Let's Talk Production Values

[Toups]

I detest OLTL's "sunlight through the window". It looks so cheap.

I do like OLTL's dark/gothic background music and they also have very good piano pieces.

[EricMontreal22]

Gottlieb wa in her way almost as controversial as JFP wasn't she? I can remember many soap press people and some actors did NOT get along with her (Marlena Delacoix recently said something to this effect). I wondered if that's why she was out by 1994 or if she just wanted to go back to movies and tv movies, etc?

When did i tbecome dated for soaps to use exterior shots BTW? AMC recently has been using their old PVHospital one for some reason but if you watch 80s AMC, and most 80s soaps it seems, extreior shots are de rigeur. EVen when I became hooked on AMC in the 90s I remember seeing Wildwind a lot.

I agree with the ltter but I think the light use in OLTL is ingenious especially for their small studio space and budget.

[Dan]

Paul Rauch used them on GL off and on throughout his tenure. That was the last time I saw them for the most part.

[DaytimeFan]

Sharon has no taste.

But anyways, I for one feel that the Newman ranch and Abbott house DO NOT need revamps, when houses have been owned by generations they don't change all that much. It's called CLASSIC design, it doesn't go out of style...especially in the case of the Abbott house. Everything is antique, why change it?! My mind boggles.

[SFK]

Dorian's and Alex's penthouses are the sets I always associate with Gottlieb's tenure, that swank postmodern look. I don't know if any of you have been regular callers to Robin Strasser's hotline, but Robin once spoke about LG's immaculate apartment and wardrobe (consisting of several Fendi furs), and it all just screamed Dorian and Alex to me. (Robin: The taste with which this woman... uhhh!) There was a palpable dark, sexy, brooding, wealthy, tasteful quality to LG's work, I really felt like Llanview was a mixed posh/middle class cosmopolitan suburban city like Stamford, CT, or White Plains, NY, or Silver Spring/Bethesda/Chevy Chase, MD. She really gave that show a feel, like Y&R has a feel.

[boldfan01]

The elevator always made sense to me because, even with only 2-3 levels plus the basement, you have people zipping around the building all the time. Models would go from Eric or Ridge's office to the cutting room (which I think was down in the basement near where Thorne works), and visitors would always be coming in to the Executive floor (which would have to be the top level given the skylight in Ridge's office). So I could see where Eric wouldn't want to have models and visitors climbing stairs, even if it's not that big a walk. But what was really silly was the recent group of scenes where Steffy showed newby Marcus the ropes by taking him (and us) all across the FC building. The place never seemed that big before until that group of scenes. It's almost like FC is one of those places in sci-fi stories that's bigger on the inside than it seems on the outside.

I always thought that the stairs in Brooke's house just appeared to be half-height, but really weren't - kind of like you get to the top of that half-height of steps and then there's another set of steps that gets you to the upstairs. I know that the exterior of Brooke's place is based on Brad Bell's home, but I wonder if the interior is also based on his home.

[rangethatrover]

+++I LOVE IT! Linda Gottlieb WAS a very chic woman. I learned that from Marlena DeLaCroix's description of her. Impeccably dressed.++

Dorian's penthouse above the city was awesome as was Alex's- Alex's was Blair and Todds for a while..

The country club (never seen anymore) and Serenity Springs were two impressive and large sets from Gottlieb's tenure.

And yeah, Gottlieb was totally hated by James DePaiva, RSW, Phil Carey, Clint Ritchie--alot of Clint Ritchie's had to be when they made Clint slightly homophobic and completely unlikeable when Sloan Carpenter came to town. Many critics hated the short story arc approach they tried and were offended that Gottlieb and Malone thought they were going to reinvent the wheel for soaps.

A direct quote from Clint Ritchie from a SOD interview along with PC and RSW- "Linda Gottlieb says her door is always open, but when you get to her office the door is always closed!".

Toups- I LOVE OLTL's realistic sunlight! It doesn't look cheap to me at all.

And I agree with Drew that OLTL needs some seriously realistic backdrops. The only home who has a good one is Asa's place- the rest they use huge amounts of drapes and curtains. I don't know anyone who consistenly keeps their curtains/drapes closed. Its ridiculous.

[rangethatrover]

The Newman Ranch is one of my favorite sets- I don't want them to change a thing. I only wish it was bigger! I also love the Abbott's place, pre Sharon's Target and Urban Outfitters updates.

This may be blasphemous, but the Chancellor Estate is in desperate need of an update. Those painted walls in the foyer, the boring floorplan, its so tan and mint green-ish too. It is time.

[bandbfan]

I'm not sure if the interior is or not. I just never found anything wrong with those stairs. As long as the house doesn't supposedly double back on itself, then there's no problem. If all of the bedrooms are away from the side where the camera is, then it'd be fine.

[SFK]

I find it funny/interesting that the Bukes of Llanview all had a problem with LG. I'm just totally taking a stab in the dark here, but maybe she was resisting what she thought those men represented, that '80s soap "let's borrow from primetime" model that didn't jive with her new vision. If '80s OLTL was Dallas-ish, LG's OLTL felt more like late series Knots.

rangethatrover, first of all I love your screenname, was it inspired by Crank that Soldier Boy? But I don't care what they do to the Chancellor estate, they just can't touch that mural in the foyer! That's been there forever. They did a flashback about two or so years ago with Jill (Brenda Dickson) showing up and Kay telling the pre-Esther maid to send her away, and there was that mural peeking through the drawing room. It's like the Abbott's horse wall hanging. And didn't they renovate the mansion when Jill moved in? It didn't look too different to me, neither did it when Dorian renovated La Boulaie. Painting the walls blue is not a renovation. They are always dressing Dorian in red so I was surprised that they ditched the red walls to begin with in an effort to "class up" Dorian. Yeah, she wants to be Viki, but when you start robbing Dorian of her OTT taste, that's a mistake.

Someone was mentioning exterior shots, I think Agnes Nixon gets the credit for ushering those in. We were watching A Daytime to Remember years ago, and as we watched a rather longish opening sequence of Langley driving up to Phoebe's house (apparently in a car that my mom felt didn't suit him: "What's Langley doing driving a Plymouth??"), my mom fondly recalled how that was around the time "they first started showing the houses." I really miss those little establishing shots. I think the last time they showed Wildwind and Linden was in the late '90s. Of course there was that CGI stuff for the tornado, but my most recent memory of a real-life exterior shot was a cobblestoned street with shops establishing one of the local bars.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Erika Slezak also HATED Gottlieb and even went as far to say that in her classiest of ways in interviews. But she also LOVED JFP, so...

[All My Shadows]

They did exteriors of Wildwind in 2006-2007, I think. The Valentine's Day episode had lengthy footage of the exterior, and I thought that was real nice and pretty.

That little scene with Langley driving up to Phoebe's is on YouTube (the whole episode is, it's the infamous Tom/Erica/birth control ep), and I love little things like that. If they want to do things more primetime-ish, that's a way to start. Take, ATWT, for example. I have absolutely no idea what any of these houses and businesses look like on the outside, at all. It adds a nice element when you can see it.

[rangethatrover]

[DeeeDee]

Amen.

[MichaelGL]

I should have phrased that better. She's both an genius and an awful producer, because it's brilliant how bleak she's made GH look so that it matches the feel of the stories on the show. I think she's an awful producer bc of all the sh!t that happens backstage on her watch.

I agree with you, GL, SB, and AW all looked fantastic. I didn't like OLTL's lighting under her, but the sets were extravagant like the place when David Renaldi stayed at.