Contessa Donatella

I know everyone's seen it & it's not even AW but it came up this weekend, Connie Ford's most famous slap ... in A Summer Place

One Man's Family 10:30 Mar-Jul 54; 3 July & Aug 54; 3:30 Aug 54-Apr 55 The Brighter Day 1 Jan-May 54; 4 Jul 54-June 62 ; 11 June-Sept 62

I really enjoyed the "different" episodes that GL did. The in depth character-based Wednesdays varied. Some were excellent & some not so much. The episodes about outreach into the community where GL helped build Habitat houses were very interesting to me. The one of the Gulf Coast was the most interesting but it was also the one they spent the most time with. Similarly, I enjoyed the Marvel crossover event. Just last week I was looking on the web to see if I could find the drawings that Shawn Reeves did of various Marvel characters besides Harley's. Didn't find them. I also really liked the production video they did of Springfield "Cops". I am aware though that more fans online did not like this stuff than did. There's no way to do things like this without it taking you out of the moment. If you consider it enhanced content & just slip back into the moment the next day, fine. If you don't, problem. Another thing they could do is produce such content & put it up on their website, as an Extras tab or as a Webisode. Largely I think now that the soaps work so fast that there's no room for "extra". As far as the classic things that are done on Friday, compared to other days, I watch DAYS & GH & both of them are guilty of paying no heed to what happens on what day. They also do not respect that certain stories DO get followed up the every next day. For example right now on DAYS EJ has decided to seek vengeance for his mother's death which happened months ago. Supposedly it is because he's been having dreams about her. In actuality they're doing it now because they're going to reveal her as alive. I remember we used to complain that we only got to see the POC on Tuesday & Thursdays on DAYS - Lexie, Abe, Theo, Celeste. And last year Challie fans complained that we only saw them once a week, usually Wednesday. Neither of them are classic uses of those days.

A bit of clarification about network expansion that came up in CBS Daytime ... Here Paul is quoting Harding Lemay's book EIGHT YEARS IN ANOTHER WORLD. So, the idea to expand from 30 minutes to an hour came from Pete Lemay & once NBC was on board Lin Bolen spearheaded the drive to make it so.

Okay, I just looked up all of these. (Schemering & Hyatt) What I said about 11:30 & Lunch doesn't hold up. Love of Life was just the exception to the rule where MOST morning soaps failed & it did not. Ben Jarrod 1st regular use of color. DAYS first to debut in color & always be in color. Morning Star & Paradise Bay early use of color. Moment of Truth B&W. Hawkins Falls 5 first but then 11 The Bennetts out of Chicago 11:15 Follow Your Heart 11:45 Three Steps to Heaven 11:30 One Man's Family 3 A Time to Live out of Chicago 10:30 Way of the World 10:30 Clear Horizon 11:30 The Brighter Day 1 pm & then later in the afternoon. It has an interesting epigraph. The show began each day with "Our years are as the falling leaves. We live, we love, we dream & then we go. But, somehow, we keep hoping, don't we, that our dreams come true on that brighter day." Loving 11:30 then 12:30 Texas! 3 then 11 Love of Life 12:15 then noon then 11:30 then 4

Agree.

A compilation of Slaps by Carrie, 1995-2012. Most are Sami slaps.

Now, see, I thought TB was again excellent today & I love the way they let her drop a bomb in the last 2 minutes of the show. I thought it was very dramatic. Also very Ava that she lied to Marlena. Harris, no matter what I just tolerate him. Loved all of John Doe but most especially song & dance time with the Hayes! Loved Doug saying he did not need the wheelchair. Always love the line, "Black Patch is on the case." I hope they explore John Doe knowing John's father instead of ... making him John's father. Great episode. Oh, yeah, yesterday I had to re-up my Peacock Premie sub which I guess is going on with most DAYS fans right now so I bet we are on Peacock's mind! Just 8 days away from 1 year anniversary! I wonder if the day will be celebrated.

I know. I'm so excited. I almost watched it earlier tonight. Too silly.

For a long time I've just ended up in positions to talk to people, or for them to talk to me. Probably the earliest was Lisa Rinna when she was on DAYS & first began dating Harry. Then I was one of the AW fans online who were activists trying to keep the show on the air. We ended up being in contact with Charles & Victoria & Linda Dano & others. We were successful in getting JFP not to kill Donna Love but we failed at Frankie Frame. Then 3 of us raised $5000 for the AW Fan Bench in Central Park & from that came short-term talk that was behind the scenes talk with Anna Stuart, Stephen Schnetzer, Linda Dano & Larry Lau. From late 1998 to July 2005 I lived in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, which is one neighborhood over from Park Slope on one side & Prospect Park on another side. My partner was a member of the soap press assigned to cover one of the NY soaps, so I came to know many actors & a writer & some other production people from that show. And actors from the other 3 NY shows. And members of the soap press. Behind teh scenes soap talk was just a regular event. About a half dozen close friendships remain from those NY years. Now, besides contact with those people it's mostly online via DM or PM, etc. Learned from Patrtick Mulcahey that the TEXAS! writers were put to work writing for AW before the new show was ready for them but they don't show up on any lists so are not credited with the work. And also that IMDb & wikipedia are rife with errors that are hard to correct. Learned from him that Mary-Ellis Bunim got a negative reputation she did not deserve at SFT but that she would not defend herself. Learned from him that he seriously thought someone would kill Paul Rauch. Learned from Jean Passanante that she & Leah Laiman thought Lumina was a strange story to be telling at AW. And, from her that the ABC HWs hated writing Rae Cummings into their stories & resented Shapiro making them do it. Learned from Carolyn Culliton that Lorraine Broderick retired & then that she & Richard retired a few months later. And from her that she was not in the Writers' Room the last days of AW because she was a daily script writer. And from her that Gary Tomlin & Sam Ratcliff came up with the gorilla for the 2-day finale & that she "effin hates" being memorialized forever as Carolyn the gorilla but that one of those guys is godparent to one of her children & the other one she just loved so she's okay with it. Back in NY, one night after seeing Alan Rickman in Noel Coward's PRIVATE LIVES, we went to Joe Allen's for supper & to wind down & Anne Heche's party from PROOF was seated right beside us. Needless to say I spent the entire time nodding as if I was paying attention but really just straining to overhear everything they said. Awful I know.

DAYS: One thing we're not going to get out of the Victor Kiriakis funeral or other onscreen tribute time is his son, Bo. Right, Peter Reckell will only be shown in flashback & not much of that. This is a Bo/Victor tribute video that a fan did. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0d0Z-Y2TDU&t=225s

Generally when people speak of there being no successful morning soap, they don't include 11:30 because that's considered lunchtime. And, people tend to look at 11:30, noon, and 12:30 together. Obviously literally you are correct because it is morning so it's a bit of a liberty being taken. Happy Anniversary, today, to CBS's 1st successful soap, Search for Tomorrow.

I thought moving it was actually in story! And I definitely remember that Vicky was the adopted child of people who Bridget worked for in the original iteration!!

@Neil Johnson LOL! Oh, yes, the OK farm "movement", so absurd.

There was a swing set on the playground in Lassiter, PA that Vicky & Jake would go to, as a special place where they would go when things were awful. And in an incredibly stupid move the show had them move it to Bay City.

And he had it in his head that Jake was this debonair Cary Grant type & he changed Jake! Jake was blue collar, grew up rough, always defensive, had a chip on his shoulder that defined him. Savitz fired almost as many people as Jill did! You are right that she was NBC's pick. She was so hated by the online fans that she apparently got death threats & took them seriously & hired a bodyguard for the annual fan luncheon. When was it that they moved the swing set from PA to Bay City?

That sounds perfectly logical. Imagine a new soap, perhaps in 2024. In a way Amazon is doing a new streaming soap with Neighbours & that is happening right now.

I have been very critical of Michael Malone's AW 6 month tenure. One thing I found out tempered that somewhat. Apparently everything he pitched got shot down. (That happened to Labine at GL with Rauch.) When that happens it is a sure bet you have an ineffectual tenure. It is an absolute fact that P&G and the Dobsons were on board with them coming to AW in 1993 but that NBC blocked it. So even when they, meaning P&G, were ready to do the right thing, it didn't work out. And, it is known that as early as Swajeski's tenure NBC wanted AW off the air so a part of P&G's time & energy constantly went to fighting to keep the show on the air. If it sounds like I am an apologist for P&G, in a way, I am. But I do also believe that Malone was only VERY successful once & that was when he & Josh Griffith were co-HWs *and* had Linda Gottlieb as EP. I think all 3 of them were required for that magic to happen. Often I find people forget about Gottlieb.

Well, she did say that some jelly beans are very expensive & you have to sell enough jelly beans, yadda yadda. Wink Wink RKK wanted bucks.

Great idea!!!

Well, not totally, no. She had a mandate to cut the size of the cast & make it younger. She started out to kill Donna & Tom Freeman found out & got Eddie & fans mobilized to campaign against it & it was one of those rare fan campaigns that prevailed. We saved Donna. But, then she had to find someone else "big" to kill & she ended up putting it to that focus group to decide between Frankie & Paulina. And, also by that time she needed salary to cover RKK, also. She probably would have killed her even if she hadn't needed money for RKK. She had a goal of cutting the size of the cast & she was a demon when she had a goal! I believe she cut 11 people & only hired on maybe 3 - RKK & Tito & Remy ... oh, and Sergei, so that's 4. I guess she only "netted" 7. @Xanthe Hmm, without people of color till the Marshalls & the Burells, right?

Frankie Frame, too, when the focus group perspective was misapplied it could take someone not front burner at that moment who had been front burner for 3 full years before & misjudge that they weren't a popular valuable character! Jill used focus groups to decide about both Mo Bauer & Frankie.

Elsewhere I did a post that began: 53 yrs ago, in 1970, there were 19 soaps on the air. 1976 there were 15. 1989 there were 12. 2005 there were 9. 2007 there were 8. and so on. The thrust of it is how high the stakes are today when we desperately need some reinventing changes but probably people are too afraid to make bold moves.

I never bought John with Felicia. To me it was not credible. I loved Quinn. Do we know any reason why they chose to make her a victim?

No, I think that is singular & distinct to ABC. CBS had a two tiered lineup: Bell empire & Chantilly soaps, which is what many people used to call ATWT/GL. And, NBC at best had clumps of different but complimentary & at worst were just all over the place. And, NBC hated that ABC owned their soaps & that they had that unity to their lineup. I don't know that CBS hated it, too, but I wouldn't be surprised. I believe early on that NBC wanted The Doctors & DAYS to be more like AW. Later that changed, with the Reilly phenomenon & they wanted everyone to be like him.