Paula's Soapbox

For those of you who were undoubtedly worried about my sanity after reading my first blog post about Rafe 2.0, worry no more, because after this week's episodes I am officially disenchanted with him. Just as I predicted DOOL has gone too far with the evil twin thing, although much sooner than I expected. Rafe 2.0 was pretty good at providing some comic relief the first few days he was on, but this storyline keeps getting progressively worse and Rafe 2.0 keeps getting more evil. In short...I hate him. I never liked the fact that Stefano and EJ were threatening to take Ally away from Sami, but I thought, or perhaps hoped these were just empty threats designed to make Rafe cooperate. I never really expected them to risk raising suspicion by following through. Granted EJ had a change of heart, but he didn't put forth much of an effort to ensure Ally's safety. I'm sure Stefano would never be able to reach her in Hong Kong if he wanted to. At this point I'm not ...

Never underestimate the power of a fan campaign! I know I never will again after Friday's announcement that Rebecca Herbst (Liz) is indeed staying on GH. The buzz started early Friday morning that Herbst would be staying on the show when ABC Soaps in Depth tweeted the following: "Breaking news: Becky Herbst (Liz) NOT leaving #GH? You heard it here first! Details soon...." Then later in the day soapoperadigest.com confirmed the decision reversal. I've seen a lot of soap opera fan campaigns come and go and most are unsuccessful, so the fact that one appears to have succeeded is quite shocking. However it renews hope for the future of this genre that fans still have a voice, at least given the right circumstances. It also proves that fans must provide feedback for their shows, both positive and negative. It can't all be left up to the ratings because as we all know once ratings drop past a certain point it is very difficult for them to recover and soaps get cancell...

Like a lot of viewers I looked forward to Natalia Livingston's debut on Days as Nicole's sister, Taylor. I was already a fan, having seen her play both Emily and Rebecca on GH. And she seemed like she would be a good addition to the Days cast. When her first scenes aired a few weeks ago I initially thought that Taylor would make a good love interest for Brady, until I saw Natalia's scenes with James Scott. Then I became enchanted with the whole idea of an EJ and Taylor pairing. On the surface their meet-cute probably seemed a little cheesy to some, the whole idea of them falling in love at first sight. However, this is something that we haven't seen on soaps in a while. There was something very sweet and sort of old-fashioned about their first meeting, a complete contradiction to EJ at the moment. And I liked the idea of him being paired with someone who brings out his best qualities, as Taylor likely would have. Regardless of how much chemistry he might have with Nicol...

I've been a fan of "Hot in Cleveland" since before it started airing on TVLand last year. I mean Wendie Malick, Jane Leeves, Valerie Bertinelli, and Betty White, what's not to love? Then to find out that Wendie Malick's character was a former soap star, well, that was just icing on the cake. I assumed that this would be the extent of the soap opera references though. I thought there would probably be running jokes about Victoria Chase's glory days as a soap actress and that would be it. I certainly never anticipated a crossover event that would bring AMC's Susan Lucci, Michael E. Knight, and Darnell Williams to this show and would bring Wendie Malick to AMC. The beginning of this crossover happened last Wednesday when Malick's Victoria Chase went to L.A. to tape a guest spot for AMC alongside her longtime rival Susan Lucci. Obviously the purpose of this event is to boost ratings since soaps are relevant to the character, but it also proves that soaps a...

I must admit that I feel kind of validated because two of my GH predictions have proven correct this week and that almost never happens. As you might recall I have suspected that Suzanne was somehow connected to the Balkan ever since she and Brenda were in Rome. As a result it was relatively easy to make the assumption that she was the one who cut up Brenda's wedding dress. So since these predictions turned out to be correct I thought I would press my luck and try for a few more. For about the past month or so Carly has been planning to destroy Brenda and Dante with the information she has about "their" baby. I have never actually thought that Brenda and Dante conceived a child together. I think Carly was quick to jump to that conclusion because she wants it to be true. I also do not believe that Brenda's child is dead. I think Suzanne and Theo are keeping him somewhere for one of two reasons. First, either the baby was Alexander's or they believe it was Alexander...

Want to see Kim Zimmer (Echo, OLTL, Reva, GL) in the new Off-Broadway show "Love, Loss, and What I Wore Thursday"? Well, here's your chance! Michele Dargan over at Soapbox1   has all the information on how you can get tickets at discount prices! So head on over to Soapbox1   right now for all the details!

If you are like me and grew up watching Stefano manipulate and otherwise destroy the Bradys in various science fiction inspired plots, it wasn't too difficult to see the Rafe double coming. Once I realized that Stefano and EJ were planning to bring in a Rafe replacement I thought "great, here we go again, the evil twin plot." While this plot device is another soap staple it is also often used by critics of this genre to point out the absurdity of it. And since DOOL has a tendency to go overboard with this sort of thing that opinion becomes difficult to refute. I can still recall each of Eileen Davidson's 5 simultaneous roles on the show and I was not looking forward to the prospect of Galen Gering repeating that history. I have to admit though that after seeing this "evil twin" in action I am cautiously optimistic about this additional Rafe. I'm not thrilled with the fact that Stefano and EJ are using Ally as a pawn, in fact I hate it. I'm tire...

Those of us who spend our free time either blogging about soaps, hosting soap-themed radio shows, or operating various soap sites do much of our work behind the scenes. People see or hear our finished product but they usually know relatively little about us or the work that goes into maintaining a soap site. This occurred to me the other day when I was talking to Carly, one of the hosts of the increasingly popular blog talk radio show "Daytime After Dark." At some point during our conversation we decided it might be fun if I interviewed her. Hopefully it will offer some incite into why so many of us devote our attention to the soap opera genre. Carly hosts "Daytime After Dark" alongside Terri and occasionally acts as co-host of "Liason Radio" and "The Rant Room. Like so many other soap sites, Carly tells me she formed "Daytime After Dark" because she felt like daytime viewers needed a voice. She's been doing the show since 2009 an...

When I watched Friday's GH I was positive Carly destroyed Brenda's wedding dress. She's been acting a little crazy lately anyway and I was sure that Michael's problems finally pushed her over the edge when I heard her conversation with Sonny. I'm sure there was a big part of her that thought it was in Michael's best interest to tell Sonny what happened to him. However it was clear that her primary motivation for talking to Sonny before Michael had a chance to was to make sure he blamed Dante. When that didn't happen she turned her attention to Brenda, implying that she would hurt Sonny, which would in turn hurt Michael. Of course Brenda hurting Sonny is primarily contingent on Carly telling him about Brenda's baby at the wedding. Carly is so worried about how Sonny's reaction to hearing this news will affect Michael, yet she is the one who insists on delivering it and in the worst possible way. Obviously Carly has issues with Brenda and with seeing ...

Ever since Michael got attacked in prison there was little doubt that he was actually raped. The only uncertainty, it seemed, was whether this would ever be acknowledged by any of the characters. Now that Michael has taken the brave first step of letting people know what happened to him, the question now is what effect will this have on the rest of the characters and storylines? This revelation is most certainly a pivotal moment for GH because the fallout has the potential to either make or break the show. Fellow soap blogger Silas Kain at Soapbox1 discusses the possible ways in which GH could address Michael's rape in a new blog post titled "This is your moment, Michael Corinthos." In this post Silas also discusses what the possible ramifications could be for other core characters if this storyline unfolds the way it should. Click here to read "This is your moment, Michael Corinthos" by Silas Kain and enjoy vintage clips of the show.