WE LOVE SOAPS TV: How do you feel to be back at DAYS?
Bryan Dattilo: Daddy’s home again! [He laughs.] Daddy’s home!    Look out.

WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Was there a part of you that always thought you might return?
Bryan Dattilo: I actually thought that time was it. I didn’t anticipate coming back, or I didn’t think it could be possible, but thank God it was, because I thought I was going to have to do construction for the rest of my life. [He laughs.]

WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Tell us about working with Chandler Massey, and watching him grow as an actor?
Bryan Dattilo: First of all, that boy can act. When I first started he was just coming on the show; we only had a couple scenes. But I tuned in when I was off for two years and saw how good he was doing–and he kept improving the whole time.

When I got back he was one of the people I was really looking forward to working with, and we had some really good scenes when I came back.  He’s great, he gives a lot. Good listener, always knows his lines. Good looking little chap. Kind of reminds me of myself when I was that age. [He Laughs.]

He’s a really cool guy and really talented too. He can play the piano; I think he plays the guitar. Really cool guy.

WE LOVE SOAPS TV: As an actor, what do you draw on to portray something as complex as Lucas’s alcoholism?
Bryan Dattilo: Well, I have had some experience with AA, and I did some research, and I’ve been to my share of meetings, so I wanted to be able to play all that honestly, because I think it represents a huge community, and a huge struggle.  It’s really hard for an alcoholic to fight the urge every day. I think, with Lucas having so much history with it, and having so many other things going on in his life, it’s almost forced him to do that, just like in real life.

It’s something that I tried to make as real as possible, and tried to do enough homework on, to really do it justice and not play it casually.  And not play it lightly. . . it’s hard to play drunk. The tend to pull you back a little and say, “Oh, um, don’t act too drunk.”

It’s a hard thing for people in real life, and I honor people who have taken that step (toward sobriety). It’s a challenge and it’s something I’ve tried to apply in my own life. It comes with a lot of time, a lot of healing; a lot of regret. So it does come with things you can use in your work, those aren’t wasted moments: everything happens for a reason in your life. Thank God I’ve been given the chance to have the outlet to show it, and hopefully make other people feel comfortable with their struggle.

WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Do you ever wish that it could turn out that Stefano DiMera was Lucas’s father instead of Bill Horton? Wouldn’t that be interesting if that was the secret in Alice’s safe deposit box?
Bryan Dattilo: I think Joe mentioned that two years ago, before I was let go. Joe  Mascolo is an insane actor and he’s great to work with, so I would love to have those scenes with him. We were actually talking about it last time–two years ago, before I was let go for (I think?) the fourth time–we were talking and he was like, [he uses his Joe Mascolo voice] ”You should be my son. We’ll have wonderful scenes together.”

And I said “I’d love to, Joe, talk to them.” And I think he went to them and he asked or talked about it with somebody and they sort of hinted that I wasn’t going to be there, and he said [as Moscolo again] “You’re going to let him go? What are you crazy?”

Now that I’m back he hints about it all the time. “We have to get on this father/son thing.” So I hope it happens.

WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Are the writers treating your character any different this time?
Bryan Dattilo: Definitely. I think in the past, Lucas turned out to be something of a victim, and kind of not in-the-know about a lot of things, and playing both sides of the fence, and really not standing for something as strong as a character like Sami would stand for something.

I think they’re really good about honoring his strength, his maturity, and the things he’s been through–his history.  I really think they handled the whole situation where–when I came back I had a storyline with Will–about him maybe being gay.  Will doesn’t admit it, so Lucas has some good scenes with him.

I really think the writers did it justice in him accepting his son through anything, loving him no matter what, and not being the main focus,  I think they’ve done a great job in adding a lot of maturity and strength and some dignity and some morality.  It’s just my job to make all that believable. [He Laughs] Because a lot of people know me and know I have none of that in my life!

WE LOVE SOAPS TV: Can you give us your Super Bowl prediction?
Bryan Dattilo: I like the Pats this year, I think the Giants ruined their perfect streak a few years ago& and the Patriots have never forgotten that. They have something to prove and I think they’re going to do it.

RELATED:
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- Why 2012 Will Be “The Year Of The Soap” (Part 2): DARK SHADOWS, RAGGED ISLE, DALLAS, Univision Telenovelas and More
- Most Fascinating People of 2011

Kevin Mulcahy Jr. is a Harvard alum who is currently working as a staff contributor at welovesoaps.com writing theater and web series reviews as well as other in-depth features. Read all his Web Series reviews here. To contact Kevin, email kevin@welovesoaps.com.

In the first part of our special Black History Month series focusing on the life and times of Ellen Holly, we take a close look at the early, genial days of Nixon and Holly’s occasionally rocky partnership. Join us as Ellen Holly herself takes us back to the late ’60s, when cultural revolution, TV innovation, and two brilliant women came together to launch and popularize the one and only ONE LIFE TO LIVE. . .

“In 1968, a very smart lady, named Agnes Nixon, figured out how she could take her little, brand new, half-hour soap and shoot it right into the national limelight!”

Ellen Holly is gesticulating grandly–and almost glowing in the afternoon sun that’s streaming into her cheery, whimsical living room–as she begins her story.

“Three years earlier, the 1965 Civil Rights Act had passed, and now Agnes figured out a way, in 1968, to shoot through all of the tumultuous events of the times and garner total national attention by saying, ‘I have just created the first black star in a central role in the history of daytime television.’

“It was fascinating from the beginning, because the story line was absolutely mesmerizing.  There was a black woman who was the head of housekeeping at Llanview hospital, and she was named Sadie Gray.  She would talk from time to time about her daughter, Clara, who was assumed to be dead.

“Well, two or three months later, this exotic somebody called Carla Benari came to town in the midst of a nervous breakdown.  She went to a doctor, and he put her in the hospital to be sure there wasn’t something physically wrong with her.  She ended up falling in love with Peter De Anda’s character, the black intern.” Holly laughs, then continues. “I began getting some very interesting fan mail.  Because audiences had been living with Carla for months under the assumption that she was a white character. . .

“Eventually, in what I think is probably, to this day (Agnes is such a brilliant writer!) the best use of a serial, Agnes had Sadie, the head of housekeeping, and Carla Benari–me–end up together in an apartment doorway.  They each had totally different reasons for being there, and Lillian Hayman, who played Sadie, looked at me and said, ‘Clara!’  And I looked at her and said, ‘Mama!’ and the audience realized that Carla Benari was not a white woman–she was Sadie’s black daughter.  I mean, the brilliance!”

Holly waves her arms, triumphantly, and continues.

“What Agnes Nixion understood about the material, about how to use a series, to really squeeze it for all that it’s worth, is this:  If you’re watching a play, a film or an opera, where you’re with the characters for only a two-hour period of time, you can only make so much investment in a certain character.

“On the other hand, if you are living with a character day after day, week after week, month after month, you make much more of an emotional investment in who that character is.  If you present a character, and people live with that character for months, with certain assumptions–and then you pull the rug out from under them–because of the great amount of time spent, and investment with that character, the shock of it is so much more than it could possibly be in any other medium.”

Just as they do today, the soaps of the 1960s used to schedule the big revelations strategically, airing them the last five minutes of the last show of the week.  The audience reaction to Carla’s race revelation on that Friday started out huge, but it also had time to grow and spread until Monday.

“It was so powerful,” she continues, “that over the weekend, everybody started talking about it.  Not just the audience.  Once it was revealed that I was black, a lot of white women wrote me, saying, ‘what a cop out!’ They were waiting for an inter-racial relationship; one in which the woman was white, and the man was black! So that’s why they were angry that I was black,” she laughs.

“Then, there was a guy in Texas who had been angry, when he thought I was white, because I had kissed Peter.  But after he found out I was black, then he was mad that I had also been engaged to a white doctor.  This was everywhere!

“That’s one of the reasons I found the role so exciting to take on,” Holly confides.  ”I realized that a lot of people are prejudiced who don’t know that they are.  They really don’t know it, and when they felt one way about me on Friday, and did a whole 180 on me on Monday, it was demonstrated to them that it had nothing to do with anything tangible.  It was a very illuminating moment.”

Indeed.  Suddenly, ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s story line was national news, the subject of features in all sorts of print media (such as “Newsweek”, “TV Guide”, and “Ebony”), and  Ellen Holly was becoming a household name.  Agnes Nixon’s baby, her fledgling, innovative new soap opera, was about to achieve hitherto unheard of  success.  Together, the two talented, groundbreaking women seemed destined for a beautiful friendship.  Or at least, a lucrative partnership.

“What did Agnes get out of it?” Holly asks, rhetorically.  ”She got her name written indelibly in the history books.  She got saturation press coverage.  She got all the whites mesmerized by this story line, and at the same time she picked up a black audience that was extraordinary.”

According to Holly, at that time, about 12% of the population was black.  However, the ONE LIFE TO LIVE audience was roughly a quarter black.  With few opportunities to view compelling television with black leads, this audience became legendary for the ingenious ways it managed to make time for each daily episode.  After all, in the days before spoilers or rebroadcasts, let alone recording devices, they only had one shot to see what happened next.

“There were professional women:  doctors and dentists who scheduled their patients around us,” Holly recalls.   “There were school kids in college who scheduled their classes around us.  Just last year at Sag Harbor I met a girl who had gone to Vassar at that time, and she had scheduled all her classes around ONE LIFE TO LIVE.  Hospital workers in a given hospital would all get together, brown-bagging their lunches, and find a TV so they could all watch together as a group.  Black maids would set up their ironing boards in front of the television and do all their ironing.

“We even had guys,” she grins, a bit mischievously.  ”I remember one guy who stopped his Wonder Bread truck (not on the side, but smack in the middle of the street) and vacated it, chasing me down the street for half a block to get my autograph!”

Together, Nixon’s writing and Holly’s acting helped ONE LIFE TO LIVE secure legions of fans of all colors, and in the process, they helped to open up some largely untapped markets for daytime soaps.  Accordingly, the shows ratings “went through the roof,” as Holly puts it.

Today, when a show runner has a big, unique hit, she might be asked to make another one just like it.  Forty years ago, things worked the same way. Since many agreed that Nixon had worked a miracle with her ratings, she was rewarded with a another soap: ALL MY CHILDREN.

Holly continued working for Agnes on ONE LIFE TO LIVE and even wrote for the show on occasion, uncredited, but as we’ll see in part two of this series, Holly is certain that after her light-skinned black character had “done it’s job” (and launched the show into the stratosphere with it’s innovation and originality) she began to wear out her welcome. It seems that once the novelty of having a black female lead wore off, it became more and more difficult for some people to treat the black star the same way they would treat her white peers.

Nancy Lee Grahn on her GENERAL HOSPITAL menopause plot: Bring it on!
“I say bring it on! I was called into the producer’s office and asked if I had a problem with it. Who am I kidding? I’m going through menopause myself. I’m always hot and crabby. I’m tweeting things I don’t mean. When someone startles me I scream like I’ve been stabbed in the eye with a knife. I won’t allow the heat turned on at home, so my poor daughter has to wear a parka in the house. [Laughs] Plus, my memory is going. The other day, I kid you not, I could not remember the word ‘party’ if my life had depended on it. I was, like, ‘What the hell do they call it when people get together and have fun? It starts with a P.’ It’s terrible!”

Kevin Bacon To Star In Kevin Williamson’s Serial Killer Fox Pilot
Bacon has committed to doing 15 episodes a season vs. the standard 22 for a broadcast series.

GLEE: Matt Bomer, Darren Criss Set to Duet With [SPOILER] Mash-Up!
“After some long and intense negotiations, ’80s supergroup Duran Duran has cleared two — possibly three — tracks for the hit Fox series. And it’ll be the Brothers Anderson who’ll have the privilege of performing said ditties — as a mash-up!”

GLEE’s “Brittany and Santana are going to make out”?
According to a source, the PDA will go down in the Valentine’s Day episode of GLEE, set to air Feb. 14 on Fox.

TWIN PEAKS Cast — Then & Now!
A photo gallery of the stars from the original show and today.

Leon Russell on Being Filmed by Cameron Crowe for The Union
“I was at home watching a soap opera on TV when he called, and I hadn’t spoken to him in 30 years. It was really, really a surprise.”

Ryan Adams, Michael McDonald and Donald Glover all try out and give it their best shot, despite some hilarious budget-restrictions.

They can’t afford to pay for any songs other than the theme for three (yes, only three) former NBC shows. One of them is the theme from PASSIONS (“Breathe”) and Ryan Adams sings it after saying, “I always wanted to play a warlock on that show.”

Watch it below:

ARMY WIVES, Lifetime’s most successful series in the network’s history, will return for its sixth season with all-new episodes beginning Sunday, March 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Immediately following at 10pm ET/PT will be new episodes of COMING HOME, Lifetime’s award-winning docu-series featuring U.S. armed forces service members’ surprise family reunions.

ARMY WIVES follows the struggles, dreams and friendships of a diverse group of women – and one man – living with their spouses and families on an active army post. The series stars Kim Delaney, Sally Pressman, Brigid Brannagh, Brian McNamara, Sterling K. Brown, Wendy Davis, Drew Fuller, Terry Serpico and Catherine Bell. Television icon Susan Lucci (ALL MY CHILDREN) is set to make several special guest star appearances this season as Audrey, the wife of a retired Brigadier General, reuniting her with her former ALL MY CHILDREN co-star Delaney.

The sixth season of ARMY WIVES will see significant changes to the tribe. As they prepare to leave the recently decommissioned Fort Marshall and go their separate ways, one of them will be bidding a final farewell. In the season premiere, Roxy (Pressman) is having a hard time adjusting to the idea of moving away from her close knit group of friends, especially Pamela (Brannagh), while Michael (McNamara) and Claudia Joy (Delaney) face a tough decision about their future. Despite the turmoil, Denise (Bell) and Frank (Serpico) are planning a party for Molly’s first birthday, which may be the last time the group gathers to celebrate a milestone. But when Joan (Davis) gets word of a potentially deadly event that will descend on Fort Marshall, the tribe must band together yet again and prepare for their lives to change in an instant.

Season five of ARMY WIVES was 2011?s number one program in its Sunday 9 p.m. time period on basic cable among Women. Additionally, ARMY WIVES grew its audience by 11 percent among Total Viewers and 14 percent among Women 18-49 versus the prior season. ARMY WIVES is produced by ABC Studios for Lifetime. Mark Gordon and Jeff Melvoin serve as executive producers. The series is based on the book Army Wives: The Unwritten Code of Military Marriage by Tanya Biank, who serves as a consultant.

COMING HOME follows the unforgettable and inspiring surprise reunions of members of all five branches of the military with their spouses, children, parents and other loved ones as they return home from active duty throughout the world. Hosted by former AMERICAN IDOL finalist Matt Rogers, each episode highlights multiple reunions featuring service members and their emotional stories.

Upcoming episodes of COMING HOME feature more dramatic and emotional surprise reunions and a number of special guest appearances including Grammy(R) Award-winning country music star Clint Black, who helps two adorable kids write a song about their Army captain father who just returned from Afghanistan and is hiding in the next room. Sesame Street’s very own Elmo and Rosita travel all the way to Fort Bliss, Texas, to put together a once-in-a-lifetime surprise for the children of an Army sergeant who are having an especially hard time with their father’s deployment in Iraq. And the NFL’s Oakland Raiders also join in on one of the season’s biggest moments when they help surprise the children of a lifelong Oakland Raiders fan who hasn’t seen his family in over a year when he suits up in the infamous Silver and Black to make a stunning appearance mid-field during halftime at a game in front of a stadium full of Raider Nation fans.

Last year’s premiere of COMING HOME had triple digit year-to-date time period growth, becoming Lifetime’s number one homegrown un-scripted series launch ever across all key demographics. Last year the series was awarded a 2011 Innovator Award by the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) for outstanding achievement in nonscripted programming, showcasing extraordinary passion and leadership in new, innovative and productive ways. Coming Home is produced by RelativityREAL, LLC with Tom Forman (creator of EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION) and David Metzler (QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY) serving as executive producers.

RELATED:
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Frisbee Trick Shots Compilation
Please visit Buzz Patrol for more geeky contents

The last time a film won the Best Picture Musical Comedy at the Golden Globes then went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director was in 1968. The film was Oliver! Despite it being 1968, one of the most tumultuous periods of history for the US, the Academy went old school with Oliver, a Dickensian tale about an orphan, directed by Carol Reed. How are the ways that 2011 resembles 1968, other than the fact that Th Artist is poised to do what Olvier! did – win the Globe for Picture Musical/Comedy and then win Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars.

The only reason it’s worth noting is that it’s rare for a musical/comedy film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s even rarer for the director to also win. The Academy tends to prefer films with more gravitas. And in the years since 1968 when a lighter film won Best Picture, the director of a much more serious film won Best Director. And that director generally won the DGA as well. However, in 1968 the winner of the DGA was not the eventual Oscar winner. Anthony Harvey won the Directors Guild, but Carol Reed ended up winning the Oscar, along with Oliver! winning for Best Picture.

Neither Reed nor Harvey had won the Globe for Director that year. Instead, Paul Newman won for Rachel, Rachel. The Ace Eddie went to Bullitt. It was a split year in many ways. It was also a nostalgic year, a year that represented strong female characters in the oscar race, a year when Best Actress ended in a tie (Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand) and a year that was more interesting for the films that weren’t nominated than the films that were:

2001: A Space Odyssey
The Producers
Faces
Rosemary’s Baby
Once Upon a Time in the West
Performance
The Odd Couple

And then some ironic titles vis a vis this year:
Shame (Bergman)
Planet of the Apes

The Academy picked these five movies instead:

Oliver!
Lion in Winter
Funny Girl
Rachel, Rachel
Romeo and Juliet

It’s easier to see what the definition of the “Oscar movie” means when you look at that list. Clearly, not a one of those five outlasted Kubrick’s monumental 2001. But it’s doubly ironic that Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life was also nominated this year, since it’s always being compared to 2001. It is eery how similar this year is to 1968. If it comes full circle, THe Artist and Michel Hazanavicius will become the first film since 1968 to first win Globe for Musical and then win the Oscar for Picture and Director.

Since Oliver! only these films have gone on to win Best Picture after winning Picture in Musical/Comedy at the Globes but none of them won the Oscar for directing:

Driving Miss Daisy (Oliver Stone won director for Born on the Fourth of July)
Shakespeare in Love (Steven Spielberg won director for Saving Private Ryan)
Chicago (Roman Polanski won director for The Pianist)

Two of these are Weinstein joints, and the other didn’t even have a Director nomination.

Funnily enough, all of the above directors also won the Golden Globe for Directing, as Martin Scorsese has done this year. Though it’s almost impossible to predict a split, if I were ever going to predict one I would do so this year.

The best case scenario for The Artist is that it follows Oliver!’s path. It could also follow Chicago, where it won the Globe for Musical/Comedy and then won the DGA but lost Director at the Oscars. The other weird coincidence this year has with the Chicago year is that Martin Scorsese won that year also for Gangs of New York, which then went on to win no Oscars.

Chicago and The Artist are both about one star overtaking another and both end with a dance number. Both were loved and hit hard with critics of the race. And both are films most anyone can enjoy. The Artist, of course, feels like it was something different from everything else out there. Chicago had much more of a hard edge.

There isn’t a film like Born on the Fourth of July, Saving Private Ryan or The Pianist in the race. Therefore, Hazanavicius doesn’t have the same kind of competition. But Martin Scorsese is a force to be reckoned with and Hugo is a triumph, even if people like to talk about well, the money.

The last time a film won the Best Picture Musical Comedy at the Golden Globes then went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director was in 1968. The film was Oliver! Despite it being 1968, one of the most tumultuous periods of history for the US, the Academy went old school with Oliver, a Dickensian tale about an orphan, directed by Carol Reed. How are the ways that 2011 resembles 1968, other than the fact that Th Artist is poised to do what Olvier! did – win the Globe for Picture Musical/Comedy and then win Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars.

The only reason it’s worth noting is that it’s rare for a musical/comedy film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s even rarer for the director to also win. The Academy tends to prefer films with more gravitas. And in the years since 1968 when a lighter film won Best Picture, the director of a much more serious film won Best Director. And that director generally won the DGA as well. However, in 1968 the winner of the DGA was not the eventual Oscar winner. Anthony Harvey won the Directors Guild, but Carol Reed ended up winning the Oscar, along with Oliver! winning for Best Picture.

Neither Reed nor Harvey had won the Globe for Director that year. Instead, Paul Newman won for Rachel, Rachel. The Ace Eddie went to Bullitt. It was a split year in many ways. It was also a nostalgic year, a year that represented strong female characters in the oscar race, a year when Best Actress ended in a tie (Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand) and a year that was more interesting for the films that weren’t nominated than the films that were:

2001: A Space Odyssey
The Producers
Faces
Rosemary’s Baby
Once Upon a Time in the West
Performance
The Odd Couple

And then some ironic titles vis a vis this year:
Shame (Bergman)
Planet of the Apes

The Academy picked these five movies instead:

Oliver!
Lion in Winter
Funny Girl
Rachel, Rachel
Romeo and Juliet

It’s easier to see what the definition of the “Oscar movie” means when you look at that list. Clearly, not a one of those five outlasted Kubrick’s monumental 2001. But it’s doubly ironic that Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life was also nominated this year, since it’s always being compared to 2001. It is eery how similar this year is to 1968. If it comes full circle, THe Artist and Michel Hazanavicius will become the first film since 1968 to first win Globe for Musical and then win the Oscar for Picture and Director.

Since Oliver! only these films have gone on to win Best Picture after winning Picture in Musical/Comedy at the Globes but none of them won the Oscar for directing:

Driving Miss Daisy (Oliver Stone won director for Born on the Fourth of July)
Shakespeare in Love (Steven Spielberg won director for Saving Private Ryan)
Chicago (Roman Polanski won director for The Pianist)

Two of these are Weinstein joints, and the other didn’t even have a Director nomination.

Funnily enough, all of the above directors also won the Golden Globe for Directing, as Martin Scorsese has done this year. Though it’s almost impossible to predict a split, if I were ever going to predict one I would do so this year.

The best case scenario for The Artist is that it follows Oliver!’s path. It could also follow Chicago, where it won the Globe for Musical/Comedy and then won the DGA but lost Director at the Oscars. The other weird coincidence this year has with the Chicago year is that Martin Scorsese won that year also for Gangs of New York, which then went on to win no Oscars.

Chicago and The Artist are both about one star overtaking another and both end with a dance number. Both were loved and hit hard with critics of the race. And both are films most anyone can enjoy. The Artist, of course, feels like it was something different from everything else out there. Chicago had much more of a hard edge.

There isn’t a film like Born on the Fourth of July, Saving Private Ryan or The Pianist in the race. Therefore, Hazanavicius doesn’t have the same kind of competition. But Martin Scorsese is a force to be reckoned with and Hugo is a triumph, even if people like to talk about well, the money.

Back in November on 2011, British Artist Joe Hill was commissioned by Reebok Crossfit to create this 3D masterpiece of a waterfall and cliff-face at the West India Quays in Canary Wharf.
The picture is in the Guinness World Records for being the longest and the largest anamorphic painting and measures 1160.45m².

Check Out This Epic London View
Please visit Buzz Patrol for more geeky contents

Back in November on 2011, British Artist Joe Hill was commissioned by Reebok Crossfit to create this 3D masterpiece of a waterfall and cliff-face at the West India Quays in Canary Wharf.
The picture is in the Guinness World Records for being the longest and the largest anamorphic painting and measures 1160.45m².

Check Out This Epic London View
Please visit Buzz Patrol for more geeky contents