ALL: Biggest Soap Dissapointments

[sungrey]

AW: John Randolph's death. It was a big shock to open up the 90-minute format, but John's death pretty much spelled the end of Pat as a strong character.

DAYS: The whole SSK story. To leave the victims dead would have decimated the show beyond where it is now, so undoing the deaths was a no-brainer. I would have been completely uninterested in a show featuring no Maggie, no Roman, no Abe...

GL: Maureen's death. Big mistake.

As for Frankie, let's just say I cheered her death at first because I wanted Stephen Schnetzer to be free to go back to his old ways. (Plus I didn't care for Cass and Frankie, I was a big Cass/Kathleen fan from the mid-1980s.) It wasn't until the ratings plunged following Frankie's death that I knew what the old saying "be careful what you wish for" meant.

[Aback]

That's actually very bad Italian. Where did she find this article? Who are these people? If you give me some background context, I can translate it for you.

[EricMontreal22]

Lemay did try to create a new core family with the Frames didn't he--but that was another thing George hated as he had alwasy played his character as an only child--the way Agnes Nixon clearly created him and suddenly he had all these siblings (no big deal as I think he was fired very soon after anyway )

[SteveFrame]

He didn't really try to create a core family with them. While Steve was living the only ones we heard about were Steve and his sister, Emma. She wasn't on long. Then Janice was around for a very short time.

After Steve died Willis showed up but by then Emma and Janice were gone. Later Vince joined him in town. sometime during that time their niece Molly was around. But by 1980 when Janice was there all the Frames were gone but her. When Janice left we didn't have Frames for several years at all.

So even during Lemay's time with the show the Frames weren't around in big numbers. The only family that Lemay really created and boosted were the Corys.

[Paul Raven]

Biggest disappointments:

The weekly ratings-seeing the shows sinking week after week

The lack of commitment to nurturing core families(Hortons,Bauers etc)so the shows lose their identities.

The refusal to incorporate veteran actors in current stories.

The tendency to rewrite history,if it is referenced at all,rather than use it to service current plots.

The Luan/Keemo story on Y&R.Here was a chance to diversify the show and add new blood to the Abbott family.Instead we got the stereotyped sweet Luan,whose only function on the show was to be saintly,then die and the brooding,dullKeemo,who was written off never to be heard of again.

[EricMontreal22]

AH, Mr Frame Iw as just quoting from the "Another WOlrd Saga" in Laguardia's 1977 soap book which is a chapter all about ther behind the scenes drama. It says that Lemay was very eager to make the Frames a core family base don his own childoof (he came from a huge, under priviledged family) and some, mainly George felt it was at the expense of other elements. But I know you're right about that--I guess they just exagerated.

[EricMontreal22]

I haven't seen this said yet--biggest disappointment is every single hyped character I once loved, return to AMC since prob at least 2001--Maria, Julia, and Dixie prob being the worse most obvious examples -Jesse and Angie being the obvious exceptions.

[SteveFrame]

I have heard and read that before too. Harding Lemay got pretty much anything he wanted in regards to Another World. He and Paul Rauch seemed to pretty much think a lot alike. So I just have never bought into the thing that he wanted them to be a new core family because he never really had them around in a quantity enough to make them one.

Frames on during his tenure:

Steve Frame (Jul 1968 to Mar 1975)

Emma Frame Ordway (May 1972; June 1975 - Sep 1975; Feb 1976 to June 1976)

Janice Frame (fall 1972 to Sept 1974; Nov 1978 to Mar 1980) - the last of hers after he left the show

Sharlene (Sep 1975 to Mar 1977)

Vince Frame (Jan 1978 to July 1979)

Willis (Jan 1975 to Jun 1980)

Molly Ordway Randolgh (March 1976 to Decmeber 1977)

The most ever really on at one time was 3 with a short run of 4 Frames on the air when Emma paid one of her short visits back to town while her daughter Molly was still in town - making it Willis, Sharlene, Emma and Molly in town.

Since it was supposed to be a big family it was always hard to believe since they weren't around much.

[Paul Raven]

In discussing the Frames on AW,no mention has been made of Sharlene,who was on the show for about 3 years.She married Russ Matthews,thus tying those two families together.

When the Frames were re-introduced in 88,Sharlene and her daughter Josie(daughter of Russ)were the only ties to the Frames of the 70's.

How did Jason fit in?Was he just made up or a brother that had been mentioned in the 70's.Also,who was Otis Frame?

Why did Molly use that name and not her given name Rhoda?

[SteveFrame]

I mentioned Sharlene in the last post I made. She was one of the 4 Frames in town during the biggest use of them in the 70's.

Molly's full name was Rhoda Molly Ordway. She always used Molly as early as I could remember. I remember Emma brought her due to some crowd she was running with.

The only mention that I remember back then was of Molly and her 2 brothers. Later another sister was invented Frankie.

Jason was also another brother that was never mentioned and created later. Along with Dean's father Henry who was never mentioned by any of the other Frames in the 70's.

I always found it weird since Willis & Sharlene had fully explored her childhood back in the 70's and then all of a sudden there is a new created history with Jason.

I do not remember an Otis Frame at all. I thought at first he might have been Dean's dad, but then I remembered his dad was Henry. I looked it up at the Another World Home Page and they don't mention Otis either.

[Dan]

GL:

-The year 2003. The show started off the year in such brilliance and ended it as a show shattered into pieces with one of the worst stories ever on the show up to that time. I don't know about anyone else, but I had such high hopes for the show at the beginning of the year.

-Michael Zaslow's firing as Roger. Not only did the debacle keep the fans from saying goodbye to the late great Michael Zaslow and Roger, but it also inhibited what could have been one of the greatest stories in daytime history had they written Zas' illness into the story. Imagine Roger Thorpe, a man that so enjoyed controlling other people losing control of himself. Or imagine the character's reactions to Roger's illness, particularly Holly. Imagine Holly and Roger slowly coming to a place of forgiveness and acceptance. Just thinking about it gives me the chills. Sigh...what could have been.

[Paul Raven]

Steve,

re Sharlene-by the time my post went through,you had already mentioned Ms Frame!

I did some digging(AWHP) and it seems that Otis Frame is actually Vince.I guess Otis had been mentioned at some point and when Vince was introduced,it was decided to remame him,as Otis probably sounded a bit too'yokel'(nooffense to any Otis that may be reading this)

Reading about Jason,it stated that he worked for the Loves.

This is in complete violation of the previous history of the Frames.As I posted earlier,it is annoying when the writers attempt to use the past but invent stuff.If the show wanted Chris Robinson on the show,maybe he could have been Willis Frame.Willis had only been married once(to Gwen).Of course the other background stuff would have had to be changed,but he could still been involved with Mary.

As for Henry Frame,this was also the name of the Frame siblings father.It seems he was just there to be a father for Dean.As the writers had invented Frankie as Emma's daughter,could not Dean been Frankie's brother,rather than another rewrite of the Frame family tree?