Brandon's Buzz

A longtime friend of Brandon's Buzz, the incredible Laura Bonarrigo --- best known for her role as Cassie Callison Carpenter Buchanan on ABC's classic soap One Life to Live --- has put show business on the back burner and transitioned into a new role as a life coach.  Inspiried in part by the dissolution of her own relationship, Bonarrigo has recently created an online course to help her clients navigate the treacherous waters of divorce, and she is stopping by the Buzz to give us all the details! LINKS: doingdivorceschool.com laurabonarrigo.com @laura_bonarrigo -- Twitter @laura_bonarrigo -- Instagram  

A soap sensation in the early 1990s with her starring role as Darlene 'Luna' Moody Holden on ABC's One Life to Live, the incredible SUSAN BATTEN left the suds grind far behind two decades ago in search of fulfilling other facets of her creative spirit.  Now a burgeoning mover-and-shaker behind the scenes, Batten's latest project --- a charming Lifetime film entitled Showing Roots, which takes a personal look at continuing racism in a small Louisiana town in the late 1970s --- has just arrived on DVD, and she is stopping by the Buzz with her former One Life co-star --- and fellow Roots co-producer --- KASSIE DePAIVA to discuss Showing's roots and to dish on their daytime television salad days. 

On the occasion of Guiding Light's heart-wrenching series finale in 2009, the show's fiercely brilliant former headwriter PAMELA K. LONG --- who sent the soap's ratings into the ionosphere throughout the 1980s with her incredible, inspired characters and couplings --- stopped by the Buzz for a rollicking two-hour gabfest which continues to rank among our top ten most downloaded episodes ever.  Long has been laying low of late in the entertainment world, but a couple of years ago, fate tossed her into country icon Dolly Parton's orbit when the opportunity to adapt Dolly's classic smash 'Coat of Many Colors' into a television movie for NBC landed in her lap.  The film was an instant hit, and a sequel quickly followed; both films have just been released on DVD, and now Long is returning to Brandon's Buzz to discuss how these projects came to life and to (hopefully!) clear up a few lingering soap-related questions from our first conversation. 

In 1980, partly spurred on by the advice of his pal Dabney Coleman, who urged him not to dismiss acting on a soap opera as beneath him, the great ERIC BRAEDEN --- who had already made quite a name for himself throughout the 1970s playing featured roles in films and guesting on the prime-time series of the day --- accepted what was originally intended to be a three-month role as a villain on The Young and the Restless.  Little did Mr. Braeden know at that time that his short-term part --- that of ruthless billionaire corporate raider Victor Newman --- would catch fire with the audience, and that Victor would still be the primary mover and shaker among the Genoa City society elite a full thirty-seven years later. Eric has just documented the story of all of the above --- as well as how he made the journey from war-torn Germany, where he was born, to the wilds of Hollywood --- in his brand new memoir, I’ll Be Damned, a spectacularly dishy, rip-snorting read which has just landed in bookstores via the HarperColl

With six Daytime Emmy wins for Outstanding Lead Actress, she is easily the most decorated and most respected performer in the history of American soap opera, and her four decades spent standing in Victoria Lord Riley Burke Buchanan Carpenter Davidson Banks Buchanan's regal shoes have made her a television icon.  Now, in part two of her first-ever longform podcast interview, the Queen of Llanview herself --- One Life to Live's incredible, electrifying ERIKA SLEZAK --- comes to Brandon's Buzz for an extended conversation full of reflections and memories regarding forty years of co-stars (Phil Carey, Robin Strasser, and Nathan Fillion, among many others) and producers (Paul Rauch, Linda Gottlieb, Frank Valentini, anyone?).  PLUS: Slezak reveals how she got the word about One Life's cancellation, and spills more than a little tea on the chaotic and ill-fated 2013 online reboot of the classic soap.

With six Daytime Emmy wins for Outstanding Lead Actress, she is easily the most decorated and most respected performer in the history of American soap opera, and her four decades spent standing in Victoria Lord Riley Burke Buchanan Carpenter Davidson Banks Buchanan's regal shoes have made her a television icon.  Now, in part one of her first-ever longform podcast interview, the Queen of Llanview herself --- One Life to Live's incredible, electrifying ERIKA SLEZAK --- comes to Brandon's Buzz for an extended conversation about her early life growing up in the shadow of her Tony-winning father, why she decided to forge her own path as a performer, and how she made her way --- fortunately for us all --- to the world of daytime television.  

Brandon's Buzz hits the century mark in high style with a two-part blowout spectacular, as TV Guide Magazine's vaunted soaps guru MICHAEL LOGAN stops by for a rare in-depth conversation about the just-celebrated twenty-fifth anniversary of his employment at one of America's premier publications. In the second half of our conversation, Logan reminisces about some of his most fascinating interview subjects, offers his view on some of the more controversial moments that have occurred in his column over a quarter of a century, and offers his take on the current goings-on across the soap landscape!

Brandon's Buzz hits the century mark in high style with a two-part blowout spectacular, as TV Guide Magazine's vaunted soaps guru MICHAEL LOGAN stops by for a rare in-depth conversation about the just-celebrated twenty-fifth anniversary of his employment at one of America's premier publications.  In tonight's first installment, Logan discusses how he made his way to TV Guide in the fall of 1989, how he got lucky in landing a couple of key early interviews that put his column on the showbiz map, and how he feels about the evolution of soaps throughout his quarter-century tenure covering the troubled genre!

A balls-to-the-wall suds sensation in the late-'70s and early-'80s for her role as hell-on-wheels schemer Raven Alexander Whitney on ABC's legendary soap The Edge of Night, Emmy-nominated icon SHARON GABET bounced around the daytime landscape for another half-decade after Edge came to an end, before heading out to California to heal her wounded soul.  Now a published author, with a terrific new tome --- the just-released Spiritual Magic (available as an e-book from Amazon and iBooks) --- on tap, the glorious Gabet is stopping by Brandon's Buzz for a fun conversation about her scandalously soapy past and her spectacularly centered present.

The 2014 Daytime Emmy Awards are being handed out this coming weekend --- in a ceremony that, for the first time in over three decades, will not be televised --- and in honor of the big event, Brandon's Buzz offers this exclusive presentation:  a loving look back at a time when the Emmys were a respected celebration of television excellence.  Exactly twenty years ago, the most justified and well-earned Emmy victory we at the Buzz have ever witnessed --- that would be the divine Hillary B. Smith's much-deserved win as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her grueling, superlative work as embattled defense attorney Nora Gannon the previous season on One Life to Live --- took place, and as we prepare to see which lucky actors will be taking home this year's golden trophies, we asked Hillary to reminisce about the staggering storyline that helped her win the coveted statuette, about hearing her name called on Emmy night in 1994, and about the rest of her electrifying, extraordinary career.

Twenty-five years beyond the chart-topping success of his breakthrough smash Cristofori's Dream, the brilliant DAVID LANZ is still going strong, with a terrific new record --- the lush Movements of the Heart --- on tap, and he is coming by the Buzz to discuss the staggering breadth of his career, as well as his thoughts on the current music scene.  PLUS: Oprah's favorite designer --- the incredible NATE BERKUS --- stops by to spill some dish on his fun new NBC competition series, American Dream Builders!

You may or may not recognize JEFF GILES' name on sight, but if you're a die-hard fan of ABC's late, great classic soap opera One Life to Live, get ready to wonder how the hell you ever lived without his electric, earth-shattering new book for so damn long.  The tome is called Llanview in the Afternoon, and it is an oral history of the soap's extraordinary four-decade run, made up of brand new interviews --- over fifty of them, in fact --- that Giles himself conducted with everybody who was anybody connected with the show, from creator Agnes Nixon and producers Joe Stuart and Linda Gottlieb, to stars like Erika Slezak, Robert S. Woods, Kassie DePaiva, Judith Light, Brynn Thayer, Michael Storm, and countless others.  Llanview is an utterly extraordinary read, and Jeff is stopping by Brandon's Buzz to break down for us in glorious detail how the idea for this book popped into his head to begin with, and how he set about the momentous task of compiling this magnificent masterpiece.

Early in his career, he seemed bound for the life of the typical dime-a-dozen character actor, but fate clearly had other plans for the dashing, magnificent A MARTINEZ.  And when his destiny finally revealed itself --- in the form of a true-blue good guy cop called Cruz Castillo on NBC's singularly offbeat soap opera Santa Barbara --- Martinez suddenly became one of the most beloved and most popular performers in all of television. Never one to rest on his laurels, Martinez is keeping busy these days on both sides of the camera:  as an actor, with a recurring role on A&E's hit series Longmire and a supporting role in the latest Chucky film, and as a writer/director, with his latest project, a heartfelt family affair entitled Before Your Eyes.  And he's stopping by the Buzz to discuss his decision to leap into the director's chair for the first time, as well as his adventures in daytime television, and why HE mourned the loss of his character Cruz every bit as much as we, his ardent fans, did!

An entire generation of us crazy soap fans will forever adore her for her work as the original Lorna Devon --- the badass chick with the tough exterior above and the tender heart below --- on NBC's late, lamented daytime classic Another World, but a great many of us never understood the full extent of the pain that has driven her rich, riveting work in her two-plus decades as an actress.  But the brilliant ALICIA COPPOLA has just peeled back the veil of her personal pain with a shattering new memoir, Gracefully Gone --- which details her father's brutal decade-long battle with brain cancer, via alternating entries from his journal and from her own --- and she is stopping by Brandon's Buzz to discuss the rigors of hopping a rocketship to Another World while fighting like hell to just keep putting one foot in front of the other in this one.

Slip this one in the "better late than never" slot:  earlier in the spring, the glorious actress JOAN VAN ARK returned to the proverbial scene of the crime when she briefly reprised her most iconic and most beloved television role:  that of ever-agitated Valene Ewing on TNT's vaunted reboot of the classic prime-time soap Dallas.  Van Ark was my seventh guest all the way back in this show's nascent early days, and I was thrilled to welcome her back to Brandon's Buzz for a sneak preview of the action, and though a series of crazy events in my life prevented me from getting this interview edited and assembled prior to the aforementioned Dallas episode's premiere, I suspect you'll still enjoy hearing Joan's invaluable insights about reuniting with her television family, about honoring the memory and incredible legacy of the peerless Larry Hagman, and about how it felt to slip back into poor Val's shoes some thirty years after she first donned them. 

It's always a blast whenever the glorious LINDA DANO pays a visit to the Buzz, and in honor of her long-awaited return to QVC --- with whom she begins celebrating her 20th anniversary of dazzling us with her innovative designs this week --- we have managed to wrangle her back here as well for her sixth appearance, whereupon she shall regale us tales of winter weather, sudsy soaps, and the arduous process of bringing us the greatest line of home decor accessories that television home shopping has ever seen.

The soaps are dwindling in number, but the ever-opinionated Marlena De Lacroix soldiers on, and her fabulous alter ego --- the crazy-cool CONNIE PASSALACQUA HAYMAN --- is popping into Brandon's Buzz for her ninth appearance to discuss the thrilling relaunch of her website --- http://www.marlenadelacroix.com --- as well as her thoughts on the "new" General Hospital, the One Life to Live gang's seamless entry into Port Charles, the turmoil across the daytime landscape, and the riveting return of that old dinosaur, the primetime soap!

Three years ago, the esteemed Lee Phillip Bell --- widow of the legendary Bill Bell, creator of the classic CBS soaps The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful --- hand-picked veteran soap journalist Michael J. Maloney to write her husband's long-overdue authorized biography, and with the book finally set to arrive in bookstores later this week, Michael is stopping by the Buzz with an exclusive sneak peek at the daunting process of distilling the real story behind the life of one of the world’s masterful tellers of televised tales.

The gloriously gorgeous NIA PEEPLES makes her fourth appearance on Brandon's Buzz to discuss the latest iteration and evolution of her online self-help series The Elements of Life, as well as to drop a little dish on this week's hotly-anticipated second season finale of ABC Family's smash teen soap Pretty Little Liars!

A brand-spankin'-new DVD box set of classic episodes of the legendary soap As the World Turns has just been released, and since my new pal SUSAN BEDSOW HORGAN --- who was the head writer for World Turns for a time in the mid-'80s, and whose May 2011 appearance on Brandon's Buzz has been far and away my most popular installment of this year --- has some work included in this set (and since I'd been dying to have another chat with her anyway), I was thrilled to invite her --- and, as luck would have it, her great friend THOM RACINA, whose early-'80s work on General Hospital and Days of Our Lives is the stuff of soap legend, and who just happened to be visiting Susan the day I interviewed her --- back to Brandon's Buzz for another chat about a life spent spinning suds!