DRW50

‘Murder, She Wrote’ Picket Planned For WGA Strike Thursday at Fox – Deadline

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-talk-postpones-return-cbs-strike-1235725821/ The Talk and Drew Barrymore postponing their returns.

Yes. Thank you for letting us know. Sorry that earlier in the GH thread I wasn't sure about the news - this is the only place I go to for soaps so it was the first I'd heard.

Shocking news. When I first came here Miller was one of the hot topics of conversation and burned brightly in that era of Y&R. Love or hate his work, there was always something to talk about. He was a very magnetic presence. And when he went to GH he managed to win many fans over after the exit of Steve Burton, one of the biggest presences on that show over the last 30 years. I was so annoyed at the time with the Daytime Confidential and other soap press overhype of the Maria Bell run that I probably did not give Miller the credit I should have at times for his stint on Y&R. And I'm sorry for that, not that it mattered, as he will always define Billy Abbott to many fans. I hope he is at peace and I'm thinking of all his friends and family right now. So many losses in daytime this year.

Thanks. Hopefully he's alright.

Was that said somewhere?

You're a stronger person than I am. He's already made himself a victim and has a ton of support from the usual suspects. The dead end/grifter left is full of abusers and enablers.

Nice to see Lucy there. Seeing Lucy cross over to OLTL in the mid '90s would have been a hoot.

Thanks. I guess that wasn't using the old bible and more just inevitable mother/daughter soap conflict.

Definitely. The details of Jim loving his brother but also so clearly being in his brother's shadow are very compelling. I do think Russ had the potential to be a more interesting character than he was (RIP David Bailey but what I've seen of his time in the role felt very much like the usual self-righteous "good guy" - not sure how Sam Groom was but I wish they'd tried a fresh approach). Did the story of Susan being in love with the man Liz was dating happen?

Thanks. Hadn't heard of her. The plans were that he felt inferior to Alice, who was brilliant, so much so that she could have skipped a grade if her parents hadn't wanted her to have the full high school experience. They would take Russ for tests and see that he wasn't like normal kids. Jim, over Mary's objections, would give him a broken-down car to repair. Russ would love it, and make the car work again, but would get in a car crash and go to reform school. When he returned, he would be moody and difficult, but Mary would see that he wanted to be a mechanic and try to convince Jim to support this.

Thanks. An interesting read. Clearly there WERE much more detailed plans for Granny, her relationship with Janet and adoration of Mary because Mary was the "right" type of woman (a homemaker) while Janet had to learn to stop acting like a man (their words, not mine). I assume very little of this got through. I wonder how much it affected Janet's characterization. I guess none of those plans for Russ went through either. Doesn't even sound like the same character. Did Ann Fuller, the social worker character, exist on the show? Pat is a better character name than Cynthia. I can't remember any soap character named Cynthia, aside from Linda Dano's on ATWT. About a month. Per AWHP it looks like she went to help her niece with a baby. Clearly a very difficult time if she never returned and was never mentioned again. Very true. The Doctors did a lot with Carolee and Mona but most soaps don't.

Thanks. Even the photo of her on AWHP is striking. So many missed opportunities with the Matthews family. I feel cheated even though I barely saw most of them. The format of father-in-law questioning and comforting an unsure daughter-in-law was genius on ATWT and GL. Daughter-in-law and mother-in-law relationships are trickier. It's too bad no one at the show in that period ever talked about whatever the plans were. (did AW ever have a bible?)

That's sweet.

Good points @Neil Johnson Did any at the show ever talk about Granny Matthews? Was she Irna's attempt at another version of Grandpa Hughes and Papa Bauer, but someone decided she wasn't needed? Was she ever mentioned again? (I guess Janet wasn't either)

https://variety.com/2023/theater/news/michael-mcgrath-dead-tony-winning-actor-1235724482/

I think the view is that the show was fading around 1977, which is one of the reasons Lemay brought in the stories he claimed he would never have done before then, like Sven's reign of terror and Pat killing her daughter's sleazy boyfriend in a psychotic break.

I know little about them and was shocked to see at least two of the three on AWHP's major characters list did not last a full year. Only one of them did.

Oh. That's odd if so because I don't know if the Gregorys were any more notable a core family than others who just lasted a few years, like the Sheas, or most of the McKinnons, etc. But I have not seen anything of their era.

What is the twice meant to be? The Matthews were the core family when the show started. They were mostly gone by the '80s, and the Corys took over. The main living Corys (Rachel and her kids) were still there to the end, aside from Jamie.

Agnes still focused on a lot of the same characters. GL also changed setting several times. Reinventing can mean anything to anyone, of course, so that was just my suggestion.

Guiding Light is the only one I can think of, shifting focus to the Bauers in the late '40s.

Please stop, Drew... https://deadline.com/2023/09/drew-barrymore-apology-talk-show-return-wga-1235548032/

Well said @Neil Johnson . As @vetsoapfan has said before, I think it's obvious when watching old clips that Courtney is perfectly strong as Alice. We even have clips of the breakdown story which Lemay ended early because he felt she wasn't a good enough actress. And we have similar clips of Susan Harney breaking down after John's death. Harney who was, per Lemay, a better actress, just not possessing star power. To me, Courtney is just as good as Harney, or better, at the dramatic work. I think there was resentment of people who didn't want to be in Lemay's inner circle (the way some like Constance Ford, Susan Sullivan were), and when you add in Lemay and Rauch's anger toward George Reinholt, Courtney had so much stacked against her in surviving that regime. The irony of Lemay's disdain for soap melodrama is so much of his run was full of melodrama. You need grounded actors to make melodrama work and make viewers care. That was Jacqueline Courtney. And of course as years passed, Vicky Wyndham faced the same alleged sabotage and efforts to make her quit, but she was in a very different position than Courtney and chose to stay. (if the show had run a few more years I do wonder if she would have).

Thanks. I checked and those roles are already there. Thanks as always for all you do.