Eric, kinda off topic, but why haven't you posted in the thread announcing AMC's new writing team? I know you're a big fan of the show and was shocked not to find any comments from you.

B&B is more similar to Santa Barbara than any other soap.

Edited January 14, 201015 yr by DeeeDee

I did post a couple of hours back? I've been switching computers maybe it didn't go through I will check. (basically I am severely disappointed though the optimist in me about the future of AMC thinks it's not quite as bad as it COULD have been)

Y&R & B&B couldn't be more different even from the beginning.

B&B is more similar to Santa Barbara than Y&R.

You haven't convinced me when the campier aspects came a year or two in, I agree.

What was strikingly original from the start was the performance of Susan Flannery (who Bell worked with on Days) as Stephanie Forrester--a fascinating alabaster sphinx of a woman.

I like that description. I wonder how Bell's origial choice, Jaime Lyn Bauer, would have worked out in the role. Coincidentally, she went on to "replace" Flannery on Days as Laura.

B&B has ALWAYS been a shallow camp show.

Y&R not so much.

Jaime Lyn Bauer? That would've been something! But why couldn't she just return to Y&R? That really bothers me. I want to see Lorie Brooks in action so bad. Those two episodes she returned for in 1984 were flawless. She slipped back into that role so seamlessly. But I always thought the original choice for Stephanie Forrester was Susan Seaforth Hayes?

I did post a couple of hours back? I've been switching computers maybe it didn't go through I will check. (basically I am severely disappointed though the optimist in me about the future of AMC thinks it's not quite as bad as it COULD have been)

Oh okay! I must've missed your post, but I will look. I was wondering what you would think.

I want to see Lorie Brooks in action so bad.

No you don't. lol

JLB needs to stay gone.

I like that description.

There's a lot of Bev McKinsey in Susan.

Edited January 14, 201015 yr by DeeeDee

Yes! I can see that too. Is there any Flannery on DAYS online?

Edited January 14, 201015 yr by EricMontreal22

I've read that about SSH too, but I read about JLB even longer ago, I think in Waggett's Book of Lists. And I REALLY hope I'm not making this up, I need to recheck my facts, but I want to say that they went as far as taking promo pics with JLB before she pulled out. She wasn't *quite* ready for the grind of a lead like Stephanie, she'd quit Y&R because she was worked to death.

DeeeDee, I can see that, the iciness, Stephanie is somewhere between Iris and Alex. Iris was more in-your-face, and Alex sort of leaned back and quietly schemed when she needed to.

I like that description. I wonder how Bell's origial choice, Jaime Lyn Bauer, would have worked out in the role. Coincidentally, she went on to "replace" Flannery on Days as Laura.

I thought the original pick to play Stephanie was Susan Seaforth Hayes, well, at least according to Susan Flannery.

Edited January 14, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

the iciness, Stephanie is somewhere between Iris and Alex. Iris was more in-your-face, and Alex sort of leaned back and quietly schemed when she needed to.

Indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3a8RZAiWxI

No you don't. lol

JLB needs to stay gone.

I don't mean now. I mean I want to see Lorie Brooks from her original run. She's the one character that interests me the most from the 70s.

I don't mean now.

Good. :lol:

Geesh, just the sound of Beverlee McKinsey's voice makes me want to be bad and start smoking again.

Lord, I can't believe she and Zaslow are both gone.

Didn't Marland copy some elements from his GL to ATWT though? Certainly the Vocheck's on Loving in that episode of his online remind me of the Snyders.

Most of the big writers certainly tended to write similar kinds of stories within their shows even if there were small shifts in tone. Agnes at her shows (though you can see a progression from her GL to AW to OLTL to AMC), Irna's shows seemed ot be written largely the same even if she changed HOW they were written with ATWT. The Dobsons went from GL to ATWT with similar stories and astyle which they went full out on with their own show SB.

What about Dark Shadows--the most obviously different of the major network classic soaps. Art Wallace who was the initial head writer went on to be a head consultant/writer for the early years of AMC. Gordon Russell and Sam Hall of course went on to OLTL--I'm sure you could find STYLISTIC similarities though in how characters were written, etc.

Brown and Esensten did good to great work at Loving and The City--and never really did again but I guess they still wrote from a similar angle (and did yet anothe rmurder mystery on GL?)

Bell's Y&R was basically a continuation of the psychosexual drama he did at DAYS--and B&B essentially was early Y*R again...

That seems to be true of Slesar's stint with Hall and the Corringtons on OLTL--they switched so quickly--but the Corringtons *apparently* took the "intrigue" angle that Slesar injected into the show and turned it into a full on mob infestation.

Marland said that the Snyder family was shaped after his own. He grew up on a farm in West Sand Lake, NY. The Thanksgiving sqash cut was actually his family tradition. I come from Albany, near his home town, and the sappy Snyders' remind me of the locals. They all live in little farmhouses that look like Emma's kitchen. A writer often brings his/her personal experience with them, these people and events are what they know, understand, consider the ideal. Marland brough earthy moments to all of his shows aside from his Showtime gig.

I think he went to far declawing Babs, Lucinda, Lisa: these women lost all thier zest. Killing off Diana was a mistake, too. This is jut my feeling; however, during the first two years he lost ratings when contrasted against Jerome and Bridget Dobson. I wonder what kind of ATWT we would have today if they had stayed. Better year, where the show would be now had B&B not been aired thus bumping the time slot.