So what if Stephanie faked her heart attack to keep Ridge away from her nemesis Brooke? Frankly, if most people had the choice of a daughter-in-law between a lovely, self-sacrificing woman who was only separated from the man she loved due to grotesque circumstances beyond her control (Taylor) and a woman who slept with her own son-in-law, (Brooke), most people would go for the former. Stephanie's entire family turns on her but has no trouble forgiving and accepting Brooke? Well, at least Stephanie will still have one friend in Sally Spector, who is no stranger to dirty tricks herself.

The slap-fest between Brooke and Steph when Brooke confronted her about her phony heart attack was amusing, but what really impressed was Susan Flannery's (Stephanie) wonderful performance in this and subsequent scenes. This is a woman who really deserves her Emmy. She can never be accused of chewing the scenery; she's just marvelously effective in an under-stated way, saving the blow-ups for important moments where they really matter (like blowing up at Brooke.)

Brooke has finally told Ridge that she can “do better.” At last – she's blowing off the smug, supercilious, irritating Ridge who chooses other women over her every time. Still, Brooke should understand that the man is caught in (what would in real life be) a heart-breaking and impossible situation. His wife Taylor has come back from the dead twice. He's in love with two women. Although we long-time fans know that all other men in Brooke's life have only been surrogates for Ridge, the one and only man she probably could be faithful to, we also know that Stephanie (who admittedly cannot be objective about Brooke) is convinced she'll hurt her son somewhere along the line.

So B & B is temporarily back on track – or at least it seems to be. Let's hope it lasts.

Brian Carney

The Young and the Restless. Apparently the writers decided that going for pathos by killing off young Cassie was preferable to showing the day to day tribulations of her being a teenager. Losing a child creates a life-long anguish, and one can only hope that the writers don't have Nick and Sharon back into their daily routines too quickly. It seems to be generally well-handled so far. In the meantime, one can only hope that we haven't seen the last of Gitta, who left the Abbott house because Kevin (the Emmy-winning Greg Rikaart) dressed up as a vampire and freaked her out. I for one hope that Kevin marries Gitta to keep her in the country – what a pair they'd make. They've already had one sexy scene in the bedroom and maybe they'll be more. The possibilities of this marriage are endless!

The Bold and the Beautiful has brought Taylor (Hunter Tylo) back from the dead – again! And that same Sheik of Araby or what-have-you is responsible. [They got rid of him awfully quickly.] Will Ridge choose Brooke as he did last time (he then abandoned her for Taylor when the latter got pregnant) or stay married to Taylor? Does anybody care? Although Taylor's last return from the dead was nearly a decade ago, long-time fans of this show may be feeling an unwelcome deja vu. And what the hell has Tylo done to her looks? Her face looks gaunt, the lips even plumper, as if she'd had unnecessary surgery. The only entertainment value this show seems to have left is Stephanie telling off Brooke, but they can't trade off that forever.

One Life to Live is featuring a storyline that seems inspired by the Jim McGreevey case. You'll recall he was the New Jersey governor who came out of the closet after giving a presumed lover an inappropriate position (no pun intended). On One Life the elected official has married a woman for political advantage while romancing a young gay man. He's just been arrested for murdering two people, supposedly because they knew his secret [a rather dated device used on more than one episode of Law and Order]. One of the victims was his own son's girlfriend. Recently his gay lover has accused him of just using him as well as his wife. How will it all turn out – and did he really commit the murders? Stay tuned. -- Brian Carney

One of the most popular programs on the ABC network, the nighttime soap Dynasty aired for nine years in the eighties. This telefilm goes behind the scenes to look at how the show was created (a reaction to CBS' Dallas); the problems with the network over presenting an openly gay character (Steven Carrington); the hysteria when it was discovered that guest player Rock Hudson had AIDS; and battles between producers Richard and Esther Shapiro and some of their difficult stars. While there is some attempt to look at all this in a meaningful context, contrasting the economic state of the country with the excesses of the program, the movie never rises above a level that is just as superficial as Dynasty itself. What could have been a strong, even heartbreaking look at how some actors in glitzy fare are treated and disposed of, and how essential merde is force-fed to the public (to be fair, there is some satirical comment on this) is reduced to a one-dimensional parody with caricatures instead of people. Of course, it could be said that Joan Collins already was a caricature, and can't be played in any other way (Alice Krige is good and fun as Collins), but why was it necessary for Bart John to also play John Forsythe in such a completely unreal fashion? Melora Hardin, while no great actress (at least in this), at least makes Linda Evans seem reasonably human. Nicolas Hammond does a good impression of producer Aaron Spelling, but never seems quite real, either. Blame not the actors, but writer/director Matthew Miller. However, Pamela Reed should get all the credit for her knock-out job as Esther Shapiro, the biggest role in the telefilm. It's interesting that Miller makes the point that writers are low on the Hollywood – and fan -- totem pole when a disinterested fan refers to Richard Shapiro as a “nobody” at a premiere, but in his teleplay there is absolutely no mention of the fact that after awhile most of the Dynasty scripts were written by other people! Composer Bill Conti's Dynasty theme remains terrific.

Dynasty became famous for its cat fights (one of which is somewhat recreated in the telefilm), but most of these were too silly to really work. The best fight was not between Alexis (Joan Collins) and Krystle (Linda Evans), but between Alexis and Dominique Devereaux (Diahann Carroll) [Alexis' classic line upon finding singer Dominique entertaining her husband Dex Dexter in her trailer: “Dominique Devereaux – from lounge lizard to trailer tramp!”] There was another memorable cat fight between Alexis and her British cousin Sable (Stephanie Beachum), before which the latter told Alexis that “I will tear your tongue out of your head!” when she gave away sensitive information. Dynasty was, of course, simplistic, under-written trash which, now and then, had its entertaining moments. The snappier – and wilder – Melrose Place, which also had cat fights and extremely dysfunctional if not downright sociopathic characters, became the Dynasty of the nineties.

NOTE: Dynasty (2 PM) and Melrose Place (6 PM) are both shown daily on the SoapNet cable network. Although the Dynasty telefilm makes fun of the notorious "Moldavian" massacre episode, the sequence  -- as recently shown on SoapNet -- is actually suspenseful, well-edited, and quite exciting. A couple of episodes later Jack Coleman as Steven Carrington gives a moving, well-played eulogy at the funeral of Steven's lover, Luke (Billy Campbell). Dynasty did try its best to stay abreast of the times.