Joe Barbara how it all started

colleen zen how she got to where she is today

the funny crazy talented Hillary

my very talented daughter and get to hear from her fabulous husband Anthony

Anna and then some

6 Emmys need we say more

talking with my friend the fabulous Diedre Hall

catching up with an old friend

why I haven't been around

Bo Buchanan

catching up with an old friend

sharing

spring cleaning and plants

A visit with my friend Anna Holbrook

interview with Stephen

Episode 1

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 recent…

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 Lifet…

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 amo…

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 intend…

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 lo…

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 lo…

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 reminis…

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 h…

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 sou…

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-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. …

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 extraor…

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 sudde…

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 wor…

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 sevent…

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 tale…

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" …

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 lat…

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 …

Regular Buzz listeners know it's always a fun time when the amazing LINDA DANO stops by for a chat! An Emmy-winning veteran of more soaps than I have fingers to count, she is now a staple on QVC, for whom she designs a mega-selling line of affordable accessories for the home. She returns to the network this week with a second iteration of the popul…

A tragic victim of inevitable cost-cutting and magnificently poor network (mis)management, ABC's classic soap "All My Children" signs off tomorrow afternoon after forty-two years and some 10,700 episodes. And returning to the Buzz to help me mark such a wrenching occasion is the soap journalism icon CONNIE PASSALACQUA HAYMAN, who has written crisp,…

He burst onto the pop music scene in 2007 with his arresting major-label debut record Indiana, and followed that up with a high-profile performance on the 2008 Academy Awards telecast, and a pop masterpiece called OK Now, released later that year. He's back on the block after an extended hiatus with a terrific third album, Forever If Ever, and sing…

She has covered the crazy, kooky world of soaps for some two decades and more now, and her sarcastic and blisteringly brilliant Soap Opera Digest column "It's Only My Opinion" has one of the most readerships in daytime. She is now taking on the world of publishing, with a brand new book called Afternoon Delight: Why Soaps Still Matter, in which she…

Brandon's Buzz is thrilled to welcome back the fabulously irreverent Marlena De Lacroix herself --- the captivating CONNIE PASSALACQUA HAYMAN --- for a special live event! With all the recent head-spinning developments in soapland, and the news that her old favorites "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" will soon be going off the air, you just …

As a member of Michael Malone's Emmy-winning head-writing team on "One Life to Live" in the early '90s, she actually created (and named!) the soon-to-be-iconic character of Todd Manning, and as the series' executive producer from 1994-96, she was instrumental in shepherding and executing some of the most important, most memorable, and most compelli…

She wrote for some of the most beloved couples --- John & Marlena, Patch & Kayla, Shane & Kim --- in "Days of Our Lives'" rich history, and now she is constructing a trilogy of novels around those classic characters. Now, the remarkable SHERI ANDERSON returns to Brandon's Buzz to offer a sneak peek at the second novel in the series, "A Stirring fro…

His magnificent music has been a big part of the soundtrack of our lives for some three decades now; best remembered for his classic 1984 smash "Missing You," he has just released his tenth studio album, "Rough and Tumble," and now, singer/songwriter JOHN WAITE is stopping by Brandon's Buzz to discuss the new record and to reflect on one of pop mus…

She toiled away in the daytime grind for nearly three decades --- with one Emmy statuette and a slew of nominations to show for it, thank you very much! --- so you just know the magnificent LINDA DANO has lots of opinions on the state of soaps these days, and as we prepare to face life without All My Children and One Life to Live, both of which ABC…

He became a suds sensation nearly ten years ago, first by playing opposite the legendary Kim Zimmer as noble Dr. Noah Chase on "Guiding Light," and later as the slimy serial killer Daniel Colson on "One Life to Live." He has moved behind the scenes of late, having formed a new independent film production company entitled Shake the Tree Productions,…

He willingly walked away from a high-profile career in the world of New York City law to spend more time with his family and to return to his first love: writing. And now, author CAMERON STRACHER stops by the Buzz with an exclusive sneak preview of his fascinating first piece of full-length young adult fiction, "The Water Wars." PLUS: Academy Award…

They are three determined stars each making names for themselves in the cutthroat world of young Hollywood, and they've all three come to Brandon's Buzz to tell their amazing stories: JEROME ELSTON SCOTT discusses the making of his new directorial debut "Anderson's Cross"; TYNE STECKLEIN discusses working with the great Michael Jackson just prior t…

She was my fourth guest, some twenty-one months ago, and I'm so thrilled to welcome her back for episode *seventy*-four: as sensitive Blossom Russo, she was once America's favorite teenager, and now that she's a smash as natty neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS' hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory," the magnificent MAYIM BIALIK returns to Brandon'…

NBC's classic soap "Days of Our Lives" hit the airwaves in November 1965, and forty-five years later, the show is still cooking with gas, and to help mark the soap's landmark anniversary, a quartet of the series' stars --- JAMES REYNOLDS (Salem's top cop Abe Carver), ARIANNE ZUCKER (scheming bad girl Nicole Walker), JUDI EVANS (family gal Adrienne …