Bonjour again, mes amies. Are you enjoying the Martimmys I made for you last week, for the first half of our celebration of a sizzling soap summer? Let’s move on to the second half of our look at what’s happening right now, in the middle of the season that is historically prime time for soaps. Normally, we would have had the Daytime Emmys in June. This year, however, the ceremony won’t be until Oct. 17. And it won’t even be televised! If we want to watch the show live, we’ll have to find it online at watch.theemmys.tv. Why isn’t CBS televising the show? I bet the network will televise it next year to promote show Beyond the Gates, which is too new for award consideration this year.
We’ll have to wait to see who wins. But the Television Academy released its annual list of nominees last week. I’m so glad Nancy Grahn, who plays Alexis Davis on General Hospital, has been nominated as Best Actress. She has won twice before in this category.
This year, the wonderfully cerebral and outspoken actress, familiar to all for playing a smart and tough attorney, had to explore a different side of her character — as the mother to two whiny look-alike daughters who would drive anyone crazy, Kristina (played by Kate Mansi) and Molly (played by Kristen Vaganos).
Of the four longtime soaps that are still around, only my old favorite The Bold and the Beautiful (I wrote the first ever story on it when it premiered in 1987) was not nominated for Best Show. Last week, I condemned the show for the excessive violence of its resident psycho, Luna Nozawa, played by Lisa Yamada, who devoted both this summer and last to mayhem and murder. She is Emmy-nominated, and as much as I disapprove of her story line, I don’t begrudge her the nomination. She is a deserving actress.
Another deserving nominee, this one in the Outstanding Guest category, is the veteran character actor Clint Howard, brother of the director Ron Howard. Clint visited B&B in 2024, playing Tom Starr, who was believed, erroneously as it turned out, to be Luna’s father. Last summer (which counts as part of the Emmy year being celebrated on Oct. 17), Luna murdered him. Seasoned character actors like Howard always enrich soaps.
For Best Show, I favor General Hospital. As helmed by the veteran executive producer Frank Valentini and scripted by the writers Chris von Etten and Elizabth Korte, the action never stops. I’m annoyed by all the violence. But Sonny’s devious criminal dealings are still intriguing. And a younger cast that is full of promise includes Marlena’s fave, Gio, played by Giovanni Mazza.
In Memoriam: Eileen Fulton
If ever an actress deserved such accolades as legendary, iconic, and truly great, it is Eileen Fulton, who died July14 at her home in Ashville, N.C., two months shy of her 92nd birthday. Before the women’s liberation movement was born, soap fans knew her as the strong, forcefully independent, and oft married Lisa Miller Hughes Grimaldi on As the World Turns from 1960 until the show was canceled in 2010.
During that half century, her Lisa was married eight times. According to Soap Opera Encyclopedia by my late dear friend Christopher Schemering, “Audiences came to love Lisa’s pluck, intelligence and charm as she navigated three dozen lovers, murder trials, rapes, amnesia, a Mexican mudslide, and a phantom fetus.”
As if she wasn’t busy enough on daytime, her character Lisa was so popular that she was spun off in 1965 into her own prime-time show, Our Private World. In addition to soaps, Fulton was a cabaret singer, she appeared on Broadway in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Abe Lincoln in Illinois, and she appeared off-Broadway in The Fantasticks. She also won numerous awards, including a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Soap Opera Digest Award. She co-authored two autobiographies, How My World Turns and, on her 35th anniversary on the show, As My World Still Turns. She also authored a series of mystery novels.
Fulton’s Lisa was daytime’s first superstar character, and Fulton made Lisa irresistible to a wide audience. Although ATWT was cancelled in 2010, audiences well remember this landmark soap and its — I will say it — delicious leading lady.
Welcome, Podcasts
How about all the attention being heaped on soaps since Beyond the Gates premiered? Are soaps suddenly “in” again? Certainly, lots of online soap sites are flourishing, including this one, mes chers. And the welcome arrival of two soap podcasts suggests a refreshing new interest in all things soap.
CBS Daytime, now as active in promoting its shows as ABC Daytime was back in the ’80s and the ’90s (“Love in the Afternoon”), has started a new podcast called Soapy, which is offered weekly on Tuesdays. One of the hosts is a busy actor, Greg Rikaart, who appears on two soaps (playing Kevin on The Young and the Restless and Leo on Days of Our Lives). His partner on Soapy is Rebecca Budig (who plays Taylor on The Bold and the Beautiful).
The first two installments were very interesting. The veteran actor Eric Braeden, who plays Victor on Y&R, was the first guest. He described the behind-the-scenes reality of a working soap actor’s life: the four- and five-episode taping marathons, the days that sometimes require memorizing as much as sixty pages of script. The second guest was Deidre Hall, the infamous Marlena of Days of Our Lives. She recalled the time long ago when her real twin sister, Andrea, played nutty Hattie, the twin sister of her character, Marlena. Dee is a woman of class and talent.
The second new podcast appears weekly on Soaphub.com. It stars soap journalists Alina Sivorinovsky Wickham and Amber Sinclair, both good friends. They could bill themselves as the Giggly Critics, so merry are they in their shared analysis. But listen to them. They know exactly what they’re talking about.
Soaps Go Collegiate
Soap opera is about to get some long overdue respect. Ohio’s Bowling Green State University will host a two-day conference titled “Soap Operas in Popular Culture” on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Among the speakers will be yours truly. My topics will the history of the soap press, from yesterday’s fan magazines to the booming websites of today, and the crucial role that women have played in the evolution of soap operas. I’ve been immersed in both subjects for more than 40 years, and I can’t wait to delve into them in the context of an academic conference. I served as an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University and Marymount Manhattan College for a long time, so I expect returning to a campus will be a real treat.
The conference is being organized by BGSU’s Department of Popular Culture and School of Cultural and Critical Studies. Many universities include the study of popular culture in history and sociology curricula. But, according to Wikipedia, BGSU is the only university to offer degrees, both bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees, in this neglected field of study.
As far as I’ve been able to determine, this is the first conference ever on the subject of soap operas. Its focus is soap opera as a reflection of and influence on American life. Soaps pioneered story lines dealing with such controversial topics as abortion, race, and women’s rights. As a feminist, I’m happy to talk about the role of women in soap operas. As I have always insisted, soaps are a women’s medium.
Amazing as always. I learn so much from you, friend.
Thanks as always dear G.L.
Thank you for the tribute to Eileen Fulton. Since March of this year I have been watching episodes of ATWT from 1986 on Youtube (1986 and 2025 have matching calendars so I watch them on their corresponding air dates). What a treat it has been to see characters that I remember from watching the show in the early 2000s—younger than they were then, of course, and sometimes in very different incarnations. Some were played by different actors (it took some adjustment for me to get used to Hillary B. Smith and Gregg Marx instead of Ellen Dolan and Scott Holmes as Margo and Tom!) and some were part of the canvas in different ways than in later years.
Lisa was certainly a life force, and woven into so many character relationships and storylines at that time under headwriter Doug Marland. It has been a pleasure to watch her interact with stepson Brian McColl (played by Mark Pinter), romantic interest Earl Mitchell (played by Farley Granger), rival Lucinda Walsh (played to the hilt by the irrepressible Liz Hubbard), and of course with the Hughes clan. The close relationship that Lisa maintained with her ex-husband Bob and her friendship with Kim has a maturity that is remarkable. And Eileen Fulton exhibits such naturalness in the role—in her scenes she always sounds natural and spontaneous and genuine.
I remember looking up her name when I began watching the episodes in March, and was pleasantly surprised that she was still among us. I was saddened to read the news item a couple of weeks ago that announced her death. I learned of it on the day of the 1986 episode in which the Hughes family—and Lisa— mourned the death of Chris Hughes (played by Don MacLaughlin).
So many of the soap actors from that classic era have passed on, but somehow they still live on through their work and in the memories of soap fans.
What a superb letter–thank you so much Roger. I too watched ATWT and was a great admirer of Eileen’s (although sadly, I never got to interview her.) On ATWT and in real life she was a total original and as I noted in my column she–and Lisa–were liberated woman even years before the Woman’s Revolution of the late 60’s and 70’s. We will never see her likes again!