EricMontreal22

I didn't realize they did auditions in New York, although it makes sense. I've only been once, but I have a high school friend who's been part of the company for a bit over ten years now (she actually had one of the leads in Importance of Being ernest so took it to Broadway last Spring), so still follow up on the company's comings and goings. Will be interesting to see how they do without Des McAnuff at the helm this year.

Not sure where to place this, but Tim Stickney is in the program for this season (April to Nov 2012 I believe) Stratford Theatre Festival in Ontario as part of their company for 3 shows, plus a lead in Henry V.

Alec and Hayley were a mess--and thankfully not around for long. What WAS interesting was the twisted relationship with Alec and her mom and I suppose due to that reason it was a worthwhile story.

OLTL seems to be perhaps one of the soaps most influenced by the primetime soap boom--even if they all were to some extent (increased focus on corporate politics, the wealthy, etc). Not simply due to the obvious Dallas/Buchanen invasion .

How long did he last in the role anyway? Was he the last Curtis befre the original returned? I don't remember other Curtis' actually. Kinda funny he feels bad for Burke Moses who a few months later he got to replace Peter Gallagher in Guys and Dolls and became a MASSIVE musical theatre name--he still is, so I doubt he felt too bad... I actually suspect that's what it was, at first it seemed like the focus was more on sister Hannah although both of them did go, not ALL too long after their intro, to stay with Myrtle at Pine Valley (which led to the Carter crossover) so I guess she caught on early.

That makes sense--thanks! I have early episodes with Dante on tape (when he befriended I think it was Dinah Lee and would always talk about his pet and had a secret identity) and though I haven't checked in years, was pretty sure Agnes Nixon was listed as writer.

How many are left? (in his plan) Three? Apparently this one will be the last to do what the last two books did and only focus on one part of the cast. (I have to say the fourth book, Crows really suffered for me because the cast focused on were largely characters I don't care too much for--I found a lot of it I had to sludge through, but it was worth it for the far more enjoyable Dragons. I'm glad the show will apparently not be doing it this way. Actually a friend of mine says that he thinks the rule seems to be so far that the odd numbered volumes are better than the even lol).

Bobby Love! lol Watching that makes me get mad all over again with what they did with Powell and Rebecca and that dumb serial killer story.

Thanks for posting that great review--funny as didn't a review from '91 or so think '89 was a rough year? Funny about saying Maurice Benard doesn't do any fake Marlon posing and mannerisms, as that's all he does now, but I do agree that in the 80s on AMC he had a charm and naturalness with him and he and Cecily were great, better than Julie. I didn't even remember Cecily being there by the time Laura came on the show. Man I hated Cecily during her whole 90s run--I really could not fathom why they brought her back until later I saw how much more appealing she was in the 80s. Of course it didn't help that they paired her with Charlie... I actually much prefered the first Taylor though she seems rougher acting wise than I remember in that clip. Was she replaced I didn't read much soap gossip at the time, but my memory was the actress left and the new Taylor came a while later...

Oh dear he's asking for trouble, the way some of his fans get so mad when they have to wait for him to finish a book...

Aww that just makes me want to see it all the more... Carl do you know anything about John Kelly Genovese's Soap Opera Digest Scrapbook from 1984? I'm wondering if it collects his SOD reviews, etc, up to that point... I may just order it from amazon anywa as it's very cheap used.

Thanks for posting that review (as usual I'm late to read it). I always thought Dante's storyline was created by Agnes Nixon--she was HW during the climax of it anyway but I guess it started a bit before,

I'd never heard of Curtis' involvement in ponography before--which could have tied into Lily's feelings for him as you say. What year was that? I got hooked on the show during the Carter crossover (though I had started casually watching the Fall before when Jeremy and Ceara briefly went over) so I guess I liked it during that era. I did think Guza and Taggert did well with that quad you mention, but also agree Addie should have stayed on as HW.

So there's nothing else to the photo--this is the finished shot? It sounds like he's obsessed with Helmut Newton's infamous 1970s murdered models photoshoots as immortalized in Eyes of Laura MARS

Fosse would have at least got them to pose stronger

These leaked promo pics are AWFUL--please tell me it's for a campaign that was dropped or at least is unfinished? It looks so badly shot, for one thing, no background etc

I usually would agree with you but I think, almost surprisingly, Nolan's been far more complexly portrayed than that. He has seemed MUCH more horrified than Emily when her scehemes have gone so far (like when it appeared Lydia died), and has, albeit not very forcefully, tried to sora get her to see what she's fully doing it seems from the start, while granted eager to help her. This eagerness seems to be due to the fact that despite his money, nobody is nice to him in the community or lets him fit in (his desire for a friend, almost any friend, is both pathetic and kinda touching and reminds me of a more extreme version of some outcasts I knew in school who would buy teh rich kids' friendships by driving them to parties in their nice care when they drank, etc). He also feels an obligation to help Emily and to cover up her tactics thanks to how her dad made his career and I believe entrusted him initially with making sure she got the money (I always wonder how much older he's meant to be than her--the actor is 40 but the character is surely meant to be younger--how old was Emily when her dad died in jail?) So the Tyler thing got to him partly because, as much as he was posing as being in control with Tyler, he did obviously seem to be falling for him (it was more the fact he could never fully trust anyone genuinely being interested in him, granted which Tyler wasn't, without using him but I felt they could have developped that for a few more episodes), and also because Emily did something that personally involved HIM, Nolan, without warning or telling him first--for the first timne fully cutting her out of his game and making it affect him and even his reputation (what little he has). The New Yorker had a good review of the show that I mainly agre with. It has a typical New Yorker tone, but I like their current TV critic and while brief, by NY standards, I think it's fair: " Revenge,” a new drama on ABC, has found its own cunning take on the procedural, with a protagonist as charismatic as Dexter, and maybe even nuttier. The series is based—very, very, very loosely—on “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Emily VanCamp stars as Emily Thorne, who seeks weekly payback on the wealthy Hamptonites who had her institutionalized as a child and framed her father for unspeakable crimes. The show’s signature motif is of someone standing just outside a mansion, eyes narrowed in righteous melancholy. It could be the official soap opera of Occupy Wall Street. The show’s candied look suggests a camp-fest like “Gossip Girl,” but “Revenge” is actually a full-on melodrama, replete with strong emotions. Viewers may get high on the tablecloth pornography—the cameras swoon and swan over elegant swimming pools and thick marble countertops—but the people in those fancy kitchens aren’t kidding around. They rage; they are heartbroken; they say things like “Every time I hug you, the warmth you feel is my hatred burning through.” There are standards of quality even in over-the-top TV shows. Just as an ambitious teen show features interesting parents, a truly effective melodrama gives us villains with sad, complicated hearts. As Victoria Grayson, Emily’s nemesis, a charity-circuit viper with muffled remorse, Madeleine Stowe owns this show. One episode began with a severe closeup of her eye, fanned by delicate lines. “As Hamlet said to Ophelia,” Emily’s voice-over purrs (like “Dexter,” “Revenge” is fuelled by its arch narration), “ ‘God has given you one face and you make yourself another.’ ” Victoria’s eyes are sad, but her cheekbones round into a smile as an invisible someone brushes on blusher, preparing her for a photo shoot celebrating her marriage, which is falling apart. The show is full of gorgeous, ridiculous sequences like this, scored to lush pop: Douglas Sirk for the age of Botox. But “Revenge” is too juicy to write off as junk. It’s got strong performances, from actors who don’t condescend to their flamboyant dialogue. And it has a few intriguing modern elements—among other things, it’s as obsessed with paranoid voyeurism as Showtime’s “Homeland.” Every once in a while, I imagine that Emily was institutionalized for a reason; maybe she’s hallucinating this whole scheme? If she has a dark passenger, it’s probably Bernie Madoff. ♦ Read more http://www.newyorker...m#ixzz1gYrhD8w0 (the majority of the review is one of Dexter which I am 100% in agreement with about why this season has been such a huge let down and why the thought of two more seasons in this direction seems almost like a point to stop watching).

Oh for sure--either one would at least, I'm nearly positive, been *interesting* even if they had failed at the soap format spectacularly.

Wait the same link says August Wilson was also approached which would make him the first black HW. I LOVE the plays of Wilson and they definitely are soapy but... Really? lolI know it's Wiki but this seems too random for someone to make up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Marland#Loving (in the post death area)

I randomly read on the Dopuglas Marland Wiki page that hwen he pased away, they considered hiring Alice Munro as his replacement. This kinda shocked me--has anyone heard anything about this? She's one of my all time fave short story writers--and spent a lot of her time where I'm from in Victoria BC (where the biggest bookstore is actually Monroe's Books) as well as still getting published often by the New Yorker, and she definitely has a keen Chekovian sense of emotion, drama and particularly female characters, even if the drama is often lower key although can be quite devestating (the Canadian lit genre of Southern Gothic--as opposed to American Southern gothic was practically created by her). But to my knowledge not only has she never written a long form story let alone ANY dramatic writing (film, theatre, TV--though Sarah Polly adapted a short story of hers for her much praised movie Away From Her). So this just seems SO random to me--and I've never heard Alice talk about soaps or TV, and by the early 90s when she would have been already, she was such a successful and awarded short story writer she wouldn't have needed the money... So anything know any more? This would have been right after OLTL hired an untested author in Michael Malone and already was seeing some success--so maybe others wanted to try something similar? (Michael Malone is a successful writer but I'd argue Alice Monroe is a better known one...)

I cahnot believe she did that Playboy Bunny-ish pose! Granted, in a turtleneck...

From all I've read, Granger never really got a fair shake. But yeah--that remote was well advertised (I think Ava and Jeremy were even on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee) and was pretty awful. Granted, I had no idea who Faison was, but he didn't even seem to have any use or connection to Loving.

I will have to try to find, or pay more attention, to Genovese's reviews, because those are great, intelligent reads. It sounds like (from the few episodes I've seen and story outlines I've read), he's pretty much on the money. Agnes Nixon was writing then--from all I can figure out, though dates are so complicated to track down--and it does sound like, for the worst and maybe under pressure--Agnes was trying to restructure it into a more traidtional soap to gain ratings.

That Marlena piece is interesting. I didn't know that GH was definied by You're Dead back in 1990. Or that Agnes Nixon had always acted as consultant for the show, but since it was always owned by her, that makes sense. It does seem that she was always slightly at a loss in regards to a vision for Loving. I know that the instigation to create the show seemed to be a combination of ABC pressure and the Dan Wakefield interest, so I wonder if that was part of her lack of a clear vision, and you still get a sense that her heart was more into AMC (although when I watched Loving I still think her brief 1994 return was pretty great--as outlandish as stories were). While I think comparing it to Barbara Cartwright makes me think Marlena never tried to read any of her novels, I think some of that critique does ring true for what I know of Loving during the time. I still always wonder about the choice of name, and the Johnny Mathis theme certainly didn't help--I can't picture any man (except someone looking for camp) or most women tuning into the opening credits of the time and sticking with it.

It's true, and there was speculation at the time (of the City anyway--I didn't read the soap press during the end of Loving) that Agnes Nixon w as active enough that she helped bring The City not just to creation, but after it's first period (with the rather lame repeat serial killer story) into better focus, which (I felt--even with hackneyed stories like the Tony/Ally/Calra triangle) it was. I know Harding Lemay was infamously not a fan of The City when asked to view it, but I wonder how much he watched, because it did get a sense of generations and family once Tracy came on. (Of course he was apparently briefly a consultant on all the ABC soaps and I'm not sure his opinion, listened to or not, did any good for any of them at that time) I suspect that Debbi got over it by the time she joined Loving--but I could be wrong. Regardless it was a big mistake to not have her briefly visit Pine Valley on her way to Corinth and try to help viwers know she would be on the show--I don't even remember many promos. (Then again, I'm not sure if the Loving/AMC crossovers in 91 or 92 helped ratings at all--would be curious to know--even if it was what got me to watch Loving, a soap I had never even HEARD of before). Forgot to mention in regards to the clips, that I really loved the character of Lorraine and how she grew from Loving to The City--I think I'm VERY much in the minority there.