Mona Kane Croft

Yes, Lemay was very good at writing for characters he later said he did not enjoy -- especially the middle-class characters. For his first year on AW, the show was made up almost entirely of middle-class characters, and the writing was extremely compelling. Of course Ada was working-class, and Steve was wealthy. Helen and Lenore had earlier been written as wealthy, but by the time Lemay arrived, Helen and Lenore's wealth had been mostly forgotten and they were also written more-or-less as middle-class. The show was SO GOOD. Thanks for reminding us Lemay was writing for over a year before he introduced the uber-wealthy Iris (and later Mac). Although I missed most of the Carolyn Johnson storyline, I too have heard the ending was disappointing, It is true the entire climax of the story took place off camera? If that is true, I wish I could get inside Lemay's head and understand why he made that unusual choice.

If my memory is correct, the Gregorys were written-off more or less one at a time. I believe only one of them died, but not in a plane crash. And one of the male members of the family (Ernest Gregory, I believe) stayed in Bay City for a longer period and was involved with Janet Matthews. I don't know where the plane crash myth originated, but I do not think it ever happened on any US soap opera. Another myth regarding the Gregorys was that Lipton created the Gregorys to replace the Matthews family. If you read the episode synopsis or available scripts, it is easy to see that the Matthews were front and center throughout Lipton's time at AW. The Gregorys were created to replace the exiting Baxter family, and they did that well enough, I suppose. The Gregorys were never intended to replace the Matthews family.

Well, the authors were not exactly fans. They were professional writers who were paid by publishers to write the books. In fact, the authors may not have been fans of AW at all. That is unknown, I believe. Yes, you are correct, the novels were not collaborations between the authors and the show's writers and producers. But the authors did have permission from P&G to use characters and storylines from the show. Plus, they must have had access to scripts (or at least very detailed episode synopsis, which I don't think existed at that time) because most of the novels were written years after the material had been aired. So someone at P&G Productions must have at least guided the authors in the right direction to find the scripts. The books were not written completely independent of P&G Productions. The authors had both permission and at least some minimal level of assistance from P&G. This is not an attempt to argue with you, but more of a clarification. And I do certainly agree with you that the novels are not cannon.

Who was head-writing SFT when Sherry was hired? Was it his/her idea to kill off Steve, or was the character already ill when that head-writer took over?

Interesting. It has been at least 20-years since I read KLK's AW novels. I had completely forgotten Clarice and Robert were even mentioned in Another World II. But I think it would be difficult to write a novel without explaining characters' motives. As you mention, otherwise the book would be more like a script with nothing but dialogue, location, and stage direction. I hadn't thought of that before.

I agree. However I've found the two Kate Lowe Kerrigan novels to be far more accurate to the scripts than the Soaps and Serials books. Soaps and Serials really just seemed to use the basic plots of the soaps (along with some details) as a framework to write romance novels. Those novels include lots of scenes and details that never took place on the shows. The Kate Lowe Kerrigan books are written in a more serious tone, and I would not really call them traditional romance novels. They are more like adult novelizations of the actual show. But as someone mentioned, the Kerrigan books focus fundamentally on the Alice/Steve/Rachel triangle and simply leave out most of the other concurrent plots on AW.

Thank you. I remember watching that day. Part of AW was still quite good at this point, although much of it had devolved into a mess.

Yes, Matthew Cory was named after the Matthews family. Specifically Russ Matthews, who had become Rachel's confidant after Janice Frame's death and Rachel's pregnancy with Mitch Blake's child. If my memory is correct, Russ is one of the only people Rachel told about the baby's true paternity while she was still pregnant. I feel confident this would be referenced in the episode synopsis on the AWHP. And scripts of course, if they are available. Those episode tapes may actually be archived, because weren't they in 1980? I believe the twins were born approximately 4-years after Mike Bauer left Bay CIty. Mike left AW in 1966 and the twins were born in 1970.

I'd like to see a script reference before I believe that Michael Randolph was named after Mike Bauer. Pat and Mike had a strong sexual attraction on AW (while she was married to John) and they almost had an affair. Somehow I don't think Pat would have named one of her twins after Mike. That would be kind of creepy. I suppose it's possible, but I won't believe it unless I see it in a script or at least in an episode synopsis. Of course, it doesn't really matter to anyone else whether or not I believe it. Everyone else is free to believe it if they choose to. No argument from me.

I think the fans jokingly referred to Stark as Mr Shoes, because for the first few weeks we saw only his shoes. But I don't remember any characters calling him Mr Shoes. And yes, there were hints of Felicia being involved along with several other characters. Hence the umbrella nature of the plot's early weeks. I definitely remember references to Lumina being a cult, and that it's leader had published some books related to the cult's beliefs. The entire cult angle was dropped, I believe, in favor of the supernatural stuff.

As I remember, the Lumina story seemed to take a big shift about half-way through. Not sure if there was a change of head-writers, or what. But I believe somebody completely changed the plot. If I'm not mistaken, Lumina started off as an umbrella storyline involving a rich guy who was the head of a cult (called Lumina), coming to Bay City for an unknown reason. But after the Lumina Ball, it it left the "umbrella" stuff behind, and took on a supernatural thing about Amanda being the reincarnated lover of some old man who never aged -- or an old man who had inhabited the body of a young man. Jeeze! It was nutty, farcical, and certainly did not go along with what it had seemed to be at the beginning. I'd really love to know what was planned originally for that plot.

Well, in 1979, Phillip Lyons was intended to be French. In fact, Cecile had been referring to him as Phillipe Lyonnes. But they cast Robert Gentry, Americanized his name, and rewrote him as an American who had just been working in France. So that kind of last minute change is not terribly unusual, unfortunately.

Yes. And since Sam was a fairly successful artist, that could have kept him in Rachel's orbit too, professionally (not romantically of course). So Sam had a lot of connections on the show and, with good writing, could have made for some good drama.

Yes, I believe Janet's former husband, Wade Collins, came from a very wealthy family. So Janet's children grew up in wealth. Can anyone confirm that I am correct?

One of the things that i found unique about Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life was, both shows had a relatively small group of "permanent" legacy characters. So if the show got into a bad (or boring) period, a new head-writer could turn the show(s) around extremely quickly -- sometimes within one or two episodes. I remember when Claire Labine took over at LOL. The show became compelling immediately. And when the Corrington's arrived at SFT, I could tell something intriguing was happening during their first or second credited episode. Other soaps (ATWT, AMC, GL, DOOL, etc.) could sometimes take weeks or months before a new head-writer's influence could really be recognized by the viewers. And that is at least partially because most soaps had too many legacy characters that were more-or-less untouchable. I am a big fan of legacy characters, but I have often felt many soaps had legacy "permanent" casts that were too large and inflexible. This often restrained new head-writers from shifting the show in a new direction quickly enough to effect the ratings at the speed production companies and sponsors expected. On the other hand, everything I just wrote only works if the new head-writer is good, and knows how to write compelling material. If the new head-writer is an idiot, then nothing they do will work. But my real point was the uniqueness of SFT and LOL. Their small group of legacy characters, and the flexibility of both shows that really lasted until the end for both of them. I would not want all soaps to be that flexible, but that trait was refreshing when there were 14 soaps on the air.

I believe Denise Nickerson (Amy Jennings on Dark Shadows) played Liza before Kathleen Beller.

I do believe Jill was probably forced (or at least coerced) to take RKK. She probably was not against him returning to the cast, but was likely VERY opposed the salary someone (above her) had offered him. On the issue of pay-or-play contracts -- as far as I know, that would be determined by the production companies, and not NBC. NBC does not pay any of the actors on shows NBC does not directly own. Payroll is handled by the production companies. So, RKK's contract on DOOL would have been with Corday Productions (or whatever it was called a that time), and his contract at AW would have been with P&G Productions. I don't think an actor's contract would have been "transferred" from one production company to another -- and not sure that would even have been legal. But anything is possible, I suppose. I don't know for sure, but I assume this practice was in place long before the public ever heard about it occurring. And even if Penberthy was not fired in order to hire a particular expensive actor, TPTB still did something with all that extra money in the casting budget. Perhaps they paid a large salary to someone new, or maybe they hired two or three new actors with Penberthy's former salary. So I've always been curious about that.

This may be a strange question, but ... Does anyone know if Beverly Penberthy's salary was used by TPTB in any obvious or identifiable way, after she was fired? Considering she was the longest running cast member at that time, and I believe she was listed third in the closing credits, she was likely one of the higher paid cast members. So were there any expensive actors hired just as Penberthy was leaving? And which character sort of moved in and took up Pat's screen time, after she left? Do these questions even make sense?

Thank you! I was completely unaware of this. Same year Nancy McGowan was born, I believe. Thanks for sharing this. I was thinking it might be "Woman with a Past." If I'm not mistaken, Ford played the sister of Don Knotts' character on SFT. So that is the reference to SFT you mention in your post. Might be fun to see Ada Davis and Barney Fife on screen together. LOL.

She also did a few other soap operas before Another World. And she played the central character of one of them -- but I can't recall the title of that soap. After she joined AW, did Connie ever have another role in a film or a prime-time TV show?

Does anyone know if Linda Dano has stopped producing her podcast? The last episode I see on Spotify is from April 16, 2024 with Tracy Bregman as the guest.

Marianne has finished high school and is preparing for her freshman year in college. So she is likely 18 years old. Chris is a college student, so he is probably no more than 4-years older than Marianne. On the other hand, the age difference between the actors is wider. I believe Ariana was 15 or 16-years old at this point, and she has posted in her Youtube comments that the actor playing Chris was 15-years older than her.

Yes, my memory is not clear on which house Sylvie bought, but I remember she bought one of them. Either John and Pat's old house, or Olive's new house. And regarding Sylvie's time in prison (and Iris being born in prison) -- If I'm not mistaken, all that was in scripts written after Harding Lemay had left as head writer. Tom King was the writer who penned that stuff. Do you know if I am correct about that?

OMG! Well I was way off, wasn't I? I apologize for spreading something so inaccurate. I have believed for years, that Lemay's final script was the day Rachel answered the door at the end of the episode, and Iris stood in front of her. And that the following episode was Swajeski's first credited script. Where the Hell did I get that idea?

Well, Sandy was around Jamie's age, and Jamie and Dennis were the same age. Therefore Sandy and Dennis were around the same age. Meaning that Iris had already grown up and married before Sandy was even conceived. It also means Sandy was young enough to be Mac's grandson. And you are so correct about "retcons on top of retcons." The 1978 revelation that Iris had been adopted was itself a retcon, and the plot just came out of nowhere without any foreshadowing whatsoever. Then in 1988, all that was completely undone by a second retcon saying now that Iris really was Mac's bio daughter. The 1978 retcon was acceptable, I suppose. But the second one in 1988 was just silly and unnecessary. It served absolutely no purpose to undo Iris's adoption storyline. I'd love to know which head-writer was behind this decision in 1988. If I'm not mistaken, Iris told Mac that she was indeed his bio daughter in Donna Swajeski's very first credited episode. So, if Swajeski made that decision, she certainly did it very quickly and obviously without much thought. On the other hand, since it was so early in Swajeski's reign, it is possible (even likely) that this craziness was part of Harding Lemay's storyline projections. Franky, I find it difficult to imagine this was Lemay's idea. It just doesn't seem at all like something he would do. Of course it is possible that either Lemay or Swajeski were forced to make the change by someone at a higher level at NBC or at P&G. But dear God, why??? By the way, can anyone confirm my dates? Is there any way to verify this occurred in Swajeski's first episode as head-writer? I am just composing this from memory, but I believe I am correct.