Overrated!

[Taoboi]

Not my Eileen Davidson!!!

 

I

 

[Soapsuds]

The only ones that aren't ED, Beth Maitland and Susan Walters. That's about it!

[Taoboi]

[Planet Soap]

Y&R: Lightning rod...have mercy...Gina Tognoni's portrayl of Phyliss. I found her to be too hard and rough, like she was trying to oversell Phyliss's edge. 

Kevin and Clohe, Adam & Chelsea. Never felt either couple. I would rather watch the OG Adam with Sharon.

Paul & Christine. They had interesting drama surrounding Michael and Isabella in the early 2000s. That pairing should have ended afterward. Both charachters have been stiff ever since. You'd never realize Paul was a playboy back in his day.

Edited January 19, 2023 by ironlion

[Cat]

Billy Miller helped make Amelia Heinle happen on Y&R as far as I'm concerned. Yes, I said it! Because prior to (and thereafter) she's been a chemistry vacuum. I will never understand her Leading Lady status on this show. 

I caught the Loving episodes on YouTube with Amelia Heinle and Michael Weatherly and woah, WHAT a difference. Amelia made a great ingenue and seemed to glow from within (which may have been due to the fact that she and MW were an item IRL).

Edited January 19, 2023 by Cat

[Taoboi]

I agree.

 

As a kid, LOVING was the ABC soap I knew the least about and didn't care for it outside of seeing Angie from time to time. And one day, I was changing channels and saw some girl with expressive eyes mooning over some rich guy named Clay (cuz as I said earlier today I am a sucker for unrequited love) and the guy who was being a good friend and was clearly into her (again that unrequited love vibe). 

 

That girl? Steffi. And I started to check on that show a little more often post school to see if she and Coop ever got together. 

 

She really used to have such a glow to her. A light. 

[j swift]

It has been on my mind lately so, I am going to nominate Reva's Slut of Springfield baptism as historic but overrrated.

Now, don't get me wrong I think the actual dialogue and performance are well crafted, it's just that the motivation, production, and setup are all off.

(1) Reva strips off her dress to give the speech in the fountain of the country club.  But, she's wearing this odd one-piece teddy, perhaps to appease the censors.  If she was really a slut, would she be wearing multiple layers of undergarments?

(2) She's responding to Josh(ua)'s supposed judgement of her, but who was Josh to judge Reva?  He came to town and immediately started that creepy relationship with Morgan.

(3) People on this board would have ripped Josh to pieces at that time on GL because he was the symbol of sidelining the Bauers.  Not only did he supplant their sibling rivalry and screentime, but his recovery from paralysis story stole Bert from the rest of her family

(4) Reva's whole relationship with HB never seemed organic.  At no point did I ever think that HB was going to keep Reva and Josh apart, and for years nobody ever referenced that they were married.

So, it's a good idea, but was unearned in terms of plot (and a bit histrionic).

BTW, my runner up would Santa Barbara's Dinner from Hell.  Also, well performed and written, but unearned in terms of story.  It marks the return of the Dobson's but ignores the prior year of story.  Mason is suddenly antagonistic toward CC, when they had reconciled at his wedding.  He brings back Pamela, despite knowing that she was a threat to Kelly.  And the whole thing gets a one paragraph summary in SOD, indicating that at the time nobody thought it was consequential.

Edited January 19, 2023 by j swift

[Cat]

Kevin & Chloe -- just the mention of those two breaks me out in hives. EVERYBODY from the show, to the press, to the actors themselves, were pushing that pairing. And nobody was buying what they were selling. Elizabeth Hendrickson wacka-wacka smart-ass delivery made for a sneering portrayal of Chloe. And Greg Rikaart was playing a psychopath who had more sexual chemistry with his onscreen brother ("Nobody Does Brothers Better" after all):

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I also agree with you about Gina Tognoni, whom I loved on Guiding Light. I found her very brittle on Y&R and would have rather she played Victoria actually (!). It got to the point where I almost wanted Michelle Stafford back -- almost. Be careful what you wish for, because she's another overrated one. 

[Cat]

I've seen this, and other episodes from this era of GL, before, but I don't recall cringing as hard as I just did re-watching that. It was A Lot. And that era of GL was truly golden IMO.

It is clear from this clip alone, and other episodes around this time, that Josh had a permanent hard-on for Reva, but couldn't admit it. Not because she married HB, but because he looked down upon her as white trash. So he lived in permanent sexual frustration and rage. Josh was kind of unlikeable in those early days.

Reva & HB as a pairing never felt like an endgame. They had a sweet sort of tenderness with each other -- HB was probably the first male to treat Reva with care or kindness, and for HB, here was this sunny, unpretentious young woman lighting up his latter years. But really the purpose of their relationship was to create drama for Reva & Josh.

[Planet Soap]

Actually Tognoni as Victoria would make for much better television than Heinle. She would have to play the role a little less gritty and masculine but more sassy and prissy. Also ironic because Heather Tom replaced Gina as Kelly on OLTL. 

Truth. Starting at 16:39, Josh lambasted Reeva for intruding on him and Annie at the ball saying she allowed herself to be molested and that she was a slut having slept with numerous men in the room. Josh had such contempt for Reeva, ignoring the fact that her **post partum depression** led her to drive off that bridge. Her diagnosable psycological reason for attempted suicide was never really addressed from what I saw.

Edited January 19, 2023 by ironlion

[Liberty City]

The true casting for Victoria should have been Tamara Braun.

[Soaplovers]

The slut of Springfield speech episode seemed over rated...but it pinpointed the toxicity of their relationship to me.

When I watched the full episode, the b scenes between Jim Reardon and Hilary Bauer kept my interest (perhaps because we all know she was killed off weeks later).  But I felt their scenes were a nice contrast to Josh/Reva in terms of communication and trying to meet one another halfway 

[Cat]

I give Robert Newman props for leaning into Josh's complicated unlikability again and again, even if that put viewers off. Someone once described Reva as GL's anti-heroine, but I'm not sure IA with that. If anything, Reva was a true GL heroine, the one for whom the audience would always feel sympathy as she endured perils and humiliations. It was Josh who was the anti-hero, masquerading as a hot-headed romantic lead.

Cynthia Watros as Annie was the shining light of that scene, without saying a word. I felt for her the most during this scene.

[Vee]

One of the biggest mistakes of the late '90s and early 2000s under Rauch and others was pegging Josh as a conventional, relatively uncomplicated honky-tonk macho male lead, pining after Reva or holding her purse. They were great together when the writing and performances both clicked, but Robert Newman is capable of so much more and to this day is brimming with both cerebral intellect and heat.

And yes - Josh's sexual rage over Reva was always palpable both in the classic '80s scenes and stories and in the above scene linked, which is one I've never seen and which you could not get away with airing today. It's also a bit too crass, too far and about on par with the typical histrionic, OTT tone of GL in that mid-late '90s era - but it also doesn't feel like something they wouldn't do to each other, either.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Vee

[Cat]

100% agree. Robert Newman is always going to be brimming with heat and intellect, as evidenced by his recent stint on Y&R (which ended way prematurely, all for some ridiculous plot-point).

Soaps seem afraid of representing that intensity or sexual rage, even though they underpin a lot of our relationship angst and even crime these days. One thing about the scene that shocked me was Josh referencing how Reva had been 'touched' as a young girl, inferring that she probably enjoyed it. I'm not sure that a soap would ever go near an assertion like that now. It's nasty and cruel on Josh's part, but I've also heard that same assertion IRL flung by one person to another during a fight. I think it works in the context of this couple and their tortured, toxic history.