Matthews Frame Cory Fan

"The show's family base is also being better emphasized. Besides the Corys and Ewings, the Matthews family is somewhat better represented now that Liz (Irene Dailey) has moved into the home of her deceased brother-in-law, Jim (Hugh Marlow, who died last year). Her devotion to her adoptive grand-niece Sally (Dawn Benz) and granddaughter Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) has become an essential part of both girls' "young love" stories. New characters, like brother and sister Peter and Donna Love (John Hutton and Anna Stuart) are carefully interwoven with established characters, i.e., Peter's romance with Sally. And bravo to whoever decided to remove Liz from her tired status as pain-in-the-neck-in-law. She's still written as an opinionated lady, but her days as a flighty busybody are over."

This was largely true until 1989 or so, around the time that the truth came out about Josie being Russ's daughter and she returned to "pain in the neck in law" status. Regardless of circumstance or other connections, Liz was always passionately devoted to anyone with Matthews blood . Her mistreatment of Josie, Frame heritage or not, was baffling, cartoonish, and pretty out of character. Fortunately, Liz was somewhat redeemed in her final months given her sensitivity toward Dennis in the wake of Olivia's departure. I love watching Dailey's 1987-1988 scenes. The character's loneliness was palpable and Dailey, consummate professional she was, had great chemistry with all she interacted with (Mac, Rachel, Ada, Amanda, Matthew, Cass, Nicole, even Sharlene and Loretta). Ironically, the "return" of the Matthews family (i.e. Russ and Olivia) in 1989 resulted in a sharp decline for the character.

I rewatched Doug Watson's final scenes recently, as well as the 25th Anniversary episodes and Mac's death and funeral. What powerful stuff and a great reminder of what a fabulous actor Watson was.

Knowing that his untimely death impacted storyline for years, does anyone know what was planned for Mac, Rachel, Iris, Amanda, the Corys et al that needed to be scrapped or altered after Watson's passing?

Great thread!

A couple of thoughts. First, I never understood the need for the Jason Frame character when you already had two established Frame brothers (Willis and Vince) that you could have introduced. Jason was very much like Willis, except that he never got the taste of the high life that Willis did during his first time in Bay City. Also, Chris Robinson would have been a very solid Willis recast, possibly even better than he was as Jason Frame.

The disappearance of Irene Dailey (Liz) in late 1992/early 1993 was one of the greatest mistakes the show made in its final years. While its true that Liz had limited story possibilities and no family on the canvas, she was one of those great tentpole characters who really served as the voice of the audience. Much like they did with Eileen Herlie's Myrtle on AMC, AW could have used Liz as a support/surrogate mother-grandmother for a number of characters. This was especially true after the death of Connie Ford. This would not have been a stretch either. Dailey was one of daytime's finest actresses and had great rapport with a number of actors (Matt Crane, Sandra Ferguson, and Stephen Schnetzer) who were not part of the Matthews orbit. Liz and Cass, for example, were hysterical together in 1988 when they worked to fight the Cory takeover and later partnered in Nicole's salon.

If I recall correctly, Irene Dailey was let go during the 1986 bloodbath that saw the exits of Gail Brown, Rick Porter, and Taylor Miller, among others.