You're Soaking in it

I think it is mesmerizing how good Heche is in her "scenes together" as Marley & Vicky. Whether together or apart, I always felt Heche gave each character very distinct personalities... and when together, a connection that transmitted right off the screen. Wheeler was a great Marley, and yeah, probably the best at playing her. The writing definitely helped. Her Vicky, on the other hand, was a little more cliche (though this is an exaggeration, the duality under Wheeler kind of reminded me of a toned down version of OLTL's Viki / Niki). To me, Heche was the best to play the dual roles. I would have loved to see how far Cynthia Watros could have gone... or if, in a more perfect world, Watros had been discovered back in 1991, instead of casting Jensen Buchanan.

Yes! Sharla Valentine! I liked her. And then they pretty much wasted her.

She considered Ellen a best friend, and Jenny a protege of sorts. Olga Svensen was always a friend / ally. She got along well enough with Nina and Daisy, mostly due to her close rapport with Palmer. And of course there's Myrtle, and Ruth as time went on... You're right! I almost forgot about that.. It was very brief, toward the end of Behr's time as EP.

I think just Nancy Addison as Marissa Rampal (recast for Nicole Orth-Palavacini) - and Felicity LaFortune, and that was to replace Kristen Jensen once McTavish finally figured out what she planned to do with Laurel (and that KJ was not the right vibe to pull that off). Walt Willey (ex-Joe Novak, RH) joined AMC while Ryan's Hope was still airing. I can't remember anyone else off-hand. I liked Laurel. And then I wasn't all that heartbroken that she was killed. I was more glad that Janet wasn't the one who killed her!

There's no record of it for her. She was married to Mark Goddard (of the original Lost in Space), who played Ted Clayton on OLTL in 1981 - though they had divorced three years prior to his time on the show. That's the only way I could find, at least so far, on record to connect her to OLTL. I also found a full cast credit page for an OLTL episode with Grainger Hines as Brian Beckett, from 1984. Unfortunately, she's not on it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2244161/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast I do remember that Brian worked at Lord-Manning and became a rival against Bo for Didi - I think that's where most of his story centered. He came in the later part of 1984, and was gone by 85 (he never made it to the new opening credits). So his time on the show wasn't too long, if that narrows anything down.

I'm so glad you mentioned that, Khan! There were times I thought I was the only one who really enjoyed Travis & Erica together. I thought there was a maturity and depth to their relationship that I hadn't ever before seen for Erica. And you're right: That scab-writers story, which suddenly turned Travis into a pathetic & insecure jerk, and had Lionel Lockridge sniffing around Erica, really did derail their train.

David Paulsen took over as the show-runner for Season 9, and Dana was a casualty of the changes. The show really improved by leaps & bounds over the last few seasons: storylines were more original & interesting, well-liked established characters like Sable were brought in to mix it up, and Fallon was written as Fallon once again (pretty much revealing that the problem with the recast wasn't the actress, it had been the writing - as had been the problem for the entire show the last few seasons - all along)... But Linda Evans exited, then Joan Collins said she'd be out... and ABC got panicky and canceled it just as things got good again - and without a series finale. I honestly would have loved to see where Dynasty would have gone from that last cliffhanger... Even the reunion almost entirely ignored Season 9's events.

Franscesca James deserves partial credit for that time.... a sudden, overdosed injection of plot drive (FJ called it taking characters to the edge) that made our heads spin. But unlike McT's bag of tricks, there was consistent character exploration in between, very much Broderick's style. In spite of the events that the story surrounded (which I also disliked - Maria sleeping with Dimitri, Janet turns her obsession to Brooke, etc.), they included gripping scenes along the way... and usually led up to power conclusions - all with shedding layers of character, character, character... Edmund taking Sam from Maria's arms to give back to Kelsey, Erica hearing Dimitri tell Maria things were better off that the baby died, Erica returning the baby to Maria, her taking responsibility at the end of her trial, Janet's road to redemption, Kelsey & Kevin's friendship & the conversion therapy story... Felicia Behr as EP was much better for AMC, and it was a mistake to replace her with FJ. Behr achieved a pacing and balance that felt just right. Disney bought ABC, saw that the ratings weren't quite as good as prior (no soap's was), and really jumped the gun here. Dumping Broderick for McTavish 6 months later, thinking that was going to solve their issues, made things even worse. I wouldn't call that sci-fi as much as psycho-fi, lol... Silver was being drugged, as well. I actually found it fascinating to watch. Broderick's work has at times touched on a "gothic" feel to some stories. I enjoyed it. What was terrible was Erica's story that came out of the WGA strike. Travis, and the fake kidnapping, and... honestly, I can't even piece it all together correctly.

That's been said many times. The problem is that McTavish, by many accounts, could become impossible to work with. She wasn't open to deviating from her style, or collaborating with another voice to create a new voice together. Former head writer Wisner Washam outright blamed McTavish for driving him off AMC in the early 90's, and it's been long rumored that McTavish had green-eyed monster issues toward Broderick that ultimately caused LB to defect to Guiding Light a few months after Washam's exit. There's an interview McTavish gave during her last AMC stint, where she throws the most petty shade at Broderick... something along the lines of, "You can win all the awards in the world, but they don't mean anything - it's ratings that count." (Broderick had won 4 Daytime Emmys as All My Children's head writer - 3 of those consecutive in the mid-90's... and McTavish? ... Zero.) So yeah. McTavish likely wouldn't have shared head writing duties with anyone, least of all Lorraine Broderick.

Maggie's insecurities starting getting the best of her. She wanted to get pregnant to hang on to Dave (Scott Holmes), eventually sleeping with a fellow model just to improve her chances. I'm not sure if Dave ever found out about that, but I do remember that Maggie's behaviors put more and more distance between them. And you're right: Dave did fall for the Ryan's grand daughter, Katie Thompson (Julia Campbell). After he divorced Maggie, he & Katie left town together... he to Oakdale, and she to Santa Barbara.

I can't believe that has never occurred to me before! So would it make even more sense that Laurel was then shot and killed on live TV after Lorraine Broderick returned as head writer?

Those remotes - the snowy woods - were shot somewhere in New Jersey IIRC. There were a few, shorter-term remotes in that era of OLTL - like Alex trying to drown Cassie in the lake, the memorable AIDS Quilt episodes, and Tina's escapade to New York (where she went to get a SO-not-needed-"makeover"-because-let's-face-it-she's-fricken-Karen-Witter).

The 80's were full of location shoots - about one annually starting in 1984: Venice, Italy (1984) Vienna, Austria (1985) - that one featured Jenny, David, Clint & Viki, et al. Jamaica (1986) - Tina & Cord Buenos Aries, Argentina (1987) - Tina, Cord, Kate, Maria, Max, Gabrielle Arizona (1988) - The Old West "Time Travel" story Austria (1989) - this time doubling as Mendorra

Interesting that you mentioned Laurel. Kristen Jensen, the first Laurel that came before Felicity LaFortune took over, originally read for Natalie's recast.

Felicia Bell. And yes, she was very good. Her Simone was basically a more evolved version of Laura Carrington's. She had a confidence and a warmth that had been missing in Williams' version. Actually, same goes for Williams as OLTL's Sheila: there was an insecurity and defensive vibe that hadn't been there when Valarie Pettiford played her. I also liked SQ on HWMrC... It actually seemed really natural for her. Maybe being allowed to create her own character gave her more freedom to show what she can really do as an actress. Melody was a good actress and competent performer. I remember really enjoying her "Cape Fear" scenes with John Wesley Shipp's Carter. BUT... you're 100% right, she was just not Natalie.

Yes, Stephanie E. Williams... recast for both Valarie Pettiford as OLTL's Dr. Sheila Price, and Laura Carrington as GH's Dr. Simone Hardy. In both of those cases, I think she was better than Quarterman was for AMC's Angie. But just like with Quarterman & AMC, I also think Williams' interpretation over-simplified both characters. There was hardly a difference between her Simone and her Sheila. Her predecessors each brought things special and unique to their characters. Quarterman did the same thing for Angie: water her down... but even more so. Not bad acting... just not Angela (nor Simone, nor Sheila).

She took leadership on a lot of advocacy and charitable causes, garnering support from the NY acting community. (Go ahead & just google it for the details.) She was just an extraordinary person all around.

And there was almost nothing, story-wise, gained from recasting the role. Sharla had a crush on Derek, who was dating Angie. That was about the most dramatic things got. Some related trivia: Tonya Pinkins, who would show up as Livia Frye not long after Quarterman left, tested against Debi Morgan for Angie back when the role was created.

Polarizing, to say the least. I give her credit for taking ownership. She described her own guiding of AMC as wanting to take characters and stories to their very edge. There were things I loved, and things I didn't. The whole tone of AMC became very dark under FJ. I really disliked the Maria / Dimitri "grief sex." It just didn't ring true, and I thought even kind of gross. You had this very powerful scene of Edmund not letting Maria abscond with Sammy, and taking him from her arms to return him to Kelsey... Then the next episode, you see have Dimitri under the sheets with Maria, who kind of looked grossed-out herself. To me, it threw an unnecessary cliche over an otherwise well told story point. I realized later, of course, that it was a means to an end: to have Maria miraculously be pregnant, and worry that the baby was Dimitri's. That was another means to an end - PPD-afflicted Erica, just having miscarried, takes the baby and makes it appear to Maria that she died. And in spite of my hating the actions, it was somehow riveting. The scenes of Erica confessing and returning the baby to Maria were amazingly well written & acted.

She was never on the writing team - but as EP, she largely took credit for the ideas of Maria sleeping with Dimitri and the subsequent Erica's kidnapping Maria's baby. (Broderick was HW at the time.)

It's like being the Queen of England, but on a soap opera. McTavish was like Margaret Thatcher, except not nearly as deep and way more reckless.

The network wanted a teen set in 1995, as part of correcting the crash course of infinite evil twins / bombings / and general pull-a-plot-device-out-of-a-bag that Megan McTavish was driving on. That's what developed. I thought it was well done, and - along with other storylines - more tonally true to AMC. The ratings were not as good as they were, like every other soap, pre-OJ-trial. Disney's acquisition of ABC was a major catalyst for letting Felicia Behr go... and her dismissal was in fact pretty shocking. At the time, AMC's only two Outstanding Drama Series Emmys to date were won under Behr... and currently AMC had Emmy noms across all major show categories. The Emmys were held a month after FMB's exit, and AMC took home their first Writing Team - Lorraine Broderick as HW - award since, well, 7 years ago when Broderick was Head Writer. To me, things were positive, and the changes that started happening after the Disney takeover were reactionary and not well thought out. So Francesca James was brought in as EP - and she described her vision as more experimental in production style, as well as more boundary-pushing in terms of story direction. I mean, I guess she was those things, though I tend to think about half of what she pushed out didn't resonate. At times I felt the show was imbalanced, and sometimes just too damn sad. And then there were times it was pretty fantastic. That teen set stayed mostly through FJ's time on the show. By then, McTavish was back, and 1998 was a total poop-storm.

Good point.

I saw this comment on the home page... and I thought, "this has to be about Jason Lewis!"

Yeah, it seemed out of left field, considering that Erica was in love with Mike and about to marry Adam. But they were both drunk, and this was a beat in Tom's own battle with alcoholism.