2 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I'd forgotten about them as the story moved so fast past that early sex point. You're right - in spite of not believing Cassie would be with him, they did have chemistry. Laura Wright's performance style had shifted around that point so it worked more than it would have a few years earlier.

They did have major chemistry, which is the only way it could have come off. That stuff was like Cinemax.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

Beyond putting more focus on Clint Buchanan (which didn't last long as Clint Ritchie was let go), I can't think of anything she did on OLTL that was similar to her past work. It was a very dark, ugly show - literally ugly. McTavish said in her memoir that JFP likes to just tell writers what to do, or write the show herself, and that is likely what was going on during Long's tenure.

Ah, that explains why Clint Ritchie had positive things to say about Pamela K. Long. I remember the show being quite repellent, sexist and racist from what little I saw of JFP's tenure. Ritchie said Long tried to fix things but she was never allowed to do anything. 

 

43 minutes ago, Vee said:

I thought Pam Long at OLTL could've worked solo. But it was JFP's micromanaged show and JFP's favorites being spotlit. After Long's brief tenure (where she did talk about working on the disastrous fake DID story for Roger Howarth), JFP went without a HW for almost a year before being forced to hire McTavish.

I could see Long working on OLTL, but again, she would need writers to work on the humor. I just don't see her working under a producer like JFP. Oddly enough, she didn't seem to mind working with Paul Rauch on SB even though the results were not good. GL fans did get to see a murderous Krista Tesreau so I suppose that might be of interest to some people.

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

You're right - in spite of not believing Cassie would be with him, they did have chemistry.

They were a perfect example of how soaps sabotage themselves by having "bad" characters doing extreme things for a short-term shock factor. 

If he hadn't deliberately caused the death of her baby, they could have been one of the most amazing soap couples. Their chemistry was off the charts. My mom and I at the time were like, "Nooooo, they can't get together, but OMG, if only it could be plausible that they get together!"

They could have had him do plenty of villainous stuff without crossing that line. It boggles the mind that no one stopped to think this was a bad idea.

You had two incredibly attractive, sexy actors with obvious chemistry. His  character's whole schtick was hating the brother who had everything HE wanted. Of course he would want his woman, too! And then genuinely falling for her? It's a classic trope and the kind of thing viewers eat up with a spoon. But at that point it was too icky to become a long-term story.

Edited June 20Jun 20 by DeeVee

6 hours ago, chrisml said:

Ah, that explains why Clint Ritchie had positive things to say about Pamela K. Long. I remember the show being quite repellent, sexist and racist from what little I saw of JFP's tenure. Ritchie said Long tried to fix things but she was never allowed to do anything. 

I could see Long working on OLTL, but again, she would need writers to work on the humor. I just don't see her working under a producer like JFP. Oddly enough, she didn't seem to mind working with Paul Rauch on SB even though the results were not good. GL fans did get to see a murderous Krista Tesreau so I suppose that might be of interest to some people.

There were a few elements during Long's brief OLTL stint that reminded me of her style.   There was a bigger focus on the newspaper and a lot of crowd/social gatherings.

And she created Lindsay Rapaport and established her as Nora's rival though the two were not actively fighting.. but were on a ceasefire.  Long paired Lindsay with Clint.. even had them elope and showed her trying to find her place in the Buchanan family.

The moment Pam Long was driven off the show.. Lindsay/Clint broke up and Lindsay became fixated on ruining Nora.

12 hours ago, Speed Racer said:

About Frank Grillo...he also plead guilty of securities fraud during the 1990s.  So not only was he married and banging his married co-star during his time on GL, he also was dealing with a protracted Securities & Exchange Commission issue.  Quite the hat trick!  So stressful...

😲 Wow!

10 hours ago, DRW50 said:

There were also some nude photos of Grillo from earlier in his career that came out around the time he was on GL (tasteful nudes). He was always full of surprises.

This just made my day, because I had no idea... and I'm not disappointed!  

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

There were a few elements during Long's brief OLTL stint that reminded me of her style.   There was a bigger focus on the newspaper and a lot of crowd/social gatherings.

 

That is the problem with soaps, they don't consider or they just try to get rid of their individual styles. Long was great with GL, a community soap (especially her first tenure..all the families were in play and had their own characteristics..) but not fit at all for SB (have no clue for OLTL but her style did not seem "ABCish")

I would have loved to see what she could have done on ATWT. I do think she would have respected the core famiies...though it was a lot more of an uptight colder show then free wheeling GL.

Re Grillo..I remember a talk show where he totally bitched (in a supposedly good humored way) about his exwife being a drain..and this was the mother of his kids. He always seems like most of the parts he plays, an oily creep (who is about 5'8.)

5 hours ago, DeeVee said:

You had two incredibly attractive, sexy actors with obvious chemistry. His  character's whole schtick was hating the brother who had everything HE wanted. Of course he would want his woman, too! And then genuinely falling for her? It's a classic trope and the kind of thing viewers eat up with a spoon. But at that point it was too icky to become a long-term story.

They did have chemistry..and it would have been interesting if it showed Cassie bringing out his good side while he brought out more of her bad side (LW was born to play a bitch) It would have been more interesting if Reva and Josh and others were totally against it, and Cassie tells them to go to hell and it drives a wedge in things. The perfect time to start this would have been after Reva pulled the plug on Prince Dickie...and both Eddie and Cassie go after her.

It would have been interesting, dark and hot, for a short term.

On 6/16/2025 at 6:05 PM, Mitch64 said:

Oh..the redo of Company, a family pub/restaraunt into a soap version of the 90s hip nightclub...so ugly. I like how Rauch just turns it back (though looking overly lit and generic as all his sets are) with no mention from anyone. 

I've been reading about the Company redo for years and I have never seen the set. Could someone please tell me where to find some scenes with it?

5 minutes ago, Sapounopera said:

I've been reading about the Company redo for years and I have never seen the set. Could someone please tell me where to find some scenes with it?

Here is the October 9, 1996 episode where they debut the new Company (see 1:38 mark where it starts). This has the chandelier falling, and towards the end, Matt gets into a fight. 

Here is the next episode on October 10, 1996, which continues the fight and opening party. Great Tracy Chapman music playing during the last full scene as a bonus!

And then October 11, 1996 where Reva joins the opening night party and spends time with J.

 

On 6/18/2025 at 10:33 PM, DeeVee said:

 

Is there any other character who went through more personality flips than Dinah? She starts as the tough runaway orphan with Gatti, then is recast with Paige Turco and becomes a sweet ingenue. Then she's written out and her personality changes AGAIN when she comes back. I believe she changed even more times after that. So weird.

Now that they're talking about him...duh HART. Sweet farm kid, angry Roger hater, and then the strange mixture of angry son/turned back to good guy. Another case of recast driving character changes.

6 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

There were a few elements during Long's brief OLTL stint that reminded me of her style.   There was a bigger focus on the newspaper and a lot of crowd/social gatherings.

And she created Lindsay Rapaport and established her as Nora's rival though the two were not actively fighting.. but were on a ceasefire.  Long paired Lindsay with Clint.. even had them elope and showed her trying to find her place in the Buchanan family.

The moment Pam Long was driven off the show.. Lindsay/Clint broke up and Lindsay became fixated on ruining Nora.

Long should have know better than to agree to work under Phelps.  Of course, Long was never successful other than on GL. Her SFT was awful; it was clear that she and Walsh hadn't even watched the prior six months under Tomlin. SB was wretched under her and Rauch. I wonder if she was ever offered Another World which could have been a good fit. 

3 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

Here is the October 9, 1996 episode where they debut the new Company (see 1:38 mark where it starts). This has the chandelier falling, and towards the end, Matt gets into a fight. 

Here is the next episode on October 10, 1996, which continues the fight and opening party. Great Tracy Chapman music playing during the last full scene as a bonus!

And then October 11, 1996 where Reva joins the opening night party and spends time with J.

 

Thank you so much. It feels so wrong. And it is sad to see a P&G soap trying to mimic the cheap DAYS aesthetics after JER's success.

I remember having lunch with my friend Connie Passalacqua and she told me that JFP and Pam Long will either love  each other or hate each other. We all know how that turned out. 

I’m up to December 10, 1996.

They finally added Phillip to the opening, it was about time! He’s been on for almost a year now, it was weird he didn’t get added with everyone else when they revamped it. He was in the closing credits that entire time as a contract character.

There is a temporary actor playing Quint now and it’s Roman Brady from DAYS haha.

Meta Bauer just showed up and seems like she’ll be fun. I guess she was brought on as a replacement for Ed as the older Bauer family member? I’ve read about this character and in my head, always pronounced it like Facebook’s parent company Meta and not the way I just heard it May-Ta. Oops haha. Actually I’ve heard various characters call her Meh-ta, May-ta and Me-ta LOL, they can’t get it right. Anyway, she finally meets Michelle and immediately calls her Mary, which goes back to Zachary when he called her Mary a couple months ago!  Meta goes to the lighthouse and recognizes him from the past and asks about Mary. She had a Zachary when she was younger that worked on the lighthouse and then left town… Now we’re getting black and white old timey flashbacks of Zachary, Mary (played by Budig/Michelle) and a little Meta. LOL, what is going on…

Annie is trying to get artificially inseminated through a sperm donor just so she can trap Josh. Annie swapped her pill addiction with a baby addiction and it’s pretty amusing haha.

Almost as equally crazy, we now have Bridget looking into plastic surgery options so Hart will find her more attractive and pick her over Dinah. It’s sad to see Bridget get this desperate.

Reva, Buzz, Josh and Hawk are in Italy now to see Sarah, who is sick. Is this the same actress that would have been on years ago? Rusty also has joined. I’m curious how this southern Oklahoma family has ties to Italy, why is Sarah living there? On Sarah’s deathbed, she just told Reva in confidence that she had a secret child with another man when Hawk was out. She never saw the infant when born, didn’t even confirm the gender but thinks it might be a boy, and she gave it away (wow!). Now she wants Reva to find the baby. She also had a 1:1 with Josh and told him she’ll always believe Reva/Josh are meant to me.  She then dies, and Josh is consoling Reva when Annie shows up LOL.

Rick just told Phillip one of the twins is his and Phillip is pushing Rick to tell Ross given they’re related and he’s concerned. I’m just worried about poor, innocent Abby when she finds out the truth, I think it’ll overwhelm her.

Nov 27 and Vanessa is back again in Switzerland with the nuns and Zachary. She’s mostly blind now, sadly, and Zachary is giving her an update on everyone. Oh wow, she writes a letter to Nola that Zachary delivers during Thanksgiving, asking her to take care of Matt and let him move on. How sad, but unfortunately Nola believes the letter was written before Vanessa’s accident, so she still doesn’t know the truth. Nola then shares the letter with Quint and the two of them try and set Matt up on a date, which is way too soon.

Dec 5 is the debut of Lizzie! Lillian and Rick surprised Phillip by bringing her to SF. It’s wild seeing a very young Hayden Panettiere!

Dec 6 (Friday) is Laibson’s last day as EP and Dec 9 (Monday) is Rauch’s first day as EP, per the ending credits.

26 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

I’m up to December 10, 1996.

They finally added Phillip to the opening, it was about time! He’s been on for almost a year now, it was weird he didn’t get added with everyone else when they revamped it. He was in the closing credits that entire time as a contract character.

There is a temporary actor playing Quint now and it’s Roman Brady from DAYS haha.

Meta Bauer just showed up and seems like she’ll be fun. I guess she was brought on as a replacement for Ed as the older Bauer family member? I’ve read about this character and in my head, always pronounced it like Facebook’s parent company Meta and not the way I just heard it May-Ta. Oops haha. Actually I’ve heard various characters call her Meh-ta, May-ta and Me-ta LOL, they can’t get it right. Anyway, she finally meets Michelle and immediately calls her Mary, which goes back to Zachary when he called her Mary a couple months ago!  Meta goes to the lighthouse and recognizes him from the past and asks about Mary. She had a Zachary when she was younger that worked on the lighthouse and then left town… Now we’re getting black and white old timey flashbacks of Zachary, Mary (played by Budig/Michelle) and a little Meta. LOL, what is going on…

Annie is trying to get artificially inseminated through a sperm donor just so she can trap Josh. Annie swapped her pill addiction with a baby addiction and it’s pretty amusing haha.

Almost as equally crazy, we now have Bridget looking into plastic surgery options so Hart will find her more attractive and pick her over Dinah. It’s sad to see Bridget get this desperate.

Reva, Buzz, Josh and Hawk are in Italy now to see Sarah, who is sick. Is this the same actress that would have been on years ago? Rusty also has joined. I’m curious how this southern Oklahoma family has ties to Italy, why is Sarah living there? On Sarah’s deathbed, she just told Reva in confidence that she had a secret child with another man when Hawk was out. She never saw the infant when born, didn’t even confirm the gender but thinks it might be a boy, and she gave it away (wow!). Now she wants Reva to find the baby. She also had a 1:1 with Josh and told him she’ll always believe Reva/Josh are meant to me.  She then dies, and Josh is consoling Reva when Annie shows up LOL.

Josh left town in early 1991 as he had been told by Sarah and Billy via a travel video that Reva might be there. Sarah and the kids eventually joined him. 

It's the same actress.

When Reva came back, I was very annoyed that Sarah didn't ever reunite with her oncamera...and when she did have scenes with her it was to die. Kim Zimmer also said it was a mistake to kill Sarah, IIRC.

Get used to that "find him for me Reva," clip.

Don't get used to having an opening credits sequence.

At the time a number of fans praised Josh Taylor and said they wished he had stayed as Quint. It made me feel a little bad for Michael Tylo, who was trying, but hurt by losing most of the spark he'd had in the early '80s and Quint being so trashed and then mostly there for bitty scenes with Nola. 

Also kind of ironic considered Josh rejoined DAYS less than a year later and rarely if ever got any praise for his work.

On 6/19/2025 at 6:03 PM, alwaysAMC said:

Heading out for dinner/drinks, but posting the next chapter summary from Kim's book since some folks asked about her thoughts on her Emmy history:

Chapter 13 - Kim talks about her Emmy nominations/wins and episode choices to submit. She said for her first nomination in 1985, she originally thought she would submit the “Slut of Springfield” episode, but unfortunately the infamous fountain scene came at the end of the episode, so all the meat was at the end whereas the majority of the episode was full cast party scenes, and she thought the Emmy voters would get bored and say no before they got to the end of the episode, so she found 3 other episodes to submit. She said she had only been at GL for less than two seasons at the time, so she was clearly the dark horse against Lucci, Hall, Strasser and Spencer and didn’t expect to win. She figured she would go have fun, bring her entire family and enjoy the party. She got a hair company to do her hair with all the extensions put in, making her look like the white Patti LaBelle. She thought she looked amazing. But, when they called her name as winner, her first thought was “what did I do to my hair”, and extensions kept falling out as she walked to the stage. Her one shoe fell off so she threw the other out (I think she was probably really enjoying her free wine at the table haha). She said she didn’t prepare a speech, so she ad-libbed and rambled. She said being recognized by her peers at that level was amazing, considering she was just fired from OLTL 1.5 years beforehand. After the awards show, the VP of ABC Daytime hugged her and said they were so happy to have “discovered” her. Kim was shocked because she said hello, she was on The Doctors for 4 years before that, but what she said to the exec was “Sure you discovered me and then you fired me. I went to another show and won an Emmy!”. She ends with ‘as the old saying goes “Success is the best revenge”’.

She said her first scene to shoot after winning was another full-cast party and she had to sit at a table with Beverlee, Maeve (again spells her last name wrong), and May Kay Adams. She couldn’t get her line out because she was so excited, so after the 8th take, Beverlee says “You give the girl an Emmy and she can’t remember a [!@#$%^&*] line!”.

Her second win in 1987 - just gave birth to her son and was still nursing, so wore no bra, but needed room to breathe, so she felt more conservative yet slightly trashy still. She said she felt really good about her material that year and assumed she was the one to beat, if the voters truly voted on performance and not popularity. She said one episode was in black & white when Reva was being written in a 20s cabaret and singing.

Next win was 1990 which was bittersweet because she was leaving GL and didn’t know if she’ll ever be back in daytime. She thanked the Academy for giving her three awards, one for each of her children.

After 11 nominations in total, her 4th win was in 2006 which was most special to her because she could have it for herself and be buried with it (since her others were going to her children).  However, she didn’t feel like her storyline was strong that year (Reva going through menopause, which “went nowhere”), so she felt like that win was more for the show than herself.  Towards the end of the chapter, she says she got 10 nominations (so 6 losses), which contradicts the 11 nom number she says previously.

She said she didn’t think it was gracious for the press to always focus on Susan Lucci’s loss while interviewing her about her win.  In 1998, she got her husband/son to choose her episode reels and they cried over how sad the episode was when Dolly the Clone died, so they submitted that, but she lost to Susan Lucci (“oh well”). She said she was sure she would win because the material was good (even if the fans supposedly hated it so much). She splurged and bought $600 tickets for her family to attend, including her kids for the first time. When Susan’s name was called, her kids jumped up and said “You’ve got to be kidding me! My mom was robbed!”, and Kim was so happy the deafening sound of Susan’s applause drowned out her kids. Kim said she was very happy for Susan and Susan has always been gracious, kind and lovely to Kim. She said Susan’s husband Helmut was a doll.

I missed this so wanted to say thanks for summarizing the chapter. Kim was smart to not go for the obvious with her first Emmy reel. 

The material was good Emmy bait, and she did well, but I don't think they were likely to reward a lot of sci fi (as shown when Deirdre Hall didn't even get nominated the year of the possession). That and she had already won three times.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

When Reva came back, I was very annoyed that Sarah didn't ever reunite with her oncamera...and when she did have scenes with her it was to die. Kim Zimmer also said it was a mistake to kill Sarah, IIRC.

That's the biggest fail for me too with Reva's 1995 back from the dead return. No Sarah, no Rusty, no Dylan other than a throwaway line a year later where she said she calls him every week. When someone returns from the dead, you need a family reunion to celebrate, or at the very least acknowledge it. 

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

Don't get used to having an opening credits sequence.

This makes me sad... 

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

At the time a number of fans praised Josh Taylor and said they wished he had stayed as Quint. It made me feel a little bad for Michael Tylo, who was trying, but hurt by losing most of the spark he'd had in the early '80s and Quint being so trashed and then mostly there for bitty scenes with Nola. 

Also kind of ironic considered Josh rejoined DAYS less than a year later and rarely if ever got any praise for his work.

I've seen him in a handful of episodes now and he's actually a pretty good flirt with Nola whereas Tylo before that was more stiff. I haven't had the opportunity yet to watch much of Nola/Quint in the 80s, but I have to imagine their chemistry was really good back then.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I missed this so wanted to say thanks for summarizing the chapter. Kim was smart to not go for the obvious with her first Emmy reel. 

The material was good Emmy bait, and she did well, but I don't think they were likely to reward a lot of sci fi (as shown when Deirdre Hall didn't even get nominated the year of the possession). That and she had already won three times.

You're welcome!  I have more coming tomorrow, which are interesting chapters haha. Kim is quite a character. I've spent the night watching interviews of her on YT because I want to really know her personality on screen as Kim, while I'm reading her book. I know many women like Kim, so I get her; she's quite the firecracker. 

I've just come across the Locher Room that many have talked about. I'm curious about it, because I love the opportunity to hear from our favorite soap actors today, but the short clips I've seen so far are right when Covid quarantine started and I just can't watch that. People talking over each other, awkward silence, talking about how they're doing in Covid.. it's just an awful trigger that I don't want to go back to. Does he continue this beyond 2021 where things are less Covid talk and more natural?  He's also not that great of a host, he's a bit awkward... I don't know, I love that we have these interviews, but curious if they get better.