Is/Was There a Soap Industry A-List?

[Melroser]

I thought the question was directed as being 'within the soap industry'... Yes, some have made it in theatre and primetime, but wasn't the question meant among each other in soaps?

[VirginiaHamilton]

Why do you think that is?

What is it about Susan Lucci that makes her the Elizabeth Taylor of soaps?

Again, I've always known her as the Queen and never bothered to question it before, but I'd really like to know what has always set apart from the rest.

When was the height of her fame?

Ali Sweeney is 35 and younger? I thought she was at least 40 by now.

Still, good call. Non-soap watchers and soap watchers know her face and name.

Well, it is - but then again, mainstream (non-soap) recognition can't be ignored as a factor that plays into some soap actors' place on the totem pole. (i.e.: the aforementioned Susan Lucci)

[JellicleCat]

Back in the 1960s, maybe a bit into the 70s. She was the first soap star to hire a publicist. She also had her own primetime spinoff from ATWT. It wasn't a big success, but still....how many other soap stars have had their character make the move to primetime?

Her character Lisa was also more or less the prototype for the likes of Erica Kane.

[ellabelle]

JMHO, but I think it's a combination of things. When Erica was brought to life on AMC, she was very different from a lot of female characters out there. She was a bad girl, but not really a villain. She was someone people loved to hate. She was also a very independent female who refused to sit at home and be the doctor's wife, which happened in conjunction with feminist movement, and the character ended up being a role model of sorts. The character took off in ways that weren't entirely expected when the show started - even Susan says that she was only supposed to be on every other Tuesday.

Susan was definitely in the right place at the right time as far as character and storyline go. She was being called The Queen of Daytime as early as the mid 1970s when she still was still in her 20s. She was really that popular. She got lucky and had a team of writers and producers who were willing to run with that. Susan had a lot of high profile stuff to work with from the first legal abortion on television to the first international location shoot, to scenes with high profile guest stars, all of which just pushed her further up the soap ladder.

I think a big factor too is that Susan was a star on the show for its ENTIRE 41 year run, which is pretty darn impressive. She pursued outside interests but never left daytime behind. Erica was never gone for more than a few weeks here and there while Susan filmed a TV movie or filmed Dallas. Deidre Hall was on a primetime series, but she wasn't on DAYS at the time - she left for a few years. Susan has always been incredibly supportive of the genre, and she's generally regarded as being very friendly toward her fans. The publicity from all of those Emmy losses helped make her even more of a household name. She's also said to be a genuinely nice person and always willing to do whatever ABC needed or wanted of her, which probably made it less likely that TPTB would want to get rid of her and contributed to her longevity.

And if I may be a bit superficial, the fact that the woman is insanely gorgeous and has aged incredibly well didn't hurt.

[DaytimeFan]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Exactly.

[SFK]

ITA with quartermainefan, DaytimeFan, and ellabelle with the Susan Lucci assessment. It may sound a bit snobbish to her dissenters, but she really does occupy the A-List all by her little ol' self. Melroser, I see your point about daytime vs. the industry at large, but I'd say that this remains true in both cases.

Other hugely popular daytime stars who were A-listers of their time were RosemaryPrinz and Denise Alexander. It's all relative, of course it was a different time, a different audience-to-actor/character relationship, but Ruth Warrich said that Lucci's popularity couldn't touch the kind of fanaticism Rosemary and her Penny attracted.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Thank you for breaking it down for me, ellabelle.

1. What was her spinoff called?

2. The prototype for Erica? Do you mean that she was the first soap bitch diva?

[SFK]

I think Victoria Wyndham and Linda Dano are an interesting case if we're talking A-Listers. I think we'd all agree that both were A-Listers, Vicky for years before Linda. But look at how Linda struck out with a daytime Alexis clone at the height of the eighties glamor soap craze, parlayed her character into a sympathetic, dressed to the tens "good" girl which made her a true original as the rich bitches usually got all of the great clothes... then of course there was Attitudes, QVC, books, talk show appearances, and in many ways, she eclipsed Vicky as the face of Another World. To me, you have to sort of qualify all of that. Does that make someone like her a solid A [remember, Lucci is the only A+ ] Vicky an A−? Of course this is silly stuff to trifle over, but I guess my point is that there are A-listers and then there are A-listers.

[JellicleCat]

1. It was called "Our Private World" and ran on CBS from May to September 1965 on Wednesdays and Fridays for a total of 38 half-hour episodes.

2. Exactly

[SFK]

1. What was her spinoff called?

2. The prototype for Erica? Do you mean that she was the first soap bitch diva?

1. Our Private World

2. Yes, she is widely regarded as the first soap bitch diva, but the true Erica Kane prototype is AW's Rachel Davis even though Erica was created first. Agnes Nixon had the Erica and Mona characters in her AMC bible, but when AMC was not picked up, she first used them as Rachel and Ada on AW.

[SFK]

Sorry JellicleCat, didn't mean to step on kitty's toes.

[VirginiaHamilton]

That's why I mentioned A+ or A- in my original post.

I vaguely remember AW (I was too young for it to have fully caught on to me the same way that it caught on with the older members of my family), but I definitely remember Victoria Wyndham and Linda Dano (as well as the guy that played Jake and the woman that played Vicki [it wasn't Anne Heche]). I didn't know that LD eclipsed VW - I just figured one was the kindly character and the other was the brash character.

I know LD regularly hosts beauty events (which is how she's managed to stay relevant in the face of her genre slowly dying) around NYC, but I have no idea what happened to VW after AW got cancelled.

[DaytimeFan]

She absolutely did and I was always so curious about how Wyndham felt about that, if she felt anything at all.

Dano, in my opinion, got as close to Lucci level ubiquity as anyone else. She was close, had AW lasted another decade, she may have got even closer. The problem is that Lucci got famous young and sustained that fame courtesy of AMC for 41 years. That span in the public eye is unmatched in terms of daytime. She was a star from the first episode to the last. Dano only had 17 years on AW (comparable to Lauren Koslow at DAYS for example) and look what she achieved in that time frame.

[VirginiaHamilton]

On another note, does being a pet automatically guarantee you A-list status? (And by "pet", I mean an actor who gets the top billing/perks/storylines/airtime.)

Because I'd love to know where folks like Maurice Benard, Michelle Stafford, Steve Burton, and Laura Wright rank on the soap industry totem pole...

[DaytimeFan]

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Cameron Mathison was a pet at ABC and in the end he's like any whore, just not shaking it on the pole. He has no power just as Wright has no power. Benard and Burton had some, under Guza and Frons...but those days are over. Stafford is a B-Lister. Rarely does someone from the Bell universe vault to the A-List simply because, for most of their runs, the shows have been ensembles. Sadly, that's somewhat changed.