All My Shadows

Wasn’t there something like 13 Toms? I know we have more than enough of Tom Tammi, Deas, Marx, and Holmes. Is it Frankie Michaels in the 1966 episode? I’m sure there is some Jason Kincaid out there, too, right?

Peter Galman looks fantastic. Isn't he the "hippie Tom" who's on the 1971 TV Guide cover? Lord, if he locates some of that footage and shares it with us, I'll be forever indebted. ESPECIALLY if it's in the original color.

Back to binge watching TNG, and I’m at the hourlong Christmas episode from season 3 where Craig’s lies regarding Ashley and Manny are revealed. As much as I hate Ashley, the way she figured out he was cheating on her with Manny remains one of my favorite story points in soap (yes, soap) history. I forgot how totally unsympathetic Rick was from the very beginning.

They really do. I would've never guessed Nina and Shenae would have gotten bigger gigs before them. To be honest, I missed Dan Clark more than Ryan Cooley, and I like RC. The fact that Ms. Kwan is included is the best.

I believe so. It was a pretty murky off-the-air copy but then the same episode was released on the first DVD set, sans opening titles, which is from where this upload comes. I watched it years ago but haven’t pulled my ATWT DVDs out in a while.

I think, at its core, the good/evil trope can evolve into something deeper and more nuanced. The Van/Meg conflict was sort of a precursor to Viki and Dorian on OLTL. It just would have taken a more deliberate pen to show that each woman, while Van is dominated by superego and Meg by id, is human. I also think that having their offspring (or whomever became their proteges - Van didn't have kids, but with the university, she could have taken on a role model position with all of those kids) around would have helped in giving the writers a chance to write the two women as growing older and realer. Meg still inclined to her nasty ways but having a cooler enough head to stop Ben from cutting up ("I'm a grown ass woman, I can do what I want - you're still my child, and you WILL listen to what I say!"). I really wish we could see more of the Ben/Meg dynamic because I bet Tudi brought out the best in CR and CCH.

I mean, Audrey Peters/Van didn’t go anywhere, and the show still tanked, so you’re probably on to something. I think it was in the 70s that TPTB started realizing that many of these shows could go on for a long, long time, and so it might’ve been in their best interest to establish characters and families that would be around for a while. Shows like GL had focused so much on one central point while other characters came and went without much longevity (the Fletchers, the Scotts, the Hayeses) but then you had people like the Thorpes, Spauldings, and Marlers, who stayed. Love of Life needed a crop of characters who would put roots down and set the permanent image of what/who “Love of Life” is. Barbara and Alan’s returns would’ve been great timing with Tudi Wiggins planning to leave; Barbara could’ve become our new antagonist similar to how she slid into that role in the 60s. Wasn’t Birgitta/Gitana Tolksdorf planning to leave, too? I read an interview with her years and years ago where she kinda let on that she was ready to leave soaps. See, and my personal experience is different. In my mom’s family, the parents raised the kids to hold on to every bit of the jealousy and bitterness that they had growing up towards the cousins who everyday reminded them that they were prettier and “better” because they were part Native American and not “just black.” It could either way, though.

Most soaps were still half-hour in 1976. AW, DAYS, and ATWT were the only three that had expanded by then (and of course GH and OLTL to 45 minutes that summer). I could see JR as Christina on AMC. Didn’t Robin Strasser leave the role because she was bored with it (especially after making her name as Rachel). I don’t think I’ve ever seen JR play a role with much fire but then again I’ve only seen her as Carolee in later episodes of The Doctors, and she’s no Carolee Campbell. Have we ever been gifted with any of her work on TSS? It sucks that what was probably her most meaningful work there is from the era that has all but been erased from history.

I had NO CLUE Margaret DePriest wrote for Sunset Beach. She had to be pushing 70 by then, and look, if a person can write, they can write, but she had no business trying to get the pot boiling on Beach.

I think the Van/Meg angle could have been played for years and years as their families grew. Did Van ever have any children of her own? In another thread, there was talk about how not every female character needs to become a mother, but Van obviously should have become one at some point. Meg had Ben and Cal. It would have been interesting to see the dynamics between the Van's virtuous offspring and Meg's rougher kids and then to see that follow through to the next generation. All along, the sisters learning and getting wiser in their older years to the fact that family's all that you have, no matter how different. If anything, I think LOL is one soap that should have had no problem at all staying true to its day 1 premise. The fact that Meg was offscreen for so long is a shame. I really like those new clips that have surfaced. I watched those episodes that CCH uploaded a few years ago just earlier this week, and across all of these, you can feel a sense of modernity growing. I don't know much about the Amy character, but you can tell that she was created as a response to something.Had the show continued, it could have made a nice, youthful image for itself while still retaining major characters like Van, Meg, and Bruce. I guess it wouldn't have made a difference for CBS since they offed LOL to expand Y&R (after moving LOL from its long-held morning timeslot).

Wow, what an excellent catch. That matches up with what we've always heard about Agnes wanting them to start saving the episodes just prior to her taking AMC to the hour. I believe that particular episode was OLTL was originally 45 minutes long, right? Maybe they started saving before they expanded GH and OLTL. It makes you wonder why they never dug any of those up whenever they did those marathons before AMC and OLTL left ABC. You'd at least expect them to show that edited version of Kevin's birth again (or maybe air it at its original length in tandem with another 45-minute episode).

Forgive me for bringing up things that have surely been discussed multiple times at depth over the years, but man, how shocked were yall who were watching live when Maureen confronted Ed over his affair with Lillian and then drove off to her death? I watched the ep today and knew exactly where the story was headed and STILL found myself scrambling for the next one as the credits rolled. The thing that sticks out to me the most about their scenes throughout the episode was the lack of background music at a time when GL and ATWT were heavy on the electronic scores that made every scene sound like a Saturday afternoon B action movie. They very wisely cut that out for Maureen and Ed, and it became all about Maureen's hurt. Even Ed's lines were minimal, but Peter Simon delivered with facial expression alone. Amazing.

I seem to recall reading this at some point, too. I want to say that she'd played the role either immediately before or after Barbara Rodell did and not for long. I don't know off hand when JR was/wasn't playing Amy, so I'm not sure if the years line up correctly. The background story for Bill's return was DUMB. AS. HELL. and I hated it when they told a similar story when Jesse came back from the dead on AMC. If a man willingly lets his family think he's dead so that he can live on some other woman and play house with her, then he ain't sh!t and he can stay dead. This is me wishing soaps would stick with the families they already have, but did they ever try to introduce any other members of the Jackson family? It sucks that they had a good, unique vet like Stefan Schnabel around and they let the character just die off. Did they bring in anyone from Sara's family? I'm just annoyed with how it seems like at the beginning of each decade, the show scrapped a ton of characters and kept adding and adding and adding. Especially in the 80s. HERE COME THE REARDONS!!! HERE COMES THE LEWISES!!! HERE COME THE COOPERS!!! Why?

There are 16 episodes from 1966 on YT. Each one is divided into 2 parts. I've started those radio episodes once or twice and enjoyed them but could never make a routine schedule to listen all the way through. I'm going to probably start using them to help me get through my cardio in the gym. It's crazy to watch that one ep from two weeks into the show's TV run and hear how the actors and actresses still performed and enunciated for radio.

I've been really committed to learning more about GL over the last month or so, and I rewatched those summer 1966 episodes this week after not having seen them in several years. Watching them now with a better understanding of the stories that came before and after, I desperately hope that one day more of them will show up. I'm not sure if people truly realize how complex and unique the Bert/Bill relationship was. Bert had eyes only for Bill forever and ever, but he was depicted as a loser time and time again and in so many different ways. Even in the earliest TV episodes, it's always about Bert supporting Bill as he "tries" to make himself a better man. Fast forward to 15 years later, and she's still as loyal as ever to a man who is decidedly unhappy with her. It's crazy, because I always noticed a sense of sadness in Bert in episodes from the late 70s and early 80s, and now it makes sense. I bet when Bill was presumed dead in 1969, her whole world came crashing down. Even with two grown-up sons who were devoted to her, nothing was like holding on to the hope that one day Bill would lose his demons and just be happily married to her. When he died, so did that hope. IIRC, the verdict on Bill's back from the dead story in the late 70s is that it sucked, but if they'd kept him around to further explore his marriage to Bert and how much it had damaged her as a person, it could have been fantastic. We're so used to older couples on soaps being tentpoles. To have them on as an example of what years and years of a toxic relationship can do to two people would have been too good. Then, had Bill stuck around even longer, having him mourn her death and all of his mistakes would have been huge. But alas, they were moving full steam ahead in a new direction.

GOLD!!! When Mo'Nique comes slow-stepping in with that constipated look on her face! Lord, I should be smarter than this, but that season was honestly one of the best television shows ever made.

That's always been my assumption. Here is a link to piano sheet music for the original AMC theme. You can see that there are some additional lyrics there that are not included in the New Christy Minstrels recording, and there is a short phrase in the NCM recording not included in the sheet music. Looking at the copyright, the sheet music was published in 1985, so I'm not sure what came first.