So as I close out 1991, this is apparently from a ’94 magazine interview with Michael Malone, which shows what was still on his mind then to his credit, and points to the future:
Gottlieb and Malone did bring the class system and struggle back to OLTL from almost their very first days, beginning with creating Jason Webb in August ’91 (a character Malone clearly did have affinity for, whether he was a Gottlieb edict and a Malone creation before his name was officially on the show or whether the interim writers did his introduction - I am leaning towards Malone). Then they lensed deeply in both their early fall period and December into class commentary with a variety of have-nots. It begins with Jason and Lee Ann, who Gottlieb had David Nichtern create a whole musical theme for, indicating that early investment. Lee Ann, starstruck when she’s invited to the Buchanan Christmas party, gets showered with gifts by rich heir Kevin to fulfill all her dreams of coming up in the world. Meanwhile pauper Jason sells Cord’s camera and his last dime just to afford buying her a pearl necklace (ahem), which Lee Ann then mistakes for a gift from Max. This throughline continues to crop up with the great Blair/Cassie scenes at the Banner late at night that soapfave mentioned, where Quincey chimes in about the rich vs. the working schlubs of Llanview, and how he and Blair will never be able to afford the tony country club circuit with horse & rider.
It had been set aside for awhile but Malone reintroduces the nearly subliminal Jason/Lee Ann romance thread beneath all their dramas with Dorian, Kevin, Max, etc. in December. Jason thinks he can never be enough for Lee Ann while both poor strivers are seduced by wealth and power from suitors from the high steppes (Kevin and Dorian). When Kevin proposes at Wanda's, a sullen Jason drowns his sorrows by planting one on Dorian in the background of the shot before exiting stage left. They knew what they were doing from the jump.
Meanwhile, leathered-up Dorian and Jason cruise around on his bike and ponder the class struggle on Llantano Mountain(?), looking down on the whole town and wanting to 'step on' Llanview as they play with these familiar Malone beats. Jason also talks his abusive stepfather and wanting to become a cop, a career path they did not fulfill for him AFAIK but did years later with Antonio (who I preferred becoming a lawyer, as he was off to law school when Kamar de los Reyes left in ’97, but anyway). Then there's more Malone sadomasochism a la Jason and Stephanie, as Dorian pushes him to express his anger sexually (‘break me in two!').
I think she gives good heroine in several ways but as I've said before, I can't really feel for Lee Ann's delusional fixation on Max. She goes a step too far openly suggesting that she could be Al's new mommy, which makes Max bristle hard and inform her in no uncertain terms that no one will ever be replacing Gabrielle. A few days later he's playing the See Other People card on the phone with her just before NYE. I can't really blame him at all, even if Nicholas Walker's Max was singing a totally different (and very creepy) tune with Lee Ann under the prior writers during the summer.
Blair and Cassie at the Banner has been mentioned but is worthwhile stuff. Mia Korf is still beautiful today, she's spellbinding on the show and it just makes me wish for other things that could or should've been to honor her time with OLTL. Blair urging Cassie to fight for Bo using sex is a key window into Blair's truly driven mindset. Cassie says love can't be worked for, but Blair fundamentally disagrees. "You have to work for love just like anything else. Why be ambitious only at the office?" Asa and Blair meet again on the 22nd during this Banner pow-wow after only a brief greeting in the past, he's clearly taken with her, and Blair instantly hooks into the old cowboy as a prime opportunity. Again, this creative team has already begun adjusting on Blair very quickly and it's no secret even without hindsight where this angle is going. (Blair also meets Dorian again at Wanda's on the 26th and is still quite flustered - Cassie really rolls with inadvertently meeting the mute Addie on the 22nd, who Blair passes off as a distant relative she's been hiding away in Cassie's condo. Uh, sure!)
Blair’s homemade jewelry is such a key component of the character; she gifts the entire Buchanan clan with homemade pieces after dazzling Asa and Renee with her work, then, another striving character born to poverty, makes her own gown for the NYE Buchanan bash. While I really liked Blair as a journalist as well it does me good to know Melador is still going strong for her today from her GH appearance a couple years ago, as it's such a foundational part of the character. (I just assume she also still owns the Sun from Todd.) Blair was always very close to Malone’s heart, though I’d hope he talked up Mia Korf in some press as much as he did KDP, who he gushed about in later years and said it was shameful she hadn't won Emmys for her work (true). I've never found clippings where he's talked about MK and it would be nice to see. Kassie said only Malone really understood Blair and I do think she was probably right. It's the same character in '94 and '95 (and even 2003, alone up against Mitch Laurence), just in a different key. When Blair psyches herself up to go to the party and make her life change, she's not far removed from Jason or Lee Ann and the classic core themes from '68 that Malone and Gottlieb are playing with across the whole show.
Going back to the quote at the top: In the end, Malone did deliver on more families and more working class families. In 1995 he creates Angel Square and the Vegas, all of which became central to the show for the remainder of its run. In their way Antonio, Cristian, Carlotta, etc. are the inheritors to white (or in Blair's case, Asian... for a while) working class characters depicted in '91 like Lee Ann, Jason, Wanda, even Max and Luna. Malone's thematic concerns didn't vanish but they did transmute.
Sarah’s evil Santa dreams and her fears of being covered in feathers or petals or something (or whatever this cryptic stuff is supposed to represent) are only escalating! Bo and Sarah have some occasionally good bonding scenes but despite some slogging, repetitive material her PTSD Is actually quite well-rendered for the era, frightened of Christmas crowds, noise, etc. The first mention of psychiatrist Michael Jonas by Andrew comes on December 30, which leads to what I know was an unpopular storyline and a character who (if they intended more) never really came together.
Max and Luna live it up in Atlantic City after their run-in with Megan and Cain, winning and losing a small fortune over “Serenity” the horse; Luna’s preternatural senses are right but Max doesn’t trust them vs. the house odds. I have actually really enjoyed Max and Luna’s early hijinks, including joining the high-stakes poker game at the Palace with “Humberto”. It’s more loose-limbed and fun than some of the more labored or self-important stuff they often got once they were fully coupled up, though I do still find them far more winning than some fans do later in ’93; I rewatched the 25th anniversary eps recently and that stuff really holds up for me, including their material. Anyway, JDP and Susan Batten are clearly having a blast together here in the early days. I don’t think DePaiva had a problem with Luna so much as he did Max becoming a wholly tamed Mr. Mom near the very end of that romance (Luna gives birth maybe three months before being shot and killed IIRC) and into ’96, once Luna was dead and Max was just toting twins around indefinitely.
It’s still very interesting how OLTL now has both Cain and Max onscreen, with Cain appearing to be an obvious successor character for Max, but instead they’ve repeatedly been pitted against each other, first during the Palace poker game and then again in AC with Megan. Kevin once again references Asa’s first love “Rose Smith” right after Christmas, first mentioned in late September or October (admittedly she is likely Asa’s fifth or sixth ‘first love’ in show history) and I’m fairly sure I’m right about the Cain connection here, which at first glance would be a near-total Xerox of Max’s backstory re: Asa with Wingate and Patricia Holden. Megan also hones in on how Cain’s various schemes and identities all go back to investigating Asa. This Max/Cain mirroring culminates right before New Year’s, on what is labeled the 12/30 episode*; after Max and Luna finally discover the land that will become Serenity Springs (much sooner than I thought story-wise), they do a hard match cut in the edit from Max’s cowboy boots in the mud to Cain’s identical boots at the Palace, where he finally gives his real name to the concierge before charming and pickpocketing Asa in Texas cattle drag. Speaking of Serenity Springs, IIRC it lasted on OLTL til just about the end of the run; I could swear I remember hunks still going there to work out in the last 5-10 years (did Max or the Moodys still own it?). More recently, Nina on GH is still vacationing to Serenity Springs for spa trips to this day!
(* - I still have a hard time believing they ran new episodes on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but that’s the online labeling for you)
Anyway: Cain watches Tina and Viki meet Babs Bartlett, then charms her into getting him an invitation to Asa's New Year’s bash (which Max crashes with Luna). I was wondering when Cain and Tina would reconnect and sure enough she clocks him at the NYE bash with Babs. It initially seems kind of insane Cain that came to this event where Tina, Megan and Viki all spot and confront him (and Megan shares one more surprisingly chill dance with him) but as it turns out he has set it up for a confrontation with Tina, Viki and Asa at the stroke of midnight.
NYE 1991 culminates well across the board. I have always found it essential for soaps to make Christmas and New Year's count with a bang at the end of the year, and some shows still do it sometimes. First there's the Cain unmasking, then there's more angsty drama with Andrew and Megan. Before Asa's party Andrew again wants to apologize to Megan for kissing her hand the other day. "I don’t think that was the right thing," he begins before she cuts him off: "Yes it was. Really, it made me feel good." Okay.
Andrew seeks counsel from his bishop and confesses his love for Megan. The bishop tells him 'a man in love is a man closer to God’ but says he can't let his emotions overtake him. In crisis, Andrew writes requesting a transfer only to be confronted by Megan just before midnight. When he tells her what he's doing (but not why - she must know) she begs him not to go, and they share a tentative, halting embrace at 12:00. He almost goes in for a kiss then settles for her cheek as they hug. So close!!
But then we come to the moment people really remember: Max and Blair's first scenes together (ever) where they are supernaturally drawn to each other - the stage lights even darken around them in the middle of the Palace ballroom - and dance at midnight to Roberta Flack's "Set the Night to Music". It's super OTT and campy but also pretty great and beautifully done tbh. To be clear, by my reckoning there is zero foreshadowing of Max and Blair together or hints towards this pairing whatsoever before this moment, which is pretty unusual for Malone/Gottlieb. They were never in close enough proximity, there's never any parallel editing or thematic rhyme like other characters and stories. It was never even hinted at, and then suddenly they're there together like a solar flare. And yeah, they do really have it at least in that moment. Max and Luna are adorable, but the Max that tango's with Mia Korf's Blair is the one Gabrielle would remember. It's quite an introduction for a hard, sudden shift, but it worked for me and is the setpiece the show closes on to end 1991, out of nowhere. What a way to go.
A few final notes:
Not for the first time IIRC, Malone hits the note of Princi's Dorian dredging up her decades-long feud over Victor with Viki as she gripes to Herb about being Victor’s widow and the rightful mistress of the house of Lord. I’m not sure they knew anything about their future plans this far back, but who knows.
Clint randomly returning from Jaba City bruised and bandaged around his face and eyes (blaming Jaba thugs) makes me think this directly relates to Linda Gottlieb’s oral history story about Clint Ritchie returning from a break having had major face work done around his eyes and her saying ‘WTF?’ I’m willing to bet money that these scenes are the end result.
I'm going to take a bit of a break from spewing away about the show and a breather after blitzing through the end of '91 in a matter of days. I hope you find something worthwhile and not too repetitious about my blather, and I'll start in on '92 sometime soon.
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Vee ·
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