I like how the soap universes are connected. It makes it possible for me to imagine a larger world.
ABC has made high art of this. Skye Chandler was a regular on AMC, OLTL and GH, and so was her mother (Linda Dano's Gretel Rae Cummings). AMC's Paul Martin was Viki's defense lawyer on OLTL when Karen Wolek had her classic breakdown. Megan McTavish's baby-switch drama made sure that AMC's Babe and Bianca crossed over with OLTL's Kelly and Paul (and various supporters) in the early 2000s. Way back, on Loving, AMC's Angie and Jeremy and Ceara all moved to Corinth. And of course half the population of Corinth moved to "The City" before it was all done. Port Charles, or course, shared the same city and hospital with General Hospital, as does Night Shift. So it is all one big happy universe.
CBS/P&G and CBS/Bell have something similar going. B&B and Y&R are sister shows, and have shared Sheila, Lauren, Ashley, Victor, Brooke, Cricket/Christine, Jack, Felicia, and others. Michael Baldwin tied Y&R to ATWT with a brief visit a few years ago. ATWT is tied to AW, both in terms of the original concept of AW, but in recent years explicitly by the migration of Jake, Marly, Vicky and Donna from Bay City to Oakdale. Apparently AW's Cass Winthrop appeared as a lawyer on both ATWT and GL. SON's Y&RWorldTurner tells me that two Bauers visited AW from GL in the 1970s, and ATWT/GL Oakdale/Springfield reference each other fairly often.
So, we get this map (where direct lines indicate that characters have moved between one show and the other). (I'll edit this pic later to make it look like something)
DOOL stands alone.
I loved when ABC hired Linda Dano to do this crossover stuff, but I guess it failed...the goal must have been to (a) lure Dano's AW fans, but also (b) build more of a cross-lineup audience loyalty (i.e., they'd sample all shows and stick around for all shows). Since Gretel/Rae is gone, I guess it didn't work.
1 comment:
Hi Mark,
Great idea for a column. And what memories you've brought back just thinking about those cross overs!
Thanks for doing that.
A couple of additions/corrections:
1. On AW, Mike and Hope Bauer from GL moved to Bay City for about 6 months in 1966-67 when Agnes Nixon was penning both soaps.
2. On OLTL, Alex Masters from Loving/The City did some investigative work for Bo Buchanan and appeared briefly in one or two episodes.
3, On The City, Jackson Montgomery from AMC crossed over to act as attorny for Sydney Chase for a few episodes.
4. On Y&R, Emily Stewart from ATWT came to Genoa City looking for her missing sister Allison Stewart in one episode. And the curent actress playing Allison (sorry, have forgotten her name) on ATWT appeared first on Y&R for several weeks as the friend who helped Amber trap Cane into marriage.
5. While its not exactly a cross over, on a couple of occassions, Ben Evans of Sunset Beach mentioned having off-screen business meetings with the Capwells of Santa Barbara. This was 5 years after Santa Barbara was canceled.
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