ATWT: Elizabeth Hubbard: Why is she rarely mentioned?

[AllAboutAngst]

I think she is fabulous too and an absolutely essential part of the show. I mean, she may not be the main focus, but IMO Oakdale without Lucinda Walsh just isn't Oakdale. I too feel like she is very underrated, any conversation about some of the best in daytime currently should include Hubbard

[MichaelGL]

To tell you the truth, I value La Hubbard more than Slezak, Flannery, and Zimmer. While I will say each of those three women are good, their not as good as their hype make them out to be.

I think she's rarely mentioned because her name is whored around like Erika, Susan, and Kim, and her character isn't at the center of ATWT, and in a way has never been. That's the thing about ensemble shows, people like Maureen Garrett, Maeve Kinkead, and others don't get the name recognition bc unlike Slezak, Flannery, and Zimmer they've never particularly had the show revolve around their character.

[CSF]

That's true in a sense. Slezak was not the original Vicki, she was the 3rd actress in the role. However, OLTL did revolve around the Lord and Wolek family's when the show premiered. Her character was essential to the show's foundation and Slezak is a very good actress IMO. Those two things there give her recognition. The same applies to B&B. Stephanie/Susan (an original character/actress) has been with B&B from day 1 and the show revolves around her family. Often, Susan is given good material that has earned her 4 Emmy's while at B&B. Many like her and her work. I personally do not. Zimmer on the other hand, her and her character where not on GL from the start, Reva was Pam Long's pet that she created and wanted Springfeild to revolve around. When she became popular, she became the face of GL because of Long. Had a writer, (Doulas Marland or the Dobbson's for example) did that to Lucinda, Hubbard would be hyped up a hell of a lot more, but the writer's at ATWT didn't do that.

[Gray Bunny]

I have to agree. She has her great moments, but she also has her moments where she's a total ham. Totally over-the-top melodramatic. I couldn't believe her performances when I saw the Viki Goes to Heaven episodes. So over-the-top it was embarrassing!

I guess Slezak and Susan Lucci are the same in the quality of their performances: When they wanna be good, they're *good*... but at the same time, they can be damn-awfully melodramatic; very cliche "soap opera" acting.

[CSF]

I don't know about that. I think Lucci is always, always, always too melodramatic, which is why she only won 1 daytime Emmy.

[Amity]

I love Elizabeth Hubbard. I don't have a problem with the ad-libbing. It just makes all her scenes more natural. It was Noelle Beck with the quote about how Liz keeps her on her toes.

[Quent]

Like brimike, I remember Martha Byrne saying how she was terrified as a teen of playing scenes with Hubbard. Liz always went off-script and poor Martha would go home crying at the end of the day. Gradually, though, she came to adore EH, and credits her with her later success. The Elizabeth Hubbard/Martha Byrne scenes had some of the best mother/daughter chemistry I've ever seen on soaps. It's fitting that Martha's last scene on ATWT was with Hubbard.

[SteveFrame]

I don't have a problem with it either. And unless you have seen the script there is no way you can know it. It is one of those avenues where the release of too much information by the current magazines and the release of information on the Internet has affected how poeple watch soaps.

I still hold that soaps were better when we didn't know as much as we do today. I am a gossip hound as much as the next person but some things knowing them has really affected the way I view soaps and I know it has others.

From what I have read many of the actors on soaps have changed lines and ad libbed stuff through the years. Some of the best of them. face it folks daytime does not have the best and the brightest people especially now writing dialogue. They can't and don't pay as much as primetime does so they get people who for the most part are up and coming. It is rare that we get someone like Sofia Landon and others who turn out excellent scripts on a regular basis. Some of the dialogues through the years has been very cheesy. If a performer can ad lib and improve it some or inject some of their own personality into the role - that is what makes them special.

I have no problem with it at all.

[jfung79]

The only reason I even find Lucinda's scenes watchable is knowing what I do from the soap press. If I just thought Hubbard was trying to deliver her lines this way, and wasn't ad-libbing, I would think even less of her acting -- all the hemming and hawing and faux outrage she does, I'd be like, what?

Her scenes hardly ever gel. People blamed the writing for how the "At least I don't have a gay husband" scene with Jade seemed off, but really, I think it's much more likely that that scene didn't go as scripted and Davida Williams had to throw that key line in there when Elizabeth Hubbard was off on one of her ad-libbing tangents. How much more is the dialogue improved if you make the scene go out of whack for everybody else?

Hubbard gets more than enough attention for her "acting" already. The truly underrated veteran actresses of ATWT who are not mentioned enough in the soap world are, in my opinion, Marie Masters, Colleen Zenk Pinter, and Ellen Dolan. Dolan especially is still getting decent airtime, and should at least be getting the attention that Hillary B Smith gets from the soap world (this is not a knock on Hillary B Smith, just a comparison to someone who should be of similar stature).

[JackPeyton]

complete and utter word!

[FrenchFan]

Richard Backus, former HW of ATWT, whom I am chatting with, told me that about Liz Hubbard:

"Speaking of Elizabeth Hubbard, as wonderful an actress as she was and important to the show, she was notoriously difficult to work with. Doug loved her, but found her trying at times, and as a joke, he always had reference to a Hubbard squash at Thanksgiving time and it was always about how hard it was to crack a Hubbard squash (a real squash with a notoriously tough outer shell)."

[jfung79]

The Hubbard squash Thanksgiving tradition is still continuing. How neat that you are talking to Richard Backus -- ask him about Richard Culliton pleaaaase.

[FrenchFan]

Don't worry, he already talked to me about him. I am waiting because there are a few questions left he has to answer yet and then I'll post this rather long and interesting interview.

[teplin]

Those of you questioning Hubbard's range obviously never saw her as Althea on The Doctors. She played one of the most vital, contemporary, intelligent romantic heroines in the history of the medium. What she does on ATWT is completely different. She definitely has a place among the greatest soap actresses.

[MTSRocks]

See this is why acting is very subjective. People think Slezak is overrated is because she has six Emmy's and plays a rather boring character on OLTL (no fault of her own, although I wouldn't have given her two of them). I admit at times she an be overly hammy, but she's had a lot of [!@#$%^&*] thrown her way, and IMO she's handle herself very classy over the years.

Somebody mentioned how they feel like Lucinda/Hubbard plays the same scene over and over again? OMG I've been saying the exact same thing about Susan Flannery's Stephanie Forrester (never seen her DAYS stint). After seeing her touted "abuse" storyline, it cemented my believe that Susan Flannery, while a great actress, isn't the best. She's sublime at explosive moments, but when it comes to quiet tendered EMOTIONAL ones, she comes off very weak. I miss Darlene Conley, she was a great screen partner for any actor on that dreary show.