soap opera
July 19, 2009
- Since 1992, fans of Guiding Light have enjoyed Elizabeth Keifer in the role of Blake Thorpe Marler. With the shooting schedule on GL incredibly tight as the show winds down its run on CBS, Liz was generous enough to set aside time to talk to me me on a Sunday afternoon. We talked about the unique perspective she brings to GL as both a long-time viewer and a key cast member, taking on an ...
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July 15, 2009
- it was a lovely wedding. yes, there was a lot if silliness in the runup. a wedding cake of twinkies held together with canned whipped cream? the wrong date on the invitations? unless i missed something, the spauldings are still rich, aren't they? it's easy to lose track. i've never been a huge fan of bill and lizzie as a couple, but what made this wedding work for me was the inclusion of so ...
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July 13, 2009
- Michael Jackson's death reminded me of a big thing back in the eighties. Back then, all shows used songs to enhance a storyline. Who could forget Lisa Hartman belting out "Never Surrender" for a religious show for Knots Landing, Ken George Jones writing the ballad "Jillian" for Jill Coleridge on Ryan's Hope, or Bruce Willis singing "Do Wa Diddy Diddy to Cybill ...
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July 9, 2009
- Long time viewers of Guiding Light know Tina Sloan as the actress who has played the role of Lillian Raines for 26 years. While many of the old school GL characters have long gone by the wayside, Lillian has remained and, even when she hasn't been involved in front burner story lines, she's been an integral part of Springfield. To many, Lillian Raines, R.N. is the conscience of Springfield. She ...
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June 28, 2009
- then soap opera is like hollandaise sauce. Making hollandaise is tricky business. It's an emulsion, and you have to keep whisking; add the butter to the eggs too quickly, the whole thing separates and falls apart. And so it is with how soap opera viewers suspend disbelief. The very nature of soaps demands more of viewers than other dramatic media when it comes to suspending disbelief. It's a ...
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June 24, 2009
- waylaid by another project this week, so i won't get to a proper post until the weekend. but i just want to say "welcome back" to peter simon's ed bauer on guiding light. watching his scenes today with grant aleksander's phillip reminded me of everything this show used to be. and they were real scenes, with real conversation, and moments that resonated with subtext and history. even ...
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June 19, 2009
- My friend, Robert, and I have been soap fans for many years and, as such, I consider us to be sort of experts on the subject. We don't just know a lot about the characters, the plot lines, the family histories in Springfield, Genoa City, Oakdale, etc....but we know about how soap opera works, as a genre. We know the shape and structure of daily soap. We know how it differs from, say, the ...
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June 17, 2009
- I’m wondering if All My Children’s head writer Chuck Pratt has been watching old clips of Guiding Light for inspiration?The first parallel I noticed was the dueling Crazy Annie stories. Melissa Claire Egan has been doing great work as Pine Valley’s Annie, but I still miss Cynthia Watros’ bravura performance as “that mutton woman” Annie Dutton.In 1997, Annie paired up with power-hungry ...
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June 17, 2009
- Katherine Phillips Hughes died two weeks ago. I know the name doesn’t sound familiar, but she was a part of a dynasty, a soap opera dynasty. She helped start a career of an actress, who would later win an Oscar. While she wasn’t directly involved with Guiding Light, her death adds to the end of an era of soap operas.Katherine Phillips Hughes was adopted by Irna Phillips. Back in the ...
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June 16, 2009
- A while back, I posted about the parallels between the changes the auto industry is going through, and the challenges that traditional media (especially soap operas) face. The industries are vastly different, but some of the challenges – adapting the scope of your enterprise to the new marketplace – are the same. In many of the stories we’ve heard about GM and Chrysler, we’re reminded ...
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