vetsoapfan

TGL: Slaughtering the majority of the fine, existing cast in 1983 and 1984, changing the show's style and tone, and basically cutting off decades' worth of history from pre-1983.

TGL: Amanda Wexler is Alan's daughter. No, wait, she's his sister! (An impossible retcon after what had transpired on screen.)

TGL: Brandon Spaulding is dead (we saw him die on camera). No, wait, he's alive, so ignore what you saw! TPTB do.

TGL: The patriarchs of major families all went fishing together decades ago, long before they even met or lived in Springfield.

TGL: Kelly Nelson asks Ed Bauer if Ed remembers Steve Jackson, Ed's former father-in-law, colleague at the hospital, and the GRANDFATHER OF ED'S SON.

TGL: Reva the Clone, Reva the Time Traveler, Reva the San Cristobelian Queen, Reva the Illegal-Immigrant Savior, Reva the Amish Amnesiac, Reva the Portly Sex Goddess of EVERY MAN'S FANTASY.

TGL: Harley, the super-heroine.

TGL: San Cristocrap never ends, and Bradley Cole gets rehired.

TGL: The Santos Mob, with a preacher in the family (Rev, Ruthledge was surely rolling over in is grave), a shoot-out in the Bauer kitchen (JFC!), and 587 weddings for Danny and Michelle.

TGL: Peapack. Springfield is morphed into a muddy and run-down looking Walnut Grove with inferior sound and video equipment.

Whew! I  need a break now, LOL!

Going back a while...

Duncan Eric, Search for Tomorrow

Bill Prentiss, Love of Life

Adam Drake, The Edge of Night

Liz Stewart, As the World Turns

Dan Stewart, As the World Turns

Chuckie Shea, As the World Turns

Greg Mercer, Somerset

Mary Matthews, Another World

Steven Frame, Another World

Alan Quartermaine, General Hospital

Tony Jones, General Hospital

Bill Bauer (the second time), The Guiding Light

Hillary Bauer, The Guiding Light

Maureen Bauer, The Guiding Light

Jennifer Brooks, The Young and the Restless

Liz Foster Brooks, The Young and the Restless

(Yikes! There are way too many characters to list, LOL!)

On 2/4/2024 at 3:49 PM, soapfan770 said:

The infamous exaggeration that GL went to #1 in 1984 for three weeks. I clearly remember SOD stating that "fact" when doing an in-depth profile on GL in like '97 or '98, and I think it was either Schemering or Waggert (or both) who also wrote about that "fact". What it was as we discovered (and please correct me if I wrong) was GL was simply #1 in its timeslot, not the number one soap in ratings as a whole (Y&R was). 

At various times over the years, Harding Lemay was guilty of this too, claiming that AW went to number one during his tenure, when in actuality, it mainly went to number one IN ITS TIMESLOT.

On 2/4/2024 at 3:49 PM, soapfan770 said:

Y&R: When Carl Williams returned in 1998, I remember there was a number of fans online at the time who claimed they remembered they story of Carl going missing and Paul looking for him. Of course that never happened and with the Carl story being a rare retcon for Y&R at the time, I believed those folks until I later learned otherwise. I have to believe those folks were confused or suffering from the Mandela effect. 

Y&R fans have also long asserted (erroneously) that Paul infected Nikki with an STD. In reality, she gave it to him. (Doug Davidson has jokingly lamented the besmirching of his character's reputation more than once.)

On Another World, fans (and even Harding Lemay) put forward the myth that Pat Matthews killed her first boyfriend, Tom Baxter, by stabbing him. In reality, she shot him. (episodes surrounding the story have surfaced.)

Daytime TV's past is inundated with mistakes and myths, alas.

On 2/4/2024 at 4:25 PM, Michael said:

Hmmmm. Interesting!

The rewrite was so bad that I remember feeling like they might as well have just put up a title card that said, "FORGET ANY OF THIS HAPPENED!" It didn't even make sense within the retcon.

Exactly. The typical atrocious writing was mean-spirited and sadistic, and alienated legions of fans. You don't kill off the show's beloved matriarch by ramming doughnuts down her throat (sick and repugnant). Forgetting any of this dreck ever happened was the best course to take.

On 2/4/2024 at 12:38 PM, All My Shadows said:

"Fall up the stairs" comes from ATWT, where character Liz Talbot (Betsy's mother) died from a ruptured spleen after "falling up the stairs." It's always been my understanding that she fell while running up the stairs, but describing it as "falling up the stairs" is more quirky/interesting, so that's what the anecdotes stuck with. Another part of the story claims that Irna killed Liz off because she objected to actress Jane House appearing nude onstage in a play, but Liz was already recast to Judith McGilligan by the time she died.

That's right. Liz Stewart fell while running up the stairs, and later died from the injuries she sustained.

Of course, critics have always been wont to mock and denigrate soaps, so they took the opportunity to ridicule ATWT by dishonestly spinning the situation as Liz "falling up the stairs." The character's being hurt while running upstairs is vastly different in meaning than purporting that she died by "falling up the stairs." I doubt the critics who started the myth/lie cared about accurately reporting the incident, and as time went on, the myth became established "fact" to those who didn't know any better.

On 2/4/2024 at 12:38 PM, All My Shadows said:

I was hoping/waiting for someone to ask this question because there is literally no definition of what makes or doesn't make two shows "sister soaps," so any overblown examination of what makes two soaps "sister soaps" is pointless overindulgence. No one is about to wait around for someone to decide what it means in her head so that the rest of us can then have permission to use the term accordingly. As far as I'm concerned, AMC and OLTL are sister soaps, and Loving is their little sister who lived in their shadow. GL and ATWT are sister soaps, and AW is their stepsister by another dad.

I tend to agree. Particularly when characters cross over from  one series to another, I see those shows as being "related," so to speak.

On 2/4/2024 at 12:43 PM, I Am A Swede said:

I read somewhere (I think it was in The Soap Opera Encyclopedia by Gerard J. Waggett) that Irna tried to kill off Liz earlier, for the reason you mentioned, but public outcry made P&G stop her. When Jane House had left the role Irna finished the job.

Yes, Irna wanted to kill off Liz for a while, but P&G originally stopped her. So Ellen Stewart marched into the hospital and saved Liz with a "bottle of hope" (long story, LOL), and Liz survived that first attempt to kill her off.

3 hours ago, Liberty City said:

The attempts in today's episode to bring heart forward, as well as the Jagger vs. Sonny history was nice... but I cannot help but feel like Mulcahey would have packed it in more and we'd have felt something more worth while. Also, Michael & Willow are not the Holden & Lily of General Hospital, and the attempts to sell them as such (intentional or not) needs to STOP!

The abject miscasting of the "new Jagger" is a detriment to the effectiveness of the story, however. What a curious choice of actor for that particular role.

Trying to manufacture chemistry between prospective romantic partners on screen is just uncomfortable when it's forced. Either chemistry is there or it's not.

3 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I've listened to a few - the one where Meta is staying over at Trudy's and Trudy is horrible to her, and one around the same time where Meta is terrified of her son and husband going on a camping trip together. They're very gripping. Jone Allison has the perfect voice for a radio soap. I wish more of her work as Meta was available on the show.

Archive has a clump of radio soap episodes someone put up recently in one file. There's one for GL that is about Bill's alcoholism. I haven't listened yet, but I assume it's one you mentioned as being from the 1950 pile.  

I was gifted a CD years ago, with mp3 files of TGL from 1950. I forget now, but I think there were 90 full episodes. A while later, many more from around that era popped up. I had broken my foot at the time, and basically binged dozens of eps continuously as I was relegated to the couch. It was a sanity saver, LOL!

@Matt, thank you so much for all these great recaps which you are gifting to the board.

With the dearth of quality soaps on television these days, I'd be more than happy to sit back and listen to several golden-age radio dramas.

Has anybody else listened to the extended stretch of The Guiding Light episodes from 1950? It's a miracle that so many survived, and what a treat it was to enjoy.

2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Going into 87 AW had lost many characters from the canvas the previous year including Cass, Kathleen, Jake, Marley,Larry, Clarice, Zane, Sally etc with Catlin and Brittany soon to go.

Hardly the time to start killing off more characters. And the killer wasn't really anybody we knew or cared much about.

They should have put more effort into the core stories if they wanted viewers to be involved.

Sadly, when it comes down to a choice between offering us gimmicks and stunts or developing characterization and relatable, human drama, TPTB almost always take the easy way out and heap more cheap stunts onto the soaps.

They continually fail (or refuse) to comprehend that investment in human drama and characters we care for is the salvation of soaps.

5 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

This, I love! 

The truth can be accurate and hilarious at the same time, I guess.

5 hours ago, Efulton said:

Well said!!!

Thank you. I fully understand that every kind of material will thoroughly engage some folks and totally turn off others. I loved the work of Irna Phillips, Agnes Nixon, William J. Bell, Pat Falken Smith, Harding Lemay, etc., but intimate, character-driven and adult  drama is not everyone's cup of tea. I mean, some people actually chose to watch Hey Vern, It's Ernest! and Beavus and Butt-Head. C'est la vie, as they say.

5 hours ago, Lye-C said:

Days was certainly not Masterpiece Theatre in the 60s, 70s, or 80s. That’s giving soaps too much credit!

It's curious that you are so ready to relegate soaps to the "lesser-than" category. As someone who was around to see the soaps' earlier years, I'd counter than many of the legendary writers of the genre gifted fans with stellar material, often on a par with or equal to the dreck that primetime television foisted upon us.

5 hours ago, Lye-C said:

Personally, I find only a truly unhappy person could not enjoy Buried Alive, The Possession, Carrie/Austin/Sami, Billie/Bo/Gina, Kristen/John/Marlena/Susan, and the Salem Stalker.

It's difficult to believe such a petulant and unsupported retort was even offered.

4 hours ago, Lye-C said:

At the end of the day, soaps exist to sell products to housewives. It’s not Masterpiece Theatre or Shakespeare. 

All traditional, network programming exists to sell advertisers' products.

It does not preclude artists working within television from doing their best to produce quality entertainment. There is a plethora of evidence available to support the contention that superior TV exists.

Yes, even among the beleaguered soaps.

4 hours ago, Lye-C said:

There were like eight other soaps with the kind of storytelling you prefer. It was okay for Days to be different.

My favourite soap is Passions. It was for young people. 

As previously noted, it all depends on what you enjoy and prefer to watch. To each his own. Passions was created to be exactly what it was, and that's fine. There's an audience out there for everything, and all viewers should be served. On the other hand, Days was created to be, and found its highest ratings and biggest success as, an erudite, literate, adult soap with quality writing. When Masterpiece Theatre is suddenly morphed into Ren & Stimpy Meet the Great Gazoo, some folks will love it and others will loathe it. Strong and varying differences of opinion are not new among TV fans.

35 minutes ago, Lye-C said:

Nah. Days got even better and better with his final year, 1997, being his best. And his second run was great up until Ken made him do Melaswen.

Recall that Days almost overtook Y&R as #1 soap in 1997 with the big payoff at Susan’s Graceland wedding.

 

 

 

It depends on what you like to watch.

There are, of course, viewers who enjoy the sort of material that Reilly was responsible for, but I am one of the veteran viewers who preferred the mature, sophisticated and adult writing of Bill Bell and Pat Falken Smith. I found Reilly's camp writing to be embarrassing and painful.

To each his own, as they say.

52 minutes ago, Bright Eyes said:

Carolyn Culliton was to Hogan Sheffer, what Sheri Anderson was to James E. Reilly.

ITA. And the more control and authority Sheffer and Reilly gained, the more ATWT and DAYS went to hell.

16 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Renaissance is one word for what Sheffer did at ATWT...

He was okay at the very beginning, but was allowed to run wild and create an unappealing sh*t show, damaging a lot of characters and the show's integrity in the process.

20 hours ago, DRW50 said:

@vetsoapfan will remember in more detail but I believe it was said a source of tension between Reinholt and Rauch/Lemay was that in Nixon's version of the story, Steve had no family - they were all dead. When Emma arrived, Steve revealed to Alice that he had lied about his family because he wanted to move away from his poor background. 

During Agnes Nixon's tenure, Steve came to Bay City as a debonair, well-off business man, fashioned after Cash McCall (a character from 1960's film of the same name), according to George Reinholt. Steve originally had no family ties.

Later, Lemay created revisionist history for the character, inventing previously-unheard-of relatives, most of whom were not well off. Soap operas often foist insta-relatives onto existing characters, and I could tolerate the idea that Steve had lied about having no kin because he wanted to distance himself from his roots, so I grew to accept the sudden changes.

Steve's sister, Emma Ordway appeared on AW first, in 1972, briefly played by the divine Beverlee McKinsey.

Janice Frame, Steve's and Emma's sister, came to Bay City later that same year.

Willis, another Frame brother, arrived in early 1975.

These were the only Frame relatives to be introduced while George Reinholt was still on the show.  Sharlene was introduced in 1975, the year Reinholt was fired, but she arrived in the fall, after Steve was gone.

1 minute ago, Sapounopera said:

May I add Kelly Menighan Hensley as Emily Stewart on ATWT? 

That's why I added "among so many others," because when I started to think about all the casting misfires on ATWT, it was like an overflowing cornucopia! Along with KMH, Marie Wilson as Meg belongs on that list. 

28 minutes ago, Sapounopera said:

Ι haven't been this offended since John McCook was replaced by Dennis Cole on Y&R and Kristen Vigard by Jennifer Cook on GL. Soaps are so over. 

ITA! Those recasts were egregious.

Plus Jason Kinkaid as Tom Hughes, Susan Batten as Connor Walsh, Roger Howarth as Paul Ryan, and Grayson McCouch as Dusty Donovan (among so many others) on ATWT. And Wesley Pfenning as Alice Frame on AW.  Kathleen Tolan as Mary Ryan on Ryan's Hope.

The list of inexplicable, painful recasts is endless, but some are PARTICULARLY heinous.

Drag them all behind the barn, pronto!

On 1/7/2024 at 5:44 PM, Paul Raven said:

Not really a feud but certainly animosity

ATWT Lisa/Ellen

I was just about to mention the same pair.

And Ellen versus Susan, too.

There might not have been physical cat-fights, face-slapping or hair-pulling, but Ellen shaded both Lisa and Susan for YEARS after what they did to her family.

No one held a grudge for more decades than our Ellen Stewart!

15 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

I'd imagine that there is no pain worse than your child dying before you. My mind instantly goes to my great-grandmother, who was so distraught when my grandmother died that she literally went mute up until she died the following year. 

I would not wish that pain on anyone. That is void that can never be filled. 

As dreadful as it is to lose a grandparent, parent, or even a dearly-beloved pet (yes, losing pets can be crushing to one's spirit in a very real way), at least we expect such losses as a part of life's natural progression. Losing a child is not "supposed" to happen; you are expected to pass before your children do.

I don't know how anyone survives this kind of loss.

I would literally prefer to die, first, than to see my child perish.

2 hours ago, Efulton said:

So who here thinks Linda Borgeson was not only the best Alice Matthews but also the best actress to ever appear on Another World?

Them's fightin' words, LOL!

17 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

That has to be a parents worst fears. 

Sending Erika and her family nothing but love and positive energy. 

This year is already starting off horribly in the daytime community.

A friend of mine once said that you don't know what overwhelming, abject, and paralyzing TERROR really is, until you're faced with the potential loss of your child.

My heart breaks for this family.

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks! I don't remember it, but others might. I'm always so surprised when anything new to me pops up.

@vetsoapfan @FrenchFan @Paul Raven @soapfan770 @Vee @Soapsuds @danfling @slick jones@dc11786 @soapfave06 @Matt @will81

Thank you, @te. and @DRW50. This episode is new to me on youtube. 

I just watched it and enjoyed it thoroughly!

39 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

It's all up on the web! Here's the link to, page 6, LOL, it just came up first. 

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,913850-6,00.html

Cool.

24 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

And the 3 articles inside are amazing! 

Yes, I saved the issue.

On 1/15/2024 at 1:01 PM, dragonflies said:

they are the first super couple, they even were so popular they were the FIRST (and I think ONLY) soap couple to make the cover of TIME MAGAZINE

Their cover shot was gorgeous!