Stars Who Left Daytime & Talk Smack About It

[SFK]

Right. And she lived and breathed some of the highest highs and lowest lows that the medium has seen, her show perhaps being the poster child. Yeah, that was a good, long interview she did, I was thinking about looking it up again a few weeks ago. I seem to remember that it was in sort of an obscure location though, like a Wikipedia page.

[Vee]

Everyone knows how soaps are regarded in the mainstream today. That's not shocking. And it doesn't surprise me when they're trashed. But it is classy when former soap stars don't put it down on general principle just to go along with the crowd, regardless of the good work they may have done. Someone like Julianne Moore could say [!@#$%^&*] you to just about anything she did in the past, but she's even-handed and knows better. I'm pretty sure Lori Loughlin's never bashed Edge of Night either - and that, plus crap like Amityville 3-D (co-starring Meg Ryan) and Full House helped her build a very long television career. And I'm sure she knows it.

Victoria Wyndham and Jensen Buchanan, OTOH, have a lot of nerve even attempting any airs. They might have been Big Time on a cancelled soap opera but they don't mean [!@#$%^&*] to the rest of the world.

[All My Shadows]

Sometimes, I think them downing their soap pasts has less to do with the writing or their character and more with the simple fact that soaps = little exposure outside of the soap world. I mean, John Stamos left his role as Blackie on GH to play a flipping ballerino on a sitcom. I'm sure that was just the step ahead he was looking for at the time. A lot of them want movie star fame, and soaps are less likely to get you there than a primetime show (no matter how silly) would be, and so they probably associate their soap days with frustration and disappointment over not getting more visible parts. And then, when you consider soaps' crazy schedules, when would they even have the time to go on other auditions and perform well?

I get that bit of it. But rolling your eyes at people who've chosen to make soaps their living is rude and snobbish, IMO, as if it's ridiculous that anyone would choose to stay in daytime. Isn't there a similar level of condescension from movies to primetime and from movies/primetime to the stage (and vice versa?). Sh!t, a job is a job, find one you like and stick with it. Don't think you're the ish, because while Meg Ryan struggled throughout the last ten years, several of her ATWT co-stars were still holding down safe, secure jobs, doing something they enjoyed. You tell me who won out.

[DaytimeFan]

So absolutely true. Julianne Moore and Lori Loughlin, though on totally different Hollywood plateaus, display a lot of class. They always have.

[marceline]

Meg Ryan.

I'm reminded of the line in Steel Magnolias, "I would rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special."

[DRW50]

The thing with Meg Ryan was that even when she had her biggest career heights, she often seemed tense and miserable in a lot of interviews. I sometimes get the feeling she might have never been happy whether she was a movie star or whether she had played Betsy for 30 years.

[J.W.S]

A little OT But Ellen Barkin Was On Inside The Actors Studio & Praised Her Time On Search For Tomorrow Saying Every Actor Should Be Required To Do Daytime Soaps.

Problem Is I Cant Find Any Credit Of Ellen Barkin Appearing On Any Daytime Soap

HELP!!!

[~bl~]

Parker Posey talked about ATWT on Fresh Air. She didn't really say anything that bad, but it was 4 years ago. She talked about how someone at ATWT was an amazing napper and didn't mess up their hair even in sleep. Not sure if it is on this podcast or not, but I heard her on that show when the movie listed premiered. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6518746

[All My Shadows]

I agree with the 'Magnolias line (yes, I know, apostrophe not necessary), but that really depends on what a person sees as wonderful. I don't think it's hard to believe that someone wants to be a soap star and little more. Not now, obviously, but 20-25 years, that was a solid job if you were a popular character. You get millions of fans, but the paparazzi isn't always in your face, and you can generally go places without getting mobbed, yet at the same time, you get tons of fan mail and you can still get dolled up to celebrate with your fellow soapers. If you don't aspire to be a Shehkspedddian stahhh and just want to have fun being a different person every day while getting paid for it, being on a soap in their heyday had to be wonderful.

But most people aren't like that, so I guess if Meg thinks she's doing fine with her has-been status, that's good on her.

Re: Search for Tomorrow. Don Knotts didn't bash soaps, but he pretty much said that he wasn't a drama person, he hated doing drama, and all he ever wanted to do was make people laugh, so he was bored as hell on SFT in the early 50s.

[ghfan89]

Wasn't acting something she just fell upon? In the Jules Asner interview, she says she wanted to major in journalism. She also mentioned she didn't like being interviewed.

[Vee]

Please point to the single wonderful film Meg Ryan ever made. And she's a joke now even after showing bush.

And if that line from Steel Magnolias were truly the rule, why are any of us here? Watching nothing special?

[SFK]

I am hardly famous, but I went through a phase where I wanted to be a soap actor based on fond memories of my family's enjoyment of the genre. As I got to know myself better, I realized that even if I was blessed to be on one, they are absolutely not my ideal working situation. Some people have that born on coke drive, the grind of a soap is right up their alley, and I might as well have been born a house cat. I love acting but I also love my rest and get very cranky when I feel like time is being taken away from me ("springing forward" for daylight savings, you'd think somebody slapped my grandmama). I like the pace of theatre where I don't beat myself up for "not getting it right" when I have seven other chances to that week, or even my very limited experience in primetime where there is so much downtime (still frustrating when TPTB choose not your best take and that's the one that goes down in celuloid history). To me, these are the practical kind of complaints that I wouldn't really judge anyone for, but snubbing your nose at daytime like it's all dreck (when it only is half of the time) seems really rude to me, above all else. Who wouldn't want Susan Lucci's career??

[Khan]

When you get right down to it, an actor, regardless of medium, lives and dies by their fans. So even though not as many folks watch soaps on a regular basis anymore, the fact remains that a lot still do; so an actor would be wise never to denigrate the medium that brought them to people's attention in the first place.

[Khan]

And in a way, he was. Too often, actors in soaps fall back on cliches in their performances, either because of boredom, or lack of preparation time, or both. Michael Levin, IMO, was/is one of a handful of actors who never "phoned it in," so to speak, joined only by Gerald Anthony (ex-Marco, OLTL), Larry Bryggman (ex-John, ATWT), Michael Zaslow (ex-Roger, GL), and Levin's former RH castmate, Ron Hale (ex-Roger; Mike, GH).

[Khan]

Well, the feeling was mutual, Darlene. You were glad to leave, and so were we. ;-)