vetsoapfan

I'm glad you found something to enjoy about Sheldon's run as head writer. After being treated to Henry Slesar's masterful writing for so long, however, I found Sheldon and almost everything he did to be quite a letdown. HS's TEON was intricate, sophisticated, witty; filled with colorful characters and lots of genuinely surprising twists and turns. I saw LS's work as shallow, low-brow camp. The only thing I appreciated about the closing run of the show was that Sheldon had the Karrs reunited with their daughter Laurie Ann. (I also liked that Nancy and Laurie had a touching conversation about past characters Winston Grimsley and Sarah Louise Capice.) I wish more people on SON could have seen Slesar's mesmerizing and quite terrifying story about serial killer Jonah Lockwood. Most soaps go the adolescent, "campy" route when telling such tales, but Henry Slesar's brilliant scripts scared viewers half to death!

And...voila! Thanks, Bill Bauer!

I had not heard that. He would not be my first choice for a partner.🤔

Isn't there material on youtube featuring Denton? I swear I've seen her during the last few years, although perhaps it was on one of my own videotapes/DVDs. Denton was okay in the role, but she never felt like Betsy to me. Davidson has always been the "real" Betsy!

Thank you, Sweetie! I am not disturbed in the least by the criticism. I fact, it gave me the biggest laugh I have had since this awful pandemic began. 🤫 Go for it! While I am always interested in hearing various points of view, I admit that it always baffles me when people praise certain writers and producers to the sky, when I, personally, find them to be soap killers. Yikes! Well, by giving me a good belly laugh, he at least served a useful social purpose! Thank you for the kind words. Your check is in the mail. 😉 Actually, that's a good point. Long after the name change, the announcer would still introduce the show using the article: "And now....THE Guiding Light!" I don't remember when that was discontinued.

Exactly, ROTF.

I would never stop posting about a genre I have loved for most of my life, just because a troll soiled itself in rage. You can't let trolls upset you, but you can...toy with them for amusement and sport.😛 It felt like the show wanted to rush through the funeral and grief, just to get it all over with. Pamela Long and Gail Kobe may have had no interest or emotional attachment to the longer-running characters, but the audience did. What a waste.

That's what its creator intended for it to be called. I'll take Irna Phillip's decision over a P&G suit's any day. Let's face it, a huge number of decisions made by TPTB during the show's last few decades were blunders.

Particularly if I am unwittingly driving them around the bend.🙄 I've been watching soaps for six decades. For most of my time watching TGL on a daily basis, it was called THE Guiding Light. Just like The Edge of Night was...THE Edge of Night. Dropping the article from the titles was a ridiculous decision that never made the slightest bit of sense, hence my continuing to use it. During tough times like this, laughter is always welcome! I always enjoy reading other people's commentary as well, even when I don't agree with it. That's what keeps the forums lively! P&G claimed that they dropped the THE in order to "modernize" the soaps (TGL and TEON) and attract a younger audience. (That excuse...er, explanation has always seemed delirious and stupid to me.)

Yep. Apparently, I have been enraging folks...without even TRYING! Now THAT is a rare talent! 🤣

Oh dear. It has been brought to my attention that I am contributing to the destruction of these forums. Without even realizing it, I am inflicting unbearable suffering onto certain members when referring to my favorite soap by its original (and grammatically-correct) name, which it only used for a mere 40+ years: THE Guiding Light. Gentle readers apparently cannot withstand being cruelly confronted by the article THE. Indeed, it's being said that so many people have fled the boards over this and similar egregious crimes, only eight posters remain. Who knew? I'd like to make up for the anguish I have heaped upon those whose sensibilities have been wounded by the correct use of an article. I'll be happy to donate to a charity chosen by the injured parties. Perhaps Soap Fans for the Promotion of Illiteracy (an offshoot of Melania's Be Best campaign). As well, I am being criticized for continuing to post here even though I have (allegedly) not watched soaps "since the 1970s." In my defense, I have never once made such a claim. I freely admit that the last time I enjoyed certain soaps was in the '70s, before the sci-fi craze took over, but I continued to watch ATWT and TGL (dear God in heaven, I cannot control myself!) until the bitter end. I suppose I should not be too hard on my critics for getting confused, however. Reading-comprehension is not for everyone. To those whom I offended, my deepest apologies.😪

Alan's interrupting potentially-interesting anecdotes is one of his very worst traits. Viewers, too, rolled their eyes and made faces when the atrocious stories of the show's last year were broadcast.

Alan often comes across as befuddled and inattentive, and lacking knowledge about even the shows he worked on. He really needs to hand over the interviewing reins to anyone else.

Yes, Jamie and Sally could have been siblings in some fashion. I don't remember if the adoption was fully formalized before Steven died. If it were, I supposed Sally would have become Jamie's "half sister" (same legal father, different mother). If the adoption was only granted after Steve's death, then Sally was Jamie's stepmother's daughter. Maybe after the passing of a parent that wouldn't legally amount to much, but your stepmother's daughter is certainly not your cousin. There are historical references floating around that ATWT was originally set in Ohio. They used a shot of a Cincinnati skyline in the opening and closing of TEON for years. I've seen references to NY as being the original setting for EDGE too (there really is a Monticello in New York). At this point, who knows, LOL? On soaps, "facts" change at the whim of a writer's pen (or their ignorance about established history.) In the beginning, Somerset was definitely set in Michigan, as was Bay City. It was mentioned on air. Heather Lawrence )Somerset) complained to her mother Eve that she did not want to move with her to "that little town in Michigan!" But I know that in their final decades, most of the P&G soaps had been switched to Illinois.

When did P&G start to reference the various towns all being in the same state? When I was watching the shows decades ago, various P&G soaps were definitely in different states. Bay City was said ON AIR to be in Michigan but later mysteriously transported itself to Illinois, for example. And there's the infamous example of TGL suddenly being referred to as set in Springfield, even though viewers do not remember (and don't seem to be able to find information in history books about) how the action left Selby Flats. Just curious. A lot of things on soaps are not logical, like on AW when Jamie Frame said that Sally Frame was, "...a cousin or something." Um, no. Sally was adopted by his father's widow. That in no way, shape, or form makes them cousins. Also on AW, didn't an Ordway or two pop up in Bay City using the last name "Frame," even though they were Ordways? Inconsistencies about locales, names, family relationships, etc., have always given soap fans headaches. On SFT, Jo's best friends Stu and Marge originally had a son named Jimmy who disappeared for a while, and when he returned everyone referred to him as the Bergman's nephew. It's really annoying.

It was. Clueless PTB simply did not pay attention to the established facts and history of the soaps, and would change things at will.

Sadly, Rauch ended up being a liability on every show he (mis)managed.

Agreed.

Many of the so-called history books have errors in them, which fans are wont to notice and point out. It's very frustrating. Don't even get me started on those dreadful Soaps & Serials novelizations...yikes!

His lack of perception, lack of historical knowledge, and lack of interviewing skills grates on my nerves. How did he ever get and keep a job at P&G? (I realize that I should not even be asking this question about a company that kept MADD, Goutman, Wheeler, etc., employed. 🙄)

Jacqueline Courtney looked gorgeous in that May 29, 1980 episode. It was so nice to see all those beloved core characters in Llanview. Many of them would be axed within the decade.

I daresay that EVERYONE who reads and posts in this thread would be thrilled to see anything you wish to share.

Another child actor on the show (1974-76, I believe) was T.J. Hargrave, who played Joe and Sara's adopted son T.J./Tim Werner. Also, a boy named Robbie Berridge played Freddie following Gary Hannoch, from 1976 to 1978.

I hate unsolved mysteries, LOL.

Are we sure that the story about Charita's comment was supposed to be about a child performer from the 1970s? I wondered if they were referring to actor Damion Scheffer, who played the unbearable Jonathan Brooks in the early 1980s. By Scheller's own admission years later, he was miserable as a kid.