DRW50

Thanks @janea4old

Thanks for the extra Santa Barbara details. What a fascinating show this was, due to so many factors. I am still never sure why they recast Joe with Mark Arnold (nothing against him), but I guess they weren't interested in the character anymore. This, IIRC, is the story Walt Willey said never happened because he had gone from being not in the best shape to going on a health and fitness kick and being in much better shape at just the time they were giving him this plotline.

This 2012 Ellen Holly interview for We Love Soaps had been put up in parts but now they've put it up as one video. The Ellen Holly Story: In Her Own Words

Oh I know, I just thought it was a neat surprise as I associate the name with a longtime fixture of a much more different era of GL. That makes sense.

Watching the July 1960 GL episode and I just realized it has a cop named Detective Wyatt. Funny to me as Larry Wyatt would be a detective on the show through the late '70s to the late '80s. I wonder if someone at the show just loved the name Wyatt, or if they were meant to be related. The Coopers stole their whole flow...

@Reverend Ruthledge Reading through I'm so impressed at how Agnes Nixon managed such a large cast for a 15 minute show. I wonder if any other shows at the time which were still 15 minutes were this expansive. Something very sad about the year starting with Meta "growing up" for her marriage to Bruce and ending the year in family-decimating feuding with Bert. I know Dick is in his last year or two but the story with him and with Marie seems like the outlier and the dreariest aspect of each year, even if they did tie him back to Robin. I'd love to see that argument between Paul and Bert. Hard to imagine an early GL Christmas without the Bauers but that just makes the rift in the family even more sobering. The two available 1960 episodes. The Guiding Light - 7/27/60 The Guiding Light (August 30, 1960) | Michael and Robin profess their love.

The last season seems much harder-edged and honest than most of the seasons before it, in the way the characters talk to each other and behave. This worked for some (Freddie and Ron), not as much for others (Dwayne, Whitley). I agree that Lena was one of the only new characters worth remembering (I still think that was Jada Pinkett's best work), although I also liked Charmaine. Sometimes I wonder what the last season would have been like if Cousin Pam had joined. The season also gives the sense that Debbie and Susan knew the show was done so wanted to be less safe (the season before had started to curdle in the old format - I found Freddie to be just about unwatchable). I still think they could have told a white or lgbt character to add to the volatile dynamics.

I said this in the GL thread a few months back, but IIRC, on AMC, Corinne (Victoria Platt), the voodoo practitioner who helped Julia and Noah when they were in Jamaica, was meant to join them in Pine Valley until someone changed their mind. This was around the same time AMC fired Robin Mattson and was going to have Julia Barr play both Janet and Brooke (presumably just for that one story) until they reversed course.

Oh I had forgotten that Roxy rumor. Weren't there rumors Rex was meant to be gay or bi and seduce Seth?

I think that's what I remember reading - that they changed it to turbulence.

OLTL was also going to have a plane with, IIRC, Blair on it crash, but rewrote the scenes due to 9/11.

Did you say reliquary?

Thanks @Wendy I appreciate your detailed response. So many stories I did not know about. Carrington really was special. Nina Arvesen meanwhile always knew how to make tricky roles work. I know it's not fair but I never do know why some regimes were so intent on keeping Julia and Mason apart.

Some did, yes. Others didn't. Someone in the game show thread mentioned that most of the Wheel of Fortune episodes in those years were junked.

Many of those were wiped too.

She didn't even say anything that bad. He is just pissy and sour. He probably also sees what a uniformly negative response the season has had. And the ego "why is she doing this with my signage behind her." Who gives a [!@#$%^&*]? Does he think people will assume that means he agrees? Is his signage meant to be that holy? Any time I see him he looks and sounds completely spent.

Thanks @Franko It's a bit Stairway to Stardom but I imagine it took a great deal of time and energy.

@Wendy @Jdee43 Any other Santa Barbara fans, that show had a ton of dropped stories, didn't it? I am trying to remember if Pearl's brother (Kyle Secor) even had an exit from the show. What about that whole story with the Vietnamese woman who may or may not have been Cain's daughter?

I'm curious - what do you mean by suspect? I just assume more people are home because the economy is so bad.

While we were talking about GH, I should mention the original dropped plans for Valentin, where Matt Borlenghi was, IIRC, in the makeup chair when they told him they had scrapped the story.

I think it was meant to be a full story. This was around the same time as another dropped plot, where Paul and Mary Williams began mentioning Patty again for the first time in many years, and viewers saw a woman in a phone booth who called Mary or Paul.

I believe they were only married for a very short period of time. Such a waste all around.

Josh Duhamel has gone on the famously apolitical Megyn Kelly's podcast to chide celebrities for being political.

I think there's a lot they could still do with Nina at the moment, while Willow is still there. Ava, I just don't think the character has ever made sense and I think her storylines have been exhausted. I won't ever be upset about Maura having a job of course, and I enjoyed her scenes with Lucas today.

nm