Yet more news and gossip from our Marvelous Midwestern towns

The previous thread

I was certainly surprised when she showed in up Springfield rather than Bay City.

Wondered what Bay City folks had done to piss her off so much she opted for Springfield as her new home base.

Didn’t she hate the long hours and commute to Brooklyn when she was on AW? Maybe she had better hours and was closer to home on GL, since her husband was dying when she joined the show.

Based on the very fun interview she gave Brian Linehan on Canada's "City Lights" show, when she left Texas she was not intending to come back to daytime.

Two things probably changed that path - a lack of acting parts for her, and her husband's health. It was about 2 years later when she took on the role of Alex.

I don't know that she truly hated anything about AW, but Rauch wasn't there by then, nor was Lemay, and at the time, I think the feeling was that the Rachel/Iris story had played out.

I truly love what Carmen Duncan did, but it would have been something to revisit Beverlee vs Lady Eyes A Buggin' in the 90s.

She could have gone to Oakdale rather than Springfield.

Lucinda debuted in April 1984 after Alex made her first appearance in February 1984.

How long were Alex and Alan on together early in her run?

Bev debuted in Feb 1984 and Chris Bernau was gone by the end of April 1984.

It was Chris announcing he was not going to renew his contract that prompted them to create Alexandra

R6 Chris Bernau left several months after Beverlee arrived (I see R7 popped up to answer, thank you), but he returned mid-1986 and was on until mid-1988, at which point Daniel Pilon (ugh) took over.

They were certainly magic together. Really, really wonderful chemistry.

I think Long and Kobe probably had a lot to do with getting Beverlee to GL.

I read that Slee's daughter recently passed at 42. I know she takes a lot of ribbing, but that is just devastatingly sad. I've seen no further updates as to why she died.

R10 There's been further discussion of her death in the thread below.

[quote]I think Long and Kobe probably had a lot to do with getting Beverlee to GL.

They'd all worked together at Texas, so it was an easy sell.

In fact, Pam likely would not have been hired to act on Texas if not for Beverlee.

Pam told this story somewhere (I don't remember where). She did her screen test in early 1981 opposite Beverlee. They did the scene, then Beverlee took Pam aside and suggested several things for Pam to do differently.

Bev then turned to the casting director and said something like, "We're going to do it again."

You rarely get second takes in a screen test, but how are you going to say no to Bev? They did it again with Pam's performance improving drastically. And obviously they then cast her as Ashley Lindon.

Daytime Emmys have axed the Younger Performer category.

A thread about current soaps and the future of daytime was recently started.....we're all about the old classic P&G soaps here but this new thread may be better suited for current soap discussions!

Liz, thanks for sharing that at R12! I never knew that about Pam and Beverlee.

Everyone's favorite fountain jumper, Kim Zimmer, turns 69 today.

If she tried to jump in a fountain now she’d create a tsunami that would wipe out Peapack

I miss the old P&G jingle at the end of episodes.

My mom once said that the original Rachel on AW (Robin Strasser) was terrible. Having seen her on shows like “Murphy Brown” and “Coach,” I never thought she was great.

But she certainly was prettier than Wyndham.

Thank god she didn’t, r5. Liz Hubbard was perfection as Lucinda.

Hubbard and McKinsey weren't interchangable, either.

McKinsey had the ice cold bitch down, but with a lost, wounded little girl underneath.

Hubbard had more of a steely, New England hardiness about her - even in her vulnerable moments, you knew she was still in charge.

r21 Hubbard and McKinsey each had their strengths. I agree, they are not interchangeable.

But La Bev had been cast as Lucinda instead of Alex, ATWT would have altered Lucinda's backstory to accommodate her strengths. Ditto ifLa Hubbard had been cast as Alex.

If La Hubbard had been cast as Alex, I would have stuck with La Light until the end. I gave it up in the early '90s because I found the endless business bullshit unbearable.

I can’t see Lucinda being as horny if Bev had played her. Marland had Lucinda getting fucked all the time-by Craig., James, John, the pilot that took her to Montega to find Sierra, Cal, Scott Eldridge…

And Liz played her scenes with Jon Hensley in the early days like Lucinda wanted hate sex with Holden.

R24 Yes, exactly!

Bev's stock in trade was the quasi-incestuous obsessiveness she had with first "Daddy" on AW, and then Lujack/Nick on GL.

I saw Tom Lisanti's FB account on a soap thread today....he wrote the Ryan's Hope book.

I mention this because I clicked on his FB account to check out his posts, and in one of his recent posts, he revealed he is writing another soap book....this time, about Texas.

R26, thanks for sharing — that’s great news!

Lisanti’s Ryan’s Hope book was so much fun.

LOL the Ryan's Hope book had way too many peripheral characters. Richard Backus I can say, I've heard enough from. What's next a book on For Richer, For Poorer?

[quote] he revealed he is writing another soap book....this time, about Texas.

YEAH!! Texas was one of my all time favorites. First year was very uneven at best. But once Gail Kobe became EP, she got everything in order. It's the 18 months that Kobe did as EP that stands out in my mind as outstanding,

Look forward to buying his Texas book.

I’d love a book on Capitol — not to mention the P&G shows.

[quote] Richard Backus I can say, I've heard enough from.

That could have been much worse, though - you could have been stuck looking at pictures of his horrible Little Dutch Boy Ted Bancroft hair.

A book where the actors/writers talk about ATWT or GL would be divine.

Will be interesting to see if the Texas book materializes. A part of it will be about Bev, of course. And there was supposedly a professor writing a book about McKinsey, too.

The audience for soap books like this would be limited and growing smaller each day. But I certainly would be buying such books and eagerly devouring them.

I certainly hope the Texas book comes off. There are enough cast members still alive to give us a good perspective on the show.

However, it anyone wants to do an Edge of Night book, the number of cast members still alive is much smaller. I mean Forrest Compton and Ann Flood both died in the past few years. Meanwhile, Larkin Malloy, Lois Kibbee, Joel Crothers, Dennis Parker, Donald May and others are also dearly departed.

If anyone ever wants to do a book like this on Edge, they should move ahead with those plans pronto.

Edge had a devoted fan, who used to organize reunions. His name as Julius Burnett, a kind and sweet man, who'd never hurt a fly.

He did write a book on Rhoda and I believe he was working on an EDGE book.

Tragically, he was murdered after meeting some thug on Craigslist who was so easily caught after the murder. He only got 25 years.

As the World Turns fans-was anybody here watching when Lucinda was first introduced in April of 1984? What was her entrance like? What were her early storylines? I really only know of her character from when Marland started writing. I know Marland inherited the story of her being Sierra’s mother but she had other stories, didn’t she?

From what I understand she came to Oakdale for a heart operation, performed by John. She also blamed Lisa’s husband Whit McColl for the suicide of Lucinda’s husband Martin Guest-she wrested control of the City Times from Whit and beginning Lucinda’s feud with Lisa.

Lucinda also aggressively pursued the married John Dixon, whose wife, Karen, just threw in the towel and left town.

R36 I remember reading all that but at the time I was watching I had no idea Lucinda and John had a past.....when John and Emma were together and then, boom, Lucinda and John got married.....that was a surprise. To me, anyway.

I'm not going to listen to this (I suspect it will be MAGA fuckery) but sharing for those who may be interested.

The Locher Room is having a tribute to Ellen Holly on Feb. 22 - and will feature other black performers like Jonelle Allen and Mariann Aalda in the tribute.

And I see you, poster on the Locher Room FB page, who referred to Erika Slezak as her DL alias "Viki Sleestak." I guess we're everywhere......

Zimmer is in the new Ewan MacGregor movie, as is her son Jake Weary. Seems very indie.....

R40, is that movie Zimmer and Weary talk about in a recent Locher Room?

R36, if I remember correctly, Lucinda had a cardiac event on a plane and either John was always on or the plane landed in Oakdale and John saved her.

R41 yes, and I think the film is actually called BLEEDING LOVE now, unlike what that review said.

This would have been a fun lunch.

Charita telling dirty jokes.

Mary bitching about everything. "waiter, my soup is cold and Ann Marcus is a twat!"

Eileen telling some rambling story.

Ann, Lydia, and Audrey trying to keep it classy.

R44 surprised Helen Wagner couldn't make that luncheon as this seemed to be matriarchal, and Eileen was still the diva/heroine.

I would NEVER attend such a gathering.

Here's the BLEEDING LOVE trailer. Kim's in it. "Somebody order a stripper?"

Matriarchal? Matriarchal?!?!!?

R47 I’d see it just for Kim. I hope she has more than one line, but she delivered that perfectly.

It looks interesting. Reviews are mixed, but it's a first time film for just about everyone involved.

Reviews mentioned Ewan and his daughter, of course, but didn't mention the connection between Kim and Jake, as well as Vera Bulder - Jake's wife and one of the writers and/or producers - she appears in the film briefly as well (she might be the stripper?)

R50, in this interview, Jake seems to say that he and his mom didn't have any scenes together, which contradicts the above article, so who knows.

Ugh, sorry.

Kim looks so butch!

I haven’t posted this on any of the Capote vs the Swans threads but I think Maura West would have been great casting as CZ Guest and not that piece of trash Chloe Sevigny. Both ABC and FX/Hulu’s parent company is Disney so I could see them working it out for her to do it. She’s a shade younger than the other women but I think she could have done a really good job, Maybe Ryan Murphy’s a snob about actors on daytime soaps, though.

R54, he is not, actually.

R55 is right.

Ryan Murphy's bias, if any, is that he wants the younger actors to splash cum all over his ugly mug.

Coming to the Locher Room next week.

Jamie Frame is WORKING it, hunty.

YEAH, we're finally getting some of the Jamie Frames for interviews. I'll certainly be watching Russell.

And Larry Lau was in the Locher Room last week. But Alan barely asked anything about his AW time as Jamie. It was mostly about Greg and Jenny on AMC. And rightly so.

Fingers crossed he can get Richard Bekins!!

And Stephen Yates for that matter, although he was the least impresive of the adult Jamies, in my opinion.

I loved Stephen Yates on GL. Apparently he and Michael Zaslow were great friends. I would love to see him interviewed.

Laurence Lau was a terrible Jamie. He turned him into a sexless, nagging scold and it got worse as he gained weight. Going from Bekins and Yates to Lau is akin to the change from Gregg Marx as Tom Hughes to Scott Holmes.

I couldn’t picture Anne Heche’s Vicky with Lau. Even though Russell Todd is a big queen, he had more chemistry with Heche.

Russell looks great

If only Alan could get Lady Eyes A Buggin herself for a Locher Room chat. That - and Mary Kay Adams - would just do it for me.

Would be great if Victoria Wyndham would grace us in the Locher Room.

However, Alan knows nothing about Another World and never bothers to prep for interviews.

So, he would be, "What was it like to work with Agnes Nixon?" or "What did you think when George Reinholt joined the cast and they put you in a triangle with him and Courtney Jacqueline?"

We'd have to be sure to send him questions and/or suggest a cohost

I think Lau was the first Jamie on AW to play him in his new written in profession as a doctor. I always thought that was such a stupid decision. After Douglas Watson died Jamie should have been installed as the next head honcho at Cory Publishing, And his first order of business would be to axe Brava.

Should have brought back Sandy and had a battle for control of Cory Enterprises between Sandy and Iris. Then they could had Mac leave a portion of Cory to Jamie as well, adding him to the battle.

I miss Corrine Seton. Pamela Brook had extensive theat-uh training, and an artistic charisma that enchanted the audience.

Oh, wow, R67, I remember her. An icy blonde, sort of a pretty version of Sandy Dennis.

Do you also remember Felice at the Cory Complex played by Laura Esterman?

Glad no one is mentioning that murderous hussy Blaine.

You bitches are slipping.

Today marks the anniversary of the return of ORD, after a two year absence.

Speaking of the real Donna Love, I remember when Stuart left. Reginald had been driving her crazy, showed her a photo that caused her to break down, and she was wheeled away on a stretcher. She took three throw pillows and says each one was “ my baby” so there was all this speciation that she’d had three kids and not just the twins and the speculation was that a third child was Scott, played by Hank Cheyne. But they never mentioned three kids when Sampler took over. I guess they just dropped it.

That three babies storyline had so much potential. And the Scott LaSalle character certainly was hanging there without any firm connection to the show other than being adopted by Reginald and Marissa. Why not make Scott, Marley and Vcitoria triplets?

But they dropped that storyline in favor of Donna being afraid of John Hudson?!?!?!

I hated the return of Mary McKinnon storyline. It felt like they signed Denise Alexander to a contract and just shoehorned her into the show.

Mary was a psychologist and didn’t notice that a.) she had symptoms of amnesia and b.) her husband (Reginald) was a psychopath ? It was odd.

They could have created a different role for her, or changed the backstory and just made her Reginald’s wife, or had her play an old character, or something.

R70 Thank you! I looked fabulous, didn't I?

She could have been a recasted Barbara Weaver!

*recast

A lot of us wanted Denise to play Susan Matthews Shearer, and go at it with Irene Dailey's Liz. The shpw needed the Matthews back.

I came across this photo montage on Twitter, and totally zeroed in on Derek Dane. Did they ever explain what they were going for with this character? Was he part of Harding Lemay's 88 bible or was he a Donna Swajeski creation. This was a great era for the show, but was he on just to look pretty?

I seem to remember Derek's arrival being promoted as a "Beauty and the Beast" kind of story.

Which had been tried at GL a few years earlier with Cain, the man who found Reva after she tried to off herself....he was supposed to be a Phantom/"beast" kind of man but after a few writers-go-rounds at GL they just made him a garden variety creepo.

But Derek was a more direct copy of the CBS Beauty and the Beast story, I think.

The Cain story on GL had so much potential… in the end he did what, threw Claire off of the bridge? Was Cain and the crashed circus train related to the introduction of Dinah?

R80 I don't remember, that part was a bit muddled to me. That was a bad era of GL with Infinity and the Sampson Girl....I started watching more closely when Alan came back and that terrible Ed from AMC went back to hell.

Ladies, we missed this birthday earlier in the week.

On Feb. 26, John Bolger turned 70 years old.

Linked in a photo tribute to John from the Gr8erdays Instagram site. Lots of great photos of him but strangely, it only has a couple of his soap related photos.

There were a lot of characters running around on AW in the mid-80s that then- head writer Maggie DePriest did nothing with. So then she created the Sin Stalker and killed a bunch of them off.

Who was Maisie Watkins anyway? Did she ever have a proper story?

I bow to Grant's pendulousness, but John Bolger was great and so beautiful. I wish GL had brought him back at some point. If they could do it for dreadful Brad Cole they could have made John another character, too.

John Bolger was our waiter at the restaurant Sign of the Dove the first time my husband ever brought me to visit NYC. I was so excited to see Phillip Spaulding that I could barely order dinner.

Maisie was introduced as a waitress at the diner Alma Rudder worked at. She was kept around as a waitress for several years afterwards.

[quote]John Bolger was our waiter at the restaurant Sign of the Dove the first time my husband ever brought me to visit NYC. I was so excited to see Phillip Spaulding that I could barely order dinner.

I would freak out to look up and see Phillip Spaulding taking my order!!

Was this while Bolger was playing Phillip or after?

R85 you’re dating yourself …. ;)

Maisie was a sweet character, and pretty Perry Hutchins took over the diner so there was a reason to stop in.

Beautiful David Oliver (Perry).

R77 that would have worked.

I think Frons was over at NBC at this point; AW hired Taylor Miller (so wrong as Sally and she quit so they kill her off; stupid!) Denise as Mary; she could read the phone book and I'd watch.

Larry Lau as Jamie; I agree with above, miscast. There was one more ex-ABC person. I can't think of it. The show blew it by not reviving the Matthews clan. They closest they came to having them back was the 1989 25th anniversary reunion with Pat, Alice, Russ, Liz, and Olivia was introduced. I always got the impression her mother was Olivia Delaney (Tina Sloan). Did they ever explain who her mom was?

They should have kept Courtney after Watson died and found a man for Alice and Rachel to fight over; they had GOLD in their hands . Meanwhile, across town Kim and Susan are dredging up their long history. Brava! (no pun intended.)

R91 are you thinking of Sharen Gabet? They brought her on around this time to play Catlin’s presumed dead wife Brittany.

As brilliant as she was as Edge’s Raven she was horribly miscast on AW.

I would say all the ABC stars imported to AW in the mid 1980s were poorly cast

Taylor Miller -- Sally

Sharon Gabet -- Brtittany

Denise Alexander -- Marissa/Mary

Larry Lau -- Jamie

Chris Robinson -- Jason Frame

While I feel all of them were miscast, I would would say of those five, Chris Robinson was the best casting.

AW trying to copy the ABC soaps by hiring all the actors failed miserably, as did a lot of the decisions of the last few years before AW ended.

AND YET.....they made almost exactly the same mistakes at ATWT in the last years of that show....with (unsurprisingly) the same results.

True, R94. I’m looking at you, Marie Wilson. Could have been an OK Ellie, was an awful Meg.

R95 Never thought of that but you're right, she might have made a decent Ellie.

Robin Mattson as Gina on Santa Barbara was the most successful of the ABC actors that NBC lured over in the mid 80s.

The next most successful would likely be Jane Elliot as Angelica Deveroux on Days, but Jane only stuck around for two years, with another ABC actress -- Judith Chapman -- then taking over the role.

Jane Elliot was also great on GL as Carrie Todd

I always love seeing clips like R98 from the year that GL won the Emmy and Marland (and or Potter) made sure that damn Emmy was mentioned in the opening and closing of the show! So petty. I love it!

The best Alan is Alan in tennis shorts—he looked great with a tan.

I would say Marcy Walker was the best ABC actor lured to NBC.

The problem with these ABC actors brought to DAYS and Another World was they were hired without a storyline or character in mind.

Denise Alexander and Chris Robinson should have been paired together. If they were going to push forward with having Denise portray Mary McKinnon, they should have had Chris play Vince McKinnon. Personally I would have preferred Chris as Willis Frame, and Denise playing some other role.

Even though Laurence Lau and Richard Bekins are the same age, Laurence seemed younger, because of the Greg and Jenny phenomena. He was miscast as Jamie. Jamie should have been Cass’ contemporary. And he never should have been turned into a doctor-he was always a writer or Cory Publishing executive.

Taylor Miller and Sharon Gabet were shoved into the popular Catlin/Sally storyline after Mary Page Keller left. The show should have persuaded Keller to stay , so Catlin and Sally could leave together. Griffith and Miller didn’t have chemistry.

Gabet’s character (Brittany) was a mess-the show couldn’t decide what to do with her. Unfortunately Brittany’s arrival led to the death of legacy character Sally, and permanently damaged the character of Peter Love. Why didn’t they just recast Sally with Gabet?

I wasn't an everyday viewer of AW but I remember they really fucked up Sharon's role at AW. She's a deaf woman! She's not! It was exactly what happened with Marcy Walker and Tangie Hill at GL years later....they locked down the actor without having a definite story for them.

I watched AW for a year before moving to ATWT And that Peter Love/ Brittany story went on and on and on. Finally she shot him and left town. They actually signed people up to play a “real” jury for the Brittany trial. She was found guilty. But the writers got her out on appeal and Gabet ran the hell away from those studios in about one episode.

All these years later Griffith and Keller are still married. Good for them.

Good for them. Guess Griffith wasn't passing around his sizemeat as a party favor like Mark Pinter......

[quote]I would say Marcy Walker was the best ABC actor lured to NBC.

My understanding is Marcy auditioned to play Eden on Santa Barbara. NBC didn't do anything to lure her or recruit her, as far as I know.

Her AMC contract was up and they were casting the new show, so she auditioned for the part. But the AMC contract didn't expire until late August/early September 1984, which is why Eden didn't make her first appearance on Santa Barbara until the late September 1984, two months after the show debuted.

I'm sure the fact Marcy had made a name for herself on AMC and received two Daytime Emmy nods at AMC factored into the decision to cast her. But she auditioned for the part and won it.

When we talk about the name actors NBC lured/recruited to its soaps, we're talking about the period 1985-88 and actors who did not have to audition for a role.

I suspect the successful casting of Marcy as Eden is what gave Brian Frons the idea to cast name ABC actors to parts on the NBC show as a way of drawing fans of those actors to the NBC soaps.

Technically, I don't think you can count Sharon Gabet as one of the ones NBC lured to its soaps.

Sharon has said in multiple interviews that she had several offers from other soaps after Edge of Night was canceled in Dec. 1984. She specifically has mentioned being offered the part of a countess involved in a Feb 1985 location shoot in Venice, paired opposite Bo Buchanan on OLTL. The character was supposed to come to Llanview after the location shoot, but whoever ended up with the part was miscast and they quickly dropped the character.

She has said repeatedly that she opted to go to Another World out of loyalty to P&G, which had treated her so well at Edge. She said it wasn't until years later that she learned that it was P&G's decision to cancel Edge. She'd assumed, like everyone else, that ABC had canceled Edge.

She said she trusted P&G to give her a good character to play on AW, one that played to her strengths, and quickly ended up regretting that. She said she knew pretty soon into her AW run that she had made the wrong choice.

Sharon discusses some of this in one of her Locher Room sessions.

Gabet should have played Pamela Davis, Rachel’s half-sister. Taylor Miller would have made a good Cecile.

[quote]Gabet should have played Pamela Davis, Rachel’s half-sister.

Excellent idea. That would have given her a stronger connection to Bay City. Would have loved to see Rachel go up again Gabet. Those could have been some good scenes.

Yet, if necessary, Gabet's character still could have been a foil in the Sally-Catlin romance which was following the supercouple formula that Days had developed -- establish a couple and have the entire town supporting their romance, then bring back a presumed dead spouse/lover to throw a wrench into the couple's happiness.

Hah, R109, I forgot to add that I could totally see Pamela, a snob, slumming it with Catlin in the barn.

Pammy Davis was raised on a riverboat if I'm remembering my Somerset correctly. Alice Hirson played her mother. I think she may have been dating Tony Cooper behind Jill Grant's back. Jill was the 'Alice Matthews' of the show, and Pammy was probably being groomed to be Rachel 2.0. Pamela Toll who played Pammy, didn't last long.

Sharon Gabet would have excelled at playing that role.

Ok hear me out-what about Denise Alexander as Iris?

She did get good reviews and was Emmy nominated as Lesley Webber, and she is around the same age as Beverlee McKinsey. Of course she didn’t have blond hair, but Beverlee didn’t have an Australian accent. Also it may have been interesting watching her as a troublemaker.

I don't know that Denise could have ever convincingly played a jet setter like Iris. Nothing against her fine performances but she was much more salt of the earth.

How about Denise playing Liz's daughter Susan Shearer.

Rachel needed a nemesis on the canvas.

She hadn't had a nemesis since Iris left town to go to Texas. None of the non-Jacqueline Courtney Alice's were ever truly a nemesis for Rachel.

So, bringing Sharon Gabet to town as Rachel's half-sister Pammy would have been brilliant.

Can anyone confirm that Ewan MacGregor said he cast Zimmer because he was a fan of GL? Or pushed for her casting bc he was a fan after her son was cast and he found out that was her son.

Lady Eyes a Buggin would scare even the fiercest competitor

Oooh imagine if Pammy seduced or tried to seduce Mac by making him think Rachel was back with Mitch. And then Rachel caught Mac and Pammy in bed.

I always thought that Justine should have been Pammy. It would have been a better story. But we could do a whole multi-part thread on missed soap opportunities.

I wonder if there's truth to the "if another writer created the character you have to pay them for it" stuff.

Anybody going to the AW luncheon on May 4th in Tarrytown, NY? Will Lady Eyes a Buggin’ deign to attend?

No, but Russell Todd is planning to be there. He discussed it during his Locher Room appearance, mentioning he is looking forward to meeting Larry Lau there.

He didn't spend much time talking about his time on AW, but did mention how talented Anne Heche was.

He indicated his best friend on the show was Carmen Duncan, indicating they remained close friends long after leaving the show. He also kept in touch with John Aprea.

Russell didn't come out during this Locher Room session, but he did credit several gay men with helping get his career going.

He mentioned producer Allan Carr gave him in a major role in 1984's Where the Boys Are.

He got his start on soaps thanks to John Conboy, who cast him as the substitute Jordy Clegg for about 6 months when actor Todd Curtis was recovering from an auto accident.

[quote] Russell didn't come out during this Locher Room session

He's come out elsewhere. He was never in!

P&G is apparently getting back into the soap opera business.

OMG. I literally never thought that would ever happen again.

It's a good idea, for sure.

[quote] Russell didn't come out during this Locher Room session

Like R125 says, Russell Todd is already out. He and his boyfriend, Dan Lauten, have been big supporters of both "Outfest" and Project Angel Food in L.A. I know Russell was even on the Board of Directors for Outfest at one point, where he had the opportunity to address the audience. And when the duo is in support-donor mode, they're always listed as a couple, "Russell Todd & Dan Lauten."

You can see them at home (pic below) when they hosted a Holiday fundraiser for Project Angel Food a few years ago. That's Russell in the background with his arm around Dan.

If P&G is going to get into the business of creating a new soap, maybe it will in turn start valuing the vast soap archive it already has.

Fingers crossed.

Michele Val Jean

That probably means LaGiddens will get a job.

I used to joke here about La Giddens but that bitch got a J-O-B and followed through on her dreams. I mean, props to her!

R131 I don't have an issue with LaGiddens' pursuing and following through on her dream, I just don't care for her brand of content.

R132 me neither. But good for her, I guess.

I wish someone more P&G minded with writing talent had made it to the inner circle.

I wonder if this means CBS is finally going to cancel that gawd awful show, The Squawk?

CBS studios doesn’t necessarily mean it will air on broadcast.

Could still wind up streaming or on bet.

corn fed and gosh darn it

Paramount+ likely won't be around by the time the new soap debuts, R135.

[quote]CBS studios doesn’t necessarily mean it will air on broadcast.

“‘The Gates’ will be everything we love about daytime drama, from a new and fresh perspective,” said Sheila Ducksworth, president of the CBS Studios NAACP venture. “This series will salute an audience that has been traditionally underserved, with the potential to be a groundbreaking moment [bold]for broadcast television[/bold]."

R129 Doubtful. .. "P&G Studios" (which has nothing to do with Ye Olde P&G Telenext) was created by the company a few years ago with a specific social agenda in mind. .. They're basically using it "to enable growth and value creation, for our brands with multicultural consumers by creating connections to culture through powerful and resonant storytelling." .. At times when discussing what the studio is up to, they use the catchphrase "Widen the Screen." You can see what their focus has been on by looking at their projects on IMDb. One interesting project was the short film on gay illustrator, J.D. Leyendecker, called "Coded."

I hope The Gates’ first overseas location is Andorra where Chancellor India Von Halkein serenades the characters at a state dinner with “Them There Eyes.”

[quote]I wish someone more P&G minded with writing talent had made it to the inner circle.

What does that comment even mean? P&G minded?

Apparently just turned 74.

Gah, I would have, back in the day. Serious BDF (and voice).

R140, is my favorite India Chancellor?

Update to R130: "The Gates" may be spared LaGIddens. In the interview with Alan (He/Him) at The Locher Room, it was revealed Miss Jamey has returned to writing for Cartooni's campfest at Days.

R143, no, just in my imagination, especially after watching the first episode of The Regime on HBO.

I worked at an actors agency for a bit in the late 1980s. Any casting breakdown for AW and GL piqued my interest. One of them was for Rachel’s half sister Pamela Davis. The character was never brought on but I remember NicoleLove #2 Lauri Landry showing up and thinking how right she would have been as Pamela. She looked more like Victoria Wyndham than Anna Stuart (or was it Philece Sampler by then?). Landry was let go after six months or so. I think it’s quite possible she’d been considered (or maybe even cast) for Pamela but maybe the writers or EP decided to not go forward with Rachel’s half sister and made her a Love, instead.

[quote] or was it Philece Sampler by then?

Brand New Sexy Donna!

Lauri Landry played Nicole Love from November 3, 1986 to March 23, 1987, according to the Another World Home page.

So, she was there for about two weeks at the end of Anna Stuart's run as Donna (on Nov. 21, 1986) and for six weeks at the start of Philece Sampler's run as Donna (on Feb. 4, 1987).

In my opinion, she was the best of the three people to play Nicole, a rather bland character. She had a spark that the other two didn't have.

But as I recall, Landry was also new to acting and came across as raw (which likely is what gave her that spark I didn't see in the other two). However, that rawness can prove difficult when it comes to producing a daily soap as the rawness can delay production.

From what I remember, she shot a few scenes during the morning, then had a long break before shooting her afternoon scenes. With that downtime, she went to her hairdresser and got her hair cut , going from shoulder length hair to ear length hair.

When she returned to the studio that afternoon, the production staff had a conniption fit because she still had scenes to shoot and suddenly had a different look. But it was still the same day in Bay City and they hadn't finished shooting Nicole's scenes.

I forget how they dealt with that on screen -- either a wig or some bit of dialog to explain the haircut -- but that was the last straw and she was fired soon after.

Never heard of the possibility of Landry playing Rachel's half sister Pammy. Landry likely would have been good in the role, but would have needed a coach to develop the character and a lot of training to be able to hold her own against Wyndham and Watson.

[quote] Landry was also new to acting and came across as raw

Unfortunately, not everyone appreciates a diamond in the rough!

This is a fun video by an actress who had a very brief tenure as a prosecutor on AW. I enjoyed her story about the make up person recommending a plastic surgeon to get her eyes done. He/she/they claimed that he did Goldie Hawn!/ eyes in addition to a lot of the ladies on AW.

Van Hazzzzzzznissssssssss looks terrrrrrrrible.

Van is 42 now.

Did he go straight?

R152 Hardly. The woman in the photo with Ms. Hansis is Constance Wu who was in that EastSiders gay web series with him several years ago. (She has a longterm male partner w/ two kids.)

The Locher Room has released an AW shirt.

On AW, did they ever explain why Michael Hudson’s real name was Garrison? And why Vicky, Donna, John and Marley all used the last name Hudson, not Garrison?

R150, Van looks like Milton Waddums from OFFICE SPACE. Sad.

R155 His father's surname was "Garrison," but the man died of alcoholism when Michael was young. And Michael resented his father's behavior so much that at some point he changed that name to his own middle name "Hudson." (And not sure but, since his mother went by "Clara Hudson," so one might assume that "Hudson" was originally her maiden name.)

Robert Newman, Josh (GL) is now recurring on all Law &Orders. He even had a scene on Law & Order tonight with fellow GLer who played Doris for years. Tony Goldwyn was their scene partner.

Newman is the new police commissioner.

SoapCentral is apparently celebrating its 30th anniversary.

(I hadn't realized it was around for so long - then again, I didn't know any of the Internet existed pre AOL days.)

Ron Harper has died. He's best remembered for one of the Planet of the Apes TV series and for playing Uncle Jack on Land of the Lost. But he also appeared on several soaps.

He played Taylor Halloway on AW in 1980. Taylor was father to Kit Halloway (Farrell), who married Joey Perinni. Taylor was also having an affair with his sister-in-law Miranda Bishop.

He played the back-from-the-dead Baxter McCandless on Capital in 1985-87. Baxter was married to Clarissa McCandless (Constance Towers) and father of all the handsome McCandless men.

He played patriarch Peter Whitmore on Generations in 1990.

Also had roles on Where the Heart Is, Love of Life and Loving.

I seem to remember Harper popping up here and there on a bunch of shows.

So was he let go from AW because his character was dull or was it because he had trouble learning his lines?

Wasn't the Halloway family one of those Corrine Jacker inventions.....that came on and off the show quickly?

The Holloways came on during Tom King’s headwriting stint at the beginning of 1980. The show was 90 minutes at the time. The Holloways and the characters created for Texas (like Reena and Kevin) came on the show as the Frames were being phased out. Pretty much the only successful storyline at this time was the Mitch/Rachel/‘Mac/Janice story.

Was Miranda a replacement for Iris?

The Holloways were gone by the beginning of 1982.

[quote] Was Miranda a replacement for Iris?

That was the general understanding, yes. A few articles about Miranda billed her as such.

The Halloway story started with nurse Kit who we eventually learned had been kidnapped, taken away and held for ranson, a la Patty Hearst. She changed her name from Kit Halloway to Kit Farrell, became a nurse and moved to Bay City to get away from the post kidnapping limelight and the paparazzi.

That kidnapping aftermath storyline had lots of potential, but it was dropped once Kit's family started showing up in town.

First was her aunt and confidant, Miranda Bishop showed up. Yes, she was more or less intended to be a new Iris. She even moved into Iris's house. And of course she tried to seduce Mac once he recovered from being poisoned by Janice.

Later, Kit's sister Amy and her brother Rick both came to town, followed by their father Taylor. In the space of 6 months from the introduction of Kit in November 1979, her entire family was in town.

Taylor was indeed a boring and killed off in less than 6 months. Amy was also boring and shipped off somewhere after just 8 months.

Miranda was shipped off after a year. She was a great character. Never understood why they didn't keep her around.

Only Halloways that lasted more than a year were Kit and Rick. Both of them lasted 2 years. Kit married Joey Perinni and Rick married Maryanne Randolph, the daughter of Pat Matthews Randloph.

And to add to dear Liz's post.....

Miranda was played by Judith McConnell, future Sophia Capwell on SB.

Remember when Mitch came back to town in 1986 and was shirtless in the barn? Espy had a great body.

Years ago, there was an article in “Soap Opera Digest” that critiquing the contemporary AW (1987) and the author mentioned that there had been a family introduced and written out on the show in the space of three weeks.

That wouldn't surprise me in the least. 1987 was the show's absolute worst year, followed closely by 1982.

1987 was bad but I think 1986 was worse for AW—the show killed off legacy character Sally Frame and wrote out vets Liz, Clarice and Larry. Additionally, four of the best actors to appear on the show in the 80s left-Stephen Schnetzer; Anna Stuart; Ellen Wheeler; and Tom Eplin.

All of this led to a horrible 1987. The show didn’t get better until Lemay returned in 1988.

R170 I think that was the Shea clan. Ed Power, Anita Gillette and maybe Chris Marcantel. Ed Power was so sexy as Spence on Love Is A Many Splendored Thing. I think he was a former Catholic priest in real life. The Sheas were boring as fuck, and seemed to be another McKinnon type failure. They just weren't on long enough to endure too many bad re-casts, etc.

Sad to hear about Ron Harper. He was married to Sally Stark from Love of Life for a time. Ron ended up on LOL, while Sally stayed in Hollywood. Poor Sally's tv career ended playing the lesbian best friend of Julie's on Days. Julie and the audience both rejected her. I can remember the scene where Susan Hayes screamed at her 'What are you trying to do to me???!!'

The Shea clan were Corinne Jacker’s creations-she wanted to feature the blue collar element of Bay City. Until then the Perrinis were the token blue collar family and that was only comprised of Rose, Joey and Angie.

Kit was kidnapped by the Red Brigade in Italy. There was only a surface similarity to Patty Hearst’s story. She never became radicalized like Hearst or even suffered from Stockholm Syndrome.

Yup, Marcantel was Pete Shea. This was a year before Loving and a year after he replaced Kevin Bacon on Guiding Light.

[quote] Poor Sally's tv career ended playing the lesbian best friend of Julie's on Days. Julie and the audience both rejected her. I can remember the scene where Susan Hayes screamed at her 'What are you trying to do to me???!!'

Bill Bell loved that story so much he did it twice.

[quote] Marcantel was Pete Shea. This was a year before Loving and a year after he replaced Kevin Bacon on Guiding Light.

A makeup artist I know swears he slept with Marcantel, that he's super hairy and very well hung. It seemed like a very specific actor to make up a story about.....*shrug*

[quote] The show didn’t get better until Lemay returned in 1988.

I feel so fortunate that that was the moment at which I discovered AW, and soaps in general. It was the Josie/Matthew story that drew me in, even though I would not discover until much later the Cory/Davis/Frame history.

[quote]Kit was kidnapped by the Red Brigade in Italy. There was only a surface similarity to Patty Hearst’s story. She never became radicalized like Hearst or even suffered from Stockholm Syndrome.

That's because they dropped the storyline before it really got started. Once the Halloway clan came to town it wasn't mentioned again.

But when Kit was first being introduced, she phoned her Aunt Miranda several times with worries "they" might have found where she was. We never found out who "they" was but lots of potential there. But we never found out if she had been radicalized or suffered Stockholm Syndrome.

Just need to vent. I was on the local train today on the Llanview —> Pine Valley route, and the train broke down for close to an hour! No heat, no lights, no flushable toilet. It’s getting to be too much. I don’t drive anymore, so I really have no alternatives other than to stay home like an invalid.

Grown men who watch soaps are really nothing

What an unpleasant smell.

***flushes R180***

I watched AW briefly in the mid-80s (in the above mentioned crappy years of 1986-87) before decamping to Oakdale. My mother lamented how good the show used to be a decade earlier.

Ok, since we’re talking about Bay City- in 1982, there was that story of Blaine being terrorized by Cecile and Alma. I caught snippets of it but my mom always forced us to play outside.

What was happening? What was this about a kitten? Why were they terrorizing her? How did Alma die?

I remember Blaine having a nightmare about a giant dolll.

Anybody else find a kidnapped Cass Winthrop running around on a beach in a black Speedo really hot?

That was the only fun storyline in 1986/87–Cecile kidnapping Cass and taking him to Tanquir.

A large part of the reason 1987 was so bad was NBC was trying to make the show into a Days clone.

Margaret DePriest was the HW and they were working hard trying to write Days style stories for AW, including the Sin Stalker storyline. She's also the one who had Cass-lookalike Rex pretend to be Cass while the real Cass was held captive.

Maggie DePrriest was one of those hacks who kept getting hired as Head Writer, even though she had a spotty track record. Her 80s stint at Days was successful, but the rest of her work is not great.

And they brought her back to AW in 1995, where she created yet another serial killer-this one killed Frankie.

R187, I believe she also created the Salem Strangler storyline during her tenure on Days. I guess it was an efficient way to trim the cast.

I have never watched AW, but I checked out when Frankie was killed reading the posts here. She put up a really good fight. It was as good as the final chase in a horror movie. It was a little unsettling, too. The only other time I’ve seen a victim put up such a fight against a killer was Susan when she was attacked in the shower in the, at times, very scary Brent/Marian storyline on GL. Susan lived, though.

Would anyone have cried if Killer Jill had met the fate she cooked up for Frankie Frame?

No, r190.

....Alice Barrett, half of the female cast of General Hospital, probably her own mother......

Sir Pendulousness is the guest for the 4th anniversary of The Locher Room next Wednesday.

I really, really, really, really, REALLY wish Mary Kay Adams would do a Locher Room. I wish I knew her address so I could write her and tell her how loved she is by many of the Marvelous Midwestern types.

I meant “on daytime” not horror movies in general.

[quote] Susan lived, though.

A shame. She was such a damn bore.

No, R178, it was made clear she was never radicalized. She was only held hostage because she was an heiress and the terrorist group demanded a ransom for her safe release. I seriously doubt the writers ever considered an in-depth look at Kit’s inner turmoil during and after her trauma due to the limitations of the actress who played her.

R196 I liked Susan. She was an interesting character and pretty.

She had a bit of a Natalie Wood thing going on

Damn that Brent/Marian storyline was so good. The only complaint would be having a stronger heroine (character and actress wise) because the men were superb. Frank Beatty was so sexy and was a helluva actor.

Too bad Beaty flipped his wig (literally) and the dénouement of the storyline was partly played by someone else.

Marc Wolf, an NYC gay playwright, subbed for Brent Lawrence to cap off Marian storyline and the finale in the lighthouse.

Wolf went on to do the play "Another American: Asking and Telling" about gays in the military.

I ultimately hated that story so much. Beaty did great work but I just hated it.

Hated Lucy to begin with (tepid bargain basement cross between Beth and Harley), hated that it turned into The Lucy Hour - she was no Beth Raines - hated that she made Alan Michael dull. Hated that Brent killed Nadine and Cutter, hated how ugly the whole story was, hated how it dragged on.

It was just so negative. But LOL if the rumors that Marian was based on Jill Farren Phlegm were true.

R202 Marc Wolf looks hot in some recent photos but he didn't look right with the Marian makeup on.

I think Frank Beaty returned somewhere near the end.....? I can't remember.

R203 I see how many think it was too dark (it was but in a good way for me). It was intense, dramatic, scary. It also had a lot of humor, sometimes dark, sometimes not. I think it is one of GL’s best ever. I couldn’t stand Nadine (though her death was brutal) and Cutter was expendable. The acting was too good. Beatty sold the hell out of it which I think made it more dark than it otherwise would have been.

I never thought about it, but I see now how Lucy was supposed to be a Beth-like character while the actual Beth was off the show. And you are correct, r203, she was no Beth Raines.

R201 Yes, another case of bad GL luck which seemed to plague the show in the 90s. R204 Yes, Beatty did come back for the very end.

Beaty, not Beatty

Beaty was scheduled to participate in this but backed out

Jennifer Leak, an actress who played Olive on AW, has died.

Aww, sad about Jennifer Leak.

I’ll always remember Olive whining to John “John, I’m getting sick and tired of Pat undermining me to Michael and Marianne!”

That's sad about Jennifer Leake.

Olive was a great psycho villainess, one they should have brought back to town. But once they killed off John Randolph and wrote Alice and Pat out, Olive didn't have any substantial connections to the canvas.

One connection they never explored is that Olive was Sally's aunt. Olive was the sister-in-law of Sally's biological mother. But when they killed off Sally, that eliminated all Olive's connections.

R207 It was odd he was going to do it in the first place given the reported drama with Rick Hearst. Does anyone truly know the scoop on that? It sounds juicy as hell. Frank Beaty had a mental breakdown reportedly due to the material being so dark ( Michelle Forbes similarly had a mental breakdown on GL due to her dark, twisted, and fucking outstanding storyline), but many think Frank’s was over Rick Hearst. I mean, GL did produce two very dark, intense storylines within a 6 year span that were two of the all time great storylines ever on soaps (and I’ll die on that hill).

[quote]I’ll always remember Olive whining to John “John, I’m getting sick and tired of Pat undermining me to Michael and Marianne!”

I remember her rolling her eyes every time John hugged her ... and her wailing over her dead lover Evan as the end credits rolled the day John shot him.

Anybody have an answer at R183?

R210 Nice tribute from her first husband Tim Matheson. He’s a class act.

R212 That has long been a rumor, that Frank and Rick were having an affair.

Frank's now on the MAGA tip of things, if I remember right, and Rick's been married forever so not sure......then again, married forever doesn't mean one can't pursue cock......if the rumors about Michael Park are true......

She played Matron Spitz on OLTL!

5:00

MARY!

Alma Rudder came to Bay City seeking revenge against Blaine for her brother Buzz Winslow's death. She connected with Cecile who was trying to get Blaine out of the way so she could have Sandy Cory.

They concocted a scheme to gaslight Blaine and make her think she was going crazy. It included Alma dressing up as a giant rag doll. Likely there was a kitten involved too.

I honestly do not remember too many details, but Alma dressed as the giant rag doll multiple times and Blaine reverted to some childhood state and had a breakdown. Plot culminated with a location shoot in Wyoming.

It was quite thrilling at the time. One of the few plots that was working on AW in 1982. Alma and Cecile had a great dynamic. Alma called her "Cecil"

Below is the link to the Alma Rudder info on the Another World Home Page. That may answer some of your questions.

Stephen Schnetzer is on The Locher Room right now.

Schnetzer just said that AW’s use of humor set it apart from the other soaps which chose to go more of a telenovela (“Duh duh DUH!) route, Which isn’t really true. What about Opal on AMC? Calliope on Days? For fuck’s sakeSunset Beach and Passions, also on NBC? Talk abouf a simplistic opinion.

And “Santa Barbara” which made humor a big part of the show.

Hell, even “As the World Turns” had the adventures of Shannon O’Hara and her unwilling sidekick, Harriet Corbman.

R222, right, meant to say Santa Barbara instead of Passions.

When Linda Dano and Stephen Schnetzer speak about Another World, they always speak about the show’s use of humor. I would argue that Cass was not a comedic character when he returned to the show as Kathleen’s widower in 1987, and he remained the “straight man,” at best, through the remainder of his run.

The characters of Felicia, Cass, Kathleen, Cecile and Wallingford did use a lot of humor around 1984-with the Majorca story, Crystal Lake, and Cecile kidnapping Cass. But that ended when Cass and Kathleen left in 1986.

I was a; frigging LAFF RIOT!

AW was a humorous show, for sure, in the 80s and early 90s. It wasn't the only one, though, as R221 pointed out.

Cecile and Felicia dressed as nuns, investigating David Thatcher's murder, was hilarious. Nuns with long, painted fingernails.

Can anyone remember an Australian actress from a US daytime soap in the mid-'80s, to early '90s?

I saw this woman interviewed on TV around '91, and she said she had been employed in a fairly large, ongoing US soap opera role for several years. She was fairly well-known in Oz, but few knew about her US role.

She said she was well-liked by all the women on the set because she played a rather frumpy-looking character. The actress herself was somewhat attractive. Mid 40s? I think on an East Coast show.

I can't think of who that might be, R228.

Carmen Duncan was the obvious first person that came to mind.....she played Iris on Another World from 1988 to mid 90s, after the legendary Beverlee McKinsey created the role in the 70s. But I don't think you could call her frumpy.

Sara Botsford came to mind but she's Canadian. She played crazy Lilith McKechnie on and off on As The World Turns.

R229 Carmen Duncan was who came to mind to me, too. That's the right age and similar type of actress. Carmen played a real glamour puss on Another World though, so I don't think it was her. I should have paid more attention to which show the actress was speaking about during the interview.

I was trying to think of any foreign actresses in that time period on an NY soap -

Fiona Hutchinson and Linda Thorson were both British (and glamour pusses) and Cali Timmins is Canadian (also glamorous, though Judi Evans later turned Paulina on AW into more of a girl next door).

Domini Blythe was on SFT but again, she was a bit of a glamour puss there.

I guess if she was interviewed in 1991 her role could have been anywhere from the 1960s to the early 1990s......hmmm.

*and Blythe was not Australian.....she was British/Canadian too

Janice Lynde recalls Jennifer Leak from Y&R days. Leak helped Lynde get in AW.

Nice story. So many of the sites just repost soap star Instagram stories

^ "On" (not "in") Another World

The actress who played Caroline on AW was Australian, but she didn’t play a mousy character.

Could you mean prunella from gh?

Oooh, R236, good work, that might just be who it is.

But she wasn't on an East Coast soap if it is her, since GH films on the West Coast.

R236 Yes that's definately the actress I was thinking of, thanks.

Nicely done, Marvelous Midwesterners!

We help each other out here.

I loved prunella!

My shows were OLTL and Y&R from 87-93 (For christ sake I was only 7-13)

but i did watch and enjoy GH from 87-89.

My grandparents were ABC watchers, but Y&R was so pretty.

And I always found AMC cheap and BORING ^^ No idea why.

looking back at Youtube, AMC looked pretty wonderful from 82-84, and 1988-89 was EXCELLENT (and for the first time, did not look so cheap either)

AMC and OLTL both had terrible overhead lighting.

GL did too but it was somehow a bit more subtle.

R242- Its weird- OLTL's lighting from 85-87 still had some shadows and subtlety-

But for some reason, by late1988 Paul Rauch wanted everyone orange and the lighting at supersonic levels.

I read an interview with the lighting designers and they were asked "Why is the lighting so bright?"

Rauch wants the show to look upbeat-

It's fucked because AW under Rauch looked elegant (from Youtube)

I think that is why I dug Y&R- it was SLOW and dark. OLTL was FAST and bright and over the top.

GL looked as bad as OLTL in the 1980's (worse actually) For me , it looks like JFP changed GL's look for the better

Oh shit! Rauch wanted the actresses eyes to "shine"..

That was the other line.

if you watch the show- the actresses eyes all had an "orbit" of light- Even Barbara Luna- who had very dark eyes.

The actresses eyes really did shine during the Rauch era- You can go see for yourself on YT

I did not like the dark and heavy feel of The Young and the Restless during the 1970s and 1980s. The actors all on tranquilizers, so monotonous. Another World in the was also quite darkly lit, but the pace more brisk and the actors and direction were much more lively.

I could have mistaken mid-'80s Guiding Light as an LA-based show, because it had such an open and bright look about it. It might have had something to do with the fact that they had so many blondes and tanned-looking guys on the show during that time.

JFP took GL from being too bright to being too dark almost instantly.

R245- I thought AW always looked great when i would tune in.

i watched GL very briefly in the late 80's when Roger returned in that pineapple mask? 1988? I found the background music epic, very simlar to OLTL's amazing scoring.. It looked alot like OLTL

R246- True.---Like many, i have watched MAUREEN'S final scenes many times-- GL had a very similar lighting design to OLTL. I was not a GL watcher at the time minus somehow tuning in when Roger returned (GH must have been boring me- it was never my ride or die like that OLTL)

JFP's GL looked like an entirely different universe- Exactly like Linda Gottlieb's OLTL- almost identical lighting- in that Y&R mold.

R224 I prefer more charming humor than abstract. I think AW used humor more deftly than other shows. It was woven in to serve the story and didn't disrupt the flow like the wacky Opal scenes, or especially the surreal moments featuring Calliope on Days.

One Life to Live took it to the next level with their removed-from-reality special episodes like 'Trading Places' when the actors swapped parts. This actually happened when Linda Dano was a part of the show.

Trading Places was a riot. Roger and Erika's scenes alone......

Martha Byrne was on Maurice Benard's "State of Mind" podcast talking about her husband's case.

She goes into great detail talking about the case, so much detail that Maurice ended up dividing the talk into two parts.

The first part, Martha talks some about her soap career and how she met her husband, Michael McMahon. She also talks about his work as an NYPD detective and then his career as a private investigator after a work injury forced his retirement

Part two she talks about how McMahon was arrested in 2020 and the subsequent trial in 2023. She talks in detail about some points of the case and how they are appealing the conviction.

Martha Byrne Part 2

Does anyone else find Martha's crusade a bit odd? The evidence seems pretty overwhelming that the guy is guilty.

I've purposely just turned away from reading about it or hearing about it. Something really sinister about that whole story of his, and I'm just going to stay in my bubble and pretend it didn't happen.

In Part 1 of the Maurice Benard podcast, Martha Byrne talks about how she went to Hollywood trying to make it big there from late 1989 to early 1993.

She said she tried out for a part of Days of our Lives but didn't get it. So, she called up Doug Marland and said she was ready to come back to Oakdale. Her first return air date was April 8, 1993.

She doesn't name the role on Days she auditioned for, but we Soap Mavens should be able to figure it out. What teen or early 20s females debuted on Days in late 1992 or early 1993? Come on ladies, lets figure this out!

Martha talks about the Days audition briefly in the video at r251, stating at about 11:20 in.

Billie Reed, perhaps? Martha would have been the right age for that.

Martha would have been the right age for Billie, but Billie Reed debuted in September 1992.

That doesn't fit the timeline as Martha presented it.

In 1992, it may have been Molly.

The Molly role eventually went to Shannon Sturges.

R257 but....wouldn't it?

We know she returned on air to ATWT in April1993. If Days was casting Billie in late spring or early summer 1992, she could have tried for that, been passed over for it, and decided at some point to reach out to Marland.

She may have been slightly blurry on the dates - we know Marland died in February so she would have had to contact him at some point late in 1992, most likely, enough time for him to have the story outline for Damian Grimaldi in place as a vehicle for Martha's return.

It could have been Molly on DAYS, too, for sure.

Shannon Sturges played Molly Brinker on Days from April 1991 to September 1992.

So, way too early for this Martha Byrne scenario.

I had my local dry cleaner fuck up my Lee Jofa linen drapes to the tune of 8K, no apology, I'm considering legal action.

Then it's more likely Billie.

Or were there other characters coming on board when Jim Reilly was joining DAYS?

R262 Huh?

I could definately see Martha playing the Molly character.

What did she say, exactly?

If she was in Hollywood from 89-93, that's a wide range.

The only young characters during that time period would have been

Molly, Carrie, and eventually Billie

Allison Sweeney debuted as Sami Brady in January 1993. So for all we know, Martha could have been auditioning for that role and they show decided to go with a younger actress.

Likewise, Christie Clark returned to Days as Carrie Brady in December 1992 after Tracy Middendorf didn't work out in the role. Maybe they auditioned other actresses before deciding to invite Christie back to the role and maybe Martha was one of those auditioning.

I think she was up for Dr. Sandy Horton.

She could have been r268. A Days spinoff was in the works during 1991/92; called Manhattan Lives, it was to focus on Marlena, living in New York. There were supposed to be legacy Days characters joining, one of whom was Sandy Horton.

R269 I remember NBC considering Manhattan Lives, and before that Pacific Lives which was to take place in a clinic inn Hawaii, with Marlena, Dr. Tom Horton Jr. and Sandy Horton. Sandy would have been de-aged considerably, with Martha but when has that stopped anything?

There was no way she was up for Sami. Sami was 15 when she came on the show, Martha couldn't play 15. It al. Also during that time Days went through some headwriting changes, so it may have been for a character who just didn't end up on the show.

15 years ago today, the unthinkable happened - it was announced that after 72 years, Guiding Light was cancelled.

Yeah, it was one of the worst April Fools Jokes ever!

Another character MB may have auditioned for was a brand new one named "Rebecca Morrison," who also debuted in January 1993.

"Rebecca" was a fresh-faced, new hire in the Salem D.A.s office, who was immediately attracted to John Black. .. It looked like Rebecca was being established to play another complication in the John-Marlena-Roman triangle. (See print promo featuring the character at link.) .. To distract from his feelings for Marlena, John responded to Rebecca and began a relationship with her. .. But apparently, things didn't work out with the model-actress (Dani Minnick) whom they'd hired for the role, and soon John went in the direction of "Kristin Blake DiMera," being played by Eileen Davidson. .. Minnick lasted something like 26-weeks.

Just got through listening to Martha explain her husband's case on Maurice's podcast.

I'm not a legal expert and certainly don't understand all the legal nuances involved, but she does offer some compelling arguments about how the feds essentially needed to take down someone in this case and her husband was an easy target because of his work as a private eye peripherally involved.

There was a therapist character on DAYS around 1991/92 that the show seemed to want to develop into a major character, her name was Whitney. If I remember correctly, she treated Kim and Jack, and the show was setting her up as a love interest for John-but they had real problems casting the character (I think they recast her three times in three months) and she was dropped.

Whitney Baker was the psychiatrist who was noted by several characters to resemble Marlena was played in 1990/91 by Pamela Saunders for 3 months, Claire Yarlett (from The Colbys) for a month, and Deborah Rennard (Sly from Dallas) for 5 months. Rennard's departure in July '91 led to Hall's return one month later.

R249 One Life to Live made a trading places fake opening using show employees. It actually gets funnier on the second viewing.

Oh, to be the filling in this sandwich.

Grant’s body alone..and he kept it up all these years!

R279, Carl was on a Locher Room and he commented on how nice and helpful Grant was to him when he first started.

SWOOONNNN

Big brother types get me every time.

April 2 was the 68th anniversary of the debut of As the World Turns and The Edge of Night.

April 1 was the 61st anniversary of the debut of The Doctors and General Hospital.

About a year ago, Stephen King tweeted that he wanted to know if he could watch the entire run of “The Edge of Night” anywhere. I guess he was unaware that a majority of the episodes were “wiped” decades ago.

I do agree with him. That’s a P&G soap I’d have loved to see from the beginning. Esp the storyline with Dorothy Lyman as Elly Jo Jamison and the famous spilt-personality storyline with Louise Shaffer as Serena/Josie Faraday.

Elly Jo was a hoot and a half. Dangerous but also hilarious.

Opal Gardner definitely grew out of Elly Jo.

Elly Jo loved her milk shakes! Lester Rawlins as Orin Hillyer had a gothic, campy vibe that would have worked well on Dark Shadows, and if they hadn't taken the murderous turn with Elly Jo, she and Orin would have been a super couple.

I have not watched today's Locher Room with Sir Pendulousness but it got a few raves online and apparently he mentioned a book her's writing? Will have to go watch and listen this week.

*he's writing

I think they could bring back GL, as long as Reva and Josh don't appear. Let them have moved back to Tulsa. Focus on Spaulding/Cedars with the Bauers (Ed, Hope, Rick) in focus. Wasn't there a black Bauer toward the end? That kind of conflict could kick it off.

GL could easily come back. I’d have a religious element like it did in the beginning with maybe a crooked megachurch family thrown in.

LOL I remember Roger Thorpe, 1990 version having phone calls with Donald Trump.

R290 So the crooked megachurch is “The Church of The Mango Messiah”?

Grant is a little gray but damn if he isn't still as handsome as ever.

R289 Instead of an oil company ala Lewis Oil, a villianous megachurch family would yield a lot of potential drama.

Always loved the view from Lucinda’s office which made Oakdale look like a metropolis.

LOL

Even shithole Pine Valley ended up being a "city" later in its run with a "skyline".

It angered critics.

Well, it WAS dumb to shoehorn that big city feel into shows that had been small town shows.

The idea that suddenly these major corporations would be in places like Oakdale and Pine Valley.....just made no sense.

Palmer Courtlandt lived in Pine Valley so it made sense that Courtlandt Electronics was based there.

But Adam Chandler had no initial connections to Pine Valley, so no reason to bring Chandler Enterprises there.

And didn't Dimitri Marek moved to Pine Valley because Erica Kane was from Pine Valley?.

Well, it WAS dumb to shoehorn that big city feel into shows that had been small town shows.

One of my biggest pet peeves about the 80s. Every soap became a booming metropolis. Some of these shows were supposed to be "Peyton Placesque", small town drama, small town scandals and small town morality.

One of the things I loved about Y&R for years were certain long time characters didn't even know each other.

Before India knew Phillip was Alex's nephew, he picked her up in the rain, brought her back to his place and she grilled him on Springfield. He said it wasn't really a town but it wasn't as big as a big city either.

Bill Bell wrote on his bible for Y&R "Genoa City will be everything we need it to be" -- something like that.

R292, yes, he's still got it.

I thought Alan Locher did a great job and Grant answered each and every question with kindness and thoughtfulness.

He had a solid memory and spoke lovingly and fondly of folks who've gone on including Jerry, Tom O'Rourke and Beverlee and Chris.

R300 What did he say about Judi?

something nice; I forget what.

He also threw in a little Alec McIntyre and what an SOB he was.

Very nice interview with Grant. He was open and sincere and just came across as a warm person.

I loved his comments when asked about various co-stars, especially his comments about Mary Kay Adams.

Interesting that Alan did not ask Grant about Vince Irizarry or Ricky Paull Goldin.

Grant did visit DAYS set a few years back and Judi posted a pic with her, Vincent, and Grant. Everyone seemed fine.

I wish someone had asked Grant about his CAPITOL stint, which was mostly him in a Speedo in a hot tub. John Conboy must have lubed up real good before those scenes.

Convoy also said Christopher Durham would never wear a shirt on “Capitol” for the summer of 1984.

He didn’t.

Ah, for the days of soaps where men were men, studs were studs and daytime was soft core porn.....

R305, Alan did bring up Captiol and made a Speedo reference; Grant took a brief silent beat and then moved on; he dismissed it effortlessly.

If I had half his body, I'd walk around naked in public today; he downplays his godlike body, which I'm sure is nothing to sneeze at today,

Alan being Ricky Paull's dad made NO SENSE; he was busy back in the day with Jackie, Elizabeth, and Hope AND Rita while fending off Diane Ballard.

Wedging Ricky into the Spauldings made ZERO sense.

Did Lisa Brown ever have fun playing Iva? After a character like Nola, Iva was such a comedown.

I'm sure Lisa loved it while Marland was alive.

ATWT Marland was not even close to GL’s Marland, Not even close. GL was far, far superior.

Grant’s body is a freaking wonder. It never wavered in decades.

[quote] ATWT Marland was not even close to GL’s Marland, Not even close. GL was far, far superior.

I think some of Marland's individual GL stories stood out wonderfully, but as for the overall show I thought he really had a better run at ATWT. Then again it was a *longer* run. Who knows where GL might have gone if he'd stayed on?

Maryland was on GL for a much shorter time than I thought. He did create the Reardon family. He always liked to have a “have not” family on the books.

He was really only GL's HW for just shy of two years, I think. He quit over the Carrie dual personality story. I don't think Allan Potter and Marland got along - he and Robert Calhoun were perhaps one of the great pairings on daytime, as far as working well together.

Guiding Light was also in better shape when he took over than ATWT was. The Dobsons had created the Spauldings and Marlers, as well as the Holly/Roger/Rita/Ed story and the Amanda/Lucille storyline.

Now that some time has passed, you can totally see the "Marland Pattern". He duplicated it on every soap. To me his GL seemed more urbane than his ATWT.

Oh for sure. I mean I loved his style but he had his particular things.

The mother defending daughter in trouble - which he did on GL and ATWT and another show (forgetting which one).

He definitely always introduced have nots.....on the Doctors, GH, GL and ATWT. But he also introduced rich families and characters too. I think he created some of the Quartermaines on GH. He didn't create Lucinda on ATWT but he made her make sense and focused her story and why she was doing what she did.

He definitely had Lisa Brown as his muse.

The Reardon brothers and Snyder boys seemed to be variations on the type of men he grew up around.

And ATWT *was* our first sighting of Barry Kaufman aka Robert Tyler and his stunning beauty......

I wasn’t born when it aired, but I ran across the Roger in clown mask chasing a woman through a hall of mirrors while disco music blared on YouTube. Excuse my French but holy fuck that was one of the most thrilling, scary, enthralling (MARY) scenes I’ve even seen in daytime. The direction was impeccable.

Then I watched a scene with Sherry Stringfield from 1990. She was amazing. I am still stunned she left two #1 rated prime time shows early- NYPD Blue after one year, ER after not even THREE years. She clocked 2 and a 1/4 years. I thought she was on ER longer in her first run, but she wasn’t. She also left as the cast was negotiating their contracts for HUGE $. She walked away from tens of millions. WTAF? Seriously. I reread the story and it is truly perplexing. It makes no sense at all. None. She was used to a heavy schedule doing GL for 3 years. I don’t find her reasoning truthful.

Marland's scripts for GL aired from January 1980 until September 1982.

Marland also has Lesley Webber going to trial for murder to protect her daughter Laura on GH.

Was Marland doing uncredited writing on ATWT in 1985. He officially didn’t start until late in the year, but everything after Bob and Kim’s wedding in March (including the start of the Doug Cummings story and the introduction of Shannon, Sierra and the Snyders) seems like his work.

He was definitely writing the Snyders, Shannon and Doug Cummings so if he wasn't officially credited he was definitely in charge in reality.

I so wish Marland's 1978 GH was on YouTube. There's some later stuff in the fall but it was fascinating watching him bring that show from the brink of cancelation.

He wrote the Lesley/Rick/Monica/Alan quadrangle - throwing in Jane Elliot as Tracy to stir things up. Edward and Lila were well cast with David Lewis and Anna Lee. One minute you wanted to smack Bobbie and the next you wanted to hug her; I wasn't rooting for her to ship Laura off to reform school but I was rooting for Bobbie. Kin's pecs were fantastic.

Marland gave Steve a story making him Jeff's dad; he gave Jessie a late in life romance with Dan and had her take Bobbie in as a roommate. Jessie saw good in Bobbie, allowing the audience to see it as well.

Lee and Gail were savvy and sophisticated, and we rooted for them as well.

The supporting cast was off the charts; I loved Mary O'Brien as Heather; she played the part like Sheila Carter in a way.

Marland did the mother taking the wrap for the daughter 3x.

Lesley went to jail to keep Laura safe; it was Laura who killed David Hamilton; Lesley confessed to an affair with David that never happened to save Laura; Rick figured it out and said to Lesley in a witness room; It's Laura! That's why you're doing this. Crying Lesley said: "If you love me, you won't walk out that door." and then, he did. Cue the tears.

Marland did it next with Jennifer Richards (nee Jane Marie Stafford) killing Lucille Wexler in self defense; Lucille wanted to get rid of Jennifer as she was Amanda's birth mother; Lucille was the adopted one. Back then, having an out of wedlock baby was apparently a BIG deal.

I loved Lesley and Laura the most but I have to admit Marland perfected this dynamic with Kim and Frannie on ATWt; neither committed the murder but Kim thought Frannie did; Pregnant, she takes the blame to save fragile Frannie's psyche. It comes out at trial that Marsha killed Douglas (Frannie finally remembered).

A lot of that IS on Youtube and Jennifer Richards got a DVD treatment years ago.

[quote]Lucille wanted to get rid of Jennifer as she was Amanda's birth mother

Jennifer Richards fucked Brandon Spaulding?

GL retconning that story to make Amanda Alan's sister was one of the truly stupid things that show did.

R325, GL killing off Maureen was moronic.

Recast Kathleen Cullen/Amanda and Morgan Englund/Dylan were also dumb moves.

Stringfield apparently left ER to be with her boyfriend. It didn’t make a lot of sense. The show was huge.

Maryland created the Snyder family. Sierra was before him.

Marland inherited the Sierra/Lucinda story. When he got on board, he asked Hubbard why she thought Lucinda was so reticent to tell Sierra she was her mother. Hubbard answered, “I have no idea.”

From there, he created the whole illegal adoption of Lily story.

That story was SO good.

Richard Bekins will be the latest to appear in the Locher Room.

Hopefully someone asks him about Lady Eyes A Buggin.

YEAH to Richard Bekins in the Locher Room. That one's long overdue.

Now, if Alan will just do a little bit of research in advance. He knows nothing about AW and never seems to do basic prep about the show.

Bekins is who I consider to be THE Jamie Frame, sorry Bobby Doran. I was okay with Lau and Todd, but Bekins is the one. I may be wrong, but I think he's still friends with Victoria Wyndham.

Somebody on the long defunct “Jump the Shark” site once said AW jumped the shark because Victoria Wyndham was rude to their mother in an ice cream parlor in Newport, Rhode Island.

I so wish they had given more details.

VW didn't put up with foolishness

Oh I remember that r334! I remember her saying VW was a “rude, arrogant bitch.”

CBS has canceled The Talk. This leaves an hour of programming open in CBS's daytime schedule come January.

Likely the new black soap opera The Gates will be a prime contender to get that time slot.

When CBS canceled ATWT in 2010, they replaced it with The Talk.

It would be poetic justice if the Talk is replaced with The Gates.

The Laurie Caso interview has some really, really great info.

There were always rumors bouncing around about what Doug Marland died from - I think some rumors claimed tummy tuck....but Laurie said he wasn't feeling well on a Monday, went to a hospital and had an operation, and died that Friday.

He also mentioned the ATWT bible that we've seen posted here several times.

He was a CBS exec right before Marland took over at ATWT and worked with Pam Long, too, at GL.

R332. Alan was smart enough to ask Grant Aleksander about a GL and an AMC moment that one of the soap reporters fed him and to Alan's credit, he gave the reporter credit.

Caso also mentions DL gold star legend Linda "Cunt" Lavin. Apparently CBS had her on a holding deal when they plugged her into "Alice."

Alan gave me credit for a question in one of the GL Locher Room sessions.

Okay, the Helen Wagner dancing with her husband story.....😭

Caso said he was the one that suggested Lily was adopted (a black market baby) and that Craig would rescue Sierra, as Craig had been a villain before that. He said the writers came up with Sierra being Lucinda's daughter.

What was the As the World Turns bible?

R346 They once published the bible to "As the Earth Turns" over at We Love Soaps.

I remember it being multi-part. The site doesn't have the greatest search engine.

Refer to the next post for an article there that appears to have most of the links in it.

R346

Bits of the bible Doug Marland wrote for the network right before he started at ATWT is on the internet, too. We don't see it in full but there are excerpts.

There are four blog posts covering this, here's part one

Slightly off topic here, but I was just reading the Larry Luckinbill (Mr. Lucie Arnaz) thread where The Secret Storm is mentioned several times. Larry acted on Secret Storm and Love is a Many Splendored Thing while married to his first wife, Robin Strasser.

Anyway, all that reminded me of some soap anniversaries we should acknowledge here on DL:

2024 marks the 70th anniversary of the debut of Secret Storm -- Feb 1, 1954.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the final episode of Secret Storm -- Feb. 8, 1974.

Thanks, Liz!

I never saw Secret Storm - I vaguely remember seeing bits of Love of Life, though.

Luckinbill was in Where the Heart Is. (I don't remember him in LIAMT.)

Secret Storm was a real pot boiler toward the end.

CBS has given The Gates a greenlight. It's going to series, debuting in January.

R352, what were some of the latter storylines?

Was it “Somerset” that had the killer clown storyline?

R354 A few that I remember ... Here's the basic gist, but don't hold me to it, so long ago. ;)

The show had a storyline about a hot Catholic priest, Father Mark Reddin, having an affair and getting defrocked. The back and forth between the church and his affair turned him into an alcoholic. Another one was about the show's heroine, Amy, getting artificial insemination behind her husband's back. He'd been shot, becoming a paraplegic, which left him impotent. He thought Amy was already pregnant before this happened, but she wasn't. A hot doctor, played by Jeffrey Pomerantz, agreed to do it, but because he had a thing for Amy, he used his own sperm without her knowledge. .. The show's reigning villianess, Belle Clemens (the marvelous Marla Adams), was fucking a younger guy who was a mechanic and race car driver and she began supporting him financially. It turned out he was actually her politican-husband's son. There was also a more gothic story a couple moving into an old house and whether it might be haunted. The wife was imagining she was the reincarnation of a woman who'd lived there before and this handsome, but psychotic groundskeeper fueled these thoughts, since he'd murdered the other woman.

I don't think SS was ready for cancellation. And American Home Products didn't think so either. Their big mistake was when they agreed to sell the show to CBS, but upon cancellation they worked to get it back and had plans to continue it in syndication. The news report below is from the New York Times, January 1974. Something happened during that one month with the plan not coming to pass. Too bad.

R356 that ghost story on SS involved the Reddin family, whic also included Frances Sterhagen and Gary Sandy, and the defrocked priest Mark who had married Laurie Stevens(Stephanie Braxton) who was Amy's best friend.

Carl Tye Evans is beautiful. Also, I’d love to have one of those red GL caps.

Why doesn't the hat read, TGL?

I'd want to do a taste test on Carl Tye Evans and Grant. They could keep their hats on, though.

Anyone watch the Bekins one?

Carl Tye Evans just had something about him that was very sexy. I mean, he’s fucking cute, but damn.

I started watching Bekins, but had multiple interruptions.

I'll have to watch tomorrow.

The Richard Bekins interview is decent. Richard looks incredible. He's 69 years old, but except for the gray hair looks 20 years younger (how DataLounge!)

Said he enjoyed his time at AW, but when his four-year contract was up he left at the recommendation of Connie Ford, Paul Stevens and others. They told him if he wanted to do other things, he needed to get out once his contract was up, otherwise he'd end up staying for 30 years.

There's some other good tidbits here and there, but Alan Locher is poor interviewer and that was especially obvious during this interview. He doesn't know how to do follow-up questions and keeps inserting himself into the interview instead of letting his subjects talk.

Alan's failure to do any research into Another World was especially glaring in this interview. Most of the AW questions he asked were ones the viewers were posing in the chat. But his lack of AW knowledge was especially irritating when he said that Chris Rich played Blaine Ewing and commented that Robin Strasser "was the original Rachel, I believe."

Alan was also unaware that P&G had posted old episodes of P&G soaps on AOL back in the late 2000s!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Enough complaining. It was quite good to see Richard again and hear about his life. And yes, Richard did confirm that he is gay during this interview.

Did he mention Victoria Wyndham at all?

Alan is terrible.

He's like a Fisher Price See and Say toy that only knows how to say a handful of things.

"Tell me about your first day/audition"

"I LOVE that"

Yes, of course, Bekins mentioned Victoria Wyndham.

Also mentioned Doug Watson, Nancy Frangione, Chris Rich, Ray Liotta. All of them just get a mention here and there. No long anecdotes about them.

He also mentions Beverlee McKinsey contacting him following his short role as Vanessa's suitor in 1991 on GL.

Someone posted this in the OLTL/AMC thread, and I'm only part way through but it's quite interesting.

Including an anecdote about Krista farting on set.

Aw, Sarah Michelle Gellar was one of Mindy's flower girls in the Kurt/Mindy wedding! (as revealed in that podcast)

[quote] Aw, Sarah Michelle Gellar was one of Mindy's flower girls in the Kurt/Mindy wedding

That little cunt should have stayed in Springfield.

In his interview with Alan Grant Aleksander mentioned Crystal Hunt. It was implied she’d been going through a rough time. Is it true she’s from a very wealthy family?

R371 I think that was for Hayden Panettiere. He said she had gone through some rough times and that he hasn’t seen her in a few years.

People magazine just had an article this week about Panettiere's forthcoming book.

Crystal Hunt also has had some issues. Legal issues for sure.

Emme Rylan (fka Marcy Rylan) is the only one that seems to have eluded the Lizzie curse.

If I still lived on the East Coast I would go to the AW reunion.

R372, Aleksander also said Crystal Hunt had been going through a rough time.