RavenWhitney

GL: Maureen/Lujack

EON: Margo

SFT: Suzie

Days: The entire cast

15 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

I agree with most of your assessment. 

 

It's a shame Xander and Charlie off the carts sexual chemistry wouldn't' be used. But i have to disagree about the sets. Hope's home or whatever that's supposed to be being the worse set. 

I totally agree with you. I forgot about. It's almost as if they tried to make it incredibly ugly to make Kristin look bad. Someone had dropped some acid or rolled some mollies then dipped into the the set treasure chest of tacky leftovers.  That set alone may have precipitated KA's decision to leave the show!

Notes on the last several episodes:

Charlie and Zander have more sexual chemistry than vapid Claire (and non actress portrayer).  Zander being the gay/bi daddy to Charlie would be an interesting storyline.

I'd like to think the Jan plot was thrown together when Aly Sweeney delayed her return. But knowing Ron, this was his pre planned primary sweeps story. Those wedding scenes live along side all the other lows during his tenure as head writer.

In between the Jan crap, the other stuff has been great, including Kate/Jake, Jack's story angle, NuJenn, Doug/Julie's Thanksgiving.  I can even stomach Chad right now. Emily/Gwen is a revelation but Ron will likely turn her into a murderous psycho.

The lighting and sets have massively improved as has the directlng. It's hard to believe Alaar and crew had it in them after several horrible years.  The exceptions are the DiMera set and that tired Brady set. They should be thankful they have Noel Maxam and Scott McKinsey.  The episodes they direct are always outstanding.

Wasted talent: Eric Marstoff

Most Annoying Actress: continues to be Lindsay as Sarah. Her performances have gotten so bad, all the ticks and exaggerations.  I can't believe the directors are letting her do it.  They must like it.

Most Annoying Actor: Jay Johnson; he just don't got it anymore.  Time to retire Philip.  

Most Improved Character: John. I can't stand Drake's mannered performances, never could. But since his conk on the head, he's been more watchable.

The entire younger set needs to go; none of them can act.  He was actually the least offensive of the bunch.  

Where's Ali Sweeney?  There were major press announcements that she was coming back for a year for a big emotional storyline when the show resumed filming on Sept 1.

They are so lucky to get Cady. She's so amazing. Doesn't she look so much like. Jamie Lynn Bauer's daughter?!  They should bring Laura back.  The one night stand twist is so tired but the episodes are well done. Now will Ron ruin Gwen and turn her into another Kristin, Hattie, Bonnie, Ava, Gina?

Amanda Beall wrote the breakdown on Monday's US episode with Brent Boyd as script writer. It's been years since she's (been credited for) written an outline.  Susan Danby should start being listed soon as story consultant; she started on 1 Sept.  

His acting chops were exceedingly thin but he had more male/male chemistry with Kyle than any of the women on the show.  The writers could have kept him a bad bi boy and wrote a story about Kyle going gay with him in the past but choosing to be with a woman now. That triangle would have been more interesting. The other problem was the gal playing Summer; she's been botoxed/fillered to death and it's painful to watch her.  Finally, Josh Griffith's stories have been horribly bad or horribly boring.  

14 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

@vetsoapfan, as promised.. here were some of my thoughts on TEON (at least from watching on Youtube since I was too young to watch in person) during the Lee Sheldon years.

 

I haven't watched a lot of the Henry Sleasar years (that's my next project.. the 1979-1981 waterfall of interconnected mysteries.. Mansion of the Damned, Margo Dorn's murder, Draper's amnesia, Puppet Clown murders, and the Nancy/Dr. Bryson story.... all of which sound juicy).

 

So my 1st thought of the Slesar/Sheldon switch... I think it was probably the best way to end one era and start a new era.  Slesar's last week/days involve the resolution of the Nora Fulton murder case, while Sheldon's 1st day is everyone leaving the studio to go drink and socialize.  

 

Best things about Sheldon's 20 month stint:

 

ISIS story:  a 6 month umbrella story kicked off by the murder of Nicole C on air.  Given the amount of times she'd escaped death.. having her be killed on camera must have shocked the audience.  It involved the whole show in one way or another with the end of the story involving Mike Karr winning the election.

 

New Characters:  Chris Egan was a good addition.. and filled the void left by Deborah Saxon's departure... plus she and Raven had that love/hate thing going.  I liked the ''Wait Until Dark' 4 episode climax to her stalker story.

                                Alicia Van Dine... perfect villianess.. even though the show didn't really do anything with her for a few months other than sleeping with her assistant, and spar with one of her clients Shelley.  Once she was reinvolved in the Sky/Raven/Logan orbit, than she started serving her purpose.

 

The Logan Swift murder Case:  A back to basics story with a murder, list of suspects, a court trial with lots of testimony especially from Alicia.. and a nice team up with Sky Whitney/Chris Egan to solve the crime in a satisfying way.

 

Liz Corral mystery:  A new character that actually turned out to give Mike/Nancy a decent story as the show wrapped up that involved the return of Laurie and a hint of her going to find her son.  

 

Final Episode:  A wedding, a return of a villianess/villian/henchman, a murder, and the start of an interesting myself I'm bummed didn't get followed up on.  Great end to a show that ended too soon.

 

What I didn't like about Sheldon's 20 month stint:

 

Everyone is islanded:  After the Isis story, the characters become islanded in their own stories/myteries in the 1st half of 1984.  After the 2 week Olympic hiatus, the show seemed to be remedying that.

 

Standing Oak:  If people in 2020 can't talk about what happened to the Native Americans.. I doubt in 1984, this story went over well.

 

Shelley Franklin:  Character with potential.. it seemed like she was supposed to be a young Raven.. but the show didn't really do anything with her other than her suicide attempt, fighting with Jody over a guy, or aruging with Geraldine over playing rock music.  Her brief stint going undercover as Millie to spy on Alicia was nicely done though.  Wasted potential.

 

Jody's recast:  Sweet girl, but no Lori Laughlin.  Instead of people getting to know her, the show insists on centering a mystery around her even though the audience was still missing Lori.

 

Beth Coral: ugh...I was rooting for her sister Liz to make her life miserable.

 

Sky/Raven:  They wouldn't play in 2020.. 2 rich people that bend the rules.  Wouldn't fly in 2020.

 

Sheldon was a disaster.  Casting of Beth and Chris were huge misses.  Totally wasted opportunity with Shelly and Alicia who should have been related and connected to a big Sky/Raven story.

The final episode was an insult to the show's long history with that mad hatter B.S.

Finally, whomever decided and green lighted the revised opening and closing credits and music changes should have been fired immediately.  

50 minutes ago, beebs said:

I may be wrong, but that's Stephanie Braxton in that clip. I'm PRETTY sure that would be AMC, if my timelines are correct for what show she was on at the time.

Tara on AMC

On 9/27/2020 at 3:10 PM, vetsoapfan said:

 

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

On 10/3/2020 at 9:34 AM, jam6242 said:

 

amazing woman, great scoops from her tenures on the different shows.  

Has the show decided they're not social distancing during filming. I watched today's episode and everyone was in each other's space. Or were these filmed two years ago...:)

David Lawrence SFT

John Valente ATWT

Lynn Latham YR

Joanna Lee SFT

Ellen Barret SFT

Dina could have been the new Kay for fans and the stories. The initial story was botched; Graham (who should have been played by a real actor) should have been poisoning her with Ashley saving her and they reconcile. Then place Dina in the middle of the family struggles and Jabot. The show didn't want to put an old lady on contract and  it was such a mistake. The show desperately needs  matriarch and Dina's character was fascinating.  Dummies.

Henry and Erwin never played Monticello like a nameless midwest city; while the opening credits for years was a Cincinnati skyline, the show was so New York feeling. That darker noir, street wise, set of characters with stark humor and NYC accents. Loved it.  Great atmosphere for so many years that the basic sets never mattered.  Until Lee Sheldon train wreck came in and they changed the opening and closing credits (and hired a series of bad actors for precious few contract roles i.e. Sany Faison and Jennifer Taylor).

Well, if he can act (questionable) Ron will turn him into a felonious criminal, kill him off and have Rolf bring him back.

45 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

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

Wrong. Those towns were deliberately named because it was a nod to sister P&G shows. EON and ATWT started on CBS back to back in April way back.  Draper and April''s house was supposed to be outside of Monticello. And Jody was to have come from Springfield in the same state. I thought it was cool that they named those towns in a nod to sister soaps.  Especially since EON was on ABC at that point and the other two on CBS but all three owned by P&G.

1 hour ago, watson71 said:

 

King returned as headwriter in August 1995 and held various positions on the writing team until AW went off the air in 1999.  Lemay was a story consultant in 1995-96, however I'm not sure how much input he had on the storylines givenwhat we saw on screen was mediocre at best.  King's best writing during his return was probably Ryan's death, but even that was tied to the Justine storyline.  King's worst writing as headwriter in 95-96 was the entire Cass is really Maggie's father storyline.   That storyline really rewrote the history of the show and was an insult to long time viewers of AW.

King left AW a few months before the show went off the air.  When I was in college in NYC I met Joe LeSeur who lived in the East Village. He was at that time an embittered gay man who drank a lot but he gave me several hot off the presses scripts he wrote. He wrote the same day each week.  I had several scripts at the time that hadn't yet aired. I'd record them on my VCR! and follow the dialog.  The scripts were seriously altered. Joe's dialog was not played as written.  A few years later I took a soap writing course taught by Barbara Seiger who had been a script writer during the Tom King / Soderberg years along with Joe. She taught the first class around an excerpt of a breakdown Tom King had written which was the day Rachel was convicted while on trial. Barbara trashed Tom and said the breakdowns were full of errors and un researched ideas. In the breakdown she handed out, there's a hand written note for her to look up what kind of crime Rachel should be convicted of and how many years she would get. I still have the breakdown in the attic I think (along with Joe's scripts).  Barbara said that NBC and P&G regularly dictated story turns to Tom and Robert. I don't believe they did the same with Harding. Tom was well liked by the execs because he was more compliant even if not a brilliant writer.  When I look back on Tom's 1980 he maintained a lot of Harding stories but improved on some things.  To me the last truly watchable period that also had lasting impact was the brief Soderberg/Purser years 82-83. Their creations and stories resonated till the end.  The casting was first rate, the show looked gorgeous.  But NBC had to install nobodies Culliton and Tomlin from Texas because why? Because they had also installed Long at GL.  I think all of these writers probably got their start during the 81 writers' strike and the execs always swung between new/untested blood and veterans and tried and true hacks.

Why?  Judith has had her time.  Her last visits were cringe-worthy.

Ryan Murphy needs to go rest with Dena Higley, Megan McTavish and Josh Griffith.  I can't watch another of his train wrecks after Hollywood and The Politician.  UNLESS David Cornswet is full frontal nakey in every episode.  

Who was the first actor to play Sharkey before Chris Goutman?

Bye bye.  Sad not sad.  Missy belongs in Tennessee where she can find whole towns filed with MAGA bigots and racists.

5 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

 

Your list of scab writers may be accurate, but I question the inclusion of Zaslow, Hufford, and Radell.  First, because Zaslow was a member of two unions, the actors union and The Writer's Guild.  So I doubt he would have been so disloyal as to work  as a scab. Zaslow always seemed a man of integrity.   Additionally, Zaslow, Hufford, and Radell were all part of Harding Lemay's writing team, just after the strike. And I'm not sure it is legal to immediately hire writers who have worked as scabs for the writing team on the same show.  Frankly, I don't know how Swajeski was ever admitted to the Writer's Guild, since the entire world was aware she had been a scab writer.  Isn't there any penalty at all for crossing a picket line during a writers strike?  Who knows???

 

I'm surprised anyone would be able to compile an accurate list, considering the inflammatory nature of scab workers.  I'm sure the production company, as well as the scabs themselves would have nothing to gain (and a lot to lose), by allowing this information out of the shadows.  Although it probably does no harm for a list of scab writers to be released 32 years after a strike, had this information been released just after the strike, careers and reputations could have been damaged.   But then we have Swajeski, who was rewarded by being hired as head writer.  The world is crazy sometimes.   

If there had been Twitter in 1988 I think all of this would have been public very quickly. You just have to look at the credits in the few months following the conclusion of each strike to see all the former soap actors, production assistants and unfamiliar names who were hired onto the writing teams.  Everyone in the biz (I'm sure) knew that Swajeski had been writing the show during the strike.  I think Zazlow and Hufford along with Radell were added once Swajeski started or shortly before. Lemay's breakdown writing team was his son, Chris Whitesell and Barbara Hagstrom.  For instance:

Lois Kibbee: I met Ernie Townsend once in NYC; he played Cliff. I asked him who wrote Edge during the 1981 strike and he told me that Lois and Laurie Durbrow were the writers. He said Henry was so impressed he fired Steve Lehrman and hired Lois as his script writer.

Many have reported that AW strike team of writers included: Donna Swajeski, Michael Zazlow (Roger from GL), his wife Susan Hufford, Nerissa Radell, Janet Iacubuzio, Mimi Leahey and Janet Stampfl.  I imagine that Swajeski and the Zazlows worked off some of Lemay's story ideas but that EP/Michael Laibson supervised the storylines.  Lemay was not a good fit for any show as a head writer by the late 1980s. His ten weeks after the strike ended were boring and uninspired.  I thought the strike period other than the ghost story was pretty watchable.  When Lemay's scripts starting airing I could barely get through an episode.  

Apparently, Meng was removed from broadcast credits on Days but his name was still listed online credits for Tuesday's episode.