Edge of Night (EON) (No spoilers please)

[DRW50]

There's still a year or two before Larkin arrives. Joel is there already.

EON does noticeably youthify, although I think they carry it off. Admittedly I haven't seen most of the Jody stories, which from what people here have said aren't great.

Edited May 11 by DRW50

[Soaplovers]

Unpopular opinion: 

The focus on the soap opera tropes over the mysteries and crimes was partly what did the show in.  Also, featuring characters not involved in the legal, police, and criminal elements also hurt the show and took away what made it unique.

Featuring characters like Jody, Raven, Sky, etc hurt the show long term. 

The show ABCified starting in 1976/1977 and then went through a youthification period starting in 1981.

 

[VelekaCarruthers]

Agree on Bruce Gray as Owen; they needed to cast star power. He was too lightweight against Kim and he had no chemistry with Frances Fischer except more gay buddy or daddy figure.  I loved Nola and Eliot together though. Lee Godart should have been longer term.

[DRW50]

Joel Crothers would have been perfect as Owen (maybe because Margo wasn't too far off Denise). A shame he couldn't have played a dual role.

Eliot did have more room to grow. I wonder if whatever allegedly happened with Denny Albee played a part in both their exits.

[daysgoby]

Oh, what allegedly happened? 

[DRW50]

I can't remember exactly, but I think the claim was it involved a team baseball game.

[j swift]

Albee clashed with co-star Lee Godart, who portrayed villain Eliot Dorn

. At the time, the Edge of Night cast participated in a charity baseball league with other New York-based soaps. Albee, an American, was very competitive about the games, whereas Godart – a French actor unfamiliar with baseball – was not as skilled. Tensions reportedly flared when Albee berated Godart’s athletic performance and even mocked his nationality during these games

. Godart took offense and complained to the executive producer, who warned Albee to stop harassing his castmate

. Albee either ignored this warning or didn’t take it seriously, and continued to needle Godart. As a result, when Albee’s next contract option came due, Nicholson chose not to renew it – effectively terminating Albee’s role on the show

Edited May 11 by j swift

[DRW50]

Thanks for the fuller story. 

Steve Guthrie was a loss to the show, but I can't really blame Nicholson.

[daysgoby]

Thanks for the details.

[Soaplovers]

It's such a shame that the conflict couldn't be resolved in a mature way between the two actors.. especially since Albee was a bigger asset for the show in terms of character and his popular will they/won't they pairing with Deborah Saxon.

One of the things about Edge was that it was just as popular with male viewers as it was with women.  It's one of things I think the show forgot in the final year or two with the deemphasis on the male characters.

[VelekaCarruthers]

Head trip for EON fans and thanks to @GymnastGuy who's been posting tons of Search episodes on YouTube. 

SFT August 22 1985 episode
Executive Producer: Erwin Nicholson who produced Edge for nearly two decades; this was his last job (9 months starting March 85 through Nov).
Co -Head Writer (with Paul Avila Mayer) Stephanie Braxton who played Winter on Edge
Actors: Joe Lambie (Logan) as Lloyd; Lois Kibbee as Grandmere (she stepped in for the Maureen O'Sullivan who had played the part for a few episodes, Lee Godart (Elliot) as Bella; Louise Shaeffer (Serena/Josie) as Stephanie. Other non Edge tidbits: Audrey Peters (Van Love of Life); John Loprieno (Cord OLTL)

Of course SFT was filmed at EUE studios where Edge had taped. Most of the technical crew were Edge crew for decades.  Background music same as Edge (Elliot Lawrence productions).

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[Broderick]

I've often thought that as well.  

I stuck with EON until the bitter end, but my viewing dropped off DRASTICALLY after the Rexford Clinic storyline concluded in 1981.  

The show had always "re-grouped" fairly well after a mass exodus of cast members --- but I never felt it never made a full recovery after the loss of Albee, Frances Fisher, Joe Lambie, Tony Craig, and Terry Davis.  

Slesar seemed to have a decent storyline in mind for Raven and Jefferson Brown, but once that arc ended (and he was stuck trying to sandwich Larkin Malloy back onto the canvas), the storylines got sillier (Smiley & the Maskers), and there was too much emphasis on the trials & tribulations of Jody Travis and on the Raven & Schuyler characters.  The new writer (Sheldon) took Slesar's weaknesses to an even greater extreme, making the characters unrelatable and often cartoonish.

A return of "three musketeers" police-type storytelling would've been more than welcome, in my opinion.     

[DRW50]

Thanks for sharing. Always nice to see more of Lois. I wasn't sure if she was meant to be French or Dutch. Reminds me of when Grayson Hall would do French on Dark Shadows.

[chrisml]

Thank you for the info about SFT related to EON. I thought about adding SFT to my watch list, but I don't know if it's the kind of soap for me. I know very little about it except for a few of the actors and that it was on two different networks. I also know based on this board or somewhere else that the two Lizas both died young from cancer.

Warms my heart to see so many EON people on SFT because they are such good performers and I wish they had been moved to other shows. Perhaps, they were and I'm just not aware of it.

[Broderick]

Mansion of the Damned sure is a "talkative" horror movie.  In the past when I've watched those episodes, I was paying attention to The Edge of Night characters and not really zeroing in on the rehearsals/blocking/filming of the actual movie.  This time I've been following the plot of Mansion of the Damned pretty closely, and all I can say is Hester Atherton and Nicholas Harriman are about the most chit-chatty Witch and Devil I've ever heard in my life!