vetsoapfan

Thanks for the heads-up, @DRW50. It's always a nostalgic pleasure to see old soap faves from decades ago. I adored Jessie Brewer so much.

I have no memory whatsoever of Rosemary Murphy playing a Kennicott on AMC in 1970. Didn't the kids arrive in 1971-2? Curiously, my mind is telling me that Murphy played Mark Dalton's mother in the later 1970s. Hmmm. Let me think about this a bit.

KMH was a bizarre choice for the role of Emily. The character became an icy mannequin, devoid of warmth and depth. Like with Paul Ryan, Dusty Donovan, Meg Snyder and Craig Montgomery, the core essence of Emily Stewart evaporated upon her being recast. All these faux, "pod" incarnations of once-complex Oakdalians became irrelevant annoyance (IHO). I would say that Jess Walton is technically a finer, more accomplished actress than Brenda Dickson, but she lacks that indefinable "je ne sais quoi" or "it" factor which BD brought to the role, and which ingrained her in viewers' minds.

Yes, TPTB failed miserably with the recasting of Meg too. Thinking of all the recasts as totally different characters was our only option, considering how drastically different the new interpretations of the characters were in the hands of the newbies.

It had been tepid for years beforehand, but to me, ATWT's heart was really gutted under Chris Goutman and Hogan Sheffer. HS' writing became cold, mean-spirited, and emotionally and morally bankrupt. It was clear he neither understood nor cared about the legacy of the show and its characters. The foolish stunt casting was painful to endure. None of the stunt-hired actors matched the quality of their predecessors, and because some/most of the newbies were poorly miscast, beloved characters were gratuitously decimated. Nostril-flaring, hammy Roger Howarth was a disaster compared to charming Scotty Holroyd. The once nuanced and multi-dimensional Craig Montgomery became smarmy and shallow when Scott Bryce was replaced by Hunt Block. Dusty Donovan, once a decent, upright young man with a moral compass, devolved into an unpleasant, grubby schlub when Brian Bloom was replaced by Grayson McCouch. UGH! THAT. WAS. EGREGIOUS.😡

I agree 100% The show had been badly damaged by years of abuse, but there was enough of a familiar core remaining. The right PTB could have salvaged it, if P&G and CBS had given them enough time, patience and support. There was no longer any "will" to save Oakdale, alas, even though there was still a "way." AMC had also been badly decimated for years before its cancellation, but shortly before it was axed, the show's two best head writers (Agnes Nixon and Lorraine Broderick) were allowed to return and clean up the mess. They worked miracles with the garbage they inherited, and Pine Valley was looking up. It felt like Pine Valley once more. AMC would still be with us, had the will had been there among the suits at ABC.

I loved all the long-running shows at one time or another, although TGL is probably my all-time favorite. Many soaps were at their best in the 1970s, so I'm particularly interested in anything you wish to share with us from that decade. Fans appreciate the treats, believe me.👍

The episodes you're uploading are sure to bring a lot of excitement to fans. Thank you for sharing. @EricMontreal22, it is great to see you back posting again. I always enjoyed your commentary, and am pleased that we can all read more of it.👍

ROTF! And it's a pleasure to be one of those five people! Knowing I am not alone in my obsession is a relief!🫢

This is GREAT! Thank you so much for alerting us to this material. Plus, Slesar worked on TEON until 1983, and Somerset was cancelled in 1976, sooo no. HS did not go over to SOM "after" he left TEON. The endless errors we find everywhere are so annoying.

I wanted to like it, I really did...but the show felt shallow, empty and predictable to me, even though I fully acknowledge that it had its moments. I listened to and watched 15-minute soaps and loved them, but I was happy when they expanded to half an hour. Fifteen-minute broadcasts were so short; the 30-minute versions felt just right. I didn't care for the 45-minute OLTL and GH era, and of course, the 90-minute AW experiment was ludicrous. I took for granted the quality of soaps back in the 1960s and '70s. Even today, there are some shows and writers I don't credit enough, like Sam Hall, Gordon Russell and Don Wallace of OLTL. I automatically sing the praises of greats like Phillips, Bell, Nixon, Lemay and Falken Smith, but am trying to remember the other writers who also did excellent work. I know I do not mention TEON's Henry Slesar enough, but he was a real genius who could do it all (mystery, suspense, romance, family conflict, comedy) with aplomb. It's curious to note how daytime TV went from having such an abundance of talented scribes in its halcyon years, to a complete dearth of them today.

All the soap goodness being heaped upon us, thanks to this generous Youtuber, is a dream come true!

OMFG, I am in soap nirvana. Thank you, @Vee. OLTL, AMC, ATWT...all from the 1970s!!! Heck, he even offers Room 222, a sitcom I loved back in the day. This gentleman deserves all the kudos and thanks we can offer him! The SON community is wonderfully generous!

Yes. It had such a warm and peaceful feeling to it. So was Theo Goetz, as the beloved Papa Bauer on TGL. Most of the actors from the early years, whose commentary about the writers I've read, referred to Wallace with high praise. Fans often salute Patrick Mulcahey's dialogue for its wittiness; I cherished Wallace's scripts for their natural warmth and realism. It's curious how Loving never really worked well; never jelled, despite the acknowledged pedigrees of TPTB involved. I could never get into it, no matter how many chances I gave it. Yes, the depth and nuances of performances and direction seemed to fall by the wayside when time consideration and budgetary restraints started to override all other factors. Nowadays, I'm astounded whenever any actor manages to pull off a truly beautiful performance, considering what they are up against. While a few shows managed to do well in the 60-minute format, at least for a while under the right PTB, I think it was ultimately an unwise decision to expand them beyond 30 minutes a day. I wish Beyond The Gates were 30 minutes in length.

Of the four portraits (Eugenia, Pinkerton, Malis and Strasser), I think I'd want the Pinkerton one most (although I'd happily accept any of them). There are so many objects from soap opera sets that I'd kill to have!

If an accent simply isn't working out, I'd prefer the show/actor just to drop it without resorting to twisted, idiotic on-screen explanations. Nobody cared that Kim Zimmer abandoned Reva's original twang early in her run on TGL. Another atrocious accent that never should have been greenlit was poor Jacqueline Courtney's British impression when she played Maggie Ashley on OLTL. I adored JC, but...egads! To be honest, I've always considered MTS to be vastly overrated, although at this point she owns the role of Nikki, and I would not replace her. Yes, she was quite stiff and wooden in the beginning, but she did have a certain "something" which was appealing. When Jacquie Courtney first began on AW, she overacted and had irritatingly exaggerated (to me) facial expressions that made Alice look like a teenybopper from Beach Blanket Bingo. Once she toned that down, she also became quite appealing. And Jaime Lyn Bauer was squeaky and fluttery when she debuted on Y&R, but patience paid off in her case as well. Courtney, Bauer and Thayer all became daytime icons. The Tony/Joe scene was lovely and effective. The best aspect of OLTL in the 1960s and '70s was natural dialogue and believable conversations characters had. Doris Belack once said that writer Don Wallace could write her reams of dialogue to study, and the words would flow effortlessly out of her mouth because Wallace wrote from character. We have not seen that on soaps in decades. She was a gem. The odious Rauch fired so many stalwart, essential actors, but at least Marilyn Chris flew under his radar. When Granger was nominated for a Daytime Emmy, I took it as yet another confirmation that the awards were not based on merit, but rather out of habit and/or name recognition. Both Granger and Uta Hagen (also nominated) stumbled and staggered through their lines, would look around for the teleprompter, and gave tepid (at best) performances. Unfortunately, FG's first replacement was dull as dishwater. I was relieved when the show recast again, because Tony George was the best of the three men who had taken on the role. I loved, loved, loved Joe and Viki's carriage house! It was my favorite home set on OLTL. I would have chosen to live there instead of Llanfair.😝 Pinkerton is the sort of actress who is so good, and who inhabited Dorian so well, it was easy to forget she was even acting. I considered Charita Bauer another performer like this; she never once gave a false note.

Yes, this portrait is of Pinkerton's Dorian. This is Lori March, who played Eugenia in the idiotic "Viki goes to heaven" nonsense. Jordan Charney was a poor recast, but Vinnie #3, Michael Ingram, was worse. After Doris Belack left as Anna Craig, TPTB hired Kathleen Maquire to replace her. Another, baffling and miscast dud. Unpopular opinion here, but when Melody Thomas took over as Nikki, I thought she was a significantly weaker actress than Erica Hope had been. MT's version of the character struck me as far too cartoonish. I liked Patsy Rahn, but in the end, LC developed into a better Monica Bard. Agreed. Light was an astonishingly effective recast. When Brynn Thayer first assumed the role of Jenny, she was painfully stiff and unnatural. I thought she was never going to work out. Lo and behold, she developed into a great actress. After she had been on the show for a while, Gerald Anthony admited that she was now "500% better than when she started." Yes, Jenny married Peter when this actor was on the show. (I answered the question about the accent in a recent post, above.) Endless, rotating PTB ultimately altered and damaged many long-running characters on this (and many other) shows. I don't believe it for a minute, either. It was a repugnant assassination of the Victor Lord character, just like the Rick-Webber-is-a-degenerate crap on GH. UGH!

I watched regularly from 1968 to 1983, and loved the show until so many beloved characters and actors started getting dropped, science fiction elements crept in, and Paul Rauch decimated Llanview. Pinkerton was an excellent Dorian, although I must say that the character was one of the rare soap characters who was recast multiple times, and every single one of the actresses chosen to play the role ended up being quite good. Honestly, he wasn't terribly memorable. I remember wondering at the time why this actor was cast. Jacquie Courtney was briefly paired with a potential love interest named Adam Brewster, played by an actor called John Mansfield. He was painfully wrong for the part. Sometimes, actors just don't make much of an impression. (Or worse, they make a bad one.) The show changed so much in the 1980s, from the down-to-earth, grounded show it had been in the 1960s and 1970s. I'm glad you got to experience the glory years! Since Courtney confirmed in a 1974 Daily TV Serial interview that she had had kinescopes made of many of Alice's important episodes, I've been hoping that they would show up eventually, but I imagine the likelihood of that happening now are slim. It's a shame. Those were golden years. Eugenia's portrait originally hung in the drawing room, but after Dorian married Victor, she took that down and had one of herself done. She unveiled it at a party, to an aghast Victoria. (Later, after Pinkerton left the show, Dorian's portrait was redone to feature Claire Malis.) Actually, James Storm was Larry Wolek # 2. The character was first played by actor Paul Tulley who (IMHO) lack screen presence. James was fine, but I immediately accepted Michael Storm as the definitive actor for the part. He had the remarkable ability to play a good, noble man...and keep him interesting and layered. It was egregious how the show just dumped him later on. Yes, yes, yes. Daily TV Serials was one of the finest soap-based publications, ever. Being an avowed soap addict, I read them all in the 1960s and 1970s. Daily TV Serials ended up being the best, but Daytime TV, Afternoon TV, and a few others were great as well. At the bottom of the barrel was TV Dawn to Dusk, which was poorly produced and blatantly fudged their "facts." 🙃

I loved OLTL dearly from 1968 to 1983, but the issue of Peter's accent was handled in an incredibly stupid manner. One day, out of the blue, he announced that he was living in America now, and should adopt an American accent in order to fit in better. It was, like...WHAAAAT? That is NOT how accents work. Since the change happened overnight, it meant his Americanized way of speaking was an act Peter just decided to fake. Was he intending to use an artificial stage accent for the rest of his life??? It was so stupid. I wonder if the sudden termination of his original accent (which was, admittedly, weird) was mandated by ABC or something. Peter's accent was never mentioned or heard again, so I guess we'll never know why it was written out.🙄

Looking back, that's probably why I first fell in love with Kim.

Ahh, yes, I see scammers all over Facebook. I agree that reporting is the correct route to take, but, alas: in my experience, it almost always leads to nowhere. Facebook seems not to care about the safety of its users.

My pleasure. I hope it works for you! I'm hopeless with anything technological, and remain computer illiterate, LOL, so when I finally figure out how to do something, I am super proud of myself! Feigned indignation is a common ploy among scammers, who want to cower you into acquiescing to their often-unreasonable demands without question. It probably works for them, since many folks don't like confrontation, and desperately want to get their hands on the material which the scammers are allegedly offering. But like you, I know better than to cave in to scam-artists' aggressive BS. When you stand up to them, they usually throw a hissy fit and then disappear, which only confirms their shady intentions as far as I'm concerned.

As always, thank you @DRW50. I loved Kim and Dan. I used to look forward to seeing them in the park with Betsy. The scenes were so warm and romantic.

@MissPalmer: You just have to enter the "@" symbol into the new message/text box, followed by the posters' names. Don't leave a space between the symbol and the name(s). Usually, just typing the first few letters will make them pop up for you. Then those posters will be "tagged" and alerted to your post. So, @ + MissP (or the complete MissPalmer if you choose) gets the job done. I just did it, above!🙃 That's what made me get out of the trading business. I'd send other "traders" some of my rare material on the agreement of a trade, but they wouldn't send me anything in return (or if they did, it was garbage and not as promised). Then I'd see them SELLING the stuff I had originally sent them to other soap fans...at outrageous prices. Fortunately, the folks at SON have been honest, trustworthy and generous, in my experience. Thank goodness for USB flash drives. As soon as see I something on the internet which I desperately want and "need" to own, it goes right onto a flash drive for safekeeping. Me too. Even soaps like TSS and Love of Life, which were not among my top, all-time favorite shows back in the day, are a joy to see now.

Thank you @MissPalmer and @DRW50. Yes, some of these episodes have been around for a while, but the 1972 color one is new to me. TSS had been great in earlier years, but I had drifted away from it by the 1972, so I don't even think I watched this color episode way back when. (It's interesting that episodes which would have seemed inferior in the '70s look so much better today, compared to what soap fans have to endure in 2025.)