Broderick

On 9/22/2021 at 9:05 AM, FrenchBug82 said:

Let me ask something I have always wondered as delicately as I can: was Larkin M. considered attractive at the height of his popularity? 

I believe some fans considered Malloy "swoon-worthy" on Edge of Night as Schuyler Whitney.  He was sort of a mysterious scoundrel, he had a patrician air of sophistication, he was secretive, and he had great chemistry with his co-star (Sharon Gabet).  It was probably a case of the perfect actor having been cast in the perfect role -- much like Jonathan Frid as Barnabas on Dark Shadows, Jeanne Cooper as Kay on Y&R,  Chris Bernau as Alan on Guiding Light, or Anthony Geary as Luke on General Hospital.  I'm not sure how successful Larkin Malloy was in his later roles, but he definitely had something that made him appealing when he first burst onto the scene in what was likely his most memorable role.    

8 hours ago, will81 said:

 I think it must have been four. Kay Lenard, E. Wilson, Elizabeth Harrower and Joyce Perry.

That sounds right.  Four.  (Or maybe 3, with the 4th being a replacement for one of the other 3.)  

You'd expect him to echo that same format with B&B in 1987, if that were his ideal working environment.  And it appears that he did. I've watched those first twelve or fifteen episodes of "B&B" that have been released this so far this month, and it looks as though a few of the episodes were written entirely by Bill (the first episode, for instance), a few were written by Bill & Bradley Bell, a few by Bill and Meg Bennett, and a few by Bill and Jack Smith. 

Here's the quote from Kay Alden, edited to take out the "ummmms":   

Bill was really driven.  He was extremely driven.  He was married to Lee Phillip, who was a very well-known Chicago TV personality and had a huge public presence in Chicago.  But for a lot of the years that I knew Bill, it seemed like he never went out.   He just sat at his desk.  I came in from the suburbs where my parents lived.  I sat at the dining room table, and I worked.  And he worked.  And that’s what we did for, you know, ten hours a day, five days a week.  We also worked on the weekends, but we worked together every day, and gosh, he was very driven.  He took his work very seriously, and he was very fun, and obviously I adored him.  He was wonderful to me … 

The writing process evolves over time.  What we’re doing now [2006] is a more traditional system than we had for much of my career.  There was a point in time, in the first years that I was working with Bill … He was very happy with my work.  The show was still a half hour then.  He was very happy with my work, and he wasn’t very happy with the California writers that he’d been working with.  They were all older, you know, and he had not found this young person, and he liked that [about me].  Through a series of events, all of those other writers left the show.  There were two or three of them, and they were each doing, like, a script a week, and Bill was doing one, or maybe Bill was doing two at that time.  So that was the five scripts.  They all left, within a month of each other.  Bill came back from a vacation.  He’d gone to Hawaii, and something tragic had happened in his family.  One of his parents had passed away, while he was away.  So he came back from the vacation to deal with the death of a parent. 

He had sent me to California, for my first California trip; that was my reward.  While he took the vacation, I worked, but I worked in California, which was very cool.  So we both got back to Chicago.  It was a Monday morning, and we had no other writers.  It was a Monday morning, and it was just Bill and Kay.  Bill and Kay have to write an episode of “The Young and the Restless” that is going to tape a week from this day.  Now, this is beyond even special delivery, we think.  So for the first time, we call around, because we’d heard there’s this thing called "Air Express".  We found out there is Air Express, and they will show up today, they will pick up our script – provided we get it written on this day.  If we get our script written, Novo Air Express would be there to pick it up at five o’clock, and they would take it to the airport, and it would be in California tomorrow.  That was the start of a new era.  We were too busy to look for anybody to hire.  Bill and I had developed already – this was the second year of my career, maybe – not quite, probably near the end of my first year – we had developed this simpatico.  We finished each other’s sentences.  We could talk through stuff.  So we started writing all the scripts.  We would sit down in the morning, and he would have an envelope, or a steno pad – one or the other.  He would jot down some names, and we’d talk a little bit about what they were going to do, and then we’d write the script.  And it had to be done by five o’clock, because Novo Express would be down there to pick it up to take it to California.  That was, of course, my period of greatest growth.  No one in history would’ve gotten a gift like that.  It was terrifying; it was huge pressure.  But it was unbelievable, it was fabulous, and I learned so much at that time.

As talk began [about going to an hour], we began to hire some people, because it was insane to keep writing the show that way, just the two of us.  But that was sort of historically the writing process.  At that period of time, there was no "writing process".  Kay and Bill just wrote the show. 

"Dark Shadows" had a countess too -- Josette's aunt, Countess Natalie du Pres.  But that actually sorta made sense, as she appeared in 1795, and she was from Martinique.   Nonetheless, she was just Grayson Hall in a big hat with a deck of tarot cards. 

I never could quite grasp where her title came from.  Her brother, Andre du Pres, didn't seem to have a title, which indicated she'd married a count, perhaps, at some point.  But she used her maiden last name on the show.      

27 minutes ago, YRfan23 said:

 “Mrs chancellor your probably don’t remember me, etc…” kind of odd she needed to say that 

Even odder still, why would Lorie think Kay could possibly forget her "grand entrance" down the steps in London a few months earlier, with her gown split all the way up to her swiveling crotch?  lol.  (I'm sure the dialogue was phrased that way, because they'd shared so few scenes over the past nine years.  But that entrance down the staircase in London, with Kay Chancellor, Liz and Stuart gasping at her revealing ensemble, was pretty memorable.)   

55 minutes ago, kalbir said:

 I think Casey was already gone by the time Victor saw Nikki at The Bayou.  

I believe you hit the nail on the head.   It would've been unnecessary "clutter" to bring up Casey, when Casey was no longer on the show.  Ditto for Nikki and Kay's sudden friendship in 1981, during the Jerry Cashman storyline.  Nikki had ALWAYS known Brock Reynolds, as Nikki worked for him at the Allegro in 1978.   But three years later, when she befriended Kay, she never said, "Oh!  You're BROCK's mother!", because Brock was no longer on the show, and it would've been confusing for viewers who'd never heard of Brock.  

Kay Chancellor had several "hit-and-miss" encounters with the various Brooks girls throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.  She knew that Lorie Brooks was the girl who'd help Brock squander his inheritance from Gary Reynolds in Europe.  She knew that Lorie Brooks was the aspiring novelist who had the hots for her current husband Phillip Chancellor.  Lorie was the girl Kay enlisted in 1979 to help sabotage Jill's divorce settlement from Stuart Brooks.  (Lorie Brooks and Liz Foster were the only two characters on the show who knew Kay was really alive after the fire at the sanitarium.)  In 1975, Kay evicted ALL of the Fosters (including Chris Brooks) from her home after the judge ruled Jill's marriage to Phillip was invalid.  In 1981, Kay brought some famous designer (Mr. Blackwell, I think) to town to design a dress for Liz to wear to the London ball; Lorie and Leslie were present with Kay for the fittings.   Later that year, Kay took Liz to the Bayou to watch Cash strip.  Peggy was at home when Kay delivered Liz back to the Brooks house and was giggling at the idea of Liz watching a striptease act.   

We typically saw the characters in their own little orbits, but when the crossover occasionally occurred, it was normally pretty organic, rather than forced.   

I believe Sloane Denning on Capitol married Prince Ali of Baraq or somewhere.  He appeared to be a pseudo-Islamic prince who might become a pseudo-Islamic king, but Sloane got the pseudo-Islamic firing squad.  

14 hours ago, will81 said:

I remember Janice Lynde wanted to work with Jeanne and was hoping they would find a way for them to interact.

Kay may have had a brief scene with Lorie when she was going after Phillip, but never been able to find out for sure.

Of course she did share scenes with both Lorie and Stu but not until 82/83

 

 

 

The interaction with the Brooks girls that I always found comical was NIKKI.   She and Chris Brooks were fairly close (both married to a Foster brother).  I believe Nikki even wore Chris's dress in her 1979 wedding to Greg Foster.  But I guess Chris never bothered mentioning that she had a lil sister named Peggy.   In the summer of 1980, Nikki and Greg separated, and Nikki joined the New World Commune (along with Paul).  Peggy had also infiltrated the organization.  Nikki, Paul, and Peggy spent the entire summer together but they never seemed to recognize that Peggy was dating Paul's older brother or that she was Greg Foster's sister-in-law/step-sister.   By the time the New World storyline was over, Nikki and Peggy were friendly, but I guess Peggy never mentioned that she had a sister named Leslie who played the piano.  Less than a year later, Nikki was residing in Goat Castle, and Victor hired Leslie to give Nikki piano lessons.  Blank slate.  Nikki didn't appear to have a clue that Leslie was a sister to Chris and Peggy.  But Leslie and Nikki played lots of sonatas together, without Leslie ever bothering to mention that she had a sister named Lorie.  A year later, Lorie was Nikki's romantic rival for Goat Daddy, but Nikki seemed never to have heard of her before.  That's Bill Bell for you.   

In a rather lengthy video interview (during which she goes, "Ummmm" a whole lot), Kay Alden says that in the early months of Y&R, Bill Bell was utilizing two or three --- "ummm, I think it was two, ummmm maybe it was three" scriptwriters on the West Coast.  According to her, both of them (or all three of them) quit about the same time in late 1973 or early 1974.   This was shortly after she'd submitted a few "spec scripts" to Bell, which he'd paid her $50 each to write, even though he considered her scripts to be somewhat amateurish and overwritten.   When the West Coast writers quit, Bell called her on a Friday and said, "I'm offering you a job and need for you to begin next week." 

She goes on to say that their "breakdown sessions" consisted of herself and Bill sitting down together in his apartment on Lake Shore Drive every morning.  He would jot down a few ideas on a stenographer's pad, discuss the ideas with her in a bit more depth, then tear off the page, give it to her, and she would immediately begin penning the dialogue.  By 5:00 p.m., she'd completed the script and Bell had reviewed it, made any changes he wanted to make, packaged it up, and had it ready for a courier service to pick up the package for overnight shipment to Los Angeles.  She said it was a harrowing process (having to be finished and ready for delivery by 5:00 pm every day), but it was how they rolled for many, many months, with herself and Bell exclusively handling the scripting of each episode.   But she says the rewarding aspect of it is that she and Bell developed a symbiotic relationship in which they could practically read each other's minds and always knew exactly what was expected of each other. 

(And in retrospect, this is probably the ideal method of scripting a thirty minute show.  There's no misunderstanding between the head writer and the script writer, as the two of them are sitting by one another all day, can talk freely and ask questions, and can tweak things as they go.  It's no wonder that the scripts were better -- and clearer as to character development and motivation -- while she and Bell were working together in this manner.)       

Linda Evans from "Dynasty" has that same "Ruined Chuckie Doll" look that Joan Van Ark opted for.   

9 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

Speculation only but looking at the cast, Y&R is the show that still have the most "headliners" from decades ago - and consistent headliners, not people they fired and brought back (aka people they showed were not necessary and therefore can afford to pay less)
I bet their actors' budget is inflated in that way.

I expect that's the case.   And it's probably why Doug Davidson originally got the boot (so they can afford to continue paying larger than average salaries to the remaining old "headliners".)    

2 hours ago, will81 said:

Though this behaviour allowed for the accusations to fly, and an audience could see why someone would think that, even if it wasn't entirely the case. Which is why I love Bell's writing. He often left certain things open. 80's Brad and his feelings for Traci is a good example too. To this day I can never be quite sure how he really felt about her. I get he loved her, but was he ever really in love with her. Bell was brilliant at leaving you guessing about motivations. 

Ha, I was never convinced that Brad Carlton was "in love" with Traci, either, although many viewers assumed that he was since he "said" he was.  

Bell was very adept at finding real-life situations and dramatizing them in such a way that the motives remained a little bit murky.  (We've recently discussed the maternal or not-so-maternal feelings of Kay Chancellor toward Joann Curtis, as another example of that.) 

I can recall a scene in which Brooke Logan on B&B basically said to Stephanie Forrester, "You're just jealous that you can't have Ridge for yourself!", and Stephanie slapped her jaws resoundingly.  I often wondered why Stephanie slapped her so hard.  Was it because Brooke's accusation was absurd, or was it because it hit too close to home?  

Vanessa Prentiss was more gothic and creepy than Stephanie of course, so her motivations toward her son were even murkier than Stephanie's were.  We've often seen, in real-life, women who dote on a son, either because he's her oldest, or because he reminds her of her father, or because he reminds her of her own brother who died in the war, or whatever.   Bell seemed very attuned to that phenomenon, and was willing to take it as far as good taste allowed, or even slightly farther. We've also seen him do the same thing with fathers and daughters --- specifically Stuart Brooks and his most headstrong, independent daughter (Lorie); John Abbott and Our Beauty; and I've recently been reminded that Stephanie Forrester didn't particularly want Kristin to return from New York to Los Angeles, because she was afraid too much of Eric's attention would be focused on the attractive little Kristin.  lol.  

Obviously none of us expected Vanessa to attempt a seduction of Lance, or Stephanie to attempt that with Ridge, but it's interesting to contemplate how deeply the feelings of the mothers actually ran, how aware or unaware the sons were of those feelings, and what went through the actor's minds when they played those scenes.       

There's probably not much future in television for actors who refuse to be vaccinated.  (There's also probably not much future in television for an actor who calls his show's few remaining fans "morons", lol.)  

On 9/4/2021 at 8:55 PM, will81 said:

 

Vanessa and her oedipal complex, haha. I wonder how romantic the dancing fantasy came across.  

 

 

I don't remember it being "offensive" or anything.  There's no "Mister Prentiss" of course, and there's no Lucas (yet), so Lance was kind of the only man in her life.  If I remember right, it just came across as an old lady waltzing with her son, as a woman might do at her son's wedding, and really enjoying herself.  Of course the Oedipal Complex was WELL into play by then, but really no worse than we saw ten years later with Stephanie Forrester and Ridge on B&B.   

As long as he looks younger than Nick & Sharon, he'll be ok I guess.  My problem with Adamson is that he looked to be about the same age as his parents.  

5 hours ago, will81 said:

 

Jody and that story doesn't register much with me. I'm sure if I was watching at the time it might have held some interest though.

 

Naw, it wouldn't have held any interest.  Not unless you enjoyed lines such as Mr. Conway's favorite, "That Bennett scum is gonna marry our Jody, damn it!"  lol.  It was terrible.   The whole thing played out again three years later when Dorothy & Wayne Stevens stood around saying, "That Williams scum is gonna marry our April, damn it!" after they discovered Paul was the father of Heather.  

5 hours ago, will81 said:

Did Bell spring the "Hey I'm a lawyer" bit because Greg was no longer on canvas and he wanted someone established to go into court with Chris and the Becker's. If Greg was on canvas, would Bell have used him and not had Brock become a lawyer?

 

You'd think so, based on the timing.  In June of 1977 Brock tells Chris, "Surprise!  I'm a lawyer!"  Now, in July, he's in court with her.   But I believe that's only part of it.  Bell could've easily had Chris call Greg off-screen and get a recommendation for an attorney.  John Conboy could've cast a charismatic young dayplayer in the role, and the audience would've said, "Oh, this is the guy Greg recommended; he must be okay," and it would've worked out fine.  

But I believe Bell specifically wanted to "deepen" the role Beau Kayzer played a little bit.  Brock was a unique character on daytime.  He was a spiritual character, and his spirituality was the characteristic that most heavily defined him.   He quoted scripture often, but not in a preachy manner -- he made it applicable to life and to the circumstances that other characters were experiencing.  (I've often imagined that Bill Bell, a Catholic, had likely been inspired to create Brock by some young priest in the Chicago Archdiocese who was helping people deal with problems in a more unorthodox, less preachy manner.)  Unfortunately, Brock's spirituality made him difficult to present as a young leading man in romantic situations.   He had platonic friendships with Jill and with all four of the Brooks sisters.  But he wasn't seen as a "sexual" character, which was difficult on a show that dealt primarily with love and sex.  Brock had to be placed in a central location (the Allegro) where he could interact with virtually everyone and offer his wise spiritual advice to the characters who needed it.   Making Brock into an attorney created a new layer where Brock could "outsmart" a "wicked" character like Ron Becker in 1977 or Rose DeVille in 1979 or Victor Newman in 1980, and the audience could view Brock as not only spiritually wise, but also as street smart.   This aspect WORKED, because it made Brock into a heroic character, although he never really was a romantic leading man by any stretch of the imagination.         

I'd forgotten that Brock Reynolds on Y&R pulled his, "Surprise!  I'm an attorney" trick in 1977.   I was thinking it was more like 1979, when he suddenly became law partners with Greg Foster.  But there it is, in black & white.  

Thanks, folks!   I was a fan of Wesley Eure (mainly from "Land of the Lost" on Saturday mornings), and was pretty sure I'd witnessed Wesley being "less than a man" on Days of Our Lives during that same time period, until Linda came along and got his all of his man parts operating again, lol.  

[That entire episode seems to be based on the 1953 Broadway play "Tea & Sympathy" where the boy in prep school feels "less than a man" and is tormented by a more aggressive male whose sympathetic and understanding wife eventually pops the sensitive boy's cherry.]   

56 minutes ago, will81 said:

IOn Days there was the story with Eric Peters when his brother Greg finds out he has a young, attractive man living with him. I believe the way it played out, Bell had the audience and Greg intially believe the two were lovers, and there were always rumours about Stanley Kamel. I think those in the know probably saw Eric as gay or bi and his "roommate" as his lover, regardless of whatever was explained on screen.

 

Yeah, I thought Eric Peters (on Days) and Kay Chancellor were both bisexual characters, and that Bill Bell was just "edgy" enough to slide that on through to our screens, without beating us over the head with it.   Of course in the case of Kay Chancellor, there was always the issue of her fundamental, unfulfilled loneliness -- and her desperate need to be loved -- that  made her sexual preferences and motivations a bit murkier. 

Wasn't there also a more flagrant storyline on "Days" during this same time period when Wesley Eure's character flat-out questioned his heterosexuality?  (I didn't watch "Days" as often as I watched Y&R, so perhaps I'm mistaken.)  But I'm pretty sure it was about 1976 or 1977, and Mike Horton had pretty much decided that he was gay.  Linda Patterson "cured" him, and he forged ahead as heterosexual, although the actor was who played Mike was gay and the seeds had been planted in the audience's mind that perhaps the character was bisexual as well.   

My feeling is that the purpose of "Ma Henderson" (and her brief appearance) was just to cement that Liz Foster and Bruce Henderson were siblings.   It seemed that Bill Bell put a lot of thought into the Henderson family -- Bruce Henderson, Mrs. Regina Henderson, Mark Henderson and the never materialized but heavily previewed Russell Henderson -- and wanted to be sure we understood they were Liz's relatives, although they existed in a different socio/economic sphere of the show.  

I've always felt that the tanned/blonde/bored Jennifer Brooks and the bored Regina Henderson were merely "prototypes" of a certain character that Bell really WANTED to write, but couldn't locate *exactly* the correct actress or *exactly* the correct characterization he was seeking.  He ultimately found his actress (Jeanne Cooper) and his characterization (drunk, bored, haughty, vain, needy, resourceful, vengeful).  The Kay Chancellor character kinda made both Jennifer and Regina obsolete, and Bell's attitude seemed to be "off with their heads".    

All of that business with Jane Wilcox, Frank, and Sally seemed to be WAY off-track regarding the actual storyline, which of course was the triangle of Chris, Snapper, and Sally.   I could never tell if it was merely "writers strike material", or if it was a device Bill Bell designed to postpone the marriage of Snapper and Chris, realizing that although the audience wanted to see them married, their marriage would likely be fairly uneventful and dull, effectively killing the appeal of two of his major "finds" (William Grey Espy and Trish Stewart).

In hindsight, I'm pretty pleased with the culmination of the Joann/Kay Chancellor storyline.  I appreciate that Bell left a certain amount of ambiguity in Kay Chancellor's intentions toward the girl.    Yes, Kay declared that her feelings toward Mrs. Curtis were maternal, but Kay Chancellor was a character known to lie.  Bell seemed to wink at the audience and say, "It's up to you whether or not you believe Kay Chancellor."   Audience members who were horrified by lesbianism or bisexuality obviously chose to believe Kay's assertion that her feelings were maternal; the rest of said, "Yeah, right."  lol.  

Thanks for the monthly synopsis and for the script summaries!  

(For a while, there were some clips of Joan Crawford & KT Stevens in "Harriet Craig" on You Tube.)  

I'm not quite sure that I remember/understand why Geraldine Whitney on "Edge of Night" is working so hard to get Raven married off to Kevin Jamison.  Poor Draper can barely get untangled from her, and she appears to be Ansel's waterloo.  

As others have mentioned, these summaries are written so much better than Soap Opera Digest.  I appreciate you sharing them on the board.  

Yes, reading between the lines,  I would guess that McCook, Flannery, Moss, and Lang had similar salaries going into 2012.  

We know that Flannery opted to retire circa 2012 (probably the moment she was offered the $300,000 or so cut), as she was in her 70s and could afford retirement.  Moss was 60, and probably thought he'd be ok not working steadily -- he had $1,200,000 in his IRA, along with his residence and his rental property, according to the court documents -- so he also bailed out.   McCook and Lang evidently quietly accepted the smaller salary and went on about their business, possibly with some negotiation that left them with a (slightly) higher salary than what was initially offered to Moss.  

I suppose this "salary tangent" is in a sense, Y&R-related as the two are considered "sister shows" and both Shari Shattuck and John McCook have previously appeared on Y&R.   The reason I wandered into this rabbit hole is simply to state that Y&R actors probably shouldn't be expecting raises in a climate where talent is routinely given substantial cuts to meet the ever-declining soap budget.   

There's a minimum that an actor can earn, which is often referred to as "scale".   There's a certain "scale" for walk-ons, another "scale" for Under Fives, and another "scale" for contract actors.  It's on the SAG-AFTRA page.

In 2017, scale for a principal actor on an hour show was $1,038 per day.   Scale for a principal actor on a half-hour show was $778.   Scale for an under five on an hour show was $451 and on a half-hour show was $369.   If the day lasts longer than 8 1/2 hours, there's an increase in each category.  They're also guaranteed a break for a meal, and principals are guaranteed a closing (or opening) credit at least once a week, typically on Monday or Friday whenever possible.    

Ditto for writers, producers, and directors.  Their union guarantees them a certain "scale".   Their "scale" is higher on an hour-long show than on a half-hour show.   

In the past, we've seen most everyone on soaps earning way, way above scale.   Evidently that trend is coming to an end, and salaries are being adjusted downward considerably, in light of the tighter budget restrictions.  Clearly, Moss's offer of $400,000 is still FAR above scale, but for newer, younger actors, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are being signed at scale.  

If Moss were going to be used 3 times a week, 52 weeks a year, he'd have a total of 156 episodes a year.   At $400,000, that would be $2,564 per episode, as compared with "scale" of $778 for an actor on a half-hour show.  So even a "big-name star" like Ron Moss was being adjusted down to "scales times three", which is pretty low for someone who'd been driving story for 25 years.  Not saying I sympathize with him at all, just saying that's a BIG drop.  

Y'all can google "Ronn Moss vs Shari Shattuck" and get all the details

Plus he had to continue paying Miss Shattuck the same amount of child support as he'd paid when he was making $700,000 per year.  (The "telling" aspect of the ordeal was that his new 2012 contract [$400,000] was for a ONE-year deal, not three or five.  So they likely planned to bump him down even lower the following year.  That's why he seemed to bail-out.  He should've known he'd never have an income approaching $400,000 without B&B.)