or Gigi, who is obsessed with Rex, the guy who sees her as a whore, has damaged her relationship with her son, and didn't care if the baby lived or died, then I would hope Fish would at least try to be a father. Fish isn't a saint and we don't know what he'd be like as a parent but I don't see any other viable options for that baby's future well-being with the people in this story.

[Southofnowhere]

Fish needs his Guppy!

Anyone who comes between that will be considrered the badguy by most viewers.

[Juliajms]

I agree. The notion that he should doubt himself (more than any new parent would) or have to jump through hoops to raise his own child does not sit well with me at all.

They sure would be the bad guy in my book. The only people I would even be slightly interested in watching try to challenge Fish for custody is his parents and only if they lose fast and hard or have a change of heart.

ICAM. I can't see Schuyler trying to keep this baby if it isn't his. That wouldn't make much sense considering he wouldn't step up right from the start, even when he did think it was his. Gigi not only has an unstable love life, but she's always talking about her financial struggles. Does it make sense to take a child from a fit, financially sound, biological parent and put them with a struggling single mother/aunt? Not to mention GiGi has made very clear how much she resents this child. I'm glad she had a change of heart and I'd love to see her be an aunt, but that doesn't change the fact that she threw money for an abortion in Stacy's face.

If Ron wants to tell a story about the inequities gay parents face, I just want it to make sense and be realistic. It's too frustrating to watch someone get screwed over even more than they really would IRL when it comes to this kind of thing.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Thank you. I was going to respond to the implication that Fish's "kind of household" would not be "fair" to a child, but you said pretty much everything I was thinking. And I like the way you put it - about Fish getting screwed over even more than he would in real life being something that we don't need to see. It's kind of like this ugly story with Jessica - incest happens in real life; Frances Farmer (and countless other "hysterical" women who were subjected to medical "treatments" of that era by a male-dominated psychiatric profession) have happened in real life; and women are shot every day, and often by men who do actually want to kill them. That makes it all the more offensive to show her being electro-shocked, almost raped by her father, and shot all in one day (in the show's timeframe) with a tone that completely sidesteps the real implications of such things. As you said, LGBT parents face enough injustices as it is, the last thing this show needs to do is to take dramatic license in creating plot devices that wouldn't even pass muster in real (flawed) courts of law.

I will add that in addition to the reasons that have been mentioned for the other non-parents in the equation not to be any threat to Fish's case for custody, Schuyler also lost his teaching license because of allegations of sexual misconduct involving a minor. While Fish has received a commendation for being a hero.

I too am afraid that that's where the story is going, though, because otherwise any dramatic opening for a custody battle is out the window now that

[Mr. Vixen]

I think Fish deserves his baby. I mean it is still his baby, in the long run.

I mean, Rex isn't the father of the baby, so there would be no logical reason for him to keep the baby. I mean, he never wanted it in the first place, so now that there are TWO other daddy's to raise it, I don't see Rex fighting for it...

Also, Schuyler may seem to care about the baby NOW, but he threw the baby away for a chance to get GiGi in the sack. Some daddy!

I think Fish could raise this baby very well. I would like to see GiGi help, but not as a custodial figure, but as a loving aunt who helps out the single father.

I just have a feeling the baby wil go to Schuyler...And we will have to wait a while before the truth of Fish being the father comes out. This is one of the biggest sotrylines going on on OLTL right now, so I dont see the writers making the big reveals all at once.

[DRW50]

I hope they will just end this. I think a lot of viewers may be happy to have this story wrap up, it's been a very confusing and at times extremely degrading storyline which has damaged quite a few characters.

[Mr. Vixen]

I agree with you. I am sincerely hoping that it just ends, and someone gets the baby, and it's final.

Maybe it will be JEss, since she seems to have lost her memory again.

[Toups]

Woah, you have to spoilers in tags, SoapBoy! You can't just be posting stuff that hasn'thappened on screen.

Bitchy Bangs

Kelly

Cassie

Those Cramer women are hot!!

Awww....Fish was holding his daughter. And why couldn't we have a Gigisicle ala the Bradsicle.

[EricMontreal22]

Me too! And I usually hate her singing--AND I'm not even a huge fan of the cheezy 80s theme. But I *loved* that moment, lol. (now just watch RC make it a recurring joke and totally kill it...)

Didn't that flashback happen like 10 years back?

Wow, we really have different kinds of thoughts in the shower... But I like that idea actually. I know the current opening tried to play into the Rauch (and the mid 90s) opening with images of Llanview but they did such a half assed job of it, no one would really even realize there were pictures of houses, etc, in the credits if they didn't look hard.

[Vee]

There are no images of Llanview in the current opening - it's only images of a location remote they did in early 2004 (when the opening debuted) of "Llanview University", where part of the Music Box Killer story played out and where Frons and the show were trying to promote the youth canvas of "the Love Crew."

The entire opening only shows a single, obscure location no one but the most obsessed, freak of nature fans like myself would recognize. A location which only appeared once for about 3 days in January-February 2004.

It's complete [!@#$%^&*].