DRW50

Wow that's great. I love all the color photos, in character. It's so weird seeing Kevin Spirtas dressed that way. I think I may have posted all the Rituals recaps, but I'm not entirely sure. I love the covers too. Poor MBE - epitome of the 80s. The guy looks so familiar to me. I'm not sure why. He reminds me a little of Bill Beyers.

That's what soaps don't know how to do now - everything is so generic. It's like hey, we need Pine Valley to keep remaking Sex and the City! Come on already. At the very least have Enid Nelson show up and tell them to get the f*** outta there.

I just wonder if fans at the time complained or if the show managed to flit between both worlds effortlessly. If you think about it, it makes a lot more sense than the more recent efforts to turn Pine Valley into some big cosmopolitan setting, which got worse thanks to Fusion.

That IS hilarious. I guess that's what happens when the UK is one of the few foreign countries to not become obsessed over B&B. Poor Kat Kelly. Now they'll say KKL is having a feud with Kym Marsh.

So at the time you didn't notice any big change during the 1981 strike? I guess it was more noticeable in 1988? The 88 one lasted a few months longer didn't it?

Thank you for reading them. If you have any thoughts on them, or the clips posted, or have more good gifts of your own, we'd all love that I'm sorry about them being so out of order. If there are any other soaps you'd like some synopses of or articles or anything, let me know. I have a Christine Jones interview from Rituals somewhere - you may have already read that though.

Chris Bruno auditioned to play David Rampal on AMC. He thought soaps were kind of silly at that point, and was glad in the long run he didn't get the role, because he got to stay in acting school (no comment from me). Paul Satterfield auditioned to play Mac. When he wasn't chosen, they rewrote the role of Paul Hornsby to suit him.

Another thing I always wonder about is whether fans bought Nina suddenly being an exec, the affair with Steve Jacobi, etc. It seemed to come fairly quickly after she married Cliff.

They're all very good. It's especially interesting to see the McDonalds when they seemed real and weren't the embarrassingly bufoonish, wretched self-parodies of recent years. All those who praised Jim's exit because "It was SUPPOSED to be a comedy!" should watch the episodes when Liz delivers that premature baby. Good luck getting that on Collinson's watch. Instead Carla would plow into her on a bender and she'd deliver a healthy baby released from the hospital after two days.

I was reading an old magazine that talked about a summer 1981 story (or spring maybe) with Nina slowly dying while being held in a bank with Sean. Do any of you know a lot about that story? It screams strike filler to me. I'd love to know what people think of 1981 strike material compared to 1988, what damage it did (if any, etc.). It seems like AMC wasn't all that hurt in the 1981 period - it was more 84 or 85 when they lost steam for whatever reason (perhaps lack of interesting new heroines - always a problem with AMC).

I was wondering exactly how long Erica's New York period lasted. Was her only PV interaction with Mona? What made this end? Was it the story with Adam? Did they end because they'd run out of ideas, or was it a ratings thing?

Thanks. They really should have you do something on Bravo, you do a lot to get me interested in this show.

That's fascinating. Did they hint what was done that wasn't shown? Was this a surprise to viewers, or had she always been unstable? Was Bethenny just like driven from the show? I have sometimes read that she was treated badly. When she was on that Martha Stewart Apprentice she was overbearing but she never seemed like a bad person.

There are some more - I have a Digest one from 1978 (someone else probably does too). I will post it when I find it again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maj53gQqsow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdlWf45zNWg

Geez. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVE0lhCut7E

I'll have to look for it. I read a comment at EW saying Cat from DC should be brought in. What do you think of that?

What was going on with Kelly? I've seen people say they were freaked out by her and something about drugs?

Just wonderful. What a beauty Eileen was. I miss her. Great profile. I'd love to have heard her stories. Ruth Gordon looks like she's going to eat everybody up.

What bothers you most about them? Do you think they should have kept the others? Jill was the one who had the big feud with Bethenny wasn't she?

March 12, 1985 Digest. This is from the March 26, 1985 Digest.

I was reading in a Digest from late 1989 that Joe Willmore (or is it Whitmore?) didn't think Ellen Parker was showing enough feistiness as Maureen. He approached Ellen Dolan about returning to the role. Ellen considered it, but they had to be discreet, since she and Ellen Parker lived on the same block, or something like that. Anyway, Ellen Parker found out, and she went to talk to him in his office, basically saying, "If you want to see feisty I can do it!" and they worked it out.

Elaine Princi auditioned to play Julia Medina. Later, she was cast at the last minute as Dorian when Paul Rauch realized there was no way Robin Strasser was coming back. When Joe Hardy came to Loving, he wanted to fire the first Jeff Hartman (Scott Feraco), and take the character in a new direction. He didn't want the actor to find out that he was auditioning a lot of other people, so he pretended this was another role. Feraco already figured it out, and to make matters more painful, James Horan, who had auditioned, was a close friend of his. Feraco told Horan that if anyone should replace him, he'd want it to be him. Instead, the show went with Michael Maguire, who was also very short-lived in the role. Horan was cast as one of the Clay Aldens. A Digest from before Loving's premiere said that they were close to getting Celeste Holm in a contract role. I guess this would have been Isabelle. I wonder why it fell through.

Why do the Salahis get so much media attention for their PR stunts? They aren't even as "popular" as Speidi were, since those two at least had a popular TV show. The Salahis got a show CANCELED.