Linda Gottlieb article 1992

[EricMontreal22]

Why? Her first major credits are from 1972...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I remember reading an article from the 90's, where her grown adult son, who was a successful attorney, I believe, and in his 20's was getting married.

I assume if she had a son that was in his 20's in the early/mid 90's, she must be up there in age in 2010...

Her last credited work on IMDB is from 2003 too.

[SFK]

I'd say she's in her late sixties/early seventies. I saw a few pics of her from a Dirty Dancing screening/talk back a couple of years ago. Hence me thinking I recognized her about a week ago, and the fur only added to my hunch.

When we were talking about her about a year ago, she had an office in the same building as OLTL's offices, not sure if she still does. I'd like to drop her a line, maybe suggest her for one of the better soaps blogcasts.

[Vee]

Her work on OLTL has not been matched since. The editing in the episodes surrounding Megan's death, the way they cut voice with flashbacks and present-day material, was totally cinematic, on a whole other level.

Erika Slezak openly admitted to disliking not only Gottlieb but her work in a long retrospective interview online. It's a shame because some of her best work is in that era, but this is also a woman who loved Paul Rauch and JFP. I understand her POV, but I don't agree with it. I still love her though.

[SFK]

Exactly, just what I was getting at. It baffles me really. That's why I wonder if it was more personal, like was LG curt, did she bulldoze?

[LoyaltoAMC]

Slezak's attitude might've been directed toward how Rauch and Gottlieb approached the show. With Rauch, OLTL still felt like OLTL, just uber-energized. It was essentially Joe Stuart/Gordon Russell's OLTL on an endless coke binge. Rauch and Peggy O'Shea expanded on certain elements of the show without altering the canvas. Yes, Schnessel and the later writers under Rauch got totally carried away, but I don't think the show needed a complete overhaul, which is what Gottlieb seemed to do. Gottlieb/Malone seemed to want to reinvent the show. Yes, OLTL was struggling when she came aboard, but she totally changed the show's tone, at least that was my take on it. It just seemed like a totally new show. What was it that Jerry ver Dorn has said about daytime, how it's about "evolution," not "revolution." Also, you got the sense, and maybe this is totally subjective, that she looked down on daytime and wanted to create something that she could be proud of. It just didn't work for me.

[CSF]

I loved Linda Gottlieb's One Life to Live. I thought it was tastefully executed and very well written. For a show that was supposed to be about social class, she put each character in their respective social class. Llanview is a suburb of Philadelphia, not Dallas like I felt Rauch's OLTL was. Llanview is actually supposed to be in the same location as Conshohocken, PA IIRC and IMO, Linda Gottlieb did it justice. Her not in daytime anymore is a big blow to the genre.

[EricMontreal22]

Well a coke binge that had no place for the poorer or darker skinned characters... But yeah--I get your point. I'd like to read what specifically she said though.

[DRW50]

Several cast members were upset with the Gottlieb era, although RSW and de Paiva were more upset with their characters not being manly enough, or whatever. I don't know if Erika Slezak was upset with her character or just with what happened backstage. It did seem like the first year or so of Gottlieb's tenure was rough, so that might have left more of a lasting memory for someone like Erika, who had been there so long.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Didn't Phil Carey or someone else say, "Linda says her office is always open, but when you go there, she's never around."

I think Carey disliked her a lot too.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Well, there were minorities on OLTL during Rauch featured in somewhat prominent roles. There were the Barrons, Bobby Blue (played by Blair Underwood), and Ed & Carla's son involved in stories. If I'm not mistaken it was Rauch who had rehired Ellen Holly, and she had the front burner story going with the Alec Lowndes football player character. Or was that pre-Rauch? That was definitely pre-Peggy O'Shea. That story about Rauch chasing Lillian Hayman out to the parking lot to tell her that she had just taped her last scene...was that ever proven or is that a soap urban myth? Always had a hard time believing that. As far as poor characters, to be fair this was the Reagan 80s, the era of Dynasty, Dallas, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Caviar dreams and champagne wishes and all that crap, and almost all of the shows centered around ridiculously wealthy families. It just mirrored the state of American culture at the time. ATWT seemed to be the only show to buck that trend with the introduction of the Snyders. Maybe it was even sadder for OLTL not to have any poor people, since the have-nots were a huge part of the show's original vision. I think the show was just reflecting society rather than Rauch's vision of what the landscape of a soap should look like. Remember, his AW was all about class conflict with the poor Frames and the wealthy Corys.

[DRW50]

I wonder if that may have been down to the Blair story and the breakup with Renee. Asa seemed to lose some of his luster during those years, he became less of the mythic figure I think Rauch may have seen him as a little more.

Or stuff like this:

Phil is very good in the scene, but I wonder how he felt about Asa basically being a headcase just to generate pity for new character LeAnn.

[SFK]

I think that was DePaiva's quote, not Carey's. Carey was the one who allegedly went to Gottlieb's office to protest the rehiring of Strasser.

It wasn't Rauch who fired Hayman in the parking lot, but a PA sent by Rauch who said, "Paul Rauch wants me to tell you that you just worked your last day," or something callous to that effect. One of the kind security guards that she knew for years let Ms. Hayman in over the weekend to clear out her dressing room which she'd decorated like a second home. This is info. I got from Ellen Holly's book, and I believe it even if I don't quite agree with her on other issues.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Did Carey and Strasser not get along? I understand that they were both very outspoken about certain things.

Thanks for clarifying the Lillian Hayman thing. For some reason I thought it was Rauch who did the dirty work. Ellen Holly seems to have taken a lot of what happened personally. Didn't she write something about some comment that Slezak allegedly made about there being no room for minorities or poor people on today's OLTL in the 80s? If Slezak did indeed say that, I can imagine it wasn't coming from a place of approval.

[SFK]

Exactly, she misinterpreted Slezak's quote in SOD. When she was being interviewed at the time of the 20th anniversary, she said how Llanview was now a town full of Caucasian "haves", there was no lower class, there was no middle class, there were no black people anymore. Holly took that as Slezak celebrating that fact, and she wasn't at all, just remarking on the current state of the show. When you think about it, who in their right mind would ever *boast* about such a thing in print?? But Slezak cleared this all up in one of her newsletters last year, flat out called it, "Bullsh!t."

Apparently, Strasser has a bit of a *reputation* for being difficult (perfectionism that sometimes manifests itself in unpleasant ways).