Somerset Discussion Thread

[vetsoapfan]

Vicki Paisley was a great character; very fun, charming, charismatic, and a little bit naughty. Think Lorie Brooks on Y&R. Or 1970s Julie on DOOL. Veleka Gray was perfect in the role. She could make you vexed at her character's machinations, yet understand and feel sympathy for her at the same time.

The Ellen/Dale romance was considered quite daring for its time. It might have lasted longer if they hadn't pushed the envelope in certain ways. Molly Picon's character made the comment once about his pants always being "good and tight, let me tell you!" which I thought would surely raise the ire of conservative viewers if not the censors. At one point later, they had Ellen and Dale in the Grant living room, with Ellen sitting barefoot on the sofa. Dale took one of her feet to his mouth and kissed it playfully, which DID end up causing trouble behind the scenes. Jameson Parker admitted that TPTB found the gesture too provocative, too sexual, and ruled that Dale be written out of the show. They decreed that Ellen should have a more mature, discreet (i.e. non-hot, non sexual) romantic partner from then on. It was a mistake, I think, because at that time, viewers were more sophisticated than the reactionary executives gave them credit for.

Edited May 28, 2012 by vetsoapfan

[vetsoapfan]

No, Ellen Grant was not there at the end of the series. The last we heard about her, several characters were having dinner at a restaurant, and Jerry kane asked if anyone had heard from Ellen Grant lately. He was told that she had been away, on a cruise with her sister India,

As for why network executive are so abusive...only God knows, Their attitude and behavior has certainly decimated more than one soap over the years.</p>

[DRW50]

I'm amazed that foot-kissing scene ever got on the air in the first place! On Ryan's Hope, Jill was obsessed with toe rings around this time, but I don't think Seneca ever kissed her foot.

It seems like the 70's were the era when soaps were most allowed to take chances, but as we can tell here, that had its limits.

I've always gotten the sense that Veleka was not popular in a lot of her roles, so I wish I could see her as Vicki. I'd love to see Tina Sloan as a neurotic bitch as well.

[vetsoapfan]

Winsor was great, because he mixed suspense stories with family drama, romance, and lots of warmth and humor. I think that by the time he took over the reigns, the general audience had been burned by Somerset's bad years and tepid writing, and weren't interested in giving it another chance, which is a shame, because if they had tuned in, they would have been treated to the work of (IMHO) the best writer the show ever had. I thought Winsor was even better suited for Somerset than the great Henry Slesar, because of the romance and humor angles he added.

[DRW50]

Who were the comical characters on Somerset?

[vetsoapfan]

According to Jameson Parker, the foot kissing was a spontaneous gesture; a decision made on the spur of the moment, which probably would have been vetoed early on if it had actually been in the script. But it's curious that the executives reacted so strongly against it. On the same network, in 1976, DAYS had young Mike Horton sleep with the older Linda Anderson, after decrying the fact that he had been impotent with Trish Clayton during an earlier attempt at love-making. Mike appeared with no shirt, bulging away in some very revealing pajama bottoms, but no firestorm from the network caused the actors to be fired. I guess the executives' ire was arbitrary.

The show didn't have specific "comical characters", but rather, ordinary, regular characters were allowed to joke around with each other, be amusing, have fun. Just like in real life. It was great.

[DRW50]

I guess they were more upset if it was a younger man and an older woman in a relationship which wasn't a vamp and a naive young thing.

Some of what you describe with the humor reminds me of ATWT and GL in the late 80's and early 90's - people sitting around making fun.

[vetsoapfan]

Yes, light-hearted character moments, with folks having a good time, were also seen on ATWT and TGL. Somerset--and, indeed all soaps--work best when characters can be human, and experience the same ups and downs that we all do in life. Humor is part of the human experience.

[toml1962]

I would like to see where Parker said that because in another interview, he claims to have left to join OLTL. Hard to know what to believe, but I would be surprised if the stopped the story based on that when the whole storyline was generating lots of press AND viewer interest. Frankly I do not believe it. When execs smell money, they RARELY kill a storyline. I could understand if they were getting heat about it and told them not to do anything like that again. But really, think about it. This was the era of relevance and sex on soaps. Y&R was INFAMOUS for scenes like this and getting good ratings.

[toml1962]

Incorrect. Am surprised that someone who who watched if from beginning to end - I did for the most part - has forgotten that Lahoma was at times a comical character, always given some funny lines here and there. Bill Greeley often had funny/sarcastic lines, especially when someone got drunk at the Hayloft; Emily Matson's Aunt Rowena; Rex's Aunt Becky; his housekeeper Frieda Lang; Hilda Benson the astrology lady; Ambrose Ferguson the old geezer Becky dated; Mac Wells who owned the coffee shop...

[toml1962]

Melodrama mostly. But he did create the Hilda Benson story and the show was never totally free of some kind of mystery or murder plot. He also kept the character of Zoe around and she killed quite a few people.

[toml1962]

IMO Gene was not a bad soap actor, but he did not have what it took to be a star. Weaver did. Ergo she got famous and he didn't. Danson was wise to step into comedy as he was obviously better suited to it. I could easily have done without Landers and to this day her slight success elsewhere amazes me. Swanson is hard to figure. Maybe he just did not push hard enough. You have to be pushy in order to make it in that business.

[toml1962]

Well I guess we see things differenlty. The ratings slid badly from Windsor onwards and his notion of "writing it about a town" was insipid IMO. Bad enough that Slesar cut loose so many of the originals, then Winsdsor does the same. If Roy had done the right thing, the ratings would not have dropped.

As for bad writting, again, I have to disagree. Few people have ever said the show was badly written. Slesar may have been fanciful, but he was anything but a bad head writer any more than Windor was. The ratings DID go up during the Slesar year.

During its first four years, 1970 to 1973, the writing was largely very good to excellent. NBC was never very good at building successful soaps and often stepped in way too fast. If execs had done that on ABC, AMC would have been cancelled in a year or so as its ratings were awful for 2.5 years.

Most critics will agree that the show was well written and well acted and well directed, but the change of focus every two years or so was what hurt it in the end and I agree.

Finally, Slesar DID add romance and humor. What were character like Rowena if not for the sake of humor?

[toml1962]

No link to the article. It is in a soap magazine. WIll look for it and scan. I have another one where all she does is go on and on about how awful her neighborhood in NYC was (she lived in the village) and how scary people were in NYC and all that. She was a good actress but she comes of sounding like some kind of nut. LOL. I've learned not to trust much of what actors say as they do tend to bend the truth to suit their egos. Roux got a lot of hate mail after that magazine article came out and perhaps that is why she seemed to disappear.

[toml1962]

VET - AGAIN, you are incorrect. Those lines are from the script from that show on that date. That was Steve's last episode and it is famous for being his last and Dwyer's last show. Why are you saying otherwise when clearly you are wrong?