Sands through the hourglass

Sorry I haven’t had much to say lately – I have a few posts I want to share but simply haven’t had the time to put pen to paper, so to speak. It makes me VERY sad that I now have back to back posts about the death of a beloved daytime performer.

We learned on Wednesday that Frances Reid, who played Alice Horton for over 40 years on Days of our Lives, passed away at 95.

I haven’t been an everyday Days watcher for years, but as I’ve mentioned before, Days was Mom’s main soap. And like many kids in my generation, I was introduced to the show by watching with Mom during those sick days and snow days.

What I think was remarkable about Frances, and about Alice, was this: She managed to keep Alice a good, moral character and kept her interesting.

The We Love Soaps countdown has reminded us of several of daytime’s maternal matriarchs: Charita Bauer (Bert, Guiding Light), Helen Wagner (Nancy, As The World Turns) and Mary Stuart (Jo, Search for Tomorrow). As much as I love all of those characters, each of them had their Achilles’ heel. Bert was a bit neurotic and shrewish in the beginning before she mellowed. Nancy never met a wife of Bob’s or a newcomer to Oakdale that she didn’t judge in the early days. And while Jo was warm and nurturing to nearly everyone in Henderson, she had no sense and no luck when it came to picking the men in her life.

Alice Horton was clearly the ideal mother and grandmother. Tom and Alice were together until his death, and she was never unfaithful. Writing teams in the 80s and 90s played Alice for laughs, but Reid never lost track of the essential truth of who Alice was. She bonded with then-newcomers like Bo in 1985 just as beautifully as she had with Salem circa 1965. And over 40+ years, Alice was always Alice. Keeping Alice truly Alice, in an ever-changing daytime atmosphere, is a considerable feat. Other vets haven’t fared so well (the deconstruction and destruction of Holly on Guiding Light comes to mind).

I know Reid’s been ill and was at an advanced age, so we hadn’t seen her onscreen for several years. But I continue to mourn not only Reid’s loss but the loss of likable, warm characters on daytime.

Most shows jettisoned anyone over 50 and see stable, mature characters as boring at best and a storyline albatross at worst. (Damn these vets and their pesky history!) There are some veterans who are playing powerful roles filled with action, melodrama and controversy, like Jeanne Cooper, Erika Slezak, Robin Strasser and Eric Braeden. But I think daytime forgot the value of the Alices, the Berts, the Jos, and the Nancys.

Soaps are like walking into someone else’s house party. There may be people there you don’t like, but at its heart, the party has to have characters you love and care about – and want to spend time with. Frances Reid’s long life and long career is well worth celebrating, but I’m sad that Alice, one of the last truly warm and loving characters left standing, is gone.

Mourning in Pine Valley

I can’t let the weekend go by without making mention of the sad passing of James Mitchell. James was, of course, best known in the soap world as Palmer Cortlandt on All My Children.

This is, of course, Mr. Mitchell’s moment to be honored and mourned, but as I considered his work on AMC, it also brought to mind another talented actor playing a similarly intense, Gothic role: Christopher Bernau and his portrayal of Alan Spaulding on Guiding Light.

I always thought of Bernau’s Alan and Mitchell’s Palmer as bookends, if you will – similarly talented actors both portraying strong, complex characters. Both characters were refined and intelligent. They weren’t always purely evil, though they had the capacity to inflict great pain. You could see the wheels spinning in each character’s head.

One of the spellbinding things about both Mitchell and Bernau was that much of the power in their performance was in their stillness. These were not scene-chewing, chest-beating characters. All Palmer Cortlandt had to do was focus an icy glare on you, and icicles would immediately form on your TV screen. Anyone can get attention for amping up the drama level, but Mitchell was amazing at giving Palmer so much life with just an expression or the tone of his voice.

I was late to discover AMC – I discovered in in college in the late 80s, and only because it was on after the soap I’d started to follow, Ryan’s Hope. I loved that era of AMC, because it was so filled with CHARACTERS – living, breathing, flawed people I wanted to see every day. I loved Jeremy and Natalie’s passion, Ross and his intensity, Brooke and her intelligence and warmth. Most of all, I really loved Palmer as a character – especially after he crossed paths with Opal, and very specifically after Daisy came back into the picture. Palmer/Daisy/Opal was MAGIC.

It intrigues me that both Mitchell and Bernau were also gay actors in a time where being gay was far less accepted. It was a complicated balancing act for actors, who could be “out” in the theater community but needed to remain “marketable” to the general public. It’s notable that Mitchell, who had to balance that duality in his personal and professional life, also had to play that on AMC, with Palmer Cortlandt a creation of the far more humble Pete Cooney.

Mitchell wasn’t simply Palmer, of course – he had several other high-profile roles, including dancing “Dream Curly” in the film version of Oklahoma! and an appearance in the dance-themed Shirley Maclaine movie The Turning Point.

Daytime still has some talented younger performers, but Mitchell’s passing marks another loss of a theatrically-trained actor – the kind of believable, engaging actor who used to make watching soaps such a joy. RIP, James and RIP, Palmer Cortlandt.

Saying it doesn’t make it true

The soap industry is an unusual one. Soaps are seen by millions every day, but most shows fly under the radar when it comes to the mainstream. As a result, we rarely hear the real deal about decision-making, creative decisions or any important research & development at any of the shows.

What we often get, instead, is a whole lotta spin. And what often happens is that if one person gives us a bit of spin, others start repeating it as gospel.

This happened recently when one of my favorite contenders for Mr. Eloquence, Brian Frons, said this:

“Some (soaps) have been on many years, so people feel the need to make sage-like statements about the future of the genre,” Frons says. “Nobody makes those statements when a sitcom or long-running drama dies. It’s the end of that program, and that’s the way we should look at it as well.”

I chalked this up to Frons and his usual wellsprings of empathy and intelligence. But then I picked up this week’s Soap Opera Digest and read this in an interview with Frank Valentini, executive producer of One Life to Live:

“People just love to say that daytime’s dying, so knock yourself out. Say it all you want; they’ve been saying that for the last ten years.”

I really like Frank Valentini. He’s a smart guy, OLTL has been an overall solid show during his tenure, and he knows what he’s talking about. So I was a bit disappointed to hear him chirp the company line…..especially since it’s not true.

Soaps may not be DYING, but only the most myopic person could believe they are still the same make and model as they were twenty or thirty years ago. Most shows averaged ten million viewers in their heyday during the 1970s and 1980s. We are now at a point where those shows have lost EIGHTY percent of their audience.

But still, so many big players in daytime seem to avoid the evidence of these changes. It reminds me a great deal of the music industry. Record labels had a pretty consistent relationship with consumers, but when the ways we listened to music changed, the record companies didn’t respond. They wanted us to continue to buy the music THEY wanted us to, in the format they made money on, at a price that became incredibly expensive. (In 2001, when I wrote a freelance article about the music industry, new CD’s by current artists were hovering at the $20 price level.)

What happened? Consumers embraced new technology. The record companies stuck their heads in the sand – and when they finally pulled them out, they realized that a huge chunk of that audience had used that technology to buy or trade music for free, effectively wiping them out of the process. Some companies have since embraced digital sales, and iTunes has definitely made a huge impact, but the fact remains that sales took a hit.

What continues to FRUSTRATE me immensely is that most mainstream soap folks have spent time pointing fingers and rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Few of the shows have tried to re-scale the shows to today’s audience and today’s economy. (Guiding Light did, but let’s face it – as much as I love that show, that was a shotgun wedding and an act of desperation to keep the show alive.)

If executives were keyed in, the VERY first thing they’d do is scale the shows back to half an hour. An hour a day is simply too big a time investment in this day and age. Almost every show has the fat to cut.

The second thing they’d do is stop trying to reinvent the wheel, and focus strongly on thirtysomething and fortysomething characters. That’s the audience who still has an emotional connection to these shows and the demographic that would be most likely to watch.

And at the risk of being a broken record, I’ll say it again: Soap operas are not telling stories for the people that have watched them or continue to watch them. They continue to tell stories to ADHD-addled adolescents, hoping that whatever drama plays out on screen will make them change the channel from Jersey Shore.

We don’t need caretakers and pallative care. Daytime doesn’t need to be a big hospice. What we DO need are bold, innovative, CREATIVE architects that can re-scale these stories and modernize the facade without destroying the heart and the soul of the tapestry.

It’s time for our creative and technical leaders in the industry to get out of their metaphorical K-cars and think of ways to keep this a profitable business at its current sustainable scale. We may have loved the huge budgets and even bigger hair, but baby, the eighties are over. There’s still life and creative heart in these stories, though. And most importantly – for whoever gets the proportions, the scale and the investment in balance – there’s still money to be made.

Soap (and other four-letter words)

NOTE: This post features adult subject matter and themes, including graphic sexual content. If you would prefer not to read this material, please stop reading now.

I’m not exactly sure why, but according to my WordPress blog search terms, someone came to A Thousand Other Worlds looking for porn. More specifically, they were searching “soap porn” and “soap stars nude porno.” It completely cracked me up – and originally, it inspired me to think of a few clever, sarcastic things to say.

But I thought about it for a while, and my sarcastic ideas seem to have some truth in them. It struck me that even if many people wouldn’t feel comfortable thinking about it or acknowledging it, there are some similarities and parallels between the two industries.

Disappearing acts

As some of my readers may remember, I went on a blogging hiatus last summer as Guiding Light neared the end of its run. I eventually changed my mind and came back to discuss the final days of GL and other topics.

But come this September, I really will be out of things to say. When As The World Turns is gone, my entire soap lineup will be no more.

I know the remaining six shows and there are aspects of each that I like. None of them have ever been “my” show, however, and I’m not sure if one will capture my attention in these next few months.

Meanwhile, it got me thinking about the collateral damage that these cancellations will do.

For example, my reaction is probably somewhat typical of others.  I wasn’t exactly a dedicated viewer of any other programs in the daypart, but I DVR’d two hours of shows (and commercials). Now that two hours will be down to zero – meaning less opportunities for advertisers to reach me (and others like me).

I don’t say this in a spoiled-brat, I’ll-show-you way. But I say this very seriously: I am considering simply dropping CBS from my viewing lineup. That’s one less potential audience member. That affects nighttime shows as well as the remaining daytime ones. I simply have too many other options to consider investing time and attention in programming by a network who has given a big chunk of fans the middle finger.

It makes me sad that the traditional soaps are disappearing, but as I’ve mentioned before, there’s been a fatal error repeated over and over by various shows: they stopped creating, writing and crafting the program for the people who actually watch it, and did everything under the sun to attract everyone BUT that audience. Thus far, it has made for EPIC FAIL.

The world according to Agnes

I may be only an occasional fan of All My Children, but I did catch the anniversary episodes this week (January 4th and 5th).

Some quick thoughts on those episodes:

• Many long-term fans expressed mixed feelings or disappointment with the episodes. I can understand why – bringing back all of those actors (Taylor Miller! Julia Barr!) and then not having them interact was stupid.
• But there was something I liked about the format, at least as it applied to the veterans. The scenes with Adam, Erica and Tad showed us very clearly who they were and what their Pine Valley lives were about – something that can get lost in a sea of plot twists and minutae. I also thought this format would make an ideal way to introduce new fans to some of Pine Valley’s complicated, convoluted history.
• Then again, if the writers know who these characters are and can outline and delineate them so beautifully, why the hell can’t they write them that way? Most of Pine Valley’s citizens have swapped personas or bent them beyond believability under the last three head writers (McTavish 3.0, Brown & Esensten, and Chuck Pratt).
• Overall, this documentary format made the veterans look better and richer and the newer characters look more shallow and ill-conceived. Imagine that!
• Julia Barr’s appearance was completely made of win and awesome. I loved EVERY second she was on screen. (Brooke’s snark to Erica was priceless, as was Erica’s reply: “Brooke who?”) Apparently ABC finally pulled a Rip Van Winkle, woke up after a long nap, and realized what a sham it was to have tossed Barr out of Pine Valley so unceremoniously, because she’s coming back to the show later this year.
• Nice pornstache, Laurence Lau!
• It was also a great joy to see James Mitchell, though he looks incredibly frail. Here’s hoping AMC’s new California studio means that we can see Mitchell (who moved to California a few years ago) a few times a year.
• I was never a huge Hayley fan (I was on Team Bridget Reardon, sorry) but Kelly Ripa’s appearance was lovely. She made Adam human, gave Annie a hard time and reminded us of Scott & Colby’s connections to her.
• Even if she hasn’t been absent from our screens much, I enjoyed seeing Jill Larson. In a sea of dumb moves, AMC has been making a few good ones lately, and putting Larson back on contract was one of them.
• A momentary glimpse (via flashback) of Ellen Wheeler (Cindy Chandler – Stuart’s wife and Scott’s mom) – in what had to be a happier time for her professionally.
• Alumni Who Traveled The Farthest For The Least Airtime: Taylor Miller, who is now based here in Chicago, had maybe three lines. But she looks fantastic. I still say launching a Chicago-based soap and tapping into the deep wellspring of talent based her – Miller and Kate Collins, to name two – would be a wonderful idea.
• And the end of the episode was fantastic – Agnes Nixon, of course, reciting the poem she wrote to sum up all my children.

I’m a little late in mentioning it, but there was a fantastic interview with Agnes in Soap Opera Digest two issues ago on AMC’s anniversary. The interview underscored what a smart, thoughtful woman Ms. Nixon is, and includes some interesting tidbits – P&G originally optioned AMC in 1965, a full five years before it debuted as an ABC soap. And a former head of daytime at ABC thought Agnes’ poem for AMC was Biblical verse! The world according to Agnes, indeed.

The battle for Mr. Eloquence

One of the most frustrating facets of writing about daytime and about soaps is that any truth about behind-the-scenes drama and intrigue is almost completely obscured by spin.

A ray of frickin' sunshine, that Les

Trying to analyze the thoughts and intentions of  heads of daytime and executive producers (usually best done while shaking one’s fist at the skies saying “WHAT were they THINKING????!!!?????) is a mystery that even Miss Marple would be too puzzled to solve.

That’s why I’ve sort of taken a bit of pleasure (schadenfreude, as my handsome German boyfriend would say) in watching the battle for the title of Mr. Eloquence between Les Moonves (head of all of CBS) and Brian Frons (daytime head of ABC). In a few public statements, the masks have fallen from the dragons, so to speak.

They’ve either astonished us with their ignorance or amazed us with their rudeness. I swear, they are both reading from the same management book: How to Enrage Fans and Defy Logic and Sense. It’s the book Dale Carnegie never quite got around to publishing!

Frons had an early lead to wear the sash and tiara of Mr. Elegance when he said lovely things about Guiding Light after its cancellation (see under Grave, Dancing and/or Spitting on).

Les Moonves is a competitive soul, though, and not to be bested. So Les busted out his now famous statements about “special” soaps, right after he kicked As The World Turns, a show that was number 1 for 22 years and made insane profits for the network for years, to the curb. That Les, he keeps it classy.

Just when we thought Les had it nailed down, though……Frons has another card to play.

USAToday has an article about all of daytime (talk, game shows and soaps). It’s overall a nicely done article that seems to avoid the “daytime is dying” mantra repeated elsewhere in the mainstream press. But at the end, we have THIS gem from Frons:

“Some (soaps) have been on many years, so people feel the need to make sage-like statements about the future of the genre,” Frons says. “Nobody makes those statements when a sitcom or long-running

Don't mess with the Frons

drama dies. It’s the end of that program, and that’s the way we should look at it as well.”

Wow, that’s some SERIOUS spin. I mean, it’s just – spinspirational! And it would completely make sense – except that when a long-running drama or sitcom dies, another program like it generally takes its place.

So Brian, can we expect that ABC will replace any soap it cancels with a new soap?

*crickets*

NBC has, to its credit, tried over the last few years to launch some new soaps. None of them worked, and it’s now down to an hour of programming.

When ATWT leaves the air, CBS will have gone from 3 1/2 hours of programming to 1 1/2 hours in, seemingly, a blink of its CBS eye.

Do what you need to do to bring in the bucks, Brian. But don’t try to sell us shit and brand it as sunshine. As these shows disappear, something IS being lost.

There may be other venues, other outlets for serials, other platforms, other fandoms. But don’t pretend Rome isn’t burning. It’s just tacky and insulting to your fans. And besides, if you keep fanning the fire, it might singe your back hair.

Home for the holidays

I’m not sure whether it’s the state of our economy, or the state of the daytime soap industry, but the holidays have been more emotional and heartwarming this year.

I watched several of the holiday episodes over the last few days. Days had the Horton Christmas tree and an emotional plea for Sydney. B&B had a sweet episode focusing on Stephanie, the Jackie M family, and a few memories of Sally Spectra. All of the shows had warmth and humor.

But those shows simply pale in comparison to the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day episodes of As The World Turns.

The entire week in Oakdale was a strong week, story-wise. Bob and Kim had some great scenes on Wednesday talking about their future, and how time slips by……

Those wistful words were, I thought, the closest we’d get to love and warmth this week.

How very, very wrong I was. These last two episodes were absolutely, positively flawless.

Today’s Christmas Day episode was narrated by Don Hastings (Bob) and was a sweet, realistic story about how sad Holden and Lily’s children were without having their parents spend Christmas together. There were so many layers to the story – the Holden/Lily dynamic, Lucinda and Emma working together to unite everyone at the farm, and a healthy dose of Luke and Noah.

It was a glorious Christmas day episode, with people we know and love (welcome back, Lucinda!) interacting with each other.

But even this fantastic episode pales in comparison to yesterday’s glorious Christmas Eve episode. On paper, it sounds completely cheesy – Brad (who’s a ghost) is able to say goodbye to his family and hold his newborn son.

But every frame, every shot, ever line of dialogue, every tear was simply perfect. It was more than just a special holiday episode, of course – it was the culmination of several months of story resulting from Brad’s accidental death. Losing Brad affected so many characters (Janet, Liberty, Jack, and Katie, to name a few).

I thought very, very carefully about what I’m about to say next, but let it be said: That episode was Marlandesque in its warmth and wit. It had me sobbing before the opening credits were even on. It included characters that we care about, acting in realistic ways. It centered around one of the most universal concepts around (death) and the question of saying goodbye. Nary a day player or syringe was in sight.

And I have to hand it to ATWT: They had this 23-year fan in tears over an episode filled with characters and actors who have all been on the show for around a decade or less.

Both episodes were just so well written, acted and directed all the way around. And it’s impossible to watch these episodes and not see them through the prism that this may have been ATWT’s final Christmas – a subtext that had to be on the minds of the actors. Bob Hughes’ voice had me in tears when his narration ended today’s episode with this:

“If you’re thinking this isn’t really the end of the story, you’re right. The story goes on. Because this is Oakdale. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

THE FIRST NOELLE: Everyone in the last few episodes has been so good, but I really wanted to recognize Noelle Beck (Lily). I think that many people would agree with me that while we simply can’t accept anyone other than Martha Byrne in the role of Lily, Beck has made a heroic effort trying to make her story work. (The silly Lily/Damian story has made her look like an ass and done her no favors.) Today, she was simply lovely as Lily. I believed her and Elizabeth Hubbard as Lily and Lucinda. Beck would make a great addition to another show; I just wish she’d be cast in a role, somewhere, that would allow her to make it her own. But she was a welcome, warm presence as Lily today.

2009 Best (and Worst)

It’s that time again.

All sorts of blogs, Web sites and media publications are dishing out their Best & Worst issues. They’re ubiquitous enough, but to add insult to injury, many outlets are also sharing their Best & Worst of the Decade.

It’s rather hard for me to come up with a whole slew of “bests” in a year that saw the two shows I most frequently wrote about get the axe. But I’ll do my best to give you an objective list of what I loved, what I hated and what made me say, what the Frons?

And now, a word from our producer

Earlier this week, I posted some thoughts on As The World Turns, and some ideas on how the culmination of 54 years of storytelling could be orchestrated.

The next day, a very interesting interview with ATWT’s executive producer, Christopher Goutman, appeared on TVGuide Magazine.com.

The interview, written by veteran soap reporter Michael Logan, gave some insight into Goutman’s mindset.

Here are some of the quotes from that interview:

• “We still have exciting stories in the works and we’re sticking to them. We’re not ready to start inviting back old favorites and do the nostalgia thing.”
• “We just continue to tell good stories and we’ll see how the efforts go in terms of shopping the show around.”
• “The identity remains. The families are still with us. When other shows have been cancelled they’ve sort of turned themselves inside out and become something different. They’ve tried to reinvent themselves or they have huge turnovers in cast. ATWT has been true to itself and that’s why it feels like, wait a second, this show is still vital! I know we’ve been [vaguely] threatened by cancellation but it didn’t feel like something that could happen at any second, which GL unfortunately had to live with for a number of years. What happened to us felt so sudden.”

When I first read this interview, I was really angry and disappointed.

But I respect Goutman’s optimism. And I agree with some of what he says. ATWT has been very weak in story for several years, but I’d agree that it has not had that long, slow decline that weakened Guiding Light so much. There are characters who are still recognizable.

There’s still a HUGE gap from where he and Jean Passanante (who was quoted elsewhere as saying that she’ll continue “great stories”) believe the show is, and where viewers and fans like me are actually seeing it. I don’t disagree that, in general, the stories and the focus is much better in recent months than it has been for some time.

But folks, if you snagged the Emmy-award winning Tom Pelphrey, and the ONLY thing you could think of as a story for him was to resurrect James Stenbeck for the ninth time, this is a significant indicator of how empty the well is creatively for your show.

I also took a moment to re-examine my own outlook. My earlier post did, after all, include a photo of ATWT circa 1986. Am I stuck in history? Is it impossible to please a fan like me unless we pressed “rewind” and went back to 1986?

The answer is “no,” and here’s why.

One of my favorite books is The Same River Twice by Alice Walker. It’s a autobiography/memoir of sorts of a specific time in her life, but the title says it all: You can never stand in the same river twice. (And expecting that you can catch lightning in a bottle twice? Is a sure pathway to disappointment and disillusionment.)

I don’t expect the shows that I watch to be the same as they were twenty-three years ago, nor do I discount newer characters and actors who are wonderful and exciting to watch.

But both P&G shows clearly made a decision a few years ago that history was not a rich minefield for story, but an albatross that complicated the narrative and was to be avoided when possible. If they did remember history, it was often history that was less than five or ten years old.

And this is where, as a writer, I disagree with their approach. Of course, younger characters are immensely important for demographics and ad rates. But the whole of the tapestry of a story becomes stronger when all of the threads are interwoven and tied tightly.

This show has a number of amazing older characters whose history would be an awesome springboard for story – story that would virtually tell itself.  Of all the veterans, Margo has had the best lot of it, struggling with her sons’ choices and figuring out what those choices mean to her and what she believes in. (Though I still am in disbelief that she chose to support Adam after his near-rape of Maddie.)

Tom and Margo otherwise exist as a backdrop for mopey son Casey. Apparently, Kim, Bob and Nancy can only appear at holidays or if they’re on life support. Eileen Fulton is so rarely on the show I’m convinced she actually left three years ago. This is Lisa we’re talking about here!

And the most egregious backburnering of all is Lucinda Walsh. It’s shades of how the once-great Alexandra Spaulding at Guiding Light was taken from a woman to be reckoned with……to a drug-dealing dolt.

Apparently, if you’re over 50 and a woman on soaps, you can only be Grandma or Crone. (A memo that other entertainment forms haven’t gotten – nighttime TV has many strong female characters in their 50s and 60s, and Meryl Streep, looking glorious at 60, is on the cover of Vanity Fair this week.)

I realize that ATWT, more than any other show, had a much larger cast of veterans and has had a difficult time pleasing everyone. But I wish they’d try a little harder. I respect Mr. Goutman’s drive, and I respect his willingness to keep ATWT alive for a possible new home. But the team at ATWT also needs to realize that the show could end for good in September. They are stewards not only of the story at ATWT, but the last of Irna Phillips’ solo creations and the last of the Procter & Gamble soaps.

This show can’t end with a splash and a bang, Mr. Goutman. There is much more to honor – and much more at stake. If this show (and this genre) is truly dying, let the fans – the ones who have invested in the show and believe in its theater and its heart – mourn its passing properly.