Mona Kane Croft

I just saw on another site that Jennifer Leak (AW's Olive Randolph) has passed away. I am not sure of the date of her passing. Olive was one of AW's great villainesses at a time when the show needed characters like her desperately. AW had just made the transition to 90-minutes, Rachel had more or less completely reformed, and Iris would leave the show for Texas in about a year. Unfortunately, Harding Lemay wrote Olive into a corner -- making her so wicked and criminal she had to either go to jail, a mental institution, or die. So Olive was written off. Had Lemay made slightly different choices, Olive could have made trouble for the Cory's, Matthews, Loves, and Frames for years into the future. Not to mention, Jennifer Leak was a wonderful actor.

To harken back to my post of a few days ago about early characters existing in the same universe as later characters -- The Rachel in that courtroom in 1974 absolutely did not exist in the same universe as a man in a gorilla suit interrupting a wedding in 1999. Absolutely not.

I think I just threw-up a little in my mouth. LOL.

I remember not being particularly happy about it. Although Rachel was still a sneaky bitch, her scenes in the courtroom were very troubling -- as Rachel slowly realized Gerald was not telling the truth on the witness stand and had gone over to Steve's side. Betrayed by the father that she knew never really loved her in the first place. This was really the first time the audience truly felt sorry for Rachel. I'd say Rachel's slow reformation began with those courtroom scenes. But it still took a couple of years to be complete (if it ever really was complete).

Somewhere on YouTube there is a wonderful scene between Ada and Rachel from 1979. Ada describes how Rachel felt as a little girl without a father, and how Ada couldn't protect Rachel from those feelings.

Rachel did not kick Alice out of the house. Rachel tried, but Alice chased her out instead. I believe this scene occurred while Steve was in prison. And Rachel did not end up with Alice's house. When Steve died, Alice lived in the house until she left town in 1979 -- long after Rachel had married Mac. Also, when Steve died he did provide for Jamie in his will. So Jamie was always well taken care of, financially at least. And Steve did not pay Gerald Davis to purger himself in order to get custody of Jamie. Steve paid Gerald in order to get the divorce from Rachel. The divorce occurred in 1974 (I believe) -- back when many divorces were contested and could be denied by a judge. So when Rachel contested the divorce, Gerald testified to help Steve win in court. Gerald betrayed his own daughter for money. But it was not about Jamie's custody, it was in order to get the divorce granted.

OMG, LaGuardia's book is possibly the best soap opera analysis and history I have ever read. I still have my copy from 1974. And regarding Another World, the timing of the books publication (1974) gives LaGuardia a unique and almost naive viewpoint on the show. Harding Lemay was firmly in charge, three years into his time as head-writer. But AW was still almost completely focused on the Matthews family, and was still a 30-minute soap. Rachel was still a very very bad woman, but now with shades of gray. Steve and Alice were still the young romantic leads (and the two most popular stars in daytime). And the firings of 1975 seem to be in the distant future. If my memory is correct, LaGuardia's view of Lemay's writing is tinged with an uneasiness about Lemay's writing style. As an everyday AW viewer during this time, I also felt a similar uneasiness -- despite the fact that I was absolutely hooked on Lemay's character-driven drama. Some people (not the Contessa) have used LaGuardia's story about Virginia Dwyer's clothes closet as a way to slam the actress and justify Lemay's decision to kill-off the show's matriarch. But reading the Contessa's post (which I assume is a direct quote from LaGuardia), it is easy to see that Dwyer did not see herself as particularly similar to Mary Matthews at all. She threw away the clothes that reminded her of Mary, and she described Mary as ultra-conservative. So we must assume Dwyer herself was not ultra-conservative. Dwyer did not live her life as Mary Matthews, nor was she obsessed with the character. In fact she felt quite different from Mary. It is great to read this account from LaGuardia again, after so many years. But the quote in no way tarnishes the career or the reputation of Virginia Dwyer. Quite the opposite.

Thank you for sharing it here.

To anyone who was watching AW when Judith Barcroft played Lenore -- did Lenore have any storylines before her murder trial (for the murder of Wayne Addison)? It seemed Lenore got plenty of screen-time in the early years, but I don't remember hearing of any storylines that heavily involved her, until Addison's murder. What was she up to between 1967 and 1971? Hey Contessa... Such a good photo of Ms Ford. She looks so natural here. Casually dressed, probably no make-up. She really was a beautiful woman, although her beauty was played-down on AW, I think. Any idea where this photo is from or what was the occasion?

It was temporary. But Peg Murray was the perfect replacement for Connie Ford. Murray had earlier played a very similar working-class woman on Love of Live.

That would be fun to see again. But I disliked most of what was happening on AW at that time, so I've forgotten most of it. And then all the writer's strike stuff was frustrating -- since we already knew Lemay was back in charge, but had to wait months to see his credited episodes. And then, within three-weeks, Lemay turned the entire show around, grounded it, and made it believable again. And he changed Another World forever, again. . .

It seems one of my flaws as a soap opera critic is that I sometimes emphasize the things I don't like without also sharing what I do like about a particular character, writer, actor, storyline, etc. I'll try to remember that in the future. But sometimes I just get on my soap-box... LOL.

There was one more -- I believe his name was Fred Douglas (might be wrong), and he was also involved with Liz's daughter, Susan. So quite scandalous at the time. But to answer your question more directly, I believe the only somewhat healthy romantic relationship Liz ever had was with Mac. I mean, Mac was sincere at least. But that relationship was rather short.

I also found Aunt Liz a likable character (actually lovable at times). And Irene Dailey was an amazing AMAZING actress. Dailey was perfectly cast as Liz. But it was the writing that disappointed me at times. Most of Lemay's writing for Liz was extremely good. He helped the audience to understand the reasons for Liz's meddling behaviors -- loneliness, abandonment, lack of love. She had been in a loveless marriage, and both her children left town to get away from her (among other reasons). And her favorite child, Bill, had been killed. However, I did not like Lemay's choice to make Liz a switchboard operator -- I thought that was the stereotype. But most of the post-Lemay writers didn't understand Liz at all, and wrote dreary semi-comedic stuff for her. Donna Swajeski even had Liz telling the audience how loving her relationship to husband Will was (Valentine To Singles, 1989)!!! And long-term viewers just rolled our eyes, because we all knew that was a rewrite of history. I did love the character, and I loved Irene Dailey. When Alice left Bay City in 1979, it is assumed she sold the house, because she didn't move back into it when she cam back to town in 1981. I believe the house was mentioned only one time after 1979 -- when around 1982, David Canary's Steve Frame told someone (probably Quinn) he was trying to buy it back for Alice, but the new owners were not interested in selling. He even held up a photo or illustration of the exterior of the house in this same scene.

Well, except that Liz never really liked Jim and Mary. And living in their middle-class house would have been beneath her, and probably the last place Liz would have ever wanted to live. But other than that, yeah.

Yes, Liz did seem to have plenty of expendable money when she partnered with Nicole in the fashion business. But Lemay probably wanted to get Liz firmly back into the Cory family's orbit as quickly as possible so he could write the Matthew/Liz conflict. So Lemay may have minimized her interaction at the fashion business. I don't remember if Liz ended her partnership with Nicole, or it just faded away.

I totally get your point. To make it worse, Liz's first job at the Cory Complex was as the switchboard operator (not secretary). Which made Liz almost laughable as a complete stereotype -- the nosey meddling old lady working at the switchboard. During this period, Pat Randolph was Mac's secretary. A couple of years later when Pat was promoted to editor, Liz took Pat's old job as Mac's secretary. And weirdly enough, all of this was written by Harding Lemay, who typically prided himself on writing "true to character". It seemed Lemay wanted to have it both ways with Liz, and wrote whatever he wanted for her. For the most part, Lemay preserved Liz's wealth by having her and Iris become very close friends; by reconnecting Liz with her old wealthy friend, Helen Moore; and by having Liz date Mac briefly. But on the other hand, there was almost no explanation as to why Liz would accept a job as a switchboard operator. There were a few vague references to her being bored with life, and that a job might help prevent her from meddling in the lives of her nieces and nephew. And as the years went by, and later head writers diluted Liz's backstory more and more, Liz became rather middle-class, and was used mostly as comic relief. Audra Lindley played Liz as the Phoebe Tyler of Bay City (minus the drinking problem), but Lemay wrote Liz differently. And post-Lemay head writers continued that trend, sadly.

Yes, the house Liz, Alice, etc. lived in in 1984 was Jim and Mary's house. It was never really explained why Liz moved in there. But at some point after Jim died and Alice (Linda Borgeson version) had left town, Liz was suddenly living there with Sally. Starting with the AW premiere in 1964, Liz lived in a large fancy house, much nicer than Jim and Mary's. Although no long-time viewers seem to remember much about Liz's original set, there are several existing photos showing small parts of the interior of that house. Seen in the photos are a large staircase, a large fireplace, and a grand piano. Liz left town around 1971, and Liz's house was never seen again. When Liz returned around 1974, played by Irene Daily, Liz lived in two or three different apartments over the years. Then around 1983, she was suddenly living in Jim and Mary's house, where she lived until Liz was written off again in 1986. Jim and Mary's house was never seen again after that. When Liz returned at Thanksgiving 1988, I don't remember where she lived, or if they even spoke of her home. But she definitely didn't move back into Jim and Mary's old house. Yes, they still used much of the set until 1986. But I don't think they used the entire set by that point. Mostly just the front door, foyer, stairs, and the part of the living room toward the front windows. The original set was about a third larger, with a hallway to the kitchen and a fireplace to the far left, opposite the front windows.

Daniel Davis is a good actor, but was horribly miscast as Eliot. His interpretation of Eliot was completely different from that of the former actor, James Douglas. Zaslow, although not a great choice for Eliot, would certainly have been better than Davis and could have played the role more similarly to Douglas.

If I'm not mistaken, David Thatcher had a huge fight with someone in the Matthews living room (I think the fight was with Sally). Anyway -- I believe these scenes were the final scenes that showed the entire Matthews living room set. The scenes included the front door, foyer, and staircase, also the entire living room from the side window to the front windows, and back around to the hallway toward the kitchen (kitchen not shown) and the entire fireplace. Does anyone remember seeing the entire set, including the fireplace later than the episode I am describing? Even when Jacquie Courtney returned in 1984-85 and stayed for about a year, I don't think the camera ever went far enough left to show the fireplace. I may be wrong, but can anyone verify it? Thanks . . .

There were no returning characters. Yes, Linda Borgeson was playing Alice at the time. I'm fairly certain Pat had already left town by the time Jim died, but I could be wrong.

You are probably correct about this. And the production likely was assisted by the Arizona Tourism Board, although I don't personally remember.

I never understood why they just didn't say they were in Egypt while they were shooting in Arizona. They spent nearly the entire time in the Arizona desert, didn't they? So they could have done all the location desert shots in Arizona and just played it like it was Egypt, then the specific interior Egypt stuff could have been shot in the studio. That would have made MUCH more sense to the audience. And Hollywood used to do that kind of location substituting all the time. Why not daytime? Changing the location in the scripts was obviously last minute and made the entire plot even more laughable than it was to begin with. It's interesting they sent Jim to the same place they were planning to do location shooting. Makes me wonder if Jim's character was to be connected to the location shooting in some way. Either alive, or perhaps his death was to have had some small part in the larger storyline. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Hugh Marlowe was already deceased when the character left for Finland. I could be wrong about that.

Jim was said to be on a cruise to Finland or someplace in northern Europe. The character died there and was brought back to Bay City for burial. There was no onscreen funeral. If I am not mistaken, Alice was the only one of his three children to attend the offscreen funeral. Liz was still in town are well. I'm not sure if Marianne Randolph Halloway was still on the canvas. But the Matthews family was extremely small at that point. And not one former character returned for his service. Sad that Jim and Hugh Marlowe got no real send off. Thanks, Countessa. It's nice to have an intelligent and civil conversation about an issue we don't agree on. I appreciate that very much. Sometimes I feel I have to walk on egg shells in order to avoid offending some of these posters, But I do it, just to keep the peace. I'm glad you do not require such tender treatment.

I enjoy humor on soaps, but not comedy. And the humor needs to come from characters, not situations. For example, I enjoyed the humor characters like Vivian, Louise Goddard, Lahoma, and occasionally even Ada and Iris brought to the show. Because it was character driven. None of them were put in particularly funny situations, they just occasionally said humorous things. The humor Agnes Nixon brought to All My Children was character driven. Her humorous characters didn't need to be put in unlikely funny situations, they were just humorous people -- at least when Nixon was writing. And occasionally even Nixon took the humor too far. I don't like zany comedy on soaps. It takes me out of the drama. Soaps should make the audience cry, not laugh -- at least that's my opinion. I find zany comedy on soap operas to be undignified and embarrassing to watch. I realize other fans disagree, and that's okay with me. But more important than anyone's opinion is the ratings. And the ratings usually speak for themselves. My real point in my original post about getting earlier and later characters together was not to knock any of them. But I've always been intrigued that many of the early characters just don't seem to live in the same universe as the newer ones. And many times I just cannot imagine them in the same scene together. John Randolph and Wallingford for example. I just can't imagine trying to write that scene.