ALL: What are your lost soap media "holy grails" for 2025?

[BoldRestless]

For Y&R

 

I wish the people who curated all those Brenda Dickson 80s clips had done the same for the 70s and had the Phillip drunk driving saga and all of the Kay and Jill storyline.

 

Eric Braedens first episode and early stories, especially when he held Julia's lover in a cage.

 

The Chris Brooks rape storyline with Tony Geary as the rapist. Quinn Redeker is rumored to have played the prosecutor.

 

In general I wish we had all the episodes since the early 80s collected like other shows seem to have.

Edited January 2 by BoldRestless

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, ya know, supposedly Ken Corday said that they began doing "modern digitizing" about 10 years ago. In that time they should have made a huge amount of progress of getting all those vintage episodes in shape for even HD. I'm sure they've used some of that in flashbacks. But, still, that leaves SO MANY EPISODES that if they would just pull the trigger on it, they could make legal episodes available to fans.

[kalbir]

Y&R from the beginning

As the World Turns 1985-1993 that aren't online

Guiding Light 1976-1980

Bill Bell Days

1970s/1980s/1990s SOD

[P.J.]

Cindy Pickett doesn't get nearly enough recognition. The Dobsons must've loved writing for her.

It's ironic that JE's stay is so brief. I'd also love to see more of the disintegration after her marriage to Ross. From what I've seen, they really make Vanessa look like the culprit.

[Vee]

That's my suspicion, since we've gotten so many gaps filled in recent years (particularly with virtually all of Gottlieb and Malone's OLTL becoming available). We even got more '70s OLTL a year or two ago, which I never thought would happen. We know many actors had kinescopes or other affiliate copies. We know the material is out there. I think over time more will come, the same as many lost films or classic Doctor Who.

As for me, my holy grails these days remain:

- More of very early AMC.

- More of '60s/'70s OLTL, particularly the Carla story in 1968-69. We know affiliates had copies.

- As much of the Dobsons' GL as possible. Can't get enough of that.

- A more extensive and organized archive of Marland's ATWT, on par with what we now have for a lot of OLTL, GH, Y&R, etc. in various places.

But most of all:

- More of Lemay's '70s AW.

- Michael Malone's Fox late-night pilot for 13 Bourbon Street. A copy is available in his archive at Duke University, but that's all we know.

Edited January 2 by Vee

[DRW50]

Anything I've seen of Cindy is wonderful, to the point where I can see why viewers couldn't really accept Jackie without her. Such layered acting for an extremely difficult character as so much of what Jackie felt was on the inside and no one could know.

I'd definitely love more AMC/OLTL...more than a glimpse of Gillian Spencer would be nice too. 

I didn't remember that an actual pilot for 13 Bourbon Street had been filmed. 

[Vee]

It did. There's a whole cast list for it on IMDB. Michael Park, Henry Simmons (Tyrone, AW) and Nicole Forester (NuCassie on GL) were apparently in it.

Duwayne Dunham, longtime acolyte and editor of David Lynch at Twin Peaks (who directed several eps) directed the pilot.

Edited January 2 by Vee

[janea4old]

It was so good!  I was a child watching it live, so I didn't take notes or realize I'd be discussing it decades later.  All I have are memories of how I felt watching it, that it was riveting, but I don't remember specifically anything I saw, except for glimpses of their faces and their energies in my mind, Ellen Holly, Al Freeman, and a vague memory of Carla's mother, but I don't remember anything specific, other than my older sister explaining to me what "passing" was. Would love to see it again.
Edit, I did already know what passing was, but I remember discussing the storylines with my sister.

Edited January 2 by janea4old

[Kane]

The musical episode of Loving.

[Franko]

YES! If nothing else, just to see Louie & Kate sing "Married" from Cabaret, which is such a perfect song for them.

[Contessa Donatella]

Totally love her as actresses go.

Oh, sorry, didn't know you didn't know. When I saw who was in it & some of the people who worked on it I nearly flipped!!! It's pretty clear to me that it was well on the way to being greenlit but then since ultimately it did not apparently something drastically changed when they were farther along in development than any of us AW fans realized. 

On one hand it seems like an interesting show but then I think about Shane & Lila & am right back to thinking it was crap. 

Gottlieb & Malone & JGG had another project in the same time frame in development but not as far along as 13 Bourbon Street was.

[Soaplovers]

Ryan's Hope - 1982.  I've seen the 75 to 81 episodes.. and there are a lot of 1983 to 1989 episodes that have popped up over the years... but the year 1982 would be nice to see.

The Doctors: 1980 to 1982

For Prime time soaps:

All the episodes of short lived prime time soaps like The Secrets of Midland Heights, Kings Crossing, and even Beacon Hill from the 1970s.

 

I know Kim Zimmer mentioned in an interview when she went to audition for Reva.. she was amazed that Pam Long wrote a bible for the character.  I would love to see if any other character bibles existed for the Long era of GL including what the intention/plan was for Blake before the 1988 writer strike.

[Contessa Donatella]

I have PAPER DOLLS, FLAMINGO ROAD, DIRTY SEXY MONEY, FILTHY RICH & I have half of THE MONROES which I loved & they only aired half of its episodes so it seems like I'm never going to get my hands on any of the missing 6. 

I still find it amazing & fascinating that it was not, at all, Kim who was in Pam Long's mind when she was creating Reva. It was Carla Borelli who played Reena on TEXAS & who declined Pam's offer to her because she said she thought Reva was going to be a lot like Reena & she preferred at that point to play something different instead of the same kind of thing. As I understand it Pam had to be talked into even considering Kim!! Of course they got over that pretty quickly & became collaborators on the character.

 

[Soapsuds]

ATWT-

More episodes from 1983 & 1984

The remote in Switzerland with Frannie and Daryl.

More episodes of Heather Rattray as Lily.

 

GL:

More episodes from the Dobsons and Marland era.

 

YR and GH:

More episodes featuring the actress Amy Gibson. I was so fascinated by her.

More episodes of Felicia, Frisco and Colton.

[soapfan770]

Obviously I have to chime in on Y&R @DRW50 @YRfan23 as well

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In addition to that though….

Harding Lemay’s Lovers & Friends and For Richer for Poorer. I know a few FRFP clips have bubbled up over the years but I’ve never seen anything for L&F. No one knows what the opening credits looked like.

More 1960’s and 1970’s AW, AtWT, and GL

Also anything from those early soaps as well, particularly Brighter Day, Clear Horizon, and From These Roots.