News & Gossip from the mid-1980s per The Soaps of Yesterday

[will81]

Hey everyone. My apologies for the radio silence. I am finishing my last week of University after four years and it has been hectic and insane (along with yet another lockdown here in Melbourne) I will done for good this Friday and will be updating the blog again from Fri. So sorry to those who have been waiting around but everything just got a little crazy. 

[j swift]

Congratulations

 

Maybe one day we'll learn the secret of how a university student from Melbourne came into a collection of mid-western US newspaper soap opera summaries from 37 years ago.  I hope it includes time travel, an evil twin, and a fascination with old video store advertisements. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by j swift

[will81]

Haha, I can give you that secret right now, I am a bit sorry it isn't as exciting as time travel and evil twins. Newspapers.com. Best resource ever. I recommend it, but it costs obviously.

 

Also because JMR and Lynda Hirsch were syndicated, everything is all over the place, getting everything in the right order and making sure you have the correct columns and synopsis for a particular week isn't easy, Takes a lot of time and effort, but so worth it.

[BoldRestless]

Congratulations @will81 Appreciate your work and was excited to see this thread bumped up as it means you would be updating.

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[will81]

Thank you. Haha yeah it has been a while

[j swift]

The new articles are up and there's a lot of sad news about the death of Charita Bauer.

 

But, there's also disco.  Peter Strong (aka Bob Georgia) loves to boogie and

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Speaking of disco and nightclub owners, an interesting tidbit about the loss of Kim Ulrich on ATWT

 

I'm always amused at what they get wrong.  Here, poor James Horan gets his name misprinted three time in the same article

 

Then, there's this bold prediction about Dynasty

 

And finally nobody seems to know who Laken's father is

 

 

[BoldRestless]

I found that story about Chris Robinson being sentenced for tax fraud and wanting to continue on GH during the day and being incarcerated overnight fascinating. I wonder what ended up happening with that.

[j swift]

In the synopsis Ginny's trial for the murder of DL Brock was dropped because the DA took note of Bobbi saying about how violent DL had been.  Looking back, there was a lot of build up to Ginny's trial only for her to be set free rather quickly (they hired James Horan and it was one of Jake/Sam Behrens first stories), so I would guess it was planned to be a longer trial.  I believe Ginny and Rick leave Port Charles as soon as the trial is over, so I don't think Chris Robinson got his wish.

Edited June 13, 2021 by j swift

[victoria foxton]

Jake Meyer had already been around since 1983. Jake was introduced during the Susan Moore murder mystery. As Heather's lawyer. Jake also had an interfaith romance with Rose. Before marrying Bobbie.  Ginny and Rick were around until late 1986. Staying over a year an half. After the DL's murder.

Edited June 13, 2021 by victoria foxton

[j swift]

I forgot that Ginny got pregnant with Rick Jr after the trial, but then again so did GH...

Edited June 13, 2021 by j swift

[j swift]

It is April 1985 in the newest upload.  JMR and LH are very annoyed that Michael Zaslow was written off OLTL because he was a good actor and they felt there was so much potential in his character.  Hugo Napier became a US citizen and was then promptly fired from AMC.  Denise Pense was let go from GL as Katie, just before her character's brother Floyd was arrested for murder.   Lisa Brown is also leaving GL as Nola and Michael Tylo sounds pissed off that it meant Quint's exit as well.  He suggests that GL kill off Nola and play stories of Quint as a widower, because "single parenthood is hot these days."  https://thesoapsofyesterday-blog-blog.tumblr.com/

 

Meanwhile, we've got some filing to do...

 

Filed under "temp recasts that I don't recall"

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Filed under "I told you so last week"

 

Filed under "Lynda Hirsch continues to have the worst editor in newspaper history", in an answer to a question about Dynasty star Michael Praed they misspelled Ms. Hughes's first name and character

 

Filed under - "Did this marriage ever happen?", right next to "Whatever happened to her?", but before "Remember when 'perennial bachelor' was a euphemism for gay?"

 

Filed under @BoldRestless gets his answer

 

And finally filed under "I wonder why DAYS doesn't use Maggie's time in New York to explain all of her retconned children?"

 

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by j swift

[Titus Andronicus]

Taylor announced in January 1986 he and Bergman would marry on March 22. He was still listed as single later that year (and dating Bergman) and a 1990 profile of him also said he was single (with no mention of Bergman).

 

Wikipedia lists them as divorced, but with no citations. I don't think they ever tied the knot.

[Franko]

Glad to see the thread's back! Hello-hello again, @will81!

 

Maybe it's me, but I'm getting mighty sick of Jon-Michael Reed haranguing Santa Barbara for being a hot mess. I dunno, I just feel like he's writing with a "How dare they?!" attitude that's really off-putting. Then again, but most accounts, SB needed the reins to be pulled in, so ...

 

The relentless pimping of Brad Maule continues. I'm so glad to know he didn't really have his head shaved. And welcome aboard, Fuenella! Mrs. Divine, indeed.

[amybrickwallace]

 

That's got to be the funniest typo I've seen in a while. OOOOPS!!

[j swift]

The Wonderful World of TV Soap Operas by Robert Laguardia is my favorite book of soap history.  I've owned both the original publication and update, and I've reread it often.  So, imagine my delight when I saw that the Vintage Soaps Archives Tumblr began rescanning his articles. 

https://vintagesoaparchives.tumblr.com

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His article (which looks like it was typed directly into the magazine) includes scoops regarding the change in direction pf soaps that took place in the early 1970's

Which lead to industry wide changes

He noted that Edge producers were scared because ratings had dropped and they were only getting a 20% share (so funny to think what was bad in a time with only three networks, the highest rated show last week in primetime got a 3% share)).

Although some of his news was incredibly mundane

with the exception of one piece of news that I never knew

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by j swift