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...]

Ten Happy Halloween Questions

By Marlena De Lacroix 1.  Isn't it most curious that two of the most intelligent women characters in daytime -- Dr. Marty Saybrooke on One Life to Live and fashion mogul Jackie M on The Bold and the Beautiful -- have gone from brunette to blonde in the last few months?  Fashion, or just another attempt by the networks/shows to "dumb down" smart … [Read more...]

The Downward Soap Spiral Accelerates

By Marlena De Lacroix Bonjour, everyone.  This November will mark 20th anniversary of my becoming Marlena De Lacroix, soap critic. Marlena's mission has always been to write the truth as I see it, no matter how impolitic.    But now, for me -- I repeat, for me -- it's clear that we've reached the end stage of network daytime soap opera, a … [Read more...]

James Franco to General Hospital? Marlena’s Top 10!

By Marlena De Lacroix James Franco to guest star for two months on General Hospital has to be the biggest bombshell news in the decades I've watched and written about soaps.  I just heard, and it's fabulous!  As much as I love soaps, my mind jumped to wise guy remarks, a la David Letterman's nightly Top 10. And I have no shame: here's my … [Read more...]

Guiding Light’s Last Fade-out: Only Love Can Save the Soap World

By Marlena De Lacroix I thought Kim Zimmer looked absolutely gorgeous in her last scene on Guiding Light set a year after the action, when Reva and Josh pledged their love "always."  Clad in a  emerald gown, the top of her blond hair nicely swept back, she looked truly amazing.  A goddess, indeed. Surprised I wrote this?  Well, I m going to … [Read more...]

Celebrating the Glorious Life of Guiding Light: From 1992, Marlena’s Analysis of GL at its Peak

Don't miss Marlena's farewell to Guiding Light on blogtalkradio's Brandon's Buzz at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16 or later on the network's archive. ____________________________________________________    By Marlena De Lacroix In March 1992, Guiding Light reached the apex of soap quality, that perfect blend of excellence in writing, acting … [Read more...]