DRW50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdlWf45zNWg

Geez. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVE0lhCut7E

I'll have to look for it. I read a comment at EW saying Cat from DC should be brought in. What do you think of that?

What was going on with Kelly? I've seen people say they were freaked out by her and something about drugs?

Just wonderful. What a beauty Eileen was. I miss her. Great profile. I'd love to have heard her stories. Ruth Gordon looks like she's going to eat everybody up.

What bothers you most about them? Do you think they should have kept the others? Jill was the one who had the big feud with Bethenny wasn't she?

March 12, 1985 Digest. This is from the March 26, 1985 Digest.

I was reading in a Digest from late 1989 that Joe Willmore (or is it Whitmore?) didn't think Ellen Parker was showing enough feistiness as Maureen. He approached Ellen Dolan about returning to the role. Ellen considered it, but they had to be discreet, since she and Ellen Parker lived on the same block, or something like that. Anyway, Ellen Parker found out, and she went to talk to him in his office, basically saying, "If you want to see feisty I can do it!" and they worked it out.

Elaine Princi auditioned to play Julia Medina. Later, she was cast at the last minute as Dorian when Paul Rauch realized there was no way Robin Strasser was coming back. When Joe Hardy came to Loving, he wanted to fire the first Jeff Hartman (Scott Feraco), and take the character in a new direction. He didn't want the actor to find out that he was auditioning a lot of other people, so he pretended this was another role. Feraco already figured it out, and to make matters more painful, James Horan, who had auditioned, was a close friend of his. Feraco told Horan that if anyone should replace him, he'd want it to be him. Instead, the show went with Michael Maguire, who was also very short-lived in the role. Horan was cast as one of the Clay Aldens. A Digest from before Loving's premiere said that they were close to getting Celeste Holm in a contract role. I guess this would have been Isabelle. I wonder why it fell through.

Why do the Salahis get so much media attention for their PR stunts? They aren't even as "popular" as Speidi were, since those two at least had a popular TV show. The Salahis got a show CANCELED.

I wonder if they ever would have had any gay characters (Bruce?).

A December 1989 Digest talks more about Marianne Tatum taking over as Gwyn. She had to fill in because Christine Tudor had a ruptured appendix. I also read that Lydia Bruce was initially a temp replacement for Bethel Leslie, as Bethel went to make a film. Bethel chose not to return to The Doctors, as she saw the potential to revive her film career, and Lydia stayed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiaR9n2sP44 4 poor quality clips from the Off On One special. http://www.youtube.com/user/blondeloz90

I've never seen this hairstyle on Viki before. Usually she's had a very specific hairstyle over the last few decades. This reminds me a little more of Megan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytr7hGaWAEU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Why is everyone so excited about her? What happened today on The Edge of Night to start such an uproar?" Letters began to block normal mailroom procedures. Sackfuls from the New York area alone, snowballing day by day. Some local stations forwarded mail, some merely reported it was beyond belief. TV Radio Mirror itself got hundreds of letters, sent directly to the editor, containing such comments as: "Why did this wonderful story and this wonderful family have to be broken up?"..."My friends and I are wondering why Sara had to die and leave Mike alone."..."Our whole neighborhood is waiting to hear why Teal Ames left the show. It's like losing a very dear friend."..."Thousands of women must have wept for Sara and her family, as we did."..."My husband hurried home to watch the show with me every day. And now Sara is gone." If the network and agency and the sponsors were astonished at the quick and violent reaction to Sara's demise, Teal Ames was even more so. When the CBS head of promotion asked her to come in and take some "conference calls" - a round-robin of phone calls in which half a dozen or so editors were on the line and Teal answered their questions - she was still in a state of bewilderment. "I must say it was ego-satisfying," she observes. "I had no idea that what happened to me would make that much impression. I knew people loved Sara, and I knew they would miss her very much. But I had to leave when I did." Why didn't the show simply replace her, immediately or later? Don Wallace, its producer, says: "Teal had told us she wanted to go. Her contract was expiring, and this was her right. Of course, we would have liked to keep her on the show, but she had made up her mind. TV is essentially an honest medium - anything dishonest in a story shows up quickly. The Edge of Night has always been an honest program. To please our audience, we could have sent Sara away for a time. But she is not the kind of person would ever leave her husband. "We couldn't put another girl in the show and call her Sara. Teal was too closely identified with the part in everyone's mind. It was not illogical to have her pass on. Death comes to families, and mothers sometimes give their lives to save a child. This is what Sara Karr did. She ran into the street to save Laurie Ann from the wheels of an automobile, and was herself struck down." Why did Teal herself want to leave the show? "I left because I felt primarily that the time had come to expand, to do some things that would 'stretch' me, and my talents. I had been Sara during five wonderful years. I loved her. I loved my TV family. But when the time came to sign a new contract, I found myself wanting to be in a position of greater freedom. To be able to try new parts, play other kinds of women. Maybe to work in something like the Shakespeare Festival, or a Broadway or off-Broadway play. In the big nighttime dramatic productions on television. In roles completely new to me, presenting new challenges." Indirectly, Teal left because there are certain things she now wants from life: "A girl who is tied so closely to a job may neglect other aspects of her life. Getting out and meeting many kinds of people. Having time to get to know some of them well. Looking ahead to a home, and marriage. A husband's wishes might have to take second place to the demands of a long-term job." She has a house in a suburban area, which she shares with two other actresses, the first step toward the country living she would like for part of every year. She wants to live on a farm someday. "It is possible to have a life like this - a life in the theater and a life in the country. I want some of both those worlds. I want to work intensively, and then be free for a period." Some of that freedom she wants to use in travel. She has an invitation to visit friends in Japan. "East and West are beginning to meet, and I want to be a small part of that. Long trips are simply out when you work in a daytime serial. You can't be away that much." How did she prepare to break away from the show? What were her feelings? "I thought about it a long time. These people had all become dear to me. They were like a family. And there was the audience, too. People all over the country who had bothered to write me. We had established lasting friendships through letters - friendships I intend to continue." What was the final break like? "First, I must tell what happened a few weeks before my last day on the show. We had started our broadcasts, in 1956, from a CBS studio which we vacated after six months. Then, those last weeks, The Edge of Night was transferred back to its old studio. I hadn't let myself think too much about leaving, and what it might mean to me, up to that point. "But when I walked in, a flood of memories came back. My happiness when I got the part of Sara. Working with John Larkin and the rest of the cast and crew. The way everyone had helped me from the first day, especially John, who knew so very much more than I did. It was like getting to page 100 in your life, suddenly flipping back to page 50, and remembering what you felt at that time. What have I set in motion? I asked myself. Will I ever again find such a wonderful group of people and work under such happy conditions? The very last day filled her with mixed emotions. She stood at the threshold of something new, but the old still called to her. "There are alternate directors on the show, Allan Fristoe and DIck Sandwick. Allan had directed the accident scene and Dick was directing the scene in the hospital. He had some ideas which were very moving. John Larkin and I decided to go easy during rehearsals and try not to be too emotional. We were saving that, and ourselves, for the actual broadcast. "But it didn't work. We were moved to tears each time we went through it. The scene was so well written, so poignantly directed, that we had to play it to the hilt. I had never before played a death scene, and I was grateful it wasn't long and drawn-out. That it had not been made harrowing and morbid. "Actually, it was a beautiful scene, because John handled it so beautifully. When he softly sang, 'And for bonnie Annie Laurie, I'd lay me down and die,' I could hardly keep the tears back. Sara had died for Laurie Ann, their daughter. Perhaps some people still didn't know that, in real life, Laurie Ann is John's daughter, Victoria Larkin. An adorable child, who was just beautiful to work with. She's a natural-born actress." Teal almost spoiled the surprise farewell party that was given for her, by planning one of her own in the studio immediately after the show. "Everyone who had planned to be at the surprise party had to show up at mine, to keep me from suspecting. I was so excited that I didn't change from the hospital gown I wore in the final scene. One of my friends saw me pouring champagne for my guests in this funny short nightgown and whispered, 'Don't you think you ought to take time out to get dressed?'" By a pretext, they got her over to the hotel where their big party was waiting for her. By this time, she was practically in tears. The spray of red roses they gave her was presented with deeply touching words of appreciation and affection. So was the charm bracelet, to commemorate the five years then ending. "I never had a charm bracelet," says Teal. "I always wanted one, but felt it should have special significance. This has. The tiny basket of flowers which dangles from it is to remind me that I was working in a flower shop in my early scenes on the show. The little bride-and-groom is for the marriage of Mike and Sara. The baby carriage is for Laurie Ann. The poodle is for a poodle I owned who appeared with me a few times. The TV camera, the medal which give s the name of the show and the dates, and the wishing well with the little bucket that goes up and down - these are self-explanatory. The wishing well belongs to the future - my future." What will the future bring to Teal Ames? At this writing, it is filled with exciting promise. A Theater Guild offer to tour Europe with a repertory company had to be turned down because a part was pending in an off-Broadway show she may do this summer or fall. There is talk of a Broadway show. There are some nighttime TV dramatic roles. There are also some trips she wants to take - short ones, and perhaps the long one to the Orient she has dreamed about so long. "Everything in life has a beginning, and an end," she says. "Many times you want to fight the end of something, especially of something you have loved. But you must move on." Meantime, The Edge of Night has had an audience bonus. Little Laurie Ann, desperately ill at the time of Sara's death, is restored to health, and to the arms of her adoring father, Mike Karr, and her grandparents. Even those viewers who could not accept Sara's passing, at the time, have found new interest in the story's growing developments. "I'm glad they close the way they did," Teal says now. "When I left the show, Sara did, too. It would have seemed strange to watch anyone else in my part." She can see herself in it, any time she wants to run the kinescope of that final scene. The program presented it to her, as one more remembrance of five good years on The Edge of Night. And of Sara Karr, the girl Teal Ames helped to create.

July 1961 TV Radio Mirror

I'd love to have a meal with Papa and Bert. Just one "Berta" to get through the day. Bill always seems like a big fat loser to me. I never know why fans complained about him being written as such in his 1978 return.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5briDYBi8s

That photo is so startling. It almost looks like her face was put on there. I have an old Radio Mirror with Charita on the cover; this was from the early 40's. I love Bert but I love her most of all when she's a real b!tch in GL's 50's episodes. I wish she hadn't been quite so sweet all the time later on.

For some reason I think they would have, as a PR stunt, had Jo and Stu get married. They may have written it seriously, or they may have just had them marry for some other reason (as a protest, or for insurance). I think Jo would have experienced a certain renaissance after years of downplaying Mary Stuart. I think they would have given Stu some long-lost children. Sunny would have her own talk show. Liza would become the new Patti in terms of recasts.

First page. Second page

Thanks for your comments. In a few minutes I'll put in spoilers the identifications for each photo, and you can look if you want to.

Interview with then-headwriter.

Daytime TV Library Search for Tomorrow. See if you can guess the cast.