chrisml

My family watched AW for the most part continuously up until the JFP era. Santa Barbara was watched from just after Eden's rape to around the time the Dobsons came back and then no one really watched after that (the family's allegiance turned to live viewings of GL rather than recordings). DOOL was another one that my family dipped in and out of. I remember my grandparents upset about Carly being buried, but I think they stopped watching after that. My mother never really watched DOOL and my relationship with the show was iffy too. I don't remember a significant time where 2 or three of the shows were watched at any given time.

Sad about Nancy Frangione. She was such an amazing and underrated talent. There are some MatchGame/Hollywood Squares on youtube with Nancy Frangione and her then husband Chris Rich on them. Worth watching. She was fun on the show.

Why don't I remember anything about the character of Laura? Hmmm. Must have been around the time I stopped watching for a bit.

I think FD's Frank could have been used more, but the writers never seemed to know what to do with him. I'd much rather have seen him than Deas's Buzz who I wish had been killed off or not even come on the show.

Beverlee McKinsey definitely deserved a lifetime achieve award during her lifetime since the Emmy voters did not reward her talent on AW or GL. However, it's my understanding that lifetime Emmys are not given posthumously to performers who have died before the list of honourees is announced. I could be wrong and I'm not sure who would know the answer to that question.

PG wanted out of the soap opera business. Nothing would have changed if Zimmer had taken a pay cut. I don't think Ellen Wheeler intentionally killed the show, but I think she had to work within certain mandates (which is not to say I was a huge fan of her work on the show). No producer could have made Peapack work or GL during some of the dumb decisions. We all know Peapack was idiotic and a waste of time because I'm sure the decision had been made to kill the show before they did it. Wheeler did know how to give actors good Emmy material, and I still think Nicole Forester should have won the Emmy the year Jeanne Cooper did. I'm glad Cooper got her competitive Emmy, but I found her winning reels mediocre at best.

She's the one! What a mess of a character.

As much as I disliked Ellen Wheeler's tenure (and I stopped watching full time before the Peapack nonsense so my memory of that time is spotty), she didn't kill the show. The execs did by their inattention and idiotic decisions even before she took over. I'd like to blame her, but P&G wanted out of GL. I agree that Weston's material could be a mess, but the episodes themselves would be watchable, but there was no story that kept me glued to the set. I was a fan of the Conboy opening in theory if it didn't look like something you'd make with imovie. It should have been so much more attractive, and it's a surprise that Conboy allowed it. I actually don't remember what Michael Laibson did on the show. It was only a year so perhaps that's why. I don't know if I returned to the show at the time. Once Maureen was killed off, I stopped watching for a few years so only saw the show occasionally (usually when Tangie was on and I was so confused by what was happening with her). Don't think I even saw the Reva/amish stuff. Was it during Labine's reign there was some gum-chewing waitress? Ugh.

I think the whole Peapack thing was cruel because it was obvious the decision had been made to cancel it beforehand. Why not let the show go in a graceful way?Ugh.

My guess is that Swajeski just did not have any plans at all. Her tenure was full of unfulfilled storyline potential: Evan/Amanda/Sam, Derek/Stacey, Jake's shooting, Olivia, the Red Swan, Iris post-chief Reveal, etc.

I think Derek and Stacy could have worked if there had been a game plan, but as with most of Swajeski's writing, the endgame was never thought out. Even if Stacy and Derek hadn't worked out, he could have moved into someone else's orbit. The show just seemed interested in aping the Beauty and the Beast t.v. show without having a purpose for Derek's character. I enjoyed it while it was going on, but it's a bit infuriating in retrospect that it ended up being a waste of time.

Peacock would have a nightmare PR situation on their hands if they canceled the show rather than fire Alarr or take action. Doesn't mean they wouldn't since TPTB don't seem to have any sense, but the blowback would be so intense and I don't think they want that.

I always assumed Jacqueline Courteney was let go because of Paul Rauch and their previous professional relationship. I know when he went onto SB he immediately fired Louise Sorel who he had had an off-set relationship with when she was on OLTL.

Linda Gibboney quit because of the working conditions. She was not happy on the show. She gave an interview around the time she was in Generations talking about this. It's probably on some SB site somewhere.

Thank you for this! I remember now that there was a big controversy about JFP firing pregnant actresses. Laura Bonarrigo Koffman was also hired fired during her pregnancy. It's insane to me the amount of horrifying behavior that goes on, and it never ends. Arianne Zucker had to put up with the former president and her workplace? Just despicable and that press release is an insult. They need to clean house at DAYS and get rid of everyone who allowed this harassment to go on for years.

This is not a new story and it's not one that will go away because it's never taken seriously. It's always hidden away and TPTB will ignore what's happening until it goes public. The problem is so many media outlets also protect the offenders. Is Soap Opera Digest really going to post an in-depth story about "misconduct" on a set? They want access to the show, so they let it slide. I don't think it was just men who did these things. Wasn't JFP accused of similar things? Didn't Kari Wuhrer sue her and the network?

Carmen Duncan's Iris being revealed as the chief is something I won't ever forget. Duncan was extraordinary. She never got the acclaim she deserved. So many AW actors should have won Emmys: Wyndham, Duncan, Anna Stuart, David Forsyth, Alice Barrett, McKinsey (based on YT clips I've seen), Schnetzer, etc. come immediately to mind. I don't know if I buy into the split vote theory where two costars split the votes. A lot of times a performer will win over their castmate. I've noticed a pattern where the person who wins usually has the weaker tapes.

I'm curious. What would people say are some of the best storylines the show did? I know the show isn't known for it's long-term plotting, but are there storylines you think deserve praise?

I don't know how much of the AW audience in 1999 would have even remembered McKinsey. For me, Carmen Duncan was Iris. I would have been highly annoyed if Alexandra Spaulding had showed up as Iris during the show's last months (I was aware of McKinsey through GL and I'm not sure if I knew she had been Iris) rather than Duncan. Even as a child, I missed Duncan's Iris when they wrote her off in that ridiculous way.

Thanks Keri and J Swift for all the information. I was watching then but I have no knowledge of the storyline Coster hated. I must have blocked it from my memory. As for Cassandra, I remember liking the character but I was annoyed by the plot. As J Swift points out, it was a mess and just felt cobbled together as they were going on. It was another SB storyline that just fizzled out. The Stephen/Sophia relationship part of the story went nowhere and it was aggravating.

I stumbled upon a Nicholas Coster interview where he mentions leaving Santa Barbara because of a certain producer. The link is here: https://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/09/coster3.html I don't remember the insurance fraud/Lionel faking his own death story. When did this happen and who was the producer at the time?

I often wonder if the Stern/Black regime would look good in retrospect or if they really were as awful as their reputation. As for Martha Byrne, I feel for her, but what exactly did the husband think he was doing? If his defense his true, I wouldn't leave him in charge of a rock garden.

Stringfield could have given him an honest answer AND then gotten ER. She left after two years or so it's not if fame and money meant all that much to her. Either way, did he want her to grovel for crumbs after Caruso left? It's a shame that JFP was never held accountable for the working conditions on GL. That time is always described in terms of McKinsey's "outrageous clause" but never about how the actors felt overworked and exhausted. I really wish there were a tell-all book about the soaps and how actors and writers were treated. The OLTL oral history book got into some of that, but soap execs and producers got away with so much bad behavior.

I think the main problem with C.C. is that his personality and purpose was constantly changing depending on the writers/performers. I can't imagine any actor would be able to play any of those shifts convincingly.

Marcy Walker could have worked well with the other actors so it's a shame it was such a disaster. I found the interview Walker gave about her time on GL as well as her time on AMC and SB. It was with Michael Logan. Walker Interview