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NUMBER FOUR
DAYS, B&B Agree to Swap Stars
If you've watched soaps long enough (or just enough soaps), you're bound to have seen a performer on one soap that you know was on another soap. As soap actors make the circuits from one program to another, they often leave behind a well-liked character on a particular program.
Over at CBS, Bradley Bell, the head writer and executive producer of The Bold and the Beautiful, realized that his show could use a character that was portrayed by a performer on Days of our Lives. Lauren Koslow (Kate Roberts, Days of our Lives) had previously portrayed Margo Lynley, the mother of a character the show had recently brought back - Mark Maclaine, from 1987 to 1992 on B&B. The only problem was that Koslow was under contract with the rival NBC soap.
Bell approached Days of Our Live executive producer Ken Corday and mentioned the idea of possibly getting Koslow to return to the show. Unable to make a deal until he discussed the situation with NBC brass, Corday was initially unable to give Bell a yes or no answer.
For many years, Joseph Mascolo (Massimo Marone, The Bold and the Beautiful) played the evil - yet oddly likeable - Stefano DiMera. When Days of our Lives brought on a new head writing team, the scribes promised to explore DAYS' rich history. Corday returned to Bell and suggested a "swap" of their respective performers.
An agreement was hammered out and it marked the first time in soap history that two rival soaps had agreed to share, or swap, performers. ABC had featured several crossovers from soap to soap by certain characters, but as all four ABC soaps are owned by the network, the programs do not compete with one another.
Though DAYS and B&B's swap was an apparent success, by year's end no other soaps had agreed to enter into any similar agreement.
» Click here to read coverage of B&B and DAYS' swap.
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In perhaps a signal that variety is indeed the spice life - and exactly what daytime audiences are looking for - One Life to Live stunned critics and soap fans by being named Outstanding Drama Series at this year's Daytime Emmy Awards.
While soaps traditionally submit clips that highlight their most dramatic and flashy scenes for Emmy consideration, One Life to Live submitted one dramatic reel and one comedic reel. The comedic reel featured a special Fourth of July episode in which stars portrayed characters of other stars - role swapping, as it were. The episode was a huge hit with fans and, obviously, the Emmy voters.
The victory as Outstanding Drama Series was the very first for the 34-year-old One Life to Live.
» Click here to read coverage of OLTL's Emmy victory.
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