Santa Barbara was wonderful, while it lasted. Was sad when Another World bit the dust too. Why oh why didn't Days die decades ago and put me out of my misery. I would shed no tears.

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From Ask Ausiello:

Question: I hear that the strike is over! Is it true?— Danouk

Ausiello: Nothing's official, but the buzz is that a tentative agreement has been reached, with an announcement coming as early as tomorrow. But it's hard to tell what's solid intel and what's just spin. To wit: In the past 24 hours, one source close to the negotiations insisted that talk of a resolution was way premature. "There's no deal," maintained my spy. "That's just misinformation put out by the AMPTP to pressure the WGA." But moments before I put this column to bed, I heard from another very plugged-in source that the deal is done. Short story shorter: There's cause for optimism, but not celebration. Yet.

Question: If the strike ends in the next week or so, can the current TV season be salvaged? — Donald

Ausiello: Depends on the network and the show. A source at one of the Big 4 tells me that should the strike end by mid-February, one best-case scenario being bandied about has established series going back into production and working through June, making more episodes for this season and some for next. Then they'll take a summer break before starting regular production on next season. The reason for this is twofold: They don't want to bail out on this season, but they also don't want to go to the expense of putting shows back into production for just two or three episodes. One industry observer describes this as "a smart plan," while acknowledging that there's another variable in all this: the actors. "The trouble is, a lot of actors schedule hiatus movies, or just elaborate vacations. And if they ask them to work through certain dates, that could trigger some contract issues." Now, continue reading for the worst-case scenario….

Question: G'day, fellow Snapple lover! Pushing Daisies is my absolute favorite new show. Any scoop/news? — The Doctor

Ausiello: I posed Donald's strike-aftermath Q to Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, and here's his sobering response. " Even if the strike ends in the next week or two, it looks like they will scuttle the rest of the season. This is for many reasons. One is that it will be hard to launch a big promotional campaign for four or five episodes; it's just not cost-effective. Two is that if we did come back we would land right in the path of the American Idol juggernaut, and would likely be decimated. Three is if we came back in the fall with a full slate of episodes, then ABC could relaunch the show in a big way. The tentative plan now is to start the writers immediately [after the strike is resolved] so we can get some scripts stockpiled, and then hit production in June. But that's all tentative. We've talked about so many options since the strike began and they fluctuate on a weekly basis. But right now a short first season seems the most likely."

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crosses all digits

Writers writing again would be a wonderful thing.

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Fuck. I don't want a short season for Pushing Daisies. I want my shows! This is totally going to mess up the box sets!

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The only small bright side is that a short cheap boxed set might lure in new people.

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I don't understand how we could have a deal tomorrow when we haven't even begun "official" talks. I remain dubious.

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Oooh, is this James Reilley?

Yes! Days fans hate him, which just makes me like him more. Any soap is going to strain credulity, so why not be as over the top as possible? I say, bring on the exploding volcanos, the vats of acid, and the demon-possession.

Hm. Maybe that's why I liked S4 of Angel so much.

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Ha! I was just thinking about S4 yesterday. Oh, the wackiness.

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I was a CBS soap fan. I watched Capital all the time and then tried the one that replaced it that's on now based around fashion whose name I can't remember and am too lazy to look up.

And Guiding Light. I love me some GL, except when it insane with the Reva was cloned and then superaged and they had the actress playing a 20 year old and soft focusing the hell out of the camera to make her look young. That annoyed me. But I can't remember where it fell in the whole Reva drove off the bridge in Key West and died but later showed up as Amish and everyone thinking it was just someone who looked like her, but nope! Itw as really amnesiac Amish Reva.

Also loved the Phillip Beth storyline,a lthough from what I understand now Phillip's gone a bit crazy and evil.

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Days fans hate him

Most of the complaints I've seen about JERk, as they call him, is the same ones I have with Reilly: Outlandish plots are one thing. Days that list two months onscreen; scenes that consist solely of people talking to themselves (Sami: "Oh, Austin, I will get you to love me... blah blah blah."); an over-reliance on flashbacks to scenes from yesterday, or earlier in the episode; and plots that dragged on for five, six or eight years just wore people out.

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