Edge of Night (EON) (No spoilers please)

[Vee]

Good lord.

[robbwolff]

I don't think so. It was Mark Faulkner who created the Edge site. I think he also created a Somerset site. Paige Madison first appeared in mid-May 1979, followed by Owen a few weeks later. Brian and Nola arrived in June.

Wow. What an interesting find! I couldn't bring myself to watch the Locher/Goutman interview. Does anyone know if this novel was discussed?

[amybrickwallace]

[j swift]

After some recent postings, I began to watch Mansion of the Damned, which interestingly started the day after my favorite scene ever of EON, when Raven gives Jamey to April and Draper on her way out of town.  My recollection is how cruel Logan was to Raven.  Even though his anger was justified at her neglect of Jamey, telling her that she was incapable of love always felt so final and mean.

However, my attention drifted from the Mansion storyline back to the Winter Austin trial which happened earlier that year.  By the way, it is remarkable how much story was told in 1979, first Winter's trial, then we got the Paige's trial, the Mansion of the Damned, and then Margo's murder.  On Y&R that would be a decade worth of scripts.

Any way, the reason for my post was to remark on how charming Logan could be during Winter's trial.  I would encourage any soap fan to go to YT and watch April 30, 1979.  The concerned citizens of Monticello are having lunch during a recess in the trial before Winter is going to take the stand.   Cliff and Logan are at a diner .  They are secretly slipped the tape of Winter at the crime scene.  The dialogue between Logan, Cliff, and the waitress was golden.  Cliff is the ADA and he is worried about Logan trying to usurp his authority on the case because of his connection to Winter.  There is one anachronistic touch in that when Wade taped his "make out" session with a drugged Nicole and Winter, it is never referred to directly as sexual assault.  However, one scene later, we see Mike, Nancy, and Draper eating together at a much classier establishment.  Logan rushes in to try to warn Draper about the tape, but Cliff stops him, again their interplay was delightful. 

What struck me the most is that this should have been a filler episode with everyone having lunch during the trial recess, and using exposition to catch up the audience on the progress of the plot.  However, with such a capable writer and actors, you can't help but become fascinated in all of the details of the scenes and their various interactions.  The snappy reportage and the speed that they deliver lines makes it seem like a movie from the 1930s, but the content of their speech seems so contemporary, especially as they openly discuss porn. 

So good, 10/10 would recommend!

Edited September 28, 2021 by j swift

[danfling]

Logan was very charming - at least Logan #1.   Logan #2 (Tom Tammi) did not possess any charm (or the writers were not giving him any).

[j swift]

@danfling It is remarkable how much writing matters because I was never a fan of Mr Lambie on either GH or SFT.  He was always so stern and curt that I was surprised by the lightness and humor he brought to Logan.

Also, my recollection of Logan #2 was that he was on the show for such a short stint, and was clearly meant to be a spoiler for Raven and Sky, that there was no chance for him to have any rooting value.

One loose end - What ever became of Sara, Margo's British maid that had an affair with Elliott and insisted on calling him Duckie?  I miss all of the household help characters on soaps...

Edited September 28, 2021 by j swift

[Vee]

Lol this show really moves fast. I remember how they would burn through characters often from mystery to mystery but the Madisons seem fairly established and have only been on 3-4 months when Mansion of the Damned kicks off. That's a lot to take in, but Edge always did do things differently.

Logan, uptight or not, is much more attractive than Draper IMO.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Vee

[Soaplovers]

Sometimes characters that were supporting in one story became the main player in the follow up.

Bobbie Gerald was a minor player in the Emily pregnancy story..with a more supportive role in the Bryson story..before becoming a bigger player in the faux Sky Whitney story.

Same with Emily and her maid...each played a big role in future mysteries once the initial Draper amnesia story concluded(and I think the Emily thread was dropped before its natural conclusion thanks to Draper/April leaving and the writers strike).

[DRW50]

Logan is a very compelling character as he has such a rigid and damning moral code, yet his self-righteousness does not dominate him or feel like hypocrisy. I always think of those scenes where Winter was dying, and she begged him to tell her that he loved her. That was her dying wish, but, because of her actions and because of his honesty to a fault, he couldn't bring himself to say it, even as he watched her die.

[amybrickwallace]

Was Joseph Lambie not available when Logan was brought back? 

[j swift]

@DRW50 Logan was compelling.  So much so that I wish we got more backstory.

I was watching the final episode of Nadine and Raven (no spoilers), and I appreciated that at the start of the Clown Puppet Murders, Slesar still took the time to fill in Raven's backstory.  They talk about Nadine's neglect of Raven, particularly after the death of Raven's father.  We got the story that Raven was placed into a boarding school at 7, following her father's demise at 6.  We also got the other side of the tale, when Nadine defended herself by saying that she didn't wish to neglect Raven, but she was devastated by her husband's death.  That episode is a great bookend to my aforementioned favorite episode when Raven drops Jamey with April and discussed how she got her nickname.  It fills in all of the blanks of Raven's attitude toward Jamey and Logan, as well as setting up Raven's relationship with Sky and Geraldine.

However, correct me if I'm wrong, but we never got the same amount of details about Logan.  I am interested in his attachment to Geraldine.  Her desire for a replacement for Kevin makes sense, but what did he get out of the arraignment?  I want to know more about what attracted him to the lethal women he dated, as well as how he developed his Madonna/Whore complex that compelled him toward both April and Raven.  He was so much more interesting of a guy than Draper that I can see why woman were attracted to him, but it also made me wish we knew more about his motives.

@Soaplover It is funny that until I reviewed 1980, I always thought Molly was Emily's mother not her maid (she was an awfully devoted employee).  There's something so cosmopolitan about Monticello that everyone (except Nancy) had household help.  However, I was wondering what you meant about Emily's story being dropped?  Are you referring to the fact that we never saw her again after the Bryson Clinic plot?

Edited September 28, 2021 by j swift

[j swift]

One other moment of praise for Henry Slesar, if I may.

I really appreciate that he usually had multiple suspects for every crime, each with their own motives.  If you think about other soap crimes like Zach's murder on AMC, most of the other suspects were viable simply because they had the opportunity and a circumstantial motive.  But, a character like Miles was set up in the Wade Meacham case to have a propensity for jealousy, and by the time we got to Margo's murder we learned that he was fearful of developing psychosis as inherited by his mother while his water-cooler had been drugged, so there was always some doubt about his innocence as a backdrop to both cases.  

Also, he wrote great courtroom scenes.  Most soaps have a hysterical witness who spews exposition during a trial, (except for James Reilly's DAYS which oddly seemed to avoid trial scenes).  But, Slesar peppered the trials with great characters like the nosy sisters who testified against Winter Austin, or Margo's doorman in Draper's case.  In addition, each lawyer usually had a motive to win the case.  AMC/OLTL's Paul Martin never had a personal stake in Vicky's innocence during Marco's trial, but Cliff and Draper had something to prove in court which added to the richness of the outcome.  Also, the courtroom stunts were awesome, from the videotapes implicating Winter to Raven's surprise return, the events weren't telegraphed days in advance so you could predict what would happen, they were well earned surprises.  Finally, given EON's turnover in actors, the verdict was never predetermined.  Today's audience is sophisticated enough to know that if a lead character is accused of murder, there will be some way for them to be proven not guilty, but on EON anyone could be carted off to prison at anytime.   

[Broderick]

My recollection is that Logan had political ambitions, and Geraldine was keen on "sponsoring" politicians, as she'd done with her sons and with Kevin Jamison.   Logan was sort of a "distant conquest" for her.  He didn't actually move in right away; that only occurred after he gained full custody of Jamey.  He found himself having to hire an arsenal of babysitters, and Geraldine said, "Why don't you and Jamey just move in with me?" So he did.  

I don't believe he really had a madonna/whore complex.  Rather, he stumbled into the Raven Trap before he realized how "terrible" she was.  Once he and Draper became closer friends, and he began spending time with Draper and April, he appreciated more that a man could have a decent partner.  And then of course when Draper was presumed dead, Logan comforted April and fell in love with her.  By then, he'd long since washed his hands of Charlotte's Web.  

I wish I could recall more about Nadine Alexander Scott's initial exit in 1977.  "French Fan" has been posting detailed summaries of the 1977 storylines, but there's no real mention of Ansel and Nadine moving to England.  According to the summaries, the Tony Saxon criminal case ended, Ansel Scott collected a big check, learned he'd lost his position in New York, dallied with Raven, married Nadine (who was wise to the fact that Raven was flirting with Ansel).   Then suddenly there was no more mention of Ansel and Nadine.  Clearly they'd moved to London, but it's not specifically mentioned in the summaries.  But there IS a detailed recap of a 1977 scene in which Nadine accuses Raven of "always going after her men", and Raven begrudgingly admits it's because Nadine "took my father away from me".  Nadine basically explains to Raven that "your father never really wanted you, Raven.  I didn't take him away from you; he just didn't want you.  It's that simple", and that's a scene that I'd really like to see.   

 

[j swift]

I've fallen into a EON homepage wormhole of 70s recaps and @Broderick, @DRW50, and @Soaplovers I need your help.

1. Did the Forrest Compton also play Ray Harper, Timmy's uncle and

Please register in order to view this content

2.  What happened to Nicole's baby Adam Jr.?  One minute Miles is saving him during childbirth and then they never mention him again in 1978.

3.  This may be a relic of the times and their antiquated terms, but was Kevin impotent or sterile?

[DRW50]

I can't remember about Adam Jr as it's a later plot point that Nicole and Miles want a baby. I think maybe he's just offcamera?