vetsoapfan

Right. One of the final nails in the coffin that guaranteed TGL would never recover was killing off Maureen Bauer. Viewers had come to embrace her as the beloved Bauer matriarch, and what did TIIC do? Fire Ellen Parker, allegedly to pay for Justin Deas as Buzz Cooper (🤮) to come aboard. I don't know if I totally believe that, but TPTB were woefully incompetent and clueless about the show and the audience, so I can see it as a possibility. Sadly, Michael O'Leary did not age well, and his increasingly-grotesque mugging over the years became unbearable. Between his Rick becoming an abrasive buffoon and Peter Simon's Ed being being listless and morose, the Bauer family, as a hub of the show's wheel, crumbled into non-viable existence.

The shaky cameras, the weak and spotty sound (although both eventually improved to a degree), the poor writing, all the extraneous characters, the STOOPID storylines; the show became a painful chore to endure in its final years.

As you know, I cannot disagree with anything you have written. Ed had been a surly, abusive douche throughout Gentry's tenure, and RG played the role very well. But emotionally, in my heart, I wanted Ed to grow, mature and soften; to become a more viable tentpole character. I was primed and ready for him to stop being a jackass, and MH's affable, gregarious (but still hot-headed and passionate below the surface) take on him allowed me to have the transformed Ed I wanted to see. Was the character transformation completely believable? Do people ever truly change that much? Maybe not, but Bert grew up a lot. So did Meta. So I allowed myself to embrace the older-and-wiser, gentler Ed, particularly after Papa died. Don Stewart's Mike did not exude the warmth that Papa had, but Hulswit's Ed did, and I wanted that warmth to continue on display within the Bauer clan. Agree. He was a wimpy douche; listless, morose, and generally colorless. RVV was appealing as Chuck Tyler on AMC, but just...all wrong on TGL. UGH. Like Wesley Ann Pfenning as Alice Matthews Frame on AW. What were TPTB even thinking?

Yep, we are very biased indeed. I adored Hulswit, and he was my favorite Ed, for the reasons you outlined. I never fully forgave Marland for promoting MH's dismissal. Ed Bauer never recovered. I will readily admit that Gentry was excellent as Ed in his first tenure on the show, and captured the character's essence extremely well. I was Team Gentry at the time. But as Ed grew older and matured, he changed under Hulswit's interpretation to the point where MH became the one and only Ed Bauer to me (just like Judith Light became the one and only Karen Wolek on OLTL when she assumed that role). When Gentry returned to TGL many years later, he no longer fit the character (IMHO), although I'd take him over Simon or RVV in a heartbeat. All of this: perfectly said. Bravo!

@jam6242 , thank you for posting and letting us know about this. I adored Lynn Benesch as Meredith Lord Wolek. May she RIP.

Simone Kinkaid appeared on-screen in 1977/78, and was played by Laryssa Lauret, best known for her role as Karen Werner on The Doctors. Paul Kinkaid was spoken about but (IIRC) was never actually seen. He was the son of Victor and Simone Kinkaid, although viewers have speculated for five decades that he (like his sister Hillary Bauer) might actually have been Bill Bauer's offspring as well.

OLTL had Eileen Riley Siegal, who became a meddling, controlling mother type after her husband David died. Like Mary Williams on Y&R, Eileen was never obnoxious like this until becoming a window.

Marland almost always came across as a gentleman. I was really disappointed when, in a magazine interview, he snidely referred to Hulswit as a "dodo bird," whom Lenore Kasdorf allegedly couldn't stand working with and begged to be separated from. Imagine anyone thinking Peter Simon was "a more dashing leading man."🙄 PS was good on SFT, but as Ed Bauer, he was listless and morose, and lacked the charm and passion MH brought to the role. A few years later, when TPTB slaughtered the Bauer family, it would have been a comforting link to the past to have Hulswit in the role. Instead, we had the sparse remains of the core family on screen, and a non-descript actor as "new Ed" (which is how I referred to him for the next 27 years, LOL). Dalton, as Elizabeth, was never one of my favorite actresses, but it was short-sighted and damaging to the drama, to have Elizabeth just disappear and remain off-camera, in limbo for years. We didn't even know if she was alive or dead for the longest time, until it was acknowledged she had died years before. An actress of Maureen Garrett's caliber should never have been written out. She and MH's Ed worked beautifully together. Yes, she became a supporting, talk-to character; supporting instead of a lead. I hated the way she was written out: announcing she was taking a three-month sabbatical from Cedars...and then disappearing into the ether and never being seen or heard from again. Why not just SAY she was retiring or moving away permanently? Again, a poster in this forum who is a more creative than the actual TGL scribes from the 1980s, and from after Nancy Curlee's departure.

Jerry ver Dorn's natural charisma, charm and sweetness also helped. ❤️ Hope's absence was explained in a fairly well-written (!!!) scene on camera. Hope telephoned Alan-Michael before the wedding. The show had hired a voice-actress to play the role and even I (who resented TGL for firing Elvera Roussel and never bringing the character back) thought the performer did a great job (much better than the voice-actor chosen to play Mike Bauer--with a Southern twang, no less--in a different telephone call. Although A-M voiced his bitter disappointment and vowed not to let Alan anywhere near her, Hope told her son that she was feeling too fragile, and was simply unable to bear being at the wedding if there was any possibility she would run into Alan. She believed Alan would come after her if he knew she was in Springfield. It would decimate her already precarious mental health, so she had to stay far away from him indefinitely. Lord, yes. The monster-SORASING of A-M (and later Leah) really screwed up the Bauer family's time-line and viability. But the revisionist version of Amanda (whom I refer to as "pod Amanda") was so blatantly changed and so poorly cast, she just wasn't Amanda anymore. Making her Alan's sister, after establishing for years on-air that she was his daughter? Nooooooooooooooooooo. 🤮 That was one of the most egregious and idiotic blunders in TGL's history. I'm still vexed about it. As I have no doubt you already know, Mattson had previously played Hope in the 1970s. Unfortunately, at that point, she had not developed into a strong actress yes, and her Hope was bland and inconsequential. An editor in Daily TV Serials (I think it was) wrote that her potential pairing with Ben didn't work because she was a "bland baby girl." I was pleasantly surprised to see Mattson's much-superior work on other soaps, later on. I would have wanted Jacquie Courtney as Hope. You are a much better, and more creative, writer than anyone hired by this show post-Nancy Curlee.

As always, I am interested in reading any and all synopses you are kind enough to share. :)

Thanks, @DRW50 ! I don't believe I've seen this episode before. What nice quality! And any time I get to Meta is always a treat.

I've always considered the 1970s to be be soaps' finest decade. So many of the shows were burning on all cylinders. Do you have specific shows which you felt were the very best of those years?

Oh, of course. You are 100% correct. I appreciate you catching and correcting my mindless boo-boo. Having "senior moments" like this irk me, LOL. When I get too excited and type too quickly, I tend not to proof-read.🙃 Another absolutely terrifying moment was when Tango stumbled across Jonah Lockwood's true identity. As he was walking out of the apartment she shared with Laurie Ann, Tango breezily (and stupidly) taunted him by calling him "Keith." The look on his face said it all. We immediately knew Tango was done for. Then we had to wait through three more episodes before Laurie was home and looked outside the window, only to see Tango's dead body in the alley below. EEK! The climax to the story, when Jonah chased Laurie into the tower, intent on murdering her as well, but fell to his own death, was perfection. Actually, this plot would also be in my top five (and not just the Top 10, as I previously wrote). The only storyline I would rank above it is the Alice/Steve/Rachel story on AW. I LIVED, rather than just watched, both these tales as they unfolded. I'm so glad you got to experience them as well! We were lucky to witness, first-hand, soaps' golden years.☺️

THIS! Seeing how tepid and poorly thought-out most "mystery" stories on soaps have been over the last four decades or so, it makes my deep admiration for Slesar skyrocket ever higher. I wish everyone could have seen the brilliant Jonah Lockwood/Colin Whitney storyline. It was Slesar at his best. So complicated, so intelligent, and often scary as hell. No wonder the ratings were huge. This will forever be one of my Top 10 favorite soap stories of all time.

I really wanted that to happen too. Alas, viewers are almost always more sentimental about beloved, past characters than new PTB are.

Greaza's last year on the show is credited as 1973, but as you remember, he appeared sparingly towards the end. The last time I remember Winston having "plot purpose" was during the Jonah Lockwood story, when he showed up unannounced at the apartment Laurie Ann was sharing with her tacky roommate, Tango, and stumbled across Laurie and Jonah passionately making out on the bed. Winston was NOT impressed, and made that fact known. I adored him. The 1974 Christmas episode of EDGE is on Youtube. Rose and Joe Pollack, Nancy's parents, visit the Karrs for the holiday, but Winston is neither seen nor mentioned.

TEON was always good, anyway, but when Henry Slesar assumed the reigns of head writer in 1966, the quality of the material rose noticeably. Very few soap writers have proven to be masters of murder-mystery-crime tales, but Slesar wove intricate and layered suspense sagas beautifully. There were always red herrings, plenty of twists and turns, surprises you never saw coming, and terrifying jolts that could stop your heart. Best of all, the characters were INTELLIGENT, and not dumbed down to keep them clueless and in the dark so the mysteries could be artificially extended. The fact that Slesar could also develop multi-dimensional characters and weave poignant romance into the mix was icing on the cake.

They did seem to leave rather suddenly, almost as an after thought. I remember the family discussing Phil being out of town on business, after RM departed the role of Phil, but I don't recall him having a goodbye scene on camera. There definitely was an episode with Nancy and Louise standing inside the Karrs' house, beside the front door, in which Mary K. Wells appeared. Louise was there to say her goodbyes, since she was heading out of town. It was very brief. I remember thinking, "That's...it? A branch of an original family tree is just being written out with so little fanfare? We don't even get one final scene with Louise, Winston and Mattie?" At least we got an explanation as to where the Capices went. I hate when major characters on soaps simply cease to exist, and go unmentioned for years without explanation (Tommy Horton, Carl Williams, Jessie Brewer, Jim Craig, Ellen Stewart, etc.) RM left TEON for AMC in 1969, as the actor later acknowledged in interviews. His contract was up and AMC made him a good offer. Yes, characters adopted children and took in foster kids, but there were fewer pregnancies than on many other shows. I've often speculated that the lack of regular pregnancy-related stories was due to TEON's crime format.

Yes! I have seen that so much of the "real" Emmerdale Farm is available on YT. What a treat. Imagine! The Sugden family actually mattered to the show, once upon a time!

Much appreciated, @DRW50 . I was hoping that nothing would get in the way of this episode being uploaded again. With all new people running the show, it did surprise me that they mined TEON's history. I figured TPTB would just ignore it. Hearing the names Mattie, Winston , Sarah-Louise and Capice made me feel nostalgic and verklempt. Laurie Ann was just a young child when I became acquainted with this soap, so these scenes made me feel like I was being reunited with old friends; friends I would soon never see again. Mattie's death was referred to on-screen in the early 1970s, and we saw Winston and Mike at the wake. Winston's passing went unobserved completely (as I recall) a few years later. Phil, Louise and Sarah-Louise all left town, alive and well. Louise was the last to go. Her final scene was saying farewell to Nancy in the Karr living room. TEON is not one of the soaps I talk about a lot of this board, but I really did love it for about 20 years. I have now saved this episode. It was such a treat. I don't want to lose it again. I think the writers probably referred to Sarah-Louise, since she was related to the other characters Nancy and Laurie were discussing, and since Laurie and S-L had relatives in common. Sarah-Louise remained among the living and was last seen in 1970 as a young adult. (IIRC, her nefarious boyfriend had been drugging S-L's dad). She left town around the same time as Louise Grimsley Capice, circa 1970, maybe a bit earlier. Her father, Phil Capice, had left in 1969. When the show began, Winston Grimsley had had a daughter (Louise Grimsley) with his first, deceased wife. He then married a widow named Mattie Lane, who had had a daughter named Sarah Lane from a previous marriage of her own. So Louise Grimsley and Sarah Lane became step-sisters. Sarah-Louise Capice (through her adoptive mother Louise Grimsley Capice) and Laurie Ann Karr (thanks to her biological mother being the late Sarah Lane Karr) both considered Mattie and Winston to be grandparents.

ITA. I used to love Emmerdale Farm, when it was available for me to watch. I would lament its disappearance from my TV screen, if it were still the show it used to be. As it stands now, "As the Dingles Defecate Over Emmerdale" is not a program I could stomach watching.

They have INFECTED this show completely!

The leads, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, have inked deals for two more seasons. That is awesome, but I need Francois Arnaud and Robbie Graham-Kuntz (Scott and Kip) to continue appearing too.

I truly believe that most of us experience this: we meet something new, who may not technically be our "type," but as time goes on and we unpeel the layers and see under the surface...things do, indeed, happen. Minds, hearts and souls are much more attractive and nourishing than pretty body parts. ☺️ Yep. Feelings don't always make rational sense, but we can't will them in or out of existence, so we should at least acknowledge them and work on controlling them. And never knowing what lay down the path not travelled leaves niggling questions and doubts in our minds that linger for a long time. I think it resonated with many viewers who have been restricted because of fear from opening up and reaching out. The genius of Heated Rivalry is that the emotions and struggles which the characters deal with are universal. Labine was excellent during Ryan's Hope first few years, and we were so lucky to have her return to pen the show's final months. She was the only one to truly understand the show's heart and soul, which made its farewell so satisfying. While R'sH was not among my most-beloved soaps, I believe its conclusion was one of the best in daytime history. It was miles above The Edge of Night, Another World, One Life to Live, The Guiding Light and many other once-beloved dramas. When I reflect on the history of soaps, and what the genre has become, it staggers me to think about how many brilliant, truly gifted, master writers we were fortunate enough to have shepherding daytime drama during its halcyon decades. We took those scribes for granted, alas.

All this praise is making me giddy. I appreciate the kind words, @ranger1rg .🙂 When I was a kid, long before the advent of the internet and streaming services, our viewing choices were much more limited than they are today. I used to re-watch favorite shows and movies regularly. Except for a few vintage, beloved staples, I haven't done that in decades; one viewing of modern material is enough for me. My gut-level feeling about Heated Rivalry, however, is that I will want to watch and experience it again. Probably not every week, LOL, but it may very well become a stand-by, feel-good favorite like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Wizard of Oz, and a few other gems which I am always happy to revisit throughout the years.