saynotoursoap

Whatever happened to David O'Brien? Was he ever in anything else besides The Doctors? Was he considered the lead male character on the show?

Prior to The Doctors, David played one of the "Kips" on The Secret Storm, and he was on Search for Tomorrow and the primetime World Turns spinoff Our Private World. He also enjoyed a successful modeling career as one of the Marlboro Men used to advertise the cigarettes.

He had HIV while on The Doctors. Later, to help him keep insurance, producers gave him a recurring role on Ryan's Hope. He also had a fairly regular stint as psycho shrink Alan Glaser on Another World, otherwise known as The Sin Stalker. I also recall him being a dayplayer on Loving around the same time. He died from AIDS related complications in 1989.

I used to see David occasionally at The Saint in NY in the early 80s. He was a very, very nice man. Erudite, friendly and oh so down to earth. Thinking of that time is very painful. We lost so many extraordinary men.

Why is that episode infamous?

I received an unusual amount of correspondence chastising me for placing an episode online in which the great Iris Carrington/Alexandra Spaulding vacuums the carpet. Go figure.

True, although wasn't Frances Fisher also about to leave?

Fisher left within a year of Albee, but she had not decided to do so at the point Albee was dropped. The writers toyed with a Deborah/Logan pairing until Joe Lambie quit. Near the end of Fisher's run, she was tested opposite Larkin Malloy for a Deborah/Sky/Raven triangle. Slesar said that he envisioned Deborah as someone always unlucky in love. Her cross to bear was running away from relationships because she could not trust men. This annoyed Denny Albee. He felt that it made his character of Steve appear weak and foolish when Deborah repeatedly rejected him. He was happy to be moved over to One Life to Live, though I do not know that he fared any better as Dr. Peter Jansen.

I remember both Bobo Lewis and Martha Greenhouse from that storyline, or at least from the show. That she played Hannah was told to my by someone else. I thought that one of them played a prison matron. Or, they could have possibly played the same role, with one succeeding the other. Just because Denny Albee left the show did not necessitate the break-up. A new actor could have replaced Mr. Albee.

I can assure you that Bobo Lewis was the sole Boss Hannah. It is possible Martha Greenhouse appeared in another role in that storyline, as there were many extras, but only Lewis played Hannah. There was a prison matron named Marge whom Hannah paid for privileges, but she was portrayed by Lynne Rogers from Guiding Light. April had a cellmate, Daisy, played by Karen Wenden. Dixie Carter's short lived husband George Hearn was the prison shrink Dr. Whaley. When the inmates were going to hang April for witchcraft, there were a few other women leading the "trial". Maybe Greenhouse played one of them. You could check with The Edge of Night website. It has a list of dayplayers.

Emily Hall was Chaz Saybrooke's cousin. Freeflyur at Youtube has a significant amount of 1988 material, though offhand I do not know how much is specifically from the summer. The strike actually began in the spring and ended in the summer. Personally, I loved the last few years of Ryan's Hope. I thought Labine did an amazing job in her final solo stint.

I do NOT know who the lady was sitting in the airplane with the veil pulled over her face.

There is so much here, I miss points.

The lady with the veil was Libby Webster, played by Marion Lines. Libby was in love with the real Schyuler Whitney and hoped to win his affections by helping him reclaim the Whitney fortune. It was she, dressed in a black ski suit and mask, who shot and killed Jefferson Brown in the Swiss Alps. Sky used that knowledge to blackmail her into leaving Monticello, a very rare instance in which an Edge villain escaped punishment for a crime. The Edge Swiss remote was interesting. A crew from All My Children accompanied the Edge crew, with both shows taping in the St. Moritz area at the same time in December 1981, though each shoot was separate and in different locations.

According to Henry Slesar, Jeff Brown was originally supposed to fall to his death off a cliff while attempting to kill Raven, but ABC requested they change it because All My Children also was having a character fall off a cliff. Instead, Jeff ended up getting shot on the edge of a cliff. The fall would have been an ironic ending in another changed plot point. Back in August 1981 when Jeff told Raven the story of the plane crash that supposedly killed Sky Whitney, Jeff claimed that he found Sky dead in the snow after the accident and only then decided to assume his identity. We saw this in flashback. Originally, Slesar had intended to show a second, later flashback in which it was revealed that Sky survived the crash, but Jeff Brown deliberately pushed him to his death off the cliff in order to steal his identity and fortune. However, by the time those scenes were to be taped, it was apparent that actor Larkin Malloy was too popular to lose, and they would have to bring him back as the real Sky. So, the scenes of Sky's murder were never taped.

Thanks. Who was Sarah?

Sarah Hanley was the roommate to Julie Richards (Beverlee McKinsey) seen in the infamous vacumming episode I have on my Youtube channel. Sasha von Scherler was the real-life wife of writer Paul Avila Mayer. Their daughter Daisy is a fillmmaker best known for the Parker Posey feature Party Girl in which Sasha played Parker's godmother, Judy the librarian.

Martha Greenhouse, who played Hannah on The Edge of Night in 1979, died on January 5.

Hannah tried to help April to escape from jail.

danfling. Martha Greenhouse did not play Hannah. Hannah was played exclusively by the late Bobo Lewis in 1978-79. I have an episode compilation with her on my Youtube channel.

She and her husband had kidnapped Nancy because she'd found out something, I think. There's a 1981 episode on Youtube that features this story.

As danfling wrote, Nancy followed Matt Sharkey to the Bryson Clinic because Sharkey had fathered the child Emily Michaels attempted to pass off as Draper Scott's. When Sharkey refused to answer Nancy's questions, she sneaked into the clinc to force the issue and came face to face with Ira Gideon, an embezzler who had been indicted in Monticello. Ira was there to have his face altered and flee the country. As a reporter, Nancy recognized him. Beth Bryson drugged Nancy and confined her to a hospital bed in the clinic, with Nancy's face swathed in bandages so no one would recognize her. Nancy had been scheduled to leave for a conference in San Francisco that day. Beth took the airline ticket and posed as Nancy whom the police would assume had "disappeared" in California. Beth and Sharkey wanted to kill Nancy, but Kenneth Bryson fell in love with her. April Scott went to the clinic posing as "June", a waitress who worked with Sid Brennan and Sharkey's old girlfriend Bobbie Gerard. Draper followed April, and when they recognized the voice of Dr. Bryson's patient as Nancy, Draper posed as an orderly (Richie Johnson) to get into the clinic and find Nancy. Emily also turned up at the clinic and exposed their identities. Sharkey and Beth took all of them hostage, intending to kill them with a bandaged Ira Gideon's support. At the crucial moment, Gideon wrestled the gun away from Sharkey. He ripped the bandages from his face and was revealed to actually be Mike Karr. The police had already captured Gideon, and Mike assumed his identity to infiltrate the clinic.

A couple of clarifications about Sharkey and Dr. Bryson. Christopher Goutman was hired to play Matt Sharkey, but initially he was not given a contract. Due to schedule conflicts, Norman Snow played Sharkey for two episodes, and then Goutman resumed the role for the remainder of the character's run. Also, James Hawthorne appeared on All My Children as Brooke's father before playing Kenneth Bryson on Edge.

The Bryson Clinic story wrapped up in June 1981. Dr. Bryson died in July, off camera in prison. But the plot dovetailed into a concurrent story when it was revealed that Schyuler Whitney, who had returned to Monticello in October 1980, was actually not Whitney at all, but former government traitor Jefferson Brown. Dr. Bryson had altered Brown's appearance to look like Whitney so that he could assume Whitney's identity. This had occurred off camera, three years earlier in 1978, and was told via flashbacks. In 1978, Valerie Bryson, Kenneth's daughter, had fallen in love with a bandaged patient in Bryson's Swiss clinic. She knew the patient as Vietnam war hero Jim Dedrickson, but he was, in actuality, Jefferson Brown. Brown had stolen the real Jim Dedrickson's identity while working in Washington. He merely posed as Dedrickson while undergoing surgery. When the real Jim Dedrickson arrived in Monticello in the autumn of 1981, Nancy's nephew Kelly Pollock thought that Jim was an impostor. Since Beth Bryson had seen Dedrickson's face after the surgery, she was the one person who could definitively answer whether or not the man calling himself Jim Dedrickson in 1981 was the same man Valerie fell in love with in 1978. This is what is being discussed in the scenes in the Youtube clip.

Dedrickson wanted to start a repertory theatre called The Maskers and had hoped to get his hands on Valerie's fortune. He did fall for Val, but Beth Bryson's visit with Nancy forced him to admit that he had not met Val in 1978. Jim forced his hunky himbo Johnny Gentry to romance wealthy old Buffy Revere, who had a proclivity for bedding and sponsoring handsome gigolos. Johnny and Buffy left Monticello together for Europe. Buffy returned the following autumn without Johnny and offered to sponsor Jim, but he too departed Monticello.

To answer danfling's question, no, Carlo Crown's photography studio was not the same as Gavin Wyllie's dance studio. Those sets were different and were used concurrently in the storyline. Carlo Crown was an alias, by the way. Carlo's real name was Collier Wells. He was an international jewel thief and the husband of Martine Duval. They had robbed the fake Sky Whitney's house in Paris years earlier.

I think it was AMC. It was ABC's top soap for most of the 70s and 1977-1978 was a season before its peak above all soaps.

You are correct. All My Children and Family Feud were the two daytime programs most responsible for ABC's ascendency in 1978. In fact, Family Feud was the #1 daytime program overall for a good bit of 1978, even topping the soaps. Although GH and OLTL were improving this year, it was 1979 before GH began to make gains significant enough to displace AMC.

I agree with Carl and BKuzak regarding Clint. JVD is an excellent actor, but he is Ross Marler, not Clint Buchanan. Clint should have died with Clint Ritchie. However, I diasgree that Clint and Viki never would have divorced if Rauch had remained EP. In fact, Clint and Viki had already divorced under Rauch when Niki Smith re-emerged. I loved the Linda Gottlieb era. I watched OLTL from the first episode in 1968, and the 1992-95 years were more like the early, classic years than any other era. I feel Gottlieb gets a bad rap for the Clint/Viki breakup. Soaps are about drama and conflict. Viki and Clint happy all the time is boring. I do understand the distaste for them breaking up over Clint's homophobia. His reaction was distasteful to me, as well. Malone could have explored that issue better and devised a more plausible reason for it. But, eventually, I believe Clint and Viki would have found their way back to one another under Gottlieb and Malone.

I adored Lynn Deerfield's Holly. She was a lovely blonde with a somewhat husky voice which seemed incongruous with her physical appearance. Her Holly was selfish, spoiled, and manipulative, but not to the point of villainy. I found the switch to Maureen Garrett disconcerting. In fact, I disliked Garrett's Holly for many years. Part of the problem was that P&G wanted to clean the character up a bit, and in doing so, Holly became a perpetual victim, which Garrett did not play well. It is somewhat ironic because Maureen eventually became my favorite actress on the soap, and I completely forgot about Deerfield. The character of Holly improved greatly in the 80s when she was reintroduced. Pam Long took one look at Garrett and commented about her sexiness. She, and later the triumvirate of Curlee, Demorest, and Reilly, really wrote to MG's strengths in a way that simply eluded Doug Marland, and to a lesser extent the Dobsons. Holly became alluring, cynical, smart, empowered, and nuanced. I doubt Deerfield could have played it half as well as MG, but in her day, Deerfield did have more chemistry with Hulswit. As for Roger and Michael Zaslow, Roger did not become the complex character we knew until the Dobsons took over. In 1974, I could not have imagined the ultimate evolution of him into such a dynamic villain. So, whatever chemistry he had with Deerfield was largely insignificant to me.

Jada Rowland QUIT The Secret Storm TWICE. She was dropped ONE time. You understood that when I wrote the original post and felt compelled to correct me by shouting that she left THREE times. Yes, she did not appear on the show during three separate occasions, but that was not relevant to my initial post in which I made it clear that she quit twice. You understand the distinction and are attempting to start an argument with me, which I do not appreciate. Those tactics are better left to your own message board, which I, and many others, avoid for that very reason.

Enjoy your evening.

Jada Rowland left the show THREE times: when Ms. Carter and Ms. Lunsford played the role, when she was playing Susan on As the World Turns, and when she left and Amy was played by Lynn Adams)

Jada did not leave when she went to As the World Turns to play Susan. She was dropped involuntarily from Secret Storm. The other two times, she did leave of her own accord.

Thanks! She is OK, I guess. She seems a little more unsympathetic than Jada.

She is too hardy for Amy. Jada worked so well because she was frail and waifish. This girl looks as if she is ready for a night at the sock hop with both Robbie and Chip from My Three Sons. I have never seen Beverly Lunsford in the part, but she also was fair-haired and a bit too va-va-va voom for sad little Amy.

Has anyone seen Lunsford or Carter in the role?

Carl, June Carter's Amy appears in the episode below. This is immediately before Jada returned the first time. Inexplicably, a blonde was cast.

I thought another actress played Amy after Jada left and stayed into 1968. Is this not true or did they just write Paul and Amy out a few months prior?

It is not true. Jada Rowland quit Secret Storm twice. She left in 1958 and was replaced first by Beverly Lunsford, who was recast for a short period in 1960 by June Carter. Jada left again in 1971, when Lynne Adams (Leslie Bauer from Guiding Light) assumed the part. Both times Amy remained on the canvas. Around late 1966/ early 1967, Jada Rowland and Nic Coster were let go from the soap. In the story, Amy and Paul moved to Cincinnati and were not recast. As the other poster stated, Amy and Paul returned in April 1968, just as Charlie Clemens' daughter Belle arrived in Woodbridge with her daughter Robin. The following month, Amy and Belle's younger sister Karen took Robin on a Memorial Day picnic to the lake. This was Secret Storm's first location shoot. Robin fell into the water and drowned. Belle blamed Amy for Robin's death, and developed a pathological hatred of the Ames family. Belle vowed to make Amy pay by losing Paul, whom Belle seduced. This was the catalyst for a very memorable, long running rivalry between the two women.

Who was this Matt? At first I thought he was the kid whom Susan befriended and then he died, but Susan was gone by this time.

Matt Kelly was Jay's cellmate in prison, The character appeared briefly in 1979. He was played by John Tripp.

Your comments about Abbi do clarify the sort of bizarre journey that was her tenure as executive producer of "Love of Life." Going from Holloway to Marcus has to be one of the greatest extremes in soapdom. Despite the inexperience, I get the impression Abbi cared even if she was making baffling decisions like letting Tudi Wiggins go from the series. If she didn't recognize the importance of story, why fire Jean Holloway? If the network wanted the show to go quietly into the night, I don't imagine they would have pushed her to hire someone else.

I am certain that Abbi cared; I just do not feel she possessed the experience and competence to successfully guide a sinking ship. Holloway should have been terminated immediately, but Abbi kept her for at least six months. Clearly, Love of Life's problems originated with poor writing and characterization, not sets and costumes, but Abbi spent a quarter of a million dollars to build a new set for Van and Bruce, when money and attention should have been focused on tweaking the stories and characters. I am not saying Abbi did not recognize the importance of story, but it was not her first priority when it should have been. Even with a much better writer such as Marcus in place, Abbi apparently did not take a more active role in storylines, hence a 1979 summer filled with Ma and Pa Gasparo and the rest of Ray's family, hoary Italian stereotypes who looked and talked as if they just wandered out of a Ragu spaghetti sauce commercial.

Wow! Thanks saynotoursoap, as always. There was so much about that I hadn't even known about. I loved how they tied it into the earlier story of Herb loving Van. Do you know the timeframe of the storyline?

Bruce's paralysis and Dr. Saltzman's infatuation with Van was in 1963. The Nell Saltzman/Jason Ferris story played out in late 1966/ early 1967.

Thank you both so much for that insight and information.

Is there anywhere online that has detailed information about the show and particularly, Vanessa? I can't seem to find anything in-depth about past storylines.

Can anyone fill me in on the Nell Saltzman story? I know she was having an affair with Jason and dressed in a wig to frame Van, but what was her motive and how did the story conclude?

Nell's story was an offshoot of a much earlier story. When Van married Bruce, she attempted to befriend his daughter Barbara, who resented Van's presence. Barbara fell in love with Tony Vento and wanted to marry him. She knew that Bruce would object, but thought Van might prove an ally since Van had hitherto been unable to secure Barbara's approval. However, sensible Van realized that Barbara's feelings were immature infatuation rather than love, and the marriage would be disastrous. Van told Bruce, who stopped the relationship. Barbara felt betrayed by Van and vowed revenge. When Bruce was later paralyzed, and his new doctor Herb Saltzman appeared infatuated with Van, Barbara sensed an opportunity to get back at her stepmother. Barbara manipulated Bruce's insecurities as an invalid by suggesting that Van was having an affair with Herb. Herb did confess his love to Van, but she rejected him. A few years later, Bruce and Van bought a new home. Their neighbors were the Ferris family on one side and a widow on the other. The widow turned out to be Nell Saltzman. Herb had passed away, but before he died, he confessed to Nell that he had once fallen in love with Van. Nell had been unable to to gain Herb's love in their final years together, and she blamed Van. Jason and Sharon Ferris had an unhappy marriage, too, and Nell exploited their trouble to get revenge. She seduced Jason and encouraged him to take her out for clandestine rendevouses. She put on a blond wig and dark glasses, but made sure to tell bartenders and hotel porters that she was Vanessa Sterling. Soon, news of "Van" and Jason's affair spread all over Rosehill. Sharon eventually heard the rumors, and believing them, went crazy with jealousy, Her hatred grew violent, but before she could harm Van, Jason confessed to the affair and admitted that Nell was his lover. Sharon snapped. She took a gun and went to Nell's planning to kill her, but Van arrived and talked her out of it. Nell left Rosehill, as did the Ferris family, who sold their house to Charles and Diana Lamont.

What year was iBrooke's abortion? About 1980, right?

I remember reading about it in the AMC Trivia Book; I was very surprised, as I never remember hearing anyone mention it (unless I missed it).

Brooke's abortion occurred during Christmas 1979.

AMC history is correct. Eddie was murdered in October 1979. Claudette was killed the following March. Susan Plantt Winston did not know her character was to be the killer until she accidentally overhead technicians discussing how to stage Claudette's death.

Ruth's rape was savage, but it was used to make an important observation: rape does not happen just to attractive young women. Ruth was middle aged and very conservative in her dress. Virtually all of the rapes previously presented in daytime were assaults against women who were more openly sexual and considered desirable to men. Ruth showed that any woman could be a victim of violent assault, and it was one of Nxon's "issue" stories rather than a mere plot contrivance such as the one in which she had Mike rape Julie on Guiding Light.

Ann Marcus excelled with the half hour soap. I enjoyed her work immensely on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing and Search for Tomorrow. However, I do not think even a soap legend such as Douglas Marland could have saved Love of Life after it was moved to 4 pm. Over 40 affiliates canceled the show altogether as others time shifted it to other undesirable hours. Even on stations which did clear it in pattern with CBS, Love was clobbered in the ratings by Edge of Night.

Cathy Abbi was not beloved by the cast either. According to Chandler Hill Harben, who played the final Ben, Abbi was hired by Mike Ogens because he wanted Love of Life's time slot and knew her incompetence would kill it. She was a production assistant on Y&R and was more interested in clothes and lighting than the creative matters associated with interesting story and strong characterization. Before the series w canceled, she had decided not to renew Tudi Wiggins' contract, which would have been a truly stupid move.

CBS mismanaged the series for years. Claire Labine created so many splendid characterizations; under capable writers, it could have continued with solid ratings for years, but subsequent writers chipped away at L & M's foundation until there was nothing left.

I believe the photo was taken for AMC's fifth anniversary. It is definitely from 1975, as Susan Blanchard's Mary Kennicott Martin was killed in July 1975. The actress standing by Francesca James' Kitty is Paulette Breen, the original Claudette Montgomery. The actress between Susan Lucci and Ruth Warrick is Stephanie Braxton, who played Tara Martin at the time. Neither Brooke nor Donna had been introduced into the story yet.