Jdee43

Peter Mark Richman was my favorite CC from Santa Barbara 1984. Too bad they couldn't get him to continue. I will never understand how Paul Burke was so, so bad on Santa Barbara. He wasn't like that when he was the lead in Naked City and 12 O'Clock High, primetime shows of the 1960s.

If you want to feel a little bit of what it was like, go watch The Doctors or Dark Shadows, daily and with no spoilers. By some miracle, runs of both shows exist and are available for viewing. I think the golden age of soap opera, and all daytime, was 1966-1976. For me, it's all about the writing. It's a shame that in the 1980s and 1990s, the networks didn't invest more money in the writer's room and try to lure more primetime writers to daytime. See what Rita Lakin did for The Doctors or Henry Slesar for The Edge of Night. Also a shame that networks interfered with the writers they did have, rarely letting them do their own thing, like the writers of the 1960s and 70s had the privilege of doing.

It's a shame Gerald Gordon didn't stay to the end. Instead he turns up on General Hospital doing a watered down version of Nick Bellini that never takes off. Why did Gordon leave? Did GH offer him more; was he going where the money was? Or was he tired of NY? NBC should have tried expanding The Doctors to an hour, before trying to do more Another World spin-offs, and especially before expanding AW to 90 minutes. Was there any definite reason as to why NBC never did expand The Doctors to an hour? 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 would all have been good years to do it.

As others have mentioned, NBC's first attempt to add a soap to their core 3 after 1968 was Hidden Faces. It ran at 1:30pm, right before Days. It lasted 6 months, the first half of 1969. It performed so poorly in the ratings that NBC would not put another soap in that slot for the next 5 years, going with game shows instead. The 1:30pm slot was really tough, with Let's Make a Deal on ABC and As the World Turns on CBS, the latter the highest rated daytime drama. Giving up putting soaps before their core block, NBC tried putting new soaps after it, first with Bright Promise at 3:30pm in the fall of 1969, running immediately after Another World; then the Another World spin-off Somerset at 4pm starting in the spring of 1970. The ratings of Bright Promise and Somerset were never as high as the core 3; in fact, not even close. Did NBC ever consider having Somerset run at 3:30pm, right after Another World? It seems like Somerset got slightly higher ratings than Bright Promise. So people were tuning out right after Another World, and then some of them were coming back for Somerset. Was expanding Another World to an hour in 1970 ever considered? I wonder how things would have been different if instead of creating Somerset, they just expanded Another World to an hour from 3-4pm.

How wrong is to say that Harding Lemay's Another World was perhaps a bit overrated? Or that Lemay spent a few years too many in Another World?

I think the best part of Santa Barbara 1984 is Louise Sorel. She really gives it her all! The show really outdid itself in finding beautiful people with very minimal acting skills. Another one is Jonna Leigh Stack as Summer Blake. Given the character's fate, the writers probably shouldn't have made her Gina's sister, but rather a family friend. There's a scene in the middle of episode 72 where she's standing in the Lockridge living room in a two piece bikini; can't believe they got away with showing that much skin!

The itsrealgoodtv site has slightly reordered The Doctors pages, overall making them a little bit worse IMHO, as all such reorderings seem to do. Even so, they haven't added any missing episodes or corrected any of the mislabeled ones. I hope they will do something to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary! Maybe they can finally upload the show's last 3 years?! I'd also love to see more of 1967 if possible, especially Rita Lakin's material!

Santa Barbara's "official" network time slot was always supposed to be 3pm. Individual stations could choose to air it whenever they wanted though. For the first half of 1984, NBC had The Match Game - Hollywood Squares Hour at 3pm. For the second half of 1984, they had Santa Barbara in that time slot. Both shows were pretty dreadful. Perhaps they would have had more success by debuting Santa Barbara as a half hour show at 3pm, and keeping the Match Game portion of the MG HS Hour for a half-hour Match Game at 3:30pm. That might have allowed Santa Barbara to stabilize, and they could always have expanded it to an hour in the late 80s whenever the new Match Game ran its course. But instead, it seemed like NBC was wedded to the rule that whatever show was airing at 3pm had to be at least one hour. They kept to this from 1975, when Another World expanded to an hour, all the way to the end of Santa Barbara's run in 1993, when NBC gave back that hour to its affiliates to program. NBC losing the 3pm hour in 1993 meant that Sunset Beach had to go to noon when it premiered in 1997, pretty much condemning that show to low ratings and eventual cancellation.

Since NBC Daytime is no more, and NBC has become the first of the big 3 networks to no longer air scripted daytime drama, perhaps a thread to commemorate it, celebrating what went right and analyzing what went wrong? I would venture to say daytime drama on NBC was at its best from 1966-1968, when they just had 3 shows, all at 30 minutes: Days of our Lives at 2pm; The Doctors at 2:30pm; Another World at 3pm. Perhaps the pinnacle of that era was 1968, with Bill Bell, Rita Lakin, and Agnes Nixon at their respective shows. Was the quality of NBC daytime dramas ever as high again?

I like Cynthia Watros, and she is a good actress, but unfortunately it's hard to look at her sometimes with the work she has done to her face. Most people have lines under their eyes, and the skin tone of the area under the eyes matches that of the rest of the face. Is there anything that a make-up artist or a lighting set-up can do to make her look more natural?.

I remember watching these episodes back when they were being uploaded on the AOL soap classics channel. Robert came to town looking to connect with his son, threatening to stir up trouble for Clarice and Larry. But none of that ever happened, and he just left town after a few episodes. It was a strange return. He was mentioned later as being married to Olivia, but he was never on screen at the same time she was; she came on after he left! Late 1980 was a messy time for Another World. A lot of plots and characters were left up in the air, or made sharp 180s, or were just dropped with no resolution. I think this was a period where they were going through a head writer transition. The only story that was carried to a true resolution and had continuity was the main one with Rachel/Mac/Mitch.

I recently watched the 1976 film Marathon Man. It co-starred Marthe Keller. Could you imagine someone like Keller playing Karen Werner on The Doctors? That would have been amazing. I think the producers always erred by not getting an actress for Karen who actually had chemistry with David O'Brien. That would have made their pairing much more watchable and believable. I think Laryssa Laurent had chemistry with Matt, but not with Steve. Steve had chemistry with almost everyone, everyone except Karen. It's strange that out of all the ladies, it's Karen they pair him with.

Here are the missing and mislabeled episodes on the itsrealgoodtv site for July through September 1968: July 1968 is complete on the site Thursday 8/1/68 -- not on the site; aired on Retro TV; in the clinic, as Karen and Matt try to explain, Maggie just won't listen Monday 8/5/68 -- not on the site; aired on Retro TV; features just Matt and Maggie and their crumbling marriage; starts and ends with Matt alone at the motel Tuesday 8/27/68 -- not on the site and never aired on Retro TV; missing or the show was preempted that day or the next day; Days of our Lives might have been preempted on Wednesday 8/28/68 Friday 9/6/68 -- not on the site and never aired on Retro TV; missing or the show was preempted that day; Another World might have been preempted that day too Friday 9/13/68 -- is labeled on the site as 9/12/68 Part 1; actually never aired on Retro TV during its first run through; features Carolee's reaction to Karen telling her that she and Steve just got married Wednesday 9/25/68 -- not on the site; aired on Retro TV; features the return of Phillip Townsend and Steve bawling out Mike Thursday 9/26/68 -- labeled on the site as Wednesday 9/25/68 Friday 9/27/68 -- labeled on the site as Thursday 9/26/68

Watching the September 19, 1968 episode, it's great to see Lydia Bruce finally with a flattering hairdo. They've had her hair so matronly since she's started. She looks so much younger here. Nice too that they have her acting more like Bethel Leslie's Maggie. Speaking of hair, I can't believe they did a story about Jody Lee Bronson having to cut his hair in order to get a promotion. They even have Nick and Mike mistake Jody Lee for a woman. Talk about being on the wrong side of history; in just a few years, everybody will have their hair looking like Jody Lee!

I would love to see whatever they have of 1963-1967. It would be great to see how Matt, Maggie, Althea and Nick all started out. Here's hoping they haven't abandoned the project, and that they bring it to it's completion!!

Early Mason is such a loser. Santana and Veronica barely stand him; they only pretend to be friendly to get what they want. His father barely tolerates him, and his mother can't be bothered to give him the time of day. Hard to believe his character is going anywhere.

There was no back and forth between Bethel and Lydia. Lydia started appearing one day and that was it. Going by the airdates on the itsrealgoodtv website, Lydia's first airdate was Wednesday, May 15, 1968. Bethel's final airdate was Friday, May 10, 1968. I thought Bethel's final episode was a fitting tribute to Maggie and Matt's relationship; loving, adult, and understanding. With that in mind, what follows in June, July and August with Lydia in the role didn't make much sense to me. I can definitely see recasting Maggie as an example of taking a character in a new direction, in this case, making the character more neurotic, less stable, less confident. Perhaps the nail in Bethel's coffin was when Kathleen Murray was temporarily playing the role of Maggie from March 5, 1968 to March 19, 1968, "due to" what they said on air was "illness." I thought Murray played the role more shrill and neurotic, less stable, centered, and wise. Maybe after seeing Murray's performance, the producers decided that that's the direction they wanted to take Maggie in. Presumably Murray was acting from scripts intended for Bethel. I guess with Lydia Bruce, the producers had the best of both worlds. Lydia could play Maggie as Bethel did, strong, wise, sarcastic, confident, kind (if the producers ever gave her that material, which seemed rare in her first months). Lydia could also play Maggie as Kathleen Murray did, weak, shrill, neurotic, unstable, self-centered (which is what it seemed the producers were initially going for with her).

I think the scene you're talking about is in this clip, starting around 2:50.

Ava, Dane and Julie were all very pretty people. What Ava and Dane had, and what Julie didn't, was charisma. What Dane had, and what Ava and Julie didn't, was chemistry with everyone. They should have given Dane more of a chance, and Ava too. Charisma and chemistry can overcome bad acting, especially on a soap. Watching the first 14 weeks, it's hard to believe Mason would ever become a popular, lead character. He's given absolutely nothing to do.

I managed to watch July and August 1968, and It was tough, July more than August. I don't like the Matt/Maggie/Karen/Steve story. I miss Bethel Leslie. If Bethel was in fact let go, I could see why, as I don't see her playing this version of Maggie. Maggie has become more unlikable and has lost some of her smarts and savvy. I feel Bethel's Maggie might have figured out that two of her co-workers were having an affair, Steve and Karen. I feel she would have at least listened to Matt. Not so Lydia Bruce's Maggie. I feel sorry for Lydia Bruce, that this was the story she had to start with, with her character in such a poor state. Karen and Steve have zero chemistry. Steve has been written poorly from the beginning. From a bad doctor and questionable man, a slacking Romeo with murky motivations, he finds out Karen is pregnant and all of a sudden he wants to do the right thing; he is no longer a Romeo, and everyone is calling him a good man and good doctor? Ok. It's a 180 that was not really earned on screen. The show really misses the light John Rice character and the humor. Young janitor Jody is a poor substitute. Also, when they tried to give comedy to Steve and Karen, like when they were getting their marriage license, I cringed; that felt wrong: they are not a funny couple. I am surprised how repetitious the show is with its overall plots. Karen is going through what Althea went through 6 months before. Anna's situation is another version of the Nathan Bunker case. The show is good, but it does have its limitations. I find the limitations especially come out when I binge watch; spreading the shows out is much better.

A's a stand up guy. Dane's firing was his big break on the show; otherwise, A might never have become the lead. Didn't A try to keep in touch with Dane? A was the one who announced Dane's passing on Facebook back in 2014. It seemed like Santa Barbara always wanted to do a story of a Hispanic man and a blonde girl. In the very beginning, they kept this story in the youth set; it seemed to be the direction they were going with Danny and Jade. When they decided to go with Cruz and Eden and make this kind of story their lead one, it also meant giving the youth set and the characters of Jade and Danny the shaft. It was probably just as well as those characters were not that strong and those actors were a bit green. Overall, the youth set on early Santa Barbara was a part of the reason the show wasn't working.

A's quote: "But what happened is that it wasn't working, so they started looking for, like, a scapegoat. And they decided to blame the guy who was playing the main alpha lead guy, um, Dane. You know, to this day, I think it was a terrible mistake to blame him. He didn't deserve to be blamed for the show being, having faltered."

I like KW. She looks great! They should totally have her mixing it up with some of the actors in their 30s and 40s who are on the show. Whatever they do, they need to get her character out of domestic bliss.

Could I ask, are these full episodes online somewhere in English? I can only find them in Russian or German.

When they wrote the character of Joe Perkins out, did they just basically give his character type and stories to Cruz? It seemed like in the first few weeks, they were building Joe up to being the action/adventure character, the one who'd become the detective and investigate mysteries. I wonder how much of what they wrote for Cruz and Eden was originally intended for Kelly and Joe.