AMCer

Reading the summaries from earlier that year, it seems like someone on SFT wanted to off Jo that year - having her shot and then paralyzed for a period of time. Unable to do that, the show offed her sister Eunice.

Guiding Light is just so excellent at this point. All the characters are woven together so neatly. And all the new characters have mystery surrounding them; it's all so expertly mapped out. Killing off Leslie, however, seems like such a random and altogether damaging decision.

I think ATWT, on the other hand, had almost too much going on. The overlapping triangles makes it hard to keep track.

I agree with others Y&R kind of hit a lull after the initial Jill/Kay story wrapped which was a blockbuster of a story.

The build up to Jennifer shooting Eunice on SFT has been great.

Thank you so much @FrenchFan.

I wonder what others think from reading these monthly summaries were the best soaps of 1975?

I would say the top three were Y&R, GL and AMC - with Love of Life and SFT being very intriguing at points too.

Of course B&B gets the first go-ahead. It must help that Brad is married to the Chairwoman of the California Film and Production Commission.

On 5/21/2020 at 12:45 AM, mikelyons said:

I've always found Bill Bell & Agnes Nixon's relationship interesting. He claimed in his Academy interview that he barely knew her, but from my research, it appears he wrote under Agnes in the late-50s while Agnes head wrote THE GUIDING LIGHT. Additionally, if he barely knew Agnes, why is her AMC bible in his archive? SO. MANY. QUESTIONS!

They co-presented the lifetime achievement Emmys to Mary Stuart, Charita Bauer and Larry Haines in 1985 posted in this thread. Already by 1985 they were recognized as the titans of the industry.

Rare to find a scene this old on YouTube.

Deeply unfortunate that it isn't on YouTube but the climax of the Jill/Kay feud of ownership of the Chancellor mansion in 1998 included one of the best confrontations ever on daytime.

Jill to Kay:  "By the time I came into their lives - she was a monster, he couldn't stand to be in the same room as her. She was a fall down drunk and she reeked of booze and her tongue would rip your head off. I gave that man something he'd never had before. Love. And sex. Good healthy SEX with a SOBER, sweet smelling woman and it drove her SO MAD with jealously that she KILLED HIM! DID YOU KNOW THAT? Did you know that she killed Phillip by driving him off a cliff while she was drunk!!!! Come on Katherine, tell you're guests about your glorious times in this house with Phillip!"

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

@AMCer I have watched little of that story or that period of the show as so much of it feels distasteful and bland to me, but thank you for posting that clip. What an incredible performance from Julia Barr - one of her very best. And how refreshing to see a character having a brain, something that would disappear by the middle of that decade. I will say, watching that, I don't know how the show ever went back to teasing Adam/Brooke only 4-5 years later. It's a bridge too far. 

Yes, Julia was so good during this period. Its a kind of story repeated so often on daytime - but Barr and Canary made it something more because of how committed they were to those scenes. Laura's death a year prior made the storyline even more tragic.

16 hours ago, Khan said:

It begins at 6:08 and ends at 10:15:

 

 

I'd say that's one of the best scenes in daytime history. It's just perfect. The writing, the lighting, the set, the acting, the wind in their hair, the finger pointing and the way Alexander waves her hand at 7:20. Plus, to see Monica being a bitch is such a treat.

Ross rips into Dinah (1:45) after learning Dinah faked her own kidnapping. I always felt like GL actors really relished yelling at Wendy Moniz's Dinah, who was rather hapless in the role.

When GL literally became "The Reva Lewis Show."

Brooke learns the truth about Adam and Dixie.

Mark's cocaine addiction and subsequent intervention was one of AMC's most notable stories and Noone's Ellen reading Mark the riot act was one of the show's greatest acting performances. So satisfying because Ellen had been such a goody two shoes for so long. It got a lot of attention in the soap press at the time. And then two years later Ellen disappeared and I can't ever recall her being mentioned again.

Kathleen Noone's Emmy win is at 1 hour 36 minutes. (I don't think it had ever been up on youtube).

She specifically thanks Agnes Nixon for coming "back to the show" to write this story.

Martha Byrne was nominated in that category for almost a decade. She must've had the longest run as an "Ingenue" in daytime history.

Ellen Wheeler's win at 13:30 in that clip. Thank you @Forever8

That was mighty stiff competition in that category - Debbie Morgan, Martha Byrne, Robin Wright, and Jane Krakowsk. Perhaps the best line-up ever in the Younger Actress/Ingenue category. Compare those names to the actresses that made up the category in the late '00s or in the 2010s.

Wheeler was so beautiful but also appeared really awkward and shy.

Wasn't Hollywood Heights her chance to create her own show or at least be in charge of one at the beginning?

I never watched it so I can't really judge how that turned out.

Yes, the next day's scenes are maybe even better if less iconic and well known than the country club take down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7M4PHwZbvs

Wow I'd never seen Dorothy Lyman's win before. Too bad the following year's ceremony wasn't televised.

Thank you for linking to that.

6 minutes ago, All My Shadows said:

How did AMC get Best Show when all but one of its mentions in the other captions were under "worst?" I'm about to embark upon watching 1989, so I'm curious as to see if their thoughts match my own. I already know Brooke/Adam/Dixie will be the highlight.

I wonder about that too. That year was a transition period of the show. So many characters were written out between 1989-90. 1989 was also the first time AMC was written by someone other than Nixon or one of her protegees. Margaret DePriest appeared to arrive to help clean up the show and then she disappeared after 6 months or so. The show up to that point had around 8 major stories rolling along of various quality at the same time.

The Eric Kane clown story was a major miss that year too and David/Melanie was just boring. The "who fathered Dixie's baby?" on the other hand, was one of the greatest stories in the history of the show. Barr, McClain and Canary all won Emmys and submitted the same tape. I don't think that was ever done again.

"Most Overexposed Heroine - Cricket on Y&R"

Somewhere Terry Lester nods his head.

4 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Y&R has done some awkward montages in the past, but this one struck me as bizarre. @7:36 Malcolm starts taking pictures of a pair of models as Blade watches on with some knock off of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game playing in the background. It’s a scene that feels like it should have been on AW at the time or something like Baywatch. Maybe it would have worked better if there was a subplot like Dru, Sharon or Victoria being one of the models, it comes off as so random and awkward: 

 

 

 

 

Even worse is the Mike Kasnoff promo for ATWT at 10:25.

Victor also makes an appearance in his notorious black tank top at the end.

Rough year for ATWT.

1997 was the Year of Annie on GL. Cynthia Watros bulldozed through that material like a woman possessed. Total commitment on her part even if the  material (Essensten and Brown were the HWs) veered toward campy. She also lit a fire under Zimmer and brought out some of her best work too.

You could still make a great deal of money writing a soap into the mid-2000s. Even the cheapskates at P&G forked over more than a million dollars annually to Hogan Sheffer by 2002.

Who is the highest paid actor in soaps these days?

I assume Lucci probably still held the title in 2010, despite I assume several paycuts over the 2000s.

Wyndham always seemed like a major party pooper.