More Emmy Noms 2008: How ‘bout a Little Self-Respect?

April 30, 2008 By 5 Comments

By Patrick Erwin

Basketball may have its March Madness, but the soap world has its own spring madness ritual — the Daytime Emmy nominations. The discussions about this year’s nominations have come fast and furious since they were announced yesterday. Marlena gave her take on the whole process, and I had a few thoughts of my own I thought I’d like to share.

Most Confusing Nomination: The three younger actress nominations for The Young and the Restless. Look, I know everyone has their own favorites, and their own likes and dislikes. And as far as these performers go (Vail Bloom, Emily O’Brien, Tammin Sursok), I have nothing against any of them per se. But even the most ardent Y&R fan has to admit all three of these performers played characters who were unpopular with viewers, and have been in very unpopular storylines. For all three to be rewarded with a nomination defies logic.

The “Guiding Light Survival Raft” Nominations: All of the acting nominations for Days of our Lives. Like GL, Days has been the subject of cancellation rumors [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hospital, Guiding Light, One Life to Live, PATRICK, Young and the Restless Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Marlena Is Back

April 28, 2008 By 25 Comments

Hi Everyone.

Thanks so much for your patience these past three weeks. My father, Cosmo Passalacqua, who was 85, passed away April 18 after a two week hospitalization for a heart attack.  My dad was a career  transportation executive for the Department of the Army.  He was very, very intelligent and funny and had a persona that was bigger than life.  On the other hand, he was very straightforward and modest would not tolerate untruth or pretentiousness from anyone or anything.

He left behind a lexicon of sayings which derived from his early life growing up in Brooklyn and serving in World War II.  “Feed them beans” was his favorite, along with “Bull—- me easy, I’m your pal.” After surviving bloody Omaha Beach on D-Day, he whooped it up in Paris in 1944 and then rode across France with General Patton’s Army to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.  I guess that’s why he always mumbled silly French expressions  around the house when I was a kid.  Expressions like “Pomme do terre frites,” and “C’est la guerre.”  Little did he know how profoundly he was influencing his only child, Connie, who would one day grow up and establish a French-accented soap opera magazine critical column and blog, written by one Marlena De Lacroix.

Rest in peace, beloved Dad.  In so many, many ways,  Marlena (that’s really moi,  Connie) is your daughter.

I’ll be back in full soap mode Wednesday after the daytime Emmy nominations are announced.

                                                                        XXXOOO

                                                                        Marlena

Filed Under: MARLENA

Guiding Light and All Soaps: Don’t Change the Quirky Characters We Love!

April 25, 2008 By 5 Comments

By Patrick Erwin

Being a Guiding Light fan hasn’t been an easy road over the last few years. But one consistent bright spot for me has been the mother-daughter duo of Doris and Ashlee Wolfe. Ashlee, in particular, is always a joy to watch. She’s a full-figured ball of energy, quirky and often funny, even when she doesn’t intend to be. I think my love for Ashlee (and for actress Caitlin Van Zandt) was sealed when Ashlee sang “The Wedding Song (There Is Love)” at Doris and Alan’s farcical wedding.  (Trust me if you haven’t seen it — it’s hysterical!)

So I was a bit concerned when I read that Ashlee has undergone gastric-banding (or lap-band) surgery. Ashlee’s size, after all, is [Read more...]

Filed Under: Guiding Light, PATRICK Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When Cliché Stories Go Startlingly … Right!

April 15, 2008 By 5 Comments

By Patrick Erwin

Soap fans and critics alike complain loudly when we encounter the overused soap plotline. We can see most of them coming from a mile away!

We know, for example, that one woman, plus two men, multiplied by a short period of time = ”Who’s the daddy” story. It seems like a good third of all soap characters have discovered heretofore unknown children, and some lucky lottery winners (Guiding Light‘s Reva, One Life To Live‘s Viki, All My Children‘s Erica and As the World Turns‘  John Dixon) have found more than one along the way!

And yet, every once in a while, even the oldest cliché in the book really works as a story. Recently a  few shows have put a new shine on old chestnuts, with entertaining results.

Back from the Dead: Jesse, AMC. Characters coming back from the dead is one of the oldest soap clichés, and one that often doesn’t work. AMC tried to revive the formerly-dead Maria, then Dixie, with far less success. And I couldn’t imagine a character less likely to be revived than Jesse, who had been “dead” for more than 20 years.  We saw die on screen!  And yet, despite all those potential negatives, this story just worked beautifully  for several reasons. One, of course, was the great performances by Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan. The writing was also beautiful and historically accurate (and as Marlena has theorized, was perhaps guided by [Read more...]

Filed Under: All My Children, One Life to Live, PATRICK, Young and the Restless Tagged With: , , , ,

Patrick’s Postcards from Oakdale, Salem and Springfield

April 10, 2008 By 5 Comments

By Patrick Erwin

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven’t been around as much lately.  I’ve been dealing with the plot twists and turns of my own storyline, including a move to another city — not just any city, but the Windy City of Chicago. Chicago is, of course, the cradle of soaps, where Irna Phillips started it all and where Bill Bell began. Speaking of cities, I’ve managed (despite my busy schedule) to visit several soap cities. Here’s my postcard from each …

Postcard: Oakdale – It’s no secret that As the World Turns has been the center of an incredible amount of friction, both onscreen and off. Many of the stories that played out on our screens over the last several months were incredibly dark and depressing (like Dusty’s murder, the custody battle for baby Hallie, and the Craig/Paul/Meg/Rosanna triangle, to name but a few). I have to say, though, [Read more...]

Filed Under: As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives, Guiding Light, PATRICK Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

A Note from Moose

April 9, 2008 By 8 Comments

Hi Everyone,

Just a note to let you know that our dear Marlena hasn’t posted to this site lately because she’s dealing with an immediate and very urgent family emergency.  Rest assured she’ll be back very soon.

Best regards,

Moose 

Filed Under: MARLENA

Who Created All My Children’s Erica and Sugar on the Run?

April 2, 2008 By 3 Comments

Elizabeth Rodrigues

By Marlena De Lacroix

You ever think you’re going to hate something and you wind up liking it?  I certainly chortled when I heard jail-bound Erica Kane on All My Children was going to escape  from the cops during a  police van crash and go on the run handcuffed to a  bank robber named … Sugar.

Susan LucciSome AMC writer has to be an old movie fan, I thought!   The Defiant Ones is a 1958 movie in which convicts Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis go on the run chained  to one another after escaping following a train crash).  And Sugar?  Darlings, how many times we all seen Jack Lemmon/Tony Curtis in the 1959 drag comedy classic  Some Like it Hot, in which Marilyn Monroe plays a sexy/sweet band singer named … Sugar.

I have a theory who that 1950s movie fan/AMC writer might be … but more on that shortly.

I actually thought Erica and Sugar were quite fun together all of last week. The Rosie Perez-flavored Sugar (whose given name is Carmen Morales) is a real shot of energy for AMC and the debuting Elizabeth Rodriguez a refreshing acting partner for Susan Lucci.  Anyone who thought [Read more...]

Filed Under: All My Children, MARLENA Tagged With: , , , , ,

General Hospital: Looking Back on 45 Years

April 1, 2008 By 22 Comments

(A note from Marlena:  It’s General Hospital’s 45th anniversary!  Here’s a celebration of the event by my good friend and journalistic colleague Ed Martin.  Ed and I have been happily debating General Hospital over coffee now for almost ten  years — and believe moi, we’re not always happy about the current state of the show.  Still,  Ed is clearly very sentimental about the show he once dearly loved.  Read Ed’s authoritative column TV Buzz at www.jackmyers.com.)General Hospital

By Ed Martin

General Hospital today is marking its 45th anniversary. The daily drama about the residents of fictional Port Charles, New York isn’t the oldest soap opera on television – CBS’ Guiding Light and As the World Turns have it beat – but it is still a vital and important show. It is the centerpiece of ABC’s afternoon lineup and remains the most talked about serial on daytime television – a distinction it first achieved 30 years ago this year when a young character named Laura Vining, who began on the show in 1976, moved to the center of the show’s narrative. Laura, one of the most messed-up kids in the history of soap opera, was played by Genie Francis, who was then only in her mid-teens. She had a [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hospital, GUESTS, Yearning for Yesterday Tagged With: , , , , , , ,