US Daytime Soaps - Vintage Years - 1980s Bold And Beautiful

[Daniel Avery]

I'm just amused that Steph could write "that slut from the valley" on the envelopes and the Christmas cards always managed to make it to Brooke's house.

Brooke vs. Stephanie was always a treat, but Steph vs. Big Sally was GOLD.

 

[rlr718]

Soapchatter @Canon managed to get hold of a significant chunk of episodes of Another World from 1987-ish to 1993-ish, which was a great period for that soap (though I would argue there was no bad period for that show). Not sure how this was achieved (I ask no questions...). The closest I've found is a YT-er who edits together storylines across multiple episodes rather than just posting single episodes.

I don’t know if they still do it but a website called the another world homepage
http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/
Had tape trading of episodes or a way to purchase them I think. I’m going by memory, but I don’t see a link to this on the page now.

There is a lot of info in general on AW on this page, great resource.

 

[Alexis]

The next 25 episodes have arrived (from Australia) and I have blitzed threw the first disc today. It's all moving very slowly... I am about to start the second disc then I will pop some thoughts here.

 

[Alexis]

Can the title of this thread be edited to US Daytime Soaps - Vintage Years ('80s The Bold & The Beautiful) @Ome @Daniel Avery?

 

[Daniel Avery]

Voila!


Anything else?

 

[Alexis]

Voila!
View attachment 19873

Anything else?

Could you make The Bold & The Beautiful good again?

 

[Michael Torrance]

Could you make The Bold & The Beautiful good again?

What is happening in the episodes you are watching?

 

[Alexis]

What is happening in the episodes you are watching?

Oh I had meant current B&B.

Back in 1n 1987 Ridge has made a pass at Brooke and she rebuked him, even though she does fancy him. They met at a bar and Ridge asked her back to his place for a swim... Yes, really. She told him she didn't have a swim suit, and he told her that they had suits at his place for guests. Fancy rich people do that ya know. So she goes back with him and then conveniently there is no suit for her to wear. He starts to strip off and so she goes to apparently change out of her clothes, when she returns she's fully dressed and he's in his birthday suit. She tells him he looked better with his clothes on and leaves.
I really love this version of Brooke. WHY DID THEY REIMAGINE HER AS A SLUT?

Then later there is a party at the Forrester mansion and Ridge sees Brooke there. He panics as she is friends with Caroline, his fiancé. So he gets to Caroline and says that it was Brooke who made a pass at him. Ride is the slime of the universe. How he's seen as a romantic lead is beyond me. He's the slut of all time. Just the absolute worst.
The reason he made the pass at Brooke is because Caroline hasn't slept with him because she wants to save it for marriage. Is this even really a thing in America? Or do ya'll just pretend? Seems weird as f**k for rich people in Los Angles, but Hey ho.... There ya go.

That's about where I am up to now anyways. Oh, and Eric is still kinda wanting to be with Brooke's mum. Stephanie has hired her to cater Eric's birthday bash and seems to really respect her. Little does she know who she actually is.

The most interesting this about this era for me though is the dynamic between Stephanie and Kristen. It's such a strange mother daughter relationship. It's very dark and it implies much more than what is actually on screen. Stephanie is clearly jealous of Kristen and her relationship with her father Eric. And Kristen doesn't think her own mother is good enough for her father.... It's all kinds of weird and uncomfortable but it's not a front and centre storyline.

 

[TJames03]

LMFAO!!!!!

 

[Michael Torrance]

I really love this version of Brooke. WHY DID THEY REIMAGINE HER AS A SLUT?

You mean, why did Bradley Bell re-imagine her as a slut? I think KKL has been his wet dream. The episodes you watch (and all the way until BeLieF in 1993) are still Bill Bell.

Ride is the slime of the universe. How he's seen as a romantic lead is beyond me. He's the slut of all time. Just the absolute worst.The reason he made the pass at Brooke is because Caroline hasn't slept with him because she wants to save it for marriage. Is this even really a thing in America? Or do ya'll just pretend? Seems weird as f**k for rich people in Los Angles, but Hey ho.... There ya go.

Ridge is, as you said, a poster child for slime. I think maybe women swooned over him because he was a chiseled slime? But I always disliked both Ridge and Ronn Moss. And he treats all women so terribly, it is laughable that he was the leading man for decades. As for virginity...I don't know about rich people, though one can't tell. But do Americans do it? Oh yes, and not just once. Many become virgins again! Yes, you heard it here again. God bless America and rededicating yourself to Jesus and virginity.

The most interesting this about this era for me though is the dynamic between Stephanie and Kristen. It's such a strange mother daughter relationship. It's very dark and it implies much more than what is actually on screen. Stephanie is clearly jealous of Kristen and her relationship with her father Eric. And Kristen doesn't think her own mother is good enough for her father.... It's all kinds of weird and uncomfortable but it's not a front and centre storyline.

Yeah, it gets even weirder (and better) when Stephanie decides Kristen could be a lesbian and (of course) hires Clarke to get her in a relationship, only for ethical pillar Stephanie to have the affair with him again. At least her sanctimonious hypocrisy was consistent in both Bell eras.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Ridge is, as you said, a poster child for slime. I think maybe women swooned over him because he was a chiseled slime? But I always disliked both Ridge and Ronn Moss. And he treats all women so terribly, it is laughable that he was the leading man for decades.

This is my opinion only, but I think they were terrified to depict a male, lead character as a fashion designer because people might automatically assume he must be gay. So going over the top with the womanizing and the male posturing was their way of keeping such assumptions from being made--or worse, remarks made about the character's portrayer, since you know how ignorant people can be about tying an actor to the role he plays. So the writing (and the acting, if you call what Moss was doing "acting") overcompensated by making him almost "too" straight.

 

[Alexis]

So I watched a little more and Caroline had been depressed over what had transpired between Ridge and Brooke. Brooke met with her to explain her side of the story, which upset Caroline more. So she goes out for a walk and stops off at Mexican place, she's been to before. Last time she was there a handsome, but apparently creepy blonde guy had been staring her out. This time she went and ordered a taco and an ice tea. This made me like Caroline more as I had had tacos, the same night and it made appreciate how much she must like them to eat them in her fancy 1987 B&B clothes. Anyways the guy is there again and he starts having thoughts about her. These thoughts are conveyed through a voice over and it becomes clear that he is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. I mean he's a bit Norman Bates. He goes over to pretend to use the public phone and spills his drink on Caroline's fancy pink dress. This gets them talking then she invites him to sit and he goes on about his mother and how he's a nice boy etc, etc. You just know where this is going. He offers to walk her home, which he does, saying that his mother will have dinner ready for him. On the way they stop for an ice-cream. It would be nice if it wasn't creepy. So he brings her to her apartment and then walks her to her door. She goes inside and closes the door but it wont close as the crazy guy is keener than a Jehovah's Witness and has his foot jammed in the doorway. He's pushes himself inside and then proceeds to threaten Caroline with a knife and then have his creepy way with her. Caroline cries for Ridge in '80s slow motion.

I have made this all sound less creepy and dark than it is. It does have that clunky '80s-ness to it but it is also very well done and genuinely dark. It also seems more current or more modern than what Dynasty was doing around the same time. I guess by that time Dynasty was happening in another universe that The Bold and The Beautiful hadn't yet rocketed to yet. For all it's frothy frivolity B&B is sort of happening in a real world where stuff has consequences and you know there will be fall out from actions.

Yeah, it gets even weirder (and better) when Stephanie decides Kristen could be a lesbian and (of course) hires Clarke to get her in a relationship, only for ethical pillar Stephanie to have the affair with him again. At least her sanctimonious hypocrisy was consistent in both Bell era

That's all the more awkward as the actress playing Stephanie, Susan Flannery was gay as was the actress playing Caroline Spencer, Joanna Johnson.

 

[Michael Torrance]

For all it's frothy frivolity B&B is sort of happening in a real world where stuff has consequences and you know there will be fall out from actions.

These words will haunt you once you go to the mid-90s and beyond.

 

[Alexis]

These words will haunt you once you go to the mid-90s and beyond.

I doubt these DVDs will take me that far. However I know how the show goes after about 1995. I just am thankful that these episodes are released.

I also have to mention that for a show shot on video tape in the 1980s that the picture quality is actually pretty stunning. It looks better than DYNASTY from season 6 on.

 

[Ginuwine97]

My favorite soaps are:

One Life to Live
All My Children
General Hospital

 

[Alexis]

Sorta semi-related. I have spent a good deal of time today watching vids that someone has put on YouTube of '80s The Young And The Restless. I am enthralled! I really wish I could get chunks of this show on DVD.
I have been gorging on Jill and John Abbott's divorce storyline from 1985.

 

[Alexis]

Weirdly a young Don Diamont (who was insanely attractive in 1985!) is featured as Brad on Y&R before he goes over to B&B and also the actress who took the pictures of Jill in bed with Jack's son was the actress who play's Eric's assistant Margaux on B&B two years later. I now understand how these shows shared actors but often not characters.

 

[Michael Torrance]

Weirdly a young Don Diamont (who was insanely attractive in 1985!) is featured as Brad on Y&R before he goes over to B&B and also the actress who took the pictures of Jill in bed with Jack's son was the actress who play's Eric's assistant Margaux on B&B two years later. I now understand how these shows shared actors but often not characters.

Don Diamont was sex personified.
But not only did the two shows share characters, many credit B&B's rise to #2 in the ratings to Sheila Carter crossing over from Y&R and establishing herself among the Forresters.
There have in fact been many crossovers. Amber and Deacon crossed over from B&B to Y&R. Christine Blair was Ridge's lawyer when he was on trial for murder. Lauren Fennmore crossed over together with her nemesis, Sheila, to B&B, and I am sure more. If you want to really wrap your mind around something wacky, Don Diamont crossed over to B&B as Brad Carlton in 1993. Somehow nobody noticed how much he looked like Bill Spencer Jr.

 

[Alexis]

Don Diamont

Do you have to actually have a name like a Dynasty character in order to be a daytime soap actor? Is that kind of alliteration part of the deal?

 

[Michael Torrance]

Do you have to actually have a name like a Dynasty character in order to be a daytime soap actor? Is that kind of alliteration part of the deal?

More than likely. With his real name (Donald Feinberg) he could only run for a house seat--the senate if in the Dakotas.

Edited: FYI, Don Diamont was the first daytime actor to be named among PEOPLE's sexiest men of the year in 1990.