Did Irna Phillips or her estate get royalties for the characters she created? If anyone was entitled to royalties, certainly it would've been her.
The more I think about it, the less likely I am to truly believe that the characters were pulled because of royalties (if he even had such an agreement). Sometimes executives say things and/or pass a rumor around, but it may be just that, a rumor.
I got a chance to listen to the interview
I got a chance to listen to the, shall we call it an interview? Yeah, I agree that Alan talked over Suzenne a lot. It seemed as though, just when she was able to collect her thoughts and begin to talk, Alan was interjecting his thoughts. I got some enjoyment out of it, but like everyone else, I wish a more skilled host would have conducted this conversation.
Another thing that struck me is how memories can sometimes get tangled because Suzenne mentioned that she believed that she was the first actor on a soap of that era (i.e. since cigarette smoking was banned on TV) to smoke onscreen but I remember a few years prior to her Julie, I saw Leanna Love on Y&R light up onscreen during her debut during the late 1980s. I am not sure where she would have gotten that information.