vetsoapfan

I am thrilled and grateful that the vintage 1970s material is being uploaded. Kudos to those who have generously taken the time and made the effort to share such treats with the soap community.

On an ancient, fragile tape (which I am afraid to play for fear it will disintegrate, LOL), I have the episode in which Stuart confronts Lorie about her parentage, and there are scenes from another story that was also running at the time: Lorie's sister Peggy's relationship with Jack Curtis.

The other scenes of that day's episode have Peggy talking to her mother, Jennifer Brooks, about her feeling for Jack Curtis. Later, Jack seeks guidance from Brock Reynolds about how best to handle his depressed wife, Joanne.

In another episode on my ancient, fragile tape, Lorie lets her sisters know that their mom has died, and they gather at the family home to remember their mother's past words to them, and to grieve their loss. Stuart reads Jennifer's heart-wrenching farewell letter, which she had intended to be opened upon her death.

Finally, my earliest episode centers on Pierre Roulland, who is in the hospital, critically injured and deteriorating, while his new wife Sally begs him to hold on.

Here I thought I was the only fan out there obsessed with vintage episodes containing long-forgotten (at least by the powers that be!) characters, but the enthusiasm in this thread for the 1970s material proves that there is still an interest in quality soap episodes from decades ago.

With the dreadful Charles Pratt, Jr., descending onto Genoa City, I would personally prefer for CBS to put the current version of Y&R on hiatus, and start broadcasting the show from its earliest episodes in 1973, instead.

I bet the ratings would be better, LOL!

I'd say you could put it on Youtube, but I don't know how to put anything on Youtube so who am I to say.

I have no idea how to post anything on youtube, either. Alas, I am old and computer-illiterate, LOL.

I just remembered. In the recasts section I posted about Sean Garrison being listed as John Abbott in 1980 in a newspaper Q&A from January 1981. As far as I am aware Brett Halsey was the only John Abbott between 1980 - 1981. This could have been an error and Sean was never on the show, but I get the feeling if he was he may have played George Packard. He was born in 1937 which would have made him 43. Brett Halsey and Jerry Douglas were born in 1933 and 1932 respectively. So Sean, if he was on the show, would have been slightly too young to play John Abbott. Also SOD only ever mention Brett from the beginning of the character's start on the show to the end.

I don't know who the actor named Sean Garrison is, exactly, but there was another John Abbott besides Brett Halsey in the early years of the show. I only remember seeing him once, however. Perhaps this was Sean Garrison, or maybe not, but it was a very temporary recast of the role of John.

I know there was a character named Brent, that Jill dated around October 1973. Also in 1973 a male photographer that wanted to take nude photos of Jill and Chris, that was sometime around Sep 1973. Maybe the actors listed played one of those characters. Not sure. Also I wasn't sure Frank's wife was ever on screen to be honest, though I have never found in depth synopsis from 1973.

The actor who played the slimy photographer who wanted to take pornographic pictures of Jill and Chris was Michael Gregory (later the first Rick Webber on General Hospital.)

Jill and Chris met in the outer office of the photography studio, and went into the interview together. Upon hearing that the photographer wanted to take nudie pictures of them, Chris announced that neither she nor Jill would be interested, and walked out, taking Jill with her. Jill went back in later, alone, however, and offered the photographer her services anyway, but he was just then getting off the phone with another model who had taken him up on his offer, so he rejected Jill's services.

Tribes...I had forgotten all about this.

I still have the complete series on VHS, and hadn't thought about it in well over 20 years. It wasn't high art, certainly, and even one of its stars, Greg Watkins (later of ATWT) admitted he couldn't sit through watching it, but at least it was an attempt to bnng a new, modern soap to FOX. Too bad it never got off the ground. Some of the cast was good, and Scott Garrison was a cutie whom I thought could have a more successful career than he ended up having.

 

I wish it were still on.

 

Me too.

My favorite soap story of all time was the original Alice/Steven/Rachel drama.

Ahh, those were the days!

 

Are they mentioned somewhere in this thread? They should not have been. Alex and Amanda Spaulding are the sisters to Alan Spaulding on Guiding Light. Alan once thought Amanda was his daughter until an unfortunate plot twist insulted the audience's intelligence and changed her to his father's illegitimate child. Jennifer was not a Spaulding. She was Jennifer Richards, but that was an alias. Her real name was Jane Marie Stafford, a young girl who had slept with Alan and became pregnant with his child, the aforementioned Amanda. Though, once again, this was retconned to Janie Marie becoming pregnant by Alan's father Brandon Spaulding.

 

I know this is a LIAMST thread, but since the atrocious Amanda-is-now-Alan's-sister mess was brought up, I must say...VOMIT! It was yet another insulting, unnecessary and idiotic mistake made by TGL in its later, crippled years.

 

I had a hard time with anything from 93-94.

 

I could barely watch the show during that time. Having had a decades-long attachment to TGL, it was hard for me to let go, but after the Curlee writing team left, all quality of storytelling went with it. The last 16 years of the show were generally...dreadful.

 

1990-early 1995 gets a real bum rap.

Yes, they lost Beverlee and Maureen, but it was the best the show had been since mid-1983 in my opinion. It wasn't until Brent Lawrence came back as a cross-dresser and the *shudder* return of Reva that the show fell apart.

 

The show was incredibly stupid not to listen to, and try to appease, Beverlee McKinsey; lightening her workload and having the character appear less on-screen still would have been worth it to have an actress of her caliber remain in the cast.

Killing off Maureen Bauer was the last nail in the show's coffin for me (by the time they got into all the asinine Reva sci-fi stories of later years, I felt the true TGL was already dead), but the WRITING during the early 1990s was outstanding. If they could have re-established the Bauers during this period, the show could have returned to its glory years!

CELEBRATING THE TURNING

BEST HEADWRITERS:

--Irna Phillips

--Robert Soderberg and Edith Sommer

--Douglas Marland

BEST PRODUCER:

--Ted Corday

--Robert Calhoun

BEST DIRECTORS:

--Ted Corday

--Bruce Barry

--Richard Dunlap

MOST MEMORABLE ICONS:

--The Turning Globe

--The Word Turns Poem

BEST STORYLINES:

--The Penny and Jeff romance

--Ellen's struggles to reclaim and protect her son Dan

--The Bob and Lisa marriage and meltdown

--The Dan/Liz/Susan triangle

--The Dan/Kim romance

--The Kim/Bob/Jennifer mess

--The Douglas Cummings saga

BEST ACTOR:

--Larry Brygmann (John Dixon)

LAST GREAT ERA:

--Douglas Marland's reign as head writer, before he became ill (i.e., before the Carolyn Crawford murder mystery)

In an interview after she had written for TGL for a while, Long admitted that campy, far-fetched plots were not as effective as more realistic, character-driven storytelling. She said that she had learned it was better to "get real". IMHO, her later work showed more maturity than her earlier material. I loathed (and I mean LOATHED) all things Reva, and the low-brow fantasy/sci-fi/camp nonsense that dominated much of the 1980s (not all of which can be blamed on Long, of course). Certain interpersonal relationship material was her forte. Nobody understood the Phillip and Rick relationship as well as she did. The Phillip and Beth romance was sweet and effective. But it was under her and Gail Kobe's reign that the show was decimated in the early 1980s, with essential, viable characters being gratuitously hacked from the canvas, and the era of Meva Shayme (LOL) inflicted upon us, so my overall opinion of Long is not as positive as it could be.

CELEBRATING THE LIGHT

BEST HEADWRITERS:

--Agnes Nixon

--Harding Lemay

BEST PRODUCER:

--Allen Potter

BEST DIRECTOR:

--Ira Cirker

MOST MEMORABLE ICONS:

--The Opening Wreath of Circles

BEST STORYLINE:

--The Alice/Steven/Rachel saga

BEST ACTOR and ACTRESS:

--Beverlee McKinsey (Iris Carrington)

--Douglass Watson (Mac Cory)

LAST GREAT ERA:

--The 1973-4 season was the show's last, best year, IMHO.

CELEBRATING THE LIGHT

BEST HEADWRITERS:

--Irna Phillips

--Agnes Nixon

--The Dobsons

--Douglas Marland

BEST PRODUCER:

--Lucy Ferri Rittenberg

BEST DIRECTORS:

--Ted Corday

--Bruce Barry

MOST MEMORABLE ICONS:

--The Friendship Lamp

--The Destiny Poem

--The Lighthouse

BEST STORYLINES:

--Chuckie White's Death/Meta's Murder Trial

--The Long Destruction of Bert and Bill Bauer's Marriage

--The Roger and Holly Saga

BEST ACTOR and ACTRESS:

--Michael Zaslow (Roger Thorpe)

--Charita Bauer (Bert Bauer)

LAST GREAT ERA:

--Douglas Marland's reign as head writer, although the show rebounded for a time many years later, under the guidance of Nancy Curlee et al.

Harding Lemay criticized some actors, like Virginia Dwyer, for editing or changing their dialogue to better reflect their characters, and then turned around and praised other actors like Constance Ford for doing the exact same thing. He found fault with certain performers like Jacqueline Courtney, for using prompts to help them remember their lines, yet didn't lambast other actors in his book who had more difficulty remembering their lines, such as Hugh Marlowe. It comes across as personal dislike dictating whom he would criticize.

I can't find it either but I have a copy of it.  It's when Rachel is trying to get Alice the hell out of the house she shared with Steve so she can have a place for Steve's son Jamie (and herself, of course).  Alice lost Steve's baby and Rachel hisses to her, "What baby did you ever give him?"  Liz makes this incredible pained face like she's trying to swallow vinegar and glass and Alice roars and lunges at Rachel as Liz holds her back and Rachel scurries down the stairs and out the door.

"We had a kind of love you'll never know." -Rachel to Alice re: Steve

I had it in my "favorites" list on youtube, but it's been deleted, alas. All three actresses in the scene (Jacquie Courtney, Victoria Wyndham and Irene Dailey) hit it out of the park. Those were the days when characterization and interpersonal relationship were at the core of most soaps, and when we, the audience loved the shows the most!

I think late 1984 GL was when they started becoming so focused on plot over character. Just as an example, the Maureen/Ed/Claire/Fletcher mess. Did any of that benefit the characters or have any reason? By the time they got to the Alicia/Charlotte story it's unintentionally hilarious hysteria.

Mimi Torchin once acknowledged that when she spoke with producer Gail Kobe, Kobe was of the opinion that story mattered much more than the characters. IMHO, she simply did not understand TGL, or its rich, character-based history. The damage she did to the series was immense.

The REAL Betsy Stewart! I adored her, and thought all the scenes with her and Kim meeting and talking in the park were so sweet.

To newer viewers it seemed to only be about Susan's affair with Bob.

To the rest of us, it harkened back to Dan Stewart, which was a much bigger rivalry between the women, at least to me.  But rarely mentioned.

As a longtime viewer, the Kim/Dan/Susan conflict ALWAYS remained in my mind whenever Kim and Susan interacted. It gave credibility to why Kim had such a hard time letting go of her anger, and it made the idea of Bob's sleeping with Susan so much worse; so much more of a betrayal. I doubt the more recent writers and producers of the show either knew about that story, or cared to find out, however. Using history was not their strong suit.

I never liked the bickering between them in later years. I thought it was beneath both characters, especially Kim.

It was quite painful to watch careless and/or clueless PTB decimate the integrity of once well-written, nuanced characters. Dreadful writing has crippled more than one legacy character on soaps, alas.

Similarly, when Douglas Marland inherited GUIDING LIGHT (after leaving GH) from the Dobsons in 1980, he commented as well that his predecessors had left the show in terrific shape.

Yes, I remember him saying that, and it was certainly true. Later, when Pat Falken Smith assumed the reigns of TGL from Marland, albeit for a very short time, HE had left the show in great shape for her, just like he had GH.

I would argue that Cenedella was fortunate to have inherited the show from AN since Nixon apparently left AW in good shape.  He didn't have to resuscitate the show the way some HW's do when taking on a new show.

Exactly. You get it. Working with a legend like Nixon, and taking over a stable show that she left in great shape, makes a writer's job much easier, and not everyone is as lucky as Cenedella to be in such a position. When Douglas Marland took over GH in the late 1970s, he inherited a total mess, but he was able to work miracles with the series, and turned it around. When Pat Falken Smith succeeded him, she commented in the press how lucky she was because Marland had worked his butt off for two years and left her a great, well-structured show. It's only logical to accept the fact that inheriting a stable show makes a writer's life easier than inheriting a mess.

Oh God, how mortifiyingly absurd...for the record, during HIS tenure as head writer, the show won TWO awards for its writing...AND Cenedella has at least one highly acclaimed novel to his credit.

So tell me, where is your evidence that Cendella wrote soley off of her ideas? LOL.

I have to say that I am constanly amazed at how often your opinions are NOT rooted in anything factual. Despite all evidence to the contrary, you are ALWAYS right. LOL. Oh well, on with more important things...like paper chasing...

Of course, I never said Cenedella wrote solely off Nixon's ideas. In regards to the Mary Matthews death timeline, I have already and repeatedly corrected the problem. You just cannot let it go, for whatever reason. So in your rush to flame, again, you've gotten yourself confused...again. I cannot spend all my time reminding you that contrasting opinions or reviews are not "wrong" just because they contradict yours. This is a public forum where everyone's views are valid. I am sorry that you cannot control yourself enough to post and act like a rational adult, but for the sake of the board, I hope you make more of an attempt to do so in the future. Remember what I've explained to you multiple times before: this is not a battlefield where one has to "win" the war of opinions. If you disagree with someone, try saying so respectfully. If that is beyond you, simply move on. But your outbursts will not help your case or your credibility, I'm afraid.

Oh God, how stupid...

Yet again, when faced with an opinion you disagree with, you degrade yourself by hurling personal insults. I cannot fathom what...issues drive you to such petulance, but acting out like this is simply not appropriate in these forums. I would respectfully ask you to calm down, and try to reign in your gratuitous aggression in the future. Thank you.

The person who contacted me with episodes of TGL from the mid 1970s was a male, or at least claimed s/he was, LOL.

I asked for a demo tape or sample DVD, making it clear I only wanted to evaluate the quality from various episodes and did not expect him to send me dozens of complete episodes for free. I asked him to copy 2-3 minutes of perhaps five different episodes, and send them to me on a videocassette or DVD, for which I would pay $20.00, including shipping. He became quite angry and accused me of not "trusting" him. Well...duh. of course I was not going going to trust a virtual stranger enough to send him two thousand bucks for material he wouldn't even let me evaluate first. I reiterated my offer of $20.00 for a preview tape, but he simply disappeared, which in itself says a lot.

Breaking up couples is common, but that particular writer (Henry Slesar) had a habit of breaking up couples and NOT allowing them to eventually re-unite.  I think that some viewers become disinterested in their favorite couples and tune the soap opera out.  This may be good for the present storyline, but I don't think that it is good for the eventual outcome.

I think it depends on the couple and how well they are working. Slesar always brought "star couples", with great chemistry, back together, like Adam and Nicole Drake on EDGE. I was surprised that he broke up Laurie and Vic Lamont completely on that same show, however; a move which, if done often enough with couples the audience roots for, can indeed be frustrating for the audience,.