1980s Trends

[JoeCool]

McTavish was awful in the 1990s and Pratt was terrible. Both were horrible at AMC. I agree about James Reilly In the 1990s the soaps were competing not just with each but cable TV. 

 

Monty did make writers and producers think more about the plot and action/adventure stories and that manifested in many soaps but true storytelling is an artform and Bill Bell as HW for 25 years understood what a great soap needs and what it takes to sustain quality. Monty did not understand those concepts that people like Bill Bell, Douglas Marland, Pat Falken Smith, Agnes Nixon understood and mastered. GH was overrated in the 80s and all the Aztec stories and the gangster stories and adventure stories seemed like bad movies of the week that would never make it in network primetime in the 80s. 

Edited November 17, 2023 by JoeCool

[Contessa Donatella]

You seem to think I am advocating for these things instead of pointing out that they did start to trend & this is when & this is why.

In fact, besides directing 2 failed soaps & 1 successful soap, Gloria Monty directed a number of Movies Of The Week. That is one of the influences seen, for example, when Luke & Laura went on the run. 

[JoeCool]

I am sorry I did not want to start a debate. I agree with what you said about Monty's effects in the soap world. Monty's movies of the week were average/mediocre at best and she used those in GH to a success sometimes. Monty changed the soap world. Some good things. Some bad things. Overall for me not good. GH is the 80s became rather formulaic and stale and that is why it slipped and Restless overtook it.

Gloria Monty was a good director but overrated as compared to other soap directors and producers and especially overrated against Bill Bell, Agnes Nixon, Douglas Marland,  and KatherineFalken Smith.

 

When Monty returned to GH in the 1990s when it was slipping and ABC sought her help, the same tactics she used with success in the 1980s did not work and she was fired. Monty failed to evolve and adapt and did fully see why strong characters and stories always win.

[Paul Raven]

When Monty came back I believe she stated that the 80's action adventure/couples formula was passe and the way forward was a more gritty, issues based approach.

Gloria directed Secret Storm for years, so hardly a failed soap.What are the shows you are referring to?

What MOTW did Gloria direct?

[Contessa Donatella]

Interesting, that is new to me. 

 

She directed the soaps THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS, a failure, THE SECRET STORM, for 15 years, and obviously a success,  and BRIGHT PROMISE, another failure.

 

I never read any titles, only the statement that she also directed some either while she was directing those 3 soaps or in between. That author linked some of the L&L adventures to them as well as where that author thought she got her ideas about editing techniques. I can look in my notes but I know it doesn't include titles. Darnit. 

Oh, not a problem starting a debate! It's just that I think she was a miracle worker, yes, in a certain situation at a certain time, but personally I feel there was a huge downside to the "Gloria Monty Effect" if you will. That's why I used the word "adversely" in influencing most of soapdom. So, I, too say some good, to give her her due, very good, but some bad & to me overall bad. So we agree when it comes to where we come out but we differ in what we say about the journey. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, this is all IMDb so we know we use them but we don't trust them. Such as it is: 

All labeled "TV Movie"

Director, Screaming Skull 1973

Director, Sorority Kill 1974

EP, Confessions of a Married Man 1983

co-EP, Remember Me 1995

co-EP, While My Pretty One Sleeps 1997

co-EP, Let Me Call You Sweetheart 1997

co-EP, Moonlight Becomes Her 1998

And in some text I read a reference to Topper but I can't find any such credits. 

She also shows credits for an Afternoon schoolbreak thing & some kind of TV series Mystery of the Week or something like that. 

And, really, don't all these TV Movie titles sound absolutely dreadful?!! When she was at her most famous & most productive she made some development deals with Hollywood studios & it put some real bucks in her hands after she left GH, but it sure didn't put "quality" in there! 

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
a stray thought

[j swift]

I adored the 80s trend of characters and couples having theme songs, and if we were lucky the actual pop star would appear in a guest performance.

I still hear Lady in Red every time GH Holly is on-screen, and my secret shame is that I still play Christopher Cross's Think of Laura on Spotify regularly (I know he didn't write it for the show, blah blah blah).  I think it's cool that producers updated the organ music of the early years of soaps to pop music in the 1980s.

[Paul Raven]

They were all based on Mary Higgins Clark novels.

[gimmetoo]

Baby Come To Me by Patti Austin and James Ingram was Luke and Holly's song...takes me back every time I hear it.

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, that's much better than what I was imagining!!

[Khan]

IIRC, too, they all were filmed in Portland, OR, where Gloria Monty had a studio and either wanted to tape a soap opera there, or wanted to create a soap set there, or both.

[kalbir]

Plus the cheesy couple montages set to those theme songs.

Edited November 18, 2023 by kalbir

[Khan]

Daytime was trying very hard to appeal to the MTV demographic.  Ironically, I think DAYS did that stuff - the theme songs, the musical montages - better than "Miami Vice" and all the other primetime shows who got all the praise BITD.

[j swift]

What I wouldn't give for a five-minute Friday montage of all the couples in town

But, just to contradict myself for a moment, @Khan & @kalbir should we really think of pop music themes as a 1980s convention or did it occur earlier?  When I think of 1970s Y&R they still used orchestral instrumentals and when characters sang, they mostly sang standards.  Also, my recollection of OLTL, GL, and AMC were that they used old-fashioned piano and organ music through most of the 70s.  Then, around the Luke and Laura period, we started to hear more synth in the background and obviously a heavy use of pop, and that was copied by all the soaps.

[kalbir]

@j swift 1970s might have had scenes at parties in homes or entertainment venues that featured pop music in the background.