Isidingo

[SFK]

So I guess on call is what we would call recurring, but like in a Patricia Elliot kinda way. Gosh, it was so refreshing to read that article, I even felt myself getting a little excited and I have never seen this show a day in my life. It is the fact that these soaps have a vibrant present and future and they're genuinely interested in telling stories for and about their black and white people and wouldn't think of doing otherwise. And the casting director also having a role on the show (!) gives it a real *Let's roll up our sleeves and put on a show* feel (as well as conjures scandalous thoughts of her not casting prettier women as potential rivals ).

[DRW50]

Yeah, Maggie, the casting director, is the fuller-figured woman who had the story about pole-dancing. I'm not sure what stories she's had since. I think she was ward to a teenage girl who tried to turn a man straight and then got bored and got with someone else and wasn't sure about losing her virginity, etc.

It's definitely refreshing to see them talk so openly about pushing actors out, although I wonder if they really believe these actors will return.

[DRW50]

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[SFK]

Very NBC.

The woman at :28 is striking.

If only in the United States of America we could get a serial this colorful and blended.

I want to see this show!

[DRW50]

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[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzh007pO-yI&feature=related

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHth6_aE-Iw

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86zEN3mr-g

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTVwNuk8eDE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSFOc3XHcOE&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjXfR9ortvU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dgzokkun_8&feature=related

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UaTFnPrQBU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WjuI22TrZA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZaf5bNbmUE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVMu3wmruL4

[AdelaideCate007]

Are the episodes that air on The Africa Channel up to date or are they behind? The Africa Channel also airs Generations too- that's very cool.

I used to watch the show all the time when I lived South Africa and then when I would have to go back to visit my relatives. I didn't realise that they'd retained so much of the original/older cast over the years.

[DRW50]

I'm always a few months behind in my watching of the show (which means some episodes get erased from my DVR - ugh!), but I think they are currently in mid-2008, or early fall 2008.

Which of the characters at that time had been around for a long period? I know Harriet, Parsons, Napethne (?), Letti, Barker, Len, had all been around for quite a while.

Who were your favorites? Mine are probably Farrow, and Paul. I also have a soft spot for Rajesh.

It's fascinating to me, contrasting Generations and Isidingo. Generations feels so much like an old school American soap to me - it is far from perfect, but it reminds me of what I used to love with GL and ATWT.

Isidingo I am more interested in some of the complicated characters, and the stories are so sweeping. I do think that the power struggles and the everyday comic characters are an odd fit, especially when the show crosses them together, like having the local comic crimelord convince Barker that his daughter Lee had been murdered.

Lee's death was so sad, and so eerie, as Ashley Callie died not long after scenes where Lee's mother died (offcamera) and Lee and Barker spoke of whether there was an afterlife. You could see how much the actors loved Ashley Callie. The aftermath, with Barker having a nervous breakdown, is chilling.

[AdelaideCate007]

All of those have been around a while, and so has Cherel (although I think she left for a bit and then came back). I didn't know that Letti had left

I haven't seen it in a few years (we don't get it in Australia) but I always liked Harriet, Cherel, Letti, Dusty, Joey, and Kyle (the last three have been long gone so you might not be as familiar with them as you probably are the other three).

It's funny that you say Generations reminds you of As the World Turns because my grandmother looooves Generations (and Eastenders) and loved As The World Turns and Another World, but doesn't like Isidingo or DAYS and didn't like Egoli- she says she likes the "human" aspect of Generations and ATWT as opposed to the "campy and ridiculousness" of something like DAYS.

I actually found a tape the other day that had a bunch of Isidingo, Generations, and Egoli on it. I'll try to get that up on youtube soon.

Edited March 25, 2012 by AdelaideCate007

[DRW50]

I had heard of Dusty, but mostly in the context of her relationship with Steve (didn't they bring her back for that story). Who were Joey and Kyle?

Egoli is one of those shows I always want to see more of, especially strange stories like taking the show's stable gay couple and having one of them become a bisexual sociopath (sadly that seems to be all you get on TV for bisexuals).

The "human" aspect of Generations is a good word for it. There's a certain everyday quality, seeing people talking at home and at work, longtime friendships and relationships which we can intuit instead of being beat over the head with. I also like the inclusion of characters American soaps would dub "boring," like Ajax's brother, Ntombi's brother, and the old man who runs the apartment building.

I am so behind on these that I just realized the Africa Channel looped back to what must have been 2006 or 2007 episodes, as Lee is still alive and she is still with Alec, the guy who later hit her and had a complete breakdown. They are also on the hunt for Cherel.

Before they looped back, they were in mid-2008, and were about to air Letti's exit. I guess now I won't see it.

It came on the heels of a richly written and multi-faceted story where Nandipha's travels as a model/spokeswoman for HIV/AIDS causes drove a big wedge in her marriage to Parsons and her relationships with his family. By the time she decided to spend more time at home, he had fallen in love with a woman named Thandi, and they were having an affair. He stayed with Nandipha, and went along with her plans to adopt a child, as slowly more and more members of the family (his brother in law, his father) found out. They all kept the truth from Nandipha, Letti, and Parsons/Letti's mother, Agnes. Finally Nandipha and Letti saw Parsons and Thandi kissing, and it all came out. This also cost Nandipha her chance of adopting a child. Agnes was disgusted, as it reminded her of the father's own attempts to have two wives, and Thandi had been like a daughter to her. She then turned her anger on Nandipha, whom she felt was above herself and could not recognize how her own selfishness had helped end her marriage. Meanwhile, a secret bubbling in the background was that Letti's husband had had a love affair with a beautiful co-worker, and had kept quiet about this. He also has powers to see the future and kept having dreams of the entire family at the dinner table, and someone being dragged underground.

The end of the story was

Edited March 26, 2012 by CarlD2

[AdelaideCate007]

Egoli was definitely always my favourite of the three when I was younger (Binnelanders and Villa Rosa came on the air later). I loved the American soap operas like GH (which they didn't get in South Africa), AMC, OLTL, and B&B and Egoli felt closer to those shows than the other two. At the time, I remember thinking Generations moved so slow lol. Plus, my mother liked Egoli so she would always have it on.

I think the actress who played Letti had HIV in real life too- I wasn't living in South Africa at the time, but I think my grandmother or cousin told me that.

Dusty did come back for that story- did they leave together? I know she came back, they got engaged and then she left again, but I can't remember if he left with her or not.

Joey and Kyle were brother and sister (Joey was the girl)- there was a huge mystery about them when they first showed up and she was pretending to be a journalists but it turns out she wasn't or something (I've forgotten all the details of when they first arrived lol). She then dated Leon and Kyle got involved with Lolly.