DRW50

Another example of why Biden would probably be better off writing off Dearborn if this and the "abandon Biden" movement are what dominate their choices:

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Laugh In revolutionized TV comedy with it's fast pace and edgire humor and was a smash for NBC.

They quickly commissioned Soul, a black version from the same producers which aired as a pilot, but wasn't picked up.

And ABC aired the infamous 'Turn On' which lasted one episode (and on some stations, not even that as local managers took it off the air during the show)

ABC also aired "What's It All About World?' which had Laugh In influence but was short lived.

CBS went a more traditional route with Hee Haw, a rural knock off which was a success.

Speaking of Turn-On, it's as good a time as ever to mention that George Schlatter had not only the first episode put on Youtube, but also the unaired second episode (with France Nuyen and Robert Culp), and a third patched together from unused footage.

Clown Jewels - YouTube

Thanks again for the articles. Still such a stupid decision from Spelling - I suppose he was from the old school where that practice was common. 

26 minutes ago, te. said:

That's absolutely Lisa Rinna. I assume since this was a 6 episode order to air in the late spring, Lisa was either able to get out of her contract, or replaced or Spelling actually bought her out. It's worth to remember that she was a very late addition because of the Hunter Tylo mess and you can tell this pilot was filmed a few months earlier due to her short hair.

Since Hilary Swank also starred in this and then re-appeared on Beverly Hills the next season makes me think they might've shared a casting agent with Spelling productions.

Thanks. It was driving me a bit nuts. I had forgotten she got on Melrose after what happened with Hunter. I guess being on Melrose ended up being the better decision.

2 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

I like Beth Ann but I feel like she would've been too rough and edgy to play Michelle. Michelle had edge but not that much. I always felt Beth Ann would've been more suitable playing a vixen even when she was on OLTL. I felt like Talia was a bore and didn't let Beth Ann shine. I would've cast Martha Madison as Michelle but wasn't she being considered as Marah one point? 

And one pet peeve of mine on soaps is giving everyone a happy ending. I like some things to be left open to imagination or some resemblance to reality that everyone doesn't get a happy ending. Yes, while I was p*ssed Lisa (on ATWT) didn't get a happy ending, I did roll my eyes at Frank/Blake being slapped together so quickly along with Rick/Mindy and Lillian/Buzz. But I should probably go rant about that in the GL thread...

I think Lillian and Buzz had been together for a year or two before the show ended.

I don't disagree about happy endings that feel unearned, but I didn't really mind them on GL, maybe because I'd already seen so much misery on the show over the years. With that said, one of the few things I will praise the ATWT ending for was not reuniting Lily and Holden.

I had forgotten Martha was considered for Marah. She would have been dull as hell in whatever role she had, I'm sure. For me Rachel Miner was still Michelle, although Bethany was the best after her. 

I was watching this pilot for Leaving LA, which starred Chris Meloni and Melina Kanakaredes. The leading lady in this is NOT Melina, but I can't quite figure out who she is. I want to say Lisa Rinna, but I am not sure the dates work out as Lisa started on Melrose in fall 1996. Still, she could have filmed this pilot before then, I suppose. Yet at other moments I don't think it's her. If any of you know who she is, please tell me.

I always liked Ed Fry on ATWT, and he was a very handsome man, but to be honest I never found him attractive in that way. I actually found Robert Lupone to be more attractive, even though I only ever knew him as Roger's heel on GL. He had charisma, which Ed did not. This suited Ed more with the role he had on ATWT, where he was second choice to Frannie and then paired with Susan, who was much older and had been with much worse men so was happy for the change.

Ed didn't really need it, I suppose, as Adam was such a straight arrow, but it does make Adam less compelling, along with the ugly, misogynist writing given to MJ. All you have to do is compare Adam to Ryan Hudson, a similar character, but played by a much more charismatic actor.

On paper, a complex figure like Neal should have fit into AW, but that was a terrible time to deal with complexity or bring in new characters.

@Xanthe I would have loved hearing Agnes' thoughts on AW in the early '80s...

@jam6242 Thanks so much for finding all that. I certainly never knew the actors who played Karl and Robin at that time were dating. I don't even see GL listed in Richard Morse's IMDB (if he's still alive maybe someone could interview him about his time on GL, if he's able...that does seem like a recent photo so who knows). The plot recap is nice to see as well. 

I agree that is Sterling, probably just in a different role. 

I wonder why the show was never tempted to start Robin/Mike again. Maybe they would have been if she hadn't been killed off.

@soapfan770 I agree about the diversity. GL in the '60s did have a few black performers, so not far off B&B today...

4 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

Thank God. As a Manny fan, I didn't particularly care for NSA's Michelle. I wonder who they could've cast. My dream would've been for Bethany Joie Lenz to reprise the role, but I know One Tree Hill was still on air. 

And I totally blocked out Rick/Mindy at the end. It was such a blur. I always felt Mindy grew to be too sophisticated for Rick once my fave, Kimberly Simms, stepped into the role. But I guess since it was Krista Tesreau's version, it is OK. 

I had forgotten her name last night but that Michelle would have been Beth Ann Bonner. 

I agree that Michael O'Leary suited Krista much more than Kim. It was odd to imagine that she was meant to be in love with Rick. 

1 hour ago, NothinButAttitude said:

Guiding Light was literally depleted of the Bauers the final years. Rick only popped up every blue moon. I do hope that had the show carried on that would've changed with Leah, Jude, Robby, and Hope leading the charge. It became too Cooper and Shayne heavy. 

They did give him a bit with Mindy but I can't remember if he was on contract by the end.

If the show hadn't been canceled they were going to bring in a recast Michelle. Instead, they just had that actress play a guest role and brought Nancy St. Alban (zzzz) back a few times. I think the end of the show had Michelle and Danny moving back to Springfield.

6 hours ago, titan1978 said:

AMC- was anybody left from Phoebe’s family at the end of the ABC run? I know Brooke was in the PP revival, but hadn’t she left the main show?

Brooke had returned for AMC"s last year.

25 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Johnny could have stayed around . Did the actor want to leave? Johnny could have got involved with someone else and still be tied to Peggy through Billy. Some characters stay on for years and others are written off to soon. 

I'll repeat that Kelly Nelson could easily have been Billy Fletcher, thus continuing a family that started back with Paul in the 50's. I'm sure Bernard Grant and Fran Myers could have made appearances. For older viewers it's a reward for watching and new viewers would just enjoy Billy as a new character to them.

Same with bringing Emily Norris on,Holly's niece -a blend of old and new.

Those would have been great ideas. If only they'd tried.

I'm still surprised Ken Norris was briefly brought back.

23 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

That line about Papa Bauer being sick was probably a budget thing as there were quite a lot of cast in that ep. Truthfully they could have had Bruce at the hospital for that ep at least, as he had few lines.

I don't think that was Phillip Sterling as George Hayes. I believe George came later as the lawyer who mentored Mike and that was where Mike met Julie, who worked as George's secretary.

By the time Paul left in 1970 he had been on 14 years and maybe Bernard Grant was ready for something different and the writers (the Soderbergs,I think) were more interested in other characters.

Paul had been widowed twice, but his son Johnny was still on at that point.

Did his OLTL character Steve work with Gillian Spencer again (Vicki) or was she already gone by then.?

You're right, there's no real way it could be George - I do wonder if it's the same actor or maybe he just looks similar to me.

I wonder why the show decided to get rid of Johnny (although if they hadn't we never would have had Roger Thorpe, probably).

I guess it might have been mentioned in one of the soap magazines at the time, but if so I forgot about it - did Bernard Grant leave GL to go to OLTL as Steve Burke, or was he just written out of GL?

Just now, Michael said:

Probably 2019 or so. Linsey Godfrey debuted in late 2018 as Sarah and they've referenced Neil a few times since, and they definitively established onscreen that he had passed away.

Thanks.

2 hours ago, detroitpiston said:

Interracial pairings automatically attract a certain type of fan-base…the kind that kept Daniel Goddard employed at YR for over a decade.

Other than Lily/Cane and Sprina I can't even remember that many which had fan push, although I am probably forgetting one or two. And a lot of the support for the former seemed to go with how involved Goddard was with his fan base.

In the case of GH, there was a long history, until Sprina, of black women being pushed aside by the show and most fans not caring. I saw it happen with Keesha. I wasn't a huge fan of Keesha's, but she worked well with all her leading men and still got paid dust. 

The same happened with Gia, although I never had any interest in Gia, I have to admit.

That's wonderful. Never thought Gloria would be asked back and I'm glad she was able to return. I wonder if we might get a mention of Neil Curtis. When was he last mentioned? 

30 minutes ago, Reverend Ruthledge said:

You're welcome. I wish I could answer everything. I don't know if that's Philip Sterling. You're right that you can get into complex relationships when there's a small canvas. Especially when a core group of characters stays around for many years. I liked Gillian Spencer but my favorite Robin was Abigail Kellogg. Although those are the only two actress I witnessed in the role so I don't know which of all the actresses who played the role would have been my favorite. 

Thanks so much for all you did answer. This period is so underrepresented so it's always nice to hear more of the perspective of the time.

10 hours ago, Reverend Ruthledge said:

It was never really addressed in terms of a storyline but there was a bit of an ick factor as Paul was a father figure to Robin since her biological father Bob was dead and she hated her stepfather Mark so she turned to Paul as a substitute father when she was a preadolescent. She grew to love Mark and was adopted by him so the fatherly role of Paul drifted away and then they SORASed Robin and the previous role wasn't much of an issue except for longtime viewers with good memories. 

Thanks so much for answering my questions. These years of the show seem to have so many psychologically complex relationships, even if I'm not sure that was intended in the writing or just the result of intermarrying a small canvas. It does seem like they changed Robin to noticeably older by the time Gillian Spencer is in the part. Did you enjoy her work as Robin?

Do you know if that was Philip Sterling as the lawyer? George is listed as arriving in Springfield in 1962 so I guess it wouldn't have been that character (even though he was also a lawyer)?

7 hours ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

But Chris will be back and they posted a picture of him. I was surprised that so many thought Chris would leave like this. I knew he won’t leave right now. But those budget cuts make me very nervous. I like Boyd being back too and Marty became much more calmer and relaxed with Boyd and him working together 

Was that the picture on Easter/April Fool's? I know some think that was just a joke.

5 hours ago, P.J. said:

It's just a wish and a hope...geez. I think we all know there's zero chance that P&G will do anything with their library. They've always been the last to come to any kind of pop culture wave. They've probably just learned about a little channel called "Hallmark".

It's one of the main reasons we come here to talk and speculate. The thought of what might be.

We could just say everything on ATWT was great, the show is gone, and all just stop posting, I guess. 

11 hours ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

Gosh the last few weeks were so good and made me feel so sorry for Chris! I really hope this show won’t get cancelled  

The story about the budget cuts at TVNZ do make me wonder. I also wonder if this is why Chris is gone, along with TK last year. More of the show is focusing on new (and in some cases very bland) characters. I am happy Boyd is back, he's one of my favorite characters, but I'm worried he is back to be killed off.

2 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

That's Milton Seltzer as the detective. Does anyone recognize the actors playing Grimes or the Judge?

Thanks. Good eye!

The date on the video says August 30, 1960.

I think this is Kellogg based on the Soapcentral dates, but someone else might know better.

33 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

 Did Bruce not like Ed and Bert? Or was his venom towards Mike? He kinds of scowled towards their arrival. 

Much like I said in the ATWT thread, it is so weird to see Bert be a pistol and a nag. From episodes I've seen of her in the late 70s and early 80s, she mellowed out so much. 

Also, I heard the judge state the setting the show was in LA. Did Selby Flats come before or after? I am always curious how older fans felt about the constant changes of settings on GL. In other words, was it well-received. 

I noticed this too when watching a lot of old CBS soaps--they used to promote the h3ll out of ATWT at end of each episode. I guess b/c the show was their crown jewel at the time. 

I wonder at times if Bert took over Meta's personality after Meta was written out. Either that or her old self fit more with Lyle Sudrow's Bill - Ed Bryce's Bill seems a little more "off" even here. 

I also had questions. Was that Philip Sterling as the lawyer? I couldn't tell. I know his character George was a lawyer but I didn't think he'd arrived yet. I wonder who some of the other guest characters were. 

I had forgotten while watching this that Paul would go on to marry Robin only a few years later. Was their age difference a big part of the story?

It's a shame characters like Paul or Johnny weren't ever used for Peggy in later years. There are a lot of interesting '60s characters they could have done more with.