soapfan770

Haven't had time to post in the classic soap threads much lately however I'm posting here the highlights of the 2nd half of 1997 that was published in 1/7/98 Soap News, some of it very interesting to read:

JT/Mac there 2005/2006 were boring and dreadful that I was happy to see Kinsey leave. The same problems happened for the second go around there 2009/2010, but once Ford and Luckinbill started to heat up together and JT&Mac were suddenly more interesting than Billy and Victoria and Cane and Lily they both got the axe. Go figure. The biggest problem was waiting six years before trying to bring Billy and Mac together again with no interaction beforehand, not even at Katherine's funeral which was weird. I think Bashioum burnt all of her bridges there in 2005. I recall at one point she tested for Marina on GL but Kit Paquin got the role thus Bashioum got rehired at Y&R. It didn't work out for either actresses obviously. I think on paper the whole story about Katherine switching the babies sounded good but the execution was absolutely terrible. Long before Cane appeared we Amber and that psychic that was always on Montel Williams running amok along with some shocking scenery chewing by Walton the with infamous "SHE GAVE IT AWAY!!!" moment.

I did take issue the whole the "Sharon is an irrational whore nailing the not so single Diego so its okay that Nick shacks up with Grace" mentality at the time. However in retrospect I think it was pretty tame considering anything since 2008. I was just very disappointed we got more contrived infidelity and that Sharon was made out to be the bad one following the death of the baby.

Besides the Africa story we had Amanda/Mac/Ralph stalker tale, Nick/Sharon/Diego/Grace, Paul/Isabella etc. It was pretty boring actually, and it lead some changes with the writing line-up ie bringing in Jack Smith. I agree, and I've always felt that Moore's exit was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for many after seeing these characters being mishandled or discarded.

Alex was alright she was certainly a woman of power in her own right, a pretty high-priced lawyer in the vain of Leslie. The problems of course were the cliche's, like Olivia being on the defense against Alex while we ended up with Neil/Alex/Malcolm. We had Neil and Alex barely stand each other and then have an affair. Malcolm's disappearance and presumed death was...um well its been said Y&R lost a million viewers when Shemar left, but really its easy to see how the Africa story could see how it could drive away a million viewers.

Thomas was still in the role of Callie when she died right? I remember being shocked reading the news of her death in SOD. The Callie stuff was okay, although I thought the whole stuff with Trey and his goon was a bit ridiculous. Callie was a woman from Malcolm's past which I thought was a nice touch as I don't think the Malcolm/Olivia pairing always felt right. I'm pretty sure Callie was gone by the time Dru came back from Paris there in 2000, and after Dru left again towards the end of the year is when the Neil/Alex/Malcolm triangle developed. Olivia's insecurity over Callie led her to hit the sheets with Neil right? All I ever remember about the summer of 2000 is Olivia laying on her deathbed all summer long.

Worse is that Bradley tried again when Ashley Jones took over the role. After the disastrous first recast of Bridget with an actress I don't remember her name right now Bridget was off the show for a few months but they brought her back and had her lovesick with Ridge which lead to that whole Ridge/Bridget/Amber/Thomas debacle at Big Bear. Actually, I completely forgot Thomas was paired up with Amber there in 2004. They had to age Thomas from 16 to 18 for the story. This was around the time Eric was suppose to get a Lolita story with Hector's daughter but thankfully never occurred. Another story that perhaps thankfully never happened was originally Taylor was suppose to get Thomas' wife Gaby deported only for her to end up presumed dead in a plane crash on the way back to Mexico. The plan was to have her come back deranged and disfigured and get revenge on Taylor by kidnapping Thomas.

I actually wish that the show would've done novel tie-ins I definitely love to read either Ruthless or Katherine's auto-biography she did back in '08.

Surprisingly enough for myself one of my favorite AW stories I've talked about her before actually made a SOW cover back in 1993: I don't believe there are any YT clips of the story I'm afraid, and its a shame both SoapNet and Hulu never made it that far. Patti D'Arbanville

Its was alleged that Khalil posted on her MySpace(my god this was five years ago!!) shortly after the "please pray for Davetta" stuff that she was terribly afraid that one dark late night while walking out to her car a hooded Sherwood would sneak up on her one night while and attack her with a baseball bat. Bobby had been off-screen for several months before it was announced that he was dead. Brittney lasted til the end of '05 almost. Its funny that last year Victor compared Bobby to Deacon and David Chow, yet he was nothing like them. The Veronica tale at the time for myself wasn't boring. The whole thing added spark to Josh and Nikki who were dull, and it was funny to see Sarah as the ridiculous yet sinister maid. Not to mention the great climax just in time for a perfect 25th anniversary story for the show and the payoff was brilliant in the end.

At the start of 2004 Y&R was very strong with its future looking bright; the moment Shaughnessy left and Smith took over as EP with Scott returning as Supervising Producer was when they fumbled, egos and their own agendas and all. Of course under Smith we had Brittney dominating 2003-2005 as Smith wanted her to be the new Nikki. Shame on Sony for firing both Sherwood and Leon. Leon's was absolutely inexcusable and ended up being shades of Holly Hallstrom. I've never understood Sherwood's departure or Khalil's strange comments and their rivalry. "Please pray for Davetta!" or threats of being hit by a baseball bat didn't sit well with me at all and apparently it didn't with Rowell as well.

Since starting her family Lauralee has been focused on her children primarily, but for the longest time I remember reading she was also looking to break into acting work outside of daytime and did some prime-time spots here and there. She turned the opportunity to return twice in 2008, first for the 35th Anniversary/Restless Style lauch/Danny singing and then for Katherine's funeral. She once said she would only return if the show had a lot more challenging material or did something different for Christine, although I don't think the Ronan stuff is exactly what she had in mind. Although the Isabella story had a good, chilling climax, after all Christine went through 2001-2003 with the "was it rape?" followed by silly disguise and bad accent and then ending up in the arms of a deceptive Danny I don't blame her for looking down on the writing for Christine. Regarding Heather Tom's exit in 2003 why didn't the show do more to save her given how easily she got picked up by another soap? How did Heinle get cast?

Thank you so much for sharing those 1992 SOD synopeses Carl. All the memories came flooding back as I'm reading them to catch up. What did you guys think think of the Victor/Ashley marriage and how it unraveled? I remember Victoria being a wicked thing towards Ash. My god I don't quite remember Jack going out to enjoy a fancy dinner while Victor was still lying on his office floor nearly stone cold. I have to believe that Lauren was over time perhaps one of the most difficult characters to write for. Lauren had been written for years as the town bitch, an antagonist to characters like Traci, Gina, Christine etc. which in long term meant Lauren couldn't simply be some damsel in distress like Nikki or Ashley. Lauren had to have a backbone and edge to remain viable. It's been said Sheila was actually Lauren's punishment for all the years Lauren caused chaos herself on others. So after the story was over, Lauren simply carried on as she had before--having an affair with Brad and restarting her rivalry with Traci. Then again, Lauren's second marriage to Scott was loveless and pretty much out of convenience. Its funny though Traci was also pretty much done as a character by 1992 as well and Bell wrote her off.

Here ya go

So its pretty obvious that Tyler is obsessed with Daniel isn't it? I actually really like the character of Nolan, I was worried that he was going to end up dead himself in this episode.

H&A was really the only foreign soap I watched from the moment I discovered how to watch it online in the early 00s and I really enjoyed but I quit watching after Rebecca Carwright and her character Hayley left the show. Its funny back then I remember a lot of people talking about H&A but nowadays I don't hear a thing about it anymore so I was wondering how it is still doing in Australia these days.

The Brad/Leslie story sounds really contrived and overly soapy. Did Brad have any story after he and Leslie divorced? How did he leave town? How did viewers respond to the death of Jennifer Brooks? I've always been fascinated by her quite a difference for a family matriarch. I'd love to see more of Peggy--I've often referred to her as the lost Brooks sister.

I was wondering how you guys thought about the relationship between Victor and John Abbott? Aside from the infamous punch their relationship strikes me as fascinating as they seem to have the utmost respect for each other, and even from watching yr9190's 1993 playlist of episodes it struck me as interesting that John happily planned a special anniversary celebration for the day Victor founded NE while Jack was still seething over the loss of his son.

Thanks for yr9190 for those synopses and review of B&B. I agree with you its a shame we don't have many early Macy clips. Macy was one of my favorite characters throughout the 90s, although I wouldn't have necessarily called her a sad sack like Hinsey did. Here's a review from 2000 by soap columnist Tom Smith :

So who was Dana McFarland and what was her story with Bob? Did they really get engaged?

Pretty much. Actually Victor and Jack became civil and Victor sorta became more trusting of Jack to handle matters, leaving his original heir apparent Brad seething by 1995(throw in the affair with Nikki in the mix and we get the start of Brad vs. Victor) The feud got restarted in '97, when Jack made a big fumble by nearly convincing Nick to leave town for work for what turned out to be a bad acquisition(Jack didn't do proper research) for Newman and when Diane left Jack to marry Victor.

That's interesting I don't remember there being a temp Brad recast. Then again honestly it has 18 years since I saw the funeral Actually I think CBS re-ran it in the late 90s or I saw it online again at some point but even so way too long. Victor winning in the end? Not at all. When he came back he did fire Jack, but then everyone else threatened to quit so Victor was forced to hire him back. After that the two had a somewhat civil working relationship for a couple of years. Besides I didn't find Jack rootable at that time ie leaving people for dead and stirring up unwanted trouble for his own family. If anything the whole story humbled both characters. \ Y&R always had those amazing summer stories that I always looked forward each year(I mean I was off from school lol) In '93 it was Victor pretending to be dead, in '94 it was Jill vs. John in '95 it was Matt's shooting in '96 it was Nathan kidnapping little Nate, in '97 it was Phyllis' life imploding while in '98 we got that epic battle between Jill and Katherine.

I don't know if I've heard that particular cue on B&B, I always thought it was a traditional Y&R cue, often usually leading up to even more dramatic music. yr9190 would you also happen to have Victor's funeral as well? I fondly remember Ashley's moving eulogy while Nikki and Victoria both completely broke down as they huddled tight with a devastated Nick in their seats. The whole story was always a personal favorite of mine. The build-up was nice as everyone was finally getting sick of Victor and well then he was presumed dead. We saw a humanized Victor living quietly with Hope while Genoa City moved on without him. As Carl touched upon it, Victor thought it was for the best. Then he finally came roaring back after Jack was trying to one-up Brad and Ashley. Great stuff really.

Y&R was really in a class of its own there in the 90s becoming very close to the mainstream, I mean heck Eric Braeden has a cameo in Titanic. I don't remember it all but I found it very interesting they had a score at the time that sounds straight out of Melrose: Starting @ 1:08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBspv1ogo_4 And again at the very beginning of this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m292ATKV70Y

A couple years ago there was a ton of Y&R 1995 up but unfortunately was taken down; thankfully a handful of those videos have slowly resurfaced. They should have kept April and Heather for sure. Conci Nelson I believe is Kay Alden's daughter and I remember liking her a lot. They could have developed Heather a lot in the 90s before learning that Paul is her father. I pretty much loved everything about Y&R 1993-1995. Aside from the April story I mentioned, if I had to pick my favorite story for 1994 it would have to be Jill vs. John. They were so NASTY to each other and the stakes were super high. Jill was the loose cannon, having openly steamy affairs with two different men being unsatisfied with old man John who was prone to strokes and in love with his long time maid: Victoria vs. Nikki was pretty good too. Nina losing the baby made me cry as a kid. Then we also had those lovely Winters, with crazy old Lilibelle moving in making everyone's lives miserable while Dru dug her Neil's past. 1995 was really good too even if some of the stories confused and frustrated me by being so slow moving (hello Blade/Rick and Matt's shooting!)