pdm1974

On 4/27/2020 at 8:50 AM, Capridge said:

You know, you may be right about that. I did not enjoy Pam Long's writing at all but I think she might have done well with Augusta & Lionel. Though she might have only used them for silly mini-stories like she did with Lionel & Gina.

I wasn't the biggest Pam Long fan, either. I did think she utilized the Lockridges much better than the writers before her. She also expanded Minx's role on the canvas.

1 hour ago, Forever8 said:

A reunion would be amazing! I would love to see one just with the Dobsons. The show won so many awards in its short time, but it also had a ton of backstage drama that would be wonderful to dish.

51 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

Maggie's suicide attempt lacks any substance. No proper writing that delved into her pain. No proper production values either. An empty prison with one prison guard is pathetic. Days shouldn't have bothered since they can't properly executed it. 

As someone who has worked in a maximum security prison, the one in Salem is hilariously unrealistic. First off, you don't get to have unlimited numbers of visitors, and ONE security guard. Yes...if they just HAD to go there, they should have spent a little more on those episodes.

Still, I don't need to see Maggie attempt suicide. Life is dark enough right now.

As happy as I am that SR is getting some meaty material...watching Maggie trying to hang herself is a helluva depressing.

3 hours ago, Darn said:

 

It's really gross that insulting Freddie Smith's looks and his up and down weight (I'm sure they're all physical perfection) is accepted here because a couple of weirdos are obsessed with Chandler Massey. The kid would run in the opposite direction if they even breathed near him.

I just happened to see this posting on the main page. Sadly, I had stopped even participating in this thread because it turned into just a few posters dominating it with bashing Freddie Smith over and over in such an obsessive, pathetic way with this odd compulsion to fixate on his weight. There was no more discussion about the show itself and no point to the thread. I was disappointed the moderators didn't intervene more.

What's sad is that happy people don't feel the need to bash other people repeatedly. But, some people see the ability to hide on line as a reason to be a troll to make them feel better about their sad lives??? Who knows?  So, that in itself says something about the posters with their maniacal preoccupation with whether Freddy Smith gained or lost 15 pounds. And, you just know if we saw these posters in real life,  Freddy Smith would be waaaaaaay out of their league.

33 minutes ago, mikelyons said:

Almost every random episode I've watched from 1987-1999 features Cricket Blair. I rolled my eyes as she tried to keep up with Jeanne Cooper in today's (5/5/2020) classic episode. I can only imagine how viewers and actors felt at the time!

Terry Lester was perfect as Jack. Arrogant, lovable. What a great actor!

I agree with Phillip and Danny being a couple. That would've been scandalously fantastic! Maybe Phillip started drinking so much because everyone wanted him with a girl named Cricket (*eye roll*) when he had all of those illicit feelings for pool boys and Danny. 

 

Cricket, later called Christine to make the character feel more mature I suppose, truly ate up the show for a good number of years then. All roads led back to Cricket...

I do miss Tricia Cast and wish she had been able to stay with the show all these years. Nina was a fascinating character.

It's very evident is watching these "classic episodes" that the budgets are a fraction of what they used to be even in the 1990s.

Still, the production values of Y&R and B&B are so much better than DAYS. it got to the point that I found it distracting...like that "blue room" that was redressed over and over to be everything.

28 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

Yes!  I don't know what TIIC were doing with some of these characters. Colleen, Rex, Brad.  They could've just sent Brad off to Azerbaijan or Katmandu and had Colleen visit him-- they needn't have kill both off and the way they did Colleen's death in particular was so damn cheesy!

I'm still super pissed they killed off Colleen. The character needed a recast, but it was still filled with so much possibility. And, it's just so sad they killed off Tracey's one child.

5 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

 

Bobbie Eakes said she had to refilm Macy meeting Thorne with Trachta on the fly the recast happened so fast.

Does anyone know why the recast happened so fast? CN certainly wasn't the best actor, but he was definite eye candy. JT was a much better actor.

4 minutes ago, rlj said:

I could be remembering wrong but didn't Eden take a romantic interest in Lionel when she first arrived bac in in SB?

I think she did, but that story point was quickly dropped.

On 4/22/2020 at 12:21 PM, Capridge said:

Yeah, the Lockridges were very fascinating. Laken might have been the least interesting of that all, but I liked her a lot. The actresses were good too, but were never given a real chance to shine.

 

But actually, there were many, many scenes between Lionel and Laken over the years. There were scenes after the pigeon incident where Lionel is trying to keep Laken from running away from home and the subject of his many travels comes up & she made it clear that she didn't understand why he had to go away so much & she didn't like it. There just wasn't much tension between them, because Laken always had a good relationship with him whereas her relationship with Augusta was a lot more complicated. Which is probably why Laken/Lionel scenes were less memorable.

 

But it was always made clear that they were close. When Lionel was suspected of killing Channing, Laken always believed he was innocent. Their relationship briefly changed when Laken returned in 1987 and started disapproving of Lionel's new relationship with Caroline Wilson. Also, Lionel didn't approve of Laken meddling in Ted and Hayley's marriage. But even then, they remained close. And in 1990, Lionel was pretty much the peacemaker when Laken & Augusta would get into fights.

 

I'm not sure if Warren borrowed Lionel's tux though. I'm pretty sure that Sophia/Dominic tried to frame Lionel by planting evidence in his tux not knowing that it was Warren's tux.

I don't know if I'm in the minority, but I always found the Lockridges more interesting than the Capwells. I'm not sure why TPTB seemed to have trouble writing for them.

5 hours ago, Capridge said:

ICAM!

Carrington Garland was extremely fun to watch and she had chemistry with just about everyone. Losing Marcy Walker, Louise Sorel, Carrington Garland, Roscoe Born and even Frank Runyeon (who had been there for four years) really hurt the show. Marcy and Roscoe wanted to leave the show and Frank was also ready to get out of there, but Carrington seemed happy to be there & Louise Sorel, well, her firing should never have happened either. It was so unnecessary. I guess they counted on Jack Wagner to save the show, but the stability of having Carrington Garland & Louise Sorel there would have really helped.

I thought Carrignton Garland was actually the best Kelly and would have been the perfect replacement as the lead heroine after MW left the show. If the show really wanted Eileen Davidson they should have just given her a new character.

2 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

Even before the Loving Murders...the show had found its footing and an actual life identity months beforehand.  

 

Dare I say that Angie had quite a bit of use in the final year of Loving than she had at AMC in the final years.

 

I liked the nod to Ava and Stacy's history..and the cracks showing in Ava and Alex's marriage.  Though I always wondered why Ava didn't have make the cut..in terms of going to the City.  She worked in retail and clothes...SoHo would have been a natural fit for her...moreso than that drip Jocelyn.  

I wonder how much Ava not moving to The City had to do with budgetary reasons. She did seem like she'd be a natural fit in the new show.

18 hours ago, Dion said:

 

I think you're right there...Bell did like playing around with audience expectations and leaving stories unresolved. I don't think he would have had Nina reunite with her firstborn and I don't think he would have revealed Lily's true paternity to Neil either, just like John never found outthat Ashley wasn't his.

 

Another unresolved Nina storyline had her spend weeks obsessed with proving that Jed Sanders (Josh Taylor) was her father since Jed had a scar, only for Flo - when she finally met him - to say that Nina's father's scar was on the other side of his face! Nina never bothered looking for her father again after that.

 

 

Yes, she wrote a book about it. I think there were even rumours that Raul would turn out to be her son.

I, too, don't think it was ever planned for Nina to find her first born, and it would remain a mystery that haunted her. I remember the odd storyline where she thought Jed Sanders was her father. I wonder what the initial plan for that could have been.

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

Well we know the Todd is Viki’s brother was after the fact.  He was solidly a villain from the rape, trial and then when he was stalking Nora afterwards.   But I don’t know if there were plans to finally get rid of him or not before they changed course due to his popularity.

I was always torn on the revelation that Todd was Viki's brother. I know they did it to help "redeem" him, but it always felt odd.

57 minutes ago, Khan said:

 

Same, although I'm sure Agnes Nixon, like Bill Bell, also missed the appeal of having a half-hour soap on the air.

Even though it would never happen, if a network tried to launch a new soap, a half-hour would be a better idea.

Agnes Nixon also, rarely if ever, discussed or talked about LOVING in the same way she did with AMC and OLTL. It was like the little forgotten step-child. Going up against Y&R when it exploded in popularity couldn't have been easy. Still, the fact that the show lasted as long as it did, it can't be thought of as a failure. Rarely does any TV show air for that many years.

On 3/28/2020 at 5:56 PM, watson71 said:

From his return in 1988, Donna Swajeski utilized the storyline projections that were written by Harding Lemay.  I wonder how much these storylines were changed with the death of Douglass Watson in May, 1989.  What storyline was planned to reunite Mac and his estranged daughter Iris?  Has any other soap, besides AW, have to make major changes to the storyline due to the real life death of one of the show's leading actors who was heavily featured in several storylines at the time of their death?

I'm sure Mac's death changed quite a bit of what had been planned. I feel like when Lemay started he also took Rachel back to her core as a character, but then she ended up being the matriarch of the show after Mac's death.

On 3/27/2020 at 12:06 PM, soapfan770 said:

.Thudley Bell at B&B also has numerous dropped/twisted plots over the years as well, ranging from a Lolita-type story for Eric to a introducing a bunch of characters in 2003/2004 to replace the Forresters but dropped it entirely.

Out of curiosity, what characters were introduced in 2003/4 to replace the Forresters?

On 3/27/2020 at 11:34 AM, AbcNbc247 said:

Had Pat Falken Smith stayed at DAYS in 1982, Stefano's obsession would have been Julie, not Marlena.

This would have definitely given Doug and Julie's characters a new lease on life, so to speak.

I feel like Marlena as a character has been completely lost at this point because of "Stefano's obsession."

He was absolutely spell-binding on Santa Barbara and had amazing chemistry with Eden (and I was a Cruz fan!) and Kelly. I always wished they hadn't killed off Robert leaving us with Quinn. Robert could have been such an interesting mainstay until the end.

Who can forget this iconic scene from Santa Barbara with that big reveal with Robert at the end? Roberta Bizeau was amazing on that show, too.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

Oh that's sad to hear. Roscoe was one of the most charismatic actors a soap could ever hope to have - Mitch Laurence was pure fire, even as the writing fell right off a cliff. And he was absolutely terrific as Robert on Santa Barbara - the only one who ever came close to threatening the popularity of Cruz and Eden. 

Agreed he was magic on Santa Barbara!

1 hour ago, AbcNbc247 said:

7 down, how many more to come?

 

#Ronsgottago

So many characters have been ruined in the name of redeeming of Ben.

I just don't understand it. If they just HAD to keep the actor they could have given Ben a twin. That could have been a compelling story actually....think what GH did with Ryan Chamberlin. Even having some big DiMera plot revealed where Ben only thought he was the killer (a la Marlena) would have been better. But, all of these people throwing away their lives and family just to make this serial killer happy...a serial killer who tried or did kill family members, it's just too much. I can't watch it anymore.

Ben's "redemption" may just be the final undoing of this show.

7 hours ago, AlexElizabeth said:

 

What kills me even more is Will cutting his reunion with his husband short to go be with Ben. Like what in the actual @#$%. The Ben and Ciara stuff is so horrible that it's making me dread watching the show any time they're on. It's just too much.

It's like they'll destroy every other single character on the show just to prop Ben. Why???? Does the character really get that great of feedback from viewers?

Marlena crying over the man who tried to kill her grandson...ugh!!!

I just don't get the Ben fascination.

2 minutes ago, DynamiteKiddo said:

 

 

I feel really bad about this Maggie situation... but again, it feels rushed.  Everything on this show feels shoehorned, and has for, like, 10 years.

I'm glad Suzanne Rogers is getting so meaty material for a change...I'm sure there's another twist coming though.

5 hours ago, John said:

 

Maybe we could also see Justin's other kids back?

 I don't know why they haven't introduced some of Justin and Adrienne's other kids. They have three more! The show could use some more new blood definitely.

55 minutes ago, Khan said:

If anything, revealing Eli to be David and Valerie's son was a PERFECT opportunity not just to bring back David but put him in a triangle with Valerie and Abe as well.

With JJ, Abby, and Will all exiting it only leaves Ciara and Eli as "younger generation Hortons"

I'm not sure what they will do with Jack and Jennifer once their kids are gone.

On 2/9/2020 at 5:25 PM, Paul Raven said:

Russ and Pat could have eased into patriach/matriach roles but in the 80's and 90's soaps were running away from those type of characters.

 

Remember when JFP pretty much dropped everyone over 50?

Yep, that was so shortsighted. What makes soaps special is that they're multigenerational.

11 hours ago, Toups said:

Let's try to do better when CONSTANTLY talking about people's weight or how they look.   It's one thing to comment on it, but to keep harping on it is childish.  Move on and get back on topic.

+1