Daytime Emmys 2022: A Class Act

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman

It seemed like old times. After two years of diminished Covid-mandated online ceremonies, the Daytime Emmys, our Daytime Day of Days, returned to network television. And what a class act it was!

Kudos to NATAS (National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) for staging such a refreshing Daytime Emmys telecast from Los Angeles on CBS.

How great to see members of the soap community get back together again live and in person. Best dressed actresses like Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy, Bold and Beautiful) and Kelly Thiebaud (Brit, General Hospital) wore their designer best for the occasion.

Adding to the fun was the fact that all the winners were first-timers.

These included Best Actress Mishael Morgan (Amanda, Young and Restless) the first African American to be so honored. I, too, liked her work, but prefer her previous performance as superbitch Hillary, also on Y&R.

John McCook (Eric, B&B) waited a long time for his richly deserved Best Actor nod. His long career of charm, leadership and solid performances began when he debuted as Lance on Y&R in 1973. He helped launch B&B in 1987.

General Hospital, which deservedly won for Best Show, was the biggest overall winner. Pony-tailed Jeff Kober, who Marlena thinks is the ultimate in cool, won Best Supporting Actor as villain Cyrus. Thiebaud, who is a daily delightful hoot as Dr. Westborne, came home with the Best Supporting Actress award. And Nicholas Chavez, for certain a mainstream star of the future, won for Best Young Actor as suave Spencer Cassadine.

Venerable GH, as always so ably executive produced by longtime daytime hand Frank Valentini and headwritten by Chris von Etten and Dan O’Connor, is as good as it ever has been (except perhaps for the Gloria Monty days). What a nice soap feast they’ve given us! There was that healthy teen scene, and the solid storylines like Sonny (the marvelous Maurice Bernard) going off his meds and starting a new life as Mike in a nearby town, then falling in love with Nina (all hail the luminous Cynthia Watros) and splitting up his marriage (for the fifth time) to Carly (Laura Wright).

Why is GH so good right now?  Marlena contends that a major reason for the show’s success is the contribution of casting director Mark Teschner, who literally has never missed in the decades since he joined the show in 1989.  From stellar talents like Watros, Kober and James Patrick Stuart (who so sympathetically plays villain Valentin) down to a great teen cast (featuring Chavez as Nicholas, the now departed Sydney Mikayla (ex-Trina) and William Lipton as Cameron) Teschner’s picks always connect perfectly to the characters and their stories.

Meanwhile, as long as we’re speaking of GH, Marlena would like to commend the actions of the longtime politically active Nancy Grahn, a Best Actress nominee.  The day before the ceremony the Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade, a 1974 landmark case which legalized abortion — a women’s right to choose.  On her chest, Grahn wore a tattoo that said “Reproductive Freedom.”

Back to the Emmys: The high point of the evening was a previously unannounced appearance by daytime drama greatest star Susan Lucci (Erica, All My Children) who appeared at the beginning of the memorial sequence documenting those who died in the daytime community this year.  Susan, ever gorgeous at age 75, memorialized her late husband Helmut Huber, a former chef and talent agent she had wed four decades ago. Afterward, the names and pictures of daytimers who passed away were scrolled as Michael Bolton sang.

Another high point of the night was the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to John Aniston (Victor Kiriakis, Days) by longtime castmate Suzanne Rogers (Maggie).  Unfortunately, the 89-year-old actor could not attend the ceremony. As baddie Victor, patriarch of the Kiriakis family, Aniston has been one of daytime’s all-time great villains for 37 years. Known in the “real” (a.k.a. non-soap) world as the father of primetime superstar Jennifer Aniston (Friends) she appeared on tape on the Emmy broadcast paying tribute to her beloved father. What a nice, thoughtful touch by the show’s producers.

All in all, the 2022 Daytime Emmys live and in person were the joyous occasion they always were in the past.  It even got good ratings.  Hopefully CBS, (who is at the end of its contract with NATAS, will broadcast them again next year.