Mona Kane Croft

Yes, but that was in the late-1970s, I believe.

I believe two things impacted the situation. First, Robert Woods reportedly always complained, when his romantic coupling was his own age. He always preferred a younger love interest. And he particularly disliked working with Jacquie. Years later, he even disliked working with Hillary Bailey Smith, because of her age. He openly said Bo was the kind of character who would date younger women. And perhaps more important -- ABC had decided to hire Paul Rauch as Executive Producer of OLTL. Since Rauch and Courtney had a very negative history at Another World, TPTB did not renew Courtney's contract, just a few months before Rauch took over the reigns at OLTL.

I believe your account is more-or-less correct. But to take the topic further -- I thought it was strange, back in 1979, that they used the term "white-slavery" so often. It seemed, even then, to be an antiquated term. Wasn't Eileen really sold into a human-trafficking network? Why not use the more accurate term, human-trafficking? Was "white-slavery" still the common term in 1979?

I don't think Sally was the cause of Eileen's white slavery drama. But there might have been a connection, because didn't Phil Higley (the cult leader) trade Eileen to the human trafficking people? I can't remember the details, but the writing for Sally was terrible during this period. The writers couldn't decide if Sally was a "good girl" or a "bad girl." This ambiguity lasted through a couple of recasts, until Mary Page Keller took over the role, and finally played Sally as an ingenue -- which Sally should have been from the beginning.

Danfling is correct. Ryan's Hope often gets credited as being the first soap opera set in a real city. But there were several television soaps previous to 1975 that had been set in real cities. Not to mention a number of radio soaps were also set in real cities.

Days of Our Lives would have been a better choice to transition to the 90-minute format. DOOL always had stronger (not necessarily better) plots than AW. And DOOL still had a healthy strong core-family that centered the show. In my opinion, a 90-minute soap would need strong identifiable plots to keep the audience interested. Lemay's nearly plotless writing style on AW worked well at both 30 and 60-minutes, but became boring during the 90-minute era. Also, AW's core-family (the Matthews), while still on the show, had been pushed to the side, and was weakening quickly. AW was in transition, and had lost any real identity by the late-1970s. A 90-minute show needs a clear focus, and DOOL's Horton family could have provided that. I'm not suggesting DOOL would have been successful at 90-minutes, but it certainly stood a better chance of survival than AW.

Not a typo. Just the truth. Ratings for that era are easy to look up. Try it sometime.

The Felicia, Cass, Cecile, and Walingford comedy hijinks of the mid-1980s certainly increased the ratings substantially. I mean, AW went from number nine in the ratings to number nine. Just within that period.

I love the fact they flew Sam Groom all the way from California to be on the final episode. But I hated that he played the minister. Groom should have played Russ Matthews. Russ was Josie's father and Rachel's first husband. Russ could have reconnected with Josie, and could have reminisced with Rachel for a few minutes. Why not give the audience one old legacy character in the final week? Oh, I forgot -- Goutman okayed the Gorilla, but said no to Russ Matthews. Jeeze-Louise.

What's the point of yesterday's mention of Pine Valley, just after a scene featuring Martin? Anyone think Martin is going to actually be Tad from AMC? I hate that idea, but something must be afoot. Any speculation???

Is today's Dimera mansion supposed to be the original mansion Stefano bought and moved into back in 1983? Or is it a different place all together? I don't recall Stefano ever moving to a new house, but perhaps he did. If my memory is correct, Stefano's original mansion was very near a lake, and had a tunnel that led to the basement of Doug's Place night club.

Isn't their scene in which Robert destroys the bust of Mac and then slashes Iris's portrait available somewhere online? Or maybe its just the audio. I can't remember.

It was a lot more complicated than that. It had more to do with the two actors having differing acting and rehearsal styles. He didn't appreciate her style, and she didn't appreciate his. Coster explains their difficult relationship in his memoir (released about a year ago). Both McKenzie and Coster were/are powerful actors, but they didn't make a good pairing.

One interesting feature about the two mansions on Another World during Lemay's time at the show (1971 to 1979) -- neither Iris's mansion or Mac and Rachel's mansion ever showed the front door or a staircase until long after Lemay was gone. If my memory is correct, we first saw the front door and foyer of the Cory mansion around 1980, and first saw the staircase during the Alma Rudder storyline. We first saw the foyer and front door of Iris's mansion around 1982, when back-from-the-dead Steve Frame lived there.

No, I don't believe Robert was truly attracted to Clarice or had any feelings for her. If my memory is correct, they had only a one night stand which resulted in Clarice's pregnancy. And even if it was more than a one night thing, it was certainly a very short affair. Robert was grieving over Lenore's leaving him, and turned to Clarice out of convenience. He may have even been drunk. And I believe this was just days before his romance with Iris began.

Iris and Lenore were not close, although Lenore often attended Iris's parties, and later parties hosted by Mac Cory. Lenore and Mac became somewhat close, but were never romantically involved (although Harding Lemay did consider a romance between Lenore and Mac). Iris did not get involved with Robert until Lenore had left town and the couple had divorced. So the two women were never on-screen romantic rivals. I too was never a fan of the Iris/Robert romance. It seemed as if Harding Lemay just threw the two together and sort of forced a romantic pairing. Robert and Lenore had a long and tortured romance that went on for several years. The couple were also very popular with the audience. When Susan Sullivan left the show (with Lenore leaving Robert and Bay City behind), that left Robert (a very important character) dangling without much to do. Iris had, by that time, gone through several men on the show -- Elliot Carrington, Kurt Landis, Russ Matthews, and Dave Gilchrist, but was now also single. I believe this is when Iris hired Robert to design a guest-house for her estate, and they began a romance. I never thought Iris was the type of woman Robert would find appealing -- especially after spending years romancing the fairly level-headed Lenore. Robert didn't seem the type who would tolerate a drama queen like Iris. I really think Harding Lemay's goal was to create a major rivalry/hatred between Iris and Clarice, which I believe was quite successful. And he did that by using Robert -- even though it seemed a bit out of character for Robert, in my opinion.

Before living in the penthouse, Iris lived in a mansion she had built soon after she moved to Bay City. That mansion had a swimming pool and large patio, and it also had a guest-house. The mansion was built around 1973-74 and was designed by Robert Delany, long before Robert and Iris got romantically involved. The mansion was built by Frame Enterprises while Steve Frame was still living. Before moving into the mansion, Iris must have lived in an apartment because she was in Bay City during the entire construction. I don't remember Iris's first apartment in Bay City, but I was watching regularly at the time. So to answer your question directly, Iris had at least three different homes in Bay City before moving to Houston -- her initial apartment, the mansion, and finally the penthouse.

Does anyone else remember Helga and Sven? Helga was hired as the Cory's new housekeeper, after Beatrice Gordon left. A few days after Helga started work, her cousin (or was it brother?), Sven arrived. Sven did handyman jobs at the Cory estate and also for Iris for a few weeks, until Mac and Rachel finally hired him as a low-wage gardener or something. Sven caused all kinds of havoc -- plotting with Iris to break-up Mac and Rachel; threatening Helga and her young daughter, Regina; murdering the Cory stable man, Rocky; and kidnapping Rachel. At the end of the storyline it was revealed Sven was not Helga's cousin (or brother?) at all -- but her former lover. And Sven had years-earlier murdered Helga's husband, Knut. Was Sven Regina's bio-father? That was never revealed.

Okay, so the Meadows did not adopt James/Dan. The adoption to David and Betty Stewart happened on ATWT. So Ellen must have spent relatively little time in Columbus. Still, that is interesting history to explore. Thanks!

ATWT's Ellen Lowell gave her son, Dan, to a couple on TBD? What year did that happen? This is the first time I have heard about this. I've never read this in any of the old soap-opera histories. Very cool! How did Dan get back to Oakdale and ATWT?

Helen Moore was long gone by this time. I believe this photo was taken before Rita and Paul joined the cast. With John Randolph in the pic, that dates the photo pre-March 6, 1979.

If I remember correctly, the MacGuffin part of the plot just sort of fizzled out, before the storyline ended. And no, I don't believe the red swan had any intrinsic value. I never understood what made all those millionaires feel the desire to search for it. Yes, I believe it did contain papers that proved Mac was Paulina's mother, but that is not what I would call intrinsic value. Plus, the characters who were looking for the red swan were not aware of those papers until the swan was found. Silly storyline, almost as bad as the Egyptian urn in Arizona and the Lumina cult. Mac Cory should have died with a dignified and believable plot that connected to his family and his business. Not some silly MacGuffin chase. I've always believed TPTB should have hired Harding Lemay to write Mac's demise. Just give Lemay a contract to write one final storyline. Oh well.

Thanks. I sort of remember this clip, but I did not realize it was so soon after her death. But I believe the show did not acknowledge the character's death in the script until GH's 30th anniversary. Am I correct about that?

Years ago, I read an interview with Donna Swajeski in which she said the story she had written for Mac was essentially the Red Swan Mystery. But she had to alter the plot details after Watson's death. So she decided to connect the Red Swan thing to Mac Cory's death, saving her from throwing out the entire plot. Personally, I thought the Red Swan storyline was a total disaster from beginning to end. And I don't think even having Mac alive could have saved it.

I know times have changed since the mid-1980s. But can anyone explain why Epiphany got a death/tribute episode, while Jessie Brewer (arguably the star of the entire show) died without even a mention? This is a serious question.