DRW50

That same article that mentioned Marla also talked to Christine Jones about her time as Viki. She said Erika Slezak needed a break, and that many of the women who auditioned tried to look and act like Erika. Christine didn't. She also said certain actors (unnamed) sat back and hoped she would sink. She said that after a few weeks she got into the role, and that after a few weeks, fans accepted her, because she wasn't trying to be an Erika clone.

Apparently Marla Adams was tracked down in the frozen food aisle when they asked her to fill in for Carolyn Jones.

Kristi Ferrell auditioned for GL's India. Betty Rea felt she was wrong for India, but right for Roxy.

It still baffles me that anyone would fire Bryan Crantson. Were any of the recasts popular or that important?

Yes I did notice. It's strange that they put that in there, since it wasn't that long ago at that time he'd started on ATWT (about nine years). I have another photo of Dagne too I will post when I find it again.

Thank you for adding the whole interview. I'm surprised they asked about Janine/Max, but I'd love to see that happen.

So apparently Tom Ligon played Billy Bristow? The 12/4/84 Digest lists him as leaving the show, along with Bryan Crantson/Doug and Lesley Vogel/Edy Donovan.

Yes, it must have been, since it had the cast list. That would be for two weeks I think? Lorna was played by Susan Walters, who went on to a lot of primetime, and was Diane on Y&R off and on until last year. Meg Mundy played Isabelle. You may remember her from AMC as Gillian's Aunt Eugenia. Did they mention any AIDS research yet? What did you think of this Ann compared to Callan White?

What a thorough summary. I never knew Debbi Morgan was in this. So she was killed? I'm sure dc would know more about Rita Mae. Have you read any of the Digest summaries? If not then eventually I'm going to post most of those I have (not many) from the early/mid 80s and that might help. I've posted one or two. It's strange to me how quickly they dumped Merrill. I'd love to know why. I remember reading a Digest letter from a fan praising them as one of daytime's best couples... Your description of the cinematography is interesting. So which Aldens were in this? This was before Clay/Trisha/Gwen right? What did you think of Ann? Did Kiberd seem to be playing Trevor?

I never knew Victoria's Leslie and Brad had a credits grouping together. I wish Y&R would go back to these. They're so striking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RACENn0SNi4

Thanks for sharing this. I wonder if he knows the show is on Youtube? One or two episodes, anyway. If he could share any memories about the show that would be great.

Thanks. I don't buy Phil as king of the square, but then, this isn't new, and I will have to keep putting up with it. I do wonder why they did the crack story as Phil is back to his usual self.

Hopefully it will be good. Collinson's Corrie is generally very bitter and likes to make fun of people so I am expecting more of that.

All that is known is he's returning with a rich boyfriend.

Corrie is still peddling this stuff about Ken and Dennis Tanner being enemies. They weren't. Dennis disliked Ken early in the show and that was it, for about eight years. If this is how they are bringing him back then Collinson has failed with another return. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/3482421/Watch-out-Ken-Dennis-is-back.html

She was popular, yes, although some have said that those spinoffs were just fulfilling contractual obligations. I don't know if anyone would care that much about seeing her again though as I don't know if her last years were very popular, when she became a bitter whore.

I see what you mean, but soap vets have been passing away for so many years that I don't associate them with the genre as much as I would have at one time. It's down to the individual person. For instance, with the Doctors, the guy who played Steve Aldrich died 20 years ago, yet Liz Hubbard is still alive and healthy, etc. I'm just sorry that these actors never really got all the recognition they deserved - Helen Wagner lived out the last 53 years of her life on ATWT, yet James Pritchett's last major role was in 1982, meaning a lot of people will not even remember him.

Apparently Gemma Atkinson (Lisa Hunter) says she was asked to come back to Hollyoaks for a year but said no, as she wants to go to Hollywood. I'm not sorry to see her skip Hollyoaks, as she was just miserable, but I do wonder if this is why they brought Lee back. Without her around they may ditch him.

It sounds to me like she's still not coming back and that was just lip service. Did he really call Phil and Shirley the king and queen of Walford?

Early on Sunset had an Asian actress, Kelly Hu, in a love story with Tim Adams. Then they brought in some hokey thing about an arranged marriage, but it was obvious she was in love with Adams. Suddenly, she was fired, and she went off with this fiance she suddenly loved. The show never had any Asian characters again.

I think a general consensus was that the idea was good for occasions but not every week. I haven't seen all of them but some of those I saw were strong, like Reva's goodbye party, or when Olivia learned she was dying.

The way you describe the show makes me want to see it. It sounds fantastic. I have mostly only read about it, and the stories seemed fairly dark at times (like the bad seed story) so it's nice to hear they had a warm tone. Do you think CBS should have given the show more time? If they had do you think it might have regained steam? What did you think of Michael Zaslow and Paul Michael Glaser? I also wonder if Michael Hawkins was better here than he was on RH.

That whole "Amanda's friend" story or whatever it was, somebody's friend, confused me at the time, and she seemed so wan. I feel like they really never developed a believable love interest for Gary outside of Abby. I think the show hit on a good thing when they had Ben/Val and Abby/Gary and that both characters were strengthened by being apart. I agree that Knots usually had a story. For all the talk of the public being too stupid to understand dense plotting, long-term story was what helped you hang on with Knots when the story itself wasn't the best. There were some exceptions (I never cared about the conclusion of DIRTYCOPDIRTYCOP or Ben's spa saga) but usually not. The show was also very good at followthrough and playing the beats. It was only when they stopped doing long-term story - the season of tidal energy - that the ratings really fell.

I never knew her mother was involved in that, I always just thought it was Norman Lear. I'm glad you enjoyed the scans. I have a few more (not of Nancy unfortunately) I mean to post sometime. She really is stunning and it annoys me that she was fired and that Asians still seem to have no place on soaps. The idea of hey let's fire the Asian and then our show will take off played out again on Sunset Beach. What did you think of Diana Douglas on the show? She's the one I seem to see the most articles about at the time (aside from the young stars), I guess because of her marriage to Kirk.

Thanks. That's a shame. I would have thought the OTT stories of the Reilly era might have got some favor in australia given some of the crazy stories on some of the Australian soaps (although not as crazy as American soaps).