Mona Kane Croft

This is wonderful. I had forgotten that Don Stewart was still playing Mike Bauer during this storyline. Sadly, both Stewart and Peter Simon would be gone by the time Bert died. Because of that, it seemed like the character's death was minimized.

Actually, the expansion to 90-minutes occurred in early-March, and I believe Lemay's final script aired in late-April or early-May of the same year. So he quit rather quickly after the expansion. But he did write Olive's decent into craziness.

There was an amazingly respectful tribute to Guiding Light and soap operas in general on today's episode of the NPR radio show, 1-A. The segment is approximately 15-minutes long, and I would encourage any soap historians and fans to find it online and listen to it. It's ironic that the national tv networks can't show any reverence to the soap operas that sustained them for generations, but NPR took 15-minutes on national radio today to reflect on the importance of the genre. I've always loved NPR, but even more so now.

I'd love to know the answer to that too. The rewrite was completely unnecessary, and it was insulting to any viewers who had watched the original storyline play out in 1978. An adopted child has just as much legal right to inheritance (and/or the family business) as a bio-child. So Iris could have played the same beats regarding Cory Publishing, whether she was adopted or bio. There was no logical reason to rewrite her conception to make her Mac's bio-child.

Yes, Dave Gilchrist was kind of a jerk, but he wasn't a villain. He was nice to Alice, and I think dated Pat briefly during one of her break-ups from John. He was played as a romantic character with an edge, but he didn't really have any long-running romances. Ray and Olive were Sally's biological uncle and aunt (aunt by marriage). Olive's slide into lunacy made sense in real time, because of all the rejection she faced, and because most of her schemes didn't work. But writing her into a corner and making her an unredeemable psycho was a huge mistake on Lemay's part. The show was in desperate need of another permanent villainess. AW was transitioning to 90-minutes, Rachel was almost totally reformed, and Iris would be leaving the show completely in 1980. By the time Olive left the show, she had connections/interactions with all corners of the canvas. So she could have caused trouble for years to come. What a mistake, writing her off. Adult Sally's closeness to Mac and Rachel was nothing more than a device to give her parental figures, and connect her to the Cory family. Since Alice and nearly all the Matthews family were gone, and Sally had become the show's young romantic lead, she had to be more connected to the other stars of the show (Mac and Rachel). None of this would have happened, had the Matthews family still be strong, and had Alice remained in town.

Okay, I'll find the eps and watch a few more. Maybe I'll get hooked. Thank you!

Thank you. Ive watched only a couple of episodes of this series, but was a huge fan of Dark Shadows. Would you say Strange Paradise is as good as DS? Or is it just a lesser imitation? Serious question. I'd love to hear how people feel about Strange Paradise, before I invest the time watching it. Thanks!

Somewhere in a box, I have the original bible for "Another World: Somerset" (later retitled, Somerset). The original is in the P&G archives in Cincinnati. The archivist made a copy for me, when I visited around 1996. If my memory is correct, the working title for the show was "Between Two Worlds." And I recall the character Robert Delany was supposed to be murdered during the early weeks of the show. Of course, the character ultimately survived and later crossed-over permanently to the mother show, Another World.

I never realized Vola was such a problem. I talked to her on the phone a few times years ago, and she seemed rather normal. What kind of difficulty did she cause?

If you are talking about who I think you're talking about -- yes, she definitely wrote at least one episode of DOOL, because I saw her name in the credits. I am not aware that she had any connection to OLTL, although she may have been a fan. She told me her favorite soap was Another World, and she really knew the history of that show! We had a couple of conversations about AW, and how she learned to speak English by watching the show.

I don't think so. I believe she moved into Ernie Downs's house, when they got married (1969 or 70). After Ernie died, she married Gil, and then Charlie -- but stayed in the house she had shared with Ernie. So she and Rachel lived somewhere else when they got to Bay City in 1967.

Does anyone remember where Ada and Rachel lived, before Ada married Ernie Downs and moved into his house?

Who were some of the longest running characters on Love of Life? I'll post the obvious ones: Van, Sarah Dale, Bruce, and Rick Latimer. Most fans don't realize Rick was on the show as long as he was -- way over 10-years. I have no idea which characters would come next I'm terms of longevity. Maybe Meg, although she was missing from the canvas for many years before her return. Love of Life (like Search for Tomorrow) had a very fluid cast over the years, with relatively few long-term legacy characters. This trait was both good and bad, for both Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow.

FYI -- There is a cast mistake in the post above: Vivian Carlson (listed in the cast list), and Vinnie Phillips (mentioned in the synopsis) are not the same character. Vivian was a long-running character, and I believe Bruce's former mother-in-law. Vinnie (Lavinia) Phillips was the mother of Dr Dan Phillips and wife of Lloyd Phillips. Vinnie and Lloyd were recurring characters who appeared occasionally while Dan Phillips was on the show. Vinnie and Lloyd never lived in Rosehill, their home was in Boston. Vivian is not mentioned in the synopsis, although she is listed in the cast list. And Vinnie is not in the cast list, but is in the synopsis.

You are absolutely right about that. I was about to reply to my own post with something similar. Lemay's Liz was just a little more meddling and a little more unstable than Mary Matthews. But I can't imagine Mary behaving like Liz did. Mary had no motivation for that sort of behavior. Mary was a fundamentally happy woman, while Liz was fundamentally unhappy. So it made sense for Liz to be a meddling trouble-maker. I completely understand why Virginia Dwyer resisted Lemay's attempts to turn Mary into a neurotic meddler. But maybe she should have cooperated. Had Dwyer out-lasted Lemay, the Matthews family almost certainly would never have been minimized as they were by later writers.

I loved Irene Dailey as Liz, but I think Harding Lemay toned-down the character too much, when he reintroduced Liz in 1974. Dailey maintained very little of Lindley's volatility, and became even more mellow, as the years went by. Lindley's Liz was really more of a villainess, and not just a meddling relative (as Lemay wrote her for Dailey). And sadly, nearly all the post-Lemay writers mellowed Liz even more -- turning her into little more than comic relief. That showed how little they really understood the character and her history.

It has been suggested that Agnes Nixon created Palmer and Nina's relationship as a more extreme version of OLTL's Victor and Vicky. But I have never seen that confirmed by Nixon herself. Of course Palmer and Nina were created nearly fifteen years before the Victor/Vicky relationship on OLTL was re-written as truly incestuous -- and that was done by Michael Malone, not by Agnes Nixon.

I understand that Connie Ford and Nancy Wickwire (AW's Liz Matthews from 1969-71) were involved for several years.

I purchased several of Lemay's published plays about a decade ago. They are wonderful and character-driven, just like Another World, during his tenure there. Although I didn't recognize any plots or characters shared on AW from his plays, there are similarities -- slightly dysfunctional families, resentments, returning family members with an ax to grind, meddling relatives, and lots of subtext in the dialogue. While reading his plays, it is easy to imagine which actor from AW could be cast in each role, and hear their voices as you read. Although I haven't found any characters even remotely similar to Iris, Rachel, or Mac; there is some vague similarity to conflicts within the Matthews and Frame families.

Having watched the reruns on RetroTV for the past few years, Mona is not nearly as difficult or as villainous as I remember her from watching in the 1970s. She really was much tamer and much less snobby than I remember.

I didn't know that. Nic seems to be a very positive person.

I had forgotten that, but yes! Plus, I recall Nic has called Doug Watson a true gentleman a couple of times. But if Nic doesn't discuss George Reinholt and the atmosphere in the studio in 1975, I'm going to be disappointed. Steve Frame and Robert Delany were best friends, and worked together at Frame Enterprises. Nic probably had more scenes with Reinholt than even Jacquie Courtney. So when Reinholt was fired, I'm confident Nic had opinions about it. I just hope he shares those opinions, whatever they are.

Nic Coster (Robert Delany on AW) announced on Facebook a couple of days ago, that his memoir will be released very soon -- within weeks, I believe. In an earlier FB post, a few months ago, he did promise a couple of chapters about his experiences on Another World. He doesn't talk about AW much on FB. But he has commented he loved working with Susan Sullivan, did not enjoy working with Beverly McKenzie, and liked Harding Lemay's writing. He has never commented (on FB) about the actor firings of 1975, the atmosphere in the studio, or George Reinholt (with whom he shared many scenes). I hope we get lots details in his book.

I have mixed feelings about Hugh Marlowe. He was well cast and lovable as Jim, but he really struggled with his lines. He stammered and huffed, often to the point of embarrassment. And his difficulties certainly had NOTHING to do with Virginia Dwyer. He seemed lazy, and tried to phone-in his performances, but he was not skilled enough to do it well. Beverly Penberthy was quote as saying the actor who played her father (she did not use Marlowe's name) was a former movie actor who only took the job on AW because he had a late-in-life child, and needed the money -- and that he did not try very hard on the show. Virginia Dwyer played the matriarch of the entire show, and performed in that role extremely well. Lemay just didn't like her, because he wanted Mary Matthews to be more troubled, and create difficulty for her family. Dwyer resisted that change in character, so Lemay just brought back Aunt Liz, and wrote Liz the way he wanted to write for Mary. After he saw that the recast Liz was successful, he killed-off Mary. Can you imagine Mary Matthews suddenly behaving like Aunt Liz??? That's what Lemay wanted.

Are you saying Lemay's episodes are not generally available? I did not know that. Approximately how many episode did Lemay write for SP?