Wendy Riche Interview

[Ann_SS]

I don't know if I believe that 100,000 viewers tuned out of GH because of Robin and Stone's HIV story. I mean, how many people watching the soaps actually pay attention to press conferences or media blurbs about soap stories? It wasn't like the Internet was every where for the news to spread quickly. I can't help thinking that there other factors at work back then.

[SFK]

Yet another enjoyable interview from WLS. The way she managed to work "should-less" in without provocation was a tad creepy though. The way they do that in *every* interview takes me out for a second and makes me feel like I'm watching one of those infomercials disguised to look like a CNN program or an episode of Montel. But I'll gladly put up with the "now from our sponsor" with these quality interviews.

[DRW50]

I guess it didn't help that at this time most of the soaps were losing ratings, aside from those which were doing big OTT pseudo-camp (like DAYS, and the Brent/Marian story on GL).

[Ann_SS]

Also, weren't talk shows big in the mid-90s? I keep thinking that there was a lot more tv competition for soaps along with more women in the work place. I'm not saying that there wasn't a fear of HIV/AIDS, but I highly doubt that all those viewers fled because they knew that the story was coming.

[R Sinclair]

Yeah, talk shows were huge! Rolanda Watts, Ricki Lake, Jenny Jones, Jerry Springer, Rosie, Oprah... and of course every season a new one would come out and fail. Bertice Berry, Carnie Wilson, Tempest Bledsoe, Danny Bonaduce, etc. They were a lot more salacious than soaps. I used to love watching Ricki Lake simply due to the abundance of half naked men every other week.

[Ann_SS]

The memories come flooding back. I used to watch Oprah and Sally Jesse Raphael on a regular basis, the others sporadically.,

[SFK]

And the thing is, talk shows were never really direct competition for soaps the way Judge shows and the Drs. Phil and Oz are now, and of course here come the game shows creeping back. In the '90s, the soaps still monopolized from 1-4 with the talk shows airing in the morning, late afternoon/early evening (Ricki) and even late night (Jerry). Shoot, FOX was still showing cartoons in the afternoon.

Does anyone remember Hydeia Broadbent?

[Khan]

I loved watching it just b/c watching white folks "act ghetto" always tickles the heck out of me.

[SFK]

I'll never forget one girl going on about her cheating boyfriend having "passion marks" all over his neck. That's the first time I heard about hickey's countrified cousin.

[AMCDYNASTY]

Do you guys think that if she came back, would AMC, OLTL , GH improve?

[SFK]

Hard to say. Of course I'd like to think that they'd improve, but sometimes these things just come down to being on the right show at the right time. I don't recall particularly thinking about it back then, but Claire Labine + OLTL looks awesome on paper and I remember it as somewhat of an uneven, unimpressive blur. Riche and Labine's GH was really something else. I remember coming home from high school and watching, I don't think I'd ever felt that nervous queasy feeling in my stomach watching a soap before then and I know I haven't since. I was genuinely affected by the drama of Monica and Stone. I'd love to experience that gut connect again on a show like AMC, but boy she'd have her work cut out for her sorting it all out.

[DRW50]

It's so difficult to know what will happen without a strong network head, producer, and writing team who can all work together, but also it's about the right fit. At the time I thought the Labines would be great since so many seemed to look forward to their going to OLTL after their work at GH, but, and of course it's easy to say this now, I wonder if they were ever the right fit for OLTL. Their RH and GH had strong family structures, which were already pretty eroded at OLTL by the time they showed up. OLTL also has no set "style." OLTL has been everything to everybody, the only constant has been Viki (who was little used at that time, ironically). OLTL is also a very tricky show in terms of humor -- you can either do camp or you can do the fun banter which pervaded Llanview when Malone/Gottlieb/Horgan were around. Instead Labine just chose to do very, very strange "wacky" humor which seemed to be lifted off of her GH run.

Now I DO think the Labines would have been a good fit for GL if they had not been sabotaged left and right from the beginning.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Didn't Labine have gunshots firing in the Bauer kitchen? That's sacrilege.

[R Sinclair]

OMG! Sally Jesse Raphael!! She was forever sending 11 and 12 year old, cursing, boozing, smoking girls to boot camp!

[ian]

or Jenny Jones! Mo Collins did her perfectly.