Brian Frons either has his head buried in the sand (or his own butt) to the bottom of his grandpa beard or else he’s the most optimistic guy on the planet. When recently questioned about his feelings on the demise of soaps as indicated by the rampant canceling of shows right and left, the President of ABC Daytime shrugged it off saying that he doesn’t understand the belief that the genre is dying based on a few cancellations. As he put it (paraphrased), if a sitcom dies, you don’t think the entire genre is doomed. If a drama dies, you don’t think the entire genre is doomed. Makes sense, but still, c’mon dude.

AMC

Brooke’s back! Brooke’s back! Brooke’s back! Yep, Julia Barr is back on AMC as of February 23rd. Doing the happy dance here. Between Jill Larsen and this, I might just renew my faith in AMC. Might.

Might.

Another “back” is Walt Willey (Jackson) who will step into new studios to tape 4 shows later this month to air in February. Willey holds hope for Jackson’s recent re-emergence now that Lorraine Broderick is back on writing staff as an associate writer. She is the one who wrote the late 1990’s Erica/Jackson romance and has a soft spot for the couple. Between that and the back from the deadness of his daughter, Greenlee, I’d say he’s likely going to be on the good side of the “Recurring” stick rather than the bad.

Also swimming in the recurring pool now is Chrishell Stause (Amanda) who had previously not been expected to continue with the show. Important to note that Stause has not been on contract for a long time, so it does not mean that she won’t continue on in a prominent capacity. For some time, it looked as though a recast was in order, but that now seems not to be the case.

OLTL

Now that Thorsten Kaye has aired for the last time as Zach on AMC, everyone is wondering how much longer it will be before he’s on the job with OLTL, bringing Patrick Thornhart (or Ian) back to life. That theory is compounded by the very obvious throwing together of former lovers Natalie and John. With Marty left out in the cold once that takes hold, I can think of no better time for her late husband to turn out to be not quite as late as everyone thought. As long as he doesn’t start in with that “Brown Penny, Brown Penny” shit, I’ll be thrilled to see him.

Although Nick (Nicholas Rodriguez) failed to win Kyle away from Rainbow Fish, he will turn up once in a while from time to time in Llanview, but overall, his story is done for the time being.

ABC Soaps In Depth reports that as I’d hoped, when Snoop Dogg appears on OLTL on February 24th, he will again share a few scenes with Bo Buchanan, who still calls him by his birth name, Calvin Broadus. I. Can’t. Wait!!

GH

Carolyn Hennesy gave Soap Opera Digest her favorite hangover cure in their New Year’s Eve nod: a gun.

One of my favorite actors, Mark Pinter (ex-Roger Smythe, AMC), will be returning to GH as Agent Rayner on January 26th. Nothing on a Winifred return…

There is some kind of story going around about James Franco coming back for a “very special episode” of GH in the Spring which he himself will direct. Do the handjobs never, ever stop with this? Puh-lease!