DRW50

April 1971 Afternoon TV.

John Forsythe intro on ABC hour shows of another era, with a few Dynasty clips. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIT_-0P3_kk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

There's some talk about Bernie Sanders. Just wanted to apologize if any of my posts caused any bad response.

That's a wonderful story about Bette Davis. Can you imagine what it was like being a soap actor in those years and wondering if she would let you know how she loved your performance? I've seen very little of Dufour - just a few clips with Morgan Fairchild, mostly. I guess I was associating him with other older actors being let go from P&G soaps at this time. That's an interesting story about the Corringtons. I'm glad Maree was able to turn the writing around. At least they didn't do some of the crap that later writers did when they wanted people to turn against a character (like when LML had Lucy Coe inadvertently blind her own child...not to mention the Guza follies).

Part of a 1972 episode. I saw this years ago on tape but don't know where that is, so it's nice to see it again. It's probably been on Youtube before but I only started watching soap Youtube stuff in the last few years. Anyway, India Delaney gives a party and no one shows up, aside from immediate family. Marie Wallace was a fascinating actress, and one of the most unique beauties ever on soaps. Nice to see a glimpse of her as India, along with the wonderful Georgann Johnson as Ellen. India's husband in this later tried to kill her, didn't he? Someone at TWOP talked about scenes that went on for weeks and weeks where he hit her with a huge candlestick and she was unconscious on a couch. Did Marie want to leave? Who were Robin and Jessica? This also has Gary Sandy as a maitre'd or waiter (hard to believe he'd get to wear his hair out like that on the job) and I think Alice Hirson is also one of the wait staff.

Before OLTL cast Fia Porter as Audrey Ames, she tried out for Didi O'Neill and Christine Cromwell (I think she would have been good as Christine...wonder why that didn't happen).

I'd heard about the promo but hadn't seen it. Thanks. So are you watching the show still? What do you think of it? I have sort of checked out of all the British soaps, aside from reading about them.

Well if they directly quoted her I guess it must be true? Would they make up quotes like that? I don't know their history. A Christmas special would make sense, if they could have her there long enough to talk with Kat about what's happened in their lives since the last time they saw each other, and if Zoe feels annoyed that Kat now has another child, if Kat sees this as starting over. I guess something needs to be done with Kat . Some would say Zoe had a big role in Den's downfall, although she was forgettable in it, as usual.

What a wonderful treat this is!

I can see Lemay not wanting another 60 minute show for quite a while. I'm just sorry that he never got a chance for a real run at SFT or Doctors.

Why did the Corringtons hate Maree Cheatham? I know she may have been a bit difficult but you'd think they'd enjoy writing for her. Was Val on the way out anyway, due to his age? I've only seen bits and pieces of him as an actor...I think I've seen more of him in the soap magazines, going around with kilt and bagpipes and writing columns about his AW time (I guess that didn't end very well either - although I always felt bad for him when Lemay called him out for stealing the spotlight from Susan Sullivan in his last scenes, since...um...they were his last scenes ever on the show!).

I wonder if it's down to some writers being better at half-hour and some better at hour (weren't Marland's biggest successes all hour soaps)? Are there any Search writers from the 70's you felt should have had another chance? What was Vendig doing by that time?

That's a good point. I forgot about that. They didn't seem to make all that much effort in saving their in-house soaps in the early 70's, so you'd think they would have. But aside from Capitol, maybe, I can't remember if they've owned any of their soaps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDYJ360jyhE

Sam was Opal's boyfriend - was he still on the show at this time? They dated and then broke up because she had sex with one of her clients or something. Liza was raped by truckers, or a trucker. Jennifer Bassey and Marcy Walker got a laugh out of this in an interview years later. One of the lines they mentioned was, "Can't we talk about FEELINGS, Mother?" They also laughed about the man who played Mr. Colby, and how he had hair in his ears.

I guess what I meant was I think soap towns have strong identities and I'm not sure Somerset did. It was a place various AW characters went to, then with a series of shifting rich families (the Delaneys, then the Moores), along with a few other characters like Ellen Grant. I can see where he would want to go back to basics but I was trying to figure out if Somerset ever had a basics, or if they needed to build that from the ground up.

Thanks for the extra information. I wonder with these shows why they just didn't make more effort to revamp the shows in a way which would get them more money, as ABC's heavy renovation efforts with GH ended up doing. I guess you can't say CBS suffered from the decision, given that Capitol was a decent performer and B&B has been too, but if P&G had shown more guidance, the show could have continued to be a relevant part of their lineup instead of being the start of their apathy towards their soaps. When you read the soap magazines from back then they make it seem like the show was in the doldrums for ages even before the CBS cancelation. I'm glad to hear otherwise. I can see why the stories you mentioned were failures, but certainly other soaps did worse, for far longer periods of time.

It's kind of ironic that some of the young people on Search went on to a fair amount of success in film and TV, while most of the young people on Capitol are forgotten, and the older people on the show are the ones who ended up working most consistently.

Thanks. I wonder why he felt that way. Somerset was never really just a town, was it? When you're created as a spinoff, with established characters, you are never just a town.

What were Winsor's "about a town" stories? Were they any good? It's too bad he seemed to have no success with daytime after he left his two soaps.

Lack of patience and lack of interest makes sense. There was no real reason for CBS to cancel the show. Were they just looking for an excuse?

The weird thing with Search is that it seems like they had managed to revive themselves several times until the bad times hit again around 1980 or 1981. They've managed to create a series of young, beautiful, popular characters, romances, and integrate a few veterans. I just don't get where it fell apart.

What did you think of Susan Scannell?

Did you enjoy Daniel Pilon? I thought he was kind of bland on GL. Regarding Pat, sometimes I wonder if they should have always had him as a supporting character - I guess Malcolm Groome would have left even sooner, but he had a lot more personality when he wasn't in the spotlight.

I know from what's been said that ABC felt the ratings weren't going up fast enough with Labine/Mayer, and that the ratings did initially rise with Falken-Smith. What did you enjoy of her time as writer? Sometimes I wonder why ABC didn't just cancel RH outright, since they wanted to make it into a mostly brand new show.