DRW50

King's Crossing at 22 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgpZAZGpHs

I see Cynthia Sikes (St. Elsewhere) and Deborah Hobart (ex-Dana the boring ballerina, ATWT, and terrific as Amy Holloway on AW) in those ads. And a promo for King's Crossing I'd never seen. Weird seeing Linda Hamilton and Michael Zaslow together. I guess at least OLTL viewers were familiar with him when he arrived a few years later... The Ted material continues to be odd and campy, and not all that enthralling, but Karen's feral response to that wooden Steve at the end really gets to you. Wonderful work from Judith Light. I also loved her line "are you allergic to the smell of death?" Poor Edwina. Such a sensitive soul. Margaret Klenck makes you feel for her. No other soaps had characters quite like Edwina. Brad perving over an 18 or 19 year old girl is one of those things that reminds you of the era this was in. So does all the focus on the health club and people needing to go to the health club (nice to see Stephen Schnetzer in shorts though). I like Cassie more here than later on when she was written as a victim. Really enjoyed everything with Dorian, between the banter with Herb (Herb will always be my choice for Dorian's soulmate) and her vendetta against Pat. How long that the new co-host, Pamela, stay around? I liked her. Was she there as a Carla replacement?

Did Stephen Yates want to leave or was he let go?

Terry's work in the Jack/Jill reveal should have won something. The scene where he had a breakdown at the office soon after losing his home and job alone deserved an award. As much as I'd say Larry Brygmann deserved an Emmy, he didn't really have much at all to do during 1986.

Thanks.

What Lai song did they use? I haven't gotten to that part yet. I'm glad they let us hear the rare music the show played at this time. I remember on Dark Shadows the only song they ever played was the theme to A Man and a Woman. Karen's such a tricky character - sometimes I think she's a one-note schemer, but scenes like her very genuine rage at Steve for playing the superior American to the little European people (something rarely addressed on soaps) break that mold.

I think the show struggled with how to translate Faith and Jill to the average viewer. The Jill/Frank/Delia triangle consisted of a successful, wealthy lawyer loved by most of the people around her, and a childish housewife who'd never really known love or affection due to her husband never wanting to be with her in the first place and proceeding to cheat on her for years. I remember reading some article where Ilene Kristen said she'd expected to get a ton of fan hate, and instead viewers tended to sympathize with her. It's not that hard to see why. Once they moved Jill into material that was less about contrasting her with Delia (like her complex relationship with Seneca), I think she became more solid as a character. Faith's early material was just very messy to me - clearly we were supposed to see Pat as a cad and root for him to fall in love with Faith for real, but I couldn't stop cringing any time she was near him. It didn't help that Malcolm Groome IMO had more chemistry with Ilene than with Faith Catlin. The Kenneth Castle story also seemed so jarringly off with the type of soap Ryan's Hope wanted to be. I tend to see Hicks as another character, not as Faith. KMG mostly played a passive victim until the drunk story, which I thought she did a great job with, but what bothered me was they never wanted to have the character face up to any moments where she made bad choices or behaved badly. For instance, as Delia once suggested when Faith boozed it up and treated a sick Little John (nearly killing him) - they all but threw her a parade, whereas Delia was damned no matter what. My breaking point was when she went on and on and on some more about Frank breaking up with her because of his feelings for Jill. Few characters dared to tell her it was her own fault for getting involved with Frank. Few characters were bothered when she called Jill a "thing" who had crawled into the Coleridge home and taken her mother from her. The character got a free pass for endless verbal abuse. And this was a big retcon, as it had been said time and again in the show's early years that Mrs. Coleridge resented Jill and never gave her the time of day. They gave me no reason to feel anything for Faith other than white hot rage. I think the show always had a certain tin ear about the Coleridge family and just how "good" they truly were, or what the idea of "good" was supposed to be. Or how "good" people should behave. For instance, the show's choice to make Roger a "good" character in 1980 and 1981, and go around lecturing Delia all the live long day, made me actively despise him.

I think you may have to see if your HTML is turned on.

I just read that Claire Cooper and Emmett Scanlan are engaged. Congrats to them. Now I want to see Claire back in a good TV role.

Supposedly Jenna was unsure until near the very end about whether to stay or go. I have mixed feelings about Clara (probably the most polarizing companion in many years), but Jenna and Peter Capaldi are absolutely superb together. He's also the main reason she decided to stay.

Thanks for reading. I've always had a soft spot for Harley Jane Kozak (long before I ever knew she was on soaps). I will have to check some of that material out if it's online. Were they on to the end?

What did you think of the non-Carter stuff?

Thanks for the background TimWil. Have you seen any of the 80-82 episodes uploaded (GL episodes) lately? They have some Geraldine Court stuff that wasn't already on Youtube. I know Peters got a lot of knocks for her Gypsy work. I've only seen her Tonys performance, but it seemed OK to me. What gets me is when some fans get so defensive and insist this is all new and fresh. It isn't, and that's just how soaps are now. It's not a slam against EE. But I do think EE has become too self-aware in recent years, especially starting with DTC/Santer. Too much need to ruin genuine drama by trying to be "iconic." The Carters just aren't interesting enough to warrant this treatment. How many people really care about Shirley being Mick's mother? Even the fans I see who enjoy the Carters don't care. The other problem, as I saw someone mention, is why is this all about Mick? A woman was raped and it's all about Danny "wot's wong L?" Dyer. You can always tell an episode underwhelms when the DS brigade says, "Oh yeah? Well Corrie was worse!" I will have to watch more of it later though.

Was he a bad man (Laurents)? Given that Nancy has no taste, I guess it fits.

All the main kids on GH now are annoying and fake. I get so tired of the bizarre idea, often from people who barely know children, that kids are smarmy, robotic quip machines. It makes me uneasy. Merry Christmas everyone. Sorry for clogging up the thread with these, but these are the last for a while, and at least we get a showcase of Jane's talents. Hell, maybe Ron will see them on Youtube and get a hint. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-OQujMmPvI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RQSHrU3Lh8

Merry Christmas to you as well.

Thanks. I guess they must have changed their mind at the last second. I wonder if that Natalie Campbell did any other roles. I'd never heard of her.

Soap Opera Stars August 1982

Soap Opera Stars August 1982

Soap Opera Stars August 1982

Soap Opera Stars August 1982

http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2014-12-23/emmerdale-actors-preview-christmas-wedding-storyline/

Apparently the first Peter wanted to leave the show. After that the show seemed to have no idea what to do with Peter. I haven't seen Holder's work, but Smythe seemed weak/ineffectual. Honestly the Love dynamics are something which sound much better on paper than they were when I got to watch them onscreen. I loved the interaction between Nicole, Peter, and Donna in their first year or two, but once the recasts started, and once Reginald returned, everything went downhill fast. Lots of whining and pouting from Peter, lots of Donna freakouts, and Reginald twirling his mustache.