DRW50

Thanks for the detailed writeup on Harris Yulin. Jill Larson's character name on Soaps and Scruples was Cordelia Waxler. Brody's full name was Joseph Channing, Maraffino's Angie Cartwright.

Thanks. I had forgotten Sandy had a son. I suppose they may have thought Barbara Rucker was too young for a son in his late teens/early twenties, but it could have worked and given Dee some stories in that time period. I wonder if Kevin's last appearances are as grim as the Soapcentral writeup suggests. Given how inert ATWT seemed to be by that point, probably not, but it's a harrowing read. I know ATWT was always a contemplative, at times morose show, but I do wonder how much the morbidity of much of the '70s took a toll.

They can easily just write around Spinelli, although I would always be glad to see Blake Berris back on a soap.

I don't watch enough of the show to remember who Sidwell is even meant to be a threat to.

Thanks. I totally forgot Michael was on Y&R. I guess barely watching for decades does that.

Interview with Jason Herbison about the (latest) end of Neighbours. The most interesting part for me was learning why Felix, one of the high points of the revival for me, had such an abrupt exit (the actor was very busy, apparently). https://www.backtothebay.net/news/2025/06/07/neighbours-executive-producer-discusses-the-shows-final-months/

Pratt was just a very...unique actress. She was probably more suited to '40s noir than soaps, although she did have talent and some charisma, which is probably why she managed to work in soaps for as long as she did even though I don't think any of her roles were ever well-received. Claire was probably her most popular soap role, which says it all. Barbara may have been the role which best utilized her, at least the first few years of the part.

Thanks @Forever8 you may want to put that in the where are they now thread too. I know some here were big fans of Finn (not sure if they still post here).

I think it would have been tougher with Rachel Miner still playing Michelle, but by that point the Bauer family had been made completely alien, aside from Rick, who wasn't there when Maureen died anyway. I'm still surprised, and pleased, they remembered her part in Maureen's death for the final episodes. (I know some might joke her marrying Buzz was part of her penance)

Rachel, who was around the same age as Lillian, had just had twins on AW around that point too. And it would have been interesting story for Beth, seeing Lillian, who was always her rock, no longer able to focus on her.

I'd forgotten about the Mike/Lillian relationship (and I guess Alex although she was off the canvas most of that period). Maybe he could have tried to "fix" Beth to make up for what happened with Hope.

I wouldn't be surprised if Frank, if this was a dig, is still mad over the problems it caused the show, especially with the short-lived Molly who was about 40. I would hope it's not about her, but producers have been more vindictive. (can't imagine what Irna Philips might have done - probably burned Molly's corpse) I do wonder if they ever had more plans for Jason/Sasha. I think Steve said no (I may be wrong). Either way that story, which had some interesting elements on paper, just seemed like a complete placeholder. I never thought that Jason would be used that way. I guess even he can't escape the passage of time. He is going to get more now, I assume, but Sonny still seems to be going nowhere fast. Maybe he can start dating Amy the nurse.

At the time Breen was so horribly treated by the tabloids (Eileen Fulton once said when she saw one of the tabloids about him she threw it in the trash), P&G's role didn't seem to get any talk. I am just glad he survived and seemed to move on to a happy life. Gentry briefly returned in 97-98 when Michelle was dating Jesse and they were having problems dealing with Jesse's father. He never really felt at home to me, although they barely tried. It didn't help that he had the coldest Michelle (Budig) as his daughter, but I don't think that mattered. I think he first came back in the fall. If Soapcentral is accurate, it's late September.

I swear there was a rumor somewhere back at the time that she tried with Murray Bartlett and he told her he was gay. Barbara was written out of AW in spring 1996, around the time she was appearing every once in a while as Barbara. I agree they should have brought her back - that she wasn't there for Ken's story is strange, as she was still acting at the time (she made a brief ghostly return to AW). I suppose Rauch wasn't interested as Meta (who IIRC was rarely seen at this time as Mary Stuart was battling cancer) was enough for him. You're right about Mike's family not being on the canvas. I suppose I was just thinking Stewart's Mike might have fit where the Bauers were at that point - trying to keep Rick together with all of his messes and dealing with Michelle and the mob. If they didn't want to bring Hope back, as I imagine they wouldn't, then he might tangle with the Santoses - maybe get into a complicated tangle with Maria, who pretends to be the "good" one of the family and says she wants to help him, and as they get closer, he starts to question if she's actually running everything.

@Paul Raven Thanks. Sometimes the old entries for the Tom/Natalie/Jay/Carol story give the impression of Natalie being the bad girl and Jay just being hapless, but if Jay was the one initially making moves on her clearly that wasn't the case. Jay was an anti-hero for the show before that became so common. I wish we could see more of that instead of what we have of his last months, where he just seemed tired. Very clever to have Ellen involved in Joyce's custody hearing. I don't think they ever interacted later on. I wonder what the rationale was in bringing Sandy back after 6-7 years, as they don't seem to want to pair her with Bob after Norman died. Is this the same Tina Rebecca Hollen played a few years later?

Peter was the first Ed I ever saw, and aside from Robert Gentry's brief return and a few short clips of Mart in the 50th special, the only Ed I saw for a long time. When I finally got to see Mart on a more sustained basis, I understood why a number of older fans couldn't accept Peter Simon as Ed. I still appreciate Peter's work in the role, but he's a very solemn figure, aside from some light joking around with Ross, Maureen or Rick. Even then you feel like his Ed is forcing himself to joke around, especially with Maureen. He veers between haunted and pissy. I think this could have worked if they had properly written for Ed (and Peter Simon had wanted to stay), but he never could have been a patriarch. That's where they should have brought Mike back. Don Stewart showed what could have been in his very short 1997 appearance.

I think by the time Dusty left she had truly finished with him, but Holden's absence was likely a big factor. The other was that Lily was at an emotional low due to her scar and Derek was a Prince Charming who swept her off her feet. Martha's last year of her original run had Marland trying to move her into new, more mature stories, with the scar and working at Walsh. You can see the groundwork for what he initially tried with Heather's Lily. I do wonder if Martha would have been able to play the material. I also wonder if Marland would have done anything more with Duke and Lily with their sparring, or if that was just meant to show us Duke was a rebel. I can't remember who it was who talked about how bad Thomas Gibson was on AW but I couldn't help thinking of that when watching his in that 1989 episode. The start is incredibly rough. He does a better job at some other moments, IIRC, but he's clearly someone who was better off outside of soaps.

Is this Alex Donnelly in the Tab ad around 13 minutes?

Thanks. I liked Edmund more than I should have and I was happy for DAM that he got a few more paychecks but he probably didn't need a return. I suppose Bradley Cole did always have more chemistry with him than he did with a number of his love interests.

Happy early birthday.

Two 1988 and 1989 episodes were uploaded a few days ago. If they were up before they aren't at present, unless I missed them. Thanks to @Maxim as I first saw the channel link again in their AMC thread post. @Soapsuds @Vee @vetsoapfan @DramatistDreamer @Paul Raven @slick jones @soapfan770 @Reverend Ruthledge @Mitch64 @Sapounopera @Franko @FrenchFan @Tisy-Lish @Broderick @Khan @adrnyc @DeeVee @j swift @P.J. @Michael @anthonymolchan @kalbir @dragonflies @Soaplovers @katie_9918 @SheenaSoaper @Contessa Donatella @NothinButAttitude @Liberty City @chrisml

That was a terrible idea as the age difference was very distracting as she seemed so immature, they had little onscreen chemistry (many soap actors who hook up offscreen do not work onscreen - Kassie and James DePaiva being the king and queen of this), and he had a much more natural connection with Dinah. At least the show did reunite them for the finale, in a very odd way (wasn't there like one scene of them "in Europe" laughing or running away)?

I can understand why she is bitter about the show's final years, but I have to laugh at this about not giving them the satisfaction of quitting. She stayed for the money. No one else was going to be hiring her (not personal against Kim - most older soap actors don't work a lot in movies and TV after their shows end), and no one else did aside from a short OLTL run, web soaps, and small parts here and there. That's also why she wouldn't take a pay cut. You'd think she could have just admitted this. And they gave her a good amount of material in those years - it wasn't quality, but she'd had much worse, as most of Reva's material was never quality. In spite of her unhappiness, she does some of her better work, maybe because the pressure was off. Thanks for taking the time to type up these summaries as I will likely never be reading the book myself. The description of Ehlers (likely Ehlers) having a dark energy seems all too true. I loved Beth's work as Harley in her first run, but her second run is very difficult to get through, to the point where I actually preferred the temporary recast of an actress I did not care for on ATWT (Hayley Sparks). I disagree with Kim that Harley's exit hurt the canvas. By that point Harley was completely burnt out and her stories involved which man she was going to [!@#$%^&*], which was never the point of the character. I am sorry she wasn't on for GL's final episodes, but she chose to leave, and she...well, she sure made her choice with that one.

I don't know why people think the show would recast Monica. Say what you will about Frank, we all have, but he seemed to have a lot of respect for Leslie Charleson, and I don't believe he would recast the role.

I wonder if that Claudette character will be back...