DRW50

This is great. Bonnie doesn't suit that style at all. She looks a bit like when Andrea Hall played Hattie on DAYS. I can see why some felt she was miscast as Van.

I'm sure we've seen some...although they're mostly from the show, or party photos. It is nice to see a cast photo though. I only know about half of the actors in that... Kathleen looks older there than in the few stills available of her (usually of her at her sister's wedding). I like how horribly awkward James Pritchett is. I wish I could see more of him. I think he's my type of older leading male on a soap, the type that was, sadly, kicked out the door in the early/mid 80's and never invited back.

A Chris Schemering SPW history tour had this 1978 cast photo. Sorry if this has been around a lot - I'd never seen it. He also mentions that Turner's first, or some of her first, scenes involved her mother's death at Luke's club, for which she blamed Doreen.

Thanks. They really jerked Levin around. I feel sorry for her over that. Why did Lemay go so quickly?

Thanks. So Levin came back twice?

October 1984 SOD - Sela Ward was offered a 5 year contract on Dynasty. She turned it down to make a film with Tom Berenger. Deane Hamilton was initially cast as Rob Corelli, Marco and Gary's brother, on OLTL. Instead they had him play Ken Romak, and Ted Marcoux was cast as Rob Coronal, now their cousin.

Thanks. I wish I could see Lemay's material. I wonder if he was even there long enough for it to show up on-air...

Didn't Cooper go for a while and then return briefly and he had found another woman? Then he came back briefly on The City? I can't remember. I wish I could see those scenes with Stacey and Ava. I was reading an October 1984 Digest and Patty Lotz is in so much of it...she and Perry Stephens are mentioned as one of the hot new couples (onscreen), she's interviewed in a gossip section; in the issue before that they'd used a sexy-type photo of her in their recap. I wonder exactly when or why ABC chose to recast. It seemed sudden.

I agree that the teen alcoholic should have continued as a story. They seemed to drop him right after they decided to write Kim out. It was a waste, as he was something the story probably needed - an outsider (and not the mobbed up kind). You're right about the cruel treatment of Delia by Joe. I was much more upset by the early 1981 material where he initiates the supplier strike - I could barely watch that once and have always skipped on repeat viewings. I think that the chemistry between RB and RE helps make their scenes a little more palatable for me. Roger's relationship with Delia in the months before the mine scam was him taking her out for drives and talking to her about her problems and how she needs to break out of "patterns" and how the Ryan family are her "pattern". I always hate this psycho-analysis stuff between them. Anyway, Roger was becoming closer to her again and then she used him for the stock scam and that's when he realized what a wicked woman she was and he moved on from her.

This always reminds me of Doug Marland. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEtvYqMSpBg

This same Jan 1982 issue says that Elizabeth Levin had returned as headwriter. So this may have been her material. I guess she was replaced by the grave-robbing writers?

I wonder who the younger leading man was. Please tell me it wasn't Tony or Richard. Not exactly groundbreaking. Did they do the story with Dinah Lee and Buck or was that curtailed by the revamp?

1988 Ryan's Hope ad at about :27.

1988 Loving ad at a few seconds after :27.

Thanks. I love that era of Eastenders. So much is happening in every scene. Such sharp characterizations, and no one can banter like Den and Angie. And look, they don't end on a cliffhanger! I get tired of the idea that every episode needs a cliffhanger and if it doesn't have one that's a sign of failure. Debs always seemed so out of place on the show...

November 28, 1992 Weekly interview with Terry Lester and Douglas Marland. Q: At the time you were dealing with this offer, you were also dealing with an offer to create a new role (Frank's father) on Guiding Light. What tipped the scales? TL: (laughing) It was a better part. No, I can't tell you that without getting my legs broken. These two people sitting beside me, for starters. I've known Laurie since he was a CBS executive, and I have admired Douglas' work since I began watching soaps 12 years ago. Q: What can you tell us about Royce - and the name? DM: Just from the lunch and from meeting Terry (when he came to New York last June to attend the Daytime Emmys), I immediately envisioned him as an architect. I think we did talk about (Ayn Rand's) The Fountainhead at lunch, and that may have clicked it into place. There are not a lot of architects in daytime, and architects are a very romantic profession. It's a man who works alone, who has a vision, who sees something and then puts it on paper and then supervises it until the end of the construction. It's someone who works alone, like a writer, and that kind of separates them from the people who work with a lot of people and it makes them more romantic. I have a Rolls-Royce, and I want a name to look and rounds like a person's character. Royce has class. I played Chris Keller when I was an actor in All My Sons. I always loved that name because it was short and snappy. So that's how Royce Keller came along. Q: In what areas will we see Royce interact? DM: The Lucinda group, because she wants him to stay on to design the Worldwide towers, and he moves very quickly into all of Oakdale. I think by the time he's been on the show two weeks he's mixed with everyone but the Snyders. And we'll get him to Luthers Corners eventually. Q: Having created roles and taken over a role... TL: Starting from the beginning is much more pleasant. Usually, when a character is recast it's because the actor playing it was popular, s oyou have to deal with that. You have to deal with the possibility of intense rejection, and you have to honor the character and his history and the actor who played the part while making it your own, and it's very tricky. It's a very difficult balance. I'm glad I had that experience; now I know what Peter Bergman went through (when he took over as Y&R's Jack). He was more successful at it than I was, as it turned out. Q: How does Royce compare to Jack and Mason? TL: I would say someone like Jack had virtually no integrity at all, and Mason the same way, but probably to a lesser extent. I think Royce has a great deal of integrity because he has come from a not-so-fortunate background, and everything he has he has earned on his merits, and so his work and his word mean a lot to him. Whereas the two other guys were just liars and didn't care. [but] he's not a saint. Q: Since this role is being created for you, are there elements of your personality we may see for the first time? TL: Yeah, probably. I think this guy isn't a smart ass, for one thing, and I think people are used to seeing that from me. He's not without a sense of the absurdity of things at times, but he's still more serious and thoughtful, which I guess is like the private me, the one thing I don't show often. Q: Did you have any trepidation about joining a cast with so many heavy hitters? TL: Yeah! But I survived that once. When I started on The Young and the Restless I was just another blond, and it took me a year and a half to really figure out what to do about that. Actors are always worried about that, but Mr. Caso assured me months ago. There's one big difference in style between Y&R and As the World Turns, in that there are more ensemble scenes, and that's how this show can manage to have such a big cast, because so many people can work at the same time, whereas on that other show, it was two, maybe three, and the third one comes in and doesn't stay very long. Q: What was your impression of Kelly (Menighan, who plays Emily)? TL: Well, when I saw her on television before I met her, her attributes were obvious, and when we met we developed a real immediate rapport. She's kind of a no-nonsense person, but she has a sense of humor and she's very responsive when we work together. We're not ready for Romeo and Juliet, but I think we have the basis for a really good thing. Q: Are there any plans for a Keller family? DM: No. He will acquire his family as he goes - onscreen people. Q: Most of the time we write about actors leaving New York soaps and moving to L.A. What was the reaction of your compatriots in California about your reverse migration? TL: I had to stare down so many astonished looks. It's just people's habitual thinking. Everyone my age in California had this thing about California, the big migration. And it's no longer the promised land. Linda Susman

A November 1992 SPW interview with Terry Lester mentions that he chose ATWT over playing Frank's father on GL. Imagine how different GL had been if he'd been Buzz Cooper...

Helen Wagner had quit the show during this time. That might be Andy, whoever was playing him at the time.

Oh that's right. I always just associate her with Roger.

Thanks. I wonder if this was due to the last writing change, when they brought in the writers who came up with the grave-robbing/eternal youth stories. Did they write Greta out because they knew the show was ending?

How did his relationship with Katy end? I think they should have brought her in as a mystery figure and let us think she really was married to Mike. Even have her in some flashbacks of a romance with Mike. Then Mike arrives back in town and is horrified and says he doesn't know her. Viewers could wonder whether he's being honest. Then perhaps they could have said Katy had some sort of mental illness or something and Mike could have fallen for her while helping her.

Lovely stuff. I never understood why they had Veleka in two roles at once. Putting her in a Lambchop wig??

April 21, 1992 Soap Opera Weekly. Gabrielle Winkel interviews Linda Gottlieb. GW: Have you totally adjusted to daytime? LG: I was just thinking that last night was the first night I slept eight hours. I have been totally sleep-deprived. This is the hardest thing I've ever done; it's a killer. GW: How did you come to the show? LG: Almost by accident. Mickey (Dwyer-Dobbin, senior vice president, daytime programs, ABC Entertainment) called me - I hadn't spoken to her in decades. She called me out of the blue, but we knew each other form children's programs when I was doing afterschool specials and she was at NBC. She said, "I am looking for someone to do One Life to Live," and I suggested three other people, and then the next week I called her back and asked if it might be a job I would be interested in. She said, "I'd love it if you were." So she said to watch the show, and I called her that night and said "Is this what it is?" She said no, they were looking for someone to change it. So I got interested and wanted to know how much freedom I would have. GW: And have you been given a lot of freedom? LG: I can't think of a single obstacle that's stood in my way. They had a lot set before I came here, there were certain members of the cast, certain things in place. But I changed a lot of things. GW: Why did you decide to have Megan die? It was risky to not leave a window of return for her. LG: I think what's risky is to do this kind of storyline. I believe that Jessica Tuck has the potential to be a movie star. I saw her in the place Welcome to My Life and she was really good, so I don't think she will be back. I begged her to stay. GW: What is your contract? LG: I have a three-year contract. They told me they thought it would take two years to turn the show around and it's been several months and I am very pleased. [someone] said to me that if this keeps up, it will be the fastest turn around on soaps; I've never done it so I don't know. All that I know is I care about the ratings but I don't face them. I only know how to do what I know how to do - and if it doesn't work, I guess they'll get rid of me. I'm not changing my stripes. I'll leave first. GW: Michael Malone (OLTL head writer) has talked about the women's angle. Do you think that' s what makes One Life to Live different? LG: In the end you write from your heart, and that heart is really Michael's and mine, and if the two of us share a vision - which I truly think we do - then that's what the show will be. And it gets to be that simple. My taste and his are very simple, very highbrow in terms of what ways we go. I think our favorite book is Gone With the Wind. We both like highly emotional stories; we like stories that are character-driven. I am much less interested in plot than in who the characters are. There are two keys to the show, the writing and the casting; everything else is a piece of cake. When everybody said, "Oh, the look of the show is terrible, the lighting is terrible, the costumes," in one week they were gone. In one week we hired a new costume designer and she is brilliant. The lighting was terrible and I said, "Who is the best lighting designer at ABC?" I hired someone who changed it and did a wonderful job with the lighting. It was a cinch. A third key is the music, which no one had thought of. Good music changes the experience of the show - bad music doesn't really kill it, but good music raises the audience. Elizabeth Swados worked for us this summer, but she is not continuing on because she mostly does things with live sound performances. So I hired Suzanne Ciani, who's a new-age composer - which was the last thing I wanted - but I listened to her music and she has such a lyrical and emotional sensibility - emotional and very erotic - and you can completely hook into what she is doing. So I created a musical vitality for each character. It's like a train going 100 mph but while it's running you have to try to change every moving part. That is how I saw this job. I was totally overwhelmed. The first two months I was here, and I was trying to learn what was going on, I never once went to the control room. All I focused on was the writing; I tried to figure out a writing team. Meanwhile, the old writers were in place. That was hell, to replace an entire writing team and not miss a show. GW: And I am sure morale suffered. LG: Totally. I think now the morale is superb. I think this show's done a major turn around. Sure, morale always suffers when someone new comes in, having to let some people go. There were actors and writers who were disgruntled, but it was a long-overdue house cleaning. I think that as the new team settled into place, as the actors began to see material that was so different from what they were used to seeing, they began to enjoy being on the show. I think that there is a real feeling that this show is now a quality show, that it's got the most interesting writing, that we are casting true actors for the characters. I cast some unusual people. The guy who plays Andrew (Wortham Krimmer) is a hunk, I think, but not a traditional [one]. GW: Are you going back to Llanview's roots? LG: We basically wanted to make Llanview a more believable place, an emotionally real place. A place of highs and lows, a place with class - which was Agnes' (Nixon, the show's creator) original idea. The first thing I did when I got this job was ask Agnes what the concept of the show was. She said it was about the rich people on a hill and the poor people across from them. But I couldn't even tell, they all began to dress alike. Viki (Erika Slezak) had gotten dirtier, Wanda (Marilyn Chris) had gotten very upward, they all kind of mushed together. So we made the sets much more elegant, upped their wardrobe with gorgeous clothes. The haves and have-nots. That' s the basic story, the concept. I want to show a more ethnic side. GW: What kind of mail did you get on the domestic violence storyline? (The series did a short-term storyline on wife-beating in November 1991.) LG: Extraordinary mail from women who came out of the closet, and that was something. GW: Are you like any of the characters? LG: I suppose. I think I understand and like them all - even Alex (Tonja Walker). I think the part of me in all of them is that they are fun, they have comedy, always, always. All the actors who are cast in the show have to play comedy because I think if you can do that you have that edge. GW: How are you going to keep the momentum the Schezerazade week created? LG: We are going into a very strong love story, the Bo/Sarah (Robert S. Woods/Grace Phillips) story. We are going to play that Bo/Cassie/Sarah triangle up to the point where he has to make a decison about her. It's three decent people caught in a struggle of a man married to two women, he has made his decision to stay with Cassie (Laura Bonarrigo) and now he finds himself pulled back slowly toward Sarah through the whole issue of helping her deal with her problems. Now we have a mystery (Carol's - Thom Christopher - murder) that is in place and that will pull us into May sweeps. Then we have Blair's (Mia Korf) revenge against Dorian (Elaine Princi). GW: What are you going to be doing with Marty? LG: Marty (Susan Haskell) is going to be involved with various people on the campus, drawn toward Jason (Mark Brettschneider), and as the story develops she might be drawn toward Kevin (Joey Thrower). We jut think that she is a really good character. Viki will obviously get more involved with her, as will Andrew. She is in many ways the way Megan was when she first came, and she has the same disease. We also wanted to show somebody who has lupus and survives. GW: Any other new characters you are hunting around for, any new triangles? LG: There is a big triangle developing between Troy (Terry Alexander), Sheila (Valerie Pettiford) and Hank (Nathan Purdee), which I think is a very good story, having a smart, hip, contemporary black guy (Hank) and an assimilated black man (Troy) fight for the same woman. We had a long story done by a black writer named Dennis Wattlington, who is just wonderful and gave us terrific ideas about that storyline. GW: Was Dennis brought in especially for that? LG: He was brought in to consult with us about that storyline in particular, and he really sparked us all and got us excited about it. GW: Sell me on One Life to Live. LG: The most emotionally involving, original, witty show on daytime, with full, quirky characters. This show moves. If you miss a day you miss a lot.

Yeah, a lot of the stuff in the article I didn't know - that Matt and Althea had been together, or about some of the smaller characters of those years. It would have probably been more palatable for viewers if Matt had gotten together with Nora during his last split from Maggie, instead of with younger MJ. I'm not sure who was in charge during this recap. This would be from, what, early December 1981? Would they still be cleaning up from the strike? What was Lacey's exit? Was Calvin a black character? I don't know that much about him. (Edit - he clearly was, as he was played by Larry Riley, later of Knots) The Katy story just never makes sense to me. It's one of the most bizarre ways of bringing in a new character I can think of, and it's especially strange to me to do this with a character as ill-defined as Mike.

Thanks for finding this. What a treat! I wonder if all the emphasis on nudity in the press drove away some potential viewers, both those who didn't want to see nudity, and those who did, and were let down by the end product.