chrisml

All this talk about Victoria Wynham made me search for interviews, and I found one with Sandra Ferguson that interested me. She talks about an actor behaving inappropriately towards her on her second stint on the show. I wonder who it could be. I was not watching AW much then so don't know who she would have been working with. Interview

Do you think the problem with the repetitive nature of Alexis's stories was a result of John Forsythe's complaints and demands? If Blake didn't have to win every time, there would have been places to go storyline wise. From what I've seen of the first season, I don't see how Blake became the "moral center" of the show. 

As a gay man, I've stayed away from Dynasty because of the whole "straightening" of Steven. I have a low tolerance for stuff like that, and I know it was the eighties, but the same stuff still happens today so my tolerance level is nil. It's always the same: a gay character goes through some sort of crisis and his immediate response is to have straight sex. He usually has magical sperm so the coupling results in a baby. I have seen enough clips and I know about the show, but I haven't watched many episodes. I don't know if I can handle being so annoyed with the Steven aspects while watching the rest of the show.

Was there a storyline that started viewers to turn away from the show? I've always heard it was the Moldavian "Massacre" that started the downhill trend. Was Ali McGraw's character really that awful? Or was just a combination of things?

43 minutes ago, TEdgeofNight said:

Anyone who believes that Jensen Buchanan was clueless about what she signed is clueless. GH was her fourth soap. Jensen is known for making bad decisions. Not defending JFP here but Jensen was no shrinking violet. She knew what she was doing. 

She probably thought she could get away with and P&G wouldn't sue. I do think P&G overreacted especially as she was only on ATWT for a short bit. And it was all for nothing because she wasn't worth the effort JFP and ABC took to keep her on the show.  I have never understood Jensen Buchanan's appeal and that was before all her off the air behavior came to light.

5 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

The only reason they "rested" Marley was because Jensen refused to play her. Now, they could have recast both times when JB went out on maternity leave. Ellen was available & went to the studio both times! To me it was nuts that they insisted on staying with Jensen!!

And, she wasn't long on GH because she was still employed by P&G and acting on ATWT at the same time as she began working at GH. P&G sued her, sued her agent & were suing GH too till they fired Jensen & recast that part. 

Basically JB wanted to quit & stay home & play house & the show - stupidly I believe - wouldn't let her & kept making her offers she couldn't refuse including awful perks that the show really could not afford! 

If I recall correctly, Buchanan worked on GH after the lawsuit was either settled or withdrawn. She was only recast temporarily, and then Buchanan returned to the part.

Jensen Buchanan was a terrible Marley. It's no wonder they did away with her Marley after a certain point. As terrible as the storyline was, Ellen Wheeler wiped Jensen Buchanan off the screen when she came back towards the end of AW. Perhaps, Jensen Buchanan was good on OLTL (she was disastrous on GH and didn't last long) but I found her a disaster on AW.

I never cared for Jake after Marley's rape. Soaps will go out of their way to rehab rapists, but won't put in the same amount of effort for other characters and storylines. It's so bizarre to me. I don't think I ever bought Evans as Paulina. It was more of a "this is another character named Paulina" situation. Evans should have been cast as Nancy. For the life of me, I never understood why they didn't recast or try to lure Jane Cameron back. 

5 hours ago, safe said:

 From the new book Ryan's Hope: An Oral History of Daytime's Groundbreaking Soap

Roscoe Born said  his Santa Barbara character, Robert Barr, was the most prototypical soap character he ever played and it was  most prototypical soap triangle he was in. He said he did excellent work and earned an Emmy nomination. He also thought he was nominated because it was high profile--- he did more soap press than he had ever done before during Santa Barbara. The soap may have pushed for the nomination to get him to re-sign.

He should have won the Emmy as well. As much as I liked Henry Darrow, it baffles me that he has an Emmy when other, better performances were snubbed or didn't win.

5 hours ago, safe said:

From the new book Ryan's Hope: An Oral History of Daytime's Groundbreaking Soap 

Cali Timmins received an offer she couldn't refuse from Another World. She thought the character Paulina was going to be different from Maggie but in some ways she felt she was playing the same character--- only with less guts. Although there were great people like Victoria Wyndham ---there was a lot of backstabbing and competiveness. She did not enjoy playing the role.

Thank you for this. This makes me wonder if she quit or the execs replaced her because she was unhappy. Either way, I think she was perfect in the role, and I wish we had more time with her. Her experience echoes what Sharon Gabet has said about working on AW.

I've been reading about the new Ryan's Hope, and it reminded me how annoyed I was when they fired Cali Timmins and hired Judi Evans on AW. It's not that I don't like Judi Evans, but she didn't fit the part. Paulina was a completely different character after Evans took over. I much preferred Timmins's portrayal. 

3 hours ago, j swift said:

Hard disagree @chrisml

When I saw the promo for Cecile's return, I tuned in after years of watching OLTL

When I saw the clever promos for Santa Barbara featuring actors from other soaps, I returned to watching that soap during an otherwise fallow period.

When I saw Eastenders famous "White Wedding" promo for Peggy and Frank's wedding, it made me watch that soap for the first time.

Promos obviously work, or they wouldn't be produced, and to suggest that people are not vulnerable to being influenced is to deny one of the key reasons for the growth of social media. 

I believe that most people have to already have interest in an actor or a storyline for a promo to work so the promo is superfluous. I seriously doubt (for ex.) that an OLTL or an ATWT viewer suddenly decided to watch AW because they saw a Moments to Love promo for the show. Some promos worked for you, but I don't think promos overall had much impact on ratings most of the time when it comes to soaps. I'm not sure there would be a way to measure this either way. 

Do people really watch shows because of a good promo? I can't think of any promo that made me want to watch a new soap or go back to an old one. If a storyline grabbed me, the promo for the storyline was not going to have an effect because I was going to watch anyway. In most ways, a promo would simply confirm that I didn't want to watch.

Liz Keifer is a good actress, but I didn't find her a good Blake. So much momentum was lost with that recast. Keifer should have been brought on as another character.  Kimbeley Simms is an example of a recast done right and then they couldn't find a good replacement for her even though Barbara Cramption is a first actress (just not as Mindy). 

16 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

I've thought before that GL did so poorly that it might have made ABC to think that they could do better! Which they then proceeded to do! It handed them a win-win! So, I agree with you. 

Considering JFP's track record of firing ill or pregnant performers, I do wonder if the good press was why it was done. I suppose we will never know, but I'm glad it was done. Zaslow deserved much better than he got in life and on GL.

PEople tend to be scared of any kind of visual representation of illness. MADD's heartless comments confirm that. Doesn't make the attitude any better, but were soap execs known for their empathy? I think the reaction to Zaslow is emblematic of how soap execs treated the actors. I think if MADD hadn't made those public remarks that OLTL wouldn't have come to the rescue but maybe I'm being too cynical. 

I think we can all agree that the dinner party scenes are phenomenal, but they also spell out what's wrong with Santa Barbara and the Dobsons' writing in general. They are fantastic at creating episodes, but they fall apart it when it comes to longterm story. I get that they wanted to reactivate the CC/Mason feud, but what was the end game? Was it just more fighting? I have read with the Dobsons where they seem personally invested in keeping Mason and C.C. at odds. 

50 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Looking at their entire careers, I do not think they were guilty of not having sufficient attention span & I do think they ably did long-term plotting. 

Now talking about at this point in time after they won & got to go back to the show, empty victory though that was, I'm not disagreeing about anything that's been said. I am completely sure that they could not see the forest for the trees & were blind to the show! I only wish that they'd realized how hindered they were & had brought someone on to be their eyes & ears for them. What became of it was a sorry shame. 

I can't speak to their work on other shows, but their work on SB feels as if they were making it up as they were going along in their first tenure. I can understand why they wouldn't trust anyone on their return to the show. I just wish they had put the viewers first. That's not to say I don't like some of their material on their return, but it felt insulting to viewers who had been watching during their time off the show. 

23 minutes ago, j swift said:

Agreed.

In retrospect, using Pamela as the linchpin of their comeback with the Dinner Party episodes feels like they're saying to New World and NBC, "see, I told you should've let us cast Marj Dusay as Pamela."

Only, to write her off a week later and damage Kelly, Mason, and Eden in the process.

Exactly. The Dobsons could craft an exciting episode, but they had no feel for longterm plotting. They had very short attention spans. Their bitterness at New World, AHB and JFP meant they wanted to throw out everything that happened after they were locked out. it did a disservice to the actors and especially to the fans. If they had someone who cared about the show as an EP, it might have balanced out, but they had Paul Rauch who made it worse.

I think the Dobsons are responsible for the problems with Thomson's Mason. The writing was so inconsistent and didn't take into account what happened during their absence. They also seemed to lose interest in Mason and try to push Warren. By the time Pamela Long was through, Mason ended up being a shell of what he once was. 

I think Ilene Kristen is a wonderful actress. She deserved to win for her work on OLTL when she was nominated. IF others don't like her, that's their right. There are beloved actors and storylines I don't care for. Is there a way to watch the show from the beginning, or is it just random episodes that are available to watch?

It's interesting how viewers can watch the same material and have a different reaction. Carrington Garland is my Kelly. Not taking away from Robin Wright, but I gravitated more towards Garland. I never had a favourite Mason. They were all good actors, and at one point, they all had nonsense storylines to get through. 

re: Zaslow firing. This is one of the good things about social media. If a current producer and head of daytime said and did what MADD and Rauch did, the blowback would be ferocious today. They would not get work again for a very long time. It would make national news. I would not give JFP too much credit as she cruelly fired Laura Koffman during her pregnancy (something she would also do on GH to Kari Wuhrer). She was of the MADD "Wizened old man" ilk even if she gave Zaslow a job.

I don't mind psychics as characters because so much on soaps stretches credibility. As Neil writes, so many of the psychic characters are never consistent with their talents. Their talents come and go depending on what the storyline needs. Frankie's introduction didn't bother me. What bothered me is that Swajeski had undone the storyline with Cass/Nicole. Anne Howard deserved better than dismantling the relationship and writing off Nicole. Frankie and Cass ended up being a great couple (although I always thought a Ryan/Frankie coupling would have worked too). 

Soaps seemed to like the new age/psychic thing. The character of Sandra Mills on Santa Barbara appeared a few months before Frankie Frame. Sandra could be the original for all of this. Someone at NBC obviously liked psychics because yrs later Celeste would show up on DAYS.