Vee

January '93, on a break from LM: Patricia Barry - glamorous, chic and imposing, AMC's Peg English (was Agnes in one the recast?) - is instantly more compelling an Isabelle than nice old lady Augusta Dabney. I've yet to see the legendary Celeste Holm in the role but I love her Hollywood work. It's interesting how dramatically they'd change a traditional elder female character based on a recast, or was Dabney's original ever an operator like Barry's? I guess when Agnes brought Cabot back her role was seen as redundant. Barry and Wesley Addy together would be interesting to see; based on my memory of Addy's work in film and occasionally here, she's tougher than he is. They are really working those (wonderful) film score cues from Jennifer 8 and Presumed Innocent to death. We now know Gottlieb was involved at LOV in '95, but could this be her influence across the daypart earlier? She used many film cues at OLTL; OTOH, some soaps had used them prior to the advent of Gottlieb. They are still treating Gwyneth very differently (negligee, young stud Armand - what happened to him?) than they would by November (and Agnes), when she comes off as a frumpy woman in a midlife crisis desperate to hold on to Buck. This show really did burn through story insanely fast. The year opens on Jeremy, the most powerful college art instructor ever, being teased with Stacey, while Ava is fully into the frankly very dim-seeming Leo. By summer's end or so Ava has burned through both Leo and Jeremy and on to Alex, Stacey is being pulled to Buck I guess, etc. No clue how things ended with Jeremy and Stacey. All I know is Susan Keith is wasted with or without Leo as far as I see. When did Jack Forbes die, why did they kill him off and how long did it take for Clay to marry Stacey? In fairness they were clearly bored with Jack beforehand, as I can recall them teasing Stacey with Trucker the previous spring during that hidden room caper - which led to the reveal of Clay's paternity, right? Clay's drunken lament and justification for his scheme at her bedside was another excellent showcase for Dennis Parlato. Nada Rowland seems dressed and styled much more as a geriatric woman than she would a year or two later. Also, Ally watching AMC on the couch - lol. This is Guza and Taggert, right? Agnes is later in the year. Who introduces Steffi?

Is there a good, long, substantive piece out there on de Blasio's foolishness and long fall during the pandemic and onward? I can't keep track of everything rn and have only fitfully monitored his tomfoolery since moving west. He was a fool when I lived there too.

If you can't see the full article, be sure to copy and paste the above link into the bottom field here at archive.is - it archives all stories for free.

Apparently 2020 is the year of COVID-19, BLM and Loving. Are they all on the same 93 playlist?

I have always believed there is more out there of the early Carla, etc. material from OLTL and its '60s/'70s in general than we know. The Museum of Television and Radio has some. Ellen Holly, by her own word, has more she saved, via kinescope I believe. She also claimed urban market affiliates in the '70s kept some of those key episodes featuring her storyline to push it in those markets. ABC may not give a shít but they may still have more somewhere. And in the age of YouTube, so much of what was thought forever lost (like the clips posted so far) keeps turning up. Hell, who knows about Agnes Nixon's estate. She never forgot that storyline, even in her final years; if Holly saved some of it, I wouldn't be surprised to hear Nixon did too. Meanwhile, per those 80s episodes it always struck me how similar Holly comes off in those scenes with Lillian Hayman to Erika Slezak, and Viki. The heart is all right there.

Thread:

I'm in March of '86 atm on YT - classic soaps from Y&R and Loving to this are such a cozy watch right now. The Steve/Betsy rift is really heightening, and I don't remember it being pronounced in earlier episodes, more of a gradual thing as she was ill at ease about the house, etc. Fascinating watching Marland dismantle a supercouple which already seemed out of fashion to me. Does anyone know if he'd had serious intentions for Steve and Iva, or if he soured on Runyeon from the jump? Had the Andropouloses been backburnered for long? Also: Lisa Brown had chemistry with Scott Bryce. It's too bad if that relationship didn't get more play.

They bent the knee.

She sure does! I definitely get some of it, but still find it unfair; I think ES is collateral damage. Though it did provide one of the great Erika-is-not-[!@#$%^&*]-Viki moments of all time, when someone asked her, I think in her fan newsletter, about it and a quote from the '80s soap mags where she noted that Paul Rauch's OLTL is all white people and haves vs. have nots, a quote Holly took to be praise. Erika breezily replied "yes, that's bullshit." She said she loved Ellen Holly's work and that Ellen was treated horribly, and that her quote about Rauch's all-white show was a criticism of it.

What's funny is how every actor asked, from Erika and Bob Woods on down, has backed up most of Holly's stories. They all say Arthur Burghardt (Jack Scott) was a nightmare. This because, IIRC, Joe Stuart didn't want to hire her choice, which I think was Morgan Freeman. Erika has always taken the honest approach re: this stuff and I appreciate that. She says Ellen Holly was treated horribly.