Vetsoapfan's Treasure Trove: Vintage Soap Material

[vetsoapfan]

AFTERNOON TV, June 1977 (all articles)

 

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[Paul Raven]

I wonder why Days kept recasting Julie?

 

Obviously they weren't happy with the actresses but 4  actresses in 3 years for such a pivotal character.

 

Meanwhile Denise  was cast as Susan and that was that.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Paul Raven

[vetsoapfan]

 

To be fair, throughout the decades there have been many atrocious actors on daytime TV...but probably no more than have appeared on primetime television. On primetime, even the weakest actors have 7-10 days to film a single episode, and therefore are afforded the luxury of rehearsing and fine-tuning their performances. Soap actors actors cannot say the same.

 

 

She was excellent on CB, agreed, but how many episodes did the writers, directors and actors have to churn out each season? If they had been required to produce 20 hours every MONTH, like soaps do, how would the show's quality have fared? Delany should have known better than to criticize actors who have to churn out TEN TIMES the material she had to do every season.

 

 

Right. If she had been on a Claire Labine, Harding Lemay, or Agnes Nixon-penned series, her perception of the soap genre might have been different.

 

Bill Bell is known for pushing to recast certain parts when he's not happy with the actors. Not of the previous Julies were particularly good. On the other hand, Denise Alexander was astonishing from the get-go. I was crushed when she quit DAYS and went over to GH. GH was badly written at the time, and unfortunately, Bennye Gatteys was a pallid choice for the role of Susan Martin. It was like watching Victoria Mallory take over for Janice Lynde as Leslie on Y&R. Hard to accept.

[DRW50]

I've thought that beefcake photo of Richard Gutrhie was just beautiful from the first time I saw it. It's so subversive, from before that was really a thing (at least in this type of mainstream publication). Most of those type of photos of half-naked guys would put an emphasis on machismo, whereas his pose and attire is much more open to telling people, intentionally or not, that there is a world for attractive men beyond glowering in your blue jeans. I have a feeling that was a defining memory for more than a few boys going through their mother or aunt's soap magazines...

Edited August 10, 2019 by DRW50

[vetsoapfan]

 

Guthrie was quite beautiful, and projected such a sweetness on screen. The closeting of actors was par for the course at the time, but both perceptive viewers and savvy readers could always read between the lines, so to speak, and get a sense of the performers' true selves. We knew about Guthrie, Wesley Eure, Val Dufour, Chris Bernau and others, without needing to be told outright.

[SoapDope]

This is the first time I saw a pic of the actress who played Julie after Charla Doherty left role. How long did each actress play the part before SSH took over in 1968 ? Speaking of Julie......I recently bought the Time Life Carol Burnett DVD's and they include episodes from the first 5 years of the show (1967-1971) that have never been rerun since their original airings. In the first season (1967-68), actor Flip Mark who played Julie's brother on Days appeared in several CB episodes as a boyfriend of Vicki Lawrence in the Carol & Sis sketches. Vicki was 18 when the show started. 

[Paul Raven]

according to Jason 47 re Julie

Charla Doherty (Julie Olson) 11/8/65-12/23/66

Kathy Dunn (Julie Olson)   1/24/67-6/20/67 recurring

Cathy Ferrar (Julie Olson)  7/13/67-9/2/68 recurring

 

Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie Olson Williams) (recurring 12/11/68-4/10/69); 4/15/69-3/19/84 (signed again)

[vetsoapfan]

From Rona Barrett's Daytimes, April 1977 (debut issue)

 

Don Stewart (TGL) defends the soaps.

 

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Pre-internet, comments from the public were just as weird as they are today on social media.

 

 

From Rona Barrett's Daytimers, May 1977

 

Douglass Watson from AW.

 

 

From Rona Barrett's Daytimers, June 1977

 

Tina Andrews on DAYS' interracial romance.

 

 

Harding Lemay, AW's head writer.

 

 

More Warped Fans write to Eileen Fulton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vetsoapfan]

From Rona Barrett's Daytimers, July 1977

 

Critical Review of AW.

 

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From Rona Barrett's Daytimers, August 1977

 

Actress Smacks Down Nasty Troll (LOL).

 

 

Explosive Backstage Drama at DAYS.

 

 

Recappping on Soaps.

 

 

Joel Crothers (TEON) pontificates on heterosexual relationships.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vetsoapfan]

From Rona Barrett's Daytimers, November 1977

 

STFU, Marie.

 

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THE DOCTORS' Douglas Marland: Head Writer

 

 

Don't Piss Off La Fulton, LOL.

 

 

 

Rona Barrett's Daytimers, December 1977

 

Abandoning Controversial Storylines.

 

 

From Rona Barrett's Daytimers, January 1978

 

Be still my racing heart! Ricky Dean!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[robbwolff]

 

Ah. The infamous Marland interview. So full of hot air. Yeah, he married Penny and Jerry, but where was the big storyline he touted? 

[vetsoapfan]

 

To be fair, as he pointed out, Julia Duffy quit with little notice, which made Marland scramble to alter and apparently abandon his storyline plans. 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[RavenWhitney]

Marland did not improve TD. DePriest was the last head writer who made the show interesting.  Marland's hiring started its down fall.  DePriest was progressive and character driven.  Some stories didn't work but it was far more watchable than Doug's year. 

 

Wow, Rona was so right about AW!  My grandmother watched and I remember watching with her and thinking how shitty the scripts were and I was young!  Repetitive dialog for sure. Dumb scenes.  LeMay was sooo overrated, particularly once the show went to an hour.  And yet viewers tuned in. 

[vetsoapfan]

Just a quick note: sorry about the "smudgy" or stained quality of various uploads. No one has to remind me how annoying it is that the scans are not perfect, LOL.

 

My scanner itself is ancient and mediocre anyway, but in addition to this, many of the magazines which I am copying from have faded, dark, and/or smudged print which only looks worse when it's scanned into my laptop.

 

If any pages come out looking illegible, I discard those uploads, but I figure that if *I* can read the pages, other people should be able to as well. This may be the ONLY way for soap fans to have access to these vintage articles, so I hope folks agree with me that if it comes down to a choice between mediocre quality or nothing at all, mediocre is better! (I feel the same way when I find rare vintage videos: I'd love them to be perfect, but if they are not, I want to watch them anyway!)

 

It's curious how some writers are brilliant and effective on some shows, yet totally destructive and ineffective on others. Marland was not the best fit for TD, IMHO (although other scribes during that soap's run were significantly worse), yet there's no denying he totally turned GH around and worked wonders on that show. Claire Labine was amazing on RH, GH, Where The Heart Is and Love of Life, but I found her TGL and OLTL to be painful. Pat Falken Smith scored with DAYS, TGL,  and GH, but failed miserably on RH. Ann Marcus made the ratings soar on SFT, but her stint on DAYS was atrocious.

 

I found Lemay's work on AW to be excellent, intelligent and absorbing for the first four years or so of his tenure, but after the show went to an hour, he seemed to peter out and run dry. I think the show continued to do well in the rating for a while primarily because in the mid-1970s, GH was a total mess and offered no real competition. Once it took off and became a sensation (along with TGL which also improved alot around the same time), AW started to sink in the ratings. Viewers finally had worthy alternatives!

[SoapDope]

The funny thing about that Marie Osmond article is the fact she has admitted in recent years to being an avid Y&R viewer since the 70's and even had several of the cast members on her talk show. 

 

Those various soap publications made sure to get many gratuitous beefcake shots of the soap actors. 

 

I never knew Janice Lynde was fired from Y&R. I always assumed she wanted out to do prime time etc...and to go back to New York.

Edited August 11, 2019 by SoapDope