All Soaps: Vintage Articles

[soapgirluk]

Oh this threads fantastic, makes me wish i'd kept my 'Inside Soap' magazines.

Great to see storys i've not thought about in years,

The Kim Tate one with Lady Tara if I remember lasted quite awhile, I'll always remember Lord Alex while high on Cocaine crashing his car with Linda Glover in passenger seat, he then switched positions so everyone thought she drove. She died leading to her husband wanting revenge on Alex.

Think it was part of that story where Steve knocked down Kathy in his car too.

I used to love Heartbreak High & was totally a Anita & Drazic fangirl.

[DRW50]

What did you think of the quality of the soap magazines? When I hear people talk about them now it's mostly just criticizing them for making stuff up to sell copy, or for focusing too much on Eastenders.

[soapgirluk]

I don't get Inside Soap as often anymore but it's always been the most reliable imo

It's always had lots of EE covers but inside usually has a decent amount of Corrie, Emmerdale & Hollyoaks articles.

Then it has less on Home & Away, Neighbours and Doctors but still enough to show the main storys

Soaplife and All About Soap to me are just full of rubbish, lots of misleading headlines & rumours that they probably got online.

[DRW50]

All About Soap is the one I've heard the worst about.

[Ben]

Yeah, Karl has more stories now than he has for a while. The new producers have given him a male friend in Ajay, and Karl hasn't had a friend since the days of Joe Scully back in the early 2000s. They resurrected his old tragic band, The Right Prescription with Ajay on drums and Karl on guitar and "lead" vocalist. Most recently he's been trying to win back Susan, and he's had some great amount of screen time with Sarah's return - this whole story has really had a proper story narrative running through it. Brilliantly written. He's also had some really great scenes since Tash moved in with him - she's a certain type of character, blunt, sometimes painfully so, but these two bounce off each other so well.

Inside Soap is the best, b/c it is reliable and does what it's supposed to. It is very EE heavy, while Corrie and Emmerdale get a similar amount of coverage. Corrie may get more on weeks that EE only focuses on 2 or 3 stories. They give HO, H&A and Neighbours equal coverage, at most getting 2 articles per week; on rare occasions one of them may get 3! IMO, there is no need to donate so much space to EE, but I understand they sell more covers than the other soaps... apparently. All About Soap and Soap Life are really bad. They'll have cover headlines like: "Phil murders Peggy?", "Roxy pregnant by Max?!" when all they'll do is flirt for a scene or two. I don't understand why people buy them.

Inside Soap used to have a better lay out before it went weekly and were bought by some magazine conglomerate. It's a bit like SOW, they all became tabloid looking over night. Covers are so cluttered and messy looking these days, like the editors have really bad vision.

You may wonder why I've included the next article, but you'll see that Darcy plays a major role in the story, and it gives a bit of background on his character.

[soapgirluk]

So glad you included the Darcy & Lou bit, as the other day Lou briefly mentioned it onscreen. I couldn't remember it so thought it was before he was on the show lols

Dr Karl is a legend, most soap characters don't usually do both the drama & comedy well.

I do wish they'd make him a gp with a surgery again though, as Neighbours used to make great use of that set

Do you have the article from when Days of Our Lives started on ch5, would've been around march 20th 2000 issue? As they had a full page on introducing us to the characters

[DRW50]

Great articles. I never even knew about the priest story. I just knew about her marrying a professor or something who died. What did you think of the priest story? What was the Sarah/Karl affair story like?

I think it was Susan's emotional affair with someone that split her from Karl this last time? Is that what ruined her character? (I know some fans also disliked the story where she was carrying Libby's child)

I didn't even know Libby was on the show at this point.

I wonder if they gave Karl the Izzy story because he's still kind of hot - no one wants to see an ugly older man having an affair, especially with a younger woman, no matter how realistic it may be.

What happened with Gus? Was he never seen again?

[soapgirluk]

At the time the Sarah/Karl affair was mainly lots of lingering looks plus 2 kisses ( including 1 on Sarah's Wedding Day)

Viewers thought they might've slept together but it was always said onscreen they hadn't. They've just had Sarah return for a guest spot & revealed that they did sleep together. The scene of Karl finally telling Susan( who always knew it in her Heart) was really good

Gus was around for quite awhile, he ended up being killed by Paul Robinson in the Lassiters complex Fire. As he was killed and his body found in the Fire.

Izzy is 1 of my fave Neighbours characters ever, a total manipulative bitch but only wanted the best for her baby.

[DRW50]

Thanks. He wasn't mentioned in these articles and I don't remember him in the few episodes I watched (for a while I thought Darcy was the father, as I only watched some later material in the story).

It sounds like the show was very strongly paced and plotted during the Izzy/Karl story. Something rare for modern soaps.

[Ben]

The priest story was OK, but these sorts of stories always have one of two ways of ending, and seeing as he was only a guest character, he and Susan was never going to last. He also ended up being Lyn Scully's brother-in-law, so you had all this religious disapproval, and I never felt Lyn came across as overtly religious before this. He is also had a smugness about him, which was really dislikeable. I thought it made for an interesting twist when Izzy started confiding in him, and he wrestled with his conscience about what to do; that I felt was much better than his doomed romance with Susan.

Susan married a man called Alex Kinski, who was a university professor. He wasn't an overtly interesting character, but the story hit quite a personal note with me. My aunt had basically been in Susan's place, where she hadn't long knew her partner who was diagnosed with cancer, and she had married him quickly on his deathbed just like Susan.

K&S split up in 2011 due to in part to her emotional affair with Jim Doland, who died. At the same time, Libby had left, and Summer Hoyland (who was staying with them) was independent, and Susan decided from that point onwards that she needed to find herself and see who she was away from wife and mother. It was never properly explained on screen, so didn't make all that much sense at the time. A year later, all she'd managed to do was become a successful journalist and join a pole dancing class...! Susan was ruined before all this happened. She started displaying unlikeable traits in 2008 during the whole Angus (teacher)/Rachel (student) affair story, and then came the surrogacy plot in 2009, where she started acting out of character. Her treatment of Libby's husband's ex-wife Sam, who was bipolar was horrible, much like Libby at the time, too.Then Susan started getting random 2 week plots about internet bullying, which had a really unsatisfying pay-off.

The Sarah affair was very different to the Izzy story. It reinvigorated the show, which was going through a dull phase at the time. Again, Alan Fletcher had great chemistry with Nicola Charles (Sarah), and it provided some defining moments for the characters, both story and acting wise when the truth came out. When I think about it, there never seemed to be a lot to it. Karl and Sarah kissed; Susan and Sarah became close friends, but Karl and Sarah could resist each other; Harold walked in on them in a state of undress once, and then the truth came out. Susan's reaction created the infamous slap scene; it was like, WALLOP! knocking Karl for six.

I think that Alan Fletcher being hot for an older guy helped a lot. In fact, he's constantly being paired with younger women, and it never looks odd. Sarah, Izzy, Nicola West (it was friendship), Jade Mitchell (Susan thought they were having a thing)... it works for him, and still does.

Gus does turn up again later in the story. I feel like I'm leaking spoilers. His last scenes were of Izzy telling him the baby wasn't his. He then pops back up again later on. I'll post some of the precursor stories with Gus, and any other Karl and Susan stories, so you can get a good feel of the ups and downs of their lives.

ETA: 2004 is regarded as being one of the best years of the show, and I think that comes down to the fact it was tightly plotted and well thought out.

Soapgirluk: I don't have that Days article. I know the one you mean, but I think I through it out. I'll double check.

[Ben]

I'll may as well post a few more while I'm here.

I'm missing the part after this where Izzy slept with Jack Scully as a way of avoiding her grief. It didn't last long, and she ended up 'fessing all to Karl, who forgave her. She really was quite lost at this point.

[Ben]

[DRW50]

I missed all these until now - thank you for taking the time to post them. So that big fire to get rid of Gus - what did they even do with him between the time of his release and his death?

I didn't know Darcy got a happy ending. I guess that was it for the character.

And the affair with Paul in the middle of the story. I guess they wanted to stretch it out. I wonder how the fans felt.

Did Izzy leave right after she was exposed?

What did you think of Max? (kind of stupid of him to go back into a fire for a momento when he had kids)

The father looks a little young.

[Ben]

Nothing. Gus left the show after he was committed to a psychiatric unit; his last scenes were of Izzy telling him the baby wasn't his. Then he reappeared months later at Karl & Izzy's wedding. He had been stalking Izzy for about a week, and ambushed her while she was getting ready for her wedding. He believed that they could be together now she had lost the baby, he got a bit rough with her, which spooked her into doubting her feelings for Karl, and running away. Gus then had several run ins with Max and his son Boyd. Gus went back to the pub (where he had previously worked) to sleep in the back room, but a newly returned Paul Robinson set it on fire, along with the other businesses, and Gus tragically died. The Hoylands were the prime suspects for a while, but there wasn't any evidence to prove either one of them set the fire to kill Gus. Paul has gotten away with murder to this very day.

On the surface you kind of think that they should have done more with Gus in the interim, but watching the show, it would have been very hard to justify his existence. Prior to the Izzy baby story, Gus had been poisoning Max, in a What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? esque way. He wanted Max to be depended on him, so he could step up and take charge of Max's family; he tried to control and discipline Max's children, Boyd and Summer, but they proved too independent and loyal to their father, which mad Gus angry, who nearly punched Boyd. Karl was suss at how sick Max was getting, and thought Gus wasn't right, so did some research and found out that he had lied about his past. Gus wanted revenge for the time Max fired him from the oil rig, which ultimately ruined his life. Once this was all revealed, Gus went into hiding and started stalking the Hoylands. He did things to show how useful he could be, by cleaning Steph's bike, changing things in their home, which freaked out the kids. Max and Gus had a showdown on top of some scaffolding on a building site, and both fell to the ground. This was when Gus was arrested and placed into a psychiatric facility. All Gus ever really wanted was the love and support of a family, and he thought he could step in and take Max's; this is why Izzy's baby lie crushed him, as he thought he was going to get the family he never had.

The fire was a turning point for the show, an end of an era, as they destroyed the sets and got rid of the iconic bridge. It's really only in the last year that the Lassisters sets have come together. As you know, there are some things that shouldn't be meddled with, and this was one of them.

That was the last we saw of Darcy, and in a lot of ways, he deserved a happy ending. He'd been with the show since 2000, and is fan favourite for being a very grey character, someone who had charisma, and could do so many dastardly deeds and still be loved. He loved stirring the pot.

The affair with Paul did seem random, but did fit with Izzy's character. K&I (dubbed Kizzy by fans) were hugely popular, and I think that took TPTB by surprise. K&S were the golden couple, but suddenly a lot fans were loving Karl with Izzy It gave him a new lease of life. Then came Paul, and Pizzy were born, and they divided fans even more. People saw them as a perfect fit. I loved Kizzy, so I kinda resented Pizzy - ultimately Pizzy brought out the worst aspects of each other.

While it seemed random, it actually made sense, as once the truth was exposed, Izzy was able to move in Paul, and they didn't have the chore of building up to a relationship as they had established their connection months earlier. Izzy stayed with the show for another 2 years. She and Paul stayed together for the majority of that time, but had to overcome many obstacles, like Izzy getting addicted to antidepressants and Paul's manipulative children. His daughter Elle took an instant dislike to Izzy, and her twin brother Robert was deranged who tried kill them on more than one occasion.

But they never forgot the Kizzy fans, and briefly reunited them. About a year and a half later, Karl had softened towards Izzy; he was in a bad place after some more Susan drama (they weren't together), and was having trouble sleeping. Izzy gave him too much of some herbal sleeping remedy, and he started hallucinating that Izzy was Susan. She misguidedly thought he wanted to try again with her, and they slept together. The next day, Izzy was horrified to learn that the truth, and told Karl nothing had happened and that he didn't betray Susan. She discovered she was pregnant, and decided to leave town. Susan found out and asked Izzy for the truth, but she lied to spare Susan the pain. A few months later, K&S were back together and they took a trip to the UK, and bumped into a heavily pregnant Izzy who was sleeping on a park bench on the Thames! Izzy gatecrashed their wedding on a boat in the middle of the Thames, and gave birth there and then. K&S found out that Karl was the father. This was Izzy's final appearance. Karl still has contact with Izzy and his daughter off screen.

Max was OK. I was never really bothered by him one way or another. He was a bit of a dead beat dad when he first arrived, but he proved to be a good father. He was a very stable, sensible character with a slight "wild" side. A lot of fans loved him with Steph, but I felt he kind of neutered her. She gave up a lot of who she was for him.

Bobby looks quite young in that photo. Looked older on screen. He had that suave older guy charm about him. The worst person you could want for a father if you were after stability and love.

I'll post some more stuff soon. I know I said I would post K&S articles, but I think I'll pick up from this story and continue with the Izzy stuff to finish off her character.

ETA: I didn't mean to drone on like an essay!

[Ben]

Following on with the rest of Izzy's stories.