Retconning: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[John]

 

They never did on Air but Lauren Koslow said in an interview they are the same character

[vetsoapfan]

 

They are the same character...according to her own supposition, filling in the blanks, or did TPTB confirm that to Koslow, based on the character's description from the writers or producers? It would be incredibly stupid if these two separate women were supposed to be the same person, when it was never mentioned on air, and when even Laura, Bill and the Hortons never acknowledged such a thing.

 

I suppose Xander Kiriakis is really Xander Harris from Buffy the Vampire Slayer too.

 

((Roll eyes))

 

I can't believe Days would be this dumb.

 

Or...maybe I can. 

[DRW50]

 

Going by this interview from a few years ago Koslow herself seems to have no idea (around 24 minutes they inform her via looking at Wiki pages that Kate's original name was Winograd and she seems baffled). They then basically convince her that is Kate's history.

 

I guess this is our new era's way of, as Bill Bell's untalented daughter in law put it, "honoring history." Just randomly stitch it together because none of it matters anyway.

 

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[robbwolff]

Thanks. Was just about to post this, too. This interview appears to be from 2015 and she clearly had no idea who Kate Winograd was. I tend to doubt they're the same character. Yes, Days is out there but you'd think that her medical background would have come up at some point in the past 25 years, especially with all the health crises that happen in soaps.

[vetsoapfan]

 

The contention that Kate Winograd from the 1970s morphed into Kate Roberts of the 1990s did NOT originate with the show. No producer or writer or actor has ever claimed that the two women were actually the same person. No Days characters have ever mentioned such a thing on air. Even the hosts of the radio interview did not have the knowledge to make such a contention, themselves. They had to reference Wikipedia for the supposed background of Koslow's character.

 

Wikipedia is far from an inerrant source of information. Over the years, I have found wildly-inaccurate statements made on that site. I'll bet other longtime viewers have as well. The site is written by fans interested in various subjects, but being interested fans does not not necessarily mean they are accurate and informed writers. Many Wiki pages are great, and quite well researched, but others are not. It's hit or miss. I'm sure that the fan who wrote the synopsis for Kate Roberrts saw that Bill Horton had had an affair with "a" Kate in the 1970s, and just figured it was the same character Koslow was then playing, even though aside from the affair with Bill, the two women had nothing in common.

 

The two Kates are different people. The Wiki fan messed up. 

 

The mystery is solved, at least for me.

[jcar03]

Wikipedia is not an accurate source since anyone can edit it.  Don't bother trying to edit anything related to the soaps either.  There are a few people who "run" those pages and will send you nasty messages when you try and correct or edit them.

[vetsoapfan]

 

 Exactly. Years ago, I tried to correct some of the more egregious errors on Wikipedia about soap history, but the original ((ahem)) "writers" of the pages in question kept deleting all the corrections and reposting their original mistakes. Being in control seemed more important than allowing accurate information to be posted.

[SoapDope]

Yes exactly. The write up on Y&R and several of it's characters have tons of mistakes especially Nikki. 

 

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

 And, sadly, the writers of many of the error-filled entries do NOT want to be corrected.

[SoapDope]

I know. Newer viewers who want to read up on history will take that crap as fact. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

They do. I've had posters around the internet get very mad and aggressive with me for contradicting something they had read on Wikipedia (or Soap Central or other pages which purport to present the "facts"). 

 

TGL: Hope Bauer is Ed Bauer Bauer's sister! (No, she's not. She's his niece.)

 

Y&R: Paul Williams gave Nikki Reed an STD! (Nope, it was the other way around, she infected him. I was there when Paul berated her.)

 

Y&R: Chris Brooks Foster's given name is Cristabel! (WTF? Where did that come from? It's Christen.)

 

Y&R: Eric Braedon is an original cast member. (No, he joined the show seven years after its debut.)

 

Days: Susan Flannery created the role of Laura Horton! (No, she was the second actress in the role.)

 

I shouldn't get started on this or will be listing annoying examples forever. Suffice to say, Wikipedia is not inerrant.

[DRW50]

 

This one has been around for years - I think Doug Davidson joked once about Paul being unfairly blamed. 

 

The Christabel thing is just odd. Did they think Bell Bell wrote YA novels or something?

 

One of the reasons I don't bother as much with Wiki now is the endless control issues. It gets especially ridiculous with shows like Eastenders where those who 'run' the pages insist that someone who appears 2 or 3 times a year (if that) is a regular character. 

 

That reminds me - the Soapcentral bios (are they still around?) for GL characters of earlier years (especially radio days) used to be chock full of information. I always wondered how much was accurate and how much was fancruft.

[Vee]

Oof. I remember when the OLTL entries had a long, involved section about Todd/Roger Howarth that had Lon Chaney Jr. or some other old Hollywood star in there, comparing Todd to all sorts of classic characters or performers throughout fiction. Come on!

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, DD has gone on record confirming that Nikki did give his character VD, but that poor Paul Williams has borne the blame.

 

Internet posters used to argue with me when I would tell them that Chris Brooks' name was CHRISTEN, not CHRISTABEL, but thank God the clip of the character's wedding to Snapper was eventually uploaded to youtube. In it, we get definite confirmation that her name was indeed Christen. But if the audience sees something printed anywhere, many of them accept it as gospel truth, no matter how wrong it is. 

 

I just checked, and yes, the Soap Central bios are still there. They are filled with misinformation as well. The fans who write them seem just to fill in the blanks or dream up statistics when they do not know something. This is evident in the biographies of Meta and Trudy Bauer, for example.

 

A good, reliable source of info about the show's original radio characters is the small, hardcover book The Guiding Light by Dr. John Ruthledge, published in 1938. Christopher Schemering's anniversary book is good too.

 

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Gag me.

[DRW50]

Thanks. I'll have to find that. The GL bios just seemed too good to be true - how would someone know so many details about people from 1938 when most of those episodes aren't even around?

 

I have to admit I have had that temptation with writing soap bios, especially when AMC had so many characters simply vanish without a trace in the early '00s. I would just end up saying (I think this was for Soapcentral) that the character "quietly left town."