vetsoapfan

I agree. While he's not the single worst soap opera scribe in history, his show only works at all when he has dialogue writers who can work wonders with the drivel they are given.

Yes, that period ended up being TGL's last hurrah. I don't think Bradley's contribution to the show has ever been highly praised by critics or fans.

Character-driven soaps, grounded in the realm of reality, are what I like best too. That's why the 1950s-1970s were the halcyon years of the genre for me (and why I find many radio soaps so satisfying). I understand the difficulty in severing decades-long emotional attachments. With several vets on ATWT and a few tattered remnants of the Bauer family remaining on TGL, I forced myself to monitor those soaps until the bitter end, even though I had not enjoyed them in a few decades before they were put out of their misery. I'm almost relieved that I don't have access to Emmerdale any more. I'd be tempted to watch, even it its current incarnation annoyed me, LOL. I was interested/pleased TPTB introduced a new blood Sugden into the mix, but was aghast when I heard they turned him into a killer. Idiots. Writing a could-be-important character into an irredeemable corner like that boggles the mind.

Being a longtime fan of Emmerdale, what would you say are its best stories during your tenure as a viewer? And when was the last year it was consistently good?

I never saw this story, although Susan Flannery always elevated any scene or plot in which she appeared. Her absence is a real loss for the show. That's a good point: occasionally, I see well-done scenes or moments here and there, but as a whole, so many modern soap storylines fall flat and peter out.

In my seven decades of soap watching, one refrain has remained constant among newer viewers: they wish they had been around to see legendary storylines that their friends and family have raved about; storylines that had aired before these newer audience members became acquainted with daytime dramas. I was lucky to have witnessed, first-hand, some of the best material the genre has offered throughout my lifetime. --Meta Bauer's murder trial, THE GUIDING LIGHT --The Alice/Steve/Rachel triangle, ANOTHER WORLD --The Mickey/Laura/Bill/Mike's paternity saga, DAYS OF OUR LIVES --The Jonah Lockwood/Keith Whitney reign of terror, THE EDGE OF NIGHT --Victoria Lord's murder trial/Karen Wolek's breakdown on the witness stand, ONE LIFE TO LIVE --Chris Brooks' rape, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS --The Leslie/Brad/Lorie saga, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS --The Liz/Dan/Susan/later Kim story, AS THE WORLD TURNS --The Julie/Doug/Addie tragedy, DAYS OF OUR LIVES --BJ's Heart, GENERAL HOSPITAL (IMHO, the last time daytime gave us a real masterpiece) I am curious, however, for people who are "newer" viewers, who began watching in the 1980s, 1900s, 2000s, what do you consider the best of the best; the most riveting material soaps have offered? What are the masterpiece moments you have personally seen?

This is interesting. I live in Canada and get Crave. I wonder if the BH 90210 episodes will be the original, uncut versions with all the music intact. I doubt it, but I'll probably check it out.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but Ellen Dolan was my least-favorite Margo on ATWT. I found her cold and brittle, and could never warm up to her. That being said, even I would admit she was a better recast than some of the actors chosen as NuConnor, nuPaul, NuDusty, NuMeg, NuCraig, etc. Bringing this back to Y&R, I'll always consider PB as NuJack. Victoria Mallory was a beautiful woman with the voice of an angel, but her version of Leslie Brooks lacked the deep, emotional core that Janice Lynde had displayed in the role. Lynn Topping and David Hasselhoff ended up being perfectly adequate as Chris Brooks and Snapper Foster, but original actors Trish Stewart and William Gray Espy exuded magnetic star appeal in those parts, and couldn't be successfully replaced IMO. Forget Wings Hauser as NuGreg, Patricia Everly as NuPeggy and Dennis Cole as NuLance too.😬

Yes, I figured you were joking. I've seen your posts enough to know that you are far too erudite to advocate for RH playing a descendent of the show's original founding family. My response was tongue-in-cheek flippancy. (To be fair, however, even the thought of Howarth joining the already-decimated show does make me cringe.) I watched ATWT for its last 47 years, and the dreadful miscasting in its final stretch was a nightmare. Scott Holroyd was gold to RH's cheese.

Oh dear God in heaven...noooooooooooooooo!🤮 We need an attractive, charismatic and likeable actor in such an important role (important in the sense that it would open the door for the Brooks family's renewed presence in Genoa City). After the painful debacle of Howarth as Paul Ryan on ATWT (Scott Holroyd had been perfect in the role), the thought of RH representing the Brooks family makes me nauseous. JMHO.

Gloria Monty and Paul Rauch! When paired with writers who understood soaps and the audience (like Douglas Marland and Pat Falken Smith) Gloria could be a fine producer. The technical aspects of her GH were good. But in less-competent writing hands, Monty proved that she just did not "get" the heart and soul of soaps, and ended up reaping great damage onto the medium. He was a destructive force as well.

Exactly. Gloria Monty and the crap she foisted onto daytime (romanticized rapists, serial-killing heartthrobs, science fiction idiocy) precipitated the destruction of the soap genre. Alas, most of the eps from the 1960s and 1970s are lost forever, but at least we do have some surviving gems on video and audio. Beggars can't be choosers. I'm so glad I kept the 10th anniversary of AW and eventually sent it to Eddie Drueding of the AW Home Page. Since he uploaded it there, it's been available to everyone and safe from tape deterioration! Hear, hear! The stuff Monty introduced to GH in the early 1980s temporarily ignited a flurry of attention among young viewers, but their interest didn't prove to be long-lasting, and the gimmicks like freezing the world, extra terrestrials, etc., turned off dedicated and life-long members of the audience.

Oh yes, the 15-minute episodes of TGL and SFT that we are fortunate to have access to were wonderful examples of soap opera storytelling! My only "beef" about the short format was that 15 minutes seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, leaving me wanting more. Nowadays, I realize that wanting to see more is infinitely better than becoming impatient with extraneous scenes, filler dialogue, and uninteresting newbies, and hoping for the episodes to hurry up and end already. A few writers like Douglas Marland, Pat Falken Smith, William J. Bell (after a rough start when Y&R transitioned to an hour), Claire Labine (at GH), Nancy Curlee (at TGL), etc., rose to the challenge of keeping their 60-minute shows successful, but who knows if the quality would have lasted long-term? More writers of the hour-long soap format haven't been up to the task (IMHO) than those who have succeeded. Burn-out happens to even the best of scribes. I'll generally stick with a favorite show, at least for a while, through weaker periods, but only if the core characters whom I care about remain front and center. If the writing deteriorates AND much of the core cast is gutted (AW in 1975, TGL in 1983/84, Y&R when it went to an hour, etc.), my loyalty and interest dissipate. I remember one excruciating scene on the expanded AW in which characters were discussing ordering chairs or something for a warehouse. It felt like it went on forever. UGH. No, thank you. I'd rather watch paint dry.

@chrisml, that was really interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Yes, in retrospect, expanding soaps to an hour a day was a destructive idea. It's a grinding, exhausting schedule that works against TPTB putting out the best-possible product on a long-term basis. There are only so many work hours in a day; only so much you can wring out of a cast and crew. To be fair, many soaps managed to succeed beautifully in the 60-minute format for a while, but it never seemed to endure. I do think the 15-minute ones extending to 30 minutes a day ended up working well. To me, this was the ideal length. (And, of course, 90 minutes per day of AW was a foolish idea from the get-go.) As much as critics have are quick to deride the daytime soaps, I've always found them superior to the primetime ones. AW did give Susan Sullivan better scripts to work with than Falcon Crest! And Lenore Delany didn't die a horrific, fan-alienating death , the way Maggie Gioberti did. What sick, tone-deaf PTB thought that was a good idea to do to the audience?

I watched the show (or audio-taped episodes of it when I couldn't be home) up until 1975. I thought the first few years were uneven, but then AW really took off in late 1965 when Agnes Nixon came aboard as headwriter. After she left at the end of 1968 or early 1969, I felt her replacement Robert Cenedella's material (he wrote from 1969 to 1971) became a little too plot heavy and not character-driven enough for me, although it was still watchable. Then Harding Lemay took over in 1971 and his forte was character delineation and interpersonal relationships, so I enjoyed his initial work thoroughly. I believe Nixon and Lemay were the very best writers in AW's history. A lot has been said and written about the contentious backstage goings-on behind the scenes in the mid 1970s. After the show went to an hour in 1975, I personally felt there was too much repetitious dialogue and "filler material," and a noticeable lessening in quality, but I continued to tune in, figuring that TPTB were just working out the logistics of filming an hour-long episode five days a week. Then we lost four major stars before the end of the year, and the focus and the tone of the show shifted too much for my liking. I would happily join you for a marathon watch party of episodes from the debut to the end of 1975, however! (To be fair, while I was disappointed in what I considered a drop in AW's quality in 1975, I guarantee that the show was still miles better than anything soaps have to offer today!)

Actually, it's curious, but I have never heard fans reminisce about this particular scene either. I've also never heard anyone talk about the memorable scene in which Jim Matthews told Mary that Rachel's baby was Steve Frame's and not Russ'. The normally staid matriarch of the Matthews family went berserk and shrieked, "I hate her! I HATE HER!" It made my blood run cold. As you say, probably most fans are too young to have seen the golden moments of the 1960s and '70s play out. I may be wrong, but I don't believe scripts from that era are on-line.

You put that very well.

You are correct. Susan Sullivan was definitely playing Lenore by the time Walter Curtin died. The scene with Lenore being so traumatized by the whole Walter debacle that she went berserk and tore apart her living room was chilling!

That is an excellent point: some soaps in the 1990s still warranted patience and continued checking in. I think I finally gave up completely on the genre with the cancellations of TGL, ATWT, and AMC. I no longer had FOMO about the remaining shows. I was too burned out to care.

Actually, I too continue to watch certain primetime shows looooong after they have started to bore me, but not soaps anymore. I loathed the awful ninth season of Little House on the Prairie, but sensed the show was on its last legs and had a strange compulsion to stick with it until the bitter end. The tenth "season" (comprising of just three 2-hour movies) was weak as well, but I was glad that I saw the series finale because it ended up being semi-decent.

Since only the first two seasons were ever released on DVD, I never saw the last year. I was heartbroken, but eventually gave up waiting for the series to ever turn up streaming anywhere. Thank you for this news; I never would have known, otherwise!

Do you dislike missing an episode because you find the soaps so compelling, or just out of habit? This is actually a serious question (I'm not being snarky), because even back in the golden 1970s, if one particular show (i.e. Somerset, which had wild swings in quality from great to atrocious) was going through a dreary period, I still hated to miss episodes. I never knew when a positive change for the better would suddenly take place. Back then, weak stretches on soaps were quickly rectified. When writer Roy Winsor assumed the reigns of Somerset, Rick Edelstein came aboard How to Survive a Marriage, and Claire Labine took over Love of Life, the surge is quality was immediate and exhilarating. I was afraid of missing the turnarounds!

The 1970s gave us the halcyon years of most soaps, IMHO; so many of the shows were on fire and impossible to miss! I wonder how many fans feel as invested in daytime TV today, considering the genre's decimated state. Does anyone even care if they miss an episode these days?🤔

By the end of the 1970s, I had splurged on two VCRs, so between those and an audio-only tape recorder I had used before the advent of Beta and VHS, I could record everything I wanted at home, and did not need to listen to the CBC soap broadcasts on the radio anymore. But I really appreciated the ability to do so before I bought my VCRs. VCRs really made soap fans' dreams come true!