vetsoapfan

I'd be the new Nina Laemmle of daytime TV, axing characters left, right and center, bwahahahahahahahahahaha! (The only difference is, I would understand the show I took over, and would only write out characters who did not belong on it in the first place.) Vote for VETSOAPFAN to take over the writing reigns of GH! Or DAYS! Or Y&R! I seriously could not do worse than the "writers" we have on the soaps now.

Only 10, LOL? I'd eagerly axe AT LEAST 20-25 characters from the current canvas. The show needs a complete, drastic overhaul.

I loooooooooooooathed all things Santos and San Cristocrap. UGH.

Lucia was the fourth (after George Reinholt, Jimmy Jontz, and Philip McHale). Jontz only appeared briefly after GR departed. TPTB said at the time that they wanted a "WOW!" actor to replace GR, but it quickly became apparent JJ was not it. PM was not particularly great either, alas, but CL was the worst by far. The show should have known better than to attempt replacing GR. Pat was kidnapped by the psycho Kyle (seen in this new clip talking to Ed), but as the Tonys came and went, and particularly after the character died, she did not get much story focus. Courtney had no chemistry with any of the replacement actors. Her best chemistry was with Tom Fuccello who played her husband Paul Kendall, but the show decided not to go there. She was tested with Michael Zaslow when he first arrived, and had great sparks, but ABC mysteriously decided to dump her and David was then paired with Jenny Vernon.

OMG, Chip Lucia was a HORRIBLE and BAFFLING recast in the role of Tony Lord.

It is on page 5 of this thread:

1976 was my favorite year of DAYS...of all time! So engrossing, every single day! I'd kill to see that clip with Mickey, but damn border restrictions, the DAYS app is not available in my country. (I am gnashing my teeth in rage as I write this, LOL.)

And here I thought that I was the only one who received a condescending (i.e., bitchy) reply from Kobe.

I thought that the first few years, starting in 1968, of OLTL were brilliant. The story of Carla passing for white and her stormy relationship with her mother, was mesmerizing. The varied ethnic and economic backgrounds of the various characters was refreshing. The dialogue was natural and believable; the way people actually speak (not always common of soaps). The cast was comprised of both beautiful people and more "ordinary," next-door types that added realism to the show. OLTL dipped in quality for a while after Agnes Nixon left completely. Although it was still quite watchable and always had a fine cast, the writing was sometimes...tepid. In the mid-1970s, even the directing was often inexplicably bad. Then in 1978, when the show paired Gordon Russell and Sam Hall, everything seemed to turn around again, and OLTL became as great as it had been during its first few years. Claire Malis was very good as Dorian. Many roles on daytime TV have been recast multiple times, with varying degrees of success. This show was fortunate in that virtually ALL five actresses chosen to play Dorian over the decades were well chosen, and that includes Malis. At the time she appeared, we also had Erika Slezak, Ellen Holly, Jacqueline Courtney, Judith Light, Brynn Thayer (who grew tremendously as a performer in a very short time) and many others; it was a show of stars; nary a bad apple in the bunch. I'd say the the early saga of Carla's racial insecurities and then the 1978-9 material involving Karen Wolek's secret life as a prostitute and Viki Riley's murder trial (both of which were brilliantly intertwined) ended up being OLTL's very best plots. (There were other great storylines, of course, like the baby switch involving Jenny, Mary and Katrina Karr, and the Billy Douglas homophobia story). IMHO, during the time Claire Malis appeared on the show, OLTL was at the very top of its game. I think from 1996 until its cancellation, the show's writing varied from weak to abysmal, but in the late 1970s, it was golden.

If these complete episodes are NOT unlisted, they are likely to be deleted sooner than later. Save them while you can.

Well, as I have said, I no longer have access to Emmerdale episodes, so I cannot even watch the show, but even when I did, I was overdosing on the Dingle brigade. I could probably tolerate them a bit more if their number were less and if the show did not focus on them so much. I recognize that there are some good actors among the bunch. I always champion efforts to mine a show's rich past and to weave history into the present, but that manner of storytelling is not favored in today's soap market, on either side of the pond. I supposed those of us who are disappointed with how modern soaps are run must be content with watching vintage episodes of our beloved soaps on youtube.

Yikes! That happens all the time. I have learned to download anything important (and then transfer it immediately to a flash drive) as soon as it appears anywhere on the internet. Far too many times I have procrastinated, only to see videos get deleted from youtube (or dailymotion or wherever) before I could watch and/or save them. Never again!

Yes, although he's not a blood Sugden, Andy and his kids are still alive to carry on the clan's legacy. And Sebastian could one day change his last name to Sugden, but preserving and reestablishing the family will take care and thought, which TPTB do not seem to have much of where the Sugdens are concerned. To me, the vile Dingles are Emmerdales version of The Guiding Light's abrasive Shayme (I mean Shayne, LOL) family: a debilitating disease that infected a once-healthy show. UGH.

So basically, the careless and callous PTB have decimated the family so much over the years that bringing back the Sugdens as major players is next to impossible. That's egregious. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why the show killed off so many of them, and so gratuitously too. (What was even the point of killing off Peggy's twins? And Joe, who was off the show anyway? If TPTB had not been stupid enough to kill him off, it could be said that Joe had had some offspring, maybe twin boys who could carry on the family name.) I know Sheila Mercier is 100 years old (!!!) this year and we will never see Annie again, alas, but even though it would be a stretch, I would readily accept a retcon that Joe was really alive and now had children with whom he could return to the village. Robert needs to have some more biological kids before it's too late as well. (Actually, whatever happened to his and Rebecca White's son Sebastian? I don't recall reading that he had ever been killed off.) I hate when shows destroy their central, core families. I never forgave The Guiding Light for axing most of the Bauers in 1983-4.

Right. In the early years, it was said ON AIR that Bay City and Somerset were in Michigan. Indifferent/careless/ignorant PTB who did not care to research the show's history later switched it to Illinois.

I have not had access to Emmerdale eps for a few years now, so unfortunately I can no longer watch the series. (I would love to do so, even though I loathe all things Dingle.) Just out of curiosity, how many Sugdens (blood relatives or legal family members) are still alive and out there in the world, who could actually be brought back to the canvas if TPTB ever decided to focus on this important core family again?

Well, that would make sense, but an NBC affiliate broadcast ABC's Peyton Place at 4:00 PM in my area, and (in a different year) a CBS affiliate reran ABC's The Big Valley also at 4:00 PM and an NBC-owned channel aired it at 5:00 PM. I remember this because I watched both TBVs back-to-back. Maybe by then the networks had sold the 4:00 PM timeslot to local affiliates and let them broadcast anything they wanted from any syndicated source, however. I imagine that times still controlled by the networks might have only shown self-produced series.

Actually, once shows went into syndication, they could be broadcast by affiliates of ANY network. In the 1970s, I watched reruns of Peyton Place on an NBC-owned station, even though PP had originally aired on ABC. The Big Valley (loved that show!) was on both a local CBS station and a local NBC affiliate in the late afternoons.

If you don't take Scotty, I definitely will!

Although the show did have some weaker years (just prior to and just after its expansion to an hour, for example), I'd say that anything written under William J. Bell's watch would be worth a second look. My personal favorite decade was the 1970s, however. Such great writing, directing, music, lighting, sets, wardrobe, everything. Such a charismatic cast! We will never see anything like it on daytime TV again.

I think writers just hope that we, the viewers, are stupid enough to forget about characters once they are no longer appearing regularly. HA! Soap fans have memories like steel traps. People still talk about Bobby Martin vanishing into the dark recesses of the attic on AMC, back in 1970! It would be cool if Y&R could take some old footage of Stuart and some old footage of Dina from the 1980s and splice the pieces together as a bit of a teaser. You would miss the show's very best years: 1973-77!

Right. I've mentioned before here on SON, about how many important soap opera characters have suddenly just ceased to exist; disappeared from the canvas never to be seen or heard of again. It's very disheartening for longtime fans who were emotionally invested in those characters.

Oh, I did not know that. Thank you for the update. Poor Stuart. A major, beloved core character with never any actual send-off. Sigh. At least Leslie, Lorie, Chris and Peggy are still alive.

True, but why would TPTB bother to take that approach? If Stuart were alive, they should be bringing HIM back for this story more than anyone else. Stuart would be 91 by now, so alas, chances are the show will ultimately confirm on-air that he has passed away. (Although Robert Colbert is still with us at 88 year old, and Bill Hayes is still active on DAYS, so....) In my heart, I would love, love, love to see Stuart and all four of his daughters come back to Genoa City to meet their new family member.

Oh no, some of the actors' faces are really ringing a long-unrung bell. I'll have to think about it.