Marissa Gallant

On 8/25/2021 at 2:09 PM, Lex S said:

So I was bored the last few days, and I did some soap hopping, meaning, I watched quite a few episodes on YouTube from Edge of Night, General Hospital, As the World Turns, Another World, Y&R - the works - from various periods In the 80s and 90s. I finished off with the last five episodes of the current Sheila arc on B&B.

I'm telling you - nothing comes close to the quality of dialogue on SB from its golden age (late 1985 - late 1988). The amount of gems from this period could fill 10 prime time shows.

I agree with this. The dialogue is so quick and witty through these years. I love how Mary sees right through Mary. And I enjoy the early Mason and Julia scenes where he is upset with Julia because she isn't using her brain.

And how much Cruz loves that Eden is feisty. At one point, Eden takes off and Controlling Kirk is beside himself because he has to know where she is at all times. Cut to scene with Cruz, "I don't know. When Eden needs to think, she just takes off. I loved that about her." 

And Augusta slapped CC. CC doesn't get slapped often. And his reaction of A bit high strung, isn't she?

I know that at times, I seem like I'm complaining because things are occasionally too rushed, but really that's just because I want more.

2 minutes ago, Lex S said:

I love that we saw none of that 10 hours a week that Sophia was supposed to be doing community service! I suppose that would not have been great soap material

There could have been great things. Sophia trying to pick up trash while Lionel followed her around trying to give her pearls. Personally, I feel that when Lionel followed her into CCs coma room, she should have smacked him, kicked him out and laid beside CCs moveless body.

Well, Tori was also a very unpopular character, so I'm not surprised she didn't last. The shocking thing was how long she did last. 

I will say that the show dovetailed the return of Gina after the boathouse, the end of the Kirk saga and the beginning of Kelly and Gina and the tape PERFECTLY. 

Does anyone else think Sophia's breasr cancer storyline was too rushed? I feel like there should have been more to that. She had Mason change her will and he suspected something. He told her to call him later, but then it was dropped. I would have liked to see that fallout.

And when CC told Mason to stay out of Mary's marriage and admit he lost. Mason said he did, but not anymore. He should have said Mark beat up the hooker he hired and spends more nights at the porn district than with his wife. I mean really rub CCs nose into it.

CC needed his nose rubbed into his mistakes more. JA did a great job with subtle subtext and brought a lot of the softening of CC with his eyes. But sometimes words and a slightly slower pace is a wonderful thing.

2 hours ago, Connelly said:

what video are you talking about? I cannot find anything. Is this the channel you are talking about?

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/santabarbarasoapopera

The specific video is gone now. There were fishnet shorts involved. It was very bizarre to my Western mind. 

9 hours ago, Lex S said:

So, is Kirk Cranston to SB what Sheila is/was to Y&R/B&B?

I did know the character came back after his initial (longest) stay but I didn't realize he came back once more (after I stopped watching in 1989).  So, he came back a total of 3 times. This must be a SB record for a character return.  I don't actually know what happened to him after his final stay in town, so please don't tell me as I am planning on watching.  But then, again, they keep finding a way for Sheila to be back from the dead so many times, that it wouldn't surprise me that the TPTB would have found a way for him to come back again if the show continued past 1993. We know no one really dies in soaps!

I read this wrong the first time. I thought you said soap record and thought, No Stefano DiMera came back 13 times.

But, yes, I do think that's the most for SB. 

The person who posts the episodes put a new video of a Russian boy band. In the middle is a commercial for Santa Barbara perfume. Has anyone else seen this video? 

2 hours ago, Lex S said:

TIME OUT! What!?! You mean Sophia didn't shoot Channing?!? 

 

Remember, I only watched up to 1989 the first go around, so I wasn't aware if they continued with this storyline past that. I knew about the Eden/Lisa thing vaguely. Wow, this just gave me another reason to continue watching

 

She shot Channing, but Channing wasn't her biological son.

1 hour ago, j swift said:

It certainly didn't matter to CC because he continued to consider Brandon his grandson despite the fact (a) Channing was switched at birth and (b) Lionel was Channing/Brick's actual biological father.  CC was as related to Brandon as he was to Amy's son Johnny (who got bupkis).

And should have gotten a literal kingdom. 

I am watching today. I love the scenes where Minx shoots CC so much. Capped by the scenes with Mason once CC gets home.

I had a job change and I won't be able to fly through the episodes like I have been. So, I may never get to the 800's. But- Sophia and Pamela should be enemies. 

8 hours ago, j swift said:

I think it is a shame that Sophia never got to get justice from Minx for switching her child at birth and making her think she shot her son.

 

I get that Minx 1.0 was treated like a sacred cow, but by the time Minx 2.0 rolled into town Sophia should have smacked her so hard that the magical spring water couldn't save her face.

That would have been awesome and given Sophia more storyline. Sorry the one awesome scene right after it was all revealed wasn't enough.

What I never fully agreed with was the assumption that Brick was only alive because of the switch. The reality is that the bits we saw of Channing showed that Channing and Brick had very different moral compasses. I don't think Sophia would have shot Brick because Brick wouldn't have had all of those people parading through the library (or office- tgat room) that day. Also not sure he would have been on the "get Santana and my son gone" train with CC. I believe Brick and CC would have butted heads worse than either CC and Mason or Ted. I kind of feel like Channing took after his bio Dad and had some issues. Sorry, I know the show tried to turn Mr. Wallace into a decent guy, but the dude full on abandoned his wife and child. 

48 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

SB truly was a soap of the 1980s. I was rewatching a few early scenes and always enjoyed Jade consoling drunk Amy at the State Street Bar before Brick came in and had to rescue Amy from a lecherous patron. "Dancing in the Dark" by The Boss was playing in the background, to be immediately followed by "If This Is It" by Huey Lewis and The News. It tickles me to remember that those songs were brand new then and not the pop classics they are now.

A CLASSIC telling the story through the music too! Yes, Amy, Brick is it.

They really used some classic songs on this show. 

1 hour ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I know Liz sang it to Neil at their wedding on Days, but I don't know if it was their song.

That's got to be it. I was a big Luz fan 

3 hours ago, Lex S said:

I can't help you with that one, but I've been wanting to learn to play "The Change in Me is You" on the piano. I've been looking for the sheet music all over the internet but I can't find it. I can play the first few notes though

I would call jwpepper. If anyone has it, they would. I tried to do a quick Google, but the Beauty and the Beast song dominates and I've had three chocolate martinis, so I'm not  lot of help. www.jwpepper.com

Now I remember! 

Hey, maybe someone here will know this. Was Always on my Mind a soap opera couples theme song? I feel like it was, but didn't find confirmation 

44 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Until SB, I only knew him from Killer Klowns From Outer Space 

Whoa, wait. Now I need to re-watch that because I don't remember him.

23 minutes ago, Lex S said:

So it took more digging than I thought it would but I found JAN on Edge 

https://youtu.be/-VebBI-Us-M

 

One thing for sure, he was on SB just a few months later and we never saw him in a turtleneck! 

His acting seems different here. I still maintain that he studied Nicolas Coster to appear more like his son which he accomplished so well, it really is a shame SB didn't use him properly. 

 

Agreed

4 hours ago, j swift said:

That's an interesting perspective and it would seem like Kelly inherited many of Sophia's traits.  They were both kind, until you crossed them, and they were both adored by rich Europeans without having to do much in order attract them.

And that's a new perspective on Kelly for me. I've never really pieced that part of it into my Kelly puzzle.

I really hate Warren's addiction story. I'm okay with gambling stories, but it feels lame for him to say it's because Mommy and Daddy got divorced. Warren, you moved out of their house several years ago and Daddy wasn't around that often. You are a grown azz man. Your reaction has been less mature than Brandon's reactions to his dad's death, his new dad's coma, his mom's death, and being shipped off to a woman he's only known a few years and is way too clingy. And he's six! I just wish there had been a more organic reasoning. 

Maybe no one has told Warren about getting Christmas presents at 2 different houses now.

2 hours ago, Liberty City said:

I'm sure she got a rise from C.C., haha.

As often as she allowed it from what I've seen. 

1 hour ago, Liberty City said:

Ted was the red-headed stepchild of the Capwell children. He was merely a conceptual afterthought.

But we know he was conceived when the atrium was filled with daisies. I hope CC gave Rosa the day off that day. 

13 minutes ago, j swift said:

That's funny because it was kind of established during the making of Stephen Slade's movie that she wasn't a great actress, so maybe her other skill served her well in Hollywood...

She wouldn't have been the first or last. I've only seen a few of the episodes during that time, so I can't say. I will say, there are some people who are just blessed with something that draws others to them. 

I also think that at heart, Sophia is very kind and a bit vulnerable. She can turn viper when her people are threatened. But she doesn't start that way with most people. She even had sympathy for Gina at the beginning. And she certainly sees through Mason's bravado when he is hurting. And the private fashion show scenes certainly lead to the belief that she was probably also pretty good.

19 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

 

And it was an interesting reversal because she was used by Ken for her money....same way she latched onto the count.

And I agree Cassie should have been her vengeful step daughter.  Kind of like India was to Alexandra on GL.  

 

But that's the thing. We don't know that she did latch onto him. I have always assumed that Marcello brought her home to the old geezer and the Count latched onto her. She didn't know who she was and responded to the kindness. We do know Marcello took her from SB and CC and that she didn't know who she was when he did. And she might have latched on because we know she did latch on to CC. Totally a missed opportunity. And it would have given Judith McConnell a storyline other than Oh, CC- which is always good in my opinion.

24 minutes ago, j swift said:

Sophia really intrigues me.  She was primarily known for her beauty, given the number of scenes through the years when she would descend the staircase and CC would gasp at her good looks.  However, who was this woman that captured the heart of CC, Lionel, Grant, Craig, TJ, and the Count (I won't count Ken because he was a con)?  Certainly she had more tricks in her bag than just her blonde hair and the ability to look great in gowns.  Men were willing to kill for her, they bought yachts for her, and pined for her when she was thought to be lost at sea.   Think about her good fortune that after being swept off a yacht in Santa Barbara she wound up in the Italian Riviera married to a Count, who left her his fortune, despite that fact she was a bigamist; that takes some talent.  I mean when Eden got amnesia she wound up in a shoddy cabin with an unstable war vet.  In retrospect, Sophia could have been used like John Black on Days, where her backstory was fodder for various plots through the years.  In my imagination, Cassie would have made more sense as Sophia's stepdaughter by the Count, out for revenge and a piece of the inheritance, versus being a Lockridge, (and it would have avoided all of the Warren incest retcon).   At the very least we could have met her family, who seemed to have never been informed that she returned from the dead.

You can spin that broken record with me all day long. I love Sophia and agree with everything you said. I've never understood if the Count knew she had another husband. They were fuzzy on that timeline. When the Count died, how much older he was than Sophia. Marcello was about his stepmoms age. But yes, there could have been more about the missing years. Heck, Cassie could have been Marcello's daughter! That would have been interesting. She was certainly beautiful and glamorous. They even established that she was smart. But luck did play a factor in her life. It was luck (or bad luck) that caused Marcello to find her on the beach and abduct her. Lionel loved her like no one he ever loved. Maybe she was just great in bed. Her early scenes with CC are certainly steamy. That can be pretty important to some people.  Lol. 

Real life doesn't make good Hollywood drama. Or at least that's what they think. I never fully understood why Brick pushed Kelly away after he found out he was her brother. They were so close that she was his best man. But suddenly he hated her? Weird.

And the lack of female friendships always felt weird. Other soaps had female friends. We got constant rapes, serial killers and women pushing away the men they love. Mom and I used to call it Stupid Soap Opera Woman Syndrome. 

I loved this show because it got so much right, but they missed SO many opportunities because they always wanted to concentrate on the next big stunt. When you have an earthquake and serial killer rapist in your first year, it's difficult to continually top that.

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

GT's Mason had the Shakespearian quality that LD's Mason had..but he played the in love aspect of Mason toward Julia much better.

I look at it as Mason finally letting go of Mary by the early 90s.

And like I said before, seeing Julia's first 18 months on the show pre Mason has been a treat.  She interacted with a larger group of characters, focused more on her career, and seemed to have more agency as a character in her own right.

Once Julia/Mason started, her stories were more tied to him..and she didn't freely interact with the other characters as much.  It was like she was tied to him and his needs without any agency of her own.

To be fair, there weren't as many characters for her TO interact with. From the brief bits I've seen with GT, I do like him in the role.

I also do think that the show struggled with wanting to keep women in the role of other half far too often. They never completely knew what to do with single women. It falls into that odd couples are boring if they're together and other problems with this. I'm sure there were many interesting things they could have done with the women.

Amy could have been a reporter ala Hildy Grant, hard hitting and the smartest person in the room.

Augusta had so many possibilities. Catapulting her gambling skills into serious cash and running a business to give Capwell Enterprises and Armonti a run for the money. Or heck, even a shopping mall empire.

Sophia could have had an All About Eve type of storyline.

Kelly could have not been an eternal damsel in distress. Sorry that got old. Some sort of Artist story.

Laken or someone could have been a doctor. Heaven knows that with the number of times people were in the hospital, they needed a full time doctor! 

The show started to bust boundaries, but they always held back from really showing the barriers that were toppling in the 80s.

I'm rewatching the scene where Augusta finds out that CC bought the paintings. She smacks Mason. CC says, "She's somewhat high strung isn't she?" Mason replies,  "I wouldn't mind seeing her strung a little higher." And I'm rolling. And then Lionel finds out that Mason knows. This show had some great moments. 

38 minutes ago, j swift said:

OK, but once you get to the actual resolution of the mystery, go back to this episode and you'll see that it was implausible that the murderer could get from the scene of the crime to where they were shown within the episode...

Oh, okay. That's gonna be a bit.

24 minutes ago, Wendy said:

Never even was aware that Don Rickles show existed. Huh! Louise Sorel was also once married to actor Herb Edelman. He occasionally played a detective on Murder, She Wrote but will forever be known to millions as Stan Sbornak, feckless ex-husband to Dorothy Sbornak, on The Golden Girls!

And he was in St. Elsewhere. He married Nurse Rosenthal.

On 8/16/2021 at 7:49 PM, j swift said:

To me, that was what was so fun about the character.  Terry Davis' April on EON was sickeningly sweet, she had to turn a blind eye to Raven's (almost) incestuous flirting with her husband Draper, and then she had to give up the super sexy Logan when said husband returned from the dead.  I appreciate when actors are cast against type in soaps, and having her play this snooty, mean, conceiving character was perfect. 

The plot was an obvious rip off of the 1985 Glen Close movie Jagged Edge, a defense lawyer falls for her client who was accused of killing his wealthy wife, only to find out later that he was guilty (spoiler alert for a 30 year old movie).  But, they had to change the resolution so it was not completely plagiarized.  However, showing the murderer on the day of the crime as being nowhere near the crime scene was a total cheat.  We saw the murderer being told about the crime in front of others and, unless that person teleported, there was no way to get from the motel to the residence.  It sours the experience for a mystery audience when the solution is implausible given the setup of the crime.

I just watched this episode. Yeah Madeline is dead. And Kirk has the heart of a ruthless beotch. It seems to me that they planned on David being the killer right away. Before he was even officially in town, they were showing his cigs. CC tried David at home and office and had him call him back. He wasn't officially in town until after the story broke in the papers, which would have been the next day.