EricMontreal22

HA!

Yeah this was so inconsistent--I believe what's her name (the Masquerade killer) on The City also auditioned to be on AMC even though The City had Jack from AMC in an episode (as well as a cross over with OLTL I think??) Funny, Jeremy's in the episode, does he know he can check on his friends by turning on the TV?

Did Malone do the AW story with the fertility statue with glowing eyes or something? When Malone joined AW I did start watching, but I didn't stick around long (not only because I didn't have any pre-existing ties to AW so it was hard to invest, but more importantly that would have been when I finally got busy with theatre at school and a social life so keeping up with AMC and OLTL was already hard enough :P ) But he was only around for 9 months I guess? Of course I'd love to hear your thoughts about his era (I assume most of it must be online--I've yet to investigate. My connection with AW is mostly the same as yours--watching as much of Lemay stuff as I can, those two Agnes Nixon episodes we have, and a vague knowledge of the rest.) And right, we've talked about all the weird Gothic stuff (and adventure stuff) on Malone/Griffith's OLTL return which ALSO seems cribbed in part from 13 Bourbon Street ideas...

Yeah I didn't mind Maria at all (actually I didn't mind them introducing the whole Santos clan even if the parents were kinda awful) but was always into Brooke and Edmund. I have turned on PlutoTV and found a repeat of an episode I keep on coming across as well. What I've been doing, now that they seem to be listing in the guide the proper episode numbers and descriptions, I check what's playing later and if I'm home then will tune in (I have seen all of the current batch now, though.) But I admit it's a pain and not something I can constantly do.

Right--I could imagine some taking offence to that. Was the soap press cool on OLTL by the very end of Rauch's era? I remember years back as a teen finding some early/mid 70s soap press and being surprised how at least some of them did NOT like All My Children and some of the other new soaps, which they didn't consider "real soaps"

I loved your description of Malone's recurring themes (tropes?) and I think you're spot on, but I admit I hadn't thought about them nearly as much as I've thought about Nixon's over the years, so the comparison is something I just eat up. I really need to get around to reading Malone's novels at some point--I'm sure I'd like them... Just to see how many of these themes are there--I swear I read that the character of Nora, at any rate came right out of one of his books? Much to my shame the only one I've read is Marcie's novel The Killing Club (which technically, judging by the cover, has a story by Josh Griffith but is actually written by Malone) which I actually did enjoy as a quick mystery read (and gave it to my mom when she was looking for a mystery to read, who liked it too with no connection to the show.) That was such a stupid tie in though--since I believe by the time the storyline played out on TV Dena Higley was writing it, and it barely reflected ANYTHING from the novel from what I recall (and would have been better if it had) so the whole point of the serial murders being copycat killings from Marcie's novel and that you could buy the novel were... Well what a stupid waste. But I digress....

Got my crowbar ready! I find your writeups too--as I still have only watched random eps from the start of Malone/Gottlieb so it is interesting how quick they seem to pivot. Did the soap press talk much about this early pretty drastic change to OLTL (I know they discussed when Gottlieb joined, and of course when there'd be key storylines later--Billy, the rape--) I'd be even curious to read some negative reactions...

Completely agreed--THAT would have made some sort of sense.

Thank you--I agree with Vee that they look great. I am kinda amazed that they're willing to do this kind of promo--I can't imaging BeondTV/Pluto offering them much money which makes me think it's loyalty to the show (I mean, yes these are just quick videos prob shot on a phone, but still...)

Yeah, that was one of those maybe too cruel deaths Megan liked to do. I already was mixed about bringing back Kate's Janet and her character having regressed because, as a teenager, I was firmly invested in Janet's rehabilitation (I'm not sure I'd be so onboard with it as an adult watching for the first time now, but...) For those keeping track, sometime today PutoTV started properly numbering their AMC episodes again and we got four new ones today, which brings us up to ep 6634. A few random comments--I forgot how much I liked Taylor's mom who is kinda a stereotypical black upper class matriarch/snob but actually is written with... some nuance? (Like she clearly does love her daughter.) I also am kinda liking Taylor number 2 who I remember at the time I never got on board with. I completely forgot about Matteo's interactions with Laura (he found her and brought her to the hospital when she collapsed from appendicitis) although I don't think they ever took the potential pairing seriously except to make Hayley jealous. It also shows how AMC at the time was pretty good at mixing up stories and characters--something soaps have had trouble with for a long time--I mean we just got a random but amusing scene of Bobby stoping to pick up a hitchhiking Janet... Erica's back issues are still played mostly for comedy at this point, but I have to admit after my recurring issues with sciatica I relate oh too well to crawling in pain to your bed and just wanting to take anything that would help with it (Dr Kinder sure is quick to make house calls in secret.) Also, Kevin Sheffield is introduced in this episode but is played by his first actor, who doesn't make much of an impression--not sure how long he lasts but I didn't even remember that the role was recast until I was researching stuff for the MA paper on his storyline I made... E

Yes!! There just was so much going on--but for the most part well done through character. (And I loved weird details like Enid hosting a Pine Valley house tour that interrupts all the drama at Wildwind lol) I know Agnes Nixon soaps always had the rep of moving faster than others (in Dan Wakefield's All Her Children back in 1976 a few people comment on this--Bill Bell kinda took the Irna Phillips style in the OTHER direction.) But it's a great point. We've had... 20 episodes or so air I believe and all the show's storylines have progressed a lot from the first episode Pluto aired--something that you really can't say about the soaps on the air right now, for example. OK Pluto TV is damn frustrating--every few days they seem to add 1-2 (it depends) episodes to the cycle, but it hasn't been consistent. And today at least on my listing they now have the show episode numbers and descriptions wrong--the descriptions have gone back 80 or so episodes (right now it says that 6546 is airing, the episode where Erica has the accident while modelling but, no, we're still in the same cycle of episodes as we were yesterday... Those earlier episodes WERE where the BeondTV Pay per View episodes began though.... Argh. And yet I'm staying with it because I'm enjoying them so much.

Yeah honestly (depending on how many episodes you can find) I'd say 1990? The late 80s were a bit rough (of course in hindsight that seems silly to say) from the many episodes I've seen and all I read. The writer's strike, falling ratings, DePriest hired in 89 to rev things up (along with FMB coming in) and she really did rev things up--for good and bad... So Agnes coming in right at the start of 90 seems a good (time and she moved it back up to the number 2 spot--not that ratings mean all that much...)

I think there is a vault of files that I never delved into--let me investigate. Ideally, if BeondTV had their reasons not to start in the 80s or earlier, I would have said starting right with the 20th Anniversary in Jan 1990 and Agnes Nixon's 2 year return as full HW, would have been ideal (I didn't start that early, but as I've said ad nauseum it was "Natalie in the well" in late 1991 and the introduction of Wildwind that instantly hooked me.) And I do have fond memories of the first couple of years of McTavish (when you would have started,) even if I can see why some longterm fans weren't happy with the change in direction in hidnsight. But I think they actually made a good choice with starting with 1995--more than I initially thought. While I still think it was dumb to not open with the first week of 25th anniversary/flashback heavy episodes, and watching on PlutoTV we missed the last few months of McTavish's run (which I wish I could have revisited just because I remember even at 14 thinking the show was getting to be too much....) starting in the summer with the setup for Broderick's return in early Sep seems an ideal starting point. A number of key storylines are either starting in full force or the seeds are being clearly planted, and there seems to be a subtle reshuffling of Pine Valley to build back up the sense of community (I mentioned how suddenly Marian is back, and people act like she's always been there, just off camera--well in the most recent streamed episodes that's been even more true with relatively subtle reminders of her storyline with Tad and Liza coming up, etc. I'm sure at the time the soap press probably already mentioned Marcy Walker was returning, but...)

Oh yes! I'm well aware--as I said before I'm a huge Family fan. A number of writers started there--Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman as well, who would go on to create Sisters and the American Queer as Folk (which I have issues with :P ) as well as the other things like the important gay TV movie An Early Frost (they also were on Knots Landing for a bit...) Richard Kramer (who has become an online friend of mine) also started as a Family writer where he met Herskovitz and Zwick and became an important writer on most of their shows (including the famous "gay bed scene" episode of thirtysomething,) wrote the teleplay for the first Tales of the City, etc.

HA thank you!!! I had managed to take a photo of my screen with my camera and was literally just coming to this thread to post it, but your pic shows it way better.

See my LONG post in the AMC thread in cancelled soaps. It's a a chore to manage to watch the new episodes (before they cycle forward) and takes a bit of work. That said, I've really enjoyed revisiting these in such good quality.

Pluto TV Canada drama, well after streaming 23-29 on a cycle for Monday into Tuesday they have jumped back now and are streaming 19-26. So I have no idea what's going on--but I need a day off from watching their schedule anyway

Jacobs quoted Scenes from a Marriage in his pitch, right?

I get why you'd say this and can't disagree, and yet it depends on what you like. As a teen anyway, Knots appealed to me much more because it was family drama but on a scale that I could relate to a bit more--Dallas has that whole Family Legacy angle, as well as a LOT of business shenanigans (which all these soaps did--that was very 80s--but) and if that doesn't appeal to you...

Oh, soap elements now pervade nearly every scripted show on TV, as has been discussed (ie you can get your soap fix of serialized story telling so many ways now...) I guess people point out that this started with shows like Hill Street Blues which mixed a procedural with overarching storylines. I'm a huge fan of the Herskovitz/Zwick TV dramas (thirtysomething, My So-Called Life which they produced but didn't create but Winnie Holzman, who wrote for thirtysomething did and most of the writers were from it, and Once and Again especially) and get a lot of the same pleasures from them as I do from soaps, but they're not really soaps (in fact when Herskovitz/Zwick were brought on as showrunners for the final two seasons of the soapy Nashville they weren't a great fit, though there was some promise)... You mention Friday Night Lights which was adapted for tv and run by Jason Katims who got his start writing on MSCL and had his own shortlived series produced by Herskovitz/Zwick, Relativity (which is all on YT which is nice as I thought I was the only one who remembered it existed,) etc.,

All I get here in Canada is that the video isn't available in my country--so I have no idea what it is... so, what is it??

Thank the lord! (As mean as that is to say...)

As usual, Vee is spot on. Knots Landing. I admit I haven't seen the final four seasons (yet! I guess they're on... Plex? I should get back into it as it's been a long while for me.) But for most of the time I think it's the Gold Standard of American primetime soaps (and has more elements that we associated with daytime soaps than most of them do, if that makes sense.) I will say I found the first two seasons kinda fun but they are much more self contained writing--almost like Family from a few years earlier but with less nuanced writing (I think Family is the best written US primetime show of the 70s so that's my bias.) Also, though I was born in 1980, I think I just get some nostalgia from TV that shows houses, etc, of that era. But it doesn't go full soap till season 3, really (though it's not such a big leap in tone from the first seasons by any means--this isn't like Dynasty's first short season.)

Cheers!

Ah I guess I was thinking of how we basically (aside from some seconds of clips) just have the 1969 episode for anything OLTL before 1975 (I was thinking mostly of the first half of the 70s.)