soapfave06

This is incredibly exciting but I don’t see PM staying long amid the politics based on his interviews. I really hope this leads to a tighter show with longer scenes. The show looks great but takes absolutely no risks and focuses on the wrong threads and characters. But they did outdo themselves honoring Bobbie. 

3 hours ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

Yeah I found someone here in Germany that sold some German Guiding Light episodes and told me he had OLTL ( with a few missing episodes).. But I didn’t care. As long as I can watch some classic Andrea Evan’s from her younger years on the show is much appreciated.. and Samantha. I never got to experience her and was so excited to got the opportunity to finally see some living pictures of her lol

Dorian is a hoot in those episodes. Love her.

I never knew that the actor of Burke Devlin#2 and Jeremiah from DS was on OLTL.. that was such a hughe surprise

and I finally got to see some Mario episodes 

Thank you so much for sharing the episodes, they are in amazing quality so even though I don’t speak German it’s amazing to see the show in its prime. 

I wish I could see more of her work as I absolutely fell in love with GL in the era of the Dobson regime courtesy of the brief DVD releases which I am forever thankful for. They really had the show set up canvas wise only for it to be stripped away. 
 

It is difficult to find a good diving in episode of SB as I struggle to find cohesive playlists but the individual episodes are usually good. I would probably try harder to watch if the show was more cohesive outside of the certain actors and characters. But Mason and Julia have always captivated me. 
 

I would have killed to see them head write another series, especially had they returned to GL with Roger and Holly back or especially OLTL after Malone left. 

I find it interesting that OLTL, and GH with Monica (I can’t recall if there was more recasting in that show at the same time) hit gold with various recasting, new core families and new stories all at once across the board. 

8 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

All of those recasts were successful. Apart from Will, who was supporting,Jenny,Karen and Brad were frontburner and accepted by viewers.

I agree they were successful l, I just wonder how jarring it may have been at the time for viewers or if they were successful immediately (as I imagine JL as Karen was)

Glad to see OLTL got a boost from that story, unless it was just luck. I’ve listened to the audio tapes posted of the aftermath of Lana’s death and it was quite good as it played out. 
 

I can’t remember the timeline of recasts though but I think Will, Jenny, Karen and Brad all end up recast around this time which probably did not help them long term. 

It is interesting how low the soaps sunk in the late 80s and early 90s but the difference pre and post OJ is that they actually fought for their lives and were on an upswing until 1995, for the most part? 
 

The majority of soaps were more modern from 91-95 than any soap since, even in 2023. 
 

It is really sad how low OLTL has sunk. They did not even get an increase with Alex taking Cassie out on Loon Lake. It will be interesting to see the turnaround. They really truly failed to build a long lasting canvas in the late-80s and it hurt them tremendously. 

Y&R has definitely officiated itself as a strong #1 rather quickly, over a million ahead of the pack. 
 

I was wondering how OLTL would do in the ratings amid Eterna given how the Old West caused a big drop but they actually did rather well. Unfortunately the storytelling becomes all over the place, no fallout on the Viki/Megan reveal and the show relies on the baby switch and Austin for its last hurrah. 

Did the Old West plot hurt OLTL that bad in the ratings? I actually enjoyed it on rewatch and location sequences and wardrobe were stunning. Although comparing year to year the shows had a steep drop across the board except DAYS and Y&R so maybe it is hard to say. 
 

I am glad to see ATWT finally getting its due, I would love to see the entire Marland years in great quality. 

I see OLTL did better in the rankings than the actual ratings. All the soaps trended down where OLTL simply remained about the same despite Tina going over the falls and Viki going to Heaven. 
 

B&B premiered quite steady in the ratings-I wonder how that compares to other new soap ratings?

This is a fun few weeks on OLTL per recaps, the climax of the Dr. Polk murder, Tracy being captured and escaping, Tina and Viki fighting over Llanfair which Tina remodels, Tracy blowing up Llanfair during Tina’s party and Clint and Viki remarrying in mid-April, which assume gave them the additional boost to 7.9, although not much since the other soaps went down. 

Thanks for sharing that interview, it was a great listen. I hate that the work relationship between Clint and Erika became so toxic, and both characters languished in the background. I guess the DID story was of course never meant to end happily but it would have been nice to have seen a romantic reunion between Clint and Viki at the end of it. There was still plenty to face with Viki having killed Victor and her personalities merging.

I have made it through to March 13, 1987 from January. There isn’t much to add as they have tremendously dwindled the cast down. 
 

The Asa/Pamela/Pete triangle is at a start/stall tactic but still with comedic moments like Asa sabotaging the Vernon Inn and putting a hole in the room he was residing in adjoining to Pamela’s then using Clint and Viki in crises to get Pam at his side. 
 

The Diane/Dorian All About Eve story did reach a shock ending with Diane plummeting to her death. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if it involved more long-term characters outside of the Sanders and nuCassie and the climax has brought on the Cassie/Jon/Dorian triangle which plays against the Dorian/Judith/Herb triangle. 
 

The Viki and Clint custody and divorce battle was great, but really displayed the complete overhaul of the show as only Larry and Wanda were long-term characters, literally everyone else was new. The angst with Tom, Viki’s amnesia and now aneurysm has been built wonderfully, but is still start/stalling, unless it comes that way from the edits. 
 

Max has come to town, romanced Tina courtesy Maria while Cord grows closer to Kate. This was all wonderful and I am now seeing why Max and Tina were so popular-I love them. The location sequences in Argentina are phenomenal, I wish SoapNet had replayed at least location shoot episodes. The musical scores and production are top notch. I now see why SoapNet played the aftermath of Tina’s tumble over the falls instead of the prior episode-Tina was bound the whole time and Cord, Kate and Max barely appeared before the Friday cliffhanger of Tina going over. John Loprieno did some amazing work in the aftermath of losing Tina and the baby, I was very impressed. 
 

Delila and Rafe have a little story with her growing fed up with his work schedule and she flirts with Steve Holden. I really wish more had been done with them as the canvas is rather blah, honestly. 
 

On the diversity level, there is an update as Lisa actually last appeared around December 29th-30th in a snippet of a scene, the cast is completely whitewashed now and then they introduced the younger brother of John Amos’s Lt. Bill Moore named Andy as Rafe’s new partner.  Bill took a promotion offscreen to Philly and of course Andy will go no where, I’ve never seen him before. 
 

Overall the show is still enjoyable and serving good soap, but man I miss the community feel that 1986 had. I look forward to reaching the Heaven storyline, which I’ve only seen an edit of and not the entire episodes. 

I never cared for Bill on B&B, Liam was okay for a while, but if the show had tiered storylines they weren’t so bad. Has Bill even served a purpose in recent years? 
 

OLTL:

I started watching during the stint heavy Higley years and once the stints wore off and Evangeline was sent into a coma I couldn’t really hang on anymore but the Gigi/Rex/ Charlie/Viki story in Paris, TX got me hooked back in full-time, then Tina’s wasted return (not having watched her OG run but having been a fan from YouTube) I was bothered, then Todd constantly threatening Cole and Starr was a hard pill to swallow. In 2009, Viki hitting the backburner and the snoozer KAD Killer was blah to me, but the Mayor race and Nora/Bo reconnecting and Mitch’s return drew me back in, that didn’t last with Dorian posing as a lesbian, Mitch trying to rape Jessica causing that dreadful Teen Jess crap, the Ford brothers, Starr as a sappy heroine taking over and Kelley Missal as Danielle being the only talented younger performer IMO I dropped the show until early 2011, which I actually enjoyed a lot until the end. Summer 2010 was just unbearable to me and I was ready to never look back. 
 

RC’s tenure was just beyond hit or miss. 

I know what it was always low rated but what year did Santa Barbara get into its groove? Was that closer to 1988 with their claiming the Emmy’s? 

B&B: 

I completely lost interest and haven’t returned for more than a week or two in years after they wrote out the Avants and killed off Aly. I was hoping to get back into the show when Sheila returned in 2017 but there is clearly no vision to invest my time in. 
 

AMC:

Chuck Pratt completely drove me away in 2009, I watched on and off until the cancellation and watched through the end. Didn’t really enjoy the snow again until the reboot actually. 
 

Y&R:

When JFP changed the background scores and look of the show, idk it became tremendously boring. I liked the reboot if you will where several younger talent were introduced (Ana, Fen, Mariah, Hillary) to the forefront but once they wiped the slate clean, I haven’t been back. 
 

I’ll have to think on OLTL, DAYS and GH but I can’t invest in a cardboard stage, bad dialogue, no vision and no diversity. 

Awesome-amazing comeback for OLTL! Glad they hit #2 around this time. 

Just now, Donna L. Bridges said:

Marketing by storyline sure would appeal, wouldn't it? However, it automatically requires much more in curating it & that is overhead. 

It does require more curating but I don’t think it would take long to do a previously on. Looking at Days of Our Lives for example, you still have the 80s leads in stories today and they had a ton of adventures: the plane crash in ‘84, the ice skating prism climax and Miami in ‘85, the KGB/Roman climax and Stockholm in ‘86, Cruise of Deception, Maison Blanche, Possession, Aremid, Lady in a Cage in the ‘90s that would be very easy to market. I would definitely pay to see that in high quality. And the unfortunate truth is we have lost many stars over the last year and it would be great to see them in their prime and the production values of then sure beats what we have now. 

I’m unaware of the logistics of residuals and music rights but I don’t see how they could lose money if they did some sort of premium channel. There is almost too much content on some of these streaming apps, I’m sure that has to cost more to produce. 
 

I could see them not doing every episode but perhaps uploading episodes within arcs, like for lack of a better example, Marty’s gang rape trial on One Life to Live or all of the Masquerade Ball on Young and Restless where David Kimble was exposed with a previously on edit at the beginning. 
 

Passions, Edge of Night, classic Days is often asked for. 

AW was never my soap but some of the time periods fascinate me, as well as its rise and fall. Would the exits of George and Jacquie long-term have caused them to fall off in the late-70s or would that more so be the 90 minute experiment? Perhaps the show was in a good place once they were recast but the thrill wore off on top of the 90 minute experience? 
 

That’s one thing I don’t understand is how they squandered Courtney’s return in 1984, if they positioned that well with some good marketing, it could have set them up well for years to come. 

Andrea Evans returned to One Life to Live in January, I think Roscoe Born as Mitch Laurence arrived in May so now you have the Mitch/Tina/Clint/Viki fully going. 

Thanks for the feedback everyone - this makes sense. Overall, it’s quite fascinating and one of the things I love about soaps, how their story progressed over years and years. Looking back, the only thing that I would deem silly would be the retcon that Stefano took Marlena from Orpheus. I can accept Queen of the Night and Lady in a Cage but that’s too far. I think the psychology of Marlena actually living on the island with the children of Orpheus would have more dramatic aftermath than Marlena in a coma. 
 

Stefano’s introduction seems all over the place, going from Doug and Julie, the Horton’s to primarily the Brady’s and seeking revenge on Roman for destroying his operation, this coupled with Megan’s death drives him to Marlena and for some reason wanting to raise the twins. 
 

I didn’t realize how well JER laid out the groundwork for Stefano/Marlena-from her seduction to the possession to his paralysis to Maison Blanche and Lady in a Cage. That’s an unrivaled era! 

On 9/4/2023 at 7:43 AM, sheilaforever said:

Yep, it was just tragic and shocking at the same time. Adrienne Franntz was the ultimate Brad Bell pet, yet suddenly he lost interest in her in 2004 and then created this suuuuuper weird Big Bear storyline. I did not like Amber after 2003, but this was just random. Indeed, Amber's time on Y&R was a pleasant surprise. She worked well under all the headwriters there and I never had issue with her. I LOVED Amber & Daniel. Her return to B&B didn't bother me. A redux of a WTD-story and the vansihing act into thin air with Baby Rosey (?) was unneeded and made the whole thing superfluous.  

 

Agreed! Deacon & Macy were so HOT. And summer 2003 was AMAZING until Brad Bell simply decided to ditch everything that was working. Bringing on Sydney Penny as Samantha, making Brian Gaskill as Ozzy Marone front and center, focussing on Massimo and Jackie (poor Lesley-Anne Down!) and therefore killing all momentum in Rick/Amber/Deacon/Macy was mind-blowing.

I love the early 2000s era of B&B and was checking the ratings wondering how they did after Brad did that overhaul in ‘03 and it does look like he ranked the show. I’m aware a lot of soaps had steep losses that year but the show was pulling consistently above a 3.5 in the ratings and by the end of the year and especially into 2004, barely a 3.0. 
 

I really wonder if something happened behind the scenes that led to this as it is absolutely bonkers, the show was on a such a high and then giving nothing but the most random casting and plots. 
 

Two big misses later on were Y&R botching Deacon’s return in concern to Amber and Daniel, they could have been great, but I loved Deacon and Nikki down the line and wasting Amber’s return in 2010. Amber/Rick/Maya should have been frontburner, especially once Maya was exposed as transgender. That could and should have been years of story. 

I’ve watched DAYS for years, until a few years ago at least, and I’ve never really understood the origins and reasoning behind Stefano being obsessed with Marlena. I’ve watched YouTube edits with various Phoenix climaxes: the theater being set to explode, the plane crash and now the ice rink and it seems it stemmed from Roman’s death and Marlena standing up to him? Or is there more to it? I understand he wanted to essentially make Marlena his and raise her children in 1985 by kidnapping the twins or was the obsession more full force in the ‘90s since they retconned her death to being abducted by Stefano? (I never understood why they didn’t just leave Marlena with Orpheus raising his kids on the island instead of killing off Orpheus and Marlena in ‘87?)

Yikes, is it just me or did the ratings seem either stagnant and much lower than usual for Spring? 

OLTL went down four weeks in a row, hopefully they increase once Mitch arrives. 

22 minutes ago, kalbir said:

@soapfave06 Did Days have a storyline in 1985 where they tried to cash in on the Miami Vice hype?

I haven’t seen the story myself but when I was looking into it several characters ended up in Miami searching for treasure and after Victor Kiriakis, I hope to see it one day!