Happy belated 91st birthday to Dame Joan - and many more!
@fergotten
4 ай бұрын
I am shocked this did not win them millions of new viewers! I would love to see her run.
@alexisdiva9
Ай бұрын
Interesting that the show had a female character named Blake (!). On the last lines when Alexandra said "....I want everything", I thought it would have been cool if she continued the sentence with "and I'm going to get it - sooner than you think" - that was a classic scene closing episode on "Dynasty" when Alexis said those words to Blake. A somewhat interesting connection: Marj Dusey who did the Alexandra role in the 1999's and left in 1999 returned after Dame Joan left early and she stayed with the role until the show folded in 2009; Marj seemed to have retired from acting afterwards and passed away in 2020 right before the COVID pandemic at age 83. In the 1980''s Marj replaced Carolyn Jones (yes, Morticia Addams from "The Addams Family in the 1960's; she wore a black wig as Morticia as she was a natural blonde) as Myrna Clegg - an Alexis-like character - on Capital when Carolyn became terminally ill from cancer. In the late 1950's Carolyn and Joan appeared in the film The Opposite Sex - Joan's character was an embryonic Alexis that was ironically named: Crystal. Joan and Carolyn became good friends and at that time Carolyn was married to: Aaron Spelling and the rest is history.
@jefferyjones1357
3 ай бұрын
I can't believe this is 22 year's ago
@alexisdiva9
Ай бұрын
Great Dame Joan debut episode, but I just have a few minor quibbles (not about Dame Joan's performance though): at 1:47 Alan Spaulding (which the closed captioning has as Spalding like the golf company) is doing sit-ups in bed right after having a hear attack while pulling on his neck. Someone should have told the actor Ron Raines it's bad to do that; at that time I was going to a fitness class and our instructor (a certified personal trainer) always used to remind us not to do that. Second, at 3:45 Alexandra clearly said "I bought the whole place for myself; I loathe crowds" but the closed captioning said "I love crowds" - there's a night and day difference between the words loathe and love. Dame Joan's British accent is crystal clear as always so you can't blame that. Finally, during the opening credits you don't see a lighthouse lens of Dame Joan - come on, everyone knew she was hired to appear on GL and it was well advertised - you'd have thought they had enough time to make one - I know on later episodes she's included on the lighthouse opener but still.
@eduardo_corrochio
3 ай бұрын
Oooh, had no idea Joan did a stint on GL. I was watching the show in the mid to late 80s so I missed her appearance. I assume the regular actress had fallen ill or something, maybe was written temporarily out of the plot, so they got a worthy substitute to take over for a while for Alexandra's return. What fun.
@stumack9755
3 ай бұрын
Actually she was hired for the role but quit cuz she couln't handle the fast pace of daytime soaps. Learning scripts...long hrs...
@eduardo_corrochio
3 ай бұрын
@@stumack9755 Of course it's much more work and more hectic than a weekly primetime soap.
@jefferyjones1357
3 ай бұрын
How long was she on for 2 months 😅
@alexisdiva9
Ай бұрын
I recall reading that Dame Joan was hired for a 6 month stint as Alexandra (very close name to Alexis ;)) and she accepted in large part since her hubby Percy Gibson - still married to him in 2024, God bless her! - was in NYC doing a play or something. This gave her an excuse to accompany him and something to do (she didn't have anything on tap then and she likes to keep busy - probably one secret to her longevity besides taking care of herself and good genes). She quit the role after 3 months though since she found taping daytime drama much more taxing than taping nighttime drama. Think about it: nighttime dramas such as "Dynasty" et al only had one hour of drama weekly with maybe 30 weeks airing a year - but on daytime dramas a popular character could be seen on 4 or even sometimes 5 weekly episodes - and 52 weeks a year at that. Remember this was also 13 years after "Dynasty" folded and she was 69 when she did this stint so it would have been more challenging to learn and memorize dialogue what it would have been if this stint were done in like the early 90's. On ATWT, you had Helen Wagner who stayed on the soap for the rest of her life (she was in the first episode 4.2.1956; creator Irna Phillips foolishly fired her under the pretense she didn't like the way she as Nancy poured coffee but owner P&G overruled this and forced her to reinstate Helen; in the early 80's a very foolish executive director wrote her out for a few years but was otherwise continually on ATWT) - she passed just a few months before the end of ATWT in her 90s (one episode a month before the final one acknowledged the passing of the character Nancy and did a tribute to her and in part to Helen) - in her final decade or so you were lucky if you saw her once or possibly twice monthly - she worked on soaps for years so she was used to the routine. Similarly,, Elizabeth Hubbard was on first "The Doctors" and then "ATWT"' being an main character on both soaps - and after "ATWT" folded she did German soaps for many years - and she was in her late 80's when she passed. Other part of the problem was the fading popularity of the soap genre - it's bad when even Dame Joan couldn't save the show. Some CBS affiliates didn't help matters by broadcasting GL hours earlier than the regular CBS soap block. For example, I seem to recall that my local CBS affiliate (KYW aka CBS3) aired it at 10AM EST so the episodes aired a day behind the rest of the nation - it was supposed to have been aired at 3PM EST ATWT - this would also have been when teens came home from school and they very well might have favored ABC's General Hospital. I'd ask for clarification from a couple of dear friends who watched GL but they sadly passed on: the husband in November 2022 and his widow on 4.16.2024.
@eduardo_corrochio
Ай бұрын
@@alexisdiva9 Clearly the grind of a daily network soap had to have been a massive difference from a weekly Wednesday show .... many more hours and so much dialogue. Great point there. Elizabeth Hubbard, what a gem. I got hooked on ATWT shortly after she came on; it was the time when they were changing the actress playing Lily, making her a teenager, and we got Martha Byrne's debut on the show. Hubbard was a refreshing force in every scene. She seemed to be adlibbing or tweaking each script, and yet it worked tremendously well. I loved Lucinda Walsh, warts and all. So, you say Hubbard did German soaps after ATWT folded, that's wonderful. Might as well keep going and doing something familiar. I actually stopped watching ATWT around 1990. Today I'm surprised that daytime soaps still exist. They're even doing a new one soon (I forget the network) about a Black family--- amazing that they have the budget for these serial shows today.
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