Dr.OO7

I'm glad Sophia and Tom got their happy ending after all the rigmarole they went through

It's sad that there's such an aversion to writing relationships normally on TV because the viewers supposedly hate it. Guy: I like you Girl: I like you too Guy: Let's date! Girl: Okay! No, it's always years of dragging it out, being told that two people being at each other's throats equals them wanting to have sex,lots of Disposable Love Interests, lots of misunderstandings, etc, and by the time the couple finally gets together, the viewers are so exhausted and fed up that they don't care.

I guess I got lucky when I went to Vancouver last year--I got a gorgeous view of the harbor.

That trope is literally called the Eiffel Tower Effect. And yes, it's annoying. Someone living or visiting whatever famous city just HAS to a view of whatever famous landmark the city has just outside their hotel/apartment window, even if it would be geographically impossible.

Yes, and then Jesse idiotically tells him "Next time you meet a great girl, don't take "No" for an answer." So he instantly turns his attention to HER and sure enough, he doesn't listen when she tells him "No".

I just realized it's been thirty years since the fateful Spring Fling. The show was EXCELLENT that summer. I remember wanting to watch every day.

How refreshing. And on a kids show, no less.

Even before the "Cosby's a rapist" stories came out, I'd heard about his ill treatment of Bonet and remembered being very angry that he thought he had any right to be pissed off at how she was living her life, something that was none of his business.

That's what infuriates me the most about the Stalking Is Love trope--the blatant double standard that when a woman acts like this, she's a nutcase, but when a man does it, he's a hero. Like on "Wings": Joe's old crush locking him in a basement and declaring that his and Helen's upcoming wedding is "OUR wedding!" and actually making him act one out? She's crazy. Funny, a year prior when Joe basically trapped Helen in an elevator and declared that she couldn't marry her boyfriend because "That's OUR marriage!", we were all supposed to swoon at how romantic it was. I can tell you right now, I didn't find it romantic when my ex capped off a year of harassment by showing up at my house uninvited and basically held me prisoner for almost three hours while he tried to browbeat me into marrying him. The fact that I'd spent the entire previous year repeatedly telling him to LMTFA was completely irrelevant to him. Thank you. I was. To this day, everytime I hear about some poor girl or woman killed by a man she had the audacity to rebuff--read the webpage "When Women Refuse"--, aside from being sad/angry, I think about how fortunate I was to not have ended up like them. Back on topic: I HATE the way cop shows treat IA like they're scum and have no business investigating them. They wouldn't be investigating you without good reason, jackass.

That's the key thing that I've never understood with both fictional and real life examples of stalking. Why are you wasting all this time and energy on someone who has explicitly stated that they don't like you? Three months into the year that I was stalked by an ex, I wrote him a letter in response to his latest love letter, making it abundantly clear that I wanted him to LMTFA and that his behavior was upsetting me. A few days later, my mother called to tell me that he's shown up at my house (I was away at college) with my letter in hand, hysterically wailing "What does this mean?!", as if I hadn't been completely clear. For every woman who's been through this, there's a moment when it goes from annoying to scary, and that was it for me. I remember thinking "Oh, my God, I'm never going to get rid of this guy." I wonder how many TV writers look back and cringe at the kind of things they've written and wonder how much of a bad influence they've had on people

It's been 30 years since Karen Wexler's abuse storyline kicked off.

I HATED that little brat Fudge. And I hated the way their stupid mother indulged him to Peter's detriment. It's not the first time she'd let him into Peter's room and he damaged something--he scribbled on a poster he had done for a school project--and she did it again.

Remember that scene where a gang member was making advances to her and kept trying to touch her even though she explicitly said "Don't touch me?" Urkel angrily slapped his hand away, snapping "The lady asked not to be touched." Yeah, the lady has also been asking you to LHTFA for several years, so. . . I hate--with ANY show--the way stalking behavior is considered romantic when it's one of the main characters, but dangerous when it's someone else.

I hate that episode where he reveals to a locker room full of Eddie's friends that Eddie's a virgin. Aside from the fact that he had no business even KNOWING this--he learned this from EAVESDROPPING on a private conversation between Eddie and Carl--he had no business telling everyone else. I'm surprised Eddie didn't blast him for doing that. I hate the Designated Hero trope--person is lauded as a hero even though they're just as bad as the villain, if not WORSE, and I think Urkel's a prime example of that.

Selfishness, stupidity, and cowardice. She KNOWS she didn't send in the housing request, yet she keeps her mouth shut during the whole drive to the base and lets Martin look like an idiot in front of his SO and only then does she speak up. The Cosby Show really ruined Denise's character. She was a free spirit, but she was INTELLIGENT. They turned her into a complete moron. That's EXACTLY the problem. Then those kids grow up into obnoxious teens/young adults/adults and their parents have the nerve to act shocked and confused as to how that happened. After the Parkland shooting (where one of the victims was a girl he'd been harassing for months), a woman described a conversation she'd had with her nephew, who'd been turned down by a girl he asked out: Aunt: You know what to do now, right? Nephew: Yeah, keep trying. Aunt: NO. She gave you her answer. LEAVE HER ALONE. She said he was completely shocked because NO ONE had ever told him that before, then ended her post with a very emphatic "TEACH YOUR BOYS". Something has to counteract the myriad of TV/movie examples of stalking a girl eventually working out for the best.

Cast members keep posting clips on Instagram, so you can search there. Someone posted a wonderful one of the Phantom's disappearance--the actor gazed at the audience for what felt like an eternity before drawing the cloak around himself. I miscounted. I actually saw it 27 times, not 26.

I can't find the link to post, unfortunately, but Phantom Of The Opera's Japan production also celebrated 35 years on 4/29. And Bob Fosse's "Dancin' is going to close on 5/14

I love this show. I love all the historical and international cases that they feature. I don't love their pitiful California Doubling and how the Australian actors/actresses are pathetically inept at American accents.

If evil women didn't exist, there wouldn't be shows like "Deadly Women" and all the other female-themed shows on "Investigation Discovery". I don't deny that it still stuns me to see that women are just as capable of the same level of cruelty and violence as men are.

Absolutely. It certainly made her already awful Season 3 behavior--getting pissy when Benton asked if she was sure he was the father, refusing to accept his apologies or let him help, then when she did let him help, getting even angrier that he wasn't at her beck and call every second--look even worse. All that knowing full well he might not be the baby's father and that this wasn't his responsibility in the first place?

To be fair, I could have sworn there was a line or two about them being in the process of doing so before Sandy died. I liked Carol, I almost always did, but even as a kid at the time that episode aired, I wondered how she could have ever thought that was a possibility. And Tag being vilified for understandably not wanting to instantly be a parent to an ill child, though that's on the personal side, not legal.

That's exactly why I didn't like her. I found her self-righteous and hypocritical to the point of cruelty.

One last montage of all the Phantoms and Christines over the years that was shown to the audience Sunday evening: https://playbill.com/article/watch-stirring-video-montage-the-audience-viewed-at-final-broadway-phantom-of-the-opera-performance

This in an interview with two Playbill writers lucky enough to garner invitations to the final performance of Phantom Of The Opera, describing what it was like--the audience applauded EVERY character's entrance and even the appearance of iconic props like the music box and the Christine mannequin, and gave Emilie Kouatchou a standing ovation in the middle of the performance after her rendition of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" (well deserved. She absolutely blew the lid off it everytime I saw her) Laird Mackintosh turned and looked at the audience just before the Phantom's disappearance. 😢 https://playbill.com/article/reflections-on-the-final-phantom-of-the-opera-performance

If you go to YouTube and look up "Phantom Comparison", you will find a skillion versions of many noteworthy scenes, and that one in particular gets the most interpretations. The ones where Christine tries to offer some measure of reciprocation for the Phantom's feelings, or expresses remorse that she can't, are my favorite. And then there's this one, which many Phans absolutely love. You'll see why at 9:47: