EricMontreal22

Yes! I think I mentioned that back in ep 1 but it really gives the show a weird feeling. I guess it's a directing trait--instead of typical soap closeups where you usually see a bit of who they are talking to, etc--but in this way they cut back and forth with the characters often looking directly at the camera and I find it creepy or something. The gaps between lines do make me think of early sound film. Though with the constant, never ending tinkling music--if they just added intertitles instead of the gaps I suppose it would be silent film. ANd that ending! Wyatt (why is he even on the show when he's not shirtless?) sorta apologizes to Jeffrey,but then takes it back, but then apologizes,and then while Jeffrey is still there goes to his computer to look at porn or escorts or something--because he seems obsessed with computer escort sites now and no longer drugs or booze--and Jeffrey finally just sorta slinks away--until they find Candy's dead-eye escort advertisement (she looks like a sex doll in bad lingerie. Some of the gender stuff confounds me to (no big shock, it is Perry.) Like in the previous episode, that church woman that Hannah tricks to set up with her son. She comes to the door saying that Hannah asked her to make her a lunch (weird friendship but ok...) Apparently she made roast beef, cobbler, you know wholesome food all for lunch and specifically for this lunch--not dinner leftovers. But she can't eat it herself because she is too busy working. ANd the food was used as a trap to lure her son in? Ugh.

I was wondering if he was used to directing his melodramas on stage where audience reacts and pauses in dialogue *can* work better than on TV. (SPeaking of, I admit I'm curious how closely this is based on his play of the same title.)

*shakes head* Remind me never to have a conversation with you

Ha I just watched this episode--and spot on. Wyatt is utterly completely unlikeable (and I usually feel sympathetic to the jerky troubled characters). Celine still in full on bitch mode (why did she get Hannah the job anyway?) And then just more of Tyler Perry's dialogue. The actual dialogue is bad enough but he doesn't seem to realize how to edit. Even the worse soap writers don't draw out everything with a question or comment. "What do you think of me?" "What do you mean? "What I said--what do you think of me?" "In what way?" "In any way" "Hrmmm." "Well?" (that's a direct quote. I mean c'mon maybe the episodes would be too short but you could cut half of that and have the exact same meaning. The poor actors must have to take sedatives on the set to maintain their pace.)

Interesting piece, I wonder if it was written shortly after Y&R premiered. I'd neverheard of the actors all sitting and watching their show together at the studio.

Oprah was the 20th not 25th...

Exactly. I think if they had shown her friendship with her brother as more loving--not so simplistic, but rather that they both are dealing with living under the oppression of her mother's issues in separate ways, it could be really interesting.

I wish he had gotten a former soap writer to at least co-write.

Aww I kinda liked on Heartbeat eons back.

Yeah, sorry I was gonna address that--two friends of my mom had breast cancer, one passed away from it. It happens but, from what I know only in quite late stages or after a mastectomy.

Oh and anyone else expect an ending similar to the CBN's Another Life "God's Light cures cancer?"

Wow, the Perry tropes are in full force. Candace with her demon child since being in the womb, Hannah trying to explain to her son about how evil she is, but Benny is so dumb, but caring (which makes him a "strong black man") he can't actually tell Hannah how she played some part in her daughter's wickedness (which probably will explained, and I shudder to think how.) And it goes...

From 1978's Soap Opera Book--the section on "real life issues" This year on Love of Life, Ben Harper was convicted of bigamy and sent to prison. At first his imprisonment was marked by boredom and depression; later he learned of the violence that is equally characteristic of prison life. He was subjected to physical attacks, and even to attempted rape. The show tried to realistically depict the cruelty and degradation experienced by men behind bars. (In addition, this story marked the first time that male rape was ever discussed on a daytime serial.)

I'm gonna be buried with my copy of All Her Children Seriously, it seems many fans of far longer running soaps at the time were pissed off that a major author and publisher were doing an AMC book

And the kinda hard to find Soap Opera Book's take on OLTL (published1978) One Life To Live The Soap Opera Book, 1978 The Viewer's Guide to the Soaps Click for larger image One Life to Live is an ABC New York show that has recently gone to forty-five minutes. It is daytime's "show of stars." Erika Slezak, Lee Patterson, Jacquie Courtney, and George Reinholt are members of the cast. These are the stars that inspire fan clubs and win straw polls in the magazines. They are the subjects of numerous stories and stunts. For example, George Reinholt has stripped for photographers and talked about it. (The picture that appeared in the fan magazine was vague below the waist.) Jacquie Courtney shared with her fans the disagreements that led to her highly publicized departure from Another World; and she has provided one of the fan magazines with spreads of photos from her personal album. On One Life to Live, Jacquie and George portray Patricia Kendall and Tony Lord. The two had an affair about ten years ago, after which they went their separate ways (Patricia with child) only to be reunited in the present storyline. Patricia's son Brian is, of course, Tony's son, though he will be the last to know it. Patricia and Tony will not be free to marry when they rediscover that they love each other. (Tony is married to Cathy Craig, a neurotic young woman.) However, the fans love to see this couple, as a couple. Jacquie and George—"they just can't stay away from each other" says a fan magazine, referring to the course of their daytime careers. Before coming to One Life to Live, the two portrayed Alice Matthews and Steven Frame on Another World. Much of their present popularity derives from that earlier relationship. Jacquie Courtney, as Alice, came to mean a great deal to the viewers of Another World. Her eight-year romance with George Reinholt, as Steve, is perhaps the most celebrated in all of soap history. In fact, when a man recalls with pleasant complaints his wife's old addiction to soap opera—when he says she used to greet him at the door with tears in her eyes—he is probably paying tribute to that old relationship between Jacquie and her fans. What makes Jacquie a star? She is unquestionably beautiful; she's a fine actress; and she had, at least on Another World, a role that every woman could identify with. As Patricia Kendall on One Life to Live, Jacquie continues to lead the straw polls in the fan magazines (sometimes sharing the honor with Susan Seaforth Hayes). But it's a more mature Jacquie. Not the pretty teenager grown up—but a very womanly, very interesting newspaper reporter. The appeal of co-star George Reinholt is easy to understand. Until recently, the soaps have had few men who are not Establishment types—father figures, at least in appearance. Reinholt has always looked a little more fiery, more dangerous than your Chuck Tyier or Dan Stewart. He is brawny, rough- faced, and given to tragic expressions. He has had (on both Another World and One Life to Live) a questionable past and a respectable present—a combination no woman can resist. Unlike most soap heroes, Reinholt doesn't look as if he can be dominated by women. He is known to be very difficult to work with (a fact that accounted for Steve's sudden helicopter crash on Another World). And nobody yet has succeeded in marrying him. Click for larger image Jacquie and George are relative newcomers to One Life to Live. The other superstars on the program have been there for many years, and have very devoted followings. Erika Slezak is undeniably one of the loveliest ladies in daytime. According to her fans, she projects "warmth," in character and in person. Certainly she is kind to viewers who contact her or organize on her behalf. Erika is moreover a very fine actress (she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London). And, as every fan knows, she is the daughter of actor Walter Slezak. Erika plays Vicky Lord Riley, the heroine of the show. Her partner and usually-loving husband is Lee Patterson, another superstar. Like Erika, Lee Patterson has many fans who are totally committed to One Life to Live. Most of these fans are women who find him sexy, even though he hardly ever unbuttons his jacket (in the prevailing young and restless fashion). As Joe Riley, Patterson is attractive mostly because he is ruggedly down-to-earth, protective of those he loves. And because of the chemistry between him and Erika. Erika Slezak and Lee Patterson are a couple the fans love to see together, and now, after many years of difficult storyline, they are. Although Jacquie and George and Erika and Lee are the primary attractions on One Life to Live, a number of younger actors seems to be achieving star status. Among these are Michael Storm (Larry Wolek), and Katherine Glass (Jenny Wolek). Tom Berenger, who played Jenny's true love Tim, was also exceedingly popular before Tim met his untimely death. There are few soaps which so derive their popularity from individual stars. The appeal of the show, apart from its superstars, is harder to identify, in part because One Life to Live has changed so over the past few years. It was at one time thought to be one of the young trendy shows. The Jenny and Tim romance was compared to that of Phil and Tara (All My Children). Issues were "relevant." Cathy Craig was known to be a feminist. There were a few ethnics and even a Jewish family (the Siegels). In short, storylines were such as to interest college-aged viewers. Recently, however, One Life to Live has begun to sound more like a traditional soap. Adultery, mysterious parentage, kidnapping of babies, etc., is what is happening now—good storylines in the old mold. There have been frequent changes in storyline direction, and inexplicable (though highly interesting) changes in character, particularly among the evil set. Characters are becoming less realistic, more melodramatic. For the present, "relevant" storylines seem to have disappeared. Time Magazine described the show as a "sociologist's delight now giving way to careless love...." One Life to Live is a soap of middling popularity. It reaches about six million households every afternoon. The presence of so many daytime superstars guarantees that it reaches some of soap opera's most ardent, and most organized, fans.

And an SOD 20th Anniversary article: The Kids Are All Right All My Children Moves Into Its Third Decade by Donna Hoke This may well have been ALL MY CHILDREN'S twenty- fifth anniversary had Procter & Gamble put Agnes Nixon's serial on the air when they first optioned it in 1965. But it wasn't until 1969, after Agnes had proven herself by bringing ANOTHER WORLD out of its slump and creating ABC's huge y successful ONE LIFE TO LIVE, that she risked repeated rejection and gave the bible to ABC. The network was delighted with her concept of "The great and the least, the weak and the strong, in joy and in sorrow, in hope and in fear, in tragedy and triumph, you are all my children." Finally, on January 5, 1970, the residents of Pine Valley came to life. Agnes did much of the original casting herself, anxious to put reliable people in those initial roles. To her credit, after twenty years, five original cast members remain — Ray McDonnell (Joe Martin), Mary Fickett (Ruth Martin), Frances Heflin (Mona Kane), Ruth Warrick (Phoebe Wallingford), and Susan Lucci (Erica Kane). (Viewers had seen glimpses of this last character when Agnes introduced ANOTHER WORLD'S Erica-based Rachel, according to AMC publicist Alyce Serrano.) In the beginning, the studio was make shift, lacking soundproofing. Ruth Warrick (Phoebe) has said that often actors were so weary of retakes due to noise, they tried to convince producers that taxi horns and banging garbage-can lids added realism. They got nowhere. In addition, convenience was nil, as makeup and dressing rooms were on the second floor and bath rooms were in the basement. Living under these conditions were two families: the very wealthy Tylers — Charles and Phoebe, the classic buttinsky; their children, Ann and Lincoln; and Chuck, Charles's grandson. The Tyler women were spoiled and manipulative, needing to be knocked down a few notches by the men in the family. The middle-class Martins represented precisely the opposite: diehard morality. And the lessons in humanity taught by Grandma Kate Martin are now passed on by Joe and Ruth. " Those early days were marvelous because it was a half-hour show," remembers Mary Pickett, who plays Ruth. "We actually put in a tremendous amount of time with rehearsals, and being a pivotal character made for a very long day. But everybody was in it to make it work. We felt like a repertory company." Of course, in the beginning, there was also the invincible Erica Kane (ten-time Emmy-nominee Susan Lucci). Escapade after adventure, she went through the longest series of men on soaps (Jeff Martin, Jason Maxwell, Phillip Brent, Chuck Tyler, Nick Davis, Tom Cudahy, Brandon Kingsley, Kent Bogard, Lars Bogard, Mike Roy [whom Susan says was Erica's all-time love], Adam Chandler, Jeremy Hunter, Travis Montgomery, Dave Gillis and Jackson Montgomery), and slowly matured from a self-centered brat who couldn't give or accept love, to a caring mother. Each man had an impact on Erica and what she is today is a compilation of these changes. "I grew up on this show in a lot of ways," says Susan. "I remember very clearly how much I admired, and still do, Mary Fickett, Fran Heflin, Ruth Warrick and Ray McDon nell, and how much I learned from them." Like all the other veterans she works with, Susan swears she never envisioned her self staying with AMC as long as she did. "I didn't think I'd be here longer than my first contract. Three years seemed an eternity to me. But every time it came to renew, I loved it here. And Erica is one of the best parts written for a woman, anywhere." Fellow cast members echo Susan's sentiment: James Mitchell (Palmer) and Richard Shoberg (Tom) attribute their tenure to the fans. Mary Fickett can only keep track of her years on the show because it's the same as her son's age. But most actors simply say they don't know where the time went. "People talk about being in this job like, 'My God, that's a long time,'" Julia Barr (Brooke) points out. "I'm not sure why they think it's a long time when people stay in jobs that they like for twenty-five years." From the start, these multi-generational characters were integrated into every story and, because of this, the new soap attracted viewers of all ages. "I wanted the show to be very contemporary, to make the men as important as the women," Agnes Nixon says in explanation of the show's popularity. "We started out with the Phillip/Chuck/ Tara triangle, but I didn't start out saying I was going to catch the young people. Yet that's what happened at colleges." While that original threesome of Tara Martin (Karen Lynn Gorney), and best friends Chuck Tyier (Jack Stauffer) and Phillip Brent (Richard Hatch), went through every conceivable device known to triangles — including presumed-death and a baby (Charlie Brent) — the show flour ished. Within four years of its debut, AMC had moved from number seventeen (out of eighteen) in the Nielsens, to number five and, in 1978, it hit number one. It's been close to the top ever since. When AMC went to an hour in 1977, the company was excited, but braced for change. "The cast was vast, things got scattered. It's easy to keep a show fresh when it's a half-hour," explains Ray Mc Donnell. "Your energy is up and the smaller cast works together more intensely. Today, you have two sets. You can work all day and still be surprised at what was going on at the other end," he continues. "[With the hour for mat,] they had to have many stories, so they brought in different families. And they finally were done with Phillip and Tara. So many people played them; I can't remember which one is which." But though the Phillip/ Tara/Chuck triangle was nearly played out, the show continued to highlight youthful love and, in the up coming years, other young lovers took their place. Most notable were the romances of Cliff Warner (Peter Bergman) and Nina Cortlandt (Taylor Miller), Jenny Gardner (Kim Delaney) and Greg Nelson (Laurence Lau), and today, David (Trent Bushey) and Melanie (Paige Turco). The former two couples' story lines also showcased unique, well-developed characters: Jenny's outrageous mama, Opal Gardner (played by Dorothy Lyman, who won two Emmys in 1982 and 1983 and, now, by Jill Larson) and Nina's manipulative father, Palmer Cortlandt. James Mitchell has vivid memories of those early scenes: "On my first day with Taylor Miller [Nina], I ran my hand down her back and down her legs and when she left the room, I picked up her scarf and inhaled very deeply. This stopped the next day, but they were trying to suggest an incestuous feeling, which wasn't a bad idea. It gave the actors something to go on, but it was never overt." These stories were at the forefront of AMC's early-eighties heyday, when the show maintained a number-two spot in the Nielsens and introduced a steady stream of classic characters. "There was definitely something different happening," maintains Alan Dysert (Sean). "It was more of a phenomenon." 1980 saw the return of the popular Francesca James as Kelty Cole, the twin sister of the late, fragile Kitty Shea, one of daytime's first "dual role" stories. Though the character married Linc (Peter White) and they moved away, Emmy-winner James and White often show up at Christmas. In 1980, the long-awaited marriage of Cliff and Nina was everything it promised — until Nina's night in front of the Cortlandt fireplace with the dashing Steve Jacobi (Dack Rambo) ended it. Three re-marriages were to follow. On the heels of Cliff and Nina came innocent Jenny and protective Greg. This couple's friendship with Jesse Hubbard (Darnell Williams, who won two Emmys for his performance) and Angie Baxter (Debbi Morgan, also an Emmy winner) opened the door for the creation of what may well be daytime's only black super couple. But AMC has always been commended for its treatment of ethnic characters not merely as tokens, but as fully integrated personalities. In fact, ALL MY CHILDREN has always taken pride in its realism. Seldom does it depart from the conflicts inherent in the human psyche to chase after cheap thrills garnered from bizarre stories of mass murder and espionage. (However, Jean Le Clerc — Jeremy — confesses to liking the action stories — "How many love scenes can you do in front of a fireplace?" he asks.) "The last one that was difficult waswhen they decided to split up Natalie and Jeremy using this whole Marissa/Trevor routine," says Kate Collins (Natalie). "It just wasn't good storytelling. And I saw them ruin Natalie and Jeremy. It'll take years to get that back. Well, maybe not years. It's Pine Valley." The few detours AMC has taken — for example, the twisted tale of Silver Kane (Claire Beckman) and Dr. Damon Lazarre (Charles Keating) — have been quickly rerouted in favor of a return to stories that highlight AMC's strengths: romance, is sues of social value and family relation ships. "I think the show has branched out in terms of what it deals with. It's less provincial than it used to be," acknowledges Julia Barr. "There's still part of that be cause that's what AMC is, but except for trying to keep up with what's happening with the times, the overall look is still a provincial gathering of people and family. That's always been the focus and still is." Because its focus is people ("The plots come out of characters rather than earth quakes and Hurricane Hugo," Nixon maintains), ALL MY CHILDREN has been known for providing social awareness, dealing head-on with such issues as lesbi nism, legal abortion, AIDS, rape, drug abuse, child abuse, wife abuse, alcohol abuse, mental health, daytime's first face lift, Vietnam and peace activism. In fact, Mary Fickett remembers the shock she felt when Agnes Nixon called to tell her that she had won the Emmy for her anti-war speech. "It was a beautifully written speech," Mary recalls. "But it was long and there was a lot of preparation to get to that emotional pitch. Kay Campbell, who played Kate, my mother-in-law, was very close to me — she became like a substitute mother when I lost my own. She was pretty choked up and called me Mary by mistake; we had to stop the tape and start again. To this day, I remember that she was ready to kill herself because she was so afraid she'd ruined it for me." AMC writers have also never missed an opportunity to deliver a simple and timely message. An encapsulation of black history was part of the 1989 Martin Luther King Day episode; on the 1989 Fourth of July show, children were warned not to play with fireworks. And following the tragic death of Laura Cudahy by a drunk driver, Tom and Brooke became members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and explored organ donation. "We re ceived a lot of positive comment on that material, not for the death, but for how it was handled," says Dick Shoberg. "It was a big shock to us and it was difficult material. I have two boys. In some ways, that made it easier to relate to, but it also made it personally more difficult to live with." For Agnes Nixon, the child-abuse story was the hardest to deal with and yet one of her favorites. "It took me three years to face the fact that it needed to be done," she recalls, explaining that she'd always assumed that abusers were criminal, not sick. The story involved a well-to-do woman, who had been psychologically abused and was now a physical abuser. "By the end of the story, the audience felt sympathy for the abuser even though they didn't like what she was doing. Local stations ran ribbons with hot-line numbers and the message was that helpful, not punitive mea sures would be taken if you called. Hot lines across the country said it was incredible how many people called in." Stories like this have kept viewers tuned in. And because AMC's ratings have al ways been steady, there has never been the need for the wild plot swings that some soaps have found necessary to improve a show (often under the leadership of new writers). Complete families have not been eradicated to allow a new clan to become the focus of the show. Rather, the Martins and the Tyiers still carry weight in Pine Valley and the veterans who play these parts have not been relegated to an eternity of coffee-pouring. They still have distinct personalities and, at times, stories. Indeed, the history of AMC is so prevalent that youngsters of the early years have now become characters in their own right, ready to carry on the saga, including Tad (Michael E. Knight), Joey (Michael Brainard) and Emily Ann (Liz Vassey). These characters offer potential for new stories rich in history. For example, Emily Ann's struggle with the knowledge that her natural parents are pimp Billy Clyde Tuggle and ex-prostitute Estelle LaTour and that her adopted mother, Donna (Candice Early) was a hooker. "It's funny," says Vasili Bogazianos (ex-Benny). "It takes a week to get through a day, soap time, but in a period of six months, a kid ages ten years. It's like a negative-universe thing." 1983 welcomed the Chandler family to Pine Valley. This addition brought forth Adam Chandler — a man for Erica and an adversary for Palmer — and his wonderfully lovable twin, Stuart, both in the form of three-time Emmy-winner David Canary. A Pigeon Hollow boy made good, Adam Chandler represented history, in that his and Palmer's (aka Pete Cooney) families were feudally linked. The Chandlers stirred things up in Pine Valley and have been on the front burner ever since. In 1985, AMC won its first Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Daytime Drama Series. It was an apt coincidental tribute to Kay Campbell, the woman who'd played the compassionate Grandma Kate for fifteen years until her death in May of that year. That part was not recast (nor was that of Charles Tyier, played by the late Hugh Franklin) and a tearful funeral was held for Kate, closing with Tad looking toward the heavens with a heartfelt, "Good-bye, Gran." Kate had never given up on Tad. A year later, Michael E. Knight departed the show, after winning two Emmys for his role as the comedic anti-hero. Tad. Follow ing the on-screen death of his sister (Kirn Delaney had not given the show enough notice to write a suitable exit for the newly weds — according to Agnes, it was against their wishes, but with no other choice, that the writers penned Jenny's death), AMC set Tad up in a star-crossed romance of his own with Phoebe's stepdaughter, Hillary Wilson. When Knight left, AMC lost a great source of wit and the actor was welcomed back in 1988. Almost immediately, he was thrown into another romance with Palmer's niece, Dixie — one fraught with obstacles. Their chemistry results from the combination of Dixie's naïvete and Tad's new nobility. "He's more mature now," says Knight of his character. "He's somebody whose heart has grown; it's certainly in the right place. The humor is still there but there's more depth to him." Indeed, AMC does seem to be rallying for a return to humor with the comical pairing of Cecily (Rosa Nevin) and Nico (Maurice Benard), Sean's claustrophobia, the return of Tad and Opal, Trevor (James Kiberd). Palmer and Uli (Eugene Anthony), and Jack (Walt Willey). "They realize that this show has always had that humor and it went by the by for a while," believes Julia Barr. "Up until the past three months, people were saying that the humor was really missing. For a while, they had characters in situations where they really couldn't exercise any humor." The period Barr refers to was one of great change at ALL MY CHILDREN. "[Executive Producer] Jackie Babbin left and story line decisions were not being made," She explains. "Jorn Winther [two-time producer] came in to a show that was not active. He got things going, and then we got a new producer with Steve Schenkel and then the writers' strike. I'm surprised that the show remained as intact as it did." "It can be frustrating," asserts Kate Collins. "When I started, it was difficult to work through the bad phases because I didn't know about phases. I didn't know that you worked through the bad phases and then it got better. All I saw was disaster. Currently. we're in a really exciting stage." Another Emmy in 1988 for Outstanding Writing did seem to indicate an upswing, but 1989 was probably one of ALL MY CHILDREN'S most tumultuous times. Emphasis on younger plot lines and questionable treatment of other stories meant exits for several of the show's stalwart actors, including Emmy-winner Kathleen Noone (Ellen Dalton since 1977), Mark LaMura (Mark Dalton since 1977), Robert Gentry (Ross Chandler since 1983), and Peter Bergman (Cliff Warner since 1979 and, who, on the day Soap Opera Digest was at the studio, visited with his new daughter, Claire). "People were sorry to see them go, but when some characters have been on for a long time... It's death to tell too many stories," Agnes says. "Kathleen said, 'If you don't have a big story for me, I think this is my time to try the coast.' I hope she'll come back some day." Rather than bring on new characters unfamiliar to the audience, AMC has created a link with the past by introducing Eric Kane (Albert Stratton) and recasting wacky Opal Gardner. Now, the actors agree that the show has recaptured the exciting feel it once had. And Agnes says it's at a parallel with her grown children. She's there for them but they have their own lives; they tell her in which direction they should go. "The pendulum has swung many times," believes Mary Fickett. "We started as a story of multiple generations embracing each other, but I think as times changed and different producers came in, some felt that the emphasis should be all on the younger people. Certain of the essential elements were lost temporarily. It makes for a more dimensional, interesting program if emphasis is spread over a variety of ages. That's coming back now."

An interesting take on AMC from the somewhat hard to find 1978 The Soap Opera Book. The author takes some of the usual soap press confusion on the show of the time (there feels a tad bit f resentment that it's not as serious as other soaps yet has a trendy young following and press) but it's not without praise: All My children The Soap Opera Book, 1978 The Viewer's Guide to the Soaps {C} {C} Click for a larger image All My Children is a light-hearted soap—perhaps the only light-hearted soap on the air. It may also be characterized as a home-and-familv soap, in the doctor-lawyer formula. The setting is the small town of Pine Valley. The major families are the Tylers (who founded the town) and the Martins. All My Children was created and originally owned by Agnes Nixon, who also wrote or created Another World and One Life to Live. Today the show is owned by ABC; but Nixon retains creative control and her production company is listed as producer. As of January, 1977, All My Children is still in the half- hour format, but there are pressures to move to an hour, and this may well happen in the Spring of 1977. In its home-and-family orientation, All My Children very much resembles traditional soaps. But there are differences in tone. All My Children seldom succumbs to dark feelings of loneliness or instability (as does As the World Turns) or to sexual despair (as does Days of Our Lives). On All My Children, there is little serious evil. Bad characters like Phoebe, Erica, Mrs. Lum, or Benny Sago, tend to be fun, or funny. They do not ask much of us. For example, when Phoebe Tyler is left drinking alone on Christmas Eve, she gives a sarcastic, rather maudlin toast. If she pities herself, we don't. On As the World Turns, a character in the same predicament would suffer visibly and so would we. Indeed there is remarkably little real suffering on All My Children , compared to other soaps—little at least that we must take seriously. Many viewers seem to identify with the writers—speculating on what development will take place next—instead of sympathizing with the troubled characters. If there is a message to the show, it is that people with all their destructive emotions are only human ; and that happiness is best found in the sharing of experience with a loved one, within the context of an extended family. Characters tell one another that they can find happiness if they do not demand too much of themselves or others. The show is, in other words, optimistic. Dialogue is shot through with references to hope and faith. You have to have faith that things will work out is said in many forms, and very often. One character will tell another that her problem can be solved. All I have to hold onto is that hope, is the typical response. Men spend a lot of time encouraging younger women, who are fatalistic, guilt-ridden, irrational, and sometimes right. It is said that as much as 35% of the audience for All My Children is male. Well, there really are an awful lot of very admirable men on this show (Dr. Charles, Dr. Chuck, Dr. Frank Grant, Lincoln Tyler, Danny Kennicott, Paul Martin, etc.,etc.). Except for Phil Brent, who has been troubled, male characters are generally rational or reliable. The only bad guys are people who don't belong in Pine Valley and who do not stay (for example, Hal Short, Benny, and Tyrone the Pimp). Most of the dramatic interest comes from women. Villains are delightfully overdrawn. Phoebe and Erica are so bad as to be funny, and so good as to set all kinds of improbable plots in motion. The story, however, tends to revolve around sensitive, vulnerable types like Tara, Kitty, Anne, Ruth, and Donna. Here there is an effective mixture of real-life and fantasy-based material. Ruth's marital breakdown was an adult situation, sensitively played (at least until the end). This was, typically, contrasted by a fantasy of the innocent prostitute (Donna), and the search for the long-lost mother (Kitty). All My Children treats difficult life problems, such as the maintenance of marriage and career. But fortunately there are always a few fun- and-far-out storylines going at the same time. Most fun (and more heavily drawn here than elsewhere) are confrontations between black and white, right- and wrong-headed characters (Mona vs. Erica; the good black doctor vs. the bad black pimp). Although All My Children is a modern-looking show, with a young following, it is respectful of old soap conventions. The show features an eternal triangle, complete with a child who does not know his own father (the Phil/Tara/Chuck triangle). Both Chuck and Phil refer to little Phil as my own son, as Tara stands by beautifully and usually in tears. There are also the usual troubled pregnancies and well-timed illnesses. (Who would have thought that a healthy-looking man like Chuck Tyler would collapse from kidney disease exactly when marriage, then divorce, were imminent; or that Joe Martin would need an emergency appendectomy at the very moment his wife was set to run off with another man?) True, there are some social issues: a speech against war; some rumbling about drugs and women's lib; a not-very-well-integrated sequence on child abuse. But this is essentially a fun romantic drama. We listen to the women's lib rhetoric, and feel good about it, but what we really want to know is whether she will stay married to him. All My Children plays more story, at any given time, than most other soaps. Yet it is easy to follow. It's well paced: different storylines move at different tempos, with major stories moving quickly. The lighting is exceptionally bright and clear. Generally recaps are re-presented or re-dramatized, rather than merely stated. Flashbacks-in-the-mind are an important (though perhaps corny) reminder of what passed before. Music is essentially dramatic, ranging from surrealistic modern sounds (for emotional disturbance), to swarmy violins (for Tara and Phil's theme). All My Children is usually in the top three of the Nielsen ratings and is especially popular at college campuses and high schools. It has received more than usual press attention, partly because of the publication of Dan Wakefield's All Her Children and rather lively public relations campaign that accompanied it.

A few about Billy Douglas One Life to Live - Billy Douglas (Ryan Phillippe) 1992 Synopsis: Ryan appeared on One Life to Live during the summer of 1992. Ryan's role was a breakthrough one: daytime television's first gay teenager. Ryan plays Billy Douglas, newcomer to the town of Llanview. Billy is reluctant to tell anyone of his homosexuality, especially his parents. He is able, however, to confide in the town's pastor, Andrew. And then, due to the scheming of a woman Andrew scorned, rumors fly around town, that the pastor is a homosexual and has made advances on Billy. The town quickly displays it's homophobia, with Billy's parents leading the way, demanding for the removal of Reverend Andrew from the parish. Upon witnessing the town's reaction Billy is now even more afraid to reveal his secret. Yet his silence only draws Andrew into deeper criticism. It all comes down to a dramatic moment when the town meets at the parish where Andrew gives a riveting speech on the disease of prejudice and homophobia. Billy takes a public stand, against his father and in support of Andrew. Comments: A young Ryan displays his acting chops with his performance as Billy Douglas. Ryan is called upon to perform a number of difficult scenes, but none are as memorable as Billy's "coming out" to his parents. Billy shows bravery as he reveals his homosexuality to his parents so reluctant to hear his words. Ryan's strong performance is a gutsy one as well. Kudos to him for taking on a controversial role at such a young point in his career. One Life to Live Could be a Gay One Says Popular Soap June 12, 1992 The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation applauds ABC's One Life to Live for featuring a gay character. Though Billy Douglas isn't the first gay character to appear on a daytime drama, the teenager's arrival in the fictional town of Llanview marks the first time a soap opera has featured a long-term story line dealing with homosexuality. "Lesbian and gay characters on television disappear after a single episode," said Chris Fowler, Executive Director of GLAAD/Los Angeles. "We need ongoing, major characters on television to reflect the complexity of our experience." "The truth is that there are boys like Billy Douglas living in small towns all over America," observed Ellen Carton, Executive Director of GLAAD/New York. "We are delighted that One Life to Live is finally going to make the lives and accomplishments of lesbian and gay teenagers more visible." Ryan Phillipe, the heterosexual actor who will play the role of Billy Douglas, said that he was initially hesitant about accepting the role. He decided to take it after learning about the high rate of suicide among lesbian and gay teenagers. One Life to Live will not reveal the plots of the upcoming episodes, but executive producer Linda Gottlieb promises that the story line will deal with the homophobia lesbian and gay teens commonly face. GLAAD also hopes that the episodes will include a love interest for Billy. "Daytime drama centers around the romantic lives of its characters," pointed out Byron Potts, Co-chair of GLAAD/San Francisco Bay Area. "It is fitting that they lead the way in affirming that everyone has the right to love whomever he or she chooses." Andrew fights homophobia {C} Summer 1992 {C} The spread of homophobia in Llanview coincided with two key events: first, the arrival of Andrew's father General Sloan Carpenter (Roy Thinnes), who had been diagnosed with Hodgkins disease and had come to town to make peace with his son. Andrew decided that while he had his father around he would try to make Sloan face the truth about his other son; Andrew's brother William, who had died of AIDS (William was also gay) The other key event was the appearance of trouble d gay teen Billy Douglas (Ryan Phillipe) who moved to town and quickly became friends with Joey. After he told Joey that he was gay, Joey was initially shocked and confused, but later accepted it and remained good friends with Billy. One day, Billy made a decision: he was going to come out of the closet with his parents - he went to Andrew for advice. Andrew urged the boy to follow his heart and placed a hand reassuringly on Billy's shoulder. At that moment, troubled young troublemaker Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell) glanced in the door to the rectory and saw Billy and Andrew. Marty had been trying to seduce Andrew for weeks, but he had refused her advances. Jealous and furious to see Andrew caring for someone else when it appeared he didn't care about her, Marty formulated a horrific lie that turned the town upside-down. Going to Billy's parents, she told them that Andrew was a homosexual and was making advances toward Billy. Horrified, the Douglases immediately took action, demanding Andrew's resignation. Once the rumor hit town, it spread like wildfire. Hate erupted everywhere - a rock was thrown through the community center ... Cassie, who was dating Andrew, received notes referring to Andrew as her "fag lover". Bigots threw dirt at Andrew and Sloan and spraypainted the rectory with graffiti. Sloan and the vestry board of St. James (Renee and Viki excluded) urged Andrew to come out and proclaim his heterosexuality. But, apart from maintaining that he did NOT try to molest Billy, Andrew refused to disclose that information. He argued that people's sexual preferences were nobody's business and that the right to privacy had to be respected. Furthermore, he arranged for the AIDS Quilt to come to Llanview and planned to add his brother's name to the quilt. This enraged Sloan and the members of the church who didn't want a "freak flag" displayed on the church lawn. But Andrew pushed on with his plans and Viki tried to get Sloan to accept them. But the controversy refused to die out, as the new police commissioner asked lieutenant Maggie Vega (Yvette Lawrence) to name all the gay police officers in the squad. Andrew realized that the only way to end the hate was to get Marty Saybrooke to admit to her lies. But Marty refused to do so, turning self-destructive instead. The day of the Quilt ceremony, an angry parishioner confronted Andrew outside the rectory and beat him, even as Andrew held up his Bible to defend himself. Hours later, a bruised and battered Andrew arrived at the church, ready to move on with the ceremony. But there was a crowd of church members on the steps, barring his entrance. He was no longer allowed in the church, they said, because he was a "pervert" and was seducing innocent children. Billy screamed at his parents to let Andrew through and he, Joey, Cassie and Andrew marched into the church. Sloan followed in hesitantly with Viki. Inside the church, Andrew launched into a stirring tribute about the right to privacy, about the destructive power of hate and about the poor people who died of the AIDS virus. By the end of his sermon, Andrew had won a good portion of the crowd over. He had not, however, won over Mr. Douglas, who urged the parishioners to take back their church. It was then that Billy Douglas stood up and announced that he was gay. His father screamed for him to shut up and sit down, but Virginia Douglas rushed to her son and promised that she'd love him forever. Andrew led the procession outside to the church lawn, where the AIDS ceremony was just getting underway. Among the tears of those who lost a friend or family member to AIDS, Andrew brought William's quilt to its new home. A hand fell on his shoulder. It was Sloan - he wanted to help lay the panel. Sloan then told Andrew all about his relationship with William. Sloan took William, as a boy, to the beach one day and taught him how to fly a kite. William was not a strong, athletic boy and the kite soon got caught in the trees. Sloan had been so enraged that his son had failed to master something so simple as a kite, he had slapped him. From that day forward, the bond between father and son had been broken. Crying and begging forgiveness from his beloved son William, Andrew and Viki comforted him. Then, together, they laid the quilt. Llanview did not magically heal after that day - Billy still suffered bigotry at school - but Andrew had succeeded in turning Llanview from a town of fear and hate into a town of acceptance. After that day, Cassie and Andrew's relationship was stronger than ever, while Sloan and Viki were beginning to acknowledge feelings for each other

I am cleaning out my old laptop and found a bunch of Michael Malone articles reprinted on a fansite to his work that I had saved five years back. I am not sure if I or others had already posted them, but I think they are of interest (two touch on his AW as well, so maybe I should post them there.) I can't find the fansite--it may have been a geocities page (It wasn't updated past his AW run--perhaps for the best considering the second OLTL run.) What the Dickens! After years of contemplating his novels, Michael Malone turns his talents to an ABC soap by Michael Neill and David Hutchings Michael Malone insists he is not at all defensive about his new job as head writer on the ABC soap One Life to Live. "If Dickens were alive, this is what he'd be doing, " he says. Then, to further emphasize his absolute, total lack of any insecurity whatsoever, he invokes . . . who else? "Shakespeare was considered low culture in his day, " he says. Then he drags in The Novel. "Novels were low culture in the 18th century, " he says. "Lord knows what the low culture will be in the future! " The problem is that in the literary and academic world where Michael Malone has spent his life, any conversation about low culture can move rather quickly to soap operas. As a visiting writer-in-residence, first at Yale, then Swarthmore and later at the University of Pennsylvania, Malone taught writing and produced seven novels before plunging into the frenetic world of daytime last July. The new job pays obscenely well by the parsimonious standards of academia -- which was one reason Malone signed on. And since he joined the show, the venerable ABC soap has jumped from No. 11 to No. 4 in the daytime ratings. But there remains the nagging question: What will the neighbors think? Many of them, it turns out, are thrilled. "I've found an astounding range of people in academia who admit they sneak home to watch soaps after teaching, " Malone says. Still, the high-culture/low-culture rift almost kept him from even finding out about the One Life job. He had met producer Linda Gottlieb in 1980, when she was negotiating to buy the movie rights to one of his novels. When Gottlieb became executive producer of One Life last year, she thought of Malone. "She told the network she needed a novelist, someone who wrote huge-canvas novels, " he says, "and that's when a mutual friend called my wife and told her. " His wife, Maureen Quilligan, is a professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. "She didn't even bother to tell me about it, " says Malone. "She laughed and said I'd never be interested. A week later I got the call from Gottlieb, and I started watching the show. " Malone had just finished writing Foolscap, a comic novel about vicious academic politics. (Published last fall, it won mostly positive reviews.) He had never even watched a soap opera before -- and Maureen advised him not to start. "She said, 'You're an American novelist. Your duty is to your art,' " Malone says. "But then she started watching them too, and we saw all this interlaced structure and an endless chance to tell stories. " Storytelling has long been Malone's forte. The son of a physician father and an English-teacher mother, he was born in Durham, N.C., the eldest of six children. "I wrote plays when I was young and forced my brothers and sisters into costumes, " he says. "I'd make them sing 'Be My Little Baby Bumblebee' in bee wings. " He went to Syracuse University and then pursued a Ph.D. in English at Harvard, where he also met Maureen. "She was a real scholar, " he says. "My dissertation was on archetypes of innocence and eroticism in American film. Hers was on the Renaissance. " It was at Harvard too that Malone began writing Painting the Roses Red, a novel about graduate school, published in 1975. "I got $2,000, " he says. "I thought I was rich and I'd go off to Europe and be this artist. " Instead he married Maureen and began to bob along in her academic wake, all the while writing his novels. "Maureen thinks it's very convenient to marry a novelist because you just move them with you from place to place, " he says. "All they need is a pencil and paper. " Malone expects to return to writing books eventually, but for now he's in New York City five days a week, writing in his One Life office about people named Asa and Clint, while Maureen stays with daughter Maggie, 15, in the family's restored Philadelphia townhouse. Malone works long hours, often until 10 at night. He's writing soaps, but he still has standards. "Agnes Nixon, the creator of this show, had a very clear vision of what she wanted -- class problems, differences between the haves and have-nots, " he says. "I've tried to put that back in. " The show's actors like his style. Says Erika Slezak, One Life's Victoria Lord Buchanan: "Michael has created such wonderfully complex situations. I've never had much of a relationship with my children on the show -- and that is happening now. " There are, however, special problems with soap writing. "You get actors who come and say they are quitting, and you have to write in their departure, death, disappearance, " Malone says. "And you have to watch death. In soaps you can be dead -- or you can be dead, dead, dead. The actors we know won't come back we make dead, dead, dead. " He receives plenty of kibitzing from home -- from both Maureen and Maggie, a high school sophomore. After school she watches the show on tape and is generous with advice. "I'll say, 'Oh, Dad, why are you putting those two together? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.' " If only Shakespeare and Dickens had had that kind of input, think what they might have accomplished (People Magazine February,1992) ****************************************************************************************************************************** One Life to Live Went Looking For a New Writer and Found a Novelist by Kathy Henderson When ABC hired movie producer Linda Gottlieb ( "Dirty Dancing ") to revitalize its ailing soap opera "One Life to Live, " she didn't round up the usual bunch of daytime soap writers. "What she said was, 'I'm looking for the American Dickens,' and what novelist could resist that? " said Michael Malone, who had published seven novels and worked with Gottlieb on a screenplay but had never watched an episode of a soap opera, not even "Dallas. " "My wife thought the idea was so hilarious, she didn't pass on Linda's first phone message, " said Malone, a soft-spoken Harvard Ph.D. who looks like he could be the Pillsbury doughboy's bearded uncle. But, as he sampled the show, Malone began to realize that soaps -- or "the stories, " as he prefers to call them -- had a lot in common with his work. "I write big novels with lots of characters and interlaced structure, " he said (his most recent, "Foolscap, " is a funny adventure in an academic setting). "For someone who likes to tell stories, this is heaven. " "One Life " needed a jolt when Malone joined it last summer. Created 24 years ago by soap doyenne Agnes Nxon, the show originally centered on the push and pull between classes and races in Llanview, a fictional suburb on Philadelphia's Main Line. In recent years, plots had grown increasingly bizarre, including the introduction of an underground city called Eterna and a story featuring rap music that Malone deemed "terrible. " "One of the dangers of this form is to try to go around what it (a soap) can do best, " he said, "which is draw viewers into the characters' lives and emotional relationships. I wanted to re-create a sense of place and then unfold what seemed to me to be the essence of these characters. " In taking the soap from a low of eighth place (out of 11 daytime soap operas) to a sustained rating of fourth or fifth, Malone has balanced stories about the show's core family, the Buchanans, with quirky new characters and unexpected cameo appearances by the likes of Dick Cavett (as a sleazy radio talk-show host), Paul Bartel (as a nervous lawyer) and Wallace Shawn (as a restaurateur). "One Life " reaped high ratings and extensive publicity last winter with a week-long clip retrospective during the death throes of Megan, a popular heroine, and a Valentine's Day show using classic lover poems to spotlight each of the show's couples. "He's very clever, " Lynn Leahey, editor- in-chief of Soap Opera Digest, said of Malone, "and he takes chances with the characters in ways that might not occur to a more experienced soap writer. But he can also pull off good old cliches like 'Wife Coming Back from the Dead' and reposition characters that aren't working, which is just as important. " In one startling transformation, Malone made Alex, a run-of-the-mill blond vixen played by Tonja Walker, into a sassy, hilarious mob widow who said to her late husband's henchman, "May I call you Bulge? " When he replied, "Only my friends call me that, " she cooed, "I'm looking forward to finding out why. " Another lovely young home wrecker turned out to be a virgin. "That's a rare one these days, isn't it? " Malone said with a laugh. Without irony, Malone invokes Shakespeare and Spenser as forerunners of soap-style evil twins and orphaned heirs. He takes great exception to the idea that daytime drama represents "the basement " of TV. "To do this well, you must never look down at the audience, " he said. "A few of my friends thought I would come in and do some sort of Monty Python version of a soap, but my work is very mainstream, and I believe deeply that there is a place where all audiences can meet. An example is Dickens himself, or from our culture, 'Gone With the Wind.' There are two original American art forms: musicals and soap operas. My gosh, people in cultural studies departments are teaching soap operas now! " Even Malone's own wife, Maureen Quilligan, has become hooked. Separations from Quilligan and the couple's teen-age daughter have been the job's major drawback (they live in Philadelphia; he lives in New York during the week), plus a brutal workload that includes overseeing a staff of nine outline and dialogue writers and editing every script personally, a task few other head writers take on. "About 500 pages of material come out of this office every week, " he said, likening soap production to "a machine that works in this day when so many American machines don't. " For a novelist accustomed to dreaming up characters in solitude, the three-ring circus atmosphere of a soap set was a happy surprise. "It's like having fictional characters wander into your office, " said Malone, "because the actors talk about themselves inside their characters. 'I don't wanna say that,' or 'I don't see why I have to do this' -- these are real human beings, but they are obsessed by the parts they play. " Malone confessed that he, too, finds himself intensely involved in "One Life " life: "I dream in Llanview; these people are very close to me." With a Daytime Emmy nomination for outstanding writing already to his credit, Malone has found ABC receptive to his ideas. "If things were a disaster, the network probably wouldn't have been as good, " he said, adding that a story involving homosexuality has been planned for summer. Is the handsome Episcopal minister with the stern military father secretly gay? "No, but that doesn't mean people might not accuse him of it, " Malone said mysteriously. Though he works hard to connect plotlines and maintain the proper storytelling tempo, Malone said he never worries that his fountain of ideas will run dry. "The network people used to say, 'Watch out, you're burning up stories,' which flabbergasted me. In one of my novels, 'Dingley Falls,' I had planned to tell a year's worth of story in this little town, but by the time I got to page 1,200, I'd written six days. My wife said, 'Just make Sunday a church service -- you've got to stop now.' With me, there are endless things that seem to bubble out. " (LA Times-July 5, 1992) ****************************************************************************************************************************** Emmy Acceptance Speech: "There are alot of us up here, but there are hundreds more that should be--other writers, the cast and crew, the producers and directors of One Life To Live--without you what we do would just be typing. And the wonderful ladies across the street at ABC-Mickey and Pat and Maxine and Barbara.. and two very extraordinary women-Linda Gottlieb, who had the amazing courage to hire all of us and to turn us loose in Llanview-thank you.....also, Agnes Nixon, who created the world that we live in... If Charles Dickens is the father of daytime, she's his daughter and we're very proud to be among her children. Thank you." (Michael Malone) ****************************************************************************************************************************** Scared Scriptless by Jason Bonderoff Creating a soap opera is a lot like playing God. Birth, death, happiness and misfortune-it's all in a writer's hands. He can make a character fall in love or fall off a cliff. He can even bring people back from the dead. Soap writers win Emmy's, get good tables at the right restaurants, and earn big-buck salaries. So why are so many of them scared scriptless? Maybe it's fear of the blank page. Coming up with a never-ending supply of entertaining (yet believable) plot twists for 40 or so characters-then putting lots of snappy dialogue into everyone's mouth-isn't easy. ONE LIFE TO LIVE'S talented head writer, Michael Malone, admits he's had sleepless nights worrying about the Buchanan's and their cohorts. "I do dream about the people in Llanview," he confides. "Once I had a really horrible dream where all the characters had blank faces because I didn't know what their stories were going to be. In my dream, I saw white, cut-out faces of people, all void. That was terrifying." For inspiration, Malone keeps photos of the OLTL cast hanging in his office wall. "Sometimes, I move the photos around," he says. "I put people next to different people and think, 'How would these two people look together?' Right now, I've got Wanda Wolek's picture next to Joey Buchanan's. But don't make anything out of that," he laughs. "They're not getting invovled." ....Accident-prone stars pose another hazard..... Some emergencies are...difficult to handle. "A real nightmare," says OLTL's Malone, "is when the phone rings and you find out that Clint Ritchie [Clint] has been in a tractor accident," When that happened last year, OLTL executive producer Linda Gottlieb immediately summoned the writing staff together, "We sat down and talked," says Malone. "Actually, first we all sat down and prayed because nobody knew if Clint was going to make it or not. Then we had to make a decision about recasting, because no matter what, he was going to be out for a long time and we were building our big Viki/Clint/Sloan story." Malone and company decided that hiring a pinch hitter didn't make sense because the whole story was based on the deep history Clint and Viki shared. How could a new actor convey that? "Besides, with a new actor, we wouldn't be able to use any Clint/Viki flashbacks [to remind the viewers of the couple's happier times]," Malone notes. So, OLTL opted to hold the Clint/Viki/Sloan story in abeyance until Ritchie's return several months later. ...Even without such worries, head writing is never a nine-to-five job. "Characters become like family. It sometimes distresses people in your personal life," admits Malone, who jokes that his wife and daughter don't always want to hear about Max and Luna during dinner. ...Today, most writers are up on world affairs, although Malone jokes, "I remember thinking, 'I really am inside the world of One Life To Live' when somebody told me that the Soviet government had fallen, and I just said, 'Oh, God, no. Are we going to be preempted?' ". But he's grateful for small favors: Malone has yet to lose a long-term story outline in his computer (just the breakdown for one script) and his dentist hasn't tried to sell him ideas while plying him with Novacain. What would Malone's worst nightmare be? "If Erika Slezak [Viki] walked into my office and said, 'I'm leaving the show tomorrow, I've decided to raise roses.' " Oh well, Malone would just have to go back to the bulletin board and play musical photos. (Soap Opera Digest Jan 18, 1994) ****************************************************************************************************************************** SWEEPS SAVED BY OLD MASTERS by Marlena DeLacroix Until recently, soaps had become so dreary and so lackluster that Marlena was ready to begin negotiations to return to her old job in Paris as a cancan dancer. Then May sweeps started, and what I saw got moi excited about daytime all over again! So what made me rethink my career change? It was superlative material created by some of the medium's best veteran writers and producers who have recently joined new shows. Here are some comments on the work turned out in May by such old masters: Michael Malone, the new head writer of Another World (formerly of One Life to Live): What a dazzling debut the always interesting Malone made on AW last month! His scripts in his first two weeks were so bracing and sharp, I could hardly believe I was watching dusty old AW! Malone took twin evildoers Grant and Cindy (sparkling performers Mark Pinter and Kim Rhodes), a soap super couple waiting to happen, and wrote two wedding ceremonies (one in Las Vegas and another in Bay City) that were so hilarious I darned near laughed myself silly watching them. Best of all was Cindy's line when she insisted that she be written into Grant's will before she went through with the Las Vegas ceremony: "No will, no way!" AW was so entertaining during those two weeks that you could almost forgive Malone for doing a bare-faced ripoff of The Fugitive in establishing a badly needed backstory for Bobby Reno. (We found out Bobby is really Dr. Shane Roberts, on the run from jail for allegedly murdering a woman.) Marlena was most impressed that AW managed to stage actual chase sequences-rarely done on soaps taped on indoor sets-in and around Vicky's house as Shane ran from Detective Morris (Robert Gentry, perhaps best known as All My Children's Ross Chandler). The sequence in which incognito "Dr." Shane tended to an injured Jake in the hospital is the closest these two disparate characters have ever come to being civil to each other. And the always dry Gentry did such a fantastic imitation of Tommy Lee Jones from The Fugitive that I almost excused AW for recasting Gentry on the show a mere 16 years after he stopped playing the major character Phillip Lyons on the very same soap. Let's hope Malone's AW continues to be as good in the months to come as it was in May. (Soap Opera Weekly, June 10, 1997) ****************************************************************************************************************************** ATWT'S BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES Susan Batten cried "Uncle" last month to As the World Turns Executive Producer Felicia Minei Behr. "When I was asked to take over the role of Connor Walsh, I was told that they wanted to take the character in a new direction," explained Batten in a statement. "It became increasingly apparent that this was not possible." Batten replace Allyson Rice-Taylor in the role of Connor Walsh in March. Batten elaborated to Digest before she left: "Most times when they recast, they give it some breathing time. I don't think I had any breathing time. [ATWT fans] are so mean about me. They say such rude things [on the Internet] and talk in such bad language about me replacing Allyson." Indeed, the attacks on Batten did take on an unusually vicious, personal tone. It's one thing to complain---vigorously-to a show about a recast, and there's no doubt this was the wrong actress for this role. But why were viewers so angry at the actress herself? (Fans were even sending cans to the studio to urge execs to "can" Susan Batten.) "All Susan did was accept a job," points out an ATWT insider. "They were against her from the moment she stepped into that studio. Not because of her talent as an actress, but because of circumstances of timing and fan loyalty to another actress." What has ATWT learned from this? "Don't recast in the middle of a love scene!" responds the source. Batten-by all accounts a warm, gracious lady-had enormous fan following in her previous role as Luna to One Life to Live. "There's a group who call themselves the Luna-tics," smiles Batten. "It's very sweet, and I appreciate it." "I feel very strongly about Susan," asserts Michael Malone, who created Luna when he was head writer of OLTL and is now Another World's chief scribe. "I think she is one of the most gifted actresses I have ever worked with. She brought everything she had to Luna, and became one of-if not the most-popular characters in her age group on that show in a very short time." Malone has some theories about Batten's immediate rejection by ATWT fans. "My little knowledge of it is that she was moved into a part almost overnight that had been played for many years by a popular actress. That is almost impossible to do. Secondly, my understanding is this character [Connor] was a rather acerbic, tightly coiled business executive. Susan is all heart and love and laughter. To box her into a character who is tight and small seems a waste of her talents." Malone had just landed at AW when Batten joined ATWT. "Michael said to me, `You were supposed to wait for me,' so we had a laugh about that," reports Batten. "If he wrote a puppet show I would do it, because I like his work so much." "I hope her next job will use more of what she has to offer," muses Malone. AW's Cass could use a love interest… ****************************************************************************************************************************** AW: MALONE ALONE by Marlena DeLacroix As I was finishing the first draft of this column about Michael Malone's rocky head writing tenure at Another World, word came that Malone is out. Now, I'm not clairvoyant. Any AW viewer could see that Malone (a Daytime Emmy winner at ABC's nicely budgeted One Life to Live) brought some magnificently insightful and dynamic ideas to AW when he arrived last spring. But I speculate that one reason Malone's work came off as so tragically half-baked is because the NBC show is so cheaply and unimaginatively produced. Take last summer's trial of Nick for raping Toni. Here was a bold stroke meant to diversify the show's bland canvas of characters and designed to deepen AW's flat dramatic tone both intellectually and spiritually. And what kind of courtroom set does the notoriously low-budget AW build for this showpiece of a trial? One that's about as deep and as wide as a tuna fish can! Compare this to the vast Palladian trompe l'oiel of a courtroom set Guiding Light executive producer Paul Rauch had constructed for the Reva/Annie murder-of-the-fetus trial early last summer. I rest my case. It's unfortunate, but maybe AW just couldn't supply the resources needed to meet Malone's dramatic vision. His current front-burner story, what he has called in interviews :The Fall of the House of Cory," is grand and sweeping in its' dramatic intent. By allying Carl's ancient enemy Alexander with Rachel's bitter children Amanda (a.k.a. Hadley) and Matt in a plot to break up Carl and Rachel's marriage, Malone has primed his characters for a classic Greek family tragedy. But who does AW cast to play opposite the classically-trained Vicky Wyndham and Charles Keating (Rachel and Carl), two of the most powerful thespians on daytime television? A girl fresh out of drama school (Laura Moss, who plays Amanda) and a callow young actor who starred in the film Return to the Blue Lagoon (Brian Krause, Matt). Duh! What's most telling is that what worked best for Malone were stories in which the only resources needed were sets and good, proven actors. Malone gave Lisa Peluso the role of a lifetime in Lila. She has been so good, in fact, that we've barely noticed that she has been given neither a plot to play nor a love interest. In the tragic diet pill story, Malone wrote beautifully for Judi Evans Luciano and Joseph Barbara, the actors who play those rare, middle-class soap characters Paulina and Joe. And, of course, Malone produced the biggest daytime miracle of all-getting me to not only love but fully appreciate the diversified talents of an actor I had long thought of as a soap world cartoon: Tom Eplin. Remember the scenes last summer at the playground in Lassiter, in which Vicky reduced Jake to tears by proposing to him? I never knew that the oft-buffoonish Jake could be so tender, or that the oft-overblown Eplin could absolutely tear my heart out of my chest. Emmy! Emmy! Malone later said in an interview that he knew if he could finally make Vicky see why she loves Jake, the audience would fall in love with him, too. The ability to analyze, the intellectual curiosity to ask why: That, darlings, is the mark-and the miracle-of a really good head writer. Conversely, there are many things about the rest of Malone's Aw that I flat-out didn't understand. I turned on my TV last week, and there was the otherwise delicious Kim Rhodes (Cindy) dressed in a Spiderwoman costume grinning at the fertility statue, whose electric eyes were blinking. Huh? And what the hell is that statue anyway? A prop left over from the never-aired, New Orleans-based 13 Bourbon Street? The disembodied spirit of notorious NBC stuntster James E. Reilly (Days of Our Lives former head writer)? Mark Pinter is so wonderful he can play anything, but why in the world has his Grant morphed into comic relief as Mayor Grant Harrison? In his previous incarnation, when Grant was a haunted Shakespearan villain, Pinter's performance was the most brilliant thing on daytime television! No one was happy to lose longtime cast members David Forsyth (ex-John Hudson) or Kale Browne (Michael). Ironically, Browne put in the best work of his soap career on the way from contract to recurring, as Michael counseled son Nick during his rape trial. I can't make heads or tails of the new comic characters of Cass and Donna (Stephen Schnetzer and Anna Stuart), both of whom seem lost at sea. And what's the deal with RKK (Robert Kelker-Kelly, who plays Shane)? Talk about lost! The actor (who may or may not still be in the cast when you read this) is drowning! I just don't get it. It's easy for amateur soap analysts to speculate that Days-happy NBC was forcing Malone to do this, and P&G was forcing him to do that. But who realy knows what happened behind the scenes out at AW's studio in Brooklyn? Maybe Malone was in over his head from the start. All I can see is that Malone's vision never fully made it to the screen. That's a waste, because he is a gem of a head writer. Literate and humanistic, he's a natural heir to the intelligent writing tradition of Agnes Nixon and Claire Labine. In an era of shallow, dum-dum (think Sunset Beach, The Bold and the Beautiful!) soap writing, he is sorely needed. Let's hope that by the time you read this, another show will have hired Malone-one with an imaginative producer. I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd miss (Malone's OLTL executive producer-and Marlena's old punching bag) the ever-grandstanding Linda Gottlieb. (Soap Opera Weekly, November 18, 1997)

Ah, sorry! I thought it got an official promo release... I guess since I heard it at clubs so much--though probably like Living Proof it won't get any radiop play anyway (and I say that as someone excited for the new album...) I wonder if the Gaga duet is still meant tobe included.

Thanks for the info guys--I found a digitalSpy article that says the baby switch was rushed to conclusion it was so hated. Currently the how just feels pretty dark and depressing with a lot of unhappy people, though I know EE has a rep for that. But even Dot seems to be going through early dementia or something.

It's funny reading this thread. I've been watching Eastenders more lately, because I've been only working part time ad out of classes so home when it's on at 5 on a small Canadian cable station here. However I think we are two years behind, if not a bit more--they never properly show the end credits so I miss production names and the copyright date, but I believe Hollyoaks' Brian Kirkwood (?) is producer--not a popular time I gather. They just had the climax of the babyswitch storyline 2 or 3 weeks back...

I've been watching Corrie more regularly again (I seem to go through periods of watching then no at all with it) but I am interested to see what they do with Todd as it was his story that made me really regularly watch it in the first place (though it's an institution here in Canada--airing at 7:00 every night on the CBC since the last 60s I believe.) I as completely unaware hat e made an apparently hated return recently. I'm not sure how far behind we are (it was always a few years but then to more or less catch up for a while they played two a day)--the Rover's Return opened sometime last week, Dev is on a mission to prove his wife didn't set the fire, the surrogate baby needs surgery and the stores all have Father's Day displays, so I think only a couple of weeks.

Does anyone know how true his bit from Wiki is? "Although the national ratings were never strong enough to climb above tenth place, Loving did beat the genre's top-rated program, CBS' The Young and the Restless in markets such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia, which were home to four of ABC's owned-and-operated stations; however, Loving only competed with the first half hour of The Young and the Restless."

Ha was that explained in the last episode? It seems so obvious, but I completely missed that. Maybe Perry's dialogue is just too far above me...