Mona Kane Croft

Harding Lemay began to create a family for Peggy, just shortly before Micki Grant left the show. Peggy's mother. Gloria and sister, Linda, plus Linda's boyfriend Zach Richards joined the show. Was Grant's exit unexpected? Seems strange to create a family for a character on the way out. Soon after Grant left, Gloria stopped appearing. Zach continued to appear for a few years, but Linda was by far the longest running member of the family. Linda had only one minimal storyline of her own early in her time at the show, when she started dating Zach, who had been recently released from prison and her mother didn't approve. After that, Linda appeared mostly as a nurse at the hospital and a close confident of Alice Frame. Supposedly Linda was still appearing occasionally when Quinn Harding joined the cast, but the two had no scenes together. I am not sure that bit of information is correct. Perhaps there is a way to check the dates to confirm.

Yes, and Virginia Dwyer was also great as the show's matriarch, Mary Matthews. Lemay minimized her role and tried to turn Mary into a meddling shrew, before finally killing her off. Although Lemay was a good writer, he did not understand soap opera genre well enough to recognize the importance of the matriarch to a soap opera's core-family. If Lemay wanted to fire an actor for bad acting, he should have fired Hugh Marlowe (Jim Matthews), and replaced him with a better actor. Marlowe stuttered and stammered, huffed and puffed through his dialogue every time he was on screen. He phoned-in every performance, and probably didn't look at the script until five-minutes before the camera rolled. Neither Courtney nor Dwyer deserved to be fired.

Why does Jackie have the last name Marler? Was she Justin's ex-wife, or his sister?

You are right. Thank you.

Didn't Don Stewart go off script and give some rambling speech at the party? And then they had to severely edit his appearance? I remember hearing this back in '97. Does anyone else remember anything about him doing something off-the-wall that had to be edited out?

What happened to everyone else's ATWT posts between June 15 and today? Nearly a month of posts have disappeared.

Thanks for the comparison. I feel sure you are correct. But isn't this the same basic layout as the Bauer's original TV living room from the earliest available episodes? That set was much simpler (smaller fireplace, etc.), but essentially the same major set pieces.

Funny, I feel just the opposite. To me, the Hughes 4th of July was more a tradition and it was believable and memorable. And the Bauer Barbecue was just used to promote whatever plot was brewing at the time, and the goings-on were unlikely and often over the top. Not to mention there seemed to be fewer and fewer Bauers to host it every year. But this is all just my opinion. It's cool to disagree.

As far as I know, the Bauer Barbecue didn't become a tradition until the early 1980s. If you're remembering 4th of July celebrations from the 1960s, it was probably the annual Hughes 4th of July picnic, which was held each year from the 1960s until the early-80s, when Chris and Nancy left the show. Then the Hughes picnic was revived in 1985-86, when Doug Marland was head-writer at ATWT. It continued until Marland's death in 1993, and then stopped occurring. The Hughe's 4th of July picnic always included raising the flag, and the Hughes patriarch (Pa Hughes, Chris Hughes, or later Bob Hughes) saying a few words about patriotism and our nation's founding. It was a wonderful soap opera tradition that should have continued until ATWT left the airwaves.

When Nicole Beck was in the role, Lily was used as a supporting character, not a romantic lead, as she had been with Martha and Heather. So it's rather hard to compare Nicole's Lily to the other two. I believe Nicole was a good casting choice, and could have handled anything thrown her way, had the writing for Lily livened-up. But it was a shame Martha was driven away, after so many years playing Lily.

Near the beginning of the Lumina story, they gave a back-story that made it plausible, up to that point. But a few weeks later, all that original back-story went out the window, and the plot just got more and more over-the-top and unbelievable. If I'm not mistaken, Luminia was originally said to have been a cult (or something similar), and the characters were very cautious about participating in the Lumina Ball. But then that all seemed to have been dropped, in favor of reincarnation and a secret area of the Cory garden that not even Rachel was aware of. Is it possible the writers changed in the middle of the plot? Something certainly did -- because it went from being a weird (but believable) storyline, to a supernatural floundering mess, seemingly over-night.

I can't answer all your questions, but: -- Suzy's bio-father was Doug Martin. So Suzy and Scott Phillips were half-siblings. Also interesting -- because of the deaths of Doug and eventually Eunice, Suzy was actually raised by two people (John and Stephanie) who were not biologically related to her. -- John James did not return to the role of Tom Bergman. If I'm not mistaken, Tom was played by Robert Lupone, when the character returned.

But isn't Tom King gay? I think he is, but maybe I'm wrong.

True, I suppose. But maybe GL would not have become The Reva Show, had Borelli been cast.

My understanding of the role has always been that Pam Long based Reva on Reena Bellman from Texas (which seems strange, because Reena was born wealthy, and had none of Reva's backstory or motivation), and that she wanted Carla Borelli for the role on GL. Not sure where Kim got the idea Pam wanted a red-head.

Alan doesn't like to discuss controversy. But how can you have an interesting conversation with soap opera writers without discussing controversy? At least half of a soap opera writer's life is consumed dealing with network interference, sponsor demands, difficult executive producers, and general frustration. Writers are seldom allowed to write what they really want to write. Is he going to forbid them from discussing any of that?

So do you mean that jokingly? Of course, no sets transitions from radio to TV. Radio had no sets.

So, do you think perhaps the house inhabited by Bill and Bert near the end of their marriage was Papa Bauer's house? And if so, was it the same house Bert inhabited in the early-80s? Despite set alterations, of course.

I don't disagree, but maybe I wasn't clear.. As I mentioned, the set changed, but I think it was always supposed to be the same house. Bert didn't move to a new house. Her set just changed. Just like when the Cory Mansion on Another World got a new set. Mac and Rachel didn't move to a new house. It was still the same house -- the set just changed. And yes, Papa and Mama Bauer had a house -- at least on radio. Not sure exactly when Mama died, and what happened to their house. Did Bill and Bert move-in with Papa? I know for sure, there was a short period in the early-to-mid-1960s, when Papa moved-out on his own to a small apartment. Later he moved (back?) in with Bill and Bert. It's interesting that the Bauer house (Bill and Bert's) on GL was never as iconically recognizable as the Hughes house (Chris and Nancy's) on ATWT or the Matthews house (Jim and Mary's) on AW. Perhaps because the Bauer house was based on a very simple set from the early-years? While both the Hughes and Matthews sets were created later, and featured more memorable detail. Who knows?

Gregg always had those cantaloupe pecs, which were sexy as hell. But the rest of his body was less developed -- although always great looking. His arms, for example, are rather normal. I'm no expert in physiology, but how is that possible?

I don't believe Bert ever really changed houses, but perhaps the set had some minor changes over the years. I feel pretty sure it was always supposed to be the same house. Although I wasn't watching at the time, I was told that even when the show changed locations from Selby Flats to Springfield, the Bauers didn't change houses. That's sort of a miracle, isn't it? LOL. So the history of the Bauer house would be interesting. It's possible it was "supposed to be" the same house Bert and Bill lived in at the beginning their marriage. Or it might even have originally belonged to Papa and Mama Bauer. Who knows? Considering it was still being used until almost the mid-1980s, the set may have originated in the early TV episodes. But I am aware there were changes to the set over the years.

He was not a good recast, he was not threatening enough. And he was at least 20 years too young.

Are you talking about Ashely? She wasn't an ingenue at all. The character really didn't fit any of the traditional soap opera archetypes. But she certainly wasn't an ingenue. She was too old, she wasn't innocent enough, her personality was too strong, etc, etc, etc, Wasn't she more like a reformed bad-girl? Almost like a more tolerable version of Reve Shane.

VW looks pretty darn good. No make-up, and still still looks great.

Mary Matthews on AW was warm and loving from day-one. She didn't have the stern history of Nancy Hughes or Bert Bauer, who both evolved into warm loving matriarchs. Oddly, Mary actually became less warm in her later years -- mostly because she opposed Alice's troubled relationship with Steve Frame. And of course, Harding Lemay was trying to turn Mary into Liz Matthews -- which was foolish.