DRW50

That's too bad. It's strange, as the show already had so many good girls at this time (Sally, Julia). Perhaps they thought she needed to contrast Cecile.

Thanks. For some reason I thought she had to have sex with him to save Sandy. I thought they made her a heroine when they put her with Sandy, but it's tough to tell as I haven't seen a lot of it. For instance I didn't see her anywhere in that hostage crisis at the Cory cabin. Maybe Sandy and Jamie were only focused on Cecile then. Was the gaslighting story after she'd already been redeemed?

I'm not sure if BK listens that much to DS or not, mostly because Kathleen Beedles made a comment on Twitter that some felt was pointed at DS, about their comments. Some posters there loathe him, they have from before he ever made any decisions at EE, and nothing he does is going to make a difference. I wouldn't be surprised if sites like Walford Web have more of an impact. But I don't know if the story with Vanessa/Harry was dropped because of fan reaction or not. It was never even really a story. I think it was just one of many things that they lost track of and never cared about again. As for Michael, I feel like there was a failure in early development of this character. Many fans clearly assumed he was going to be a "ladies man" type, and he clearly is not. I hear comments like "Michael and Roxy have no chemistry," when they're not supposed to have chemistry. That's part of the point. I think he's interesting as such a monstrous and damaged man. I just hope they won't go OTT like they did with ARchie. I also hope they won't rush his story because some call a story "boring" if it doesn't involve Phil Collinson style empty stunts that look like overgrown toddlers on a rampage.

I wish they'd done this. I have seen little of Maisie but what I have seen, I think she'd be a good match for Vince. Weren't they hinting for a while at Ada/Vince when Duke Stroud was in the role? Maisie was like a younger Ada. Vince and Mary, I didn't think they had a lot of chemistry. I don't think I ever truly believed that the Mary we saw had been the devoted wife and mother who liked to go bowling. Even after she got her memory back I didn't believe it. Ben probably would have been a better fit for the Lisa/Jamie/Vicky story than Jamie was. Jamie should have been too old for that business and he came off like a dumbass the entire time.

How soon into Blaine's run did they make her sympathetic? It seems like it was pretty early to me but I don't know. What did she do right after the breakup with Jamie? Was she given a rape by redemption story? I think she was raped by someone when she was with Sandy, wasn't she? One of those "save my man with sex" things? Hate those. Did the actress who played Louise want to leave or did they fire her?

Thanks for letting us know.

No.

I agree that the male characters under Dunne were strong. Generally I don't think KL ever had seriously weak male characters. I guess the only exception might be the third season, with only Gary and Kenny and Richard (weak, weaker, weakest), and then some of the later years, when Gary was a cardboard cutout, Mack lost most of his humor and charm and just went around yelling DIRTY COP and all but putting a padlock on Paige's underwear, Michael was weak, and Greg was a very remote, dour figure the women all had to do all the work for. I liked Frank but he was only ever a supporting figure. Then it just got worse and worse, with one-note types who would pop in and out for limited runs (that horrible Peter Reckell character; annoying, permanently pouting Tom who was not a DIRTY COP; Olivia's husband with the perfect abs but who mainly just existed to be cuckolded by her; the Italian guy Anne and Claudia bedded; that poor son of Claudia's who was murdered by her in one of the biggest character decimations I've ever seen; TIDAL ENERGY guy whose sole highlight was when Kate hilariously called him a lousy lay). I loved Ben and I thought he was the ideal male character for Knots - funny, strong but not too strong, insecure but secure, and drop dead gorgeous. I will always believe he was Val's soulmate... I felt like they should have paced the Joshua madness story more slowly.

Ali was assassinated by rebels a few weeks before the finale.

None of this story seems to be available, but I've certainly read about it. It's the last time AW had a huge ratings surge, and moments like Rocky being found buried under the floorboards were much talked about. Sven had a big plan with his wife Helga to make it look like Mac had had sex with their daughter. Then she would say she was pregnant. It's interesting to me that this didn't break Rachel and Mac up, but her scheming over Jamie's marriage with Blaine did. Did you like Blaine better as a bad girl or as a heroine? I have an article somewhere on the Sven story. When I find it I'll post it.

How much older than his sisters was he supposed to be? The recast looked younger than this man.

Yummy James Wleck, mentioned some pages back for many roles he didn't get (why??), also tried out for AMC's Will Cooney when Lonnie Quinn was replaced.

It's those types of characters who made soaps special, and who really were an integral part of AW. AW stopped being about core families in the 70's. After that it was about sophisticated friends and their loved ones, with a mixture of some lower classes and grifters. Quinn should have been part of that fabric.

Oh, and when Quinn was murdered, SOD got a ton of angry mail from viewers. AW's response was essentially - we didn't know she had fans. Ugh.

Quinn was murdered by the Sin Stalker. She started a love/hate relationship with Zak Harding and they eventually moved in together. The Sin Stalker deemed her immoral, and murdered her in the BCPD parking lot. Or BCGH. What a lovely message that the only two main female characters who were killed off for their slutty ways were middle-aged. It made no sense to me to kill off Quinn. Petronia Paley is a charismatic actress with a droll sense of humor that fit in perfectly at AW. Her death also meant the talented James Pickens Jr. spent the next 3 years on the blackburner, along with several other talented actors (Ronnie and Reuben, for instance). She also fit in perfectly with the characters of that timeframe and later on. I can see her sparring with Iris, and if they'd done a triangle with Donna/Michael/Quinn instead of Stacey/Michael/Donna, it might have had more believability and spark, whereas Michael being with the woman who aggressively sought to take away his child was, IMO, disgusting, and helped make me despise Michael, along with Stacey. The only friendship Donna ever had was with Cecile, which was more like a bitching society. That ended very fast when Cecile got Peter Did you ever see Louise? She's such a wonderful tonic to the hotter heads at the Cory mansion. I love her scenes with children too. I don't know if the actress wanted to leave or if they fired her but if they fired her it was an awful mistake. I had mixed feelings about the frequent absence of Mother Hudson. John and Michael never really needed a mother figure, but it still seemed strange to me that she was so rarely seen when she was supposed to be living around Bay City. Did she even appear when Sharlene "died"?

Thanks for such great answers, saynotoursoap. I guess it worked out with David Birney but then after he left the role was a revolving door. If they'd kept Sam I wonder if they may have had more long-term success with the role, since they had to recast those 3 roles so many times. Then again David did take them to a high spot. Mia and Jim were supposed to be a couple? I wonder how Ron Hale was in the role later on. I guess there wasn't enough time to know. What was his story at the end? What finally happened to Alex and Jock? You're right, she has a marvelous voice. I was hoping for a romance between she and Tom. It's always weird seeing DS actors on other soaps, especially around this time. I always just associate them with RH and assume they go off in some bubble the rest of the time.

I can't remember that much about the story with Peter and Jill, other than I thought Hunt Block was miscast and I wish they'd explored a bit more of Jill and Mack.

Is that the Jean Hackney season? Or is this the one where Cathy and Ben have the non-affair? I guess that was also the one when Karen was kidnapped.

You're right about Clarice at Mac's funeral. AWHP was down at the time I posted and I was going off her line to Amanda (remembering her when she was in braces, or whatever), which was odd to say if she'd seen her at Mac's funeral. I don't think Larry ever stripped on the show. For some reason I thought he did cheat on Clarice, but I might be wrong. I suppose the actors may have found it insulting but I think the show should have kept Clarice and Larry on recurring status, as a familiar couple for viewers who were seeing so many characters leave. Dumping so many women in this age range meant that you had awkwardness like that PSDonna/Felicia friendship. Quinn would have been a more believable sounding board to PSDonna. There was no reason to kill that character off. I saw a bit of Leyman, not much. I did read that they did a number on the character when they recast her, including demoting her on the force because of some paperwork error. The PSDonna/John/Michael stuff was weak. The only part I enjoyed of it was Donna's conflict with "Mother Hudson." My favorite part was when she yelled at the old woman and this led to a collapse. I don't think it was supposed to be funny but it was. I also never understood why they treated the character of Peter so shabbily. The way he disappeared just as Reginald's story was winding down made no sense.

Do you think Carly was brought in as any attempt to emulate parts of Ava that Lisa didn't get?

As much as I go around retroactively condemning these decisions, I can definitely see why they went with Pat/Faith again under Hicks and Groome. Hicks was very popular, and charismatic, and kooky, and unique. I just wonder if they considered what would happen when she left. Why not reunite Pat/Faith and then kill Faith off when Hicks decided to leave? Then since Groome was also leaving, he could just leave mourning Faith. Or just have Pat and Faith leave town together. Why recast both? They eventually realized that the "nice" version of Faith was not suited for KMG, so she became a cold, needy, self-righteous shrew. OK. Yet this also went nowhere. What especially annoyed me was that Jill never got to seriously respond to Faith's vicious attacks. Jill was never much of a fighter, but beyond this, I think the show was still trying to say Faith was a sympathetic character. Why, I never knew, because only a fool gets together with a man her sister has been with for a decade, and then expects this relationship to end happily. You're right that Delia had become so regressed by the time Ilene returned. She was just a plot device for all of 1981 and the last months of 1980. It was such a waste, as Randall Edwards did a great job when they let Delia mature. For me, Delia trying to win Frank back is always the worst sign of the show having no idea what to do with her character. I never believed she would want him back and even as a symbol of her insecurities, it didn't work, because he had treated her so horribly. Since they no longer had any purpose for Delia, why not write her out for a few years (starting around 1981) and make Faith the show's screwed-up schemer? Why not have Jill REALLY lay into her, with the #1 attack being that Faith killed their father (which she technically didn't, but then the truth didn't matter to Faith anyway), and this drives Faith over the edge and she uses her money to become a big menace, sort of what Rae was before Kimberly showed up? I never understood why they got rid of Barry or why they felt they couldn't write story for him. While he wasn't closely tied to the Ryans, he did have strong bonds with Jill, Faith, and the Crystal Palace group. He could have gone anywhere. It made no sense to me. I wonder if this was ABC meddling again.

That was a sad read. To be honest every time I read about a younger man/much older woman society story I wonder if this is what the outcome is, some type of money drain or a big legal battle between family. I'm sorry it had to happen to all of them. Is Diana Walker the soap actress (Where the Heart Is)?

I love that story about the kitchen. I wish we could see more of this. The thought of Lois Nettleton and Hal Holbrook in scenes together is a treat.

Carol Richards as Mary Ryan.

I'm not sure how but I missed this episode until now. It's really good. Leslie Charleson cuts through what could be a maudlin situation and makes you care about Iris and her self-destructive pain. I have to say I was very impressed by the guy who played Mark. Who was he? IMDB says Sam Wade? Did he leave or did they fire him? And who was the rich woman bantering with the policeman? I loved that scene. What a treat to see John Karlen. I guess this helps explain why he wasn't on Dark Shadows all that much in 1968. How large was his story on this show?