Khan

ICAM!! If anything, even the "Autumn Breeze" opening would've been too long in an era when shows like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" would just cut to a title card and then to commercial. In that case, all GH would've needed to do is fade to the ambulance passing the hospital as the title comes up onscreen. You wouldn't even need an official theme, as you could have played out the sting from the teaser instead. And you're absolutely right about the FOTH close. It's so "smooth jazz," which any jazz purist would tell you is not real jazz, but jazzy elevator music. Because it's a new year, and because I'm an Okie, and because Okies never mince words about anything, even when they're dead wrong, I'm going to admit something for the first time: I hated the "Hold on to Love" opening. Hated it with a passion. I thought the visuals were too messy, and the theme song sounded like something John Williams would've cooked up for one of George Lucas or Steven Spielberg's films. I was so glad when they finally retired it, even though the "Life Savers" opening, the "True Light" opening and the 12 different openings during the Ellen Wheeler era were awful in their own ways. IMO, the only GL opening that worked even a little bit was "Ritournelle." And even that opening suffered from all the [!@#$%^&*] dead leaves being blurred on purpose in the shot!

See, I'm not fond of any opening sequences that include actors' headshots, simply because soap casts are so fluid, and it's almost impossible to update openings fast enough in order to keep up with the changes. You'll often see cast members on openings weeks after their characters have left or been killed off - and I hate that. I really, really, REALLY hate that. My all-time favorite soap openings - AMC's 1st opening, GH's "Autumn Breeze" opening, OLTL's openings in the '70's and early '80's, EON's first two openings, "As the World Turns On and On," DAYS - kept it brief and to the point: the theme song, the title, maybe an object (a family album, a spinning globe, an hourglass) that evoked an emotional response of some kind, maybe a little narration (as in DAYS' case), and that's it. The only exception would be Y&R's openings, and that's because Y&R's cast, for the most part, was pretty stable throughout most of the Bill Bell era.

It's weird seeing Y&R near the bottom of the rankings, considering that it has been the #1 show for most of my life, lol.

I'd almost forgotten that Holland Taylor once was on AMC as a fashion designer. Was she doing the show at the same time as she was co-starring in "Bosom Buddies"?

TBH, I never cared for the "Faces of the Heart" opening. I didn't think it was "high energy" enough for a show that was all about energy. Plus, the first time I saw the opening, with the visuals and the safe-for-the-'90's music, I thought, "This is gonna look even more dated than the old opening five years from now." And in a way, it IS dated, although it certainly holds up better than the openings that have come afterward. IMO, all Wendy Riche needed to do was to film a new shot of an ambulance speeding toward the hospital and maybe get a new arrangement for the Urbont theme. Otherwise, just leave the sequence as is. I think it's ironic how the larger our TV screens have become, the more reticent GH, DAYS and Y&R are to do those intense close-ups that they used to be known for. Maybe they're afraid HD will expose all that cosmetic surgery to the light of day, lol?

I'm sorry, but I just can't stop looking at Clifton Davis without getting the theme song from "That's My Mama!" stuck in my head, lol.

Of course, I love the modeling stuff from the '80's. I thought those sequences were so well-produced. But if I had to choose the quintessential "Erica Kane" moment, it'd have to be when she posed as a nun while on the lam for Kent Bogard's murder, hands down. In fact, it's one of the reasons why I balked at the show's efforts years later to ground Erica in more realistic storylines involving drug addiction and childhood rape. You might be able to tell those stories with Brooke, or with Natalie, but Erica was too larger-than-life for gritty dramas such as those.

I've often joked that if I ever wanted to do a soap-within-a-soap, I'd call it "Upon This Rock," since it seems to have the same sort of cadence to it as FTR.

Once again, @Vee, I agree with everything you've said. It wasn't that long ago that I expressed support for Drew sleeping with Nina and Willow simultaneously, and the messiness that was bound to ensue from that. I even said that such a storyline had to culminate with Willow injuring and/or killing Drew and Nina taking the rap out of love for her child. (At the same time, I also wanted Michael to sleep with Sasha when he learned about Willow's infidelity, thereby creating a sort of Nina/Drew/Willow/Michael/Sasha/Cody "hextangle"). But, dear God, I wanted it to have more layers than the [!@#$%^&*] we're getting now!

I agree!! If nothing else, let 2025 be the year we finally get that sit-down interview with Patrick Mulcahey where he explains just what the hell happened to him at GH, lol.

Two more: "Celebration," and "Heart & Soul"/"Union Place." Both by Claire Labine.

A small-town girl who had but one goal: to conquer the world. That is Erica Kane, and that is why I love her and miss her to this day.

Yes (to the bolded part)! I, too, would love to get my hands on a copy of Marland's TSS bible. What little we know about it - a PA steel town setting; a smaller cast - sounds very intriguing.

He's not the only one, lol! On the one hand, I'm glad they found a purpose for Drew that isn't just as Jason's one-time twin brother. Plus, as I've been saying since God-knows-when, Cameron Mathison just works better as a smarmy bastard than he does as a noble guy. However, I'm worried that they've gone so far with his unscrupulousness that they've written him into a corner. I doubt Frank Valentini is eager or ready to let him go, but I feel like GH has another Wes Ramsey/Peter August situation on their hands.

Trust me, @Soapsuds, you won't be disappointed. MSW changes somewhat after Peter S. Fischer's departure as EP/showrunner - it becomes less folksy, for lack of a better word, and more sophisticated - but it never becomes so watered down to the point of being unwatchable, and that's due strictly to Angela Lansbury.

Thanks for the link, @daysgoby. I'm always eager to dive into more of Henry Slesar's stuff. He was such an amazing writer, capable of writing just about any kind of story, but always written with real intelligence and wit.

I agree. Brandon Stoddard, who ran ABC throughout the latter part of the '80's, was responsible for that move away from the sort of glossy programming that had defined the network in the '70's and early '80's, largely because he saw how NBC had become #1 by focusing more on shows that had more substance than ABC's. Plus, as much as some folks say they prefer their entertainment to be more escapist, I think it's hard to lose oneself in a frothy little show like DYNASTY, when so many people you know and care about are dying of a disease (like AIDS) that their own government refuses even to acknowledge, let alone find a remedy for. (Sound familiar, ladies and gents, lol?) The thing is, DYNASTY was a more complex show in its' first season, but were the Shapiros up to the challenge of writing that kind of show? Honestly, I have my doubts.

As would I, lol! RS would've had a ball on that show!

Listen, I stand by my belief that Tony and Bobbie were too far gone ever to reunite, but if a scenario like yours had played out, with proper handling and time, I would've been willing at least to see where a Tony/Bobbie reunion could've gone! Good work!

When you think about all the wonderful people we lost in 2024, it really reminds you that no one - no matter how rich or famous or INfamous they are - is immune to death; that it is so important to make each and every day we have count; and that our ultimate purpose in this life is to try and leave the world a little better than how we came into it.

That's certainly true for DYNASTY, lol. In rewatching the final season, I noticed that reduced budgets and changing times kinda forced David Paulsen and his team to try and dig deeper into the characters, but the problem was that DYNASTY's characters had become so one-dimensional, and the general acting style had become SO stylized, that even attempting to bring some substance into a show that had become so damaged after several years of bad or no storytelling was just impossible. If DYNASTY really wanted to last into the '90's, then it needed to be gutted and revamped. Similarly, if KL had any chance at all of lasting beyond 1993 - which I don't think was possible even under the best circumstances - then it needed to redefine itself for the new decade. It needed to get away from the "big business" storylines that had defined the Lechowicks' era, and maybe even needed to do away with characters like Gary and Greg as well. It needed to get more personal, and possibly bring more of a procedural element into the storytelling, such as having a major character work as a cop or doctor at a local hospital.

I've heard two, very conflicting stories about Liz's rape and the writers' intentions. One was that Tony was intended to be the rapist; the other was that they never intended her rapist to be found. I don't know how true either of those stories are, but it does suggest that TPTB interfered somewhat as the story rolled out.

For some reason, I can't see Peter Dunne or even David Paulsen doing what amounted to a Lifetime Original Movie-esque storyline for Jill. Dunne, in particular, seemed above doing cheap, exploitative stories where one woman goes psycho because she's lost her man to another woman. But I definitely agree that they would've played the fallout more than the Lechowicks did. I've always looked at that as KNOTS recognizing that the '80's and all their excesses were over, and that their characters, like much of the country, had to readjust to the scaled-down, more down-to-earth '90's.

Vanessa needn't have bothered with a new dress to impress or entice Matt (and Paul). Everyone knows her Wanchai Ferry heat-and-eat Chinese dinners are what bring the boys to her yard (IYKYK).

I think it was @vetsoapfan who said HTSAM was too didactic in the beginning; that HW Anne Howard Bailey was more concerned with making social statements than she was with actual storytelling; and that it got better once Rick Edelstein took over, but by that point, it was too late. It's always incredible to me how NBCD arguably posed a real threat to CBSD's dominance in the early '70's; and yet, they blew it completely with some very stupid programming moves.