vetsoapfan

I've never actually listened to The Archers, and know very little about it, but after enjoying a plethora of old-time American soaps on radio, I've been toying with the idea of searching TA out and giving it a try. I wonder how far back available episodes on the internet go. Ideally, I'd like to start from the beginning, but I doubt I'd have much luck hunting down episodes from 1951.

Exactly. Clips only make us salivate for more!

As the matriarch of the decimated Sugden family, I would be happy to see Diane, especially if she was used to introduce significant flashbacks featuring beloved characters. (I know, I know, that's me dreaming in Technicolor. Sigh.) The show seems to love Danny Miller/Aaron, so technically TPTB could create some new storyline fodder for him, but...would it be riveting and worth following? To me, the gold standard for anniversaries will always be the 30th anniversary celebration for As the World Turns. That was beautifully done. I loved the 10th anniversary of Another World too. I also grudgingly gave credit to TGL for putting on a good 70th anniversary episode (when they flashed back to the show's radio era), even though the overall show was painful to watch at that point. Even Search for Tomorrow's 35th anniversary satisfied me. More often than not, however, anniversary eps fall flat. (All My Children's 20th anniversary show was just weird.) I'm at the same point. My patience has run out, and with nothing but incompetent production for certain series in the forseeable future, the end needs to come sooner rather than later.

Well, that doesn't give the audience any confirmation, one way the other. When beloved actors pass away IRL, soaps often leave the fate of their characters vague (Bert--for a year-- on TGL, Jessie on GH, Sally on B&B, etc.) Do viewers prefer to imagine that their favorite characters are "still out there, somewhere"? Or would they rather TPTB acknowledge the actors'/characters' demise? If a performer is too beloved to be replaced, I personally want to see closure for the character and a tribute to the actor, even if that means the character has to be acknowledged as deceased.

Many soaps have completely abandoned their initial identies, and changed their styles, tone and content dramatically. I wonder how many fans of the "original" Home and Away still watch today's incarnation. I'm curious if Pippa would even fit in anymore. It's a shame TPTB didn't really do anything to commemorate Morag after Cornelia Frances passed away. When Alf mentioned her yesterday, did it sound like Morag was dead? In general, I dislike back-from-the-dead stories. Not to make a groan-inducing pun, but this sort of story has been done to death on soaps, with Days of our Lives being the worst offender. But at least Roo's reaction was believable. IRF, anyone would be hurt and furious if their mother had faked her death.

Oh, I do know Marilyn and Roo. I did not think they were around anymore. Of anyone, I'd like to see Pippa return. Well, Morag too, but I believe the actress has passed away IRL. I always found Dodge to be a hunk.

UGH. Fisher was never one of my favorite characters, but who wants to see a grim, hopeless story end like that? No thank you. Are any of Pippa's kids in Summer Bay any more? (Like Emmerdale, I have not had access to H&A in many years, so haven't watched it in a long time.) I think the only character I would know nowadays is Alf Stewart.

That was Kathy Glass, not Jacquie Courtney, who made the remark to Ellen Holly about the ratings. Holly recounts the story in her autobiography. When JC moved to Mississippi, she said she was unnerved and physically intimidated by total strangers rushing up to her on the street, swinging her around, and grabbing her. She acknowledged it made her aggressive and defensive. TBH, I'd lose my patience very quickly upon being mandhandled, too, particularly if I were with my child. I have no idea what Courtney felt about Holly; she never said anything against her publicly as far as I know, but Holly has made her disdain for Courtney, for Slezak, etc., well known over the years. I tend to believe JC's cutting the anniversary cake with JoeStuart was a spur-of-the-moment decision; he called her up to do it with him. I wonder if she would have agreed if she had been approached about it privately beforehand, and had had time to consider "the politics" involved. Yes, Courtney and Stuart were an item for a period of time.

So many other actors would have been great in this part, and made the character interesting/likeable/a success. The one they ended up choosing was just repulsive. I wonder how much the choice was a case of Joseph Stuart wanting to demean Ellen Holly. I'll never forget him asking Jacquie Courtney to take photos with him cutting the cake at the show's 10th Anniversary, when such an honor should have gone to original cast members like Holly and Lillian Hayman. And what was Courtney thinking? The graceful thing would have been to redirect the cake cutting to someone who had been with the series since its inception.

I also send thanks to @victoria foxton, and also loved that era of OLTL. I never missed a day. It was on fire. My only quibble, the actor who played Dr. Jack Scott came across as unbearablly pompous and...icky.

No doubt TPTB wanted to use the huge backlog of episodes they already had in the can, even if everyone knows the show has been garbage for many years. Soap fans' expectations have been whittled down to almost nothing, and many folks seem to accept any content, no matter how putrid, because "it's better than nothing." But...is it? When people say to me that we mustn't rock the boat by criticizing today's soaps; that we must accept whatever crap they give us and still remain "loyal," or else the genre will die out completely...well, the genre is dying anyway. Maybe because today's audience is too willing to passively accept the sh*t, even though it's driving everyone away?

IMO, the last time OLTL exhibited actual quality in its writing was under Malone's first reign (after a shaky start). RIP.

I'm not surprised, either, just disappointed and annoyed at TPTB's incompetent, almost dismissive treatment of the situation. I've loathed the "pod version" of Days of our Lives for the last 40 years or so, but I will give them credit for understanding the deep significance of Alice Horton, and how much the audience loved her. The show put effort into her send-off, and I appreciated it. The classic theme music playing over a photograph (or a collection of photos taken throughout the years) of Mercier would have lovely.

Thank you, Carl. I could have gotten behind a triangle with Pat, Paul and Dorian; the chemistry would have been electric. Courtney and Fuccello oozed chemistry on screen. Phillip McHale was one-dimensional and colorless as Tony (Chip Lucia proved to be even more miscast, ugh), but Pat and Paul ignited the "rooting factor" among fans, if letters to the editors in soap magazines were a good indication of what viewers wanted. ABC stupidly tried to pair Pat with a new character named Adam Brewster, who was stiff, charmless, icky, and (to be brutally honest) fairly homely. WHAT were TPTB thinking??? You don't try pairing Laura Webber with Spinelli on GH. Egads! The strong Courtney/Fuccello pull only made the Pat/Adam Brewster disaster more noticeably egregious.

That's it? That's all the tribute we got on the actual show itself: Victoria spreading the ashes? I admit that that two-minute clip got me teary-eyed, but it was hardly a sufficient send-off to such an iconic, legendary character. They needed some returns and memorable flashbacks. Bert Bauer, the beloved matriarch of The Guiding Light, received a similarly inadequate "tribute" when she died in the mid-1980s. I'm still mad about it to this day. TPTB always fail to understand that core characters are the lifeblood of soap operas, and viewers want them to be respected.

I hold grudges against favorite soaps, too, for similar reasons. I appreciate the response.

What about that period alienated you in the long term? I'm curious. From everyone's disappointed comments about the present incarnation, I have no doubt the show is "even worse" now, alas. Dingles AND a horde of kids would kill me. I agree; I am sure I'd loathe it, particularly since most of the characters I actually cared about are gone, and the family I cannot tolerate is center stage. The show never did much to commenorate the death of Annie Sugden, I presume. I did not hear about any returns of flashbacks. I'm at the point where I'd rather have my once-favorite soaps laid to rest, rather than seeing them butchered year after year. What's happened to Days of our Lives is a travesty. Just end it already.

The last time I had regular viewing access to Emmerdale was during the Gavin Blyth period. Since I have missed out on having to endure all the damage done to the show in recent years, my memories of the village are still fond. I wonder how much I would hate it if I watched the current incarnation. I was curious to see what characters whom I knew were still on the canvas in 2022. I was AGHAST to see that the show is still so overrun with DINGLES. 🤮 https://emmerdale.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_longest_running_characters

Franco needed to die (the sooner, the better), but killing off Karen and Logan was short-sighted and stupid. Josh Duhon actually looked like he could have been Scotty's son. I heartily agree that the way GH marginalizes and sidelines its beloved vets is shameful.

When Days moves to Peacock Plus, there will be a huge backlog of episodes left to stream; episodes already "in the can," produced under the present punitive, cheap conditions and written by the dread RC. As it is, such a small number of people watch this mess for FREE; how many viewers are going to search it out on a streaming service and PAY to watch it? A new writing team and production format should have been in place for the launch on Peacock, to give old and new viewers an incentive to tune in. Six more months of the same old crap won't cut it.

Particularly with Days shooting 27 episodes a week, LOL!

It really collapsed quickly, alas.

I enjoyed Lois and Clark the first season, but then TPTB downplayed the relationships and characterization, and the show turned pedestrian and campy. IMHO, of course. I did not make it through the second year.

Of course, no one HAS EVER announced the certainty that "the P&G soaps will ever see the light of day." Not "en masse," anyway. Posters express their "It would be so great if...." fantasies about seeing more vintage material, and their hopes that additional treasures from the past will be unearthed one day. But no one on this board expresses delusions about significant amounts of classic P&G material being released. It's been widely accepted for decades that the company wiped the bulk of their videos up until the late 1970s. The delusions about delusions are non-existent.

Carl, the actress in the Stove Top commercial is K Callan. Here she is in a clip from All in the Family.