Like all of you devoted soap fans, I'm still in mourning over the upcoming loss of two more of our soaps, All My Children and One Life to Live, but I wanted to let everyone know that I reached out to several actors - All My Children's Stephanie Gatschet (Madison), Bobbie Eakes (Krystal), Jill Larson (Opal), and One Life to Live's Melissa Archer (Natalie) - who shared their feelings about the upcoming finales, their dream endings for their characters, and what they'd like to do next. Check out what they had to say here.
Photos by: Leahrae Ringer
It's hard to believe that The Bold and the Beautiful's Stephanie and Brooke have been battling it out for more than 20 years. This week, as Stephanie continues to contemplate her involvement in "Berrygate," actress Susan Flannery weighs in on the love-hate relationship between the two women. When I asked Susan which side she liked to play most, the love or the hate, she said, "I actually enjoy both, that great turn. That's what makes it interesting."
Susan credits The Bold and the Beautiful executive producer and head writer Brad Bell for adding more layers to the already complicated rivalry. "The conflict has really been since toward the end of the second season when they started to make that the spine of the show. Joanna Johnson was there (ex-Caroline, ex-Karen) and she left and then Hunter [Tylo; Taylor] came in and they were able to zero in on the way the cast and the triangles were going to work," she says.
"It was great fun to play that rivalry for a long time because it was so the visceral. It was like the Queen taking a sword and slashing away at this princess who wanted all the men. It was so mythical in a way and such great fun. Then the idea of, and I really think it was brilliant on Brad's part, taking that and turning it topsy-turvy," Susan says, referring to the Stephanie-and-Brooke-bury-the-hatchet story last year. "The audience didn't expect it and Stephanie didn't expect it and Brooke didn't really expect it. But it had been layered through the years, the character of Brooke always wanting Stephanie's approval in some way. So it turned out to be great fun to play things with Katherine [Kelly Lang; Brooke] where she was determined to help Stephanie and Stephanie kept swatting the fly away."
This week, Stephanie will be trying to swat away another fly - Thomas, who tells his scheming granny that he wants to confess all about the colossal lie he told to break up Brooke and Ridge.
Photo by: JPI Studios
I know some of your have emailed me and commented that you'd like to see coverage of The Young and the Restless here on the Soap Operas site, and I told you there were some possible changes in the works and that I would let you know how the site was going to proceed. Well, I'm thrilled to tell you that, in addition to my coverage of The Bold and the Beautiful and All My Children, I will also officially be adding coverage of The Young and the Restless!
I will be doing my first set visit for the Soap Operas site at Y&R this week and getting some great stuff for you. So whether you're a devoted Y&R watcher or a displaced soap fan looking for another soap town to call home, tune in to Y&R and check in with me here for the behind-the-scenes scoop, interviews, news, spoilers and recaps.
And let me know which Y&R cast member you'd most like to see me interview and I'll do my best to make it happen.
Genoa City, here we come!
Stephanie's guilt begins to take a toll on her health.