Mona Kane Croft

You are right, it was always suggested that Nancy's apartment was on the second floor above the garage. That is, until this scene. When we finally saw Nancy in her apartment, someone forgot about the second floor detail and had her living literally in the garage -- not above the garage. I was rather shocked, actually. I think this same set was used a couple of years later during a Valentine's Day episode in which Nancy reminisces about her first husband, Chris. I remember she had furniture (perhaps her bed) pushed up against the large garage door. It was very obvious. The next time we saw Nancy's apartment was just after her death, when some of the family was clearing out her possessions. But they used a completely different set this time, and at that point it appeared her apartment was above the garage, no longer in the garage. Thankfully.

The problem with Brittney was her role as an antagonist to the Sally/Catlin romance. Brittney was introduced as deaf, and in the 1980s deafness was considered a disability. So nobody wanted to watch a disabled character be the bad-girl (or bad-guy). The entire situation was just off-putting to the fans. "Are we supposed to hate this deaf girl?" "Are we supposed to hate this disabled woman?" As I said, it was just off-putting and awkward. Sharon Gabet was a wonderful actor and potentially a great addition to AW. But the character of Brittney was poorly conceived. In the 1980s, the audience simply could not accept a deaf character as a villain. And Sharon Gabet was terribly miscast.

Didn't Nancy McGowan date a rich blonde preppy character played by Kyra Sedgwick's brother? Was this drug dealer the same guy? It sure looks like the same guy OMG! And if I'm not mistaken, Kyra's father was also a well known soap opera director or producer. Wasn't his name also Bob Sedgwick?

I have a vague memory of this. If my memory is correct, this took place when Chris Hughes was first sorased to a young adult. Chris befriended a young hoodlum from a carnival who decided to take advantage of Nancy by stealing some jewelry or something. The hoodlum broke into Nancy's garage apartment (the real garage with a garage-door in the background). Previously, I had assumed Nancy's garage apartment was on the second floor, above the garage. WRONG was I. LOL. Nancy actually lived in the garage. Seriously. But I digress... So one night the hoodlum breaks into Nancy's garage apartment and sort of roughs her up. Chris hears noises outside and comes to Nancy's rescue, only to find that his friend has beat on his grandmother. That's about all I remember of this plot. But I don't remember anything about Nancy wearing a clown-nose. OMG!!

Okay, thank you. I always had the impression that Zimmer was older than Newman. But never saw it verified. Not that it matters. Thanks again.

But didn't Kelly and Nola hook-up while he was involved with Morgan, giving Nola the excuse to say her baby was Kelly's? Wasn't that pretty much the thing that kept Kelly and Morgan apart for a while? Does anyone know the age difference between Clarke, Zimmer, and Newman?

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing. We all need to see some talent like that occasionally.

This is the first time I've heard about Nancy having a hysterectomy. I do know Bert Bauer had a hysterectomy in the 1960s, while Agnes Nixon was writing GL. That was a huge deal and said to have been Nixon's first social issues storyline. Any chance you are confusing Nancy with Bert? No offense, but I've never read anywhere that Nancy had a hysterectomy. Again, don't be offended by my question. Not my intent at all. Just trying to clarify and perhaps look for some verification.

No, I haven't. Where did you see them singing duets? on TV or theatrical?

I always thought Reva had more sexual chemistry with Billy than with Josh. With Josh it always felt a little forced. But I will admit, Newman and Zimmer used their acting skills to push through the lack of chemistry and make it work. Chemistry isn't everything. Acting and writing are both more important than chemistry.

Interesting information. Thanks for sharing

That's ironic, because Vigard is the actor who left GL almost immediately after the wedding, and Shipp stayed around for several more years. And I know several posters here insist there was no chemistry between Kelly and Morgan. I wasn't watching at the time, so I don't have an opinion about that. But the viewers (especially the younger viewers) were CRAZY about Kelly and Morgan -- chemistry or not. I know people who took off work to watch their wedding. And I happened to be at a public swimming pool on the afternoon of their wedding, and people at the pool had found a way to listen to Guiding Light on the radio! Yes, the radio. I'm not kidding! No idea how they worked that out, but people at the pool were huddled around a radio listening to Kelly and Morgan's wedding.

Well, if Bunim was at SFT when Lemay was head-writer, then I was completely wrong about the timing. Lemay was hired some time after the Corringtons had left. So maybe 1981-82ish?? And I always thought SFT was modernized by the Corringtons, with Travis and Liza, etc. I'm surprised to see a mandate for modernization post-Corringtons. But who knows??

I was a long-term fan at that time, and I didn't mind Nancy getting remarried. It might have been a little too soon after Chris's death, but fundamentally Nancy getting remarried was okay with me. At least it gave her something to do. I'm not sure Dan McCloskey was the right choice for Nancy's new romance. He was so different from Chris. Sort of gruff and working-class. But maybe that was the point -- to give Nancy a different kind of husband. And of course Nancy changing her name from iconic Nancy Hughes to Nancy McCloskey was a hard pill to swallow. But that's what happens when a widow gets remarried. Right?

What was Bunim's mandate at SFT? I know she had poor Mary Stuart fearing for her job. I'm not sure, but I think Bunim was at SFT in the late-70s and left around the time the Corrington's were hired as head-writers. But I might be completely wrong about that timing. Let us know if you get any details.

I don't know. I have not heard good things about Bunim at any New York soaps, so she may have been a better fit for an LA soap like Santa Barbara. I don't remember much about AW in 1985, so I can't comment on Schenkel. But my dream team for Another World in 1985 would have been the return of Paul Rauch as executive producer, and hiring Douglas Marland as head-writer. And yes, I have heard about the conflict between Malone, Rich, and Frangione. The conventional wisdom is that Rich and Frangione had the clout to gang-up against Malone and get her fired. At this point, I suppose I do believe it is true.

Here's a question out of the blue: Did Chris and/or Nancy ever have a real storyline of their own? From what I understand, they were both created as tent-pole talk-to characters from day one of ATWT. Their function was to serve as the patriarch and matriarch of not only the Hughes family, but the entire show. So no storylines for them, huh? I did read in a couple of places that Chris once had an affair with his secretary during the run of the show, but I've not seen verification of that. If this is true, then that would be at least one storyline for the pair. But to be honest, I don't think it happened. As far as I know, Nancy's only real brush with a storyline was in the late-1980s, when her second husband (Dan McClosky) suffered from Alzheimer's disease. I was watching at the time, and Helen Wagner certainly had some very difficult dialogue and challenging scenes, as the wife of an Alzheimer's patient. So I'd suggest this may have been the only storyline in the long history of ATWT that actually focused on Nancy Hughes. I may be wrong about that, so feel free to correct me. Is anyone aware of Chris and/or Nancy having any other storylines that specifically featured either of them?

Thanks for the link! Peyton Place '79 seems to have been shot on videotape, not film. That's an interesting choice for a night time drama, especially since DALLAS was already popular and shot on film. And Allison is approaching middle-age with a teen daughter?? Does anyone have a cast list including the roles they were playing. Based on the photo, I'm assuming Elaine Princi played Betty?? And Adam West played Rodney?? I could be wrong about that. Who was the actress playing Allison?

Well, if Vigard was only on the show for one-year (as suggested in an earlier post), then I'm not surprised Kelly and Morgan didn't have much chemistry. If it only took them one-year to get together, despite Nola's meddling, that is really not enough time or enough heartache to become a long-suffering romantic super-couple. It should have taken them two or three years to get to the alter the first time. And then something should have split them up again for more heartache, before reuniting. Does anyone have any idea why Marland married them so damned quickly? Why didn't he drag it out like Nixon and Lemay did with their romantic stories? And another somewhat related question -- why was Nola mellowed so quickly? While she was a bad-girl, Nola was a selfish spit-fire and should have become the Rachel Davis of Springfield, causing trouble for years and years. Why waste such a wonderfully drawn antagonist by mellowing her so quickly? Wow, dumb decision, in my opinion.

OMG! I'd love to be at dinner with Marland and Long. LOL. I wonder if she respected him enough to learn anything from him. Hmmm.

I believe you are correct both specifically and in a more general sense. One of the biggest (perhaps THE biggest) mistakes soap operas made in the 1980s through 2000s was to ask the audience what they wanted, and then tried to give it to them. The problem was/is, what the audience wants does not often make for compelling drama or convincing acting. For example, the audience always wants the long-suffering romantic couple to find happiness. Well, happiness on soap operas gets boring really fast. The younger audience often says they want young beautiful characters, but that does not always lead to strong acting -- again, bad in the long-term. So rather than asking the audience what they wanted to see, the genre should have found a way to measure what the audience will watch -- what they will find compelling. For example, when I was a teenager (in the mid-1970s) I was hooked on Another World. I almost never missed an episode. I was certainly addicted. But on the other hand, I complained that the show was rather boring and nothing ever happened. I wanted AW to have normal soap opera plots like ATWT or AMC. But, I was not hooked on ATWT or AMC, I was hooked on Another World -- a show that I thought was boring. LOL. So, I did not know what I would watch (or find compelling), I only knew what I thought I wanted. Not sure I'm making sense. But my point is, asking the audience what they like or what they want is a very poor way to make decisions about a soap opera (or any form of art), in my opinion. Successful soaps give the audience what they will watch, not what they say they want.

This is another example of "it's nearly impossible to successfully replace a soap opera ingenue". Think about all the failed attempts at replacing an ingenue -- Alice Frame, Tara Martin, Nina Courtlandt, Lily Walsh, Lily Winters, Mary Ryan (although Mary was not a traditional ingenue), and Morgan. There are more, but they aren't coming to mind. Either the original actress returns, or the character leaves the show.

Thanks for the information. I wasn't watching GL during the Marland era, but I remember the show getting a lot of attention from young viewers. I was aware of the switch, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. So thanks for the additional context. I never understood why P&G moved the Dobsons to ATWT, because they were so happy with their work at GL. But when the Dobsons got to ATWT, they seemed like two entirely different writers. Their writing at ATWT seemed very dissimilar from their writing at GL. Why did they change their writing style so drastically? Or perhaps they didn't change. But it seems to me that they did.

Can anyone please tell me, what year did Marland began and as head-writer, and what year did he leave? And what year did Pam Long begin? Any idea why Marland left GL? Did he leave at the end of a contract, or somewhat unexpectedly? Any chance he was pushed out in favor of Long?

Those credits are from 1978 (I'm guessing, based on Rebecca Hollen's name being in them). I'm sorry -- I'm not aware of the exact years any of the head-writers were working. So are you saying this episode was before Marland, and that the Dobsons were immediate successors to Marland? Or that there were writers between Marland and the Dobsons? And were Chris and Nancy already being minimized at the time of this episode? I do remember Chris and Nancy were still prominent when James Stenbeck was first introduced, because he attended one of their 4th of July picnics. That was strange -- international Stenbeck at a middle-class picnic. I could sense change was in the air.