Losing “The Natural” — An Appreciation of Beth Ehlers, Guiding Light’s Irreplaceable Harley

By Patrick Erwin Beth Ehlers is on her way to ABC and All My Children's Pine Valley, and they're all damn lucky to have her. But for the second time in just a few months, P&G and CBS have made the boneheaded move of allowing someone who was woven deeply into the tapestry of a show to walk away. P&G clearly hasn't learned from the loss … [Read more...]

General Hospital’s Monstrous Lies, All My Children’s Truthful Memories

By Marlena De Lacroix Yesterday, I was trying to write my long promised column against the most perversely inhuman, possibly most disturbing soap storyline of all time, but the words just would not come out.  I'm talking about the General Hospital storyline written by Bob Guza that began with 12-year-old Michael getting shot in the head and … [Read more...]

10 Merry Mid-Month of May Questions

By Marlena De Lacroix and Patrick Erwin 1.  When you saw John-Paul Lavoisier as Rex in his recent pre-wedding scenes on One Life to Live, wandering around a bar drunk, shirtless, and disheveled with a wild head of hair, didn't he remind you just a little of Bamm-Bamm from The Flintstones? 2.  Have you been lost in the maze of brunettes on As … [Read more...]

Daytime Emmy Noms 2008: The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same

By Marlena De Lacroix I first attended and wrote about the Daytime Emmys in 1980 and I should be over them by now.  But I continue, year after year, to be exasperated by the fact that two things never change.  1) No matter how many times they have been revised or have been updated over the years, the nomination and award processes are still … [Read more...]

Who Created All My Children’s Erica and Sugar on the Run?

By Marlena De Lacroix You ever think you're going to hate something and you wind up liking it?  I certainly chortled when I heard jail-bound Erica Kane on All My Children was going to escape  from the cops during a  police van crash and go on the run handcuffed to a  bank robber named ... Sugar. Some AMC writer has to be an old movie fan, I … [Read more...]

General Hospital’s Stephen Macht: Can Character Actors Save Soaps?

By Marlena De Lacroix Every week for months, there have been rumors that Stephen Macht's tough mob lawyer character, Trevor Lansing, is about to be whacked on General Hospital.   So, while there's still time, I'd like to say that I'm really enjoying Macht's performances in the role this season.  Yes, Macht, the 60ish actor with the pock markets, … [Read more...]

The Daring and the Cowardly: Four Sweeps Surprises

By Marlena De Lacroix With spoilers, there are no storyline surprises on soaps anymore.  That's not to say that the ways in which storylines are presented can really come as shockers -- especially in the February sweeps that just wrapped up, the sweeps in which we expected little to nothing interesting because of the Writers Strike.  So here are … [Read more...]

All My Children’s Angie and Jesse: Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing!

By Marlena De Lacroix All My Children's newly revived characters Angie and Jesse are causing me pain.  At the end of every scene they are in, I start to hurt, because I have to watch so many scenes of the rest of the storylines on AMC until I see them in their next scene.  These characters (and actors Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams) are so … [Read more...]

For Valentine’s Day, 5 Soap Couples Who Were Really Super

By Patrick Erwin I  want to observe Valentine's Day by discussing some of my favorite soap couples. I know soaps are famous for their "supercouples," those pairs that keep coming back to each other through sleet, snow, and psychotic ex-spouses. Most shows have had these grand couples:  Luke and Laura,  Bo and Hope, Josh and Reva, and so on. But … [Read more...]

10 Sweet and Soapy Valentine’s Day Questions

By Marlena De Lacroix 1.  Is it my imagination or did bravura actress Sarah Brown return to General Hospital (as Claudia Zacchara) with a little something extra under the signature slutty red wrap dress?  And isn't fierce mob princess Claudia very similar to Maerose Prizzi (Oscar winner Anjelica Huston) the fierce mob princess who wants to take … [Read more...]