Bring Morgan Fairchild on contract (plus Joan Collins on recurring) to B&B!

[DaytimeFan]

B&B is in need of some jazzing up. Over the last number of years the show has lost its sparkle. The camp/glam/fun element that was B&B's trademark has evaporated into thin air.

Although I am still a fan and in all likelihood always will be I feel B&B is at a turning point. The Forresters and Logans cannot sustain this show on their own. Jack Wagner is an albatross that should be fired post haste and Lesley Anne Down will never have the bite necessary to get stories moving.

Morgan Fairchild, long renown for her glamorous, humorous, high style, high camp image is just the actress to revitalize B&B. She needs to be on contract and on the front burner. She needs to be a menace, a viper, a diva and a star. Further, Joan Collins is needed in a recurring capacity to add that special bit of bitchy glamor that only she possesses, perhaps as a fun sidekick to Morgan's lethal seductions.

Thus, it is time to start the beating of the drums and bring Morgan Fairchild, on contract (plus Joan Collins on recurring) to The Bold and the Beautiful!

[DRW50]

I was saying yesterday how I'd love to see Louise Sorel on B&B. Morgan would also be great. Or Joan Collins. And bring in people who can write camp. I don't think Pam is camp, she's straight up crazy (played to perfection by Alley Mills), and Donna is so embarrassing, I can't see her as a camp figure.

I also wish they could have a drastic personality change for Katie. I don't care if she has to get hit in the head, or get struck by lightning, I think Heather Tom could be of much better service to the show if they gave her writing which was more like what she had in her best Y&R days.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yes! B&B is in desperate need of a high camptress, Morgan Fairchild is one who fits that mold. If they wrote for her, and B&B fully embraces that it can be trashy and entertaining, Fairchild can add some missing element to the show.

[YRBB]

Morgan Fairchild and Joan Collins for the win!

[All My Shadows]

Fairchild embodies glamor, beauty, campiness, and when given the chance, she can be funny as hell. B&B would be well served by her presence!

[Sylph]

Y&RWorldTurner asked me in the B&B weekly discussion thread what kind of a storyline I would give to Morgan Fairchild. That is such a difficult question to answer. Not only is she an excellent comedienne, she can play tragic roles perfectly, too. And that is why she is such a great actress: no matter what kind of a role you give her, she will make it work and totally deliver.

Take for example the character she played on that horribly written and acted Fashion House, where she was pretty much the only good thing about the show. The premise sucked, the execution sucked, the dialogue was abysmal... Yet whenever she appeared, the material given to her, no matter how poorly conceived, reached unprecedented levels.

So in light of that Sophia Blakely role, I wouldn't give her a one-note type of vixen role. Nor would I make her a vixen, probably. Because then you'll just have to kill the character, send her to prison, give her an incurable disease — and it would be such a wasted opportunity to have Fairchild on the show only to dispose of her. And it doesn't matter whether it'll happen in six months or ten years. She deserves to be a legacy character, a complex, tough woman, with a complicated past, someone who perhaps, just like in Fashion House, came for revenge, making an outrageous entrance in one of those events attended by all of the characters, she would have to have a heart, a soul, something that would ultimately make her victorious and make the audience cheer for her. You don't want her to become another Gloria Abbot, who would do all these terrible things to people, but ultimately never receive a punishment for it. Vixen role has a sense only when in the end she gets defeated. And a defeat means, you're no longer needed.

Pretty much all of B&B's characters have been permanently damaged in my eyes: La Stephanie as a neurotic, interventionist mother who feels a sick love towards her son, who keeps flying all over LA in one day, at one point she's visiting Nick, telling him what to do, then she's visiting Jackie, pretty much all she does — she just enters a scene and then exits... Eric has always been a wimp, I never saw him as Stephanie's other half, and especially now after she did all those horrible things and got away with it, Taylor is a loon, instead of being this sophisticated, learned woman, with dignity and honour, she is just a pathetic shadow of her former self... And so on...

And I don't want that to happen to a possible Morgan Fairchild character.

P. S. Yes, Baranski totally made Cybill. What a character Maryann was...

[MarkH]

It is probably heresy for me to say I loved her on Flamingo Road...and never since. (But Flamingo Road was pure 80s perfection for me ... my favorite of the 80s soaps... followed by St. Elsewhere on Tuesdays at 10 pm. Joy).

But I might tune in to see her.

I personally want something else. I'd like a reasonable follower for Stephanie. That means NOT showy. Quiet dignity. Intensity. Naturalness.

I'm going to go have a reverie now about Sam Curtis, Skipper Weldon, Titus Semple. Constance Weldon Carlyle, Fielding 'Field' Carlyle, Lane Ballou, Eudora Flowers Weldon, Lute-Mae Sanders, and Michael Tyronne

[Sylph]

Why? And where else did you see her?

[Dan]

Am I the only one who wants Joan Collins to swoop in and reclaim the role of GL's Alexandra?

(I know, I know. Cue the wisecracks about Joan Collins sweating her balls off in Peapack...)

[Y&RWorldTurner]

So it's not "East Bumfuck" anymore?

[SFK]

I'd love to see Morgan on B&B. She was an '80s primetime soap queen, she and Joan are icons of that era. When Morgan signed on to The City as Sydney (the character's original name was Lauren but she nixed it, saying that there were too many Laurens already and she preferred "men's names" like Sydney... okayyyy, well I've known male Laurens too but I totally digress...) she made a comment that we all want to get away from that cliched campy '80s soap bitch, which I remember SOW later saying was a mistake. In other words, they thought Morgan played Sydney a little too under-the-top and the character could have really popped had Sydney been more like CPW's Dianna which brings me too...

Raquel Welch would be another awesome addition (if only in a short-term or recurring basis) to B&B as well. Raquel is a camptress, pure and simple. I don't know if she's ever really in on the joke, she plays every thing dead seriously and totally mannered and inorganic. Every line and movement is studied and flawlessly delivered. I think a character like that is right up B&B's alley.

Raquel, Jessica Walter, and of course Sophia Loren were all considered for Alexis before Joan. All interesting performers, but NO ONE is quite like Joan. They all certainly looked the part though and ended up playing Alexis clones on CPW, Bare Essence, and Pret-a-Porter respectively... okay maybe the last one not so much a clone, but she served hat very Alexis:

[DaytimeFan]

Allegedly, Raquel Welch is *despised* by most everyone who has worked with her. I've met her and I feel she's an utter cow. Looks great though.

I think if Morgan was given a shot at B&B she'd be sensational. And like you say, NO ONE is quite like Joan Collins who would be so fabulous in a recurring role as a glitzy pal of Morgan's.

[SFK]

LOL re: Raquel.

I'm reminded of that special Joan and Morgan did in the '80s, they did a send up of Dynasty with Morgan as Alexis and Joan as Krystle.

EDIT: Just reread my last post, me and my tangents! But did anyone catch Sophia at the Oscars? She stood there like a statue with hand firmly placed on hip, it was very soap diva.

[DaytimeFan]

If Raquel Welch saw your comment, I'm willing to bet she'd be pissed. Seriously, in my experience that woman can't take a joke to save her life, utter cow.

The special Joan and Morgan did was called Blondes vs Brunettes if I remember correctly. Morgan and Joan are very good friends. Have been for coming up 30 years.

Morgan on contract and Joan on recurring for B&B!

[y&r_fan]

I don't know much about Morgan Fairchild (except that she's had WAY too much plastic surgery) and I don't think B&B could afford Joan Collins for more than a day or two.

I agree with all of that, except about Lesley-Anne Down. It's not her fault she hasn't had a decent storyline in years - it's Bell's fault. LAD doesn't need to be replaced - she needs to be used.