September 12-16, 2011

[EricMontreal22]

Which 1970 soap? ATWT was so traditional throughout most of the 70s that they decided blak characters made their audience tune out, and diseases were rarely allowed ot be mentioned by name because that could scare viewers. COntrast that to some of the other shows...

Either way, I think you're misusing the term melodrama--GH now is VERY melodramatic.

[DRW50]

It depends on the 1970's soap. Edge of Night was very different from ATWT. AMC was very different from ATWT or Edge of Night. Where the Heart Is was different from any of them. Dark Shadows was different from any of them.

Soaps don't need glamour. What they need is good storytelling, heart, and a reason to care.

[DRW50]

I've always wondered how much of that Spencer/Cassadine stuff was Guza. Once he started getting more power, in his second run, late 1997 on, that was when he began humiliating Laura (the Rape Revisited story to me seemed to be about her being a delusional fool and Lucky yelling at her all the time), diminishing what the Spencers had been, and writing very weak material for the Cassadines - Nik had very little to do until he began the affair with Katherine. Stefan and Laura shared the same few dull scenes in a relationship that went nowhere. Guza rewrote Nik's paternity 2 or 3 times. Then Stefan faked his death, slept with a lot of blonde extras, and got involved with Chloe. It all seemed half-hearted. Finally in his 2002/2003 return he did his best to utterly destroy anything the Cassadines or Spencers had been.

I think he just cared about Jason and Brenda, not a lot else.

[quartermainefan]

I agree with that. Melodrama fell out of style long ago, and this crippled soaps up and down the line. It's all of TV, movies, everything. Soaps were made to be accompanied to organ music, and soaps became ashamed of that 30 years ago. Melodrama is not realistic, and when soaps tried to be ultra realistic, they lost a charm they had. They were more theatrical with less attempt at realistic dialogue. The same for movies though and nighttime TV. To be honest, I think most of the actors today have been trained to be always be realistic, that they aren't really up to the task of OTT melodrama. You watch GH and listen to how Constance Towers embellishes every sentence with this very dramatic and unrealistic line delivery and it's great. Then you look at someone like Nancy Lee Grahn and she recites her lines like she is reading a recipe over the phone to her sister.

[OldGHFan]

I didn't understand it at the time just how great Wendy Riche was. She made GH her own show while at the same time respecting Gloria Monty's GH. While I actually loved Monty's GH more (supercouples & all), I truly did love Riche's GH as well. I was proud to be a GH viewer back then with all those glorious stories. And to see the destruction that Bob Guza unleashed on the show without Riche reigning him in, makes me appreciate her even more.

Also, I think it's funny that Tony Geary couldn't stand Wendy Riche. I personally love Riche's Luke Spencer while I cannot stand the current version. Riche understood that you had to keep the big picture in mind and that at the end of the day, you have to create a show that the FANS want to see. It can't be about what the actors want. She knew how to reign actors in as well. I miss Wendy Riche. Can't they fire JFP and hire back Riche?

[OldGHFan]

I agree with this. I actually loved the Spencer/Cassadine stuff. Guza did some good writing (with Riche reigning him in). A little bit of the problem came when Genie Francis went on maternity leave and then didn't come back right away. It was hard to write the "A" storyline without the heroine there. But I thought Guza did pretty good. But you knew Guza was done with the Cassadines when he rewrote Stavros as being Nik's father and Stefan started to look like a wimp. I'm sure Stephen Nichols did something to offend Guza. And then we got to see Luke make sure Stephan was dead by bashing his body in the coffin. Guza wanted to make sure he got his point across. <rolls eyes> And then the show became all about the mob and whatever Tony Geary wanted.

[OldGHFan]

IA. GH's heart is gone. They need to get rid of Jill Faren Phelps. What is she still doing there? GH needs a total overhaul if it's going to improve. But maybe that's what ABC wants - just more of the same. Dwindle off the last remaining viewers so no one will put up a big stink when they announce GH's cancellation.

[JaneAusten]

I think it will be interesting to see how well Days does with their reboot. They just fired a bunch of actors and are bringing back a bunch of fan faves and supposedly lightening up the show so that it has more romance and mystery versus the dark ripped from the headlines ish that every show seems to be focused on although I do get nervous when I hear Days is trying to recreate some sort of Sex and the City vibe with that new cosmetics business storyline they are doing. Didn't AMC just spend years on trying to turn their show into that.

[EricMontreal22]

Pretty much--that was the mandate when Frons came on, which led to Fusion.

[Saving ATWT]

ATWT, as I've said many times, was like The Walton's of the soap genre.

quartermainefan sums up my feeling perfectly.

[Saving ATWT]

Exactly, In the 70's, characters like Erica Cane (AMC) and Lisa (ATWT) gave very melodramatic performances. Kay's reaction to Phillip say adios on Y&R is a perfect example. Lucinda Walsh (ATWT) was great at grabbing the viewers attention, too. I'm starting to think that too much 'realism' harmed the genre. No one wants to watch ordinary people with regular problems unless something about the actors or story is extraordinary or larger than life in some manner. At the end, Gl and ATWT were the most guilty of this effort at realism with the casting of bland actors to play boring characters who often looked down right Wal Mart sloppy.