Erika Slezak 1992 Daytime Emmy Reel

Reel #1: Viki returns to Llanfair after the fire

Reel #2: Viki mourns the loss of her daughter Megan

 

Edited August 14Aug 14 by TheyStartedOnSoaps

Viki attends her high school reunion 

 

I stumbled upon the "Black Widow" story on OLTL where Dorian put up Emily to accuse Sloan of sexual harassment. I specially watched the episodes where Cassie found out that Dorian was responsible. Emily is either gone or not in these episodes. It's the first time since they  aired that I had seen them. MY thoughts:

Wortham Krimmer was so underrated and he was so invaluable to the show. He's another actor who was overlooked at the Emmys, but I always found him compelling on the show. I thought his scenes with Susan Haskell during the gang rape storyline were phenomenal. There's some of that here, but it's mostly Cassie and Andrew. There's rooting value.

Laura Bonarrigo is a wonderful Cassie and I liked her rapport with Princi (meant to say Slezak here but I'm leaving Princi as the unintentional slip), Krimmer, and Thinnes. She has some heavy scenes in the episodes I watched and she does a very good job.

Thinnes and Slezak are excellent as always. Michael Storm is solid as always. I don't know why he was phased out because he just reeks comfort and reliability. I want him in scenes. 

Mark Brettschneider was another revelation. I had forgotten just how natural he was. I don't understand why the show chose Roger Howarth over MB. Brettschneider has a calmness about him that Howarth never did. It made me miss Jason all over again.

Now we come to the weak link: Robin Strasser. As we have discussed, her shocking read hairstyle is not flattering and it's distracting. YMMV, but I would have had dye her hair again. Strasser is so over the top in every scene that she nearly ruins the emotional devastation of Cassie losing her baby. In the story, Dorian is constantly showing up like a demented Jack in the box.  She plays it as such. Episode after episode, she's rushing into scenes to see Cassie or confront Sloan when she should have banned from getting near Cassie. It takes so long for Dorian to be banned, and then in the next episode, she's showing up in disguise. It's exhausting from a storyline and performance aspect. Strasser had me so stressed with her performance. Now, I remember why her return annoyed me so much. This does not feel like a real character in the slightest. At one point, they have Andrew throttle Dorian (which I didn't like as it was unnecessary) and I thought, "Please succeed so she'll stop screeching!"  The ONLY time Strasser is not overdoing it is in her few scenes with Susan Haskell. Haskell somehow manages to calm Strasser down but those scenes are short and Haskell disappears quickly. 

These episodes reminded me how I disliked Strasser as Dorian. I thought time away from the Princi of it all would make me appreciate Strasser since I'm 30 yrs out from the irritation. Nope. IF anything, I'm even more annoyed that Princi was fired for this.

Edited August 11Aug 11 by chrisml

On 8/1/2025 at 4:31 PM, Maxim said:

I was reluctant to start this show because I had heard how atrocious these storylines were. I hate science fiction on soaps. HATE IT. Just not my thing. I had seen some 1980s scenes that were reeeeeeeeeally over the top and I thought the entire show would be like that... so... you could only imagine... how surprised and shocked I was when I started watching late 1991 (thanks to one of my soap opera friends encouraging me and telling me that this era has nothing to do with the Rauch era). I found myself slowly falling in love with Llanview and all the characters. I don't know if I will ever go back in time and watch the 1986-1990 years... I've been told there is no point by some... or that I should definitely do it by others. I'm enjoying 1992 tremendously. 

 

Thank you for saying this. You made me more intigued and was spot on!

Uploaded a few 80s OLTL episodes yesterday on my Internet Archive page along with several ABC daytime blocks with some AMC, GH and an episode of Loving as well. Pretty good quality and includes commercials and promos.

OLTL: 9/19/83 and 10/19/88: https://archive.org/details/one-life-to-live-two-80s-episodes

Daytime 9/19/86: https://archive.org/details/ABC-daytime-1986-09-19

Daytime 7/15/88: https://archive.org/details/ABC-daytime-07-15-88

Daytime 11/13/88: https://archive.org/details/ABC-daytime-11-13-88

Andrea Evans tribute channel on youtube launched May 2025.
clips from all her soaps, interviews, Emmys, etc.

Michael Fairman says it was launched by her family and he typed up description of the contents here:
https://michaelfairmantv.com/andrea-evans-tribute-you-tube-channel-launched/2025/08/13/

Apparently they are continuing to add more material to the channel

https://www.youtube.com/@AndreaEvansTribute

Edited August 14Aug 14 by janea4old

3 hours ago, Search For Yesterday said:

Uploaded a few 80s OLTL episodes yesterday on my Internet Archive page along with several ABC daytime blocks with some AMC, GH and an episode of Loving as well. Pretty good quality and includes commercials and promos.

OLTL: 9/19/83 and 10/19/88: https://archive.org/details/one-life-to-live-two-80s-episodes

Daytime 9/19/86: https://archive.org/details/ABC-daytime-1986-09-19

Daytime 7/15/88: https://archive.org/details/ABC-daytime-07-15-88

Daytime 11/13/88: https://archive.org/details/ABC-daytime-11-13-88

Amazing! Thanks for sharing

1 hour ago, janea4old said:

Andrea Evans tribute channel on youtube launched May 2025.
clips from all her soaps, interviews, Emmys, etc.

Michael Fairman says it was launched by her family and he typed up description of the contents here:
https://michaelfairmantv.com/andrea-evans-tribute-you-tube-channel-launched/2025/08/13/

Apparently they are continuing to add more material to the channel

https://www.youtube.com/@AndreaEvansTribute

Thanks for letting us know. That explains some of the rare clips. Very kind of them to do this for Andrea's memory and for fans.

about Andrea Evans tribute channel: Michael Fairman says:  "At launch, there are currently over 57 videos on the channel, and there should be well over 100 more to be added in the future."

It's still weird that AE is no longer with us.

14 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Very kind of them to do this for Andrea's memory and for fans.

I agree.

Watching through October '91 continues to have some really interesting stuff - namely, playing the Joey/Stephanie angle however briefly which I suspected they might try. Chris McKenna is considerably, awkwardly younger than Robyn Griggs and Kevin calls attention to it just as others do his relationship with 'older woman' Lee Ann, but the brother conflict as well as Stephanie turning spoiled viper on Lee Ann in the Palace ladies' room makes me wonder again if they were considering at this point really making a go of it with Stephanie in some way. She did have heat with Jason, and Griggs is much more suited to the bitchy, spiky stuff tormenting Lee Ann. I would assume her long-rumored BTS behavior on daytime is what contributed to dumping her, but I'm not sure of when or why.

Drunk Asa roaring through the teen social to shame working class Lee Ann is great, campy stuff, very of a piece with the show's roots - heavy-handed and operatic, sure, but it's about going back to the show having a class/caste system again after many years. Malone would revisit this kind of social shaming or public freakout again and again over the years, all the way to Jen Rappaport having a meltdown following her father's death in early 2003 at a Llanview U college party and raging at people. And generally it worked, except when they tried to reskin Jen as Marty for the 2000s.

A great bit here with Renee who recognizes her own past in Lee Ann: "I'm not standing up for you. I'm standing up for me. I am you."

I think @DRW50 has commented on the sly touch of Mia Korf's Blair arriving dressed like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and playing up a submissive Asian stereotype for everyone. It's very smart. I missed the Banner city room and its staff interacting with Viki, Clint, Cassie, etc. long after it was gone - seeing at least a hint of the Banner offices in 2013, even confined to Viki's space where single mom Destiny was in the mailroom or whatever, thrilled me lol. Viki really has control of this staff BTW, which is cool to see after so long.

Alex straight-up killing Fred Porter and a Canadian mountie(?) to cover her tracks in the Sarah conspiracy is a good reminder of how dangerous she was. They leaned into the more broad comedy later to keep her around and it generally worked out because she was still nuts and consistently aligned with bad people, but I wish we'd seen more of the truly dangerous Alex in her later years. You can't really see the Alex who got outplayed by Bo, Cutter, Kim, etc. here.

Megan taking Erin Torpey's Jessica out for ice cream to spoil themselves so she can deal with the 'confirmation' of Sarah's death was great stuff, played lighter after her heartbreak in the right way - she just sort of gets on with it. Those bonds were so strong in these years, all throughout much of the '90s IMO. I especially loved Jessica Tuck's screwball stuff with McKenna and Joey Thrower a couple months prior to this, a bright spot in some very bad story with Kevin/Stephanie in the late summer. Wanda is so warm and loving with so much of the cast, including little Jess who she's known since Jessica was born. I've always loved Marilyn Chris but seeing her day to day again going through the latter half of '91 reminds me of how great she was. You would really need someone like Kathy Brier's Marcie or Roxy or whoever (or both!) to fill that role today.

The infamous Doug and Jane Ebert domestic abuse vignette first appears at Wanda's on 10/15-16 (dates may be off on the videos), with the great, chameleonic Craig Wasson from Brian De Palma's Body Double and the very creepy film adaptation of Peter Straub's Ghost Story as Doug. I was always stunned to realize they got him for this, but his career was not exactly A-List. I do wonder what happened to him.

So far I don't think the show is nearly as islanded to episodic story as people have always claimed it was in this period - yes, the abuse story, like Wanda's medical crisis and Sheila putting herself on the line for women's health in September, are short-term message arcs, but they are still vignettes playing alongside the larger, long-form storylines - Kevin and Lee Ann and the rising Buchanan family drama, Bo and Cassie haunted by Sarah with Alex on the rampage, Megan tempted by Heinrich/Cain (they make out a lot more than I expected) while Jake is imprisoned in Jaba and being tortured by dominatrix Ilsa(!), Luna's introduction, Blair's introduction, Jason's secrets (illiteracy) and Dorian being tempted by him, etc. Those stories IMO still follow classical daytime structure. And that's the kind of stuff you'd have to do today, I think - long-form story playing alongside or under the short-term arcs, and informing it or vice versa.

Next up: Max feels like his old self again.

Edited August 16Aug 16 by Vee

7 minutes ago, Vee said:

So far I don't think the show is nearly as islanded to episodic story as people have always claimed it was in this period - yes, the abuse story, like Wanda's medical crisis and Sheila putting herself on the line for women's health in September, are short-term message arcs, but they are still vignettes playing alongside the larger, long-form storylines - Kevin and Lee Ann and the rising Buchanan family drama, Bo and Cassie haunted by Sarah with Alex on the rampage, Megan tempted by Heinrich/Cain (they make out a lot more than I expected) while Jake is imprisoned in Jaba and being tortured by dominatrix Ilsa(!), Luna's introduction, Blair's introduction, Jason's secrets (illiteracy) and Dorian being tempted by him, etc. Those stories IMO still follow classical daytime structure. And that's the kind of stuff you'd have to do today, I think - long-form story playing alongside or under the short-term arcs, and informing it or vice versa.

Next up: Max feels like his old self again.

Thank you for your wonderful write-up. I especially enjoyed this part. I think the whole "episodic" attack was just an excuse to go after this upstart who had the nerve to want to do something new in daytime.  There was such an antagonism for Gottlieb in the press and a snideness about the changes she was making on the show.  It truly baffles me that people had their pitchforks ready for Gottlieb when the material on screen didn't warrant it. It felt very mean girlish; she's not one of us.

12 minutes ago, chrisml said:

Thank you for your wonderful write-up. I especially enjoyed this part. I think the whole "episodic" attack was just an excuse to go after this upstart who had the nerve to want to do something new in daytime.  There was such an antagonism for Gottlieb in the press and a snideness about the changes she was making on the show.  It truly baffles me that people had their pitchforks ready for Gottlieb when the material on screen didn't warrant it. It felt very mean girlish; she's not one of us.

I don't think everything works, but I also haven't finished off the storyline so I don't want to judge - I do think there is a good point in not exploring it through randos we just met who everyone cottons onto and wants to help. Patricia Elliott (Renee) once said it should've been done using Asa/Renee and frankly the setup is there given how ugly their domestic situation has gotten in this period, but I don't think the audience would ever have forgiven Asa for battering Renee.

Also, honestly I think some kind of episodic element is the only way forward for a streaming generation of new/old soaps - short-term arcs that tie into the larger, longer ongoing ones in a seasonal format, with filming breaks a la Port Charles ten years later. So I do think Gottlieb was ahead of her time, but I am not going to co-sign the Doug Ebert arc just yet.

Edited August 16Aug 16 by Vee

4 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't think everything works, but I also haven't finished off the storyline so I don't want to judge - I do think there is a good point in not exploring it through randos we just met who everyone cottons onto and wants to help. Patricia Elliott (Renee) once said it should've been done using Asa/Renee and frankly the setup is there given how ugly their domestic situation has gotten in this period, but I don't think the audience would ever have forgiven Asa for battering Renee.

This I understand. No one wanted to see Asa hit Renee because it would have destroyed his character. I just think the criticism of the storyline was so overblown in proportion to what worked/what didn't. I often wonder if they complained as vociferously over some of Rauch's storylines that people loathed. You would have thought Gottlieb was destroying OLTL the way some of the critics carried on. I think there are valid criticisms (randos and a storylines that comes and goes) but too many critics at the time were using this one storyline to tarnish everything else.  

 

Really enjoying your reviews of this era @Vee as I keep meaning to watch more myself. And thank you for answering my question several pages back about the good period of the "Cartini" era.