You're Soaking in it

Paul Anthony Stewart was practically never in. My (straight) best friend was the bartender at Akbar in Silverlake, CA - first met Paul as a patron there shortly after he left Loving. He was sociable, friendly, and comfortable in his own skin.

And we can probably add these two AMC kids to the list of never-ins:

Daniel Kennedy (Peter Cortlandt)  and  Bobby Steggert (Sam Grey).  

Oh, and Richard Roland: He played Kevin Sheffield's older brother, Jason - who shot at gay teacher Michael Delaney on live TV, but missed & killed Michael's sister, Laurel instead... because he blamed Michael for somehow turning Kevin gay.

(Edit: All My Shadows, you beat me to it on Bobby!)

On 8/22/2018 at 3:21 PM, danfling said:

 

Kelly also was the rapist of Brooke.   Brooke was impregnated and had an abortion.  (the second one on the show, after Erica's

 

In hindsight, I know this was an error... but you should have seen the double-take on my face when I first read that! 

50 minutes ago, John said:

Not surprised about Robyn Griggs

 

How long was the original stephanie on?

After hearing about her from him, I wasn't surprised to see what came about later... IIRC, she was let go from OLTL once and brought back, then let go again. Then came AW, then the partying with John Bobbit, etc...

I think the original Stephanie didn't even make it through a month or two before they "discovered" Griggs. Her appearances were sporadic, too. But I remember her being sweet and a competent actress Just didn't have the chance to get to know her.

3 hours ago, John said:

I feel That Chris, Nathan & Tom got the heart and soul of Joey

That Blonde Kevin in 1990 was too Green same for Joey Thrower & I read he was difficult

I met Joey Thrower like 3 months after he was off the show. He was bartending at a night club in Pasadena, called - not joking - SHELTER.

He was really nice. And we TALKED, lol...

He didn't like then-EP Linda Gottlieb, which I knew even then that a lot of cast & crew did not (general feeling was that she was unusually controlling of actors, even off-set - and that she disregarded the show's BTS history, which led to things like her basically telling Jensen Buchanan to get lost). He was kind of cocky, but it sort of fit his age - and you could tell he was together, not a partying mess. He did NOT like Robyn Griggs (Stephanie Hobart) AT ALL - said she was an instigator, attention-seeker, drama-magnet... He really liked working with her predecessor, Christiaan Torres-Mills. Said she was never given a chance in the role, and that her more ethnic-look, while definitely resembling the Carlo Hesser family, worked against her. 

He liked everyone else, too. Loved Yasmine Bleeth. He really missed Erika, Chris, and Erin. Was in love with Karen Witter, in a very "crush" sort of way. I remember speaking nicely of Phil Carey, too. But you know what? He seemed really happy doing what he was doing right there... not crushed or defeated at all. He still came off as appreciating the experience on OLTL.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

Visually speaking, BMH was not at all what I would expect one of Joe and Viki's sons to look like.

Bruce Michael Hall looks more suited to be the third of a retconned set of Jessica-Natalie-Joey triplets... and definitely the youngest of the three!

And yeah, Jack Armstrong might have made a very good Dan Wolek - he even reminds me a little bit of what Joshua Cox & Steven Culp brought to their stints in the role.

26 minutes ago, Jagger1966 said:

Nathan Fillion is the best.  He has never forgotten his daytime roots and always speaks fondly of his OLTL time.  It's also great to see cast members like Susan Diol, Tracy Melchior, Vanita Harbour, Jason-Shane Scott and  Christina Chambers there.  I wish I had been there!

Am I mistaken, or has JSS "done something" to his face? He looks as if every spec of fat or softness was sucked right out of it.

6 minutes ago, Khan said:

Who is the man in the photograph with Mia Korf, Krista Tesreau and Carmen Thomas?  He reminds me of the guy who played Bob Georgia on AMC, but I can't be sure.

I think your recognition is dead-on, Khan! That does look like Peter Strong (Bob) - the eyebrow bridge is what makes it. I never would have got that on my own.

BTW, I wonder if there are any pics of KT with Karen Witter (ex-Tinas) together. They look placed not so close by each other... which is kind of appropriate considering how different they were in the role. And weird that Mia Korf is sat next to KT. Her Blair & KT's Tina never crossed each other.

8 hours ago, Vee said:

Not sure who the lady in red is on the OLTL side.

 

McKenna's look seems to vary based on what show he is doing. He can look younger and older but he stays busy. I'd still have him back as Father Joe!

I think it's Holly Gagnier (ex-Cassie).

You know, they never even considered bringing back McKenna as Joey. Not that Tom Dengen was bad, but Chris would have been a helluva lot better. He and Nathan Fillion seemed to share this similar soul in the character. I remember when Fillion first came on, as tall & different looking as he was compared to Chris, he still felt like the Joey that Chris had left with.

5 hours ago, John said:

All the Joeys looked good there

 

I wonder what happened to Don Jeffcoat (97-2001) and Bruce Michael Hall (2003, 2004)

They were the two least memorable for me. DJ was such a weird replacement for Fillion... deep and soulful with a sense of humor, to an attention-hungry brat who thought himself "cool" when he was actually annoying. As for BMH, he wasn't annoying - but so different that he was wrong for the part. And trying to reinvent the character as Father Joe didn't make it better.

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

Geiger looks like he'd be OK with a haircut. With it he looks a bit Manson-esque.

 

I believe he is a building contractor now... I think in an inland area of So Cal, like Indio or Palm Springs.

5 minutes ago, SteelCity said:

Seriously? For one, I obviously a typo. For two, I wouldn't want to see any of those characters nude anyway.

It was a joke.

18 minutes ago, SteelCity said:

Didn't GH have 3 characters naked named Lucas, or derivative and 3 or 4 Michael characters all at once?!

GH has had partially naked characters named Lucas, but never a Lucas with full-on nudity.

6 hours ago, dragonflies said:

I say have Roseanne the character die from complications from her surgery or from the opioids she was taking. 

Given the condition of the house in the season finale, I say have her die from complications of mixing opioids with Ambien. Jackie heads downstairs just to check on things, we see her always-comedic face with a look of surprise & a shout-out of "Daaaan, we got a problem!" - and cut to a floating face-down Rosie body double.  Cue the new Roseanne-less opening credits, with everyone else celebrating their usual fun family feast. (Darlene's brief, sarcasm laugh at the end.)

1) Lorraine Broderick - I rank her as my favorite because, in every HW position she had held, she made it a priority to put "heart" into the story. Of course, this was always at its best at All My Children, the show that was closest to her own heart. And three different times, she came in to successfully correct a previous HW's damage on AMC. There was no one better to bring Pine Valley to a close on ABC - All My Children felt like itself again. She understood and respected its legacy. Her former writing partner, Wisner Washam, and her mentor, Agnes Nixon, of course deserve much credit for being influential cores of Broderick's writing DNA.

2) Peggy O'Shea - She is probably one of the most under-recognized head writers, particularly for One Life to Live. Her work absolutely exploded (in a good way) in the mid-80's under EP Paul Rauch, and with her Associate HW S. Michael Schnessel. They were truly an excellent collaboration. She knew how to mine the show's history, and play the character beats. Mike Schnessel had a sense of adventure & whimsy that worked for the show under Peggy's guidance in keeping things grounded, making the fantastic feel real. Viki's trip to heaven would have seemed almost ridiculous if it weren't so expertly told from Viki's POV. Maria Roberts would have otherwise been cartoonish if not for continually fleshing out her emotional descent into insanity. And of course, the definitive creation of Nicole Smith... an expertly story that also brought Tina to the forefront... the troubled girl to misunderstood, status-craving vixen - and then a man named Cordero entered her life and exposed her human side. All that was Peggy O'Shea... it was OLTL's highest viewership ever. She did not return after the WGA strike in 1988... Schnessel went solo for about 2 years, and while it tonally felt like the OLTL O'Shea had created, it lacked substance and often went over the cliff when it tried being over the top (Eterna). By 1991, he was gone, too - and the show felt confused, especially between the exit of Rauch and the starting of Linda Gottlieb as EP later that year.

Agnes Nixon goes without saying. Winser Washam's AMC is considered golden era. Claire Labine has done fantastic work. 

On 5/1/2018 at 6:50 AM, Jonathan said:

 

Ahh, I see.  Thanks for the info!

I take it back, Jonathan..  I watched clips from a few episodes of that era yesterday. When the story began, it looks like Marcy Walker's Liza was doing some kind of internship for the news at WRCW, and was drafted to assist Cliff when he stepped in to do their medical segments. 

By the time Walker left, Liza was working exclusively for Cliff. When Alice Haining took over, Liza was always behind his medical office desk at the hospital - sometimes flirting with Cliff or taunting nu-Nina. There's no clear point I could find where she said, "I'm changing jobs" - she just seemed to follow Cliff around, lol...

1 hour ago, Jonathan said:

 

I did not know that Liza worked at WRCW back in the 80s.  It's cool that she finally became Station Manager when the character reappeared in the 90s.  Was it even acknowledged that she was previously employed at WRCW?  I don't remember that being the case.

 

I believe she worked for specifically for Cliff at that time, helping run his medical practice. This TV gig just came along with the job.

2 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

 

Great episode with some good scenes between the Sago's...

Little bonus: I'm pretty sure that's Carrington Garland (Kelly Capwell, Santa Barbara) in that Geo Prizm car commercial at around 37:40...

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I never knew Matt was recast. I wonder if he was any better. I never liked anything I've seen of Michael Tylo in the role - I thought he badly overpowered the part, and he also had no chemistry with Susan Lucci. 

It was a really brief, pinch-hitter recast - maybe 2 weeks... But he resembled the character enough and was believable in scenes with Taylor Miller. Basically, Matt was in Pine Valley just for the reveal that Michael was in fact Cliff's son, and not his. Once that cat was out of the bag, Matt was gone for good.

1 minute ago, Franko said:

Why was Nina a servant for the Chandlers? Was it some sort of humbling myself to give my life purpose sort of thing, or was she on the outs with Palmer? 

I don't recall Nina being a servant for the Chandlers. But if it happened for only 5 seconds, I definitely could have missed it.

On 4/26/2018 at 11:11 PM, danfling said:

I cannot remember any of the co-stars with whom Taylor Miller had chemistry.   She was paired with Benny Sago, but, as I recall, the audience hated it!   (I think that she was playing Nina at the time.)

 

He [Cliff] also had two other leading ladies (briefly).   One was a doctor.  I seem to recall that she and Steve was both killed in an accident.   There was also a character played by Catherine Christian who was not on for very long. 

 

The two ladies you're thinking of may be the same character, and Steve was gone long before she had entered the story:

The doctor was Amy Stone, Nina's psychiatrist during Barbara Kearns' run (Nina #3, the red-head who was boinking Benny Sago). Amy was originated by one actress, but was recast with Catherine Christiansen once she was paired with Cliff and Taylor Miller had returned as Nina. 

Cliff & Amy were engaged to be married. But after a chance encounter with Nina at Martha's Vineyard, Cliff confessed to Amy: "We have to face the fact that I'm still in love with Nina."

Amy promptly screamed, cried hysterically - "NO!! LET ME GOOOOO! ARRRGGHHH!" - and ran out the front door into the street where she was hit by a speeding car - all in a matter of 5 to 10 seconds! (I remember my head spinning a bit, lol.) She was in a coma and later died in the hospital.

31 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

I think Ellen Wheeler was the best Marley, but I think Anne Heche's Marley was very good in that last year. IIRC, Heche fought for Marley, and was the reason why they ditched that awful wig and Marley became a more rounded character once she split with Jake and all her stories stopped revolving around her womb. I also thought she did a pretty good job at Vicky playing Marley in that last year. 

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.

1 hour ago, robbwolff said:

Tichina Arnold also moved from RH to AMC.

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

3 hours ago, Leoruby said:

 

This reminded me of something I was curious about. Erica's positive interactions with women who weren't blood. Her and Ellen seemed civil in the episodes I've seen. Then there's Opal's daughter Jenny who was close enough to Erica for La Kane to be ticked she wasn't her maid of honor. Was there anyone else? 

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...

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

Helen Gallagher was briefly on AMC as a head nurse wasn't she? 

You're right! I almost forgot about that.. It was very brief, toward the end of Behr's time as EP.

5 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Felicia Minei Behr hired quite a few actors on AMC that she worked with on Ryan's Hope, didn't she? 

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.

6 hours ago, Khan said:

I don't think anything that had anything at all to do w/ Laurel was popular with the majority of AMC's fans.  Which is a shame, I think, because Felicity La Fortune isn't a terrible actor by any means.  She was just saddled with a character that began with no real definition, acquired a backstory (the con-artist thing) that came COMPLETELY from out of nowhere (and cost us a longtime character, even if the original actor had long since left the show), and then gradually faded into the background as part of the beloved-but-definitely-doesn't-fit-with-the-rest-of-the-show Dillon family.

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!

2 hours ago, danfling said:

Does no one remember the name of the character that Susan Anspatch played on this show?

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. 

1 hour ago, Khan said:

 

I think it was unfortunate how that storyline ruined Travis and Erica's relationship.  Lucci played so well off Larkin Malloy, but there was no way those two could ever reconcile after what he had done.

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. 

55 minutes ago, j swift said:

I have a question about Dana/Adam.  Their wedding generated press, they had a big build up, and then Dana left without much hoo-ha.  What happened?  Was there a change at the top? 

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.

10 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

It wasn't just the Jamaica stuff, but also things like Janet taking Brooke's face (which I assume she must not have wanted to do in part because I think Robin said when they rehired her that Broderick came up with a story to keep her around - didn't she say that?), and then all that mess like Dimitri sleeping with Maria, and the baby stealing, and the Jim Thomasen stuff with his past history of exploiting Laura, etc. 

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.

11 hours ago, ghfan89 said:

1996 wasn't Broderick's first attempt at science fiction. LB also did that whole Damon Lazzare hypnotizing Silver story in the late 80's. Although you maybe right about it being network mandated given the popularity with DAYS at the time.

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. 

2 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I think if she and Lorraine Broderick had ever been co-headwriters they would have been a perfect fit for AMC.

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.