Prospect Park to Start Production Next Month — of High Quality Soaps?

By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a Connie Passalacqua Hayman On Monday, Prospect Park officially declared that they are starting up production on the revived One Life to Live and All My Children next month, to be presented on line.  Hooray, if it goes as planned!  What kind of soaps will these shows be?  Early reports indicate some of the actors have … [Read more...]

What’s to Watch Now?

By Marlena De Lacroix As the World Turns was over on Friday and at least two dozen of my old soap pals all called or wrote. But what to watch now? If you are still around to watch afternoons, it's slim pickings. Days is way too juvenile even to contemplate. Young and Restless is very competent soap opera. But someone help! We're left with the … [Read more...]

All My Children: Daytime’s Brigadoon, But What Happens Next? Part 2

By Marlena De Lacroix In Part 1 of this column, I used that great 1947 Broadway musical in which a mythical ancient town full of joy and real human goodness reappears and vanishes once a decade as a metaphor for the brief return of Lorraine Broderick as headwriter of All My Children. Ms. Broderick's self-chosen short-lived return represented … [Read more...]

The Daytime Emmys: Happy At Last

For another view of the Daytime Emmys, read the post following this one by Marlena's longtime friend and colleague Ed Martin.  A veteran TV industry journalist and analyst, Ed is a columnist for JackMyers.com. By Marlena De Lacroix From out of a dying soap industry, from out of a cable network I never watch, last night arrived the most … [Read more...]

Daytime Emmys 2009: The Beginning of the End?

By Ed Martin  Watching the 36th annual Daytime Emmy Awards on The CW during the dog days of August confirmed what I already knew: These are dark days indeed for the daypart overall and for soap operas in particular. It's not that the telecast was all bad: I actually prefer smaller venues for the Daytime Emmy celebration (the Orpheum Theater … [Read more...]

Marlena Says: Take Me Home to Pine Valley

Thinking Fans Comment Update Sept. 16:  James recalls shopping and dining in old Pine Valley ... Kel agrees it's too soon to judge the new headwriter ... Brandon opines even bad Pine Valley circa 1997 beats today's incarnation ...and more. See Comments below. ______________________ By Marlena De Lacroix All My Children was always my … [Read more...]

The Young and the Restless: How Latham Tried But Failed to Reinvent the Wheel

By Patrick Erwin I confess I  was glued to my TV last week for the soap opera that was The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. The governor, once praised as a smart, brave man, was stripped of his title in a very public and humiliating way. And the reaction reminded me of  "schadenfreude" -- a German word that describes when someone is joyous and … [Read more...]