titan1978

As always- Victoria Rowell is correct. They neglected their black audience, and it has lost them a huge audience. They should have invested in talent in front and behind the scenes to continue cultivating that audience.

I think SSH is too warm, too emotive for Stephanie. The character would have been incredibly different. Same with Jane Eliott, who was hired to play Stephanie before Bill Bell convinced Flannery to take it. From an old interview of Jane’s- “Gail Kobe had hired me to play Stephanie Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, so I was all set to do that show. Then, on Christmas Eve, she calls to tell me that Bill Bell has decided to give the job to Susan Flannery instead. I was devastated!“ She went to DAYS instead.

Apparently for the fans of the show Betsy was the bigger draw (Meg’s version). Marland was smart as hell- even though he clearly didn’t care for Steve, he disguised getting rid of one popular character by loading the show up with stories featuring vets that people loved in exciting stories (Bob and Kim, Barbara, Tom and Margo), and filling up the show with other newbies that people seem to have responded to (Snyders), so it didn’t seem like such a loss. Compare that to DAYS- the whole show revolved around Sami and EJ so there was no momentum when they left without vet heavy, good stories to ease the loss. Same when ED came back as Kristen a few years ago.

It is exactly as she described it!! And quite shameful! Sadie gets more screen focus than Carla does at her own wedding. Also- I’ve never seen a soap wedding staged where a bridesmaid is so prominently featured, even if there is a plot reason why. They might show them but she is as close to the proceedings as the groom! Ridiculous! Was this the romantic pairing she hated as well? I might need to reread that OLTL oral history book. I don’t care if she was difficult btw. Lots of soap actors have been. Steve Burton talks about his first day on GH a lot, where he witnessed Tony Geary kicking a trash can across the floor. We all have read the Geary/Culliton rumors too.

The show always suffered when she was not involved with it. I’ve only read about them and seen a few clips, but Carla, Sadie, and Ed seem like really great characters that should have allowed for more story and prominence.

The fact that she, the actors, network and show even did the story of Carla passing is incredible. TV doesn’t often tackle this topic today! The fact they told it so well that it still comes up in examination of daytime is worthy of praise, but then Agnes consistently followed it up on her other shows by having important black characters. Just imagine how much better stories like that and others would have been over the years if more people of color had been mentored on the writing teams of these soaps! Angie and Jesse were integral to AMC. And when they came back it was like a missing piece was back in place and made it seem more like it should be.

I loved Evangeline, and I remember the awful comments about her on soap boards quite clearly. I was so excited for her Broadway success, and angry at OLTL for letting her go. She was a vital character during a terrible period on the show. And reading @Vee’s post, it reminds me just how integral she was for a period there. She was a lead character, and was fully involved in major stories on the show. Certainly GH and AMC did not invest so much in black characters during that time, until Angie and Jesse returned to AMC. I remember when she was no longer going to be on the show being so confused why. Stupid on ABC’s part- but this was also the era of the men being the focus on all three of their shows, and the women becoming so dependent on the men.

I loved Derek! That OLTL nonsense- maybe your ratings crashed because the Dorian part of the gay story was stupid. And I don’t remember Viki having anything worthwhile going on, and the rest of the show except those characters was pretty awful. But blame what was even remotely working. Ron should never be a solo HW, and Frank continues to be a wimp when it comes to portraying gay characters on GH.

Thank you for the info. That sounds awful.

I am so glad that I keep seeing these kinds of posts everywhere- I was afraid that the media and social media would not amplify the clear instances of white people either instigating violence or just not listening to black people when they are telling them what they need from them. For once it’s like the real stuff is breaking past the usual rhetoric of the media and conservatives. Trump holding a bible was some nonsense, and I’m glad he is being roasted for it.

I will probably regret this, but my GL watching on YouTube pretty much will end with Curlee’s tenure. What becomes of David and Gilly? GH- not enough was done with Simone, and they wasted Taggert. We have a show that often lacks characters with core ties to the hospital, and diversity, and they just keep on ignoring Tommy Hardy. And the poor Ward family. I thought they were a good attempt by GH under Labine. Once Rosalind Cash passes away, it just ripped the core right out, then Labine left and Guza took care of the rest.

Even at the time I remember thinking the Asian Quarter storyline on GH was not great, now especially because no lasting characters lasted much beyond it that were Asian. I think all these soaps really stopped even trying to have good, storyline integrated POC characters by 1996. It was all pretty much short term, problematic, and downhill from there.

From what I have seen watching tons of eps on YouTube, Simms is my favorite Mindy, followed by Krista. Krista’s Mindy is very much Billy’s daughter- flashy, determined, a little bit nasty at times but not an evil person, and feels like a Lewis right next to Billy and HB. Kimberly’s Mindy has all those layers too, and also more of a serious and sultry personality. It’s almost as if Josh raised her- she’s still a Lewis, just more internal. I cannot imagine the original Mindy in the affair with Roger storyline. At all.

That had to be thrilling!

I wish other shows had someone with your access and diligence documenting things like this. Casual fans may not care about such information, but we do! I would love to see what the guarantees and actual usage were during Reilly, and would kill to see this kind of information about GH.

Thanks for posting this. Peter Reckell is still my all time soap crush. So awesome to see Darnell win his lead actor Emmy. And then also sad- because it’s so rare for daytime now to actually invest in black actors and telling their stories. Kim Zimmer’s hair is crazy, even for the 80’s 😆

I can’t agree with that. She grew into a competent soap actress. She was also way more a story focus than Tori ever was on 90210.

Once she became a prominent character, I think she was in just about every episode. No joke. There were times I felt we went weeks without her in an episode. They had her in her own orbit, and a crossover character with other people’s stories. Which was kind of rare on this show. She was in every major character orbit. Either by her lawyer career (Victor), her mom (Abbots), Lauren (Scott), Nina and Phillip (Jill, Katherine, David, Ryan/Victoria), Danny (Rex, Gina, and Phylis), and with Paul lots of criminal stuff. It’s incredible when you think about just how connected she was. Even if she didn’t share scenes with someone like Victoria, she was friends with Nina and involved there as a talk to. It’s even more laughable thinking about it now than it was back then.

Yeah not only did they play popular music a lot back in their heyday, they often drove sales for song prominently used on the shows. Supercouples often had songs that replayed all the time over scenes with said couple.

Genie did have it good until right around the time she left at the end of feb sweeps. In my opinion, even by the end of Levinson (once the show really started seeming like Riche), through the first 6 months of Culliton, the show was overall very well written for her entire return. Labine didn’t always do great by her character, but the show as a whole was well written. She managed to leave as it was falling apart, and didn’t come back until Guza had officially back for like 5 or 6 months.

I have questions. I know from the credits and other sources Kay was very involved, a co-hw ( or Associate HW) for a long time. My question is for those that assume Bell was more hands off far earlier than before- I really do not see it. Maybe for periods of time. But when she was solo things were in the “Bell” style, but she and the team did have a different flavor, pace, and at times tone. The difference between his last year and then her first year solo are not that great as the couple of years before that, when the show was sometimes in a drought, and had gotten kind of bland. I also know from that interview with Bell and Labine, he talks about how important Alden was and is. A shared consciousness about the show. He doesn’t mention anyone else at the show but her by name. And he says he doesn’t write long term bibles. What I think is very possible, is that he put his polish on everything, even if they were actually generating the plots at certain periods of time. He probably tweaked everything. Because even when she was solo it had a different feel without him.

JY was a terrible Lucky recast, I don’t care how hot he was. I do think he got better as JR, but he did not fit in on GH to me. At least not as Lucky. Will Estes and Jensen would have both been much better.

Yes, Genie went on a maternity leave and then just didn’t come back to the show. I feel like she was almost gone a whole year. Guza tried to get her back when he returned from Sunset Beach, and it took months to convince her to come back. The realization, if I remember correctly, was that Stefan was in love with Laura, and was trying to turn Katherine into a version of her. Her hair, her dress. I think they even talk about it before she runs out and ends up dying.

What an exciting return to the show for Genie that was! Every part of Laura’s life was in distress.

After Sheila’s first run on B&B, were any of her returns good?