FrenchBug82

On 7/8/2020 at 9:39 AM, DramatistDreamer said:

 

99% of the soap blogs, the self-appointed keepers of the soap legacy are only interested in star-gazing and would rather forget the less glamorous aspects what production entails.  Notice how quiet many have been during this pandemic (which is not a bad thing, btw). Without the prominence of the soap stars, most blogs have nothing to say. 

 

The irony is with half a dozen video-streaming platforms available (Zoom is only one of them), this would be a perfect opportunity to dig in past the artifice and good deeper into daytime drama's legacy. Have discussions with the writers of past (let's be honest, the present soap writers are unlikely to be honest about the process), the music directors, the set designers, etc. to give insight into how exactly these shows are put together and the conflicts that can spring from clashing concepts of creativity and how it gets resolved.

I know that most soap fans are unlikely to be riveted by this stuff but it could find a niche audience that might be more than people think.

 

The WGA has been doing a series of discussions with writers and showrunners.  Unfortunately, the daytime soap genre is less than an afterthought when it comes to this, so I don't expect soap writers, even highly regarded ones to get on that platform. Someone will have to create one outside of this.

The lockdown reunions have been fun but I agree there is a huge opportunity slipping people right by of something similar to what the Television Academy does: long detailed interviews with both actors and bts folks from television.
There have been a handful of soap stars on there (Kim Zimmer, Elena Slezak) but so many other soaps actors and actresses and writers and producers could tell so many great stories if someone with intimate knowledge of the shows (more than the interviewees at the Academy or that the moderators have in the recent reunions) asked the questions and knew how to get the best info out of the insiders.

Heck, I bet someone who took the time to set those up could crowdsource the questions. Take the time to do in-depth. 
 

8 hours ago, John said:

I think he was the actor that HBS alluded to that she & Mark Derwin didnt get a long with

There has definitely been gossip about him being disliked and being let go for "personal reasons" (and his merry-go-round at AW felt similarly weird) but it is the most frustrating kind of gossip: we get the sense he was disliked by many cast mates but I have never heard anyone with a clear sense as to why.