chrisml

A follow-up to my post. I can now watch the show on every device. I suspect that they were changing over KL to Amazon Prime on hadn't done on so on the browser version when I checked. I live in the U.S.

Knots Landing is not on prime for me. You have to purchase it season by season. [Note: If I watch it on my Kindle TV, it's on Prime. If I try to watch it through my computer, it wants me to pay for the series. That's so odd.]

The press release for Barbara Rodell joining the show as a recast Lee Randolph.

It does have a very distinct 80's vibe to it, but it was nice seeing the actors do their thing. I'm not sure what the thing was, but it was nice. Found a Letter to the Editor in the April 26, 1954 edition of Life Magazine:

This is from the June 14, 1986 edition of Billboard Magazine. It's about the new theme song for SFT. Thought might be of some interest. I have been going through the Billboard archives looking for info on SFT. I found a minor article about some BTS changes on the soaps. The interesting tidbit is the merry-go-round of staff and the fact that legendary actress Frances Reid was fired from a soap called Portia Faces Life. It did not last much longer after her firing.

From the Sept 22, 1951 issue of Billboard. It's a review of Search for Tomorrow:

It has always struck me that Susan Lucci and Erica Kane are a case of an actress and a character who are so beloved by the audience but the writers never really knew what to do with her. Lucci was rarely if ever challenged to do anything interesting. The writing for her character was very surface and shallow. I understand that was built into the character, but at a certain point, a character needs to grow. When you look at her emmy clips compared to other actresses, it's almost laughable at times. When they did give her meatier material, she could do it, but it was never sustained.

Is the Cross Creek Wedding #1 the one that Zimmer that submitted as part of her third Emmy win?

Is there any way of knowing how much of the show is actually available and how much has been destroyed?

From the April 5, 1954 edition of Life Magazine:

Others on the cast have pretty much confirmed Zimmer's accounts, and they all seem to have blamed Wheeler for the show's cancellation. I would have thought they would have blamed P&G and their decisions or lack of decisions as the case may be. I still think it's hilarious that the one part of her book that had to be verified was that Wheeler was constantly crying on set. In looking for information about Zimmer and Wheeler, I came across information about Soap Opera Weekly and a letter to the editor about GL and the fallout from Maureen's death. It once again belies JFP's assertion that she did not know that people were outraged by her decision to kill off Maureen: From the April 5, 1954 edition of Life Magazine:

Thank you everyone for the explanation. As someone who had given up GL pretty much by this point, the "Inside the Light" episodes did not interest me in the slightest. They felt gimmicky and annoying. There would be no way I would return to GL to see Harley as a comic book figure. Why would a soap viewer be interested in something like that? It would seem to get in the way of what makes soaps special. The "Inside the Light" eps. seem designed for non-GL viewers or for Emmy voters. And that's not going to be good for long-term stability. I understand Wheeler tried to connect GL with some charity work and that's admirable, but again, how was that going to get me back as a viewer? Answer in bother the standalone episodes and the outreach cases: they didn't get me back as a viewer.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. You could always ask the question again. Some of these conversations go in so many different directions and if I don't know what's going on, I just move on. If it's about my mean-spirited/tawdry comments about Ellen Wheeler's tenure, I think the whole Jonathan storyline was just icky and mean-spirited and the show wanted us to side with him in many ways. He was written as an anti-hero. It's one of the reasons I did not watch much during her tenure. There was the Sebastian mess. From my limited perspective, Wheeler's GL felt more like a collection of stunts rather than a soap opera. I remember something about a certain day of the week being a special kind of episode of the show (comic book episode? themed episode? Am I misremembering?). That's the problem with pretty much giving up on a show.

We had people going through paintings. A gum smacking cigarette girl. A fictional South American country with no real South American characters of note. We had Amish Reva. Wasting Marcy Walker for two years. We had what happened to Michael Zaslow bts and in the press. If we're going to just stick with the Conboy Era, drug-dealing Alexandra is more offensive. I don't think the Carrie Nye storyline was any more egregious or insulting to fans.

I know most everyone hates Ellen Weston, but I think Ellen Weston could have worked with a producer who had a history with the show and/or sensitivity to character-based storylines. The Maryanne story had some intriguing episodes even if the story was absurd and an insult to GL history. Weston was at least trying to tell an umbrella story that included these actors and she wanted to give them something meaty to do. I'm not disputing that it made it no sense. I was never grabbed by anything in Wheeler's tenure. From what little I watched, it was an odd mixture of tawdry, mean-spirited, and moralistic.

It was perfectly obvious to me that P&G made a concerted effort to kill AW so it's not a stretch to think they did the same for GL. MY GL viewing is spotty at best when it comes to post-Ellen Parker's firing. It always felt that when the show would get back on track that the EP or the hw would then be fired. I have said this before, but on an episode by episode basis, Conboy and Weston's GL could be extremely compelling. They could create fantastic episodes. In context to the show's history, the stories just didn't make sense and could be insulting (Ben Reade for ex.). I'm not going to deny that the Ben Reade episodes were not fantastic and that Bomer was robbed of an Emmy nomination.

Clayton Prince's comments highlight why so many stories are so flat or truncated because TPTB are so afraid of alienating the bigots. They give in so quickly to the hateful viewers. Clayton Prince is so charismatic and talented (was also that way in the original Hairspray) and it's a shame that we were denied a good storyline for him. Apparently, these bigots were more comfortable with Josie pretending to be stalked by someone than being in a romance with Reuben.

I have accepted ridiculous storylines if the chemistry is right and the acting works so the idea of Olivia and Natalia getting together didn't bother me. It was the execution of it that was weird to me. It now makes sense that they were going over ever single line as it felt very safe and devoid of any real human feelings. It reminded me a bit of of Nick and Ann Hamilton's NuMindy where it was two actors who felt as if they were on two different shows.

Her comments were all about "consent" and the storyline. There was controversy at the time about making a strong black male character a rapist and I don't think she got that.

On GH, there's also the Kari Wurher lawsuit for being fired for being pregnant which is what happened to Laura Bonarrigo-Koffman on OLTL (who threatened to sue). I don't know if LBK actually sued, but Wuhrer's claim did make the papers, but I've never been able to find any resolution to it.

To be clear, I was referring to Wheeler as a director on ATWT and she was directing at the time of the Marshall/Jessica storyline and she had made comments during that ridiculous storyline that made me go "ugh." The fact that P&G okayed the rape storyline for Jessica is just insane to me, but that's for another thread. As for JFP, I am talking about workplace treatment. I'm not talking about casting decisions or the way her storylines ended up misogynistic messes. It's possible there was something going on at AW but I don't recall. I know there was a lawsuit at GH and a threat of a lawsuit at OLTL because of JFP.

Several GL thoughts: I was interested in Larkin Malloy's Kyle, but it felt like he was sacrificed at the altar of Robin Newman's Josh when Newman returned. I like Liz Keifer, but I don't think she worked as Blake and that her recast harmed the story's momentum. They should have just cast Keifer as a different character. I know Wheeler and Conboy get a lot of flack for their firings, but JFP's documented workplace mistreatment of some of her female actors was appalling. Was AW the only place where this didn't happen or am I not remembering something that happened there? JFP's tenure at GL pretty much gutted GL of its heart and most interesting characters at the time. The Mindy Fiascos alone should have had her fired. Wheeler was a mess on ATWT. The Jessica/Marshall rape storyline was unnecessary and she was heavily involved in that. I knew GL was in trouble when she was hired.

I checked out Ellen Holly's book from the library. Interestingly enough, she does not accuse Slezak of what she would later accuse Slezak of saying/doing in the Oral History book. She does quote Slezak from what appears to be a 1988 Robert Rorke SOD article. I have not found this article. I took a photo of the quote she references in the book.

Something I've always been curious about. It seemed like Gretchen Oehler's Vivien was meant to come back and interact with Carmen Duncan's Iris and everyone else on a permanent basis but her return did not seem to last long. I wonder why that was. I think this was a missed opportunity as she and Duncan has amazing chemistry.