OLTL Tribute Thread

[chrisml]

I think it would depend on the circumstance because I don't like the quick turnarounds when a new EP takes over. It actually makes me less likely to stick with the show. I get that it would probably work more today where there is a lot more bloat and terrible writing, but I'm still annoyed by casting turnarounds when I first remember soaps in the late eighties. Some of these rapid firings feel dismissive of the viewers who watched the show and characters.

[DRW50]

I do think this hurt a number of shows. The cuts on GL from 81-84 did damage they never recovered from. It didn't hurt OLTL, although it is a shame longtimers like Rafe did not get proper exits.

[Vee]

Re-upping this post because hoo boy, at this point in late summer '91 he can't leave soon enough for me. I always admired NW as a very different but strong Max when I saw him in scattered eps here and there in the past (particularly with Fiona), and maybe it's just the gross Lee Ann story that is making me react like this but he is so extra, effete and hammy all the time even in casual scenes that it feels eyepopping and exhausting, and him putting the moves on Lee Ann is so skeevy. You can see why they became determined to get someone not trying so hard on-camera nonstop. Very curious how contemporary viewers felt, though I'd always heard reaction to him was fairly positive.

Edited November 22, 2024 by Vee

[Soaptastic75]

I don't recall seeing this interview before. Gary Tomlin mentions that Gabrielle was brought back for a story that was initially meant for Skye. https://rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc.narkive.com/hRT4qukR/oltl-gary-tomlin-interview

[Vee]

That is news to me. I've never really seen Gary talk about OLTL since being fired. It is for the best they dumped Skye.

Crazy he was told Andrea was 'too old' to play Tina.

Edited November 23, 2024 by Vee

[chrisml]

From the Gary Tomlin interview:

"First of all, don't fire anyone who's been on the show for more than
3 years. Familiarity is the most important thing to a soap opera viewer."  Tomlin gets it. This is what made me become an ex-soap viewer. Execs and producers never rewarded longtime viewers with material. It was always about luring in new viewers they could never attract with these new storylines or actors from other soaps. This goes back to all the talk about mass exoduses and new regimes coming in and cleaning house. On soaps and in life, if you're going to cater to a crowd that is never going to support you, what's the point? You're just wasting time and money.

[DRW50]

Speaking of Tina - I was watching some of the Viki DID story ('95 version) yesterday and was reminded of this scene where Jean...well, the video title says it all.

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I got the sense a number of times that Malone had no great use for Tina. She was a big fixture when Karen Witter played her but, in some ways, she felt like a new character - even from Rauch to Malone Witter's portrayal changes (I have no criticism of Witter - she was terrific). Tesreau's Tina is just pathetic. Then she was completely trashed offcamera when Malone returned. 

Kirsta was good on GL, and I can see where a casting director thought she would fit Tina, but Mindy was not Tina. And Malone decided to write Tina as if she were in 1986, but only Andrea Evans could have pulled that off.

Edited November 24, 2024 by DRW50

[Vee]

I do think he loved Witter's Tina, but I think without her or Cain he had no real interest.

[DRW50]

Did Erika once say that she had a hard time playing Tori or am I just making that up? Tori was the alter who interested me the most, but she never does return, even when she would have made sense (as mentioned in another thread, Niki in 2002 was basically Tori, just with much worse writing).

[Franko]

If I remember the trivia book correctly, it was Princess that Erika had trouble with. The persona clicked once she was told to look up to her scene partners, the way a child would with adults.

[DRW50]

Thanks. I can see how hard it would be to play Princess. 

[Khan]

His work on SANTA BARBARA (as the family friend who molested Sydney Penny's B.J. as a child) wasn't any better.

I don't remember liking Nicholas Walker as Matt Kingston/Max Holden.  I've always been loyal to James DePaiva, who knew how to make Max rakish but never to the point of making him smarmy.

Similarly, what I loved about Andrea Evans' Tina was that she never was an out-and-out villainess.  She LOOKED vixenish with the tight dresses and big hair, but she really was a nice, if needy, young woman who made foolish choices.  (Like I've said in the past: yes, she could lie with the best of them, but she never lied to be malicious.  She really believed in her heart that she was doing the best thing for everyone concerned).  Karen Witter and Krista Tesreau's Tinas, on the other hand, just came across to me as total bimbos and not really worth my interest.

[John]

Watching 1991 OLTL on YT I can say I like KW's Tina and see why she had fans. KT was just miscast but was she worse than the 1984 versions of Tina: Kelli Maroney and Marsha Clark?

 

Plus how true was it that Gary Tomlin almost cast Sarah Buxton as Tina. That we almost had Cali Timmins at one point?

 

I also Heard that Cynthia Preston was being considered after her time as Faith as GH ended. I could see that casting work

 

In the end brining back AE was the right call

Edited November 24, 2024 by John

[DRW50]

I think with Sarah or Cynthia they would have lost the inherent innocence in Tina. Given everything Tina did, it may seem strange to call her innocent, but Andrea, and Karen to a point, both had a little girl lost quality that makes sense for the waif Tina never fully grew out of being.

[chrisml]

If my memory serves, didn't Soap Opera Weekly have an Emmy dream ballot which included Nicholas Walker getting nominated for his work on SB? I remember his performance getting a lot of acclaim at the time. I didn't see his work on SB so have no opinion.