Paula's Soapbox

Baby switches are nothing new in daytime. They provide months, if not years, of story, keeping viewers on pins and needles waiting for the "big reveal." Most are quite memorable and prompt hard-to-forget performances...when they're done correctly, like the As the World Turns baby switch between Gwen and Jennifer.  This was a beautifully-crafted, heartbreaking storyline where Gwen and Casey's baby died, but Craig switched their baby for his and Jennifer's. Hence, Jennifer thought her baby was dead, when really Gwen was raising him as a single parent. This baby switch worked because people sympathized with both parties. Viewers desperately wanted to see Jennifer reunited with her son, but felt sorry for Gwen and the inevitable loss she would face when that happened. Fortunately Gwen found support and comfort with her newly-discovered sister Carly and loving boyfriend Will. The ATWT baby switch stands in stark contrast to the one currently airing on G...

Early Tuesday morning I noticed several tweets regarding Matthew Ashford's DOOL return. And although I kind of suspected he might come back to the show one day, given that Jack has been mentioned in almost every scene since Melissa Reeves came back, I was still skeptical. This was partially because I could not and have still not been able to confirm that this announcement originated on Ashford's official facebook page, as many claimed. It would appear now, however, that it did considering that news of his return was reported by Soap Opera Digest  just hours later. DOOL also gave me reason to be skeptical of Ashford's return because for months it seemed like the show was trying to discredit Jack, implying that he abandoned his family to go find himself and never looked back. I assumed this was an attempt to get the audience to hate him so that they would be more receptive to the Jennifer/Daniel pairing, because as we all know Jack and Jennifer were among th...