5 hours ago, Liberty City said:

 

Iconic moment. And the guard in the back? Such a delayed over-arm reaction. But you can tell Colleen Zenk was having a BALL!

LOL. Right? What was he doing? It's hard to believe a courtroom would have a big window like that. Especially one so flimsy. 

23 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

 

 

i know there’s still a lot of discussion about the best ed. for me it was mart’s predecessor, robert gentry, who left gl around the same time i started college (prior to gentry assuming the part, was called billy, since he was named after his father). then there were jobs. so in those pre-vcr years, i didn’t get to see a lot of mart’s ed. i did like peter simon’s ed.

 

 

I agree with you. I think Robert Gentry gave the most quintessential portrayal of Ed Bauer. Mart's portrayal of Ed surely made him more likeable but, problem is, I don't think Ed was supposed to be that likeable. Irna and Agnes's Bauers always had an edge to them. Later writers always made the Bauers too "nice". 

On 5/17/2021 at 7:47 PM, zanereed said:

 

I could have listened to this for twice the time they were both on. Both had great stories to tell, and Mart has amazing recall. Actually, Fran did as well, once her memory was jogged.

 

Again, I wish Alan wouldn't have a tendency to talk over the guests, as there were times when Mart or Fran were in the midst of a story, and he would tend to try to push to the next question. I really want someone to interview these two again, as I wanted more questions asked and answered regarding writers, fellow actors, etc. At least they had time to talk about Charita. Mart was very nice in his response to the question regarding Ed and Rita and working with Lenore Kasdorf.

 

Speaking of which, I would love for Kasdort and Sofia Geier to be interviewed!

Agreed! I wish we could get vetsoapfan to interview the old-timers. Alan has always been the king of missed opportunities but especially with the actors that were before his time. He just doesn't know history. 

I don't even consider Melanie's Emily and Kelly's Emily as the same character. 

2 hours ago, zanereed said:

 

Just curious - any preference as to Lyle Sudrow or Ed Bryce for Bill Bauer? I always preferred Bryce, but I just thought Ed Bryce had better chemistry with Charita. Although Sudrow seemed to give some great performances in 1950 as Bill Bauer became more and more addicted to alcohol.

I prefer Sudrow but I liked Bryce a lot. 

4 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

Really? Marie Horton was your favorite DAYS character? I never knew that. 

 

Did you have any particular favorite(s) on TGL?

Bill Bauer, as you can tell by my name, was probably my favourite. Although with such a long run, there were lots of favourites. I would have to really sit and think about it. 

3 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

I just hope Alan does not muzzle Mart Hulswit, and actually lets him speak frankly.

 

Now if we could only get a no-holds-barred interview with Eileen Fulton, in which she just let it rip. 

 

But I won't quibble and be greedy. Hulswit and Myers on the agenda truly has me giddy!

 

Yes, while they are still with us, and ready and willing to be interviewed, we need to see the legendary veteran actors as much as possible! How about a session with Bill and Susan Hayes, Denise Alexander and Maree Cheatam?

I think there was one with Maree Cheatam but it was audio only (something was wrong with her video) and she didn't stay for long. I'd like to see her together with the others you mentioned but especially Maree since Marie Horton was my favourite Days character. 

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

@vetsoapfan @Mitch @Bill Bauer I hope you all see the above.

That's so great! I'm really looking forward to that! I've been wishing he would go back to the 60s and 70s stars! Thank you very much for bringing it to our attention, DRW50!

9 hours ago, kalbir said:

I think I can guess why some of those years were selected.

 

GL: 1983 - Reva arrives.

ATWT: 1994 - Douglas Marland passed the year before so all his story outlines are over by then.

DOOL: 1983 - Supercouple era starts.

Y&R: 1986 - Cricket becomes a full-time character and proceeds to eat the show for the remainder of the decade.

 

LOL. Very spot-on and funny guesses there in a nutshell. I would add for DOOL that it was also the beginning of all the fantasy and far-out storylines and, for GL, it was when the Bauers started to get decimated. 

2 minutes ago, zanereed said:

 

This would be eerily close to my own opinion (again, I have GL going into 1984 as well as DOOL). I assume 1975 for AW was when both Mary Matthews and Steve Frame were both killed off, and Alice was recast?

Yes, like GL in 1983, AW in 1975 was when the core family started to be decimated. I guess it matters why you like soaps and I personally don't care about romance, fantasy or focusing on a female heroine (all aspects of soaps). One of the main aspects I like about soaps is that I like familial sagas. Once you start getting rid of the core family, I lose interest. Of course, not everybody would have that same view because everybody likes different aspects of soaps but it is interesting to note that the decline in the writing and production quality of a soap usually coincides with the decimation of the core family and the neglect of history. 

2 hours ago, ironlion said:

Great feed back and wow, the mid 80s is very early compared to other soaps! From what I've read across SON, a lot of users post somewhere between the mid 90s and early 00s as the quality decline mark on other soaps. Overall the 2000s were not kind to Guiding Light (and All My Children) especially. Once the new production model came, that was it! I didn't like that Guiding Light was cancelled, but I can't say the show wasn't asking for it in the latter years. 

For my five favourite soaps, I can pinpoint the quality decline mark for each (give or take a year or two):

GL: 1983

ATWT: 1994

DOOL: 1983

AW: 1975

Y&R: 1986

3 hours ago, Faulkner said:

What happened in 1968 to end that run?

Edit: was it the expansion to 30 minutes?

I don't think that had so much to do with it as much as it was about Agnes Nixon's departure (even though that happened in 1966). So, I probably should have said 1966. I think that's when the writing started to slip but, to be generous and fair, I'd probably extend the glory years to 1973. I just don't think the writing was consistently great after Nixon left. I think that, except for a few bad years in the mid 40s, the writing was never as good as it was under Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon. Such a difficult question. The only thing I can say for sure is that the show went off the rail in 1983/1984 and, if I could only watch/listen to five years of TGL, it would be the first five. 

25 minutes ago, ironlion said:

I grew up in a primarily CBS soap house, and my memories were of 2000s GL. I never gave the show much respect until I saw what it had been in the late 70s (with all the Roger & Holly drama)and the 90s on YouTube. I think things were pretty good up until the Reeva clone and new face Annie mess.

 

What would you all consider the definitively best period of GL, and when did it go off the rails?

In my opinion, the best period for the show was 1937-1943, 1947-1968.

That's a VERY long, consistent run of good material (except for 1944-1946). Although there were certainly some good spots in the 70s and early 80s, I think it went off the rails in 1983 and never quite recovered except for some good years there in the early 90s. 

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

I meant did they show a memorial service on screen?

There was no proper funeral. They did just get together in a bar to remember Hal.

3 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

It is fascinating, lol.

The part with Anne Award, seems like a function of just how disjointed and dysfunctional the show had become in its last 12 or so years.

I did notice during one of the GL reunion livestreams that ED kind of seemed a bit like the 'odd one out' in some of the discussions, which made me question if she had left by the time many of the other castmembers had arrived in the show. I had only caught a bit of the end of her run on GL, and then some on YT, so I was surprised to find out that she had been in the show with quite a few of the other actors since she seemed a bit distant. I don't know, maybe she's just one of those people who do the job and go home-- not really there to make friends?

 

Come to think about it, ED was in ATWT since 89 and AS left sometime in the early 90s? Colleagues have bonded in less time.  Maybe it's just how ED is personality-wise.

I went to the 50th anniversary fan gathering for ATWT and met a lot of the cast members, past and present(at the time), and she seemed the coldest and least friendly. She comes across that way in the interviews I've seen her in as well. I think it might be a personality thing. By contrast, the friendliest, by far, were Helen Wagner and Colleen Zenk. 

7 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

Here's the link:

 

https://the1a.org/segments/guiding-light/

Thank you for the link! It was great to hear a segment from a radio episode I don't have. People sadly have no idea what they missed. I think Guiding Light was at its best on radio. 

40 minutes ago, carolineg said:

 

I was shocked at how good Deidre was in the rape and Strangler stories.  She is so free of her current histrionics.  She is just very good.  She even makes lame Josh seem okay.  And she's kind of good snarking at the lame Mary recast.  I would say Don/Marlena at Kellam's will reading/trial whatever where she admits Kellam rapes her is one of her best scenes ever.

Noelle is so needed.  We find out she is scandalous and slept with Rex and we don't even get to meet her?  Fail...

Deidre Hall used to be a very good actress.

3 hours ago, RavenWhitney said:

 Gloria Monty ruined traditional daytime even if she sort of saved it.  James Reilley also ruined daytime.  Two of the worst influences on the genre ever.

ICAM

22 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

Doug Marland,Pam Long and Meredith Brown 1986 interview

This was great. Thanks for posting it, Victoria. 

11 hours ago, RavenWhitney said:

How dare Pam compare herself to Doug!  She ripped off Dallas, Gone with the Wind, General Hospital and other movies and shows for her initial GL stories.  Her OLTL and SFT stints were utter failures.  Doug had his issues but he made a huge and positive impact on The Doctors, GH, GL and ATWT; his one pock mark is Loving but that was Aggie's failure too.

I don't think I'd ever seen Pam Long before. She was quite attractive but delusional if she thought she was as good as Marland. I kind of blame her for the beginning of the long, slow demise of Guiding Light. 

48 minutes ago, John said:

I wonder if she goes off to see Maggie & Summer?

Is Maggie off the show?

I looked up who was in charge when she was on the show and, sure enough, it was Goutman. From everything I've heard and read about the man, he sounds like a right prick. 

On 2/26/2021 at 7:55 AM, YRfan23 said:

I have to go with the ABC soaps! I truly appreciate and have a lot of respect that they molded daytime to what it is, and got the most publicly out of the three networks. (Mainly because of Susan Lucci, and Luke and Laura etc..) but for as many times I’ve sampled episodes here and there I just can’t get into them like anything on CBS or even Days. I still respect how groundbreaking they were though! 

I agree. I sampled most of the soaps from the 70s on and I strangely never could get into any of the ABC soaps. I say "strangely" because I don't know why all the soaps I never liked just happen to be on the same network. I have nothing against the network and they all had different writers. storylines, actors, etc. The only one I sort of, kind of got into was Ryan's Hope but it was never one of my favourites. I just had an aversion to ABC soaps and I don't really know why.  

16 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Is this Melinda Fee in the United ad (it's around 10 minutes in)?

 

October 18, 1976 ABC commercials - YouTube

I don't think so. I think it just looks like her a bit. I could be wrong though. 

16 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

That's cool! I didn't know Ruth was on ATWT.

 

Anyone recall Scott Holmes first airdate as Tom?

Not sure of the actual airdate. Sometime in July, 1987. Here it is:

https://youtu.be/xags8fpJndY

15 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Probably one of the first (if not THE first ) location shoots for ATWT. In those days it would have been just visuals (no dialogue)

Interesting that two new characters were involved - obviously they wanted to push Simon and Meredith.

This was when Irna was absent and perhaps TPTB felt new characters would jazz up the show,

 

'As The World Turns' In Tenafly By ART MYERS Staff Writer

 

There was Nina Hart, a strikingly pretty 21-year-old girl, lurking in the bushes Tuesday night outside the Clinton Inn Motor Hotel in Tenafly. Out of the Inn came two people, a young tycoon type and his older-woman secretary." Nina peeps, then ducks behind a bush. A limousine glides up. The chauffeur gets out, opens the door, and the tycoon and secretary pop in. They drive away, and Nina follows the car with her eyes, looking kind of bitter. Funny goings on in Tenafly? Not only that, but all this is being recorded by two television cameras, with technicians swarming all over the place, and a big Columbia "Broadcasting System equipment van parked around the side of the Clinton Inn. This was the taping of a sequence from CBS"s daily 1:30 . p.m. serial, "As The World Turns," one of the most popular soap operas on television.

 

 Nina, it seems, is on the lam from her guardian, the young tycoon, played by Jerry Lacy, but she wants one more look at him before she leaves town. Well, that's the way it goes in daytime television. Millions of housewives take these little dramas very seriously indeed, and so do the people who make them. Said Mary Harris, producer of the show: "Daytime shows are the most vital part of television. They don't come out of a tin can from Hollywood." Someone made an injudicious remark about the "sappiness" of soap serials, provoking an indignant response from Miss Harris and actor Lacy. "These characters are not sappy," snapped Miss Harris. "They're not conceived sappilv. Thev are thought through in depth."

"The characters are very deep and are thought out," said Lacy. "There are many years of history behind them, and the viewers know it." So much for cynics about the caliber of the soaps. They work very hard and conscientiously. "Preparation is all," said Miss Harris, and the scene was one of highly organized chaos.

In the equipment van-command post nearby sat a half-dozen technicians watching a dozen screens and fiddling with all sorts of controls. Twice jet planes spoiled takes. "Non acceptable," Miss Harris told the technical crew. Someone suggested that if a jet went over next time, the actors look up and make it part of the show. The show had gone on location in Tenafly from its usual CBS Manhattan studio to gain authenticity. "You can't lick live sound," Miss Harris said, "the quality of the traffic moving in a suburban setting." They got not only an authentic inn, traffic noises, and jets, but a real life limousine driver. He was Bob Hogan of Maywood, who owns the Acme Auto Renting Co. A tall, spare man, he showed up with his limousine and uniform, and professed no stage fright. In fact, he was so relaxed in getting out of his car to let in the tycoon and secretary, that Cort Steen, director of the show, drew a laugh in the equipment van by saying, "Come on, Mr. Hogan, this is only a half-hour show."

 Two other actors in the serial, Santos Ortega and Henderson Forsythe, live in Tenafly, but they weren't in the sequence. In addition to the jet problem, there was the cigar contretemps. At one point the tycoon takes a cigar out of his coat pocket, and the secretary lights it. In the van they were seen to giggle momentarily, but Miss Harris, worn down by the jets, okayed the shot, saying, "We can live with it." "Sorry about that," Lacy explained later. "The cigar had broken in my pocket, and when I pulled it out it was onlv half a cigar." ""it'll be all right," said Miss Harris, looking wan.

Wow. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about ATWT history but I've never heard of those characters before. What year is that from? Do you know? 

No soap will beat Guiding Light's 72-year run. Maybe The Archers. But, of the shows still on the air, the last one I'd like to see still standing would be Days. Even if I can't personally stomach it currently. It's a sentimental favourite.