Lust4Life76

Oh my God, this is an awesome post and your kick off story has to be similar to many of our writing journeys, starting with the desire to create something when we were so young... For me...I remember it was the summer of 1990, Paul Rauch's last year on "One Life to Live", and his final summer story was that the cast of the mock soap "Fraternity Row" went on a location shoot at an island resort called "Badderly". At the same time their was a mafioso convention and the cast had to 'pretend' they were mafia as well. Long story short, it kicked off the romance of Jake Harrison and Megan Gordon, and ultimately their was a twist where Jake had dishonored crime lord Carlo Hesser's daughter Charlotte (Audrey Landers) and there needed to be satisfaction, so Jake was going to get shot. Just before Jake's shooting, for luck, Megan gave him a pin (a souvenir from the soap's infamous underground city story line). When Jake was shot, the bullet ricocheted off the pin, as he wore around his neck, and Jake was miraculously spared. At age 13 I cried "bologna!" because this was a show I remembered had a celebrated history; that had light skinned black Carla Gray pass for white; Karen Wolek testify she was a common hooker on the witness stand; and had Victoria Lord splinter off into an alter-ego that hung up her marriage to dashing cowboy Clint Buchanan for the better part of a year and a half! And then it dawned on me...as it seems to have dawned for many others posting here, that if I was having issues with the writing of my favorite soap, than I should just create my own. Though I wasn't initially inspired by the movie "Delirious" (by the way original poster, have you ever caught John Candy's work in the SCTV soap send up "The Days of the Week"?); the movie that inspired me was "Soapdish", in addition to the satire publication MAD Magazine's irrational send up of a soap opera update. I will attach a file to this post to show you, but I was inspired in creating my characters based on the magazine's caricature art of some of the genre's most distinguished personages (Linda Dano, Stephen Nichols, A Martinez, Jackie Zeman, Arlene Sorkin, MacDonald Carey, Susan Lucci, Debbi Morgan, Tristan Rogers and Marcy Walker). I didn't necessarily aspire to write satire (which I did with my current creation "Lust for Life") but I definitely aspired for campy. I had a fashionista/bitch named Tabitha plotting against her elderly father with his doctor and her lover Dr. Marc DeForest; a renegade/anti-hero named Eric hating on his do-right brother-in-law Colin for being sexually compromised by a nympho nurse, Lindsay at St. Clare Hospital...Theirs would be stories of lust, betrayal and the occasional abduction or bomb scare to heighten the stakes. I think I called it "Worlds Apart" only to learn a variation of that title had already been used ("A World Apart"), so I switched it to "To the Ends of the Earth"... Even though I initiated my creation, for decades I stayed paralyzed in that pre-planning stage of my saga. What prevented me was a sense of direction, good direction that I could trust from a professional, because there really weren't many books, aside from Harding Lemay's and that was a rare find. Resources I could personally refer to that had been written by somebody in the genre like Bill Bell or Claire Labine that took the genre seriously to comment on what was needed to tell a soap of our own. So I had to listen carefully, that's all I could do before the internet boomed, but to listen to the creators in interviews, like Douglas Marland, who laid down the law of great soap writing. Soap Digest was a favorite resource, as was Soap Opera Weekly, expertly written in their constructive criticisms and observations gave me some great takeaways... ...Eventually, I was given an opportunity and therefore gave myself permission to see a creation (the aforementioned "Lust for Life") to fruition because I felt learned enough. My personal experience in keeping focus was I was treating the creation as to how I would perceive the actual profession itself. I took it seriously, but I had fun. I would compare any theater producer or director's demands of me akin to a network's, night and day of course BUT I could only wonder and sympathize about the demand, the pressure the paid writers experience day to day at their network jobs. The frustration they feel when they work on a story wanting to tell it in full only for an exec to put the kibosh on it because nobody is interested in that specific piece, and that 'whatever' that overrides it is more in vogue. Some of my favorite learning moments, was in asking (per Douglas Marland) the cast about their characters to write for that actor; just hearing that voice and making creative decisions. Continuity is another, which is an undertaking in itself. I can see how easy it is to make mistakes. And it is those mistakes, as I would confide with my director about, are what makes you think differently of some of the stories and the writers I, or you, might have criticized. Even though I feel I have a handle on writing a soap opera...I so wish I could take a class from a master, whom I consider to be Kay Alden, or Lorraine Broderick. Erik

Oh my GOD, this Brad Carlton in a cage ordeal is SURREAL!

I wish somebody had a copy of ONE LIFE TO LIVE's masquerade ball in 1981. First of all, you had Asa Buchanan dressed as Robert E. Lee...but yet, Sadie Gray was in attendance, and she went as the Statue of Liberty to counter him.

I remember Sharon Wyatt (ex-Tiffany, GH) had experienced some unpleasantness regarding the weakening of her jawbone that it had to be operated on. This was back in 2011, 2012...does anyone know how things are going for her? Also, speaking of 'General Hospital'. I been watching some of the classic Ice Princess storyline, and I like the character of Alexandria Quartermaine, played by Renee Anderson. Whatever became of Renee Anderson? She had some decent acting chops that she could have continued her work on soaps after GH. Thanks! Erik