Len Tucker anchors this 1984 afternoon news break that followed an episode of the popular daytime drama "Guiding Light" ending with a baby-naming contest.

5 minutes ago, chrisml said:

I never saw the point of the Marvel stuff. As a lapsed GL viewer, I was not going to tune back into the show because of this. It felt like a distraction. If you're going to do something outside of the box, it should lure people back into the show.

They hoped to lure younger viewers, but like soaps, comic books were on a steady decline.  Marvel had an event called "Civil War" and they had a 50-State Initiative with state sponsored super-heroes in every state.  The Guiding Light character looked very similar to then Ms Marvel Carol Danvers appearance.  Frankly, I was more of a DC reader myself.

 

 

41 minutes ago, chrisml said:

I never saw the point of the Marvel stuff. As a lapsed GL viewer, I was not going to tune back into the show because of this. It felt like a distraction. If you're going to do something outside of the box, it should lure people back into the show. What former/current GL viewers are going to be swayed by a Marvel connection?  It's a misreading of what soap viewers actually want. We don't want gimmicks that mean nothing. The producers after Calhoun never understood that.  

I was mostly lapsed from GL at the time, and I did watch the episode when I heard about it. I think I tried to find the comic too but couldn't. Still, it didn't make me tune back in regularly.

I agree it wasn't the type of choice which would help the show long term, but I did appreciate the effort. I just wish the effort had been put into better writing and casting.

Edited June 27Jun 27 by DRW50

3 hours ago, Spoon said:

I don't think it was short term, they just recast Michelle and moved her away from Jesse Blue.  Also, the HWs previously wrote for PAS (danny) on Loving.  Also, between the mob and d the Island people, Raunch was clearly molding the show in his own image.

Well, I just about bust a gut laughing at this concept. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe Paul Rauch's ego was big enough to try to foist his image over the surface of a show & that his strong confidence in his own preferences in decisions from the biggest items down to the smallest details were so right that it made perfect sense for him to supplant his choices over all others but I look at the mob in Springfield and San Cristoblah & it literally makes me laugh to keep from weeping. 

But two things here. Although I hated both, the mob & the island principality, I loved PAS as an actor. And, yet another Minority Rapport because I thought the Marvel tie-in was delightfully  creative & a bit of fun in an all new way. Not that I would've wanted the superhero universe to have become permanent but thoroughly enjoyed it as a few day's diversion. Same when they did the C-O-P-S schtick. One element of my personal soap philosophy is that you agree to get on the ride & to ride it for a good while. To me these little enjoyables are part of the ride.

And @chrismlI do not think the Marvel tie-in was aimed at lapsed viewers AT ALL. I think it was meant to be a fun temporary diversion with a creative bent that was outside the box & maybe a little nod to the genre ghetto sharing between soaps & comics. YMMV of course.

 

12 hours ago, DeeVee said:

Along with Jonathan, Jeffrey was another reason I mostly tapped out of the show at the end.

I get that they wanted BC to play a character as different from Richard as possible, but why they felt they had to make him a relentlessly vile scumbag, I will never understand. Learn how to create a bit of complexity if you want an "edgy" character. 

Roger was always a really bad guy, but I never thought, "Ew, get this a-hole off my screen, he makes me want to hurl." 

That's because the writers didn't think making nasty words fall out of his mouth every time he opened it was all they needed to do to create the character. (And, of course, Zaslow could actually act).

The period of Jeffrey's creation may have been at the peak scumbag/"anti-hero" era for soaps. He was just repulsive. I didn't mind Cole as Richard, I would even say I liked him and his relationship with Cassie. He worked as the cardboard prince. He did not have the right charisma or talent to play such an aimless pig. Even before the rape story with Olivia (which was after I had stopped watching), his chasing Marah and [!@#$%^&*] Beth on the floor of a restaurant was more than enough for me.

7 hours ago, Spoon said:

They hoped to lure younger viewers, but like soaps, comic books were on a steady decline.  Marvel had an event called "Civil War" and they had a 50-State Initiative with state sponsored super-heroes in every state.  The Guiding Light character looked very similar to then Ms Marvel Carol Danvers appearance.  Frankly, I was more of a DC reader myself.

And, when at that point in time was any US daytime drama NOT chasing the younger audience members.?!The ad agencies did such a great job [cough] (over)selling that one demographic group was valued more than another. OY. 

15 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I was thinking about O'Leary. He always needed something (or someone) to make him as important onscreen as he was to the cast & crew backstage.

I think that Rick, as the last remaining Bauer, should have been that important. He didn't even need to be paired with someone to be the town go to guy, shoulder to cry on , friend when you need one. MOL at his best was warm and charming and did bring some of the Charita vibes. The problem was, he may have been loved by cast and crew, it was obvious the writers didn't feel the same and wrote Rick as a joke/looser.  They did try to light a fire under him when they put him with Mel, as they lit one under FrankieD by pairing with beautiful charismatic MK, but MOL and the Mel actress had no chemistry...and Rick does not need "fire" chemistry, he needs a warm everday one but they couldn't generate that. 

 

15 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

The Santos family could have worked without the mobster element.. but that would have required the writers to think outside the box.

Very true, or at least make them mob adjacent (i.e. Daddy Santos was a small time hood, and Carmen wants a better life for her and her family, and she will do ANYTHING to get that, even using the daughter in law she detests to gain respectability and access to the main families in town.) But the Santos as a full fledged mob outfit, with Carmen in charge and being there for years never worked. But yes, I would prefer them out of the mob.

 

14 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I must be laboring under a misapprehension as I thought someone actively wanted a writer or writers who would create for them a mob story on the show. So perhaps I am in need of enlightenment. 

What does this mean? So Rauch/MADD or CBS wanted a mob family on the show, doesn't mean that was something, like the island of douches, ever worked.

 

9 hours ago, chrisml said:

I never saw the point of the Marvel stuff. As a lapsed GL viewer,

It was stupid to anyone (again, its a dream episode..okay...not my fave but will let it pass)  I don't understand when people say the creativity was there...they didn't have the writers, the producers or the budget to do this. It looked ridiculous. Not sure why Marvel thought it was a good idea to use a failing soap that did not have the demos they wanted, to promote them...seems dumb all around. 

16 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

MOL and the Mel actress had no chemistry...and Rick does not need "fire" chemistry, he needs a warm everday one but they couldn't generate that. 

They put SO little effort into this pairing. They met at a bar and talked about movies, next thing you know they're getting married. Might happen in RL, but this is a soap. So they invented a heart condition to create some drama (which was really done to give REVA a story, not Rick).

The problem with Rick is they never gave him a star-crossed lovers story like they did with Phillip and Beth. Maybe they were so busy bending over backwards trying to normalize the idea of a biracial soap couple they forgot to write one.

On 6/26/2025 at 10:43 AM, DeeVee said:

As someone who is Jewish AND Latina...

I will give Long credit for TRYING to introduce a Jewish character. But my mom and I CRINGED at those scenes because they had Harley act like she was observing exotic animals in a zoo. Of course that got deep sixed REALLY fast.

Don't even get me started on the Santos family. OF COURSE they were mobsters. (Love of Life did the same with an Italian family back in the day. Ryan's Hope tried to circumvent the stereotypes by making their mobsters vaguely Eastern European).

A lot of the older soaps flunked big time in this area. It's not surprising the newer ones did a better, if not perfect, job.

Oh I completely forgot about the Santos family. So yes, I guess they did have one Latino family. I guess I just didn’t think of that because Danny doesn’t look remotely Latino to me at all but maybe he is? I feel like they did a lot of whitewashing back then.

12 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

They put SO little effort into this pairing. They met at a bar and talked about movies, next thing you know they're getting married. Might happen in RL, but this is a soap. So they invented a heart condition to create some drama (which was really done to give REVA a story, not Rick).

The problem with Rick is they never gave him a star-crossed lovers story like they did with Phillip and Beth. Maybe they were so busy bending over backwards trying to normalize the idea of a biracial soap couple they forgot to write one.

They didn't put a lot of effort into any of Rick's romances after Mindy. Sometimes, the way he seemed to gravitate to older women, it was like he was either looking for a mother or looking for his own version of Maureen.

24 minutes ago, P.J. said:

They didn't put a lot of effort into any of Rick's romances after Mindy.

Well, yes. To me, that was one of their biggest blunders, not seeing Rick and Mindy through.

I'm on 1987 episodes when Mindy is widowed and MOL has left the show for a while. After less than 2 months she's tongue-kissing Rusty, who will become a non-entity to her very quickly. She had lovely scenes with Rick after Kurt's death. Why they wasted that potential time and again, I don't know.

Edited June 27Jun 27 by DeeVee

56 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

I think that Rick, as the last remaining Bauer, should have been that important. He didn't even need to be paired with someone to be the town go to guy, shoulder to cry on , friend when you need one. MOL at his best was warm and charming and did bring some of the Charita vibes. The problem was, he may have been loved by cast and crew, it was obvious the writers didn't feel the same and wrote Rick as a joke/looser.  They did try to light a fire under him when they put him with Mel, as they lit one under FrankieD by pairing with beautiful charismatic MK, but MOL and the Mel actress had no chemistry...and Rick does not need "fire" chemistry, he needs a warm everday one but they couldn't generate that. 

 

Very true, or at least make them mob adjacent (i.e. Daddy Santos was a small time hood, and Carmen wants a better life for her and her family, and she will do ANYTHING to get that, even using the daughter in law she detests to gain respectability and access to the main families in town.) But the Santos as a full fledged mob outfit, with Carmen in charge and being there for years never worked. But yes, I would prefer them out of the mob.

 

What does this mean? So Rauch/MADD or CBS wanted a mob family on the show, doesn't mean that was something, like the island of douches, ever worked.

All I meant was that I thought an exec or execs wanted to do a mobster element possibly copycatting GH rather than some HW pitching it as what they wanted to write. Personally not a fan of mob junk or copycats so NOT advocate of it!

 

 

56 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

It was stupid to anyone (again, its a dream episode..okay...not my fave but will let it pass)  I don't understand when people say the creativity was there...they didn't have the writers, the producers or the budget to do this. It looked ridiculous. Not sure why Marvel thought it was a good idea to use a failing soap that did not have the demos they wanted, to promote them...seems dumb all around. 

 

33 minutes ago, Ryanc2 said:

Oh I completely forgot about the Santos family. So yes, I guess they did have one Latino family. I guess I just didn’t think of that because Danny doesn’t look remotely Latino to me at all but maybe he is? I feel like they did a lot of whitewashing back then.

Yes but they used the word abuèla. LOL

35 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Well, yes. To me, that was one of their biggest blunders, not seeing Rick and Mindy through.

I'm on 1987 episodes when Mindy is widowed and MOL has left the show for a while. After less than 2 months she's tongue-kissing Rusty, who will become a non-entity to her very quickly. She had lovely scenes with Rick after Kurt's death. Why they wasted that potential time and again, I don't know.

I guess I understand them needing to explore other romances (even Phillip and Beth have a relatively short initial romance before Lujack enters the scene) for Rick and Mindy, and some of it is bad timing (MOL left, so enter Rusty...RME)...but yeah, they could've gone back to Rick/Mindy either then or even with Kimberly Simms.

Joe Marinelli who played Pauly Hardman has passed away at age 68  

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/joe-marinelli-dead-bunny-tagliatti-santa-barbara-1236298496/

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

They didn't put a lot of effort into any of Rick's romances after Mindy. Sometimes, the way he seemed to gravitate to older women, it was like he was either looking for a mother or looking for his own version of Maureen.

Hmmm, interesting idea. Rick was motherless through his childhood and early teens ( Holly as Mom..uh no..Rita? "Send the kid off to boardingschool I want to bang my hot rich neighbor") And he lost his two mother figures, Bert and Mo.  

Maybe an interesting idea was to cast "Lana" (still not sure if that is her name) Reardon, the missing one and Mo's sister. She would be an sexier, sassier version of Mo...and at least we would have an interesting storyline for bit...she comes back to town, everyone wants her with Ed..but she is banging Rick (but no to a Bauer father/son actual triangle..)

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

Well, yes. To me, that was one of their biggest blunders, not seeing Rick and Mindy through.

Agreed, Mindy had it in her to make Rick interesting and provide some conflict..she is cute, sassy, prone to shoot from the hip and make huge mistakes, a bit uppity and bitchy, but actually very loyal and nice and family centered. 

39 minutes ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

Joe Marinelli who played Pauly Hardman has passed away at age 68  

https://youtu.be/2AsCAAREeD8?si=W5lwijPfYKCICbSk

Edited June 27Jun 27 by Spoon