wonderwoman1951

10 hours ago, Mitch said:

Maura West always reminded me of a young Kim Zimmer..

i remember reading somewhere that when richard culliton first pitched the character of carly to then ep, laurie caso, both saw her as the troubled girl who, down the road, could bring reva’s complexity and longevity to ‘world turns.

of course, by the time carly arrived in oakdale, caso was gone, replaced by john valente, setting the stage for the show’s final decline. 

On 5/17/2021 at 11:33 PM, wonderwoman1951 said:

i’m very much looking forward to hearing from nicholas coster — gl was one of the few soaps he wasn’t on. hope alan lets him talk without too many interruptions

file this under be careful what you wish for. 20 minutes into an hour-long interview with coster — who’s been on a dozen soaps, starting when they were live and running through web series — and we’ve heard about about how he lives on a boat and teaches scuba diving to the disabled, along with doing plays with laurence olivier and elizabeth taylor — but not ONE freaking word about soap opera. 

i don’t know if my blood pressure can take listening to the remaining 40 minutes.

25 minutes ago, Bill Bauer said:

I agree with you. I think Robert Gentry gave the most quintessential portrayal of Ed Bauer. Mart's portrayal of Ed surely made him more likeable but, problem is, I don't think Ed was supposed to be that likeable. Irna and Agnes's Bauers always had an edge to them. Later writers always made the Bauers too "nice". 

in total agreement! there is a scene somewhere between gentry’s ed and his mother bert. watching her defend her husband to her son, who wants to hold his father accountable for his philandering is absolutely riveting.  Of course, it has a lot to do with the writing: the conflicting emotions all stem from an emotionally authentic place. 

2 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

I thought the interview with Mart and Fran was ok but too safe. The questions were dull. It was great seeing them but overall I was disappointed. Alan giggling and laughing was very annoying.

Edited 2 hours ago by Soapsuds

alan has never been a great interviewer, which is a shame since he gets great people.

i know there’s still a lot of discussion about the best ed. for me it was mart’s predecessor, robert gentry, who left gl around the same time i started college (prior to gentry assuming the part, was called billy, since he was named after his father). then there were jobs. so in those pre-vcr years, i didn’t get to see a lot of mart’s ed. i did like peter simon’s ed.

fran’s peggy i remember very well. when she mentioned having a crush on don scardino (who played her first love interest, johnny fletcher), i giggled, because i, too, had a huge crush. actually got to see him on broadway — forget which show.

i’m very much looking forward to hearing from nicholas coster — gl was one of the few soaps he wasn’t on. hope alan lets him talk without too many interruptions. 

28 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

We've all discussed her first marriage to Weber. Check the old posts

no need to read the old post. only mentioned it here in relation to the possible relationship with swan. 

52 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I know that Swan and Reed dates and Reed seems pretty liberal, bordering on downright progressive, but they dates a long time ago, so it is possible that one or both of them have since changed in their political views. I cannot even imagine Finn, of the Carter family, cousin to Jimmy Carter being romantically involved with anyone with Swan's current political views. Swan has some pretty bad stuff on his IG (I recently checked) and if you see Finn's Twitter, she is without doubt a Democrat, in the tradition of the Carter family.

i know her father, hodding carter, worked in the carter administration, i don’t believe the two families were related — at least a google search didn’t turn up anything. 

this is the first i’ve heard anything about michael swan and finn carter, though certainly stranger political couplings have occurred. surprised that no ones’s mentioned that her first marriage was to steven weber (kevin gibson), whom she met when both were on atwt. 

9 minutes ago, DanMan869 said:

Mady Kaplan was the niece of classic Hollywood-era actor Van Heflin, so that may explain why she was a fairly decent actor in this episode. What I find interesting is that Kaplan was not "pretty"--she had an interesting face, but it wasn't part of the typical soap castings beginning in those days ("pretty, pretty, pretty--who cares whether or not they can act?!").

and the daughter of frances heflin, who played erika kane’s mother, mona, on all my children.

3 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

4 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

In retrospect, moving the time slot was the beginning of the end.

 

And terrible writing in the last ten-twelve years of the show. Also, P&G didn't want to produce daytime serials anymore. GL had been cancelled the previous year-- before ATWT, AW, a decade earlier.

re the time switch: the year preceding year, atwt was at 7.0; the next year it was 6.6and continued to drop until its cancellation. 

you’re not wrong about p&g, but there’s plenty of blame to lay at the feet of cbs. the decline in writing really began after the 1995 exec producer shuffle instigated by cbs daytime vp, lucy johnson, who, according to the la times, ‘motivated’ p&g by threatened to replace gl with a new bell soap. with laurie caso out and john valente in, cbs president, les moonves, then foisted the writing team of black and stern on atwt with disastrous results.  it was all downhill from there. 

On 5/6/2021 at 4:49 PM, DramatistDreamer said:

Yes, that's the lineup I remember. When I first started watching ATWT episodes again on YouTube, I realized that I had completely forgotten that Capitol was sandwiched between ATWT and GL, can't believe it took the iconic voice of Dan Region to stir that memory.

Yes, it seemed more organic to have ATWT and GL paired together. In retrospect, Capitol looks like the odd puzzle piece.

ATWT was moved to 2pm (EST) because Bill Bell wanted his own block with B&B following Y&R. And while it may seemed “mor organic”  to have the P&G shows together, the reality is that ATWT’s ratings took a hit from which they never fully recovered. In retrospect, moving the time slot was the beginning of the end.