I loved that storyline, but god do I hate the “witness/suspect snaps under interrogation and volunteers the truth for no reason” trope. It’s common on L&O and it’s just a deus ex machina IMO. But Cynthia Watros is fabulous in those scenes and makes up for the lazy writing. One thing that struck me: I don’t remember the 90s lighting being so bright and the wardrobe so white/pastel.

Edited January 29, 20196 yr by juppiter

4 minutes ago, juppiter said:

I loved that storyline, but god do I hate the “witness/suspect snaps under interrogation and volunteers the truth for no reason” trope. It’s common on L&O and it’s just a deus ex machina IMO. But Cynthia Watros is fabulous in those scenes and makes up for the lazy writing. One thing that struck me: I don’t remember the 90s lighting being so bright and the wardrobe so white/pastel.

I remember that being a common criticism in the soap mags, that Rauch turned the lights way up and the mood of the show was affected.  Especially if you look at the moody lighting from JFP’s run.

I wish I could find it on YouTube, but there was a scene on oltl where Jean Randolph, after weeks of running the show, needed a rest and Viki re-emerged. Viki was utterly lost and frightened, she had no recall as she sat in the library at Llanfair wearing clothes she did not recognize and speaking to her children who made references to events of which she clearly had no memory. Erika Slezak played this scene with such subtle terror and cluelessness, tears welled up in my eyes. She was so scared and I so felt for her.

What I don’t understand about Y&R is that they pull down old clips and don’t replace them with their own officially sanctioned clips. (I’m not talking about full episodes.) They have a pre-Napster, very 20th century approach to digital. Even the very conservative BBC caught on and started putting up video in their official Doctor Who channels to replace fan-ripped clips. Hell, Guiding Light was beginning to post old clips in their later years. If there’s a demand, provide supply. Don’t simply punish fans for loving your content enough to share it. 

 

Still, they may think that old clips don’t represent the “younger, more modern” Y&R brand they believe exists today. Oooh, people might come to expect string instruments on the soundtrack, and they don’t want that. (Although I hear old compositions are being cycled back into Y&R, thankfully.)

 

Not a scene per se, but a performance. My favorite Nurses Ball act.

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 20196 yr by Faulkner

While Ryan's Hope never ranked at the top of my best-loved soap list, its final episode was beautifully realized. Great writing and acting; very poignant, memorable scenes, and satisfying conclusions for beloved characters. Maeve's thanking Jack for loving Mary makes me cry to this day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Life to Live: 1979 to 1982

 

Upon finding Jenny's baby has passed away, Karen and Marco switch the dead infant for Katrina Karr's living child. When the truth comes out three years (!!!) later, Jenny altruistically gives young Mary back to Katrina. This story represented OLTL at its best. No time travel, no underground cities, no evil geniuses and brain implants...just multi-dimensional, beloved characters trapped in an untenable, tragic situation. 

 

Unfortunately, several of the videos of the story have been deleted from youtube, but here is how it started and how it ended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 20196 yr by vetsoapfan

Days of our Lives: Addie's Death

 

Before Days became a cartoon, it was a romantic, adult, heartbreaking drama. One of its most memorable stories was the death of Addie Horton Olsen Williams, Tom and Alice's daughter. Fans were livid with rage over Addie's death, and demanded that William J. Bell be fired because of it, but the aftermath gave the audience many beautiful scenes to watch. Most of them are not available on the internet, but here is one.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 20196 yr by vetsoapfan

I'd never seen that Tom and Alice clip. It's startling to see Tom so emotional and raw, rather than just as a stock figure. What a wonderful piece of work from Macdonald Carey and Frances Reid. 

 

The scenes with Jenny giving Mary back to Katrina were beautifully done. You couldn't have a character like Jenny on a soap now - she would be a false, empty sugary princess, no personality, no identity beyond a man. Brynn Thayer was the perfect actress to play that role. In some ways she reminds me of Jacquie Courtney.

 

I remember back when the Daytime to Remember episodes aired, the soap journalists talked about who had the best selection of the three soaps (Michael Logan panned GH's, especially for things like including an episode just because it had Demi Moore). I thought OLTL won that contest easily - you could tell the selections were made with a great deal of love and care. 

32 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

Days of our Lives: Addie's Death

 

Before Days became a cartoon, it was a romantic, adult, heartbreaking drama. One of its most memorable stories was the death of Addie Horton Olsen Williams, Tom and Alice's daughter. Fans were livid with rage over Addie's death, and demanded that William J. Bell be fired because of it, but the aftermath gave the audience many beautiful scenes to watch. Most of them are not available on the internet, but here is one.

 

 

 

 

 

Wow.. it's surreal seeing Tom and Alice be given such meaty material... although I do like how Dr. Tom would do comic scenes with Calliope.. and Alice Horton would be fiesty and giving her two cents during the 80s/90s/2000s.

 

When my mom was alive, she told me stories about how Marlena was quite popular with another love interest by the name of Don Craig... and that even though she liked her with Roman and tolerated her with John Black (who she felt dragged Marlena down)... just this brief scene shows the connection her and Don had.. and her finding out her sister was killed. 

 

 

Also, someone did a touching montage of Marlena when she was pregnant with Don Dr, gave birth to him, and finding him dead in his crib due to SIDS.  I wish whole episodes were available somewhere of her life with Don.

 

 

I'm surprised the show remembers Don Jr...

7 hours ago, SFK said:

I wish I could find it on YouTube, but there was a scene on oltl where Jean Randolph, after weeks of running the show, needed a rest and Viki re-emerged. Viki was utterly lost and frightened, she had no recall as she sat in the library at Llanfair wearing clothes she did not recognize and speaking to her children who made references to events of which she clearly had no memory. Erika Slezak played this scene with such subtle terror and cluelessness, tears welled up in my eyes. She was so scared and I so felt for her.

 

 

Those early scenes with Don and Marlena prove Deidre Hall COULD act -- and still could, I think, if she were given the right material.

2 hours ago, Khan said:

Those early scenes with Don and Marlena prove Deidre Hall COULD act -- and still could, I think, if she were given the right material.

 

Or give her an acting partner that can act.  She was awesome when acting opposite Don and the original Roma.  John Black is played by such a subpar actor.. that I think she has to help him instead of giving her all in a scene.  When she's not opposite Drake, she's still got the acting chops.

It also probably hurts a lot of these actors that there is no art to directing on soaps anymore so the best possible performances are rarely captured.

AMC: Angie sees Jesse at the train station, 2008. One of AMC's (and ABC's) last classic moments, IMO.

 

The Angie/Jesse reunion story had its issues. This scene is not one of them. Debbi Morgan rips my heart out every single time I watch it. The editing skips a few beats at the end to save time, but it's still absolutely gutwrenching. And thank ABC for still shelling out for a real song (Alicia Keys).

 

 

 

Oh, I almost forgot:

 

 

I know I'm far from the only one, but I cannot begin to express how much these scenes meant to me. I watched it live - this is something the loss of soaps deprives us of now, these seasonal events, seeing these moments as they happen, over the holidays. Christmas Eve. I was a gay teenager who had grown up watching AMC and it just shattered me.

Bianca's coming-out to Erica was great...I especially loved the flashback to Bianca's birth (and when AMC was a much better written show)...but it would have been even better without those damn music cues.  (God, how I hate the soaps' over-reliance on overblown, synthesized music.  If you can't afford to use orchestral music, then just do without music altogether.)

 

Bianca said she knew from a long time ago that she was nothing like her mother -- and that's part of the problem I always had with that character.  Bianca SHOULD have been more Erica-like.  Erica should have been made to suffer her daughter's constant drama the way Mona had suffered hers.  It would have made Erica become more mature -- which is where I think Lorraine Broderick and Maggie DePriest were heading with that character (hence, giving Erica a daughter, bringing back Eric, having Erica go to such lengths to protect Bianca after she'd been kidnapped, etc.), before Agnes returned, pushed the reset button, sent Eric out of his daughter's life again, and eventually sent Bianca three thousand miles away from her mother.

 

God bless "Black Agnes" Nixon, but I never agreed with her decision to make Bianca gay.

Edited January 30, 20196 yr by Khan

As for Jesse and Angie's reunion...

 

Of course, Debbi Morgan sold the hell out of that moment.  To me, it's right up there with Celie's "NETEEEEEEEEEEE!" at the end of "The Color Purple."  But why would she have assumed that was Jesse on that train, and not Jacob?

 

I'll forgive the fact that that train station looked more like some damn ride at Disneyland, if only because the moment when Jesse finally emerged from the exhaust was one for the ages.

 

But that song...?  No.  With the possible exception of B&B, soaps have lost their way, music-wise.  

Edited January 30, 20196 yr by Khan