Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

That's soap vet Stephen Joyce as Sam Hunter in that clip with Courtney.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks, I somehow missed that.

[amybrickwallace]

Speaking of Kathy, from reading about SFT from that time, I think her story about being a reluctant mother to Eric was fascinating. Can anyone elaborate on the Eric character? Was he a kid the audience liked or an annoying one? Did the audience side with him over Kathy?

What ultimately happened to Eric? I think the last time he was seen was in a scene with Lisa Peluso's Wendy in 1979 or so. @DRW50, can you supply any photos/screen caps? Thanks.

[dc11786]

Entering December 1984... I cannot believe that November sweeps started so strong with the climax of Adair and Chase sleeping together right before Alec's return. It's maddening that Adair leaves for Los Angeles to go visit Hogan less than two weeks later. With that said, Kevin Conroy is very good when he tells Adair that he doesn't love her knowing that Alec is intending to propose to her. Page Hannah needed a little more time in the role and I think she would have been fine. I loved Wendy listening in and that it all took place at the welcome home party Liza through for Alec. 

The welcome home party was just a great opportunity to allow some interplay between characters. I really enjoyed the tense moment between Wendy and Liza where Liza subtly lets Wendy know that she still blames Wendy for Warren's role in Travis' death. For a show that forgets everything else, I appreciated this. They also managed to remember that Liza had been a model.

The lack of follow through continues with Kentucky and Liza. Kentucky pops up at the end of November to help find Tourneur Sentell when he wonders off after the other Kentucky (the dog). I wish there would have been at least some attempt to consider who might kidnap him (is Cord escaped from the institution?) Tourneur's disappearance was a minor crisis in the gist of the story, but it produced a really nice set of scenes for the Kendalls. Upon learning of Tourneur's disappearance, Lloyd becomes determined to see Liza speaking about knowing the loss of a child and how he threw himself into his work because he blamed himself. Later, Alec and Chase recall the day their sister Rebecca disappeared and there is some interesting backstory I didn't know. Apparently, Alec was suppose to stay with Rebecca, but Chase took the blame. Chase seems to have been beating himself up for years and has been protecting Alec all his life only to learn that Alec confessed the truth to Lloyd shortly after the kidnapping. It's a very nice moment for a character who has sacrificed love of a woman for the love of his brother. 

Wendy and Warren's reunion is nice, but it clearly cannot go anywhere. They believe the man is dead. Unlike the other faked death story the show was telling, Warren cannot just appear and all is well. Michael Corbett and Lisa Peluso are great together, don't get me wrong, but this is a story that couldn't have ended well. Warren's illness was a nice beat, and I do appreciate the little bit where the motel owner thinks Wendy is a prostitute. Given Justine's secret past, I wish they could have found a way to intertwine the two. Maybe Wendy could have legitimately been arrested for prostitution and Justine would have to bail her out. I don't know. I just feel everything is so small and a lot of this feels isolated. 

The writers have little idea of what to do with Cagney and Suzi. The payroll robbery stuff remains unresolved, the kids furniture business doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and Cagney may or may not have anger issues. I get why they went the cop angle with Cagney, but it would have worked better with Warren still around which is why they went that angle with Brian Emerson previously. 

So I think I've figured out the Brett Hamilton sex tape story. Brett would lure women into his studio to model for him and then sleep with them while he filmed. This is the tape that I think Warren has. It wasn't a pornographic film. If I'm wrong, someone let me know. 

Jo and Stu and the Shapiros was a quiet little mystery. The bigger story building with the Murder with Merriment party is a bit heavy handed. The showdown between Justine and Suzi at Bigelowe's doesn't seem to have enough build; everything just seems so small. I do like Justine and Chase and that Justine seems to have Wendy's number. 

I also cheated and watched some April 1985. I found that period very bizarre. The emotional stakes in the resolution of the Warren Carter plot were much more intense than the show had been producing in November 1984. In the April episodes, Wendy has summoned Cagney to her apartment to convince him to push Suzi to accept an insanity plea while Trisha pops up with the doll that Warren used to torment Suzi. The showdown between Wendy and Cagney over the tape was awesome. Wendy determined to maintain her belief that Warren wasn't the monster he was, but accepting that if she destroyed the tape, she would be destroying Suzi's future. I felt playing that beat, Wendy's POV, would not have been done in the fall and I felt it was a very strong element to the story. Similarly, I really liked Wendy and Suzi's subsequent reconcilliation. Much in how Gary Tomlin was able to recenter away from Travis and Liza, I appreciate that Braxton and Avila Mayer have managed to keep Cagney and Suzi involved, but allowing other character's throughlines to be developed more. The back and forth between Stephanie and Jo over Suzi's wedding plans was something I loved from the first time I saw those episodes and still do. 

Chase and new Adair are around without much story. It seems like Adair has now chosen Alec who is going off to study medicine at Tufts or some other school. I do like the hint of a rivalry brewing between Chase and Quinn as I feel there was definitely more to develop there.

Joe Lambie is still to young for the role of Lloyd. I'm not a huge fan of Liza's "mid-life" crisis. It's a unique stance to take, but I'm not sure if Liza was the right character for this. I wonder if Jeanne Glynn intended for Sailor to be Liza's new love interest. The actor is under contract, but maybe I'm reading too much into Sailor's background (the wealthy man who joined the Merchant Marines) who almost seems like a successor to Kentucky Bluebird. That said, there are some very nice comic moments with Sailor, but also I feel uncomfortable in some of the Sailor / TR scenes. 

Speaking of oddities, Paul Espel has popped up as Bela wearing what I can only assume is his circus costume, but reads to me more like some back alley hustler. I don't understand how this care ends up lasting to the end. I do like Ryder. He and TR have a sweet connection. TR as the romantic lead makes sense. I know the TR-Ryder stuff devolves into the circus stuff. I do like the class conflict element of the Ryder-TR pairing. The poetry stuff seems a bit of a retread of the Despina stuff a couple years earlier. And Ryder lying alone sick was done in the November episodes I watched. Writing out Cruiser was unfortunate. I do like that we got to see Selina a bit more than I thought we would given that Cruiser has left for a computer programming course.

Cagney and Suzi's engagement party is another nice event. The mirror stuff is silly, but I love this version of Kate. A bit controlling, but always loving. Kate recalling her engagement to Matt was nice. I remember really liking the family interactions under Braxton and Avila Mayer. Big getting drunk and offering everyone his spiked punch is a nice running thread. Chase showing up not knowing what was going on was a nice beat to play to show how out of the loop Chase is. 

Hogan's return was a nice complication, but the interaction between Hogan and Sunny is odd, I get where they are going with this; Sunny has been carrying the torch back home and Hogan seems more jaded by his experiences in African and Hollwood and seems pretty much over Sunny. From a storytelling perspective, there are possibilities, but having watched Sunny on the backburner with no story for months get shunned the minute Hogan returns has to be one of the most depressing moments. At the very least, I wish they could have built up Sunny's career and had her at the peak of her success while Hogan was on a downward slide. 

Neither period is perfect, but each have their own strengths and weaknesses. I know there is a brief period with Jeanne Glynn writing solo in the winter of 1985 that set up a lot of interesting things, some of which Braxton and Avila Mayer used, and some that they didn't. I'm returning to the winter 1984 episodes (December) but I'm more interested in getting to the 1985 post-Warren stuff. 

[Khan]

I have few memories of the Sunny/Hogan/Liza/Lloyd quadrangle, and none of them are good.

[amybrickwallace]

Yeah, I wasn't impressed much seeing it on YT - especially how they negatively portrayed the women...who were best friends.

[Khan]

It's one reason why I think Paul Avila Mayer and Stephanie Braxton's tenure is looked upon very unfavorably by SFT fans.  Well, that, and the cameos from the WWF wrestlers.

[Bright Eyes]

Excuse me? Is this literal? Please, tell me more as I've never heard anything about this.

[Khan]

Again, my memories of that period are fuzzy, but I do recall Hulk Hogan and another pro-wrestler putting in an appearance on SFT.  In fact, isn't there some magazine article floating around here, w/ a picture of Lisa Peluso physically caught between the two slabs of meat and pretending to be all helpless about it?

But, yeah, in an attempt to appeal/cater to the WWF crowd, SFT had on pro-wrestlers.  It was weird, and a low point, both for the show (between that, the circus crap, and the Sunny/Hogan/Liza/Lloyd quad, it's really no wonder that Gary Tomlin and Michelle Poteet Lisanti were forced to wash away the entire town in a last-ditch effort to save the show) and for daytime in general.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Khan

[victoria foxton]

 

@Bright EyesHere's the episode where Wendy interviews Hulk Hogan and other wrestlers. It's in the last episode. @KhanThe first two episodes featured the circus story.

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Edited December 17, 2021 by victoria foxton

[Khan]

Thanks, @victoria foxton.  I think.

I really don't know WHAT Mayer/Braxton or their EP, Erwin Nicholson, were thinking with all that.  

[Bright Eyes]

I'm watching it and still can't believe it actually happened.

[amybrickwallace]

I wonder if the cast said the same thing at the time.

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[AMCOLTLLover]

I’d rather watch that hilarious story over MarDevil on Days. No joking here

[amybrickwallace]

Agreed. At least the SFT story was supposed to be fun and lighthearted.