Classic SOD Tumblr Goodies

[Franko]

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure there are also executives, either at the network or production company, dedicated to monitoring contracts. Still, in terms of unintentional comedy, SB's shenanigans are hard to beat. We've got the Conboy puff piece, which continues to rapidly depreciate, and this assortment of odd statements about Terry's departure.

 

The Bauer in question is Rick. Michael O'Leary would leave for a few years.

 

Sons and Daughters ran from January-March 1991 on CBS. "A single mother (Lucie Arnaz) raises her adoptive daughter while trying to maintain harmony among other family members."

[j swift]

As I recall, SOD stopped running EON recaps after it was canceled, they just wrote one giant recap in January of the end.  I wonder, given the publication lead time, if they will continue to recap Generations after the cancellation?

[EricMontreal22]

Larkin Malloy played someone called Kyle on AMC??  Wha??

[j swift]

LM played Travis on AMC and Kyle on Guiding Light.

[EricMontreal22]

Ah so they just got the two confused I guess...  Fair enough.

[j swift]

By mid-December, I guess I'll only be seeing classic soap recaps on my Tumblr feed...

[Franko]

I know, right?

[j swift]

11-27-1990 - The week after the proposal of the World Wide Web

 

@Franko your prediction came true and Michael O'Leary is leaving GL - if only we could go back in time and buy some Apple stock

 

SOD used the term Soap Hoppers in the title of an article, I thought it was coined by @slick jones'

The illustrations in the accompanying article are not flattering, at least Slick seems to try to find a nice press photo.   In true SOD style, it seems like it is going to be a dishy story about why actors change roles instead, it is an interview with Nicholas Coster and Robert Gentry about how nice all of their co-stars have been.  And a quote from Robin (stating the obvious) Mattson reminding us that most people hop soaps due to the money.

 

In Comings and Goings, Kate Kennicott is coming to AMC and Edge Jerome  (Ava's older brother?) has been cast on GH; (spoiler alert) I hope neither actor immediately went out and bought something expensive.  Mark St. James seems a nontraditional casting choice for the street-smart, tough, thug Edge given his background in unicycling and yoga (somebody at SOD got ahold of his resume in the pre-imdb days).  As Jon Cyphur (Dr. Donnally) just learned on SB, being cast weeks before a new producer is put in charge is never a great career choice.

 

Michael E Knight is leaving AMC?  Well SOD has been teasing this since July.  In fact, fans had reason to be pissed at Tad's exit story given the amount of notice given by the press.  Also, Perry Stevens is leaving, his exit gets as much attention as his character; which is to say none.

 

Also, somebody is paying Conboy to create a new soap when his first big casting choices on SB are James Depaiva as Keith (he passed) Gordon Thompson as Mason and Jennifer Hale.  I'm sure Ms. Hale, (who "won" a contest to appear on SB, although it wasn't a contest, it was a search, not to be confused with Star Search) went on to a huge television career but, unfortunately, because this was before IMDB, we'll never know.

 

Tidbit of the week: Butch Hartman, the new actor on Generations who asked the Jeopardy audience coordinator to marry him and always carried a sketchpad to set went on to a long career at Nickelodeon where he created The Fairly Odd Parents.  

 

Finally, I get the desire to want to leave an east coast soap to try things in LA, but nobody seems to be doing well.  James Depaiva is going to be on a PBS kids show about math,  Michael Watson is playing a child abuser, (but not a molester), in Romania and, Robert Newman is leaving GL to do an episode of the primetime show Hunter (which was canceled that season).  It is no wonder that they all go hop back to soaps.  

 

P.S. I can't figure out if Michael Waston's PR is good or bad, they get him a story in each SOD issue but they won't tell if he is married.  SOD gets pissed if you don't tell them when you get married, have a baby, or name that baby; just ask Patsy Pease.

[Franko]

Sorry I'm late!

 

With this issue, we turn from the issue of the actors exodus to the specific problem of the hunk exodus. Hindsight makes it hard for me to get worked up about the departures of Michael E. Knight, Michael O'Leary, Stephen Nichols and Robert Newman and the hunk emeritus status of James DePaiva. Entering the hunk arena is ... the creator of The Fairly Odd Parents?! Well, they can't all be David Hasselhoff.

 

Producing a la Conboy: Grab a big name without a screen test (Gordon Thompson), get some publicity by holding a cattle call for day players (Jennifer Hale) and blow it by not giving an actor enough freedom (James DePaiva).

 

That was classy of SOD to acknowledge Christopher Schemering's death and career.

 

The Soap Hoppers connection honestly made me squeal a little. But if only the article had more meat to it. It is interesting to hear Ron Harper's comments about how anti-social the Another World set was during the early 1980s. I hope Jane Elliot ended up getting a slightly ritzier dressing room at GH, albeit a couple decades later.

 

I am very much looking forward to next week's posts. I hope the rundowns of Pacific Lives, Casino and The Soul Searchers include some character descriptions to play fantasy casting director with.

[j swift]

Pacific Lives is going to need a Sandy Horton, as well as a Bill.  I would recommend new actors for both roles.  I'd like a feisty smart blond right around 30.  Who's newly available in 1990?  Judi Evans obviously won't work on a DAYS spinoff and I refuse to cast any of the Dawn's from GH.

 

Also, if Marland is going for the drama of contemporary lives, I'm going to need him to take another pass on the name.  The Soul Searchers sounds too 60's and even GL dropped the "The."

 

[robbwolff]

For some reason, I thought the title of Marland's show was "Soul Survivors." Perhaps they changed the title. I recall it was to have a very small cast -- about 12 roles, I believe.

[Franko]

Would mid-30s work? I'm wondering how Kim Johnston Ulrich or Catherine Hickland would have done.

 

As for either new Bill or new Tommy, what about Chris Robertson? He was free at the time.

Not only that, but it was mentioned as being a half-hour soap. I wonder if CBS would have taken back the 12:00 or 4:00 half-hours, or gotten rid of an existing soap. Guiding Light would have been the most vulnerable in 1990-91, but none of CBS' soaps were past the second tier in terms of ratings.

[j swift]

I agree that there was no place on the schedule for all of soaps being proposed.  Also, with the cancelation of the primetime soaps in 1990, as well as Tribes and Generations, I would imagine that the networks were reticent to greenlight a new one. So, I wonder if Conboy and Marland's development deals served as a form of severance pay from their respective networks after their work on Capitol and Loving with little expectation of them actually being produced. 

[Franko]

Man, that would be the life -- getting paid to develop a show you know isn't going to actually be on the air. I wouldn't want that as a permanent fate, but can you imagine?

[Paul Raven]

Kinda similar to daytime performers being offered 'play or pay' deals for primetime.

 

I know both George Reinholt and Gerald Gordon negotiated these when they moved to ABC in the hopes of breaking in to primetime. Gerald got the TV movie Ants! (aka It Happened at Lakewood Manor in 77 but George got nothing (except some money)