While he turns 38 years old on Sunday, September 10, “The Bold and the Beautiful’s” Jacob Young (Rick Forrester) won’t let that pesky little detail stop him from performing at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas as part of his big birthday celebration! The actor and musician has signed on to headline a Vegas show alongside fellow singer and friend Vanessa LeGrand.
If a year ago someone bet me that a modern-day soap opera would not only put their African-American characters in a front burner storyline that was deeply entrenched in social issues, which had nothing to do with the color of one’s skin, race or ethnicity, I’d owe that person plenty of money right about now.
In life you set goals for yourself, or at least you try to. You even have expectations for yourself that you hope will eventually get fulfilled. In my case, over the years I had set a specific list of goals that included certain expectations as they related to one another. Earlier this year, I officially crossed one of the major things off that list. It wasn’t easy as it had plagued me for nearly a decade. A stepping stone you might call it. I took up something many years ago that eventually became impossible to maintain on a full-time basis. I decided to do it part-time. I went from part-time to being very part-time. Later you could say I dropped it completely in order to concentrate on the things that either gave me personal joy and fulfillment (this site) or put several well earned dollars in my pocket. I imagine I’m not the only one out there who’s ever had pull some sort of double duty in their lifetime. Right?
Late last month we released a new layout of our website that was to allow us to present our content in manner we’ve been working towards for some time. Unfortunately, the design came with some issues that needed to be cleaned up. That cleanup left the site virtually silent news and interview wise. That’s now over.
If things look a little bit different around here it’s because things are different. As promised on our social networks, we have been working very hard behind the scenes leading up to this Thanksgiving holiday weekend to bring you the best user experience at Soap Opera Network, which not only includes the most up-to-date soap opera related content, but also a more visually appealing layout with page speed in mind. As a result of our new design, there will be plenty of new features we’ll be able to play around with that’ll provide our readers with the best presentation of our content, including this puppy.
From re-runs of soap classics “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Another World,” “Port Charles,” and “Falcon Crest,” to the launches of original series “SoapCenter,” “Soap Talk” and “General Hospital: Night Shift,” SOAPnet was defined as the “new way to watch soaps” for much of its near 14-year run. With just 2 days left before SOAPnet is no more, we thought it would be a great opportunity to look back at the inaugural year of a network that gave diehard soap fans their own platform to shout with glee through the death of a network that outlived its purpose.
Celebrating its 12th year online, Soap Opera Network is currently experiencing its biggest year on record in terms of page views and unique visitors. This year we’ve been able to provide exclusive insight into the world of soaps while bringing readers inside the minds of some of their favorite characters and actors featured on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital” and “The Young and the Restless.” As we come off of the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we’re gearing up for even more features in the coming weeks and the new year including the return of the SON Awards along with the annual Airhog Awards, while introducing new features such as our first annual best and worst of the year report and our new best of soaps weekly poll highlighting the best actors, best soaps, and best storylines of the week for both daytime and primetime soap opera related programming. To better present all this content we’ve made significant alterations to our website design that gets rid of clutter and inactive coding that previously prevented the site from being presented in the best way possible. The new design codenamed “refresh” was launched today.
According to Deadline Hollywood, “Magic Mike: The Musical” is heading to Broadway. Per the website, producers are actively working to turn the Channing Tatum blockbuster film about male strippers in Florida into a musical with Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey set to write songs, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa signed to write the book for the Broadway version. The film, released in 2012, was directed by Steven Soderbergh, who along with Tatum, Reid Carolin, Gregory Jacobs, and Nick Wechsler serve as producers on the musical.
“All My Children’s” Walt Willey (ex-Jack Montgomery) has traded in his Pine Valley cohorts for some characters with much less sex appeal: a group of puppets!
While Billy Magnussen (ex-Casey Hughes, “As The World Turns”) did not win Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for his performance as Spike in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” the play itself did win in the category of Best Play. Written by Christopher Durang, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” tells the story of Vanya (David Hyde Piece, “Frasier”) and Sonia (Kristine Nielsen,”Political Animals”) and Masha (Sigourney Weaver, “Political Animals”) and Spike (Magnussen), who together turn a generally quiet household into a standing circus full of intrigue and super fun.
“I don’t expect to get it. They usually don’t give it to you two years in a row. So for me the real thing is to have been nominated and to have been acknowledged in this way, which is really an acknowledgment of this extraordinary play by Richard Greenberg. This brilliant direction by Lynne Medow and this cast, which is my heart… I’m so appreciative, I really am,” said Judith Light (ex-Karen Wolek, “One Life to Live”) on the red carpet of the 2013 Tony Awards just moments before taking home her second Tony on Sunday, June 9. The actress won for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for her work as Faye in “The Assembled Parties.” The play also stars Jake Silbermann (ex-Noah Mayer, “As The World Turns”) playing the dual role of Scotty/Tim.
It’s been awhile since Terri Conn (ex-Aubrey Wentworth, “One Life to Live;” ex-Katie Peretti, “As the World Turns”) has been in the public eye, but that’s all about to change! The actress will be joining Anthony Rapp (“Kidnapped,” “Adventures in Babysitting”) and Patrick James Lynch (“At the Top of the Pyramid”) in leading a benefit reading of “Deleted Scenes,” an event that will generate proceeds to help the Hemophilia Association of New York.
Described as the love story behind “Doctor Zhivago,” the award-winning play “Lightning from Heaven,” written by “General Hospital” script writer Scott Sickles, will open for a limited engagement at New York City’s WorkShop Theater beginning Thursday, February 14th.
On Thursday, January 24, former “All My Children” star Christina Bennett Lind (ex-Bianca Montgomery) began appearing in the role of Susy Hendrix, a blind woman who finds herself opening doors to a psychopathic game of deceit and murder, in the John W. Engeman Theater Production of “Wait Until Dark.”
On Wednesday, January 30, “General Hospital’s” Sean Kanan (AJ Quartermaine) will be putting his comedic chops on display for Mavrick Artists Agency’s Comedy Showcase being held in Los Angeles, CA. The event is being hosted by Lorenzo Lamas, who co-starred with Kanan back in the early 2000’s on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Lamas portrayed Hector Ramirez on the CBS daytime soap.
“One Life to Live’s” Matt Walton (ex-Elijah Clark/Elijah Kent) and “Passions” actress Erin Cardillo (ex-Esme Vanderheusen) have come together for a new comedy at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Last summer I was lucky enough to be included as an interviewee in the new soap opera themed documentary appropriately titled “Soap Life,” which follows the life, and possible death, of daytime soap operas. I can’t believe I forgot all about it and didn’t realize it until this morning!
Ten years is a longtime for a website to remain in operation. It is thanks to all of you that we’ve been able to provide you with the most up-to-date, current and timely information relating to the genre of soap operas between our SON Community and our reporting team. Unfortunately, in the past month there hasn’t been much of any up-to-date, current or timely information relating to the genre of soap operas posted on Soap Opera Network by its reporting team.
“All My Children’s” replacement show “The Chew” debuts today, just three days after “AMC” aired its final episode on ABC, and I can’t help myself in wishing it would just go away. No, it isn’t the show or what it is all about. In a perfect world I’d care to watch it from time to time, after all we all have to cook good and healthy meals don’t we? But it is the way the network went about handling “The Chew” which included non-stop advertising during “AMC’s” final weeks on television along with non-stop advertising on soap opera centered websites including Soap Opera Network that I find myself saying “what a way to spit on your audience.”
What started out as a typical week that began on July 25 ended up being one of the worst in Soap Opera Network history, but you wouldn’t have known it from a behind the scenes perspective.