Today The Oprah Winfrey show had an episode focusing on soaps. This is a summary of what happened. I know the clips are online, but I like writing about things when I see them as years in the future my impression of the same program may be very different.
The focus during the first half of the show was Susan Lucci and her All My Children character of Erica Kane. We saw Susan’s home, where she and her husband Helmut Huber raised their two children. There was a touching moment when she read something daughter Liza wrote as a child when she didn’t win a Daytime Emmy. We also saw where her award lives along with how she has an Erica portrait in her home. Susan also mentioned how she took a cut in pay. As a surprise all of Erica’s husbands (and Mike Roy who was not Erica’s husband—though they attempted marriage which was discovered to be illegal) were standing behind the curtain. While I don’t recognize all of the men due to not being alive when AMC began, it was cool seeing them again. It was amusing that Susan and Walt Willey (Jack) had been working the day before and he had given her no indication of what was going to happen on Oprah.
We also saw the Oprah clip of when she was on All My Children back in the 1980s in a small part. The other AMC guests were Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams (Angie and Jesse) and Michael E. Knight (Tad) who all spoke with Oprah. Angie and Jessie are the African-American soap super couple and Oprah remembered enjoying bad boy Tad the Cad back in the day. Seeing the old clips is fun as usual. Debbie mentioned how she cried watching Angie and Jesse getting back together when he came back from the dead. This confused her husband. They also showed a photo from Debbie’s wedding, when Darnell gave her away. Michael mentioned how Tad’s life had some karmic revenge as he had to deal with his son sleeping with Liza. The show also spoke with two friends who kept connected via All My Children even though they lived thousands of miles from each other. They both really loved Tad.
Oprah also talked with General Hospital’s Genie Francis and Tony Geary (Laura and Luke). They talked about the past, and how they never were involved as he is much older than her, but he did really date Elizabeth Taylor. According to what was said, Tony was with Ms. Taylor for 2 years, which I found really surprising. I knew about them, but I had no idea of the duration. Genie admitted that she would only be willing to play Laura again if she had an agenda and wasn’t a victim.
For a few minutes at the end, Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless) came and spoke with Oprah. Instead of calling her Kay or Katherine, Oprah called her Mrs. Chancellor, which was kid of amusing to me for no good reason. They showed a clip of her talking about her plastic surgery. Also Jeanne talked about working, and still breathing at 82 years old.
In general, I enjoyed the show for what it was. I’ve known for years that Oprah’s interest in soaps is primarily All My Children. Her guest list matched her point of view. I wasn’t expecting a show explaining why soaps are ailing. If she wasn’t someone who watched Days of Our Lives, One Life to Live, The Bold & the Beautiful or the late As the World Turns or Guiding Light, it may have felt weird seeing her talk to people she was not excited about. She did mention ATWT and GL by name, but didn't go into depth about their cancellations. By Oprah only focusing on actors she was familiar with, we didn’t have to suffer through awkwardness. If the show had been like the ones of old in honor of the Daytime Emmys, if they had not included nominated actors or prior winners from past years, I would have been offended.
I hope on the OWN show Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes will feature some of the background into the making this episode. I was amazed they were able to get everyone to Chicago last week due to the weather issues in the Midwest. The episode felt short and I wasn’t bored and that’s a good sign to me that this particular episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show was one that held my interest.
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