DRW50

I have an interview with Tina from her Search run somewhere, and she says something about she thinks Patti is only pretending to be nice, so she can manipulate Jo. She thought Patti would be another scheming character, like Kate. I'm not sure if this was a story plan or just her own desire.

I wonder how Nancy Barrett would have been - some of her later Dark Shadows characters, like Carolyn Loomis, screamed Lemay. Or they could have brought in for FRFP Maeve Maguire after Edge of Night fired her. That would have received some publicity and Maeve was such a striking presence, she could have been perfect for the type of show they wanted.

I haven't watched much of Let's Dance for Comic Relief this year (the first week was so flat) but apparently Emmerdale daddy James Thornton was a viewer favorite with his tap dance routine with friend Charlie Baker. They and the judges usually only support comedians who try to be daring by dressing in drag (which was daring...fifty years ago) and has-beens/zelebrities, so for the viewers to vote for this shows how much appeal he has. Too bad Emmerdale would rather waste him as they waste anyone with talent or charisma.

I always give most of the credit for 1995 to Caso and Culliton although there might have been someone else before Culliton. Carly was a real live wire who finally made the boring Rosanna/Mike interesting. Eduardo's death and the lawsuit by Lisa was a great story that utilized all the history of the Hughes and Dixon families. Claire Bloom was chilling as Orlena. Even smaller stories like Dawn's death, Kirk and Sam's love story, Jeremy's adoption, Julie and the ransom money, and Jef/Emily were good. P&G took the changes too far and destroyed any progress the show was making. Every single thing that had been working was ruined and they also seemed to have no idea that Maura West might be leaving, which killed the story as she was the main thing in it. If they had backed off then ATWT might still be on today. The only thing I can praise them for is they used the vets they didn't fire, and they got rid of Rosanna. That was about it.

I was looking in a 1994 soap magazine - and I know this has been mentioned before - but they talk about the Dobsons being rumored to go to AW, which didn't happen, so then the magazine was saying they were rumored to be returning to ATWT. Was this ever actually any type of possibility? I wonder what they would have done. I actually thought the show turned itself around by early 1995, and that the changes made by Valente were unnecessary, but I wonder if the Dobsons might have managed to reinvent things in a way that would have kept some of the old ATWT, which seemed to be destroyed in the mid/late 90s and never returned.

I haven't watched lately but will have to see this. There's a reason why I have always had a soft spot for Ian.

Thank you for typing all that. I will have to look over it soon it seems fascinating. I had forgotten Soapcentral had some of those in depth profiles for older characters (Wikipedia would probably delete them). Are they still around?

More honesty from Republicans. The Wisconsin senate majority leader says the union-busting bill is about weakening Democrats. http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/scott-fitzgerald-obama/ And they managed to pass it, so they got what they wanted. They didn't even bother to vote on a budget - they just voted to strip collective bargaining. Since they are usually good at class warfare, my guess is a lot of people in Wisconsin will say it affects those who don't deserve protections anyway, it's all the Democrats fault, and so on. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/wis-state-senate-passes-anti-union-bill-in-end-run-around-dem-boycott.php?ref=fpa

Thanks so much for sharing this interview - I didn't know this. I don't think The City was ever going to be a big hit but I do wish they had marketed differently and given it a little more time, perhaps another year. I think it could have become a cult show. If there was ever a soap that needed writers outside of daytime this was it. I don't think Ava was coming back either. Lisa must have been in negotiations with AW around this time - didn't she first appear in spring 1997? BTW, anyone who wants to see Robert Tyler on ATWT - I can't remember all the episode dates, but on Youtube, but in August 17, 1988 (As the World Turns). He's in the first clip of that and probably several others. I can't embed.

Thank you for sharing this with us. I haven't heard of Soap Opera World. Some of that, like the comments about Mike and Floyd, I wonder about, as she never did anything with them. Was it Jeff Ryder/Gail Kobe who dumped Floyd from the show?

Continuing my journey through May 1988 ATWT - now on May 30. Laura is gone and with her exit was the revelation that she had been sexually abused by her father, a father she and brother Beau had idealized. This was some ugly stuff, and I believe the first of its kind on ATWT. Was this strike material? Or was Marland using this as a test run for Angel and Henry Lange? I really like how normal Beau and Pam seem to be. They're a nice contrast to the drama around them. I also really like Jessica and Roy Franklin, who have a nice, easy chemistry. Did he want to leave or did they fire him? Lisa sings "What'll I Do?" and I love Eileen Fulton but she sounded horrible. I wonder if she had any choice over songs because that did not suit her voice at all. She seemed to be singing quite a bit at this time - in most of the 86-88 episodes I've seen it was Lila. Early Kirk is so different from the ha ha Kirk of later years. I like his early scenes with Iva, as she is so appalled by him. This is nice romantic comedy type of stuff, not her usual misery. I liked Ellie/Kirk too but I'm sorry that this had to end with more of Iva's agony. Shannon continues to obsess over that Margaret painting, while her own painting seems like Elvira in a blue dress. Duncan doesn't want to marry her and she lashes out. Silly material but well acted by Swan and Reed. Emily is sleeping with Tonio and genuinely seems to care for him, which surprised me, as I had always assumed it was just sex. I guess it was for him. It's funny, because, as I've mentioned a few times before, I HATED Holden when I first started watching ATWT. It was not until his 1996 return that I started to like him more. I have almost wondered over the years why I ever hated him. But it is all back in full force thanks to these spring 1988 episodes. - Holden marries Emily knowing what type of history she has (lying, sex, etc.) - Holden profits from her money and goes into business with Tonio - Holden then spends much of his time lecturing Tonio about immorality, when he's right in bed with Tonio! - Holden goes on and on and on in every episode to Emily about lies, even though he lied to Lily for a year! Saying, "Now I know how Lily feels," isn't enough. - Holden goes over to see Craig after Sierra "dies" and says he knows how Craig feels. Really? Talk about narcissistic. Lily didn't die. Something else regarding ATWT that I noticed was when I was looking through a few of the "what's hot in soaps/who's who of soaps" type of publications in 1981, ATWT had some of the least coverage and least expense. In one, ATWT was barely covered, and in the other, which covered all the shows, the only shows that had no color, glossy pictures were ATWT, The Edge of Night, and The Doctors. They finally threw a glossy picture of Eileen and Bob Hastings on the back page, like an afterthought. Was ATWT really that far down in the public mind in 1981 or was this just a coincidence?

Maria Shriver's comments should have been left out - they were not much of a criticism at all and undercut the point the writer was trying to make, since it had nothing to do with any of his policies, it was just a stupid comment on a TV show. So it looks like Republicans are trying to limit voting from college students, and they aren't exactly being subtle about their reasons why. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030602662.html?hpid=topnews So I guess voting based on ignorance and fear is OK only if you are not a college student, since that is the basic strategy of most of today's Republican machine.

I wonder if the Ames family wouldn't have been dumped if he had stayed.

That's a shame. Was he the first Peter? Rough week for Secret Storm actors.

OK. If I have them I will post what I have. I will try to put some Passions stuff up soon.

For many years GL probably had the strongest and most complex men and women on any soap. Even at the end there were a lot of strong and interesting characters. Sadly the message the soaps get is that if you aren't a caveman and if women aren't in their place, the sky will fall.

I never knew he was in the Andy Ferris story. Thanks. I guess someone at the show must have wished they hadn't given him such a dark role, to keep bringing him back. I wish GL had brought him back in the last year to play out story with Lillian and Beth, instead of wasting him at ATWT a year later with the pointless role of Reid's uncle.

No, just subtitles.

That's sad to hear. I hate to see German soaps going the way of American soaps. What do you think is happening?

Are you surprised about the 40 minute expansion? I thought the ratings had lowered.

There is more of the 1988 Laura story up, which was named worst story of the year by SOD. The backstory is so convoluted, although I'm not sure if that's the strike, or just Marland (Carolyn Crawford's murder was also convoluted). It's, in some ways, a fascinating story, because no one will believe any bad word about Bob or the Hughes family. Normally I would hate this, but since the Hughes really were moral and upstanding people most of the time, it doesn't bother me that much (are you listening, AMC's Martin family). Anyway, this means that a lot of mileage has to come out of a) Bob and Tom being too polite to tell most people what a nut she is b ) short-term recurring characters coming in to help drive her story. By the time of these episodes she had gotten into a somewhat bizarre relationship with her boss, Herb Petrie. Do you know if this guy or the woman who plays his wife had been on any other soaps? They both look familiar. Laura is such an empty character, and a story similar to this (random crazy woman who seems nice at first, files a sexual harassment complaint against a good man) was playing out at AW at this time, but I do like some of the work from the woman who plays her (I think she was the mouse victim on GL before this). She does remind me of Kim Cattrall though. This episode also has some fantastic moments where Craig's harem learns that he is still alive, and they all react, separately and together. Some wonderful work, especially from Lindsay Frost. I can never believe the Craig of later on who hated women.

Judging Amy? How random. How many times do AWZ and VL share stories? I just wonder because

The May 1966 TV Picture Life says John Boruff (Henry Benedict) was assisting Agnes Nixon in writing scripts. How long did that last? How long was he on the show? I think IMDB lists him as 65-66. Did he ever work for her again?

I've heard that a few times (the story I mean). VW always seemed to have some craziness in her performance so I wasn't too surprised if that translated to real life, although I don't think we ever heard about any bad behavior onset or with other actors. I remember on the old Jump the Shark site, the entry for My Three Sons, the woman who played Dody came on to try to say something about all the attacks against her. This isn't the same thing but in one of the old magazines I was reading that they initially did not plan to kill off John Randolph, and it was only the delay in the debut of the 90 minute episodes that they decided to kill him, because they wanted to shock viewers. This cavalier attitude towards veteran characters is a good reason why ratings fell so hard at that time... Something else I have always wondered about with AW is Lahoma. Ann Wedgworth is so unlike most who were ever on AW (although she might have worked as a Frame) and was so unique to soaps in general. I've always wondered how she became so popular, if it was gradual. Did she start out as a small player? I wish I could see more of Lucas too. Jordan Charney seemed to struggle outside of that role. I wonder if the show made enough of an effort when they brought him back after Somerset.