I don't know if you have noticed but the current leading ladies are very different from the former long standing ones of the past. I'm talking ladies like Alice Horton, Nancy Hughes and Jessie Brewer. the women who used to be the longest running members of their soaps never really had big storylines. They would have one here or there but there storylines were limited, especially as they got older. they were mostly at parties of seen giving advice to the younger generation. the only one i think had good jucy storylines on a semi-regular basis was Phoebe Tyler because she had a drinking problem and was always a busy body into everyone's lives. and even that ended long before she passed away. Even Lila Quatermaine who was on GH for over 25 years had a few storylines like "pickly lila" where she went into business to telling Felicia Jones her stories from when she was a young girl. they were all bascially "cofee-talk" people for most of their times on their shows but they were the longest running female leading ladies of their shows, staying on for many decades. I mentioned Jessie Brewer because she was on General Hospital from 1963 to 1991, almost 30 years. She was always at the nurses station but i think she had some boyfriends and whatever, not very big storylines except for one in the very early years.

Nnow we have a new "croup" who are different because they still get storylines every year or almost every year. First Erica kane who still gets a storyline almost every single year from having the first legal abortion (that was later rewritten) to getting stuck in the moutians with Caleb. She's the longest running female on All My Children right now but she's not turned into one of those "cofee-talk" of the past generation. Same thing with Viki Banks who's been on her show for 40 years now. She still gets big storylines almost every year from her multiple personalites to visting Heaven (twice). Even someone who was apart of that older generation; Katherine Chancellor just did that whole "i have a child out there" story where she found Tucker. She started on Y&R since it started in 1973 and has had many storylines from a real plastic surgery story to thinking she was her evil twin Marge. On Days, it seems Maggie Horton has become the new leading lady of the show and she's slowly getting a new storyline with Victor (whatever his last name is.) She's been on the show since the early 1970's too. I don't think she's had as many "front burner" storylines as the other i mentioned but she's had many like when she first came on as a secluded woman in a farm house falling in love with Micky who has amnesia to her recent myasthenia gravis illness.

You might think of other long standing ladies but i'm thinking of the ones played by the same actress for at least 30 years straight. Techinally Erika Slezak is the third Viki but she's celebrating her 40th on March 17th so i consider her one of the group. I didn't include Leslie Charleson as Monica Quartermaine because she hasn't had a storyline in five years and it bearly on right now.

I dont think anything's really changed with older females now getting more story than usual. I guess now a days they either use them or flat out get rid of them. Look out how many female vets have been bumped off contract in the recent years. How many females does each show have over 55 on contract? Most average 1, maybe 2.

I actually prefer the old format with the older women vets of yesteryear. I have nothing against the long standing vets of Today (Katherine, Stephanie...) but i feel like the ones that really made the shows sparkle are all sadly no longer with us I have never really watched AMC, but there show is a good example of how quickly it seemed to decline when it lost some of its long standing female vets (the ones i heard of are: Phoebe, Old Ruth, Mona, Myrtle) and of course Darlene Connely as Sally. Losing characters like that i feel really made the soaps crumble even more,because ifeel (especially with AMC) that these were the women who displayed a great amount of campiness that the writers can never seem to bring back with their current female vets.

I think it's also because a lot of that 'first generation' of older ladies were introduced as already being middle-aged or older. Alice Horton had five grown children when Days premiered. So she was never someone who was in story to begin with -- even when featured a lot, she and Tom were supporting characters (and the backbone of the show). Characters like Erica Kane, Viki Lord, etc, 'grew up' onscreen, in that we've seen them go from young adults to middle-aged (or, um, a little older). So it's more natural for them to drive story and to be heavily involved than for someone who was originally established as a matriarch, sounding board, and/or moral compass.

I thought Jessie had quite a bit of story for GH's first ten or so years.

not too long ago in an article it said Deidre Hall had a "no grandma" clause in her contract with DAYS according to the terms her character Marlena could not be called "grandma" in dialogue, despite the fact her character was a grandmother! lol So what has changed are soap divas who refuse to accept facts of life, can you imagine Frances Reid making the same demand? lol once you hit a certain age, these old divas should accept life, and not make such outrageous demands, maybe Grandma Marlena would be on DAYS today if it wasn't for such diva demands! BTW Nothing against Deidre Hall, I'm sure other actresses have made such clauses as well, although I believe it may be a factor for why the old vets are seen on screen much differently today than in previous generations.

I thought Jessie had quite a bit of story for GH's first ten or so years.

Yeah, Jessie was essentially GH's leading heroine through the early 70s. All that angst with Phil Brewer. Audrey also was a leading lady. They morphed into more matriarchal figures by the mid-70s from what I gather, and when Gloria Monty came aboard in the late 70s, they were reduced to glorified extras, more so Jessie than Audrey I think. I know that sometime in the early to mid 80s, Monty seriously slashed their guarantees to something like 2 or 3x a month. Bobbie, Laura, and Monica, the generation of up-and-coming heroines when Jessie and Audrey were being put out to pasture, suffered the same fate in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, unlike in past years, there were no suitable heroines to really take their place. Carly? Brenda? Lulu? Sam? Bitch please.

Would I be correct to assume Katherine Chancellor would be perhaps is the one middle aged and then older woman to have had consistent storylines over the last 37 years? But then again Katherine was never really a matriarch as the others mentioned. I can't imagine Nancy Hughes having affairs with stable boys or Alice Horton being a nasty drunk woman. Then again, we now have Caroline Brady causing ruckuses with switching up paternity tests and of course McCay might be a contender of daytime's longest vet having played the first Vanessa on Love of Life in the early 1950s.

Edited February 27, 201114 yr by soapfan770

of course McCay might be a contender of daytime's longest vet having played the first Vanessa on Love of Life in the early 1950s.

I don't know who Mccay is and i don't know how long she played the character.

As Someone mentioned, the new vets actually grew up on screen (except for Jeanne Cooper who was middle-aged when she started.)Susan Lucci and Erika Slezak were in their early 20's. Susan was playing a 16 year old high school girl (and i think many times still acts like that.) Maggie Horton was probably in her 20's or early 30's.

One Life to Live never really had a leading lady like the other soaps until they made Viki one (some time in 80's when Viki was married to Clint and had the two kids.) It was more of a male dominated leading man show. First Victor Lord (despite rewrites of recent years, in the early years he was the master leading man from 1968 to his death in the mid-1970's) then Asa Buchanan (1980-2007). Now it's Viki.

Edited February 27, 201114 yr by BKuzak

But then again Katherine was never really a matriarch as the others mentioned.

Right.

Y&R's matriarch is/was Liz.

Edited February 27, 201114 yr by DeeeDee

Not sure I'd call Victor on OLTL a leading man back then, unlike Joe, Tin later on etc

Not sure I'd call Victor on OLTL a leading man back then, unlike Joe, Tin later on etc

I did not mean leading man as in sex sybol. I mean the one who "ruled the roost." Everyone knew him as the poweful Victor Lord who owned half of Llanview includding the most influential newspaper and lived in the biggest house in town (at the time.) The town revolved around the Lords of Llanview. until Asa came to town and it started to revolve around him. and by the late 80's even though Viki was a Buchanan by marriage, there was a power struggle because it was the Lords run by Viki and the Buchanan's run by Asa.

Makes sense - he certainly instigated a lot of story... Wasn't Vicki's sister at first the real leading lady?

I've also heard that Eric but I'm unsure. And I think Viki opening the french doors onto Llanfair's terrace was the first shot of the show which makes me think it was Viki from day one. Maybe they were sisters who pretty much shared the spotlight like Megan and Sarah. I think it's common knowledge that the Cortlandts were a modified version of the Lords and it does seem like Nina was more Meredith than Viki.

I remember Schemering saying Meredith was there for "puppy love". I always wondered if Agnes created Meredith to offload the more traditional stuff on so she could experiment with Viki.

Well Meredith comes off as kinda the equivalent to Tara on AMC (though older, I think and much better off)--the innocent heroine, Vicki, Carla, and the others were more complicated I get the feeling (of course early on it seems that Cathy Craig was focused on, but she was a troubled character. Carl's coneceit does make sense, I think.