DRW50

Reading through a 1971 Daytime TV, they said that Lee Lawson temporarily replaced Zina Bethune as Barbara on LOL, in 1970, when Zina was ill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcjYUC7z7iI

The show had such strong and complex female characters at this time, all of whom could take you from wanting to shake them to breaking your heart within a single sentence. Where did that go? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kaz1TghTJ8

The saddest part of all that is all the Newmans are horribly written, and half of them don't care about the material or are hopeless in playing it. The worst part of production that favors certain characters is when they have no ability to write for those they favor.

I also thought it was tacky to have two women who had been raped put into one of those "no means yes" type of stories.

When did Jill first stop becoming a heroine? Was it the Derek story? Tucker is just so pointless. Things happen TO him, and he's just there. It's too bad, because if you go back and look at even the most filler of characters in a lot of Bill Bell's stories, they had a strong presence and drive.

At this time do you think it's for the best that the show has moved on from Katharine/Jill, or do you think the characters still need that interaction? Would the Tucker story be any better with Jill's involvement? I've probably already asked this before, but Brenda Dickson basically said that when she returned she had to eventually start playing Jill as a bitch because the writing for Jill had changed in her absence and Jill was no longer a heroine. Do you think she was right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuO0Q4OFuYs

November 1965 TV Radio Mirror

Thanks. So how long was she at Loving? I see mentions of her as a "playwright" but not much about her writing on soaps. Apparently she wrote some play about getting waxed? Well, good for her, she's a paid writer and that's something I will probably never be...

I watched some of the last 1984 episodes I could find and was wondering how the story ended of Sam and this woman he was secretly seeing, and Myrna was pretending to be her friend, which led to a lot of sad yet entertaining moments of Myrna having to go down the back stairs, Myrna skulking and snarling in the lobby while a man hit on her, etc. Apparently Sam and this other woman had been together when she was 18. Had Sam had a child with her? In another episode he was visiting a girl in a hospital but wouldn't let the nuns tell anyone he'd been there. Was this girl his daughter? Whatever happened to her? Which Brenda is this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaoZKTLLVgM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL I also wondered what the birth order was in the Clegg and McCandless families, and what type of relationship did Julie have with her siblings?

Sorry if this was already mentioned. It's an early episode, dubbed. This must be pretty early as one of the stories is the Merrill/Roger affair. A few of the scenes in here are the same as a scene Ann Williams' family put on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvKOUZEJGEU

I showed the episodes that are available to a friend of mine, someone who doesn't hate soaps but also isn't overly interested in them, and they really enjoyed them, especially the scenes of snappy banter between various characters like Tom and Helen, or Julie and her roommate. I wish CBS would market these, and some other old soaps - it could just be a quickly put together streaming thing of the episodes they have. Why not try it on Netflix? Anyway, I know that Leslie Charleson stayed after Donna Mills and David Birney had left. What were the timelines on their various departures? She had, what, a few months with Veleka Gray and Michael Hawkins? Bibi Besh was the only other Iris, wasn't she? Do you think Iris was an easier character to recast, or was Bibi Besch just very good at winning viewers over? It seemed like by the later episodes with Leslie, Iris had lost some of her fire, although she was still neurotic.

Men of GH on Donahue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wApNIwINqJ0&feature=related

His main story on GH seemed to be his love for Heather in spite of her constant schemes, which ultimately drove him away. He also had a story about his father Paddy Kelly (the first time viewers ever saw Kelly's - Paddy and his second wife Rose ran the place) being murdered by Frank Smith's thugs. I posted the clips for that in the video thread a while back. I agree that he was unbelievably gorgeous. I especially enjoyed him on Knots because it was nice to have such a funny and yet strong character, and one who actually cared about Valene instead of dragging her down. Sheehan also had some song he used to sing in his talk show rounds.

Max sabotaged her attempts to open a clown school. Jessica was almost killed in the explosion he started. Maggie felt betrayed and never looked back.

From a late April 1982 Digest.

This is from a September 1982 Digest issue.

This is from the May 11, 1982 Digest.

From a May 1980 Digest.

I didn't get to see much of Luna until I started watching clips on Youtube, but I do like most of her stories (especially her first two years or so - they seemed to lose track of her once she got married). I think her death was an example of a writer loving his creation more than the story. Only a year before Luna and Max had split so it would have made sense for her to leave Llanview, as it had never truly been her home anyway, since she'd only moved there a few years earlier. I thought Maggie just came in at a very bad time, in terms of writing. So much of 1996 seemed to be Carlo and to a lesser degree Dorian as the Scooby Doo villains to Llanview's couples.

That's interesting, about Rauch. I thought it was the new ABC Daytime head who had pushed her away; she seemed OK with Rauch when he started at GL. It's hard to keep track of all that. I remember when they used her as an excuse to get Al off the show - she had been released from prison, offcamera, and Al went to live with her. Then 4 or 5 years later Al returned and we learned Max was a deadbeat dad...again. I think they should have just had Luna leave town alive and Al and the twins would go with her, with Max visiting offcamera.