5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Welcome Back... "All My Children" and "One Life To Live!" :)

 

                                                                                    Welcome Back


                                                       All My Children... And One Life To Live!




 "You're being cryptic again. It's like soap opera sex. Lots of boring dialogue and when they finally go to bed, everything's dark and covered by blankets."

~Ragnar Tornquist


It's April 29th... FINALLY!

April has been the longest month of this year, I swear someone added a few extra days! Nah, I know, this April has the exact same number of days it always had, but I have to say, it felt a lot longer longer than usual! Why? you ask. Well, you see, I have been waiting for the relaunch of two of my favorite soap operas, and let me tell you, the waiting hasn't been easy! It's been a long hard fight for we soap fans, a true uphill battle if there ever was one! And it all started in the month of April 2 years ago, when Brian Frons, former head of daytime programming for ABC, made the ridiculous, overreaching decision to axe not just one, but two of the network's long running daytime dramas, All My Children, and One Life To Live. At the time it seemed like a permanent dark cloud had been set not just on my Monday thru Friday, but on the days of millions of other soap fans as well!

We asked nicely that the network reconsider.

They ignored us!

We gathered and signed petitions online, and the old fashioned way.

They ignored us!

The Hoover company supported us by pulling all their advertising from ABC daytime. (Don't forget to buy Mom a Hoover vacuum for Mother's Day by the way!)

The network not only continued to ignore, but indeed openly thumbed their nose at us!

ABC replaced our favorite daytime dramas with... uggg... a "lifestyle show" and a "cooking show."

The first of the soaps to disappear was All My Children, in September of 2011. It was replaced by the ridiculously named cooking show called... gulp... The Chew. Hosted by, and I stick by the following opinion, so-so chefs, Mario Batali and Michael Symon. I actually spoke with Chef Symon one evening over Twitter, when, to my dismay, he decided to laugh at my assessment of him. I backed my opinion by telling him exactly why I felt the way I did. Let's just use one example here. His 5 in 5 segment. 5 ingredient meals, you could, or should, be able to prepare in 5 minutes for under $5 dollars. First of all, in the 3 months I watched The Chew, he never, ever, finished successfully in that amount of time and as for the $5 part... it was iffy at best! Not impressive! If it doesn't work, have the courage to say so, and move on! Right? Then there came the insulting way Batali introduced each show by saying "there are two types of people... Italians, and those who want to be Italians." Chef Batali... I have never wanted to be Italian! And should we talk about the many, many times I saw the chef's touch raw food without washing their hands? I could go on about the other elements about the show that bugged me, but there is no need for it. I don't watch it, but some do. In my opinion ABC won't be cancelling it anytime soon, so why belabor the point... right? It's awful. The End.

Now, as if a ridiculous cooking show wasn't enough... the network decided to replace One Life To Live with the short lived lifestyle show... The Revolution. The reviews were awful, right out of the box. It was so bad it lasted a total of 6 months on the air. It was BAD! It was so bad that it never came close to garnering the kind of ratings One Life To Live did in the same time slot. It was a sad embarrassment for all involved. But the saddest part about the entire situation is that The Chew, and The Revolution replaced shows that had been on ABC for over 40 years! Yep, that's right, both were on ABC for over 40 years! It truly was insulting to the fans to think that one more cooking show, or one more lame lifestyle show could possibly replace a show we had watched, and cared about since, as in my case, a small child. You know how when something big happens, and years later you reflect on where you were when it happened... the day Elvis Presley passed away, my sister and I were in my room, watching One Life To Live on my portable black and white TV. It was August 16th, 1977. She was just a few months away from getting married, and she and her fiance had planned to get tickets to see Elvis perform later that year. It was going to be their wedding gift to each other. It was one of those moments I never forgot, nor did I forget what I was watching when the "Breaking News" chimed in.

Brian Frons, and ABC made a big mistake. We fans made our voices heard loud and clear. And then one day we got some unexpected news, something was about to happen that has never happened before. A couple people got together and said... "What if?" What if we can relaunch those two much loved shows online? Long story short. There was some rough going with that idea, and at one point we fans accepted the possible reality that it probably wasn't going to happen, then just after the first of the year came the news that it was A GO! Now, most of the casts of both shows are back. It's a new day, and as of today, Monday, April 29th, All My Children and One Life To Live are back! They can both be seen Monday through Thursday with new 30 minute episodes, and on Friday with the recaps on Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes.

I said at the time Brian Frons made that dumb decision that it would go down in entertainment history as one of the stupidest decisions ever made in daytime! And guess what... I was right! As for Mr. Frons, well, he was let go from ABC in January of 2012! Bye Bye Mr. Frons have a nice time in oblivion!

Sometimes Mondays get a bad rap, but I think this Monday will go down in history as a pretty good day!

Now, here is a clip from One Life To Live, featuring one of my favorite daytime characters, David Vickers, played by Tuc Watkins. In the clip David debuts in his big break into acting by doing a commercial for a certain type of health product. It's funny! Watch it! Get your day off right with a little humor. Life is too short, we need a little escape once in a while... right?



By the way, some really great actors have gotten their start in daytime, among them are, Judith Light. Julianne Moore, Christopher Reeve, Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, just to name a few. Soap actors are some of the hardest working people around, and they have made my life much nicer just by sharing their talent with the world. I am honored to be a fan!

Congratulations on your new start All My Children and One Life To Live! I will be there every single day!

~Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Here Comes The Sun, And I Say Blorift

Common Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis)
Male

"I was a little excited but mostly blorift. "Blorift" is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been blorft every day for the past seven years."

~Tina Fey, Bossypants

If Only I Could Have Found My Blorift...

I read Tina Fey's book, Bossypants, and couldn't put it down. She is amazing! Truly, she is this generations Lucille Ball! Can you imagine if she and Lucy could have starred together? Wow, it would have been comedy GOLD! Recently, I saw her in her latest film, Admission. She impressed me yet again with her ability to entertain. This time, she took a bit of a break from her usual comedy escapades, to show a different side, her dramatic ability! She had me in tears at one point, but in a good way.

As I was mentioning in my post yesterday, movies give us a chance to shake off the stresses and distractions of everyday life, and when you can find a movie that is so good it actually makes you forget your cares for an hour or so then it's a not just a fun way to shake off the stress, but a smart one as well. Stress is a bad thing for the soul. I know of what I speak, because this past week was really stressful. For me it began last Sunday, when the current owner of the property I live on decided to help herself and walk right into my home. I have warned her before that under our contract that I am to have 24 hours notice, but there she was, once again, trespassing, and this time she brought friends!

People I have never even met!

As I said, this happened last Sunday afternoon, and the stress from that resulted in the headache from HELL! Then Monday came along, and well, we all know how the week played out from there. Compared to what some went through last week, my petty problems seem just that... PETTY. And in the grand scheme of things I suppose it doesn't compare, but that's just it, can you really compare problems with other folks, or can you just do the best you can do with the problems you own? Most of us are just doing what we can do to get by, for me that means explaining one more time that not only are my landlord's actions annoying... they are illegal! And remedying things by purchasing a decent little security system and installing it so it will be able to document the illegal entry.

I wish I didn't have to do that. I like the lady very much.

She doesn't want the fact to be true, that she can't walk into my home just because she owns it.

Stress happens... right? And with each new event, my headache seemed to pound harder. What can you do? I did what I could to get rid of it, but didn't have much luck. My usual coping mechanism, in lieu of a day at the movies, is watching General Hospital. It was preempted several times last week, so there went that! LOL. I get the news needed to report about the the terrible things that went on last week, but after a while the wall to wall coverage became downright horrifying and several times I found myself rethinking what leaving the house means. I hate that! I want to just live my life, but who knows what living in America is really about anymore. Things have changed so much from when I was a child. Sometimes it doesn't seem like America. Like it's something different, but I don't understand how to feel or think about it or who to trust.

Like I said. Stress. It was the word of the week! But like with everything, the stress did pass!

After the capture of the Boston bombing suspect Friday night, I went to bed happy and relieved for the people of Boston, and slept deeply for 7 straight hours, which seemed to be just what the doctor ordered! Of course it didn't hurt that Dylan cuddled into me, and Hendrix bit my toes all night, in that cute little way he does when he wants to play! And when I woke up yesterday morning, the sun looked a little prettier, and I actually felt like working in the garden! The headache had moved on, and my body was ready to play. Since there wasn't any movies I wanted to go see, I thought it would be good to finally get the Heirloom tomatoes planted, and start our newest project of growing Yukon Gold potatoes!

 

And if all that wasn't enough to put a smile on a stressed out girls face, look who fluttered by to say "HI"...

 

It was a sunny day! Don't you love sunny days and little blue butterflies?

"Here Comes The Sun"
The Beatles
 

Here Comes The Sun
Here Comes The Sun
And I Say It's All Right...

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

I Just Can't Cope Without My Soap! Happy 50th Anniversary General Hospital!

"Life is like Friday on a soap opera. It gives you the illusion that everything is going to wrap up, then the same old shit starts up on Monday."

~Stephen King, Duma Key

 
Luke And Laura's Wedding Day, November 17th, 1981

I Just Can't Cope Without My Soap
PT One

Oh boy, this is difficult to admit. I... ahem... am older than the daytime drama General Hospital. LOL. I was born on June 29th, 1962, while General Hospital debuted on ABC on April 1st, 1963. As I type this we are both fifty, but that will all change in just a couple months, much to my dismay. Something I am not particularly dreading, it is what it is, but when put into the context of being slightly older than daytime's longest running soap opera, my poor brittle bones and my wee arthritic joints begin to alternate between laughing at me for even letting it be a passing concern, and yelling at me with pain for not giving the situation the proper respect! LOL.

Life is, after all, a soap opera!

And I am so glad it is!

Say what you want about soap operas, you will not budge me from my opinion that the artists who work all the magic to bring those characters to us for an hour each Monday through Friday are some of the hardest working performers around! Plots that take us to romantic destinations, or the edge of our seat drama, or perhaps to the very edge of dark places everyone carries around, soap operas touch we fans on a much different level that movies or regular TV offerings. You can literally watch someone grow up, watch them go through their own real life personal dramas, and we can sometimes find something in the story telling that will make us feel a whole lot less along in our own struggles. It's might sound strange if you haven't been a fan of this entertainment genre, but if like me you have seen yourself in a character on a soap, even just a little bit, you know exactly what I mean!

I have found a great deal of comfort from "my stories" over the last fifty years! LOL. "My stores" makes me sound like a little old lady, but I guess there is no shame in that, at my age I kinda am, and I think of it as a badge! Hey, considering all the comfort soaps have brought me, I am only to happy to step up and say THANK YOU! I was happy that I could retreat to another room during my father's wake brunch, when the family decided to fight over the contents of his desk! Or be grateful that as I laid in bed, too sick to lift me head for 6 months, there was familiar voices on the TV to help me feel like I wasn't alone, friends where near by. Even a decade or so ago, when I was so sad that Anhedonia had me beaten down, I knew that at 2:00 PM, on ABC Channel 7 (KGO), General Hospital would be on to let me step out of the pain for an hour, and relax in someone else's world for a while.

It's therapeutic. It's comforting. It's a larger than life refreshing flight of fancy... for an hour. The perfect amount of time. On Monday, when the daytime TV week resumes again, I can just forget for a moment that there is yet another nut job in the world, think Kim Jung Une, who has a massive weapon pointed at the mainland of the United States, specifically the coast I live on! No, I get to find out who sent LuLu and Dante a cheap copy of the Ice Princess! I get to see if Patrick Drake will finally tell Sabrina he loves her, or at the very least would like to date her, LOL. And ooh... check it out... Laura is back, engaged to Scotty Baldwin, but on the run with Luke! That seems like old times to me! YAY! And while all this is happening, lovable Lucy Coe is planning the Nurse's Ball once again! Will she end up in her underwear again this year? Well I certainly hope so, it's been a Nurse's Ball tradition forever!

Beginning this week, General Hospital will be celebrating half a century of the lives of the citizens of Port Charles, New York, and I can admit I am having a great time watching all the returns of wonderful characters of the past. Frisco, Robert Scorpio, Nicholas Cassadine, Scott Baldwin, Audrey Hardy, Lucy Coe, Heather Webber, Anna Devane, basically all my favorites over the years are home for the anniversary, and the story telling has never been better, thanks to Producer Frank Valentini and Writer Ron Carlivarti, who came on-board at General Hospital after the sudden cancellation of ABC's One Life To Live in 2012. ABC also ordered the cancellation of All My Children, the networks other soap, on the same day, which led to a backlash from irate fans, such as myself, and the determination to keep General Hospital alive, not just on life support.

And we did it! We petitioned. We tuned in. We sent letters. We asked major corporations to join us in our passion to keep our soaps alive, and to our delight we got strong support from Hoover! They listened. I wish there had been more support, but I am not dwelling on things. General Hospital made it! And while I am not sure how much longer we will have this beloved soap around, I am not going to think about it's eventual end. There is no time for it. I would rather just take that one hour gift, Monday through Friday and escape into the intrigue. The romance. The humor... OMG... the humor is so good! And be grateful for the familiar voices, and faces, that help me feel less alone.

I love my stories, and I am not ashamed to admit it!

Here, for a little fun, is the General Hospital rap song from 1981. Go have a listen... go ahead... you know you want to! It's so much FUN!

General Hospi-TALE ~ The Afternoon Delights...


Lyrics (Should You Feel The Need To Burst Into Song)
 Rock it hard, rock it steady
Pick yourself up and
Get yourself ready

Wave your arms
Let me hear you yell
Were gonna rap about
General Hospital

It started out
In Port Charles town
Where Frank Smith's mob
Used to hang around

No one could prove
That he was a crook
Till Luke stole his
Little black book

It had names and
Numbers all in code
So Luke and Laura
Had to hit the road

They had to find
The left-handed boy
Watch their step
They had to be coy

The gold involved
Was worth so much
Others wanted it
Like Sally and Hutch

But there's one thing
I must confess
Sally was a man
Who wore a dress

Luke kept his cool
He ain't no fool
He set them both up cold
Well Sally died
Hutch survived
And no one got the gold

Paging Dr. Noah Drake
To ICU to treat a
Case of heartbreak

They keep me waiting
I don't mind waiting
Don't call me crazy
No, I'm not lazy

My day won't go right
I can't sleep all night
My hands start shaking
My knees start aching
I just can't cope
Without my soap

General Hospital
General Hospital
Mmm, number one
General Hospital
You're my worst affliction
General Hospital
You're my favorite addiction

Monica likes
To have her fun
That is why
She had a son

She told Rick
He was the dad
Soon found out
That he'd been had

There's one thing
That you can give me
That Leslie can't
And that's passion

Alan was the
Father, of course
And he won't give
Monica a divorce

Rick wants to
Get Leslie back
Heather's having
An insane attack
I'll get Diana Taylor

She's not crazy
Uh uh, no never
She just wants to
Get Dr. Jeff Webber

Jeff wants Annie
For his wife
But he might have to
Wait all of his life

Cause good girls don't
And Annie won't
And you all know
What I mean

Amy Vining likes to blab
Richard Simmons
Helps fight flab
Susan's having Alan's baby
Noah wants Bobbi
For his lady

Well, Luke got another job
The Quartermaines are
The brand new mob
Laura's the receptionist
What's missing now
Is the Ice Princess

Yes, Luke Spencer, please

Diamonds, not gold
Are in it this time
Scorpio, the house
Of Cassadine

On and on
And on it goes
How it ends up
Nobody knows cause

They keep me waiting
I don't mind waiting
Don't call me crazy
No, I'm not lazy

My day won't go right
I can't sleep all night
If I don't find out
It blows my mind out
I just can't cope
Without my soap

General Hospital
General Hospital
Mmm, number one
General Hospital
You're my worst affliction
General Hospital
You're my favorite addiction

General Hospital
Addiction, addiction
General Hospital
Addiction, addiction

General Hospital
You're my inspiration
General Hospital
Gonna stay tuned
To this station

General Hospital
Addiction, addiction
General Hospital
Tell me what's going on
Did you see it today
General Hospi-Tale
Tell me what's going on
General Hospital
Addiction, addiction
I love my General Hospital

General Hospital...
It's my addiction...

I will be posting about my love of soaps all through the month of April, as we get closer and closer to the reboots of One Life To Live and All My Children on April 29th!

Stay Tuned!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Weekend Assignment #303: To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

From For Ellipsis

"If computers get too powerful we will organize them into committees. That will do them in." -Unknown


Weekend Assignment #303: Do you tweet, why or why not?

Extra Credit:If you use Twitter, how many people follow you? How many do you follow?

-Karen, author of the blog, Outpost Mavarin

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet... Good Question.

Ok, I admit it. When I first heard about Twitter I had to wonder what the big deal was. Ok, so you can find out in real time that "Henry" in Boise, has just milked his cow. Or maybe you could find out within a matter of seconds that "Simone" in Fairbanks has just finished her breakfast, but really, why would I care? Ok, it did intrigue me that someone famous could share their day, I mean that would be pretty glamorous right? I mean, it's going straight to the source, without all those pesky tabloids to make it all up, or airbrush the heck out of it. So, ok, I could see that as fun. Hmmm, I thought, maybe there was something to it.

So, one day last summer, in a fit of absolute boredom, I decided to check things out on Twitter. I created an account and took a look around. I found a couple friends, such as Karen, had an account, so I "followed" her. Then I found a couple other folks that I knew and I "followed" them, and then, just for fun, looked around to see who else was on Twitter. Anderson Cooper... cool! Regis and Kelly... cool! Oooh... maybe there are Soap Opera stars on here!

Yep. I found a couple soap stars. I am currently following a left leaning diva, and a right leaning diva, and to my profound surprise, enjoying both sides very much. I even had an small interaction with the left leaning diva, which was really pleasant, because she actually asked my opinion on something to do with the state we both reside in. She asked... my... opinion. It was nice to feel of value for a moment to someone I have admired for so many years. Just nice. You know? It was like standing in line at the grocery store, or at Starbuck's, except better, because should I turn around while in line at either of those two places, and see a soap diva, I don't think I would be likely to speak my mind. Believe it or not, I am basically a shy girl, but I do try to overcome it. Every time I step out on the ledge, and the ledge doesn't come crashing to the earth, means I have grown a little bit.

So I guess what I am saying is, what began as an experiment has become yet another way to reach out and experience life. Like being on the Internet in general. People are just people, but we humans do tend to put up lots of walls. I know about walls, but allowing myself new experiences proves my insecurities wrong, and that feels good. Does that make sense?

So to answer your question Karen, YES. I TWEET.

Extra Credit: I follow 151 and I have 41 followers.

:)

-Carly

I Know Who Shot J.R.Ewing!

"If you have to be in a soap opera, try not to get the worst role."

-Judy Garland

Sigh! Raise your hand if you watch SOAPnet. Go ahead... I won't give your secret away, I watch it too, although, not as much as I used to. This past week, the powers that be decided to revamp the schedule of the all soap opera oriented network, by adding reruns of The OC, One Tree Hill, and inundating the daily schedule with repeats of the 1980's hit nighttime soap, Dallas. Sigh. You know, as much as I don't like change, and if you have been reading me for any length of time, you know just how MUCH I don't like it, I do understand the need for networks to shake things up a bit from time to time to keep it all fresh, but the latest schedule changes have me scratching my head! Why exactly would I want to watch Dallas, not just once a day, but four times a day?

Dallas has it's rightful place in American pop culture, but really now, where would you have to have been not to know the answer to the biggest question of the 1980's, "Who Shot J.R.?" I know who shot him, it was his sister-in-law, Kristen. She was mad at him or something. LOL. I saw it play out originally, back in the 80's, and it was an interesting subject to ponder at school and at parties. Heck, eventually Trivial Pursuit made "Who Shot J.R.?" one of their questions. We all know the answer now, so why in the world would SOAPnet air reruns of Dallas, when it has been showing in reruns to death on every channel imaginable for the last 20 years or so? It's boring programming, four times a day. Sigh.

TY Treadway

I am a night owl. I enjoyed watching the shows that were removed from the schedule. Ryan's Hope, Port Charles, Another World, and the original SOAPnet talk show, Soap Talk. Ty Treadway is a little bit of heaven. That man is gorgeous! He has had my attention since his days on One Life To Live, where he played the hunky, shirtless, Dr. Troy MacIver, and his evil twin, Dr. Colin MacIver. That guy made getting sick, look like it could actually be fun. :) After leaving One Life To Live, he c0-hosted SOAP TALK, with Lisa Rinna, who I can take or leave, but the show must have had something going for it, because it was recently nominated for a daytime Emmy award, for Best Talk Show. So why would SOAPnet cancel it? Sigh.

I liked watching reruns of Ryan's Hope. I began watching that show when I was in junior high, and on through high school. I couldn't keep up with it when I started college, but my sister and mother would fill me in about it when I got home. It was ok, but being told about a show, is never as good as being able to see it for oneself. A couple years ago, I was kinda happy to find out that SOAPnet was carrying it, and I began to watch it again, getting a second chance to see what I had missed the first time around. It was a silly guilty pleasure. Like watching Another World, which was cancelled by NBC in June of 1999. I was a huge fan of that show, and even met local soap star, Tom Eplin. I told you about that time I met him, you remember, my head was upside down in a bowl of warm water at the time. I was at a "BEAUTY" shop. In that particular moment, I sure didn't feel beautiful... but goodness... that man was gorgeous even upside down! And yes, his eyes are indeed that beautiful!!!

Tom Eplin

Sigh. Well, Ryan's Hope will be airing 2 episodes on Sunday mornings at 3:00 AM Pacific time, so I do have that. I tried to download an episode of Another World today from AOL Video, but I am on dial-up, so I gave up after 18 hours and only 36% progress. Sigh. I have been looking into getting a high speed connection, and it looks like it will be possible soon, until then, the schedule is what it is. What can you do? Right? Of course if you are a fan of these shows like I am, and you miss them too, please consider emailing SOAPnet and telling them to put our shows back. Or if you don't really watch these shows, but you think I am just nifty, please consider emailing SOAPnet and telling them there is a rather distressed lady in California, who really wants her favorite old soap operas, and Ty Treadway brought back where they belong, on her TV, at their regularly scheduled times, because sometimes, she doesn't want to think of her real life soap opera, she wants to think about a hunky shirtless fictional doctor, and his evil twin, and ponder what might happen next. :) How come real doctors never go shirtless? ;)

SOAPnet
SOAPnet Schedule


-OndineMonet