titan1978

That’s awesome, because we know Slesar was very detailed in crafting his mysteries. I still think Edge of Night would be an excellent reboot. Right down to that early 80’s theme. Geraldine was a great soap grande dame. Did she play a hooker? For some reason I remember an article bringing that up. I really should read more of that unpublished book.

The show is assembled from taped scenes out of order and the episodes recreated like a puzzle. So B and C stories, and ones not featuring pets or Frank’s personal favorites at that time, get dropped for weeks sometimes, or get shoehorned in as an afterthought. It did not used to be so obvious, and it is slightly better at times now. But it’s been a pattern for awhile now. As has a bored Valentini interrupting the flow of stories and changing almost everything quickly, dropping months of plots/couples and often never returning to them. The fast pace they were running on when Rory arrived as the recast really covered the seams a lot too, but something changed with the Ronnie story and Britt return as far as momentum, so we are seeing more of the cracks in the way they assemble the show.

For the purposes of this thread I think this is cool information to have compiled, but not quite the same as actors that fully transitioned or wrote for other characters while also still acting in the show. Although I know Rowell was instrumental in stories too, and Bill Bell had a lot of respect for her ideas. I mean Finola/Tristan/Kimberly improvised whole scenes, rewrote dialogue, etc. Tony Geary was famous for this too. And as I said earlier, Geary and his writing partner wrote two story treatments that GH accepted and used with the writing team to develop them. The Luke & Laura returns story, and the horrible Cassadine Endgame, which Geary said had virtually zero in common with what they presented and sold to ABC. Genie Francis came up with the idea of a baby Laura left behind that Wendy Riche and Guza used later on. Wasn’t Megan McTavish a performer on soaps before she wrote as well? And I just recalled that Pam Long wrote and acted on Texas when the show was winding down.

I didn’t know Gail Kobe was an actor. But that reminded me that Jane Elliot was a producer at Loving, although not an EP.

I am impressed with the new format for the board! It looks so good!

I was not a fan of her EP work for the most part, but she has to be one of the few to go from actor to EP. Francesca James being another one on AMC, but her stints were less problematic to me. She was pretty integral as a producer for Wendy Riche at GH before she got that AMC promotion too.

If I knew this I forgot so thanks! My GL knowledge is really limited to a couple of eras, so I remember his name in the writing credits and never saw him as Ken that I can recall. Interesting I might go look for one of her episodes at GH.

He has struggled with his mental health quite a lot since COVID, and has spoken on his YouTube show about his issues in the last year-ish. So yes, I think he does look a little more defeated on the show, but recently I noticed he was more engaged again and had a little spark back so maybe he is on an upward trajectory again.

Yes another recent example I forgot about. I think it is exciting that the shows are allowing them to direct. Did Allison Sweeney direct at DAYS for a bit before she went off contract? For some reason that is ringing a bell.

After reading your comment and thinking about Monty taking Genie Francis and her father to dinner to tell them she wanted to court a younger audience and use Laura to get them, it makes me think the story switch from Lesley to Laura was instigated by Monty. A shocking and modern storyline for the times that played to the strengths of an emotional actress like Genie. The original idea was much more traditional for the times than going that far with Laura instead. She essentially is raped by Hamilton IIRC, which is wild to think about for back then. They certainly wouldn’t tell that story today, they don’t take risks or go to the edge like that.

It also strangely happened while the story was airing. You had a gothic and spooky story that because it got eyeballs ended up being dragged out and turned into camp. Marlena starts talking to herself constantly with that voice, she’s strapped to the bed for a never ending exorcism, would almost die multiple times during the process, and then everyone would just leave her there with Caroline Brady sitting next to her holding a rosary. Reilly had the show so segregated that when Carrie found out what was happening in practically her next scene she was like I’m praying for Marlena. Now what are we going to do about Sami? I don’t know about anyone else, but I would probably stop my storyline for at least a couple of episodes and have to go see my stepmother that had a huge part in raising me floating around with those eyes in her beautiful penthouse. It was just so stupid, and when it started I didn’t necessarily agree with the story being told, but at least it was taken seriously.

I don’t watch B&B but I did know about Heather and forgot her. I really don’t know anything about Lawrence. Do people like his scripts? Yes she did! And I know she did double duty too, even if Bell slowly phased Julia out while she wrote for the show.

It was shuffled off the stove way before that. Think of the early summer stuff with Gio, Emma, and Dalton, which they basically dropped for weeks at a time, and then also put them on the back burner until recently.

Yes it does!! And neglect! They let it drop so long and so often it doesn’t really have much meaning beyond another recurring character killed off. I kind of agree. I don’t want Emma to be SA’d, but he was a creepy professor perv at first, and we could have higher stakes if they let him be a scumbag for longer. Even to add more suspects, like Gio punched his lights out for grabbing Emma innapropriately. Or even better, she punches him, then Gio does too. He had the potential to be fun for a bit longer. I always love it when they do a shooting in the snow on this show lol.

I believe she is talented and maligned for a reason. I fundamentally disagree with what she thinks soaps should be. And I am far from a traditionalist when it comes to the genre. There are many direct sources of her behavior and bad decisions, and my own eyes watching ratings decline after sweeps bumps on her her shows, it’s pretty clear she survived in power, especially at GH, specifically because the genre was declining. I will not further derail this thread with JFP unless it is pertinent. But I finish with this. She was asked directly over the years if she regretted killing Maureen off from Guiding Light. And for years she said she did. But someone pinned her down when she was at Y&R the first time, Michael Logan perhaps, and she admitted what she regretted and would never do again is making the audience care so much about a character right before killing then off. The tragic nature of the story leading into killing Maureen is what she regrets, not that she misjudged the audience, or that she didn’t have the foresight to see how destabilizing that was going to be for that particular show.

And every show she leaves is so unstable it takes years to recover, if it recovers at all. Objectively I can say she has a good eye for the look of the shows she is producing, and she knows how to film drama and strive for good acting. I don’t really fault her casting when it comes to new talent, her FOJ’s sometimes fit and sometimes don't though. She also interferes with writers to the detriment of her shows, favors problematic men’s egos on set and gives way less respect to women performers. Her work is often thematically very dark, and misogynistic. Something happened to her a year or so into Guiding Light. The show starts to come unraveled, she basically forced out the writing team that had been bringing the show success. She starts manipulating things like focus groups to get what she wants, and starts building the shows around the men (Buzz as example) and weak women (Lucy). She took over OLTL and tried to fully direct the writing while producing the show. On GH her instincts were so disastrous that they forced Guza/Pratt on her and gave them Associate Producer titles for more money and some agency in the story. And even then, it took until the Brenda return to fully save her ass. And on top of that she is majorly responsible for the show losing Sarah Brown, Amber Tamblyn, Genie Francis, and not securing Vanessa for a longer stay. And now that we know Guza didn’t want to kill Alan off, her fingerprints are all over that one IMO. The only thing I respect about her outside some casting that Mark Teschner brought to her is that she recognized Erika Slezak was too important at OLTL and still too vital to put out to pasture as only the mother of Joey, Jessica, and Kevin, and hand wringing sister of Todd. Emmy’s aren’t everything. Y&R had been number one for decades and truthfully should have been dethroned multiple times but habit and name recogniztion count for something.

With the recent Kate Mansi directing going on at GH, I was wondering what other performers also did double duty on their shows? I guess we could also talk about folks like James Hougton that wrote for Bell shows after he appeared in them (he did do double duty on Knots though). Off the top of my head I think Marie Masters wrote at ATWT while also playing Susan, Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t she do more than scripts too? Did Gillian Spencer appear on AMC as Daisy while writing there? Susan Flannery probably stayed at B&B so long because she got to direct there too. Tony Geary and his writing partner submitted stories for Luke and Laura’s return and the Endgame Cassadine one that he later said was none of what they planned. But that’s not the same as writing for the whole show, or directing. Apologies if there is another thread about this topic, I couldn’t find it!

Yes.

The show doesn’t try to be this deep anymore, but even Laura Wright’s Carly would find this kind of thing a betrayal on the level only Jason could do to her from Joss. You could play it two ways- the arrogant Carly of the last decade plus wants to take it to the limit and then make Joss miserable at the end reveal for hurting her. Or the more vulnerable Carly leans into her anger and betrayal only being directed at the WSB, because what Joss did has hurt her too much to directly confront.

I have long given up on logic and Mayor Laura Collins! It makes about as much sense as Luke being elected mayor over Lee Baldwin in the 80’s, maybe even less sense. She committed manslaughter as a teenager, was involved with a mobster (I guess credit for them taking Smith down), had a shoot out in her home and killed another mobster in self defense, thought she bludgeoned her stepfather to death, then was catatonic for years. Her current husband had a twin that was a serial killer, had his own breakdown that threatened lives, and most recently hid his brother for treatment and that allowed Ryan to escape and kill again. And had hook killer Esme as a houseguest and is raising her child. I don’t care for Sonny anymore but their relationship is just another thing that involves suspension of belief to watch the show. I wish someone on this show would remind these adults that they used to pull way worse stuff than this! I would love a scene where Laura is sitting with Lulu and tells her while she is not happy this is nothing compared to what she got up to when she was young, and maybe even some understanding that she would also do stupid stuff if she believed in the cause. Olivia reminding Dante that he was wild as a teen and this isn’t that. Felicia reminding Anna that they were being shot at when pretty close to Emma’s age. These characterizations are just so basic. Have some fun with the actual history of the show. That kind of wink would mean more to me than just name dropping some random fact.

It’s strange. I wonder if the writers at that time had worked with him somewhere else and had a relationship? That time is murky AF to find info on. Rachel Ames in effect left the show at one point in the early 80’s and she is credited like she was there until JFP. Tristan Rogers also took various contract breaks that were not short, and websites also credit him one long stint from 1981-1992. So many people come and go in short succession in 1982-part of 1983. I know they lost a lot of viewers when Genie left, but the show somehow survived yearly at number one through like sheer force of will.

I spent years hoping we would get an oral history like the OLTL book, but it’s too late now with so many having passed away.

It’s also strange that it was Monica! I just don’t think of her as the staring off into space type of woman! I watched a bunch of other clips and stuff from random 1978 and 1979 episodes. I’m so used to seeing movement from Monty’s era, especially the early part, that this really is a cool relic. Pretty soon you have scenes start at the new nurses station, the elevators opening and doctors walking to the desk to get their messages from Jessie or Bobbie. People often walk towards doors while taking coats on or off, many Webber house scenes start or end with someone walking up the stairs. This episode is even more static than some of the way earlier ones I have seen, where you would have Steve or Jessie at least going from the old school nurses desk to the medicine room, Steve’s office, etc. That bland dialogue is very much like what they have now. The show picks up a lot of personality. Knowing what we know about David Hamilton and how that really started to get the ball rolling as far as viewers you really see just how vital Lesley and especially Laura were to get things moving for them. They focused on the right characters to get fast results. The show now could learn a thing or two from this.

Zeman said Marland created Barbara Jean Spencer, they called her Barbara until she and Monty decided Bobbie would be better as a nickname. It was almost Barbie IIRC, and they didn’t think that was right. She also has said on more than one occasion that she came in during the transition and Monty didn’t hire her, but ended up liking her. So Scotty and his friend must have been talking about her. This episode was fascinating. I am so happy it was shared. I can absolutely see why the show was in trouble. It’s lifeless and old fashioned as far as dialogue and some of the staging. Monty herself said she threw those episodes out, so that makes me think they were even worse. Which really made sense to me watching this because I only saw a glimpse of Monty in the less static scene with Rick moving all around while talking to David and the same type of staging with Scotty, Laura, and his friend’s name I cannot remember right now. That long ass scene through Monica’s eyes was very old fashioned as far as style. I can also see why the ratings started rising relatively quickly. Most of the earliest Monty shows I have seen are a few months later, and the show is very different. It moves, the characters are more intense, the staging has movement, and it feels more modern for the time. By the time you get to 1979 it’s really rocking and I totally get it in a way I didn’t before just from seeing this. Genie was so young to play that story with creepy Hamilton. And Kin sure was cute as nice guy Scotty.

Kimberly McCullough shadowed at GH and completed an ABC directing program, but I don’t believe she was ever credited as director or given an episode of her own to do. One of the reasons why she got work so quickly was because she had multi-cam knowledge from years on soaps.