Deep Soap: Blast From The Past

By Sara A. Bibel
Fancast.com

It’s A Question of Time

It’s one of the great daytime clichés. A character stares off into space as the show cuts to a flashback of a pervious scene. At their best, flashbacks are a great way of showing the audience what a character is thinking. If Blaine is kissing Danielle but has a flashback of kissing Claire, the viewers know he still lusts after his ex.

Flashbacks can also provide a refresher course on the show’s history. Cain (Christopher Cousins) has returned to One Life To Live after over a decade’s absence. A few brief flashbacks of his numerous phony identities were an enjoyable way to explain his backstory to new viewers and a trip down memory lane for longtimers. Tuesday’s Days of Our Lives featured a clip of Sami (Alison Sweeney) falsely accusing Lucas (Bryan Dattilo) of child abuse to gain custody of her son. Since she’s been written as a tragic heroine for the past year, it served as a good reminder of Sami’s spunky villainous side. I hoped that it was a harbinger of things to come. A properly placed flashback can whet the audience’s appetite.

At their worst, flashbacks are filler. When a character has a lengthy recollection of something that has happened within the past couple weeks, it’s a signal for a lot of people to switch the channel or hit the fast forward button. My first thought is usually, “I wonder if there were timing issues with this episode.“ When I was the Story Coordinator at The Young & The Restless, making sure each script was the proper length was a big part of my job. It was an involved process.

First, a production associate would pre-time the script. It’s an underappreciated art that requires taking into consideration how quickly individual actors speak, and estimating how long a crying jag, love scene, action sequence or other non-dialogue heavy scenes will last. Big events such as weddings or parties are particularly difficult since there are so many variables. On Y&R, we’d go through phases where every show was really long. Then, suddenly, there would be a bunch of short shows. We attempted to figure out the optimal page and word count, but we never found the magic formula.

If an individual episode timed long, I’d look for bits of dialogue that could be cut without taking out any essential content. If it was too short, I’d often ask the writers for additional content. If it was just a little bit off, I’d look for places where a brief flashback could possibly be added in post-production. (I got approval from the writers and producers on everything.) The problems arose when a show’s actual timing didn’t match the initial estimate. That was when I’d get a panicked call from the booth that the show that was currently taping was now seven minutes long. Were there any scenes yet to tape that could be cut? It was a mad scramble to find something, get the head writers to drop everything that they were doing and approve it. Half the time, the best scene to lose would be something that already taped. The worst were shows that were long midway through the day then short by the end of taping. If an episode was really short, additional scenes were written after the fact. Sometimes they enhanced the episode. The sexy scenes where Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) dressed up like a naughty nurse for Jack (Peter Bergman) were added to fill out a short show. Other times, they were less inspired.

However, adding additional scenes after the fact is expensive. It involves additional shooting time in an era where the goal is to avoid overtime fees. Shows are now often forced to sacrifice quality, throwing in ridiculously long flashbacks to get a short show to time. I have no inside knowledge on this one, but I suspect timing issues are at least partially responsible for the never-ending flashbacks on DOOL lately. The July 8th episode seemed like it was 50% dueling elevator sex scenes and 50% flashbacks. The multiple sex scenes are exactly the sort of thing that can throw off the timing of an episode. There are rumors that there have been some last minute rewrites on DOOL lately. That can also throw off timing. I hope the show will soon cut way back on the flashbacks. There’s no need to tune in every day if everything’s constantly recapped.

Ask The (Currently Unemployed) Soap Opera Writer

MarkH: There was a time when soaps had *truly* beloved characters that we didn’t roll our eyes at. Examples: AMC’s Ruth and Kate Martin, OLTL’s Wanda Wolek, GH’s Lesley Webber, Y&R’s Leslie Brooks, and so forth. These didn’t all start out as supporting or mature characters. Some of them started out as tortured ingenues…always making the “good” choices. Now these beloved characters didn’t bother us as much as the “propped” Greenlee or the “propped” Sonny. Why?

That’s an interesting question. In my opinion, I think it’s because those characters actually were good people. They didn’t come across like sanctimonious hypocrites because they weren’t. If a character on All My Children praised Ruth’s kindness, it wasn’t propping. She was kind. These characters weren’t perfect. They had flaws and made mistakes, like real people. That made them relatable. I think the “white hats” are missing in daytime right now. While the morally grey Mason Capwell (Lane Davies version) was my favorite character on Santa Barbara, I also enjoyed the purely heroic Cruz Castillo (A Martinez.) He provided a strong moral center to the show without being dull.

I was trying to think of contemporary characters who embodied the old-school “good” quality. The only two that immediately sprang to mind were General Hospital’s Georgie (Linze Letherman) and Guiding Light’s Tammy (Stephanie Gatschet.) Both were intelligent young women who always strove to do the right thing. Neither was a saint. Georgie could be judgmental and impulsive. Tammy was overly concerned about other people’s opinions. Both were popular with the audience. Both characters were senselessly murdered, instead of being sent out of town to live happily ever after. I think that says a lot about the current status of heroines on daytime.