Backstage Mysteries: Forever Unsolved

[SoapDope]

I read some of those Ellen Holly interviews. She is very angry at the show and has lashed out at Erika Slezak over the years.

Ellen say's the first couple of years on the show were great and had good looking guys romancing her on the show. Then in the early 70's it started to go downhill for her and the character of Carla.

I would love to see complete color episodes of her storylines from 1968/69 if they survive.

[Mitch]

Yea, I think that Fulton never really got over the fact that post 79 she wasn't the "star," of the show anymore...actually ATWT worked best as an ensemble so no one should have been the star. I think that Fulton could deliver with a strong director who cared and didn't let her get away with her little mannersims..(the fluttery thing, the stopping lines midsentance, ) and she held her own in a lot of scenes with Hubbard/Lucinda..particularly when she first returned pre Marland and then the continuation of the Whit McColl fued thing when Lisa was on the trail of why Lucinda let Whit take the fall (i.e. Lily's adoption...) and then of course, the John Dixon thing. But that was when people cared and if left to her own devices Fulton kept jumping on Lisa stil being a romantic heroine then a strong older woman with all the money she would ever need.

If you need proof of this watch Fulton's work during the Dobson's time after Lisa marries Whit...Fulton admitted she did everything to get attention, from dying her hair red to making Lisa a screwy ditz..she is almost unbearable to watch in those scenes.

I think the show handled Bob and Kim well up to the end. I wish the focus was on them more, but they stayed relevant to the entire community and they remained vital and involved characters..(much better then how the show handled Chris and Nancy Dobson time..) The big thing was to get rid of the house set and try to move Hughes funtions to Margo and Tom who could never fill that role. I do think Fulton was handled terribly at the end...I wish that the show had kept Brygman, had John and Lucinda marry and we would have a roster of the vets who, not neccessarily have big storylines but are involved and have Bob and Kim the core couple everyone goes to for help, John and Lucinda the anti-Bob and Kim, cackling and casuing mischef in the lives of everyone and Lisa, who at this point in life doesnt need a man but continues to adopt the outcasts and people in trouble and gives her own salty been there done that take on things.

I think it the end it was a combination of not knowing what do do with Lisa, Fulton and her line problems and a personal animosity with her.

[vetsoapfan]

Unfortunately, almost nothing of the early, golden years of OLTL exists. A bit of material has popped up here and there, but nothing extensive. It's a shame, because so much of Holly's early work was excellent.

[vetsoapfan]

I agree; Fulton could be very strong, but some of her mannerisms needed to be reigned it. They were not in evidence in the early years of the show, but seemed to develop as time went on. She needed a strong director, but when she had one, along with good writing, she could hit it out of the park, so to speak.

To her credit, even as Lisa become less focused on, she never openly complained to the press until the character was thrown under the bus. It was hard to watch the vets' importance being decimated during Hogan Sheffer's reign, just as it had been painful to see how much the vets were decimated when the Dobsons were writing (although I blame the producer at that time, as much as I blame the Dobsons).

Bob and Kim did regain some importance after Sheffer left, and they did remain important on the show until its end, and I was grateful for that. But sidelining Nancy and Lisa, eliminating John, and never reactivating core characters like Andy and Frannie, made ATWT feel less like home in its final years.

[Khan]

I feel like a key reason why the Hugheses were sidelined on ATWT was because the writers, the producers and everyone else involved had no idea how to write for characters who were, for the most part, "normal." In their minds, they weren't "exciting" enough.

[NothinButAttitude]

And that's why writers should be required to read backstory b/c the Hughes clan was far from normal and were very exciting. Yes, they were the central family and had 3 successful marriages [Nancy/Chris, Kim/Bob, Tom/Margo] under their belt but they were far from normal or boring as most see them.

Discussion like this get me upset all over again because I hate how the veterans of ATWT were marginalized the last decade they were on. I personally would've had a field day with characters like Bob, Kim, Lisa, Lucinda, Nancy, Susan, and Emma.

[Mitch]

Agreed! Wouldn't it have been fun to write for all of them? The history between the characters and the actors can't be replicated and wont be on TV ever again. Fun to have them bounce off of each other and their kids and yes new people. Nobody could grimace and no one could roll their eyes better then John and Lucinda watching Lisa walk in, and nobody did mischevious joy in tormenting then Lisa on seeing those two..

[DRW50]

I keep thinking about the story someone here once mentioned that I think they said was mentioned at the old WOST boards, about a child actor on a 50's soap being sexually abused by a crew member. Every time I think about it it bothers me, because it makes me wonder how many other soaps this may have happened on, especially in that era, when sexual abuse of children was ignored or used to shame the child.

[juniorz1]

Well, some of the public wanted Mike and Katie. 😊

[John]

I still cant believe Luke did not get a happy ending on ATWT.

First they give him a BF who to me at least the actor (Jake) seemed checked out for three years.

Then they tried with that Mason story but even Forbes March had said that Standards and practices wouldnt let them do [!@#$%^&*]. Not even hands on the shoulders. If it lingered too long then it was cut

Then the Brian story which I thought may go somewhere but he came out divorced Lucinda and left

So we get Reid and I was happy until he gpt killed by a train

Like I said at the time maybe have Chris get his heart from someone else maybe Damian and then Luke would finally see his father do a selfless act.

[SoapDope]

OMG!!! that is disturbing. What soap was the child actor on ? Did they mention male or female ?

[cassadine1991]

Makes me wonder if stuff like that was still happening on soaps all these years even today

[edgeofnik]

I think the tide started to turn against Lisa in early 80s when rumored 'no granny' clause was well-publicized. Of course, Fulton denied it, but how many babies did Margo lose? And the audience really loved Tom & Margo. Lisa got that big storyline in the early 90s story with "Scott" and using the time that Lisa was sent to the 1960s prime time flop "Our Private World." And there were times when she was good, but others were emotionally flat. (Just look at the scene where she's about to come face-to-face with Scott for first time. Her preface to what was going to happen, was laughable.)

Overall, she had some good work with Carly in the beginning but that ended up Carly's return. The John Dixon story was great, but I also think that when the writers chose to humilate Lisa at that party, it was kind of the true end of Lisa. I always thought killing off Kim and reunited Bob and Lisa would've been a really interesting story. Kim was far too self-righteous to me and never understood why she was around.

ATWT was blessed with so many vets and, honestly, because of the show's age, they were a lot of them and most past prime (I'd except Bob, Lucinda, John and Susan). Then you had characters who'd been around for 20+ years like Margo, Tom, Craig, Lily, Holden, Emily, Paul, Meg, etc. ATWT for the most part held up well because of the actors, who mostly skilled, trained in theater and weren't hair models. Honestly, I'd have taken any storyline given to Lisa/Kim and given that airtime to the underappreciated Marie Masters, who not only defied her age in looks, but really knew how to nail a scene - no fluttering there at all.

[NothinButAttitude]

Oh Lord.

I respect your opinion but you almost made me wanna reach through the screen and slap you!

What a horrible thing to say!

Kim IS love.

[edgeofnik]

I only enjoyed two storylines with Kim - the Sabrina reveal and Douglas Cummings, otherwise Kim and her high and mighty attitude could take a seat. ATWT was my first soap - started 1977 - so #TeamSusan or #TeamLisa anyday over Kim! (Now Kathryn Hays seems like a lovely person.) The wrote the character in such a milquetoast way when she actually had a pretty scandalous late-60s/1970s past. I wished they play more of that they way that Marland did.