DramatistDreamer

Soaps are unlike any other entertainment media, in the fact that many continue over many years, over decades, in fact. No actor would dictate to me how I write one of my plays. I know best, although a workshop where actors do a table read of my script, all the way to a staged reading, can massively inform how I "tweak" my play. If a writer goes into an existing soap, most of the actors have been there long before that writer and in that case, they would have more information than that writer and an intelligent writer would lean on those actors as guides, in addition to archived scripts and video episodes to continue stories. Of course, many actors want to have plenty of story and are more likely to view a show favorably if they are actively being utilized on the canvas-- they want to work, and frankly, that's their job. Unless they have interest in directing, producing or writing, it's not their job to know how the other parts of production work. They also know and care that everyone is doing their jobs effectively- they don't want the show to be cancelled, especially due to some BTS f*ckry.

Of course he's right. We're it not for the expletives, this would have made a perfect PSA for vaccination and proper adherence to anti-COVID-19 protocols. As for Laura Osnes, there is likely an understudy waiting in the wings to replace her. Oh, scanning the article (I loathe the NY Post, lol), I see that it is just a one-off performance in some weeklong festival and Osnes has already been replaced by an actress who previously played Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Problem solved. Osnes now has a reputation that will impact her career going forward.

P&G never, I mean never truly learned how to properly promote their talent. Fulton was daytime's O.G. 'Bad Gal' and should have been promoted as a pioneering character. Lisa was doing what many avid readers of the "Feminine Mystique" book must surely have fantasizing about doing during that period of time (despite the public backlash to the character, especially when she temporarily abandons Oakdale) Meanwhile, you had AMC, OLTL, Y&R, GH all far better at promoting their talent. It's really a shame. Barbara Ryan was one of the most stylish characters in all of daytime "Not a hair outta place" as was often said by various characters of Barbara-- who should've been almost as well known as Erica Kane and yet... no, despite being one of the most consistent characters on CBS daytime. Again, a shame. Perhaps Holden and Lily were on par with Nick and Sharon. That's all I can think of. P&G was better at promoting their daytime lineup, but looking back it irks me that they chose to do entire promotions where they'd use stand ins, whose faces were blurred, instead of the actors who portrayed the actual characters, and this was at one of the heights of the show's popularity. So generic. Who does that? I was speaking specifically.

Keating's character on ATWT, Niles Mason was an absolute villain, lol. He plotted with his son Derek (Thomas Gibson) to court Lily, then kill her for her money. When Derek decided to back out of the plot, Niles barreled through with the plan anyway, setting a bomb to go off when Derek was supposed to be out of town, which backfired when Derek discovered the plot, rushed back home and, you guessed it...

Perhaps this could set a precedent for other such cases?

It looks to be by design but that's my opinion, I guess. The way Goutman treated a number of the show's talent, on the other hand, was very much within his control and he chose to treat a number of the talent in a very sh*tty manner. The interviews are out there with a Google search.

Oh, I definitely got the sense that she was personally revolted by what happened, the visceral nature of it leaped off the page when I read it and when I listened to her podcast interview ,(with a different soap blog), I got that exact same sense of revulsion. She didn't want to go into much detail and I respect her desire not to revisit that particular time in much detail. I also got the sense that it was somewhat traumatic and she wanted to push past it. Another aspect that comes to mind about that particular sequence of years and events is that, when a soap opera is on its "last legs" as ATWT obviously was at that time, TPTB usually put the production in the hands of less than fully capable people.

Well said. JW's family seems like a strong supportive group so, as they grieve, may they be able to draw strength from one another.

On one hand, it seems clear that the nation building that the Bush administration tried to convince everyone they were doing, clearly never happened. On the other hand, some Afghani women felt a measure of autonomy and security that they hadn't felt in generations. I likened it to Pakistan, where women once had freedoms until religious zealots came in and forced implementation of Wahhabism and much more severe forms of religious beliefs. Even with the U.S. occupation, it didn't even bring Afghan women back to the sense of freedom that they enjoyed in the 1960s, but it was better than what it had probably been in the the 90s after the Taliban kicked out the Soviets. Once the Taliban and Al Qaeda each took over various regions, neither women in Pakistan, nor Afghanistan have been able to enjoy the full measure of the freedoms they would have enjoyed in the 1950s and 60s, U.S. or Soviet occupation or not. Iran is similar, but they are mainly Shia, not Sunni, the particulars are somewhat different.

It was more than just money for Martha. It started out as contract negotiations but spiraled and disintegrated. She alluded to a type of psychological warfare that was being practiced, she said it was very damaging and hurtful. Hurtful was also the word that Eileen used to describe the way she was treated. Yes, actors can be sensitive, but from working with them, that's why they are effective at what they do. Their feelings are close enough to the surface that they can be easily accessed. Anyone working with actors ought to know this, or their in the wrong profession Bryce has worked with a number of professional s and personalities in his numerous film and television work, he likely has far more professional experience than Goutman has. Years ago, in an interview, Bryce basically talked about how unprofessional Goutman and co. were. I believe him. I have a connection to the very same department in which Goutman work(ed) on and off in academia and he's not so stellar there either.

A few less expletives and this could be run as a PSA.

Goutman was a very divisive figure, there is no room for debate about that. It's no secret that he had conflict with a few veteran actors. Long-time actors Martha Byrne and Scott Bryce had very negative experiences with him. Both Byrne and Bryce have spoken about their experiences on the show when he was EP. Byrne was a bit more circumspect, not wanting to divulge too many specific details, Bryce was more blunt. From my understanding, having listened to their actual words, they were marginalized, as was Fulton. Fulton also spoke of how hurtful her treatment was. As EP, the head of what goes on, day to day in production, if he wasn't at the root of this, honestly, I don't know who would be. I also know of his reputation along other spheres, that are not ATWT-related. It's not good.

Came across this. I'm seeing typos already. Cicely Tyson came on in 1996 and left Guiding Light in 1997?? Oh.

Also, binge-watching is the way streaming is done now. You can't say you're doing streaming and offer viewers the chance to binge-watch.

Would love to get some verification on this because, from what I remember reading in interviews, Fulton didn't have much regard for Goutman. I thought she felt disrespected by him.

In a way, it's a clever move since they likely know episodes are being shared, stored and archived by fans. This way, they have some measure if control and can benefit from viewer counts and ad placements (should they decided to run ads). For years, I have been saying that soap opera production companies should be streaming vintage episodes and finally, someone was smart enough to listen and regard!! Also, if P&G decided to stream 1985-1986 of As The World Turns, I'd be over the moon! Since episodes have a run time of 30 minutes per episode, commercials included (I wonder if these uploaded videos will include ads?), they really should upload at least 2 per day. Also, has B&B never heard of binge-watching? On the positive side, it would be great if this began a trend with classic daytime dramas. Ironically, I watched the first episode again just three weeks ago.

I bet no one will have anything to say about this. I can think of a few tennis players who people wouldn't shut up about if they Sam them doing this.👀

I think I may just be able to afford the socks, lol.

In one word: Advertisers. In my reading about television in the early years, I have come to see that the advertisers rules these shows, including content. No matter how powerful you think the HW is, the advertisers had more power. Procter and Gamble, from the very beginning of these shows' runs, P&G had the ultimate power. As frustrated as Irna Phillips was, she realized this. She couldn't even get them to stop playing organ cues when the Guiding Light went to television, even though she hated it because she knew it would become a trope. P&G obviously wanted a change in tone, perhaps what they viewed a cooler, slicker tone, which also happened to coincided with "efficiencies" in the budget. And P&G, whose main goal was always to sell products, was notorious for making these types of "efficiencies". It's like, even if it's not broke, they're still going to try to "fix it". And they kept "fixing it" until cancellation.

In nearly two decades of U.S./Western involvement and the Soviet/Russian decade-long occupation, what passes for an Afghan government has become dependent on foreign governments just to barely function. After they leave, the country appears no better than it was before. The leaders are likely to wait for the next foreign country to come along. China perhaps? JMO but I doubt that PRC is at all interested in nation building anywhere outside of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet.

One final footnote in the fallout from the Cuomo scandal, Andrea Stewart-Cousins is set to become Lt. Governor, the first time a Black woman will be in the state's executive office.

I would have done something more encompassing of the times we were living in back then- I would have written Lisa as embracing online dating. It would have been a fun storyline (which the show seemed to desperately need at that time) having Lisa learn how to use a computer and one of the younger people helping her set up a dating profile. Lisa was often at her best when she was surrounded by youthful energy. See Lisa go on a series of dates, on the point of giving up, before coming across a profile that intrigues her and decides to give online dating one last try. The twist could be, someone from her past being revealed as her perfect match-- whether it's Grant Colman, Joe Bailey or Jerry Halperin, that merchandise distributor that got into a contentious issue with Barbara back in the day, which could have added a bit of tension initially, as Barbara and Jerry have to come to terms with their contentious past and make peace once both acknowledge that they both want Lisa's happiness. One of the many issues that I had with the way ATWT had decided to resolve plots in its final episodes was that everything was wrapped up too neatly, there was no room for intrigue, no desire to wonder what's going on with the characters, except for one or two characters. Many people didn't like the place that Lily and Holden were in for the final episode but I thought it was true to their history, as odd as it seemed, it was one of the few story conclusions that felt logical.

With the state of the world today, I'm not even sure if I can look that far ahead. All I can say is that voting rights protections are critical. Trump blasted the gates open for the most addled-brain individuals to believe they have a shot at the presidency. And Florida loves to tip elections in their favor. The best way to counteract that possibility is to make it as easy as possible to get as many sensible eligible voters to the polls to vote.

She had devoted decades to that show. It's either hang in to the end or do early retirement and some people really don't want to retire, as they think it might degrade their quality of life. Personally, I don't know how she did it but it wasn't just a job to her. I would've loved to have been able to write a proper ending for Lisa. As one of the longest-running characters in all of daytime television, it still strikes me as sad that her character was so disregarded.