vetsoapfan

Right, LOL. But folks who are determined to feel important and "in the know" hate to admit their assertions could be mistaken.

Exactly. 👍 When the "Facebook guy" kept insisting that he "knew for a fact" DAYS does not have any archival material saved, I pointed out it's fairly well known Sony/Corday is one of the few entities that DOES preserve past episodes. In fact, if nothing else, the huge number of ancient flashbacks DAYS trots out on special occasions, from all eras of the show, confirms the existence of the archives. But he said that those flashbacks are either newly "recreated," or else the studio tagged a few scenes here or there over the years to use later, and wiped everything else. This is nonsensical. No show could or would predict, in 1970, that scene 54321A needed to be saved in order to use as a flashback in 2022.🙄 Right. The vast majority of reports that have covered this subject over the years contend that all soaps started saving their episodes in the late 1970s/early 1980s, even the ones that had wiped everything previously. Getting those episodes digitized and ready for streaming would just take time and work.

ATWT was not one for doing a lot of action-oriented stories and scenes back then; it was a very slow-moving, character-driven drama. The tornado scenes were memorable, because they were more like something The Edge of Night would do. TEON used to do tons of action stuff back then. Although physically totally different than Hays, McCormack was a pretty good temporary Kim. I'll just always think of her as The Bad Seed, in the famous film of the same name.

Did you see the later episode, when Patty McCormack was subbing for Kathryn Hays, and the show reshot the tornado footage to use in a flashback? That was a real head-scratcher to me. I didn't see the point of going to the trouble.

Unfortunately, many beloved returnees were not served well on their soaps. To me, the biggest waste of talent (and a major failure on the part of TPTB on AW) was their shockingly-incompetent handing of Jacquie Courtney's (Alice Frame) return in 1984.

I haven't thought much about this show in years, and I found the final few seasons a chore to endure, but I enjoyed the first seasons and the finale, written by Kevin Williamson. Thanks for alerting us to this. I never would have thought to look for it, but now that I know it exists, I'm going to watch it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that The Orange One is actually a Dingle. It would explain sooooo much.

Fortunately for me, P&G produced many of my favorite soaps, so any classic material of theirs available on Youtube is a blessing. And knowing that DAYS and Y&R (and DS, TD and R'sH) have most of their archives intact is a miracle. Thanks. I think for folks who are well-versed in soap history, all the reports about what material has survived and what has not is known.

👏🙃😘

Isn't is curious how certain soap material remains uploaded on Youtube for years, while other clips and episodes disappear almost instantly? I think some networks and owners care a lot more about copyright than others do, even if they allow their programming to remain unseen in mothballs for years.😡

I'm sorry that having an unconfirmed source on Facebook questioned vexes you. As Mulder and Scully are wont to say, the truth is out there. If you don't want to spend a moment doing any research yourself, no one else is going to convince you.🤷‍♂️

It would be interesting if they responded to complaints about their set-up and exorbitant prices, but I doubt their response would be substantive or satisfying; just PR bull$hit. Let us know!

I've never heard of VideoLand, but by the way you describe it, their business model sounds like the perfect way to stream a vintage soap. And I'm not shelling of $815.43 CAD, either!

IMHO, the fall of 1995 to the end of 1997 are worth watching (then Megan McTavish takes over as head writer), but I agree with you: this is way too expensive, and the inconvenient payment method will put off a lot of potential viewers. 500.00 euros converts to $815.43 a year in Canadian funds, or $67.92 CAD per month. BEONDTV+ is setting severe obstacles up, which make me believe this venture's success will be a long shot.

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Yes.

That's how I remember it. I don't know where some "soap history" encyclopedia books culled the information that Samantha remained in Port Charles for several more years. Probably one author made the original blunder, and then others just copied it verbatim.

While reports vary widely (and contradict each other) on what years of what soaps survive, I wish BEONDTV+ would start a lot earlier than 1995. If we were to lucky to start in 1980, we'd be treated to the writing talents of Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam and Lorraine Broderick for most of that decade. Lorraine Broderick is head writer from 1995 to 1997, but then Megan McTavish has a weak (second) reign from 1997-99. We get a welcome reprieve with Nixon at the helm from 1999-2001, but then we plunge into Jean Passanante hell. McTavish returns again (!!!) and stays for four years this time. Then the dread Charles Pratt descends upon Pine Valley in 2008 and really screws up the show (he was probably AMC's worst scribe in history). If the streaming began with material from 1980, we would have many years of soap goodness to enjoy; many more than what we got in the late 1990s.

There have been so many reports over several decades, in soap opera history books and magazines, in interviews with actors and TPTB, in TV news clips, etc., for this to be an easy task. I have a plethora of history books, magazines and video footage, and trying to hunt down exactly where someone said vintage eps do exist (or that they don't) would be too herculean an assignment for me. Doing a Google search on the availability of past episodes of individual soaps might be your best bet.

Yes, I have read about Nixon's demanding the show be saved starting in 1977, too, as well as stories about a fire destroying a chunk of the archives. This, along with so many reports saying ABC (along with P&G) started preserving their soaps in the late 1970s, leaves the exact truth rather elusive. On Facebook, there's a poster who claims to have known someone who was an extra on Y&R many years ago, and that "extra" knows for a fact that NO archives of Y&R have been saved. Allegedly, DAYS has always been wiped, too, and doesn't keep its vintage eps, either. Such contentions by anonymous Facebook commentators fly in the face of all the flashbacks DAYS and Y&R use, even from the shows' earliest days. But I digress. One person announces all episodes of this show or that show still exist; another person insists that all archives of the exact same show have been destroyed. My stance now is: I'll believe it when I see it.

What a cute photo; thanks!

Actually, I was thinking of him today, when considering other legacy characters who could potentially return. Seeing Jeremy and Anne Logan at Audrey's send-off would be appropriate.

Oh, I would like that. I wonder about GH doing another memorial/tribute to a deceased actor, soon after Leslie Charleson's death. Maybe TPTB will just put off doing anything about Denise Alexander's passing for a while. We'll see. Mike showing up to say goodbye to Lesley would be quite touching, however. It's an impossible dream, I know, but I wish we could at least get a telephone-voice recording of Rachel Ames as Audrey as well. Events on soaps are always better in our dreams.🥺

I believe that dedicated fans appreciate when shows mine the past and use established history, rather than foisting awkward retcons onto beloved characters and historical events. Over at TGL, with several canonical blood Bauers available to use, TIIC decided against using any of them to rebuild the decimated family, and instead gave us a bunch of retconned, faux Bauers instead of the real thing. It went over like a lead balloon. There are so many characters from GH's rich past who could be reintroduced to Port Charles; do we really need an endless stream of newbies all the time? I did not want Howarth on the show in ANY role, let alone THREE. UGH. Soaps have to stop casting the same actor in multiple roles on the same show. It's lazy casting, if nothing else.

I knew about this mention of Amy. It may have taken TPTB five years, but at least GH finally got around to giving the character closure. I'd rather have seen Mike return as Laura's adopted brother than for her to have gotten stuck with the likes of Cyrus, which is why I was curious. Thanks, as always, for the information.