DRW50

She said she got hate mail because she ran off to Greece to be with Nick, even though they were unmarried and barely knew each other. She said she understood why fans were so angry (although she might have just been appeasing them). I think part of it was down to Kim being written as such a noble and pure heroine for years and years before this. If the earliest version of Kim had run off to Greece viewers probably wouldn't have minded.

September 1969 Afternoon TV

September 1969 Afternoon TV

Kathryn Hays said she got the most hate mail over this story. I wonder why he didn't last longer.

That gun photo is shocking for the day. They look like Helen Hayes and Joan Crawford.

Here is a print ad from an April 1983 Digest.

I'd love to know this too. I also wonder if they considered her for returning when they brought Tudi Wiggins instead. It's odd that she has no credits after LOL, although some may just be forgotten (for instance she says she did a Studio One, which isn't in her IMDB profile). Meg was in many ways one of the first anti-heroines on daytime. I wish we could see more of Jean's work and know what happened to her.

It's tough to imagine anyone but Don Hastings as Bob. Some articles even refer to him as an original cast member. I think they aged him with another actor, then a bit later cast Don. I don't know why they chose to ignore John (and Edith) later on. Perhaps they felt that the Hughes were established enough with Bob and his kids. I would hope that, if Marland had stayed on, he would have brought in more family. I would have been interested in someone like Meg Mundy (although she may have been a little too young), or Augusta Dabney.

What did you think of the chimp?

Huh. I had forgotten a lot of the buildup to his exit. Or I just ignored it. I wonder how much involvement Claire Labine had in any of that. His actual death was in the writers strike, and she seemed shocked and annoyed by it when she was interviewed years later. I hated the story (MAMA HELP ME) but I was glad to see him go. Nothing against Michael Corbett, just hated the character and what he represented, in terms of women. The only thing I liked about him was when he danced with Delia.

They did a number on Siobhan, and poor Sarah Felder too. Rarely have I seen such an undiluted example of a writer's vision (Sarah Felder), and a network's vision (Ann Gillespie). How they stumbled onto Marg Helgenberger, who seemed to marry ABC and TPTB's visions for the character, I don't know. The 70's had Erica, Kate on Somerset (although her abortion drove her crazy too), Kathy on Search (who aborted for career reasons and only wanting one child)...I might have missed someone.

No it was just Kim. Siobhan was pregnant in 1980 and after some brief doubt over Joe's life (or Tiso's life, at the time she still thought Joe was not in the business) she chose to keep the baby. Then she had a miscarriage after being kidnapped and escaping. Michael Pavel was one of those who kidnapped her...which the show forgot because he was a hot piece of tail. Ugh I hated him.

That's such a fun song. I always enjoy it, even if some of my memory is tainted by the bad versions on American Idol. Some of my favorite Patti songs:

I guess what I remember with abortion on RH is that every female character, no matter how independent or feminist they were or how they felt about abortion, always chose to keep their child, if it was presented as a choice not motivated out of bad reasons. Even Siobhan, who worked at a family planning clinic and fought with Maeve about birth control and abortion. I'm not criticizing, because I never felt like the show was saying being pro-choice was bad, or immoral. I just notice that every strong female character on the show during Labine's run seemed to end up having a choice about whether to abort a child and choosing not to do so. Not to get off topic too much, but did you know Dick Clark was thinking of producing a sitcom for John and Sandy Gabriel? They would have played rival villains on soaps. It might have been entertaining, and I know Sandy was funny on AMC.

I had forgotten that Ruth and Rosemary both had major story together on ATWT and AMC. Wow. It's actually pretty clever of Agnes, if this was intentional (and she was with Irna in those years so it may have been). I want to see this story so much. It also seems like Irna spent years building up these characters, instead of just throwing sh!t at them, as most new soaps do (and Irna herself did at AW). Viewers knew so much about Penny's fears and insecurities before she ever started a relationship with Jeff Baker. I didn't know John and Edith were twins. I wonder if they were on the show at the same time?

August 1956 TV Radio Mirror.

August 1956 TV Radio Mirror.

I think Rainie has great potential as a character, if they get her away from Phil and find stronger relationships with other characters. Unfortunately I can't think of a lot of male characters on the show now who are interesting. Perhaps a violent relationship with Michael that ends in her killing him. She reminds me so much of Donna Ludlow. I would use that to bring Kathy back. Have her go on the run and Kathy, who is in hiding, saves her.

The longer Rainie is around Phil the more he will drain the life out of her. That's all Phil does as a character.

I liked Scott, especially in his first 5-10 years in the role, but Bryan would have been fantastic. I don't understand why they passed him up.

Per SOD, at the time Ben Cross was approached, a few of the other actors who were in contention to be Barnabas Collins on the primetime Dark Shadows revival - Michael Nader and Michael Tylo.

I love that version too. It's a great song, as long as you sing it with some pathos (not like that opening to Providence...that and Melina K not having a fake Greek accent drove me away fairly quickly). There's something so haunting about Julie Covington's version, and plaintive. I hadn't heard it until a few days ago. I also didn't know she had the first version of Don't Cry for Me Argentina.

Conrad looks a lot like Don Hastings there. I can see why they cast him as Don Hughes.

July 11, 1988 Digest.