DRW50

Did they also tangle about Mark Evans?

I think there was just a few months gap so I figured they could have sent Ed away. I thought of him mostly because this was the period where Ed was in high hog melodrama in foreign countries and with poisonings at the hospital, which Malloy could play. He was also decent in the everyday family moments on his other soaps - he never had many as Kyle. And he and Susan Pratt later worked together for several years on AMC so they probably could have gotten through Ed/Claire. He was excellent on Dark Shadows. In some ways I think he played the menacing ghost and dark cad better than David Selby but suffered from the story being a retread (and also being sped up compared to 1897, which never seemed to end). Chris Sarandon is a great suggestion. I remember him in that terrible Margaux Hemingway film. There was a magazine article from before Ron Raines was cast which mentioned two names - I think Jed Allan may have been one. Joe Gallison was the other. Jed was so off as Edward Quartermaine, but he did a decent job on PC before then so maybe he just suffered from where GH was at the time. Reilly as Ed does seem very intriguing to me. Ditto for Ron Hale. He would have likely been thrown around more for Alan, but I think he could have played Ed's many shadings. By this time Ron was about to go on GH, where he did some wonderful work, but was often just there.

@applcin Thanks. I had no idea she was doing this.

Rod Arrants is fine from what I've seen of him, but I think he's a little generic leading man for Ed. I know Peter Simon's Ed isn't well-received by many, but I do think he captured the self-loathing aspects. They just never had him as the patriarch he could have been (and presumably Simon wasn't thrilled with that aspect of Ed). I always liked Jim Storm on B&B. He might not have the depths of Chris Bernau or of GL's stronger years, but I could see him as Alan over Ron Raines. I'm not sure who I would choose. I might have had Nicolas Coster play Alan instead of putting him on ATWT as Eduardo. I know Nic was in an older age group for daytime by then, but was he really any less viable than the younger Ron Raines? As for Ed - if only Daniel Hugh Kelly hadn't been busy in primetime. For actors who were available - do you think Larkin Malloy might have made a better Ed than RvV was? I also think John Reilly could have made a decent recast of Alan or, after Peter Simon left in 1996, of Ed.

1993 is a heavy year so you were right to take some breaks. Take whatever time you need as the show will always be waiting. On paper, a Clint/Viki/Roger triangle should have been dynamic. The show was partly to blame for likely not wanting to rock the boat about Clint and Viki, but Larry Pine was miscast - he did well in smarmier or darker roles but was not a romantic leading man. Thanks for your newest recaps. I agree about how limited and tiresome a lot of that material felt. As for Megan, they may have made her a little too nice too quickly, but I think she would have been exhausting if she'd been written too much like Marty was in 92-spring 1993.

Thanks. I didn't know she was let go the second time. There were still many in Springfield she had ties to. I guess Roger being beyond redemption at this point did limit her.

Thanks @Franko Dreary as Laurelton is, I think I would still watch over the last days of Rick and Ginny. Judith Chapman is a very charismatic performer, but I can only take her in limited doses, and I have never liked anything I've seen of Chris Robinson as Rick (seeing him wear a sleazy chain in the episode where Laura vanished only cemented my disdain). At the time Bryan/Claudia and the Asian Quarter characters were likely seen as tokens, yet barely anything has improved since then. I wonder if Bryan and Claudia will even have an exit. It would be very funny if someone who just started the show also read your summaries and thought - Quartermaine stories and Anna stories...not much has changed! I guess this is a reminder that not as much has changed as you would think if you've been with the trenches with the show for eons.

"One Life to Live" Promo (1989)

I think he quickly moved to the Doctors, although that show was widely known to be on its deathbed by then so you'd think it wasn't his choice. I do wish they'd kept Joe on longer, as a soap needs a sleazy but not too OTT baddie to drive stories. I can't guess where he would have been if he'd stayed though. I could have seen him teaming up with Josh for Josh's schemes.

I guess the plan all along was for him to be a psycho, so at least they had a plan, but Behrens wasn't very good as the nice guy or the bad guy. The story did make Val look incredibly stupid and managed to be ugly and dull at the same time, while dragging on for what felt like years. To me it's a much worse story than the brain tumor story, which is also bad, but at least doesn't run long and has a camp element.

That's more relevant than anything I was writing. Sorry to go off topic.

I am always fascinated watching these clips (maybe more than if I was watching full episodes). This one in particular gets delirious by the end. I know that Whitney was thrown into some type of Devils-esque JER therapy by this point (wasn't she whipping herself and refusing to breast feed her child?). When I saw the thumbnail, I thought she was in whiteface, but no, it's just the post-production they used for Whitney's VR sessions. It works surprisingly well (a little better than when GL did this around the same time for Harley's comic book episode) but was VR a big thing in 2006? Brook Kerr always sells this material. And even the wig.

And that often made no sense...Reckell was set up to fail with that awful accent alone, although lacking chemistry with Nicolette Sheridan didn't help. (admittedly I think Bill Devane was the only one who had chemistry with her)

ATWT was riddled with feuds between female co-stars in the early/mid '80s which drove several women off the show (including, supposedly, Ariana Muenker, the only interesting young woman on the show at that time). Some of the hardcore Y&R fans will remember better than I do but I don't think Melody and Jeanne shared scenes together very often in that time frame (I think that may be one of the reasons why Jill, not Nikki, was there for Katherine when she had a breast cancer scare).

I think Brad mentioned Carly's houseplant. I do wonder if Sonny is as important to Jason these days.

I didn't realize they were still together. That's nice for them.

Carmen Duncan was on the iconic Australian soap Number 96 for several months before leaving due to her pregnancy. Most of Carmen's run on the show was wiped, but through a "bridging episode" of those lost years, I saw a few photos and clips, including her very last scene (followed by the first scene of her replacement, Jill Foster). @DaytimeFan I think you were a Carmen fan too so this may also be new to you. Carmen's sister Paula was on the show for a longer run, as Carol, the sister of long-running gay character Don (one of the first gay characters on TV in a substantial role).

https://deadline.com/2026/01/nessa-hyams-dead-exorcist-blazing-saddles-1236694861/

She did return in 1979 for a brief run. I have a feeling they decided the character had no use without Roger and then by the time Roger returned they would have never been interested, even though Billy would have made sense as a return.

By this point, even when they cast actors who presumably cost some coin (like Peter Reckell fresh off his biggest DAYS run or Sam Behrens not long after his well-received GH run) the show did a terrible job with them.

That's how I take it too. A gracious way of saying she'd been let go. I could also see Potter or Marland feeling Jennifer was a replacement for her. Geraldine Court ended up being so wasted - I never will know what happened there.

I remember when Wes debuted on GL, he got a lot of praise, even comparisons to Michael Zaslow. Those were not accurate, as it turns out, but I do think he has charisma. Peter just seemed to, from what I can tell, stay much too long and have horrible stories.

How much longer did Joe last than Andy?

@DeeVee @vetsoapfan It's a few minutes into this video. 1992 GL 40th Anniversary Prime Time Special Part 2

Don't give them any ideas...