Khan

Agree.

I'd say as much about most on that show. There's realism, and then there's "Ow, my eyes!"

ICAM. These days, though, soaps almost have no choice but to go back to "talking heads." In most cases, they don't have the budgets anymore to do anything fancier.

Okay, maybe not that repetitive, lol. But how many times did he have to tangle with Angela for control of the vineyards, using almost exactly the same tactics every time, before he got the message? Besides, as rich and powerful as Richard was, it wasn't as if he couldn't develop his own vineyard and label. At least, with J.R., it was a question of birthright: Ewing Oil was Jock's legacy, and he (J.R.) felt he was the rightful, sole heir to it. What was Richard's motivation? Before they did the ridiculous retcon that made him Angela's long-lost son, he was just her ex-husband's bastard son out to make her and Chase's life hell - and that could have been over-and-done with after one year. No, just because it took the show too far away from what little ties it still had to its genesis. To me, even Richard and Lance had become afterthoughts to Michael Sharpe; and if the show had continued, I feel, the remaining characters from years past would've been phased out altogether.

I loved that Rose was not the typical, ultra-glamorous soap heroine. FC's writers should've exploited that in two ways: 1) by making her smarter than the average ingenue (like, say, Diana on KNOTS); and 2) by pairing her with a guy who was handsome, noble and even a little funny. That way, not only would you have a friend and co-hort for Chase and Cole, but the fact that he finds Vickie irresistible actually makes her look more attractive than she does (if that makes sense). Plus, through him, you expand the show's canvas - with parents, siblings, even an ex-wife or -girlfriend who is the exact opposite of Vickie and who, along with Melissa, is there to keep stirring the pot - in ways that feel more organic than gun-running Nazis or international cartels. (Man, do I hate the Jeff Freilich years!) Well, for one thing, we would have been spared some of the show's more unfortunate storylines. I realize Susan Sullivan was bored, but I'd much rather see her leave the series than have to deal with Maggie as a drunk or an amnesiac off writing some book in the woods with that loon Jeff Wainwright. Abby Dalton was fine as Julia, but I felt she needed to be there more as someone fighting to keep her son, Lance, in line. Having mother and daughter (Angela and Julia, respectively) fight constantly over how Lance should best conduct himself made for great drama. They should've kept up with that. Like with Maggie, I just felt like her stories were, on the whole, extraneous and distracting. Just as I felt Richard outstayed his welcome by becoming the most repetitive villain ever on primetime.

Actually, Carl, I think Chase was one of the show's better elements (although, I can certainly understand why many did not care for him). Angela needed a strong adversary; and while I enjoyed her feud with Richard a lot, OTOH, you also needed someone who better represented the audience's core values. Richard was much too "gray" a character to be that. Other points: ~ The Melissa/Lance/Cole triangle should have run a lot longer than it did, with her son's paternity used as a big secret that characters uncover, one by one, over the course of several seasons (which, of course, means that Lance, and not Cole, should have been the baby's bio dad). The fact that it didn't, IMO, proves just how inadequate the writers were at this stuff. ~ Vickie, as played by Jamie Rose, should have been positioned in a Mason-and-Julia (SANTA BARBARA)-esque relationship that would've been heavy on banter. If anything, it would've kept her on the show, thus sparing us the horrid recast w/ Dana Sparks. ~ Maggie should have been killed off before the actual start of the series, providing Chase and his kids with an impetus to move to the Tuscany Valley. Then, maybe in year two or three, they could've introduced a Maggie-like character who eventually becomes Chase's second wife and Cole and Vickie's adoring stepmom. ~ Julia never should have been turned into a murderer, and Emma just plain should never have been.

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.