DEACON DEBACLE

I caught just a smidge of THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS today, just enough to see that The Return Of Deacon To Another Show just isn't working for me. Maybe because all I remember of Deacon from THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL was that he shagged Bridget on speakerphone so her parents could hear? Yuck!

JOHN HUGHES AND ATWT

John Hughes, the legendary director of THE BREAKFAST CLUB and HOME ALONE (among many others) died August 6. While every youth oriented soap from the '80s on lives in Hughes' shadow, to me it was the character of Gwen on AS THE WORLD TURNS who felt truly plucked from the Hughes canon. Not only a dead ringer for Mary Stuart Masterson in SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL, Jennifer Landon's Gwen was also an aspiring low class rocker and in love with the upper class boy who doesn't think of her romantically. Arguably, straying far from this template in successive stories for Gwen weakened the character, perhaps leading to Jennifer Landon's decision to eventually leave the show. But for a while there, watching Gwen and Will on ATWT was like being in a wonderful John Hughes movie that had the potential to never end.

THESE CHARMING MEN

I'm enjoying DAYS OF OUR LIVES very much nowadays, and am pleased to see Wally Kurth back on the show. He was very good as Sam on AS THE WORLD TURNS last year and I felt ATWT shortchanged his character somewhat by turning him psycho and rapey since Wally just seems like such a nice guy! Here's hoping DOOL gives Justin Kiriakis more to do than defend people on trial.

You know who also seems like a nice guy? GENERAL HOSPITAL's Dominic Zamprogna, who plays Dominic/Dante. There is just something so likable and appealing about him; he has a sense of humor and he's cute! I've just finished watching Dominic's run on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and he was terrific in a recurring role. Oddly enough, his GALACTICA character was also an undercover cop -- what is it about Dom that screams UNDERCOVER COP at casting people?!? Oh, and his relationship with his MILFtastic mama Olivia is a hoot. She slaps him alongside the head! And he lets her!

This run of charm came to an end with today's viewing of GUIDING LIGHT. I sat there hoping Tom Pelphrey would be in today's show, to no avail. He wasn't in yesterday's show either. I watched the first two episodes of his return and was disappointed at the scarcity of air time and lack of interaction with the other players. I didn't bother to tape Monday or Tuesday's episodes but caught the last two live. If I see that damn convenience store one more time used as a way for characters to interact I'm gonna send Ellen Wheeler CORONATION STREET so she can see that corner shop drama doesn't have to be crap. Oh wait -- there's no point because GL is over! How weird is it to know that no matter how you feel about the current state of GL there is nothing you can do about it because the show has just stopped?!

YES, IT'S NOT A PHOTO FROM TONIGHT'S EVENT BUT IT'S LATE AND I'M TIRED

Fastforwarded through the highly prestigious and intellectually profound TEEN CHOICE awards to see GOSSIP GIRL's Leighton Meester and Chase Crawford get Best Actor and Actress as they picked up GG's award for Best Show, as well as Ed Westwick and Kristen Bell presenting. Ed Westwick was insanely hot in person; his natural British accent and un-Chuck Bass attire of jeans and T-shirt made me want to leap through the TV. Instead, I had a nice cup of Earl Grey and reflected on Ed coming to New York and drinking tea and buying the wrong kind of creamer (an anecdote told better in last year's NEW YORK magazine cover feature on GG.)

SWEET LIBERTY

Briefly watching DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Chad, Will and Mia before watching the 5/28 episode of AS THE WORLD TURNS, (my DVR will never, ever, ever be empty) I realized that Liberty needs another love interest besides Parker, pronto. With Parker the only teenage male on the show there is absolutely no one else for Liberty to gravitate towards and the writers will keep on sticking them together no matter how much Liberty tells Parker to back off as he gets creepier and nastier. Parker's brother JJ needs to be brought back on the show, suitably SORASed and then I can stop worrying about Janet Ciccone's pride and joy spending the rest of her life with the runt of the Snyder litter.

MORE LIKE STULTIFYING

Watched barely entertaining, long forgotten 1991 soap opera spoof DELIRIOUS tonight. Time could have been better spent watching a real soap opera instead of this slapdash TOOTSIE wannabe. Emma Samms and David Rasche are fun, but the damned thing feels like notes for a first draft.

DOT COTTON BLOODY DOT COTTON

In John Schlesinger's interesting 1971 film SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY you can see EASTENDERS' June Brown crying her eyes out spectacularly in one scene. Look fast and you will also see an uncredited Petra Markham, who appeared briefly in EE in 1993 -- she played Rose, who ran off with Pete Beale, only to be horribly killed off screen.

No soaps watched today -- too busy watching depressing bisexual drama, dontchaknow.