ALL: General Retro Soap Discussion

[vetsoapfan]

KMH was a bizarre choice for the role of Emily. The character became an icy mannequin, devoid of warmth and depth. Like with Paul Ryan, Dusty Donovan, Meg Snyder and Craig Montgomery, the core essence of Emily Stewart evaporated upon her being recast. All these faux, "pod" incarnations of once-complex Oakdalians became irrelevant annoyance (IHO).

I would say that Jess Walton is technically a finer, more accomplished actress than Brenda Dickson, but she lacks that indefinable "je ne sais quoi" or "it" factor which BD brought to the role, and which ingrained her in viewers' minds.

[Wendy]

I loathe what Brian Frons did at ABC.

But I do have ONE fond memory of him: When VP of Daytime at NBC, he made a cameo on Santa Barbara as God (yes) when Mason Capwell went to heaven in 1989 (and Joe Marinelli [who played mobster Bunny Tagliati] played Joan Crawford as his receptionist and he reunited with Mary Duvall (whose hair had grown very long in heaven!) before reuniting with Julia once he woke up.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1229694630516985

Edited February 5 by Wendy

[Contessa Donatella]

Yeah, I add it to the arrogance, playing god & all!

[Contessa Donatella]

I believe that they did adapt the writing to the new format. Not immediately, no, it took them a while but they got there. By the time Jill Lorie Hurst was one of the quad HWs they were there. Both Otalia & Jami had elements of the prior writing but also new writing vistas were opened up.

What do you mean here? All she was talking about in their using offices, etc. as sets also was to be able to have more sets available to them, overall. How could having more be wrong?

As to whether they were set up to fail, I believe that with the new production model mandated but without the budget to support implementation, yes, in that way they definitely were set up to fail. 

[Chris B]

The way they crammed their studio with sets, the sets were too small in many cases. It was a case of excess for the sake of it and without a plan on how to utilize those sets. 

[Contessa Donatella]

It's definitely true that some of the sets were just too small. The courtroom set, for example. But, I think it is an assumption that they didn't have a plan. Also I do not think in general that it was excessive. Look at BTG. They have 27 sets.

[Khan]

All those sets, and they still taped scenes in the middle of the woods for no damn reason!

[Mitch64]

I am actually shocked Melanie Smith was cast and written for so well. She was just too damn "sexy" for Marland's usual female character...(he usually cast less then "TV sexy" women, and had the men falling all over them..and his characters were really too uptight to ever have the kind...libido that MS' Emily had...)

They really should have spent their money on a bigger studio space and forgot the shake cams.  The old soaps used to have their sets up in a row an the camera on a track that moved from one to another...with the tech they had they could have had something like this. As it was they made bizzare choices with the sets...(the Spaulding den got a weird balcony with a window and a cheap ass spiral staircase...the Bauer kitchen, when seen had the living room fire place moved into it..sometimes.) the only sets I thought looked good were Company and the Towers sets.

Remember the Spaulding press conference, in a baseball field.. people sitting on the side of a road having a picnic? Weirdo Jeffery having a phone conversation on a park bench that started to be shot from across the street, and then with a shakey cam that cut between the back of his head and front..leaving me to think he was being filmed by a psycho who was going to off him (don't tease me like that Wheeler/Kreizman...)

But the worst was the closet they used for a bad convenience store that they had Alex sitting in saying she liked the hot dogs!!! Bev was cackling in Heaven "The things that new girl has to put up with!"

[robbwolff]

I remember rolling my eyes when Cassie and Cyrus hooked up. I don't remember all the details, but I do recollect them meeting at Towers and then heading to Cassie's car, which was parked on a country road. They then ended up in a barn (I think) where they had sex.  It made no sense at all. Why would Cassie park her car on a country road when it was already established that the building Towers was in had a garage? I'm sorry, but that's horribly lazy writing. If you want to tape their sex scene in a barn, then come up with a plausible reason for them being near the barn.

[Chris B]

You can see on camera that they didn't have a plan. It was all figuring things out on a go. Eliminating some of those unnecessary sets (like the nail salon they probably never used) could've been used to create a larger courtroom set and more public areas that they could've utilized more often.

Also, BTG is different. They're not in a cramped New York studio. They have the space not only for sets but already built facades for location footage. 

Edited February 5 by Chris B

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, it is certainly true that a ton of things were OJT, things with audio, things with editing, etc. so you very well may be right that it also applied to sets & their use. Of necessity, they were figuring out probably too much on the fly. 

 

Yes, you're right about BTG & why they're in Atlanta. But, I tend to think that most EPs want to have more when it comes to sets, though. I feel like Frank introduces new GH sets almost as a way of showing off that he can. 

[Maxim]

Agree with this. 

[Vee]

I've said it (too many times) before, but one of the worst parts was when they would break out the old existing studio sets while using the new handheld cameras. You could tell places like "Main Street" or wherever were totally fake in that lighting, that these were in no way outdoor locations and that the surfaces were weirdly shiny. It was like being inside an Applebee's or a theme park. Zimmer wrote in her book about how they had to struggle to maneuver around the cameras in any sets as well for blocking.

When they couldn't get a shot or workable sound, which was apparently often, they would just do some of what was mentioned above - cut to anything, anywhere and overdub it. Like the infamous sequence with Jeffrey's voice over the American flag, a pond, some flowers, whatever. Just ridiculous.

Don't get me started on Wheeler's office doubling as both the church and Cross Creek or something. It looked ridiculous, like kids filming in the break room at their parents' office. It was so embarrassing. And the 'convenience store' I think was some closet.

Edited February 5 by Vee

[Khan]

Again, look at an old episode of SFT or LOL from the early 1950's.  Their sets are literally just darkly painted flats with doors and window frames suspended on piano wires.  Yet, they look 1000% more convincing than anything Ellen Wheeler and her crew cooked up in Peapack.  That's how you know you're working with people who know what the [!@#$%^&*] they're doing.

Edited February 5 by Khan

[Maxim]

If you didn't know what you are looking at... you would probably think it's The Blair Witch Project. Shots through creepy branches... Reva screaming in the middle of the woods... Can't get more horror-movie than this. And looking at more of the 2008-2009 episodes - horrible sound editing - men verbally sparing in the woods sound like they are recorded in a studio. Crisp, pristine dialogue. You can clearly see the branches moving and there is absolutely no hint of wind or nature in the edited version. Unnatural and amateurish. That's like Lesson Number 1 of editing.  Whoever agreed for this to go on air... really did not know what they were doing. 

Edited February 5 by Maxim