chrisml

It's just so depressing how much t.v. history has been erased/lost and will never be recovered. There's always some hope in film history, but t.v. history is pretty much gone.

I read criticism from the soap press about Marland's second tenure on ATWT. They complained that his storylines went on too long and that he was not pacing the stories in a way to get viewers to tune in. A lot of the more vociferous criticism was aimed at the Caroline Crawford storyline which many felt went nowhere and took too long to get there (paraphrasing as I don't have the harsher comments in front of me). I read viewers' letters to the editors who also complained about how dull the show had gotten. It only got worse once he died, and then Margogate happened. I remember when SOW covered the Emmy race the year that ATWT won for Angel's rape. The columnist who watched the submissions said that GL had the best submissions but that voters would simply choose ATWT because of the subject matter. In another article (can't remember the magazine), a writer said it was obvious voters only gave ATWT the win for the story because they didn't even nominate Alice Haining who was the actress playing the main character of the story.

What did GL submit the year that ATWT won for Angel's rape storyline? Does anyone remember?

The article @Paul Ravenmakes me wonder: Is the adoration for Douglas Marland something that happened in retrospect or was it always there? I ask this because my knowledge of his work comes from the later years of ATWT where the response to his work was often mixed.

Female execs can be just as vicious and ineffectual as male execs. I've often wondered if violence against women increases, stays the same, or decreases when it's a female producer v. a male producer. IT would probably be hard to quantify as there are other variables (sponsors, network interference, previous storylines, etc.)

I was reading a book that talks briefly about Guiding Light and the writer claims that Pamela Long focused almost exclusively on the Bauers during her first stint, and that while it was devastating to lose Maureen, it was riveting to watch Ed deal with the fact he accidentally killed her during an argument. I think the writers got confusing secondhand information from someone.

It's still amazing to me that they did not get nominated in 1994 when they had those four wins. It always felt like OLTL was treated as an afterthought by ABC and the Emmy nominators.

Didn't I read that censors kept refusing to allow Kelly to have sex with any of the characters? When they relented, the couplings had to be very chaste. I remember reading that soaps changed and then they were demanding very strong kissing scenes/sex scenes from all other characters. AIDS changed that and they went back to more chaste sex scenes. I wish I could find that info.

Patrick Mulcahey talks about writing for SB:

Why exactly did Marland leave the show? I know that he had major disagreements with Potter. Was that the reason? Was he fired or did he quit?

I found a bit about the homophobia storyline and AIDS storyline on OLTL. They cite a soap opera now article that indicates that homophobia might have been the reason for the lack of Emmy nominations for the show. They don't explain what SON said and I doubt I will ever find any access to Soap Opera Now archives.

I know Van Hansis plays Lucas on GH, but I doubt his storylines on GH are any better than they were on ATWT. I hope they would have improved but I doubt it. I fear it'll just get worse as sponsors and networks cater to the anti-LGBT bigotry. An executive order will come down threatening them in some way. I know Jean P. says she regrets the unhappy ending for Luke's character, but in the fifteen years, has much changed? I haven't watched any of the soaps since then so I'm clueless. I believe there are gay characters on DOOL, but if Ron Carlivati is writing them (is he still hw?), I don't have much faith. I don't think B&B and Y&R have gay characters. Not sure about the Gates.

Martha Byrne was never an ATWT actress that I had a major attachment to although I think she's talented. I always found her a bit too rigid in her performances (which I put down to someone who's been in the role for so long and sticks with certain ways of doing things). At the time, I didn't like her treatment at the end, but now after her shenanigans, I don't really care. I loathed the character of Rose and hated the whole storyline. I found Noelle Beck a much more inviting presence. I didn't see enough of Heather Rattray to form an opinion.

A lot of so-called "allies" can say they support gays and lesbians, but it's usually all talk as they vote for candidates who strip away rights from people they claim to support and love. They then engage in mental gymnastics to explain why. To make this show related, ATWT at least went further with gay characters than AW or GL so I give the show credit for that. AW never bothered. I don't know if GL did in its later years.

I know this is not strictly GL related, but I thought fans would like to see a very young Charita Bauer in a still from when she was in the original Broadway cast of the play, The Women.

What are some of your favourite Ada moments? I have been thinking about Constance Ford lately because I recently watched A Summer Place after all those years of seeing the meme.

James Kirkwood, Jr. about his time on Valiant Lady:

Thanks @dc11786@Paul Raven@Soaplovers @EricMontreal22 for all of the information. I always like learning about a new soap and the creation/writing of the soap. I'm glad I have can come to this board and benefit from your expertise.

I don't like kids in general (not even when I was a kid), so I don't usually like them on my television shows unless they're realistic dimensional characters. I don't want the precocious ones that are five going on fifty and you expect them to pull out a cigarette and regale you with all of their audition stories. Not a fan of the young characters being SORAS'ed. That drives me nuts because I think a child can actually humanize and add to an adult's storyline if done well. Problem is daytime doesn't usually do the kid thing well. They also don't do the teen thing well and teen stories are more annoying at least in my book. I'm not interested in another teen first love story or mouthy teens. Spare me. I thought Linsday McKeon was robbed of the Emmy the year she was nominated. She was much better than Jennifer Finnigan/Flannigan (whatever her name is from B&B) whose appeal eluded me. The only thing that annoyed me about McKeon is that the costume designer was always putting her in ridiculous winter hats even when the scene was set inside. I always wanted another character to shout, "Take off your d*mn hat!" I never saw a second of Laura Bell Bundy so I have no idea what she was like. I remember people were outraged she was fired, butI just know her from her stage work.

At the 47:30 mark of this interview Cowen and Lipman admit that the Georgie/Caspian/son story was the death knell for the series:

I went back and listened just to make sure I got it right. Kinkead said, "Wendy was extraordinary in that role I felt. The writers glommed onto that mother/daughter thing. They were all wonderful. Gina as well but Gina's they shaped the character differently by the time Gina played it." I don't know of any rumor about Kinkead/Moniz, but I do know that Kinkead/Rauch supposedly did not get along. Others on this thread more knowledgeable than I am have talked about it. Speaking of Judi Evans, here she is playing Scrabble with her Days co-star Peggy McCay. It's from 1988.