Paul Rauch DEAD

I want to hear stories about him!

• Why don't we ask Ellen Holly?

  The Voice of the Night

• How old was he? I googled but couldn't find his age.

• The camera panned from his death bed to a cigarette dropping to the floor.

• He was well known for fucking actresses on his shows. He sexually harrassed Meryl Streep's sister-in-law Maeve Kinkaid. Soap diva Robin Strasser was overheard in the make-up room saying "That Kristen is such a stupid bitch. If I had to suck his dick during the lunch break every day I'd own half the show by now."

• Hated him. He started the destruction of taking dark powerful characters and turning them into buffoons and comic relief. He did that with the character Marco Dane. Years later Jill Farren Phelps would do it with the character Todd Manning and to this day Todd remains nothing more than comic relief.

• He got Guiding Light's ratings up, even though the show was too heavy with Watros and they had no plan for when she left.

• Poor guy, Helen Hunt must be upset

• 79 i think

• SOAP THREAD ALERT!! SOAP THREAD ALERT!! SOAP CUNTS GO HOME!

• Wasn't he fucking Louise Sorel when she was on OLTL?

• I think so. Patty D' from GL Loved him

• So, R9, who's the cunt here? And you're probably a smelly one to boot! :)

• And now he's in Eterna.

• [quote]Robin Strasser was overheard in the make-up room saying "That Kristen is such a stupid bitch. If I had to suck his dick during the lunch break every day I'd own half the show by now." Meadows, Alderson, Ilene, or all three?

  Little%20Oral%20Annie

• I don't know much about him but I do know that on some of the old soap boards people called him Roach.

• [quote]Meadows, Alderson, Ilene, or all three? r14 Given that Alderson and Ilene weren't on the show during Rauch's reign, the answer to your question is fairly obvious.

• He was working at Y & R as late as last year.

• I heard he fucked Vicky Wyndham in the stable.

  Clarice

• He's fine! He sends his love!

  Jackie%20Harris

• Vicky wyndham...god she was a really bad actress who thought she was freaken Laurette Taylor

• [quote] I heard he fucked Vicky Wyndham in the stable. Nah. He was just being nice and bringing her her feed bag.

• He was 78

• I wonder what Viki Sleestak really thinks of him. She was always very diplomatic in her statements about Rauch.

• Paging Bevery Penberthy's gay nephew! Paging Bevery Penberthy's gay nephew! How is your aunt reacting to the news? How did she feel personally about Paul? Didn't he sort of marginalize her character and prematurely age the character of Pat by saddling her with two teenagers?

• Aunt Pat wasn't axed until after Rauch left. I always thought it was so smart to bring Russ, Pat and Alice back for the 25th anniversary episodes in May 1989. Had Marland ever taken over the show you can bet he would have rejuvenated that clan.

• That that said RuPaul

• Paul Rauch wasn't fired until 1983, succeeded by Alan Potter, who had been at Guiding Light. Beverly Penberthy was axed in 1982, so yes, it was Rauch who let her go. However, that was at the request of Corine Jacker, the headwriter who said she couldn't write for Pat. After Jacker was fired as headwriter, Rauch reportedly invited Penberthy back as Pat. She declined.

  Alma%20Rudder

• Rauch had his favorites, some that he was boinking, some not. You could tell on OLTL because they'd suddenly be front burner. He was definitely Uncle Grabby with the under fives. The way he handled Ellen Holly's firing (and Lillian Hayman's) goes down as textbook notoriously bad handling of talent. He had so many weird quirks. Both OLTL and GL had stories under him where two princes - one bad, one good - came to town. On GL he had all the women wear shapeless dresses in loud citrus-y colors. He seemed to have a thing for Beth Chamberlin. Maeve Kinkead's departure in the late 90s coincided with his arrival - coincidence? I think not. Zimmer and Grant Aleksander loved him. Probably because he was the only one that stood up to their shit.

• R27, you know your shit, Alma. Thanks for the clarification. Did Rauch fire Zimmer at OLTL?

  R25

• Rauch didn't take over OLTL until 1984. Zimmer was hired and fired in 1983. Jean Arley would have been the EP at OLTL at that time. One of the first things Rauch did at OLTL was bring back the character of Tina Clayton. He first had Kelli Maroney (she had previously played Kimberly Harris on Ryan's Hope) in the role, then brought in Marsha Clark (previously Hillary Bauer on GL) for the part. Then finally brought Andrea Evans back. And the rest is history!

• From what I read, Maeve and Rauch butted heads because she decided to stop coloring her hair and let it go gray, which was unacceptable to him.

  M

• I loved Andrea as Tina. She's the reason I was once addicted to OLTL.

• M dear, r31 Your sister-in-law Maeve Kinkaed and Paul Rauch have a long checkered history. Rauch originally hired her to play Angie Perini on AW back about 1978 or so. By 1980, she had filed, or was threatening to file, a lawsuit for sexual harassment (although that term hadn't been coined at the time) against Rauch. P&G settled the matter by separating Rauch and Maeve. They moved her over to GL and created the part of Vanessa Chamberlain for her.

  Alma%20Rudder

• What about his relationship with Jacqueline Courtney and George Reinholt?

• Rauch was a known ladies man. He had movie star good looks and was charming, the kind of looks that caused panties to drop automatically. He was a known good lover. The fact that he had a few 'relationships' with actresses means nothing. Henry Slesar fucked several of his actresses. Doug Marland had young actors come over to his place to do foot stuff.

• So did it? Nicki Smith or Tess? Or was it Mitch? Or Alison?

• Erika Slezak is diplomatic about EVERYONE. I hope she's saving all up for a juicy, tell-all memoir.

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• Dan Gauthier's speedo has nothing on me, R37.

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• I believe I was the original Speedo to post on DL.

  Laurence%20Lau%27s%20Tiny%20Blue%20Speedo

• Paul Rauch had a TORRID affair with Louise Sorel. She quit SB, moved cross country to join OLTL just to be with him. After their affair ended, she left OLTL and rejoined SB. But when Rauch joined SB, Louise found herself written out of SB. She blamed Rauch.

• r23, Sleestak is always diplomatic, but she loved, loved, loved Paul Rauch and his OLTL. She has never made a secret of that. She did not care for the direction of the show when Gottlieb took over for Rauch. What I've always found funny, though, is that during the later Rauch years, Viki had become almost a background character. It was under Gottlieb/Malone that she became a true central figure again. And I can't imagine Viki/Clint would have ever broken up for good if Rauch stayed, yet Sleestak never seemed to want to be near Clint Ritchie after it all went down.

• Slezak is not Victoria Lord and it has always amazed me that soap opera fans put Slezak on a pedestal. Off screen she is quite different. The fact that she adored Rauch should come as no surprise to anyone. The fact that she loathed Gottlieb should also be no surprise. I guess it just goes to show that in daytime, audiences really can't separate character and actor. Fact and fiction.

• [quote] Sleestak is always diplomatic, but she loved, loved, loved Paul Rauch and his OLTL. She has never made a secret of that. She did not care for the direction of the show when Gottlieb took over for Rauch I don't think this is right, sorry. She may have loved Rauch, and many actors on OLTL did not like Gottlieb per se, including all the actors who played the Buchanan men. But both Sleestak and Robin Strasser have gone on record saying that the story Michael Malone told at the time - making Viki's DID a result of sexual abuse - was one of the best. Sleestak also loved the Marty rape story (which she was not in) and the Billy Douglas/AIDS quilt (in which she was a featured player). She may not have liked Gottlieb herself, but Malone was really driving the story at that point, and she's expressed how much she loved those stories. Not to mention that much of the last 20 years of the show ran on the basis of those stories and those characters - Todd Manning, the rape, Viki's alters and the further Viki/Dorian tales all stemmed from that era.

• r43, first off, Gottlieb was gone by the time Viki's DID story kicked off. Second, not liking Gottlieb or her production values has nothing to do with Michael Malone or his stories. She did not like Gottlieb's "vision" of daytime or her initial model of short term story arcs resolved within 1-2 months. She stated all of this in her legends interview. She also mentioned that she didn't think Gottlieb understood Viki.

• WEHT Watros anyway? She was everywhere for a while and now seems to have vanished. Even Michelle Forbes finally got her moment in the sun with The Killing.

• Erika Sleestak's husband pings big time. What's the story there?

• Sleestak's son would make all of your mussy's wet.

• You mean the fattie on the left? I think not.

  http://erika_slezak.tripod.com/ESFC/images/changingtimes3.jpg

  Scott Evans' gaping hole

• Here is Slezak's son in the family's 2012 holiday photo. Again, he's on the left.

  http://www.erikaslezak.com/HL12.jpg

• The son is unfortunate, but her daughter is cute.

• The son looks like Nat Polen. Just sayin.

• OMG...Sleestak's husband looks like Marcus Bachmann!

• OK, R44, you are right (or partly so). I knew Michael Malone had written the DID story but I didn't realize it didn't play out until 1995. I still think Malone drove the show more and more as time went on. But Gottlieb definitely had a big influence in those first few years...and most of her ideas went over like a lead balloon.

• Gottlieb tested her "model" during some of 1991 and throughout 1992 intertwining some long term arcs with short 1-2 month stories. That is what Slezak is referring to when she said Gottlieb was trying to change daytime. Actually, Gottlieb may have just been ahead of her time in that aspect. A lot of the problems actors had with Gottlieb herself stemmed from the "old boys club" show that Rauch produced. The men were used to being the focus, and it changed to female-centric stories. Viki was a major part of the male-centric, Buchanan fold, so I think that's where Slezak had another initial problem. And of course, actors like Phil Carey, Bob Woods, and Jim DePaiva were not keen on a powerful, opinionated woman running the show.

• I love Sleestak, but let's face it - she loved TPTB who gave her airtime and kept her working as the focus.

• Well, you could tell a big change from the rough and tumble, big and flashy Rauch years with Gottlieb. That show opening kind of set the tone. The deliberately cutesy/quirky characters - Luna, Original Recipe Asian Blair, Cain, et al.

  http://youtu.be/s0tI3O1IZfw

• R55, I agree on both points. I love Slezak; she's very gracious and kind to fans and co-workers alike. I'd like to think there are people who work in soaps who see the greater good -- who'd praise eras of shows where maybe they didn't work as much, but the show as great. But that's not the case, understandably so. People like good story, but they like to work even more. It's very human.

• I'm waiting to hear that Sleestak has signed with PP.

• [quote] I'm waiting to hear that Sleestak has signed with PP. I think after the first failed attempt, it's gonna take a lot to get her on board.

• I distinctively remember that levied butt at R56 's link. Levis don't seem to fit and highlight a nice ass like they used to do.

• Didn't he try to sexually molest Lillian Hayman in the ABC parking garage after she publicly lashed out at Brynn Thayer for claiming that the current-day OLTL no longer had any room for obese women?

• I think you've got your wires crossed, R61. It was Margaret Klenck who went off on Mary Gordon Murray for being an "ignorant country bumpkin", so to punish her, Rauch forced Klenck to watch him engage in oral sex with Kirsten Meadows in her dressing room.

• R61 he corned her in the parking lot and told her she just had her last day

• R61 as R63 said, it wasn't a pass at her. It was a BOOM BITCH BYE moment. He told her that she'd done her last scene, and not even to come back to the building, because they'd pack her shit and send it to her. SHADE.

• R63, he "corned" her?? That is rough and should have qualified as sexual harrassment!

• I'd love to know what happened with this man and my darling sister in law Maeve. Maeve suffers no fools so if he was trying to come on to her....he probably got a stiletto heel to the balls.

  M

• M, my love, nothing ever happened between Paul and myself, and you know it. Isn't there some producer you should be bribing to secure homely Mamie yet another series that will inevitably fail? Emily Owens, indeed.

  The Other M