Anyone here into watching soaps?

[VALuvsMKwan]

A friend’s mom was a diehard fan of All My Children. During get-together where we would go into long discussions dissecting every last thing*, her dad would smile, shake his head, and say “Oh, that Erica!”

Susan Lucci was a genius for being able to keep people so engaged with her character for so long, that roller coaster of thinking she was a selfish beast, then feeling empathy for her, and loving, then hating then loving and hating her at the same time. Her problem was that this didn’t translate into the curated Emmy-selection reels of Big, Scenery-chewers and Weepers that were submitted for the awards.

*Which reminds me of a small post-competition discussion when we inevitably started to discuss 2002 Olympics Pairs. Lee’s husband asked, astonished, “Are you still all talking about that?” wuzrobbed Lee)

My father had a huge crush on Raven on the Edge of Night. I was glad that the actress, Sharon Gabet, was on Another World for a few years, after EoN closed up shop.

And the end of the Emmy curse...

Susan Lucci wins the Daytime Emmy, presented by Shemar Moore--1999

youtu.be

 

[kwanfan1818]

I'd only seen her speech, not the lead-up. Why did it take them 19 years to give her the weeper scene that would out-chew her competition's scenery?

That scene also shows nothing of her genius, but the speech did.

 

[Cherub721]

Young & Restless - Rapist Michael Baldwin - Victim Christine Blair (attempted rape)

Hopefully this doesn't happen anymore...

This was the worst. For as long as Bill Bell was running the show they didn't do a storyline like that. Rape was treated as a serious crime. The storyline of Michael Baldwin sexually harassing newbie lawyer Christine was brilliant. Michael memorably broke through the wall of her apartment, tried to rape her, and actually went to jail for several years. It took a long time to reintroduce him to the canvas and he was still treated as a suspicious character.

Once Bell got Alzheimer's, the show was turned over to different writers, and they fell in love and got engaged, ugh.

B&B currently has a horrendous storyline about a girl being "taken advantage of" by a man after ingesting psychedelic mints. She has assured him it's not his fault and he and her mother have urged her to keep it quiet from her boyfriend (to whom she lost her virginity like the day before that happened).

 

[smurfy]

Re - Dark Shadows - loved that show as a kid.
Several years ago it was on hulu and I watched some of it.
It was so unintentionally hilarious. Maggie is in the hospital and gets better then weaker and has these holes in her neck from when Barnabas the vampire comes to visit her. In some ways - the show was great, had great actors, but could be awful.
It did scare me as a kid.

 

[once_upon]

I think every preteen girl in junior high was in love with Barnabas. But I do have to say his portrait did freak me out.

I would guess my love for Lyndsay Sands Vampire Series had it's beginning in Barnabas Collins.

 

[kwanfan1818]

What pre-teen girl could resist a broken bad boy? In that era, it was Jonathan Frid, who wasn’t conventionally good looking, the pre-requisite for a heartthrob.

 

[vgerdes]

I think every preteen girl in junior high was in love with Barnabas. But I do have to say his portrait did freak me out.

I would guess my love for Lyndsay Sands Vampire Series had it's beginning in Barnabas Collins.

I'd say pretty much all modern vampire lore, from the 60s on, was influenced by Dark Shadows and Barnabas Collins.

 

[Kruss]

I started watching with my aunt when I'd spend summers at her house. I ultimately settled on All My Children (we call it All My Kids) and General Hospital. Loved the character of Dixie when she was first introduced on All My Children, her pregnancy by and marriage to and ghostlighting by Palmer Courtland* (the wonderful James Mitchell), eventual saving by Tad and then of course, they ended up together. And apart. And together. And apart. I understand that continued most of the show until its end.

And GH - of course, Luke and Laura, the Cassadines, Robert and Holly (after Luke and Holly), Robert and Anna. And who can forget Blackie Parrish played by the newbie, John Stamos. I hadn't watched it for many years, but someone mentioned at some point (I think on this board) that AMC dealt with Luke's rape of Laura years later. It's on YouTube, and I think they actually handled that well. Finally.

*ETA: Correction, Dixie was married to Adam Chandler, not her uncle Palmer Courtland. But James Mitchell was still wonderful.

 

[Sparks]

Loved the character of Dixie when she was first introduced on All My Children, her pregnancy by and marriage to and ghostlighting by Palmer Courtland (the wonderful James Mitchell)

Dixie and Palmer were related. Palmer was her uncle. Dixie was married to Adam Chandler (David Canary) and had his child

 

[Kruss]

Dixie and Palmer were related. Palmer was her uncle. Dixie was married to Adam Chandler (David Canary) and had his child

OOPS!! You're right!! I'll fix my post...Thanks!

 

[Sparks]

OOPS!! You're right!! I'll fix my post...Thanks!

Did you know James Mitchell was the dancer in the fantasy sequence of Oklahoma!

 

[vgerdes]

Another bit of trivia for you: General Hospital's Stuart Damon was The Prince on the 1965 TV version of "Cinderella," starring Leslie Ann Warren.

 

[Sparks]

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella 1965 Ten Minutes Ago

no copyright infringement intended

www.youtube.com

 

[Garden Kitty]

Did you know James Mitchell was the dancer in the fantasy sequence of Oklahoma!

And GH's Anna Lee (Lila Quartermaine) is one of the nuns who steals the car parts in The Sound of Music. She actually had an impressive pre-soap career including a part in the movie version of The Ghost and Mrs Muir.

I watched GH and my sister watched AMC, so I was generally aware of AMC's story lines too. I recall when I was in college and I got a summer job. I made my Mom start watching so she could fill me in on the storylines (this was all pre VCR and internet days). She was still watching it every day when she died a few years ago, and she even got my Dad watching too. He'd pretend he was just keeping my Mom company when they took their afternoon break from gardening or other chores, but every so often he'd chime in with an opinion on one of the characters.

 

[Sparks]

@Garden Kitty Your parents were darling

 

[Sparks]

I just thought of another one. Ruth Warrick who played Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on AMC was an established actress and played the wife in Citizen Kane in 1941

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

I just thought of another one. Ruth Warrick who played Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on AMC was an established actress and played the wife in Citizen Kane in 1941

Louis Edmonds who played Roger Collins in Dark Shadows played Langley Wallingford on AMC.

David Selby who became a breakout star as Quentin in Dark Shadows played the husband of Barbra Streisand's character in Up the Sandbox and then later starred as Richard Channing in Falcon Crest.

John Karlen who played Willie Loomis in Dark Shadows played Harvey Lacey in Cagney and Lacey and won an Emmy for his work there.

Kate Jackson who played Daphne in Dark Shadows starred in The Rookies, Charlie's Angels and Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

Grayson Hall was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Night of the Iguana and later played Euphemia Ralston on One Life to Live.

Donna McKechnie played Roxanne Drew in Dark Shadows and then won a Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award for playing Cassie in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line.

Denise Nickerson who played Amy Jennings/Nora Collins in Dark Shadows later played Violet in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film.

Virginia Vestoff who played Samantha Drew in Dark Shadows played Abigail Adams in the original Broadway cast and film of 1776,

 

[Cachoo]

I think Meg Ryan’s “Betsy” was a popular character on “As The World Turns.”

 

[kwanfan1818]

There were two actresses who played romance novelist Felicia Gallant's assistant-turned-writer on Another World on either side of Janna Lee, who played the character for a few weeks: Kyra Sedgwick and Faith "Corky Sherwood Forest" Ford. I thought it was neat that two women played the same role and had success in TV and film.

Douglas Watson, Mac Corey on the same show, had a theater background: he played Romeo to Olivia de Havilland's Juliet on Broadway in 1951. (I learned this because George Balanchine choreographed a dance for the ballroom scene to music by composer David Diamond.) I remember reading that it was so much hard for stage actors to do top-level theater in LA, after many of the soaps moved out of NYC to LA. All My Children's studios were a few blocks from Lincoln Center, and we'd see cast members out an about every once in a while.

 

[Simone411]

I had mentioned earlier in the thread about remembering Heather hid a gun in her baby doll. I got it wrong. Heather actually hid the gun in her friend's (Sarah Abbot) baby doll. It happened when Heather was in the Forest Hill Sanitarium during the 1981/83 era.

I can't believe I actually remembered Heather and the baby doll! I did a google search and found the information on Wikipedia of all places. It actually gives a list of the GH characters.

List of General Hospital characters - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[emason]

One night as I was coming down the stairs from my cheap seat at the ballet at the Met I spotted Helen Wagner, glamorous as could be in a stunning dress and mink coat and dripping jewelry, coming out of the orchestra. Wagner played middle class wife and mother, Nancy Hughes, on As the World Turns for 54 years.

First thought on seeing her:
What is she doing in NY? She lives in the Midwest.

Second thought:
How can Nancy Hughes afford a mink coat?

Third thought:
Helen Wagner should have won a closet-full
of awards for playing Nancy Hughes. So good was
she that I mistook fiction for fact. I truly thought
Nancy Hughes was a real person because Wagner
was so damn good in the role.

 

[terisa]

I was a GH addict during all the Luke and Laura madness, mainly because my roommate and I both worked 3rd shift. We wold get up, eat breakfast and watch GH and I can still remember line dancing in our bathrobes during scenes set in Luke's disco

Lately, since I have Britbox, I've gotten hooked on EastEnders. I like that I can just binge about 5 episodes once a week.

 

[vgerdes]

I think Meg Ryan’s “Betsy” was a popular character on “As The World Turns.”

I watched that soap for years and years, so I remember Meg from there; she was the main heroine at the time, and had a couple of prominent romances. I also remember when Julianne Moore was on the same show. She played twins, and what I remember most is that you almost couldn't tell they were played by the same actress. She gave them such distinct personalities that even when the script called for one of them to impersonate the other, you could figure out which one it really was. They each had "tells."

 

[moebius]

I remember watching AMC and OTL with my mom during summer vacations when I was around 6-10 yrs old.

 

[Yuri]

My Mom was pregnant with my younger sibling when Days of Our Lives debuted in 1965, so its iconic theme music and "sands through the hourglass" have been burned into my brain since early childhood. I saw it many times over the years on afternoons home from school, holidays, and summer vacations. Inevitably, I got hooked on it myself during my college years, and generally kept up with it during the VCR era. Since a long unemployment break in 2002-2003 when I got re-hooked on Days, I have rarely missed an episode through the era of SoapNet and early streaming services including on NBC.com. Currently I use my complementary Peacock subscription far more for my soap than for figure skating!

For those who remember when Bo and Hope were the supercouple of Days of Our Lives during the 1980s, you may remember that they went figure skating on a date, as Kristian Alfonso did compete at lower levels when she was growing up. When the actress left Days a few years ago, her absence was explained by saying she had moved to Montreal to coach skaters for the Olympics! Sort of a tie-in to NBC being the US network of the Winter Olympics. However, she has been away from coaching since last year when Bo was brought back from the dead for the 2nd or 3rd time, and she has been taking care of him after he fell back into a coma the day they reunited in Greece and has been protecting him from the Evil Stefano (actually his long-lost and believed dead daughter, Megan Hathaway DiMera)! Hopefully Bo will improve in time for her to prepare all the IAM ice dancers for the 2026 Games!

 

[Kruss]

I did know James Mitchell was the Fantasy Curly in Oklahoma, as well as Anna Lee in The Sound of Music and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Fantastic turns for both of them in those roles.

 

[Cachoo]

My Mom was pregnant with my younger sibling when Days of Our Lives debuted in 1965, so its iconic theme music and "sands through the hourglass" have been burned into my brain since early childhood. I saw it many times over the years on afternoons home from school, holidays, and summer vacations. Inevitably, I got hooked on it myself during my college years, and generally kept up with it during the VCR era. Since a long unemployment break in 2002-2003 when I got re-hooked on Days, I have rarely missed an episode through the era of SoapNet and early streaming services including on NBC.com. Currently I use my complementary Peacock subscription far more for my soap than for figure skating!

For those who remember when Bo and Hope were the supercouple of Days of Our Lives during the 1980s, you may remember that they went figure skating on a date, as Kristian Alfonso did compete at lower levels when she was growing up. When the actress left Days a few years ago, her absence was explained by saying she had moved to Montreal to coach skaters for the Olympics! Sort of a tie-in to NBC being the US network of the Winter Olympics. However, she has been away from coaching since last year when Bo was brought back from the dead for the 2nd or 3rd time, and she has been taking care of him after he fell back into a coma the day they reunited in Greece and has been protecting him from the Evil Stefano (actually his long-lost and believed dead daughter, Megan Hathaway DiMera)! Hopefully Bo will improve in time for her to prepare all the IAM ice dancers for the 2026 Games!

Wow....when I started to read that I wondered how Stefano could possibly be alive. He was older in the 80's. I suppose Bo and Hope and Marlena and Roman were always going to be the iconic characters on that show.

 

[Yuri]

Sorry, my "Evil Stefano" line is a nod to Elle Woods' video application to Harvard Law School in Legally Blonde.

Unfortunately, Stefano (played by the awesome Joe Mascolo) died in 2016, but Days of Our Lives has hinted that the character may still be alive somewhere in the world. At one point Rolf saved Stefano's brain on a chip (and implanted it in Patch/Steve), now destroyed, so there was always the possibility to implant the essence of him in another actor.

With the recent death of Bill Hayes (Doug, not yet dealt with on Days) at age 98, along with John Aniston (Victor, played by Jennifer's father) in late 2022, the last of the old guard characters have passed away. Julie and Maggie are still around, as are Roman and Marlena (now married to John, who originally joined Days as the new Roman brought back to life.)

Oh yes, Days is firmly grounded in reality!

 

[Sparks]

I picked up Days of Our Lives around 2015 after I stopped working. I still watch it on Peacock. It is the silliest show ever

 

[vgerdes]

I think I stopped watching Days of Our Lives right around the time of Marlena's possession by the devil. I just really, really dislike most demonic possession stories in general, and that one was dumber than dumb. Couldn't bring myself to watch.