DRW50

Thank you for sharing this with us. I haven't heard of Soap Opera World. Some of that, like the comments about Mike and Floyd, I wonder about, as she never did anything with them. Was it Jeff Ryder/Gail Kobe who dumped Floyd from the show?

Continuing my journey through May 1988 ATWT - now on May 30. Laura is gone and with her exit was the revelation that she had been sexually abused by her father, a father she and brother Beau had idealized. This was some ugly stuff, and I believe the first of its kind on ATWT. Was this strike material? Or was Marland using this as a test run for Angel and Henry Lange? I really like how normal Beau and Pam seem to be. They're a nice contrast to the drama around them. I also really like Jessica and Roy Franklin, who have a nice, easy chemistry. Did he want to leave or did they fire him? Lisa sings "What'll I Do?" and I love Eileen Fulton but she sounded horrible. I wonder if she had any choice over songs because that did not suit her voice at all. She seemed to be singing quite a bit at this time - in most of the 86-88 episodes I've seen it was Lila. Early Kirk is so different from the ha ha Kirk of later years. I like his early scenes with Iva, as she is so appalled by him. This is nice romantic comedy type of stuff, not her usual misery. I liked Ellie/Kirk too but I'm sorry that this had to end with more of Iva's agony. Shannon continues to obsess over that Margaret painting, while her own painting seems like Elvira in a blue dress. Duncan doesn't want to marry her and she lashes out. Silly material but well acted by Swan and Reed. Emily is sleeping with Tonio and genuinely seems to care for him, which surprised me, as I had always assumed it was just sex. I guess it was for him. It's funny, because, as I've mentioned a few times before, I HATED Holden when I first started watching ATWT. It was not until his 1996 return that I started to like him more. I have almost wondered over the years why I ever hated him. But it is all back in full force thanks to these spring 1988 episodes. - Holden marries Emily knowing what type of history she has (lying, sex, etc.) - Holden profits from her money and goes into business with Tonio - Holden then spends much of his time lecturing Tonio about immorality, when he's right in bed with Tonio! - Holden goes on and on and on in every episode to Emily about lies, even though he lied to Lily for a year! Saying, "Now I know how Lily feels," isn't enough. - Holden goes over to see Craig after Sierra "dies" and says he knows how Craig feels. Really? Talk about narcissistic. Lily didn't die. Something else regarding ATWT that I noticed was when I was looking through a few of the "what's hot in soaps/who's who of soaps" type of publications in 1981, ATWT had some of the least coverage and least expense. In one, ATWT was barely covered, and in the other, which covered all the shows, the only shows that had no color, glossy pictures were ATWT, The Edge of Night, and The Doctors. They finally threw a glossy picture of Eileen and Bob Hastings on the back page, like an afterthought. Was ATWT really that far down in the public mind in 1981 or was this just a coincidence?

Maria Shriver's comments should have been left out - they were not much of a criticism at all and undercut the point the writer was trying to make, since it had nothing to do with any of his policies, it was just a stupid comment on a TV show. So it looks like Republicans are trying to limit voting from college students, and they aren't exactly being subtle about their reasons why. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030602662.html?hpid=topnews So I guess voting based on ignorance and fear is OK only if you are not a college student, since that is the basic strategy of most of today's Republican machine.

I wonder if the Ames family wouldn't have been dumped if he had stayed.

That's a shame. Was he the first Peter? Rough week for Secret Storm actors.

OK. If I have them I will post what I have. I will try to put some Passions stuff up soon.

For many years GL probably had the strongest and most complex men and women on any soap. Even at the end there were a lot of strong and interesting characters. Sadly the message the soaps get is that if you aren't a caveman and if women aren't in their place, the sky will fall.

I never knew he was in the Andy Ferris story. Thanks. I guess someone at the show must have wished they hadn't given him such a dark role, to keep bringing him back. I wish GL had brought him back in the last year to play out story with Lillian and Beth, instead of wasting him at ATWT a year later with the pointless role of Reid's uncle.

No, just subtitles.

That's sad to hear. I hate to see German soaps going the way of American soaps. What do you think is happening?

Are you surprised about the 40 minute expansion? I thought the ratings had lowered.

There is more of the 1988 Laura story up, which was named worst story of the year by SOD. The backstory is so convoluted, although I'm not sure if that's the strike, or just Marland (Carolyn Crawford's murder was also convoluted). It's, in some ways, a fascinating story, because no one will believe any bad word about Bob or the Hughes family. Normally I would hate this, but since the Hughes really were moral and upstanding people most of the time, it doesn't bother me that much (are you listening, AMC's Martin family). Anyway, this means that a lot of mileage has to come out of a) Bob and Tom being too polite to tell most people what a nut she is b ) short-term recurring characters coming in to help drive her story. By the time of these episodes she had gotten into a somewhat bizarre relationship with her boss, Herb Petrie. Do you know if this guy or the woman who plays his wife had been on any other soaps? They both look familiar. Laura is such an empty character, and a story similar to this (random crazy woman who seems nice at first, files a sexual harassment complaint against a good man) was playing out at AW at this time, but I do like some of the work from the woman who plays her (I think she was the mouse victim on GL before this). She does remind me of Kim Cattrall though. This episode also has some fantastic moments where Craig's harem learns that he is still alive, and they all react, separately and together. Some wonderful work, especially from Lindsay Frost. I can never believe the Craig of later on who hated women.

Judging Amy? How random. How many times do AWZ and VL share stories? I just wonder because

The May 1966 TV Picture Life says John Boruff (Henry Benedict) was assisting Agnes Nixon in writing scripts. How long did that last? How long was he on the show? I think IMDB lists him as 65-66. Did he ever work for her again?

I've heard that a few times (the story I mean). VW always seemed to have some craziness in her performance so I wasn't too surprised if that translated to real life, although I don't think we ever heard about any bad behavior onset or with other actors. I remember on the old Jump the Shark site, the entry for My Three Sons, the woman who played Dody came on to try to say something about all the attacks against her. This isn't the same thing but in one of the old magazines I was reading that they initially did not plan to kill off John Randolph, and it was only the delay in the debut of the 90 minute episodes that they decided to kill him, because they wanted to shock viewers. This cavalier attitude towards veteran characters is a good reason why ratings fell so hard at that time... Something else I have always wondered about with AW is Lahoma. Ann Wedgworth is so unlike most who were ever on AW (although she might have worked as a Frame) and was so unique to soaps in general. I've always wondered how she became so popular, if it was gradual. Did she start out as a small player? I wish I could see more of Lucas too. Jordan Charney seemed to struggle outside of that role. I wonder if the show made enough of an effort when they brought him back after Somerset.

I was not watching during big parts of 1996 so I might have missed him. It was nice of Valente to bring him back...while dumping so many others Anyway, Valente was probably the last producer to give the Hughes family stories, as sad as that is. I thought he was dull (and I always have), but Nikki and Dani never did a lot for me either. I did like Jeremy. I wish he could have stayed. I know the actor left for school but it was nice to have a quiet, thoughtful teen on soaps.

I remember reading that Morgan's character seduced every leading man on the show (who wasn't related to her). Did that happen quickly? It seems kind of unusual, but then, the early 80s were probably when the soaps were at their most risque.

Margaret Ladd is superb in the first season episodes I've watched so far (I'm up to around midseason or closer to the end than that). The episode where she was in a dreamlike state wandering around and Lance caused her to have a miscarriage was just some of the best acting I've seen in a primetime soap. I don't mind the episodes so much because they are setting things up but it annoys me how many times episodes end with the Giobertis being shocked that Angela is a schemer or had a conflict with Jason or might be keeping something secret. Then it's all dropped again. There's also a lot of repetition with Lance trying to learn the secret, or Julia, to no avail. What confuses me most is how Angela is desperate to keep this secret about Jason's death yet she starts going away all the time. Emma's a mess, Emma's saying things...bye everybody, I'm going to Rome for weeks! Really? Emma's falling apart, don't go near Emma...I'm going into town! Why didn't they have her like Elizabeth on Dark Shadows and she never leaves the estate? There are also the number of times Lance does horrible things (which he never pays for) and she either says, "Don't do that" but then smirks, or she never knows. It undercuts her. There was the episode where he was a dictator while she was away. Wouldn't it have made more sense if she told him she'd set all that up to test him, and he'd failed? I think Cole, Maggie, and Chase work well in their roles at this time but I still don't understand why they cast such a mature actress to play Vicky if Vicky was supposed to be an ingenue. I also get confused about her age - she never mentions any type of school and then suddenly they say she's in high school. Did I miss something? Then there's the story about her running off because Lance schemed to get her out of the way to cause strife with the family. The scenes got to be a little bizarre, and again I'm not sure about the actress being right, especially when Michael Zaslow (who should have been cast in a stronger role - why not Lance's father, or Chase?) basically tried to get her to start masturbating. Then you have Maggie and Chase wandering around looking for her as a kaleidoscope version of "Chuck E's in Love" plays softly. The whole episode about illegal immigrants and exploitation was ahead of its time, and I wish they'd kept Vicky's boyfriend, or the A Martinez character, around. I notice that these episodes seem to have to struggle to integrate the two families in the episodes. Their connections seem a little forced (like Lance getting Vicky to run away, or Angela promising to help with the illegal situation and then it's never mentioned again). What did you think of Angela's husband, Julia and Emma's father? I liked him, I wish he'd stayed longer, and that we'd seen more of him with his daughters, especially Julia. It was nice to see his relationship with Angela, which seems very complex, and romantic.

I guess I was thinking of Virginia Dwyer, as Lemay detailed her not being courteous enough to Hugh Marlowe in scenes - he also did the same with Val Dufour. I guess I wonder if on a show like L&F, if it would have helped if someone had been a bit of a spotlight hog and jumped out at viewers. Daytime TV Stars had surprisingly detailed and incisive soap critiques in the mid/late 70s. It's a bit startling to read now. SOD tended to move more and more away from criticism and in the last ten years or more has just had Carolyn Hinsey to sort of pretend to be critical. But it's amazing sometimes reading even SOD and seeing them be so openly critical or in some cases, like the Diva columns, nasty. I guess TPTB in daytime began to believe that soap magazines being negative affected the ratings (I doubt it did). I wonder if the Internet, which was often described as mean or negative by soap magazines in the late 90s, had an impact on their tone.

I'm sorry about your friend. I hadn't heard of this book Meredith is writing - that should be interesting. Did you see Andrea when she had a small role on GH last year? I have some other LiaMST stuff I will post when I get it together.

I'd forgotten Lee had been on soaps that early. So this was another lead role Susan inherited. I wonder if they should have kept the young couple - that might have brought in some of the younger demo who would soon be drawn in by shows like Dark Shadows.

Wow! This was unbelievable to read. How did they get all those screencaps? Are those episodes available? Or did they take them at the time? No wonder fans were upset. This makes the cliffhangers to Soap and Capitol seem tame. I can't believe that this was the last episode. This show sounds good, much better than what I thought based on the basic plot. A lot of this, like Ann torn between the men and her career struggles, seems very ahead of its time. It's a shame Susan Brown spent the last 25 years of her daytime career in a supporting role. She was the lead actress on so many soaps yet most of those didn't last.

I thought LL was fine as Jocelyn, and I like the idea of the toxic upbringing of Danny and Jocelyn and how it affected them (if The City was going to do "shocking" stories then I think an incest story between them might have made more sense than the stuff with Azure and with the racism story). I just didn't think she and Alex were a great match, they were both too droll and detached.

Thanks for sharing that with us. I posted an old article on her in the main soap section (in the thread about her passing) but hadn't seen that. The classic soap discussion here is such a fantastic experience - so many here have so many memories and so much information, it makes the soaps come alive again, even those we will never be able to see. Honestly I enjoy it more than anything on the existing soaps in quite some time. I and several others have posted a lot of story stuff and articles in various threads so I hope you can read it and share your own thoughts/memories. If there's anyone or any show you want to see more of let me know.