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dwmckim
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A day celebrating silliness, wackiness, rubber chickens...seems tailor made for Muppet fans right?
So tell us, what pranks did you pull (or had pulled on you...besides the ones on the forum of course)? Do you have any yearly traditions or fave jokes you pull in different years?
I have a few April First traditions...usually i listen to a Dr. Demento compilation cd as my driving music, needless to say i usually watch something Muppety (and often wear something Muppety) and usually when one spends an April First with d.w., a pie in the face often ends up occuring at some point (even if its my own).
As for pranks, after last year's Muppet Freak Interview with Jim Henson, i decided the Muppet fan community deserved a break, so i focused my efforts on the One Life to Live fan community instead this year, posting the following news item in my favorite forums (to put this into context, a lot of fans are upset with a wave of recent cast firings of well-liked characters/actors including and especially the show's very popular gay couple):
MAJOR CASTING NEWS (Kish fans, you'll want to read this!)
For those who were up in arms over OLTL dropping KISH, you have been heard! No, Brett Claywell and Scott Evans are still out (for now) - but the show is instead bringing back it's original gay character, Billy Douglas. It's being teased that not only will he reconnect with Marty but that his return will also be used as a vehicle to bring back the character of his high school best friend Joey Buchanan (actively being recast) ... and some other classic characters as well.
The show is also teasing that since Fish and Kyle will still be in Llanview, that viewers shouldn't be surprised if "eventually" one of them is brought back to be a love interest to Billy. A show rep further teases "and don't forget Nick is still around somewhere - AND he's single"
Other storyline elements being previewed: Billy will be involved with Rex - no not romantically (though they'll share innocent "joking flirtations") - but as a business partner, working to co-manage Ultraviolet adding "gay nights" to the club's weekly schedule of events. When the gay nights turn out to be much more profitable than all its other events, Rex is faced with the choice of making UV a full fledged gay bar.
But the biggest news of all concerning Billy's return is that THIS WILL NOT BE A RECAST! That's right - OLTL's actually managed to convince original actor Ryan Philippe to return to daytime! Executive Producer Frank Valentini revealed that the show gets so many letters noting the strong resemblance between Mark (Brody) Lawson and Ryan Philippe that they've been trying to bring Philippe back as Billy for quite some time now as they plan to make Brody and Billy related to each other. Getting RP back in the role was a dealbreaker; if they weren't able to get Ryan to play Billy to play up the lookalike angle between Billy/Brody, they wouldn't have brought the character back.
In the aftermath of KISH, the show is quick to confirm that even though he won't be put in a romance right away (the character is returning to Llanview after a long time away after all and it will take a while to get to know the current residents), he will eventually be paired with someone and yes, RP has confirmed his willingness to do same-sex love scenes unlike his original run on the show from 1992-3. ABC's actually very supportive of this not only because of the Kish firing backlash but because of the huge ratings draw of a movie star returing to the soap where he got his start AND doing gay scenes.
Set insiders are providing additional details that show reps aren't commenting on - while they're hoping the return of Billy Douglas will encourage fans tuning out due to Kish's firing to tune back in hoping to see Oliver, Kyle, and/or Nick brought back to play against him, and there will even be some "will they or won't they" between Billy and Rex (who was initially teased as possibly being gay when he was first brought on the show), the ultimate plan is to bring back CJ Roberts as a gay character (and yes, Andrea Evans and John Lopriano are in talks to do short term returns as Tina and Cord) and Billy's ultimate love interest. In the meantime, Billy will have a fling with a current character who so far has been shown to be straight...Robert Ford! (The scene is planned to strongly incorporate wetlook as a throwback to Ford's infamous "bucket scene")
When asked to comment about some of the already-leaked storylines for Billy's return, head writer Ron Carlivati replied "No comment, but I hope everyone's enjoying their April Fools' Day".
So tell us, what pranks did you pull (or had pulled on you...besides the ones on the forum of course)? Do you have any yearly traditions or fave jokes you pull in different years?
I have a few April First traditions...usually i listen to a Dr. Demento compilation cd as my driving music, needless to say i usually watch something Muppety (and often wear something Muppety) and usually when one spends an April First with d.w., a pie in the face often ends up occuring at some point (even if its my own).
As for pranks, after last year's Muppet Freak Interview with Jim Henson, i decided the Muppet fan community deserved a break, so i focused my efforts on the One Life to Live fan community instead this year, posting the following news item in my favorite forums (to put this into context, a lot of fans are upset with a wave of recent cast firings of well-liked characters/actors including and especially the show's very popular gay couple):
MAJOR CASTING NEWS (Kish fans, you'll want to read this!)
For those who were up in arms over OLTL dropping KISH, you have been heard! No, Brett Claywell and Scott Evans are still out (for now) - but the show is instead bringing back it's original gay character, Billy Douglas. It's being teased that not only will he reconnect with Marty but that his return will also be used as a vehicle to bring back the character of his high school best friend Joey Buchanan (actively being recast) ... and some other classic characters as well.
The show is also teasing that since Fish and Kyle will still be in Llanview, that viewers shouldn't be surprised if "eventually" one of them is brought back to be a love interest to Billy. A show rep further teases "and don't forget Nick is still around somewhere - AND he's single"
Other storyline elements being previewed: Billy will be involved with Rex - no not romantically (though they'll share innocent "joking flirtations") - but as a business partner, working to co-manage Ultraviolet adding "gay nights" to the club's weekly schedule of events. When the gay nights turn out to be much more profitable than all its other events, Rex is faced with the choice of making UV a full fledged gay bar.
But the biggest news of all concerning Billy's return is that THIS WILL NOT BE A RECAST! That's right - OLTL's actually managed to convince original actor Ryan Philippe to return to daytime! Executive Producer Frank Valentini revealed that the show gets so many letters noting the strong resemblance between Mark (Brody) Lawson and Ryan Philippe that they've been trying to bring Philippe back as Billy for quite some time now as they plan to make Brody and Billy related to each other. Getting RP back in the role was a dealbreaker; if they weren't able to get Ryan to play Billy to play up the lookalike angle between Billy/Brody, they wouldn't have brought the character back.
In the aftermath of KISH, the show is quick to confirm that even though he won't be put in a romance right away (the character is returning to Llanview after a long time away after all and it will take a while to get to know the current residents), he will eventually be paired with someone and yes, RP has confirmed his willingness to do same-sex love scenes unlike his original run on the show from 1992-3. ABC's actually very supportive of this not only because of the Kish firing backlash but because of the huge ratings draw of a movie star returing to the soap where he got his start AND doing gay scenes.
Set insiders are providing additional details that show reps aren't commenting on - while they're hoping the return of Billy Douglas will encourage fans tuning out due to Kish's firing to tune back in hoping to see Oliver, Kyle, and/or Nick brought back to play against him, and there will even be some "will they or won't they" between Billy and Rex (who was initially teased as possibly being gay when he was first brought on the show), the ultimate plan is to bring back CJ Roberts as a gay character (and yes, Andrea Evans and John Lopriano are in talks to do short term returns as Tina and Cord) and Billy's ultimate love interest. In the meantime, Billy will have a fling with a current character who so far has been shown to be straight...Robert Ford! (The scene is planned to strongly incorporate wetlook as a throwback to Ford's infamous "bucket scene")
When asked to comment about some of the already-leaked storylines for Billy's return, head writer Ron Carlivati replied "No comment, but I hope everyone's enjoying their April Fools' Day".
xPP
