Steamboat's Michael O'Leary visited with We Love Soaps' Damon Jacobs about his new web series in a two-part interview.  In the chat, O'Leary discusses fan's speculation about who Kim Zimmer's role as Steamboat's executive producer is based on.

We Love Soaps: Let’s talk about Kim Zimmer’s role as the Executive Producer on STEAMBOAT. Fans can’t help but speculate who this is based on. Is there anything you want to say about that?

Michael O' Leary: Of course I think of all the Executive Producers I’ve worked for. Originally I wanted the Exec to be a man. But Kim lives three blocks from me, and I thought, “Okay, I’ll make him a her.” Kim does not at all resemble Ellen Wheeler in any shape or form. There was Gail Kobe, who was my first Exec. There was Jill Farren-Phelps, Paul Rauch, and Michael Laibson. I can’t say of all these Execs that she resembles anyone in particular. All I wanted was a real top female who, as she says, has bigger balls than anyone else on the show. The men are a bit afraid of her.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 at We Love Soaps and watch the most recent episode of Steamboat after the jump.

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Gearing up for the final stop on the "So Long Springfield tour", Kim Zimmer chats with The Day on the decline of daytime dramas.

On the future of soaps: I think if someone can figure out how to do these soaps on a wing and a prayer. The people who pay the bills, they don't want to spend the money on them any more because the advertising dollar isn't there like it used to be. Because of the DVRs and the VCRs taping the shows, they know people aren't watching the commercials anymore. Until somebody can figure out an aesthetically pretty way to do it and still make it good, I think we'll continue to lose soaps. ...

I know that CBS is very invested in its other two soaps (The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful), but I also know they're being told to cut their budgets as well. The same thing at ABC. I don't know how much longer that one soap in New York is going to last, One Life to Live. There's all kinds of rumblings that that will be the next one to go because New York is too expensive to produce in.

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Anyone who has thought we at Daytime Confidential.com have been mean for making fun of the dismal production values at the Procter and Gamble soaps in recent years need only watch the first episode of Steamboat to see the actors obviously feel the same way we do! From the hilarious minds of Michael O'Leary (ex-Rick, Guiding Light) and Scott Bryce (ex-Craig, As The World Turns), Steamboat tells the story of a dead last sudser, desperately trying to stay on the air amid budget cuts so severe they have to move into a rundown theater to tape the series in Peapack, New Jersey.

I wonder who Kim Zimmer is channeling for her performance as the soap's control freak show runner? I'll bet you a New York magazine cover I know the muse! Me likes. Hell, if you can't laugh, you'll cry. See the Steamboat Season One teaser below. READ MORE

In an interview with TV Guide Canada former Guiding Light stars Robert Newman and Kim Zimmer discuss their legacy as the iconic Josh and Reva Lewis.  

TVG: Has GL’s cancellation given you a newfound respect and appreciation for your legacy? Did you realize that Reva and Josh transcended the medium?

KZ: I’ve always felt and known how much they love us — especially when you see six generations of women standing in front of you. And that’s due to the show’s longevity. That’s why I feel like we, as actors, do owe these people an in-person, face-to-face goodbye for decades and decades of loyalty. When you hear Eileen saying how much we’ve touched her life in such a profound way, it’s just a reaffirmation of our connection with the fans. That’s what’s unique about soaps — we’re in these people’s homes for one hour each day, 52 weeks a year, 200-something days a year, for 25 years!

RN: Another thing that has changed since the show went off the air is, back then, we’d spend or waste all this time either arguing or complaining along with the fans about certain storylines or moments — some which hadn’t even aired yet!

KZ: Thanks to the soap magazines revealing story preview and spoilers weeks in advance! [laughs]

RN: And the Internet spoilers, yes. Now that the show is cancelled, we’re just looking back at the bigger picture of Josh and Reva — and their remarkable love story. Collectively, we’re united in a way we could never be before.
 

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"You're maudlin and full of self-pity. You're magnificent." — Addison DeWitt, All About Eve, 1950

Jonathan Jackson is an arsonist.

How else can one describe the blazing inferno the actor set off on today's episode of General Hospital where Lucky (Jackson) directly confronted his lifelong love Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) and his brother Nikolas (Tyler Christopher) about sleeping with each other behind his back?

Jackson elevated his performance to epic proportions that might as well have been from the stage of a Greek tragedy, Tennessee Williams or August Wilson play in this episode. It wasn't just good; it was electrifying. After Monday's performance, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences should just put an Emmy for Jackson on layaway and call it a wrap.

From the moment Lucky caught Liz and Nik doing the funky chicken in flagrante delicto, GH's writers and Jackson ratcheted up the tension with a high wire act of jangling nerves, a virtual cat on a hot tin roof. Alone, Lucky was a hot mess, trashing the house he had shared with Elizabeth (formerly the home of his parents, Luke and Laura), oddly confiding both police secrets about the investigation into Claudia's death and his own emotional turmoil to Jason (Steve Burton), and generally was a emotional wreck, careening  all over the place like a pinball. READ MORE

Could we possible see Guiding Light mega star Kim Zimmer heading to The Bold and Beautiful sometime in 2010? What Zimmer revealed on her official message board definitely makes you wonder...

My book will be out in time for the holidays next year under New American Library/Penguin, and yes I did meet with Bradley Bell and we had a wonderful conversation about many things....

Hmm, we hear La Zimmer didn't like the role she was rumored to have been offered at B&B's sister sudser The Young and the Restless. Might Maria Arena Bell's brother-in-law have made Zimmer a better offer?

Get ready East Coast Guiding Light fans. The "So Long Springfield" tour is coming to the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. The cast list for this gathering features some new additions including: Beth Chamberlin (Beth Raines), Liz Keifer (Blake Marler), Marcy Rylan (Lizzie Spaulding), and an old favorite Jerry VerDorn (Ross Marler). So if you want the chance to meet your favorite stars, get autographs, take a few pictures and hear what it was like to be on the set straight from the actors' mouths be sure to attend the event on March 7, 2010. For more information visit the "So Long Springfield" official website.

 On Dec. 5, one day after Crystal Chappell and Jessica Leccia reunite in the highly-anticipated web soap opera Venice, the sapphic supercouple will be on hand for uber event promoter Mike Gold's "So Long Springfield" event at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas!

"Our last event was in Atlanta on November 7 and it was flawless," says Gold. "The fans and actors had a great time and we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback." READ MORE

Daytime legend Kim Zimmer is out looking for a job, but not just any job. The woman who brought Guiding Light's fabulously-fiery Reva Shayne to life recently chatted with Daytime Confidential's Melodie Aikels at the So Long Springfield event in Pittsburgh, where she admitted she has already been offered a soap gig— which she turned down. Zimmer also speaks out about what she liked and didn't like about how her legendary character's story ended in Springfield.

Daytime Confidential: What did you think of Josh and Reva ending up together?

Kim Zimmer: It was good. I think it was the way it was supposed to be. I didn't like how nothing was resolved with Jeffrey though. I would have liked to have maybe had Jeffrey reappear in Springfield a year later and he sees Josh and Reva drive off together. READ MORE

  Life sometimes has a cruel way of emptying your calendar unexpectedly, so what's a girl to do when she's between jobs? Shop! The New York Times spent quality time with Guiding Light's Kim Zimmer as she looked for things to furnish an apartment in Los Angeles. READ MORE