Contessa Donatella

Where can I read about it? I know nothing. As they say tell it to me like a 6 yr old.

Tomorrow is the Endiversary of the ABC/20th Century Fox soap opera The Best of Everything. It was a 6 month failure. I was reading a text which referred to 6 months as being the minimum amount of time a network would leave a failing soap on the air, at that time. Of course that time was 1970 when there were 19 soaps on the air. The text went on to say that soon the networks would hit upon the idea of expanding half hour shows to an hour because the risk of failure with new start-ups was so great. It's interesting to me because we now know that the idea came about because Pete Lemay didn't want to start another soap for P&G. I think they ought to have turned the problem over & looked at it from another perspective & concluded that soaps just need more time to grow an audience. And The Best of Everything was on at noon & up against Jeopardy! and there were problems with clearances because of affiliates wanting to air local news. Lastly, it was exec produced & written by James Lipton who never once was successful with a soap.

I have been behind on DAYS so I have not been reading here. Monday was odd as it was almost entirely made up of flashbacks that were new to us. But at least we found out Gwen was not being duped. And, then, oh boy, excitement on Tuesday as Nicole actually has good hair!

@Errol @TEdgeofNight I have posted no blogs, personal or otherwise.

Yes, that is exactly what I quoted, one paragraph out of an SOD article. Is there some reason you saw requiring a duplication of it? If you think something is lacking, I have all of the paragraphs with the date as well. I want to clear something up. I'm amazed that it needs clarification but so be it. When I said I could just imagine Maureen's reaction to putting part of the blame on her character for her being raped, I was using a figure of speech, colorful language, possibly evocative of a cartoon scene. So, enough is enough.

And as I noted recently Calhoun outright said that Holly was partly to blame for being raped by Roger. I think, or maybe hope, that today no producer would "blame the victim". I can only imagine that the top of Maureen's head might have blown off at that moment.

Yes, not meaning to derail the thread but WOW, no, I never heard that one! OMG! I do know that he ran into health problems & maybe that was a stressor that really created a change in him. He had problems with his heart & he seemed very preoccupied with his health after he retired. And yes, to mild-mannered, easy-going, etc. for almost all of his time.

That is what I was thinking.

And it was about darned time, too, as she was the entire reason that the Dobsons & New World went to war. The Dobsons had been told they would have 100% freedom in creating this new soap. So, when Bridget determined they could not work together & wanted to fire AHB imagine her shock that she could not do so. AHB had it written into her contract that no one could fire her but NBC. I have never understood why NBC didn't just fire her & solve the situation before it became a ridiculous war! "It was impossible for Anne Howard Bailey to get inside my head, and I could not get in her head. She has a darker view of life than I do; I think she thinks of me as Pollyanna, and I think of her as Darth Vader." - Bridget Dobson, about SB

And, Rachel's other half-sister Pammy & her dad lived in Somerset, too.

This is a little weird. I just found this YT clip Classic DAYS 1991 with the title San Cristobol etc. So, DAYS San Cristobol with an o an island. I am already aware of San Cristobel with an e and San Cristobal with an a, both islands, one AW & one GL. How the heck many soaps have an island named San Cristob*l? Is this 3 it now? Does anyone know how this name got to be so popular?!!

A very good friend online was from the Bay area & I know she watched AW BITD. She's not online anymore so I can't ask her to explain how.

Joe Willmore was EP at both ATWT & at GL & before he died he was on FB & came to my forum & he was a nice guy & very interesting to talk to, etc. And, he's in KZ's book, a real zinger of an anecdote. She & Pam & he are having a working supper together in some restaurant & they're talking about what is or isn't going to happen & Kim & Pam's pattern is to violently disagree at first & then come to terms they can both live with. During the part where they violently disagree Joe had to get up & leave the table & go outside & throw up. Robert Calhoun was half of Calhoun & Farley Granger & by most accounts was a winning EP but at GL discussing Holly & Roger & what was coming up: Pam Long asked Maureen if she'd be willing to deal with Roger & the rape. She said, "I made a big point of saying I would with the condition that Holly not be made a victim to him again." Robert Calhoun was EP then & he said, "Maureen remembered things from Holly's point of view and Michael Zaslow remembered things from Roger's point of view, but they both remembered that Roger was not completely unprovoked at the time. Holly had her share of the blame; it was not a black and white issue--not that anything justifies this kind of violence." SOD 2-19-91 The article goes on for 3 or 4 more paragraphs & it's just chilling in a kind of "blame the victim" way.

I think they really screwed up by giving us OG Teresa & letting us get comfortable with her & even liking her. Now they're going to jerk her away & replace her with someone we are pre-inclined to dislike?!! Who in hell thinks that way? Gee, now, as a show, let's make it as hard as we can for the fans to like us. I know. I've got an idea! Stupid.

That is so exciting!

It's funny. I don't remember her. And, she is quite beautiful & it is rare that I don't recall a beauty.

I just got this old Digest & this was in it. And it was on my mind. Hayes, B., of Hayes &. Hayes [Doug Williams]. (1982). A Tribute to Brenda Benet: A Memorial. Soap Opera Digest, 7(16), 132–133. A MEMORIAL Is there ever a time when suicide is the answer? When pain surpasses its own threshold? When the seductive song of death is sweeter than the cacophony of life? The chilling reply is "yes." Otherwise there would be no suicide. Not even a need for the word. Suicide happens just often enough to remind us it is the solution for some. The final bleak option to dealing with one's overburden. There is, of course, total disagreement on the moral aspect of suicide, with as many different points of view as there are religions, societies and philosophers. Some consign the perpetrator to hell's eternal fires: others respect the act as a glorification through self-sacrifice. But everyone jolts together in sudden agreement at the loss of a loved one, the sympathetic hurt, the deprivation and the frustration as the realization that a life has been snuffed out too early. Our lovely friend, Brenda Benet, apparently took her own life early last April. Of course, whenever it was it was early, too damned early. Brenda was the perfect actress: stunningly beautiful, talented and utterly capable of her craft, dedicated and responsible, and sensitive to the extreme. And there's the rub -- SENSITIVE! The best actresses are the most sensitive, you know. In order to permit audiences to see into the depths of their private emotions, to discover choice human truths, the good actresses forego protective covering. There is no other way. Either you protect your soft center with a hard shell of inhibitions or you bare your soul and take your chances. There never has been a hard actress; that would be a contradiction of terms, an oxymoron. There may be loud actresses, demanding actresses, inexhaustible workers, picky, tasteless, even hateful actresses --but insensitive? No way! And Brenda was an actress. I'm sure she was sensitive to the fact that she was admired, appreciated, loved; that she enjoyed close friendships with many, both men and women; that she was aware she was considered abundantly successful. And yet those positive components of her life and career couldn't balance out on her scale of importance. The negative tray was just too heavily weighted. Three years ago, when Brenda first came on "Days of our Lives," she still had hopes that her marriage could be saved. It could not. She watched the pieces come apart. She was not a backbiter or a griper, so she didn't talk about it. But Brenda and I worked together closely during her first two years on the show, and I say Brenda was deeply hurt by the dissolution of her relationship with her husband. Wounded, yes, but not killed. After all, she still had the wondrous product of that marriage, her 6-year-old son, Christopher. Brenda's life had come to focus on Christopher. When she spoke of Christopher, when he came to spend the day with her at the studio, when she touched him, talked to him, smiled at him, it was obvious that Christopher was the consummation, the reality, the treasure of Brenda's life. And it was beautiful. Love like that is inspiring to all who experience it. And then she lost him. With a jerking suddenness, he was dead and gone, and Brenda was embracing only his memory. Was she shattered by this? She didn't outwardly betray such impact. Instead, she consoled her grieving friends. She soothingly explained how Christopher had known he was going to die, described the ways he had let her know this, even detailed how she herself had had premonitions that he would never reach his seventh birthday. No grief, no hysterics, no anger, no tears. Enigmatically, that torturous day of Christopher's death seemed to be swept under the carpet of fate. I would have expected Brenda, the super-sensitive actress, to have been unable to control her emotions, let alone cover them. In retrospect I wish she had screamed herself hoarse, torn the drapes, kicked and stomped and pounded herself to a frazzle, cried uncontrollably until exhaustion claimed her. Because it is my opinion that she bottled up all those feelings of loss and unfairness of life, and the sadness and anger added perhaps a catalytic agent of guilt and "what if" and "why me?," and corked it up tight to put away in her pocket. But such feelings don't just go away. You must express them, face them, deal with them and admit their presence, even if you don't understand their function, before time can work its healing magic. I honestly think that Brenda -- for some reason -- didn't face her loss. And it caught up with her, blowing the cork off that bottle she had hidden away. I believe that, had she accepted her grief and anger and allowed the tears to flow naturally, her eyes would have cleared so she could see all the reasons to live now. She would have now been able to open herself to the caress of love offered by friends on all sides. And she would not have abruptly deprived the world of her own special brand of love. Many, many people loved Brenda. Not only her co-actors on "Days," and the producers and crews with whom she worked, but also her soap opera family across the land. Ever since the stunning news of her death was made public, people have been moved to write words of sympathy to Susan and me, to the producers, to other members of the cast. They've sent condolence cards. Masses have been celebrated. Poems and songs and eulogies have been composed. It's been wonderful. Wonderful, and terribly sad. We all wish we'd been in the right place at the right time to prevent her suicide. We're sorry for the anguish she felt. We wish we'd sensed something that day, or the day before, and said, "Brenda, I love you and don't want you to leave. Please, don't do this." But today each of us is older and sadder and, we hope, wiser. Perhaps we'll all be more inclined to say, "I love you and need you" to each other more spontaneously, not waiting for the look of panic that signals depression to the point of desperation. I, for one, hope so. We loved you, Brenda, and we'll miss you. Bill Hayes, of Hayes and Hayes

Out & about in the online universe I find AW fandom to be one of the most frequent & to have just large numbers of devotees. Of the so-called defunct soaps AW & EON seem to regularly lead the pack. And just for some examples of AW popularity, I run an all soaps forum on Facebook & we do polls often. The Favorite Soap poll is now closed. With 10% AW won. Coming in 2nd place was DAYS with 9%. Next GH 8%. Next OLTL, AMC & ATWT 7%. Next GL 6%. Next TX! & Y&R both 5%. 4% for PC. 3% for The City, EON & DS. 2% for B&B, LIAMST, RH, Secret Storm, Sunset Beach, SB, GEN & SOM. 1% for Capitol, Loving, SFT, The Young Marrieds, DOC, Paradise Bay & PSSN. 0% for Love of Life, Strange Paradise & Foreign Affairs. Our Best of the Best Couples Poll is now closed. Mac & Rachel of AW win with 23% of the votes! Congratulations! Now for all of the rest of the final values: With zero are Ben & Meg Sunset Beach, Alex & Iris Texas! & Trey & Sloane Capitol. With 1% each Ethan & Teresa PSSN, Frank & Jill RH, Kevin & Lucy PC, Bruce & Van LOL, Trucker & Trish LOV, Sam & Kyle GEN, Jacob & Angie The City, Eric & Stephanie B&B. With 2% Nick & Althea DOC, Spence & Iris LIAMST, Snapper & Chris Y&R. With 4% Travis & Liza SFT. With 5% Holden & Lily ATWT. With 6% Sky & Raven EON. With 7% Tad & Dixie AMC, Clint & Viki & Cruz & Eden SB. With 8% Josh & Reva GL. With 13% Doug & Julie DAYS. On a poll of Judi Evans characters AW Paulina won with 34% where DAYS Adrienne & GL Beth tied for second place & other characters were way below. And FB has about a dozen AW Only forums where the two largest have around 2400 members. Just some examples of popularity among online soap fans.

I learned yesterday that if you are over 40 you cannot donate, so that is going to cut a lot of people who might've been tested for him.

I just found out that Wendy Fishburn was a Producer at Pure Soap on E where Alina Sivorinevsky Wickham was a Writer & in 1994 she filled Wendy in on 50 years of history of GL because she was headed to NYC to work on ATWT & GL. I believe it was 1998 when Dolly the clone died.

We know CBS had that idea in 1995 but that Bill Bell wasn't interested in providing them with another.

Hmm, interesting. I think that is probably a great way of expressing what happened. Do you think there is consensus that the first nail was the unnecessary death of Maureen Bauer? I believe there is no hope of having consensus on what were the last few nails.

If that were going to happen it might need more of the fans to accept Cady McClain's Jennifer Rose. As it is now many do but I'm not sure about the ones who do not.

I believe it was CBS exec, Wendy Fischman, who created the clone story. Oh, I think CBS hated P&G so hated both GL & ATWT. GL had Rauch & MADD fighting for her till 2002 & 2005 respectively. A CBS exec Richard Mensing was a champion of GL but he answered to Barbara Bloom & then he was also gone as of 2002. Once he was gone no one at CBS liked GL, period. But, they also disliked ATWT just not quite as much. GL suffered more obviously from CBS's "new production model" but ATWT did suffer with a new narrative style. CBS had the audacity to insist they throw out the traditional tapestry philosophy of soap storytelling & replace it with what Lynn Liccardo dubbed "pod storytelling". ATWT was just bleedingo ut a bit slower. Read Liccardo's book if you have not. I was one who said the clone sounded just like Paul Rauch & later had to eat my hat because he fought tooth & nail against the clone, saying it was a story DAYS or OLTL could do but not the family show that GL was. His quote on why that was & how the show would never recover from it is quite elegant.

I don't know if it's kosher to post this both here & in the Billy Miller thread but I feel like I want it to be in the permanent thread for when people stop going to the other thread. This just slayed me. It's the tribute from Billy's mgr Marnie Sparer: I've just learned of something remarkable that they did this morning at Y&R. They took time out of the production day to let cast & crew exchange Billy Miller stories! I think we all know how important tape time is to shows today. No idea who thought of doing this or who gave it a thumbs up of approval but massive kudos!