All My Shadows

Wow, what a wonderful find! She's definitely a good time, and it's always great to hear soap legends explicitly say they enjoyed doing the work and would have kept at it for longer than the opportunity allowed. What she says about the timeslot change checks out with everything I've always read about the show's demise.

AMC would definitely be lacking without DC and the character of Adam, but we all know that in soap world, gigantic titans don't live forever, and the least they can do is try to pick up the pieces and manage without him. They'd be foolish not to have Adam's death create tons of story possibilities. Didn't the online revival do a flash forward of five years? That would put it as being set in 2016, so I think it would be perfect to just flash forward three years after that and just continue with 2019. It wouldn't be hard to factor in aspects of the revival series given that it only ran for about 40 episodes. I've given a lot of thought since last night about the characters and cast I'd like to see on yet another go-round with the show. The biggest challenge would be that scaling it back to 30 minutes would mean less characters, which makes it hard to determine which legacy families would be represented and which would not. At the very least, you need Erica's crew, the Martins, the Chandlers, and the Hubbards. They provided a great nucleus in the last few years of the ABC run and during the revival series. Maybe the key would be focusing on certain siblings and their offspring as regular characters as opposed to presenting big huge families stretching all over the canvas. Erica's gang could be centered on Erica, Bianca, and Miranda. Kendall and her kids are not necessary, except maybe her son with Ryan. Just for goodness sake, acknowledge that maybe Spike isn't his actual fooking name or maybe even have him say straight-up that his mom was a goddamn idiot and that he changed his name upon turning 18 and enrolling at PVU. Keep Joe and Ruth around as long as humanly possible to be head of the Martin family. Have the new and improved MEK back as Tad. Maybe Dixie's there, I don't know. I actually really enjoyed Amanda and Jake, but I'd have them happily married offscreen. Their son Trevor could be on the canvas, though, also returning home to start at PVU. He could be a friend, rival, or lover of not-Spike Lavery. I'm ready to completely ignore Tad's add-on daughters from near the end of the show's run. MAYBE keep Jenny so that we can see him as father to a hellraising daughter (maybe she idolizes Erica?). I have always been deeply in love with Jamie Martin, so he's back. The Chandlers have to be in a state of chaos at the onset of a new series because they just absolutely have to pick up upon Adam's death. Brooke is still there, and we also have JR, but I think Scott needs to be there, too. There was some good stuff with those two pitted against one another in the last year or so on ABC, and they would be wise to capitalize on that. Colby and AJ are needed. The Hubbards are so easy because they'd done a great job resetting and developing this family before the ABC cancellation. Angie, Jessie, Frankie, Randi, and Natalia, with the explanation given that Natalia and Brot broke up. Opal and Peter are back. I liked Carter Anders, so I'd bring him back on a recurring basis until he's tied in enough to be a major player. I'm envisioning conflict between Carter and Frankie, exacerbated by a burgeoning romance between Carter and Natalia, who also has another love interest (new character). I'd also bring back Francesca James, but this time she recurs as Kelly Tyler, who has moved back to Pine Valley with Linc, who also recurs. I'd also do what they tried to do with Michael Nouri as Caleb and cast an 80s hunk as Erica's new man, except this time it's one who is actually still somewhat hunky. Patrick Duffy or someone like that. So your cast of characters would look like this: Contract/major 1. Erica Kane 2. Bianca Montgomery 3. Miranda Montgomery 4. Mark Lavery (not-Spike named himself after deceased great-uncle Mark) 5. Tad Martin 6. Dixie Cooney 7. Trevor Martin 8. Jenny Martin 9. Jamie Martin 10. Brooke English 11. JR Chandler 12. Scott Chandler 13. Colby Chandler 14. AJ Chandler 15. Angie Hubbard 16. Jessie Hubbard 17. Frankie Hubbard 18. Randi Hubbard 19. Natalia Hubbard 20. Opal Cortlandt 21. Peter Cortlandt Recurring/minor 1. Joe Martin 2. Ruth Martin 3. Kelly Tyler 4. Linc Tyler 5. Carter Anders 6-10. New characters to interact with existing characters

Oh, I definitely want to play this game because I haven’t in a long time. I’ll share my thoughts in a little while.

I’m not getting my hopes up, but I’ve learned to never count any idea out these days. Plus, Susan putting this out there gives it a wee bit more credence. I’d hope that she wouldn’t post this if she thought it would amount to nothing.

Included free with Prime??!!? I have the entire series box set (in the house packaging) but it's so much easier to just stream. Never mind, I just looked it up. Damn. I really need for there not to be so many options out there. I can honestly sit here and binge the entire 4th season of LHOTP right now. Easily one of my top five favorite seasons of any TV show.

Ummmm...SUSAN???

The theme song changed in 1971, I think the spring, so probably 1970?

Phoebe's outfit from when she married Langley on AMC is one of my favorites. I love those muted 70s colors as well as the hat.

Can you imagine the disappointment of people tuning in only to find a bunch of people running around a farm?

I hated ABC's "Everybody's Got Their Somethin'" promos, in which we were supposed to believe that Vincent Pastore was a General Hospital viewer.

I absolutely adore Carey Gold's rendition of the Secret Storm theme. It has a very soft, sweet quality to it, and the music used throughout the episode has the same feeling. It's a great contrast to the harsh organ music that was just about on its way out with the P&G soaps. How can you not love those delicious little rising sixteenth (I think) notes at the end of the closing theme?

Tori Spelling is just one big EW. Nobody asked for this sht! They would've done better just filming it for their own personal enjoyment.

GOD, I am so happy with all of the little TSS gems popping up these days. Can't wait to turn that up and listen to it as soon as I can. It sounds so crisp and clear, too. Of course, we'd like to see the actual video that goes with it, but if we must make do with just audio, then I'm glad it's in such great quality.

I'm not as well-versed on GL's history and character as I am on some of the other soaps. In fact, it was only recently that I'd really spent a substantial amount of time studying it, which is funny because it was one of the first soaps I ever watched. I'd echo vetsoapfan and say the show's two biggest eras of change were the late 1940s with the arrival of the Bauers and then the early/mid 1980s with the arrival of the Shaynes and Lewises (and, later, the Coopers). GL was strictly about the Bauer family in its various forms throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s: originally Papa Bauer's children Bill and Meta with their spouses then Bill's wife Bert and their sons Ed and Mike, who had wives and dramas of their own. Bert wasn't your classic soap matriarch, serving cookies and coffee and sage advice to everyone. She was pushy and bossy, and Bill cheated on her, and her voice was shrill, and she didn't take any sh!t from anyone, but she was beloved until the day she died and continues to be. The Spauldings were introduced in the late 1970s but did not take over the show, partly because it was going through an expansion from 30-minute episodes to 60-minute episodes. It wasn't until the Shaynes and Lewises joined that the Bauers began to be sidelined. By the 1990s, it was clear that they were no longer the main family as most of them were gone and not many attempts were made to bring any back. It's hard for me to compare GL with ATWT since they've always been a package deal in my mind. You just don't think of one without thinking of the other, but if I had to make a statement, I'd say ATWT was more consistent in its focus. Its characters also seemed to be more straight-laced, its families more functional than dysfunctional, which is what you saw on GL. The Bauers, from the earliest days, yelled at each other. When the sons grew up, they fought each other and wanted to fight their dad. Bill and Bert had recurring marital problems for years. Meta always seemed like a sad woman. Meanwhile, on ATWT, the Hughes family had all of the warmth and good feelings that you'd expect from a nuclear family. There were conflicts, and Nancy wasn't easy to deal with, but she and Chris were solid. The siblings got along for the most part. At the end of the day, you could say ATWT was the Hughes family vs. the world whereas GL was the Bauer family vs. themselves. DAYS is a completely different type of soap. Same general set-up with the family focus, but the word I've seen used often to describe its first 10-15 years is "psychosexual." You had Tom and Alice the parents, but most of the characters were younger, and their romances were more intimately portrayed. Then, of course, in the 1980s, it became a children's show. I'm personally not surprised because each soap is the marquee soap of its respective network and has been for at least 30 years. B&B benefits from being so closely linked to Y&R and its reputation for being popular around the world (and from being a half-hour soap). At any given moment since the 1990s, if you asked a person what soaps would be the last one standing on each of the networks, they would've told you GH, DAYS, and Y&R. I just don't think many people figured the rest would all leave the airwaves in just a four-year time frame.

For the most part, yes. When the Bauers became the central focus in 1948, a few odd characters from before still existed, but they mostly gave way to the Bauers and their acquaintances. When they moved to TV, all things pre-Bauer were gone. Yikes, that article is hideous! I always laugh when people say the 80s was the best decade of any long-running soap that obviously had its highest levels of popularity way before the 80s.

I almost didn’t post because I figured you guys had already seen it. Glad to bring it to everyone’s attention. Lori March has been one of my favorite soap matriarchs for a long time just by virtue of her style, so seeing more of her here solidifies her as one of the most memorable. Also love Judy and Jada in this - they just all feel so comfortable in their roles while still doing the show justice. It almost feels like a primetime show from the same era. I would kill to see a Love of Life from the same time period. It looks like the closing credits and mid-show bumpers were set against a sky visual, something I’ve never seen or read about in regards to Secret Storm.

I think it’s because they had Belle and wanted to play the heroine/villainess dynamic with the two of them while also moving away from the Ames family as much as they could. I really like what seems to be the main premise of TSS through the 60s: three siblings struggle to find happiness while receiving guidance from their gentle father, strong stepmother, wicked aunt, and wise grandmother (assuming Grace was wise - seeing Marjorie Gateson’s name in the credits had me hoping she’d appear here, but she did not). The introduction of other families when the show expanded didn’t really screw with that formula until later.

Yes, I really enjoyed it, and I hope we get to see more of the CBS soaps from around this time. The era really seems to be a time of transition for them, with the more stilted 50s style of acting and scripting loosening up and becoming more natural, no doubt in response to what was already going on at ABC and NBC.

The Gaga post seems about as fake and try-hard as she is most of the time. I've only ever really listened to the version of "Do What U Want" with Christina Aguilera, so I tend to forget that the more well-known version has RK (nor have I seen the video). I'm not understanding her attributing the song to repressed sexual abuse when it is quite obviously about sensational journalism.

Most of a 1968 episode

I can think of loads more scenes from the series that are better than that one. How could you not choose the infamous first meeting of Alexis and Dominique?

Thanks for that, Carl! I’ve grown to really like her/Katie through watching that era of GL. You can tell she had big hopes to be in Springfield for the long haul, and I wish she would’ve ended up somewhere else. Soaps need champions like that.

Please tell me y'all have been watching this craziness! I've looked at R. Kelly sideways since I was like 12 when all the infamous video was released and never understood how people continued to support him without calling out the very obvious and blatant abuse going on in his circle. At this point, I'm turning up to Ignition whenever it comes on, but that's the beginning and end of any reverence or respect I pay him. Outside of the very disturbing stories the various women have been sharing, the most interesting parts for me have been seeing how certain career points were very carefully plotted with an agenda in mind, namely how "I Believe I Can Fly" was partially meant to solicit support and praise when people were starting to get hip to his sh!t. I was in elementary school when Space Jam and the song came out, and of course, I had to hear it literally everywhere, including about a week or two when they played it in the cafeteria at lunch time every single day. I hated it then, but now it just grosses me out. In the midst of delving into all of this, I listened to his "song" I Admit from last year in which he spends 20 minutes offering excuse after excuse for everything before exploding at the end. It's actually pretty terrifying, and he really sounds like a man who doesn't have long for this world.

Currently watching... Dynasty - Season 6 Greek - Season 2 That Girl - Season 2 Yellowstone - Season 1 Dark Shadows - July 1966 All My Children - making my way through episodes/compilations from 1985 Also watched the pilot of Freeform's Good Trouble on demand and eagerly waiting for it to regularly air.

I don't know, I think the critical success of ODAAT has shown that you can go out on a limb with a traditional aesthetic and do well. Long scenes with no background music is classic Lear, and that's what we get with the new ODAAT. A visually stunning videotaped drama series at 30 minutes per episode - with decent storylines and decent enough acting - could be a hit as long as they were to go into it knowing that this isn't a mainstream product. Target soap fans and see how well it does.