Khan

Poor, poor FALCON CREST. I always felt that show had so much untapped potential, but it needed a showrunner who had the genre (of soap opera) in his bones.

I hope Trent Dawson was joking when he asked LN to stop writing him so many monologues. One, they were awfully good; and two, the show's dead and buried, you moron.

I was (watching at that time). Fortunately, my memories of THE DOCTORS aren't as...plentiful as those of other soaps, since my mom tended to follow RYAN'S HOPE more. Even so, I'm pretty good at determining how good or bad a particular story was or is by reading synopses, and that one...? Oh, Lord, lol. (Yeah, it's bad.)

Oh, Lord, that storyline...!

"I don't know what the networks are going to do, but I don't think this kind of programming is going to last forever. It can't." It ain't.

Yeah, but Gary Tomlin wasn't all that bad for SEARCH as a HW. He didn't really get crazy with all the in-jokes and stuff until SANTA BARBARA.

Even worse, I think, at one point, every girl turning 18 in the United States was required to play Patti or face the penalty of the law. You know, like signing up for the draft?

Word. Of course, Fran Myers, who'd been an enormous fan fave as Peggy, had long since retired from acting to write full-time - but that didn't stop her husband, the late Roger Newman, from returning to GUIDING LIGHT for awhile as Ken Norris, now did it? For me, the era I'd love to revisit most is 1975-85. Many wonderful writers, directors and actors passed through the show's doors during those ten years, and I think it'd be a real kick to see it all, or see it all again, depending on whether I was alive to see it the first time around. I'm not making any demands on you, Carl. Whatever you've got to post, I'm more than happy to read, lol.

It's not surprising Louise Shaffer's Stephanie bore more than a passing resemblance her old RYAN'S HOPE character, Rae Woodard. Not only had Ellen Barrett produced both shows, but, Michael Corbett, who'd played her on-screen daughter, Kimberly's, lover on RH, played an almost exact replica of that character on SEARCH! I've wondered that myself, Chris -- and even when they did bring her back, I don't think I would've accepted Jacqueline Schulz in the role had I seen any of the earlier Pattis. IIRC, Patti and her then-husband, Len Whiting, left Henderson, b/c Len was sentenced to some Appalachian prison work farm for a crime he had committed. (This was before my time, so forgive me if I don't have the exact details correct.) Was it just one of those situations where TPTB meant to bring back Patti at some point, but never really got around to it until it was almost too late? Was it b/c they never found quite the right actress, as you've said? Were they afraid they had burned through a lot of story with her and didn't want to repeat themselves? Or did they simply feel that bringing back Patti would have kept Jo in the spotlight, when they were clearly intent on turning SEARCH FOR TOMORROW from a star-driven soap into a more ensemble-driven one?

As far as I can recall, they never did. Nor they did mention Rita very often, if at all. And though I think it's unfortunate they never brought either woman back (which they could have done through their kids, Billy and Rita's mystery child, respectively), OTOH, I can understand not referring to them often, since they would've complicated Roger's tangled backstory even more.

Reading that article, you get the sense that Holly's affections for Roger were never fully reciprocated. That isn't how Michael Zaslow and Maureen Garrett played their characters' relationship, though, especially in the years after Roger's resurrection and MZ's return to the show. Also, say what you will about Roger, but in a way, he was right: Ed Bauer could do (and in some cases, did do) the same things he did, yet he (Roger) always came out more as the villain, while Ed was always forgiven.

Talk about Idiot Plots!

Not really, no. In fact, come to think of it, there aren't any old soaps that I haven't seen that I'd like to. Except, maybe classic DOCTORS and EDGE OF NIGHT. (I watched those shows with my mom when I was little, but both were in serious decline by that point.)

"Tony [Geary] considers himself a loner but hopes to find the right girl and settle down." No comment. ;-)

Edith Bunker was most certainly not a "thing." She was, perhaps, the most humane character Norman Lear ever created, and one which Jean Stapleton beautifully brought to life; and if Ms. Laub had climbed down from her stridently feminist soapbox for a moment, she would've seen that, too.

IMO, to follow RYAN'S HOPE at all, you had to have an extraordinary amount of patience, 1) because their characters, although understandable and real, were not always what you'd call "likable"; and 2) they truly emphasized exploring characters and relationships at the expense of traditional, soap-y plots. Of course, in retrospect, it's no surprise that RH was doomed for ultimate failure: it just was too damned good for daytime. However, I'll always applaud Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer for attempting to change the way soaps are written and produced.

Whatever happened to Bruce Martin, btw? Does anyone know?

That clip is great. For me, though, it's marred by the fact that Iris would doubt Mac's integrity at all, given how much she adored him when he was still alive. (Another instance when I would have loved to have seen BM's Iris' take on the circumstances, lol.) Exactly! They don't even have those kinds of characters in primetime anymore. Everything is so spoon-fed to us, b/c the networks have this silly idea that our attention spans cannot take the added "stress" of actually thinking about what we're watching. Worse, from everything I have read in the past, they changed Iris so much when they spun her off, viewers bailed out of TEXAS, too. A "lose/lose" situation, if ever there was one.

I think that's b/c she felt the mantle of elder states-person had been passed down to her, and it was therefore her responsibility to set a sort of example for the newer actors coming aboard. Otherwise, if she had continued not to care at all about the show, ANOTHER WORLD would've been gone much sooner.

Wait, Chris Whitesell? Don't you mean his brother (and onetime ANOTHER WORLD EP), John? Because, last I heard, Chris is gay.

I'm just glad MacDonald Carey didn't say he liked to learn his script in the nude, too. Because, Halloween is scary enough, know what I mean?

Well, the Soderbergs do come to mind. ;-) Aside from Robert Soderberg & Edith Sommer, though...? Maybe Ralph Ellis & Eugenie Hunt, or Chuck & Patti DiZenzo. Those three teams always seemed to be best at simple, character-driven storytelling that would have drawn an audience.

According to the book "Worlds Without End," LOL's biggest problem was always trying to keep the older, longtime fans happy while simultaneously attracting younger and perhaps more sophisticated viewers. If a particular storyline was more risque than what the older fans were accustomed to, then they tuned out. But, if the story adhered to the hoary, simplistic themes of "good vs. evil," then the younger fans would tune out. (Vanessa's divorce is a perfect example, IMO. At that time, tons of women across the country who were the same age as she were getting divorced after being happily married for years; yet, the idea of "their Van," who virtually walked on water, doing such a thing just seemed so common and crass to the housewives who needed her to remain ever-virtuous and pure.) No matter what they tried to get attention, an overwhelmingly large faction of the audience was bound to be disappointed. Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer's time with the show, however, tended to be more successful than others', because they knew how to straddle that line between those who desired a more contemporary show and those who loved and clung to the original "Van::Good::Meg::Bad" formula. Their success turned out to be a double-edged sword, however. Without it, there's no way they would have had the opportunity to create RYAN'S HOPE. Yet, leaving to do RH meant LOL's fate was pretty much sealed.

Personally, I don't think they did. Felicia/Marshall was a bold idea, but it needed an actor who was as dynamic as Linda Dano to make it work. Randy Brooks, IMO, just came across too "weak" of an actor, presence-wise, to make genuine sparks between the two of them.

Bear in mind, too, that networks and sponsors tended to be more trusting of their EP's and HW's back then. So, if a show such as LOVE OF LIFE failed to make a comeback, it wasn't because TPTB didn't try everything they could to keep it on the air. Shows like LOL failed b/c their audience just wasn't there anymore.