DRW50

Was that the 1998 recast? I remember SPW claimed Erin Torpey had been permanently replaced by this girl, and then it was an oops and that never happened. I know there was some rumor that Slezak put her foot down about firing Erin Torpey.

Yeah, Amy was the second Josie Watts (bleh). I think she was Harley sometime around that nursery rhyme stalker story...I can't remember. Melissa Dye played Molly Malone. For some reason I remember Melissa showing up as a temp recast for someone later on. Or maybe she just had a bit role on something.

She was very good on AW, she had great chemistry with Anna Holbrook. It was a bit disconcerting I think for some of the older fans because Emma had never been that way in previous years. That interview is interesting, and very nose-rubby. Amy Carlson was a brief Harley recast in 1998 wasn't she? Didn't she do it as a favor to Beth Ehlers or something? I remember kind of liking Hayley Sparks more than Ehlers for a while, which is odd, as I never liked her on ATWT. I guess that was because Beth already seemed so burnt out by then.

Betsy Von Furstenburg was the Lisa who was there when Eileen quit in the early 80s. Apparently Diana Walker was fascinating enough to someone on a Dark Shadows fan site that they pulled out a 1971 article on her...a magazine which also had an interview with Nancy Barrett. http://www.darkshadowsonline.com/barn-feature-dianawalker.html

Jeremy Fonicello took over from Don Jeffcoat briefly on OLTL in 1998, as Joey Buchanan.

Was it Anna that Linda Dano did the Baby Jane photo shoot with? Oh wait, was that Linda and Carmen Duncan? Anna only played Rae for two or three days, yes. It's interesting to see some of the RH recasts listed. They're still clear in my mind, some of them anyway. Carol Richards was like a Mary Tyler Moore parody, very perky. I think someone on RATSA once said that they kept expecting her to say, "Gee Mister Wizard, what does that mean?" Judith Macgillan played Rae as very upper crust, with a quasi-British accent. I'd love to see Jennifer Bassey as Lisa. When was this? Does Virginia Vestoff count as temporary for when she replaced Liz Hubbard on The Doctors?

Delaine Yates filled in for Laura Sisk (Ally) on The City in late 1996 when Laura had to have some sort of medical thing (I think it was appendicitis). Gloria also used that as a way to keep Jack Wagner in line, as she thought his "illness" was about wanting more money.

I'd really love to see those Judith Barcroft temps (she's such a distinctive actress, imagining her as Viki is fascinating), the Bad Seed as Kim, and Nancy Frangione as Tina, wow!

Poor Diana Walker, was her main soap career subbing for various actresses 6 years apart. I think there were two temporary Carolyn replacements, weren't there? I can't remember. I'd like to see this one. I had forgotten Anna Stuart temped for Linda Dano on OLTL. By then I was so tired of the whole Rae thing it was a relief to see something different. She filled in during that woeful time when Al Holden was faking paralysis. I think she was in an awful episode where mean college kids were pretending to be in wheelchairs to mock Al or something. I think Giselle was when Jeanne Cooper went to rehab. Bill Bell said he got so much angry mail about recasting Katherine he decided he never would again.

Yeah, I'm really hoping it's not true, I know the tabloids can sometimes be wrong. Between there seem to be a lot of very desperate and very grim, not to mention derivative, stories coming down the pike. Most of which do not represent the heart of Corrie at all, IMO.

News of the World seems to be saying:

I'd almost forgotten GL was up for a few nominations. Last year Did you know that last year CBS's Youtube channel put up a few very short clips from the last black and white episode and an early color episode? The color one featured Lee Gantry, the man who married Sara McIntire and with his lover planned to kill her, being thrown out a window after a fight with Joe Werner. I couldn't believe it, as I had always wanted to see some of that story. Since that stuff is available, in good condition, I wish P&G would sell it or put it on a channel or SOMETHING.

You can usually tell if an episode hasn't rated that well if the EE fans at Digital Spy aren't talking about how fantastic the ratings are: I guess they are falling to some of the same schedule issues that have plagued Corrie, but it shows that without a lot of care they are likely to get around the same ratings Emmerdale has had during the matches. I wonder if they will be troubled by that repeat figure. They almost always get a million or more with their repeats. Hollyoaks...sad...

I was hoping Allan might have some potential, because by the time she took over I thought the show had been, creatively, bombed out. Kirkwood had kept the ratings up and I guess they were still doing well after Tina's death but the show was pretty much empty. Unfortunately, Allan just seemed to take this as an opportunity to bring in teens and more teens and make everything stupid. There were also stories which were handled very questionably -- what they did with Anita is especially unsettling, as they seemed to just throw a lot of serious problems at her (racial self-loathing; learning she was adopted) only as an excuse to turn her into a scheming shrew. There also seemed to be a lot of random couplings which I still don't quite understand, like Ste/Teresa. What bothered me the most in that interview at the time was her outright dismissive attitude towards the older characters, who had been one of the better points of the Kirkwood years and who were played by some very fine actors. It sounds like Marquess is going to continue to not do a lot with the older actors, but they are in such a diminished state now, thanks to Allan's tenure, that it doesn't really matter. Thanks to her tenure the show lost superb actors like Tony Hirst, and while I know he might have gone anyway under Marquess, I still miss him. I also hated the whole Ricky and Duncan are the new Max and OB. NO THEY ARE NOT. Max and OB were able to do silly things because the characters had so much heart and the actors were very talented. You can't just have these two pathetic clowns who can't act and then throw some random Dickens-esque sadface story at them and pass that off as being the new Max and OB.

You'd think they might have Kirkwood pick someone he knows or has good experience with. Since Marquess was in charge of The Bill for most of the past decade, up to about 2006 or so, he might pick some of their group for Hollyoaks. It's a shame that after about a day Stacey went back to being miserable and self-loathing. Those scenes where she went on about how she wasn't good enough for the baby were very difficult to watch. I think she might be better off giving the baby up for adoption as it won't be long before her resentment of herself becomes resentment of the child. The scene where Max tried to make her see that she will become a good mother was wonderful. Lacey and Jake have so much chemistry together. The scene where Abi found her father passed out drunk was also good, very depressing, but true to the character. Jake is so underrated. I don't understand why Patrick suddenly went off of Liz, and I don't care all that much either. It just seems like an endless stalling tactic by the writers. The Adam/Lucy stuff was flat, although Melissa Suffield's harsh line readings worked very well in this instance. Ryan is still a delusional and hypocritical ass. Janine called him on it and he didn't even bother to answer. My favorite part was when he said at least his family loves him. Which family is that, the mother he beat up or the sister he barely has scenes with? The only good thing about this tired pairing and even more tired storyline was the stuff with Janine and Pat. Finally their complex relationship has been remembered and used to good purpose.

Samantha Giles is coming back in July, I guess for just a few episodes. They call her "fabulously manipulative," but I don't remember Val really being that way. I liked her more when she became more of a mother figure. It's odd that they say she went on maternity leave last year. She actually left sometime in September or October 2008. She hasn't been back in almost two years. I don't know if she was ever even supposed to come back if the family wasn't being written out. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s13/hollyoaks/news/a233269/giles-thrilled-to-be-back-on-oaks-set.html

Finally watched Thursday's episodes. They were pretty good -- Emmerdale isn't hugely exciting (which probably doesn't help ratings) but they have much stronger and more consistent daily episodes than almost any soap I've seen. This is pretty surprising since they have to churn out 6 a week. Marlon and Rhona are very sweet together. I like the way the show has built up to their relationship and I like that the show has a few drama-free relationships going on. Is anyone else surprised Lizzie is even on the show now? They barely ever use her. I wonder if Anita Turner brought her in, or if she was some sort of mandate for a disabled character. I know Diane is being foolish to trust Charlie so blindly but I still feel sorry for her as she seems to be buying into his games. I'd rather believe he's not conning her but as soon as he mentioned needing money that was the big tipoff. I'm glad Val is there for her, although she's not giving Diane the best advice. I think they've done a good job of toning Val down from some of her OTT hysteria a few years ago, but I would like to see more of her. I'm glad they mentioned Annie! The Wyldes are just great drama day in and day out. Poor Maisie, and poor Nathan. Nathan is a little punk but they still manage to create some sympathy for him by forcing him to lie to Maisie and earning her hatred. Natasha making him do that was just awful to watch, but what a powerful scene. I'm glad they aren't taking Nathan TOO far down the path of evil, as I was worried they were during that bizarre stuff where he tried to rape Faye. Speaking of Faye, she seems like such an afterthought at this point, I wonder if she will be leaving when Mark's body is found. I hope that won't mean Ryan goes too, I still want to see more of him. It was nice that he got to comfort Maisie briefly, sort of. BTW, the way they had Cain set up Ryan learning the truth was pretty crafty. The stuff with Eve and Carl isn't that great although I do like seeing Edna and Scarlett try to rein her in. I hope someone at some point is going to also blast Carl, not just her, because the man has done nothing but encourage her.

Sacre claims that he was only ever there short term. Who knows. Either way I wish he were staying around. I think Sacre was especially underrated at comedy.

I hope they won't kill off Jake. The Deans need to have at least one child who might return at some point, and before Kirkwood had him turn into a nightmarish psycho, Jake was a pretty decent character. He has a nice butt as well.

It was. Josh caused a car crash which broke India's arm or something. This was airing around the time Marquess was announced as the new producer and people were speculating this was all his doing and everyone in the car with Josh would die. Have you heard the rumor that

Rhys was angry with Josh so he spiked his drink, not realizing that Josh was going to get behind the wheel of a car.

I had assumed she was also going because of the part about her nursing her grandmother. Most of that can't be oncamera, unless they're going to have her grandmother with Ricky's father and Rae and Ricky become like Kay from Tracey Ullmann Show/Tracey Takes On when she found a boyfriend who also had to care for his mother. I wasn't a big fan of the emo pouting routine but I will miss Nico's chemistry with his family. He also had some potential with Lauren, early on, although they worked best as friends. I kind of like that they got rid of the goth look, as it made him look better and that whole thing often seemed poserish to me. Rhys living with Darren would be great Supposedly I'm not sure if you were a fan of hers but supposedly Hayley Ramsey is also returning for a time.

Thanks again for keeping us up to date with these shows. Are you enjoying them at the moment?

He does have a bit of Guy about him, and someone else I'm blanking on. Whenever I hear the name Bart I think of Bart Simpson. So I guess you're happy to see Rae gone then? I thought the exit with Newt was kind of bittersweet, although I am not sure about moving away with your drug addict mother who you have only been reunited with for about two days, half of which she spent MIA. How does she know she even got a job? I also kind of wonder why they didn't just have Newt and Rae leave together instead of separately but the last scene with the book he made for her was sweet. Is it wrong to say I was kind of hoping she'd keel over after he left? The scene where Suzanne told Neville about Darren had a whole lotta bad acting. Odd that Tony is dumping Cindy so quickly and was going to run away with Gabby Sharpe after about three days.

I thought you might be happier Sylph. I know you should be careful what you wish for but I'm glad he's going. His stories may have juiced up the ratings and of course that's what matters most these days but in the long run it wasn't worth character-destroying stories that always hang in the background even after their half-hearted resolutions, such as Tanya burying Max alive, Archie the multiple rapist, Lauren running over Max, Stacey who let her boyfriend die for her murder, etc.