Edge of Night (EON) (No spoilers please)

[cct]

Well, I had always heard that Edge of Night, or EON, was different from other soaps, what with the focus on mysteries and its popularity with males. So I've been checking it out, and I am truly hooked. I usually watch two or three an evening, as they only run for twenty minutes. Right now, Draper Scott/Kirk Michaels has amnesia and is recovering in the bed of Emily Gault while back in town, Raven Swift is trying desperately to get her child back. From what I understand, what I'm watching first aired in the spring of 1980. Although there is a little too much repetition for my liking (which I probably wouldn't mind if I weren't watching back-to-back, but day-to-day), I have thoroughly enjoyed the Mansion of the Damned and the train wreck. Looking forward to what I think will be something about a carousel, as Crazy-Dream April (as I've come to know her) has been tossing and turning in her sleep again.

[Matt P.]

Even though I wasn't born when it was on, the Emily/Draper/April plot definitely intrigues me. I think Margo McKenna (Emily) was an amazing actress and was sad to see that she didn't get a lot more work down the road.

[sungrey]

I won't play spoiler for you guys, but wait until you see later in 1980. It REALLY gets good.

[Paul Raven]

It's interesting you praise Margo McKenna because at the time,a respected soap journalist(was it John Kelly Genovese?)slammed her as the worst actress on the show!

She previously played Betsy on Love of Life and was one of the first performers to move to another show when LOL was cancelled.

I think she later had a small role on ATWT.

[quartermainefan]

This gets my vote for the best soap of all time. Its a shame aol took off the first 100 or 200 episodes already with the drug cult, Mansion of the Damned and Nola vs Deborah and Miles, but I am starting again after a break and Draper's trial was really good, and just watching the fascinating explanation for who killed Margo Dorn just shows you how Henry Slesar assumed his audience was intelligent and not morons. Today's murder mysteries tend to be clueless nonsense with the motive being senseless insanity. Mr Slesar crafted a well thought out scenario with multiple suspects--and did it time and time again.

Kim Hunter was brilliant as Nola. Her character was so multi faceted being old, alcoholic, vain, wallowing in self-pity, being cheated on by her husband and desperate to hold him, and her secret about her son and step daughter. It was just a great role.

And then beside the emphasis on crime, it was "soapy" to the max at times. The episode where Draper tells April he has to go for sentencing just a day after the birth of their baby, with that music and the hammy soap-atrics---brilliant stuff.

I can see why this show would appeal to men also.

Edited September 10, 2008 by quartermainefan

[Paul Raven]

Although Henry Slesar was primarily a mystery writer,he was also able to play up the emotional'soapy'aspect of the plots.

I remember reading that Gloria Monty simply took the Edge formula of ongoing mystery/action stories and ran with it,creating much publicity,while Edge died in the ratings and was cancelled - never really acknowledged for originating it and doing it better.

[quartermainefan]

EON had good ratings back on CBS but they fiddled with the time and that was that. Once Slesar came in the show lost some of its intelligence. You watch these episodes and there is no trace of supercoupling or who is supposed to be the star and who is more important and all that. By the time Schuler and Raven and Jodi and Preacher consume the show it is just a shell of its self.

[Matt P.]

Even though it would never happen in a million years...I think that of all the soaps to bring back, EON would rank up there. Maybe give it a new cast with a CSI theme to it.

[cct]

Sharon Gabet as Raven is Love.

What? I'm loving Slesar here...lost intelligence? Tell me more. Slesar was there for 15 years, from what I'm reading, which is highly unusual for daytime.

[applcin]

Speaking of Sharon Gabet, I'm noticing, as I did then, that she smirks a lot, or lets this little grin cross her face, even when the scenes are supposed to be angry or serious. I always wondered if it's only to play Raven in that coquettish way, as something of a "cat who swallowed the canary" or as a gameplayer (like, okay, you got me there but I'm gonna get you back kinda smirky smile) or if it's just Gabet having fun with the scenes. Don't get me wrong, she was one of my favorites, but when she grins like that in between yelling at somebody or getting her game thwarted, I wonder if I'm watching Raven or Sharon.

Edited September 13, 2008 by applcin

[cct]

Oh...I'm not sure which, but that grin is what makes me love her. I like to think it's the way she is playing Raven, and it so works. I haven't seen her on anything else to be able to tell what's what or who's who. The grin is part of the va-va-va-voom.

[quartermainefan]

It was a typo. I meant when he left and was replaced. Supposedly they let him go because the show was too intelligent for the viewers and the network wanted it dumbed down.

About Raven: she was ok, your typical soap vixenish character, but the show became a showpiece for her, Schuyler, Jody and her BF whereas it was previous to that a showpiece for well written stories no matter who they starred.

[cct]

Does anyone know the reason for the actress change for Molly, the Gault's servant, around the time Emily and Kirk/Draper leave for Monticello? TIA

[Matt]

It's just speculation, but I doubt the original Molly would've been right for the character when she started to become fully involved with Montecello. The orignal Molly was very rigid and patrician. The 2nd Molly was much more maternal when it comes to Emily which is definitely played up later on as they very much do have a surrogate mother/daughter relationship. Once you see more episodes with Molly more involved, you'll see how the original Molly just wouldn't have been right for the role.

[sungrey]

And I think that was ABC's doing. They wanted more of a serial with the supercouple format where it was the couples that solved the mysteries, not necessarily complex characters like Adam Drake. As it was, it wasn't bad at all because Larkin Malloy and Sharon Gabet had tremendous chemistry and Lois Kibbee played well off both of them. Lori Loughlin was downright gorgeous (she still is, too -- the years have been VERY kind to her), and she had great chemistry with Charles Flohe. Once Lori left, it wasn't quite the same.

As for Slesar leaving, Lee Sheldon didn't get it at first. His pacing was very uneven (he'd often switch days in mid-episode, which is usually a daytime no-no) and he was having trouble grasping the daytime formula. Toward the end of Edge's run, he started to sharpen up big-time, but by then it was too late.