DRW50

Watching some of the St. Croix climax again, and what led up to it (what is available, anyway), I notice that Mitch was an active part of Janice's plan to kill Mitch, and even encouraged it, to a point, when she was initially unsure. Only at the end did he seem to want her to get help and to stop poisoning Mac. Did the show initially plan to write out both Mitch and Janice, but Espy's popularity caused them to redeem Mitch at the last minute? How soon did they plan to turn Janice so crazy? The Janice of the 1979 material is scheming and mercurial but she's not evil. Christine Jones is so luminous and chilling in her performances. Even at the end, when Janice is at her most destroyed, she just looks sensational and you are hooked on her. I really wonder why the show didn't consider keeping her around. I always like the image of Rachel having to save the day, no one else being able. Good luck seeing that on a soap now. That whole scene is so homoerotic, especially when Janice says she doesn't want Mac anymore, as she goes toward Rachel. I know she probably meant Mitch, but still...

That's a shame. I wonder if the experience with Young Marrieds soured him.

Was Young Marrieds his first soap?

He was on the show off and on for about 2-4 years, I think. I always thought the story ended because it was a little too lot to handle, and Gleason seemed like a character.

Those sound like fascinating stories. The one about Ann and her pregnancy is very ahead of its time - that sounds like something GH would have done about 5-6 years later. At least they did give TV Picture Life the outslines of what the stories would have been if they hadn't been canceled, so fans could have something of a happy ending. Was John Hess involved in any other soaps?

January 1979 Afternoon TV.

Early March 1981 Digest.

Early March 1981 Digest.

December 1970 TV Picture Life.

December 1976 Daytime TV. Sorry about the poor scan. If there's any of the text of this masterwork that you can't see, let me know and I'll type it out.

I liked her relationship with Olivia but felt like it was so rarely shown. I remember a scene where Olivia basically just wanted her out of the way, and Liz was very hurt and tried to cover, and Olivia realized. It was a nice moment between them. I wish the show had done more with Allison Hossack.

Jed Allan had a very solid soap career for many years, but that doesn't = Edward. I think JFP thought, "Hey, he was CC Capwell, and that's like Edward." It didn't help that he'd just finished a run on PC, where he yelled and bellowed constantly.

That was when they took him off-contract, and he left for a few years. It was so strange how Edward suddenly became the same age as Alan.

I will have to look at this! I'm terrible at reading these, I don't know why. I wonder why AW never incorporated Rachel's sisters into the story.

May 1984 Digest. John Kelly Genovese remembers Somerset.

Thanks. Did Matt have a brother? I guess Maggie had a daughter? There was a little girl in the episode.

March 1985 SOD. John Kelly Genovese remembers LIAMST.

Not exactly the most flattering photos for an ad. I wish I could see the premiere that got so many complaints.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the fans just never noticed. Emmerdale, the UK soap I used to watch, dropped "Farm" in the late 80's but a lot of older fans still call it Emmerdale Farm. James Lipton isn't much of an actor either, if the few GL episodes of that era I've seen are any indication, but he did have a sincerity and boy next door appeal which made it obvious why he was so popular. I wonder what would have happened if he hadn't left GL, if he would have lasted a long time, or if he was probably being phased out anyway.

The 90 minutes does seem like a bad idea, to the point where I end up wondering if they just had people improvise half the material. From the synopses I've read of the late 70's it seems like John had become a very weak man who made a lot of horrible relationship choices. I wonder if the show felt he was therefore disposable. It never made sense to me why they just wrote Michael out. I guess they thought they had Dennis, Jamie, and Joey, but in 90 minutes, that's not really enough younger men, especially since Jamie/Dennis shared the same storylines. What did you think of the Angie/Willis/Gwen stories? Did you like Toni Kalem or Maeve Kinkead better?

Thanks for reading. I wish we could see more of Peggy too, and Peggy/Roger. It's kind of the forgotten relationship for his character. I remember someone once saying that the story with Alan and Ed living side by side happened to help set up the Rita/Alan affair, but watching the clips from 1979, it seemed like it happened several years earlier. When exactly did Ed move in there? I know the clip where Ed and Roger are fighting has a different set. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=pdnwF5O_Z4Y