Archives for November 2009

Happy 20th Anniversary, Soap Opera Weekly!

By Connie Passalacqua Hayman Happy 20th anniversary, Soap Opera Weekly!  Congratulations to the generations of writers, editors, production, art and business people who have worked on the magazine over the years.  I was  lucky to be one of them, from its launch on November 21, 1989 through the magazine's first eleven years. Each week, under the … [Read more...]

One Life to Live: Still Surprising After All These Years

By Ed Martin One Life to Live showed me something last week that I haven't seen in 30 years of soap viewing: A mass wedding of two dozen gay couples. This show has pushed the envelope in a number of crazy ways since the ‘70s, sending its characters to heaven, to an underground city and careening through time. What a pleasure it was  OLTL's … [Read more...]

General Hospital: Making Michael a Monster

By Ed Martin Everything about General Hospital that I have come to loathe during the last ten years was on proud, pungent display last week, to such a degree of extreme outrageousness I could not look away. I must admit that there was an infectious lunatic energy to it all, which could account for my deep fascination with what I was watching. … [Read more...]

A Letter to Marlena De Lacroix (a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman)

Dear Ms. Passalacqua Hayman:  I wanted to write to tell you how much I enjoy reading your columns and your insights into the soaps.  You are the reason I started buying Soap Opera Weekly so many years ago and I was sad when you left.  I bought that magazine every week, at first for your columns, but then cause I just loved it.  I would not get a … [Read more...]

JJ and the Rehabilitation of General Hospital

By Marilyn Henry There already have been big discussions on the internet about Jonathan Jackson returning to his role as Lucky on General Hospital. Newer viewers who don’t know his work are jolted; other long-time viewers are thrilled. I don’t know whose bad    In the last few weeks, the show seems to have turned a corner. Good grief, did … [Read more...]