scherra

Not sure I'm qualified to answer that. I didn't care for JFP's version of SB so Lane Davies (whose Mason was the quintessential Dobson character) leaving was the excuse I needed to give up SB. I love(d) NLG/Julia so I'd check in occasionally but while I enjoyed some eps./storylines, I never really regained the habit (and by the early 1990s, I was enamored with GL).

But my answer despite my sporadic viewing would be no, she didn't suffer. Julia Wainwright was that rare breed on soaps, a strong, intelligent, and independent (female) character, and much of that came from NLG, which helped through the regime changes over the years. I think that was the difference with Lane's Mason, in that his character struggled to flourish without the Dobsons (and later on, without Lane), whereas Nancy's Julia wasn't as dependent on the Dobsons to forge and maintain her identity. She also had chemistry with both Terry Lester and Gordon Thomson, which was essential to establishing them as Mason. (That TL's Mason wasn't a hit wasn't her fault.) She had chemistry with Roscoe Born and John Callahan too, which added some spice to her work-related relationships, even if TPTB kept throwing her the least interesting men (forgettable characters whose names I can't even recall at this point). Timothy Gibbs was an exception, but I detested the rape storyline so...

I'd say that's where Julia suffered as a character, but that's my just 0.02. I never liked it, at least not for long, when Julia was a martyr, let alone a victim, and that's what the rape storyline did to her character. She had a very serious side to her character which her relationships with Mason, Augusta and Lionel helped balance out (even if Mason was often responsible for Julia coming across as a martyr), and I hated that the rape storyline took her to such a dark place that she did something that was inconceivable to someone like her, kidnapping her rapist to force him to confess to the rape. I don't care for rape storylines on soaps and I hated that Julia Wainwright, of all people, became a victim. I'm not upset with the idea that rape could happen to someone like Julia. I just don't care for how rapes are dealt on soaps, and I was upset that she became a victim of the soap version, resulting in the character taking drastic measures that were so alien to her identity.

But she recovered from that (Augusta not so much, but that's a different issue), and I think that over the years, Julia (and NLG) offered the show much stability amidst many, many, many changes on and off camera.

What bothered you in his last year?

I cannot speak for scherra, but Lane Davies' last year was filled with Sonny Sprocket. I'd say that is a low point right there. (It was amusing back then, but watching it now, it tended to grate after a point.)

I was thinking more about M&J being in a rut storyline-wise in 1989 (before LD left) but I agree what took place the year before was the root of the problem. It wasn't just the schizophrenia storyline/Sonny Sprocket though, the show as a whole in the latter half of 1988 was relentlessly dark and there was no reprieve from that. We had Mason "dying" in the summer, Julia grieving for him then going under cover as a nun to investigate his death at the convent, Kelly and Jeffrey's marriage disintegrating (not that I cared for them, but I loved Robin Wright and between the recast and Jeffrey acting out of character/plotting to kill his wife, it was a depressing storyline all around), Mason resurfacing with a double identity and colluding with Gina (who blamed Julia for Keith fleeing SB) to bring down the Capwells, and the storyline that repulsed me to no end (and IMO foreshadowed JFP's sick idea of entertainment for television) -- Eden getting raped by none other than her OB/GYN who terrorized the whole town (eg. kidnapping Julia) then abducted her baby.

There was nothing, no storyline, no character to offset all of that, not even Keith Timmons' antics. (Maybe that's why they brought back Louise Sorel/Augusta, to balance some of that out, but without Lionel, her children, what was she exactly supposed to do? They gave her nothing to work with, outside her involvement with M&J.) And Sonny Sprocket was no substitute for Keith Timmons in terms of enjoyment because I couldn't stand to see the anguish this was causing Julia. I couldn't laugh at Sonny fooling around with Gina because Julia was going out of her mind trying to figure out what was wrong with Mason. There were some payoffs every now and then (eg. Nancy's performance when Julia left Mason at the altar, Lane's when Mason found out Julia slept with Michael, M&J's short-lived truce over the holidays), but everything in between was torture for the most part, esp. when Sonny's personality completely took over and he started to blackmail Julia and CC. Mason and Julia might have feuded before, but nothing could compare to how badly their relationship deteriorated by the end of 1988.

The next couple of months were the light at the end of the tunnel, and I enjoyed that (though I wish they had gone further and showed Mason working with Heather for his therapy). But knowing that Lane was leaving, I was frustrated that much of his and Nancy's storyline in 1989 consisted of waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for their characters to get married (because Cruz and Eden were off in Paris to search their daughter). It was a delight to see M&J in love after what I had to endure the year before, but it wouldn't surprise me if the reason some of their scenes then felt rather risque (eg. the infamous jam scene) was because NLG and LD were bored out of their minds and needed to entertain themselves.

ETA. Wendy, I'm actually familiar with the Mason chronicles though I appreciate all the rec's. Have some of the clips and the M&J edits somewhere.

Thanks, Wendy, for uploading your SB clips on YT. I actually remember many of M&J's scenes, with Lane Davies anyway, but haven't revisited them in recent years so it's bringing back a lot of fond memories.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/f0YjW63xe8k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is a scene that I forgot but which I now remember how special it was and what it was about LD's Mason that got to me. He had so much trouble with feelings, let alone love, that whenever you got a glimpse behind the mask, or in this case saw him (struggle to) articulate how he felt about Julia, it was something to behold. And Lane was such a reserved actor, even with those that Mason cared about, that when he let his character open up and wear his heart on his sleeves, it blew me away, it was so painful to see him so vulnerable. There was/is no one like him.

Oh and that phone call with Julia? That's the essence of their relationship, and the only reason I didn't want to shoot myself in Lane's final year.

I loved Mason, Julia, Gina and Keith. I also really liked Lionel and Augusta, but their storyline lost some steam, and then Louise Sorel left. Kelly I mostly liked. I was hit or miss with CC and Sophia. CC was a nasty a--hole, and Sophia wasn't the most sympathetic character, but they did well together. My biggest problem was that I wasn't a Cruz & Eden fan, which became especially problematic around '87 or so - they were written into every storyline so you couldn't escape them. I wish the show had played up (and not killed off so many) and given more depth to secondary characters like Brick, Amy, Ted, Laken, Warren, Hayley, Jane, Pearl, and even Christy. It would have balanced things out some and added some heft to the show. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but I just don't recall a show relying so much on so few characters.

There is, it's called the Bold and the Beautiful. I remember watching SB and thinking it felt like a half-hour show, it revolved SO much around the Capwells under Jill Farren Phelps. I was stunned when I switched to GL (and to a lesser extent, GH) in the early 1990s and realized it was not only possible to write for more than a handful of characters, but also keep them all interesting and interconnected. I don't think Cruz & Eden were written into every storyline, the problem for me (since 1988, it wasn't that bad with the Dobsons) was that they were often in their own world, on their own adventures, cut off from the rest of the show. And yet, everyone and their cousin would drop everything when it came to Cruz & Eden. I loved Cruz and A Martinez, and while I wasn't Eden's biggest fan, I appreciated Marcy Walker's intelligence with the role and her character's relationships with her family & friends. But even then, their dominance worked on my nerves big time and ultimately hurt the show IMNSHO.

And yes, they did away with too many 'secondary' but significant characters in 1987-88. One minute you had Santana, Brick, Amy, Ted, Laken, Warren, Hayley, Pearl--all of whom had forged interesting relationships with the 'primary' characters over the years. By 1988 (in Ted's case, by 1989), they were all gone. (Laken briefly popped back in, as Susan Marie Snyder, but didn't last very long.) Their 'replacements,' the new characters, struggled to fit into SB and never really caught the viewers' imaginations. Scott Clark? Heather? Celeste & her sisters? TJ? Cain? Michael? Laura? Bunny?!

Outside of the Capwells and the Lockridges (I include the extended family here, like Julia and Gina), they really had a tough time creating characters who could hold their own with the two powerhouses (though the Lockridges were pretty much toothless by the end of 1987). I think Roscoe Born as Robert Barr was just about the only exception. Pamela should have, but I found Marj Dusay grating, even though she's considered an improvement over Shirley Anne Field (who didn't fit either, but I thought she was more convincing with the vulnerable/manipulative aspects of the character). I really, really, really liked Lenore Kasdorf as Caroline (now there was a leading lady in every sense of the word), but they killed her off as well in 1987 and it was only a matter of time before Lionel would leave too, as he was the only Lockridge left in town.

Even though it was critically slammed in the early years, I'm most fond of SB from'84 to '87 or so. I kept watching through '89, until Robin Wright, Lane Davies, and Todd McKee had all left, and the Lockridges were pretty much decimated. I know they reintroduced the Lockridges, so to speak, later on, but by then I just couldn't get back into it.

Yeah, I too checked out in 1989, though I kept an eye on Nancy Lee Grahn and watched every now and then. 'It wasn't the same any more,' though it hadn't been that way in a while. Towards the end of 1988/early 1989, I actually took a break (and didn't catch up with the eps. I'd missed until years later), I was just so fed up, not even Mason & Julia could keep me watching. SB had great script writers, but once the Dobsons left, I had a hard time following most of the storylines. When they weren't meandering or boring, they were downright offensive to me (I don't care how 'ground-breaking' they were with Eden's rape, they lost me the moment her ob gyn turned out to be her rapist). They had standout eps. from time to time, but I can hardly remember what took place in 1988-89, most of the storylines just didn't register.

I was also very disappointed with some of the payoffs to their key storylines. I've always enjoyed Mason and Eden's complicated sibling relationship, and thought Mason marrying Victoria to protect Eden one of the best storylines SB had going for them in 1987. And yet when it all came out mid-1988 (b/c Chip needed a bone marrow transplant from Cruz), Mason and Eden shared no scene whatsoever. No revisiting why he did what he did, no discussion of the role their father played in all that or the repercussions it had on his relationship with Julia. Surely it warranted a scene or two. Or how about the resolutions to his schizophrenia. I thought they were going somewhere when they set up a session btw Mason and Heather (whom I appreciated in her capacity as a doctor) after his illness, but nope, we never saw what transpired at the meeting, what they talked about, all we saw was Mason leaving her office. Months of emotional hell and torment, for him, for Julia, for his family, for me, and we can't even have some introspection? My god, SB/JFP could be infuriating.

Heard this from someone years ago, but can't remember whether she read it in the mags or got it from her sources (she had some connections):

GL -- Patrick Mulcahey wanted to bring back Amanda Spaulding as Nancy Lee Grahn, but Jill Farren Phelps nixed it.

ATWT -- NLG was also considered for Margo when Ellen Dolan left in 1993?

My first exposure to soaps was on primetime (Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest) then Santa Barbara, so after all that glitz and glamor of the 1980s (which I never cared for), Ed Bauer and his bald patch, Maureen and her kitchen just bowled me over when I came across GL in the early 1990s. I couldn't get over how it could be so sophisticated and grounded at the same time, it really opened my eyes about what could be done on soaps. It also set the bar too high for the follow-up regimes and the other soaps to measure up but I'd rather focus on the good things.

I was never as taken with ATWT but in clips like that, I can recognize what I loved about GL--the sense of community, the variety and richness of interactions, the restraint in the performances.

0814ma on YouTube has a set of clips re: Bob confessing his affair to Kim. I wasn't an ATWT faithful but came across the scenes while looking up some GL stuff and enjoyed them, eg. Kim losing patience with Barbara, or Hal and Margo, John and Lucinda, Bob and Susan, iow lots of good stuff in the same ep.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAc7sNJIlZA