Studio drama and dressing room blues

Did the Oakdalians have dressing room blues? (We KNOW about the studio drama throughout the Midwest.)

Liz Keifer being chased from her dressing room is the new Lillian Hayman's Tercel.

There's also this older Frank Beaty thread if it is needed at some point in the future.

Most recent post on the old thread:

When former ATWT Executive Producer Robert Calhoun died, Julianne Moore went to the funeral as Calhoun was the long-time partner of actor Farley Granger (ex-Earl). Julianne wanted to pay her respects, and support Granger through a difficult time.

I’m afraid to ask about Lillian Hayman’s Tercel.

During the Peapack years did they even have dressing rooms? Was there any studio work?

Re Liz Keifer: At my own work I've seen people have offices taken away (i.e. the equivalent of a 'dressing room' for us normal folk). There are those who handle it gracefully and graciously and then there are those who make a stink and cry in public about it.

It's been 15 years and she's still talking about it and writing about it on her website apparently. I think for other actors with a little more of a portfolio and a life this would have been a minor blip. The rest of it was rich too: no more messengered scripts, no more fancy wardrobe, etc. etc.

That podcast by the way sounds like a soft porno when it starts up: the breathy voices, the sly little cackles, and the repetition for the first 5 minutes just to fill up space. I half-expected them to start pawing each other.

What the hell is this thread about? I stumbled on it and am now intrigued. Who are these people? I feel like I walked into a hotel thinking it was a grocery store. What the fuck is going on here?

Didn't Goutman get that at the end of ATWT, fans wanted to see the wrap-up of a 54-year old soap, not ABC-light, with characters nobody cared about, Pinson, Damon, Warlock. etc)? How about a return of the Snyders, Shannon, Penny, Lyla, Steve, Betsy....and somewhere on a desert isle James Stenbeck sipping on a drink murmuring "I'll be back"..

R7 it's a soap thread.

The cue for this one is a podcast that was done by an actress on Guiding Light where she lost her dressing room.

I like Liz's podcast, btw. There's another one about drama in one's life and it was pretty interesting.

[quote] I’m afraid to ask about Lillian Hayman’s Tercel.

It was a comment on the OLTL thread that became a bit of a DL joke. A legit source (journalist? coworker?) said that Hayman didn't know she had been fired until an assistant of the producer came to her car with her things in a box.

A bit of gallows humor had us posting about Lil being chased with this box, and that she'd have a Tercel. It was just....yeah.

[quote] During the Peapack years did they even have dressing rooms? Was there any studio work?

I think they had a big common one somewhere but no, there were no dressing rooms there. The studios still had them, but they were doing only some of the scenes in studio with sets they were leaving in place, like the courtroom, church pews, etc.

James Lipton, who died today, back when he was on GL.

R8 I was convinced that before the show ended, Goutman would either bring back or mention David Stenbeck, who was last heard saying he would return. I thought because Goutman had overseen David's "death," he would surely bring him back one last time. I would much rather have seen him and his dad, rather than Juicy Janet et al.

Only if it was Danny Markel.

James Lipton, the Actor's Studio guy was on GL? Wow.

Was it Lipton who wrote in the family on AW that Nixon killed off in one fell swoop?

R16 yes

James Lipton KILLED every soap opera he was Head Writer on. He was the original show killer.

R15 He not only appeared on it, he also was head writer for a time!

R16 I think so - I don't think he was on for very long, maybe six months. Irna gave him the reins and I think it was a few months later that she hired Nixon.

Aggie had left GL to launch her own shows in 1965 - this is where she actually created AMC first (and was supposed to sell it to CBS) but they passed on it and she misplaced the bible for the show - so when she was hired at AW, she created Rachel, who was similar to Erica Kane.

The scripts were hand delivered viz messenger?

How do current actors get their scripts?

Probably electronically now, I bet they have to print them out too.

[quote]What the hell is this thread about? I stumbled on it and am now intrigued. Who are these people? I feel like I walked into a hotel thinking it was a grocery store. What the fuck is going on here?

Thank you all for helping me. BUT I think I am too late to this party. Oh God, I wish I'd been in at the beginning. It reads like a classic clusterfuck; I have tears in my eyes!

It seems that the subject matter and the title of this thread has confused many, so many are posting at the Brent/Marian thread, which is here.

James Lipton was HW of AW from Nov 1964 to Nov 1965.

Agnes Nixon took over after him.

Wikipedia says he wrote for several soap operas: Another World, The Edge of Night, Guiding Light, The Best of Everything, Return to Peyton Place and Capitol, as well as acted on GL.

I never would've guessed Lipton was 93 y/o. He looked so much younger. I'd have thought he was around 75.

I only watched "Another World" for a year during the Margaret DePriest era and if you had told me that the show had once been one of the best on the air, I'd have called you a liar. Once she wrapped up the Sin Stalker story, I got bored and moved to ATWT where I got to see Lily finding out she was Iva's daughter.

R26, I personally think that AW never recovered from firing Lemay and no writer after Lemay, except Lemay himself, was able to course correct the show, especially with the way the daytime landscape changed at the end of the 70s and into the 80s.

To be honest I’m not sure if Lemay’s writing style would have held up in the late 70s and 80s. His long scenes, and character above plot would have seen as dated and slow.

GL, which held its own, was unfortunately up against GH in most market. ATWT was against the flagging AW. If GL had been at a different time, especially during the 83-84 years, its ratings would have consistently stayed top 2 or 3 through the mid-90's, even after the dreadful 86/87.

R27

Lemay was a master. No question but AW was must see TV during the Who Shot Jake story. That was amzing.

Agnes Nixon comes off as lowbrow compared to Lemay. Her trite village stories could not measure up to sophisticated plotting and character exposition that Lemay excelled at. How to compare the Glamorama and tacky Opal Gardner to Clarice who was heartbreaking and unique.

James Lipton is the original Soap Opera Show Killer

he destroyed every soap he was the head writer for - hence he was never a head writer ever again after he wrote Capitol where he had Sloane face a firing squad!

he was asked at the Daytime Emmys in 2007 the year he won the Lifetime Achievement Award (ironically, Lee Phillip Bell, was co-recipient) he was asked backstage what happened to Sloan? Did the firing squad kill her or was she saved?

"I'm never telling" he groused.

Someone on Twitter said Audrey Peters died in August 2019.

I hadn't seen that noted in any of the soap press.

per SOD Roscoe Born passed away on March 3rd

Kim Zimmer used to save up her own piss and rub it all over her face and claimed it made her look young. Robert Newman hated kissing her on screen. Zimmer’s piss facials made the set smell like a nursing home. One time she dropped a whole jar and spilled it on her dressing room floor.

R35

Sure, Jan.

It's true Zimmer did the piss facial. It was in her book.

R37 No it was not.

Today the family of Roscoe Born said he died of suicide.

Is this thread pay walled? Where is everyone?

Try this thread.

This thread is not paywalled.

That is true. But the conversation moved to another thread two weeks ago.