ALL: Types of characters every soap needs

[Contessa Donatella]

Sure, I understand. Nonetheless, I will hang onto it in my body of quotes & notes. 

Gee, slick, you say the nicest things! Thanks so much. Appreciate it. 

[Contessa Donatella]

I'm going to pick a nit here. The item does not say when Agnes was writing TBD so we do not know that the statement is incorrect that she 'went on' to write TGL. Since you chose to split this hair, I'll split it too. Cordially & respectfully, of course. 

[dc11786]

This was mentioned years ago on a soap opera board (run by @danfling) The poster (who went by the handle Tess, but I believe her name was actually Chrissy or Christine) that mentioned the mother/daughter combo on "The Brighter Day" had an extensive collection of soap opera material both video and script. They would post pretty vivid recounts of material they had recently watched. She has briefly worked in the soap opera industry in the 1980s as I specifically remember Tess speaking about working on "Another Life."

Tess stated that Agnes Nixon was hired to work on "The Brighter Day" just before it had been cancelled and had proposed a mother/daughter duo where the mother was a beautician and the daughter was a social climber. 

Tess disappeared from the boards probably a decade or more ago, which is a shame because she was a wealth of knowledge. I suspect the wiki entry is from a fan who recalled what Tess had shared rather than Tess herself.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Thank you for sharing this. I will add it to the body of my notes! 

[dc11786]

I might have the post somewhere. I recently uncovered a couple documents I had saved with a bunch of posts from that board. If I locate the specific post, I will place it in this thread. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Good luck searching! The other day I ran into a poster I have in my AW/Network file. Small world sometimes. 

[robbwolff]

I also recall Tess from that board. She never revealed her identity but I believe she used the handle Christine before she started using Tess. I think she talked about working with Claire Labine in the 1970s behind the scenes at RH. A number of people who posted on Danfling’s board were skeptical of her as time went by as her later posts were riddled with factual inaccuracies. Some of those folks had been members of WoST and had been misled by someone who claimed to be GL writer Todd Strasser and they started questioning Tess’ legitimacy. I never interacted with her but enjoyed reading her posts. She said she was working on her memoir but then stopped posting.

[Paul Raven]

 Agnes Nixon had been hired to write the show (and had created the character on which Ada and Rachel Davis, two characters on NBC's Another World were based), but the show was cancelled before her work was ever taped. Ms. Nixon then went to write The Guiding Light.

Two quotes from above posts.

I am going to labor the point here. To say that we do not know when Agnes was writing TBD but also state that the show was cancelled before her work was taped clearly puts the timeline in 1962. I believe Agnes took over TGL in 58 when Irna wanted to work full time on ATWT. 

Hence my reluctance to accept this as fact. There is so much misinformation floating around that we need to have consensus.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, I concur that Agnes took over GL in 1958 when Irna went back to working full time on her other baby, ATWT. But, Agnes could have written TBD anytime during the show's existence (1954-1962) especially since the show changed hands. That bible could have just been sitting there while a lot of craziness was going on behind the scenes. Furthermore, the writer of the above passage could have just been sloppy with their writing, choice of words, etc. We think alike about misinformation. I slogged through it alone to get a fandom wiki to change their *ahem* assertion that The Young Marrieds is a sister soap or spin-off of GH. (An impossibility since GH was not even located in Port Charles till 1977.) So we agree on philosophy but disagree about this instance. Basically, your argument does not convince me that Agnes wrote it in 1962. 

Edited July 10, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
capitalization

[dc11786]

@robbwolff Thanks for your recollections about Tess. I do remember there being some inaccuracies (the one that stands out was her claim that Robert Jardin had been alive at some point in the story on "Where the Heart Is" which she later admitted her error), but I've since seen several things over the years that weren't posted elsewhere in source materials and newspaper columns that she had stated first. Personally, I don't think Tess made up the Agnes Nixon/"Brighter Day" story, but I would definitely agree that is a claim lacking sufficient evidence for many people. 

I remember some of the Todd Strasser drama as I remember he was making claims like he had been the one to write the line about Adair and Chase's exit on "Search for Tomorrow" and him specifically stating to a question that I asked that the decision to cancel "The Catlins" had been made before the filming of the Thanksgiving episode, which was just inaccurate. I've seen Todd Strasser's other identity on Facebook in recent years and I'm not sure if its an imposter or the original poster from WoST. There is definitely a stock type of soap opera message board posters that could be reviewed. 

@Donna L. Bridges I couldn't locate "The Brighter Day" post. I think most of the posts I saved were from circa 2010. In my review today, I had also found stuff I had clearly saved from the late Steve Frame's soap opera message board as well. I don't seem to have any from WoST. 

@Paul Raven Not necessarily in this instance, but Irna Phillips is also a source of lot of soap opera history misinformation. For instance, the Wiki page in question cites Phillips as the creator of "The Brighter Day" when it was in fact Orin Tovrov. Phillips threw a creator credit on the show when she brought it to television, but the she started writing the show in 1951 two years after Tovrov created it. 

 

[Paul Raven]

But it was stated the show was cancelled before her stories could air which puts the time firmly as 1962.

Even if that was incorrect, there has been no mention anywhere else that Agnes had any involvement with TBD. Yet her association with all other shows in that timeframe is well documented. 

The Young Marrieds did have a connection to General Hospital as a couple of GH characters appeared on TYM. Just because Port Charles wasn't formally named it doesn't negate the fact that TYM was set nearby.

 

I am not trying to assert that Agnes wrote the show in 62. Until I see a credible source state that she was involved I remain unconvinced. A Wiki entry possibly based on an anonymous post from a defunct website is not enough for me.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, some actors & it did follow as to timeslot & in the modern era some GH characters have been located as living in neighborhoods in TYM but that is not nearly enough to rise to the level of either sister soap r spin-off. 

And, now we are totally & egregiously off-topic & I apologize to the thread, its posters & its illustrious originator @Faulkner

Edited July 10, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
more

[robbwolff]

I sincerely hope Tess/Christine is OK. I recall she had health problems and was waiting for a kidney transplant. As for Todd Strasser (aka Sean-Paul), that was some messed up nonsense. The person claiming to be Todd was supposedly great friends with Pam Long and arranged for her to participate in an online chat via WoST. However, folks were able to determine that Pam and Sean-Paul were using the same IP address. Sean-Paul had a lot of claims about the plans for SFT had it continued, including Carla Borelli assuming the role of Liza Sentell. After he was banned from WoST, I stayed in contact with him for a while via email. He claimed to be head writing OLTL during the 2007-08 writers strike and to be dating Jeff Branson. All communications from him stopped when I told him I was going into NYC to see a staged reading of a play called "The Short Bus" featuring Branson. By the by, let me say how much I love your posts on here! I really appreciate all the information you share!!

[TEdgeofNight]

Per usual, the cancer of the board took over and derailed the thread. 

Staying on topic, you need the mother to cover up the murder that her daughter committed. The mother goes to jail to protect the daughter. 

[Althea Davis]

Bold desperately needs a matriarch judgemental, conniving older woman who can keep these bit-hes in line.