DRW50

It's tough to imagine anyone but Don Hastings as Bob. Some articles even refer to him as an original cast member. I think they aged him with another actor, then a bit later cast Don. I don't know why they chose to ignore John (and Edith) later on. Perhaps they felt that the Hughes were established enough with Bob and his kids. I would hope that, if Marland had stayed on, he would have brought in more family. I would have been interested in someone like Meg Mundy (although she may have been a little too young), or Augusta Dabney.

What did you think of the chimp?

Huh. I had forgotten a lot of the buildup to his exit. Or I just ignored it. I wonder how much involvement Claire Labine had in any of that. His actual death was in the writers strike, and she seemed shocked and annoyed by it when she was interviewed years later. I hated the story (MAMA HELP ME) but I was glad to see him go. Nothing against Michael Corbett, just hated the character and what he represented, in terms of women. The only thing I liked about him was when he danced with Delia.

They did a number on Siobhan, and poor Sarah Felder too. Rarely have I seen such an undiluted example of a writer's vision (Sarah Felder), and a network's vision (Ann Gillespie). How they stumbled onto Marg Helgenberger, who seemed to marry ABC and TPTB's visions for the character, I don't know. The 70's had Erica, Kate on Somerset (although her abortion drove her crazy too), Kathy on Search (who aborted for career reasons and only wanting one child)...I might have missed someone.

No it was just Kim. Siobhan was pregnant in 1980 and after some brief doubt over Joe's life (or Tiso's life, at the time she still thought Joe was not in the business) she chose to keep the baby. Then she had a miscarriage after being kidnapped and escaping. Michael Pavel was one of those who kidnapped her...which the show forgot because he was a hot piece of tail. Ugh I hated him.

That's such a fun song. I always enjoy it, even if some of my memory is tainted by the bad versions on American Idol. Some of my favorite Patti songs:

I guess what I remember with abortion on RH is that every female character, no matter how independent or feminist they were or how they felt about abortion, always chose to keep their child, if it was presented as a choice not motivated out of bad reasons. Even Siobhan, who worked at a family planning clinic and fought with Maeve about birth control and abortion. I'm not criticizing, because I never felt like the show was saying being pro-choice was bad, or immoral. I just notice that every strong female character on the show during Labine's run seemed to end up having a choice about whether to abort a child and choosing not to do so. Not to get off topic too much, but did you know Dick Clark was thinking of producing a sitcom for John and Sandy Gabriel? They would have played rival villains on soaps. It might have been entertaining, and I know Sandy was funny on AMC.

I had forgotten that Ruth and Rosemary both had major story together on ATWT and AMC. Wow. It's actually pretty clever of Agnes, if this was intentional (and she was with Irna in those years so it may have been). I want to see this story so much. It also seems like Irna spent years building up these characters, instead of just throwing sh!t at them, as most new soaps do (and Irna herself did at AW). Viewers knew so much about Penny's fears and insecurities before she ever started a relationship with Jeff Baker. I didn't know John and Edith were twins. I wonder if they were on the show at the same time?

August 1956 TV Radio Mirror.

August 1956 TV Radio Mirror.

I think Rainie has great potential as a character, if they get her away from Phil and find stronger relationships with other characters. Unfortunately I can't think of a lot of male characters on the show now who are interesting. Perhaps a violent relationship with Michael that ends in her killing him. She reminds me so much of Donna Ludlow. I would use that to bring Kathy back. Have her go on the run and Kathy, who is in hiding, saves her.

The longer Rainie is around Phil the more he will drain the life out of her. That's all Phil does as a character.

I liked Scott, especially in his first 5-10 years in the role, but Bryan would have been fantastic. I don't understand why they passed him up.

Per SOD, at the time Ben Cross was approached, a few of the other actors who were in contention to be Barnabas Collins on the primetime Dark Shadows revival - Michael Nader and Michael Tylo.

I love that version too. It's a great song, as long as you sing it with some pathos (not like that opening to Providence...that and Melina K not having a fake Greek accent drove me away fairly quickly). There's something so haunting about Julie Covington's version, and plaintive. I hadn't heard it until a few days ago. I also didn't know she had the first version of Don't Cry for Me Argentina.

Conrad looks a lot like Don Hastings there. I can see why they cast him as Don Hughes.

July 11, 1988 Digest.

That's great. I do wonder why Pierce was in there...not really a love.

It was so nice to see Constance Ford there - I know Sandra's talked about Connie being an influence on her. It's nice to know she cared so much about the cast.

July 12, 1988 Digest.

I'm so sorry, I missed your detailed answer to my question. Thank you!!! I will have to watch for Madeline. video gone

June 2, 1987 Digest. Again sorry about the glare. If you want anything typed out, let me know.

A few bits from a summer '88 Digest. Sorry about the scanner light - the other one I took down because it was a bit too much of a glare.

Margaret Tyzack, who did an excellent job in her short run as Janine's grandmother Lydia, has passed away. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2008731/The-Forsyte-Saga-star-Margaret-Tyzack-dies-aged-79.html

Thanks for the clips and photos. I wonder if Brad Bell was just ashamed of the Spectras. His idea of "comedy" seems to be more along the lines of the latest scene where people tell Brooke she is a whore/Stephanie goes wild. That and Pam/Donna Duck. Perhaps he feels like he created those characters (since the Logans of today bear zero resemblance to anything Bill Bell created) so it shows how great he is.