Unpopular opinions: cancelled soaps edition

[will81]

Thanks for that, this all happened over a year ago. I have graduated now and just had to move on with what I was doing, but appreciate the help.

[Paul Raven]

Regarding preservation I wonder if 20th Century Fox may have Best of everything and Return to Peyton Place sitting around somewhere.

Metromedia was involved with How To Survive a Marriage.That compnay was taken over, but again that show might be sitting in the vaults.

[amybrickwallace]

CP owned that show, didn't they?

[DramatistDreamer]

Oh, I see. Well, glad you made it through. It's too bad you couldn't get the research assistance that you needed. Sometimes a person can be ahead of the times and maybe there may be some developments that come along that could help someone else with a similar ambition.

[amybrickwallace]

I doubt we'll ever know.

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[Vee]

There are always more kinescopes turning up somewhere - I wonder If any survived among random associates. I know Ellen Holly has maintained she has several of her key episodes from her early days on OLTL, thanks to urban affiliates.

[mphs19952003]

If Pluto had a soap channel with old episodes of different shows, that would be awesome.

[allmc2008]

How is this an unpopular opinion?

[j swift]

I was recently watching an old AW video on Youtube and I came to the conclusion that David Canary was not a bad recast for Steve Frame, although the dialogue and plot given to him to play were inferior.  And since this is the unpopular opinion thread, I figured that I would make the case herein.

The build up of a new company coming to Bay City with a mysterious CEO was actually reminiscent of Adam Chandler's introduction on AMC and his prior role on Bonanza made sense for him to be chosen as a recast.

Now, the Alice(s) he played against were not very charismatic or interesting.  The sidelining of Mac, rather than engaging in more of rivalry between the two characters was a bad choice.  His step-daughter was not well developed, and Sally's motivations during the story were all over the place.  But, David Canary was always solid and believable as Steve.

[Chris 2]

My issue with him is that he wasn’t really the same Steve Frame. The old Steve Frame would have never entertained the idea of getting together with Rachel again, not after what she put him through. Then again, I don’t think the old Alice would have agreed to be Rachel’s doctor or spend time at the Corys for the holidays, and yet she did (and was again played by Jacqui Courtney). So blame the writers, not the actors.

[j swift]

The mention of Guiding Light themes got me thinking...

(A) A radically new soap theme is usually a harbinger of a producer who wants to put their own stamp on a show while denying soap history and pissing off long term fans

(B) It is always a bad choice to include couple pictures (as opposed to individual actors) because it implies that they are "endgame", and requires updates when one actor inevitably leaves the show

(C) A new theme may be a cheap trick to lure back old viewers, but it gets me every time.

Edited May 1, 2022 by j swift

[Contessa Donatella]

My unpopular opinion relates to the decline & eventual cancellation of GL.

Contributing reasons: Many years when part of the US aired the show at 10 in the morning resulting in fans having a day ahead/day behind factor. Gradual but accumulating decimation of the core Bauer family. Two locations: Springfield & San Cristobel. Two Springfields: The mob/Santos family & the rest of the residents. Too much upheaval in changing EPs & HWs. Battling fanbases including Manny v. Jeva & the da*ned FF button whereby fans actually watched custom editions of the show & not the real show. Murder of Mo. Rauch, MADD, Conboy and Weston.

The last factor of my opinion that is unpopular is that it does not contain Wheeler, Hurst, Otalia, Jammy, new production model, new opening, new special shows including Biloxi & other house building locations, Wednesday shows, In the Light, etc.

[tsauer19]

General Hospital (which has basically been cancelled and replaced with a crappy rendition of "All Sonny's Children")

-While TG is a great actor, Luke Spencer was a completely overrated character and only lasted as long as he did because of Laura, Lucky and his family- not because of anything the character added to the show.

-AJ should have been the heart of the Q's and should have never been sacrificed for Jason and the mob antics. The character could have had years of story line and had much more potential than Jason killing people every other episode.

 

All My Children

-Susan Lucci, while I have respect for her for her contribution to Daytime, is completely overrated along with the character of Erica Kane. The scene where she is mourning over her mom's coffin at Mona's funeral is cringe worthy. She never should have been nominated for as many times as she was, and took the nominations away of many more deserving actresses (Genie Francis, Victoria Wyndham are a few that come to mind). Brooke should have been the matriarch of the show instead.

-What made AMC great was not its storytelling, but the show's respect for its veteran actors. While the show had good stories in its peak, the show was absolutely God awful in its later years and had some of the worst story lines in soap opera history (if you don't count all the crap we have seen in the past 10 years lol). But the vets made the show the success that it was and AMC deserves credit for honoring its vets and keeping them even when it was hard for many of them to still act in their later years.

Another World

-The show was completely underappreciated in terms of acting and had some of the best actors daytime ever produced. The reason why it is looked down upon was that it was a NBC soap and P&G, along with NBC, actively tried to ruin it to get it cancelled.

-Jake worked better on ATWT with Molly than he did on AW. Especially since AW refused to reunite him with Paulina in order to keep her with sleezy Joe.

-John and Sharlene were boring 90% of the time and while I did not like the Felicia/John pairing, it at least gave the actors something to do to shine their talents.

-Ryan's death in the long term was more damaging than Frankie's.

-Michael Hudson was completely useless as a character 95% of the time.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Amen. I get so tired of the hero worship. One of his fans last week labeled him the most important person in all of TV & Movies. There's only so far that it's possible to roll one's eyes.

It's nice to see AJ fans still here in the midst of Jason Land.

Every year they wrote her what they could to be an Emmy reel show. How out of balance is that?! Neither Vicky Wyndham nor Beverlee McKinsey ever got an Emmy. The one year one of them should have it was both of them against Irene Daly, and they split the vote & amazing, Daly got the statue.

 

I was always Team Jake & Paulina!

I have long believed that no one realized what a jewel AW was till it was gone. SOD had a drop in subscriptions of a mil that looks like it was from AW fans leaving the building.

I think NBC was actively trying to kill the show & P&G didn't like having to fight NBC all the time & didn't have the cajones to really support it or their other shows!

[Contessa Donatella]

As far as Susan Lucci goes, I'd be surprised if this was an unpopular opinion. I think it's almost universal that people think she was limited. But I wouldn't put the character in that lane. Maybe it's because I think about Vicky Wyndham's Rachel, who is after all, another Erica, just as Mona & Ada are parallel. Nixon had written the AMC show bible & gotten no takers on it when she went to work saving AW & Ada & Rachel fit right in. And, VW never did get her Emmy.

I give JFP credit for 2 things & only 2 things. 1) In regard to the murder of Frankie Frame at AW there is a name she could name which would take some of the heat off of her but she will not name them. I respect her for that. 2) Zaslow went to GL to get them to write ALS into his storyline & people began to plan out how they would do that until Rauch told them to stop, that it wasn't going to happen, so Zas sued & got whatever secret settlement & then went to OLTL with the same request & JFP made it happen. Sure, lots of people had to be involved in making that happen but she's the only one who could've said LETS GO. I admire her for that. I would be very curious what specifically is said to be her doing at SB.