Mona Kane Croft

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."

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

Of course he wasn't. My post explained that Mac was far wealthier, and we don't even know if Mac was the richest man in Bay City. Mac was just the richest man on the show. Steve owned a construction company. Mac owned a world-wide publishing conglamorate. That had been established years earlier on the show. No need to argue about it. Blaine was far better as a villainess. And Malone was better at playing her that way. After Blaine became a heroine, Malone seemed to struggle finding motivation for the character, and Blaine became too saccharine sweet. Artificial.

Daniel Cosgrove as Bill Lewis also showed his butt on camera. Also, a couple of guys on Y&R. Was it Jack and Brad? It must have been a CBS experiment, because I don't remember the other networks doing it.

Who was writing this crap? Steve Frame was never as wealthy as Mac Cory -- not even close. Now they're saying Steve is the richest man in town. Good grief!

Victoria Wyndham wasn't "given" star billing. She had been number-three in the cast list (behind Jacquie Courtney and George Reinholt) from her first episode. The same number-three that had been previously held by Robin Strasser. So when Courtney and Reinholt were fired, it was natural that VW would move to number-one. The stranger billing was that of Douglass Watson (a relative new-comer to the show) who was moved from near the bottom of the list, to number-two (upon the firing of Reinholt and Courtney), skipping over stars like Beverly Penberthy, Connie Ford, David Bailey, Hugh Marlowe, and Beverlee McKenzie.