titan1978

On a half hour show no less!

I think part of the issue with Beverlee was that there was no end in sight for a storyline she did not want to play anymore- Alex as angry and fighting with Mindy and fighting for Nick’s attention. From everything I have read and seen, Mark was pretty much in the same Roger/Nick/Mindy orbit that McKinsey wanted out of. She did not appear to enjoy working with Zaslow, and hated how Alex was behaving. I haven’t gotten to much of Marj in my Guiding Light YouTube binging just yet. I had planned to stop with Curlee’s departure, but now I am curious about Brent/Marian. As much as I love what the writers had been doing, it’s pretty clear that had she stayed it would have been more of the same for Alex.

There wasn’t a sign at one of those protests you were at explaining this? White privilege doesn’t mean your life hasn’t been hard- it means your life isn’t hard because of being white. I am also gay. We are a marginalized group. However, there is no comparison to the experiences of POC. And we have members of our own community that are facing the normal homophobia and transphobia while also fighting against racism. And white gays have systemically ignored or brushed aside our own people that need our support. I watched several interviews with Ellen Holly this week. My perspective has changed on her. I always believed her, but she seemed to be unhealthy about her past. Now I think- How would I feel if I had been treated unfairly at so many times during formative years in my life and career? It would be hard to not be broken or angry, or both.

CK just doesn’t bring anything to the table does she? I would have loved that! Anything to bring her back and let her play layered material, even in this current soap climate.

I would live to see her get to play an amnesia storyline where Dru has a different family even, just to see the story of integrating all aspects of her life together again when she begins to remember. Great way to use flashbacks to reintroduce her to newer viewers as well. Scenes of her dancing, with Neil, with Olivia! I can already see her remembering Neil and then also what they have lost with it being too late to see him again.

When she left was the beginning of the era of network suits making creative decisions for their shows in a way they never had before. They wanted to dictate story and make major creative decisions in ways that wasn’t normal up to that point. It had to be difficult to love a story or a character and be told by a network suit that they just don’t like it so nix it. And I think JFP is very aware of network politics. Her GH is nothing of not everything Frons wanted daytime to be. In that great interview in this site with Curlee, she mentions resentment about the way she was “handled“ towards the end. I have an interpretation of that to be possibly the kind of thing that makes you never want to deal with network politics again.

Funny to think about now- Monty and Marland told Genie and her father that they wanted to use her to grab a younger audience. And she was front burner from there until she left after the wedding, often in very challenging material for anyone, let alone a woman younger than 18. So they wanted that audience but they did not fill Laura’s life up with peers her own age- she dated Scotty, dealt with David, her mother, Rick and Monica, Bobbie and Luke. Nobody her own age except Amy was a major factor in her early years. I have a lot of empathy for Genie, you can clearly see when she talks about it that while she loved the actual work, the rest was very difficult. Maybe if she had an actual teen scene like they do now she would have felt less alone and the show wouldn’t have written her into so many problematic stories.

I think her relationship to the show makes sense. People are complicated. She should be able to criticize Sony and Y&R, while also wanting to have a job there. She clearly loved Drucilla. She knows the character is important there and when best used is driving story, which means more time for her to act and be paid well while doing it. I am sure without Kristoff she has less interest, but also a job is a job when you have need and desire for steady income.

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.