j swift

I've always felt that the pace of Passions was part of Reilly's meta-commentary on soaps. Passions was an intentional parody of the genre and the whole idea of days lasting for weeks seemed like it part of the scheme. However, I can see why it would make it impossible to binge watch. I remember a winter night in Tabatha's house that lasted so long it was spring when they woke up the next day. I am a bit older, but I remember thinking the same thing when "Texas" premiered.

It was Minx's house that Augusta and her kids moved into once Lionel went on his treasure hunt. However, Augusta's bedroom set was remarkedly lacking in any sense of the character's personality or style. This is an interesting question because Santana mentions growing up in the mansion, so I assumed that Rosa and her kids lived in the servant's quarters. However, when Ted and Danny go off on their adventure to Hollywood, Danny is living in an apartment in town that he shares with Rosa on her days off (even though he is in high school and could use more supervision, after all, he does disappear from town). Either way, given that the Capwell's always had more than one maid, and they had a sister from the local nunnery working in the nursery (according to the writer's-strike-killer-nun-saga), and Kelly and Eden were always a bit oblivious to Rosa, it is possible that they weren't that close.

When we reviewed the 1990 SOD, in the classic SOD thread, it revealed a sad fact. The actor who played Harland, Ric's father, was hired the week after the writer who created the story was fired. So, in retrospect, he was doomed. As a result, he was out after his first 13-week cycle.

Also, as I'm watching the Spanish subtitled episodes on YT it occurred to me that it was dumb not to dub the soap in Spanish for the Mexican television market, given the Latino cast. Sub-titled dramas do not rate well in Latin countries. However, they were dubbed in French and Russian, according to the postings, but not in Spanish.

On a humorous note, we probably won't see any male characters named Caitlin again either.

I have no knowledge of the real reason for Sally's demise. However, as a fan, one can surmise a couple of issues. Taylor Miller was a very poor fit as Sally. Sharon Gabet's Britney needed to be rehabbed into a more sympathetic character. Thomas Ian Griffith's Caitlin was probably going to follow Mary Page Keller to California since they married before she left (unfortunately they didn't hyphenate, and she wasn't Mary Page Keller-Ian-Griffith and he wasn't Thomas Mary-Ian Page-Griffith). So, for Britney to be paired with Caitlin, they had to get rid of Sally. It was the Curse of the Supercouples that the female partner rarely went on to successful pairings once they split. Audiences seem more willing to allow guys to go on to other loves, but the ladies were doomed once their partners leave town. Russ and his daughter Olivia came back for a short run in 1989. And, of course, Russ was the father of Josie Watts, Sharlene's daughter, who was a main character in the final years and survived several recasts (although her Matthews heritage was never really mentioned). BTW is the name Sally completely out of style today? I don't think I've met a Sally under the age of 50. Certainly, there are no Pat, Iris or Olive's born after 1998. When I taught there were always Erica's and Rachel's named after the soaps, but not one Reena.

I've been thinking a lot about the dismantling of the Matthews and for all of the historic critiques about the loss of Alice and Pat (my favorite Matthews), it does make dramatic/ratings sense in the context of Sally Frame. Sally and Caitlin were a super couple and their overseas adventures were coupled with a spike in viewership. However, structurally, for Sally to work as an underdog with Caitlin against the Loves, she couldn't have the support of her family behind her. The Loves needed to be powerful in order for them to interfere with Sally and Caitlin. So, if Sally could depend on Russ's medical expertise when Peter was poisoned at his art deco engagement yacht party, or Pat's support to fight Cecile, or even John Randolph's legal expertise to help Caitlin, then where is the drama? My disappointment at Alice's return, with the bad haircut, at the end of Sally's character was that after all that Sally had been through Alice seemed like a bad mother. It ruined Alice for me that Sally had an illegitimate child and never told her mother. So, her styling issues were secondary for me. Alice's dialogue about Caitlin was so judgmental that it smacked of Liz's treatment of Missy. I always disliked the Matthews's hypocrisy about the value of family loyalty when they actively drove away most of their children and grandchildren's suitors. Alice's return cemented that opinion for me.

Santa Barbara had an issue throughout its history (regardless of executives or writers) that they would focus on a single event (like a trial or out-of-town adventure) and they lost focus on the rest of the town. Ric Castillo felt like a writer's rough draft of Robert Barr. He was European, a bit of schemer, and married to a rich neurotic. So, it made very little sense that when he settled in Santa Barbara he had no money or power of his own and was always someone's hired goon. The Paris episodes introduce Ric with a lot of potential that gets lost once he arrived in the States. For example, the entire thread of Ric's wife's rich French family was never mentioned again once everyone got back home. Nick Hartley's disappearance is the most notable to me. I never cared for the characterization or his overwrought style. However, Nick had a family, he was close with Kelly, and stories revolved around his character. I guess Pearl made him redundant as a charismatic, non-sexually threatening, male sounding board for the Capwell girls (I found Pearl to be the most irritating guy in SB and was glad when he disappeared). One more observation from my re-watch - despite all of the talk about class, The Perkins had a larger set than The Lockridges.

I don't understand this reference - what was the five faces set?

I don't usually indulge in fanfic, but it could have been fun if Alice was a part of Jamie's motivation to change from a writer to a doctor. She could have become his mentor while he rejected the artiness of his mother.

I'm charmed by this podcast and this week he covered the start of Y&R https://player.fm/series/a-trip-down-soap-lane

As a characterization, not necessarily as an actress, I prefer the earliest incarnation of Santana as played by Ava Lazar. From her appearance in the pilot in that wild costume, Santana could have been a viable alternative to Eden. Even though Eden was introduced with a "past in Europe" and, she slept with a pilot then parachuted from his plane, she was more earnest and buttoned-up around Cruz and CC. So, a nouveau riche, glamorous, sexy, party girl like Santana could have given Eden a run for her money. Having only seen the weepy/needy character choices of Gina Gallego, (and her awful portrayal of drug addiction and mental health crises), she never seemed like a real threat to the Eden/Cruz relationship and Mason's attraction to her eluded me. Upon rewatch, after the earthquake (around ep 100), many of the characters change personalities based on the quality of the performer. Gina takes on a lot of Santana's early traits, Warren becomes less manic and more romantic, and CC becomes even more imperious. Then, within two years, they're all recast or retired. Early Warren bullied Ted Capwell and was frantically hiding buried treasure. After the earthquake, Warren saves Ted, buys the newspaper, and becomes a nicer guy. The ongoing thread of Brandon as a Capwell, (even after the Brick reveal) saved Gina as a character and (I think) doomed Santana. Brandon had such an adorable relationship with Gina that if Santana tried to disrupt it, she would seem mean. In the first year, Gina gave up her pill addiction, cold turkey, to be with Brandon. Santana never made those sort of sacrifices as a mother without the threat of personal consequences. Given the dramatic choice between Gina and Santana, I prefer Gina and all that she brought to the table. Also, repeated references to Santana as the "daughter of the maid" would be out of place by the mid-1980s when soaps didn't want to deal with class issues. Finally, Victoria and Chip took up most of the slack as a spanner in the Eden/Cruz saga making Santana redundant. I agree, she could have been Lionel's sister, and Cassie was her daughter, and the whole thing would have made more sense as to why she was never concerned about Brick and his son. There needed to be Lockridge's, but I don't think they needed to only stick to the original Lockridge's. Cruz's family was always a legitimate foil to CC's wealth. Even with their wayward father and brother, the Castillo's loyalty was usually contrasted with the divisions caused by wealth in the Capwell Family. BTW - from Nick to Ric to Cassie, the number of characters that just disappeared off the canvas seems particular to Santa Barbara

Mark's shooting was such an excellent mystery! The umbrella stories are seamless during this period - From Thomas's experimental surgery on his then-unknown-father to Clarissa finding her dead husband to the wedding then the shooting, then the Jenny Diamond reveal - there was a part of the story for everyone and the pacing is great. All these years later, the visual reveal of Julie/Jenny shooting Mark still gives great shock value.

I had a rather specific RH memory flash today that I'm hoping someone can validate. When Jill and Seneca divorced there were references to the fact that New York did not have "no-fault" divorce laws so they had to agree on whether to report adultery or mental cruelty. Jill got an interesting monologue about how the divorce laws inhibited women's civil rights. I did not follow RH during the SoapNet re-runs but I think it covered this period of the story. I would appreciate any references to Jill's speech.

Listening to Lemay's We Love Soaps Interview, he still seemed sassy and dogmatic in his opinions even 40 years after his memoir. His derision of Doug Marland's rules and his clapback about the context of actors not wanting to play gay characters in the 1970's were remarkable. In fact, it sounds like Marland rarely felt that he was wrong about anything. To reiterate my earlier point, he doesn't get enough credit for his honesty about working with actors, networks, and advertisers. I would argue that most of the fan supposition about how backstage politics affects the soaps, as well as a general awareness of how soaps change due to the headwriter comes from his memoir. Thus, he not only elevated the dialogue within soaps, but he also made soaps fans into a more sophisticated audience.

Today I learned that Robyn, (ex-wife of Mike Horton and mother of Jeremy Horton), was the niece of Robert LeClare (ex-host at Doug's Place and father to Dougie/Charles). I had totally forgotten that Robert returned as part of Robyn's entry story (his son was in a French boarding school at the time of his visit to Salem). Which bar hosted Tom Horton's beat poetry?

Lots of historic families were phased out over the years - The Hobsons, The Delaneys, and The Perinis to name a few, somehow the phasing out of The Matthews meant more to soap history-files, but I agree that neither Jim nor Mary were particularly intriguing characters and if only Aunt Liz survived, they picked the strongest member of that team.

I wonder if Lemay's memoir is the first instance of a writer admitting that their relationship with the actors and production affected their plotlines? We take it for granted and even joke about the relationship between certain soap writers and their muses, but I don't know if any other soap writer's memoir was so directly introspective. Ken Corday's and Bill Bell's respective books were more of a timeline of events with some mildly juicy stories. Lemay actually admits that he left AW because the expansion to 60 minutes wore him out and left him bereft of ideas for further plots which seems revolutionary in a genre that recycles the same five head writers over and over.

Seven Years is a great memoir filled with funny anachronistic details. From his fascination with Sleasar's mimeograph machines to the economics of a pre-WGA writing staff, it is a great read. The stories of his early lunches with P&G executives and his phone calls with Ina are stuffed with sarcasm. Of course, others may have had alternative perspectives, but they didn't write dishy memoirs, so we're left with Lemay's version (Churchill quote - history is written by the victors).

We should add Y&R alums, Lachlan Buchanan and Peter Porte. Lachlan attended Peter's wedding in New Orleans last summer.

The point has been made before that the soap press has always been complicit in the "closeting" of actors. Many gay actors have commented that if a writer knew their sexuality then the magazine profile just would not focus on their dating life. Certainly, by the 1990s, productions were not actively suppressing stories about actors, more often it was a fan-driven press with a misguided effort to self-censor the topic. Not to go off on a tangent, - but - it is interesting that as a member of the gay soap audience, we've tolerated magazines profiting off of photos of shirtless soap hunks pretending that their only subscribers were female while often including insensitive remarks. In our review of the 1990 SOD Tumblr there have been numerous examples of humor derived from a misperception that sexuality is dependant upon binary gender roles that would (hopefully) make a modern reader cringe.

Maureen Garrett Kevin Spirtas Paul Anthony Stewart Michael Corbett All came out after their time on soaps

Poor Anna had spent 1990 dating duds (Casey the Alien and Edge Jerome) and Robert was dating clingy women who were not exactly his type. So, by 1991, it seems like they were the best each other could get at the time.

Not for nothing, but this wasn't the first time that Dr. Chuck found himself raising another man's child. I think Lil' Chuck also had a mortal scare under Chuck's watch. One hopes his specialty was neither OB/GYN nor Pediatrics. And who brings a baby to The Chateau? And why was it "The" Chateau and not "Le" Chateau (too European for those Pine Valley midwesterners)? And why didn't the Tylers hire a night nanny if he was a doctor and she was going to sing at the local cabaret? Chuck was not the brightest tool in the shed.

I'm reading the Classic Soaps recap of AW on Tumblr, they are at September 1982. It is interesting that Corrine Jacker's character of Louis St. George was so similar to Richard Soderberg's Carl Hutchins. Louis was Felicia's vaguely European ex-husband, scam artist, secret father of Cecile. Carl was Donna's vaguely European ex-husband, scam artist, secret father of Ryan. I didn't recall Louis as being menacing but reading about his scheme to sell stolen Nazi art through Rachel's gallery made me re-think that opinion.