BuckyB12

The Zimmer interview is from 2006, just a fragment of the full 2 1/2 hours she spoke, for the Academy of American Television. https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/kim-zimmer There aren't a lot of soap related interviews there, but the ones I've seen are pretty good. (and I choked up too when KZ talked about Charita Bauer) I remember being annoyed too when Meta talked about Rev. Ruthledge, since the Bauers never lived in Five Points (they came in when the show was set in Selby Flats, before the eventual move to Springfield). But of course I would forgive Mary Stuart for anything! Her casting as Meta, and the few more years we had her, was probably the last thing I really enjoyed about GL.

The two L&F/FRFP characters that appeared briefly on AW just before the launch of Lovers and Friends were Austin Cushing (Rod Arrants) and Amy Gifford (Christine Jones). I believe the Cushings were said to be friends of Mac Cory. It was, IIRC, on a smaller scale than the launch of Texas a few years later, which involved more characters showing up in Bay City just in time to go back home to TX. I think Mac and Rachel appeared briefly on L&F, but I'm not sure if there was any more back-and forth. In addition to Richard Backus, Stephen Joyce and Vicky Dawson were hired by AW soon after FRFP was cancelled, and Christine Jones also returned to AW , but this time as Janice Frame. Oh, and Patricia Estrin, L&F's Megan, who was replaced for FRFP, joined AW about a month after L&F was cancelled, going from playing the romantic lead to the rather minor character of Joan Barnard, John Randolph's secretary.

Richard Backus came back to AW after FRFP was cancelled to play the second Ted Bancroft, a few years after Eric Roberts had first played Ted in 1977. Actually a number of the other actors from the cancelled show were taken on to play other characters on AW under Rauch and Lemay. Backus went on to play Barry Ryan for a few years on RH, and later wrote for a number of soaps. I have a memory of him playing a minor character on ATWT, maybe one of the management consultant clients of Walsh or Montgomery, but it's not listed at imdb.

I wasn't watching 5 days a week at that time, so I don't recall much of what was said about the Love's mother (was she Elizabeth? I can't recall). I'm pretty sure that Mac must have talked about her at some point, as part of the storyline that never happened. And whatever was said at the time, it was very possibly contradicted a few years later when Reginald returned from the dead with his grand passion, Mary McKinnon. And yes, Reginald does have a bit if Stefano in him, though I'd say Carl Hutchins turned out to be the more capable villain (who never should have been reformed).

I think Peter was first, coming in to work with Cass, and being set up with either Sally or Julia. Not sure how long after that until we met the rest of them - there may have been another writing change (there were a lot of them in the early to mid-80s).

The reveal of Iris's adoption was a huge story in the late 70s. When Amanda was born, Iris overheard Mac saying that Amanda was his firstborn child, which sent Iris into a tailspin. She sought out her birth mother, Sylvie Kosloff, who was a famous fashion designer, but she had grown up "lower class," which horrified Iris. It wasn't until the recast in the late 80s that Lemay's original story was rewritten and now Sylvie and Mac had had a previously-unrevealed affair which resulted in Iris, whose adoption was arranged by Mac's first wife who never told him that Iris was his bio daughter. I could be wrong, but I don't think Mac and Sylvie ever acknowledged previously knowing each other in the 70s. Of course, by then we had already met Sandy, another unknown son, and soon after, Paulina, after Mac's death. Not only that, but when the Love family was first introduced, there were hints that Mac had been very close to their mother and that one of the four Love siblings might have been fathered by Mac. I think a change in writers caused that idea to be dropped (and of course, we didn't know then that Marley was Donna's daughter, or that there was a twin). In some ways, Donna was a replacement character for Iris since the first attempt, Miranda Bishop (Judith McConnell), didn't work out a few years earlier.

I know that Isles avoided the DS Festivals because the fans couldn't be trusted not to ask her about Claus von Bulow, but apparently she did eventually agree to participate in a few DS projects that didn't involve direct fan contact. It's not that out of the question that she had something to say for this documentary..

I don't really recall anything about this reality show storyline, but many of David's lines popped back into my head upon watching this. I did love Tuc.

Patricia Bruder was one of the worst victims of SORAS fallout - her son Dan was a medical student eight years after his birth in 1958, and was married with children by 1970. Ellen had been Penny Hughes' best friend, and thus was originally one of the younger generation, but by the 70s Ellen and David were essentially moved into Nancy and Chris's generation. Bruder was "aged" through makeup and wardrobe, and was apparently pretty unhappy about it.

Well, Another World was almost entirely about the Matthews family for its first decade, which is why people didn't like them being wiped out. But the expansions of the 1970s required new characters all over daytime. Does anyone resent GL's Spauldings as much as they resent the Frames (both families were created for the same reason)? And with Aunt Liz around until 1992, (and later additions like Olivia and Josie, and Russ's brief return) it wasn't quite like the total eradication of Y&R's original Brooks family. The other families you mentioned were all much smaller and intended to be less-permanent. Joey and Rose Perrini were given to Angie for a family when AW expanded to 90 minutes (though they had been Ada's offscreen next-door neighbors for years). I don't think anyone expected Gail Brown's Clarice Hobson to stay around as long as she did (probably not even her), and though Lemay brought in her father Charlie, her brothers Denny and Leigh didn't arrive until the 80s. The Delaneys were a family on Somerset, but only Robert came to AW. His marriage to Lenore didn't last. and he left town after his engagement to Iris ended. I actually don't recall much being made of the fact that Cory Hobson was Robert's son in later years, and I don't think Cory was ever SORASed.

(sorry, I did something wrong and made this whole post a spoiler - though it's about 40-year old storylines) I wouldn't say that Lemay phased out the Matthews family at all - most of that was done in the 1980s, following his tenure. He did change the primary focus of the show from the Rachel-Steve-Alice triangle to the Rachel-Mac-Iris triangle, which made the show far more interesting, but the Matthewses were still around and involved in storylines. Virginia Dwyer and Jacquie Courtney were dismissed, but the role of Alice was recast and Alice still had stories for several years after (Sally's adoption, running Frame Construction, romances with Ray Gordon, Willis, and Dan Shearer (I think)). Pat's family, the Randolphs, were still important, and both Michael and Marianne were SORASed and stayed around for the decade. Lemay had Pat start her career at Cory Publishing, certainly a significant storyline for 70s women who found themselves in similar positions. I think Lemay really liked Irene Dailey and used Liz quite well, in opposition to Rachel and Ada and as a lonely woman who interfered in the lives of her relatives, especially Jim and Russ (it was later writers who mostly used Liz as comic relief and ignored her dislike of Rachel - remember that Liz was originally after Mac for herself, with Iris's encouragement). Lemay actually brought back Liz's daughter Susan and her husband Dan for a while. (It wasn't Lemay's fault that earlier writers had killed off Liz's son Bill, who could have fathered a separate branch of the family). Russ did eventually leave, but he had a major storyline with Sharlene first, and it was logical that he might want to leave town after that experience. John Randolph died late in Lemay's tenure to provide a major event to kick off the expansion to 90 minutes, but John's affair with Barbara, his divorce from Pat, and his relationship with Olive were all significant storylines before that time. Yes, he brought in all those Frames (as Liz would say), which rewrote Steve's history. I'd say that Sharlene, Willis, and Janice were all successful characters; Vince, and Molly Ordway less so, but remember that Lemay had to populate the 60-minute show, and so it was his prerogative to bring in a new family which would provide a contrast to the upper-middle class characters already on the canvas. But I don't feel like the Matthewses were really phased out until after Lemay left. They were eventually replaced by the Loves and the Mackinnons (and the first 1980-ish attempt at a new family - does anyone remember the Halloways?).

It certainly is a good run of 1950 episodes, but it's so unfortunate that almost nothing earlier still exists. And there are so many other long-running radio soaps where only a handful of episodes survive. As for recommendations, I really liked Candy Matson (girl detective in San Francisco).

I don't know that Susan Flannery has ever said anything publicly, but professional lesbian Rita Mae Brown wrote about Flannery in her 1997 autobiography Rita Will, referring to Susan's long relationship with Fannie Flagg and some of her career trouble over the lesbian issue (Brown apparently didn't consider Susan's B&B tenure to be much of a career). Alec Baldwin writes very fondly of David O'Brien and their friendship in his memoir Nevertheless. Also amused by the surprise here about PAS - Danny Santos was the least-convincing mobster ever portrayed in soaps. Who hasn't been mentioned yet on this thread... Louis Edmonds and Keith Prentice of DS Farley Granger (and his partner Robert Calhoun, a producer for P&G) Robert Drivas (Young Dr. Malone and Our Private World) Danny Pintauro (though he only played Paul Ryan as a child) Some very short-term soap actors, for the sake of completeness: Keith Christopher (Wyatt on GL, a dayplayer in their horrible HIV test-switching storyline) Victor Garber (GL) Michael Jeter (AW) Jm. J. Bullock (B&B) Stepping outside the actors we have writers Frank Provo and John Pickard, partners both professionally and personally who worked on radio and TV soaps. Apparently someone is working on a documentary about them, The Bachelors of Broken HIll Farm. Almost certainly dozens more that we may never know because they were closeted (and sometimes married for the sake of their careers). Certainly there are a number of "single gentlemen" in the field. And the rumors, oh lord the rumors that have abounded about soooo many soap actors over the years...

From a few days ago, regarding the Soaps & Serials paperbacks published by Pioneer: There were seven shows originally covered: Y&R, DAYS, GL, ATWT, AW, Dallas, and Knots Landing, and they all started in 1986, all shipped together to bookstores (I worked for Waldenbooks during these years so I saw them all). Each of those ran for 14 volumes, and IIRC, they came out monthly. Toward the end they added GH, OLTL, and AMC and released the first two volumes of each as a double sized pb. I think there were #3s of these three but then the whole line was cancelled. It's not clear to me exactly how faithful they are to the original scripts/storylines. I definitely remember that the novelized ATWT scene where Ellen kills the blackmailing housekeeper Frannie was nothing like the actual episode which I had watched at the Paley Ctr. It probably varied somewhat from writer to writer (I suspect many of them were writing under pseudonyms).

I only watched the show in the mid 1970s to around 1980, and have seen a few episodes since, including the finale. When Stu was dithering about Wilma and David I said to myself in jest "they ran off together," not expecting that they really had. It was kind of funny because it had happened to Stu before, when Billie Lou Watt (Ellie Bergman) left the show in 1980, Stu had to announce that Ellie had run off with the cook (out of absolutely nowhere). Lazy writers had just not bothered to write a real exit. According to IMDb, Anita Gillette later appeared as Wilma in the finale, though I don't specifically recall that (maybe a flashback?). I remember her from ALL THAT GLITTERS, a brief, strange syndicated soap from the 70s. The baby Marge was talking about was Tom, who I remember as a young John James (pre-DYNASTY). Looking it up, that was in 1977, though I know Tom came back later at some point.

Thanks, someone else on here explained how to find it. So the weekend showings are marathons like SoapNet used to do? It looked like they were airing 9 hours a week, which would be a pretty big commitment, even with the commercials taken out. Now I can't decide if I just want to pick up from this week, or to go back as far as possible (late 1967). Retro has already aired more episodes of TD than there are in the entirety of DARK SHADOWS, and the idea of being able to watch every episode as opposed to the spotty YT availability of every other soap is an intriguing one!

It's ok, he's still learning. This is his first HW position, right? He came from AW under Lemay, who certainly wasn't known for fast-paced stories. Wish I could get Retro - these are the episodes I started watching originally, and I loved the Ann Larimer/Carolee story.

Yes, that was Dr. Rogers (Carl Low) in Italian. IMDb has him listed as late as 1983, which seems surprising.

Wasn't Viveca the hospital administrator? The eternal question for producers when hiring an actor who's made a splash in another role on another show is whether the new character should be suggestive (at the very least) of the old character, or a completely different type. I thought Nancy Pinkerton's Viveca was supposed to remind the audience of Dorian Lord, but I admit I wasn't watching much during that period.

This is a month old so maybe not relevant, but Lois Smith was great fun as crazy Eleanor Conrad, who was the obstacle between Althea and Dr. Scott Conrad. Though in the 70s it was all about Althea and Nick Bellini, so I don't think the audience ever really expected anything to happen with Scott. Gerald Gordon would come and go as Nick, but eventually he went for real, moving to California to join GH with much fanfare (I think when they expanded to an hour). Lois Smith has remained a favorite of mine in many guest-starring rolss since, including Aunt Betsy Cramer on OLTL, and not long ago I finally saw her in a pre-DOCTORS role in the film Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1974).

I remember when Tina Sloan began as Patti in 1976 (Patti #10 according to IMDb) and was happy to see her again, having enjoyed her work on SOMERSET. No idea what was supposed to happen with Patti or why she disappeared again. I thought it might have been due to the writer change to Henry Slesar, but I think that was in the summer of '77 (the Wade Collins kidnapping) and I'm pretty sure Patti was long gone by then. I seem to remember that she dated David Sloan (Louis Arlt) but I could be wrong about that. Looking through SOD synopses she first shows up in the fall of 1976. Jo had been shot in the climax of the Chris Delon storyline and was paralyzed for a few months, and asked Stu to call Patti when she was about to go under the knife for an operation that might or might not allow her to walk again (SOD November '76). Patti comes back in the Dec '76 synopsis, with Len in pursuit (I don't remember seeing Len) but their marriage is breaking up because she had an affair. You'd think this other man would be following her to Henderson, but I don't believe that happened. The January '76 synopsis says that Len returned to West Virginia with their son Chris and Patti stayed in Henderson with Traci and got a waitressing job at the Hartford House. And that's it. No more references to Patti. The synopses for the next few months are busy with Eunice Wyatt's murder, Steve and Liza, and Bruce and Amy, so whatever happened with Patti was too minor to include. That was the end of Patti for nearly a decade (a decade in which she apparently didn't age at all, though her daughter grew up).

Sorry, I meant to get back to this discussion earlier. As to the soap press in the 1970s, Daytime TV was the old established mag and SOD the upstart, but I think they were all fairly independent. The magazines each had their own staff that provided all the editorial material. SOD's synposes were written by staff writers as they watched the shows, so the events of July 1977 didn't appear until the September 1977 issue (I think), given the editorial turnaround. Nowadays, the synopsis info comes directly from the shows so that the issue on the stands is recounting the stories from the same week. There were no spoilers back then either, so the mags were not at all directly dependent on the shows for material. If someone had tried cutting off a magazine because they didn't like a review (as Corday threatened some years back) the magazine had twice as many shows to cover as today, so one less wouldn't have made much difference (and the producers knew it). I hadn't been watching soaps all that long in January 1977, so I can't really say who should have been cast, but I'm thinking of people like Kathy Glass (who was already at OLTL, but was known for Return to PP) or Paulette Breen, or other "names" from the soaps that had been cancelled in 1974 or '75 that the audience might have wanted to see again. Maybe they should have spent some money to hire someone away from one of the other shows. I can understand not wanting to use anyone from Somerset (so Audrey Landers was out, though she was the right age) but they surely had options that they chose not to take in their quest for unknown "theater" actors instead of "stars." I see there are a few people here who were watching in the earlier 70s and who could probably come up with more names of people who should have been considered.

The Halvorson profile in interesting in its possibilities, though I don't recall ever encountering his name in synopses of those storylines. Pre-internet sources (known as "books") seem to agree that Sarandon was on the show from 1969-70 (Julie Poll and the Wesley/Hyatt Encyclopedia at least; can't locate my Schermering and LaGuardia doesn't list him at all). Other internet sources such as IMDb and Wikipedia show Sarandon's dates as '69-73 (but that could all be from the same person who wrote the Soap Central profile). One small possible point of near-corroboration is that the Poll book lists the character of Marion McHenry (with whom Halvorson supposedly left town) on the show until 1972. We know that, even at a 30 minute episode length, much more must have happened on those shows than is preserved in the few pages of synopses that have come down to us in the books of LaGuardia or even Poll. Halvorson may well have intersected with those storylines but not in a way that affected their ultimate outcomes, and so it was possible to leave him out entirely (he only appears in the Poll book in the cast listings; never mentioned at all in the synopses). Further verification (at least as to Sarandon's tenure on the show) could come from those Daytime TV yearbooks from the early 70s that listed the full casts but I don't have any back that far.

Don't know about the Dobsons but 1995 ATWT was still good soap, in spite of Valente. Through 1995 the show was still being written by people who had (I think) worked directly with Doug Marland and knew how things should go. I always think of '95 as having the last really big umbrella story in the Marland style, Lisa's malpractice suit against John following Eduardo's death, which involved nearly the whole cast in one way or another. That was followed by the Orlena Grimaldi drama with the trips to Malta, and the Rosanna/Mike/Carly triangle was playing out that year too. One big difference, if you watch a '95 episode next to a '93 or '94 is that the number of characters per episode drops significantly, which is due to Valente. Everything goes way downhill in January 1996 with the arrival of Stern and Black, which brings a real break with the past. The plane crash kicks the Umberto Malzone mess into the center of things. Several well-loved characters were gone by the end of '95 (Andy, Julie, Caleb, Larry, Duncan, Shannon, etc.) and the characters that replaced them were mostly pretty awful ("supermodel" Zoe, anyone?). The payoff to John's revenge on Lisa was fun to watch but the whole storyline did make Lisa look pretty dumb, and it was followed up with Martin Chedwyn, which was even worse. After that bad year, things just never really got back on track, but I think the problems of the later 1990s were more attributable to Mary Alice Dwyer-Dobbin than to any particular set of headwriters (it wasn't a writing decision to recast Connor Walsh with that OLTL woman in Jan. 1997 - that's when we knew that things were not going to get better just because the hated Stern & Black were gone).