DRW50

You could really feel the emotions there in a way you sometimes don't in these goodbye videos, I guess due to the suddenness.

Not to take away from the tragedy of Finch's loss, but Died Suddenly is one of those far right accounts, I believe.

Thanks. I appreciate your fleshing out of details. Everything I've seen of Ryder makes me wonder why they wrote him out.

Thanks. Didn't know that. Thank goodness they gave MKA a new part. That sounds like a lousy character.

There's a Youtube account that puts up various clips of Michael Vale. I thought this clip may have already been up on Youtube (IMDB lists the episode as January 15, 1985, although an episode someone gives this date for on Dashell Millhouse's channel doesn't have this scene, or any of these characters). Anyway, I couldn't find the clip, so I'm posting in case it is something new or something from an episode that isn't up anymore.

The Infinity story was such hokum and so unsuited to GL, just a blatant knockoff of the types of stories GH kept running with, but the conclusion here has a very powerful performance from Jordan Clarke. GL had some actors who still managed to find some layers or humanity wherever they could.

Watching some of the interviews by the lovely Bobbie Wygant, there are at least four different occasions where she starts off an interview with Kathleen Turner by saying when they first met (for Body Heat), Kathleen was only known for The Doctors (that interview doesn't seem to be on the channel as of yet). This is probably the most positive of Kathleen's reactions to this anecdote (in that she even remembers her character name) - also one of the interviews where she doesn't seem quite as...out of it.

The first half of this made me laugh so much, more than almost anything in recent months.

A short reel of some early Trisha and Trucker material that isn't in any of the available episodes.

@dc11786 Thanks for your insights. Your explanation for the cuts makes a lot of sense.

If you add in some ugly tattoos, that photo would not be far off a porn intro.

I wonder how much plan was in place for Jessie beyond, "New Beth." Unfortunately for them, as they soon found out with Jessie and Dinah, it was Judi Evans who made Beth stand out, not the writing. They would not find another successful ingenue again until Harley.

Thanks. I wonder if they were afraid of Sandy seeming too old if she had an adult son, but I agree it would have enhanced the canvas, especially as he also had ties to the Hughes family. Paul is another I wish I could see in the part of Tom, as the material is a world away from the Patty Duke Show.

I see that Hollywood Reporter deleted Sean Gunn's video because of the claim that Netflix isn't the one who should be paying the residuals.

He really goes in on Netflix. (all the weird Zack Snyder cultists have tantrums)

@Paul Raven Thanks for all the extra details. Some of those stories sound extremely wild compared to what came before. I wonder if Irna felt pressure to shake the table, especially with Penny going and some other characters starting to run dry storywise (like Bob). I have only seen bits and pieces of Sandy. Was her son Jimmy ever mentioned or in story in her '70s run? The material with Claire stabbing Michael - boy I wish I could see that. And him causing a patient to die because she reminded him of his grandmother. Bizarre. To think Claire was in the thick of story but only had a few years left. Was this when Richard Thomas briefly played Tom?

Skimming that video and I didn't really see any mention of the more scattered episodes before what ran on Retro. I wonder if they are ever going to make those available or have given up.

Thanks, as always.

Was Irna the one who brought Tom back as hooked on pills post-Vietnam?

No problem. I just happened to be on at that time today so figured why not. Simon, and that whole era, is a big snooze for me, but I was hoping he'd have something to say about Beverlee. You so often just hear stories that frame her in a negative light, I was glad to hear some positive memories. Shawn probably would have been better than over half of that cast, but they went for names for most of the male side, so he really never was going to get anywhere. I can't even remember who was at the show when Simon left. Was Pam Long back by that point? I guess she came up with the original plans for Simon? (never mind - must have been Sheri Anderson)

I watched the Shawn Thompson Locher Room, mostly as background noise. I'm glad I did as there were a few interesting surprises. Nothing fantastic, but if I missed anything maybe someone else remembers. Most of the interview was about his other career avenues. He got the GL job because he had been asked to go to New York to audition for Saturday Night Live. Someone at P&G heard of this and asked him to audition for Simon. Originally Simon was meant to be more of a rugged, Canadian figure, similar to a lumberjack. They'd auditioned hundreds of people. They changed plans for Simon after he was cast. The decision to make him related to Alex also happened later on. He got to do his own magic tricks because the show didn't know anything about how that worked. Simon was originally intended to be paired with India (he tested with Mary Kay Adams) and Shawn had no real memory of interacting with Jessie/Rebecca until one day he was taken into the office and told they would be paired up. He asked why and they said because he was a somewhat dark or mysterious character. He did a talent show with other P&G actors, and a P&G bigwig told him that they needed black or white characters on their soaps, while Simon was too gray. Shawn told the executive that he preferred playing a gray character. Simon did become more of a good character, but Shawn continued to play him in a gray way. MKA slapped him so hard in the face in an argument scene that he was stunned. When he was a little boy, he got to come home from school for lunch. His mother loved Another World, and every day he'd watch with her. He was scared of Iris. He couldn't believe it when he met Beverlee and was going to be acting with her (he kept saying he played her son - not sure if he just misremembered or if plans changed). His mother couldn't believe it either. And his grandmother listened to Guiding Light on the radio after moving from Ireland. Several times after very serious scenes, Beverlee came up to Shawn and told him she thought he did a good job.

I don't think those people (many of whom have been unhappy with her for months now, or never supported her in the first place) have changed their minds. They're just trying to get through this.

@FrenchFan Thanks. I guess this is not long after Penny left. I don't remember if I'd seen anything about her looking after this Jimmy child. Or Bob's vision loss storyline. Everything with Lisa still struggling to fit into the Hughes family and their still trying to learn how to accept her, along with Ellen's inability to have a strong relationship with Dan, provide the type of continuity that kept viewers tied to the show for many years. And that's the type of material we don't get on soaps now. I wish I could see some of this, especially the episode set entirely at night. The bonding between Bob and Grandpa Hughes also has the type of sincerity and heart you don't get very much in later years. I wonder if they did much with Paul's return from Vietnam. Weird to see this contrasted with Tom still being a young teenager, as within a few years Tom would be a grown man, broken by Vietnam. Reading this ATWT's take on Vietnam seems to be straight down the line patriotic, compared to the nuance of early AMC, but I still wish we could see to compare.

JPL stunk on most of his OLTL run, and being with the writer who caused the strongest stench doesn't seem like a recipe for a change. But then Ron isn't with the show for now, so we'll hope for the best.