titan1978

All these clips are way sexier than anything seen on these shows now.  And the lighting!  Now everything is so bright.

Grant Aleksander has one of the best soap bodies of all time.  And he could act!  Rare for hunks that started in the 1980’s, let alone later.

His scene with Arlene on AMC was racy too.

4 hours ago, Khan said:

He's David Hamilton's grandson, and he's using Lulu to get to Laura for killing his granddad.

 

I'm kidding.  No way would GH ever go there, lol.

If Ron was still there?  Absolutely this would happen.  Or a grandson of David Gray here for spooky foggy revenge on Luke’s family.  Ron would eat that up!

OLTL had a couple of racy ones in a large shower during Valentini’s era as EP.  Jessica and one of her rotation of men was in at least one of them.

They loved shower sex scenes on that show at that time.

Goddard has outlived his usefulness, especially since he doesn’t want to play shady, or apparently a storyline with Traci that is romantic.  So his last two major attempts at relevancy outside of Lilly.  Who is not on the show.

I hope TPTB recognize an audience exists for Traci and they give her story going forward.  Give her Goddard’s contract and write her into something great.

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I thought Ryan was very detrimental to Nina as a character (and me as a viewer...). It's a shame Gregory didn't want to stay. 

I agree.  She was clearly one of Bell’s favorite characters but around the time her orbit became Ryan centric, she just kind of faded from importance.

And at the time, I remember thinking that Ryan and Victoria still had feelings for each other (especially Victoria), and that it kind of seemed like they would not stay together.  Then when Nina was suicidal I was just disgusted by the writing for her by that point.

2 hours ago, Khan said:

Mark Lawson as a professor.  That's...interesting.

The popular actor one could be Cane from Y&R.

If you asked this about any other decade I could have lists.  But it had really started to be a chore to watch these soaps since early 2000.

Here are the only ones I really enjoyed.

AMC- Leo and Greenlee

Anna and David

Jessie and Angie (the most the show had moved me in ages was that return storyline, and yes this is a cheat).

OLTL- Tea and Todd/Victor

Kyle and Fish

GH- Alexis and Ric

Dillon and Georgie

Lulu and Dante (mostly their early relationship)

Robin and Patrick

ATWT- Luke and Reid

Luke and Noah

Maddie and Casey

GL- Ben and Marina

Y&R- Lily and Daniel

Colleen and JT

I think she seems more at ease in the Alexis scene.  Her hair was crazy dark but she seemed like Bobbie.

Less so the last few times I saw her.  But then again, it’s diminished returns for everyone under this writing and production.

It had to be very difficult to go from the B level lead for almost 30 years to shown the door by JFP.  The whole show never revolved around her like Anna, Luke, or Robert or Sonny/Carly/Jason, but she was always in a story of her own and interacting with other stories during her entire contract run on the show.  Labine and Guza didn’t seem to know what to do with Felicia and shoehorned her into a couple of ill fitting stories, but when Riche was still there Bobbie was still a vital lead.  Until JFP. There was a way to keep Bobbie involved while easing her into the matriarch role, but the Guza and Phelps chose to get rid of her instead.

At least she wasn’t killed off like Alan.

15 minutes ago, ranger1rg said:

I like Jackie Zeman and Kin Shriner, but my God, their scenes were painful to watch. Zeman is an actress from another time, and she just can’t do it. I’m sorry to say it, but she’s not a good actress.

It’s sad, because she was a natural soap type actress.  Capable of deep scenes of humanity and grace and then also ramping it up for a cat fight when needed.  I have always felt she was a soapy actress but really served her character and her scene partners well.  And even when her appearance started to be distracting (that major facelift that changed the shape of her jawline when Sarah Brown was still there, coupled with darkening her hair again and sexing up her wardrobe all at the same time) she still was capable of playing Bobbie.  Even when JFP sidelined her.  But her returns since Ron have been rough for me.

It is especially jarring when you look at Lynn Herring, who still brings all the colors of Lucy to life even if the story is threadbare.  Same with Kristina Wagner.  They are both playing their same characters.  Jackie is not.

When soaps were healthier in audience and talent behind the scenes, I think a storyline with an illness that leads to death is within the bounds of what soaps do best.

At no point has any other show provided such a realistic and hard watch of someone dying of AIDS.  All the setbacks and the degrading of Stone’s health.  I have watched people die that had AIDS.  People do need to see storytelling like that.  And Robin being HIV positive was the right move because that broke your heart and gave you some hope, because she wasn’t dying (at least not yet back then).

I feel the same way about similar stories on other shows.  But it was maybe a little too much for any audience to accept.  We had killed BJ and Bobbie and Tony were in near constant turmoil over it.  Monica had breast cancer and it was harrowing, including Paige’s death (Emily’s mom).  Stone slowly succumbing to AIDS lasted almost a year.  Robin was HIV positive.  It was a lot for one show in less than three years, even if it was wonderful television.

Today, however, the talents and the audience are not healthy enough to produce this material and they should avoid it.  Oscar I am looking at you.

I think killing people like Zach Brady on DAYS and Bryant and Jennifer on ATWT are the real problem.  They stopped building a future for their own shows and it destroyed them piece by piece.

21 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

And sadly, people ended up tuning out in the end. On the flip-side, she also played up the mob element via Sonny which has been prominent ever since. 

It started with Luke & Laura and Frank Smith though.  They brought the mob back with them, and then Labine’s team used that to give Sonny a purpose post Karen.  Then Brenda happened.  At that time he barely had scenes away from Luke’s story.  Tony even told him to go talk to the writers about a background or family or else he was going to be Luke’s sidekick.

It is sad that the audience turned away from what they were doing, but it was a lot of heavy and sad drama in three years.  Some of it not planned- Mary Mae Ward.  But still sad times on the show. 

In hindsight, I loved that period but it needed some balance.  The Brenda wire thing happening at the same time Stone was dying really upset that section of the show, even if it was compelling drama.  And I loved Lois and Ned, but they were not enough lightness to keep the show balanced.

Guiding Light under Curlee, before Beverlee and Sherry Stringfield both quit might be my ideal soap period of the 1990’s.  And I mostly saw that on YouTube, but it just sparkles and has great balance.

Didn’t Bill Bell tell the cut up photograph revealing an affair twice on Y&R in less than a decade?  I clearly remember the version with Jill and Jack.  Katherine was behind it sending the pieces to John.  The second one involved Lauren but I can’t remember the details right now.

Sheri Anderson retold the supercouple formula from Luke and Laura (she was on the writing team when they were paired) to about a million couples on DAYS.

As much as I loved the original Billie/Bo/Hope triangle, it was pretty clear Bo and Hope were going to end up together.  But it was great to see Reilly not reduce Billie (in the original story before recast) to scheming to keep her man.  Plus I actually felt bad for Billie while also loving Hope.

Jax/Brenda/Sonny will always be defined for me by clink/boom.  Sonny is tragically free as Brenda and Jax marry.  Really great writing by Guza at that point.

The gold standard ones have always been the ones Khan mentioned, even if I never saw either.

Would a quad like Monica/Rick/Lesley/Alan count?

That is too much for one character.  This reminds me of the mid 2000’s, when Jason, Carly or Sonny were on for nearly every episode a month on GH.

Not only is that shoving a character down viewers throats, it’s also burning up too much story.  Spread that out!

19 hours ago, John said:

He went to Law School & Passed the bar before getting hired at the WSB

All well and good.  It still seems odd to me.

Luke would not be happy.  Laura is the mayor and Robert is the DA?  He would hate that.

Robert as The DA seems weird to me.

I kind of like that Scotty has all those facets.  I like that Laura kind of broke him and he came back with an edge.  He wasn’t outright evil, just a schemer and an opportunist.  I also love it when we see the original Scotty, like with Serena and his family and Dominique.

Laura was most ruined by the Luke and Laura thing than anybody.  By the time they got married she stopped being her own character and was tied to him.  Sometimes Labine and Guza would make you remember she is interesting in her own right but not like every regime did with Luke.

She was his angel, not an angel.  He was her hero, not a hero.  When they remember that Laura has been on the run, and can be dangerous, is when I get excited.  She wasn’t a saint even when Bobbie was after Scotty and she was in the way.  Certainly not as experienced as Bobbie, but no saint.

I think 1979 Scotty would have faded away on this show and the Scotty that returned in 1981 is why he still comes and goes.

If anything, a real miss was him not marrying into the Quartermaines.  He would have fit right in.

5 hours ago, John said:

What did VM think of her 2013 Stint?

Well, she had a couple of meetings with Valentini around then and they couldn’t convince her to sign a contract or come on for a longer arc.

Knowing her, she did not want to just play the vixen side of Brenda only.  

It was this one I think.  Because they were hot and the photos were great.  And they used those photos so often for years.

I found Faison on GH kind of chilling up to his Ron C penned return.  There was a period of time where he just seemed unhinged and dangerous, instead of foolish and a cartoon. Like a coiled snake.

Ryan during his initial storyline was really terrifying.  Sheila during her initial story through her first run on B&B was scary.

Was the Brent/Marian storyline on Guiding Light scary?  I know lots of people hated Lucy but I’ve seen some scenes that were menacing from that story.

On the other side- I was entertained by Stefano but never afraid of him.  Same with Helena Cassadine and James Steinbeck.

I think if her last stint had been more successful she would have stayed.  And by successful I’m not necessarily talking ratings.

Her first return had story she liked and story projections she liked.  The audience responded to it better too.  She left because JFP and the network would not give her a reduced workload and early outs due to her kid being young and not wanting to be away from him that much.

Her second return she didn’t like the kid story, or the original storyline with Dante.  Plus she didn’t drive the ratings up the same that time.

I don’t care if these people come back because they need a check.  They are working actors and it is a job.  Beverlee McKinsey said she took the small part on GH after GL for her insurance.  I don’t feel she just wanted a check, I felt she didn’t like the story or where they wanted it to go.

And again- JFP let many, many men get away with perks and bad behavior and has a list of women she treated differently.

Felicia lived at the brownstone.

I do not recall her leaving there until she was with Mac again around the Luke affair.

Robin and Mac lived there during all her teen storylines.  Laura visited the house with Lucky when they came back to the show and she even had scenes in the infamous attic where she was kind of upset by something that wasn’t explored until they Guza/Pratt and Genie’s exit.

6 minutes ago, John said:

I think talk here is when he was EP at Days 2008-11, right? Then he was HW 2012-15?

 

What about Losa DeCozette, Ginger Smith, Jen Pepperman, Michelle Henry, Mercy Barrows or Mary Kay Weir?

I think Valentini produces a more attractive package than Tomlin does.  Valentini’s GH looks like it has a limited budget, but we have varied sets and the show looks pretty good visually lately.  I thought Tomlin’s OLTL looked inexpensive back in the day, and his DAYS looked downright cheap and awful during his stint as EP.

Sadly, I do not think there is anyone that these networks would hire that could do a better job.  That’s the truth.  They stopped developing talent and they won’t go outside (Mal Young’s spectacular failure at Y&R has nailed that coffin shut I think).

Outside of someone like Ed Scott being poached, or Riche being lured out of network retirement, I don’t see anyone with the skill and clout needed to get a better job done than Valentini.  And I’m not a fan of his anymore.

For the few good things he did at DAYS he did far more that was awful.  I also thought his stint at OLTL was a campy mess.

The only thing I absolutely loved on his OLTL was Asa’s death and all his ex wives showing up for the funeral.

On DAYS he wrote some good stuff at times, Nick’s storylines (although I think he had him go too dark and it was a waste to kill him off).  The EJ and Abby affair was kind of hot and he did some good writing for Will.

He is among the talents that I do not want to have too much power anymore.

Phelps, for all her faults is ten times the producer that Tomlin is.  And I hate what she did to GH, GL, and OLTL.  I hate her FOJ’s and her bland heroines and her misogyny.  But Tomlin is not a good pick for any of these shows.