WoST- World of Soap Themes

[SFK]

I really, really, really disliked what I call the Victor Lordification of Eric. Dads can be awful parents without being retconned into monsters. Overall, I'm dissatisfied with with the portrait of Eric Kane. I wanted more. I was a kid when he showed up and I mostly remember the early stuff, like when Erica found outside the front door of Linden a clay hand print she made as a little girl. She was convinced her father (Barney) had left it there. The next thing I knew, Eric was wearing suits and back in her life. I wish he'd come back alive, though the absentee father suddenly dying before any sort of closure happened to both my dad and my best friend. It happens, but... Imagine the juice they could have gotten out of Eric and Kendall, re: Richard, et cetera.

[ellabelle]

YES! If Eric really did sell Erica to a pedophile, as was retconned in 2004, then I can see why he laid low during the whole Kendall revelation in 1993 and the trial in 1994. To me I thought it was already a really tragic story, this idea that Eric was so neglectful and Erica so unimportant to him that he forgot about her birthday and she ended up being so brutally victimized as a result of his neglect. I also thought that this idea that he didn't know what had happened to her and had no part in arranging it played well with Erica welcoming him back into her life in 1988. I know the story is that she buried the rape and pregnancy down so deeply that she didn't talk to anyone about it, but I don't know why she would have welcomed Barney/Eric in her life in 1988 if she knew he'd arranged for her to be raped. It just doesn't make sense, unless you want to say that Erica is so damaged that she wants his love even though she knows he's an evil monster - and I could perhaps argue that, except that she brought Eric into Bianca's life, and regardless of the risks she took with herself, Erica never would have risked her daughter's life or safety.

I can see why the writers didn't bring Eric back circa 1993 or 1994 because Erica had enough to deal with in terms of the trial and with Richard Fields returning, but that would have been such a gold mine of drama. Presumably Eric didn't know that Kendall even existed until Erica publicly claimed her before her wedding to Dimitri - which was how Travis found out about her. It definitely makes you wonder what Eric would have thought about that when he saw the news, if he would have connected it to his friend or if he would have assumed his daughter was a tramp who slept around. After everything that Erica went through with the trial and Fields dying and coming to grips with what happened to her as a child, you have to wonder why she never reached out to her father to ask him why he forgot her (or why he was willing to essentially sell her). She certainly had the means to track him down. Surely Dimitri would have suggested it at some point, but as far as I know, Erica never contacted him again - she waited for him to call her when he was dying in 2004.

[antmunoz]

I have that CD set. I FLOVE IT. Only flaw is no disco GL theme. Brian didn't have a clean copy at the time.

quote name="teplin" post="1350947" timestamp="1406135701"]

I remember how excited I was to first stumble upon the WOST site. Watching episodes was a trial during those dial-up days, but it was worth it. Somewhere I have a 2-CD set of soap music Brian prepared and offered as a subscription premium.

[antmunoz]

I met robbwolff on WOST. He mailed me his personal copy of EIGHT YEARS IN ANOTHER WORLD. I reread it several times. We're still online friends. He's a great guy, and I live that we're both on this site as well.

Anyone remember my WoST arch nemesis, Geoffrey Martin-Cyr? LOL

[SFK]

He was your nemesis?? I thought he was a nice guy. Wasn't he soap press with a specialty in GL, something like that?

[robbwolff]

You're too sweet. I'm glad enjoyed the book!

And I had no idea Geoffrey was your arch nemesis. Wasn't he somehow involved with The Bold and the Beautiful?

[Vee]

I was never a WOST regular on the boards - that I can recall, anyway - I think I just lurked at them a little when they were still viewable (I think they got locked off at one point). I was pretty young then and intimidated. I vaguely remember that guy's name. What an over-the-top nom de plume.

[SFK]

Amen to all of this, totally on the same page. Kendall and Richard were certainly enough in '93, but I think there was room for Eric somewhere in and around Richard and Mona's deaths. Or even years later when you had AM and ER on as Erica's children. I would have preferred exploring Grandpa Eric's perhaps very different relationships with his granddaughters, and of course Eric. Anything other than the deathbed/"He sold me!" route. Imagine if he'd bedded Myrtle then split town again, just hit it and quit it. (Erica: I've learned not to expect much from that man I called my father, but MYRTLE, how could you BETRAY me like this, and my MOTHER, I mean my goodness, my mother's best FRIEND! / Myrtle: Eddica, hunnih, Ah nevah meant tuh hertcha hunnih, and Ah'd nevah disrespect mah precious Moanuh, but Ah'm still a WOMAN hunnih, Ah've gought mah NEE-ee-eeds! / Erica: Oh, SAVE it Myrtle...)

[All My Shadows]

Edd Geoff Knight was the coolest screen name ever.

[robbwolff]

Actually, I believe that is his real name,

[ellabelle]

I'm scarred now from the mental image of Eric and Mona in bed together. Damn you, SFK!

I definitely would have been interested in seeing Eric again when AM and ER were playing Kendall and Bianca. Around 2002 or so would have been good because the show wouldn't have been completely bogged down in the Cambias story. If they were going to revisit Erica's rape, I would have preferred Eric's return and him meeting Kendall and Kendall gaining some understanding about why Erica was the way she was over the convoluted story that Vanessa bore Richard Fields' child and witnessed Erica's rape but did nothing to help her.

I'd heard speculation that Leo's real father was going to be Eric Kane. It would have been so fabulous if it was revealed that Vanessa was in love with Eric but he was just using her, and he ditched her because Erica was in town for her birthday and used Erica as an excuse. Vanessa was left alone and pregnant after Eric dumped her, and she blamed Erica for that, thus explaining why Vanessa hated Erica from the time she first arrived in Pine Valley. Eric could have come to town because the truth somehow came out that Leo was his son, and while there, he could have bumped into Kendall and met her. Kendall and Erica were still at odds then, and it would have been interesting to see if she latched onto him as a daddy figure like she did Richard Fields, particularly because she could have one-upped Erica if she could get Eric to love HER, or if she'd have reacted in horror to meet the man who so neglected his daughter that she ended up alone with a pedophile. I would have loved for Erica to have the opportunity to look her father in the eye and ask him how he could forget his own child, forget her birthday, leave her all alone and at the mercy of a rapist. No matter how he reacted, I think she could have gotten closure from that. And it would have been way better than that lame "Trey Kenyon is Richard Fields' son" story.

[antmunoz]

I remember a lot of passive/aggressive comments towards me on the boards.

But the nasty private messages weren't open to interpretation.

He claimed to work in soaps. But, as robbwolff said, so did others.

[Escapay]

Very old-time WoSTer here. I was a wee lad of 14 when I discovered the site in late 1999 during its AOL days. Eventually saw it to NBCi, then EV1, before it finally got its WoST.org domain. Went by "Al G" at the time, if anyone remembers (I've been using "Escapay" online since 2004). Hard to believe it's been fifteen years now since my first experience with it. If Brian is reading this, just wanted to say "thanks." His site and the forum (in its free days) meant a lot to me during my time there (99-04), and I'm still sorry to see it's gone. Typing in various soap opera themes or episodes on YouTube just isn't the same thing.

Al G

[All My Shadows]

I totally remember you, Escapay/Al G!!!

[Vee]

I do remember the name Escapay from somewhere.