Great Women of Soaps

[quartermainefan]

He has such nice things to say about everyone except Pamela Bellwood. Why was she not liked? Has anyone heard anything about this? He also didn't seem enamored with Diahann Carroll.

[SFK]

Yes, I thought that was interesting seeing as how they've seemed to remain friendly, back in the '90s there was some gala or something in La La Wood thrown for him, and Joan and Diahann (in his gowns, natch) were his escorts. But Diahann is a haughty woman, and I can totally imagine her sweeping onto the Dynasty set like the HBIC. I get the impression that DC feels like she needs to stake her claim, assert her power (and herself as an equal to Joan/Alexis) since she's been screwed over and treated like a second class citizen in the biz. Plus, playing TV's "first black bitch", I have a feeling she amped it up, playing the part both on screen and off.

Pam Bellwood, I wonder...

[Sylph]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhrhb2SWix8

[EricMontreal22]

Does Diahann have a bad rep? In Jr High my theatre class went to Vancouver to see the Canadian tour of Sunset Boulevard which I thought actually had a better cast than the non singing Glenn Close US cast--it was Diahann as Norma Desmond (opposite Rex Smith, who was still quite dreamy, as Joe Gillis). Anyway cuz of our class we got to go backstage for a talk an hourbefore the show, and although apparently she wasn't meant to, Diahann came out and talked to use for about 15 mins, then signed autographs. I have to admit I really didn't know who she was (I mean I knew she was famous but had never seen her in anything at that time) but she was *incredibly* nice and gracious and personal.

[Cat]

Dayum. That hair never moves!

Love how Sable wore fur almost everyday -- in Los Angeles. Hence her name.

[Sylph]

You have to love a woman who can pull both of those things — gallons of hair spray + fur!

[soapfan770]

My list would include:

Lucinda Walsh(ATWT)

Vivian Alamain(Days)

Alex Spaulding(GL)

Vanessa Chamberlain(GL)

Iris Cory(AW)

Sable Colby(Dynasty)

Abby Fairgate(Knots)

Jill Foster Abbott(Y&R)

Estelle Kendall(SFT)

Sally Spectra(B&

Lauren Fenmore(Y&R--back in the 80s and 90s of course!)

[All My Shadows]

Ugh. I hate the fact that Dynasty-style shows are considered tacky and lame today. We need the escapism! Forget about the recession, I want to see rich people rubbing elbows and swirling drinks in huge mansions, damn it! And no, Brothers & Sisters does not count! The OC was closer to Dynasty than Brothers & Sisters is.

[Sylph]

Yes. Definitely.

Not a single show today represents correctly the way rich people (especially those in their upper 30s, 40s and 50s) live today. Now.

Those screechy, annoying teenage girls in Gossip Girl etc. do not cut it.

[Cat]

The closest you are going to get is probably Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence!

After everything that happened with Brooke Astor (including the trial of her son Tony Marshall), I guess I'm surprised that a show hasn't focused on New York's Old Money vs. New Money. Dirty Sexy Money doesn't count, I hated that dirge. It played everything for laughs and, consequently, was hugely unfunny. The thing about Dynasty, The Colbys, Dallas, Falcon Crest and Knot's Landing is that, even at its campiest, everybody played it straight. And that made it soooo much more enjoyable.

And, in a funny way, some crazy diva like Alexis seemed much more "believeable" with her larger-than-life personality than, say, the one-dimensional characters on DSM. Oh, look, it's the evil patriarch! The drunken wife! The druggy kids! It's like somebody was checking a list of stereotypes. Even blue-rinse Blake on Dynasty -- arguably the most boring character on the show -- could veer from sentimental old codger cooing over his trophy-wife Krystal to an enraged control freak to sneering at Steven for being a "momma's boy."

[SFK]

She doesn't have a bad rep, but she's been known to get pointed in interviews, especially when people pussyfoot around the blatantly racist treatment she's had to endure in the past.

[Sylph]

That was some novel!!! I've re-read it just a short while ago.

But why do you think there isn't a straught, as you say, portralay of some rich (feuding or not) families on TV anymore? Why is it always about nasty, spoiled teens bored with life? I really miss the "trials and tribulations" of middle-aged rich people, adults, not immature teens.

[Cat]

The Age of Innocence is beautiful. And not to sound like a complete sap but The House of Mirth kinda made me cry in the end. This woman literally edged out of polite society to her downfall.

Because -- and this is horribly simple -- TV execs are obsessed with the youth demographic. Absolutely obsessed. Sometimes I wonder if these execs are not projecting their own anxieties about getting older and receeding hairlines (Jeff Zucker, I'm looking at you) on all of us.

One of the ironies of a show like Gossip Girl (which I know you hate) is that the character actors playing the parentals -- Kelly Rutherford, Margaret Colin, the man playing Bart Bass, snobby social maven CeeCee, Dorota -- very often completely steal the show.

[Sylph]

Yes. Wharton was a great writer.

Of course! However, in The OC, for example, and GG, as you point out, younger people, those 20-year-olds they're after — hated the main "crew" and loved the parents (Kirsten, Julie, Sandy...)!

And I think that's how is usually goes: the teen show have better older characters and the viewers are exactly attracted to them.

[All My Shadows]

I liked The OC as a whole, in that there was always something going on with both generations, and I generally liked all of the characters there. I stopped watching towards the end of season 2 and only saw bits and pieces of the second half of the run on SOAPnet, but I have it on On Demand, so I think I'm gonna rewatch it to see if I still love it.

My main issue with today's shows about rich people isn't so much the ages of the characters (because I've enjoyed GG immensely every time I've checked it out, but I never really had the chance to watch it regularly) but the overall tone that they usually have. I'm beyond tired of the idea of "these people are rich, but they're so down-to-earth, and they love each other, and they're just like you!" Dallas and Dynasty were shows about high class people that were targeted at the whole TV audience. Brothers and Sisters, on the other hand, is a show about high class people that is targeted at high class people. The Walkers will never be anything more than "neurotic" and you'll never ever ever see an Alexis type character, but if you do, the audience will suppose to hate her as much as the characters do.