DRW50

Carolee Campbell was brought on as an extra/day player on The Doctors and her part was slowly built over a number of years.

They sort of hinted as Reuben/Josie too. I think, beyond what you mention, they just weren't going to give a black character a more central role. I did like Ronnie a lot. I wish they'd done more with her. She was very sweet.

There's also been even more of an uptick in posts on places like Deadline framing the unions as out of control and selfish and starving the working man, no one in the public cares about their fight, and the latest, that other countries will just pick up all the slack and nothing will be made in the US again. I think they've decided they can just wait out the year and starve everyone out (as they said they would do months ago). I wish I could believe it won't work.

https://archive.org/details/wdsusoaps-541988 I was watching this episode earlier today (5/4/88) - I know this was a bit of a lull period as the Pamela story had recently wound down and Eden and Cruz were in one of their rare happy places, but I wonder how much was also on hold due to the strike. How much do you think was affected by the strike? (I can't remember if they were the reason Hayley was killed) This episode really makes me appreciate all the more the natural chemistry Lane Davies and Nancy Lee Grahn had and what a believable quality NLG brought to the pairing and the show. (although SB had a number of actors good at finding the everyday in absurdity) Their stuff here is absolutely beautiful. I had forgotten until today that Kristen Meadows said she left SB because of death threats from Cruz/Eden fans. That's horrible, but nothing I ever see of Tori suggests she fit into the show. She just seems so whiny and drab. I had no idea until today that the wonderful Susan Brown played her mother. Glad Susan got a paycheck, but what a waste. On the positive (?) side, Warren Burton seems much less flaming here than he did on GL and to a lesser degree on AW. I was going to ask if Tori left town with him, but it looks like she didn't? I wonder if there was a dropped story here. Who is playing the older woman TJ (bleh) is paying off? Judith McConnell and Jed Allan's chemistry tends to make me forget that I probably couldn't tolerate CC if I were her, even if Sophia wasn't a saint either. Ross Kettle really couldn't play anything beyond dream prince, could he? I don't know what it is about the combo of JFP and Vincent Irizarry. I had no problem with him as Lujack, or David Hayward, but similar to his run as Nick, I wanted to dropkick him off the screen here every single time he appears. Endless sanctimony and sourness.

I believe so. The shift to making Cindy so similar to Alex Olanov (which Kim Rhodes somehow made work) and the unfortunate rape story with Toni felt like Malone re-using his OLTL material.

I doubt it, at least not in big departments like exits. I remember Malone saying, when asked about whether Iris would return, that they were focusing on younger characters (paraphrasing). I doubt he would have felt that way. I doubt he would have dumped Anna Holbrook, David Forsyth, Kale Browne, etc. He did supposedly re-use a lot of his bible for that New Orleans soap that never got picked up, although I imagine P&G and NBC would have been fine with it as at that time they were still chasing DAYS ratings.

Thanks @Faulkner . "Dream Weaver" was a staple of '70s compilation album/CD commercials. The intro has always stayed with me, along with that "ooh, Dream Weaver..." chorus. "Love is Alive," his other hit, is also a great pulsating number. Heartbreaking to hear about all the health problems Weaver had in his last years.

Thanks. That's a neat Easter Egg.

Sorry to hear about Gayle's passing. She was also a very known pulp/B-movie actress for years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/theater/franne-lee-dead.html https://www.playbill.com/article/tony-winning-costume-and-scenic-designer-franne-lee-dies-at-81 Franne was costume designer on SNL in some of its biggest years (75-80).

I agree it was a bad choice - they got no real story from it, as I assume they knew Catlin was also leaving. They should have just had the characters leave town together. The show seemed to have no long-term planning by this time.

Tito, Remy and Sergei were under later producers (Savitz and maybe Goutman for Sergei). I shouldn't blame RKK entirely but it's so similar to what she did with firing a longtime cast members just as she was bringing Deas, Walker, etc. in. It's a shame the attempt at putting a stronger black presence on the show didn't really go anywhere, although it still seemed like the show tried to some degree until about 1990. Then you don't have much of anything, aside from Dana appearances, until Marshall, but that never went anywhere. The most successful character since Reuben (they could have done a lot more with Reuben) was probably Chris Madison. The Burrells were a good idea, but they did a lousy job with Toni's rape story and with making viewers care about the family (weren't there plans for some long lost son that were dropped after Malone left?). Frankly if the show hadn't been so close to death I don't think Toni would have even lasted. I'm glad she did so the show could end with at least a hint of diversity, and a happy couple in Chris and Toni.

Sadly true, yes. All for RKK...

They were getting rid of most of the people who had been there for years, likely for budget and to chase youth. She was another casualty. I guess she died because they didn't consider her important enough to leave alive. I remember SOD replying to an angry fan latter after she was killed saying that AW actually did not realize the character had fans, which pretty much sums up the soap/P&G mentality (see Maureen Bauer).

That's all true. Hell, even a Quinn/John/Sharlene triangle would have made more sense - Quinn was chic and independent, but down-to-earth in a way John might have been drawn to (I don't believe he ever would have really wanted to be in Felicia's world).

Starts around June 21st or 22nd. Then you may want to just skip to the week of August 28th. There's a lot of dross, really bad issue-related storylines, and a lot of Actors Acting rather than characters, but you may be able to avoid some of this.

Good spot @Xanthe I know many can't play videos on Archive, but fortunately Eddie Drueding has uploaded the episode to Youtube. The standout material is Zack's speech about Quinn and the murders (I wonder if we even see her funeral oncamera - I don't know if the 8th is around). I was glad to see Thomasina at least got a few words in her final episode. The decision to kill off Quinn will always feel like a stupid mistake to me - she would have fit right into the show all the way to the end.

I probably will if I have time, I was just recapping what I saw before it left me.

Another World April 10 1987 : Proctor and Gamble : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive The channel that had the December 1988 episode also had this, uploaded a month ago. I checked the April 1987 episodes Eddie Drueding uploaded to Youtube, as he also has April 10th up, and that episode would apparently be the day after this one. That means the episode I'm linking to is April 9th, presumably. I don't see it already available so I'm linking if you want to watch it (I was going to say "enjoy," but performances aside, I don't enjoy a great deal of this period).

Thanks @Skylover Nice to see Ian still active.

https://www.filmpreservation.org/blog/2023/8/30/60-orphan-films-to-be-preserved-through-the-nfpf-s-2023-grants Among the films being restored is The White Heather, a long-thought-lost movie from 1919. The White Heather - Wikipedia

I only got to see the last 20 minutes so probably missed all the good stories, but she did seem to have mostly good memories. She talked about what a pro Lisa Brown was, that Steve Basset was serious, etc. She was asked about Kathryn Hays and said she never really got to work with her. She said she never really worked with Colleen Zenk either, and they interacted mostly through Colleen telling her how envious she was of the lush head of hair Jennifer had. She talked about a scene where she was in bed with Josh/Rod and while she was trying to get off the phone, Bill was licking up her arm. She said she remembered the show trying to figure out whether the scene could get on the air or not. She also mentioned that not long before Douglas Marland died she went to his home in Connecticut to pitch a story idea to him. She had no idea whether he would have gone with it or not, and she couldn't really remember the idea.

saynotoursoap uploaded a version a decade or so ago (no idea if this is the same one) and it always stayed with me for the unique presentation. Even if I'm not as invested in that material as I am, say, early GL, I am still always glad more crops up to see some of the different styles and how they manage to keep such a tight focus on Jo's dilemmas.