Every year they used to hold a CBS vs. ABC soap actor softball tournament. It was officially called The CBS vs. ABC Tammy Rubin Rice Celebrity Softball Game in Brooklyn, NY. It featured actors and actresses from all the soaps on both network. They created team T-shirts, but was played for fun despite all in good fun trash talking.

The Dec. 27, 2011 issue of Soap Opera Weekly has a photo of Andy Dixon (Scott DeFreitas) and Courtney (Hayley Barr)’s wedding photo in their Christmas colleague from Christmas 1992 on As the World Turns.

A reunion for the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest (the third show in the best Friday night lineup ever) was originally scheduled for December. It has now been pushed back until summer 2012. Organizers say to watch Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly for more information.

Take a look at these before and after, stars that started on soap photos. The one I didn’t know was Mark Hamil aka Luke Skywalker was on General Hospital first.
http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?EventId=136423878&EditorialProduct=Archival#1

Normally I don’t post most about international soaps, but I really enjoyed this story about Greeks watching Turkish soaps. Soaps do make the world a better place and spread peace and joy.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/gloomy-greeks-forget-woeslavish-turk-tv-dramas_645803.html

Kristy McNichol (wonderful in The Pirate Movie (seriously watch it) and Empty Nest) recently published an update.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20559567,00.html

The end of SoapNet is March 23, 2012.
http://daytimeconfidential.zap2it.com/2012/01/09/soapnet-exits-airwaves-march-23-for-disney-junior
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/01/soapnet-will-go-away-for-most-at.html

The Jan. 16, 2012 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth reports that Dan Frazer who played Nancy Hughes’s second husband Dan “Mac” McCloskey  died Dec. 16, 2011. After a 12 year run, McCloskey died after a fight with Alzheimer’s of a heart attack back in 1996.
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2011/12/dan-frazer-obit.html

In the Jan. 16, 2012 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth, Tracy E. Bergman confirms that Lauren was only supposed to be a short term role on The Young and the Restless. She was supposed to be a pal for Tracey, but a look back she gave at the end of the scene convince Bill Bell that Lauren was more vixen than angel and history was made.

One Life to Live trended on Twitter on its last airdate.
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/01/one-life-to-live-and-judith-light.html

Soap Opera Weekly sent word to their subscribers that it would no longer honor mail subscriptions and was becoming a stand only magazine after the Dec. 27, 2011 issue.

Kate Linder (Esther Valentine, Kay’s maid on The Young and the Restless) has two formal teas a year, one in Canada and one in Seattle. Cast and crew come out and some lucky fan gets a make over.

Before Joshua Morrow was cast as the SORASed Nick Newman in 1994, producers were interested in Christian Gudegast, Eric Braeden‘s (Victor Newman) real life son for the part. However, Gudegast preferred working behind the scenes. Find a photo in the Nov. 7, 2o11 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.

Jeanne Cooper (Kay on The Young and the Restless) has two spread of family photos including her son Corbin Bernsen in the Jan. 2, 2012 issue of CBS Soaps in Depth.

The lighthouse to the left is part of collection my cousin Jewelsam gave me for Christmas. This one, unusually, is made of wood. It’s also one of my bigger models being just shy of a foot tall.  I think the top is especially good and looks like the lighthouse set used throughout the 1990s on Guiding Light. It came with a tag. It was part of the series Old World Beacons. The tag reads “The Lighthouse has long been an inspirational landmark, renown for its ability to guide courageous seafarers safely to port. Herco [who I think is the artist] has captured the historic spirit of these harbor beacons. We are proud to offer over forty stunning replicas of lighthouses found throughout the United States and France.” This particular lighthouse depicts the lighthouse in Fire Island, New York. It was copyrighted in 1999. (The first full year of Manny. ♥)

The second photo below was another one from my cousin’s Christmas present to me. It was fitting because it was a Christmas present and this figurine is clearly decorated for Christmas. It’s painted red, green, white, and brown. Snow (covered with glitter) is scattered around like it is during an early season storm. Wreaths hang at various doors and windows and garland hangs under the railing deck. It’s made of ceramic and sadly the painting could have stood a little more care.

Christmas LIghthouse

A company name, “Cobblestone Corners” and the date of 2002 is impressed into the bottom. (2002 was another pretty good Manny year.) A quick search tells me that while the wood lighthouse is a series of lighthouses, this one is part of a lightup village (a hole in the bottom would allow a bulb to be pushed through and holes in the tour and house would allow light to come out and glow). It was a Department 56 village called Cobblestone Corner. They sell various buildings all with the idea of creating Christmas tableaus. Turns out you can buy lots of accessories to go with this lighthouse, but it will have to get used to being with other lighthouses in my collection.

Find previous collection posts on the Lighthouse Collection #15:
http://glmanny.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/lighthouse-collection-15

Offline Soap Fan – Very few people would self-identify as an offline soap fan. They just think of themselves as soap opera fans. However, online soap fans do talk about Offline Soap Fans and make reference to perceived differences between the two parts of soap fandom. There are many kinds of offline fans. Some just watch the shows. Others watch, plus buy magazines. Some even go as far as attending fan events. They communicate with shows, stars and other fans (via magazines) by physically writing and mailing letters, cards, etc. While by default a lot of older fans are offline fans, there are plenty of exceptions where older people are online. I would say you could only start calling me an online fan since 2009. I went online for other things. I was on listservs for other topics by the early 1990s. I had built my first website by the late 1990s. I was blogging on other things by mid-2000s, but somehow it just never occurred to me to go online and look for soap stuff. I read all the soap magazines regularly and they certainly didn’t talk about what’s going online. This has changed, Soaps In Depth does an outstanding job of reporting that there are online soap conversations going on and where they are. I think there must be many other people out there who just haven’t found the party online yet. I hope they do. I’m not a better soap fan for going online, but I have a lot more fun and a lot more people to share my soap passion with since I’ve become an online soap fan. See Online Soap Fan

GL Postcard

http://www.amazon.com/Guiding-Light-Classic-Episodes-DVD/dp/B006ZCAQFQ

The image was the postcard I got in the mail advertising the release.

So tonight I’m sharing three of my favorites that mix together decades of history to create a new storyline. The one above is one I’m most proud of. It is one of several that I did in honor of the flash ahead in the final episode, however, look for story and characters scattered throughout from the 1980s to the end as we look at the school Billy put Jonathan in charge of building, as I named it Chamberlain Elementary.  Below is a fundraiser for the Elizabeth Spaulding Foundation for Cancer Research. It makes reference to quite a few past storylines and characters as well. Plus Danny and Michelle win. Well, I’m a card carrying Mannyac after all (actually we don’t have cards — DANG we NEED cards). Plus Sarah and Robbie tie and I thought the final shot should have been them kissing on the cheek, promising us 72 more years of love, laughs, and heartbreak in Springfield.

Plus this bonus which is a summary of Alan’s life. I include it because it is by far my most popular vid.

So celebrate this anniversary, accept the marvelous gift of a DVD sampler set which thanks to SoapClassics happened years before I expected and keep up the drum beat.  Enjoy this video montage of cast photos I made for the now defunct (YouTube shut down the feature for everyone) Guiding Light YouTube Discussion Board.

UPDATE: We Love Soaps reports the anniversary.
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/01/historyjanuary25.html

Mon., April 24, 2000 – At Towers: Michelle is showing Ruth’s picture around, but no luck. She is getting aggravated. Claire comes in. She asks Michelle if they could talk. Michelle is upset. She doesn’t want to talk to her. Michelle tells Claire that she is 22 years late. Claire tells her that she wants to say her piece and then she would go. She told Michelle that it hurt when she said she didn’t want anything to do with her. Michelle told her that she didn’t understand that. Claire wanted to know if she had any questions about her adoption. Michelle said she had no questions, but Claire didn’t believe her. Claire told her about how she was a great doctor that could do anything, but having a child scared her and Claire spared Michelle by giving her to Maureen. Claire told her that she wasn’t a good person back then and she had a lot of regrets. She told Michelle that the best thing she ever did was giving her to a woman that would love her with all her heart. Harley sees Claire and tells Rick that Claire is sitting over with Michelle. Claire told Michelle that she had to push her out of her mind when she gave her to Ed and Maureen and never see her again. But all that changed when she saw her at the airport. Claire gave her her phone number and told her to call her if she needed help.It was a local number because Claire had decided to stay awhile. She said that she didn’t expect it but she hopes she would call her. Michelle wanted to know why Claire came back there. Rick and Harley came up and wanted to know the same thing. Rick took Claire aside and told her that she always went too far and she had to stop. Claire only wants to help. Harley and Michelle talk. Harley told her about her mom and Susan. Michelle told her that Susan came looking for her, not the other way around. She said that when Maureen died, her mom died. At the Lockhart house: Noah and Reva tend to Charlie. He told them that her name is Charlie Jones and they asked where his mom was. He said she was at work and that the babysitter would be there shortly. Reva said she was going to take Charlie home until his mom gets back. Noah told her that was kidnapping and he didn’t want to end their date by having to bail her out. Ruth comes in. She wants to know who Reva is. They told her and Ruth said they are fine now and they should leave. The police came in. They asked Ruth her name. Ruth told them it was “Ruth Jones.” Apparently the neighbors called. Ruth panicked and told the cops that Reva ran her son down. Ruth explains what happened and the cops arrest her for child neglect. Ruth begs Reva and Noah to help her. Reva asked if it was necessary to arrest her. Ruth screamed that it was God’s punishment for what she had done. She said she was sorry to her son and the cops drug her out. At the Hospital:Drew is upset when Jesse flatlines. She cries all over him and tells him goodbye. A kiss later, he was back. The monitors responded. Drew said it was a miracle and yelled out that Jesse was alive. She held onto him and called for the doctor. Jesse came to. The doctor said he was a lucky man. Drew told him that it was a miracle from God. Drew told Jesse that they got a second chance. The doctor asked Drew to stay there while he went somewhere. Jesse talked to Drew and told her that he felt like he was dying and he heard her calling him. He told her that she made him come back. He couldn’t leave her. Selena, Max, and Buzz come in. Everyone is glad to see Jesse awake. They wish him well and said they would leave him to rest. Jesse asked them all to stay. Drew said she had been thinking about the past few months lately and all the bad things that had happened. She said she hadn’t taken one second to think about the good times and all the good people in her life. She hugs everyone. They joke around a little and vow to celebrate having each other. Jesse tells Drew that he still wants to marry her. She was happy. Jesse asked Selena if she still didn’t mind and she said that would be great. Buzz said they had to talk about a few things before they discussed marriage. Buzz told them their lives were so serious and they have had a rough time lately but marriage is a very serious thing. He doesn’t know if the two of them knew how to have fun. They have to promise to dance with each other forever. Jesse promised. Then it was Drew’s turn. She had to promise to get on Jesse’s’ motorcycle with him and forget everything else. She promised. Buzz pronounced them ready to be married. They kissed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5biwWYY_9I

NOTE: We saw some people in this post we haven’t seen in awhile. Ruth Lockhart (who has changed her hair) has moved back to Springfield under an assumed name, apparently no longer has to give Charlie treatment for his heart and manages to get herself in position as one of Reva’s lost causes. Ruth will soon be stirring up trouble of a different kind as she comes between Vicky Spaulding and David Grant in a lost ditch effort to give him a storyline before they give up and write the character out again. Reva, who split with Josh over her attachment to Richard, is dealing with Richard moving on with Cassie and Josh moving on with Olivia by dating Dr. Noah Chase. Dr. Noah sometimes plays spy and worked previously with Richard, but is a leading cancer doctor who used James stem cells to save Lizzie. The only good thing about the Reva-Noah pairing, which featured him deliberately bringing a troublesome ex-girlfriend to town to help keep Reva’s attention, was their couple code – Nova – THAT was good. Vanessa had FINALLY gotten her story to the police, but determined to keep the Santos she had in her sights Doris doesn’t even question Carmen although Frank and David had brought her into the station. In an earlier attempt to make us think Jesse was cheating, they’d brought in a female Rabbi he was working on converting to Judaism with to help Drew be more comfortable in their relationship. That’s whose visiting both Drew and Jesse in the hospital. Claire is back in town because Harley had decided Rick had a secret related to Claire and Harley went to Chicago and broke into Claire’s hospital office. Claire caught her and so it’s directly Harley’s fault all the trouble we have with Claire over the next couple of years. I include changing Michelle’s hair color and style which clearly was redone to make her look more like Claire’s daughter.

My Comments:
Doris is so wrong here. I’m not sure if she’s jealous of Manny’s happiness together or just out to nail her a Santos for political reasons, but it was so very clearly a set up. Even if you didn’t believe that it was a set up, it was incredibly weak case, certainly to fight for the death penalty on.

I absolutely love Ross making a power move here. He actually doesn’t do very well with Michelle’s trial except for the forensics expert and the closing argument, but this is Great! I love it when Ross actually gets to be a smart lawyer, instead of people just saying that he is.

In the highlights there is a short clip with a woman bending down. That woman  is Ruth Lockhart if you don’t recognize her at 1:32. We haven’t seen her in awhile and her hair is very different. It’s a nice I love you exchange at 2:38. Glad Michelle doesn’t let Danny’s guilt drop. One of the things I love about Manny is that they actually show true progress both individually and as a couple. They actually talk things out both on and off screen and are better people and have a stronger marriage because of it.

I think I was in a different position than most Manny fans because I was watching since before Michelle was born. Heck, I was watching AS she was conceived. I loved Claire once upon a time. She was truly wonderful when she was paired with Fletcher (and he permanently broke a piece of both my heart and Claire’s when he walked out on her for good). However, she’s really one of the worse mothers in Springfield. She was awful with Michelle years ago and she definitely messes with her now. If you’re truly desperate in a bind, back against the wall, call on Claire, other than that she hatches these plans it’s best not to get involved with.

Everyone catch that? So they’ve up Michelle’s age a couple of years to 22. She was 19 when Joie came on a year ago.  I doubt you mean to tell her the truth Claire, you don’t come across well in the truth. “…things I’m not proud of” aka I tried to smother you with a pillow as a baby. I hate that Claire is blackmailing Rick over something that isn’t really true and I really wish SOMEONE had told Michelle what Claire had done AT SOME point before this.

Soaps and Serials No. 1

I had a hard time reading this book. In one way, and in one way only, it reminded me of Interstellar Pig by William Sleator. Both books grabbed you by the throat out of fear of what was going to happen all through the first half and then suddenly halfway through, it suddenly began to seem a little silly.

I went into this not knowing what to expect. I had read a couple of the As the World Turns novelizations when they came out because my cousin bought them and they seemed to cover a more reasonable period of time. This book says its covering roughly 10 years focusing on Meta Bauer with some Bill and Bert Bauer thrown in. I also want to give a WARNING up front. There is a sex scene between Bill and Bert. Mercifully it is brief, but it’s like watching your grandparents have sex.

The opening scenes are fairly contemporary to when the book came out, but most of the book is a flashback. However, it doesn’t come back to the present at the end of the book or end in a lesson or anything. So the flashback doesn’t seem to have a real point in the structure of the book.  All there is at the end is a teaser that Bill is going to have an affair with this singer the we meet at the end of the book.

A stated goal of the book was to catch people up on past storylines. Now I don’t know what material Aimes had available, but I know from listening to the radio episodes and my reading of informational Guiding Light books that she got a lot of things wrong.

1. The Bauers didn’t live in Springfield until Ed, Bert and Bill’s son, was college age, not from the 1930s as shown here.

2. Mikey Bauer is much younger than Chuckie and shouldn’t be in the storyline at this time. That said I do appreciate how cool Aimes presents Mike even as a child. I love Mike Bauer. Mike Bauer was totally awesome sauce before “Sheldon” invented the phrase awesome sauce.

3. Ted White was one of the heads of a top national PR firm based in LA. Ed and Meta lived in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Bill and Bert go into debt to buy a house in Beverly Hills with money Ted loaned them. Presenting Ted as a mere alderman of Springfield is an insult Ted would never have stood for.

4. Although they will eventually divorce off screen, Joe Roberts was as close as Meta got to a soulmate, but she certainly didn’t start a romance with him before she married Ted. That honor went to Dr. Ross Boling who was also involved with Meta’s sister Trudy.

5. Meta, when she originally returned to Selby Flats, CA where the Bauers then lived, didn’t tell her family that she was back for awhile and lived under the assumed name of Jan Carter. Mama Bauer was still alive at this time.

6. Trudy wasn’t happily married and living out of town while the Ted-Meta drama was going on. She was living at home and blaming Meta for, in her eyes anyway, stringing Ross along. Trudy felt that Meta was the only reason Ross wouldn’t marry her (actually it was a case of he’s not that in to you, but Trudy didn’t see it).

7. Lawyer Ray Brandon is instead turned into an ex-con under Ted’s thumb.

7. Most importantly the author treats Ted White as a one note villain which is as totally  wrong as presenting Roger Thorpe that way. The more I read and listen to radio episodes I’ve become convinced that Ted was a true tragic figure in the literal sense that his fatal flaw, being unable to communicate his love or caring for those in his life, lead to his death and the destruction of those he loved most.

The book opens with a flashback of Bert going to Chicago to shut down an apartment Bill had  there after he was murdered by Eli Simms (although who killed him isn’t mentioned). She discovers Meta there and most of the rest of the book follows Meta’s story from her leaving home to become a model through her relationship with Ted White, giving up Chuckie, and then just when you expect the meat of the piece - her marriage to Ted – it suddenly shifts into fast forward.  A single meeting with Ted again zooms us to the day Chuckie was fatally injured (this has him fighting other children instead of an adult instructor as on the show). Then a chapter later they dive into Meta’s trial which is turned by Charlotte Banning showing as a mystery witness whose testimony really adds nothing, but somehow proves that Meta is innocent. Then Meta dives into her relationship with Joe Roberts which was about a decade or so and a few relationships after her trial on the show.

Overall the writing is fine. Clearly Aimes was trying to streamline what was really a truly complex and intricate story and tie it, at least a little, to what and who was contemporaneously on screen as the book was writtern. Personally I’d have advised her to stick closer to the storyline as laid down by Irna Phillips because I think catching up current viewers with past stories can only increase their conversation to the characters and storylines currently on screen. Plus, given the opportunity, I can’t believe that any writer would basically fastforward through one of the most complex relationships ever presented on TV. Clearly Meta-Ted was right up there with Roger and Holly Thorpe and J.R. and Sue Ellen Ewing for complexity.  However, overall it was an interesting book. As I mentioned at the beginning, with Interstellar Pig, once you figure out they aren’t really going THERE you relax for the rest of the book. Someone who didn’t know Springfield history would learn about Chuckie’s existence, Meta’s murder trial, Meta and Bert’s rivalry and Bill Bauer’s past weakness showing the problems in their marriage. So within limited boundaries the book did what it set out to do. I have high hopes that later books in the series, covering a less complex, and hopefully shorter, piece of Springfield history can only improve.

Find out about Branson‘s other roles here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0105226

Branson actually appeared in two different roles a few years apart before he was brought on full time as Shayne. The first role was in 1999 when right at the end of the Michelle Bauer Santos is framed for Ben Warren’s murder saga, Branson appeared as a rude cop, an obstacle to Manny learning where Ruth Lockhart was.

Jeff Branson as a rude cop  at 5:25 into the clip:

Later Branson returned in a short term role as Alan Spaulding  in created flashbacks who is explicitly years younger than Alan was when we SAW him on screen in 1977, but that’s  the least of the holes in this utter Swiss Cheese of a story. This flashback sort of explains what happened to Maryanne Curruthers, except it makes no sense and actually she made it to shore after the car went into the river and her aunt killed her for some crazy convoluted reason.

Jeff Branson as Alan Spaulding in  flashback at 8:35 into the clip:

Branson took on the role of Josh and Reva’s son Shayne when Dinah discovered him in Bosnia. He was temporarily stuck in a wheelchair after being injured while clearing a field of bombs. His fellow worker was Edmund’s unknown illegitimate   daughter. They had fallen in love and while she was killed by a bomb their baby was saved. This baby was initially illegally adopted by Marina and Mallet, but by the end of the show his parentage had been revealed and Marina and Shayne reconciled to raise him together. Here Branson is as Shayne with Dinah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn9Ta0UZEMo&list=HL1326910236&feature=mh_lolz

Online Soap Fan aka Online Fan -  I didn’t realize this until the last few years, but there is a big division among soap opera fans. I’m not talking about over which show is the best or which pair should be together in a triangle or who is getting too much or too little screen time (although these are all other big points of division). The biggest divide in soap fandom is between on and off line fans. An offline fan can be just as big a fan as an online fan, but their experience and knowledge base is much different. An online fan still has all the resources and activities open to them as offline fans, but there is also so much more. Online fans soon discover groups of other people who are just as big of fans as they are. This can be on discussion boards, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Having a large group of friends to discuss your stories only increases your enjoyment of them. It also pulls you in deeper. Suddenly you find yourself writing detailed blog or discussion board posts, you may feel a need to make a video and you certainly feel the need to watch other people’s videos. Twitter and Facebook especially have created spaces where you can chat back and forth with a star. Tina Sloan and Michael O’Leary have both mailed me things, me personally. That never would have even been in the realm of possibility if I was still an offline fan. You also find out things a lot faster. I’m sure everyone in my online groups found out about the ATWT DVD set well before any of my offline fan friends did. I told most of my offline fan friends and relatives myself.  Also, I regularly chat with editors from CBS Soaps in Depth and the We Love Soaps site that wouldn’t have happened if I was offline and I learn a lot for the conversations and enjoy stretching my mind for other viewpoints.

Unfortunately on the other side, there is a lot of negativity in online soap fandom if you don’t watch yourself. Many discussion boards are avoided by sane people, as are some couple focused podcasts. There are people, supposedly mature people, who will go through YouTube searching for videos made in honor of a couple they don’t care for, just to vote dislike and make nasty comments. (If anyone has time enough to do this, please contact me, I’d be glad to come up with a list of far more useful endeavors.) Perceptions of online and offline fans can be very different and polls show these differences of opinion on characters, storylines, when and how soaps are watched, etc. However, I encourage offline people to test the waters of coming online. On Twitter especially I’ve found a group of people who I enjoy watching soaps with. I don’t have neighbors who watch soaps and I’m not usually home when they are on (although sometimes I am), but whether I’m actually watching live or not I always enjoy the show more when I can discuss it with fellow fans. I think Twitter has given us back talking soaps over the backfence and I for one am very grateful. I hesitated a long time before I signed up for Twitter and now I’m sorry that I hesitated. I’m especially sorry I that I missed the part that was Manny online fandom at its height, from what remains online it was a heck of a party. Learn from my mistake and join the current soap party.