DRW50

I'd like to know that too. She seemed to go around the big upheaval years (72-73). They did recast, once or twice, so perhaps it was her choice.

From a March 1970 Afternoon TV

Someone else will know better than I do but I think Stephanie Braxton was popular as Tara - they only brought Karen Gorney back when Stephanie chose to leave the show. I'm not sure about Mary Lynn Blanks or Nancy Frangione. I think by the late 70s Tara was becoming very played out.

I have a photo somewhere of a cute hat charity show and he and Karen Lynn Gorney were wearing cute hats and chatting happily. It's Tara's fault that he ran roughshod over Pine Valley. No wonder she didn't appear for all those years.

More moments I hadn't seen before. Susannah tries to force Niki to face Victor's abuse, instead of shrugging it off. I really wish this type of material was allowed today, instead of Tess and Niki being "fun" characters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1it8QW-9Yzo

Did Lilibet want to leave?

I thought the Billy Douglas story worked well with the exception of Clint's bile. That felt like an agenda and a bad stereotype and was very unfair to Clint (because it wasn't about him "learning" - as it was with noble-homophobe Sloan - it was about him being an a$$). Unfortunately it seems like most other soap stories that try to deal with the issue often go overboard with cartoon homophobes, when in real life, "nice" people are often the most prejudiced. I always wonder what it was that took AMC from having genuinely good characters, like Tom, to having the self-righteous, harsh, unforgiving "good" characters, like the latter day Martins. That was one of the main things that drove me away from AMC in the late 90's.

It's nice to see Michaela one last time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb15-P_LNhA

More new credits. I think the new ones look cheap, like a bad 80's commercial. The worst are Ruby and that idiot on the cloud. I want a lightning bolt to rain down on him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtPpkRIhj94

That reminds me of how on OLTL, Michael Malone, I think, refused to have a "good" homophobe to balance out the characters who were spewing anti-gay trash. In this story, I think it works that they had Tom, who was pro-life, but not an extremist, like the people in those credits. This story is probably even more timely now than it was in 1994, but no soap would ever go near it today.

What did you think of Witherspoon? I remember he said he didn't exactly enjoy either of his soap experiences, based on how he was let go.

Thanks. I wonder why they did that with Tyler. The actor on there in 1984's episodes seemed fine to me. I wonder if the episode where Thomas dumped Lisbeth (right after she had been with Jordy, although he didn't know that) was her last.

I haven't gotten around to watching the finale yet, as the whole firing squad thing always reminds me of poor Jessica on Soap. I will soon. So did they phase Tyler out? Or was that another character? I'm really starting to get more into the show - at first it was a bit distant for me, perhaps because of all the "action" stuff in the episodes available. I also get a cheap laugh out of this scene, from the clips which you mentioned earlier this year, where, after Wally sees Clarissa hit Myrna, he apparently realizes it's OK to beat up Jordy. The "newsbreak" footage is even better, as it plays out like one of those Taiwanese parodies that have become so popular. Whatever happened to Lisbeth? Did she just leave after Thomas dumped her?

I'd wondered why he called her "Myrna." At first I thought he was just calling her that because he didn't like her very much. I guess Julie and Jordy were very, very fraternal...

Thanks. I haven't seen much of Mark so didn't remember him. Was it Tyler who was a non-factor in the show's last years? I think I remember one or even two actors leaving for this reason. When did they switch from Kimberly Beck Hilton to Catherine Hickland? I thought Hilton may have been let go, but she was being interviewed in SOD up to about spring or late winter 1983, so that seems like it was a while, and she wanted to leave. I've asked this before, but what happened to Jenny? Did she and Zed leave the show together? Or was Julie with Zed at the end?

That sounds like a lot of fun. I wish I could see it. I've seen nothing of Betsy.Your trivia on Bibi is fascinating. Imagine if she'd stayed on Edge and there'd been a big triangle between she, Maeve, Donald. I was reading in a March 1970 Afternoon TV and someone wrote in saying they were no longer going to watch the show because of Mark having sex with Angel, and how could he do that to Laura, and the Mark/Laura relationship had been dragged out forever, etc. What did you think of Angel? She seemed very exotic in the photo I've seen of her - it was a photo Soap Opera Weekly had when they did an update on her in the late 90's. Other than that all I've ever seen of her is various soap magazines of the day saying she had to summer in Mexico or somewhere because of bad back problems.

From the March 1970 Afternoon TV.

Thanks. Do you think the show made a mistake having them just move away? I didn't even recognize Lana Wood. I always think of her as that woman who was thrown out a hotel window naked in Diamonds are Forever. Just how many crazy writing choices did Lipton make at the end? Sam became a traitor? And the father of Kelly's child (was she with Sam and Trey at the same time)? Leslie Graves has such a good connection with her scene partners. You really would think she and the guy who played Jordy were siblings, the way they go back and forth in that scene.

I wonder if, during Bea's year or so return to GL, if Lee shared any scenes with Audrey as Sarah Shayne. It's tough to think of them in any mother/daughter relationship (even if they weren't supposed to be the same age as mother and daughter on LOL).

Reading through a 1971 Daytime TV, they said that Lee Lawson temporarily replaced Zina Bethune as Barbara on LOL, in 1970, when Zina was ill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcjYUC7z7iI

The show had such strong and complex female characters at this time, all of whom could take you from wanting to shake them to breaking your heart within a single sentence. Where did that go? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kaz1TghTJ8

The saddest part of all that is all the Newmans are horribly written, and half of them don't care about the material or are hopeless in playing it. The worst part of production that favors certain characters is when they have no ability to write for those they favor.

I also thought it was tacky to have two women who had been raped put into one of those "no means yes" type of stories.

When did Jill first stop becoming a heroine? Was it the Derek story? Tucker is just so pointless. Things happen TO him, and he's just there. It's too bad, because if you go back and look at even the most filler of characters in a lot of Bill Bell's stories, they had a strong presence and drive.