vetsoapfan

Another trader once sent me an entire slew of SFT eps (maybe 16, IIRC) from 1966. They were excellent. But material from the 1970s is even more difficult to find. Even if this Youtube channel only shared brief clips of all the Mary Stuart eps from way back then, it's wonderful to know that the full-length episodes probably still exist in the uploader's collection.

I agree. I basically think of her Margo as a cold, shrewish harpy. Yuck. Dolan is my least favorite of all four Margos.

It was discussed on-air during the 1970s that Victor Lord knew Meri was not his daughter.

Would that REEEEEEALLY be so bad? 🤔🤭

Michael Ingram was playing Vinnie when the character died. Vinnie and Viki had a nice, poignant scene in the Carriage House that she shared with Joe Riley, in which she told Vince what a decent human being she had always known him to be. I was soap-savvy enough to realize this was foreshadowing the character's demise. Then, after Vince died, Larry went to view the body ("played" by Ingram), said goodbye and kissed him on the forehead. So the "Jim Craig funeral Vinnie" must have been a temporary or emergency recast, and then Ingram returned to play out the character's final days. And that is very true: Jimmy Jonz, who portrayed Tony Lord immediately after George Reinholt, is not listed in any of the history books or on line anywhere. Certain actors and characters truly do fall through the cracks completely.

That's not Michael Ingram, but it's weird OLTL recast the role just for this. And the child is not the same one from the 1970s, but did do a fine job here.

Why TPTB sidelined Fulton/Lisa, and kept her in the degrading position of a glorified day-player for so many years is a mystery none of us will ever have the answer to, alas. I've always been perplexed why they didn't just fire her completely, instead of just giving her a scrap or two here and there.

That's a very big IF, alas.

Knowing that the live interview was in progress, I briefly clicked on it just to see if the video and audio were okay. What did I hear in the very first second? Alan chirping, "That's craaaaaaaaaazy." JFC.😑 No jury would convict me, LOL.

This is funny--tragically so--because it's so probable.

To me, it looked like zero money was invested into the projects, and TPTB did not have the experience necessary to produce TV well (speculation on my part). You are right about Anne of Green Gables, however. That series was done with care, and enough funds were infused into it to make the series a quality (and hugely popular) production. Around that time, I think Canadian investors started to realize the potential goldmine they could have on their hands if they started doing filmed productions right, and everything slowly started to improve. More and more American series started being filmed here as well, and the quality from the US material bled over into the Canadian side of things. Canadian TV stopped looking cheap and unprofessional, and the standards for writing and acting were raised significantly. If that had been the only soap he was known for, Lemay's reputation would have been trashed. His work on Strange Paradise was not good. (Not that ANYBODY could have made that awful series work.) Yes, I knew there were others and not just the few I mentioned, but I couldn't remember them all. None of them WERE memorable, LOL.

We tried our own soaps, too, but only a few. They were awful, and came and went quickly, with little notice or fanfare among the audience. The two that lasted the longest (still, not that long) were High Hopes in 1978 (starring Bruce Gray, better known from his stint on The Edge of Night) and Strange Paradise in 1969 (a supernatural rip-off of Dark Shadows). Both these series ran for less than a year, if I recall correctly. There were at least two other soap attempts I am hazily remembering, which only survived for a couple of months, but I cannot recall their titles. One was something like Morning Glory (?), broadcast on our public broadcasting network, the CBC. Being a soap fan, I valiantly tried all these shows, but...no. Just no. Strange Paradise is available on youtube. I can't find any other Canadian soap attempts anywhere.

It was a cheaply-made and poorly-produced Canadian drama. Trust me: as a Canadian, I can tell you that television dramas and comedies produced here were widely derided as being heinously unwatchable in the 1960s and 1970s. The situation has vastly improved in the last few decades, but back then, everything was done on the cheap, and looked thrown together by high-school students with a home camera shooting in their garage. UGH. Think the first Peapack episodes of The Guiding Light as being Gone with the Wind in comparison.💩 One of my earliest memories of a Canadian program was a game show in which contestants vied for prizes. On The Prize is Right, the grand prize winner of the day would win...a new car or an exotic vacation. On the Canadian program, the hard-fought-for gift at the end on the day was...a toaster.😑 On American game shows, the cash awarded would be huge, too. In Canada, the equivalent was a $20.00 gift certificate to a hardware store. "Big woo," as Suzanne Sugarbaker was wont to say. Here is a complete episode from the first season of Police Surgeon. Endure! Here's a clip from 1971's The Trouble with Tracy, another Canadian production (a "comedy") which may be the worst television production of all time. 🤮

Right. Pairing a Dudley Do-Right type of character like Mike with a generic "good girl" would have lead nowhere but Dullsville. There needed to be some sort of internal differences and conflict to keep the relationship interesting. Having Mike marry Alex, particularly if Hope returned and Alan persuaded her to reconcile, would have provided years of family-story fodder. And I've long said/agreed/wished that either Mike or Ed had had some "new" blood children pop up. Unfortunately, I don't think TPTB in the last few decades knew or cared about TGL's rich history or the Bauer family.

That show. Was. So. Awful.🤮

I know she eventually became an accepted part of the canvas, but I always found Lillian to be pretty tedious, TBH. If she had quietly been written out, I doubt I would have even noticed. But can you imagine a triangle with McKinsey's Alex, Mike and Vanessa? That could have been quite explosive, and more evenly matched than a story with thevibrant Alex battling the dishwatery Lillian for Mike's affection. Long was also the only writer, IMHO, who ever "got" Reva and wrote her correctly. And she was also the only writer who understood the Phillip and Rick relationship. Long had her flaws (I hated the low-brow camp she foisted onto the show, but when she "got real" and focused on characterization and genuine emotion, she could be quite effective. I wonder how she would have fared with Aunt Meta. I do think Long would have ended up writing Mike and Lillian as end-game, but that would have bored me to tears, and been a waste of Mike as an older leading man/patriarch. In my daydreams, I wanted TGL to do another crossover with Another World, and have Beverly Penberthy show up in Springfield as Pat Matthews Randolph, and eventually rekindle her long-ago interest in Mike. Pat would have made a better, more beloved, more viable matriarch for the Bauer family than Lillian.

There was something almost quietly noble about Russ Matthews when Sam Groom played him. The character was sweet and charming, but never boring. I was really annoyed when Goutman brought Groom back for AW's finale, but in an anonymous, throw-away part. I loathe the trend on soaps of women falling in love/marrying with their rapists, their kidnappers, their would-be murderers. I never would have permitted the Rachel/Carl pairing if I had been in charge, but I would have pushed for a Rachel/Russ reunion after Mac died. Iris having a cow at the thought would have been an added bonus! That's the way I like my soaps: slow-moving with long, extended scenes based on character delineation. That style is long gone, alas.

I grew up listening to old-time radio dramas, which obviously did not have corresponding video to watch, so these AW episodes with distorted pictures don't bother me in the least. As long as the sound is good, I can recognize all the voices and just treat the vintage eps as if they were made for radio.

Perfect! But in my heart of hearts, I think any new, major story for Russ would have worked so much better if Sam Groom had returned to the role. Having SG, Jacquie Courtney and Beverly Penberthy back would have made me orgasmic, LOL! Right, this was secretly recorded at the Paley Center, where they forbid any recording, and will kick you out for doing it. Over the years, I'd heard some fans complain about the video quality of these "secretly recorded" episodes (there are other eps, including from the 1960s), but really: I'd rather see vintage material in poor quality than not seeing any of it at all.

She did, but then Al Gore stole the credit, LOL!

I could have accepted that.

Right. Balance is important. Not all of us drool over the antiheroes, rapists, mobsters and murderers that soaps have become obsessed with, LOL. "Basic good guys" like Frank Cooper or Larry Wolek or Russ Matthews are important too. I saw (or rather, endured) the new Halloween Kills this week. As always while watching movies like this, I kept shaking my head in disbelief and wondering, "WHY are these people sooooooooo stupid?" Finding a decent romantic partner for Frank was another problem in the long run. That's why I was fine with him being a friendly, supportive background player, but I never wanted him to be a lead.

In its early days, SOD was actually a classy publication with well-written articles. That has not lasted throughout the decades, alas.

I believe the pecular myth that a certain actress from Y&R was/is transgender can also be laid to rest. 🙄

To me, Jacqueline Courtney was the one true, definitive Alice, but I've always felt that Tribbey was the most acceptable (least objectionable?) of all the replacements. I'd rate the actresses: JACQUELINE COURTNEY Vanna Tribbey (C+) Susan Harney (C) Wesley Pfenning (D-) Linda Borgenson (BOMB)