Mona Kane Croft

I think there is a difference between knowing where you are going with a plot (which Marland typically did, in my opinion), and knowing where every individual character is headed. I wasn't a daily viewer of GL during Marland's run -- but if Vanessa had been involved in a heavy storyline, Marland probably would have had a clear direction for her. But if, during this period, she was not featured in a major plot or was perhaps on the back-burner, it is possible Marland may have been undecided regarding Vanessa's immediate direction.

Interesting. It has been said, Marland never began a storyline without first knowing the way it would end. I don't think there is one soap opera in 2024 that handles writing in that fashion.

I do not believe this was Earl's final good-bye. Didn't Earl come back, only to be killed-off. And then later came back again to spend more time with Lisa? I do remember Earl's comings and goings were rather convoluted.

Agreed. Marland certainly kept Duncan active on the canvas for nearly his entire run as head-writer. The gothic stuff was something fairly unique to Marland. Marland had a way of writing compelling and engaging gothic characters and plots without taking them too far away from believable drama. He was able to balance a small but significant gothic element in both GL and ATWT without allowing them to eat the show(s), and without turning either show into a clone of Dark Shadows. I wonder if Marland might have been the best choice to replace the Corringtons on Search for Tomorrrow... They had very successfully introduced Louisiana gothic elements to Search, which helped to update the show and bring it into the modern soap opera era. But later head-writers seemed completely unable to continue their style of work, and by dropping those elements, SFT sadly became "your grandmother's soap" again. Tragic, in my opinion. Marland probably could have retained the Corringtons' flavor on Search, if he wanted to. But I'm not sure he would have accepted a 30-minute soap gig at that point in his career. Back to Quint -- do you believe Quint being Henry's son was Marland's original plan for the character? Or did Marland do a retcon, because Quint became popular and needed to be connected to a Springfield family?

Did Marland create Quint? If so, I can almost bet he never intended Quint to be a long-term character. Probably one or two big storylines, and then OUT. But I could be wrong.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I wasn't watching GL regularly enough during that period to notice details like that. I was always surprised Long wrote off the Reardons. They were a big working-class family full of flawed individuals with different personalities. Hell, a good writer could have created an entire soap opera just about the Reardons.

Thank you for responding. Just to clarify -- are you saying HB and Billy were mentioned by name even before Josh arrived in Springfield? And certainly while Marland was head-writer?? That is amazing information, because the oil-rich Lewis family, as written by Pam Long, certainly did not seem like any family that would have been created by Douglas Marland. I enjoy hearing details like this -- so thank you, again.

Long had a better handle on the Reardon family, even though she was the person who wrote most of them off the show? I realize Long wrote the entry of Jim Reardon. But otherwise, didn't Long write-off the Reardon family one-by-one until only Maureen remained in Springfield?

When Josh was created by Douglas Marland, I believe he came to Springfield alone. Did Marland create Josh's back story of being the son of an wealthy Oklahoma oil family? Or was that part created by Pam Long? How soon after Josh's arrival were HB and Billy mentioned by name? Were they mentioned by name while Marland was still writing? I believe Trish actually appeared while Marland was at GL, but please correct me if I'm wrong. The reason I ask is -- Pam Long always gets the blame for the prominence of the Lewis clan, but if Marland had already created the characters (even if off camera), then Long was really just bringing some of Marland's work forward. Frankly, other than Josh and Trish, the Lewis family (with all their hippin' and hollerin") never seemed like characters Marland would have created, but it would be interesting to know.

I have read this this entire multi-topic thread, and have not seen my concern thoroughly and directly addressed. Although it has been mentioned a couple of times. I just tried to edit a post, about three hours after it was originally posted, and I am unable to edit. I often go back and edits my posts for many reasons -- grammar, punctuation, clarification, general wording, correcting stupid statements, or whatever, etc. What is the rationale for limiting editing from the original poster? Why would anyone care if the original poster edits her/his own posts? I seriously can't imagine why this would be a problem for anyone. When unlimited editing was available, no one was forced to edit their posts -- it was simply available to those who wanted to edit. So who did it harm?? I'd be interested to know how many members complained about editing. Can someone explain in detail, why unlimited editing was taken away? In simpler terms -- If I don't care when you edit your posts, why would anyone care if I edit mine?

I've heard this morsel of information before a couple of times. I 'd love to know the details of the original plan. Mostly because the only character who actually went to Finland was Jim Matthews, and that is where the character died (because actor, Hugh Marlowe had passed away). Strange that such a big storyline plan, was whittled-down to the location where AW's original patriarch passed away. Yet nothing else happened in Finland to influence the plot.

Ms Duncan replaced Eileen Fulton as Lisa on ATWT for a few episodes in the 2000s. And she used an American accent with a strong Southern influence. She did a good job with the accent, but she sounded too Southern for Lisa. That was the director's fault. All the director needed to do was tell her to tone-down the "Southern" a bit. Otherwise, Duncan would have sounded very much like Lisa.

I've never understood why they didn't ask Carmen Duncan to use an American accent. During the same era, Barbara Berjer (Bridget) used a Scottish accent. Plus John Aniston used accents in two different long-term roles (Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow). And how about Joe Mascolo (Stefano) on DOOL?? So asking an actor to use an accent in a long-term role was obviously not unusual on soaps.

Have they explained why Chance is investigating Heather's death, when he is no longer a cop?

Wow, that play certainly featured a lot of soap opera actors. I have always understood that Penberthy appeared on Broadway in "Barefoot in the Park" with Robert Redford, before being cast on AW. And I believe I have even seen photos from the production. Does anyone know if that is correct?

I agree. Adrienne Wallace, who replaced Ariana Meunker as Marianne, was an actress of approximately equal talent. Wallace was a very acceptable replacement, but a replacement was totally unnecessary. And I'm fairly sure Susan Sullivan was cast as Lenore just before Lemay took over as head-writer. No idea how much theater experience Sullivan had, but Lemay adored her -- as did I. And as you acknowledged, Ms Penberthy was hired around 1968, during Agnes Nixon's time as head-writer. Lemay seemed to love love love Penberthy (as did I). And she did have significant theater experience before AW. Not sure if she ever returned to the stage during or after her time as Pat.

Agreed. And I think Hugh Marlowe is another example of this. Marlowe had been a mid-level movie star and had also done a lot of primetime TV guest shots. He was great in all of those movies and primetime series. But his work on Another World was, at times, borderline embarrassing. Although he was lovable as Jim Matthews and he will always be my favorite Jim, he stuttered and stammered through his lines so badly I'm surprised the other actors didn't refuse to work with him. To be honest, it appeared he didn't even attempt to learn his lines and was just phoning-in his performances. Clearly Mr Marlowe, although an accomplished actor, was unable to adjust to the pace of daytime television -- despite his success in other genres of acting.

Yes, he really was as good as his reputation. He wrote the show as a character-driven show, and wrote very weak (at times almost non existent) plots. AW during Lemay's tenure was different from any other soap on the air. He was so good at writing characters, I was absolutely hooked -- even though I complained because "nothing ever happened." Lemay's characters seemed like real people who faced believable problems and had believable family drama. There was also a lot of class conflict, as he had working-class, middle-class, and wealthy characters all on the front burner at the same time. He was also very good at writing long-running tortured romances like Alice and Steve, Rachel and Mac, Lenore and Robert. As much as I loved Lemay's work on AW, he was not perfect. And I have no problem criticizing him, even though I loved him.

Lemay didn't seem to like any actor who was proud of his/her work on a soap opera. I think he preferred performers who were at least somewhat ashamed of being on soap. He gave a lot of lip service to hiring actors from the theater, but mostly they were hired into minor and temporary roles. For all of the big roles he cast (Liz, Iris, Mac, Theresa, Rose, Robert, etc.), he used former soap actors who also had experience in theater. But I can't think of any of them (the major roles) that were cast with soap opera virgins. Possibly Susan Harney as Alice. I don't think she had previous experience on a soap, but she was one of his weakest casting choices in my opinion.

I've never heard AM mention Lemay directly. But in her YouTube notes she did write a couple of time that her feelings were hurt when she was let go from AW, so she did not continue to watch the show.

Arianne Muenker was more than adequate. In fact, she was beloved by the fans as the third-generation "Matthews girl", complete with the blonde hair. She played Marianne's abortion storyline believably. I can't imagine what Lemay had in mind for Marianne that he thought Muenker would have been unable to play. I loved Lemay's writing on AW, but his attitudes toward particular actors were, for the most part, ludicrous.

Roberts' version of Ted left town with Marianne Randolph.So both actors must have been fired at the same time. I think Ted took Marianne to Europe or someplace. Marianne returned around 1978-79 played by another actress.

Thanks for the information. I guess Flo turned out to be a relatively minor character, really just to play out Missy's murder trial.

Which character are they talking about here? Missy's biggest rival was Liz Matthews, but she was being played quite successfully by Audra Lindley at that point. The description of the character sounds like Ada Davis, but Connie Ford got that role. Another possibility was Missy's bio-mother Katherine Corning, but she was played by movie star Ann Sheridan. So, which character did Marcella Martin play?

Interesting that you feel that way. I actually kind of liked that dynamic, although the execution was awkward. Giving Iris and Michael a past gave Iris more conflict in Bay City, which I feel she needed, since she had been out of town for so long and so few characters in 1988 had ever interacted with her. It's really rather surprising -- Iris was gone only eight-years, yet nearly the entire cast had turned over, leaving only a few characters from 1980 still on the canvas.