DRW50

July 5 Digest. Following his investment in the Hammer Gonzales fight, Jeff is approached by a man who claims to have similar ideas about making quick money. Although skeptical of Keifer, Jeff questions him further. "I'm tellin' you, with your dough and my know-how, we got it made," Keifer smiles. Intrigued, Jeff decides to put up $5,000 for one of Keifer's scams. Nicole's sessions with Dr. Coleman take a dramatic turn when she finally admits the real reason why she's so angry with Jeff. "Are you afraid he's going to turn out like Eddie?" the therapist asks. Distraught, Noel nods. Later, never suspecting Jeff's involved with Keifer, Noel assures her estranged boyfriend that they can still be friends. Ulterior Motives Carter has more than a platonic relationship in mind when he gallantly volunteers to take Lisa apartment hunting. After a phone call from Bree, a friend in Washington, Lisa is only too willing to find a way to amuse herself in Wingfield! Eavesdropping on her sister's phone conversation, Christina is amused to hear words like "subpoena" bartered around. Since it looks like Lisa will be hiding out in their dreary little town until the problem blows over, why not take Carter up on his offer, Chris suggests sweetly. With Lisa safely out of the way, Chris returns to her subtle but persistent pursuit of C.J. Ironically, Carter makes it easy for his ex-wife to endear herself to Field by threatening to destroy C.J. with something from his past. "I'm through playing games!" Carter informs Scott, who relays Chapin's warning to C.J.. After meeting with Carter, C.J. realizes he's serious. But Mark is the only thing on Field's mind, so C.J. asks Chris to find out what Carter's up to. Cherry, now calling herself "Cherie" in honor of her new singing career, is speechless to come upon Koty's appointment book - which includes a list of doctor visits and numerous tests. Meanwhile, Koty continues to agonize over the pain her death will eventually cause Brady. Unaware of Koty's conflict, Brady attempts to make love to her again. "I can't!" Koty cries. Frustrated, Brady admits he can't go on this way. Taking a deep breath, Koty numbly proposes that they stop seeing each other... Mike is stunned when he runs into the Imperial Leader right outside C.J.'s office! Equally unnerved, Stalworth accepts Mike's explanation that he was visiting the "Jew" to discuss his sculpture commission. Shocked by his close call, Mike has another crisis to deal with when Lacey discovers his dangerous scheme. Julia and Lucky may become the next victims of the Crusaders, following a kiss which surprises both of them. Later, it's Stalworth himself who has to worry about incurring the Crusaders' wrath. Following McKee's advice, C.J. informs his "good friend" that he knows the truth about Stalworth's relationship with the racist organization! He'll do everything they've asked, Field tells Bob, as long as he helps Mike get Mark out of the compound alive.... Jeff is ecstatic when Keifer stops by to say that his $5,000 investment has paid off to the tune of $20,000! Excited, Chapin presses Keifer to tell him everything. After reluctantly explaining how he and another accomplice substituted horses at the last minute, Keifer watches Jeff's reaction. Satisfied that Chapin believes him, Keifer excuses himself to make a phone call. "Al?" he whispers, "the kid fell for the oldest scam there is. He's hooked...He's not going to be a problem," Keifer sneers. Keifer isn't the only one who realizes that Jeff's addicted to life in the fast lane. As time goes on, Noel becomes increasingly turned off by Jeff's extravagances - even when her boyfriend presents her with a huge diamond ring! Stunned, Noel can only murmur that it must have cost a fortune. Never guessing that Jeff purchased the ring from winnings following a $50,000 scam with Keifer, Noel still refuses to accept it. Stung by Noel's rejection, Jeff follows up on his plans to change his life by moving into the Willows with the rest of the Chapins. Like Jeff, Noel also has plans which, much to everyone's amazement, including going to college. Julia's neutral stance on the takeover bid becomes unfeasible as the takeover bid struggle gets dirtier. Torn between her two families, Julia can't decide whether to side with her father or mother on the issue. Sensing this, Carter challenges Julia to test C.J.'s love by throwing in with the Chapins. Meanwhile, Christina is fascinated to hear Dan Youngblood's story. Convinced that Carter had some secret motive for bringing the ex-alcoholic horse trainer to town, Chris vows to get to the bottom of it. Amid her sleuthing for C.J., Chris takes time out to make Carter an offer he can't refuse. Unless Carter signs over the property he owns next to Haddon Hall, she's going to let C.J. deliver the commencement address this year. Stymied, Chapin agrees. Later, the Chapins put an end to their marriage once and for all and sign the divorce papers. Even before the ink dries, Chris drops by Gallagher's to size up the competition for C.J. Furious, Sara responds to Chris's questions by ordering her out! When Diandra and Lacey meet to share the concern about their husbands' involvement with the Crusaders, Lacey admits she's worried about something else. She wants to explore the possibilities of using a surrogate mother to give Mike a child, Lacey announces. With Diandra's support, Mrs. Gallagher goes so far as to discuss the matter with a lawyer, Al Carson. Mike isn't thrilled to hear that he and Stalworth will be working together to spirit Mark out of the camp. Swallowing his contempt, Gallagher devises a plan. After hiding Mark in a crate, he and Bob inform the Crusaders that it's filled with ammunition to be delivered to another group of terrorists. Suddenly, Stubbins shows up. "Put down that box!" he shouts, as Mike and Bob freeze....

I guess I was thinking of most of the 90s...it seemed like from about 93-97 or so. Rex was killed, which was a brief story, then she just had stuff like Kurt's intro, getting another facelift, and the brawl with Jill in the courthouse after she testified in favor of John in the custody fight. I wish I could see this Allison. She seems like a rare character for the older group - usually the older women on the show, aside from Flo, were more long-suffering.

Speaking of Philece, she said in an interview when she was Donna that she was disappointed in her Rituals role, that she thought the character was, essentially, boring. I wonder if that's because she'd expected the Priscilla role. From the July 30, 1985 issue.

I thought I was the only one who remembered Lazenby for those Emmanuelle things... I'm not sure I have the end synopses but I'll post what I can find. I also have Schemering's writeup somewhere, although you've probably already seen that. Here's the Charlene Keel interview, from the July 16, 85 Digest.

It's funny you mention that, as someone said that Jeanne Cooper was going to leave in 1993 for ATWT, but then Doug Marland passed away. Katherine has had so many long runs without story. At least she was generally kept in character. These days I don't recognize her. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of Peter Brown from what I've seen of him. He was a bit dull on B&B and almost strangely giddy on OLTL.

Thanks for answering all my questions. I guess that wasn't much of a triangle then with Katherine/Earl/Allison. This must have been one of those times they weren't sure where to take Katherine. Did they bring Lauren in right after the Stevens were written out or was it still a while before she was with Paul?

I have some summaries of this time, I'll post some of them when I have time. I don't have complete though...I think FrenchFan does, but not from the Digest issues. I wish I could see the Laurence story, even though it doesn't sound very exciting (they were still telling stories about women in decades long comas in 1982, why?). Thanks for your help. I have an article from the mid 80s talking about DAYS and Y&R actors soap-hopping. It might have already been posted here but I'll post again in a few days - it has pictures and talk with Halick, Patty Weaver, among others. I wonder if Earl was mostly created just to give Mark Tapscott a job. I think he'd been written out of DAYS a few years before that. That photo with Ed Mallory, also recently hired by the show, was kind of sobering -- he'd aged a lot in only 5-10 years. I wonder if he'd been ill.

Yeah the summaries around this time mention Traci too, even if she isn't in the photo. It's also mentioned in a September issue that Tom Ligon and Lynne Topping had been fired. I wonder why they just didn't have Chris leave with Snapper? Why did they wait until later to get rid of Leslie? Were they not sure about whether they should keep her around? One of the readers writes in asking why they got rid of the woman who played April, because she was so talented, and SOD said that Wes Kenney, who had just arrived, requested that the entire Stevens family be written out. I wonder why. What was this story with Katherine/Earl/Allison? I know it must have been summarized before by FrenchFan but I'm blanking on it. I also wondered if anyone knew why they didn't keep Kevin around. The actor seemed to soap hop until the mid-80s and he's done little since. In one of the Digests from mid/late 85 they talk to Tom Halick briefly, as he showed up for a DAYS fan dinner. He said after DAYS had fired him he and his wife got to go to China, which they'd wanted to do. Did you ever see his DAYS role? Apparently he was Megan's evil father.

From the September 10, 1985 Digest (Network Publishing Corporation)

From the 1986 Daytime Yearbook (Sterling's Magazines)

From the October 12, 1982 Digest, Y&R says farewell to Jaime Lyn Bauer. I didn't realize so many Abbotts were already on the show by this time, I thought it was just Jack and John.

From Daytime TV Yearbook (Sterling's Magazines).

9/24/85 Digest, From Reel to Real, Tony Rizzo's column.

A letter from a read in the September 24, 1985 Digest laments what has been done to Liza, her behavior with Hogan is out of character and does not compare to her behavior with Steve and Travis. They then say they were relieved when Sherry Mathis left because she no longer had to be subjected to what was going on, and they wish her luck in her future career. I wonder how many other fans felt this way.

I'll look in the bits I have and see if it's mentioned. I have one, you might have already seen it, where they interviewed Charlene Keel and she was not exactly fond of the version of Rituals which made it to air.

The show had quite a few from 2000-2004 or so didn't they? I wish they did more now, their cast is much stronger now than it's been in a long time. I saw the Michelle/Sharon two-hander when it was still on Youtube. It was very powerful. The early scenes were devoted to Michelle and Sharon laughing and talking about old times. Then Michelle told her, and Sharon was furious and devastated. Amazing acting, especially from Sue Tully. They didn't make up until Vicki had meningitis. The show did such a fantastic job with that secret and the long, slow impact it had - soaps don't know how to do that now.

Of all the weddings to return for, Ian and Mel. Odd. Diehards may already have so many issues with the show as it is, the show might as well take the risk. I think with time and care - if soaps can do that today - it would be worth hiring a good actress who would have chemistry with Dean and work in the role Michelle once filled, especially since there is no one like that on the show now. There are no quiet, strong women. I was just watching another 1985 episode, episode 49. This was on the heels of Sue being completely shut down after Hasaan's death, to the point where she let herself and the cafe go to ruin. She recovered because she held Mary's crying baby, and the next day she gave Hasaan's baby clothes to a disturbed Pauline. Meanwhile, Annie's crying was so constant that Mary began yelling at her to shut up, and finally, in a moment of madness, almost suffocated the baby. Can you imagine ANY of that being allowed today? All that brilliant drama, all kept off the air by censors and the press, while stuff like rape, child molestation, and constant violence are seen as no big deal.

I wish they'd recast Michelle. I really want to see the Fowlers on the show again. I don't mean Martin, as he bored me and I thought he was a drag on the family. I mean close to what they were again in the show's best years, 85-88.

If anyone's interested, I have some Digest synopses and interviews and photos, and a two-page roundup a Daytime TV Yearbook. I can scan or type out some of this. Here are some promos:

Corrie promises yet more degradation of women, which seems to be most of their output these days. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3354344/Maria-Connor-will-be-sexually-attacked-on-Coronation-Street.html

That would be a very refreshing idea. The show is so hated at the moment by some vocal fans that the idea would probably get a lot of backlash, but if the actors and writing is good enough it might work. It has to be better than thrilling storytelling such as American = drug dealer.

I wish they would just kill Fiz off. She's become so annoying and even John barely seems to be able to cope with her now. Sad that Claire's last episodes were mostly about other people pulling stupid faces. I was surprised at how terrible Craig Gazey was. Making Graeme a romantic hero still confuses me and I wonder if this is one of the reasons he quit. The best part was the very natural bond between Claire and Becky. The only one Becky had on the show (the stuff with Roy and Hayley doesn't seem genuine in recent years). Their last scene was beautiful. I don't understand why everything is fine just because she is going to France. Is this the France of the old Conehead sketches?

How do you think Susannah would have been as Sable? I wish they could have cast her in the role boring Katharine Ross played. That's a beautiful photo. It must be tough for Joan, as she's lost so many of those she cares about in recent years. Susannah was thinking of others to the end - there's a Daily Mail photo of her from December, about Christmas trees, and she asks that money be donated to cancer charities. I didn't know she was forced not to appear in 9 episodes of the last season. I always assumed that was her choice. Did they also push Linda Evans out? If they'd put Alexis front and center then they might have gotten some revived interest, since Alexis/Sable were a fun rivalry.

Love Crystal Gayle! I remember a sneering journalist once wrote a book saying she was famous only for her hair and sister and belonged in Vegas, and wasn't real country, but I think she has a great country soul and I also like that she doesn't rely on all that awful schtick like Gretchen Wilson and never tried to pander. Some of my favorite songs of hers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePnW-MxubNs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsdgOWC4JyI&feature=related