Time Passes within the Blink of an Eye

As a long-time soap fan/observer/journalist, I feel as if the entire daytime landscape has changed within the blink of an eye. It’s so different from what it was in the early eighties when I first peeked in, and yet there is still something eerily familiar.

We once tuned in breathlessly every day to find out what would happen next. These days, though, watching our shows sometimes feels like a bad habit that keeps automatically pulling us back in. But if we don’t tune in tomorrow, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and nothing missed. There are no longer generational viewers who watch because they inherited the habit from their parents and grandparents, who religiously watched what they called “their stories.”

The daytime scene was once flooded with at least fifteen daily dramas. Today, there are only four veteran shows remaining. General Hospital was created in 1963. Days of Our Lives began in 1964. The Young and the Restless premiered in 1973. The Bold and the Beautiful, the only remaining half-hour show, began in 1987. Producing daytime serial drama from behind the scenes was a close-knit family business. GH’s creators, Frank and Doris Hursley, handed off the writing chores to their daughter Bridget Dobson and her husband, Jerome. The Dobsons went on to write for several other shows before creating their own, Santa Barbara. Ted and Betty Corday created Days of Our Lives and its mythical town of Salem; the show is still being produced by their son, Ken Corday. The soap dynasty of Y&R and B&B that was created by Bill and Lee Bell is in the capable hands of their children, actress Lauralee Bell and producer Bradley Bell.

Just recently, CBS premiered the first brand-new soap in ages, Beyond the Gates. In this soap reporter’s opinion, this show is slightly beyond the pale and totally over the top. But the older shows have their own problems.

Legacy characters from the veteran soaps have disappeared for various reasons. Often the respected actors who played them passed away. These include Y&R’s Jeanne Cooper and Jerry Douglas; Days’ MacDonald Carey, Francis Reid, Joseph Mascolo, and Drake Hogestyn; GH’s John Beradino, Emily McLaughlin, Shell Kepler, Jacklyn Zeman, and Denise Alexander; and B&B’s Darlene Conley. Others left for various reasons: GH’s Rachel Ames retired, GH’s Anthony Geary quit, Y&R’s Doug Davidson was let go, and B&B’s Susan Flannery often directed the show after she retired from acting in 2012. (This year, she moved to Australia to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren.)

Today’s daily dramas are not compelling portrayals of the continuing angst and daily lives of established characters and their generational conflicts. Instead, they are slickly produced and orchestrated drop-ins of occasional stories, with very little character growth and development. There is also a lack of community spirit; characters outside a particular storyline don’t interact with the main players. In 1981, the entire town of Port Charles and even some outsiders got together for the much-anticipated wedding of Luke and Laura (played by Anthony Geary and Genie Francis), still the highest rated episode in the history of daytime television.

Often today, there are sets of storylines that are spectrums apart. Back in the day, a one-night party at Llanfair on One Life to Live brought together the entire cast on one set. The party lasted an entire month. Today’s soaps sometimes place tag lines within one episode that say, “the next morning,” “sometime later,” or “the day after.” Several years ago, as an experiment, Days jumped one year forward, while the daily story was backtracked one year prior. Today, characters come and go at a click; once their initial storyline is over, they are gone, and the audience doesn’t bother investing in them. Just imagine how different Y&R and GH would be today if Y&R had dropped Eric Braeden after his introductory storyline or Tristan Rogers had been zapped after his original two-day stint on GH. Actors no longer get the opportunity to show long-term character growth — or emerging villainous behavior. Back in the day, skilled actors often took their characters from one extreme to another. For instance, Guiding Light saw the painful destruction of sweet and wholesome dewy-eyed Annie Dutton (played by Cynthia Watros), who turned into an entertaining, fanatical, and destructive character during her reign of terror on Springfield. Her on-going enemy was Reva Shayne (played by Kim Zimmer), a reformed bad girl herself, the self-dubbed Slut of Springfield. On the other end of the spectrum, OLTL’s bad girl Gabrielle Medina (played by Fiona Hutchison), who worked in lockstep with troublemaking temptress Tina Lord (played by Andrea Evans), was redeemed into a respectable denizen of Llanview over an extended period of time. These days, once characters serve a specific plot purpose, their storylines are over, and the actors/actresses are given their walking papers.

Of course, as time marches on, many favorite performers have passed on, taking their respective characters with them. These include Days’ Philece Sampler; GH’s Stuart Damon, John Reilly, and Leslie Charleson; and many others who dominated the plethora of soaps that are no longer aired. Among them: GL’s Marj Dusay, All My Children’s Candice Earley and Mark LaMura; As The World Turn’s Benjamin Hendrickson, Elizabeth Hubbard, Terry Lester, Kathryn Hays, and Eileen Fulton; Another World’s Douglass Watson, Carmen Duncan, Brent Collins, and Robert Hogan; Y&R’s Beau Kazer and Jerry Douglas; Passions’ Josh Evans (who played Timmy), and sadly, too many others from way too many soaps long since gone: Secret Storm, Somerset, Loving, Capitol, One Life to Live, Texas, As the World Turns, Generations, and Santa Barbara.

After the unexpected passing of the aforementioned Philece Sampler, who portrayed Renée DuMonde on Days some 40 years prior, in an ironic tribute to the late actress, her character was resurrected by a drug-induced Sarah Horton (played by Linsey Godfrey), who thought she was the late Ms. DuMonde. At the end of the story, when Sarah got her memory back, characters who were connected to Renée in her original storyline, Tony and Anna (played by Thaao Penghlis and Leann Hunley), gave an on-air toast to the character (as well as to the original actress who portrayed her), wishing that she rest in peace.

It’s hard to believe so many years have come and gone, since a teenage Genie Francis appeared as Lesley’s long-lost daughter on GH and Jacklyn Zeman came on board as former prostitute turned nurse Bobbie Spencer; or Eileen Davidson and Beth Maitland turned up respectively as sisters Ashley and Traci Abbott on Y&R; or Days’ Kristian Alfonso “glided on ice” into Salem; or Katherine Kelly Lang roared onto B&B as Brooke Logan, then a naïve Valley girl; or Tracey E. Bregman began a collective run as Lauren Fenmore Y&R and B&B. Over the years, these young stars grew and matured before our eyes.

Also back in the day came some raw young talent destined for future stardom:  GH’s Demi Moore (who played Jackie Templeton), Emma Samms (who played Holly Scorpio), and John Stamos (who played Blackie); ATWT’s Marisa Tomei and Meg Ryan; Another World’s Anne Heche (who played Vicky/Marley), Ray Liotta (who played Joey Perrini), and a sassy young unknown Jackee Harry (who played Lily Mason and made a triumphant return to the daytime scene several years ago as Salem’s sassy & perky Paulina Price); Kim Delaney as AMC’s innocent Jenny; and OLTL’s Tommy Lee Jones as Mark Toland. In later years, they all appeared in major blockbuster films or highly rated TV series.

There were also some familiar actors who made the rounds of various soaps, creating numerous unique characters: Robin Mattson (GH, GL, SB, AMC), Ellen Wheeler (AW, AMC, B&B); Ilene Kristen (Ryan’s Hope, OLTL, AW, GH); and Robert Newman (GL, GH, SB, Y&R). The biggest soap hopper of all, the former AW star Linda Dano (who played Felicia Gallant), reprised her previous role of OLTL’s Gretel Rae Cummings on all four of ABC’s daytime soaps simultaneously. Dano also had a role on ATWT and a recent short-term engagement on Days as Vivian.

Many favorites from old shows have now created new characters on current shows, such as GH’s Maura West (Ava; ex-ATWT), Michael Knight (Martin, ex-AMC), and Cameron Mathison (Drew, ex-Ryan, AMC); B&B’s Sean Kanan (ex-AJ on GH) and Rebecca Budig (ex-Greenlee, AMC); Passions’ Galen Gering (now on Days as Rafe), and former GHer Rena Sofer (late of B&B as Quinn, but now back as GH’s Lois).

The landscape of soaps continues to change. NBC transported its popular soap Days from its 57-year perch on NBC-TV to the network’s sister streaming service Peacock. Hopefully, its longevity and popularity will be retained. Several other soaps, like AMC and OLTL, went to online platforms after being canceled by their networks, and Passions extended its run by one year on Direct-TV, but NBC moved Days directly to Peacock without canceling it.

One thing that makes soaps exciting these days is the return of long-gone “legacy” characters who have continued to drop in and out of storylines through the years. They include B&B’s Kimberlin Brown (Sheila), Days’ Judi Evans (Bonnie/Adrienne); Y&R’s Judith Chapman (Gloria) and Jess Walton (Jill); Days’ Thaoo Penghlis and Leann Hunley (Tony and Anna), and the triumvirate of former GH leading ladies, Rena Sofer (Lois), Jane Elliot (Tracy), and the recently returned Emma Samms (Holly). The nostalgia factor is one reason to keep tuning in. However daytime is remembered in the future, Susan Lucci will be forever canonized as The Queen of Daytime, through her performances of soap vixen Erica Kane on AMC!

It almost feels like yesterday — when I met my first non-soap celebrities (Lynda Carter, Jaclyn Smith, Stockard Channing, Ed Asner) and had encounters with AMC’s Michael Knight and Marcy Walker (Tad and Liza) and Ryan’s Hope’s Robin Mattson (Delia) for a college newspaper; and then conducted my first professional interviews with such soap personalities as GH’s Emma Samms (Holly) and Sharon Wyatt (ex-Tiffany); RH’s Marg Helgenberger (Siobhan), Ilene Kristen (ex-Delia), and Daniel Pilon (Max Dubujack); SB’s Robin Mattson (Gina) and Judith McConnell (Sophia) and AW’s Linda Dano (Felicia) for way too many daytime magazines that no longer exist. It was thrilling to have a “Three Way” conversation with the soap legends and real life married couple Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes (Days’ Doug and Julie Williams) and with the hot TV couple from Santa Barbara, Nicolas Coster and Louise Sorel (who played Lionel and Augusta Lockridge). There have been interviews with numerous soap and non-soap actors and actresses since those days, but even with all the passage of time, it feels as if I only blinked. … As have we all!