vetsoapfan

If you like/appreciate the actor, your heart will melt during this interview.

ITA, after the AIDS quilt/Billy Douglas era, the show never again regained or lived up to its past glory.

While Alan Locher as an interviewer generally makes my teeth ache, I thoroughly enjoyed his recent episode with Scott Bryce. Locher (fortunately) let Bryce lead the conversation and do most of the talking. It was a poignant segment, with SB openly discussing his recent health woes (as well as his work on ATWT, of course). He looked surprisingly young and vulnerable, and was a mesmerizing storyteller throughout the session. And as icing on the cake, his description of the late Eileen Fulton was just lovely.

Or because the network "suits" have idiotic ideas about what the audience wants to see, and they eagerly hire you because you have the same dumb ideas.

That's all of them!🙂

ITA, but TPTB don't appear to have any interest in recruiting and training new talent.

To me, Sam Groom was the only "real" Russ. He perfectly delineated and inhabited the role. He somehow managed to play a good, noble man of integrity...who was never boring or one-dimensional. I think of all of them (Ada sure got around, LOL), Gil McGowen had the most personality and spunk. While Steve made some terrible life choices and could exhibit questionable morality during his 1968-75 run, he was the Frame who made the biggest and most important impact on the show. The original Janice was too mousy to interest me much, and while Willis originally had spark, I mainly regarded him as "Steve lite." Uncle Dru was a familiar face and comforting presence, and I liked having him around as a supporting player. I was invested in Mike Bauer as well, but mainly from his time on TGL. Of all the lawyers mentioned, even though some said he was somewhat stodgy, John Randolph was my favorite. (The scene in which he served Alice her divorce papers from Steve was quite memorable.)

Wisner Washam was fabulous at AMC, and I would take him back without a second thought. In an ideal world, he and Lorraine Broderick would make the perfect team to reboot AMC. That being said, WW is 93 years old and more than likely retired and/or not up for the challenges of writing a daily serial. Broderick is 77, but still actively working, and would perhaps consider supervising the show as a story consultant (with veto power!) at least. Another writer I'd like to see heading back to daytime is Nancy Curlee. All the current soaps are weakly written at best. It's unfortunate how few veteran scribes are still alive and potential soap saviors.

But...at least we had that last hurrah to savor. As disappointed I am about how the soaps have been decimated over the last few decades, I'm still grateful for the gems we received from time to time.

I personally have been disappointed in every soap I've seen DePriest write, but I will freely acknowledge that her AMC was better than the dreck foisted on the show by Charles Pratt, Jr. (the worst scribe in the show's history, IMO), Jean Passanante and Megan McTavish. I do think TEON would be a good bet to reboot (DS has been attempted twice), but with the right writers, both AMC and OLTL could have a decent shot at successful reboots too. The problem is, of course, that TIIC never seem to find, nurture and hire potentially-great new writing talent. They keep recycling the same old hacks, with the same poor results. If AMC were to be revived, I'd want Lorraine Broderick at the helm of the show. ABC would insist on Charles Pratt.🤢

As Tishy-Lish indicated, he did soften Aunt Liz. She had once been a domineering, hyper-critical shrew...it was both unnerving and fun to watch. I have audio material from the 1960s, where she (as played by Audra Lindley) just screams and screams at people. Flash forward to Harding Lemay's version of the character in 1974. Rachel storms into Alice's house and tries to evict her, prompting Alice to go berserk. Aunt Liz sits passively on the side of the bed with tears in her eyes, and murmurs weakly, "Rachel, you'd better go." HA! Audra Lindley's Aunt Liz would have torn Rachel a new one and dragged her by the hair down the stairs and right out of that house.

Being one of the ret-con, "fake" Bauers, I never really warmed up to Johnny Bauer, and I found both Chelsea and Fletcher to be tedious. Various factors did keep up my interest, however, like the return of Holly and later Roger. I was glad I saw TGL's last hurrah, which in my mind was the period written by Nancy Curlee and produced by Robert Calhoun. Yes, Robert Gentry was an attractive man, but I found his Ed to be so temperamental and inflammatory, it was hard to find him sympathetic. Johnny Fletcher was like a sweet puppy. It was impossible not to root for him. What did you think of Erik Powell, who replaced Scardino in the role? I was disappointed, as I felt he lacked Scardino's charm and warmth. On the other hand, Mart Hulswit (who replaced Gentry as Ed) won me over immediately and he became by favorite Ed.

I consider it a miracle that several soaps did archive all their episodes, whether the tapes have ever been made available to the public or not. At least we know they exist. It's so frustrating to know, however, that many of the best shows wiped/erased their material up until the late 1970s. AMC was its best (IMO) from 1970 to 1989, as written by Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam and Lorraine Broderick. Then, with the advent of Margaret DePriest, Megan McTavish and others, the writing deteriorated and so did the show. At least eps from 1979 to 1989 should still be around. Alas, the best of AW (Agnes Nixon's and Harding Lemay's material) is apparently gone forever.

During the 1960s and 1970s, OLTL was very naturalistic and grounded in reality. Then the 1980s came along, and science fiction, camp, and insta-ethnicity changes took over. For me, it was painful to see a once-fine soap self destruct so quickly. Once Gordon Russell left the headwriting team, I knew the results would not be beneficial to Llanview.

THANK YOU! It was painful to watch Marlowe hesitate, stumble over his words, and so clearly struggle to remember his lines. Poor Dwyer was the one who worked with him most often, and she must have borne the brunt of getting them through their scenes. In his book, Lemay blamed Dwyer for supposedly tripping Marlowe up, but that was just not a reasonable assessment, considering that HM had the same issues when he worked with anyone, and even got worse after Dwyer was fired. The writer didn't realize that we already had Aunt Liz to be Liz. We didn't need Mary to be Liz Lite too.

It came across (to me) that Courtney was just the target Lemay rushed to condemn, whether it was justified (and rational) or not. IMHO, JC was top-notch, and her breakdown scenes were quite effective. After she died, even Paul Rauch (!!!) was quoted in the press saying that Jacquie was great and always gave good performances.

I agree with this. When Lemay took over the show and carried on with the structure, themes, and characters established by Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon, everything was splendid. Plots were not really his forte, but his writing worked because of the absorbing character delineation and interpersonal-relationship vignettes. Daily episodes were like a slice of life; slightly romanticized, but within the realm of reality. Unfortunately, when he and Rauch started to dismantle the original core of the show, the tone shifted badly, and a lot of ultimately-pointless characters and contrived plots were foisted on the audience, weakening AW's previous effectiveness. Lemay's writing spiraled downwards and the magic was lost. Still, I will never deny that during his initial heyday (1971 to 1974), Harding Lemay worked miracles in Bay City. His irrational, venomous commentary on Virginia Dwyer and Jacqueline Courtney was both baffling and (frankly) embarrassing, but to his credit, he did keep them front and center (particularly JC) for half of his tenure as head writer.

I always appreciate the fascinating, in-depth and accurate contributions you share with the SON community, about soap history. It's great to have information about the shows' earlier days, which we otherwise would never know. Thank you.👏

I agree. IMO, TGL had felt like it was on its death bed for a number of years, but with the advent of Calhoun and then Nancy Curlee, it made a remarkable comeback. Unfortunately, the renaissance was short-lived, but it did confirm that TGL could have been saved if competent PTB were to stay in control of the show. (Spoiler alert: they did not.🙄)

I do believe that since the dawn of movies and television, it has been the case.🙂

Sorry I got too personal. If I had stopped and thought about it first, I probably would have been more circumspect. And in my defense, I was originally trying to tie in this conversation angle to TGL actors, specifically, whom the viewers found attractive. It seemed to be having a snowball effect; everyone is chiming in! The first guy on the show I found truly adorable was Johnny Fletcher, as played by Don Scardino. Sadly, I can't find any good pictures of him from that era.

Did you have any non-TGL celebrity crushes when you were in high school? That's old enough to check out attractive people on-screen, even if no Springfield hotties grabbed your attention. Throughout the decades, I found many soap performers appealing. I started noticing them when I was, like...12. (Don't judge me, LOL!)🫢

I'm tempted to compile a list of all the actors from TGL whom I find/found the most desirable, and see how many SONers have the great taste to agree with me!🙃 Bwahahahahaha!😝

That's interesting. Was there a replacement actress in the role whom you felt was the most miscast? Wesley Pfenning being hired baffled me. It was like seeing Grayson McCough as Dusty Donovan, Susan Batten as Connor Walsh, Roger Howarth as Paul Stenbeck and Jason Kinkaid as Tom Hughes on ATWT. I kept thinking, "Huh?!? What were TPTB thinking?" To me, JC was the one and only Alice. Beverly Penberthy won me over 100% as the replacement Pat (she was excellent) and Barbara Rodell made Lee Randolph her own, but La Courtney could never truly be replaced.

Well, as of now, anyway, it's still quite easy to download and keep copies of current soaps on DVD-Rs, flashdrives, your HDD, etc., since there's they are not copy-protected. I just have to wonder, if fans today find anything on the modern soaps worth keeping, or intriguing enough to warrant review and discussion decades into the future.