DramatistDreamer

Yes, when I rewatched those episodes as an adult about a decade ago, it was so very clear that Tad was Trump. From the real estate business that had been handed down to him to the nasty attitude and lascivious behavior to the sexual assault and predatory conduct, even the styling of Larry Pine’s version was full-on Trumpian. My guess is, that made it much easier to kill off the character.

Although I thought Larry Pine was hilariously venal, I did find the original actor intriguing, maybe because the contrast of this good looking, somewhat charismatic guy who was an otherwise awful human being. I was interested in what his arc would be and honestly, I could see how Iva and Denise could be attracted to a Tad Channing that looked like him. With Larry Pine’s Tad being so obviously evil, I had a hard time figuring out what on earth Iva (even with low-esteem issues) and Denise (hungry for opportunity) could ever have seen in Tad. Maybe Lisa Brown wanted a clearer contrast to her GL character, Nola who had been known for being edgy. Brown was a known B’way performer and may have had other opportunities and honestly, I can see her being bored with portraying any character too similar to the last one she played the last time they worked together so, perhaps that character shift got her to stay on the show?

That sounds like so much fun! By the time I got to college in the 90s, daytime soaps no longer inspired that type of enthusiasm. It was all about the sleazy talk shows by then. This is pretty much how today’s soap operas are written. Marland belonged to that school of writing that composed story projections that went out at least a year or more. From the accounts of actors who worked with him, he wrote out the story projections nearly two years out. From what I can glean, he left room for flexibility, so that he could make adjustments here and there, which is what one should do, you want to leave room to explore the unforeseen possibilities that crop up. When you put out something off the cuff, it’s hard to explain, let alone backtrack if it goes awry. I have been in screenwriting workshops where writers got trapped that way and had to scrap their entire idea. When you’re in the midst of writing a continuing story, good luck with that!

That was a humdinger of an episode, wasn’t it @Soapsuds? I think I did set the VCR to record the episode but I also remember walking really fast after getting off the school bus, (which was a block away from my house) so that could catch whatever I could in real time of the episode (probably the last few minutes). Then, in the evening I could watch from the beginning.

On this day in 1986, it was the apex of a veritable sweeps week with this episode.

That would be like 3 years worth of storylines on today’s Y&R.🙃

I just recently watched the PBS documentary called “The War On Disco” which was very interesting but could have gone further in exploring the aspect that the sale of Rock music was declining from other factors beside the popularity of disco music. In other shows that discussed the 1970s rockers also expressed a lack of regard for “glam rock” and “soft rock”, which a number of traditional rock musicians thought of as pale imitations of the genre, yet threre were never any attempt to steamroll over a Debbie Boone or Anne Murray album, or the soundtrack of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I think the interlocutors let the disco haters who caused the melee at the Comiskey Park off the hook too easily, but perhaps that is for a different documentary.

For me, the most memorable episodes surrounding the passage of patriarch Chris Hughes weren’t about the funeral itself but the episodes before (when the Hughes family and extended family and friends were learning about his passing) and the aftermath, after the funeral when we see how loved ones are dealing with the grief after the funeral service, which is often not something that many dramas would dramatize. It was likely done without Rosemary Prinz and Julianne Moore due to scheduling issues that probably couldn’t have been rearranged to cover what was an unforeseen event but I think the writing made it work as Frannie’s scenes with Casey in the vehicle (I too wondered why, there wasn’t a deeper exploration of a romantic relationship between Frannie and Casey- Marland had a better sense of how to pace stories than most but this was one of those that I think was too rushed, they should have lingered a bit longer). Penny wailing “Mom!” and just repeating “Mom…Mom…” as she fell into Nancy Hughes’ arms will never not strike me in an emotional way. David Stewart embracing Bob with the gentle greeting of “Friend” was just so touching to me. There was a scene of Margo lovingly and sympathetically looking at Tom as he mulls over the fact that their unborn child will never get to know his great grandfather, Margo tries to soothe Tom by reminding him that, at least, they were able to give Chris the news that they had reconciled which she knew made him happy. Sometimes ATWT could be a little too subtle for its own good but this was a time when those small moments painted a poignant and realistic picture of what grief and its immediate aftermath tends to look like. Also, I think the missing episodes do a disservice to the continuity, particularly in years like 1986 and 1987, when there were so many stories, many of which overlapped and interlocked with one another.

Thus joining the ranks, alongside Scott and Fen.

The daytime drama community has suffered a number of losses in recent years and its a certain kind of sadness that comes with the recognition that many recent losses have been of actors who have gone at relatively young ages. For sure, it will be cold comfort to GH and Days fans that at least these shows are still airing when they can pay homage to Tyler Christopher, hopefully both shows will take the time to give a fitting tribute. May he RIP.

That clip of the guy commenting on the athletic exploits of Monfils is hilarious. I have seen different videos of mainly Black guys marveling at Monfils’ acrobatics. They all express utter shock at never having seen him before. It kind of speaks to the poor job that tennis’ executives are doing at broadening the reach of the sport’s visibility. Speaking of doing a poor job, for years, I have been expressing my frustration with Simon. It may be a bit crass to say but, the pandemic and the Peng Shuai situation gave him cover for the past three years as both took the focus on his systematic failures. It gives me no joy to say that I haven’t watch a single match since the U.S. Open. I grew up as a fan of tennis and by the late 80s, I became a hardcore fan. Now, I barely keep up with the sport. Personally, I think the management of both tours are failing the sport. There needs to be wholesale change at the top of both Tours’ executive ranks, they are selling the sport way short, all for a cash grab.

Their big fat Greek wedding will always be stunning. They did have chemistry and the actors promoted the hell out of that pairing, regardless of how each actor now looks upon their time on the show. I do think the promotion of the supercouple should have faded with the end of the decade (1980s).

Since the days of Irna Phillips, P&G was known for being very actively involved in stories and characterizations on their shows. Both the showrunner and the executives were known to have bumped heads numerous times and in the end, P&G mostly got their own way. Although his reunion videos are not always known for being of the highest quality, several uploads provided insight as a few former ATWT actors talked about the battles between writers and the brass at P&G and/or CBS Daytime for content in scripts that the higher ups considered to be objectionable. Scott Bryce once described it as being akin to being called into the principal’s office. Creativity by committee tends to yield insipid results.

Yes, I did hear Lauren mention Fen but figured she must’ve mentioned Scott while my attention drifted, lol. Oh that’s weird that she wouldn’t mention her first born. I know the character has been a mess in the previous appearances but that is a big oversight.

^^ Congratulations to Belinda. Now, at least I won’t have to watch her on court tantrums. A win-win.

A postscript to his biography: Apparently, Diaz has a daytime/soap opera connection. His widow Shawn Callaghan Diaz was a set decorator for the program Captain Kangaroo and the daytime dramas As The World Turns and Guiding Light.

Reading this article, I couldn’t shake my head enough times. This is just beyond a few miscues. This is all out negligence. https://www.yahoo.com/news/signs-were-why-did-no-130935199.html

I don’t often watch this show anymore but I enjoyed this episode, for the most part. I wonder if LLB was pondering her parents legacy as well their physical absences. Emotionally, I think there was more going on there than what was just on the screen or in the script. The CBS website would be a good opportunity to add some extras because yes, it’s odd that the show couldn’t find a clip of a scene with her mother Jessica to tie into the episode, especially when she was talking about the concept of family and questioning her life choices. Honestly, from the looks of those clips, it really makes it seem like Paul was the standby after things fell apart with Danny.

Oh, okay. Thanks for clarifying that. I was curious.

Did Lauralee make her debut during Sweeps? Was there a sweeps back then?

The back and forth bothers me more with each passing year. I am convinced that half the flu cases that happen in the fall stem from people struggling to adapt to the time difference.

The ever vivacious Marisa Tomei (Marcy Thompson, ATWT) wearing her haute couture Halloween costume discusses her new movie with Peter Dinklage and Anne Hathaway.

Giving this thread a bump as it’s that time of year again. This weekend.

What happened to this “adopted” son was the first question that I had. I find the entire situation highly disturbing, almost as disturbing is the lack of probing into this. Hopefully there is some type of deep investigating reportage going on that we’re currently not privy to.

I absolutely agree with what you said here. For years, I have been somewhat exasperated by soap fans repetition of the same boilerplate reasoning behind the decline in popularity of daytime soaps to a single inciting event like the O.J. Simpson trial, rather than a number of factors that include the production companies behind these daytime soaps’ and their rigid adherence to the same format, plots and unchanging characterizations (pandering to the anachronistic idea of the mythical Midwestern housewife from the 1950s) for years on end. For years, I have believed that the idea of the supercouple was one of the best and perhaps the worst thing to happen to the daytime soap opera. It should have been a brief marketing campaign that lasted for about 48 months and dispensed with when it became limiting and tired, which it had obviously become by the very early 90s. If there was anything that soap production company executives should have doubled down on, it should have been the insistence that their viewers had not truly abandoned these shows but that time shifted viewing (viewers recording their favorite soaps on VCRs preset via timers) had become a bigger factor because of more women working outside the home and those numbers were not being recorded, and figuring out a way for those numbers to be factored into the ratings as DVR viewing is now factored into today’s ratings. I still think the executives and industry set the standards for how archetypes were and are written, especially female ones. There should have been room for all types of matriarchal figures, the way that there was room for patriarchal figures (Bob Hughes was a fatherly type and also a serial cheater, for instance) but there was an industry wide standard of having a warm, very nurturing matriarch. GL never allowed the likes of Vanessa to be a matriarch because, despite her being of age at the time, a matriarch wasn’t supposed to ever be ambitious in her career or even sexy enough to attract younger men. If you had an ambitious figure like an Alexandra Spaulding or a Lucinda Walsh who had any maternal feelings at all, it was usually presented as a weakness, a character flaw or something that the woman, as intelligent as she was, could never quite manage properly and despite repeated stories, the clumsy way these women could never seem to manage their maternal relationships with half the level of competence as they did their businesses. It was a sexist trope that needed to die with the evolution of more women in the workplace but it persists to this day.