sheilaforever

I think some of you remarked on it before, but it was just soooo jarring: after enjoying the treat that was the year 1993 on B&B, January 1994 was just rough. There were so many filler episodes (around Ridge&Taylor and Brooke & whatever) and some very random storyline developments. Macy/Anthony/Karen/Connor was like Melrose Place without the cursing, high stakes and short skirts of Heather Locklear. Some of the stuff was okayish and funny like Anthony’s master plan with the see-through-swim suits but Karen and the AIDS test, plus the general direction of all 4 characters did not ring with me at all. It felt all super random – and boring.

To my pleasant surprise, February 1994 brought yet another rather sudden shift with some characters but I’m okay with all developments. Thorne now discovers that he wants Macy back (finally!), Macy tells Sally that she does not want Anthony (spoiler – it’s all fake news, she is smitten with him after all!) which prompts La Spectra to see her lead designer in an all new light. Anthony truly is charming around Sally who immediately falls for him HARD due to her own loneliness, track-record and him getting along with CJ is sold by Darlene Conley. There were some amazing scenes with Schae Harrison who was always so underrated when Darla tried to prevent the inevitable mother-daughter-bickering over Anthony. Seeing the Spectras all front and center in a sweeps month will not happen that much afterwards in B&B history, so it is pretty noteworthy as well. 

Brooke & James dating is yet another Melrose Place-type story twist which came out of nowhere. When I started watching the show many moons ago, these two were engaged, so that’s maybe why I still say that they have great chemistry. Even if the setting with Brooke&James is so very wrong (the clock is already ticking on their epxiry date as a couple because of Brooke's destiny with Wiiiiiiiiidge) and James the adult virgin will eventually bed nearly ALL women in LA during the next 4 years of his tenure. LOL

At around episode # 1740 I’m back to having fun with the B&B nostalgia train and try to catch at least one episode a day. What are you watching right now?

1 hour ago, Broderick said:

[I dug around until I found an article in which Eric Freiwald admits publicly that there's no such person as "Eric L. Roberts".  I'd never seen any of the "Eric L. Roberts" writers admit this in print.  Here's a portion of the article, from an Arizona newspaper.  Freiwald was living in Arizona in the late 1980s.]  

Plot Thickens in Prescott

Arizona Daily Star

May 28, 1989

Eric Freiwald had never watched a soap opera in his life.  

But that drastically changed nine years ago when he joined the writing team of "The Young and the Restless".  

Now he tunes in daily.  Or tapes shows for later viewing. 

Working from his Prescott home, Freiwald is one of several writers for the top-rated CBS daytime drama, which was created in 1973 by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell.

Unlike many daytime serials whose creators are concentrated on the East or West Coasts, the "Restless" writers are scattered across the country, linked by conference calls and Federal Express.

"This is probably one of the neatest jobs I've ever had because I was able to leave California, which I wanted to do, and get away to a small town," Freiwald, 61, says by phone from Prescott, where he has lived for almost three years.  

Freiwald was semiretired when he joined "Restless" in 1980.  

The screenwriter started his career in 1951, when he and Robert Schaefer sold their first script to Columbia Pictures for the "Durango Kid" series. From there, they wrote for such television westerns as "The Lone Ranger", "Annie Oakley", "Buffalo Bill Jr", "Wild Bill Hickok" and "Hopalong Cassidy".  

He and his partner were head writers for "Lassie" for ten years.  They also wrote for "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Maverick", "77 Sunset Strip", and "Whirlybirds".  

After Lassie ended in the mid-1970s, they decided to try other pursuits. 

When Freiwald learned through a friend that "Restless" was expanding to an hour format and was looking for new writers, he decided to give daytime a try.

He began watching the show and getting background from his daughter, Linda Schreiber, who had religiously watched "Restless" since its premiere in 1973.  

In the beginning, Freiwald, Schaefer, and Schreiber teamed up, choosing the pen name "Eric L. Roberts".  That's "Eric" for Freiwald, "L." for Linda Schreiber, and "Roberts" for Robert Schaefer.  

Within two or three shows, Schaefer bowed out.  Schreiber continued working as an apprentice to her father.  She later joined the Writers Guild and started writing scripts on her own, about 12 to 20 a year.  

Freiwald writes two shows a week on his electric typewriter, transforming prodigiously detailed 30- to 40-page outlines into finished scripts. Each one-hour show has a prologue and seven acts, separated by commercials.  

Freiwald has written more scripts, about 800 to 900, during the past nine years for "Restless" than he wrote during the first 25 years of his career.  

"When I was writing all these other shows, we would start completely from the very beginning with a blank piece of paper and no plot, and know that we would have to do something for Lassie or the Lone Ranger or whatever it happened to be.  As corny as some of those early shows might have been, the thrill was creating the thing from zero," he says. "In soap opera writing, the plotting and long-term progression of the story is done by the head writers.  I put the scenes into script form, working from an outline.  In some cases it's very strictly outlined and you follow a certain way that they want it done.  In other cases, it's just a suggestion of a scene and you are allowed to go with it."

"I get caught up in the story lines, and I get very excited to see what's coming next myself.  Most of my contact is with Kay Alden. After we get the outlines, I talk to her if I have questions. I will sometimes tell her not to tell me what's coming because I would rather not know. I'm always amazed at some of the directions the stories take that I never in my wildest dreams would have thought of. I really admire Bill Bell and Kay Alden, who create these stories and characters."  

[From here, he goes on to discuss that he especially likes writing sarcastic dialogue for Terry Lester's Jack Abbott character, for Jeanne Cooper's Kay Chancellor, and for Jess Walton's Jill Abbott.]  

 

Wow - thanks a lot. I've always wondered about it (assuming that Freiwald took a "stage name" to protect his writing career by going for a saop...) - and here is the background admitted by himself.

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

Apparently, Y&R went on location in 79 for the sequences where Kay escaped the burning asylum, wandered through the streets Genoa City finding her way back to the Chancellor mansion. Those scenes were tapds in parks, side streets of LA and a Beverly Hills Mansion.

Was that Y&R's first location shooting? can anyone recall other early location scenes?

Didn't the pilot/episode #1  have location scenes with Brad Elliott in the truck?

On 11/9/2022 at 10:21 PM, Broderick said:

If I remember right, Waxman and Inman were replaced in the early 1980s by that trio of writers who masqueraded as "Eric L. Roberts".  (Eric Freiwald, Linda Schreiber, and Robert Schaefer) 

Do you happen to know more of this?

Wasn't Linda Schreiber the daughter of Eric Freiwald? But who was Robert Schaefer and why did they go for this fake credit?

14 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

 

Hmmm, we shall see that means in the ratings report. I'm torn though whether people actually tune in for a specific event on a daytime show. If its plus 500.000 viewers sure, but the ups and downs of the ratings are soo random, these days at least.

I’ll give Griffith credit for bringing back Danny and Daniel. It’s definitely smarter than Kevin, Chloe und Chelsea stinking up the joint. And I HATED Danny back in the day…

25 minutes ago, ChickenNuggetz92 said:

Dr. Tim definitely had a thing for redheads. 

He even named one of his guard dogs "Phyllis" when he and Morgan kept Taylor captive.

The good old days when story’s dragged on forever but had such a fabulous climax. „Steffy“ dying by a shark and then Taylor being held captive by Morgan. It lasted 3-4 months but it just flew by

Surprisingly, a more recent came to my mind upon reading the topics title:

Michael/Lauren/Carmine on Y&R in 2013 (?) was probably Josh Griffiths only ever really well thought out storyline. The ending sucked but the beginning and middle were just REAL.

Apart from that B&B as the mothership of love triangles probably owns this thread. One of the good affairs were already mentioned: Brooke & Deacon

6 hours ago, Dylan said:

Sony.

Exactly. I think B&B going to YouTube probably was a labor of love by the likes of producer turned die-Hard B&B fans like Casey Kaspryz. I assume the buzz/ad revenue generated was much more than they anticipated, so that they now go for the full library going public 

13 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

The flashbacks were nice but Lauren only one episode is a big thumbs down.

It’s a start. Considering that it’s been 15 years (!!!) that TEB crossed over to B&B while much of the cast from both shows was involved in irrelevant crossovers in the last two decades, it is a splendid move I never saw coming. Seems like (at least my Impression due to her instagram posts) TEB is no longer living in LA fulltime and therefore needs to be courted to take any regular acting gigs - but maybe we are lucky to get more of Lauren on B&B

8 hours ago, Dylan said:

I saw a little bit on YouTube, how did he derail the Brenda story.

He just did. All suddenly Terrible Tom and Sheila were written into a corner - and out. Much sooner than anyone imagined. Sheilas big return lasted only 6 months - and turned out to be a total disaster, IMO.

5 hours ago, BoldRestless said:

FINALLY!

 

Indeed! She should move back to LA and mingle with Eric…

4 minutes ago, Dylan said:

Hopefully Lauren sees through it. Sheila tried this crap before.

I started off sooo good but quickly turned into a Jack Smith disaster.

Woohooo - Great News! 
 

@ChickenNuggetz92 thanks for everything you do.

When poor Jay Garvin FELL OFF that balcony at his practice. Sheila was hardly involved, of course

14 hours ago, Aback said:

Been looking for this forever:

does anyone have that old promo from 2003 which went something like: “Deacon. Macy. Amber. Hot enough for you?”.

Its from the days when Amber disrupted Deacon and Macys wedding. 

I remember that promo as well. The previous or following was a Macy vs Brooke promo with hairtossing in that Latino restaurant. It think these promos aired late July / earl August 2003. the show was on fire back then, even if a bit too campy. Too bad, it all went to hell within a couple of weeks with Sydney Pennys character that was never served a proper purpose and Brad Bell deciding to park/kill Macy (yet again). 

Random but super cool. I only ever liked Stephen with Pam, but Duffy find it really well with B&B.

Check Sean Kanans Instagram!!! He shared some of the press conference held yesterday (?) at Studio City with speeches by KKL and Brad Bell in Kimberlins honor. This is really cool!

On 10/22/2022 at 4:56 AM, SAPOUNOPERA said:

Someone like Vanessa Marcil as nu-Jill to fit with TSJ's Tucker?

Hahaha - totally realistic with the recent regimes. Lol

i always think that Jess Walton would love to play the right material. Filming 4-5 episodes per months in a week or so would be doable. With a commute from Oregon. Not using her is budget related and shows the long road deep down Y&R has taken with the character since 2004…

3 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Indeed lol!

I do wish it would nice if Sheila’s stand alone episode would feature cameos from James, Maggie and Lauren similar to how Thorne and Nick came back for Brooke’s.

This would be perfect. Flashbacks are a nice start, though

I was expecting to read about the usual Big Brother guest stars stinking up the joint to the promote that prime time show which never promotes B&B… naturally, I’m pumped to find out it’s going to be about Sheila. Bring it on, great idea!

1 hour ago, Liberty City said:

Episode 584 (S3 E92) is brilliant for Darlene Conley! Gosh. What a find!

Fill us in again: What was happening in that episode?

1 minute ago, I Am A Swede said:

That was always the most delicious part of it for me. Stephanie's feelings towards Brooke drove her actions in this story and led directly to Brooke taking over FC. If Stephanie and, it has to be said, Eric, had just listened to Ridge on how to handle the contract situation none of it would have happened. But Stephanie refused to see any good in Brooke and to believe that she would/could be reasoned with, and instead resorted to lies and manipulations. And when it blew up in her face it was sooo good.      The scene where Brooke finally retaliates and slaps Stephanie back remains my all-time favourite B&B scene.  

It truly is an iconic scene. For me it’s only bested by Stephanie kicking Eric in the groin in 2005. Lol

On 10/21/2022 at 10:03 AM, cassadine1991 said:

On 10/21/2022 at 10:03 AM, cassadine1991 said:

Has anyone done an episode list yet?

In think there is one on the starting Page in The Vault.

On 10/21/2022 at 5:39 AM, yrfan1983 said:

Brooke demanding Sheila stay in the meeting and read out the contract demands in 1602 was a cheer-out-loud moment!

A long time ago, I saw the upcoming scene where Sheila kicks Stephanie out of her office, but now, to see each plot twist leading up to that moment, will make it all the more enjoyable.

It’s all so delicious. Never did I assume that Stephanie and her blabbing mouth is way more at fault than Eric or Ridge for losing the company. Talk about karma! The show never properly addressed this later on - it was always Eric as the old fool who fell for Brooke.

8 hours ago, divinemotion said:

Having watched all aired nearly 1800 episodes so far... I would say the best from the show in its intire history is between 1350 and 1650. These 300 episodes are binge worthy. So much quality storytelling.

While I don’t agree with the exact timeline, I wholeheartedly agree with the the general view that this was marvelous time period on B&B. As a matter of fact I wanted to write about it in a while but haven’t found the time just yet; the short version: I had never seen 1993 in its entirety before. After having had the luxury: it’s definitely the best full calendar year this show has ever had. It’s just glaring that after the Salute to Hollywood fashion show in late December 1993, the writing takes a major dive into the Brooke/Ridge/Taylor orbit. While captivating back then, it’s suddenly more or less the only main storyline when for months we had 3-4 BIG storylines in 1993 - and it’s just not as good as the previous stories. That said: Anthony and James make interesting additions but I cannot like either character just yet.

3 hours ago, ChickenNuggetz92 said:

Hi everyone,

I may have found a seller that offers a 5TB account - all the others I've come across only came with 1TB. I'll update as soon as I get the credentials.

Thanks for your patience!

Our hero! Thank you for your dedication and tech-savvyness.

# 1717 - January 1994: the first sighting of a "cellular" on B&B! I think for at least until 1997 we would see cell phones rarely in L.A. - car phones were still "it" back then. A fascinating development in all out personal lives, cell phones really changed storytelling on soaps, IMO.