BetterForgotten

It was speculated at the time that most of the male cast hated Gottlieb. So much so, most of them refused to support the show during Daytime Emmy season and OLTL never earned an Outstanding Daytime Drama Series nomination during this era. That was considered glaring particularly in 1994 when OLTL and GL split all the main categories, but OLTL was denied a nomination for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series.

We’ll see when the rest of the 1993 and 1994 ratings are posted if this is a myth or not - but it’s been said Victor’s presumed death/Kansas storyline gave Y&R some of the highest soap ratings in the 90’s. Specifically the week Victor “returned from the dead” and was back in Genoa City.

We were taking about Potter in the GL thread not long ago. He’s really underrated when we speak of the great soap opera EP’s of all time.

For Felicia alone I’d give them the edge. Poor Linda Dano also seemed to single-handedly carry the morale of the whole show in those final years as well.

And both for NBC, but I guess one could say Nixon really cut her teeth at GL and Bell at ATWT first.

It makes you wonder if Reilly didn’t have Curlee/Demorest, Calhoun, then JFP, and Ed Trach how GL would have turned out in the early 90’s… Curlee once mentioned that it seemed like P&G made them a HW-ing team to play her and Demorest against Reilly. Both sides being untested as HW’s and one side would eventually out-power the other (or a “name” HW would have been hired instead). However, the 3 of them decided to outsmart the executives and band together as a team. They were all different and had their own style, but managed to stick together as a united front against TPTB. Ultimately, Reilly (like McTavish) preferred to work alone and not be open to outside [constructive] criticisms of his work for the rest of his career.

Was this press conference held at the local Motel 6?

I’m not quite sure AnnaLynne McCord was ever a “name.”

Luckily those women had the last laugh and went on to arguably more iconic and longstanding roles. I’m not sure how interested Davidson was ever in reclaiming those roles. She admitted that she only returned to DAYS in 2012 because it was orchestrated by Sony. She left as soon as she could when that stint wrapped. At the time she said she didn’t think Kristen was a sustainable longterm character. She’s made those smaller stints since then, but never staying very long and never with the same regularity as she does as Ashley on Y&R. I think she’s grateful to have had the role(s), but never considered DAYS as her home in the same way she regards Y&R (which has given her plenty garbage material to play anyway). DAYS wanted a Kristen they could use as often as they wanted and Davidson didn’t seem to want to always be that for them. But back to topic - Corday is ultimately the one on top of the chain there. He allowed this toxic environment to grow, and it would serve him right to be held an accountable in court for that part.

I think Lee was fired less than 2 years later, but lasted just over a decade. She left us with many “gems” in terms of interviews over the years. Like this one with Jon Reiner at TV Guide: Q&A with Susan Lee (Senior Vice President, Daytime Programs, NBC Entertainment)

It’s interesting going back and reading articles from the time the show was canceled. This article has some interesting tidbits from Wyndham, Keating and Dano. But former head of NBC Daytime, Susan Lee, comes off as a real insensitive b!tch: It’s the End of the ‘World’ As They Know It on NBC “We wanted to bring in the next generation,” says Susan Lee, senior vice president of daytime programming at NBC. “The show was skewing old and if you don’t continue to build your young audience you will have no audience. When you are 25, you don’t relate to a 50-year-old’s love story. There’s a lot of stuff that went down in our research that I wouldn’t tell the people on ‘Another World’ because it would be too painful for them.”

Demorest was last at AMC as a breakdown writer between 2005-2008. He hasn’t worked in daytime since. He was at OLTL as a scriptwriter for less than a year during Malone’s (who he and Nancy were personal friends of) ill-fated return. Many of the folks PM worked closely with are elderly, retired, happily slugging it out at B&B, or dead, so it will be interesting to see what happens with that team.

If PM quits within a year, then we’ll know ABC and Valentini didn’t uphold their end of what the bargain was to get him to sign on. We know he’s not afraid to just walk away if the conditions aren’t up to his standards…

That may be the last glimmer of hope - maybe someone can force change at this show as part of the renewal conversation? Sony used to periodically do those surveys about the show that often came during renewal time. Often, that was a sign change was coming. I don’t think they’ve done one of those surveys in a long time though.

PM has his hands full between working with Valentini, the already bloated cast of primarily nobodies, and being stuck with characters like Jason that have been in the same perpetual rut for decades at this point.

It was an awful, misguided decision to even do it. To be fair, in Eplin’s case, he still had a contract with P&G where they had to pay or play him regardless of AW being cancelled. Once that contract was over, Jake was killed off too. I’ve also heard Eplin was not popular on the ATWT set.

At this point, I’ve long accepted that Bill Bell’s Y&R is dead. However, Y&R’s biggest problem is that they cannot tell an actual damn story from start to finish well, and whatever they’re telling isn’t very interesting to begin with. Griffith’s writing is allergic to drama. The fact that Griffith has now had several failed tenures at this show and they keep bringing him back is absurd. Bell’s Y&R is long gone, but if they had better creative talent, they maybe could at least tell a coherent story every once in a while that moves some of these characters forward. Y&R still has the ability to be so much better than it currently is, but no one seems to even care anymore. On the current staff, there are some folks who’ve paid their dues in various positions in daytime for decades at this point that are untested for top roles. If Sony/CBS refuse to bring new people in - why not promote and give Jeff Beldner a chance to HW, and give the EP responsibilities to Vivian Gundaker? They really have nothing to lose or gain at this point.

Wouldn’t the fact that they existed in the same universe make them sister soaps alone? Same with GL when Agnes Nixon crossed over Michael and Hope Bauer.

It’s an experiment with a writer widely known for quitting when things get tense behind the scenes. If anything, it will be interesting to see how long this experiment lasts. If it’s a purely money/medical insurance play, that too will show in the final product. it’s at least exciting to have something or some kind of change to look forward to.

Maybe there’s an argument that no character/family should truly be the center of an ongoing show. Maybe the true center is the fictional town and show itself, and characters just come in and out regardless of their last name? Deidre Hall left the show in the late 80’s and then was fired in 2009 - the show went on during both eras.

I think it’s obvious that Griffith doesn’t know how to balance the budget, or effectively manage resources. Vivian Gundaker mentioned that when she came to Y&R, she was surprised at how much bigger the staff was at the show and obviously the show had a bigger budget than ATWT did during its last decade or so. But ATWT ended over a decade ago - so why does Y&R look more like a budget strapped soap on the verge of cancellation?

And Nancy Curlee was almost Labine’s replacement before she backed out at the last minute! Riche had also admitted to being burnt out by the end of her GH stint. The show by then wasn’t in great shape and had already started to resemble what Guza would ultimately do unchecked.

I don’t think KC could’ve played Janet’s redemption arc as successfully - it probably would have made me long more for Natalie. I think RM came in at the perfect time and to push the character forward. AMC was saved by some really stellar script and breakdown writers during this time who went a long way in making Megan’s stories palatable, along with some solid key actors and directors. It’s beyond me how anyone kept a straight face playing this scene, but it somehow worked: And, of course, always liked this scene of RM’s Janet calling out the hypocrites of Pine Valley:

No, I think he meant Richie and Guza’s deteriorating relationship, and more pressure from ABC executives as time went on. He left GL and SB for similar reasons. B&B is an outlier since the Bell’s own it outright and only have to answer to CBS when it come to the licensing fees and renewal periods.

Kate is Natalie, but I’ve always preferred Robin Mattson as Janet.