DRW50

TC did you like Clarice later on? I didn't know that episode from the earlier years was on Youtube. Wyndham was playing Rachel by that time? I'd love to see that. I always thought that one of the reasons the Rachel/Alice rivalry worked was that Robin Strasser was more delicate, yet Rachel was hard, while Jacquie Courtney was butch, yet Alice was sweet.

Yeah they did a great job of redeeming Rachel without making her too sappy. Other shows should do as much. And look, no rape to "redeem" Rachel. What does it say about Beverlee and Iris that when I read about her busted bust and destroyed portrait, I just go, "Poor Iris " instead of caring about her campaign against poor Clarice.

arms flailing wildly as she held a coffee pot in one hand, the crashing glass, and then - nothing. Poor Elinore! thought Althea, but then she stopped, realizing how incongruous it was to be worrying about Elinore at a time like this. Elinore might be mentally unbalanced, but at least she was all in one piece. She could not with any certainty say the same about herself. Looking down at her bandages, Althea began to grow extremely worried about the state of her health when she thought she heard the familiar voice of surgeon Nick Bellini at her bedside. Dr. Bellini, Althea's former husband, had left the hospital about a year ago to accept a medical assignment. To be sure, Nick was the last person Althea expected to see at that moment. But there he was, with the cocky grin on his face that had always made Althea laugh, even when she was mad at him. Their relationship had been an emotional one - Nick had a lively temper! - yet through thick and thin, Nick had remained Althea's friend, and she knew he would always be there if she needed him. Nick explained to the startled Althea that he'd flown in to Memorial Hospital when word had reached him of her accident. She had been in shock, he told her, and he'd operated immediately to prevent serious complications from settling in. One of the problems had been her perilously low blood pressure. He'd brought up her pressure and stopped the edema that was causing troublesome side effects. Still, there were difficulties. The left side of her body was paralyzed. Nick could not conceal his distress about this, but he tried to give Althea hope that the condition could disappear as part of the body's normal healing process. In the days that followed, Nick and Althea were able to enjoy a closeness that had been denied them in the period following their divorce. They had gone their separate ways when they split up so Nick was not surprised to learn that Althea was at that very moment involved with another man. Nick could only shake his head at the complex problems Althea faced in her romance with Scott Conrad. To begin with, Scott was a married man. That would have been obstacle enough, but in Scott's case, the situation was made even more difficult by the fact that Scott's wife Elinore was wholly dependent on him because of her long history of mental illness. When Althea first met Scott, Elinore was a patient in a mental hospital. She had been confined there for fifteen years, and Scott had been led to believe that she would be there all her life. As luck would have it, the hospital administration decided to release Elinore just at the time when Scott and Althea realized they were in love. Because he wanted to pursue his love for Althea, Scott pleaded with the psychiatrists at the hospital to keep Elinore under lock and key. Scott declared that his wife was unstable and potentially dangerous. Those remarks failed to convince Elinore's psychiatrist Dr. McIntyre that Elinore should be forcibly detained in the hospital. Elinore was well enough to function. Much to his chagrin, Scott was required to accept Elinore into his life again and to treat her with some degree of respect. Had it not been for Nick Bellini, Althea might have allowed herself to slip into a kind of apathy that would have interfered with her medical recovery. Nick would not let this happen. Sensing Althea's listlessness and depression, Nick lost no time in trying to shock her out of her blue mood. "You think you have nothing to live for?" he'd ask her rhetorically. "Why, if you weren't lying in that bed, I'd pop you one in the kisser right now!" This undignified language hardly accorded with Dr. Bellini's reputation as one of the country's finest surgeons, but his blunt approach succeeded in the end. Althea just had to laugh at his tough talk, so obviously a humorous affectation, and when she laughed, she felt better and stronger. Nick hinted shyly that in order to get well, Althea should love "someone," and it seemed pretty clear that he hoped this someone would be him. Nick's attention to Althea would probably have provoked the jealousy of his former girlfriend Dr. Anne Larimer if she were not at that very moment caught up in a passionate attraction for Steve Aldrich, another staff doctor. When Steve's wife Carolee discovered that Steve and Ann were having an affair, she walked out on him. Steve was left with three children to care for, a responsibility that Anne would now like to share with him, if his youngsters can learn to accept her. Steve has been receiving psychiatric counseling from Dr. Wilson to help him cope with the recognition that unconsciously he wanted his marriage to break up. Meanwhile, Nick Bellini has made up his mind that he is going to turn Althea's life around. Knowing Nick, he'll undoubtedly succeed!

I've never seen that episode with the bust being destroyed. Lemay did love his symbolism didn't he? This must have been around early 1976, when this happened? They mention March was when Rachel had the miscarriage. Yeah I kind of wished they'd had some comments from the actors or something but the picture of Beverlee was so striking (even though I chopped it up) I decided to post it. I don't think I'd seen the one of her and Robert before.

I wish we could see that story. One of the first things I thought of when I read about her passing was SFT, and wondering if she's talking to Mary Stuart now. Sorry to change topic, but I was going to post this, it's from the March 31, 1981 Digest. Network Publishing Co

From the March 31, 1981 Digest. SOD Publishing Inc The cast celebrate the show's 15th anniversary, and Joe Gallison gets married. This issue also has an interview with Joe. I will type it up if anyone is interested.

From the July 1976 Soaps and Serials.

From the July 1976 Soaps and Serials.

which she shares with two other actresses. The room is furnished with three lockers, three chairs, and a long counter with mirrors above it. At 12:45 she goes to the Makeup Room on the third floor. She has until 1:15 p.m. to have her makeup applied, her hair rolled, dried and set...her wardrobe chosen, and put on...and her lunch eaten. Usually the lunch is an expendable item - like yogurt and iced tea consumed standing up, between scenes, on the set. At 1:15 p.m., she walks down the stairs to the second floor and the stage. During the next two hours and five minutes, she and all the personnel of the show concentrate full tilt. Outwardly, she is going through the motions...dialogue, movements, entrances and exits are being executed for the technicians. Inwardly, she is working to pace her energy so that it doesn't dissipate. That couch that she has to sit on sinks down in the middle...and everything stops until another couch is brought in. That microphone shadow shows in the cameraman's picture...and everything stops while there's a brief conference between the lighting director and the camera director and the cameraman. The lighting director gives in and moves a light. And on and on...all being guided by the director who communicates only by voice. His voice sometimes comes booming out from nowhere. ("Big Brother is watching!") The first act is blocked, then the second, the third, fourth and fifth. The clock on the studio wall reads 3:20. There's 5 minutes for the makeup man to do the final touch-up...for the hairdresser to come a few strands in place and spray...and then the stage manager calls places for Dress Rehearsal. The entire show is then performed, with no stops, from 3:25 to 3:55. Both technical and acting performances are watched closely and notes are taken by the producer. From 3:55 to 4:45, these notes are given to the actors and the technicians, who now must carry out the corrections. Then the performance is repeated, only this time for real, on tape, which will be shown on the air. At 5:15, the video tape has been checked for any mistakes, and then the cast is released.

From the July 1971 Daytime TV. Sterling's Magazines, Inc

Cheryl and Duncan are Lucy Allan (the last producer). Brendan is Marquess. I think they probably really did leave because they wanted to try to move out of acting. I do wonder if they saw the writing on the wall.

The scheduling for Corrie is so odd, they might as well trim episodes anyway. They air two episodes on Monday, one on Thursday, two on Friday. I think the soaps could do with trimming but then, as you mention, who would go? I have a feeling the only ones who would be safe are dead weight like Graeme, Nick, Michelle, and Sean.

Based on the way he handled the story I don't know if he ever really understood the Steph character. I kind of wonder if he would have kept her around. I think that Steph would also have been a threat to his beloved Mitzeee.

Duncan is, like Cheryl and Brendan, a cheap, easy, one-note character. Silly faces = lots of attention. And they have no real history so Marquess can do what he wants with them. Marquess is lucky because Hollyoaks was gutted by the last producer before he came along. Unfortunately he has just gutted the show even more and produced some of the most shallow characters I've seen on a soap. After the last few years I don't know. I can easily see Matt being let go even if he'd wanted to stay. Or completely backburnered. I think Allan would have just given him dumb comedy stories and Marquess would have fired him.

They did such a fantastic job with OB's exit. One of the best soap exits ever. What would that be now? Oh look, OB fell off a building. He's going offcamera to recover and will never be mentioned again.

Darren's grief will be all about Duncan making grotesque faces and eating. Cheryl will take center stage, as always. I think they wanted some big dramatic death for Steph. The problem is that the show is so empty and gimmicky that it doesn't really work. Look at the emptiness of this story about how battering your lover is hot or whatever.

Oh you're right. Sorry. At least I got the last name right. That starts here. Ada's death and funeral

Everything about her exit story has been cheap, from how rushed it is to the lack of emotion to not bringing anyone back or even asking Kevin Sacre to stay around. I have a feeling that the credits shot might be the classiest part of her exit. I'd love to see her on something else. She added so much to Hollyoaks. She was great at comedy but could also make you cry. One of my favorite Hollyoaks memories is when she closed her scrapbooks after the fiasco with her sleeping with a rock star and selling it to the tabloids fizzled out. If we are losing characters like Steph, Malachy, and Amy for people like Mitzeee, Seth, Riley, Amber Sharpe, Duncan, and the joke that is Brendan, then the show has become empty. No amount of sparklers and jumping up and down can hide it. I hope Hollyoaks stays around but even if it does that seems to be in name only.

I really wonder if Ashley chose to leave or if they fired her. If they fired her and then built her up that seems kind of counterproductive and depressing, especially since many of the others they have hyped have not been that great. I guess these will be up until the fire week is over. I wonder how long Warren is supposed to be around.

Revised credits. The goodbye to Steph is kind of touching.

Rare interview with Barbara Knox. She explains why she's wearing that hat, talks about how she got on Corrie, and they show a clip I'd never seen before -- Rita's first scene. Oh how I miss Dennis.

I'd rather they have gotten back together in secret and then she has to leave than to just have him beg her to stay because he loves her. While I do believe he has always had some love for her, I don't think he would at this time beg her to stay when he has Vanessa and Tanya around. Not based on romantic love. That's taking Max's harem a little too far. I would say it might make the character look bad, but he's done worse. I hope that like you said this might not be quite right. Either way I'm glad her last scenes will be with Max. Lacey and Jake have been fantastic together this year. Sure they are but that's the nature of the show. People will vanish for long periods of time. Before the Syed story, the Masoods spent a lot of months in the background, at best.

I saw an ad for that and was laughing when they had wooden Amber in peril. Who cares? The earlier promos, the ones set in a restaurant, were a lot better. It's hard to care about the fire because we generally can guess who will die, and the worst characters are going nowhere. Instead they just keep clogging up the show. And they seem to have continued the strange track record in recent years of butchering Mandy's character. Considering that Ste getting beaten up by Brendan is supposed to be hot or whatever I guess I should be happy Warren isn't battering Mandy.

I think that's due more to budget issues. I do wish they'd shown her after saving Syed from the fire. I just tend to roll my eyes a little at the whole "I watch this show for the Masoods/Ronnie/et al, where are they." I watched Eastenders for characters like Pat and she spend most of the last three years on holiday or in the hospital, or babysitting kids. I understand that people want to see their favorites, I think Kat and Alfie have been overused, I can also see why Ronnie fans are not thrilled with the writing for her, but I also think that sometimes it's better to not show someone for a while than to give them bad stories. Sometimes I think some viewers just want to see someone all the time. In the case of characters like Ronnie, or the Masoods, they were very badly damaged by Santer and DTC, and I don't entirely know where they can go. I'm actually not sure if anything can be done with Ronnie, because Santer and DTC seemed to have a special relationship with the character, even if their stories drove her into a huge hole. I hope that Kirkwood eventually uses her properly, as I really like Samantha Womack.