Paul Rauch & others in a #MeToo #TimesUp era...

[DRW50]

Scott was never a pinup but I thought he was believably cute, and was going to grow up to being more handsome if ATWT had stuck with him (and I do think he got more and more handsome during his last few years on the show). It's the type of everyday attractiveness that soaps used to recognize. Instead they went with the interchangeable ab rollers that played Chris. 

 

I wonder if she was gone by the time they cast Grayson McCouch as Dusty, since his appeal seemed to amount to a drunk [!@#$%^&*]. 

[Vee]

Scott DeFreitas went from cute to very handsome.

[KMan101]

I was always so disappointed ATWT tossed away DeFreitas, Lawlor, Holroyd ... but I don't want to veer the topic too far off ...

[titan1978]

Not to mention killing Bryant off.  That’s an entire generation of 18 to 30 year old characters that they threw away, either through bad recasts or killing or just not utilizing properly ever again.  And then scrambled for 10 years to keep trying to build up characters in that age range over and over.  Ugh.

[soapfan770]

 

Actually McCouch did come right in after Johnson was dismissed from CBS in early 2003. I can’t remember why exactly Johnson was let go although the last few years of her tenure were rather awashed in controversy stemming back to her support of Rauch and MADD in Zaslow’s firing. 

 

Speaking of Rauch anyone know  exactly of the details of his relations with Marj Dusay and Beth Chamberlain? I know the former was full of disdain, but was the latter really passion or affair gone off the rails?

[DramatistDreamer]

 

 

 

Even though Y&R was one of my Top 3 all-time favorite daytime soaps, some part of me believes that the network really got behind Bell because as a straight, white male, he was seen as more politically palatable than some of the other headwriters.  To be fair, Bell also created his show, which went a long way, in terms of the clout he amassed. 

 

Having said all that, I do not believe that Y&R was any better than ATWT or GL at the time that it rose to #1.  I think the network made more of a concerted effort to get behind Y&R as their daytime "jewel in the crown" and promote it as such.  Back then, awards mattered and there was just as much BTS campaigning for the Daytime Emmy awards as there is now with the Oscars, especially if you have powerful backers.

[Franko]

It would be interesting to know why CBS pushed the hardest for Y&R. Did they believe it would have a trickle down effect on their entire soap lineup (with the added benefit of Y&R being first up, unlike GH)? Did the show's relative youth help (less associations as "my mom's show" or "my grandma's show)? Did their relationship with P&G sour?

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Those are all very good questions. It would be great if someone with that type of knowledge could speak to those questions.  I can only speculate.  

 

From what I've read (even though I understand that Wikipedia is not always accurate) about how contentious the situations supposedly had gotten over Search for Tomorrow and The Edge of Night, it certainly seems possible that relations could've soured somewhat between P&G and CBS.  At times, it looks as if P&G gave as good as they got, in certain situations.

[KMan101]

 

Yes! I hated that decision to kill Bryant as well. ATWT was so poorly run. So many missed opportunities. And then Alison was miscast (I was so confused at the time why Dunphy left). Marnie should have been Lucy, not Alison. Sigh. 

[Soapsuds]

Todd Rotondi leaving ATWT was tragic and such a huge mistake. 

[KMan101]

Sooo not the thread for this, lol, but what happened with the two Jennifers? I always hated them killing her too. Such a waste.

[Soapsuds]

The first Jennifer was a terror on the set and didn't get along with cast and Todd Rotondi(Bryant) and she was fired. I think the second Jennifer wanted to leave the show so they killed her off instead of recasting again. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Lemme see if I can tie it together somehow, lol.

 

 

But what made her such a terror?  Were there some underlying issues BTS? 

 

Thinking of a #MeToo context, I wonder if there was a reason why this actress may have been so combative on set.  Was it a lack of maturity or was she reacting to a situation? 

I'm not implicating Rotondi at all, it's just that sometimes when there is something wrong that a person is struggling with, they tend to lash out at those closest to them in proximity and since these actors spend an inordinate amount of time with their co-workers on these shows, their fellow actors can, unfortunately become targets.

 

With all the rumors that we're hearing about BTS abuse toward actresses at Y&R, it makes me wonder whether some form of that might have been going on in ATWT's final decade.  Like, Y&R, ATWT had a lot of turnover in that final decade, particularly among their younger set of actors.

[Gray Bunny]

 

Also, by the 70's, weren't GL and ATWT (and SFT, LOL, SS, & EON -- wasted away in order to have all P&G in a back-to-back block) considered older and stodgy? ABC was starting to show competition with the rise of AMC and OLTL (and of course there was the GH boom of the late 70's), plus you had AW, DAYS and The Doctors gaining considerable ground at the time, while CBS's shows were already 20+ years in age. 

[DramatistDreamer]

By the way, I hated that ATWT killed off Bryant (in my unwritten re-write of the show, I'd have James Stenbeck kidnap Bryant and transport him to a isolated part of the Montegan jungle where Tonio Reyes has been hiding).

 

By the 1980s, both shows had essentially recovered though.   You had actresses like Meg Ryan and actresses like Marissa Tomei and Julianne Moore forming the young adult set.  Lily and Holden weren't my favorite couple but they were highly popular, along with Brian Bloom, who played O.G. Dusty Donovan.

 

Steve & Betsy's 1984 wedding was one of the highest rated soap weddings (of course, we know which soap had the highest rated soap wedding) of all time.

 

ATWT's PTB took a heavy handed approach in attempting to bring youth to the fore in the very early 1980s but by the mid '80s, many of the most integral veterans had been brought back and were integrated with the rest of the cast of characters, including the younger set.

 

From what I saw of GL, by the mid-late 1980s, the show had a very active 20-30 something set.  I will say though, that GL, did appear to have a larger set of elder actors than ATWT, at least until the early 1990s.

Reva and Josh were one of the most popular couples on all of CBS Daytime.

 

Both shows were doing respectable numbers in terms of ratings.  ATWT won the Emmy for best Daytime series in 1987.  Both had a bevy of actors who had won awards during that decade (although Kathryn Hays never winning sticks in my craw to this day!).

Personally, I truly do believe politics were at play.  Even from my brief stint working in television, I can tell you that politics looms large in how the television industry is run.