j swift

One more twist on the Steve Fletcher/Blizzard story he was dating Nana Visitor/Tucker - if they got married their wedding announcement would have been super complicated

@SFK Its from January 1984 and the party marked the inauguration of the mansion set for Mark and Paula Denning See my Soaps of Yesteryear thread for other examples of editors making headline mistakes

One more note - I continue to appreciate how the soap press was spoiler free and therefore subject to poor predictions

@Chris 2 if you thought the Alec Baldwin material was catty I thought you should see some other fan opinions of the time I'm tickled both by this fan's derision of a baby actor, and Jon-Michael Reed's admonishment that not everyone can survive in daytime To be fair, Terri Vandenbosch was no Julianne Moore Ryan's Hope fan were also not happy And Lynda Hirsch feels its important to note that even men feel the same way As always Jon-Michael and Lynda are not fans of the Daytime Emmys However, when asked who should win this year Lynda went with James Mitchel. whose plot she derided for weeks prior Then there's this tidbit More off-screen drama - Gloria Loring and Alan Thicke are getting divorced and Tristan Rogers's divorce is messy In other news they retract the Marcy Walker gossip from last week

SB Sophia once played another Augusta - that's a twist I never knew

Agreed I think it is unfair to judge all actors who used cue cards with the broad stroke of being lazy. As I mentioned on the prior page, soap scripts were notoriously rewritten at the last minute. The single take nature of soap production may have relied on cue cards to maintain an efficient production. Actors who deride cue cards in interviews are generally not talented enough to be able to read and act at the same time. And, most soaps could no longer afford them as a luxury, so it is not a contemporary issue.

Its a shame that no writer was able to successfully integrate Silver into a long term character. Con artist Silver was so great at playing an All About Eve storyline with Erica, and while the long term potential as a thorn in Erica's side was intriguing, at some point there would have been a detente, which would have weakened both characters, making her redundant with the role that Kendall played in Erica's story later in the series. Then, we had mousy Silver aka Noelle. She was interesting contrast to Erica because she was so earnest while Erica was so flamboyant. However, that contrast was later played out with the adult Bianca. Finally, we had the recast Silver, who went from victim to psycho on a dime and could never sustain as a character over time. I like the idea of Silver in terms of what Erica might have been if she was not raised by Mona. Silver had the capacity to be all of the self-centered parts of Erica, that wouldn't have been tempered by the relationship with Mona. Mona was so intriguing to me because despite her patrician exterior, she had a history on the cabaret circuit, her best friend was Nick Davis (who, if I remember correctly, Mona suspected might have been Erica's actual father), and she wound up married to one of the richest guys in Pine Valley without really trying. She was critical of Erica, but also she understood that her daughter was living out the life that she may have wanted for herself, if she had not been hurt by Eric. The constant finger wagging kept Erica in line and reminded her that she deserved more than just being an object of men's desires. Silver grew up with Goldie, who was never able to achieve a successful relationship after Eric Kane. Goldie was such a narcissist that she named her daughter after herself, and then used her as a means of scoring an inheritance that she wrongly felt she deserved. Silver should have been an interesting contrast to what might have been if Erica was left to her devices. In the end, I guess most of the likely stories for Silver got played out by Bianca, Kendall, and even Brooke/Barbara. But, I can't help but think about the lost potential of Erica having an ongoing sibling rivalry.

Yes, but once again Jon-Michael Reed's editor f@#$ed up the headline Clearly it should have been "Married duo ditches Days"

Why didn't he change his name to Steve Skitching? Its got more zing!

@will81's Tumblr The Soaps of Yesterday is so juicy I thought we should have a place to discuss these older news stories (both personal and professional) - https://thesoapsofyesterday-blog-blog.tumblr.com/ 1. Remember when soaps had money to burn? Weddings in 1984 were very expensive affairs with $10,000 to $20,000 spent on the dresses alone! 2. But off-screen marriages did not go as smoothly for Marcy Walker or Alec Baldwin I think Janine Turner's southern accent was real 3. I had always though there was more to this story But, apparently it coincided with an overall cast exit from SFT 4. And finally, one of my favorite soap gossip stories of all time @Franko I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful threadship

Question: Did Mark Dalton and Silver Kane ever live in Pine Valley at the same time? Were they half-siblings as well, because I think Goldie was not Mark's mother?

That was just as silly as the critics at the time complained about. Palmer's motivation in that plot makes no sense. I think Daisy was using Lars as a romantic rival, but it hardly warranted Palmer going to South America with Erica to investigate on his own (given that Palmer had never previously been a man of adventure). Why would he host an engagement party for Jenny and Tony? Why wasn't Nina invited? What's up with the stunt doubles who were two feet taller than the actors? What was Lars's plan if he won the fight, there are a dozen other people on board (mostly younger and more virile that Palmer), would he take everyone hostage and try to navigate that small yacht all the way back to South America? And who directed Jack Betts to use that bizarre facial expression when he fell off the boat? Given all that, it is hard to believe that anyone allowed AMC to revisit the subject of Nazi art years later, only this time Palmer was dealing in contraband. If Courtland Electronics needed some extra cash they should have sold the yacht.

Its really a credit both to the writing and the production. The use of contemporary music makes it even more exciting, along with Roger's creepy clown costume, and that still shot of Rita's horror. They made what was probably a 10x10 set look like a huge maze. I can't watch this and not compare it to Another World's use of a house of mirrors in 1989 with Felicia Gallant and the murder of Jason Frame. GL's was much more engrossing because the inclusion of the music. However, both plots required a suspension of disbelief as to why the town sophisticates were suddenly interested in attending a carnival. You know that if it was not required by the plot, Rita would have sent Crissy off to the carnival with some extra while she had lunch at the club.

From the Lyman wiki (which may or may not be a trustworthy source) In an appearance on Vicki Lawrence's talk show Vicki!, Lyman noted that she continued to perform on All My Children concurrently with the beginning of Mama's Family's production, flying back and forth each week between New York City and Los Angeles. While the commute was brutal, she remembered it fondly, referring to that stage of her career as "All My Paychecks"

After my recent reading of the Soaps of Yesteryear Tumblr, I question this assumption. In 1983 when P&G syndicated Texas to TBS, it was noted that they had the foresight to add a limited residuals clause to the contracts for all acting, writing, and production staff which made it cheaper to rebroadcast on cable. Clearly at the outset of the production of Texas, and later EON, they did not know if the market would allow for syndication because no soap had ever done it before. However, given the fact that those contracts exist, it would make it easier to reproduce the soaps in either in syndication, or later on streaming services, in order to maximize profits. I would suggest that it was the dissolution of P&G's media production, not an overall corporate disinterest, that keeps their soaps in the virtual vault. When I read the book Soap Opera: the inside story of Procter and Gamble by Alecia Swasy, it was clear by the 90's P&G was hit with huge losses due to environmental issues and consumer lawsuits. They shut down production because they couldn't afford it anymore after years of red lines due to corruption around the research on consumer safety. So, it wasn't a loss of creativity in the writing or production that killed ATWT as much as customer payouts for tampons that caused toxic shock and animal testing on detergent. ATWT might still be on air today if corporate raiders hadn't destroyed the consumer product industry by trying to cut corners. Bad writing didn't kill the soap, as much as actual bad soaps killed the commercial viability. Thus, it may not be that P&G didn't want SoapClassics to succeed, as much as that the people who might of cared were no longer a part of that corporation's future. So, P&G considers soaps a discontinued product, just like Prell shampoo.

Upthread we discussed this issue in the SOD 1991 posts. In an article from that period it was noted that DAYS, Santa Barbara, and Y&R all continued to allow the use of cue cards, or teleprompters, on set. However, Peter Bergman was quoted as being derisive of the practice. In 2018, Cady McClain was interviewed about her time on Y&R on the TV Guidance Counselor podcast and noted that cue cards were disallowed one year prior to her hiring (btw she went on to say that Y&R was the least professional set and she hated her time there). I recall that when Robert Laguardia wrote Soap World (which I still consider the definitive study of the history of soaps), he mentioned that it was a skill for early TV actors who transitioned from radio to learn how to emote to the camera while reading from a card, because radio soaps were all read from scripts. I would argue that style of acting seemed old fashioned by 1991, but it should not be attributed to laziness or age. An actor has pages of dialogue to learn everyday, and at that time, changes were made to scripts up to the time of taping. Also, despite being entertaining, bloopers are expensive in a one take genre, and cue cards could be seen as more efficient. However, I would dare to suppose that in these budgetary times most soaps could not afford a skilled, union-based, teleprompter operator or a cue card writer. Most local news operations depend on laptops rather than teleprompters which may have gone the way of live organists when it comes to soap production.

I try to avoid spoilers because I am on the west coast and watch it late. But, I happened to see @Faulkner's post prior to watching the show. Amusingly, when Symone won the lip sync, I thought to myself, "why would anyone think of her as nasty or negative?". Then, Kandi was saved and it all made sense. All in all, one of the worst Rusicals The lyrics weren't funny, the subjects were tired, and it was an odd choice to discuss "cancel culture", but ignore trolls. My top Rusicals are: Bitch Perfect,the Olympics (was that a Rusical?) the Cher autobiography, and the Madonna one because they were worthy of parody and filled with more iconic gay references. I also preferred the Herstory of the World and the Diva's Live one because it was more about lip syncing than singing; which seems more salient to choosing a great drag queen. The fact that Symone can't sing does nothing to diminish her talents in my eyes.

The reports of the time do not indicate any bad terms. She left to play a role on Momma's Family (perhaps inspired by Carol Burnett's AMC fandom).

I was reading this article on The Soaps of Yesterday Tumblr about the ascendancy of Y&R in the ratings starting in the summer of 1983, and it got me thinking about the plots of that year. It is interesting to note that while there were more "teen" stories in 1983, (including the introduction of Cricket and the beginning of the Lauren/Traci saga), arguably most of the plot centered on the middle-aged John Abbott. We got Jack and Jill's affair, the first return of Dina, John's stroke, and the mystery of who was sending the puzzle pieces of a picture of Jack and Jill kissing. Victor and Nikki were big in 1983, but they didn't marry until 1984. So, despite the normative reliance of 1980s soaps on younger characters and outlandish plots, 18-25 year old viewers were being drawn to a rather traditional soap plotline mostly involving characters above the age of 40. Also worth remarking, Price is Right was credited with buoying Y&R's ratings (although I still prefer a 30 minute game show format). But, I thought, it was remarkable that classic soap stories about older characters (in contrast to other soaps going younger and more action-driven) were an integral part of Y&R 30-year-plus dominance of soap ratings.

Courtesy of The Soaps of Yesterday Tumblr Poor John Conboy tried to get some helpful PR out of a very expensive party Only to get this headline from an uninformed editor

Courtesy of @will81's Tumblr - The Soaps of Yesterday I have thoughts about this news. (1) It is always curious when soaps hire actors who were troublesome on prior sets. (2) Ms. Vigard has a similar physicality to Andrea Evans (at that time she was being credited as Andrea Evans-Massey), but she never played any of the evil sides of Tina during her time as Morgan which makes the casting choice seem odd. (3) Given the hubbub at the time that the O'Neils were taking over OLTL, it is interesting to read about how little planning went into their creation.

Your answer has arrived - its like Lynda herself was reading your post (ha ha) Opal's final appearance must have been before Lars's death in November 1983 However, tales of her return were greatly exaggerated. Was the rumor started by the guy who played Ralph Purdy?

It couldn't have been Mike because he was already in Pine Valley and was key in discovering that Lars was a Nazi.

My anachronistic quote of the week came from the Jon-Michael Reed article @Franko mentioned about the introduction of a lesbian character on AMC. In 2021, I hope nobody would refer to Lynn's sexuality as something "consciously chosen", although I do miss the term "alternative" lifestyle. I keep trying to decide which writer I prefer. Jon-Michael Reed has a fun bitchy style when reporting the news, and I love his clapbacks in his Q&A articles, but his synopses are too brief. Lynda Hirsch has better weekly summaries, but she is in desperate need of an editor According to both sources, AMC's low point included Lars being killed off on Palmer's boat with an American flag (and fans who needed explanations of Nazi atrocities) while Nina's lover Steve (aka Dack Rambo) was being unceremoniously sent out of Pine Valley. Appearently, Mr. Rambo was supposed to make a stop at a paid fan event event for 10,000 people in Texas but his plans mysteriously changed at the last minute to a direct flight to LA. On a side note: I appreciate that both columns were so relatively spoiler-free that they were still unsure about Luke's future when Laura returned. We get the "would you rather?" of the year - Tony Geary in Atlantic City with special guest Genie Francis or "Soap Madness" on Long Island where Steve Bond is going to debut his new song? Also, I find humor in the prices of everything in the ads. Ladies boots were $59, but a portable VCR was a whopping $649.95!

Why is it 30 years later that I noticed how f#$%ed up it was that Roger Coleridge was romantically linked to his stepsister Maggie? Maybe I didn't think about it at the time, because Maggie didn't grow up with Jill. As I recall, nobody commented on Maggie being Roger's step-sister. However, he must have grown up with Bess in the household. Bess slept with Roger's father and they shared a baby. He was aware of Maggie's relationship with Jill, whom he treasured. So, in hindsight, it is kind of gross that Maggie and Roger grew close enough to have a child together... I'm willing to chalk it up to one of those soap instances where there aren't enough characters in town to avoid people engaging in romances with their extended family (although to be fair RH took place in Manhattan which is an infinite resource of characters).