JarrodMFiresofLove

On 5/18/2018 at 9:29 AM, safe said:

Ana Alicia (Melissa) has started a blog 

 

 

https://www.ana-alicia-ortiz.com/

 

Thanks. I just checked it out. It's a lovely blog she's doing.

7 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

 

I will say that the new headwriter has been good with removing the dead weight that the Pollocks created (Andy, Joe, and Tom).. but he's added more dead weight (Scott/Eleanor/Wendy) that has taken up so much airtime without any true connection to the hospital (I would have had Wendy being a student nurse and/or candy striper.. or Scott working at the hospital as their attorney, etc).

 

The Tom dying story went too quickly.. and it is a shame that the Pollocks didn't think to test him with other characters when the Althea/Tom relationship didn't pan out.  If they had, they would have seen he had great work chemistry with Martha.. and even possible chemistry with Toni.  Plus, Toni could have had something to do with interacting with Tom while Mike was off screen and Alan was starting up with MJ.

As we know all soaps have deadwood. When an actor is signed to a one-year contract but he doesn't catch on, they usually just background him till the contract runs out. So they hang on longer than they should. Sometimes a deadwood character will be turned into a killer for their exit story, which gives them something more to do at the end.

4 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

Agreed, but the one character who should not have been let go was Lauri. 

Yeah I miss that character the most. She was quietly effective. One of those characters you don't realize how valuable they were until they're gone.

4 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

It's too bad that the show didn’t start writing to Anthony Cannon's strengths until the very end of his tenure. His big misfortune was being hired to be the "new" Nick Bellini. Anthony Cannon was not Gerald Gordon, he was Anthony Cannon and the writers finally figured it out. I suspect that's a major reason why he was backburnered for so long between the end of the quack faith healer story to the beginning of Tom's terminal illness plot. If the writers had made Tom a real character from the very beginning instead of as a substitute for Nick, maybe he would have lasted longer on the show.

I think the phony faith healer story was just a plot device to get Althea to realize her feelings for Tom after he saved her life. That's the only purpose it served, and it coincided with Gerald Gordon's last episodes before leaving in May 75.

But I think the real reason they backburnered Tom after that plot was because they realized Cannon and Hubbard really did not have much chemistry together. If they had shown greater chemistry, then Cannon would have been kept front and center, regardless of whether or not Tom was a Nick clone. But they fizzled not sizzled, so he just became a background character at the hospital. The new headwriter was stuck with him, so the next thing that happened was his exit story.

On 4/29/2018 at 8:51 AM, robbwolff said:

There's a few inaccuracies in this. Jada didn't join The Doctors in that April 1977 one-hour episode. She had already been in the cast for quite some time. I believe she arrived sometime in the summer of 1976 but Carolee was catatonic for a while. Beside the 1976 90-minute episode and 1977 60-minute episode, there was an episode in early 1975 that was 60 minutes long.

Yes I felt there were a few inaccuracies as well. My understanding is that Jada joined as Carolee in October or November of 1976. Also the text said the writing under the Pollocks became repetitive which is surely someone's opinion. Others felt the Pollocks were doing just fine. All soap scribes repeat tropes.

18 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

Thanks, Carl...Glenn Corbett is another one I am looking forward to seeing on the show.

Yeah, what a hunk Glenn Corbett was...better looking in my opinion than Gil Gerard.

On 4/26/2018 at 6:37 PM, amybrickwallace said:

In 1967, when Retro TV began showing the reruns, the star billing was Pritchett/Hubbard/Bethel Leslie (who was playing Maggie then). Not long after BL left in spring 1968, Gerald Gordon was given star billing. When Liz Hubbard left for the first time in fall 1969, it was just JP and GG with star billing until Lydia Bruce was added in spring 1970 after being listed with the supporting players for two years. After a year away, Liz returned and was put back in the second star slot. 

 

As for O'Brien/Campbell being given star billing, I think he got it first. He was the last of five, and then CC was added shortly thereafter to make it six. I'm not positive. You are right that O'Brien was on before Bruce (he came on in December 1967, she in May 1968) but that Campbell was there before both of them (she began sometime in 1967, but I don't know which month).

 

When Glenn Corbett was on, he also received star billing. I think that was after Liz Hubbard had left for the second time and after Jada Rowland replaced Carolee Campbell. The order was Pritchett/Bruce/O'Brien/Rowland/Corbett. 

Very interesting. I can see why Corbett received star billing. He had been a lead on a hit primetime series (Route 66). I don't think any of the other leads had been regulars on a primetime series, were they?

On 4/26/2018 at 10:07 PM, MonaCroft said:

From my vantage point watching the reruns starting in 1974, the Pollocks bludgeoned plot points till they were bleeding.   The whole Mike in Asia was dragged out mercilessly.   I am guessing that, early on, the powers that be realized that Michael Landrum was a huge casting mistake and they simply lengthened the story there while they were waiting for a better acting option to throw into the heavy duty business with Toni and Alan.  They were also probably hamstrung with using him until his 13 week contractual cycle was up.   

I liked Landrum. I think he was more suitable to playing Mike than Assante. Someone on one of these boards thought Assante would have been perfect as Rico, and I agree...that casting would have made more sense.

Landrum was on for seven months, from October 1974 until May 1975. Assante had just finished a role on 'How to Survive a Marriage' which NBC cancelled in April that year. So he moved over to take Landrum's place.

Just now, amybrickwallace said:

I haven't been to the Paley Center, but a friend of mine has and that's where he saw them. I think there are between 5-10 episodes of the show at Paley available for viewing.

Oh okay, not too many then. I live on the west coast, so I usually check to see what UCLA has in its archives. With them, it's based on what is donated. It might be anything from old videotaped episodes to scripts and production notes. When Bill Bell died, the Bell family donated boxes and boxes of scripts from The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. I think the estate gets a tax write-off when they donate materials like that for research and educational purposes.

5 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

I think basically it came down to seniority.

Yes, most likely. Have you seen a lot of episodes at the Paley Center? I always wonder why certain ones are available for viewing and others are not. Are they chosen at random, or maybe the Paley Center is trying to present more groundbreaking episodes from the series.

23 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

There are a couple of episodes from the summer of 1976 available for viewing at the Paley Center. Yes, he was third-billed again, after Elizabeth Hubbard and before Lydia Bruce.

Thanks. Obviously James Pritchett was in the most episodes. And Lydia Bruce probably surpasses LIz Hubbard and comes in second. Unless Dave O'Brien is second and Lydia Bruce is third.

48 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

I believe the graphics were changed in early 1977. Yes, the main actors received star billing up to the end. Liz Hubbard left in 1977, but returned in 1981, so she received the equivalent of "and" billing. So in 1982, it was Pritchett/Bruce/O'Brien/Rowland/Hubbard. 

Thanks Amy. That's helpful information. When Gerald Gordon returns for a few months in '76, does he get special billing again? I am guessing he probably does.

One thing I've wanted to ask is how long do these opening credits stay the same? I know there were different openings later on. Does Jeff Young update how the credits look, or does that happen with the next producer?

Also, do people like James Pritchett and Dave O'Brien continue to get special billing at the end of each episode or does the show do away with that later?

On 1/28/2018 at 4:42 PM, watson71 said:

John Whitsell orchestrated the flood episodes in February 1986- by late March/ early April, he would be transferred to Another World as executive producer.  Did the soap press ever cover the sudden change at SFT?

 

 

Also, Brian Frons was the CBS executive who cancelled SFT, went to NBC where he cancelled SFT, before going to ABC daytime and dismantled their daytime lineup.  Why did he continue to be employed?!?

This happened over a period of MANY years. His tenures at these three networks were not short. Some of the soaps had run their course and he was the one forced to pull the plug. In the case of AMC and OLTL I think he let them go as long as he could, though OLTL was rebounding at the end. He definitely hated SEARCH because he felt it skewed to an older audience and he wanted shows that attracted younger viewers.

But even if Frons hadn't been at NBC in the mid-80s, I think SEARCH's cancellation was inevitable and that's why Procter & Gamble called it a day and ceased production. It had become too expensive to produce and the ratings were continuing to drop. They tried everything they could during its last year on the air to save it, but they eventually had to cut their losses. The same thing happened with EDGE OF NIGHT at the end of 1984. Both these soaps had been given a second chance on a different network but they were on their last legs.

7 hours ago, DRW50 said:

John Conboy is dead.

Wow. You're right. He just died earlier this year. I wasn't aware of that. He was a great producer.

His estate/heirs could still try to re-market Capitol, if they own the rights to it which I am thinking they do. It was an independently produced soap and Conboy syndicated it overseas. It was hugely popular in Italy.

On 10/8/2017 at 7:03 PM, DRW50 said:

@SFK I forgot to tell you that I think that Rob Denise channel has still been putting up episodes. 

I am so grateful for these. The quality is not great (old VHS copies) but it's better than nothing and at least they are online. I wish Conboy would put them on home video or at least rerun the show on a cable channel.

19 hours ago, jam6242 said:

The flashbacks and endless recaps seemed to lessen after James Lipton left the writing staff.

I don't think Lipton's dialogue was very good on 'The Doctors,' but it was passable. I did like his headwriting on 'Capitol' in the mid-80s...he was the show's final head scribe during its last year. Maybe because they knew it was ending and wanted to go out with a bang...his last three months on 'Capitol' were extraordinary. So maybe he was a guy who excelled at plotting and not exactly with the day to day scripting.

2 hours ago, robbwolff said:

I believe Luke Dancy has something to do with the restaurant that appears soon. Marland alters the show by centering it on the Powers, Aldrich, and Dancy families as opposed to Hope Memorial. Lots of changes are coming up. One central character has a career change. Jason Aldrich returns as a lawyer as opposed to the doctor he was under the Pollocks. MJ goes from being the granddaughter of Emma Simpson's husband Andrew to being Carolee's cousin. I've read that when Ethel and Mel Brez take over writing that character continuity gets even worse.

 

I like flashbacks, but I felt that the Pollocks overused them. They got better with it after some time but I recall times when they'd have flashbacks that lasted upwards of four or five minutes.

Not making excuses for the Pollocks, but I think sometimes they used extensive flashbacks to keep off-screen characters "alive" when they were between recasts. I noticed this when Toni had memories of Mike before he turned up alive in Singapore. And after Gerald Gordon left, they seemed to give Althea and Ann occasional flashbacks of Nick so we could see him again on screen, probably hoping Gordon would return to the role.

Sometimes the excessive flashbacks were a necessary device, like when John died, and we were seeing pieces of how he was killed. I do agree that some of the other flashbacks were overdone, basically functioning as filler because the Pollocks were too lazy to create new scenes that moved the plots forward.

I am looking forward to Marland's material, but it seems like were about nine months' worth of episodes away from his episodes on Retro if he didn't start until mid-76.

48 minutes ago, robbwolff said:

I believe Cenedella exits around February 1976 and is replaced by DePriest, who is in turn replaced by Marland a few months later.

 

Personally, I think the Pollocks were overrated. I liked their first few years of TD but tuned out when Retro got to the late 1973 episodes. Their constant use of flashbacks (which we didn't see until they arrived) and recapping was irritating. So much of their time was spent on a lackluster character like Ann Larimer. They resorted over and over to stories of Hope Memorial staff having medical crises. Worst of all was they drastically altered the personalities of some of the show's characters. Carolee became an ordinary soap heroine, mostly devoid of the humor and charm she had in her early years. Cathy Ryker went from a sexually free conniver to an obsessed psycho. That said, there are some good moments yet to come, but mostly a lot of uneven dreck, especially in the last few years.

I guess that means Cenedella was headwriter for about six months. On the Daytime Royalty board someone said Pete's disappears and a more upscale restaurant takes it place, which undergoes a name change and eventually becomes a place called The Medicine Man. So not only do the successive scribes change the families, they change the local hangout.

Personally I love the use of flashbacks on American soaps. I watch three British soaps and they never use flashbacks. Whenever they reference a huge event from the past, I have to find classic clips on YouTube so I can see what they're talking about.

I've been reading through some of the pages in the thread. Does the guy who knew Geraldine Court still post here? I have enjoyed his comments.

13 minutes ago, MichaelGL said:

I think we can all agree there's been a ton of missed opportunities with the transition between the Pollocks and Cenedella. 

I'm %99.99 sure they had more planned for Stacey/Andy/Penny/Rico, but minus Penny, I could've done without the rest. 

Michael, I know I am new here so I shouldn't be suggesting things. But every time I see the word "cancelled" it saddens me. It would be nice(r) if these boards could be labeled "Retro Soaps,' 'Classic Soaps of Yesteryear'...I dunno, anything but "Cancelled Soaps."

I've been reading the Soap Opera Digest synopses for the end of 75 and I am looking forward to Tom's exit around Christmas. I think that will be very poignant and give Martha some good stuff to do.

I think the Pollocks were probably going to bring Dawn the nurse from Hong Kong to town at some point. Like after Toni and Mike reconciled then she would show up with a baby belonging to Mike, which would put Alan back in the running. There's a reason the Pollocks spent months on Mike & Dawn in Asia. But Cenedella seemed to want to go in another direction and give Toni an unwanted pregnancy. But that was still plot driven, because the point was that Toni would only have a child with Mike not with Alan, because if she hadn't miscarried she would have aborted it.

I think Marie Thomas who played Lauri was a casualty of Jeff Young taking over as producer. It seems too coincidental that the other producer leaves and the Pollocks are on their way out, when she suddenly gets axed without any explanation. She should have had a farewell scene with Hank and one with Carolee. It was a shoddy way to break up one of the more solid couples viewers had invested in.

Andy would have worked better in my opinion if they had remembered his early friendship with Matt. He should have been invited to the Powers home for dinners, maybe become an older friend of Greta's that she developed a harmless schoolgirl crush on. Like there was more they could have done with him besides just having him sing at Pete's.

Someone on the Daytime Royalty board thought Joe's past in Vietnam should have been explored, and having him connect as friends with Alan who was also in Nam could have been a way to do it. But I just don't think Young or Cenedella wanted to be bothered with several of these characters and so they were given rushed, mostly uneventful exits.

3 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

To be honest, IMHO, DePriest is significantly worse than Cenendella (whose work I do not like, either).

Really? So the show obviously started to stumble after the Pollocks left. Maybe Doug Marland's stuff will be better. I wrote this a while back on the Daytime Royalty site, when I was waiting for my account to be verified here. Some of you may have read it over there, but this conveys my feelings about Cenedella as a writer:

*****

I just watched the September 19th episode on YouTube. I have to say I felt this was one of Cendella's worst episodes. In fact I lost a lot of respect for him as a writer and am glad he will soon be replaced by DePriest.

The stuff with Mike going off to South America is totally RIDICULOUS. He's not a cop, he's a doctor. He has no skills or training in how to guard/protect or ensure the safety of a gangster.

I am sure if the Pollocks were still in charge and they needed to send him away from the hospital for awhile, they would have sent him to Singapore and we would have seen nurse Dawn again. There was no need to invent this gibberish about a criminal and Mike following never-before-seen said criminal to Bogota.

I also felt Andy's exit seemed rushed. There was no foreshadowing or build up that he was missing his parents or that Penny and Stacy had broken his heart to such an extent he needed to leave. With Mike we've seen how his feelings about Toni would make him leave. But we had no inkling of that with Andy. He was primarily used in scenes as a singer. He had very little romantic drama to play since Cendella and Young took over.

Joe's impending exit came out of nowhere. There are too many exits happening all at once, which I blame on the producer (Young) who seems eager to axe people he doesn't want on the show. The departures should be more gradual with proper foreshadowing, so their wanting to leave makes sense.

The stuff with Hank & Matt was equally preposterous. I do like the idea of them mentioning preventative medicine. But Hank thinking they can take a paramedic unit into a poor section of town and making sure people repair faulty steps so kids don't fall down stairs is completely unrealistic. Doctors do not have time to go around and look for steps that need fixing. That's what a landlord and a repairman do.

Again this was the worst episode I've watched post-Pollocks. Anyone know when Cendella's last episode airs? It won't be soon enough for me.

11 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

Right now, the show is in October 1975. Laryssa Lauret/Karen left for the third and final time in November. I believe she returned to Germany, but we'll know for sure soon.

Thanks Amy. She's my favorite character/actress on the show. I remember watching her on Guiding Light in 1977/78. That time she played a French Canadian woman named Simone.

I'm not a fan of Cenedella's writing and can't wait for Margaret DePriest's stuff to start airing. Any idea what month her material begins?

Hi everyone. I just joined. I asked some folks on another site how Karen eventually exits the show. Someone thought she was in another plane crash. Is that true? Or does she go back to Germany? Maybe she just disappears and is never mentioned. I find it strange she would not still be part of Erich's life when Carolee takes off. Why leave her son in the hands of Mona and Ann?