vetsoapfan

It's late at night and my memory is fuzzy, but I believe at that time, Marland replaced Mel and Ethel Brez. They were simply horrible in every conceivable way, so it's hard to give a short, concise answer to this question. Their general crappiness bothered me, LOL.

He was the best Ed Bauer and firing him, supposedly to make the character younger and sexier, was a huge mistake. The show could have used a familiar, comforting, beloved face as a tentpole character throughout the turbulent 1980s and '90s. Peter Simon is a good actor, but his version of Ed was often morose, aloof, and humorless; a stark contrast to Hulswit's warm, approachable and emotional portrayal. How much more effective Bert Bauer's death would have been if familiar actors (Don Stewart, Ellen Demming, Mart Hulswit, even Elvera Roussel) had appeared on-screen! Watching Richard Van Fleet's "fake Ed" mourn Bert was simply not the same.

Many of the pre-existing characters from before Lemay's reign changed quite a bit during his tenure. For the most part, I could justify the changes because they made sense psychologically. Vivacious Alice became more withdrawn and fragile, but years of tragedy and heartache can wear anyone down, so the character's alteration was understandable. Mary Matthews became fiercely overprotective of her children, but again, years of seeing her kids abused and traumatized could realistically lead a mother's claws to come out in full force. Aunt Liz went from being a screaming shrew to a lonely busybody with ultimately good (if misguided) intentions. After losing her son and alienating everyone else in her immediate family, however, I accepted her learning some very harsh lessons and mellowing out. There are writers who just naturally understand, and gravitate towards, certain characters, and Lemay was much more adept at writing for the ambiguous bad boys or complicated, antagonistic anti-heroines than he was at writing for traditional "good" characters like Russ or Alice.

Yes, Stuart was lucky that P&G seemed to have her back, or at least understand her character's importance to the show. Stuart was vocal in her criticism of Marcus' material (which is ironic, because I personally think it was the best soap writing of Marcus' career, and made SFT's ratings soar), so I can understand if Marcus did not care for the actress, but there has never been any clues given about why Doris Hursely came into the show gunning for Stuart and wanting to demean her and get her fired. It was REALLY STUPID to kill of Jo's son, Duncan Eric. The storyline did not lead anywhere, had no longterm ramifications, and robbed the series of a legacy character who could have kept Jo's family front and center over the decades. Another stupid decision was to have Stu's and Marge's son Jimmy simply disappear for NINE YEARS, and return after such a long hiatus as their nephew.

I agree that Marland made certain mistakes during his tenure at THE DOCTORS, but he was still miles above the dreadful writers he replaced, and worked relative miracles with the garbage he inherited.

I just finished rereading Mary Stuart's autobiography, BOTH OF ME. It made me miss SFT so much. Thank heavens there are tons of vintage eps available on YT! This show was great for so many years. I just wish I knew what the Hursleys had against Mary Stuart.

I remember reading a quote in a magazine about Courtney after she had been fired from AW in 1975. The author wrote that she had never actually appreciated Courtney's strength as an actress until she saw her replacement, and only then did she realize that Courtney had been a great actress who had added depth and charisma to Alice for all those years. Even Harding Lemay admitted that Alice never regained her popularity after Courtney left the show; that Courtney had a certain star appeal which may have helped OLTL's ratings rise once she began appearing on it.

I agree 100%. The powers that be are often short-sighted and/or clueless about how they handle their characters, and if they truly want their players to remain viable and on the canvas, accepted and loved by the audience, then they have to make sure not to paint those characters into a corner and tarnish them beyond repair. On GH, once Luke Spencer raped Laura Baldwin, in my mind he should have had to pay the price, not be turned into the show's leading man. Regardless of how popular an actor is, if TPTB allow him to get away with the most heinous of crimes, it's immoral and destructive to the integrity of the show as a whole. Robert Cenedella was writing the show at the time, and he was not the best at character-driven, realistic storytelling. The men at P&G still paid lip-service to traditional moral values, but they offered their writers slightly more control over storytelling choices than they would have in later years. This was a wise move if the writers were like Henry Slesar, who understood the audience, the characters, and the shows' values well, but not such a good idea if the writers were less capable, and relied on "action," murder, and tired gimmicks to pad out their plots. Right. Lemay wrote scenes for Alice in which she had an acute schizophrenic nervous breakdown, went berserk, and attacked Rachel physically, even throwing copper pots at her...and then condemned Courtney for being too over the top! The writer is consistent in his denigration of the actress, and he has every right to his opinion, but those of us who witnessed her work first-hand for the 11 years she was on the show can judge for ourselves how strong her performances actually were. She received many awards for her acting from the magazines Daytime TV, Afternoon TV, and Daily TV Serials, and certainly the audience adored her. The only time I felt her performances were not up to par was when she played the evil twin Maggie Ashley on OLTL, although the conception of and storyline choices foisted upon that character would have made it difficult for any actress to play her effectively. Yes, an accidental death, like when Ellen accidentally killed the housekeeper way back when on ATWT, can eventually be forgiven, but deliberate murder or rape? No so much. As for John Fitzpatrick, I agree with Lemay that the actor was good and could give strong performances. Was he better than Reinholt? In my opinion, no. I think Lemay's views on actors' talents, or supposed lack thereof, were largely colored by his own personal disdain. If he did not like certain performers, he lambasted them tirelessly, but if he did like or respect them, he would praise them to the sky. For me, the problem with Fitzpatrick is that he just was not particularly likable on-screen. He did not have that certain spark or charisma which would make me want to watch him. An actor can be technically adept but just not appealing, if that makes sense. Andy Robinson, as Frank Ryan on RYAN'S HOPE, is another example of this. He was a good actor, no question about it, but his version of Frank was hard to warm up to because the actor just wasn't personable.

Woof!!!

Walter Curtin had killed Wayne Addison, and then allowed his wife Lenore to be charged with the crime. She ended up spending Christmas in prison, while being pregnant no less, while Walter remained free at home. endlessly agonizing about how guilty he felt. Lemay killed off Walter in a car crash, even though the executives at P&G balked at losing an actor whom the audience liked. Lemay's (logical) reply to that was, if P&G had not wanted to lose a popular actor, why had they allowed his character to be turned into a sniveling killer who would allow his pregnant wife to languish in prison for his crime? Dufour did indeed end up on SFT after he left AW, and won an Emmy Award for his role on that show. Over the years I have encountered many younger soap fans who have accepted Lemay's criticisms of Courtney as valid, even though they had never watched the show while he was writing it or she was acting on it. Folks have told me what an awful actress she supposedly was, even though *I* was the only one in the conversations who had actually witnessed her work every single day for a decade. Had you ever seen any clips of Courtney on AW before you read Lemay's book? I'm curious. And did your opinion of her talent change after you saw some of her work? Lemay, brilliant a writer as he was, often belittled people whom he chose to dislike. His comments could be quite petulant and churlish, and often hypocritical. He acted as if he could read actors' minds, and then gave them absurd negative motivations of his own creation, which he could complain about.

Eric was a great poster; I wonder why he is no longer with us in this community. Thanks for the link to his youtube page. I'll be rewatching these vintage eps soon.

Yes, he was respectful of the show, not like some other ex-daytime performers, like Meg Ryan, who generally denigrate the soaps.

My favorite Chuck!

From Passions and One Life to Live, the Hall twins.

Occasionally, surprising vintage episodes do get discovered, like the second episode of The Edge of Night from 1956, or the very first episode of Search for Tomorrow from 1951, or all the wonderful 1960s eps of The Doctors currently being broadcast on cable, so we are lucky about that. I have lots of audio recordings of Y&R, Another World, One Life to Live, and other soaps from the 1960s and '70s (I only got my first VCR in 1976), but alas, I have no way of dubbing them or uploading them to the internet.

The 1970s were a golden period for many of the soaps. Not only Y&R, but Another World (1971-75, particularly), Days of our Lives (1970 to 1976, particularly), The Edge of Night (1970 to 1978, particularly), One Life to Live (1975 to 1979, particularly), etc. On Y&R, nothing could beat the excellent writing and solid acting we were treated to in those early years. With Chris Brooks' rape, Leslie Brooks' nervous breakdown on stage in Detroit, the beginning of the Jill/Katherine feud, Jennifer Brooks' battle with breast cancer, Bill Foster's return after abandoning his family, all the great great romances and romantic triangles, the show was amazing on all fronts. It's soooo frustrating to know that all those early episodes have been preserved, but are not being made available for public enjoyment. Why let the videotapes sit there collecting dust in storage? The studio should make the show available on a cable station, from the beginning.

Yes, I am familiar enough with the show's history to know that both Sugden brothers, Jack and Joe, spent time off-screen in which they could have realistically sired children. I also like the idea of strengthening the show's roots by bringing back Sandie Merrick, possibly some of her young-adult children, and Samuel Skilbeck. It STILL annoys me that the show killed off Peggy's and Matt's twins, for no fathomable reason. So many potential legacy characters have been axed. Speaking of Tommy Merrick, if he has been retconned out of existence, that means nobody has EVER mentioned him since he originally left town? His siblings returned, but he has simply been...erased? I hate when soaps do that. On DAYS, when Tom Horton passed away, his widow Alice referred to Mickey as "Tom's eldest son," which baffled and annoyed me, because...hello, Tommy Horton, Jr., is/was older than Mickey. No mention was made of Tommy during Tom's funeral, Mickey's funeral, or Alice's funeral, so I guess he is another Tommy retconned out of existence. Maybe the Tommys are up in the Martin attic with Bobby.

Speaking of the Sugdens, I have always been a staunch advocate of keeping original, core families strong and vibrant as the decades pass. So many of the Sugdens have been killed off gratuitously, IMHO, leaving it in tatters. For viewers with a better, longtime overview of the show than I have, are there ways to reinvigorate the clan? Blood relatives they could bring back, or create outright, believably? Offspring for, say Jack or Joe, conceived somewhere along the way whom we only discover to exist right now? Maybe their sister (was her name Peggy?) had had a son out of wedlock and given up for adoption, long before she gave birth to her twins and died? I hated watching the Bauers, Stewarts, Matthewses, Hortons, and other important families become decimated over the years. I hope Emmerdale doesn't forget about preserving the Sugdens. I will never consider the Dingles to be this series' core.

For my money, Y&R's golden era was 1973-77. It was almost consistently mesmerizing day in, day out.

Cute GIF, Slick Jones! And as always, excellent pictures, YRBB! Personally, while I enjoy many aspects of the Christmas season, I detest the cold and hate trudging through mounds of snow. I long for warm summer fun!

Whoa! I went Christmas shopping today, and the stores are already mobbed. Yuck! Santa is coming in less than a month!

I loved, loved, loved this series and would definitely classify it as a primetime soap. I was so excited when the first two seasons were released on DVD, but alas, sales were not great and it looks like the studio has totally abandoned any plans for additional releases. Episodes from seasons 3-5 are scarce, and many are not available anywhere on the net or among die-hard collectors. Some people search for the Holy Grail; I am hunting down the complete set of FAMILY on disc! That episode about Zeke was truly memorable and quite groundbreaking for its time. I'm glad we at least have that among the episodes on the official season two release. Yep: FAMILY and ST. ELSEWHERE, the only two classic series I am desperate to find!

YRBB, I am happy you approve!