Sapounopera

The Maya storyline was Ryan-Murphy-stupid. The world's most boring trans woman marries Prince Charming. The end.

On 5/12/2020 at 11:06 PM, Vee said:

As I'm coming up on the deaths of

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Cabot and Isabelle

in the LM, I thought now was as good a time as any to finally watch the Loving pilot, full of people who will be out of the picture shortly. I hope you'll all accept my preemptive apology for questions you've all answered before.

 

- WEHT Merrill, Roger and Ann? And I guess Susan Walters/Lorna?

- When did "Clay," Gwyneth and Trisha enter the picture, and where are they?

- Is that really Geraldine Page?? (Who I last saw in John Schlesinger's brilliant and demonic The Day of the Locust, a film I do not recommend watching at the outset of a terrifying global pandemic)

 

The pilot is notably directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, esteemed music video director for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones who also helmed the original Brideshead Revisited miniseries a few years prior and the original Broadway production of Agnes of God, and long-rumored to be the illegitimate son of Orson Welles.

Roger and Ann left for New York prior to Gwyneth and Trisha showing up. Roger was eventually killed in a car crash and a new Ann showed up. I liked the original actress much better, she was so regal. Peter Brown took over as Roger at some point.

I could be wrong, but I also remember Cabot and Isabelle leaving town for a while in 1984. 

Clay and his family were in Europe. 

The original Alden/Forbes family structure always seemed weird to me. 

The 1981 episode was AMAZING. Didn't really care for Victor & Nikki, but Vanessa Prentiss was perfection. She was fascinating and so scary! I also loved the Barbara story. It's so sad that the show lost Lori, it is rather obvious that Y&R (and Edward Scott) were more interested in making Nikki the leading lady. Can you imagine Lori instead of Nikki as Mrs. Newman?  Having an affair with Jack, hating Ashley, giving birth to Victor's children? 

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

Back then I used to watch Loving and Another World via satelite every day on RaiDue. Too bad I didn't understand a word of Italian, but I couldn't care less.

When did we see Towers for the first time? Who owned it?

Who was the previous owner of Ross Marler's house?

Have the Spauldings stayed in the same house since their arrival to Springfield? Have the Spauldings and the Bauers been neighbors eversince?

20 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

The only other big behind the scenes scandal I can think of for ATWT during its later years was Eileen Fulton's feud with TPTB and of course a very married Austin Peck and a very married Terri Colombino involved in a very torrid affair that got Peck fired. 

I knew they were sleeping together from the first scene I watched them. My sister knew him from Days and we said: "He is not that good of an actor. They are involved in real life." 

2 hours ago, Vee said:

Interesting that Scott Bryce tested for Josh and got Craig; Keifer tested for Eve. LOL, Zim is not saying who Long's choice for Reva was.

She once said that she wanted a dark-haired Reva from what I remember. 

2 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

I wanna know now who Pam's first choice of Reva was. 

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

I think Marland had been gone about a year before that story began. 

I know, but it seemed weird to me that both shows did the same story. Prince Charming finds out he is adopted, falls for a sweet blonde girl sexually abused by her father.

The adopted Prince Charming who falls for the incest victim story was told on LOVING and GL in 1983. I wonder whether Marland had planned the story the Jack Forbes/Lily Slater story for Phillip, had he stayed.

The Donovans remind me of a Marland family. Doug was kind of a Seth Snyder type. The Bristows were all Agnes. Early Ava was more like a Nola Reardon type. She later transformed into mini-Erica. Stacey reminded me of Hilary Bauer.

Who has the heart and soul / the moral compass of early Loving? Cabot and Isabelle? Not really, though Dabney reminded me of an aristocratic Alice Horton at times. Patrick and Rose were never important characters. Meryl was sleeping with a married man from day one. 

I loved the early years. Things got weird with the Alex/Clay mess and I never truly accepted Lisa Peluso's Ava (although I love the actress).

NEW YORK:

I missed my crazy NY friends!

Luann is gorgeous, she has never looked better. Her entrance at the party, her chat with the new girl, her hair, her body. 

For some reason I have a soft spot for Ramona (who also looks amazing and whom I see as a real-life Lisa from ATWT). Sonja is always so much fun. 

Did Dorinda cut her hair on her own? Is that why she was so mad at her party? Once again she acts like a pig when she is drunk. Is this what Kay Chancellor acted like in the 70s? 

Leah seems cool and gorgeous Tins would benefit from a new stylist. She is trapped in the early 00s. A fortysomething-year-old spoiled princess can drive the other girls crazy, but she is 100 better than Bethanny who thought that she owned the show and felt the need to humiliate the other women all the time. 

Do I remember the blue set from GL? Did it also serve as the Lewis mansion?

Killing Dina is such a stupid idea. The Abbotts need her and the show needs Marla Adams. JG has no idea what he is doing at this point and Anthony Morrina is not exactly helping things with his 2007 GL aesthetics. 

B&B hasn't been a soap opera in years. It is a cartoon show pretending to be a telenovela. It is almost an anthology series with actors playing different stories every few months. What happened last year is erased. Y&R is a show that would mention Kay and Jill fighting over Phillip all the time and that triangle would be part of storylines for decades. Brad doesn't seem to remember whom Brooke married in 2019. I don't want Y&R to become this kind of joke. It might be  uninspired and lifeless right now, Brad's way is not the way to save the show.

I'd rather have Ed Scott return. Along with Kay Alden. 

"Gay" is not the opposite of rude and obnoxious.

The problems with B&B started when Stephanie became Stefano Dimera and when Brooke slept with Deacon. Early Stephanie and Brooke were fascinating before theu became jokes. 

Y&R lost its identity when Jill became Neil Fenmore's daughter, when Phillip III showed up alive and gay and all the evil doppelgangercame to town. 

Days was no longer Days when Alice died and there was nobody there to fill the void. The show no longer has a heart. 

None of today's soaps have a moral center. Everybody is capable of doing anything.

3 hours ago, SteelCity said:

Sunset Beach was originally Never Say Goodbye

I remember that. Such an interesting choice for a soap title, especially in the late 90s. 

A thread about a  woman's death is not a party. You are being very distasteful and Vanessa Chamberlain's "Matessa" days were the worst.

RIP Mrs Bell. Thank you for everything.  

I knew it would be her. Nobody dies on Days and nobody ever leaves the show for real.

9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

Thanks. I've never seen him. 

 

What did you think of her? 

Tony had a flirtation with Ava and from what I remember he had a "mysterious past", he was a doctor or something. (Shades of Y&R's Brad Elliot?)

I liked Alice Haining and Colleen Dion as Cecelia. Rebecca Staab was kind of blant (or she just reminded me of a very bad GL era). The character could have been around for years as the show's blue-collar Lauren Fenmore against Trisha or Stacey. 

8 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

What was Cecilia's exit story? I can't remember. I know they recast her a few times. I wish they'd kept her longer. 

I think she left town with Tony Benedict, the guy who was renting a room at Kate's. 

"Bimanda"...

20 hours ago, Khan said:

I wouldn't be surprised to learn Bill Bell tried to get Denise Alexander for a role on Y&R or B&B, but couldn't for whatever reason.

 

I always thought tha she would have been great as Beth Logan  on B&B - and the character would still be around.

JG brought back the people he likes without any big plans. Was Y&R missing Kevin, Chloe and Chelsea?

MS wants to be paired with younger men. Her scenes with Chance were embarassing. 

She bores me in all her scenes and I feel that the character should have been written out years ago. She has a very toxic presence for some reason. 

Adam, Chelsea, Kevin, Chloe (though I really like the actress), Chance, Phyllis, Rey and Theo should leave the canvas and make room for more interesting -or less damaged- characters. JG could not even make MM's return interesting. Amanda Sinclair is nothing more than a new Leslie Michaelson.

Lola and Kyle should be given a Harry/Meghan storyline. 

Abby needs to grow up as a character. How about deciding to raise a baby on her own? Asking  a friend to help her get pregnant ala Santa Barbara's Julia?

Jack and Jill having to get married in order to save Jabot would be fun. 

Victoria needs a rest as a character. 

Phillip Chancellor IV is written the wrong way. He should not be an action hero called Chance. He would be far more interesting as an activist - a modern day Brock- with his father's sensitivity, involved in a different kind of story. Scott Grainger Jr. was ruined the same way. He was always meant to be a doctor. 

Nate would better fit as an executive, not  a doctor. 

Any news on a new writer?

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

 

Do you think they made a mistake moving Ava to Clay/Alex? 

 

The Clay/Ava idea sounds good, but I never cared for RM or JH in the role (for different reasons). Once the charismatic Roya was gone and the Alex Masters saga started I was done with them.  All of the sudden the aristocratic Clay was involved in a mess straight out of Days and GH. The Aldens were not the family for this kind of story. Could you imagine John or Jack Abbott in a Rambo saga? 

Lisa Peluso' s Ava was an airhead. Roya's character hid her pain behind her greed.