Love of Life Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

Thanks. They layered that look on Audrey Peters. I guess that was "the" look, as Erika Slezak and Gillian Spencer were stuck with that too. I love the raised eyebrow from Ron Tomme.

[Matt]

Call me crazy, but I've always thought Ron Tomme was hot. Apparently I'm not the only one because I tweeted Dana Delaney once to ask about her best memory of her time on Love of Life and she tweeted back that it was how hot her father on the show was and how she had a crush on him. lol And, actually, in that last picture he seems to favor Don Stewart a lot IMO.

[saynotoursoap]

You are not crazy at all. I found Ron very attractive, too. He performed a scene on Ryan's Hope with his shirt off, and as I recall, he had a nice physique.

At least Dana has one positive memory of the series. I like her, but in the past, she has been fairly critical of soaps.

Edited March 2, 2013 by saynotoursoap

[DRW50]

I never knew Delaney spoke of soaps at all. Her ATWT run was a poor period for the show but I wish I'd seen some of her LOL run.

Tomme was a very attractive guy, good build, without showing off the way some soap actors did in that era (not that I'm complaining). There were usually a few photos of him in soap magazines jogging or bicycling.

Edited March 2, 2013 by CarlD2

[saynotoursoap]

Dana was on the Tonight Show in the late 1980s. I cannot remember if it was during China Beach or when she made that film noir/ sex mystery with Doug Savant and Erika Slezak's husband. She was on Carson promoting something, and he asked her about her soap career. She commented about how soaps teach good actors bad habits such as overly dramatic pauses, stammering, and inserting "ahs" and "uhs" into the dialogue. Her attitude was disheartening to me, and one star (Jeanne Cooper, I believe) ripped her a new one in the press. She was young and just coming into acclaim for her Colleen McMurphy role, which in her defense was probably more challenging an assignment than Love or Life or World Turns. However, I felt she was being too harsh, as her experience is not the only one. I have far more respect for someone like Larry Hagman who always applauded his soap career as being an excellent training ground. It is all about attitude. Perhaps hers has mellowed through the years as she understands the business better.

[DRW50]

I never knew about that. She's had just about nothing but crap roles since China Beach, so that might have opened her eyes a little.

One thing I always enjoy about Jeanne Cooper is she speaks her mind without getting crazy and nasty. There's no real middle ground with a lot of soap people now who yell on Twitter.

[DRW50]

March 1974 TV Radio Mirror

[DRW50]

March 1975 TV Radio Mirror

[DRW50]

I don't want to clutter up the thread with one clip after another, so I'm just going to post a link to Chandler Hill Harben's Youtube channel - he has uploaded the final episode, one of the final episodes, and two short clips, one featuring a young Dana Delaney.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheChandlerHH?feature=watch

[Matt]

Oh. My. God.

I just so giddy right now I can't see straight. Love of Life has always been one of those old soaps that I never got a chance to see, but kinda fell in love with via reading all the old SOD recaps. I never thought I'd ever see the final episode (or any full episode from the later years). And the FULL and COMPLETE final opening!

[DRW50]

I'd seen the opening but never these two episodes. Actually, three - there's part of a third.

It looks like a show in transition, which makes me even more annoyed by the cancellation. I feel like a lot of these last episodes revolved around out of control men and the scared women who love them (Ben, Ray), or who don't (Elliot). I'd like to see them in other stories. I think Gittana/Birgitta is charismatic even with that unfortunate hair, but I don't enjoy seeing her basically act out nothing but scenes of being terrified of the man she loves. I'm very impressed by Lloyd Battista's work, but then in various scenes he's just shouting and being violent much of the time.

Who was April? Was she Arlene's daughter with another man?

I guess Bambi was a supporting presence by the end.

Betsy seems to be a little too wan to be a main heroine, but I do wonder what would have been in store for her if the show had continued.

I was happy for the little things, like seeing Arlene's mother Carrie (I wasn't sure if she was on the show at the end), and seeing Vanessa's gorgeous kitchen.

Probably the most interesting part for me was LIanne. I'm glad we got to see a short clip of her at her very 70s apartment, with her sister, who apparently was introduced soon before the show ended. I wonder what the plans were for her.

CHH is an interesting physical contrast to Ben's family, but he's very charismatic. I can see why he was hired. I don't know how well he works with Betsy though.

Not crazy about the snake on a boat sequence.

[~bl~]

The whole what happened off camera was the real show. Now I'm interested in dirt about a soap I never watched LOL.

[dc11786]

April Joy Slater was Arlene's daughter with Ian Russell, her top client when she was prostituting herself. To make everything even more skeevy, I believe Ray was her pimp. When Arlene was a hooker, she was in love with Tom Crawford. I don't really remember when the show switched from Arlene / Tom to Arlene / Ray. The evolution of Ray as a leading figure is bit before its time. It's reminiscent of soap's mob love in the 90s and 00s.

Regarding transition, the cast had gotten pretty big. I imagine some cuts would have to be made. It kills me to know Abbi was dumping Tudi Wiggins almost as much as that Raxl hairdo they had Meg in during the Tuesday episode. Considering how quickly the show was cancelled, I would love to know if Marcus kept any unproduced scripts / breakdowns / story projections.

Bambi's story had just wrapped up that week. Marcus wrapped up Tony's Vietnam child plot, the one I assume she planned to use on "Days" with Chris Kositchek, by sending Tran, the Chans, and Kim out of town. She just didn't have any real story in the final episode.

The plans for the Wilson sisters appeared onscreen. Kelly Wilson was set to be involved in a love triangle with Wes Osborne, Mia's brother who was DJing at the disco in the Dana Delaney clip, and Cheryl Kingsley, who may have been the blond dancing at the disco in the clips. With Meg set to depart, Lianne and Tom would probably been presented with another obstacle. Andrew Marriott had a crush on Lianne so I suspect that may have gone somewhere.

[DRW50]

July 1961 TV Radio Mirror

[Matt]

Chandler Harben has uploaded more videos! One is a collection of full scenes featuring 2 scenes with Ben & Betsy (1 fight about her refusing to sleep with him & him storming out; 1 scene between them in the hospital right after the boating accident); 1 scene with Mia (arguing about Mia's phone call to Betsy at the cabin immediately before the accident); and 1 scene with Meg (who's in the hospital after her fall down the stairs when she learns that Leanne operated on her).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vSHIxq_5XY

The second video is a re-uploading of a previous video he'd uploaded to another account featuring a fight between Ben & Betsy and a physical fight between Ben & Elliot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVEHk2E3RD8