Jan Spears

The Ice Princess storyline is rapidly coming to an end with the high-gear September 18th, 1981 episode. It has two great things in it: Luke and Mikkos fight to the death in Mikkos' control room. The fight scenes are very well-staged even though the stunt double for John Colicos looks nothing like him. (This isn't the worst stunt doubling I've seen in an ABC show from this era. Charlie's Angels would win that award going away.) The ending to the fight is great: Mikkos becomes trapped in his own carbonic snow room and all Luke can do is watch as Mikkos screams in the snow room's door window. It's all the more effective because we don't actually hear Mikkos screaming. All we the viewers experience is Mikkos' face contorted in agony. There's a beautiful little scene between Alan and Edward where Alan breaks down at the thought of AJ (who has just come out of surgery) might die. For once, Edward is actually fatherly toward Alan and gives him some comfort. In light of later show history, though, it is ironic to hear Edward tell Alan that AJ will grow up to be the best of them all.

I wouldn't agree with that either. One of the best things to come out of the reboot was the Blair-Jo friendship, which forced each character to reevaluate her beliefs based on close contact with the other. Blair evolved out of her narrow world of wealth and privilege by living and working side-by-side with someone like Jo. And Jo also became more tolerant of those who were more affluent than she was due to constant interaction with Blair. The Season 3 episode, New York, New York, hammers home this point because, by episode's end, both characters have realized that they have changed and they no longer fit quite so well in their old worlds.

I always think of Alexandra Moltke's departure as the dividing line in the series. Before she left, there was still some attempt to keep the Collinwood/Collinsport dynamic alive even though such "town" characters as Burke Devlin and Sam Evans had been written out. But with the departure of Moltke (and the show's inability to recast the part of Vicky satisfactorily), the bottom soon fell out of the town part of the show. Joel Crothers left the show soon after Moltke, the Maggie Evans character moved to Collinwood to become (implausibly) the governess/tutor to David, and the Evans Cottage became a thing of the past. These changes must have seemed insignificant at the time. But I believe they hurt the show over time as the concentration of events at Collinwood caused the show to lose any grounding in reality. As the show became detached from the town part of the show, it became more and more implausible.

I arrived at the September 15th, 1981 episode of the Ice Princess storyline tonight. Luke and Laura travel down an air vent into Cassadine Island to rescue Robert and end up in Mikkos' factory for making carbonic snow. They don the special protective suits that Mikkos' minions wear. In trying to escape detection, Luke and Laura inadvertently open the door to the carbonic snow room where they find Alexandria & Tony and Max & Noel frozen to death! It was a shocking twist in 1981. The audience knew all four characters were dead but we never dreamed that the show would depict the doomed quartet in their frozen state. The September 15th episode is the first episode where Tony Geary and John Colicos have scenes together, and Geary's acting improves immeasurably once he's playing opposite Colicos.

I was rewatching episodes 289-290 this weekend (original air dates: August 3rd-4th, 1967). (These are the episodes where Julia puts 2 and 2 together and figures out that Barnabas is a vampire.) Rewatching these episodes made me realize that there are some extraordinary lighting effects in 289. After Vicky goes to sleep, Barnabas pays her a visit in the early hours of the morning. Even though the power has failed at Collinwood and the "lightning flashes" from a storm raging overhead are supposedly providing the only light during Barnabas' visit, Alexandra Moltke is bathed in this beautiful overhead lighting. It's a stunning effect although completely implausible! When Carolyn enters after Vicky wakes up to the sound of her music box playing (Barnabas opened it before departing), she's carrying a candle and explains that there is no power at Collinwood. Nancy Barrett and Moltke are bathed in that soft lighting but, again, there's no way that a single candle and lightning flashes would create that kind of illumination. But it's all tremendously atmospheric and it's also the kind of effect that was lost once the show transitioned to color. One other thing: Vicky only has a sheet and a flimsy looking blanket on her bed. Even though it's supposed to be summer in Collinsport, it would still be cold at night given Collinwood's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and there being a storm blowing. In that rambling and erratically heated house, Vicky would freeze to death with just a sheet and a blanket and no fire in her bedroom fireplace!

I had the same reaction. Even though Jason Donovan and Guy Pearce didn't film on the same days and their "reunion" was spliced together, I found myself wanting Scott and Mike to have a scene together where they acknowledge that they're no longer young but that they're content with how their lives had turned out.

I really admire Guy Pearce for being "all in" on the finale. By my count, Kylie Minogue spoke three times: "Home sweet home," "Jane," and "Harold". But who cares? When Kylie and Jason Donovan drove up and "Especially for You" was playing, I admit I had a big old smile on my face. And when Scott said to Charlene, "We made it, huh?", it was a sweet moment because it could have been Jason speaking to Kylie given that they've both experienced and overcome great travails since they were young.

I would add that the residual strength of the contract roster allowed M-G-M to prep and release Kiss Me Kate (w/ Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Tommy Rall, Bob Fosse and Bobby Van) concurrently with Give a Girl a Break. While far from "scientific", one way to get at this in M-G-M's case is to compare the "family photo" taken at the studio's 25th anniversary celebration in 1949 to the photo of the studio's contract players taken in 1954 for a Look Magazine feature. The former reveals the contract roster in all its glory (and size) while the latter reveals a lot of erosion in five years. It's not a perfect comparison because the 1949 photo was for a studio-driven event while the 1954 photo was just a snapshot in time of who was working on the studio lot that day. (From the 1954 photo you can deduce which musicals were in production based on the costumes people were wearing. So, Esther Williams and Howard Keel are in costume for Jupiter's Darling, Leslie Caron and Michael Wilding are in costume for The Glass Slipper, and Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Vic Damone look like they could be in costume for Athena. Also, the presence of Jose Ferrer in the photo suggests that Deep in My Heart was in production.) I think Reynolds fell back to 'B' status in the studio hierarchy after Singin' in the Rain but slowly battled her way back to leading lady status with Give a Girl a Break, Athena and Hit the Deck.

I've always wondered if the Diana Taylor murder mystery was meant to last as long as it did or to end the way that it did. Part of me suspects that the show's writers changed course with the storyline once they realized who and what they had in Robin Mattson's Heather. Certainly, the reveal of who killed Diana Taylor was a great soap opera twist.

I have a soft spot for Give a Girl a Break. The story is slight (even by M-G-M musicals standards) but who cares given the excellence of the dance numbers? The Marge & Gower Champion numbers ("Challenge Dance," "It Happens Every Time") and the Bob Fosse and Debbie Reynolds numbers ("In Our United State," "Balloon Dance") are outstanding. The Burton Lane/Ira Gershwin score is also much better than the movie's reputation would lead you to believe. It's a pity Rhino Records never got around to releasing a reconstructed and remastered version of the score in the 1990s or 2000s. Just listening to the DVD reveals numerous wonderful underscores in addition to the actual sung vocals. In retrospect, Give a Girl Break reveals the fragile shape M-G-M's contract roster was in by 1953. The changes that had slowly been undermining the established studio system since the late-1940s had resulted in the studios and the A-list stars going their own ways once contracts had expired. By 1953, M-G-M was finding it harder to find two principal leads and then pair them with two secondary leads. Give a Girl a Break is the end result of a studio trying to construct a musical around four secondary leads.

Small Town Girl is a perfect example of what sometimes happened with the M-G-M musicals - the studio figured out who was available on the lot and then tried to shoehorn all of them into the same movie. It's as if Ann Miller and Bobby Van have crashed landed from an entirely different (and more dynamic) M-G-M musical into a not terribly interesting one with Jane Powell and Farley Granger. I wonder if Small Town Girl started life as a potential Jane Powell-Vic Damone vehicle but had to be repurposed because Damone was in the army from 1951-53. Post-army, Damone and Powell appeared together three times: Athena (1954) (although not paired together), Deep in My Heart (1954) and Hit the Deck (1955).

I've been rewatching the Ice Princess island episodes. (The island part of the story began on August 7th, 1981, with Laura, Luke and Robert jumping into the surf from the Cassadine yacht and swimming to the island. The first full week of island episodes began the following Monday.) As entertaining as the island drama is (particularly John Calicos as Mikkos), I had forgotten how much was happening that week back in Port Charles. An assassination attempt on Hutch (in his short shorts) ends up blinding Bobbie and blowing a hole in the 7th floor of the hospital where Hutch's room was. And then there's the back-and-forth between Heather and her mother, Alice, which, if you know how the Diana Taylor murder story ends, really sheds a whole new light on the character of Alice.

I think ABC's attitude at the time was that the Luke and Laura phenomenon was all Tony Geary - they could pair him with anyone and have ratings gold. (A similar attitude prevailed on another ABC show, Three's Company, with the producers thinking they could pair John Ritter with anyone and have magic on their hands.) In General Hospital's case they split the Laura Spencer character in two after Genie Francis departed in early 1982 by creating the Templeton sisters, Laura and Jackie. Laura Templeton resembled Laura Spencer physically while Jackie had elements of Laura Spencer's personality. But what the show found out was that it wasn't so easy to replicate the Genie Francis-Tony Geary magic. From an 11.2 household rating for the 1981-82 season, the show dropped to a 9.8 rating in the 1982-83 season. It was still the number #1 soap across all networks but it would never again enjoy that glorious ratings peak it enjoyed from 1980-1982.

Was it really Lisa or was it just the general climate on a mainstream network like NBC? Maybe Lisa had a say in storylines but I'm more inclined to believe that the network brass took a very conservative tack with the show because of its audience (primarily teenage girls and younger twentysomethings). Even if Lisa's personal beliefs weren't what they were (and are), I suspect the network would have taken the same approach toward these issues. They just didn't want the inevitable hassle from advertisers and certain segments of the viewing public. (It wasn't just NBC either. Over on ABC, they would 'ungay' or 'regay' Steven Carrington on Dynasty depending on how much blowback they were getting at any given time.) The Facts of Life emerged from Norman Lear's production company so, technically, it started out life as a Norman Lear show.

In the documentary, Felice Schacter comes the closest to having moments of insight by discussing how the characters for the 7 girls weren't really fleshed out. As a result, the cast members who brought a high degree of personality in that first season were the ones who made the subsequent cut. The character of Blair wasn't much more developed than the other characters in Season 1 but Lisa Whelchel brought so much dynamism and vivaciousness to the character that it was no question she would continue on with the series. And since the production staff thought there were too many blondes on the show, Whelchel's breakout status in Season 1 proved fatal for the chances of Julie Piekarski and Julie Anne Haddock. (Piekarski's overacting didn't help her cause, either.) Ultimately, John Lawlor put it best when he said that it bothered him to see some of the girls let go but then added: "That's the business."

I watched the first hour or so of this most recent Facts of Life documentary. On the plus side, there are interviews with actors John Lawlor and Jenny O'Hara, casting director Eve Brandstein, director Asaad Kelada, and writers Jerry Mayer and Margie Peters. Collectively, they give a lot of insight into the first season and how all concerned were trying to figure out what the show was meant to be. If there's a point of agreement amongst them all, it's the same point that's been made repeatedly on this forum: there were too many characters for a 22-24 minute sitcom. On the down side, this documentary is heavy on Season 1 behind-the-scenes drama and then the famous reboot itself. In an 88 minute documentary, Nancy McKeon's name doesn't pop up until the 48 minute mark and discussion of the pivotal Season 2 episode "Double Standard," which launched the Blair/Jo friendship as one of the pillars of the show (if not the pillar), doesn't happen until close to the 60 minute mark. (I suppose it's easier to create a documentary about a show that isn't working compared to one that is.) Another negative is that there are no new interviews with Mindy Cohn, Kim Fields, Nancy McKeon and Lisa Whelchel. The interviews with Felice Schachter, Julie Piekarski and Julie Anne Haddock are OK. But there are no fresh insights from any of them, and it's a bit strange that they still have so much to say about something that happened 40 years ago and only lasted for 13 episodes. If the reboot with McKeon hadn't happened, I doubt that Facts of Life would have made it out of a second season, and it would only be remembered (if at all) as yet another failed show from that dire late-70s/early-80s period in NBC's history when almost nothing worked. In which case, would anyone really care about the cast members' experiences on a failed two-season show?

The UK's success this year in the contest (best showing in 24 years) shows what can happen when (a) a country takes the competition seriously, and (b) puts up a talented performer who is actually enthusiastic about being in the contest. Hopefully, the UK's result will kill all the paranoid Brexit conspiracy theories. I knew Ukraine would win. But there was this little piece of me that hoped the UK would pull out the win if for no other reason than it would have been the 25th anniversary of Katrina & the Waves winning Eurovision for the UK with "Love Shine a Light".

I recently took the train to and from New York. As we passed through Tarrytown, I could see the Lyndhurst mansion a.k.a. Collinwood from the House of Dark Shadows movie looming ominously on a hill above the rail line. Lyndhurst is actually quite small and somewhat unimpressive - certainly in comparison to Seaview Terrace in Newport (Collinwood in the series).

Even after the show wrote out Jenny O'Hara's character, there were still 9 named characters who had to be taken into account before a single line of dialogue was written or guest performers included. The show as structured in the first season was impossible to sustain in a 24-25 minute sitcom.

Between the character of Mr. Bradley and the girls running around in short shorts, it makes you wonder just who NBC thought was the audience for this show in the first season. There's something about all of these interviews surrounding the reboot that I find odd. I can't quite put my finger on it. It's as if Felice Schachter, Julie Piekarski and Julie Anne Haddock are still living -- and struggling -- with the knowledge that stardom was in their grasp and then eluded them. I do think Molly Ringwald did it the right way. She made one token appearance in Season 2, found it humiliating and then never involved herself with Facts again. While revamping the opening theme was yet another smart move concerning the reboot, I confess to liking Charlotte Rae's "singing" in Season 1. It has a "homely" beauty to it.

At first I read this as her hair blowing meaningfully in the desert wind. Then I reread it and understood what you actually wrote!

Dune won six Oscars this week - Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects. Dune lost Best Picture (to CODA), Best Adapted Screenplay (to CODA), Best Makeup and Hairstyling (to The Eyes of Tammy Faye) and Best Costume Design (to Cruella). I find the Best Sound win perplexing because I thought the sound was most inconsistent thing in the entire production.

It's interesting to think how The Facts of Life ran for so many years that the Molly Ringwald boom could come and go in the middle of it. Really, Ringwald's "major phase" was fairly short: 2+ years (1984-86) and three movies. By the time Facts of Life was ending in 1988, Ringwald was reverting back to being a regular working actress not that dissimilar from any of the 'Core Four' on Facts.

You Tube has plenty of clips from the more recent reunions. Nancy Barrett is a regular attendee.

Coming late to this question but I would answer: none The revamp was perfect unto itself. NBC kept the 3 strongest performers from the original cast and added Nancy McKeon to create the 'Core Four,' which powered the show to another 9 seasons. Even within that foursome, you had the 'Older Pair' (Blair and Jo) and the 'Younger Pair (Natalie and Tootie). There was no room for a fifth member in the foursome as a whole or in the two subpairings.