DRW50

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.

I see a Daytime TV mention that "Natalie Israel" left as Patti in December 1974. Was this another name for Leigh Lassen?

Marcy is fun here. And I love Lisa's childishness about Ellen. I guess this story with Keith Charles went nowhere. There's another clip where Ellen is grilling Gavin and Arthur Claiborne about a retirement home property or something, and Charles was in that too. It's a shame they didn't develop the story for Ellen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaIdBRRalMI&feature=related

This is fascinating. I had forgotten the show lasted for 2 full years. That's quite a run compared to most of the soaps of the 60's (they usually seemed to either take off or die quickly). I don't understand why they would cancel the show after such massive ratings growth. They missed a trick, as Dark Shadows was on the way to make their channel much more youth-friendly. I had no idea so many soap names were on this. It's funny because Don Hastings said that - I think - Irna Phillips got Richard Thomas replaced on ATWT because she didn't care for him. When The Waltons started, and Irna told him she was impressed with John Boy, Don told her John Boy had played Tom. She refused to believe him. I wonder if she knew Richard at this show. The early story sounds very Peyton Place. Here's what Schemering said. I will skip the early part and just cut to more of the story: He also says the show was produced by Joseph Hardy and written by Don Ettlinger, and one of the directors was Tom Donovan.

Gary Swanson, who played Greg Mercer on Somerset, was one of the top contenders to replace Christopher Reeve on Love of Life. Adrian Zmed auditioned to play Max Holden after James de Paiva left in 1990, and was JdP's own personal choice for the role. If he'd gotten the role he would have probably sublet JdP's apartment (this was all in an SOD).

I remember the B&B book, which was a real labor of love, had a lot of cast shots. Look at poor KKL rocking the Nancy McKeon dress sense in that first one. I didn't think Michael Swan was on the show in 1997.

The fever?? Those are great. I didn't realize Jeff played any of the Thorne/Caroline/Ridge story.

Holden was around for about a year and a half after he took Aaron. He had that boring story with the mother of a deaf child, and with Janice, and sniffing around Lily (leading to the bell tower). At one point Emma castigated him for treating her as a babysitter instead of being a father. The mention of Aaron living with Julie was ludicrous and that was one of the first big hints that FMB had no real interest in ATWT's history. I always liked Julie and her flaws were one of the reasons why. To hear that she was raising Aaron and that she was seriously ill throughout the 00's (did they ever officially kill her off?) was pretty damn sad. At least I have my memories of her brief return for that Lilden wedding in early 1998, with Andy taking photos of her.

And now all those mentions are gone I guess the different version of AW that ABC wanted may have just meant Felicia? This is very well-written. I'm glad to know more about Mike Bauer's stories. I think JFP's tenure did bring in a ratings increase for a while but not enough, and probably not worth the financial cost.

I felt that way more about Thorne and Storm.