Mona Kane Croft

2 hours ago, Xanthe said:

Did Brian have a home set after he split from Iris? I feel like I chiefly remember him at his office when he wasn't visiting other homes or squiring ladies to public events.

I'm not sure Brian was completely split-up with Iris when he was seeing Olive, because Iris was still in town. Olive was written off around April 1979, and Iris didn't go to Texas until around June 1980. I don't remember Brian having an on-screen home, other than the penthouse he shared with Iris.   And after Iris went to Texas, I don't believe the audience ever really saw Brian's home.      

2 hours ago, Xanthe said:

Did Olive have real feelings for Evan or was she just using him and vice versa?

Who knows, really??  Since Olive married John Randolph for social status, it seemed she and Evan had more of a passionate connection. So she probably did have feelings for him.  To me, Olive seemed like a more grown-up version of early Rachel -- social climbing, manipulative, and overtly sexual. Olive is who Rachel might have become, if she had not met Mac.   Olive was one of Lemay's best additions to AW, in my opinion.  

20 minutes ago, Olive Randolph said:

It’s where Olive and Evan would plot to kill John - it was a magnificent set - wish there were images

Also, after Even was killed and Olive and John spit-up, Olive had short romances with Brian Bancroft and Dan Shearer. So those two were romancing Olive in that house.  

12 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Thinking back to liking/or not Swajeski, and earlier, Pete Lemay, I thought it might be interesting to list our favorite writers. Me, I like writers, so my list is one of 15 names! 

Lemay, Labine, Curlee, Swajeski, Hurst, Mulcahey, the Dobsons, Marland, Val Jean, CCulliton, Falken Smith, Bell, Nixon & Phillips

Half have died; half are living. One is retired. Curlee, Swajeski, Hurst & Jerome Dobson are not writing in soaps. 

Are you listing only head-writers at Another World?  Or your favorite soap-opera head-writers in general?    

1 hour ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I have often said that, and this is especially true for daytime actors, something new to them is like that desirable shiny object or catnip to a cat. They spend so much time playing the same thing day in & day out that "new, different, change" etc. is very appealing to them.

Very good analysis of the likely reason behind this phenomenon.  I think you are exactly right.   

4 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

And he told all about the gorilla & claimed to love the finale. 

Nothing against Steven Schnetzer, who I think is a great actor, but -- well, of course he would love the gorilla and the finale.  It was reflective of his era in the show's history.  Linda Dano probably liked it too.  I'd speculate most of the viewers who severely disliked the gorilla and/or AW's finale were long-term viewers who enjoyed the show before the mid-1980s (like myself).  

Plus, sometimes the things actors find "fun" to play or even "challenging", do not necessarily make for good drama or good television in general. As someone in this group shared a couple of weeks ago, (I'm paraphrasing) actors are often not good judges of great writing or successful storylines. 

Having said all that, every viewer is free to enjoy what she/he enjoys.  Some AW fans liked the show's finale and others did not.  

1 hour ago, Xanthe said:

It sounds splendid but it does make me wonder what percentage of scenes would be set at John and Olive's to make all of that worthwhile. 

Good question in today's soap opera world.  Somehow the writers were able to write plenty of scenes in the house.  John had been a central character since 1963, and he was connected to the entire Matthews family, his own two adult children, and he was fairly close to Iris and to Rachel. Not to mention, Olive was constantly inviting various wealthy people to the house, so she could schmooze.  And probably MORE importantly, in 1978 AW was number-one in the daytime  ratings.  So budgets for production values (like sets) were not particularly limited -- especially with Paul Rauch as executive-producer.  If I recall correctly, Olive and John's set debuted at about the same time as the Sven storyline, so things were about as good as they had ever been in the Brooklyn Studio.   

3 hours ago, Xanthe said:

Olive almost instantly jumps into bed with Evan Webster and starts scheming with him to design the house according to requirements that are different from what John wants just in order to show how very bad she is.

The house that John built for Olive was likely the largest set ever on Another World up to that time.  Although it was never described as a mansion, as Iris's house and Mac and Rachel's house had, the set for Olive and John's house was much larger than either. It was very modern in design and decor.  And from left to right, it had essentially four different spaces where scenes could play out.  First there was a small porch outside the front door, next was a foyer, then a living room, and finally another room rather like a den. And again, all very modern and completely different from Iris's or the Cory's house.   I believe the intent was to demonstrate that Olive was "new money," and eager to show it off.  Although John was certainly never a millionaire, he was a very successful attorney, and he went heavily into debt to satisfy his new young wife.  Sad that she was cheating on him with the architect.  Does anyone else remember this set?

1 hour ago, watson71 said:

In his Locher Room interview today, Stephen Schnetzer announced that he will be returning to DAYS as Julie’s brother, Steve Olson, for several episodes.  

This is great news!! Steve Olson should have been on DOOL for years now -- stirring up trouble for the Horton clan.  I'm speculating Steve will show-up for Doug's funeral.  There are also rumors that a certain former nun (played by the original actress) will return for the service.  We can only hope!

20 minutes ago, j swift said:

Did Alice face fertility issues?  Or did she just choose to adopt Sally because of the girl's tragic circumstances?

I ask because of Rachel's line in their fight, when she tells Alice that she gave Steve the thing that Alice couldn't give him, a son (paraphrase).

I also adore the twist of the knife when Alice says that Rachel tricked Steven, and Rachel replies that Jamie was conceived out of love.  That's some good stuff.  I don't think Rachel's characterization of Jamie's conception is 100% true, but I loved her delivery of the line, The way she kept her cool while Alice was in hysterics was so great.

Alice lost a baby because of an injury, about 18-months before the scene you described.  After the injury, it was not expressed definitively, but was implied that Alice could not carry a baby to birth. So that was probably the motivation behind Rachel's cruel line of dialogue. And likely also contributed to Alice's willingness to adopt Sally.   

And for God's sake, Jamie was not conceived out of love! Steve could barely stand the sight of Robin Strasser's Rachel.  He saw her as a working-class tramp, who he could screw once, and forget. Too bad Rachel was also Steve's sister-in-law, so she did not go away as easily as he had hoped.   LOL.   

6 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Where did you see it? I can't find an obit. 

Jennifer Leak aka Jennifer Leek 

b. 9-28-1947 in Cardiff, Wales, UK 

AW Olive Randolph 1976-1979

GL Blanche Bovier 1981

RH Nurse Klupper 1975

Y&R Gwen Sherman 1974

A Flame in the Wind Patricia Austen 1964-1966

OLTL Matron Spitz 1986

Loving Dr. Hennessey 1992

Bright Promise Elaine Bancroft (1971)  1969-1972

 

I saw it on Facebook, it had been posted by her ex-husband, Tim Matheson.  I have no idea why it was posted on my FB feed, because I am not FB friends with Tim Matheson.   But there it was, this morning.    

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.  

5 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

True! It absolutely was nauseating. 

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. 

11 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I think by the time she convinced the whole town to sing to a gorilla that her transformation was complete. 

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

2 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I imagine that, at the time, a lot of fans were glad to see Gerald betray Rachel 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).  

1 hour ago, j swift said:

Gerald is such an interesting contrast to Jim Matthews, just as Ada was unique from Mary.  I enjoy when the soaps use the parent's dynamic to explain the behavior of their children.  Not just a reaction to the relationship, but the effect of growing up with specific personality types as caregivers.

Thank you for filling in the blanks, it is nice to know a dependable source. 

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.  

6 hours ago, j swift said:

On his Instagram Reels, Adam T Ghani played the iconic Rachel/Alice fight when Rachel kicked her out of the house.

Did that occur while Steve was in jail or after his presumed death?  And how long was it between when Steve was released from prison and his death?

Because Rachel seems so cruel.  But, in hindsight, if Steve went to jail for bribing her father to perjure himself to get custody of Jamie and then died without taking care of Jamie in his will, she had good reason to want that house.  I'm not a fan of Alice, but if Rachel waited for a time for her to be emotionally stable, Jamie would've been out of med school before she got that house.

 

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.   

1 hour ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Found it! 

The Wonderful World of TV Soap Operas by Robert LaGuardia. Ballantine Books: New York. ©1974 by Random House, Inc.

 

"Another World's" Virginia Dwyer tells an incredible but true story: "I had been playing Mary Matthews for a couple of years. One afternoon I returned home from the studio and began poking around in my clothes closet. Suddenly I reeled from the shock. Every article of clothing in that closet was Mary's, not mine. Every dress and every coat was exactly her -- ultraconservative. I panicked! I scooped all the clothes up in my arms and threw them out! I had forgotten who I was. I had become Mary Matthews."

 

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.   

15 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

This is a shot that I treasure & that I got by special means. This is in the studio, one of two Audio/Visual rooms. Here, Connie is helping someone else from the show by managing the videotaping of something unknown to us what they were rehearsing or who it is. Another thing that is special about it is that she has no idea she's being photographed, she's simply absorbed in her task. I share it with people who are special to me. 

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?  

21 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Broke the mold! 

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?  

3 minutes ago, chrisml said:

I had no idea that Ada was played by another actress for a time: Peg Murray. Was this a temporary recast or one that went for much longer?

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.  

1 hour ago, Efulton said:

I recently watched a few of Sheri Anderson's episodes from 1988.  She wrote great scenes between Nicole and Liz where they bonded.  Liz was lonely but not pathetic and it was the beginning of Liz investing in Nicole's company.  

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. . .  

3 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I understand your point about her employment status at Cory. And, glad to get clarification on other things about Irene Dailey's Aunt Liz tenure in your view. Good. 

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.    

3 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

Did Liz ever have any romantic relationship that wasn't one-sided and/or with a creep? I believe she was disappointed in Wayne Addison, Mac, and Milo the producer.

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.    

1 hour ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Well, point of view can make so much difference. I didn't find "Aunt Liz" to be sad. Obviously her subtext was one of loneliness & not necessarily having the stature in the family that she'd have liked to. But, largely, I found her to be likable, if a stereotype. And Irene Dailey had an Emmy which neither Victoria nor Beverlee did! 

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.   

15 hours ago, SoapDope said:

What happened to the house that Steve built for Alice after the 70's ?

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.  

50 minutes ago, denzo30 said:

Liz was the matriach of the family at this point so its not hard to believe that she would be living there.  The Matthews home and she was part of the legacy to continue it

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.   

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

It's too bad they didn't do more with Liz buying into Nicole's fashion business. 

(I suppose the strike writers came up with that - unless it was Lemay).

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.