vetsoapfan

A silly sense of humor is always hot and appealing!

There were some other writers who were very good, but for my money, I would say TGL's best scribes of all time were Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon.

Great shot!

Slippery when wet!

That's true. DEK is great at both characterization and legal drama. Someone should offer him a daytime soap!

Yes, it was Alice Hireson, and she was perfectly cast for that complex role.

Daring, literate, adult. Those days are long gone, alas.

Oh yes. I was fortunate enough to be an avid soap watcher throughout the genre's glory years. I watched all the greats: Henry Slesar's TEON, William J. Bell's DAYS and Y&R, Pat Falken Smith's DAYS and GH, Agnes Nixon's AW, TGL, AMC and OLTL, Douglas Marland's GH, Irna Phillip's ATWT, Harding Lemay's AW, Claire Labine's LoL and R'sH...the list is endless. As I have mentioned before, the writing used to be so great in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, did not even realize at the time how blessed and spoiled I was too see the master writers at the top of their game. I believed that soaps would always be well-written, adult, and thought-provoking. Little did I know that viewers would eventually end up going from William J. Bell to Charles Pratt, from Irna Phillips to Jean P., from Pat Falken Smith to James Reilly. AAAAAAGH!!!!

Stephanie Martin was terrorizing Nicole, but ended up getting stabbed in the back (literally) and killed. Nicole found the body, and without thinking, pulled out the knife (at the insistence of Stephanie's mute daughter, Debbie, who suddenly found her voice long enough to scream, "Pull it out! Pull it out!" With her fingerprints all over the murder weapon, and with the police not believing that the mute Debbie could have spoken, Nicole went on trial for Stephanie's murder. Another excellent mystery/suspense saga, woven by the masterful Henry Slesar.

Well, TEON had a long history filled with many memorable murderers, both male and female. If we are talking about lethal quality, I would personally rank Stephanie Martin above Elly Jo. Whatever happened to Mark Faulkner? He seems to have vanished from the soap radar!

I would say that we could laugh nervously at her off-kilter behavior, but she was too toxic and dangerous to be a truly comic character. Slesar did not write her in a campy way , but rather as a demented women with more rage than education.

Well, even though SB was never a favorite of mine ("writer" Ann Howard Bailey destroyed most of it), I am actually happy to hear that another soap survives intact. If only Sweden had complete runs of the P&G soaps like TEON! As far as I know, yes. You could check IMDB for clarification, however.

In what country do you live?

I vaguely recall something about Nixon having it in her contract with the network that AMC episodes would be archived, but I am hazy on the specifics. I know OLTL was not kept, however. And even if the early years of AMC were preserved at one point, we know they are gone now, alas. Yes, possibly TEXAS and CAPITAL exist. They were produced late enough. I know private collectors who have some RTPP and the 90-minute pilot of HTSAM, but I have no idea if all the eps were saved. I kind of doubt it. The shows were made in the early/mid 1970s. THE DOCTORS unexpectedly turned up, however, so we may never really know what still exists in American warehouses. Soaps which aired in other countries have been conserved in some cases. Claire Labine said that when they wanted to broadcast RH on Soapnet years ago, they found many episodes in Ireland. It is conceivable that various soap eps are sitting in storage around the globe rotting away, but since nobody cares to look for them or conserve them properly, soap lovers cannot pin much hope on that helping us. (Ancient DR. WHO episodes have been uncovered all over the place, and carefully archived, but DW is a cash cow and ancient soaps are not.) Elly Jo was putting poison into the tea and (knowing she was sinning) prayed desperately, "Please don't smite me Lord, please don't smite me!" Then, when no immediate punishment from above, she heaved a sigh of relief, shrugged, and said, "Well, I guess the Lord doesn't mind after all!" I found it hilarious, but I imagine a scene like that would provoke outrage from professional complainers of today, like 100 Million Morons, or whatever that far-right "religious" group calls itself.

Yes, that was another excellent and memorable storyline, with Dorothy Lyman acting her heart out as the deranged and loony Elly Jo Jamison. The character decided to poison the tea at one point, remarking that God obviously did not mind her murderous ways because He was not doing anything to stop her...a scene that would invoke hysteria in our current politically-correct climate.

That's the legend, but I am not sure how true it is, considering ABC was not keeping all its soap episodes in the 1970s anyway (unless Nixon had it in her contract that the eps be kept).

No, AMC does not have most of its 1970s' material. B&B, DAYS, DARK SHADOWS, RYAN'S HOPE, THE DOCTORS (apparently), and Y&R are the only soaps whose video libraries survive intact, or mostly intact. Maybe PASSIONS (blechhh) and SUNSET BEACH too, since they were produced after the networks started saving soap episodes.

Well, several soaps do have their entire video libraries intact, but sadly, not the P&G or ABC ones. I agree that if the networks allowed great writers to write adult, complex stories, soaps would be better off, but that does not seem to be in the cards. Soaps have regressed to pablum, offering bland, predictable material designed not to offend of challenge anyone. I still cannot believe some of the scenes I witnessed, or topics that were broached, backed in the 1970s. We will never get that sort of frank, adult, intelligent material again in today's climate.

In an interview way back when, Slesar acknowledged that he was more or less given free reign to write what he wanted, with very little interference from TPTB. When intelligent, sophisticated writers are allowed to do what they do best, then we, the audience, are treated to stellar material. Watching the storyline, I was amazed at how complicated and tightly woven it was, with so many exciting incidents and twists and turns along the way. And it went on for so long! Slesar's genius was milking such a plot and playing all the beats so that as the months went by, the suspense and terror started ratcheting higher and higher until it was almost unbearable. I have always said that the 1970s was the best decade for the soaps, and during those years, Slesar was in top form.

OMG, yes. I was RIVETED to the television throughout this very long, layered, complex, and TERRIFYING storyline. It was truly memorable because Slesar created a character in Keith Whitney/Jonah Lockwood who was believable, not like the cartoon uber-villains we usually see on soaps who twirl their moustaches and get away with absurd, campy nonsense. Jonah Lockward was smart and cunning...and a degenerate psychopath. The plot never descended into camp. It was an adult storyline written with plots twists you never saw coming, and definitely the best suspense/murder mystery story I've ever seen on TV. The climax of the plot, when Jonah tried to murder Laurie Ann Karr, literally gave me goosebumps!

Sometimes, a tight pair of undies is more enticing than an actual birthday-suit shot. A tight T-shirt enhances sexy guns!

I agree. There's nothing hotter than a sexy guy with a great butt in jeans.

I was hoping y'all would enjoy it as much as I did. You know, perfectly-groomed male models are not always the sexiest men around. Sometimes, the "regular guys" at the local pool hall, truck stop, farm, or garage can be hot as hell.