DRW50

March 1954 Radio TV Mirror

There are quite a few 1987 and 1988 episodes of the Sonni/Solita era up at monejcim if you ever want to see any. There's a lot of scattered stuff but also this old Sonni-and-Rose clipset that goes up to 25 or more. If P&G would sell the rights then something like that Sonni webseries could happen. It would certainly be fascinating to watch.

Only a month? That's nuts. I wonder how annoyed longtime fans must have felt.

It's interesting about Irna's view of Kim, as Kathryn Hays was very private and this fascinated the soap press. Do you remember what Irna mentions about Natalie and Tom wanting to move to a farm and Natalie making their own food and all the rest? I wonder how far that story went. It was very of its time - shows like The Good Life made this a phenomenon in the UK.

I have a soft spot for twin stories, mostly because I like the whole impersonation aspect and because I like to see an actor stretched (this is mostly when a twin story is Vicky/Marley, or Adam/Stuart, not a few month dual role.) But I totally agree that there was no real need to have this with Frannie/Sabrina. The idea of a doppleganger, taking over Frannie's life, seemed to be the point of the resemblance, but that story wasn't followed through. There was no true comeuppance for Sabrina. She got Seth, for a while anyway, and Frannie, who was the more interesting character, was phased out of the show during Moore's last year in the role. If they were going to do this then I think Sabrina should have been a real bitch, not misunderstood or easily forgiven. This could have created some juicy conflict with Barbara, not to mention Nancy and Kim (if Nancy wanted to strongly rein her in and Kim was reluctant). I read somewhere that the reason for the dual role was that P&G was considering firing Julianne Moore for not being attractive enough, and Marland created a drab role for her to show how beautiful she was as Frannie. I'm not sure if that's true or not.

Thanks. I was just asking because I'm never entirely clear on which actors wanted to leave during that Kobe era and which didn't (for instance, I was never sure about Don Stewart). I know they tried again with Rita when Gus was revealed as Alan's son but that must have fallen through as well. I'm glad that Cullen and Aleksander had some stuff in her first run. How long after Phillip learned Justin was his biological father did Justin leave town? Here are the episodes with Cullen's return. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O01mrNURTgM&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoOQ7wz6hns

Thanks, as always, for your knowledge and details. I know Cullen talked about her infant daughter in some early 80's Digest issues but for some reason I thought she was let go. Perhaps by 1987 she'd just transitioned out of acting. It's a shame, because she was something very special as Amanda. Was she around for any scenes with Grant Aleksander before her 1983 exit or did he arrive after she left? I know a summer 1986 Digest told viewers to be on the lookout for Hope, and a very different Hope than what they knew. I guess that never panned out.

They said they wouldn't do that again because of how it exhausted Julianne Moore.

And it's something the show could have easily brought up again. Even when Melinda came back in 1997 I'm not sure it was ever addressed. I still would rather believe Melinda is alive out there somewhere. I also wish they hadn't cast Sharon Gabet as Melinda. Something about that never seemed right. I would have cast her as one of Victor's distant relatives out to get what was hers, or whatever. Pomerantz is such an...offbeat leading man. I wonder if he was more popular or Denny Albee.

They stopped looking alike, yes.

I don't remember Wendy. Is she on Youtube?

I think I have seen part of it but it's so difficult to invest in that stuff...I remember an episode where Dinah was being held prison by the evil caravan or whatever, and Ross and Vanessa were at odds, and Henry had to pay ransom money. Claire became a psycho bitch, then the guy from 2001 diagnosed her with a brain tumor. She was cured. They left town. Susan Pratt hated that story. Some time ago I remember a script of Amanda with, I think, Alan-Michael, or Phillip, from 1987. I wish I could see that if it exists. I still can't believe the number done on that character later on. In the long run I think GL lost a lot by casually dumping the women they probably saw as "boring," like Amanda, Hillary, Trish.

Amazingly enough the media spent years calling this guy charismatic and telegenic. If you ever doubted the Beltway was out of touch, this is the #1 example. It looks like Michelle Bachmann all but bought her win - she paid for 4,000 tickets and she got about 4800 votes.

I know the actor that played Johnny talked about how horribly confusing the Valere story was...which seemed to be a theme for this era of GL (Robert Newman said the same about the mammoth Sonni/Solita saga). I'm not sure if Johnny ever had any stories that were worth watching. What I've seen of the cancer story is overheated, and what was done to Roxie was just tacky. Pam Long said the story should have had more of him doubting his faith, but the strike ended it. It seems like a lot of GL at this time was so free-floating, which may have worked for strong personalities like Alex, Reva, Alan, HB, etc. but quieter people seemed to sink. I can see why Maeve Kinkead quit - she'd had nothing to do for years and I think even getting the Dinah story was tough. I do like the stuff with Mindy going out to investigate and getting into danger. It's stupid, but fun. I really missed that side of Mindy when they began beating her down in the early 90's. The December 22 and 23 episodes of 1987 are on Youtube, if that was Christmas. Reva-centric Christmas 1987 clips are also up. Amanda never came back around this time, did she? A long time ago I read that she did, but I've never seen it anywhere else.

I wonder if they had a very different idea of Rusty than later writers. He seems to be much more fiery here. Later on I remember him being very solemn all the time.

T-Paw is TKO! http://tpmdc.talking...ace.php?ref=fpa To think, years and years of shaping his political career around a would-be Presidential run, to the point of crippling Minnesota (and also inadvertently helping to cause a lot of GOP electoral failures in the state during those years). Blatant flip-flopping on major issues like global warming. Hardline social conservatism at all costs. And for what? Being an afterthought of an afterthought. This after years of gushing media attention from places like The Fix. So long. I'm sure Minnesota Republicans might want to help get Al Franken re-elected in 2014.

Nice photos. I hadn't seen the one of Ralph. I think he was back around 1991. I don't know the point of that either. Didn't they say he was Earl's brother? This may have already been mentioned, but I was looking through some synopses of mid or late September or early October 1993, and was surprised at some part about Duncan going to Montega to try to find Hans, and Sabrina warns Duncan of Hans' approach, and this ending in a big fight between the two of them and Hans over a gun, and explosives are about to go off, and there's a fire, and so on. I had no idea or had forgotten that Sabrina was on the show again after her appearance at Andy/Courtney's wedding. Was this boring Claire Beckman again, or was this another actress? Does anyone know? The way they throw Duncan/Sabrina together like this I wonder if Marland planned to pair them or put them in a triangle with Jess. I can't see him ever doing that horrible story with Shannon's return.

I guess Sammy was fond of LOL to the end - he appeared in that news piece on the show's cancelation. After that it may have been down to who asked him to appear. He said he watched a ton of the soaps. It was probably the first time, although Johnny Carson had been on The Doctors in the early or mid-60's, as himself (was that before he hit it really big?).

November 1978 Digest.

November 1978 Digest.

November 1975 Daytime TV.

November 1971 Daytime TV (sorry about the bad scanning!)

Tom Fuccello initially tried out for the part of Mark on Love is a Many Splendored Thing back when David Birney was cast. He kept on trying for the role until he was finally cast a few years later.

A 1982 SOD mentions that John Conboy wanted Margaret Mason for a role on the upcoming soap Capitol. I wonder what that role would have been.