Mona Kane Croft

3 minutes ago, ironlion said:

Wondering this too. I was sitting there thinking, show us don't tell us. 

I don't think they need to get the rights, because ABC already owns the show.  But I'm fairly certain they have to pay any actor who appears in flashbacks.  Still, I would think those payments would be rather insignificant. 

16 minutes ago, danfling said:

I have been thinking for a number of years about the absences of some of the Dark Shadows stars, and I wonder if some of the stars we think of as stars of Dark Shadows actually were working on the show without formal contracts.

 

These are the performers that I think were under contract:   Joan Bennett, Alexandra Moltke, Nancy Barrett, Joel Crothers, Mitchell Ryan, Thayer David (later in his run), Grayson Hall, Jonathan Frid, John Karlen (after he was cast as Carl Collins), Katheryn Leigh Scott, Kate Jackson, Donald Briscoe, Christopher Pennock, Craig Slocum

 

 

I am speculating that these performers did not have contracts:  Clarice Blackburn, Dennis Patrick, Jerry Lacy, Conard Fowlkes, Hugh Franklin, Diana Millay (or maybe she had one for a short time), Donna Wandrey,,Terry Crawford Humbert Allen Astredo, Elizabeth Eis, Dennis Patrick, Christpher Berneau, Virginia Vestoff, Gene Lindsey, James Storm, Addison Powell

 

Diana Millay, John LaSalle, and Robert Gerringer may have had shorter contracts.

 

These are performers that I am not sure about:  Louis Edmonds, Michael Stroka, Marie Wallace, Keith Prentiss, David Ford (probably had one, but I am not sure), Denise Nickerson

 

I know that Dennis Patrick said that he did not have one on any of the soap operas he appeared (Dark Shadows, Somerset, The Secret Storm).   I could also tell from some of Lara Parker's comments on The Tonight Show that she did not know when she was being broght back to the show.   (I think that she must have signed a contract around the time that she and Sky Rumson married.)  Michael Stroka's contract may have expired.  Clarice Blackburn and Jerry Lacy kept appearing on other shows but returning to Dark Shadows, so I do not think that they had contracts.

 

I may be all wrong about this, but I think that many of the performers had only verbal agreements to appear.

I believe you are correct.  I would even go further to suggest some of the actors you list as having contracts, likely did not.  I doubt Briscoe, Karlen, or Pennock had contracts.  And although Joan Bennett almost certainly was on contract, her guarantees of episodes must have been extremely low, considering she was often gone for weeks at a time.  Maybe Edmonds also had a contract with very low guarantees. 

As you speculated, perhaps some of the other actors had short-term contracts -- maybe 4-months or 6-months.  But I think many/most of the actors on DS probably had no contracts at all.  Maybe they just had a verbal agreement not to work on any other shows, while they were appearing on DS.  I don't remember any other soap operas of the era that had such a merry-go-round of actors, some of whom were gone for weeks or months before returning.    

2 hours ago, robbwolff said:

I believe the Dekkers were originally slated to be Mexican American but that was dropped. I also recollect that Striker and Vicky had two sons in addition to their daughters Reena and Samantha. Of course, Sam became a cousin and the sons were dropped.

I remember when they mentioned the sons on an episode of Another World.  One son was in the oil business with Striker, and the other one took care of the ranch. So at least originally, the Bellmans lived on a ranch and had four children.  I think the Bellmans were originally going to the the core family.  But all that went out the window, when Rauch insisted on including Iris in the show.   

35 minutes ago, dc11786 said:

@Neil Johnson It's interesting how things changed from "Another World" to "Texas." I'm curious how much was really adapted from the Corringtons' period piece "Reunion" bible and how much were elements that Paul Raunch cooked up with a combination of the Corringtons and/or Tom King. 

 

I've been surprised by little details that I've learned in episodes like how Striker was a former lieutenant governor in the state of Texas. I believe the nickname was explained in story, but I remember it being pretty weak. It had something to do with Striker's rise to the top of politics if I remember correctly.

 

Alex Wheeler seems like such a poor man's version of Jay Gatsby or a low rent Steve Frame. I know some people have said, maybe even you, that it seemed like the original story was going to be the Marshalls vs. the Bellmans. Alex seems to change all that. 

 

I think Samantha as Reena's cousin allows you to have Reena as an only child and replay the Iris / Mac relationship, but I think you are right that Samantha as her sister would have given the storylines a different dynamic and chance to play something new. 

I don't think Tom King had much influence on Texas.  But I'm confident Rauch insisted on changing much of what the Corringtons wanted to do.  Plus Rauch is the one who shoe-horned Iris into the show.  Frankly, I think Texas would have been a far better soap without Iris and Alex Wheeler.  The Corringtons could have worked their magic with the Bellmans, Marshalls, and Dekkers.  Bringing in Iris in such a huge role completely threw-off the show's structure.   

I don't remember Striker's name being explained on Texas, but perhaps it was in some kind of ret-con.  His name was explained on Another World, in one of the character's first appearances, when Clifton James was playing the role.  And it was related to him being a young wild-cater in West Texas.  It was originally said to be a nick-name, not his legal name.  But I don't think they ever revealed his legal name.

Oh -- and I think Rikki Dekker was going to be revealed as the son of Mike Marshall in the original story projection.  Maggie Dekker clearly knew some secret about Rikki (her favorite nephew).  Perhaps Rikki was Maggie's son too, but adopted by her brother.  But we'll never know, because they dropped it.   New head writer.   It never got much further than a few hints dropped by Maggie, and a few "knowing glances."   

14 minutes ago, Neil Johnson said:

 

Samantha was originally supposed to be Reena's sister.  On an episode of AW, Reena mentioned a sister named Samantha.  But  when Texas premiered, Sam had been changed to her cousin.  I think a sister would have been more interesting, and would have given Reena more depth.    

And I assume everyone knows Striker was originally an oil-man, not a lawyer.  In all of his original visits to Bay City, he was a big Texas oil-man and acquaintance of Mac Cory.  He was sort of the Jock Ewing of the Bellman family.  But somewhere between Bay City and Houston, Striker got his law license and his oil company disappeared.  Seemed like a silly and unnecessary change to me.   And why would a lawyer have a name like Striker???  LOL.  

3 hours ago, watson71 said:

 

In the synopsis for April 8, 1966 there is the note that in the script, Liz's maiden name may have been Hill. Liz gives the name "Mrs. William Hill Matthews" for wedding invitations that would be addressed by her as the mother of the groom for Bill and Missy's wedding.

Great!  Thanks for the information.  So that either means Liz's maiden name was Hill, or Will's middle name was Hill.  And since Hill would be a very unusual middle name, it is probably Liz's name.   Thanks again.   

15 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

 

Was this the first adult Bonnie, or the second one?  

4 hours ago, slick jones said:

Mike has found references that Liz Matthews maiden name may have been Hill.  I've never found anything about Liz pre-marriage to William Matthews.

That's really interesting.  I wish Mike would have explained the context of this discovery, and explained why/how he feels Hill was her maiden name.  I found the announcement in the updates on AWHP, but there was no explanation at all.   

14 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

It sounds like the Earl, the loan shark/the syndicate storylines were DAYS' first venture into "Copy GH mode" Clearly it was not a good fit for the show. AW had similar problems with its mob storylines at that time.

Ugh!  Those mob/crime stories on Another World ate about a third of the show from late 1979 until around 1982.  And AW had never been that type of soap opera.  Individual crime stories would have worked occasionally, but continuing it all for two or three years with so much of the cast involved was a huge mistake.  AW was on the air for 20 more years, but never recovered from the damage done in '79 to '82.  NBC and P&G wanted to get away from Harding Lemay's type of writing, and make AW more like a "normal" soap opera (ATWT, AMC, GL, I assume), but they never hired a head-writer capable of doing that.   Mob/crime plots were definitely the wrong direction.

12 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

I don't know what's happening. I find it hard to believe P&G suddenly cares about their soaps. Is this another type of crackdown from Youtube?

If I'm not mistaken, I believe ANYONE can report copyrighted videos on Youtube, not just the owner of the copyright.  And I think most of these reports are just normal people who get angry or are just vindictive in general.  There are also copyright-nazis out there, who are just normal people who take it upon themselves to police music and other types of copyrights.  So it's not necessarily P&G or other copyright owners causing these shut-downs and removal of episodes.    

7 minutes ago, Titus Andronicus said:

NBC exec Fred Silverman is the one who suggested Marie be a nun. He looked at the Horton family tree in early 1979 and said You know what this family needs? A nun!

Marie was a nun during one of Maree Cheatham's brief returns in the early 1970s.  There is a Horton family photo that includes Tom, Alice, and all five kids -- including Addie and Marie, and Marie is dressed as a nun.   

I thought Finn was finally going to admit that he's Chase's father, not his brother.  They've been teasing that since Chase's first episode.    

7 minutes ago, antmunoz said:

Maree was on for a hot minute and told her story about being cold in NYC and wearing fuzzy slippers in the studio. Mary Stuart took one look at her and said, “This is our new sex symbol?”  Mary told the same story in her book BOTH OF ME. 

 

Marcia was an extra on the show one week then auditioned for Laine the next. Obviously she didn’t get that, but Mary-Ellis Bunim asked her if she’d auditioned for Sunny. 
 

Michael looks good but needs to go gray. The darker-than-natural hair color is distracting.  

Was Maree really on very briefly?  Why didn't she stay around?  She's the only one I am really interested in seeing.   

9 minutes ago, teplin said:

Wonder why Russom declined?  I never saw him again after Willis left AW.

He's been a very successful character actor since he left AW.  He's done TV and lots of big movies.   He was in a very successful movie a few years ago, but I forget the title.  He's not really recognizable these days, unless you really know the actor and his voice.   

And by the way, Lyman was not a replacement for Russom at the reunion.  She may have been given his lines (I believe she was), but Lyman was invited along with all the other returnees.  She was not recruited at the last minute.  She was on the list from the beginning.  

32 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

Laurie Caso joined the show around mid or late-1989. I think he was one of the reasons Hillary Bailey Smith left, as he didn't work with her to keep her around the way his predecessor did, IIRC. 

 

I feel like Marland's writing changed after the strike. The presentation became much more somber and camp slowly but surely disappeared, as did some of the more natural weaving in of comedy. Incredibly depressing and character inappropriate stories like Shannon's pregnancy and miscarriage would not have happened before then.

 

With that said, other than Rosanna, I mostly enjoyed his last year as headwriter - if that is the right word. 

 

(the Carolyn story went off the rails because he changed his mind about Darryl being the killer - I also think they rushed the early beats [her death and Darryl/Frannie] way too much compared to the later stalling out)

Are you suggesting camp is a good thing?  I don't remember Marland ever writing much camp.  But maybe you and I don't define camp the same way.  I don't like (intentional) camp on soaps, and I am not a fan of comedy either.  Humor is okay, as long as it is based in character, and not situation.  Shannon and Harriet were quite humorous, but they came right up to the line of over-doing it, in my opinion.   I always thought Marland's soaps were the stories of relatively happy people confronting problems, while Harding Lemay's AW was a story of people who were generally unhappy.   

4 hours ago, Mitch said:

Now I know why I stopped watching ATWT and just kept to GL. The show is so morose and wooden here.  Marland really lost his "spark" from the start of his run which balanced some camp, family storylines, business, young love. The era is personified by Iva..morose and bland.

It's always been said that Marland died suddenly without warning.  But I've wondered if perhaps he was ill for the last year or so of his ATWT run.  The writing in general didn't seem up to his normal level, and the Carolyn Crawford murder story certainly didn't have  the trademarks of Marland's typically well-planned murder mysteries.  Plus, didn't the show get a new executive producer a year to two before Marland's death?  Perhaps the new ex-prod had a negative influence.   

1 hour ago, amybrickwallace said:

 

There is a photo of Jacquie Courtney, George Reinholt and Beverly Penberthy posing together at that party. It's in Gerry Waggett's AW Trivia Book.

 

Per AWHP, the invited past cast members who declined to participate were Kinkead, Russom, Chris Rich and Susan Sullivan. The latter was still on FC at the time and may not have been able to get away. 

That's not the photo I'm talking about, but I'm glad there is another photo.  The photo I saw was a large group, mostly actors, Sort of an un-posed group shot.  Some of the actors seemed to be aware they were being photographed, while others seemed oblivious.   I do remember George Reinholt and Tom Eplin in mid-conversation, near the front of the group.  

Susan Sullivan attended the real anniversary party. So she was in town.  Maybe her contract with FC prohibited her from playing another fictional character on TV.  Who knows?

Thanks for the memory jog -- yes, Chris Rich was the fourth actor I was thinking of.   If I'm not mistaken, Sandy Cory was the only invited former character who was not from the Lemay era.   That's pretty amazing, really.  And speaks to Lemay's huge impact on the show, even all those years later.   

7 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

 

I'm sure this has been discussed before but wasn't it supposed to be Leon Russum as Willis who originally had the lines given to Dorothy Lyman?

Either Russom couldn't commit or they decided there was more value in having Lyman return and there was a last minute switch.

It's been speculated for years that Gwen's lines in the 25th episodes were originally written for Willis.  Russom was definitely invited to appear, but turned-down the offer.  Had Russom agreed, both Willis and Gwen would have attended the "party," since we know Lyman was invited to appear at the same time.  Willis would likely have been the trouble-maker, and Gwen would likely have been more true-to-character -- trying to control Willis and calm him down.    

Other actors who turned-down offers to appear were Susan Sullivan, Maeve Kincaid, and at least one other who's name I've forgotten.   So no doubt, there would have been scenes featuring Robert and Lenore, and Willis and Angie.  There should have also been at least a short scene featuring Gwen and Russ Matthews, since they had been romantically involved and engaged in the '70s. 

In addition to the on-screen celebration, there was also a "real" anniversary party in Manhattan.  Dozens of former actors attended that event -- not just those who had appeared in the episodes.    As far as I know, there is only one existing photo from that party showing some of the actors in attendance.  It was posted online about a decade ago, but I do not have a copy of it.   

21 hours ago, rick55 said:

Another thing that bothered me.  How, when they had the 25th anniversary in 1989, do we not get a Steve/Alice scene?   We got them with Rachel and Jaime.  I would understand if Courtney wasn't there, but they brought her back for it.  IMO, criminal considering the couple's history and the fact that they had the original actors in the role.

It was probably because Courtney was no longer a regular on the show, and was just appearing as a guest -- just as Reinholt was.  They likely didn't want to give that much attention to a returning former actress who wasn't staying permanently.  

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

I hope Maree talks about why she has never come back to Days esp for the 50th.

Didn't Maree return for Tom Horton's funeral?  And maybe for Alice's too?  Probably wasn't invited to return for the 50th.  

It's interesting that so many of the actors we assume were on-contact, spent so much time away from the show. Sometimes weeks and weeks. Were contacts different back then?  Do you think the contract actors were paid, whether or not they were appearing on the show?  Or maybe they were not on contract at all.  Does anyone know?

1 hour ago, Forever8 said:

Alan Locher will welcome SEARCH FOR TOMORROW alums Maree Cheatham (ex-Stephanie; ex-Marie, DAYS et al), Michael Corbett (ex-Warren et al) and Marcia McCabe (ex-Sunny) to his YouTube talk show, The Locher Report. The trio will appear on Tuesday, November 10 at 3 p.m., which can be viewed herefor the full story.

 

@DRW50@dc11786 @Paul Raven @amybrickwallace @OzFrog@victoria foxton@NothinButAttitude

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/search-for-tomorrow-alums-virtual-interview-scheduled/

I hope Alan allows them to talk about Mary Stuart.  But he will probably cut them off, every time Mary's name is mentioned.   

1 hour ago, Elsa said:

How about Sharon Gabet joining AW as Blaine? Do you think it would have worked out?

I think Sharon Gabet should have been cast as Rachel's sister, Pamela Davis.  She was the right age, had the right look, and the character would have leaned toward Gabet's acting strengths.   

4 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I'd love to see that scene where she died. All nice and peaceful, singing "Bye Bye Blackbird" and then she was gone. Lemay said he wrote it like that on purpose in order to show someone just simply accepting that it was just their time. 

I may have been wrong that Theresa was diagnosed in Bay City.  It's possible she already knew she was dying, when she arrived.  I don't remember.   

My only problem with the focus on Theresa's death was, she was such an unimportant character.  Why didn't Lemay give this death scene to someone the audience cared more about?   I suppose it was a matter of timing.  But he certainly killed-off plenty of important characters, and often their deaths got relatively little attention.   We barely knew Theresa, and her death is still remembered as one of the show's classic scenes.  In terms of structuring a show, that was probably a mistake.    

4 hours ago, rlj said:

He actually was, wasn't arguing, as someone who watched when Steve aka Mr Black returned from the dead  in 81 , I know he was more then just the owner of Frame Construction at that time, we will agree to disagree!

Who is Theresa?

I watched in '81 too.  And yes, they really screwed-up a lot of history with Steve's return.  When neither the writers nor the actors know the history of a storyline, it's difficult to get it right.  Paul Rauch and Vicky Wyndham would have known the details, but both had probably thrown-up their hands in exhaustion by that time.   

Theresa was Carol Lamont's mother and a socialite friend of Iris from back east.  Theresa was diagnosed with a terminal illness while visiting Iris in Bay City, and died on the patio of Iris's mansion.