Of all the history of soaps, what would you say were the best murder mysteries of all time?
Also, have there ever been any storylines centered around LSD? (or ecstasy for that matter)
**Bonus question: What were the best ever "evil twin assumes their identity & steals their life" storylines?
I love Sasha Vujacic !!
The Edge of Night -- Raven was a suspect when her mother was poisoned, then Eliot Dorn was stabbed, and eventually what might have been a series of unrelated killings were traced by Raven to the murderer.
The Edge of Night -- Nola spiked Miles' water cooler to prevent him from revealing to Debbie that she was disguised as an old lady living next door.
The Edge of Night -- Jefferson Brown may not have been a blood twin but through plastic surgery assumed Schuyler Whitney's identity in a suspenseful sequence leading to a murder or two and an unsuccessful attempt on Raven's life.
At its height The Edge of Night was scripted by Henry Slesar, very famous mystery writer who'd won all sorts of rewards for his short stories and novels.
If you want a blood twin story, I suppose the Days of Our Lives sequence where Marlena's evil twin stole her identity and committed her ... or the beloved "Janet from another planet" who substituted herself for Natalie to take her twin's place on her wedding night, eventually adding another cast member to All My Children. LOL
thanks!! See, that's why I always wanted to see Edge Of Night. It seems like a very cool, sleak, edgy, suspenseful, and mysterious soap. I remember growing up in the 80s, it was re-run on the USA network sometime I guess in the late 80s or early 90s, but we were poor, & our cable was cut the very next day after I'd discovered it. :( I wish some network would have the balls to re-run it, or I wish there was somewhere I could view it online. :\
What about LSD storylines? Any?? Seems like I read about one somewhere at one time, but I've forgotten which. Ryan's Hope, maybe?
I love Sasha Vujacic !!
Oh, when you said about Nola spiking Miles' water cooler to prevent him from ratting her out, did you mean to include that in 'LSD storylines' ? Did she spike it with LSD? Did they show him all tripping out?? LOL.
I love Sasha Vujacic !!
what was Raven's mother's name? I'm going to see if I can't youTube the murder mystery. :)
I love Sasha Vujacic !!
When Raven was suspected of poisoning her mom, was that storyline called "The Clown Puppet Murders" ?? If so, I think I just found it on youtube!! :D
I love Sasha Vujacic !!
It was the prelude, if you will, to the Clown Puppet Murders. When Nadine, Raven's mom, was poisoned suspicion was on Raven but fortuitously she'd followed her mother's wishes and arranged a cremation ... too late, as I remember, for an autopsy. She'd been having an affair with Eliot Dorn who'd hired the Karr's nephew to perform with hand puppets in Dorn's nightclub when one night an unseen operator used a puppet bearing knife to slay Dorn.
Movie star Nola Madison was in Monticello for a film and her husband fell for policewoman Debbie Saxon. Nola used her witch makeup from the movie to become an old lady and next door neighbor to Debbie. Dr. Miles Cavanaugh had seen Nola made up on the movie set and since he was a friend of Debbie's, Nola feared he'd expose her. So she stacked his water cooler with LSD and he began to have visions of his murdered wife Denise. Nola had been married to Eliot Dorn briefly after Miles' sister April's mother (who'd saved him from the cult he lead) found him not to be faithful and kicked him out.
All those Slesar plots were brilliant and decent murder mysteries full of clues and suspense with many twists. Alas, P&G played a big role in the ratings destruction of the show by moving it to an earlier CBS airtime. It began life at 4:30 pm and after 4 years moved to 3:30 which still made it available to school kids and working adults who got home early. But then it was moved to 2:30 pm and immediately fell to the bottom of the ratings barrel. P&G wanted to expand As the World Turns to an hour and with CBS chose to dump EoN to make time space. ABC picked up the show in December 1975 with a 4 pm airtime which would have been great had the affiliates by then not wanted to carry syndicated shows starting at 4 pm. It's a fact that in the cities which carried Edge at 4pm immediately following General Hospital it was highly rated ... but overall the Neilsens became lower because so many affiliates dropped the show or had a 1-day delay to air it mid-morning.
The story arcs were anywhere from 4 months to a year, full of interesting characters and sparkling, witty dialogue. I'm surprised P&G hasn't considered releasing some sort of tribute to Edge on DVD since they have every episode from Denise Cavanaugh murdering a former employee to the end. Perhaps one day. LOL
this is an AWESOME plethera of knowledge!! Thank you SO much, grantch!! I really appreciate it.
I love Sasha Vujacic !!
The Edge of Night was the best of the mystery shows. (Others included Hidden Faces, Somerset (when also written by Henry Slesar), Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (after it moved into the Edge of Night's old timeslot), and Full Circle (A Hollywood serial).
The best mysteries, to me, were the Stanley Norris murder on The Guiding Light (which I believe was written by James Gentile, a former writer of The Edge of Night) and the Jasper Delaney murder on Somerset (also written by Henry Slesar).