I can't really judge the Laura Simmons story because it started a little before the strike and was resolved during the strike so we can never really know what Marland had planned for the character and story.  Wasn't the guy that turned out to be her brother Beau... wasn't he the one that was attacking her in the park.. or was that someone else?

 

I remember Pam... she was a normal, average girl that didn't want to be the center of attention like Lily and Meg.. hence why she got along with both... and why Lucinda was more apt to accept having her live with them at the mansion then she was toward Duke.  Pam is one of those support characters that soaps used to have... never the main story, but a nice side story that sometimes affected the whole canvas.. but was off on their own.  She was a nursing student with Meg, plus had connections with a lot of other characters so I never viewed her as being as isolated as most of the Synders were (I still think having them out on that ugly farm set isolated them as opposed to if they lived in town).

Re Kristen Vigard

It was stated  that she was often late to studio/set and not prepared eg not knowing her lines.

Whether this was drug related?

Beau was the man Bob saw on the park with Laura, but he wasn't attacking her. The bible doesn't say why Beau ran off though.

 

I can't completely hate the strike though---it ended up being the only time a guy actively pursued Iva. I must've replayed their first kiss a thousand times....

Edited May 11, 20187 yr by P.J.

12 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I can't really judge the Laura Simmons story because it started a little before the strike and was resolved during the strike so we can never really know what Marland had planned for the character and story.  Wasn't the guy that turned out to be her brother Beau... wasn't he the one that was attacking her in the park.. or was that someone else?

 

I remember Pam... she was a normal, average girl that didn't want to be the center of attention like Lily and Meg.. hence why she got along with both... and why Lucinda was more apt to accept having her live with them at the mansion then she was toward Duke.  Pam is one of those support characters that soaps used to have... never the main story, but a nice side story that sometimes affected the whole canvas.. but was off on their own.  She was a nursing student with Meg, plus had connections with a lot of other characters so I never viewed her as being as isolated as most of the Synders were (I still think having them out on that ugly farm set isolated them as opposed to if they lived in town).

I know Marland came from a rural family, but it was just dumb to make the Snyders a farm family in previously unheard of "Luther's Corners" (even that name grates..) The show needed a bit of grit and they should have just been a family in the poor section of Oakdale..(I know its like the Reardons, but 7th street never seemed that "urban.")  I think it did indeed isolate them and having to have characters hike out to godforsaken "Luthers' Corners" was just stupid...(really Lisa, one does not wear a sparkly top and heels to freakin Bumfuck...) Plus, for coming from a rural family, Marland didn't "get" the issues facing farm familes at that time (I come from farm country and houses did not look like the Snyders out of the 1930s..)I remember one of the "european" characters at the farm mentioning that the farm reminds them of Tuscany or some such place (uh...the midwest does not look like Tuscany) and how all the little farm houses sprang up and Mama Snyder said that was because people had to sell off portions of their farms and people bought them and split them up and ...it just did not jibe with what was going on at that time. Not..only that, I never once heard the Snyders talk about the weather, bad crops, harvest...(they ALWAYS had time to screw each other and talk about their annoying feelings..)

 

I never understood, with all the history they ignored, like GL with the Coopers, they kept that family intact. If I was a producer after Marland died I would have burned that damn farm house to the ground !!!

It seemed as if Marland was starting something compelling with Detective Roy Franklin's family.  The rift between Roy and his father Leonard because Roy's younger brother was shot and killed by the police coupled with the fact that Roy became a police detective is a story that could play today. 

Sadly, with today's soaps, it would likely be seen as risky somehow (soaps today tend to avert their gaze from any hint of a socio-political issue)--maybe it was also deemed too risky back then. 

Perhaps P&G wanted to pull the plug on that story, which could be the reason why it didn't progress any further.

 

In fact, in a weird case of symmetry, Marland also created a similar family dynamic between Jessica Griffin and her family, but the tensions were compounded by social rather than political issues and that also only went so far. 

 

Personally, I thought that Roy's family dynamic was the more compelling but I wonder whether there was resistance from CBS and/or P&G to give a long-term dramatic spotlight to a Black family. 

This aspect always struck me as very strange.

Edited May 11, 20187 yr by DramatistDreamer

1 hour ago, Mitch said:

I never understood, with all the history they ignored, like GL with the Coopers, they kept that family intact. If I was a producer after Marland died I would have burned that damn farm house to the ground !!!

 

Oddly enough they planned to in 1994 but the story was leaked to the press so they dropped it.

@Mitch I'm so glad someone else felt the same way about Luther's Corners/the farm house, etc. Tuscany, my a--. Did Marland ever visit that part of Illinois? The farm was a nice novelty for the first couple of years, but as all the children became successful, it was ludicrous. I like the idea of the 'rough side' of Oakdale. Even Monticello, of which Oakdale was treated as a suburb, had an urban downtown with questionable bars, seedy motels, the dance studio, etc. 

 

I remember when someone gifted Emma with a new refrigerator and for some reason a few weeks later, they tossed it and brought back that old icebox from the 1950s. For being such a 'great' cook, you'd think those kids (and Lily, Cal, Rosanna, etc.) would've gotten Emma the best appliances, etc. It still could've been an interesting set blending the old with the new.

 

It's funny how everyone Emma ended raising/knowing somehow earned, married or had serious money - not a poor one in sight. Though Caleb as a cop was the closest, but even he was middle class and Julie was a model. It just seem ingenious after awhile.  

The new refrigerator looked so odd at the farm. I am not sure if there actually complaints about it or the producers just put the old one back.........As for Emma not having expensive appliances....didn't she say that she didn't want expensive stuff in her farm? She was use to her simple kitchen.

Yeah, the thing was it became a competition between Cal and Jarrod to see who could buy her the bigger, newer appliance. 

 

Sorry to disagree, but I've been in more than one old farmhouse, and the biggest inaccuracy was the room size. That kitchen was about four times the size it would've been. 

edgeofnik..no problem..HATED the Snyders and that damn farm and how "fantasy rural," it all was. Of course Emma didn't want any fancy appliances cause she's a "down home girl" yes Marland we get it..but even 1950s fridges die... what I hated most about that kitchen was the bathroom right off it, so you hear Emma taking a mean crap (and you KNOW she did) while eating the "Hubbard Squash.." or whatever it was. I have always wondered why they didn't incorporate the bathroom into the eavesdropping storylines with someone taking a dump and as they wipe they hear who their real daddy was!

 

 

12 minutes ago, Mitch said:

Emma taking a mean crap (and you KNOW she did)

 

13 minutes ago, Mitch said:

I have always wondered why they didn't incorporate the bathroom into the eavesdropping storylines with someone taking a dump and as they wipe they hear who their real daddy was!

 

😂😂😂

 

 

50 minutes ago, Mitch said:

so you hear Emma taking a mean crap (and you KNOW she did) while eating the "Hubbard Squash.." or whatever it was. I have always wondered why they didn't incorporate the bathroom into the eavesdropping storylines with someone taking a dump and as they wipe they hear who their real daddy was!

 

 

 

 

My day has officially been made   Thank you for this! 

1 hour ago, Mitch said:

edgeofnik..no problem..HATED the Snyders and that damn farm and how "fantasy rural," it all was. Of course Emma didn't want any fancy appliances cause she's a "down home girl" yes Marland we get it..but even 1950s fridges die... what I hated most about that kitchen was the bathroom right off it, so you hear Emma taking a mean crap (and you KNOW she did) while eating the "Hubbard Squash.." or whatever it was. I have always wondered why they didn't incorporate the bathroom into the eavesdropping storylines with someone taking a dump and as they wipe they hear who their real daddy was!

 

 

Thanks for the laugh.   

I much preferred the Reardon's on GL to the Snyders... it seemed like the Reardon family had more distinctive personalities and having the boarding house allowed it to be a santuary for a lot of characters (Like Mrytle's boarding house was on AMC).  

 

I never understood why princess Lily would prefer a farm to being in a town.  She was so spoiled that realistically she wouldn't have adjusted so quickly to the country.  And I never bought having Rosanna, Debbie, etc staying at the farm... too isolated for me.  It was why I loved Carly when she first arrived.. and she was trying to get Rosanna to move into town.  I remember thinking 'I like this girl, she knows that country living is vastly over-rated'.

I liked Holden, mainly due to me being shallow and finding Jon Hensley to be very handsome, but the rest of the Snyders bored me. I don't know why, but I sometimes felt the show tried to push Emma as the central "sensible and down to earth" matriarch type character, which bothered me. Nancy Hughes, in my opinion, was the only one who fit that role. 

 

My all time least favorite character was the forever whining Julie. However, nothing seemed more absurd to me during those times than Duncan and Shannon's castle.