SFK

She was a very lovely soap matriarch. Strong, elegant, graceful, cool but not cold. It's funny, I was asking a friend if he remembered Capitol and he was like, "Ohhhh yeahhh, with Carissa, and you know Carissa is Stephanie now on The Bold and the Beautiful." Isn't that funny how our minds work?

There was of course a lot of on-location stuff in the pilot movie, but I also liked the more grainier filmic look of the in studio scenes in the early episodes. I guess you could say Y&R had a similar look at the time, before soaps took on the brighter, sharper soapy look we're most familiar with. WoST had an ep from '82 where Julie was despondent over something involving Tyler and there was a lengthy on-location sequence of her crying in her Porsche driving around the streets surrounding the Capitol. Most soaps would have put her in a car rocked by stage hands in front of a blue screen, but to fly her and a crew out just for that? It isn't hard to imagine how Conboy spent money like water.

"We musn't raise our voices. We should have music!" Camptastic. This article definitely jives with other accounts of CAP that I've read. I still wish I could see more of the early days, the later stuff is what's survived in tape trade for the most part. I would like to know how long (if long at all) it was before a. we saw Paula beyond being referred to/hearing her playing, and b. before she removed her veil. Reminds me of that lady on Y&R.

Yeah, I guess that's where Conboy first worked with Constance.

Yes, Trey was early thirties and Clarissa was latest forties/early fifties. Tyler and the other boys would have had a fit had she started dating Trey and Myrna would have flipped her wig (literally).

Oh GMAFB. How desperate and cloying. Get over yourself Stefani.

Indeed, AMS, Stacie Mistysyn (Caitlin) started way young playing Lisa on KODS. I think her first episode is when her brother Noel (who looks something like EricMontreal ) has a big problem with their widower dad getting remarried. I'm forgetting her name, but you know the black girl from Jr. High (her real-life brother plays the little nerd with glasses)? She has a much bigger role in KODS and she and Lisa are best friends. There's one episode where they are fighting over a pet rabbit named Rabbit they "share" and why do they let that poor rabbit get killed by a dog? It's not funny, but it kinda is, their bickering gets in the way and they leave Rabbit's cage open. Also, the big girl I'm sure you've noticed, she has a much, erhm, *bigger* role in KODS too. A particularly camptastic episode about her weight where she sings a self-penned ballad, "I'm Glad to Be Me". A cute little show perfect for a rainy weekend afternoon and you will definitely have a few moments of, "I am too damn old to be watching this! " And given how spaced apart they were filmed, it's interesting to see some of the kids grow up so rapidly before your eyes.

Perhaps this is a chance to point out that, given your degree from an esteemed acting institution, I have always expected of you to write a nice little "technical" post about who are daytime's good and bad actors and why, in terms of technique, bad habits etc. Somehow it never materialized, LOL.

Aw, thanks Sylph, that sounds like fun and I wish I was passionate enough about anyone's soap acting these days to even muster the interest in that. Another problem would be my admittedly limited soap viewing, I only really watch OLTL and AMC, maybe the first five minutes of GH. But if somebody did start such a thread with some examples and their opinions, I'd definitely throw in my two cents, particularly about bad habits (mostly cliched attempts at naturalism like stammering, mumbling, affected speech patterns, and assorted actor "tricks").

I don't think I've seen that, would love to read it when you get the chance. Besides anything that's on the Megasite, I think Capitol stuff is by and large extremely rare. Anything you've got will surely be a treat.

LOL, it's like a Daffy Duck vocal quality, and something about the lips.

I wouldn't say that you need to go back and watch KODS, it's just like a cute little bonus as a fan of the Degrssi franchise. Those episodes were spaced so far apart, I think they aired like every two months or something, so they are more stand alone and VERY little kid oriented in the beginning, especially. But by the final few ones, you can see they'd really settled on their main characters and the episodes feel more serialized as it begins to feel like a working prequel for DJH. The budding romance between not-Caitlin and not-Wheels in particular.

And yes, the show is PSA all the way, no question there. They're worse than Good Times droppin facts and statistics in dialogue. The acting certainly is bad yet almost charmingly so. I find the bad acting and lame dialogue here more endearing than the strident acting and "smart, witty" dialogue in TNG (though I love that series too, and yes I am still lightyears behind in my viewing).

Keep watching the original series though, it gets good! There's some interesting Melanie/Kathleeen stuff to come (no, they do not lez out). And one of the best things about watching Degrassi Jr. and High is watching the first seasons of TNG over again and having so many "Aha!"/"OMG, lookit so-and-so!" moments.

Wow, yeah, I've never seen or heard anything about Trey and Clarissa, now THAT would have been interesting. Would have drove Myrna crazy and created a lot of drama for Trey's career (older woman) and mixed emotions for Clarissa given the two families' history. In the pilot movie, Trey's limo almost mows Clarissa down while she's out jogging and Trey makes some smart remark about one less McCandless.

If Degrassi's two Ricks had a baby it would be this guy:

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Yeah, Wheels is an interesting case. In this series and in Kids of Degrassi Street where the actor played essentially the same character by a different name (and was also paired with the actress who played Caitlin), he was written as the young, cool, rebel stud, kinda like what they were trying with Rick. Then Wheels got glasses and whatnot and he became weird and sorta dark, they totally flipped his original type and intent.

The hair on that Krystle doll is amazing. It would be too perfect if Alexis' hair was removable revealing thin, flowing brown hair under a wig cap.

These definitely look more Barbie in the face but less creepy than the Alexis and Krystle dolls released in the '80s.

How was her accent? I'm imagining Tina with a Carmen Duncan thing going on and it's not really workin'.

Call

Gordon Gartrell

^^ "♫Dack! Dack! He's a Lego maniac!♫" Remember those commercials? They had Dack, Zack, and Jack... all Lego maniacs.

Eben

I've also read her say that she's a big fan of Stephanie on B&B. Yeah, she (like Carol Burnett) wanted to do something diva-like. Carol went along with Agnes' idea, but they could (and should) have indulged Aretha if she was interested. A bird in the hand... I wonder if they've approached her recently. Here you have a living legend, the Queen of Soul more than willing to do something but they'd rather dig up bodies from the TGIF graveyard.

Cillian

Argh! Good news and bad news. The same very kind fan who uploaded Emerald Point NAS has also uploaded Bare Essence the series. However, it's dubbed in German so if you don't speak it I hope you're good at reading lips. You can kind of follow along. I refuse to look such a gift horse in the mouth though, such a rare treat.

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Sarah Vaughan put her foot in that song. The opening shots of the mansion are so Dynasty. I swear Jessica Walter pulled that cigarette out of thin air. Everyone is so young and beautiful.

With her Elvis popped collar.

Yeah, LW had her snotty, red-faced, angry quivering lip cry perfected way back then. I never had reason to dislike her, still don't, but when I do catch her on GH she's never using her indoor voice and always seems to be nagging somebody.

LOL, it's funny how she gets such hate around here, I think the things that were a bit "much" about her back then we had no idea would still be going strong. I'm not sure anyone would havge guessed that she would have had the soap career she has. Not that she's bad, but I don't think we held much hope that Loving actors would get a fair deal.

Actually, no, I'd never seen that article. Episodes is the best! It's funny because I believe back then they advertised that you could buy all the back issues and there was even a nifty holder to keep them in. Or maybe I'm confusing that with another magazine. I don't remember that Kate fantasy though I think I read about it. When I think of Kate, my mind mstly goes to her with her head in a scarf when she was battling cancer or earlier scenes of her and Roya-Ava in her mini-power suits and little veiled hats. And then her and Louie.

Does anyone else remember that there was a painting in the Alden mansion- I can't remember if it was of Isabelle or of Cabot and Isabelle- but it was in the main living room and that they made 3 different versions of the painting while each actress played the part? Can someone back me up or am I totally crazy?

Yup, earlier in this thread I mentioned how my mom quipped about Isabelle's face in the picture changing three and four times. It was a big full-bodied portrait of them both, not unlike Carmen Duncan Iris' portrait of her and Mac.

I wasn't really good at judging the nuances between the various Isabelles as a kid. Celeste, and I'm sure the white hair helped, had the most ethereal quality to me. I'll say this though, she did nothing in particular to annoy me, but Patricia Barry *felt* like a recast, at least to my younger mind. The way I'm almost positive Janis Paige must have really *felt* like a recast replacing Dame Judith Anderson. It was my first time noticing Patricia on the show when my mother made that comment, but she had the disfigurement story to explain her change in appearance. Of course like Max on OLTL or even Ellen Wheeler returning to the role of Marley on AW, it was weird that Augusta Dabney would return to the role as she was pre-facial transformation Isabelle, YET, she wasn't playing Isabelle when that happened, Celeste was, so it worked in it's own way.

That's a lovely apartment, Central Park West. Here's their building: http://www.thecityreview.com/uws/cpw/cpw88.html

I know she remarried to a much younger guy, don't know if they're still together. All Some questioned his intentions (see: Martha Raye).

^^LOL, makes me think of Millie Jackson (but not nearly as blue!)...

I was introduced to this lady when I woke up to the sound of her voice on my alarm clock this morning. She was singing "But Beautiful" (the version YouTube has isn't as good as the one my local jazz station was playing).

Miss Lorez Alexandria. She was sick.

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I saw a promo for Hamlet on the THIS network last week and it was nice that they billed Eileen in the commercial along with Olivier.

And of course there was Kim Hunter on EON. Would like to see Uta's work on OLTL too. Sandy Dennis was on GL before she was Sandy Dennis, but I would have loved to have seen her in some old Lemay-era AW clip. I think she would have been a fascinating Iris temp a la Carole Shelley.

Not exactly an ac-tress, but a Tony winner just the same, Jennifer Holliday appeared on Guiding Light during her Dreamgirls days and Jonathan Reiner was always shamelessly dropping hints for the GL people to send him some old tapes of her.

Lois is a huge fave of mine--and I love that televised version of Talk to me Like The Rain.You can get it on DVD as Dragon Country where it's paired with an at the time new Williams piece, I can't Imagien Tomorrow (with Kim Stanley!)

Yup, I own it! I wish Kim Stanley could have cast out those devils and knocked out at least one great soap stint. Even Geraldine Page's Loving movie appearance was greatly appreciated.

Soapsuds, did you see Stacy Lattisaw's Unsung on TV One?

I love Edna Wright's voice, but I know what you mean AMS. It's kind of like Donny Osmond when he was trying to be white Michael and even Michael himself when they got shrill in that loud early '70s music kinda way.