OLTL Tribute Thread

[MissPalmer]

Thank you!

[soapfave06]

I hope I’m not boring anyone by posting all of this. But I finished what was available on YouTube of 1986, it seemed the poster was going to post more but stopped abruptly, I’ll have to find the rest on DVD. 
 

Lisa Baron appeared one more time in an almost flirtation with Brad, giving him rights to her father’s company over a nice lunch. Then Jeannie Johnson is released from prison and sets her sights on Brad, with Connie up in arms over Brad taking the company. Lisa is actually there as Jessie is born and part of the set up with Allison posing as Niki Smith, Tina seeing Allison in the wig from behind and alerting. 
 

Allison officially kidnapping Jessica and the hysterics that Viki goes in, screaming how this could happen twice in a lifetime are bone-chilling, Erika Slezak put the work in. 
 

I was surprised by the climax to the crack ring’s ties to Statesville: we actually see the inmates producing the crack before Dorian, who traded places with another inmate, is caught and defeats the Warden and Matron with Jon’s help. 

The unraveling of the Maria/Clint/Tom/Viki quad with Maria hysterically confessing to Viki that Cord is Clint’s son, the truth coming out, it’s connection to Viki’s state of mind as she is accused of being Niki Smith and Tina rushing to cover her tracks as Cord intends to refund his inheritance is great and knowing it leads to Devils Claw island is even better. 

Cassie, Rob, Joy, Richard Abbott all exit in September with Diane, Jamie, Mari-Lynn, Allison and Daniel all taking over the younger set, but of course only Mari-Lynn lasted. I would have liked to have seen a long-term story with Allison/Daniel/Mari-Lynn and maybe Wade later on. I really enjoy Allison. I know I’ve said it a million times but there was no investment beyond Viki/Clint/Tina/ Cord/Max/Gabrielle besides Viki and Megan and the show would lose Tina, Megan, Sarah and Max. Had they invested in these other characters long-term, those casting blows in 1990 wouldn’t have hurt as bad. 
 

I read a SOD Best and Worst of 1986 and they named Asa as a bigamist with Pam as a wasted plot point and it’s very obvious they had no long-term story, I wish Pamela had her nose in BE and giving Asa a run for his money. 
 

One thing I really like is how natural and warm everyone is, Viki was played so cold and uppity by the ‘90s, perhaps due to the more dark drama they were playing, but the family scenes with the kids and their ties to Llanview just play so good here. I know Clint and Erika had some issues but watching Viki and Clint in 1996 is like night and day. 

[AMCOLTLLover]

No you don’t bore us. I really enjoy reading your posts.
 I was thinking about getting into it but October to December is missing and a new channel has uploaded December 29 to January 31 of 1987 during the last couple of weeks.

 

[soapfave06]

I appreciate that and I had no idea they posted those, I just found the playlist and can’t wait to get started, I’ll have to look into October-November soon though, I can’t wait to see the fallout to the baby Jessica kidnapping and over the top Devil’s Claw adventure. 

[DRW50]

@marceline Sorry if you have already seen this before. It's a pilot with two scenes for Renee Elise Goldsberry. She plays the lead character's ex-wife, in a fun reversal of the usual sitcom cliche of the ex-wife from hell.

(it's also a surprisingly good pilot)

 

[soapfave06]

I’ve made it through December 29th, 1986-January 16th, 1987. The umbrella arc for the Allison kidnapping Jessica, with Maria’s scheming and Viki’s having amnesia after a fight between Tom and Clint is definitely the saving grace for this period as they have completely dropped every character and almost retooled the show into the Buchanans and the Sanders, who are about eating the show. They cast well for the Sanders family, but they aren’t interesting enough to be eating up this much airtime. I’ve started to fast forward through their scenes so it’s not taking as long to move through the episodes/edits. 
 

I had no idea Maria ever framed Tina for being the accomplice of Allison and this moves the story forward dramatically well, Maria and Tina clashing is definitely addictive. And seeing Andrea Evans on an episode by episode basis (before the plot driven Schnessel period, which I also love) is a delight-I can really see the comedic angles she added to Tina even in the smaller scenes and find myself laughing out loud often. 
 

The drama between Viki and Clint is great, though her amnesia is sometimes confusing for what she remembers and doesn’t. 
 

They have money to splurge on the budget too, building an elaborate winter set in the middle of a snowstorm for Kevin, whose run away, and using actual footage of a volcano exploding and lava engulfing an island for Pete and Pamela on Malekeva Island, in a fun mini-story where they do not heed warnings of the volcano set to erupt thinking Asa is up to his tricks, with Asa using the rescue to play hero and declare that a volcano is no match for Asa Buchanan! 
 

They once again erupt with even more newbies as Rick the skier is introduced, a recast Cassie arrives (never liked this Cassie) and Dorian’s ward Diane is causing problems. I really can’t believe they dumped half the ‘86 cast and the show is being eaten alive by new faces, but they remained in the top 3 from the fall of ‘86 to ‘87 and that has to be due to Viki in constant crises and Tina’s antics. 

[danfling]

How I agree with your post above, soapfave06!

The excitement of the summer comes to an almost-halt as Viki is suddenly invited to her high school class reunion.

I really, really hated the third actress who played Cassie.   I also did not ever care for the character (or the actor who played) Jon Russell. although I liked the Sanders family.  i

 

My favorite character during this period may have been Tiny.    I wish that she and Wade had shared more time together!

And, I do not know why, but I enjoyed the character of Audrey (who will be introduced a little later).

Edited September 8, 2023 by danfling

[j swift]

I am slightly surprised by the negative reaction of Holly Gagnier as Cassie.  I think the writing for the character at the time and her overall demeanor closely reflected her mother, making it easier to imagine her as Dorian's daughter.  To me, she is second only to Cusi Cram in the part.

Ava Hadid and Laura Koffman were saddled with playing Cassie as damsels in distress.  Women who needed protection and would do anything for their man.  Psychologically, that seems in stark contrast to the antagonist that Dorian was always written as being.  I prefer a tougher, and a little snottier Cassie.

It is unfortunate that the character was so ill-defined as she morphed from writer to writer that her primary motivations and traits were never established.  I mean, Tina was Tina even when she was played by the woefully miscast Marsha Clark (I still feel bad that she had to dye her hair for such a short run on the soap).  But, Cassie is all other place due to the presence, or absence, of Dorian and Kelly.

It is ironic that the Sanders and O'Neils feel so well established in the 80s, and then are so quickly disposed of by the future writers.  I always forget that Jon is Judith's brother, and Harry's brother was Pete.  They were heavily intertwined in the fabric of Llandview, and then, just like the Lord/Manning factory, we barely heard from them again.  Speaking of money, it feels emblematic of the time for a writer to introduce a whole family, rather than a single character whose siblings might later migrate to town.  Maybe everyone was chasing a new Newman or Snyder dynasty?

In hindsight, I feel like the biggest loss was Brad.  He was made redundant by Max, but I liked him so much more.

Edited September 8, 2023 by j swift

[soapfave06]

I was hoping to see more of Tiny but since October-December wasn’t available, I’m not sure where things stand, the scenes where she speaks for the first time were wonderful. Wade also hasn’t appeared since I picked back up over these three weeks beginning in ‘87. 
 

I like the idea of the Sanders family and the casting was phenomenal but outside of Jamie being a fantastic villain, they don’t add much and I didn’t see the worth in dumping other characters to put them at the forefront and they are certainly eating airtime. Louise Sorel is one of my favorite soap actresses but there isn’t anything truly meaty for her to showcase talent, at least not yet, and I’ve grown bored with them. 
 

I would disagree with Ava Haddad’s Cassie was a damsel in distress, from what I’ve seen she is a true heroine not afraid of anything and I like that the younger characters tend to make a mess of things-she happily put herself in jeopardy to aid David and Jenny in Vienna and to rescue Joy from Mitch and when she left in September 1986 she chose herself over Rob. I can’t explain why I don’t care for Holly’s Cassie, never have, but certainly the romance with Jon never helped. 
 

Longterm fans may disagree but I would have liked Brad Vernon to be a partner in crime to Tina from 1985-86, and maybe Tina engaged to Brad instead of Richard Abbott at the time she met Cord. Steve Fletcher is extremely attractive and I know Brad did mingle with Tina a bit in scheming but it never was sexual. I don’t mind he and Connie but not sure what was there to offer story wise for them. The show was very crime oriented in the mid to late-80s so Brad and Marco should have fit right in. 
 

So many things worked long-term and story-wise in 1986-1991 or so but so much of it just moves at an insane pace with a lot of characters coming and going outside of the core characters. 

[j swift]

BTW if you haven't watched the "whatever happened to" video of the actor who played Jamie, it is worth your while

 

[soapfave06]

That’s such a sweet video!!! I wish they would have brought Jamie back at least once before the end, he despised the Buchanans, Viki, Tina and Dorian. 

I found a little bit of gossip where Laura Carrington’s husband, a photographer named Anthony Barboza was remembering the past. He explains he and Laura met and married in 1985, then she got the part on OLTL, after which they hired his ex-wife Tery Ferman. I believe this actress played Stella, but couldn’t confirm from google. Tery and Laura did not get along well, so this may explain Stella not sticking around. Later, he said Laura went to GH but they kept their NY apartment and did long-distance, so I’ll assume that she didn’t exactly choose to leave OLTL and once she had a baby in real life, it seems she left GH to return to NY. 

[DRW50]

I don't really want to post the video link all over the board, as I already have twice, but if you look in the Classic GH thread, at about 4 minutes, there's a promo for November 20, 1979 - the entire ABC soap lineup.

[Faulkner]

TSJ on Maurice Benard’s State of Mind:

 

 

[Vee]

Erika Slezak does Linda Dano's podcast, including talking Prospect Park and OLTL 2.0. Erika is as candid and critical about it as she always has been and says the 3-4 HW teams the show went through in 3 months 'couldn't handle it' - I don't know if it was the demand for more explicit content or the general micromanagement from above. (I don't think Melissa Archer's lingerie scene in the pilot she mentions was that scandalous, but what do I know.) I had no idea she swapped a dressing room with Debbi Morgan at PP. She said she had to stand over PP's accountant to get paid for her last day after waiting hours, and says the company still owes her, Tuc Watkins and others a lot of money. Agrees it was a huge missed opportunity.

There's other great stories in here, though I haven't listened to all of it yet: She talks about Phil Carey's first day and how he was stunned to realize he had to do 30-40 pages at once. Discusses Bob Woods' endless attempts to prank him. Linda Dano talks candidly about knowing Clint Ritchie when they were both on contract at 20th Century Fox in their Hollywood days and they discuss his alcoholism, but Erika also shares a great anecdote about Clint's friendship with Rudolf Nureyev (which raised another old curiosity). And more. I didn't know Clint and Phil died the same week.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Vee

[soapfave06]

Thanks for sharing that interview, it was a great listen. I hate that the work relationship between Clint and Erika became so toxic, and both characters languished in the background. I guess the DID story was of course never meant to end happily but it would have been nice to have seen a romantic reunion between Clint and Viki at the end of it. There was still plenty to face with Viki having killed Victor and her personalities merging.

I have made it through to March 13, 1987 from January. There isn’t much to add as they have tremendously dwindled the cast down. 
 

The Asa/Pamela/Pete triangle is at a start/stall tactic but still with comedic moments like Asa sabotaging the Vernon Inn and putting a hole in the room he was residing in adjoining to Pamela’s then using Clint and Viki in crises to get Pam at his side. 
 

The Diane/Dorian All About Eve story did reach a shock ending with Diane plummeting to her death. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if it involved more long-term characters outside of the Sanders and nuCassie and the climax has brought on the Cassie/Jon/Dorian triangle which plays against the Dorian/Judith/Herb triangle. 
 

The Viki and Clint custody and divorce battle was great, but really displayed the complete overhaul of the show as only Larry and Wanda were long-term characters, literally everyone else was new. The angst with Tom, Viki’s amnesia and now aneurysm has been built wonderfully, but is still start/stalling, unless it comes that way from the edits. 
 

Max has come to town, romanced Tina courtesy Maria while Cord grows closer to Kate. This was all wonderful and I am now seeing why Max and Tina were so popular-I love them. The location sequences in Argentina are phenomenal, I wish SoapNet had replayed at least location shoot episodes. The musical scores and production are top notch. I now see why SoapNet played the aftermath of Tina’s tumble over the falls instead of the prior episode-Tina was bound the whole time and Cord, Kate and Max barely appeared before the Friday cliffhanger of Tina going over. John Loprieno did some amazing work in the aftermath of losing Tina and the baby, I was very impressed. 
 

Delila and Rafe have a little story with her growing fed up with his work schedule and she flirts with Steve Holden. I really wish more had been done with them as the canvas is rather blah, honestly. 
 

On the diversity level, there is an update as Lisa actually last appeared around December 29th-30th in a snippet of a scene, the cast is completely whitewashed now and then they introduced the younger brother of John Amos’s Lt. Bill Moore named Andy as Rafe’s new partner.  Bill took a promotion offscreen to Philly and of course Andy will go no where, I’ve never seen him before. 
 

Overall the show is still enjoyable and serving good soap, but man I miss the community feel that 1986 had. I look forward to reaching the Heaven storyline, which I’ve only seen an edit of and not the entire episodes.