Tisy-Lish

Of all the pseudo science-fiction plots on soaps in the 1980s, this was the only one I found even moderately believable. As crazy as it was -- at least the storyline was related to Texas and Native American lore (even though it was completely made up). It worked, and then it was over. And the show went forward.

I hope you are correct.

Since Greg Vaughan is not on contract, I fear we might see him about as often as we see Cady McClain. Appearing about two days each month, and seeming to be a very important character, then disappearing for another month -- over and over again. That doesn't work for Cady's character and it won't work for Greg's character. TPTB can't build a believable romance between Nicole and Kial under those circumstances.

No idea why my response to DRW50 was attributed to Mitch64 a few minutes ago. Maybe a glitch in the system? Who knows? Anywhoo, here is the response I wrote: Alice and Mitch went on a couple of dates (this was while Vana Tribbey was playing Alice). And they shared a prolonged kiss, after dancing at the disco. But I don't believe they ever had sex -- thankfully. God only knows what kind of bugs sleazy Mitch Blake would have passed on to Alice. I wasn't so worried about Rachel, when she slept with Mitch -- for obvious reasons. LOL.

Oh yes. Health clubs are another thing that never really worked on soap operas. Not sure why. But none of them were ever believable to me. Lord, I don't understand why not. Maybe because the characters were always socializing while working-out. But most people are rather solitary, when taking a gym seriously. Who knows?

Well, I was talking about Alice Frame dancing with Mitch -- not Janice. But totally get your point about Tracy singing, and singing, and singing. Plus Tracy always sang those very short non-royalty songs. They were always like one minute long. LOL. Any why was a lounge singer performing in a disco, anyway?

Sure, as long as the age gap is acknowledged and discussed. I remember when Mac and Rachel connected on Another World, their age difference was a plot point for at least a couple of years. Age gaps like that can make for lots of drama and lots of reactions. The writers shouldn't waste that material. It is low hanging fruit for a writer.

I agree, there is far more chemistry between Ted and Shanice, than between Ted and June. Plus, it is not believable for a wealthy, sophisticated, well known plastic surgeon with an ego to actually a date a recently former un-housed woman. It just would never happen. And please don't respond with, "It's just a soap opera." That phrase is insulting to the entire genre. But more importantly, aren't both Shanice and June a generation younger than Ted? I dislike that kind of pairing, unless it is acknowledged and discussed in the scripts. To simply ignore the generational difference is lazy writing.

Not to mention Mitch Blake's silly disco on Another World. Terrible set, terrible music, terrible acoustics. Plus all the same technical issues I mentioned in my previous post. The concept of a disco did not work on soap operas. And I'll never forget one time Alice Frame danced with Mitch on the disco floor. Jeeze-Louise! Alice must have been pushing 40 years old by that time. It was around 1981-82, and it was both sad and laughable to watch conservative 40-ish nurse, Alice Frame being tossed around the dance floor by a bored to death William Grey Espy, along with the fake disco music. Lord, have mercy!!

I don't remember a disco on The Jeffersons, but I would imagine similar results -- as The Jeffersons was shot on videotape similar to a soap opera. On the other hand, I believe they used a disco set a couple of times on Dallas during the first or second season. It worked reasonably well, although not completely believable. The disco worked better on Dallas because Dallas was a one camera show shot on film. And back then, film used very different audio recording than videotape.

Yes, you're exactly right. They had to keep the music low, so the mics could pick-up the dialogue. But the mics would always pick up their footsteps too, which sounded ridiculous. Not to mention, most soap opera towns during that era were too small to support a disco anyway. It was later in the 80s, that nearly all the soap towns suddenly became major cities. Several soap operas (I'd say at least half of them) included discos over the course of three or four years, but I never believed any of them worked. Discos simply do not work on videotaped daytime soap operas.

Yes. I think the Winter Fest episodes could have been more believable with a bit of outdoor location shooting. So much was said to be going on outside -- ice skating, carriage rides, etc., etc. And it was referred to over and over again. Yet the viewers didn't even get a glimpse of any of that. I'm sure budget was an issue, but even a little video stock footage of a winter festival (with or without snow) would have been better than nothing -- and it would have helped Winter Fest to appear a bit bigger than just the interior of the country club.

Well, as you know, they took away Bob and Kim's entire house, which was the worst decision they could have ever made. I'll admit the set was huge and included a large staircase. But if it were too big to be practical, there should have been some way to make it smaller. The Hughes could have done a remodeling, or could have had a small fire, or even a tornado. And the rebuild could have been smaller. I hated that the Hughes family had to spend all their holidays in restaurants or at Tom and Margo's home after around 2001.

I always enjoyed the cutting of the Hubbard squash on the Snider farm at Thanksgiving. But did they ever indicate what they did with the squash after they cut it? Did they make a squash pie, or make baked squash? Or did they just toss it in the trash after cutting it?

Oh yes -- the cutting of the Hubbard squash became a tradition. Happy Thanksgiving, Oakdale and Luther's Corners.

I just finished watching the Thanksgiving episode and it was amazingly good! I was initially disappointed the entire Dupree family didn't gather at Vernon and Anita's house for a big celebration, because that's what I had been expecting. But I was quickly drawn into the several separate celebrations the characters enjoyed. This episode was everything a soap opera holiday episode should be! There was togetherness, a bit of humor and romance, a small amount of intrigue, and most importantly there was lots of family, love, and gratitude. And it was not some silly stand alone episode -- dear God, I hate stand alone episodes. At the end, Vernon's toast made me cry. And every good soap opera should make the audience cry at least once a week. To whomever wrote the BTG Thanksgiving episode, thank you!! BTG is without a doubt the best soap opera on American television. Now I can't wait to see what they do for Christmas!!

Has Elon been confirmed to be a crooked cop? I remember it was looking that way a while back. Frankly, I'd prefer Elon not be crooked -- perhaps something was just misunderstood. I like the actor and the character -- plus it would be nice to have an adult working-class man on the show who is not a cheater, crooked, or otherwise a loser. I don't mind if Elon is rough around the edges, but just don't make him a loser, please.

I too enjoy the Have Nots. I just wish there were a few more in that group and that we saw them together more often. How about including June in the group, since she seems to be on stable footing now, and is now probably working-class? Also, they could add an employee of the country-club, and maybe Anita and Vernon's housekeeper. I would much rather see an expanded group of Have Nots instead of an additional wealthy family (as some folks are asking for).

Pat Randolph and Brian Bancroft on Another World around 1982. Two characters of approximately the same age who had been on AW for years, but always connected to other people. In 1982, it seemed the writers had nothing better to do with either Pat or Brian, so they put them into a short-lived romance. Both were extremely good actors, but even that couldn't make the romance seem organic and real. Needless to say, it didn't work.

I think his full name is Chadwick. I remember, back when the previous actor was playing him, someone called him Chadwick a couple of times. It may have been Stefano.

Thank you for the information. I did listen to the entire interview with Miss Roux -- way back when it was first released. But I am unable to recall her mentioning Connie Ford, and don't have time nor effort to listen to the entire thing again, just for one small morsel. So again, thanks for responding. I do recall Roux sounded extremely fragile and perhaps a bit wounded in the interview. I almost felt guilty for even listening to it. So perhaps that has some influence on my reluctance to listen to it again. She seemed troubled, to say the least.

Is the current DiMera mansion the same mansion Stefano moved into around 1983? I remember that house was out near a lake, and not far from Doug Williams' night club. In fact, there was a tunnel connecting Doug's Place to the DiMera mansion. If it supposed to be the same house, I'm fairly sure it is not the same set. But I'm aware sometimes soap opera sets change without any explanation

For those of us who can't listen to an hour and a half interview -- can you tell us what Carol said about Connie Ford? Thank you.

Well with a 2025 budget, they couldn't keep all those characters on screen for five-days in a row. And actually, I don't believe that was ever possible on soaps -- even in the 1970s. TPTB wisely decided not to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary with one stand-alone episode (Oh jeeze, I hate stand-alone episodes), but to give us an entire week of memories mixed with current plots. So I completely expected various characters would be featured intermittently throughout the week. Was the 60th anniversary week perfect? Absolutely not. But TPTB did their best to honor the history of DOOL, all the way back to day-one. And I think they did a damned good job! If you disagree, It won't rock my boat.