From: IDSWB@ASUACAD.BITNET
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.soaps
Subject: Re: DOOL: The Bet (was All Time Poll)
Date: 12 Aug 92 20:19:32 GMT
Organization: Arizona State University

In article <YeVbZN200Uh7424lUT@andrew.cmu.edu>, Liz Fox <lf01+@andrew.cmu.edu>
says:
>
>[Vix not Lix]
>
>Perky Papaya questions:
>
>> > Bannie shows incredibly good taste:
>> >Favourite Storyline
>> >10. The Bet
>
>> OK, now Bannie, Kiwi, and my smelly sister have all mentioned The
>> Bet.  Will some kind soul please enlighten me to what The Bet is?
>
>But I'd love to answer this question.  Just describing this storyline is
>guaranteed to put a smile on my face.
>
>On Christmas Day, 1988, Roman and Diana got engaged.  Of course, TPTB wanted
>to stall the wedding until February (a sweeps month).  I still have the
>issue of the SOD for Valentine's Day 1989 with Roman and Diana on the cover
>in their wedding outfits -- a wedding that never occurred.  But I digress.
>
>Back and those days (i.e., when the show was good), they didn't just coast
>between sweeps.  They actually had storylines and in this particular case,
>the stall tactic was a cute, funny, and sexy storyline that some of us
>remember
>as one of the better ones on the show.
>
>Here goes:
>
>The day after she gets engaged, Diana decides that she wants to be courted
>and wooed so that her married life will be different than her engagement.
>Roman gets the hot idea that they shouldn't sleep together before they get
>married.  Diana rattles his cage saying that she didn't think he could do it.
>He responded in kind.  The upshot of this discussion was that they had a bet
>where the first one to ask the other one to bed for purposes other than
>sleeping had to be the other's slave for the first three months of
>marriage.  Abe thought Roman had made the dumbest move ever.  Over the
>next two months, Roman and Diana did everything they could to seduce each
>other.  Roman rented movies they had already seen and tried getting her drunk
>on champagne.  She realized what was up and whispered some steamy sweet
>nothings in his ear until he was all hot and bothered.  They attempted
>seduction at breakfast, the attempted seduction during the day -- heck,
>they attempted seduction anytime.  Cold showers were frequent.  The most
>pathetic attempt was when Roman got called into the station.  He had gotten
>his job back.  Of course, he told Diana he was being sent to the "Big House"
>for his questionable tactics in saving her from Stefano.  He hoped she would
>give a doomed man some happy memories.  She had him figured from the get-go
>and hand-cuffed him leaving him to explain how he got in this predicament
>on his first day back on the job.
>
>Since neither would give in, they decided to get married in a hurry thereby
>ending the bet with neither of them losing.  At the marriage license office,
>they were in for a rude surprise when they found that Marlena had not
>been declared legally dead.  Diana was not too upset because she wanted a
>big wedding.  Back at home, Roman warned her that the bet would go on longer.
>Whew!!  He did his best in this scene to get her to succumb, but no dice.
>Later they found that it would be harder than they thought to get Marlena
>declared dead.  Roman couldn't stand it anymore.  He decided that they would
>both say uncle at the same time and then neither would lose.  They did and
>what followed was the steamiest scene I have ever seen on daytime with the
>possible exception of the hot tub scene on Steve and Kayla's honeymoon.
>
>Both the Steve and Kayla scene and the Roman and Diana scene implied some
>things that I had never seen implied on daytime.  Although, neither of them
>were tasteless in the way that just about every Boinko and Coitus scene are
>tastless for the following reasons:
>
Oh.....I remember that story line.  I just never realized which *bet* people
were referring to.  There have been so many bets on soaps lately :-(
The good guy usually seems to win.  One good thing about this one is that in
the long run, everyone won, *Including the viewers*!

Thanks Vix

>1.  As a viewer, I believed Roman and Diana loved each other and Steve and
>    Kayla surely did.  There were very believable reasons when Steve would
>    fall for Kayla, Kayla would fall for Steve, Roman could love Diana after
>    Marlena, and Diana would love Roman.  I do not for one second believe
>    that Bo loves Carly.  Why would he?  Everytime Drake tells the idiot he
>    loves her, I find myself screaming at the TV, "WHY?????!!!!"  There is
>    zero motivation for these two relationships.

You sure can say that again.  There is absolutely NO motivation in MOST of the
relationships these days on DOOL.
>
>2.  Secondly, I believed that Drake and Genie liked each other and that
>    Stephen and Mary Beth did too.  I have never seen Drake as uncomfortable
>    as he is with Spaci.
He really is, isn't he.  His acting seems to have gone down since he became
paired with Spaci.  In the beginning (when he was saving her from the mental
institute) it was ok, nothing special but, ok.  Then when they became
romantically (???) involved, everything changed.  She started pulling him down!
Yuk, Yuk, YUK, YUK, YYUUKKKKK
>3.  Days used to believe in the old entertainment adage "leave them wanting
>    more."  Now, they shovel things down our throat.  How long did we wait
>    -- and wait, and wait, and wait -- for Steve and Kayla to get together?
>    One of my favorite R&D scenes is one where they are dancing alone at
>    Blondie's.  They have not so much as kissed each other yet.  In this
>    scene, they come sooooooo close.  I swear I wanted to reach into the
>    TV and smack the back of their heads so they would kiss.  Arrrghhhh.  Yet,
>    they made us wait.  Not so, with Boinko and Coitus.  They do it so
>    often and in such tastless places with such little regard for SD that they
>    are sickening.
>
Aah, those good ol' Days, wish they were back....do you think it could be
possible....no....wait a minute...who says they can't?  Suddenly another
lightbulb goes off in Sue's head.  Do you suppose that maybe, just maybe,
we could get one of those independent stations to show some of the *really*
old days?  I mean, they are showing other reruns, why not Days?  Could it
really work?  I wonder.  Any ideas or suggestions?


>4.  Finally, and I have come to believe this is really what is at the heart
>    of what is wrong with this show, these couples had a wonderful sense
>    of humor.  Days is grim these days.  Most solid real-life relationships
>    have a healthy dose of humor.  Steve and Kayla had a lot of drama in
>    their relationship, but there was also a lot of humor too.  Where has
>    Days lost its sense of humor?  I don't even find Jack funny anymore.
>
Days lost its sense of humor when they started pairing Drake and Spaci,
decided RRK could replace the real Bo, and when they hyped the character
(she is a character who doesn't really deserve a name) they paired Bo with.

>Well, I went off track there, but I hope this answers your question Papaya.
It gave me something to respond to :-)

Sue
>
I'm glad you went off the track and gave us your true feelings on these matters
>Vix
>
>
>
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