3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Many would likely say Gordon Russell.

Gordon Russell and Sam Hall.

Resuming my OLTL watch. I left off last year--sometime in early 1991. The Max/Asa scam began and Gabrielle wasn't in prison yet. I picked up in the Spring when Clint was seeing that woman, Vicki thought he was having an affair but it was a medical specialist and he revealed he was sick. Things start to pick up after Jake and Megan's wedding. Cord rallied the Banner staff to take paycuts. There was a big storm where Bo and Cassie were stuck at a lighthouse. The Buchanans are throwing a party and Julia seemingly killed DuAnn. This guy named John Russell appeared at the party and was chummy with Cassie, it seems like he's a returning character. Joey met a girl hiding in the stables who refuses to give her name. Max is getting close with DuAnn's daughter LeAnn. For the most part, I try to watch Monday/Wednesday/Friday episodes to cover more ground, I'm on June 13, 1991 now.

I'm getting into it again. I started in 1988 thru most of 1989, then I jumped ahead to 1991 where ClassicOLTL was posting daily-- I completely missed the Mendorra stuff. I got interested again in current soaps last year (GH/Days), but I dropped hulu and peacock around Thanksgiving.

1 hour ago, Spoon said:

Resuming my OLTL watch. I left off last year--sometime in early 1991. The Max/Asa scam began and Gabrielle wasn't in prison yet. I picked up in the Spring when Clint was seeing that woman, Vicki thought he was having an affair but it was a medical specialist and he revealed he was sick. Things start to pick up after Jake and Megan's wedding. Cord rallied the Banner staff to take paycuts. There was a big storm where Bo and Cassie were stuck at a lighthouse. The Buchanans are throwing a party and Julia seemingly killed DuAnn. This guy named John Russell appeared at the party and was chummy with Cassie, it seems like he's a returning character. Joey met a girl hiding in the stables who refuses to give her name. Max is getting close with DuAnn's daughter LeAnn. For the most part, I try to watch Monday/Wednesday/Friday episodes to cover more ground, I'm on June 13, 1991 now.

Jon first started in the mid '80s. He was a PI. He began a relationship with Dorian (I think there's a photo of them on a location shoot where he's in sexy scuba gear or something). In 1987, when Robin Strasser parted the show on bad terms, Jon had an affair with Cassie (recently recast with Holly Gagnier). From what I've read this story was very unpopular with viewers, as was the oversexed persona of Cassie at this time. Their relationship didn't last that long, and he was passed around to B or C-characters - I think he was briefly with Sharon Gabet's Melinda Cramer, and then Spring Skye, Megan's rival on the Fraternity Row soap.

IMO, OLTL's best HW's (aside from Agnes Nixon) were Sam Hall, Peggy O'Shea and Gordon Russell. To me, they were like the Jules Furthman of daytime: if there were six ways to approach a storyline or scene, Hall/O'Shea/Russell always found the seventh way; and their way was always earthier, more surprising and more delightful to watch than anything else this side of EON.

Moreover, the three had a knack for turning a single action, such as Karen Wolek's turn toward prostitution, into something that reverberated throughout the entire Llanview community; as well as an ability to turn eccentric or lowlife characters that either wouldn't have cropped up on other shows, or would've been relegated to recurring or "comic relief" status, into viable, empathetic leads. O'Shea's successor, S. Michael Schnessel, who had been with the show since the Joseph Stuart era, tried maintaining all that, along with the sideways approach to scriptwriting that prized originality over functionality, but the show had become so mired in Rauch-era excess by that point that the consistency got drowned out by all the bizarre and outlandish ideas.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Khan

6 minutes ago, Khan said:

IMO, OLTL's best HW's (aside from Agnes Nixon) were Sam Hall, Peggy O'Shea and Gordon Russell. To me, they were like the Jules Furthman of daytime: if there were six ways to approach a storyline or scene, Hall/O'Shea/Russell always found the seventh way; and their way was always earthier, more surprising and more delightful to watch than anything else this side of EON.

Moreover, the three had a knack for turning a single action, such as Karen Wolek's turn toward prostitution, into something that reverberated throughout the entire Llanview community; as well as an ability to turn eccentric or lowlife characters that either wouldn't have cropped up on other shows, or would've been relegated to recurring or "comic relief" status, into viable, empathetic leads. O'Shea's successor, S. Michael Schnessel, who had been with the show since the Joseph Stuart era, tried maintaining all that, along with the sideways approach to scriptwriting that prized originality over functionality, but the show had become so mired in Rauch-era excess by that point that the consistency got drowned out by all the bizarre and outlandish ideas.

That is very true. You still have some of those strays but the structure of the show moves more and more away from them. By the end of Rauch's run that aspect is reduced to the likes of DuAnn and Lee Ann and that redheaded girl Danny Wolek rescued - Lettie Jean or Laura Jean or whatever her name was.

The community of broken people around the late '70s and early '80s is so affecting to watch and so unique. I was very moved by the scene in the 1980 episode which appeared last year where Karen was holding a weeping Edwina in her arms. That sense of reality, fragility, and empathy is just something you don't really get on soaps now and you rarely have for a very long time.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by DRW50

26 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

The community of broken people around the late '70s and early '80s is so affecting to watch and so unique. I was very moved by the scene in the 1980 episode which appeared last year where Karen was holding a weeping Edwina in her arms. That sense of reality, fragility, and empathy is just something you don't really get on soaps now and you rarely have for a very long time.

Again, not something you'd get from other soaps during that era. Not even from "soul sister" AMC, with their plethora of almost Runyonesque oddballs in the '80's.

In a way, SANTA BARBARA wanted to be what OLTL already had been practically since it began. It just didn't have Agnes Nixon and a supportive network to nurture it.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Khan

2 minutes ago, Khan said:

Again, not something you'd get from other soaps during that era. Not even from "soul sister" AMC, with their plethora of almost Runyonesque oddballs in the '80's.

Yes, it's tough to think of any other soap which was that emotionally open. The closest may have been the whole comedic family on AW that arrived with Cass and Felicia, but it took them longer for them to move out of the comedic/wacky roles. OLTL never really presented their "others" that way.

Just now, DRW50 said:

The closest may have been the whole comedic family on AW that arrived with Cass and Felicia, but it took them longer for them to move out of the comedic/wacky roles. OLTL never really presented their "others" that way.

That's EXACTLY who and what I was referring to before! On AW, the Cass/Felicia/Wallingford/Cecile/Lily Mason contingent is written and played mainly for laughs. On OLTL, however, Karen, Marco, and everyone else who frequented Ina Hopkins' boardinghouse are in emotional, front-burner storylines, even as we're being told that these characters, along with vets like Vinnie and Wanda, live on or near the fringes of Llanview society.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Khan

8 minutes ago, Khan said:

That's EXACTLY who and what I was referring to before! On AW, the Cass/Felicia/Wallingford/Cecile/Lily Mason contingent is written and played mainly for laughs. On OLTL, however, Karen, Marco, and everyone else who frequented Ina Hopkins' boardinghouse are in emotional, front-burner storylines, even as we're being told that these characters, along with vets like Vinnie and Wanda, live on or near the fringes of Llanview society.

Yes. We got some of this with Myrtle's boarding house, but AMC was always more refined (even with Opal galloping all over Pine Valley).

12 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Yes. We got some of this with Myrtle's boarding house, but AMC was always more refined (even with Opal galloping all over Pine Valley).

I think the best way to differentiate AMC and OLTL would be like this: on AMC, Foxy's is a joint with trashy waitresses in skimpy outfits that's SO sleazy, it's in a different town (one which Pine Valley residents never trek to unless they're on the run, suffering from amnesia, or looking for someone who's on the run or suffering from amnesia). But, on OLTL, it's in the heart of Llanview, down the street from the hospital; and it's frequented even by the town's most well-respected citizens (more so than the town's most elegant restaurant) with nary an eye being blinked by anyone.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Khan

8 minutes ago, Khan said:

I think the best way to differentiate AMC and OLTL would be like this: on AMC, Foxy's is a joint with trashy waitresses in skimpy outfits that's SO sleazy, it's in a different town (one which Pine Valley residents never trek to unless they're on the run, suffering from amnesia, or looking for someone who's on the run or suffering from amnesia). But, on OLTL, it's in the heart of Llanview, down the street from the hospital; and it's frequented even by the town's most well-respected citizens (more so than the town's most elegant restaurant) with nary an eye being blinked by anyone.

I like that.

(now imagine a universe where Viki got the showgirl story instead of Erica...)