OLTL: Question about 1991 story

[DRW50]

Sometimes I think Dorian might have believed Viki learned some of this with her therapist after the Niki integration, Dr. Polka or whoever, but you'd think Dorian might have realized Viki was still suppressing it, since she'd sung her father's praises so highly throughout 1993 and 1994. I think Dorian was either too blind with anger to get it or she thought Viki hated her so much that she put her rage at Dorian over her sexual abuse as a child.

Between the grindingly mediocre Levinson and then JFP, who only cared about the non-Kelly members of the Cramer family long enough to put her boot up their backsides, it was all just rushed and not well planned.

There was so much bizarre stuff on the show then which clearly no one paid attention to, my "favorite" being Todd blowing up the yacht while wearing the Patrick wig.

[Khan]

DeeeDee: "They didn't."

In fact, it's fair to say that current, far campier incarnation of Dorian has its' true roots in the Gottlieb/Malone era, when it became far more easier to paint Dorian as Snidely Whiplash to Viki's Dudley-Do-Right than to write the subtler, more nuanced rivalry from OLTL's past.

Agreed. I'd much rather have delved into Dorian's past than rehash Victor's death or the origins of Viki's DID, [!@#$%^&*] that had been dealt with already (and on more than one occasion, too) and to which we'd already had definitive answers.

[DRW50]

Khan, what did you think of Elaine Princi's Dorian? I know she's a little more superficial and glossy and more like the busybody mother/town buttinsky but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed her work in the role, considering what a large imprint Robin leaves. I also tended to prefer her relationship with Cassie, I felt like it took a while before Robin found a groove with Cassie after her return.

I also really liked the idea of Dorian annoying people with her tabloid. It's kind of tacky but at least it was a way for her character to be involved in various stories.

Here's a scene where Viki, wearing her Dick Tracy outfit, laces into Dorian as tabloid reporter.

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[SFK]

All true. That's the thing about MPD/DID stories, in the past they didn't always get at the common route of the disorder which is childhood sexual abuse. Robin was doing research for her acting class and pitched the revisionist history tie-up of the issue. I can't help but think about the original backdoor pilot for Empty Nest, a The Golden Girls episode starring Rita Moreno and Paul Dooley. Rita's character's brother is a mulitple and switches back and forth for comedic effect within the episode. Wow, not only tasteless, but I don't think they were at all in touch with the actual disorder. I mean, talk about you, "... and on a Very Special Empty Nest..."

[SFK]

Carl, it's funny that you brought up Elaine... I thought of her as I read Khan's post about the current incarnation of Dorian being like Gottlieb/Malone era Dorian, where my gut reaction was that she is more like Rauch/Princi Dorian.

[Khan]

"Dr. Polka"??? LOL!

As far as I was concerned, Viki's only alter-ego, "Niki Smith," was "born" either in the aftermath of Eugenia's death, or with the discovery of her father's affair with Irene Manning (take your pick). I know most psychological experts would agree that either scenario is a pretty shaky one on which to build a split personality disorder, but there ya have it. So it is written, so it is played on-screen, so it is done. Yes, Viki had an unnatural fixation on her father, but so did the mythological Electra. So, don't give me this mess about Victor being some pedophile long after the man is dead (or "dead") and cannot defend himself, when he was neither written nor portrayed that way before. (I mean, it's bad enough the guy fathered Tina and built an underground city to stash his money, two stories that were more than a little preposterous. Do you have to make him a pervert, too?)

Oh, as for Viki singing Victor's praises throughout '93 and '94? If memory serves me correct, that's how the "secret room" story began, too. The difference, though, is that by '93, Viki should've known better than to put her father on some sort of pedestal. So, I don't get why Malone wanted us to pretend this was the first time we're dealing w/ all this, when really, we had. Dickwad.

(I'm not mad at you, Carl. I've just hated this particular story. Sorry.)

[Khan]

But it didn't need tying up, Robin! It had been tied up already! Twice! GAWD!

I mean, I get it, I do: before Malone's interpretation, OLTL did a half-assed job in "explaining" Niki. Even Agnes Nixon, who is all about medical accuracy, didn't get it right. But there's a difference between "getting it right" and "working with what you've got," know what I mean?

I'm just saying, if the story was/is about finally bringing Victor's killer to justice after oh-so-many-years, then deal with that. And if you can't send Dorian up the river for life, then write some neat, "Law & Order"-esque twist where she walks on a technicality, and thanks to double jeopardy and/or a D.A. that simply doesn't want to reopen the case, Viki will never truly get the vengeance she's long sought. (For God's sake, Bill Bell used to write that kind of stuff all the time on Y&R!) Because, everything after that? The child abuse, the other alters, the retconning of Victor's death -- all of that might've fixed some general inaccuracies and misconceptions about DID, but it certainly wasn't necessary.

[DRW50]

I think that a lot of the DID and sexual abuse storyline was very well produced and written and acted and was some of the best work Erika and Robin have ever done.

I also feel sometimes like it was a story which would have been better in a TV movie or a play or a film, not a continuing soap. I think that in the long run doing this story in a soap just gave the show license to pile trauma after trauma on Viki which made her character look like a victim or a lousy mother, and also gave them license to pile the same traumas onto her daughter.

Imagine if all of Megan and Viki's scenes had been about how they were both raped as children and how they had no control over anything they said or did as adults because they were both so crippled. Would that have been a good story?

As for Elaine/current Dorian, SFK, I think that's a great point. In some ways I think it would be easier to take with Elaine because she played Dorian in a bit more of a Douglas Sirk way, whereas Robin plays the pain underneath, and that can be tough to watch sometimes when you have stories where Dorian is degraded or used as a joke.

I can see Elaine doing the current mayor stuff Dorian has going on. I'm surprised they've even kept her as mayor for so long, but I am hoping this might lead to something. For a while I thought there was no way she'd be allowed to stay in as mayor but with some of the shocking things you hear about mayors these days, real life can be much stranger than a soap.

[SFK]

"But there's a difference between "getting it right" and "working with what you've got," know what I mean?"

I do, and I hear you on everything, but I selfishly loved every minute of it! Pushing Dorian down the stairs, stashing her in the cellar of the cabin and then the secret room, just got a big ol' kick out of it. It started to wind down for me though around the time Tori came/Jean released Dorian and made her dump Joe and hook up with David.

[DRW50]

The best part of the story for me was Erika as Tori and then the stuff where Jean slowly fell apart. That part is just fabulously produced and acted melodrama, especially the scenes where little CJ and Sarah made her keep flashing back to her childhood horrors and she freaked out over the doll.

I just wish that the show had never, ever gone back to a DID story after that, ever...

[Khan]

I can see where you're coming from, SFK, in terms of Princi's take on Dorian. The more I think about it, the more I do see today's Dorian being an extension of the one fostered by Princi and Paul Rauch. Certainly, I can't see Joe Stuart-era (or even prime Rauch-era) Dorian falling for the likes of Jason Webb. *shakes head*

The thing is, Carl, I never really cottoned to Princi as Dorian. To me, only Robin Strasser could have played that particular role (although, for those who see Nancy Pinkerton as the definitive Dorian, you guys have a point, too). Strasser has always been so exact in her choices and motivations for the role-at-hand. (I mean, gf is always playing the I-killed-Victor-Lord subtext in every single line of dialogue of every single scene.) Princi-as-Dorian, OTOH, was...okay; but in some ways, it wasn't that much different from Princi-as-Linda Patterson (DAYS), or Princi-as-Miranda Hughes (ATWT). Now, I'm not saying EP was/is a terrible actress, but if Harding Lemay thinks RS was one-note...!

[Khan]

Let's put it this way: if Michael Malone had decided to tell a story about child abuse and multiple personalities, not with Viki, but (let's say) her good friend, Nora; and Viki's there throughout to provide comfort, support and a particular understanding of this issue, would I have the same complaints about the story? Would I have any complaints at all? Frankly, I don't think I would. I'd probably never argue with those who put it on par with Karen's prostitution, Marty's rape, or the Jenny/Katrina baby switch. But that's because we wouldn't know as much about Nora's history as we do Viki's.

Precisely.

[SFK]

A.MEN. I admit, there is something oddly fascinating to me about one of Viki's alters toting around little Jessica to a bar, but... I don't think the timeline even matched up (I know I know, like that has EVER mattered), and psychologically/text booktually ( ), Niki's personality has been way too varied over the years and the Niki of the '80s didn't seem like the type who would take a child to a seedy bar. Frankly, none of the Nikis seemed like that to me. At any rate, giving Jessica DID too was just a slap in the face to the years of Viki's DID s/l, the highs AND the lows. And heart of the Lord is up there with AMC's unabortion.

[Khan]

It didn't. By the time Jessica was supposed to have been molested, Viki was too busy getting mixed up in capers such as Eterna to go bar-hopping; and Niki Smith, for the most part, was just a memory (save for when Viki had that stroke and Niki briefly emerged to kill Johnny Dee).

[SFK]

Elaine Princi like Marj Dusay is somewhat of a Rent-a-Diva who looks good in clothes and is great at acting fabulous and delivering a wry line, and of course these ladies are capable of more, but that's pretty much what they've been called to do for the *bulk* of their soap careers. I mean, Marj got to go out into orbit with Vanessa on AMC, but for the most part, it seems like their given EPs/HWs have seen their characters as functioning more as their shows' stock divas. Elaine got that bit of juiciness with Addie and she had the May/December romance with Jason and needled Viki, but Robin has gotten all of the REAL meat with Viki and Cassie (just as Beverlee McKinsey got all of Alexandra's meatiest material). So yeah, I can totally see Elaine playing the stuff they give Dorian these days, I think Elaine would be great with Tuc too. It's just hard for me to watch Robin playing it because she made such an impression on me throughout Lord of The Banner/Dorian Does Death Row/DID, the depth, the gravitas... a woman with secrets who by that point had learned to tuck her neuroses up in her sleeve, she was NEVER the kook she comes across as all too often these days.