vetsoapfan

Ahhh, sadly, the list of deserving-but-overlooked shows and performers who were never nominated is endless, while we all can name names of mediocre winners in various Emmy categories. It is, indeed, infuriating. After 50 years of this, it is not going to be remedied any time soon, alas.

I had never read this great article before, so thank you very much. I loved it.

Oh, very good additions! I was just about to post these same three, so you saved me the trouble!😉 I just wanted to note that Dr.________Prentice's first name was John. I wish I could remember the name of the first character on TEON whom Martha was accused of killing.

That's why I've never really gotten around to giving The Archers a try. Since so many years are unavailable now, I'd at least want to have recaps of the story from the beginning in order to get my bearings before I dive into the show. A soap that has been running for 74 years must be doing something right, however, so I'm curious about its appeal.

Has anyone ever listened to The Archers, the British radio soap that has been broadcasting since 1951? Just curious.

Of all of these stories, the Lorie/Mark saga was by far the most compelling and the most devastating.

ITA about the infestation of Dingles, and how they have permeated the fabric of the village thoroughly. Trying to decontaminate the show of the entire horde would probably leave Emmerdale in tatters, and ultimately not salvageable. To me, DAYS has long been contaminated with abject idiocy, and the ludicrous stories foisted on its characters have destroyed their integrity and viability (exhibit A: Marlena Evans). I came to the conclusion long ago that the soap would be better off dead and buried than limping along in its present state. Of course, there are still viewers out there who watch it, and I'm not selfish enough to want them to lose their show, so the best solution for me is just to pretend it is already gone. The show I knew, admired and loved died decades ago anyway, for all intents and purposes. Sounds like General Hospital, with its fixation on glorifying rapists, unrepentant murderers, degenerate mobsters and the like, and treating them like the charactes we are supposed to root for.🤮 Yep; 1966-1976 was a rich, golden era for the show. It was such a complete and utter change from the magic we had seen before, it was hard to stomach...and ultimately downright revolting. He worked some elements similar to DAYS into Y&R, and then a lot of Y&R's elements into B&B. I always found B&B to be a weaker copy of Bell's earlier work. It helped so much that Edward Mallory and Susan Flannery as Bill and Laura, and Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth as Doug and Julie, exuded great chemistry with each other. And their characters were layered, complex, and intelligent (characters in later years tended to be one dimensional and dumb as rocks, LOL). I stopped being a daily viewer when Pat Falken Smith was fired as head writer in early 1977 and replaced by Ann Marcus, whose style was not a good fit for the show. Bill Bell was still credited as story consultant, but Marcus made it clear that she dismissed his ideas when and if she saw fit...and it showed onscreen. That's just it. His style was to tell long-range storylines that lasted for years, and often moved at a snail's pace (we waited almost a decade for Bill and Laura to get married). It's didn't matter, however, because his characters were rich and the stories were engrossing. You felt mesmerized into watching and it was hard to turn away. The genius of Bill Bell, Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon was that they could deal with adult, controversial, topical material in such a subtle way that the audience still knew exactly what was going on and what was being said. For a long time, daytime TV dealt with strong subjects that primetime shied away from. I think Y&R handled subject matter in a franker way than DAYS, but both soaps dealt beautifully with their plots and respected the audience's intelligence. Two siblings in love with EACH OTHER was a theme played out on Bell's DAYS and Y&R, too.

@Maxim, that GIF is hilarious...and illustrates exactly why I came to loathe the pod version of DAYS that was borne (or should I say spawned?) under JER. Let's just say that your contempt for Emmerdale probably corresponds to my animosity towards DAYS, and for several, similar reasons. The slight difference being, at least Emmerdale did not go full-out, sci-fi/supernatural camp. When I actually have the time and the energy to write my encyclopedia-length tirade about how TPTB destroyed a once-great show, you'll be the first to know.😉 Do you find any redeemable qualities in the current version of Emmerdale? Are there any elements, plots or characters you would want to keep? Or do you think the show is simply beyond repair and redemption at this point?

Bwahahahahaha! The explosion would burn down the house, no lie.😂

Do you reeeeeeeeeeally want me to tell you, LOL?😬🫢🙃 In my honest and brutal opinion, it died in 1982 after Pat Falken Smith was fired, and its remains began being cannibalized with the advent of JER. Some of what has been presented to the audience since then has been inexplicably sick and sadistic, and huge portions of the once-mature and erudite, sophisticated soap have just been embarrassingly, painfully STOOPID. (This is me being restrained in my commentary, ROTL.)🤣

Yes, eventually, TPTB at PP would discard various newbies while keeping a lot of the original players around. Parkins' point was that during the periods when extraneous characters were hogging up air time, fans were unhappy. I agree that if the show wanted to enlarge the cast so much, going to five nights a week would probably have made the expansion more palpable to the audience who disliked seeing their original favorites on the sidelines. Never resolving the missing-Allison situation was troublesome enough, but firing Dorothy Malone was a major blunder, IMHO. Barbara Rush and Elizabeth Walker just did not exude the "je ne sais quoi" that Malone and Farrow had, and Marsha and Carolyn Russell were just not that interesting.

Barbara Parkins said as much in an interview once, that the show kept sidelining the core characters in favor of (ultimately) irrelevant newbies who would take attention away from the core...and then get written out and replaced, themselves, by even more irrelevant and temporary side characters. She theorized that the show might not have begun to falter if TPTB had made an effort to concentrate more ofnthe vets, in whom the audience had an emotional investment. Yes, the sudden push towards social relevance ended up being jarring, and clashed with the show's original romanticized, almost lyrical tone.

Bwahahahahahahahaha!🤣

Alas, most people's hotness quotient fades with time.🥺 That is the perfect way to describe her. What a dish, with real star appeal. I loathed the Schusters. Particularly Doris. I wanted her killed off from day one. I agree. At least TPTB realized the gold they had in the cast, and elevated several of the younger players to full leads. I can't help it; I'm just honest to a fault.🤷‍♂️😁 Personally, I found Halloween II to be a major failure after the excellent original film. To me, the only good films in the franchise were Halloween and Halloween H20 I've never like anything Guza penned. Miller was at TGL from 1986-87 and 1995-97, IMHO two of the show's weakest periods. I don't know about you guys, but personally, if I am going to daydream about anyone in water, I'll stick with cutie Chris Evans. But that's just me.🙃

That comment could be interpreted in some interesting ways. Just sayin'.🫢

Shoop showed more depth and versatility as Allison in RTPP than she ever did in the awful films she made. It was probably the material that made her (and most of her co-stars) look bad in those productions, but IMHO she was likeable on RTPP. Lola Albright was a lovely woman and would have fit right on another soap if given a role of her own. I just found Dorothy Malone too likeable and charismatic to be replaced permanently. (She was also va-va-va-VOOM gorgeous.) Ohh, be careful, don't jinx yourself! Never turn down a potential life-saving organ!😬 Like almost all soaps (Y&R being one major exception in my mind), PP had growing pains in the beginning. Some of the most intriguing characters were originally in the position of supporting players, while some other denizens of Peyton Place, whom I felt didn't "jell" well, got screen time which I really wanted to go elsewhere. One couple, in particular, bored me to the point of grating on my nerves. Still, TPTB worked out the kinks, and the show always boasted fine acting, nice sets, good direction and interesting camera work. And it treated us to Dorothy Malone's awesome hair, LOL.🤣 I was instantly mesmerized by her intricate hairdo and marveled at how anyone could get her hair to hold in that style. (Mia Farrow, much later, said it was a wig.) I thought I was such a weirdo for fixating on this woman's head, until I asked a friend if he had seen PP yet . He instantly exclaimed, "Of course! I had to watch that hair on Constance McKenzie!" (I suppose this only means that both my friend and I were nuts.)🤷‍♂️

Right. We were used to Nola's skewered version of events. Speaking of that, while I adored Dorothy Malone, I thought Lola Albright did a fine job as a temporary recast. I agree. We expected a bunch of new faces before the show even premiered. Viewers who didn't want to accept that, just wouldn't even watch in the first place.

When even TPTB were in on the joke, winking at the audience (no one in the world would use such a line, ever, LOL), it was hard to be mad at the show for a moment of harmless silliness.

I'm glad you are enjoying this thread as much as I am. Ben Andrews, who played the Tate twins was sexy as hell. Benny Tate (the "good" twin) had a terminal illness and died tragically after marrying Allison McKenzie, and then Jason (the "bad" one) hooked poor Allison on drugs. The show's writing was tepid during the first several months, but then it picked up dramatically and the ratings began to rise with it. I had wanted Mike and Constance to get together in the original primetime series (they had great chemistry), and I was interested to see them finally consummate their feelings on daytime. The actor who played Elliot on RTPP was too stodgy for me. Kathy Glass sued the network because her dyed-blonde hair began falling out in clumps. Susan Brown had similar agony because of the dying process on her hair. I preferred Glass in the role of Allison, but Susan Shoop ended up being fine. Yes, the Nola/Vanessa catfight was played for laughs on purpose and therefore did not come across as contrived and forced as many of the more "serious" soap battles of the day.

That "reunion" catfight was contrived, forced, unrealistic and STOOPID.

Believe me, people were vehement about getting answers way back then, too.🙃

I have a gut feeling that the audience of the primetime version would have rebelled at seeing a recast Allison, since Mia Farrow owned that role so well. Still, the daytime soap had two different actresses portray the part, and I was okay with them both. Maybe because most of the cast was made up of replacement actors. I don't know how I would have reacted to a "fake" Allison playing opposite Dorothy Malone.

I'd say it started to peter out at the very end, and certain cast changes damaged the tone, but particularly in its early years, it was lushly done (great direction and camera work) and very absorbing. It certainly had fans talking for a long time, and there was a lot of interest in finding out what had happened to her. I think it was a mistake to drop Connie and Elliot from the show without any resolution to their daughter's story, however. Or they had popular characters just cease to appear or even exist all of a sudden, often for years on end (Tommy Horton, Carl Williams, Ellen Stewart...). The lack of explanation or closure always vexes me.

It was such a bizarre way to write her out. She just wandered around town for a while and then headed up a long road and disappeared from Peyton Place forever. People theorized to me, upon watching her final episode, that perhaps Allison had had some sort of break with reality and was in a fugue state. I'd point out the lack of build-up to such a scenario, but the character did seem "off" in her final moments. It was quite haunting, and the original series' never providing any definitive answers or closure left everyone I know frustrated. The daytime soap Return to Peyton Place, the 1977 TV movie Murder in Peyton Place, and the 1985 TV movie movie Peyton Place: The Next Generation all gave different resolutions to the Allison question. I'd say that The Next Generation's explanation was the best one that could have been done, considering the respect it gave to the character and the sweet flashbacks used.

ITA. The clear usage of body doubles in stunts was something we all noticed and usually kvetched about, but accepted as just par for the course. Monica Quartermaine fell down the stairs in the Q mansion once, on GH, and we could easily tell the stunt woman was wearing knee pads (they were HUGE, LOL). It was hilarious. Yes, and that cartoonish, drag-queen type catfight ended up permeating every soap. I didn't find it effective or character-driven most of the time; such fights generally looked contrived and tacky to me. NOW, that being said, in this scene from AW in 1973 (which starts around the 42:09 mark), I was hoping to see a real, knock-down-drag-out brawl, with both Alice and Aunt Liz opening up a fresh can of whup-a$$ on Rachel's sorry behind. That conflict had been five years in the making, and Rachel getting her comeuppance would have been well-motivated, deserved, and soooo satisfying. (This scene is one that actually made me scream, "You BITCH!!!" at the television, LOL). Also, in the 1970s on OLTL, Dorian Cramer (later Lord) had accidentally killed a patient, but Larry Wolek ended up being accused of the crime. Dorian was eventually outed as the culprit and her reputation in town was destroyed. She insanely held a grudge against Larry (!!!) for her downfall, and thirsted for vengeance for years. Cut to Viki's murder trial in 1979, when Karen Wolek broke down on the witness stand and confessed to having been a prostitute. A triumphant Dorian took this as her golden opportunity to finally get back at Larry, Karen's husband. With a member of the board in tow, Dorian marched over to the hospital and proceeded to change the locks on Larry's office door, in preparation to have him kicked out and removed from his position as chief of staff. Karen found her there and demanded to know what the hell Dorian was doing. Dorian crowed, "I am removing your husband from this hospital. He has been asking for it for a long, long time!" Karen silently lowered her head, like a bull setting its sights on its target, and replied in a deadly-calm voice, "So...have...YOU!" Then she pounced on Dorian and let her have it. The sounds of Dorian's shocked, "Oh! Oh! OHHHH!" were exhilarating! I started jumping up and down and cheering. It was great! OMG! Thank you so much for the kind words.😚 I'm humbled and blushing.🫠 You know whom to come to, if you ever need a kidney!