GL now joins some illustrious company in the cancelled soap thread.

Let's share memories and ask questions here.

16 minutes ago, SoapDope said:

Re: The Dobsons. P&G screwed up switching them to ATWT. They should have left them alone to work their magic at GL. Marland was a perfect fit for ATWT that we would find out circa 1985.

I think CBS and P&G were both shaken by 1978-1982 ABC big three huge rise and domination, thus CBS scheduling changes and P&G changes to the shows.

15 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Re: Bill Bauer---are we sure Ed Bryce would've been open to coming back full time at any point after they killed Bill off circa 1970? I've always meant to ask, as I've never seen any interview of his. He obviously came back to usher Hilary in, and he did the brief stint in 1983, but I don't really know what he did otherwise.

He played Patrick Donovan on Loving a few times around 90-91. The only other thing I remember is an SPW article from the mid '90s where he talked about using videos of some of his work in churches or something along those lines, to help with public speaking.

Edited January 12Jan 12 by DRW50

21 minutes ago, SoapDope said:

Re: The Dobsons. P&G screwed up switching them to ATWT. They should have left them alone to work their magic at GL. Marland was a perfect fit for ATWT that we would find out circa 1985.

This is something I've thought for a long while. Of course, it's not fair. We know what kind of magic Douglas Marland did during his second tenure so it gives us "insider trading" level info as armchair quarterbacks. And, the Dobsons at GL, well, the drama was just elevated. 

R: Bill Bauer. it's funny but Bert seemed to work better as a widow/single mother fretting over her family. 

After Bert passed I wish the show had introduced Bert's sister or maybe a cousin to pick up the Bauer matriarch role. I would have loved to have seen Sada Thompson cast in the part.

I have not seen much of Marland's work, but I've always heard he's such a fantastic writer. However when I do see some of his shows or scenes, I'm always so bored. Am I missing something? I find him incredibly overrated but I'm willing to accept I might not be old enough to have seen his best material.

16 minutes ago, chrisml said:

I have not seen much of Marland's work, but I've always heard he's such a fantastic writer. However when I do see some of his shows or scenes, I'm always so bored. Am I missing something? I find him incredibly overrated but I'm willing to accept I might not be old enough to have seen his best material.

One of my favorite ATWT standalone scenes is Marland with Iva running into the barn, screaming, carrying a pitchfork, "Don't! Stop! She's your child!" Then, knowing that Betty Rea hired Lisa Brown with no job for her, Marland declaring her his muse & creating Iva for her on ATWT & Nola for her on GL, then, I'm on board with him & prepared to see what else comes of him. Unfortunately, I've not seen nearly as much as I'd like to. 

1 hour ago, chrisml said:

I have not seen much of Marland's work, but I've always heard he's such a fantastic writer. However when I do see some of his shows or scenes, I'm always so bored. Am I missing something? I find him incredibly overrated but I'm willing to accept I might not be old enough to have seen his best material.

What era of what show are we talking about? Or just in general for both?

As much as I love ATWT, I think his best moment was when Kelly nailed Nola on GL. I swear that scene went on for 10 minutes uninterrrupted, with Kelly just dragging her for filth. It was really the first time I "got" it.

 

Edited January 12Jan 12 by P.J.

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

He played Patrick Donovan on Loving a few times around 90-91. The only other thing I remember is an SPW article from the mid '90s where he talked about using videos of some of his work in churches or something along those lines, to help with public speaking.

Ed also returned as Bill in 1980 for Hope's wedding.

I don't think there was much interest in him coming back, after the poor reception to the Dobson's BFTD story in 77.

GL was more interested in dumping established vets than bringing one back.

Bill  could have been used in family scenes and business stories and his stepson Paul could have come on also.

This article mentions marland being a consultant to P&G Summer of 79.

Was watching Buzzr Channel --To Tell the Truth and in a 1974 episode -one of the contestants was a prolific soap opera writer (including Guiding Light) and it was Ira Avery (who wrote GL with his wife in 1968)

10 hours ago, chrisml said:

I have not seen much of Marland's work, but I've always heard he's such a fantastic writer. However when I do see some of his shows or scenes, I'm always so bored. Am I missing something? I find him incredibly overrated but I'm willing to accept I might not be old enough to have seen his best material.

What I love about Marland's work is that even "boring" scenes, where never boring to me.

4 hours ago, Robluvthebeach said:

Was watching Buzzr Channel --To Tell the Truth and in a 1974 episode -one of the contestants was a prolific soap opera writer (including Guiding Light) and it was Ira Avery (who wrote GL with his wife in 1968)

here’s irna on ‘to tell the truth’ in 1958:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgjdA3L19hA 

@Paul Raven  thanks for the scan. I'd never seen such an early interview of Marland's. BTW, who is in the picture? I can't place them at all.

11 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Bill  could have been used in family scenes and business stories and his stepson Paul could have come on also.

Was Paul Bill's stepson? I thought he was his biological son. 

Thanks @Paul Raven .

I never knew Marland felt daytime would move to short stories. His GL stories are a bit shorter than what came before him (the Dobsons drew out stories for years) but by the time he moved to ATWT he seemed to let that go ("the truth about Aaron" ran for two years and Carolyn's murder for over a year and a half). The part about viewers being more forgiving of younger characters is interesting. I am not sure if that was true at the time but I don't think it is now. Instead soaps have just started writing older characters as if they were younger, like Nick the perpetual frat boy on Y&R. And young characters are written as older.

"The only taboo in daytime is incest" is something I've heard him say elsewhere, IIRC, but I don't really agree. Soaps "covered" homosexuality and interracial relationships by the time of this article, but they faced visceral backlash. And I'm not sure they ever really progress significantly. But I imagine he knew this as he did try to do intelligent stories about both topics when he was at ATWT.

I imagine he would weep at how deeply conservative soaps are now.

14 hours ago, chrisml said:

I have not seen much of Marland's work, but I've always heard he's such a fantastic writer. However when I do see some of his shows or scenes, I'm always so bored. Am I missing something? I find him incredibly overrated but I'm willing to accept I might not be old enough to have seen his best material.

@Mitch64 has spoken about this at times, better than I could, about the narcotized conversations, needing to redeem or clean up most characters, the emphasis on therapy, etc. 

I don't mind it as much at ATWT because I think the show is crisper, the cast is better at making these conversations seem natural, and you have Lisa and Lucinda who just couldn't ever be completely tamed (especially Lucinda). And I think it suits ATWT's core identity more than GL.

I notice it more in his GL run, which can often feel very moribund to me.

Edited January 12Jan 12 by DRW50