Mona Kane Croft

Here is my memory of things (I hope not too many mistakes) -- Willis didn't take over the company, and he wasn't really running it. Alice owned the company at this point, and Vic Hastings was actually running it for her. Willis had already been working for Steve, and stayed on after Steve's death. Willis was secretly seething, while Vic was in charge, as he wanted to run it himself. When Alice married Ray Gordon, she put Ray in charge of the company, again rather than Willis -- which also upset Willis. Ray immediately redecorated Steve's office, and almost as fast, ran Frame Enterprises into bankruptcy. At that point, I believe Alice divorced Ray and closed Steve's company. Willis went to work for Mac Cory, who actually added a construction division of Cory Publishing more or less to give Willis a job. Mac felt sorry for Willis, and actually the two became quite close for the remainder of Willis's run on the show.

Yes, a policy against awarding posthumous Emmys seems strange. I'm surprised they haven't come-up with some way to recognize deceased persons who have contributed to the daytime genre -- especially since the Daytime Emmys only began around 1972-73 (is that correct?) -- and soap-operas were flourishing so many decades before that. So Irna Phillips will never receive an Emmy? Santos Ortega will never receive an Emmy? Charita Bauer will never receive an Emmy? Beverlee McKinsey will never receive an Emmy? Jeeze-Louise! Something needs to be done about that. . .

Wow, Contessa! That is a very nice response for your efforts. And he gives you quite a compliment at the end: "& for your celebration of the soap community more broadly." I will agree, you certainly do celebrate the soap community broadly! You have reason to be proud, Contessa Donatella.

I don't remember that, but it is very possible. I think Willis worked in construction the entire time he was in Bay City. First for for Steve at Frame Enterprises. Then Ray Gordon fired him, so Mac started a construction division of Cory Publishing (which I always thought was strange), and hired Willis to run it. Then around 1978, Janice came back to town and she and Willis started a company called Frame Construction. So yes, he always had some blueprints in hand.

Thank you for the compliment. I try to be accurate, but at times my memory does come up with faulty information. I'm disappointed in myself when that happens. But some of this stuff took place 50-years ago. LOL. I don't think any of the Frames bought a farm back then. But when Russ and Sharlene were married, they bought a house. And I believe the kitchen may have been shown a few times. But it wasn't a farm. Also, Alice and Steve lived in a house in the country, but it was a new house not an old one. It did have some acreage, because Jamie and Dennis played in the stream. But Steve and Alice's place was never described as a farm -- just a house in the country. And I don't believe we ever saw Steve and Alice's kitchen.

Actually that is incorrect. Early after Sharlene and Josie arrived at the farm, there were scenes between Sharlene and Jason; and Rachel and Jason, in which they describe the farm as being Emma's old farm and the place the siblings had grown up. Also Jamie had some interest in buying the property because it had been the place his father (Steve) grew up. So it was a huge mistake in continuity. Later writers tried to clean up the mess a bit, by having Emma still alive on the farm in Oklahoma. But It was never completely corrected or undone. How can you write yourself out of a mistake that was so clearly stated in the scripts multiple times? It would have been difficult, for sure.

I agree with you. I had forgotten much of that happened during the strike. So it probably originated in Lemay's storyline projections. Also, even the name "Evan Bates" must have been created by a writer who wanted to use the show's history, and a writer who already knew Evan was Janice's son -- because the spelling of Bates is close to Battess, which was a man (Howard Battess) Janice had an affair with off camera pre-1978. Too bad the scab writers misunderstood Frame family history, and moved the Frame farm to Bay City. I wonder what Lemay thought about that when he saw it playing out during the strike. What a blunder!! I'm surprised Victoria Wyndham didn't take a red pen and fix those scripts, since she most certainly would have realized they were not consistent with the show's history.

Lemay's hiring was announced by the soap press just before the strike began. So AW was still airing scripts that had been written by the head writer that Lemay was to replace when the strike began. Of course Lemay refused to submit any scripts during the strike, although he may have already submitted his storyline projections. That is unknown, because nothing written by the scabs during the strike seemed particularly Lemay-ish. When the strike ended, Lemay began to submit his scripts and AW began to produce episodes written by Lemay and his team. But according to Lemay, before any of his scripts were aired, he was informed that he was fired. Nobody really knows exactly why TPTB hired Swajeski. Perhaps they liked her writing style better than Lemay's; or perhaps they had never really wanted to hire Lemay in the first place (a la Jacquie Courtney in 1985); or maybe they wanted to punish Lemay for not crossing the picket line during the strike; or maybe they hired her because she had been an NBC employee; or it could have been something else altogether. I didn't mean to imply that you were arguing. I just meant that I did not want to engage in an argument about it, with both parties repeating, back and forth, what we believe to be the truth. I prefer to say what I believe and leave it at that (if possible), without either person needing to repeat his/her story, just to get the upper-hand. And I'm not implying you were doing that either. I just do not want to do it. When I say I don't intend to argue, I'm referencing myself. Not anyone else.

What's the latest on Susan Harney these days? Any recent photos?

Oh yes. That can't be denied.

This is very interesting, Contessa. I hadn't heard that anecdote before, although I was aware Lemay liked Jill very much and admired her as an EP. Do you know who was the head-writer at that time? I'm assuming the writer must have also been in the meeting, since they even invited Lemay (the writing consultant). I do not dislike Jill as much as most soap fans do.

Has anyone else noticed, Y&R does not have a long-term consistent trouble-maker (bad-girl/bad-boy) in the cast (aside from Phyllis who is a grandmother)? And hasn't for years. Y&R is missing many important components of a soap opera, but one of the biggest omissions is THERE IS NO CONFLICT... How can a soap opera survive without conflict? Everyone just walks around Genoa City talking about who is running which company, and who has been demoted or promoted at which company. And of course, we get the occasional evil short-term villain (Ashland Locke, Jeremy Stark, Aunt Jordan, Martin, etc.) who pops up for a few weeks or months and terrorizes a character or two. The show needs a couple of bad characters (antagonists) who stay on the canvas for years, and cause trouble over and over again. A good soap opera needs some level of interpersonal conflict in every episode.

I won't argue about it, by Lemay did state in at least one or two interviews or articles that he was fired. He never worked with Swajeski. She had been a scab during the strike and was released when the strike ended. TPTB immediately fired Lemay (before any of his scripts had even aired, according to him) and rehired Swajeski , this time as head-writer. Lemay and Swajeski were never on the payroll at the same time. And it's likely they never even met, especially since Lemay seldom visited the studio, and was fired immediately after the strike ended. By the time Lemay was working on AW as a consultant, Swajeski was long gone. He was a consultant on AW during the time Jill Phelps was executive producer. Lemay had submitted his storyline projections just before the strike occurred and those projections would have been for either 6-months or 12-months. And it was obvious Swajeski was using many of Lemay's plans, which was perfectly legal, since the production company had paid Lemay for the projections, and after he submitted them they belonged to P&G. Swajeski also introduced some of her own ideas during this same period. Swajeski's focus was very different than Lemay's, and it's fairly easy to see when she stopped using Lemay's plans and went forward with her own ideas for the entire show. Again, no interest in arguing on my part. So I've said enough about it. I believe, yes he is talking about Linda, because Peggy wasn't a nurse. And the white nurse he mentioned was almost certainly Alice, because Linda and Alice became very close friends. Peggy was still on the show when Lemay arrived, and he even began to create a family around Peggy. He introduced Peggy's mother, her sister Linda and eventually Linda's boyfriend Zac (I think the name was Zac). But soon after the family was introduced Peggy was written off. I don't know if the actress left willingly, or if she was fired. After Peggy left, Linda continued to have a fairly large presence on the show for a couple of years. Then she began to fade into the background and mostly appeared as a nurse when the show needed a nurse.

I didn't mean to imply the storyline was scrapped because Johnston was cast. I was just saying it must have been cancelled shortly after he was cast. Because, as you mentioned, Johnston was cast specifically to play out the gay plot. Yet the storyline never even got started on-air. So, it must have been cancelled shortly after he was cast. Otherwise we would have seen some hints or some lead-up in the scripts, before it got scrapped.

I'll give an example of what I mean: In an earlier post in this thread, someone stated that Another World had the first soap opera spin-off (Somerset, 1970). Our fellow poster, Countess Donnatella, corrected that statement by mentioning that Guiding Light had a spin-off decades earlier on radio. So the truth is -- Guiding Light had the first soap opera spin-off. And Another World had the first television soap opera spin-off. To simply state that Another World had the first soap opera spin-off is historically inaccurate. So when we research and publish soap opera firsts, we need to remember the radio days too. Or at least make clear we are only talking about television soaps. There are incredible inaccuracies in most lists of soap opera firsts, and many have been published in books as well as online. At least some of these inaccuracies could be cleared-up by merely using the term "television soap opera" rather than simply "soap opera."

I've come to believe that individuals claiming "soap opera firsts" really need to distinguish between radio soap operas and television soap operas. Or at least indicate which they are referring to. Because several supposed "firsts" on television soaps actually occurred years earlier on radio soaps. This is often totally ignored. And since radio soaps and television soaps are actually the same genre, I believe it should be indicated (radio or television, or both). Otherwise the "first" might be historically inaccurate.

Vivian Gorrow was certainly not the first humorous character on a soap opera. There had probably been close to a dozen by 1978. Vivian wasn't even the first humorous character on Another World. So that one is definitely wrong. By the way, I tend to use the word humor rather than comedy in regard to soap operas. It's just a personal preference. But I do understand the original post used the word comedy. Here are a few humorous soap opera characters before 1978 that come to mind at the moment: Lucille Wall on GH, Wanda and Vinny Wolek on OLTL, Lahoma Vain and Louise Goddard on AW, Martha Allen (Nick Belini's lab assistant) on The Doctors. All those were contract roles. Additionally, Agnes Nixon created several humorous contract characters on AMC before '78, but I'm not an expert on that era of AMC. And I didn't even mention radio soap operas, many of which had a humorous character to break the tension of the heightened drama.

I was watching regularly at that time, and I do not remember any identifiable set up for Michael's gay storyline. I believe Marianne and Mike were preparing to go to college, but I don't remember if Mike ever moved into a dorm, or if a roommate was ever mentioned at all. I'm confident a roommate was not named, even if mentioned. In fact, I was completely unaware of Lemay's intent for the gay plot until I read Lemay's book in the early-1980s. I'd speculate TPTB curtailed Lemay's plans very shortly after Lionel Johnston was cast, so nothing at all ever made it into the scripts. There were lots of scenes on the campus of Bay State University during that era, and there was a Campus Coffee Shop set. Plus three or four college students (new characters) appeared pretty regularly for a year or so. Speaking of Lionel Johnston -- he seems to have completely disappeared. It's interesting he has managed to keep any photos of himself post-1979 off of the internet. That's an accomplishment since most people who are professionals of any sort have at least one or two photos online somewhere (Linked-In, Facebook, employer's website, etc). Another person from AW who managed to avoid having photos from later-life online was Virginia Dwyer. It was amazing to me that Dwyer had absolutely no new photos posted online for nearly 35-years (from around 1975 until her death), even though she lived in Manhattan that entire time and had fans looking for her. Less than 20-years ago, one over zealous fan managed to find her home address and took a photo of the outside of her apartment building. He posted both the address and the photo online. But there were never any photos of Miss Dwyer herself.

Yes, the topic has, to a large degree, evolved into being gay on soaps. And I don't mind that at all. Actually, it is probably a better and more positive topic anyway.

This has got to be the worst DID storyline in the history of daytime. Didn't Griffith do ANY research? Doesn't he know a mental health counselor who could have given him at least a slight insight into the reality of DID? Couldn't he have read a book, or at least done an internet search? There is nothing even slightly believable (much less realistic) about this plot -- from beginning to end. Griffith has used a serious mental illness to create a farce. He'd never get by with doing this with any other serious illness.

Lemay and Swjeski never worked together. He was fired when she was hired. It's likely they never even met.

I don't recall any backlash to much of Nixon's work. But at the time, I was a young adult and not paying attention to that sort of thing as much as I did in later years.

That would be fun to see. But actually, one can almost tell by watching AW in 1988-89, which material was from Lemay's projection bible, and what was original to Swajeski. If I have time later, I'll try to review it all and give some specific examples of each -- which will be only my opinion, of course. Good point, Contessa. After a strike, scab writers often get special treatment. But Swajeski seemed to get EXTRA special treatment. Was it the quality of her writing during the strike? Or something else????

Lemay said or wrote somewhere (I assume an interview) that he was fired immediately after the strike ended and before any of his scripted episodes had even aired. So he certainly was not fired because of ratings. It is fairly typical that TPTB try to reward the scab writers in some way (often by hiring them later in lower level writing positions). But P&G hired Swajeski as head-writer immediate after the strike, which was a pretty bold and obvious move. There must have been something in her work as a scab that they liked, and thought she would be a better fit than Lemay without even waiting for his episodes to air. Funny though -- if Lemay was not a good fit for AW in 1988, why did TPTB allow Swajeski to use Lemay's storyline projections for almost an entire year after the strike?

I watch it on Tubi. Beginning to end.