Soap Opera Digest Best and Worst 1983

[DRW50]

If you want any more detail then tell me and I'll type some out.

Best Love Stories: Robert/Holly (GH) and Steve/Betsy (ATWT)

Best Wedding Receptions: Quint/Nola (GL), Blaine/Sandy and Rachel/Mac (AW)

Most Daring Storyline: Lesbianism (AMC)

Most Improved Show: Search for Tomorrow

Best Dressed Woman: Felicia (AW)

Best Nighttime Cliffhanger: Who's in the Coffin? ( Falcon Crest)

Funniest Episode: Felicia coming on to Jamie, AW

Most Tasteless Storyline: The death of Donna's baby and her mental breakdown, AMC

Best True-To-Life Stories - Gary's alcoholism, Knots Landing, Traci's bulimia, Y&R, Mike Donovan's Vietnam trauma, Loving, Alma's madness, AW

Most Intriguing Stories: Mystery of Lars' brooch, AMC; Robbie's hold on Monticello, Edge of Night

Best Story: Silver is an impostor, AMC

Most Convoluted Story: Mark/Rebecca/Quint, GL

Best Casting: Michael Zaslow, OLTL

Most Absurd Story: Paula faking agoraphobia, Capitol

Best Wedding: Marlena/Roman, DAYS

Most Outrageous Character: Opal, AMC

Give Me a Break!: Bradford Curse, DAYS; 1983 Daytime Emmy Awards; Kirby's abortion, and Jeff/Kirby (Dynasty); Celia Warren (Emerald Point, NAS), Jill/Frank wedding (Ryan's Hope); David Renaldi spy story (OLTL), Stenbeck falls out of an airplane (ATWT); Grant's reconstructive surgery (GH); Louis St. George (AW), Ciji returns from the dead (Knots)

Best Nighttime Show: Knots

Best Show: ATWT

[juniorz1]

I'm curious why they said the 1983 Daytime Emmys were a joke. I'd like to hear about ATWT's Best Show win and SFT's Most Improved win. Also, there was no Worst/Most Disappointing Show?

[kalbir]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Daytime_Emmy_Awards

Look at the nominee and winner list and you'll see why.

[juniorz1]

Really, the only travesty I see is Louise Shaffer beating out Marcy Walker and Robin Mattson. I mean, I'm no Bob Woods fan, but the only actor there I'd have liked to see win is James Mitchell because he never did for AMC.

[DRW50]

The 1983 daytime Emmys were a joke. Despite the fact that the Emmys have traditionally garnered high ratings, ABC, NBC, and CBS, which rely heavily on soap operas for revenue, refused to televise the ceremony. Making things worse, due to a massive foul-up, a second and then a third voting ballot were sent out. However, not every eligible voter received the third ballot (the only one that counted). As a result, many people who never got the third ballot, later learned that their votes on the earlier ballots didn't count. The only good thing about the Emmys was that some fine actors were honored with the award. The question still lingers, however, as to why Susan Lucci has yet to win an Emmy. We can only hope that next year, things will be better.

[DRW50]

"Search for Tomorrow" has come a long way from the dull storylines that dragged on well past the point of anyone's caring. With executive producer Joanna Lee acting as caretaker, the show's plots improved dramatically. "Search" began to rely on its strengths - the people of Henderson - for drama, rather than on exotic locals and farfetched kidnap stories that had Travis saving Liza at every turn. True, there was another kidnap plot that did last a bit too long, but the superb acting and a chilling climax, made it well worth watching. The tender love story between Jenny and Michael; the love triangle involving the nefarious Warren, Wendy the vamp and Suzi the innocent; Stephanie's older-woman/younger-man romance with Steve Kendall and the explosive relationship of the Kendall men were just some of the elements which make "Search for Tomorrow" more than worthy of being named 1983's most improved show.

[DRW50]

In the past year, "As the World Turns" has done more creative casting, pairings, location shoots, triangles and love stories than any other show. We have seen the reigning prince and princess, Barbara and Gunnar, married. Everyone's favorite mixed-up couple, Tom and Margo, wed in a ceremony well suiting them. James continued to haunt Barbara even though they were divorced, and one of these escapades took them to Spain. The work done overseas was spectacular. The blossoming triangle of Betsy', Steve and Craig is something that viewers will never forget, nor the birth of Betsy's baby girl, and Annie and Jeff's quadruplets. On top of it all, "World Turns" saw fit to bring in guest star David McCallum to fill a role his fans would expect - that of a shrewd, wealthy con man. With this, the show went on a cruise to Bermuda, and the audience experienced some of Betsy and Steve's most memorable love scenes. There isn't much that "As the World Turns" didn't do. And everything they did was done with class, charm and appeal.

[SFK]

Wow, those fuzzy faux Silver and Opal memories the year before I entered kindergarten?Mama's Family must have started in '83/'84 because I remember us talking about "Opal" on there too.

I do not remember Donna Pescow at all on AMC, it would be interesting to see just how they handled that. Was the word "lesbian" even used or danced around?

[SFK]

Speaking of Devon, who I also do not remember, I DO remember Devon's daughter/Ellen's granddaughter... what was her name? She was the one who used to talk to Stuart and I remember Stuart sneaking out of the secret passage and busting a vase over Ellen's head, knocking her out cold. When Ross and them found her and she came to, she had no idea what had hit her.

[Paul Raven]

Devon's daughter was Bonnie.It would have been cool to have her come back as a teen.

[SFK]

Thank you Paul! Yeah, even at that age, I found it curious that Ellen was a grandmother to a kid who was older than me. It was years later that i would read of the May/December angle with Mark. Although I didn't see Ellen as being that "old", I didn't really pick up on Mark being younger either.

[SFK]

How did Devon and Bonnie exit PV? See, I have vague memories of Ellen and Ross falling out and Julie's issues with that, but I seemed to have missed Ellen and Mark's courtship. Of course Mark ended up being Julie's bio dad which was quite the coinkydink. Man, I would have loved it if Mark and Ellen and Julie had come back and Kendall and Bianca could have had a relationship with their uncle, aunt, and cousin, all that, more stuff for Erica, et cetera.

[EricMontreal22]

Why did they find Donna's story on AMC tasteless--and what was Lars' Brooch mystery?

"I do not remember Donna Pescow at all on AMC, it would be interesting to see just how they handled that. Was the word "lesbian" even used or danced around? "

I have some of her story including her exit (which had a rather sad "beauty shot" end credit sequence of her all alone at Christmas), and they're actually handled better than I would have expected--the word lesbian is clearly stated, and why she is a lesbian and didn't think Devion truly was as well as talk about her ex lesbian lover.

[DRW50]

The mystery of the brooch on "All My Children" captivated audiences with its realism and credibility. The creators obviously did extensive research when they decided to prove a Nazi was living in Pine Valley. From a tiny picture hidden in a necklace, to its South American roots and plastic surgery to change an identity, the intrigue was startling. And to top it all off, Lars' dramatic plunge to his death off a yacht seemed equal punishment to the harm he'd spread. Of course, no body was found, so the question still remains: is this evil man really gone? The intrigue continues.

[DRW50]

Tasteless best describes "All My Children's" vain attempt at tragedy with the senseless death of Donna Cortlandt's baby, John, due to a fire. The event only served to trigger Donna's subsequent trauma and withdrawl. Neither Donna's retreat into the eerie fantasy world where she believed a rag doll to be her live baby, nor the child's death carried any moral value or was vital to the storyline. The baby may have died in a freak accident, but that, coupled with Donna's breakdown, made the scenes better suited to a horror film than soap opera.