Is Elieen Davidson the greatest daytime soap actress ever?

Bitch, please!

Were her scenes taught in acting classes? Didn't think so.

She's a good actress. Not great. But she's done a lot in daytime. I think she was the first actress to have acted in ongoing soaps concurrently

Excuse me, bitch?!?

I saw one of her earliest Y&R scenes on YouTube (where her mother returns) and she was atrocious. However, by the time I "discovered" her as a teen, she was pretty deftly juggling the roles of Ashley on Y&R, and Kristen / Susan / Mary Moira on Days.

She's good, but I don't consider her on the same level as Susan Flannery.

She's no Dee Dee Halls

I think that a lot of the DOOL actors, particularly the older ones, are pros. Deirdre Hall is always on point. Boring character, maybe (except when, um, possessed). But a great actress good enough to get her own nightly series for a time.

DOOL?

Im the gratest day time soap actesss ever!

Beverly McKinsey. Hands down.

YOOO-HOOOOO! Over here!!!

Days of our Lives.

Yes, but only when it comes to Days of Our Lives, not that boring Young and the Restless bullshit.

Erika Slezak for the win!

[quote] Days of our Lives.

Ah DOOL.

Who, dear?

Kate Collins=most underrated daytime actress ever! How she was never even nominated for an Emmy is beyond comprehension.

R13 I don't understand why she is sticking with Y&R unless they are offering her a lot more money. DAYS would offer her much better material that pushes her acting. Y&R is so boring I'm often surprised the actors make it through an episode without falling asleep.

Anyone remember the tranny rumors in the 90's?

Lovely woman and good actress.

However, she is one of the lucky folks who would not have stood a chance for any awards had every other soap not been cancelled.

The industry is an embarrassment with its "nominees" as the best actors are dead, retired, or their shows were cancelled.

That plastic surgeried chick from B&B having an Emmy is all I need to know.

Well, Eileen learned from the best .. lol

It's strange to recall when she and BrendaD were actually on the same side once.

"What are you doing here, mother?"

Y&R has a much better-stocked craft services table than cash-poor DOOL. So many scrumptious goodies to choose from.

R22 That reminds me. Does anyone know if any of the studios still have commissaries? I always found the idea of them so glamorous. Everyone from big stars to nobodies all eating in the same place in their costumes and makeup.

Never saw her soap work, but she was so bland as a Real Housewife.

Eileen.

Anyone want shotgun?

R24 I've never seen her Real Housewife work, but I figured that is what she would be like. The producers and viewers thought they were getting Kristen DiMera or, at least, Ashley Abbott. But, they got Eileen, an actress not a "personality."

She was dull as dirt on Real Housewives.

What the hell am I, chopped liver?!?!

Kathleen Noone. End of.

I was more convincing playing a 29 year old housewife than that horse-faced little bitch I adopted!

Susan Seaforth Hayes.

Beverly Penberthy

Jan Chasmar for the win.

ahem.

She got better as the years went by. When she first appeared, Eileen was like any other hair model hired by a soap to act.

Elizabeth Hubbard, Kathleen Noone, Julia Barr, Jess Walton, and Lisa Brown were the greatest actresses on soaps.

It's a shame that Lucci got all the AMC press, because she was hardly the show's best actress. People like the wonderful Mary Fickett, Julia Barr, Kathleen Noone, Eileen Herlie, Kate Collins, and Elizabeth Lawrence, for starters, were infinitely better.

Who is top billed on Days of our Lives?

Come on! Eileen?

R37 Yes to all of them but especially Julia Barr. She also agreed to come back and anchor the ill-fated online revival that La Lucci refused.

Davidson actually read for the Laurel Banning recast on All My Children in early 1993 opposite Walt Willey (Jackson Montgomery), they flew her to NYC to the AMC studios and they loved her and she got the part

At the last minute she decided not to sign on because she didn’t want to move to NYC full time , a few months later she got Kristen Blake , later Dimera, on Days of Our Lives

Felicity LaFortune would play the land Laurel on AMC from 93-96

I had no idea Eileen auditioned for AMC. They eventually hooked up Laurel and Trevor. I can't see her having any sort of chemistry with Kiberd.

She annoyed on RHOBH but she is a good actress. She’s NOTHING like Kristen IRL.

Eileen was awful on Y&R when she started. Did she have any formal acting training, not that that mattered to Bell, who often cast mannequins?

She's talented and a solid performer on DAYS. More of a lump of nothingness on Y&R.

This list puts her at #27 (of 50 best).

R42 exactly but I could see her with Walt Willey as he has a similar uh “acting style” to Drake Hogestyn, who she had mad chemistry with on DAYS

Kathleen Noone is another great under appreciated soap actress from Ellen on AMC to Claudia on Knots Landing to her wacky character on Passions

Kathleen even had a short term role on Days of Our Lives in 2001

R45 now, but there was a time when Ashley was fun, especially the first few years of her first return.

Willey was beautiful back in the day. He and Eileen would've made a stunning couple. Too bad she didn't take on the role. Felicity is a very good actress, but her Laurel seemed a misfit.

Well, Stacy Haiduk makes her look like Ingrid Bergman. When is Haiduk getting the boot?

R18 she feels a loyalty to YR since she’s been on and off it for forty years. She’s not on that much anyway, like every two to three months or so. And she’s filming the new DOOL short term series or whatever it is. She enjoys doing both, but doesn’t want to work full time.

On Y&R the routine for Eileen's Ashley was for her to have a mental breakdown and go nuts every few years.

Ashley's first foray into this mode was when she found out Brent Davis was her bio-father.

Then, some time after, Ashley went koo-koo again after Victor Newman laid into her for having an abortion.

Bell didn't play Nutball Ashley when either Brenda Epperson or the disastrous Shari Shattuck was playing the character.

But not long after ED returned to the role in 1999, Ashley went nuts again when she lost the baby (Robert) that she was having with Brad Carlton. During that breakdown, viewers were calling Ashley "The Log Lady" (a la Twin Peaks") as she was walking around town in her bathrobe and slippers holding "Robert the Blanket."

I think the last time Ashley went nuts was when Adam Newman was gaslighting her, which led to her falling down the stairs and losing Victor's baby in the process.

I think the show has finally quit this mode with the character, since crazy doesn't really play that well with a 60-year old woman who's supposed to be a high-flying executive of her own company.

No, she is not the greatest, not by a long shot. Kim Zimmer is the gold standard.

r41, it wasn't Laurel, it was Nurse Gloria.

... and they ended up casting an actress as Gloria on AMC who resembled Eileen, who didn't move to NYC and ended up at Days.

[quote] Kim Zimmer is the gold standard.

I agree. Guiding Light pretty much became The Reva Show because of Zimmer.

Eileen Davidson didn't really come into her own as an actress until Days gave her the camp stuff with Susan Banks, where she showed her incredible comedy skills, skills i don't even think she knew she had. This kind of rubbed off on her Kristen performance which become more snarky and dynamic, and then she just flourished. However Cynthia Watros was doing an even more phenomenal job as another psycho character on Guiding Light at the same time, but the edge Cynthia had over Eileen was that there was a vulnerability to her madness. I think had Eileen taken the role of Gloria on AMC, she would have had David Canary as her main co-star and love interest who was quite simply the greatest male soap actor there ever was... I'm pretty certain she would have picked up some Emmys a lot sooner in that case. I think if Eileen had joined AMC as originally planned, Marcy Walker would never have been invited back.

[quote] No, she is not the greatest, not by a long shot. Kim Zimmer is the gold standard.

Kim's great, but she and Viki Sleestak are the definition of HAM!

HAM! HAM! HAM!

[quote] Elizabeth Hubbard, Kathleen Noone, Julia Barr, Jess Walton, and Lisa Brown were the greatest actresses on soaps.

Ahem.

Tricia Cast and Judi Evans need to be in this discussion as well. Both real as the day is long and no one could cry like them. Also, Anne Heche was astounding as the identical twins on Another World.

All I remember about her is The House On Sorority Row and all those tranny rumors.

R17 beat me to it and is absolutely correct!

I liked her as a Housewife. She also looks fantastic for her age. I’m jealous of her getting that Vince Van Patten dick for years. I had such a crush on him when I was a kid.

She would have made a great Liza Colby recast on AMC when Marcy Walker didn’t want to come back. Instead they got Jamie Luner who was Liza in name only and was nothing like how the character had ever been presented.

Kate Collins definitely deserved more credit.

Maureen Garrett was an actress I loved - unlike some of the more "ham" type actresses listed above, she was very economical in her performances and underplayed. Her delivery could be beautifully deadpan and wry.

In the comments to the link I posted at R45 I found this rant. Undoubtedly an eldergay and possibly a DLer......

"How could any panel of so-called soap opera "experts" not include Eileen Fulton, who portrayed "Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Colman McColl Mitchell Chedwyn Grimaldi" for half a century in "As the World Turns" and is considered the daytime soap opera genre's first "bitch" or vixen character, the archetypal precursor to "Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler" and "Erica Louise Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler Roy Roy Montgomery Montgomery Chandler Marick Marick Montgomery?"

How could this "expert" panel on soap operas have excluded Jada Rowland for her role as "Amy Ames Britton Kincaid" in "The Secret Storm," the first child actress to be allowed to age in real time and who (with but a few brief periods when she left the show) remained with playing the same character, from inception to cancellation, from 1954 to 1974?

And how could any serious panel of daytime drama experts not include on its list of "50 Best Soap Opera Actresses" the name of Joan Copeland, who was, bar none, the best villainess in TV soap opera history, in her portrayal of "Andrea Whiting Reynolds #3" in "Search for Tomorrow" from 1968-72? Anyone who remembers Copeland's take on her character having a nervous breakdown on the courtroom stand during her ex-husband's ("Sam Reynold's) trial, as she remembered the torment with which she has lived for many years covering up her misdeeds (including at least three attempted murders), brainwashing her son to think his father responsible for the death of his twin brother in a house fire, when, in reality it was "Andrea" who left her twin boys at home alone while she had a clandestine affair, will never forget the sight and sound of Copeland as "Andrea" clutching her strand of pearls as, one by one, the beads dropped onto the courtroom floor and she switched between hysterical crying and blood-curdling cackling, reduced at last to a babbling maniac and taken away to a prison mental hospital.That this terrific actress is also the sister of the late playwright Arthur Miler ("death of a Salesman," "The Crucible") should also come as no surprise, since theater is a part of her very fiber."

And it also defies logic that any list of the best soap opera actresses would not have also included Jennifer Bassey ("Marian Colby Chandler" in "All My Children"), Judy Lewis ("Susan Ames Dunbar Carver" in "The Secret Storm"), Dorothy Lyman (the original "Opal Gardner" in "All My Children"), Audrey Peters ("Vanessa Dale Sterling" in "Love of Life"), Rosemary Prinz ("Penny Hughes Wade McGuire Cunningham" in "As the World Turns," and for whom the character of "Amy Tyler" was created when "All My Children" began in 1970, with Prinz's name above the title), Ruth Warrick ("Phoebe Tyler Wallingford" in "All My Children") and Ann Williams ("Eunice Gardner Webster Twining Martin Wyatt" in "Search for Tomorrow"), each for their long-running and/or memorable roles in daytime dramas."

Hubbard, Kathryn Hays, Zimmer, McKinsey, Mary Kay Adams, Flannery, Strasser, Slezak, Denise Alexander, Seaforth Hayes are all on my list.

Not even on the list.

Good to see the love for Kathleen Noone, she was terrific as "Aunt Bette" on Sunset Beach too!

Kathleen Noone and Dorothy Lyman both ended up with short term roles on DAYS OF OUR LIVES in the early 2000s

Lyman played a campy Countess who was involved in the Bo/Hope/Princess Gina nonsense

DAYS had Lyman share a snarky scene with Noone where they recorgnized each other and Lyman took a shot at AMC , mentioning the address where they worked at in NYC , which was the address that AMC taped at, and that “the building is still there but it’s not the same as we were there”

I always thought that was funny and very snarky for DAYS to do at the time

Maura West

Have you whores forgotten about ME?

I oughta slug you!

I was watching a late 1997 episode of Days of Our Lives on YouTube and Eileen was in practically every scene playing THREE different characters

She was camping it up at the convent and disciplining the trouble making Sami Brady as Sister Mary Moira

Was in the jungle with Stefano, John, and Hope as Kristen

And was having a seance (!) with Vivian, dressed in male drag as Elvis Presley, Ivan, dressed in women’s drag as a carnival fortune teller, Jonsey (played by Robert Mandan of SOAP and Three’s Company/Three’s a Crowd fame) and some bull dyke lesbian whose supposed to be a famous female wrestler as Susan Banks

She was brilliant the whole episode

It also reminds me that no soap had such a camp factor or “gay sensibility “ as James Reilly’s DAYS in the 90s

r71 if you think no other soap did camp you obviously never watched the golden years of AMC or OLTL in the 80s with Tina and Gabrielle.

Oh go away Serial Psycho you mental case!

R72 OLTL did have camp, for sure. Andrea Evans was campy in that so bad she's good sort of way.

AMC was humor that occasionally veered into camp.

R74 yes but even in the 80s DAYS was known as being gay he more comical “funny “ soap with action/adventure storylines and super couples

The 80s gave us the campy Eugene, the mad inventor with a robot and time travel machine, and his wife wacky Caliope Jones, whom DAYS headwriter at the time Margaret DePriest (who at various times was also headwriter of Another World, AMC, and OLTL) created and based on Cyndi Lauper with her outrageous fashion style

Google pictures of Caliope

In fact Eugene and Caliope were gonna get spun off into a prime time sitcom, it would have been great he first time characters from a daytime soap got spun off into a sitcom, laugh track and all

Elizabeth Hubbard is in my Top 10-

Interestingly enough - I would add Fiona Hutchison and Susan Haskell to the Top 50- if not my top 20.

I despise her politically but I would have Kimberlin Brown to my Top 50-

For the TOP actress I would a very hard time deciding between McKinsey, Flannery, and Slezak.

All very different actresses and all so absolutely awesome.

Ahem

R77 Flannerry did great work as the troubled Laura Spencer Horton on Days of Our Lives in the 60s and 70s, in fact she was the first woman to win a daytime Emmy for her performance

That was when DAYS was an extremely well written by the legendary Bill Bell, sophisticated soap with great acting (many NYC theatre actors who moved out to LA to do the show) and social issue type storylines

It all went to hell when James Reilly got his fat fingers on the show and made it a supernatural camp fest with hair models who can’t act in the 90s

Even the great Agnes Nixon told People magazine in 1975 that she watched Days of Our Lives everyday

It’s never recovered and Ron Carlivati fits right in with the current super campy writing

Demonic repossessed Marlena!

R75 I loved Eugene and Calliope but again, I would say they were humorous, not camp.

Camp is a very specific aesthetic/style. Over The Top doesn't automatically equal camp.

r78 She was brilliant as ice queen Stephanie Forrester. B&B was never better than with Scene Chewer Darlene Conley and Susan Flannery.

Bulldyke Stephanie Forrester is the best!

If there was ever a doubt as to whether Ms. Flannery did the lez lez, the final episodes of her character on B&B should tell the story. The person by her side was not any of her onscreen children, or her on again off again husband, but instead it was Brooke, the beautiful blonde hussy who was her sworn enemy for many years.

All that was missing was a passionate deathbed kiss. In many other ways, it was very reminiscent of 1960s era films where what was said was implied, not overt.

The brilliant Helen Gallagher could act circles around these other bitches.

That We Love Soaps poll had as their top 4 Flannery, Zimmer, Slezak and McKinsey.

McKinsey at 4 was amazing, considering that she'd been off our TV screens for nearly 20 years at the time the poll was conducted (2010).

Damn I just Googled Vivian Alamain, one of my favorite soap characters ever and found out that 4 different actresses played her on Days of Our Lives

Louise Sorel played her the longest and is most associated with her but Marj Dusay, Robin Strasser and Linda Dano also played Vivian

All 4 actresses that played Vivian on DAYS were also cast members on All My Children at one time too

The best soap actress who wasn't "soap actory" - Anne Heche

The best soap actress who was great at soap acting - Denise Alexander - she knew how to do soap heroine better than anyone

The most overrated soap actress - Erika Slezak (nothing but ham)

The most underrated soap actress - Victoria Wyndham

Soap actress who tried to make everything work - Kim Zimmer

Greatest soap actress to never be awarded - Bev McKinsey

Honorable Mention - Bethel Leslie "The Doctors" and Liz Hubbard "The Doctors"

What about me?

R86 Denise Alexander is a name I heard but whose work I’ve never seen

What’s her best soap role?

Denise Alexander is known for Days, General Hospital, and Another World. You have to be pretty old to remember her on Days, and she wasnt given great material on AW, so Leslie Webber on GH it is.

Where's the love for Kathy Glass? It doesn't get mentioned very often, but she had a superior Q score and still holds the record for most teen fan mail in a given month.

R89 I looked her up, she played Susan Martin On DAYS in the 60s and 70s and was in a big triangle with Doug and Julie

She also killed the guy that accidentally killed her son Dickie, and went insane and was the first DAYS character on trial for murder

Sounds great!

Jackie Courtney

For me it was Kathryn Hays or Maureen Garrett but I haven't seen a soap in 30 years so WTF do I know?

Maureen Garrett was pretty damn good. If she ever got a chance to play another icnonic character she could have been right up there.

My list would be:

McKinsey and Wyndham from AW's heyday. Anna Stuart and Nancy Frangione from later years.

From GL: Lisa Brown (RIP), Maeve Kinkead, Maureen Garrett, Michelle Forbes, Mary Kay Adams, Cynthia Watros, McKinsey and early Zimmer.

From ATWT: Lisa Brown again, Kathy Hays, Marie Masters, Liz Hubbard, Hillary Smith and Ellen Dolan both.

Others: Debbi Morgan, Kate Collins, Mary Stuart.

AND yes, Anne Heche too.

Judi Evans did some great work on Guiding Light, Days of Our Lives and Another World

She’s one of the best criers in the soaps

There was a LOT of surprisingly great acting involved with DAYS in the late 80s, you had Judi Evans, Stephen Nichols, Matt Ashford (who had been on One Life to Live and Search For Tomorrow) as the Johnson siblings and legendary character actor James Luisi as their father, the abusive Duke Johnson, whom Evan’s character Adrienne Killed in self defense and NYC theatre actress and real “salt of the earth” the late Joy Garret as Jo Johnson, their mom . It was really strong acting from all involved and Joy Garrett had this great commanding NYC theatre voice and she had done under 5’s on a lot of the NYC taped soaps and it was her dream to get a contract role on a soap and the DAYS called and she moved out to LA to do the show

She would have fit right in on a P&G NYC soap, she also had great chemistry on DAYS with Jane Elliott who was playing her nemesis Anjelica Deveraux at the time

You watch some of those wonderful scenes and then realize that in 6-7 years once James Reilly takes over as headwriter, it’ll all go to hell…

If DAYS ever decides to recast Jo Johnson, Erika Slezak would be PERFECT

Dear God in heaven!

Denise Alexander played Susan on Days.

Susan and Julie was was one of those classic Bill Bell rivalries. They started out as best friends. Susan came from a broken home and was unhappy. Julie was dating a rich bad boy, David Martin, who her family didn't like. They were supposed to elope. Julie didn't show up to elope, David thought that Julie no longer loved him. David met up with Susan, they got drunk and fucked.

As the way these things end up, Susan got pregnant. Tom Horton talked her out of getting an illegal abortion. Susan and David married with a plan to give the baby up for adoption after he was born. After giving birth, Susan saw the baby and couldn't go through with the adoption plan. This pissed off Julie who was planning to reunite with David after the baby was adopted out.

Susan wouldn't give David a divorce and Julie started pressuring David. Julie saw a "moment" between Susan, David and baby Dickie that looked like David was enjoying his new little family and freaked the fuck out. Julie then used her pussy power to lure David away, seducing him and eventually starting a full blown affair with him.

Julie convinces David to run away. Susan and David's baby dies. Susan goes temporarily insane and shoots and kills David.

In one of the best soap trials ever Micky Horton brings his niece Julie on the stand and pretty much reveals her to be the town tramp, that she was planning to run away with Susan's husband and also reveals that she's pregnant with David's baby. Salem is in shock and Julie becomes the town pariah. Even Tom Horton is on Susan's side. Julie gives her baby up for adoption and leaves town.

The baby is adopted by the Bannings. Julie returns to town and wants her baby back. Meanwhile Scott Banning's wife has died and Susan and Scott have gotten closer. So basically Susan is helping raise Julie and David's baby. Julie, once again, uses her pussy power and gets Scott into bed and eventually he marry her. Julie did all this because 1) she really did want her son back but she also wanted to 2) fuck over Susan.

Julie marries Scott and then renames the baby David. Susan, wanting revenge against Julie brings Doug Williams to town to seduce Julie and the rest is history.

No one loves Lucci more than I do. AMC had a roster of great actresses. Debbi Morgan is underrated and too often overlooked IMHO. Jennifer Bassey as well.

Barbara Rodell is completely forgotten today but was amazing as Joyce on ATWT.

I will put my lit cig out in one of your eyes if you don't mention me!

R71 It would be great if that whole episode of the multiples turned up on youtube. Eileen was certainly on a roll during that storyline.

Watching the whole transformation of Kristen is interesting. From sweet and spunky heroine, to a slightly ditsy second lead (let's face it - Kristen was mostly written as an airhead between the end of The Possession storyline to the end of Aremid), then to a scheming amoral, and crazy woman.

During the Lady in White (Rachel Blake as Kristen's Mom) storyline, when the rivalry between Kristen and Marlena started turning toxic, it was really the turning point for the character. The last 5 minutes or so in the video shows the exact moment it happens... There are shades of Susan Banks when Kristen is talking to her unborn child and then looks in the mirror and sliences herself.

R103 I’m always conflicted with James Reilly’s writing

The same man who won an Emmy as one of the headwriter’s on Guiding Light in 1992 wrote some pretty crappy DAYS storylines and don’t get me started on that dreck PASSIONS that he created and headwrote

But he did some brilliant stuff on DAYS too lol hat was pretty much “classic soap” with a bit of a supernatural twist

I think his first writing job was as a scriptwriter on ABC’s Ryan’s Hope, which is very far removed from his usual over the top camp style, he used his own life as a devout Irish Catholic who lived in NYC to get that job at Ryan’s Hope

He also wrote for All My Children (during it’s early 80s heyday), Capitol, Young and the Restless , the Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital before his first head writing job at GL and then DAYS

[quote] Jeanne Cooper's heat seeking claws

LOL!!!!!

I can't fathom how Eileen didn't win Emmys in the 90s when she became THE reason to watch Days. Who did she lose to?

R106 she was nominated one year but lost to Cynthia Watros as Annie on Guiding Light

DAYS reputation was tarnished by James Reilly’s camp, over the top approach to soap opera

You had Marty’s gang rape on OLTL, The BJ heart story and Stone dying of AIDS on GH and on DAYS we get the Gothic Lady in White storyline, Vivian burying Carly alive, Marlena’s demonic possession, Eileen Davidson playing 5 different roles including a man! Etc.

It was no longer consistent serious soap by Emmy voters as it had been in the 70s and even the 80s, to a lesser extent

I love Susan Lucci, and no one could have played Erica better than she did. That said, I will freely admit she wasn’t a GREAT actress, but she could be effective dramatically, especially in storylines involving Erica’s daughters. She definitely deserved the Emmy the year she won for the Bianca intervention scenes.

AMC was *my* show, and they had so many great actresses. Debbi Morgan, Kate Collins, Kathleen Noone, Gillian Spencer, Marcy Walker, Dorothy Lyman, Jennifer Bassey, Robin Christopher…plus excellent younger actresses like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Cady McLain, Eden Riegel. AMC also had my favorite “senior” actresses: Ruth Warwick, Eileen Herlie, Frances Heflin, Elizabeth Lawrence…pros who knew how to work a scene. And f course, the best AMC actress, and one of the best ever, Julia Barr.

The only other soap that came close to my AMC devotion was ATWT in the Marland years. I loved Hubbard, Brown, Zenk, Hays, Marie Masters, Melanie Smith (why didn’t she become a huge star??), etc. Everyone was great during that era…and of course the best “ingenue” ever: Julianne Moore, seriously!

I also watched AW a lot during this time, and I thought Ellen Wheeler and Anne Heche were both great as Marley/Vicky. AW really lucked out with both of them. I was never a big fan of Dano, but I did like Wyndham. LOVED Anna Stuart and was happy when she showed up on AMC when AW was cancelled.

I'm still dead bitches!

She is way higher up there than #27, she’s top 5

No, she's not. Sorry.

Erika Slezak in as Jo Johnson on Days of Our Lives!

I can totally see her as Judi Evan’s Mom

Make it happen Ron!

112 posts and not one mention of me.

You all deserve a kick in the cunt.

It's a disgrace that Deidre Hall in #25.. What a fucking OUTRAGE!

R114 is Crystal Chappelle

Still pissed when Deidre said to her back in 1991 that “I think you’re on this show too much, they need to not feature you as much now that I’M back”

R115 Deidre should be top 5 ever!

Deidre is one of the worst actresses!

R117 not true

She sighs better than any other actress in soap history!

Robin Strasser is one of the best and she and Erika Slezak were the best double-act in soap history hands down.

I am the greatest soap opera actress forever and always!

Christine Jones owns this thread. She was amazing as evil Janice on AW and undervalued as Catsy Kirkland on Ryan's Hope. She was a revelation as subViki on OLTL. Agnes Nixon was said to have sobbed when she first saw Miss Jones in the part. She was overheard telling Sam Hall that here, finally, was an actress who embodied all that she had envisioned for the character.

You’ve been pretty quiet, Scoche. Life got you down?

122 replies, and no mention of Carla Borelli?

R113 We were talking about actresses that actually learned their lines, dear.

Maybe not THE best, but Marcy Walker and Robin Mattson should definitely be up there. They were both great on more than one soap (Marcy on Santa Barbara and All My Children, and Mattson on Santa Barbara and several other soaps).

Agree Tricia Cast should be in the conversation more.

Also agree that AMC had an incredible roster of great actresses. For a time I even liked Kelly Ripa, especially her early years. The show had such good writing that it provided meaty material for the actors and they went with it.

I think Kim Zimmer is the greatest soap actress of all time simply because she achieved a near impossible feat of having the chops but also the star quality. While Erika Slezak is venerated, she is hardly a star on Lucci's level, and Kim Zimmer managed to combine the two. She is the stuff soap dreams are made of. Larger than life but so very real.

Don't agree about the star quality. Kim was never had the star power of Lucci, Hall, Francis and those types.

To me ES was the Meryl Streep of daytime. KZ was Jessica Lange. La Lucci was Julia Roberts, not a great actress but very much a star.

R71, I lived in LA in the 1990s and at 1 pm we had DAYS, ATWT, and ONE LIFE all airing opposite each other.

I'd flip around and whenever DAYS had shirtless Austin in bed with Carrie, I put the remote down. I swear in one episode they just showed him stirring in bed, shirtless, and let the camera roll....

In that sense, Reilly was a genius.

Erika Slezak was the definition of overrated.

When Beverlee McKinsey, Lisa Brown, Mary Kay Adams and Maureen Garrett have no awards, yet Frau Slezak has all of those awards for her over the top hamming....it's a shonda!

R129 Is there a reason OLTL and ATWT ran outside of their usual timeslot?

r172 Yes she absolutely did have star power. Zimmer was a force of nature. Star charisma to the max.

R131 Various markets may run shows at different times, or not at all. Our CBS affiliate didn't run ATWT for years. Even during Luke and Laura years, our ABC affiliate ran GH in the morning.

What was so great about Mary Kay Adams? She definitely had charisma and the "IT" factor when it came to soaps, but I never thought she was much of an actress.

Slezak could be very good. She was really wonderful in those 1970s clips where she played a more supporting role in Judith Light's story. Very subdued, by the mid-80s, Rauch let her turn on the faucet and her performances because overwrought and very hammy.

Lillian Haymen owns this thread!

Zimmer may have had star power, but it was the unsung women like Maeve Kinkead, Maureen Garrett, Ellen Parker, Barbara Berjer, Lenore Kasdorf, etc. who had the real acting chops and were skillful enough to give nuanced performances. "Nuance" is not a word that exists in Zimmer's vocabulary.

R133 I understand that, it was just they said they were in LA, where I believe all the major affiliates are network owned. I thought they would therefore follow the network schedule more closely.

Please, bitch. Lil didn't even own that tercel.

Grayson Hall, Jeanne Cooper, Slezak and Zimmer were AWFUL, but undeniably watchable.

Grayson Hall was a riot. She, like Slezak and Cooper, were very good actresses who gave hammy performances on their respective shows. It actually worked best for Grayson, because Dark Shadows was very avant garde and theater of the absurd television.

R139 Agree. .. But I grew weary of Sleestak, and Zimmer became a no-go after she ate the show. (The less is more theory in play.)

Zimmer wasn't awful. She was phenomenal in early years. She just got very lazy and undisciplined

Julia Barr was a much better, more natural, actress than Lucci, but Lucci was the star and way more glamorous. To Lucci’s credit, she’s always seemed like an incredibly nice person. I know Sarah Michelle Gellar might disagree.

Ellen Holly is still bitter that Pruneface Sleestack won all them Emmys.

Get those black bitches out of my face!

Why was Erika so mean to a 16yo girl?

I’ve related this story here before, but I will never forget when I was eating lunch at my college cafeteria, and they had All My Children playing on the giant tv screen. It was this scene of Tom telling Laura their daughter is dead. The whole cafeteria was silent and everyone, tons of people, were glued to the tv. Lots of gasps and sniffling. One of the lunch ladies was sobbing. Soaps were really fantastic back then. (Starts at 5:00)

Did someone mention PRUNES?

Hello my lovelies. It is me, Scoche Marin, the definitive Katherine Shepherd Reynolds Chancellor Thurston Sterling Murphy, on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, television’s number one daytime drama. I have been enjoying upcoming scenes where Kay hosts an unforgettable holiday soirée at the palatial Chancellor Mansion.

I am known on the set as the best actress Y&R and the daytime industry has ever seen. No one remembers that other woman. Ta ta for now, my dears.

You guy are right. Julia Barr- Top 10 for me. I HATED AMC (most overrated soap in the history of the genre) but her learning that Laura was killed by a hit and run driver was a MASTERCLASS... I am going to go watch that scene now..

1) Flannery (the Joan Didion of soap actresses- so much there- but extremely economized) 2) Slezak ( you fuckers have a hard-on for calling this bitch hammy- she is an excellent actress- absolutely fantastic) 3)McKinsey (Just the PEAK) I would probably have her at #1 if I watched GL more and was over 50 and saw her on other shows. I am basing this on AW clips and my limited GL watching 4)Hubbard- Was an avid OLTL fan but would watch this show during commercials just to watch this amazing woman- I especially remember the Walsh Hostile Takeover scenes- I literally watched in little pieces and was in love with this lady) 5)Kim Zimmer- I was never really INTO her- but I can appreciate her nonetheless. 6)Susan Haskell- She really was a gut instinct and NATURAL actress- very reminscent of Judith Light. Very underrated and almost a "cult" favorite. 7)Fiona Hutchison- You want a SOAP actress who gives her all EVERY TIME- That is this lady. On some days I would put her as #1. Just a damn fine actress who made EVERYTHING work. 8)Julia Barr- I must give credit where credit is due. This was my mom's soap and I hated its hokey humor. But Barr always stood out. She was the real deal. 9)Kate Collins- The ONLY time I was addicted to AMC- Natalie In That Fucking well. And my god the show looked CHEAP AS FUCK in the early 90's considering it hit #2 for a long time. But this woman was divine. 10) Maeve Kinkaid- I found her SMOOTH as silk. Elegant. 11)- I am giving a special award to Andrea Evans. Campy. Yes. Tacky. Oh yeah. However- she was an amazingly charismatic and talented lady... This bitch went through HELL on OLTL with that stalker. And I find her to be the BEST line reader in soaps. Kind of like how Gilmore Girls had its own "beat" with how those actresses read their lines? Andrea was the best line reader I have ever heard. She read lines EXTREMELY naturally- lines that were so over the top and campy- but she spit them out hilariously. I cannot explain it- but you can watch Youtube and see what I mean with just one late 80's scene. It's all there. I suspect that she has a photographic memory.

R150, your AMC disdain aside, I like your list. I might swap it up a little, but it’s a solid list. I hate the Bell soaps and could never get into them for long, but Flannery was amazing when I’d watch B&B. I was also never a big OLTL fan, but Slezak is quite talented. Same goes for Zimmer. I don’t know if I’d have given them each so many Emmys, however.

Flannery was good until she cut her hair. It was like after that she become too harsh.

All of our memories are too short. There are plenty of actresses we aren't thinking of. We barely know of Audrey Peters as Reva's mom, but she WAS Love of Life. Rosemary Prinz and Eileen Fulton were the first great bitch and tortured heroine. But we only saw them as old ladies.

Laurie Heineman, the most forgotten Best Actress winner?

In 1978, she beat Lucci, McKinsey, Wyndham, Mary Fickett, Susan Seaforth Hayes, and someone named Jennifer Harmon from OLTL. I don’t know who she is, either.

R152- It does appear that Stephanie became a BULLDYKE.

Such a beautiful woman- even in the 90's- But she basically said FUCK IT. It didn't work for the character, but Flannery's talent would supersede EVERYTHING. And it did!

R151- I was basically an OLTL fan who dug B&B and Y&R (who were SO different from OLTL in the late 80's and 90's) but also appreciated ATWT and GL.

On some days now, I would say Hubbard is #1- My god I love her. AND WATCH THAT YOUTUBE VIDEO/INTERVIEW WITH Martha Byrne and that annoying publicist dude- Hubbard is a FUCKING ARTIST. The way she THINKS- she is an amazingly special lady. How could any actor NOT want to work with this woman? It must have been like a drug induced high!

I found AMC cheap looking , hokey, and UTTERLY overrated. However, Brooke- and Laura's Death- and Natalie in the well- had me watching. But it was never MY show.

And I stand by Fiona Hutchison and Haskell. They are my cult favorites. They are the CULT FAVES and SLEEPER HITS of soaps. And Andrea Evans especially. They made my days as a kid.

OLTL kept going back to the Viki/Niki well and Erika would just chew every piece of scenery during those scenes. You can still like the actress and the character and admit that Erika was a big ham sandwich in those scenes. Robin Strasser, another good actress, but she couldn't play Dorian without going over the top.

I don't remember AMC looking cheap. It was just that Pine Valley was supposed to be a smaller town while Llanview was a mid-sized city. I loved Palmer and Adam's mansions. I remember I also liked Phoebe's but they rarely showed it over her last two decades on the show.

The soap I always found cheap looking was AW, because it looked washed out. But, apparently it was partly because of our local affiliate, I remember seeing it from another affiliate and it looked like a different show. That affiliate also screwed up DAYS, somehow their signal oversaturated the color making it almost a cartoon. It wasn't the tv set, you could adjust it and it still looked like that unless you made it b&w. Somehow, every daytime show was either too vibrant or washed out. The only NBC soap I ever saw on that channel that looked right was Sunset Beach, for some reason. The issues didn't get straightened out until everything went digital and someone new bought the channel.

I might take shit for this but I always thought Patsy Pease was good

She was on the NYC soaps, I think Search For Tomorrow, before being cast as Kimberly Brady on DAYS from 1984-1992 and she had to be the most tortured soap heroine of all time when she was on DAYS

I still remember some soap magazine saying “she has a constant look of trauma and horror on her face every time she’s on screen”. LOL

During her multiple personality storyline, Pease had a real life mental breakdown and her part was recast to finish out the storyline

I was never a huge DAYS (DOOL) fan, but I did watch it for a time in the 80s and loved LeAnn Hunley. I also really liked Anne-Marie Martin who played Gwen. She wasn’t a groundbreaking actress or anything, but I enjoyed her onscreen. For a while, she was Mrs. Michael Crichton!

Time to focus on ME, Scoche Marin, the definitive Katherine Chancellor on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, television’s number one daytime drama.

AMC had so many great actresses in 1980s despite also having the biggest star in Daytime in the cast too (Lucci) because Erica basically existed on her own island. Erica had her own show within AMC. This allowed Julia Barr to really flourish and let AMC have a lot of leading ladies.

Nobody is naming any actresses most associated with GH, except Denise Alexander who many associate more with DOOL. Leslie Charleson, Jane Elliott and even Jackie Zeaman were the show's great actresses, although Elliott was just awful when the show tied her to Luke in her last years on the program. Did anyone consier Genie Francis or Fionla Hughes a great actress?

Carolyn Jones on Capitol was amaze-balls. Absolute brilliance.

Absolutely agree with all the DL fave Sue Haskell love. There is no way she and Judy Light are not in the top 10 of all time. She carried an absolutely massive story. And got daytime into the mainstream news.

Laurlee Bell, Lisa Rinna, Charity Rahmer, Tammin Sursok, Ambyr Childers, Farah Fath, Molly Stanton, Michelle Ray Smith

All I've ever seen are short clips on youtube, does anyone on here remember Tammy Wynette's attempt at a soap career on Capitol? From what I've read about the show it seems like it would be the strangest one for her to play a character on.

R162 Constance Towers was a great addition to the GH cast.

Capitol was schizophrenic. The original concept was great and classic, but when the ratings weren't great they started doing crazy things, ending up with Sloane facing a firing squad in a Latin American country in the final episode (as if Soap never happened).

I never got it. She always seemed like a caricature to me. Like a cheap Carlo Hesser.

R168 I always figured they did that ending in homage to soap.

Anna Holbrook was also great, a natural actress who was SO good as Sharlene.

Now Anna Holbrook knew how to play a DID storyline. Never over the top, no scenery chewing.

When Sharly took her barette out and shook her hair.....watch out bitches!

I thought Slezak's 95 version was the best and she seemed serious. Never so when they only brought Niki back in the later years. It was always OTT. And stranger is that after seeing 95 Niki was actually the least interesting alter. I absolutely loved Jean Randolph.

R174 She really did a good job of making her alters very different.

Nancy Pinkerton - I don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks - was the definitive Dorian Cramer.

All of the fans adore me, Scoche Marin, as Kay Chancellor!

That woman looks like a sketch

Holy shit I love Anna Holbrook! (Gorgeous and could stop me from watching OLTL) just like Hubbard.

And based on Youtube episodes alone- OLTL from 1985-1987 was pure fucking GOLD. What an era. Pure soap opera nirvana- and not TOO over the top yet.. That Peggy O'Shea never got her due.

I love Erika, Andrea, and Fiona (fuck- even Christine Jones was wonderful as Pamela)

And do not even get me started on BarBara Luna!

Fucking heaven.

And I have to add Jackie Zeman and Finola Hughes to my list at #11 and #12.

I am such a OLTL fan that I notice the lighting differences from 87 to 89 where it went from a good looking brightly lit show to a GHASTLY looking brightly lit show.

I loved Barbara De Luna too. She's still one of my favorite Llanview villains.

Yes- bitch. Yes.

BarBara Luna was very similar to Evans. Could read lines (campy as fuck lines) like they were GOLD.

A natural. Check her out on Youtube.

I dig an actress who can really make you think that her insanity is RIGHT,

At one point i think she was in cahoots with the original crazy Alison Perkins who was also fun. Those two were like crazy bitch heaven.

Forget Desperate Housewives Marcia Cross' best performance, outside of Melrose Place, was as Kate Sanders on One Life To Live.

R179 I found the dreaded "whiteout" effect (like they were filming on the Sun-facing side of Mercury) so bad during the time Viki and Dorian were exploring the secret underground lair at Llanview. Viki's facial expressions were even more overwrought than usual to compensate, and Dorian was only visible because she wore the elegant white dress with the giant polka dots.

Here is an episode in 1987 where the lighting looks pretty good. This is the famous episode where Tina goes over Niagara Falls.

R146, I believe it was the 16 year old girl who was mean to La Lucci.

Seriously.

Oh look R185 posted the incandescent Christine Jones. I believe Jones holds the OLTL record for most fan mail (not teen fan mail) in a quarter. People adored her on that set.

Was that the actress that played Pamela?

There’s something to be said for those actresses who weren’t GREAT but had that special “It Factor” that made them huge daytime stars. Genie Francis, Kristian Alfonso, Kim Delaney, Taylor Miller, etc. I guess Andrea Evans, too.

Ahem. Let’s talk about me, Scoche Marin, the most popular Katherine Chancellor.

Elizabeth Hubbard, Bethel Leslie, Rosemary Prinz, Erica Slezak and Helen Gallagher. These ladies all had solid acting backgrounds beyond soaps, and you can tell when you watch them. They seem real. Susan Flannery is pretty good too. The rest? They are soap actresses.....they don't have the full set of chops and they have lots of bad habits. If you want to hear what that means, turn on a soap you don't ordinarily watch and just listen (don't watch). Their line deliveries are terrible.....forced, if trying to express an emotion....often hurrying through.

Most of the rest are very likeable, but that doesn't mean they are great actresses.

Someone mentioned Lillian Hayman earlier. It was probably a joke, but characters like that don't get enough credit. Characters whose only real purpose is for recap, tent poling, supporting, and talk to. Those actors deserve a lot of credit. Some of the best acting on soaps is done by actors who are supporting characters.

Any list that doesn't include Judith Light and Susan Haskell is bullshit i agree.

Judith Light was overrated. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR, MR. CALLISON?!?!?!?! Rein it in, bitch.

R174 agreed, Jean was the most interesting. And Sleestak had to UNDERPLAY which must have chapped her ass.

Everyone was so shocked she carried it off, they all said, Give The Bitch an Emmy, She Earned This One!

R192 So true.

[quote] Someone mentioned Lillian Hayman earlier.

And wherever Lil goes, her Tercel is never far behind.

Paul Rauch didn't think much of Lil's acting. He had some lackey fire her in the ABC garage while she was going to her car. Rauch had good instincts, so he was on the money with Lil.

Today is your LAST day, BITCH!

Great to see all the love for Haskell. She is definitely in there.

Jessica Tuck. Thoughts?

R201 OMG, I LOVED HER!

For sure. I liked Tuck too. Maybe just outside top 10

I remember her scenes in 2008/2009 and I said SHE just won her second Emmy. I knew what scenes were going to win for her and they were the scenes she submitted. They were THAT good. And it wasn't a storyline that was easy for an Emmy panel to follow or connect with. It was pretty far fetched shit. And that was the year when Debbie Morgan was the frontrunner. I was not surprised at all when Susan won.

She is (was) an amazingly emotional actress who oozed intelligence and never missed a beat. Incredible actress. And almost forgotten- very much under the radar.

The NY soaps all had an embarrassment of riches pre-1995. You had theater trained actors on shows, sometimes taping during the day and doing a play in the evening.

Then the bean counters fired most everyone who could act and slotted in a lot of hair models and lumps of flesh, and it all went to shit. But between the 60s and circa 1995, it was glorious.

Here's to those ladies. Everybody RISE! RISE!

Shit. I LOVED Tuck and would put her on the Top 35. CHARISMA. CHARISMA CHARISMA. A great comedic actress as well.

I liked Tuck's recent GH work and would love for them to bring her back more. But, nothing can match her OLTL run.

As I have said, I was never a big OLTL, but I did really like Tuck when I did watch. And she has a pretty impressive post OLTL career.

Didn't her character also usher in the next tortured young heroine Marty Saybrooke?

Any top 25 list without Bree Williamson is a not valid IMHO. She was so wonderful as Jessica, and then with the split personality storyline.

I am incredibly offended, but not surprised, that no one mentioned me.

I know Erika Slezak is here, telling other posters to "get those black bitches off of my thread!"

I will write a 486 page reply to this terrible injustice!

Chandler Massey is the greatest soap opera actress of all time.

I think she’s a bit wackadoodle, but I believe Cady McLain is the only person to win daytime Emmys for 3 different soaps? AMC, ATWT, and DAYS.

I know I'm going to get booed for writing this. I want to preface it by saying that I think that Judith Light is a good actress. But, I think she gets placed higher than she is, because of that one courtroom scene. That courtroom scene is played over and over again. It's like Erica and the grizzly bear. It's a classic, iconic moment in soap history, but it was just one moment in time. I'm not convinced Judith's performance was a consistent one.

Who did she play on Days?

Bree Williamson? lolllllllllll

R213 She is good and has always been one of my favorites. And, her husband is one of the better actors on daytime.

R212 If anyone ever makes a list of the best tits on daytime, he would certainly be on it, which is a major achievement for an actor.

I always found Haskell's courtroom scenes far more moving and effective than Light's. Personal opinion only. This scene: M"I was not responsible for Sarah's death. I was no where near that accident". N"No you weren't. But you still lied about it. Doesn't that say something Miss Saybrooke? That even when you're innocent. You're first impulse is to lie". M"But when no one believes you. No matter what you say"... N" It's like the little boy that cried wolf." M "Yes". N"Or rape??"

And then OLTL just dumped Haskell a few years later. Or did Susan want to leave (the second time)?

Jessica Tuck should've won Best Actress in 1991. Instead blah Finola Hughes won.

I think the second time was all Carlivati

Susan Harney doesn't get the credit she deserves. She was very good as Alice, when Lemay used her for his "B" stories.

Shari Shattuck was a better Ashley than Eileen,

My understanding is that they would play Judith Light's courtroom scene in classes at RADA and Yale Drama.

R201 I loved Jessica Tuck on OLTL too

She ended up on DAYS as Madeline Reeves from 2009-2011, she was a former prostitute and lover of Stefano Dimera and her son Chad was revealed to be her son with Stefano and then she died by falling down a flight of stairs

It seems all the old ABC daytime actors ended up on DAYS during 2000-2010, Matt Borlnghi, John Callahan, Roscoe Borne, Robin Mattson, Dorothy Lyman, Sydney Penny, the guy who played Colin on OLTL etc all were on Days of Our Lives that period

[quote] She's no Dee Dee Halls.

At least Eileen wears the ribbon!

R215, Cady McLain just won her 3rd Emmy for playing recast Jennifer on DAYS.

Was a lead Emmy?

R228 Cady's DAYTIME Emmy on Days was in the "Guest Performer" category.

Dee Dee Halls is the star of Days. Make no mistake about THAT!

[quote]I despise her politically but I would have Kimberlin Brown to my Top 50-

My favorite Sheila scene (and I almost despise myself for loving this one) was when she caused Macy to fall off the wagon by spiking her drink.

Sheila needed to cause a distraction for some reason; probably something Forrester/Eric related. So she befriends Macy, who had won her sobriety the hard way in the previous year in a cafe. Macy was reluctant to engage Sheila, but Sheila manages to convince her that she was no threat.

There is this private on-screen dialog throughout the episode, while Sheila wrestles with her conscious, wondering whether even SHE can do something this low. So she spikes Macy's juice, and it's clear that when the unsuspecting Macy takes a sip Sheila is beyond joyous about the havoc this will cause.

T205 I never got the NYC soaps had better actors be of NYC theatre actors, many LA soaps also hired NYC theatre actors , there is a thing called traveling and relocating for a job

So the line was blurred already in fact many LA soaps had trained NYC theatre and soap actors in their casts too, Santa Barbara and DAYS in the late 80s were brimming NYC theatre and soap actors despite being LA soaps

Did any soap actress ever inhabit a role better than Kate Mulgrew as Mary Ryan?

This thread sent me down a Kate Collins YouTube rabbit hole! She was sublime. She was amazing as Janet, but I’ll always prefer her as Natalie, my favorite soap character ever. I sure did hate her short hair, though!

I respect theatre actors, but theatre actors weren't always great on soaps. Often they would play to the back of the room and give these broad performances, when subtle would have played so much better on screen.

R220- I think you are getting 2 years mixed up. Tuck was not nominated the year that Finola won-

She was nominated the next year for Megan's death.

She lost to Erika Slezak.

Tuck was the favorite by far that year and everyone thought she would submit her death episodes... but she didn't. She went and submitted some random episodes to the panel. I remember watching the Emmys (and they had great clips then- always of the submitted episodes) and when they played Tuck's I was like WHAT THE FUCK? It was Megan having a conversation with herself in a mirror.

And what episodes did Slezak submit? Megan's death episodes.

I have stated my boundaries!

R236 which just goes to show it's all about knowing what tapes to pick.

Everyone assumes Zimmer submitted the fountain episode, but she didn't. It was the last scene at the end of a long episode that did not have much else of her and Josh in it. So for the purposes of the Emmys it might have been a bad pick.

Being the greatest soap actor is like being the best sushi restaurant in Djibouti.

I’ve been watching Viki’s multiple personalities storyline on YouTube since she was mentioned earlier. I’d started watching OLTL in 1992 when Ryan Phillippe’s Billy Douglas was introduced. I continued with the show for years after he left.

So many things were great about this clip - the acting, script, music, sound effects. Love it!

Mary Kay Adams was always a favorite of mine.

She was in her early 20s when she landed the part of India. Von Halkein on GL.

This was her last appearance in 1990, she leaves Springfield to be with her daughter, Dorie, and says goodbye to everyone.

Her heart is breaking as she says goodbye to Phillip, the man she still loves her but will never love her back.

I heard she asked that the poem she recited by inserted into her farewell scene.

I think Robin Strasser is better in R240 clip than Slezak who is ham-city in those scenes.

I think Nancy Pinkerton was better than both of them.

How could any respecting soap fan leave out Tudi Wiggins as the histrionic Meg on Love of Life? Meg was the bitch sister and Vanessa aka Van was the good one.

I think Erika Slezak and Susan Lucci unfairly dominated every awards season when there were many more actresses who actually had more talent than either of them. I don't know why Slezak and Lucci were so fixated upon, frankly.

I was inclined to believe Ellen Holly's accusations of racism about Slezak except we all know Slezak would never say 'Get those bitches out of my face'. It's almost comical to imagine her doing that. This was the moment I know Ellen Holly was lying about her, but I think she wanted to ruin her as a way of getting even because Ellen felt OLTL was her show and that it was taken away from her.

Lucci being nominated and then losing brought in ratings. The Daytime Emmys became a bigger ratings draw in the '90s than the Primetime ones.

[quote] I think Robin Strasser is better in [R240] clip than Slezak who is ham-city in those scenes.

Well, that's like comparing serrano ham to black forest ham.

It's still HAM!

PS to the person upthread who said Cady McClain may be a little loony - no, not really. She was a bit skittish because of childhood abuse, but I think she's relatively normal.

But if you want to talk about someone who may be a little looney tooney babooney.....let's talk about Miss Robin Strasser

[quote] Did any soap actress ever inhabit a role better than Kate Mulgrew as Mary Ryan?

June Brown as Dot Branning.

Is La Strasser's hotline still in operation? It was like twitter via telephone.

R250 Dot was fabulous. One of the main reasons I always wished and hoped for an EE style soap in the states.

They were doing outdoor shooting eons before Peapack.

[quote] Is La Strasser's hotline still in operation?

I think she had to take it down before one of her OLTL returns.

R249=Lucie Arnaz

I can't believe no one has mentioned Elaine Princi, THE definitive Dorian, AFAIC

Real soap fans know Julia Duffy was the best Karen Wolek. Judith Light was simply NuKaren.

R251 LaStrasser admitted on her hotline that she LIED about Jill Farren Phelps. Strasser is a mess.

The unfunny trolls always show up.

Next we'll have to hear about the person who's "in the biz."

OT, but spurred on by r241, was there ever a better group of child actors than Bryan Buffington, Rachel Miner, and Gregory Burke?

R259 I fondly recall mid-90s Y&R had Camryn Grimes, Hayden Tank, and Thomas Dekker.

But the GL gang was surprisingly natural.

Strasser clearly had a huge ego. HUGE.

Two of my favorite child soap actors was Robin on GH and original Jessica on OLTL, because their characters were allowed to age in real time. OLTL did the same with Star, and she was alright but she was no Jessica.

Camryn Grimes was really good on Y&R . Hell, she won the Outstanding Younger Actress Emmy at 10. The crowd didn’t seem quite as receptive though when her name was announced as the winner.

I loved Claire Malis in the role; she was the first Dorian I ever saw. She and Marco were in bed and they had a talk about which was more alluring -- money or power. Marco picked money. Dorian said power.

They didn't dare.

And Camryn wore the ribbon!

Another vote for Claire Malis. She was the first Dorian I remember too. She terrified me. It was great to see her show up on Facts of Life a few years later playing against type as Jo's mother. I remember when Strasser took over. MY SHOW was AMC, and I wondered why Christina Karras Martin was now playing Dorian.

Ellen Holly is so full of anger toward Slezak. If you watch her archives interviews, she won't even refer to Slezak by name, instead referring to her as "the third Viki." Ouch.

R264 because everyone who knew anything about was going on knew that was Erin Torpey's trophy they gave to a little girl who barely knew what she was doing.

Zimmer. She could do it all. Writers could write anything and you knew she would knock it out of the park. No other actress could do that. Plus she had star quality.

R264 seemed like a normal audience reaction to me. The outstanding younger actor actress categories were ridiculous anyway. At least they’ve cut it in half by consolidating younger men women into one category now.

I never understood the “NYC soaps had better acting because of NYC theatre actors being cast” mentality

Many LA soaps purged and went after actors from NYC theatre as well

In fact according to Ken Corday’s book, Days of Our Lives was developed as an NYC taped soap as his family are New Yorkers and his parents had worked on Guiding Light with Agnes Nixon and As The World Turns, it was decided for whatever reason by NBC that they were gonna do DAYS in LA at that time the only other soap in LA was GH

So everyone who signed on relocated to the West Coast for DAYS including the Corday family, Corday said that first Christmas DAYS was on the air was tough because 90% of the cast and crew were New Yorkers and they were homesick

Suzanne Rogers (Maggie on DAYS) was a Radio City Rockette and NYC theatre actress when she was cast on DAYS in 1973, one of the talent finders from DAYS would scour Broadway and off Broadway shows and then wine and dine them and fly them out to LA to audition for the show

They loved getting theatre actors

r273, you could just feel the difference. The East Coast soaps had this vibe of being for more intelligent viewers both in the writing and the choice of actors who didn't look like supermodels, but the West Coast soaps were just pretty people without much skill or passion.

East coast still had hotties and West coast had some dogs.

Yes Eileen Davidson is the GOAT. When she is doing her thing against Deidre Hall on Days, it's magical.

Eileen isn’t in the top 5, but she’s great.

R276 yes and also give some of that credit to Deidre, I don't think a Kristen/Jen-Fil-A scene would have the same intensity.

D Hall is terrible

Susie Seaforth Hayes is a fine dramatic actress, certainly better than DD Halls and that red menace Suzi Rogers.

R273 That's one soap. What about Y&R, GH and B&B? They are all West Coast-based soaps, and I don't recall them hiring many (if any) actors with extensive theatre experience.

The younger actress (initially called Outstanding Ingenue) had nominees including Julianne Moore, Melissa Leo, Robin Wright, Anne Heche and Tricia Cast.

The younger actor highlights were Michael E. Knight and well, Michael E. Knight...They should still keep it to two sexes because the women will always have better material. However, I could see Nicholas Alexander Chavez taking home next year's gold.

R281 I’m convinced that outside of the major cast, they cast B&B from the world of porn not theatre.

How can anybody watch B&B? Or any of the remaining soaps. They’re painful to watch.

R281 say what you will but DAYS had some incredibly strong acting in the 60s and 70s, in fact the first two acting Emmys went to Macdonald Carey and Susan Flannerry from DAYS, NOT those so called much better acted NYC soaps

Even Mickey Horton’s breakdown stuff from 1975 by John Clarke was raw, gritty and very NYC theatre like, DAYS also benefited by having Wes Kenny direct many of its episodes, he’s best known for directing many episodes of All in the Family

R284, I'm not going to argue -- except for GH; I find it to be compelling; especially, the actresses: Joyce Guy, Maura West, Cynthia Watros, Nancy Lee Grahn, Genie Francis Finola Hughes.

Leonie Norton as Julie on OLTL owns this thread!!!

Check out some old Doctors episodes on YT. Liz Hubbard, Bethel Leslie, Lydia Bruce, Anna Stuart, Carolee Campbell, Sally Gracie were all wonderful theater trained actresses. These bitches BROUGHT IT, and their talent combined with the heightened reality of the writing and production gave the show a very electric, theatrical feel.

R288 I have watched The Doctors. Terrible acting. Beyond bad!

Hard to say

I didn't realize Anna Lee was paralyzed in a real-life car accident after playing Lila Quartermaine for a year, and went on playing that role another twentysome years, using a wheelchair on and off screen.

Part of the vibe was cheap sets, bad lighting, and old lady wardrobe.

R285 Those old Emmys were a joke.

NYC based soaps, esp GL, were known for their strong acting.

Shwaa about meeeee?

R286 I tried watching GH. It is just all around poor. Yes, has good actors but everything else is just sad. Cynthia Watros should not be on a soap. Her career was going up up up after GL then nothing.

[quote]I have watched The Doctors. Terrible acting. Beyond bad!

So not true. Some of the best acting and writing on soaps was The Doctors until about 75.

And I think that guy who doesn't think LA soaps are soaps has invaded this thread. New York soaps with a few exceptions, like The Doctors, were stiff and stagey. Those P&G soaps were still using organ music for Christ's sake until about 73.

The matriarch, Frances Reid and patriarch, MacDonald Carey of Days of Our Lives were experienced theatre and Broadway actors too , Frances was even on one of the first televised soaps the NYC produced Portia Faces Life

Again confirming that there’s really not much difference between LA soap actors and NYC ones as many on the LA soaps had NYC theatre and Broadway backgrounds as well

[quote] Again confirming that there’s really not much difference between LA soap actors and NYC ones as many on the LA soaps had NYC theatre and Broadway backgrounds as well

No, that's faulty logic. By the late 70s and 80s, LA soap actors and NYC soap actors were very different. DOOL had Electra Woman; ATWT had Larry Brygmann. You can't point to the exception to prove the rule.

R298 uh NYC also had Susan Lucci and LA had Connecticut native and NYC theatre actor who studied under Stella Adler, Joseph Mascolo (Stephano on Days of Our Lives)

Which one is the better actor of the two?

DAYS also had esteemed character and East Coast grizzled theatre actors like James Luisi and Joseph Campanella in its cast in the late 80s

Again, actors go where the jobs are, if a soap wants to hire NYC theatre actors it doesn’t matter if it films in Oklahoma, they’ll get them, money talks

Norman Lear loved NYC theatre actors and you know what he did with all his shows that taped in LA? He would fly the actors out to do guest spots and even make them regulars, you act like there’s this secret force field that prevents NYC theatre actors from moving to LA for work on the soaps out there

It’s bizarre

You missed my point. You can't pick a handful of actors and compare them as if they represent all actors on each coast.

The most captivating performer I've ever seen in my life made her name in the soaps: Elizabeth Hubbard. I have never seen any actor or actress enter a scene with the same zest for life and passion for the moment. She should be the most acclaimed actress in the world, in my opinion.

Of all the West Coast shows, GH has always had a strong roster of actors. Setting aside the Luke/Laura and Sonny show-eating stories, there's been some great actresses on the show.

Jane Elliot, of course. Genie has grown into a solid actress. Maura and Cynthia are P&G alums, of course.

During the Wendy Riche/Claire Labine years GH had the best lineup and stories. The BJ's heart story.....I mean.....MARY! I know not everyone loves Nancy Lee Grahn, but she was great on SB and should get an award for 25 years of making shit into sunshine on GH.

There are terrible actresses too - paging Kelly Monaco on the white courtesy phone!

NO ONE is saying ALL East Coast actresses are Meryl Streep and ALL West Coast actresses are Pia Zadora.

However, the average/mean was that East Coast shows, at least in their heyday, showcased more "actorly" types, and West Coast shows found pretty, model types, a trend proudly started by Bill Bell, and taught them how to act.

[quote]West Coast shows found pretty, model types, a trend proudly started by Bill Bell, and taught them how to act.

Or, at least, taught them to recite their lines without tripping over the furniture.

Watching Brenda Dickson was a master class in acting.

Nope.

Again I’ve seen good and bad acting on both East and West Coast soaps

The 4 soaps I watched were AMC, OLTL, DAYS and GH

OLTL had some SHIT acting towards the end with the Ford Brothers, Kim and Gigi (I know the actress came from DAYS), Rex, Stacy etc

While at the same time DAYS had some brilliant and much stronger acting as a whole

Again by 2010 OLTL had Mimi from DAYS, the insufferable Farrah Fath as GiGi and DAYS got Megan from OLTL, the excellent Jessica Tuck as Madeline Reeves, further proving my point that there isn’t very much distinction between East and West Coast soap actors any longer

Don’t tell Vee, who’s in the biz. We are launching a campaign to get Vee, who’s in the biz, a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy in 2022! He deserves it!! Please bombard NATAS to get Vee, who’s in the biz, his Lifetime Achievement Award! Thank you!!!!!

So many soap actors went back and forth between the NYC and LA soaps beginning in the '80s that that distinction really no longer held water. The list is endless.

I’shlm thee grateshth actreshh.

R310 exactly, this is my point

Not to mention executive producers (Gary Tomlin went from AMC to OLTL to Sunset Beach to DAYS etc), headwriters and episode directors (Scott McKinsey, Beverly Mckinsey’s son directed a bunch of soaps even DAYS on the West Coast)

The distinction between E and W Coasts held until circa 1995, at which time almost all the East shows went to shit, and network interference + budget cuts slowly began to kill them.

They had to tear down 1268 East 14th St in Brooklyn after Fulton got a hold of the plumbing system!

[quote] Vee, who’s in the biz, is launching a campaign to get himself a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 Daytime Emmys!!!!! Vee, who’s in the biz, deserves it.

Die in a raging grease fire, you lunatic.

Vee, who’s in the biz will get his Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy in 2022!!!!!

The superiority of Wesley Pfenning over Jacqueline Courtney, as Alice Matthews on AW, was noticeable. Pfenning later played the multi layered Lauralee Brooks on Y&R, and she totally overshadowed Jaime Lee Bowers.

Lemay didn't care for Courtney at all but he admitted that none of the other Alice's had Jacquie's level of popularity, noting that she had a quality that made her a star.

Whosh ready to hit tha sthreets? I’m driving

R319 I have 2 dui’s! So there.

What was more important to P&G actresses: getting a Daytime Emmy, a SOD Award, or a DUI?

R319 R320 R321

Pervy chaturbate guy amc2008 is back at SON! Ewwww! A few years ago he posted a link to a video of himself whacking off! So gross!

And fat old Grampa Soapsuds is still hoping to go on Celebrity Dating Game with Chandler. Ewwwww ewwwww ewwwww!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Lucinda Walsh would have been a monster if played by any other actress. But observe what the greatest actress to ever grace Daytime does with her at 28:50. (Oh, and her scene partners aren't exactly chopped liver, either. RIP Lisa Brown.)

Oh please, La Hubbard was all ham. Brown could be good, but Iva was such a pill, it was hard to stay awake during her scenes. Now if you want real soap acting, look to people like Shannon Tweed or Katherine Kelly Lang. They ooze talent and charisma. Tweed or Lang would destroy Hubbard in scenes.

OMG, the acting and dialogue at r325 is absolutely atrocious. Even the actors look embarrassed. Was that during the writers' strike?

Liz Hubbard was awful. Is anyone really shocked that she never won an Emmy as Lucinda! I’m not.

She really is horrid in that clip. So ridiculously affected, it's almost as if she's parodying herself. Larry Bryggman looks like he rather be anywhere else.

Quel surprise! I blocked one of the anti-Hubbard comments, and three of them disappeared!

Mmmm…Seth Snyder. Forget Holden and Caleb, Seth was the Snyder for me. I wanted to be like Sabrina and fuck him in the moonlight by Snyder Pond!

The poster is who posted earlier about East Coast soaps being better acting wise because of NYC theatre actors and used Larry Bryggman as an example, does that person know that he is actually from…. California?

Again, back in the day all soaps used and preferred theatre actors, LA has a theatre scene too and they would ship out a lot of NYC theatre actors for their shows too

Deidre Hall has mentioned how intimidated she was her first couple of months on DAYS in 1976 because she discovered that almost everyone of her cast mates had done theatre in LA and NYC and many had even done Broadway, she didn’t feel like “a real actress “, she also mentioned how impressed she was by Joe Gallison’s work he was playing Dr. Neil Curtis had had come from the NYC theatre and had previously found success on the NYC soaps One Life to Live and Another World

It’s impressive that Susan Haskell has two Emmys, but her greatest achievement is getting that Thorsten Kaye dick all these years.

[quote] The poster is who posted earlier about East Coast soaps being better acting wise because of NYC theatre actors and used Larry Bryggman as an example, does that person know that he is actually from…. California?

The point is that the bulk of his work and training was on stage in NYC. But we are getting nowhere with this. You don't see any difference between the acting styles of east coast and west coast soaps; others do. Let's move on from this difference of opinion and not end up insanely repeating ourselves like our resident trolls.

While it's true that the acting styles are different, the best soaps -- especially Another World, One Life to Live, and Guiding Light -- were canceled to get back at ME. It was done to devastate ME.

It's merely a coincidence that all these soaps were located in New York.

R334 again many LA soaps used those actors too

90% of Days of Our Lives original cast and crew were from New York as DAYS was supposed to be a NYC taped soap, they even had studio space rented in Manhattan

In keeping up with tradition Betty and son Ken Corday continued to look for and cast a lot of NYC theatre and even Broadway actors and bring them out to LA to do the show because they loved that acting style

Norman Lear did the same thing with his LA taped sitcoms

Until the mid 90s, DAYS from 1965 onward was filled with strong East Coast theatre actors , who weren’t exactly super pretty but had acting chops, even character actress Fran Ryan was a regular cast member on DAYS in the late 70s

It would make sense that soaps, regardless of where they were taped, would want theatre actors. If they did repertory that would be proof that they can change, adapt, and learn scripts fairly fast. Any stage experience would mean they understood how to make sure their performance was on point the first time, without multiple takes, because you don't get a second take on stage.

The theatre is/was closer to soaps than primetime or movies. But daytime is harder than theatre, because at least in the theatre you learn one script and then you perform it over and over. With daytime you have to learn a new play everyday.

Ok, you keep arguing, r336.

Have a nice day.

New York actors were better. Period. Anyone with brains, or taste, knows this.

It wasn't a question.

R339 but the NY actors did LA soaps too and vice versa, they went where the jobs were

There is no distinction at this point

I mean you horrible actors like Austin Peck, who was first on an LA soap, Austin on Days of Our Lives, and then ended up stinking up TWO NYC soaps as Brad on ATWT and Rick on OLTL, the soaps with the supposedly superior acting because they’re NY shows

The original actors who were cast as The Horton family on Days of Our Lives in 1965 were definitely, should we say “average looking” except Patricia Barry who played Addie, Hope’s Mom and ironically she would continue to find success on the soaps with roles on NYC soaps Guiding Light and as Peg English, Brooke’s (Julia Barr’s) Mom on All My Children

But they were really strong actors even if they weren’t all movie star beautiful and the men weren’t your typical soap hunks, I mean average looking Maree Chatham , Marie Horton on DAYS, as a leading soap lady on DAYS that’s just as crazy as Erika Slezak on OLTL

I think ALL soaps (LA and NYC) eventually cast model types with limited acting ability, they ALL did

Lifelong AMC Superman Carol Burnett said “The show is like a place crashed in Pine Valley full of models” in the 2000s

I’m not the same guy as any of the above posts but…

The difference is that NY actors continued to be active in theater while also on a soap.

LA actors may have had some theater training but generally settled into the comfort of a mon-fri job and brassy LA lifestyle.

Say what you will but LA does mot have the same active theater scene. NY actors seemed to love the craft of acting more than LA actors and it showed in the work.

Nobody cared about the NYC soaps after they all dropped “the” from their titles and all of their fat actresses like Fat Bert Bauer!

The new guy reminds me of the prettyboy soap actors I'd see on the soaps when I stayed home from school in the 1960s and '70s. I would change the channels until another cute one appeared on the screen. The stories weren't of any interest. The suspense lay in "Will he take his shirt off or not?"

Pat Barry wasn't the original Addie, that was Pat Huston. Ed Mallory and George Reinholt - neither of whom would qualify as hotties post 1980 - were the top soap sex symbols of their day.

The best acted soap scene with a female as it’s lead was on an LA soap, Days of Our Lives, It was the recently deceased Philece Sempler as Renee Dimera and she had this big party at the Dimera mansion in late 1983 and everyone is dressed to the nines and she goes on this tear when she reads them all at the party one by one and tells them how they tormented her “since I can to this town “

She had great moments like “You all think you’re better than me but you’re not and I have something to say to everyone one of you tonight “

It was such a great NYC theatre type of soap scene at it lasted 9 minutes STRAIGHT

No surprise that after DAYS, Philece showed up on a P&G NYC soap, Another World

Here you go R346

"The best acted soap scene with a female as it’s lead..."

Oh, dear!

"I mean you horrible actors like Austin Peck, who was first on an LA soap, Austin on Days of Our Lives, and then ended up stinking up TWO NYC soaps as Brad on ATWT..."

Really must disagree here; Peck was wonderful on ATWT, consistently good in both dramatic and comic scenes. He was the only Brad I ever gave a damn about, and he and Terri Conn had crazy chemistry.

R349 Yeah, I've seen much worse actors than him.

I remember Peck doing some really good work with Trent Dawson when Ghost Brad starting appearing to Henry.

Why do soap thread always end up so messy?

It's not just soap threads. EVERY thread becomes messy. Check out the Ordinary People thread. It's a hot mess. It somehow morphed into a Golden Girls thread.

What if Barbara Thorndyke had played Reva Shayne?

Barbara Norris Thorpe Thorndyke

R347 damn that was a great scene even Susie Seaforth Hayes brought her A game as Julie

P&G soaps who?

Susie Hayes and Charlotte Ross LOATHED each other. What's the story there?

R347, amazing; so sad that she's gone now; unbelievable that Dee, Susan, Bill, Josh, Thaao, Leann, and Suzanne (who else?) are all still on the show nearly 40 years later.

[quote]Really must disagree here; Peck was wonderful on ATWT, consistently good in both dramatic and comic scenes. He was the only Brad I ever gave a damn about, and he and Terri Conn had crazy chemistry.

It was real life spilling over to the screen.

Austin and Terri were having an affair in real life. Each was married to other people, but started the affair while at ATWT. They each divorced their spouses and were married in 2011. They have two daughters

If Austin Peck wanted to poke you in the cooter, you'd say yes too!

Lots of extramarital affairs BTS at ATWT. Helen Wagner must've walked around set scolding all these little hussies.

Helen had a moustache

The eavesdropping porch must be where they train spies!

Kathleen Widdows was by far the best actress to ever work on ATWT. She doesn't get enough due.

She's pretty awesome, but I would give almost anything to get her husbands dick. Very lucky lady! mmmmmm

Can somebody talk about me and my early 2004 facelift, eyelid work, and neck lift?!?

Isn't he bi?

Vinnie and Peter Barton were at times, rumored to be 'close' to Lee Majors.

Vincent will always be the Bionic Boy to me.

I, Scoche Marin, am still the greatest soap actress and the definitive Katherine Chancellor on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, television’s number one daytime drama. Here I am with my best friend Christian LeBlanc at his anniversary party on the Y&R set. Kisses!

Lynn Herring, anyone? God I was addicted to Lucy Coe in the ‘80s!

Fuck YOU, Scoche!! 😡

R371 She is wonderful. I know some people get tired of her antics, especially since we mainly see her now in connection to the Nurse's Ball, but I love her. She is very adept at comedy but at the same time when she is faced with tragedy she makes you feel like her soul is being ripped out. Plus, even though I HATED her for breaking up Alan and Monica, I still loved to watch her and her red wedding dress and hat is one of those soap images that is burned into my mind.

Say what you Will about DAYS but that had some interesting casting choices that weren’t typical “soap opera pretty people “ that I don’t think the show gets credit for

People like Fran Ryan, Carol Ida White , James Luisi, Nancy Parsons, Dot Marie Jones, Patrika Darbo (an overweight actress in a romantic leading role no less)

I didn’t see any of the P&G soaps casting REAL looking people like Patrika Darbo as a romantic lead

You'd be wrong, r374.

R374 Well she wasn't when she started but before GL ended KZ was bigger than Patrika Darbo.

It was great to see Jill again in Genoa City, yesterday and today. It felt very Y&R.

Now THIS is soap acting! Connie wipes the floor with that little blonde hair model.

R333 Susan deserved that second Emmy. Her character was completely destroyed, but crazy Marty was very entertaining to watch.

OP, in answer to your question, no she is not.

R375 both those actors are attractive

I saw Debbi Morgan that night at the 2009 Daytime Emmys when Susan won.

"Did you call the police?"

"No. Why?"

"'Cuz you got ROBBED."

She smiled and let out a little laugh.

R382 speaking of Debi Morgan, is Darnell Williams coming to DAYS as Lani’s biological father and Jackee’s abusive ex?

That’s the rumor

[quote] Patrika Darbo (an overweight actress in a romantic leading role no less) I didn’t see any of the P&G soaps casting REAL looking people like Patrika Darbo as a romantic lead.

As lovely as you might think the actress playing Ashlee was...and ignoring that Patrika Darbo was hardly a romantic lead...the actress playing Ashlee was certainly as much of a romantic lead as Darbo and certainly overweight.

Fat Traci on Y&R is a romantic lead. lololololololol

The idea that DAYS had casting reflecting the "average joe" makes me LOL till the end of time.

In day player roles, maybe, and yes, they did have Patrika. But as with other West Coast shows, the main players were all hair models.

r378 I'M YOUR MOTHER, I'M NOT SOME STRANGER WHO WALKED IN OFF THE STREEEEET

If we are talking OLTL I agree with Evans, Hutchinson, and Haskell being some of the top. Loved Jessica Tuck as Megan and she should have been an Emmy winner the year she died.

I stand by Andrea Evans being the BEST line reader on soaps.

You can tell she had a stellar memory because she would spit out lines (and sometimes very campy ones) like a real person would spit them out.

She was CHARISMA.

Its so funny to me how such a mousy little bore of a character (from clips I have seen of AE from the 70's-early 80's) could come back as an 80's comedic vixen. It was very inspired.

It was Paul Rauch who brought Andrea Evans back in 1985.

With that, we can get back to the subject at hand, since Andrea Evans worked alongside Eileen Davidson on Y&R ca. 1983 when she took over the role of Patty Williams Abbott.

R391 What that clip reminds me of is the one reason I hated those new flashbacks they did of young John, Dina, and the kids, the last couple of years. I don't think they ever showed Mamie, they might've mentioned her but they never showed her. I know that today, people might take offence at a black maid loving and caring for a white family. But, you can't tell the story of the Abbott family without her. She was more a mother to those kids than Dina ever was. She is central to the story, just like in that clip. It is Mamie who first recognizes her. I wish they would do one of those tribute episodes soaps are so good at, have the character die off screen and show the Abbott's mourning their real mama. Dina was a tramp and a selfish bitch. Mamie wasn't a mammy she was their mommy. It was John and Mamie who raised them. I hate the fact that the powers that be ended the John and Mamie romance before it really started, because they belonged together more than him and any of his wives.

Sorry, but Mamie was always one of my favorite side/servant characters in all soapdom.

Remember Miguel, the loyal Abbot manservant, another visible minority?

R393 The Newman Ranch has never been the same since.

Dear God in heaven, R393, apparently you don't remember Miguel quite as well as you think.

WHET that fine piece of ass John Silva?

R393 Miguel was best played as the loyal - underfive - manservant ONLY. .. When Y&R finally gave Pena something to do during the "Veronica Landers - Sarah the Maid" storyline, he was absolutely atrocious.

I can still remember all the message board posts howling in laughter over Pena's hyper-melodtamatic weeping and wailing when Vernoica/Sarah finally bit the dust when she met a hay-baling hook out in the Newman Barn. He was just awful.

btw - Victor actually had another manservant prior to Miguel. He was a Chinese guy call "Charlie."

R396 John Casetllanos married, then divorced one of B&B's supervising producers, Rhonda Friedman. (They were together for about 12 years). It was somewhat memorable, because from what I remember, with her working and him being an unemployed actor, he ended up suing her for alimony and won. That was 2005. After that, I read, he plays a lot of golf. (She left B&B in 2016.)

He showed up at Eric Braeden's 40th Anniversary party in 2020.

He got fat.

My favorite servant was Nigel, Asa's butler on OLTL. Camp butler Nigel and the gruff cowboy Asa, made a great odd couple that just worked. Though, I didn't like it when they gave him a love story with Roxy. He was clearly in love with Asa.

Terry Lester was the perfect Jack Abbott. He just embodied everything that character was about. There was no way in hell THAT Jack Abbott fought in Vietnam.

R400 I can't picture PB's Jack fighting there either. The only thing that makes me believe that story point, is that John seems like the type of father that would make sure his son didn't get special treatment from a draft board. Loving but also a stand up guy who couldn't accept some poor boy going in place of his son. He seems like the type who would be we are all in this together.

The Vietnam story was such a retcon of the character. Playboy Jack would have been the first in line to claim a college deferment. And while there, he would have been doing all kinds of fratboy partying.

Some viewers probably don't remember this, but when John and Jack were first introduced, Jack didn't even want to work with "dear old dad" at Jabot.

He only started working there because of Jill (Deborah Adair). She was already working with John at Jabot, and she learned how much it would mean to John if his son joined him in the business. But Jack had no interest.

Jill went to go talk to Jack and convinced him to come work there. Jack agreed, but mainly because he saw it as a challenge to get Jill into bed. Also, his main interest was hiring models.

[quote] Playboy Jack would have been the first in line to claim a college deferment. And while there, he would have been doing all kinds of fratboy partying.

That's why I just figured it was more about John than him. Like John wouldn't provide the money for a playboy lifestyle if he shirked his duty.

R386 DAYS has had many homely and average looking people who weren’t “day players” in their casts, why do you think this board went after Guy Wilson after he was recast as gay Will on DAYS? Because many thought he was ugly and he “looked like a lesbian “, there were even comments like “At least ATWT and OLTL cast really hot, attractive actors as gay men on their shows”

Weren’t they NYC soaps?

And secondly, EVERY soap eventually went more or less to “hair models who can’t act” casting mode by the late 90s, AMC , another NYC soap, was the worst example of this, they had the best loooking cast in all of daytime in it’s last 10 years and some of the shittiest acting

r392, no she was clearly a Mammy. That was some residual racism on Bell's part which he redeemed himself from by eventually giving her a family and writing black characters at the center of their own stories. But please don't condescend people by saying just because Mamie raised Dina's children it made her their real mother. Most Mammies in the Confederate states raised the children. This was nothing new, it was a timeless trope of Americana which Bell was using. The black servant who not only has no life outside of her white masters but doesn't question them and is even happy to be kept by them. And the Miguel character was no better written.

R390 It’s easy to forget, but Andrea Evans was the main reason OLTL was such a ratings powerhouse in the mid-late 80s. Tina was that larger than character who legitimately inspired water cooler conversations, whether it was her blurting out Cord’s name in her ceremony to Max, to her juicy feud with Maria, to her going over the Iguazu Falls, interrupting Cord and Kate’s wedding, her toxic “friendship” with Gabrielle, faux Bo, the evolution of her relationship with Viki… it goes on and on. Icon.

Andrea Evans as Tina was arguably more iconic than Susan Lucci's Erica for a time. Tina was a legitimate soap icon, moreso than Viki.

Terry's Jack Abbott was sleazy in a hot way, and looked like Jack Wrangler to boot.

Bergman destroyed the character.

R405 I say she was their real mama because of what we were shown on the show. There was real love and care shown by Jack, Ashley, and Tracey towards Mamie. John expressed gratitude and appreciation towards her out of recognition for her love for his children. And, of course she showed it back towards them. She was the one there for them, while Dina had abandoned them and their father worked to build Jabot. Yes, she was a maid but more to them than that. No one has a problem with white kids being close to their white nannies but for some reason if the person is black, we act like it can’t be real and must be racist.

The reason Traci sent Colleen back to live in Genoa City as a teen was so she could be raised by John AND Mamie because of the love and care she had been raised with by BOTH of them.

r409, that doesn't matter. Plenty of Mammys in the South functioned as real mothers to white children. It's still a racist trope. You have no justification for defending it.

I wish OLTL didn’t screw up the return of Andrea Evans return to the show. Tina was a favorite and think they did the character wrong. Glad they gave her a happy ending but her portrayal made OLTL the show to watch in the 80s!

They made a big mistake not reuniting Tina and Gabrielle. They were the first frenemy relationship on TV.

R410 I believe it is better to show love between the races than to boil everything down to racism. To pretend that real love didn’t exist among white children and the black women that raised them is itself racist because it implies that race is more powerful than basic human nature. Such things should be evaluated based on the specific circumstances involved. Reducing Mamie to a mammy stereotype robs her character of her humanity. Just because she was black it doesn’t mean there wasn’t real maternal love expressed by her and acknowledged by the children and John. If she had been some white maid or nanny, there wouldn’t be any problem for anyone. The fact that the only reason we can’t now acknowledge it now is because she is black, which is itself racist.

Does anyone have a problem with the Brady kids showing love and affection for Alice? No because she was white. They even acknowledged in an episode of the Brady bunch how Alice had basically been a mother to the boys after their mother died and before he met Carol. But, just because Alice is white, it is fine. Even though Alice, and Hazel for that matter, had much more in common with the Mammy stereotype than Mamie, except for the color of their skin.

Andrea Evans was to 80s OLTL what Katherine Glass was to 70s OLTL, except Miss Glass had a consistently higher Q score and record-setting teen fan mail. If anyone is interested, here are the actresses with the highest Q scores, daypart programming, for the week ending January 14, 1977:

1. Katherine Glass, One Life to Live

2. Susan Seaforth Hayes, Days of Our Lives

3. Jacqueline Courtney, One Life to Live

4. Victoria Wyndham, Another World

5. Eileen Fulton, As the World Turns

^^^ The 2:00 shows were well-represented that year. That was always my favorite group of soaps: AW, ATWT, and OLTL.

Is the Kathy Glass troll back?

Vicki Wyndham was also high up the Q chain. She had the type of Q score you bitches could never know.

Ask me why I breathe to start my car.

I'm still here.

[quote] The reason Traci sent Colleen back to live in Genoa City as a teen was so she could be raised by John AND Mamie because of the love and care she had been raised with by BOTH of them.

Traci allowed disagreeable, pothead Colleen (Lyndsy Fonseca) to live in Genoa City as a teen, so the delinquent could be raised by her father BRAD. (Traci & Steve were having marital problems and divorcing.) .. Colleen lived with Brad and Ashley at the old Rawlins Manor house that Brad owned. .. Mamie may have still been making an occasional appearance now and again, but she was basically off the canvas by that point, and when she did show up, it usually had something to do with The Winters.

Andrea Evans with her comedic acting and limited range and camp really shined on PASSIONS, creator and former DAYS headwriter James Reilly, personally suggested her for PASSIONS as Rebecca Hotchkiss as he was a fan of her from OLTL

And the irony is Andrea Evans played Susan Lucci’s real life daughter, Liza Huber, Mom on Passions, she was even reunited with Robin Strasser, who played a real witch named Hecuba, for a few years on Passions in the early 2000s

Andre Evans needs to come on DAYS , they love doing comedy on DAYS and she would have been a riot during the recent Marlena is repossessed storyline

Andrea Evans CANNOT ACT. She is basically the poor man's Pia Zadora, which speaks volumes. She makes Dee Dee Halls look like Dame Judith Anderson.

R411 they also didn't give her near enough screen time with Slezak, Blair and Dorian who were also arch enemies with throughout the course of the show. they stuck her with fucking Natalie the whole fucking time. The same with Haskell who was never reunited with her greatest scene partner Howarth when she returned.

R423 but wait, wasn’t her big fame on a NYC soap, aren’t all the NYC soaps filled with real actors from the NYC THEATRE according to the ancient P&G soap queens on here?

You know despite NYC being the modeling capital of the world and all….

Talk about “hair models”

[quote] Traci & Steve were having marital problems and divorcing.

Little did Traci know that her husband, Steve Connelly, had been using her as his beard all those years they were married. .. But one time, Traci came back from one her book tours early and caught Steve in bed with a hot jock named "Grant," who was working as a college intern for Steve at the publishing house.

Traci has tried more than once to write about this 'traumatic' experience, but so far, it's proven too emotional, so her novel, "The Bottom of His Affection," remains locked in a drawer, unfinished.

btw - When Colleen was dating and falling in love with J.T. Hellstrom that was when we were to learn that "Grant" was actually J.T.'s cousin whom he spoken of.

[quote]Little did Traci know that her husband, Steve Connelly, had been using her as his beard all those years they were married.

That really wouldn't be much of a stretch since actor Greg Wranglerm who played Steve, pinged to high heaven every time he was on screen.

And Steve and Traci never had any kids. Probably had to get drunk like gay Phillip with Nina.

The 1st Rebecca was Maureen McCormick, who was elegant and SO nasty to poor Pilar. I think MM panicked at doing a 5 day a week soap gig and bolted.

Bell named her "Mamie" which is pretty close to Mammy, so he knew what he was doing. But Mamie was clearly the woman of the house, while at the same time making it clear that she was a servant. She was part of the family, but there were clearly lines not crossed. You would never see Mamie dining with them in the same way you never saw Alice dining with the Bradys.

Whosh ready for the nexsht round?

Me me me! I save my piss and rub it on my face

Every time someone posts about Alice and the Bradys, my mind goes right to Days and Alice Horton and the Brady family. Why would Alice Horton be serving the Bradys and raising Roman, Bo, etc.?

[quote] Bell named her "Mamie" which is pretty close to Mammy, so he knew what he was doing.

He also named black male characters "Kong," "Jazz," and "Juice." .. "Kong" eventually became "Nathan Hastings" when he decided to have him play a bigger role.

My aunt loved Y&R and B&B. I could never get into the Bell soaps for specifically the reasons discussed above.

Every time I tuned in, it seemed a black person needed to be taught how to read and write. Or they were homeless. Or Emmy-winner Debbi Morgan is cast to play a woman who calls a character (a white woman younger than Morgan herself) "Miss Phyllis."

NOPE.

There was also a scene where Nikki once called Drucilla - who was then an adult working as a Newman executive - "Missy."

[quote]And the irony is Andrea Evans played Susan Lucci’s real life daughter, Liza Huber, Mom on Passions, she was even reunited with Robin Strasser, who played a real witch named Hecuba, for a few years on Passions in the early 2000s

Was the Strasser and Evans reunion very brief? I watched a few things but could never get into Passions. With all the dreadful excess of JER's possession Days distilled into the show. But the casting of Evans and Huber as Mother/Daughter is inspired.

[quote] There was also a scene where Nikki once called Drucilla - who was then an adult working as a Newman executive - "Missy."

I'm sure Vicky Rowell filed a 876 page HR complaint about it.

I save my pee in a jar to rub on my face! No. 1 beauty secret!

Lady Ruth was 77 here.

IMO they should have ended AMC and OLTL by having Adam and Dorian joining forces and investing in the creation of a megacity which would subsume both Pine Valley and Llanview, leading to protests on both shows. It would have been the perfect soap opera plot with the two soap villains threatening to destroy these towns and a great cliffhanger for both shows, maybe with one of them getting shot.

Andrea Evans is most certainly the worst actress ever on a soap.

Which Y&R leading lady was addicted to pain pills a few years zgo?

Prolly Mel Snott.

RIP David Canary

Oh no, did David Canary die again?

no 446 he didn't really die, it was his twin brother Stuart lol

I think the poster is confusing David Canary with George Reinholt. They both played Tony Lord on OLTL.

nein

r448, no they played Steve Frame on AW. Do you know nothing?

Does anyone remember when Eileen Davidson sang on some record that Michael Damian ("Danny Ravioli" on Y&R) put out? .. During the '88 period, he took her to a couple of the music award shows with him. The photo below is from the 1988 AMA Awards After-Party at Chasen's Restaurant in Beverly Hills.

Also, this is a rather rare photo of the time Eileen dyed her hair RED .. lol. .. As I recall, she did that without getting permission from the Y&R producers, and they FREAKED OUT when she just walked in the studio one day with a different hair color. .. They let her keep it for awhile, but not very long.

Eileen was known as a man eater, so poor little Michael D. was probably terrified of her.

Well, that and the fact that any romance with a woman was for sure since Damian is strictly dickly.

Isn’t Eileen a man?

💩💩💩💩

No list of the greatest soap actresses is complete with this one.

R456 yes Dorothy Lyman who mostly directs now, one of her last soap roles was on Days of Our Lives as a campy Countess in the early 2000s, they had her character on DAYS take a dig at AMC by mentioning the adresss where AMC taped at in NYC and saying “It went downhill there compared to 20 years ago”

I liked Jill Larson better. Her performance was more nuanced than Lyman's caricature.

Jill Larson's performance was not more nuanced, it was irritating. It took away Opal's edge and just made her an annoying inoffensive twit with a hillbilly accent. Dorothy gave the character grotesquery and dynamism.

Dottie Lyman always looked like a lez.

Dorothy Lyman was perfect as Opal for the time…but Jill Larson was better suited for the Opal that came later. Still kooky, but had way more heart than original recipe Opal.

I, Scoche Marin, play the definitive Katherine Chancellor on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, television’s number one daytime drama.

I am the greatest soap opera actress.

Can I throw Kathryn Hays' name in the ring for Greatest Soap Actress? If soaps are about constancy, then she personifies that word. I could always see in a scene as Kim Sullivan Hughes on World Turns and feel like this was an authentic person. And in our real world that feels less and less authentic and more superficial and performative by the day, I want to thank Kathy Hays for reminding us that realness can exist.

R463, nicely said. She may have not been a powerhouse, but there’s something to be said for performers like her. I always liked when Kim would get pissed…you never wanted to be on the end of one of her “kiddos”!

Evidently Lyman was insulted that she wasn't asked back when they decide to bring Opal back in 1989. I can see why they went with Larson. The show at that time obviously wanted to focus on the huge money train that was Tad/Dixie, and I think the larger than life Lyman as Opal would've eaten that love story alive. They needed a more low-key actress who could play a supporting role in the Tad/Dixie story without devouring the story.

This thread is about me and only me, Scoche Marin, the definitive Katherine Chancellor on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS.

Kathy Hays had some “tightening” around the eyes and neck at the end of 2003/early 2004.

Oh, my dears!!!!

Dorothy Lyman was amazing in her 2.5 years on AMC. She bulldozed everything but in the most brilliant way.

R464, I think Kathy Hays was a powerhouse.

Wouldn’t the most gifted soap star be one who went on to more challenging work? Like Julianne Moore, or even Kathleen Turner?

[quote]r64 Judy Lewis ("Susan Ames Dunbar Carver" in "The Secret Storm")

Wow. Mr. Robin Strasser and Clark Gable's illegitimate daughter there at r472.

Wow! Miss Victoria Sleestack sure loved Jill Farren Phelps. Our beloved Victoria went out of her way in the clip at R468 to thank a producer who left the show 5 years earlier.

Ok, I hate to have to ask, but is Scoche just a CGI version of Jeanne Cooper?

Susan Lucci would never have allowed Lyman back at AMC.

I am NOT Jeanne Who?oper. I am Scoche Marin, the definitive Katherine Chancellor.

R475 Scoche is the result of a mentally ill troll's damaged mind. Ignore, FF and block.

What a great scene Marland wrote at r470, Usually the characters do not acknowledge things like a man dating three daughters. And Marland has Kim explain the relationship between Betsy and Kim with reference to Dan, using all their history. And the audience thinks of Kim and Seth as heroes, so conflict between them is so much more interesting than a helpless heroine being tormented by a moustache-twirling villain. This is real drama. God, Marland was great.

Kim Hughes raised both Betsy and Frannie, who were both played by future movie stars (Meg Ryan and Julianne Moore). It was Kathryn Hays' shine which made the actresses what they became.

^Hays was awful.She probably got her acting training at the Copacabana School of Acting. It was probably that they knew what NOT to do by observing her "act." Kathleen Widdows was the best actress on that dinosaur of a show.

You got the first name right but it’s Fulton not Davidson.

"Hays was awful."

Oh, yes, she was TERRIBLE! For the life of me, I can't see how she totally endeared herself to three generations of daytime viewers! (5:12)

Hays wasn’t anything special. Never even nominated for a daytime emmy.

...which I would say is THE most egregious snub in soap award history, R484. Whatever... She's a legend regardless.

Isn't Kathy Turner another of those that prefers to hide from her soap past?

As the definitive Katherine Chancellor, I had the most lovely dinner at Society, Genoa City’s premier bar and bistro. Everyone is talking about me, Scoche Marin, being the main contender for this year’s Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

The definitive Kay Chancellor. Sorry, Scoche, you freak.

How many characters has she played?

How does endearing oneself to fans equate with having talent, regarding Hays? She was about as interesting as Ellen Parker, who also "endeared herself with fans." If JFP had ever EP-ed ATWT, she probably would've fired Hays too and rightfully so. The focus groups were spot on with Parker. Kim and Bob were like watching paint dry.

R486 It's not so much that she hides from her soap past. She talks about her time on The Doctors in her book. .. It's more like she had a really bad time on the soap, and doesn't think the writing for her character or the direction she was getting was very good, so doesn't think it added much to her experience as an actress.

The Doctors was on its last legs when she joined the show. Writing and producing regimes seemed to change every couple of months in a desperate attempt to save it.

Eileen Davidson is getting her snatch eaten out in the Days movie trailer that was just released! On Peacock next week.

Kathryn Hays had a glorious face, neck, and eye lift in late 2003! Google the pictures!

Kathryn Hays had substance and the queens slating her in this thread are just stereotypical mincers who want their actresses to be glorified larger than life drag queens. Get some taste.

The fact that Susan Lucci the most one dimensional actress in soap history is also its most celebrated while the genuine talents like Kathy Hays were snubbed year after year explains why the audiences dropped off and daytime went down the toilet. Kathy and actresses like her gave the genre credibility, while Lucci only inflamed the soap opera stereotypes people have. The ABC soaps really were trash.

R496

R496 MARY! You are the ultimate P&G Queen.

A friend bemoaned La Lucci not winning a DT Emmy saying what's the big deal; it's just soap acting; why can't they give her one?

I said, it's because she is so bad that soap acting is considered less...

(Having said that I think La Lucci is a brilliant comic actress. Jack Scalia's character to Erica: "Erica, when I said I was in love with you, I was lying. I'm not a janitor. I'm not a lawyer. I'm a secret agent and I've been assigned to protect you as your life is in deadly danger from drug lords. You could be killed at any moment."

Erica (Beat.): "Then you're not in love with me."

Her acting was always cringe. She could not portray an honest emotion to save her life. I remember hearing how moving the tape she finally one for was and then I watched it and the whole thing was beyond awful.

Kathy Hays plays Kim finding out Bob slept with Susan; Dan's name comes up again.

Brilliant shit. I don't know who won the DT Emmy in 1991 but Hays should have been nominated for this stuff.

Sadly, actors in soaps don't watch each other. Friends just vote for Friends.

R500, she was good when Erica went up against spitfire Kendall (OG version).

She had to be; she was fearful of the little brat upstaging her.

I watched AMC from 1986-2000 and was always sorry I missed Dorothy Lyman in her heyday (to say nothing of the Jenny and Greg golden era). As a kid, I remember my older cousins telling me all about that time on the show and it sounded so good. Jill Larson pulled off making Opal her own which was no easy feat given Lyman’s legend. She was coming off her buzzy stint as crazy Ursula on OLTL so I’m guessing that’s why ABC was so high on her.

R503 AMC always had incredibly weak acting by their younger set since the mid 80s onward with the exception of Sarah Michelle Geller, which is partly why she stood out

The acting in general on the show was pretty terrible the last 10 years bar Debbi Morgan, Darnell Williams and Adam Canary

[quote] Friends just vote for Friends.

Which is why there was always someone that the fans loved or were amazed by - like Lisa Brown, or Beverlee - who would never even be nominated let alone win, because they hadn't campaigned and didn't round up a bunch of fellow cast members. They just did the work.

Susan Lucci was always treated with kid gloves for not winning an Emmy and yet she was nominated unfairly so many times, it reeks of corruption. For example, the brilliant Kate Collins carried AMC for the 1991-92 season and yet Lucci got the Lead Actress nomination at the end of it all, and Kate didn't even get a nom. It was beyond sickening.

For me, Kate Collins WAS AMC from 1986-1992. She was just amazing, and it's still difficult to believe that she never even got a nom, especially for her brilliance during the Ross rape storyline. Everybody involved in that storyline was nominated in 1987, except for her. Just astounding.

Susan sorta might have deserved it for the year Bianca came out as a lez, but so many other times she took a nomination from someone who better deserved it.

For the 1991-93 season, both Kate Collins and Beverlee McKinsey were considered guaranteed for Lead Actress Emmy nomination based on the phenomenal work they had done.

However, when the nominations were announced, neither was on the list. Instead, the nods went to Susan Lucci, Jeanne Cooper, Elizabeth Hubbard, Jessica Tuck and Erika Slezak with Slezak taking home the trophy (her third out of six wins).

Ironically, both McKinsey and Collins would vacate their roles on their respective shows by the end of 1992.

And neither Lucci nor Cooper deserved the nom that year.

Slezak stole all her nominations from Ellen Holly. She built her career on that girl’s ruin.

Get those black bitches out of my face!

I think Susan Lucci is underrated. Honestly, I don't think she's any better or worse than hambones like Slezak or Zimmer or Cooper. She deftly played Erica very tongue in cheek, which could be tricky at times. Emmy-bait heavy drama is just not her forte and she's a godawful crier, and she almost always ran into trouble when she was given that type of material.

Nope!

She's not even close.

Here is my top 5:

Judith Light

Debbi Morgan

Jess Walton

Robin Mattson

Heather Tom

I would agree with those upthread who've mentioned that Lucci did comedy very well. She knew Erica was a fake and played her as a fake, thus the times she was at her best was when she was playing it for laughs. She did not do 'drama' well, but I don't think Erica was really very capable of 'real' emotions anyway. Everything was artifice and for show.

If I had to pick a great daytime actor it would probably be Cynthia Watros as Annie on GL, which was not one of my shows, but one of my mother's. The only time I was every interested in it was during the Annie/Reva/Josh story and I just couldn't get over how good Watros was. And I would say that it's more Zimmer than Lucci who gave soap acting its 'reputation'.

1. Scoche Marin as Kay Chancellor on Y&R!

Simply put actors don't watch other actors' work in daytime. If they did then the cream would rise and people would say, 'you know I never worked with McKinsey and I'm on another network but I watched Alexandra slice and dice Roger at the country club. Sublime. She's got my vote.'

But they simply don't do that. I can tell you that there are four actors who watch other people's work in soaps -- Peter Bergman, Heather Tom, Hillary B. Smith, and Kim Zimmer. Maybe there are others, but I know that those four can have a conversation about who's out there and who's really good.

Back in the days of when it was ballot only (meaning people checked a ballot with names and headshots on them), there were supporting supporting players on the ballot from Y&R -- I'm talking secretaries and nannies. They had no stories, no scenes, no drama; just a few lines here and there. They rolled the dice hoping to get a nod.

Back in the late 1980s, the judge shows -- Superior Court and Divorce Court -- were thrown in with the dramas. People on shows voted for themselves and then, who they thought didn't stand a chance. Well, that backfired

According to WIki Superior Court got a nod for a Directing Emmy in 1988 along with Y&R, OLTL, DAYS, and ATWT;

Something called Family Medical Drama got one in 1989 along with Loving, ATWT, Y&R, and OLTL; 1988 saw shows Superior Court and The Judge get writing nods.

These awards are about actors honoring actors but in reality it's just people voting for themselves. McKinsey and Kathy Hays didn't play the game; they didn't curry votes or do a lot of press.

WE KNOW their historical value to the genre. Ironically, their fellow actors do not.

[quote] But they simply don't do that. I can tell you that there are four actors who watch other people's work in soaps -- Peter Bergman, Heather Tom, Hillary B. Smith, and Kim Zimmer. Maybe there are others, but I know that those four can have a conversation about who's out there and who's really good.

I think there are a smidge more than those four but I completely get, understand and agree with your point in general.

The Emmys have always sucked - in the early days it was all about campaigns, from the 80s on either the Bell shows or JFP's shows would block vote.

GL's years of Emmy success were almost all JFP's doing. ATWT had a bit here and there but was mostly shut out in later years - they got some acting awards in 2010 as a sympathy vote.

SON is full of pervs! Gross!

People predicted Zimmer would win in 1999 because she dominated the show and played so many highly-charged scenes. Yet Emmy voters laughed at Zimmer's 1999 reels because those highly-charged scenes involved her clone. Michael Logan was beating the drum for MTS that year. In the end, Lucci won.

Kate the Great.

Do the SON posters have jobs or are they all on welfare?

Vee, who is in the biz, knows the full story and Dumb Dylan has the January Sweeps scoop! Pervy Amc2008 has been filming his gross chaturbate vids in the library researching Aggie Nixon’s archive. Amc2008 thinks he knows more than Vee, who is in the biz, you know, and is the expert of all things soaps and politics.

R523, your posts NEVER get tiresome.

People who quote that horse's ass NEVER get tiresome either, r524.

R518, yes, I'm sure there are more but ... I've worked in daytime and you'd be surprised how few people have the familiarity with the genre as a whole.

They say Hubbard never won b/c individually, her scenes were OTT and out of context. ("Wait for it! WAIT FOR IT!!"

I adore Zimmer and she SHOULD have won in 1996 for December 1995 scenes in which Reva and Josh reunited for reals on the Spaulding jet.

"You went all out for the little lady in white (Annie) didn't you?"

"I've seen so much more than you think I have, Joshua; your land of 'wishes, hopes and dreams!'"

Zimmer was powerful; where was Watros' supporting nod and where was Kimberly Brown's Younger Actress nod.

I did NOT think that Zimmer would win for the clone story because cloning was DAYS or even GH or OLTL -- it wasn't P&G/GL.

I heard La Lucci's 1999 winning scenes (from 1998) were about Erica losing it over Bianca's anorexia. The shows were crafted to play to her strengths and let the non-regular viewer see a specific arc.

Personally, I think the best 7 actresses in soaps were Hubbard, McKinsey, Denise Alexander, Mary Kay Adams, Heather Tom, Flannery, and HB Smith.

That dyke Mary Kay Adams? Blech!

Mary Kay Adams best actress? That was my laugh for the night. She had charisma, but she was awful. I recently watched some scenes with Leslie Dennison, and her "acting" was very soap opera-ish. For my money, some of the best actresses in daytime have been Kathleen Widdows, Maeve Kinkead, Mary Fickett, Julia Barr, Helen Gallagher, Erika Slezak, Vicky Wyndham, Peggy McKay, Jada Rowland, Ann Flood, Kathleen Noone, Ann Meechum, Meg Mundy, Irene Dailey, Liz Hubbard (when she reins it in!), and Marcy Walker. I find McKinsey severely overrated. Her velvety voice was great, but she always seemed to be phoning it in, especially on GL.

Was Ellen Parker considered a good actress? Every time she appeared on screen, I would get drowsy and nod off, so I'm not a good judge of her talent.

R529 Were you in that focus group that got boring Ellen Parker fired? They all fell asleep too.

Interview with the fab Kate Collins from last year.

[quote]heavy drama is just not her forte and she's a godawful crier, and she almost always ran into trouble when she was given that type of material.

Sue, honey. Pay attention to this. Pull up a chair and take some notes.

Alan Locher is interviewing Tamara Tunie. Loved Jessica Griffin.

I loved Tammy Tunie!

I always wanted to do a web soap and base it in Chicago.

Kate Collins and Taylor Miller are there, along with numerous other daytime folks.

That idiot Serial Scholar thinks that Kate Collins is great. What a fucken moron!

Soapvetfan loves FatJanet almost as much as FatEd! He is still pissed that Aggie dropped THE from THE ALL MY CHILDREN

James Reilly ripped off the fat Janet story on DAYS with ugly Susan Banks

What went down between Dee Dee Halls and Suzi Rogers?

R539 They went down on each other.

Isn't Dee about 40 years younger than Suzi?

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩

Does Dee Dee know if Suzi's carpet matches the drapes?

Hello lovelies! Your favorite Katherine Chancellor, me, Scoche Marin, is adopting adorable dogs to liven things up at the Chancellor Mansion. What will that hussy Jill think?

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩

Let's not forget ....

R541 no dear, Dee Dee Halls is 40 years OLDER than Suzanne Rogers

Get it right

All of sudden, Dee Dee is bff with the Hayeses. I thought SSH loathed Dee Dee because she eclipsed her position as the face of DOOL, but they seem to be great friends. Meanwhile, Dee Dee and Suzi R. are on the outs.

Suzi Rogers and her 5.99 McCrory's wig still looks better than Anorexia Sue.

Dee is eternally 39. The woman doesn't seem to age.

I thought Dee was submitting herself for a Daytime Emmy in the Best Ingenue category.

And you mean to tell me she doesn't qualify for that category because she's too OLD?!?!? How can that be?

Remember when it was rumored that Dee would be joining AMC as nuTara Martin when it moved production to LA, as Frons' request? Lucci was not having any of that.

R551 didn’t Ron Carlivati write a story outline for Erika Slezak on DAYS , she was supposed to come on as Marlena’s sister but it was only a few month role/arc and Slezak didn’t want to commit unless it was a multi year contract role, then she would have moved out to LA to do it

Slezak would have wiped the floor with Hall acting wise

Slezak would make a great Alice Horton. I'm sure she would love to play Susan Seaforth Hayes's GRANDMOTHER! Slee looked 75 in 1975!

I believe you are correct r553. But I think Viki Sleastak was going to play Marlena's great, great grandmother, not her sister.

No one would ever believe those two were close enough in age to be sisters.

La Hubbard needs to join GOOL as Sister Marie.

You got it all wrong guys , after DAYS fired Dee Dee in a humiliating but hilarious way back in 2008, I felt sorry for the poor carpet muncher and went to ABC and floated a storyline idea around where Dee Dee would play my never seen Grandmother, Mona Kane’s mother, Mildred on AMC, I mean she looks like she could be my grandmother!

Imagine Viki Slezak as Marlena‘a sister now and involved with the current Mardevil storyline

“Damn you demon, I do not accept this ATALL!”

GET THOSE DEVIL BITCHES OUT OF MY FACE!

I kept trying to lure Dee Dee over to Guiding Light to play one of the most beloved characters in all of Springfield. It was a role that would have made Dee Dee Halls known to a new generations of fans.

Offered her the cherished role that everyone thought was not recast able. I offered her Aunt Meta Bauer.

And she never got back to me! I have no doubt GL would still be on the air today if Dee Dee had joined our cast. She would have just been the star of Peapack!

KZ would not have allowed Dee on GL.

Dee and RSW are peers.

Look at Dee. Going after an older man like RSW!

Was Miss Halls ever nominated for a coveted daytime emmy?

Didn't Dee Dee do Electrawoman 60 years ago? How is she only 39?

Get it!

Susan Haskell, Judith Light, Erika Slezak, Heather Tom and Gina Tognoni should all be in there conversation here.

Haskell is horrible. She stuttered her way through the rape storyline.

She's not soap; That's my opinion. Emmy voters disagree.

I love the others.

I bet 568 thinks Katherine Kelly Lang can act. No one agrees with you. Susan Haskell has been universally acclaimed by all soap standards. She also carried one of the top 5 most highly regarded storylines in daytime history and won 2 Emmys for it. You must be a troll

R568 hon you must have not seen many soaps if you think Haskell is a bad actor. Ever heard of Days of Our Lives?

I know what a lot of soap fans think is "good" acting and it's not. Half the actors, you think are so good are really not. In the history of soaps, there have been a small handlful of actors who can pull out a good performance, but most don't, and when they do it's not consistent.

Daytime is a factory built around speed. There is just no time available to hone a good performance, especially not in the last 25 years or so. So you end up with a bunch of exaggerated emotions and mannerisms and crutches. The faster the better. Very little rehearsal, no time for the director to try things and work with the cast in any meaninful way.

And the way the soaps became structured post Gloria Monty, where one scene was cut up and shown throughout the full length of the show, instead of one full scene equaling one act of the show destroyed the ability to write a scene properly and thus actors can't stay in the moment. It's just a bunch of start and stops.

You guys can trash Days of our Lives or any of the others for poor acting, but no, all soaps are essentially the same when it comes acting. Most of what you all consider good acting on these shows is a connection with character which comes from familiarity (you see these characters almost every day, year-round) and highly charged emotional stories that play on your heartstrings.

I love soap opera and I respect soap actors because they are some of the hardest working actors in the business, but let's not kid ourselves here people.

Hon, I grew up with soaps. Days was always considered the camp soap. I watched soaps for 30 years before I was a forgotten elderly but the best storylines in soaps were always Karen's Belle DeJour, Bj's Heart Transplant, Marty's Gang Rape, Lily's Parentage and Maureen's Death on GL

Bj's Death and Marty's Gang Rape is the best work daytime has ever produced.

R551 Poor Dee. She's just missing it. They changed the rules for the upcoming award season. It's no longer 25 and under. A performer has to be 21 and under. (Then, the year after, it will be lowered to 18 and under.)

I'm pretty sure everyone considers BJ's death, Marty's Gang Rape and Karen's storyline the best stories in soaps no?

I don't, R575. Rachel, Alice, Steve is the best soap story in the history of the genre. Bill, Laura, and Micky, Luke & Laura, Katherine and Jill, the Lisa saga on ATWT. Those are THE stories and where soaps shine. Marty's Gang Rape was a plot point. BJ's death was a plot point, the real story was the undoing of Tony and Bobbie - now that was a story.

I disagree. Because these stories changes the course of the rest of there show.

Marty's Gang rape produced story for years. If you defy it because of what they did to the Todd character after Howarth I get it. Without Howarth the story died.

Disagree about Marty's Gang rape. It's one of the best and most important stories in daytime. Most soapers agree.

R573 daytime should be proud of that. I'm stunned someone actually shaded Susan Haskell. Hon everyone in daytime loves her. Even on other shows. She was nominated twice and won both. Martha Byrne wouldn't take the part because she thought it was untouchable. Sarah Brown too.

WTF Never heard anyone criticize Haskell

Haskell gave heart and soul to a very difficult story. What kind of asshole would criticize her.

I think a big part of the reason the Marty Saybrooke storyline worked so well was because she wasn’t a heroine. She was a bad girl.

Sue Haskell was no Beth Ann Bonner!

Marty's rape was fine, and Susan Haskell did a fine job but I'm not sure if it stands out any more than Margo's rape on ATWT or Chris's rape on Y&R or Holly's rape on GL. Soaps have done many rape stories.

R584 LOLLLLLLLLLLL

Beth Ann Bonner NEEDS to be in the conversation here-

Jessica Morris, Beth Ann Bonner, and Kristen Alderson NEED to be in the conversation here.

She went from bad girl to tortured heroine. Her being a bad girl enriched the story because she was a known scheming liar. And then something horrible happens to her and who is gonna believe her?

R569, so I don't like Haskell's acting but I think Lang is great?

Interesting logic. KKL certainly has had a longer career and is one of the most recognizable faces in the world given B&B's international popularity.

I think what Lang does, she does well. but Flannery and the writing carried her for years. I do think she stepped up in the battle for BeLieF storyline. She had to take on ALL the Forresters for that.

Personally, i don't see Haskell as being 'soap' - I always saw the acting when she was playing Marty the bad girl. Malone did a great job with the story. I thought Howarth was compelling and HBS was GOLD. She deserved that Emmy.

My opinion on Haskell is just that -- an opinion. She'd probably do better in other genres -- film, maybe. But just because she's not my cup of tea doesn't mean I only like people whom you think are bad. My favorites are Smith, Zimmer, Tom, Walton, Maureen Garrett, McKinsey, Kinkead, Strasser, Slezak...Genie Francis.

Howarth was brilliant as Todd. He was terrible in every other role.

Hon, KKL is a horrible actress. Her and Haskell are not even on the same acting earth.

Howarth IS Todd in every other role.

Except maybe Austin

R590, "She" and Haskell.

From scanning this thread, it sounds like DataLounge puts Eileen Davidson somewhere between Nos. 51 - 100.