DRW50

Thanks! (you too @watson71)

I haven't listened to all of them either but there's some great material. This one was especially interesting to me because I could compare it to the way Lemay wrote about it (claiming Val Dufour took the spotlight away from Susan Sullivan, and so on). Ah. Thanks for letting me know. I think S&H was later but there was probably another show with similar footage. I knew the crash would not have been anything special, with budget limitations, it's just the rare choice to have different credits and no music that fascinates me. I am not sure how many times AW ever did that.

Listened to this old upload for the first time in full yesterday. Listening to this reminded me of the various times Lemay had leading ladies having complete breakdowns, to the point of sedation or needing serious treatment (Alice several times, Pat at least once, Lenore here). I suppose this was part of the era and how it viewed women, but it's such a contrast to the idea Lemay gave of wanting to avoid melodrama. I wonder if Susan Sullivan was trying to sound like Judith Barcroft at this point. I barely "hear" Susan at all. The '80s were, overall, a wash for women in soaps, but I do think as a whole the women of Bay City became stronger. Even the most generic of ingenues, like Amanda, rarely got this treatment. The closest (albeit much worse in writing) to these sedations and breakdowns was what DePriest did with Donna, which was, for me, completely unwatchable and horribly damaging to the character. I wish I could see the closing credits of Walter's car in flames. It must have been a harrowing visual at the time.

Thanks for finding that, @victoria foxton

Based on the writing for heroines on JFP's soaps, I'd put it more on her. That would have been a good use of Annabelle, who seemed like one of those characters who mostly just served plot anyway. Tony was often unwatchable to me under Marland. He hasn't been as bad in later material for me but I think there's just something to Greg Beecroft which is difficult (that may be why he worked so well as Brock on ATWT, even if he was apparently a pain offcamera).

101! What a life. I hope someone interviewed her in later years.

Could have been a number of women as so many were going at that point (Elvera Roussel, Kathleen Cullen, etc.).

I don't know who they are, or if they have another account. I certainly don't begrudge anyone posting the links. Many people enjoy them.

Thanks @jam6242 That Bil Keane comic is actually pretty clever.

Thanks for letting me know @slick jones Half Michael and half his torso... I briefly thought that was Howard Hesseman (RIP) but then remembered by 1981 he was not putting himself to sleep talking about the thrilling career exploits of Jason's cabaret divas.

I think Cindy Pickett gave so much inner life to Jackie that no one else could entirely reach. I can see why GL cut their losses with Carrie Mowery, but there was no reason why Jackie couldn't have returned in later years (we know why she, along with Hope and Elizabeth, did not, of course). Tom O'Rourke was a good actor and a very good looking and charismatic man. I think he could have easily stayed on through the mid-late '80s at least. I have a feeling this exit, similar to Don Stewart's, was down to backstage problems, and similar to Lemay and Rauch's folly in dealing with people they found tiresome, those at P&G, Kobe, etc. figured who needs 'em. I also wonder if these exits were just to drive home that Philip was a Spaulding, which may have made sense for a time, but robbed him of much of his inner conflict (with just Ross left to remind him of his other side).

@Liberty City Thanks for reminding us of this. I still wasn't 100% sure they'd be available in the US, but they are - under Iconic Episodes.

This is where a big splashy move like bringing back Victoria Rowell and centering story around her (maybe a new family along with Lily and Devon) could be a shot in the arm, but you know that won't happen.

Another reminder of why so many people are afraid to come out to their family, no matter how many anecdotes you hear about how once someone has a gay relative they are magically accepting. (and no, we don't know the details here, nor will I pretend we do...but all I can think of is how many out there are probably cheering this guy on and wishing he'd killed them both - homophobia is as rampant as ever on social media)

I do wonder how many will manage to survive. It feels like they have been in a zombie state of survival for ages now - frankly, for at least 5 more years than I had expected even in my more generous moments of prediction - but with the whole industry in such a shaky place, this feels like the moment they will finally be put down, replaced by Sinclair brainwash hour or Irna Phillips knows what else.

You could fire wide swathes of the cast and it wouldn't matter. I genuinely wonder if Amelia has one fan out there as Victoria. The only time she ever did was in the Bacteria days, and they all left with Billy Miller. I hadn't thought of her in years. I remember she was one of the precious ponies of that Daytime Confidential/Branco set, along with Mr. Cut the Crap. I wonder if Jamey will help her get hired at DAYS.

Unless viewers are gagging for a storyline where Philip tries to rape Noah, I am not sure what the appeal is in ever having him write for Y&R.

When you think about how much Bill Bell put trust into the writers below him, which helped keep the show stable for as long as it was, this is even more saddening. I haven't watched Y&R in years but I always see comments here about how the show no longer even has plots and people just exist. They're at the point where they may as well just have shots of the rotting furniture.

A copy of a UK Dark Shadows fanzine from 1999 has shown up on Archive if you want to read it - contains interviews, think pieces, fic, et al. https://archive.org/details/issue-7-spring-1999-dark-shadows-journal

The Roger/Rita rape, which is lost to time, is something that haunted the show for years - I didn't know it was still mentioned in soap magazines by this point (if not for that scene and the Dobsons being disappointed with how it was shot, the show never would have done the Roger/Holly story in the first place). The show had an impossible needle to thread with Roger and Michael Zaslow, a very popular returning character with a heinous past. They made mistakes, but I think in the end they did a better job than GH ever did with Luke in his returns (not even getting into Guza somehow writing a story about how hard it is to be a rapist).