All My Shadows

I've been rewatching the 50s episodes in order, just to get as full of an appreciation as I can for this era of the show, and I was curious about the opening title card. Sadly, the hotel in the background (the Savoy-Plaza) was demolished in the early 60s, but after reading about the statue, it makes sense that they chose to use it in the show's opening. It's a statue of Pomona, the Roman goddess of abundant fruitfulness, which I figure was chosen to represent Van's generosity with her friends and family.

I would imagine the first five years, since Agnes sold the show to ABC in 1975.

The 1980s are fully preserved, as far as we know, and I would say some time in 1977 is when the archive really starts (expansion to hour episodes happened on April 25). My heart has always wanted to believe they started saving in late 1976, but I don't know. For Phoebe's memorial episode, they included a Phoebe/Brooke clip that had to be from pretty soon after Julia Barr took over the role as well as a Phoebe/Myrtle clip that seemed to be from pretty early on in Eileen Herlie's time on the show, so that's what gives me hope for 1976. It really puts things in perspective, though, that the owners/distributers of this stuff doesn't even care enough to say "This is what we have." We'll always have to depend on the kindness of other fans.

For about 4 seconds, I was convinced he was Soupy Sales.

I remember tape trading being a huge huge online community 20-25 years ago, and I can see people keeping up with it for the benefit of meeting people and sharing in your interests, but I also think of how at the same time, as a kid, I yearned and yearned to see certain shows because if they weren't airing in reruns somewhere, it was impossible to see them. Scores of primetime shows, certainly just about anything/everything classic daytime (getting TVLand and GSN at our house was a revelation), etc - I had no way of seeing them, and at 11-12 years old, I had nothing to trade or even the ability to trade tapes with adults on the internet. But here we are in 2025, and I can basically pull up just about any TV show I've ever wanted to see and watch at least a couple episodes if not in full. We have the ability to "broadcast" whatever we have in our posession, and to me, there's no question - if you have it, you share it. Yeah, you might have spent money on something however many years ago, but be thankful that's no longer the norm and that everyone is able to just share what they have. There are some things that popped up on WoST that I still haven't seen on YT, like the 1982 ep of AMC where Joey/Jake accidentally shoots Kate. That's the kinda thing that reminds me that even today, we still have only the tip of the iceberg. Back on topic - that 1972 ep of SS is interesting. The only "drama" in it is at the very end with the class conflict, but it's a nice glimpse into how they were still trying to keep the Ames sisters at the center of the show. Between this and the 1966 Jerry-centric ep we've seen, I really feel like they could have done well by keeping the focus squarely on the three siblings had they not been recast so much. I really want to see Jada's Amy from this time period because Lynne Adams is so vivacious here, you would think that it was her who'd been playing the role since the first day. She and Judy Lewis work well together. Please refresh my memory. What's the story with Joanna? Isn't this a wild story where it turns out she actually is the Joanna they're reading about in the papers? Or am I confusing it with another soap that did a off-the-wall anti-aging story near the end? I'm thinking The Doctors might have done that Poking around the channel, it looks like stuff we've seen before that has been missing for a while - definitely worth another look. There's the partial 1968 ep that features the short-lived departure from the crashing waves title sequence (plus the flub in the credits where Stephen Bolster is played by Jerry Ames and not the other way around), and the 1967 ep featuring Donna Mills in her first TV role. I truly hope this is a sign of more things to come! Thanks @MissPalmer and @DRW50!!

In this day and age, anyone who is requesting money for these things is a special kind of awful. It's very easy to just upload them for everyone to see, and at the end of the day, we're all in this "game" together trying to hunt down these rare episodes. I will never have any material worth trading for nor will I ever spend money to get anything. A Secret Storm from 1972 - in COLOR - is insane and exactly what I was looking for in that "holy grail" thread, and so 2025 is truly off to an incredible start. Watching right now!!

Well, like any soap, you’re not going to find a complete set of episodes anywhere, even from the last 30 years. There are tons of episodes from 1980 and on that you can find from YT. If you haven’t watched what’s out there from the early/mid 80s, I highly highly suggest you do.

For the most part, no. The generally accepted story is that the earliest years were saved by Agnes via her production company, Creative Horizons, but the tapes were destroyed in a fire. After the show was sold to ABC, episodes were wiped, but (and this is the part that's never been confirmed, AFAIK) when plans were made to expand the show to an hour, Agnes insisted that ABC preserve the tapes, which they began to do in the months prior to the expansion. All that's popped up over the years are several episodes from the first year (Daytime to Remember, SoapNet, Agnes's website, the recent YouTube finds), a color clip of the first 5 or so minutes of a 1971 episode, Tom and Erica's 1978 wedding (reran on SoapNet), and Tom confronting Erica over her taking birth control in 1979 (Daytime to Remember and reran on SoapNet). There are also some audio recordings from the mid-70s, including a full ep or two from 1975 centering around Mary Kennicott's murder. I'm very curious as to what else might be out there since clips were used in the various anniversary shows and memorial episodes. The 20th anniversary show definitely has clips from the debut episode, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone has it somewhere.

Same. I'll be home the first day to watch live via Paramount, but it'll be an early-evening stream for me thereafter. This is just pure speculation/wonder, but it would be interesting to see if any CBS affiliates opt to air it in a late-afternoon timeslot. For years, Y&R came on at 4pm CT in Baton Rouge so that working folks had a better chance of seeing it, so my little corner of the world got it twice a day (BR plus 11am via WWL out of New Orleans). I doubt anyone is going to do specifically that for a brand new show, but I feel like a new show would benefit from it more than anything else at this point.

That’s Paul Dumont. It’s hard to find much information about him online, but his Linc reminds me of what Peter White’s Linc would be, in mannerisms and presence at least. This recent trip down early AMC memory lane has solidified my appreciation for the era, and I almost want to call it the “P&G era” because of how heavily influenced it is by Agnes’s experience with GL and AW. The two-family focus, more doctors and lawyers than what AMC would later have, the eccentric grandparent, Phoebe and Charles as more menacing figures, etc. I would say it took until 1974-1975 for it to come into its own while retaining those earlier influences.

The couple that didn’t get along off-screen is Kate Collins and James Kiberd, right?

Re: James Karen. He was only 7 years younger than both Ruth Warrick and Hugh Franklin, so he was absolutely way too old for the part of Linc. If he had played Susan’s dad on ATWT, that’s even worse. Joanna Miles’s Anne always comes off as too “other worldly” to me. I know she’s fresh from NYC, but she just seems too upper class, even for the Tylers.

Anne and Linc were Phoebe’s kids. Chuck’s late father (Charles Jr.) was her stepson.

Ted Brent dies near the end of June 1970, a week or so after Amy leaves town, which is a week or so after her confrontation with Phil in the episode that’s been posted. So that whole leg of the Phil’s parentage storyline took about five months to play out before it turned to Phil’s rebellion. It’s really surprising to think that he would end up getting married to Erica after all of this considering she really blew that whole thing up. I wonder what the audience thought when they got together in ‘75. Surely by that point, the feeling had to be that those days were long gone for both characters. We still have nothing at all of Nick Benedict’s Phil. Hatch only stayed on for two years compared to Benedict’s five, but Hatch remains *the* Phil in my head because we have so much of him to watch. These two episodes also highlight just how many times they made adjustments to the opening titles in those first few months. ^^^all of those are just from the five months Rosemary Prinz was on. That last one would end up being the one that took us to December 1989, once they took Rosemary’s part out.

You're welcome! It's not often I'm able to turn everyone's attention to a rare find, so when I saw them, I knew I had to run over here and share. I'm assuming you mean Amy coming back before Phil was killed off? I totally agree. I think it's one of the great missed opportunities that we never saw her again, and she really could have returned for a visit or two at any point during the show's run since Joe and Ruth were never totally gone. She would have fit in well for the 25th and 35th anniversaries. I love early Joe Martin so much. He really was the mild-mannered leading man around whom so much of the show was centered. Once he and Ruth were married, he moved firmly into the wise old talk-to character for his kids, grandkids, and everyone else, but I wonder what things would have been like had he'd been written more like Bob Hughes and not settled down until 20-25 years into the show's run. The highlight for me is really the Tara/Jeff/Chuck/Erica scene. Susan nailed that character immediately. You can watch this scene from 1970 and watch an Erica scene from 2010, and it makes perfect sense that that's what she became over 40 years. Fingers crossed at this point for anything - and I mean anything at all - from 1971-1975. Preferably in color but I'll take a hundred kinescopes if that's what we get. I want some Margo!!

Two episodes of AMC from spring/summer 1970 have been on YT for over a year, and I don't think they've ever been shared or discussed here on SON. I just posted them in the AMC thread. As I noted there, these eps are a first for AMC, as I don't think we've ever seen any 70s episodes as they originally aired on ABC (rather than from Daytime to Remember or on SoapNet).

You're welcome! I'm halfway through the second episode right now, and both of these are good, important episodes from this era. The first one has, as far as I know, the only scenes we've seen that deal with Amy's anti-war protests, and I'm surprised at how much the discussion is on how negative/unsupportive Charles is about it rather than Phoebe. The second one is from June 1970 and has Phil confronting Amy after he's learned the truth about his parentage as well as Erica and Jeff's first meeting.

Not sure if these have been posted here, and I hope it’s safe to share them, but two original broadcasts from 1970 are on YT. I’m pretty sure we’ve never had any full episodes of AMC on ABC from the 70s at all - just stuff from Daytime to Remember, SoapNet marathons, and Agnes’s website.

Happy 55th anniversary, AMC! You are missed, you are loved!

See, and the thing is, I like Charlene Tilton best when she's lounging around the den at Southwork, trading barbs with JR. I'm not saying she would have been great in a more Melissa-type role, but right now, I'm in S6, and I know she would be better than Audrey Landers, who is downright embarrassing as Afton at this point. I do not need Lucy running after Cliff Barnes, but now that Mickey Trotter's in town, why not have them get their bitch kicks on and try to make some real waves. (I'm watching completely spoilerless, so I have no clue what's going to actually happen lol)

Yes, I generally love all the Gioberti house scenes because of that everyday realness. I figured that would have gone away early on (like Angela being called "Angie," which I think is actually kinda funny now lol), but they maintain the Gioberties as salt-of-the-earth for a nice little while. Vicky's already showing signs of uselessness as she's getting involved with another old man. I have to say that the grossest thing about the classic primetime soaps is the need to have this dusty old men be lusted over by young women. I think one of the things that makes Melissa an easy favorite is that she's chasing after the two hottest pieces of ass in the valley.

But I agree. I feel like it's been said time and time again, but these weirdos only have power if we give them power. It makes me look at the people who willingly, and earnestly, go back and forth with them kinda differently, too.

Yall really don't know how to not respond to people who are desperate for a response? I've been on SON for over 20 years and have never had anyone on "ignore" because it's not hard to scroll by. React in your head, react out loud, but no one's making you hit that reply button.

Making my way through S2, and I guess I never realized how "young" Falcon Crest is compared to Dallas and KL. Lance, Melissa, and Cole aren't just supporting characters in a triangle on the outskirts of the main action, they're actually there right as important parts of everything. Then, at the very same time on Dallas, you can see that they were already completely lost with what to do with Lucy. Another difference that's coming in loud and clear is how on Dallas, those people have to pretend to like each other because they're family. Miss Ellie gets JR out of Ewing Oil, but "you're still Jock's son." JR vs. Bobby for control, but "that's still your brother." Rebecca's out to take down the Ewings, but "Bobby is a Ewing, too, momma!" But out in the Tuscany Valley, no one hides their hatred because yes, they're "family," but not really.

Oop, my bad. The post said "National Erica Day," and in my mind, Erica is like Madonna, Beyonce, and Cher lol