DRW50

Thanks for your help. I would like to see them too. I didn't remember Keith had been let go twice. That must sting. I suppose she was on the show long enough that I assume she might have been a more popular character with viewers than she was. I get the choice in 1994 but I think there was still more to do with her in 1989, with so many moving pieces around (why not revisit her old ties to Alex/Clay? Why not just kill off Jim around that time and play out the estrangement with the Aldens we got when she came back?).

That's a good point. I suppose that while I do find it completely inappropriate to intervene based on some kind of morality, I'd still prefer it to what we got later on, which was just constant poking and prodding and wanting puppets in charge.

If fawning and dishonest soap press kept soaps on the air, OLTL might still be here. I really wish life worked that way. Logically I know that nothing was probably going to keep the soaps on the air, and it was a miracle most of them lasted as long as they did, but I'll still always wonder if ATWT (as it's the topic, sorry to go off course) and others might still be here if they had been run with any level of care by greedy, soulless networks who never understood that the time the genre made them the most money was when they had the least involvement in the product. I'm glad some soaps are still on and I hope there will always be soaps on but it's always a tough moment to remember that something made in 1950 through a radio so often feels more relevant to today than soap product made in 2024.

Thanks! I had totally forgotten those recaps were on tumblr so this is a good resource.

I'll never forget seeing those scenes praised in soap magazines for their great comedy element. That was when I truly knew how much the bottom had fallen out on those publications.

It was when we got scenes like Julia punching Jack and killing a horse, and all of Craig's sneering (which we were always meant to find hilarious and true) that I truly did feel like the canvas became repulsive in ways that were difficult to get past. There was indeed a mean-spirited, callous nature that was exalted at every turn, a sociopathic tint that was so typical of that era of pop culture and infested onto daytime by people who hated or misunderstood the genre. ATWT always had a steely side, and there were certainly patches of ugliness before Sheffer (like the Diego stuff or that David/Reid fiasco), but nothing to that level which seemed to consume the entire canvas. I felt dirty even trying to watch. If the James return/Margo miscarriage story had happened in that era, we would have had James pop into her room to laugh at her and call her barren, as we were invited to clap our hands in glee.

Other than some truly gross choices with characters like Emily (taunting a blind woman - how hot!), I don't think anything they did was as damaging in the long-term as a number of other writers (including Hogan Sheffer) - their problem was just being so out of step with what the show should have been and coming along at a time when the show and the genre were in deep distress. This was also when such badness was still a relative surprise as Marland had only been gone a few years. By the time of the mid '00s it was just another day. That doesn't surprise me. I wonder what other 'suggestions' he had - I wouldn't be surprised if he was into the sleazy, trashy, soulless stuff, especially Diego/Emily (before he raped her). And the influx of generic young people.

I would guess that Manchin always thought he'd have more support than he did, and he seemed genuinely angry that Trump tanked the immigration deal that epitomized so much of what he believes in politics (beyond $$$$). It seems like most of the emphasis now is on getting people to stay home or vote anyone else because of Palestine (to the point of MSNBC having "Democrats" on to say that it's fine to support Trump in order to teach a lesson to the party). And of course, RFK Jr, who is very cynically trying to get black voters with a "why should you have to pay child support?" argument (he actually did a photo op with a man at the forefront of this movement). As soon as I saw Killer Mike hyping him, I knew the fix was in, as Mike was out there for Brian Kemp and Herschel Walker in 2022.

A part of me also wonders how many actors had been fired to waste money on all that...I don't know who the guest actors are but that must have been one hell of a day for them to get to play out a whole wedding and reception. I used to think they were more of the problem compared to Valente as his work before they arrived wasn't as bad, but I wouldn't be shocked if this was the case. Something was just alien and rotten at the time beyond even what made sense. I guess P&G being so rudderless didn't help (and then the solution was just to try to copy ABC - their final fatal mistake).

I wonder if Susan Keith wanted to leave and they wrote him out with her. I think when they approached her to return they pitched the idea of killing off Jim and their son. Thanks @Kane for your help.

Thanks so much. The Loving casts were small enough to where sometimes I think I know most of them but there are always surprises. I appreciate your help. I hope we might get more from this period so we might know for sure if it's Geoffrey. These have probably already been posted, but if not:

A partial episode from around the same time they uploaded a few weeks ago. This is right before Trisha marries Steve. Peter Davies spends all his scenes in a towel so @Soapsuds you may enjoy this. Is that Geoffrey Ewing in the prison scenes or is it someone else? If it is him, I never knew he was on Loving twice. I never knew the town paper was called Corinthian either.

Not sure if this one has been up before. I am not sure of the exact date other than sometime in 1987 due to Steve and Luke Perry/Alexandra Wilson all being around. Unfortunately, it's not in English but I thought people would still enjoy it, especially as this period isn't well represented. You also get to see Shana in one of the most hideous sweaters I've ever seen on television. I wasn't sure who the woman talking with Gwyn and Ann is. @dc11786 @slick jones @Kane @Sapounopera @Paul Raven@te. @j swift@Khan @OzFrog @Vee @Franko

Skimming through this, I notice several overacted aw shucks one-episode characters that I don't associate with ATWT that often before this point. I guess it is about on the level of hackiness of that writing team.

All My Children clip (February 10, 1986) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

https://deadline.com/2024/02/sherri-executive-death-investigation-debmar-mercury-1235835736/

He was their anti-establishment magical grandpa, all vibes and no reality. If he had ever actually had a chance they would have grown to despise him, as many of them now do when he's tried occasionally to legislate and be serious.

Ad near the start and at about 7 minutes. 3 and a half minutes. 30 seconds in.

A promo at around 2 minutes and another around 2:45. There are a few promos in the early minutes of this video:

Promo at 5 minutes, another at 6 minutes. There's a Karen Morris Gowdy ad at about 4 minutes. Promo at the start of this. There's another with Siobhan/Joe that repeats a few times. A promo about a minute into this:

Yet more MSNBC propaganda from Democrats who happily tell everyone they will sacrifice America for their own goal.

I'm surprised that more of Andy's antics don't get him notice - there's so much griminess surrounding his behavior on WWHL or many other appearances (like the New Year's specials I had to stop watching). It's been interesting to see Phaedra have a warm welcome for her edit on The Traitors only to slowly undercut that with fans through her interviews, the latest using Christianity as a broadside and also deriding someone she doesn't like as giving the impression of driving around in a windowless van (which just led some fans who had never heard of the stuff she did to Kandi on RHOA to end up hearing about it). The facade of Phaedra is compelling but I feel like the toxicity at the core is never far away.

September 1990 Soap Opera Weekly Marlena de Lacroix column. What's Wrong With Santa Barbara? Got your attention, didn't I? Before you bombard me with cards and letters, let me say that I am not here to slice and dice Santa Barbara. Yes, the six year old soap won its third Best Show Emmy this June. Yes, it has its own cult audience. Yes, the press loves SB. SB may be the most acclaimed show on daytime, but the bottom line is that this is the television business. Just ask Brandon Tartikoff, or NBC daytime vice president Jackie Smith. Santa Barbara's ratings stink. But I know how to fix them. No, this isn't going to be another I, me, moi, Marlena column. But I watched SB from the first time it aired, in July 1984, and for a great while I adored it. It was so funny, so sophisticated, so wry, so, well...so Marlena. Then around the fall of 1987 - remember that date, it's key here - I stopped watching. This February, though, I turned a critical eye on SB once more because of the arrival of senior executive producer John Conboy, the first-rate producer of The Young and the Restless and the late, mostly great Capitol. Sending in Conboy to "fix" the show was indeed a master stroke. You can always tell when you're watching a Conboy soap. The sets and costumes are elegant, the talent is new, young, promising - and beautiful. But Conboy's mark is more than cosmetic. He's a smart, ultraprofessional producer. He acknowledged up front that his real job at SB was to get an alienated audience - like moi - to "sample" the soap again. So, since the spring I've been "sampling" SB and I've found that it indeed has been Conboy-ized. Everyone's hair - especially Marcy Walker's (Eden Castillo) and Robin Mattson's (Gina Timmons) is now shorter and more stylish. The luxe new Capwell mansion and Polo Club sets are spectacular. Conboy quickly seized on the face that SB has the best looking male cast (Healy! Callahan! O'Hurley! McCloskey!) in daytime and rounded them up into the Four Boys from the orphanage plot. Thankfully, Roscoe "the divine" Born came back, and was cannily cloned into twins (Robert/Quinn). Conboy's only error since coming aboard SB was recycling the silly Arab plot front the last days of Capitol. In short, Conboy has fired all his guns with relish and skill. But as I began watching again I realized that something was still missing from the show, although I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then one day I saw a scene between the newly returned Lionel and his ex-wife Augusta Lockridge (original cast members Nicolas Coster and Louise Sorel) and I knew instantly what - or more accurately who - it was. Bring back Bridget and Jerome Dobson! For those of you who have just tuned in, Bridget and Jerry Dobson are the excellent head writer (General Hospital, Guiding Light, As the World Turns) who gave birth to SB in 1984. They set the show in their own California home town and set out to capture what they described as the quirky charm, the artsy oddness of the real people who live in that scenic West Coast community. I met the Dobsons at a pre-premiere breakfast. They were professionally distant, but I still found them to be charmingly odd, witty and smart. They promised a show that would be sophisticated and intelligent, full of wit not to be found elsewhere on daytime. Cynical moi chuckled silently, but damned if the Dobsons didn't deliver on their promise (once the show got past its rocky first year). Remember how funny and delightfully bizarre the Dobsons' SB was circa 1985-87? Mason, of course, became famous for his snide asides and Shakespeareanisms. (Oh how I miss Lane "the divine" Davies, thought [sic] I do like Terry Lester.) Geriatric Minx Lockridge (Dame Judith Anderson) was eccentric a go-go. Sophia (Judith McConnell) spent her first few months on the show in drag. Gina wreaked comic havoc every single day. And that wonderful couple, Lionel and Augusta, bickered endlessly, and occasionally played a bizarre "truth circle" game - they drew a chalk circle in their bedroom and told each other only the truth while standing in that circle. It didn't take moi long to figure out that glib, kooky Lionel and Augusta were the Dobsons in disguise. Now the Lockridges are back, but their real words are not. Sadly, the Dobsons were deposed from their own show a few years ago in a convoluted ownership battle that's still in litigation. When exactly? I just checked. It was fall 1987, which corresponds exactly to the time I grew bored and stopped watching! SB had stopped being funny, stopped being sophisticated and smart. And despite the efforts of all those presently involved, it still isn't either. No matter how good a producer is, it's the head writers who make - or break - a soap. In soaps, the writers are the shows. There are so few good ones in daytime (you know the litany...Marland...Bell...Nixon...Long...). It's a shame that the Dobsons are sitting out there in legal limboland. With Conboy back, all SB lacks is good writing. Now, I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know how to surmount all the legal hassles involved. But if GH could resurrect Duke Lavery and GL could resurrect Beth Raines and Roger Thorpe, NBC and New World Productions can find a way to resurrect the people who made SB so great.

September 1990 Soap Opera Weekly fan mail column Hey, One Life - Get a Life! What's wrong with the summer ratings? What's wrong with the summer shows? Why has One Life to Live sunk to No. 8 in the ratings? Simple - it is ridiculous! Since early January, plots have been started and never resolved. Couples come and go like ships passing in the night. Max and Gabrielle MARRIED? Six months ago he could not stand her. (This is a NEW Max, so that must explain it.) Cord DIVORCES Tina and now she plans to marry him again. (This is a NEW Tina, so that must explain it.) Brenda and Dan are together for two weeks before he goes after his red haired damsel in distress. Father Tony wears the collar one day and Reeboks and Polo shirts the next. Worst of all, after two years and the most elaborate plot to date, the love story of Viki and Roger met a swift and unsatisfactory end. In two minutes and two seconds, Viki bids Roger a rather cold farewell and then runs to Clint thanking him for his "patience and understanding." PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING??!! I had to adjust the sound on my set for that one! The writers wanted to reunite Viki and Clint - why? How many times can we see him waiting at the hospital for Viki to recover from her gunshot wound? They could have had Roger die. After all, he was in a coma for weeks. But then I suppose he could not have shot Michael Grande and disappeared into thin air! At last the writers gave us a strong story with Viki's massive stroke, and then Erica [sic] Slezak is sent on vacation! If I wanted to see The Godfather, I'd rent it at the video store. Last, but not least, why were the talents of Gerald Anthony wasted, giving him no more purpose than set decoration on Badderly? The stronger the actor, the smaller the role. I am sorry to see this once-great show deteriorate so. OLTL is going nowhere but down...in the ratings, that is!

Pamela Salem 1944-2024 - News - Big Finish Pamela was on many shows, including a stint in the golden era of EE as part of Den Watts' slow decline. She may be best known for her work on Classic Doctor Who, which helped lead to a great deal of Big Finish audio work in her later years.