Bill Bauer

Days of Our Lives. It was so incredibly good in the 70s and early 80s but then it got so bad that I jumped ship for ATWT and GL. When those got cancelled, I tried going back to Days because I missed watching a daytime soap but it was as bad (actually worse) as I remember it being in the mid-to-late 80s. So I didn't stick with it long. Since then, I'll go back to it periodically hoping it will be good but it never holds my interest for long. I really want it to be good. It just seems to get worse and worse. 

6 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Wow, the SoapClassics people had the rights to 12,000 episodes of As The World Turns?? Seems like P&G pulled the plug before the SoapClassics people even had a real chance!

 

It's ironic that a company that produced and brought us so many great shows ended up killing them and seems intent on keeping them buried. 

The worst I've ever seen in the history of soap operas was James Lipton as Dick Grant on The Guiding Light. He wins the Emmy for Best Use of the Teleprompter. 

On 12/19/2020 at 10:57 PM, DramatistDreamer said:

The affair between  Hal and Margo was seen as a way to fill in the storyline gap left by GM's exit. HBS explained that since no one (including Marland) believed that Margo would truly cheat on Tom, since Margo was so "crazy in love" with Tom, Marland wrote the beginning of the affair as initially being a result of Margo being drunk (I don't remember this, but I was a child at the time this storyline originally aired and unfortunately, like most of the juiciest ATWT episodes, it's not on YT) because Margo could not have been sober and cheated on Tom.

If you're referring to the time they first slept together, I don't think she was drunk. It's actually on Youtube and her motivation for having sex with Hal was portrayed as her grieving over Craig. 

I think death is a big part of soap opera so I very rarely have a problem with soap characters being killed off. The only exception I have to that is when major historic characters are killed off to give lazy, uncreative writers an excuse not to bring them back on canvas. Days has been very guilty of that in recent years with David, Bill, Laura, et al. 

37 minutes ago, AlexElizabeth said:

Right? I want to see JJ realize that the girl he was crushing on is his long-lost sister, lol.

It probably wouldn't matter to him. After all, this is the show where people fall in love with serial killers. They could be the new supercouple. 

6 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

 Corday gave an interview a few months ago in which he said that he's stepped back for the most part and left Ron to his own devices.

So he's abandoned all hope and jumped ship?

9 minutes ago, asafi said:

TPTB just killing off Hortons one by one.. sad. 

 

I really don't think DOOL will survive onscreen for too long.. 

I can't believe I'm saying this but, at this point, just pull the plug and put it out of its misery. 

Wow. They're going to kill a character that's been a part of the show since 1966 for the sake of creating storyline for a character who will be forgotten this time next year? Of course, nobody really dies on Days but Laura might be in danger of staying dead since the current writers and producers seem intent on erasing Hortons and history. I tuned in to see Laura and I can't believe this show is still on the air. The writing and acting are horrible. 

17 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

 

Way back in the 60's on TGL, Julie Bauer (Hope's mother) committed suicide whilst institutionalized.

Just a year later, Robin Fletcher committed suicide. That was a pretty big deal because she was a MAJOR character and had been born and grew up on the show. 

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

What I loved about the P&G universe back in those days- Doug Cummings gets killed off the show but John Wesley Shipp is on Secret deodorant commercials that air during ATWT and probably during GL too.

 I'm going to say this again, Donald Trump had to be the prototype for Tad Channing, I don't care what anyone says. Venal, charlatan in real estate related building, super-aggressive with women, to the point of criminality, not to mention, broke.

I was just watching the episodes leading up to Tad's murder. He attempted to rape two different women in the same evening (Sierra, Meg). Really, dude? It was like he was trying to rack up as many criminal offences as he could before heading out. It's really hard to believe Iva would have gotten involved with someone like that even if she was young, naive and suffering from low self-esteem. 

2 hours ago, Mitch said:

James never had a sense of humor and was never fighting for something like his company or family like Alan and Alex did...so he was better as a short term villain.

I have to disagree with you there. Although it was very dry, I thought James had a good sense of humour. Also, in the early years, James was fighting for the Stenbeck fortune. He was also always fighting for Paul. 

52 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

90s ATWT is not as clear for me as mid to late 80s, which still seems vivid in my memory.

That's because it was MUCH better. 

16 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

I get that Stenbeck was originally meant to be a goner in '83 but his return in '86 was done so well-- probably the best written and executed return of a character that I have seen on a soap. So, I get that the temptation was there for another writing regime to bring the character back but by the end of the 90s, the writers knew so little about that far back in the show's history that, honestly, they should've just left it alone. The last regime to write him, wrote him as a complete caricature.

I couldn't agree more. They should have left him dead back when Paul shot him. And I really enjoyed the character/actor. 

Just my opinion but I thought Hugh Marlowe was a horrible actor. He delivered his lines like he was a sports broadcaster or something. He was monotone and, as others have pointed out, always flubbed his lines. I didn't necessarily dislike him, I just found him kind of grating. I think they should have gotten rid of Jim instead of Mary (although I don't think they should have gotten rid of either). 

4 hours ago, Mitch said:

Calla had herpes...that was the big secret. I remember the hilarious scene of Jessie reading her medical report (Cedars had the worst patient privacy policies on earth) and the zoom in to "Herpes" and she ran out into the street and may have been hit by a car (or the audience was hoping that) and maybe she just went running around SF until boring Simon caught up to her.  Calla was just one of those extra characters not needed on the show, like the whole Sampson crowd with the record company that stayed too long ..again, if they needed someone in that age range to pair with Ross, why not recast Hope??? Especially with Alan returning.

It was syphilis. Not that it matters much. 

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

I had no idea that Kim and Betsy were even close till 1996...when Kim and Susan were arguing over Dani.

 

Betsy/Susan was something that never was explored....and would have mined some good story since Betsy's mom Liz and Susan didn't like one another....and didn't Susan leaving the baby gate open by mistake cause Liz's unusual death?

Yes, she did. The best material available out there to show the closeness of Kim and Betsy's relationship is the 1979/1980 series of episodes. The way they clung to each other after Dan's death was pretty poignant. 

8 hours ago, Mitch said:

Agreed..it was at the point in the show that all the families had equal time and they all "worked" together...Reardon's blue collar...Bauer's upper middle class professionals, Lewis'  "neuvo riche" as Alex would love to say, Spauldings and Chamerlins...rich aristocratic and dysfunctional.  The forumla should never had changed. Anway..the storyline itself while as you said, very premise was absurd it was a good tight mystery (and it didnt hurt to have Mr. Tony Reardon in the center of it all..)

LOL. I can just hear Beverlee McKinsey saying "nouveau riche". Only she could say it in a manner that would deliver all the term's implications. 

On 12/26/2020 at 12:55 AM, DRW50 said:

Is the first old woman in this ad Kate Wilkinson (Viola Stapleton)?

 

 

Sure does look like her. I'd put my money on "yes". 

On 12/26/2020 at 4:51 AM, DynamiteKiddo said:

  On today's episode, Marlena, a psychiatrist, rape survivor herself, and Allie's grandmother, coaxing John to cut Steve slack was really mind blowing. 

Well, this is a woman who was one of Ben's biggest supporters even though she was stalked by a serial killer who killed her twin sister and had a cousin killed by another serial killer. She's either the most tolerant woman in the world or has a very bad memory. 

2 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

The past with Grant.

Ok. Thanks. I don't know anything about that. Grant wasn't well-liked?

On 12/19/2020 at 12:06 PM, Soapsuds said:

 

5. The tension during the four musketeers reunion was heavy.

 

Why do you think there was tension?

2 hours ago, Sean said:

This would have been in August 1978 - it was the cliffhanger for episode #810 (OAD: 08/18/78).

 

On YouTube:

 

 

Wow! That's it! Thank you so much for that, Sean. I can't believe I remember that scene from my childhood although I remembered it just a bit different (of course). It must have been one of those 70s soap moments that traumatized me. There were several. Even as a kid, I couldn't figure out how the knife went in the way it did. As an adult, the physics are even more puzzling. I remembered it as the knife laying on the counter with the blade outward. I guess that's how my child's mind made sense of it and remembered it. Looking at that video, I'm not sure how she went from cutting sausage to stabbing herself in the stomach. Even with the jolt. 

40 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

 

Yes... Faith was pregnant..and was making sandwiches on Pat and Nancy's boat.  There was a jolt on the boat and she fell forward onto the knife.

 

I think this might have started her husband Tom's descent into villain territory 

Nice to know my imagination isn't as morbid as the writer's. Thank you for the information, soaplovers. I knew someone here would be able to help me. Do you have any idea of the month/year of that episode? I'd like to try and find it on youtube or something.

I watched the chat even though I was a very casual watcher of Ryan's Hope and I really enjoyed the interview. The people interviewed seemed very likable and down to earth. 

I have a question for Ryan's Hope aficionados: Does anybody remember a storyline where a pregnant woman was on a boat and fell onto a knife on the counter when the boat started rocking causing a miscarriage? I remember this very vaguely from my childhood but don't know if I imagined it. That seems very gruesome. 

8 hours ago, j swift said:

I just read an excerpt of Helmet Burger's memoir in one of the British tabloids (he played De Vilibis).  He noted being miserable playing the role that he felt was too melodramatic.  He was having addiction issues that plagued him until his death and Joan Collins later wrote in one of her memoirs that she did not like working with him. 

He's not dead.

2 hours ago, adrnyc said:

Being in the industry, if you want to continue to work, you don't trash work you've done before. It's seen as "negative" in the industry and few want to work with "negative" people. Plus, unlike most of this board, some people prefer to carry with them the positive memories of their lives and let the not-so-positive go. It's much healthier that way. Y'all might try it. 

I tried it but reality kept getting in the way.