Llantano Incorporated

I have googled S Michael Schnessel and have found very little about him. I quite enjoyed his work because he took risks and I loved his strong female characters.. For some reason Paul Rauch credits him with OLTL's success. But I must say that I thought Peggy O'Shea's OLTL was utterly brilliant and pitch perfect. Those 1985-1986 Viki/Niki/Tina scenes are like soap opera crack to me. 1985-1987 is an era of OLTL that has been greatly undervalued. I know -THE- soaps at the time in terms of critical acclaim were ATWT, Y&R, and to a lesser extent AMC- but OLTL was in a class by itself.

Viewers meet Gabrielle Medina for the first time, and Max & Gabrielle meet again :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93SC22LSoHo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-zPN2puSOo&feature=related

So nice to have a fellow Fiona fan here. Most underrated actress in daytime history.

3/22/88 SOD. I know that many love the Rauch era music cues. You might enjoy this.

Fantastic Carl!! I am one of those who adored OLTL's scoring in the 80's. The music was a major asset to the show. It was interesting they brought up the Vienna scoring as that was particularly beautiful. You can watch David and Jenny's last scenes on Youtube and see for yourself. Great article.

Well like I have said many times before, just watching Youtube videos of that 83-84 timeframe is like watching paint dry. Stodgy, slow, but with a strangely low key down to earth quality despite the wealth of many of its characters.. Very old fashioned vibe. 1982 seemed like such a wonderful, human, compelling time- especially with that Katrina/Jenny storyline. Brynn Thayer was so stunningly beautiful, and that voice.. AND a wonderful actress.

WHAT! Why no love for Fiona as Gabrielle? She was popular and loved. Was she disliked by the soap press? I might understand if she was brand new but she had to have been on the show 3-4 years by that point

Truly my favorite actress ever. Love her, and that final scene that Carl posted below is so perfect. Perfect acting choices, and perfect scoring. I LOVED Gabrielle's theme music. Love her love her love her.

Just catching up on this thread.....

Badderly should have been named the worst story of the decade. Gawd, that went on and on and on and on and....well, you get the picture. It was a horrific mess, and showed that Paul Rauch's creative steam was gone. Yes, it featured characters we cared about like Megan, Jake, Sarah, Bo Cord and Tina, but they interacted with cartoon villains in a senseless plot. It was the longest summer ever!

Amen. That was the beginning of the end of Paul Rauch. Summer of 1990. LOVED his run until that last painful year. Sarah almost sinking in quicksand WAS cool though. And I remember Megan played a funny nerdy character named Midge! (They were all mostly disguised as other people for some plot reason)

And responding to another comment, that Peggy O'Shea was BRILLIANT 1985-87 OLTL was truly brilliant, and the most underrated in OLTL's history. Brilliant. Loved Schnessell, although his storylines were outlandish. He was young and sadly died young..

Loved Ellen Bethea, loved her. And I LOVED Daphne. What a shame.

The two middle Rachel's I could not stand.

The first 3/4 of her return was a freaking disaster putting her in a storyline with the godawful Kamar, Bethann, et al. It was ludicrous and rumored to be this way due to Frons's insistence that she be put in a younger storyline. (He was rumored to think that she was too old and also rumored to be behind her abrupt departure. And don't believe Andrea's quote about the role always being short term. She gave an interview a mere few weeks before saying how she saw her family more working bicoastal than she did working on Passions thanks to ABC scheduling her so well. She was having a great time.

Anyway, moving her back into Llanfair was pure brilliance but then she was gone weeks later. The writers wrote an obvious We're sorry/love letter to her in her final episode that made clear how disappointed they were in her botched return. I think it is on Youtube.

"You have not seen the last of Tina Lord Roberts."

I hope this is true as time is running out.

Andrea is brilliant. I love her super natural line readings too. You have to watch her to understand. She really took over the top dialogue and made it sound so perfect. I believe that Andrea WILL be back for the end.

Ha. Carl I were both thinking the same thing! Charisma.

I had a crush when I was 13 on Gerald Anthony even when he was bald and back on the show in 1989 (Were Gerald Anthony and Jessica Tuck an INGENIOUS idea or what?) Charisma. He was awesome.

Cheap your pictures are STUNNING.

Those early OLTL ones are amazing (I have never seen any of them!)

Love the Gottlieb era ones, it really shows off OLTL's beautiful look and lighting at that time. Especially the Roger Howarth/Srika Slezak one.

That Nora/Lindsay JFP era one is cool too...

Well I CAN and WILL.

She looked liked a goddamned balding piglet!

Fiona is one of daytime's most underrated actresses in history. This woman SELLS whatever she is given. I cannot tell you how much I love Fiona (and Gabrielle). Her and Andrea's friendship was so cool to read about. And their chemistry onscreen was off the hook. Dare I say I enjoyed them more than even Strasser and Slezak.

Carl you made my day with that Fiona interview

And as usual I am useless at embedding a Youtube video. Darn.

Cheap, your pictures are WONDERFUL. I too became a OLTL fan due to Tina Lord Roberts (and her chemistry with EVERYONE, specially Viki and later Gabrielle). OLTL has had so many WONDERFUL actresses at any given time, it was an abundance of riches. I posted this in the Video Thread and it just is the perfect combination of soapy writing, brilliant acting, and outstanding scoring. And one of my all time favorite OLTL actresses.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxsXX4dHAmk

I didn't even watch AW but have become addicted to old Youtube clips, and I cannot wait to read this interview. Constance Ford seemed like an AWESOME presence. They don't make actresses like her anymore.