DRW50

Some thoughts on the above clips: - Kin Shriner and Mary Beth Evans work very well together. I think Mary Beth has a better handle on her character than Kin does (I don't believe someone could be quite so goofy when they have as many problems as Mike Gallagher does), but I enjoy their scenes together. MBE manages to make a ridiculous and underwritten story work, even the fainting spells. - Sharon Farrell is OTT but yet somehow I still believe her as Dakota's mother. I enjoyed Sharon on Y&R and I enjoy her even more here. I like the clumsy, random way she tells Kin he has such a hairy chest, and how embarrassed her daughter is. - Some of the dialogue is so clumsy, like when Mike says, "Screw that!" and most of the stuff with the surrogacy. While the hairy chest scene is entertaining, it's not for the best reasons - Kin Shriner with his head in MBE's lap isn't quite the mental picture you'd expect on a safe soap, and the moment where she helps take off his shirt and he likes it is so...is that the best way to show his desire for her? I kept expecting Cherry to say, "Wow, you're REALLY enjoying this massage!" - The fight scene between Brady and Mike is hilarious. I wonder if JL and Kin had any laughs over this later on GH or PC. - Philece Sampler, from these few clips, was miscast as a heroine, and is very unpleasant and shrill. I don't understand why we are supposed to care about her relationship with Mike, and I wonder if the show had given up by this time. - The production values are a little nicer than I thought. The fantasy wedding actually looks beautiful. Didn't MBE wear this dress as her own wedding dress? - The fashions are so hideously entertaining. Mike's Hammer pants, Lacey's "I have to go work at the mall" getup in that same clip, Brady's supertight tan trousers that show more ass than I remember Lindstrom ever showing in his soap career, and later, both Dakota and Lacey are dressed as overgrown kids in their argument scene.

Yeah I loved it. He seems like such a cool and modern guy in all I've read about him. I can't help wondering how many viewers at the time felt the same way he did.

Yes, she had a rival named Spring Skye. Fia dated Giancarlo Esposito in real life. I found it odd that she was fired around the time she had a feature in SOD about their relationship and the pressures they faced.

DAYS was right about Kevin Costner... Audrey Ames worked on the soap within a soap, Fraternity Row. She dated manwhore Jon Russell, and was paralyzed for some months in the accident that also killed Alicia Grande and her baby.

June 1971 Afternoon TV.

Also from this issue.

From an August 1992 update, a rare interview with the superb Maureen Garrett.

April 1971 Afternoon TV.

John Forsythe intro on ABC hour shows of another era, with a few Dynasty clips. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIT_-0P3_kk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

There's some talk about Bernie Sanders. Just wanted to apologize if any of my posts caused any bad response.

That's a wonderful story about Bette Davis. Can you imagine what it was like being a soap actor in those years and wondering if she would let you know how she loved your performance? I've seen very little of Dufour - just a few clips with Morgan Fairchild, mostly. I guess I was associating him with other older actors being let go from P&G soaps at this time. That's an interesting story about the Corringtons. I'm glad Maree was able to turn the writing around. At least they didn't do some of the crap that later writers did when they wanted people to turn against a character (like when LML had Lucy Coe inadvertently blind her own child...not to mention the Guza follies).

Part of a 1972 episode. I saw this years ago on tape but don't know where that is, so it's nice to see it again. It's probably been on Youtube before but I only started watching soap Youtube stuff in the last few years. Anyway, India Delaney gives a party and no one shows up, aside from immediate family. Marie Wallace was a fascinating actress, and one of the most unique beauties ever on soaps. Nice to see a glimpse of her as India, along with the wonderful Georgann Johnson as Ellen. India's husband in this later tried to kill her, didn't he? Someone at TWOP talked about scenes that went on for weeks and weeks where he hit her with a huge candlestick and she was unconscious on a couch. Did Marie want to leave? Who were Robin and Jessica? This also has Gary Sandy as a maitre'd or waiter (hard to believe he'd get to wear his hair out like that on the job) and I think Alice Hirson is also one of the wait staff.

Before OLTL cast Fia Porter as Audrey Ames, she tried out for Didi O'Neill and Christine Cromwell (I think she would have been good as Christine...wonder why that didn't happen).

I'd heard about the promo but hadn't seen it. Thanks. So are you watching the show still? What do you think of it? I have sort of checked out of all the British soaps, aside from reading about them.

Well if they directly quoted her I guess it must be true? Would they make up quotes like that? I don't know their history. A Christmas special would make sense, if they could have her there long enough to talk with Kat about what's happened in their lives since the last time they saw each other, and if Zoe feels annoyed that Kat now has another child, if Kat sees this as starting over. I guess something needs to be done with Kat . Some would say Zoe had a big role in Den's downfall, although she was forgettable in it, as usual.

What a wonderful treat this is!

I can see Lemay not wanting another 60 minute show for quite a while. I'm just sorry that he never got a chance for a real run at SFT or Doctors.

Why did the Corringtons hate Maree Cheatham? I know she may have been a bit difficult but you'd think they'd enjoy writing for her. Was Val on the way out anyway, due to his age? I've only seen bits and pieces of him as an actor...I think I've seen more of him in the soap magazines, going around with kilt and bagpipes and writing columns about his AW time (I guess that didn't end very well either - although I always felt bad for him when Lemay called him out for stealing the spotlight from Susan Sullivan in his last scenes, since...um...they were his last scenes ever on the show!).

I wonder if it's down to some writers being better at half-hour and some better at hour (weren't Marland's biggest successes all hour soaps)? Are there any Search writers from the 70's you felt should have had another chance? What was Vendig doing by that time?

That's a good point. I forgot about that. They didn't seem to make all that much effort in saving their in-house soaps in the early 70's, so you'd think they would have. But aside from Capitol, maybe, I can't remember if they've owned any of their soaps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDYJ360jyhE

Sam was Opal's boyfriend - was he still on the show at this time? They dated and then broke up because she had sex with one of her clients or something. Liza was raped by truckers, or a trucker. Jennifer Bassey and Marcy Walker got a laugh out of this in an interview years later. One of the lines they mentioned was, "Can't we talk about FEELINGS, Mother?" They also laughed about the man who played Mr. Colby, and how he had hair in his ears.

I guess what I meant was I think soap towns have strong identities and I'm not sure Somerset did. It was a place various AW characters went to, then with a series of shifting rich families (the Delaneys, then the Moores), along with a few other characters like Ellen Grant. I can see where he would want to go back to basics but I was trying to figure out if Somerset ever had a basics, or if they needed to build that from the ground up.