Wow...It's been a LONG TIME.

Since my last post:

• Guiding Light, As The World Turns and All My Children have gone off the air.  Low ratings, alleged low interest and escalating production costs are the reasons given.  Fans disagree regarding low interest, but the reality is that at least in the case of Guiding Light and As The World Turns, the demographic that used to purchase the products that the show sponsors are selling has changed and their numbers are fewer.  Procter and Gamble is one of the companies that put the soap in soap opera. Their target market has changed. All My Children has been picked by a production company, Prospect Park, and will hopefully be resurrected online, a reflection of the fact that many soap fans watch episodes online at any their convenience.
  
  

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• Jake, the "love child" of General Hospital's Jason Morgan and Elizabeth Webber, died in a car accident, which the mileage varies on how well it was written.  I felt like it was contrived. Others did as well especially since it was a bad retread of a prior storyline concerning BJ Jones and her cousin Maxie.

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• Despite my ferverent prayers, Robin Scorpio remains married to Patrick Drake.  To make matters more revolting, now the writiers look like they are making the psycho character Lisa pretty much the Sheila Carter on General Hospital.  Meanwhile Sam is being terroried by Jason's favorite stalker, Franco.  At this point, I think that Robin and Sam ought to divorce their husbands, get married, take Robin's daughter Emma and RUN.

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• Speaking of General Hospital, Guza is out as head writer and Wolf is in.  People have been happy for the most part with his changes-even me though there are some things as the above statement indicates, I want them to change.

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• Young and the Restless, possibly listening to the gazillion tweets remembered that they had some characters of color, decided somewhat clumsily to connect them to the larger canvas again, especially through the longtime character Devon, who is now known to be the son of Tucker, who is the son of tent pole longtime character Kay Chancellor.  One Life to Live, while not perfect, seemed to do better with using characters of color on their show. That is, integrating them into the main storyline versus their stories being segregated as they can be on Young and the Restless.  So much so that in the Twitterverse the rare days in which the Black and other minority characters show up on Young and the Restless are known as CFD or Contract Fulfillment Days.

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• Telenovelas.  If you aren't watching La Casa al Lado, then you need to get with the program.

Okay, so I watched it - February

I did watch one episode with Philip Spaulding on 'Guiding Light.'

I did not mean to. I was going into work very late and had the tv on for background noise as usual. It was only until I got out of the shower and started to pay attention to the tv, that I discovered that Mr. Philip was in this episode. I could have changed the channel, but figured I'd watch so I would have fodder for a post.

I knew from reading a recap that Coop went after Beth to stop her wedding to Alan Spaudling in that tired old chestnut of a storyline where the damsel in distress marries the evil villain to save her true love. (Gee, I saw that somewhere recently, oh yeah in the movies 'Dr. Zhivago' and 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which were set in periods where this idea was quaint even then). Also knew that he got into a car accident and it was Philip who saved him. The man in the red sweatershirt.

So Philip breaks up the wedding of his ex-wife and soulmate and his dad (I always found this pairing disturbing. Not so much for the fact that a man was marrying his former daughter in law, but for the fact that he had to have, especially after years of trying to shoehorn her out of the family in a manner that recalls the phrase 'thee doth protests too much'. I mean, was he lusting after her while she dating Philip in high school?) News of Coop's accident comes to all. Beth is covered in Coop's blood and goes the changes that Beth does. Buzz tries to take out Alan, who doesn't get that once you pay somebody to run over the father of your great grandchild and it results in the death of his girlfriend, people might suspect you when a similar instance takes place. Super Philip is on hand to keep Buzz from going to jail. Even after he receives the news that Harley has left with Zach and that no one really knows where she is, he flies off and goes to Beth's side.

Beth, who can never decide whether she is an independent woman, a bitch or beyond needy, is sitting in her blood drenched clothes feeling guilt and other things. Philip arrives and he gets another happy update on more of his various children. Seldom seen James is in boarding school-a decision Beth and Alan (because his parenting skills are best) made. Lizzie, Lizzie...had a baby, was married, lost the baby because of her grandfather's meddling ('meddling is too nice a word'), hooked up with Billy Lewis as an all purpose assistant, hooked up with Bill Lewis (who is fighting his own demons) and fell in love and got kidnapped and still believes Bill did it.

Super Philip hasn't even gotten to poor little Emma yet, but that's another episode.

Super Philip comforts Beth about her more often then not rotten parenting choices in his absence and helps her change out of the clothes stained with Coop's blood. He then flies off to find the daughter that in his Mr. Hyde days left behind and that has for all intents and purposes still considers dead.

Well, Quasi-repentant Super Philip was not exactly what I expected. The promos for his return would have led you to believe that he was riding in like a Horseman of the Apocalypse and all ye in Springfield better tremble. Then again it is early days. Like Ed Bauer once said, Philip is his own worse enemy. (And if anyone is an authority on that, it's Ed Bauer.)

I mentioned in an earlier post that I did not mind the return of a kinder, gentler Philip, but it should make sense. I get that Bill Lewis got him to return for Lizzie. It seems to me that he should be doing something constructive and away from the nuts that put him on the path to destruction. I joked yesterday that he should take up with Ashley Wolf, who should have him focusing on more worthwhile things. I now don't think that's a bad idea. It would be a more interesting story than the Beth/Alan/Rick retread. I also mentioned that a Leah and James storyline would be interesting.

I don't know in which direction Philip go. I thought that Grant Aleksander was always interesting when he was on-screen no matter what role he did-even that weird turn on All My Children as an almost love-interest of Haley Vaughn and biological father of a Black boy named Jamal in a custody battle that I think wanted to be more relevant than it ending up being because All My Children did not want to go there.

Well Philip is back and all I can do is wish him well.

An Interesting Two Days.

I watched the February 5th and 6th airings of The Young and the Restless with some interest and very little surprise. What surprise I experienced was big.


Nick and Sharon hooking up in the snowy retreat a la Clark Gable and Loretta Young was no real surprise there. I don't even think Phyllis was surprised. I liked that she just asked Nick straight up about it. No use beating around the bush. That Brad Carlton when running after Sharon was no surprise either. Brad Carlton saving Noah's hash when he fell into the water, oddly enough, no surprise.

Brad dying, BIG surprise.


Did the actor want out? Did the powers that be want him out? Or, did the writers concede that they had nothing better for him to do than to mess with Phyllis, Jack and Victor and pine after Sharon and engage in 'do as I say, not as I do' with Colleen-all of which gets old.

In fact, the most interesting storyline that he had in a long time was that he was really Jewish
(I still laugh over the fact that they see this as a big revelation) and that his mother survived the Holocaust by being forced by her Nazi captors into cataloguing their ill gotten art and that they were gunning for her because she knew too much, which then led to the murder of her daughter and her husband.

I can't say that I ever liked the character. I always thought it was funny that he was the Abbot's gardner. I suppose that I didn't think that a character like Brad would get bumped off.

In the midst of mourning and shiva and such, I learned that Abby's been SORASed again so that she is a tween/teen. Victor is clearly looking to her to save his dynasty after the spectacular failure of Adam.

Phyllis did suspect that Nick and Sharon found a way to stay warm and he confirmed it. I shook my head when Phyllis came downstairs before they left to pay their respects concerning Brad. She was badass and awesome when she confronted Nick and told him that they were going to pay call at the shiva. She then begged him to stay even after he gave her that crap about how he loved both of them.

I think this should play two ways-open marriage or terse but amicable divorce. Phyllis should wake up and get crucial. Nick can be cool, but at the end of the day as he keeps showing, he's a spoiled brat. Adam's kinda lookin' good right now.

I am hoping that there won't be a Jack-Phyllis reunion. Jack blew that out the water so long ago. I honestly wish that much like what happened with Tracy, someone would come along that Phyllis could have a relationship with and Nick would just let her be.

Gloria in jail-long time coming.

Olivia and Natalia or 'My Two Mommies'

'Guiding Light' decided to have what are now 'frenemies' Olivia and Natalia live together and jointly raise Olivia's daughter Emma. They also work together (with Natalia being Olivia's personal assistant-a job she's been doing for a while anyway without pay or recognition). What first turned out to be a sick and weird connection between these two (Olivia tried to take Natalia's late husband away from her and ended up with his donated heart, which she did not want. Natalia thwarted Olivia's attempts at suicide and self neglect)., has somehow blossomed into a real friendship.

I watched an episode of the "all-new Olivia and Natalia roadshow" and I wondered why no one thought of romanticallt pairing these two before. To be sure, women can be friends without being lovers, just like men and women, but maybe it's me-I saw some romantic chemistry there and the potential for some interesting explorations of character. Neither have to be latent lesbians (both can be bisexual-meaning that writers would not have to fret about how Olivia and Natalia, whose sexual history speaks of heterosexual choices would all of a sudden 'turn' gay because they could be latent bisexuals who didn't find the right gal yet.)

Emma's presentation on the episode that aired January 16th, seems to open the door to yet another storyline where the town 'misunderstands' their relationship and the morals of both women, particularly Olivia's are called into question. After all, Natalia's son is in the joint and Olivia...well the townfolk could roast her for many sins as it is. What's more rather than take a real and honest look at how a relationship between two same-sex people happens and evolves, they'll bung it up and what would have been cool will be reviled in soap mags across the country.

I mean, I get it. Soaps are basically heterosexual women's fantasies. I would even, given the dearth of main characters of color, even say they are white heterosexual women's fanstasies. White heterosexual women are not fantasizing (or at least admitted they are if they do) about two women falling in love and having a loving and sexual relationship. The writers just are acknowledging that healthy same-sex anything exists. I voted for creating a drinking game that had everyone doing a shot everytime the camera cutaway when ATWT's Luke and Noah were just about to kiss (had we done the game, would have been very drunk indeed).

I want Guiding Light to be that-a 'guiding light' in terms of introducing new stories and new ways of looking at life. I love the fact that they changed the way that the stories were shot and certain outcomes of storylines. Unfortunately, I think they still cling onto plots and devices that are woefully dated and that don't serve the show at all (this can be said of many soaps). True, certain stories are soap staples and you need to have them. I only ask for a diversity of viewpoint a rescue from plotlines that use the same characters in plotlines that they did 20 years ago and that apparently they never learned lessons from.


And to respond to those who feel that Emma does not need to 'see two women being loving towards each other in that way'...well, consider that Emma has been exposed to insane kidnapping father, formerly insane older sister (who tried to kill her in utero), scheming mother who used sex to manipulate along with money, more infidelity than normal, crazy other older sister who faked pregnancy to keep a man while tormenting another women to keep her and another man apart and crazy selfish grandfather who has blackmailed her mother, I think she'd survive seeing her mother in a loving relationship with another woman.

I also would remind the naysayers about how soap characters who have various children manage to have lots of sex, sexcapades and shenanigans and no one seems bothered this.

So...here's to the hope that Olivia and Natalia hook up and have a loving and romantic and adult relationship, which oddly enough I think Gus would have been okay with.

Oh Phyllis

Well it looks like Phyllis' insecutiy rears its ugly head. Granted she has a right to it. Nick and Sharon, who are exes kiss each other in Paris and he decides not to tell her. Phyllis finds out because she sees them. She then hatches a plan to have mortal enemy Brad Carlton woo a now separated Sharon so that the kiss does not blossom into something more. Unfortunately (and we all saw this coming) Brad fesses up and Sharon tells Nick. Nick confronts Phyllis who points out that this was the second time this kiss happened between Nick and his ex wife and he does have a habit of this 'grass looks like it's greener in the other yard' type behaviour-after all that was how they got together. Nick voices concern and frustration at Phyllis' scheming. When Nick and Sharon meet up later, Sharon defends Phyllis (as if she needed it).

My advice to Phyllis-cut your losses. Any guy that has you plotting and scheming to keep him is not worth the time and effort. I admit that this divorce will not be easy. There is a child and a business involved. However you can work out an amicable arrangement regarding visitation and you can do so for your business dealings. Nick does not get it. He does not get that while yes, he and Sharon are forever tied by history and by their children, that he is married to Phyllis and he needs to be mindful her feelings and accept that gee, she may not be cool with him jetting off to places with her that may stir up old feelings. By the way, if the old feelings are stronger than the current feelings, it is definitely time to call it a day.

My annoyance with the road that Phyllis is traveling down is that apparently the writers seem to think that she is more interesting a character when she doing pathetic and crazy things like this. This speaks of lazy writing to me. I also have a problem with 'Sharon the Good.' Sharon is more of a disaster of a character than Phyllis who was and is pretty straightforward and not as hypocritical.

I wonder if the next step for Phyllis is to revive the attraction that existed between she and Adam, Nick's half brother. An attraction that Phyllis deflected and quashed because gee, she loved and respected her husband.

At the other end of the spectrum, Phyllis was engaged in Stephanie Forrester-like machinations, when she found a way to drive a truck through the small hole in the relationship of her son Daniel and that other disaster area known as Amber Moore. Like Phyllis, I was (and still am not a fan of ) the Daniel-Amber pairing. While I now agree that the Daniel-Heather pairing was not as good as the eventual Heather-Adam pairing, I think that he could do better. Really, the reason why I think he could do better because just like Phyllis, apparently Amber is only interesting plotwise if she is hatching pathetic and crazy schemes that ruin...things. I would like to see the writers not do that to them both (Phyllis and Amber) and honestly have them become friends and do cool and positive things. Daniel wasn't crazy about Phyllis' role in his problems with Amber and fortunately, unlike Ridge and his mother, she and Daniel have something of an understanding and thankfully will not pursue this path for now.

Advice to Phyllis regarding Daniel-keep on keeping out of his relationship with Amber-he is grown. Keep on trying to meet him halfway regarding it and try to be a little more open-minded about Amber. Boys usually love women who are like their mums and Amber is more like you than you probably care to admit, especially when she uses her powers for good. Keep nurturing his career and nurturing his relationship with his father. Also try to help maintain his relationships with his stepbrother (Noah) and half sister (Summer) by being a positive force in dealing with their respective 'other' parents.

I sadly know that the gains that Phyllis' character made will be lost as the writers run her into a ditch in order to serve the plot, which will likely result in a Sharon-Nick reunion.

Oh Phyllis...