17 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Well, in a way DAYS "Renee Dumonde DiMera Threw a Party & Invited Everyone & Then Told the Whole Town Off" if you see what I mean. She definitely pretended that she was throwing this shindig for a pleasant reason while she KNEW her real intent wasn't pleasant AT ALL. And, everyone in Salem was targeted by her in this way.  I mean it was supposedly a celebration of her engagement. But, that is not what happened!

I think it checks off all your boxes. And, before today I would definitely have called it "singular". There was nothing like it. Now, there's something not only similar but possibly .... more far-reaching?

yes I thought of the Renee party...
But this is different because I'm talking specifically about the revealer convincing someone else to throw the party.  And the someone else complies, having no idea what the revealer plans.

I'm wondering if Michele Val Jean did a first with BTG in 2025.
But the BTG thread is already so busy -- that I thought
it important to *NOT* clog it up with discussing this, so I brought the question here instead.
That way, if other reveals come up in conversation, it's not a problem on this "general retro soap" thread.

Edited May 2May 2 by janea4old

18 minutes ago, janea4old said:

yes I thought of the Renee party...
But this is different because I'm talking specifically about the revealer convincing someone else to throw the party.  And the someone else complies, having no idea what the revealer plans.

I'm wondering if Michele Val Jean did a first with BTG in 2025.
But the BTG thread is already so busy -- that I thought
it important to *NOT* clog it up with discussing this, so I brought the question here instead.
That way, if other reveals come up in conversation, it's not a problem on this "general retro soap" thread.

Well, if you add that one caveat, oddly, it disqualifies Renee. Because she is one person who was both the planner (if you will) and also the "evil" revealer. Weird but that is THE difference.  And it's the only difference. But, sure, I think those words make it unique. THE REVEALER CONVINCES HER TARGET TO HOST THE EVENT. Right? 

Well, if we nitpick The Revealer used her secret agent to convince their target to do this shindig. Yes. That's it. Because Leslie/Sheila/Sherry/Dana/Leslie/Mom didn't do it by herself. She HAD to have Eva doing her part. 

Okay, run with that. 

And, why not discuss it here? It's topical. 

 

 

7 hours ago, janea4old said:

yes I thought of the Renee party...
But this is different because I'm talking specifically about the revealer convincing someone else to throw the party.  And the someone else complies, having no idea what the revealer plans.

I'm wondering if Michele Val Jean did a first with BTG in 2025.
But the BTG thread is already so busy -- that I thought
it important to *NOT* clog it up with discussing this, so I brought the question here instead.
That way, if other reveals come up in conversation, it's not a problem on this "general retro soap" thread.

It's such a delicious set of circumstances that I'm actually a little surprised that I can't think of ones that exactly match. I've just got a couple of close but no cigars (the reveal wasn't public, like when Alexis told Dominique at her and Garrett's engagement party that Garrett lied about being married; or the revealer didn't come up with the idea of the party). Maybe I need to think some more about it.

9 hours ago, janea4old said:

To be clear, I know there have been a gazillion reveals at events on soaps.

But these are usually events that would happen anyhow, like a city commemoration or a long-planned wedding.

My *specific* question:  Has a character ever orchestrated an event to occur, for a seemingly benevolent reason, but actually for the sole purpose of spilling a reveal at the party, to the surprise of the event planners/hosts.
Specifically: an event that the event hosts wouldn't have thought of making happen, and the hosts planned this event -- only due to the seemingly-innocent urging of the outside instigator who is secretly planning the reveal.

This is NOT about an event that would have happened anyways.

My reason for asking:  April/May 2025, on BeyondTheGates, a couple was NOT planning a wedding anniversary party.  But there was a plot by an instigator to convince the couple to have the party, and the motivation for this was so that the instigator could do a big reveal.
The party wouldn't have happened if the instigator hadn't suggested it.
I'm wondering if this has ever happened before on a soap, that a big event came into existence due to the plotting of the revealers.

Does the ball on GL where Philip revealed that he had forced Alan out of Spaulding count or was that not Philip's idea? 

There was a ball on AMC where Adam revealed that he had bankrupted Palmer, I think (or was it the other way around?), but I can't remember who threw that.

Found this Best and Worst from the July 1977 Daily TV Serials Magazine that I had posted years back.
 

Jon-Michael Reed, a good writer, not a great prognosticator (although when did talent ever prohibit success on TV?)

19 minutes ago, j swift said:

Jon-Michael Reed, a good writer, not a great prognosticator (although when did talent ever prohibit success on TV?)

But then he HATES the original Heather Webber (Cher's half sister played her, right?) and we know what happened when Robin would step into the role a year after this.  He does seem pretty spot on about actors who show promise otherwise.  It's interesting he knocks OLTL early on (though I loved all the recently released episodes from this era we got) but does give a lot of credit to the actress playing Cathy despite earlier complaining about her story.  And over all, while quite negative, his various pros and cons on the shows sounds about right with what I know of the shows at this time.

This was a July dated issue of the magazine but and I know they date mags a month or two in advance--obviously when he wrote this he didn't know Lovers and Friends was gonna go off the air (in May I think).

Thanks @EricMontreal22 that must be one of the last issues. Probably the best soap magazine.

On 5/4/2025 at 10:35 PM, DRW50 said:

Thanks @EricMontreal22 that must be one of the last issues. Probably the best soap magazine.

I loved SOAP OPERA NOW because they  did detailed analysis of the ratings.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJS504ep-ff/
14th Annual SOD Awards
1998 GH Edit with a Y&R shout-out to Bill Bell who is then seen in the audience.
Sarah Joy Brown, Carly, Best Younger Lead Actress (shout out to NLG who wasn't there, had a baby)
The GH Show (off) segment
VM & Ingo present
John Ingle, Edward Quartermaine Best Male Scene Stealer;

, Best Newcomer Laura Wright as Cassie on Guiding Light

GL Show (off) segment.

Hottest Female Sharon Case & she gave a shout-out to Bill Bell who the camera found in the  audience

Throwing this out to the universe: finding Elisabeth Shue's episode of As the World Turns (which I guess would have been circa 1983, maybe just before RDJ started watching Search for Tomorrow).

Thanks @Franko 

@slick jones You may be interested in the Elisabeth Shue mention.

I have to laugh that they apparently didn't even know Teri Hatcher was on Capitol.

I have scans somewhere of SPW talking with soap actors about Soapdish. Some, like Mary Stuart, were not happy.

I never had a lot of interest in the movie myself. 

Edited May 6May 6 by DRW50

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks @Franko 

@slick jones You may be interested in the Elisabeth Shue mention.

I have to laugh that they apparently didn't even know Teri Hatcher was on Capitol.

I have scans somewhere of SPW talking with soap actors about Soapdish. Some, like Mary Stuart, were not happy.

I never had a lot of interest in the movie myself. 

I remember Michael Logan interviewed L.A. actors/production staff about the movie. Susan Seaforth Hayes said she was dying to know Susan Lucci's reaction.

37 minutes ago, Franko said:

I remember Michael Logan interviewed L.A. actors/production staff about the movie. Susan Seaforth Hayes said she was dying to know Susan Lucci's reaction.

I love SOAPDISH but I think TOOTSIE is better. Generally I am quite fond of gender-benders. VICTOR, VICTORIA, most favorite. 

1 hour ago, Franko said:

Throwing this out to the universe: finding Elisabeth Shue's episode of As the World Turns (which I guess would have been circa 1983, maybe just before RDJ started watching Search for Tomorrow).

If Sally Field had been more generous about the writing I would say that her assessment is really very fair.

I found Soapdish very funny. The cast is great. Delirious with John Candy and Mariel Hemingway (and Emma Samms!) came out the same year and I had expected to prefer Delirious, but Soapdish is one that I can watch repeatedly.

2 hours ago, Xanthe said:

If Sally Field had been more generous about the writing I would say that her assessment is really very fair.

I found Soapdish very funny. The cast is great. Delirious with John Candy and Mariel Hemingway (and Emma Samms!) came out the same year and I had expected to prefer Delirious, but Soapdish is one that I can watch repeatedly.

Her assessment would be true for recent decades, but 1991 was arguably the last period a number of soaps were well-written (better written than her film work by that point).

Edited May 6May 6 by DRW50