Mona Kane Croft

It was Nancy Wickwire, who had played Liz Matthews for a year or two around 1970. I believe the actress had recently died when Nancy McGowan was born. At least one of the old soap opera history books reported that Ford and Wickwire had been romantically connected. Wickwire went to California and one of her next soap roles was Phyllis Anderson on DOOL. I've read she became ill while playing Phyllis. In the script, Nancy McGowan was named after Gil's mother, if my memory is correct.

I may be wrong, but I really don't think the Corringtons had any real soap opera success after leaving SFT (although, as you say, they worked at several soaps). And what they wrote at SFT (adding the Louisiana gothic stuff permanently) was SO unique, but they could not do that again at another soap. Their original plan for Texas was a period piece set in New Orleans, but that all changed when Paul Rauch decided to move the location to Houston and place it in 1980. And writers can't really go from soap opera to soap opera doing Louisiana Gothic over and over again. Anything other than that they wrote seemed blah and boring to me. They did Louisiana-slanted stuff extremely well, but that was their one trick pony.

1972 -- AW really produced compelling drama during this period. Not a single worthless character on the entire show.

Does anyone know what the Corringtons had done before being hired at SFT? I don't recall them being soap writers before Search, but I could easily be incorrect.

Thanks for checking on this.

I agree. There are no love stories on this show, and haven't been for years. He just randomly puts couples together with little drama, they stay together for about a year, then they break-up and move on to someone else. No drama, no angst, no heart-break. How can a "successful" soap opera writer refuse to write long-term love stories? Aren't soaps supposed to be all about love stories? It's nuts.

I thought I remembered Labine had written that storyline, but I wasn't sure.

Maybe you and I have a different definition of copycatting. But I don't believe any of those plots would have been green-lighted (much less encouraged or even demanded), if James Riley's crazy plots had failed at DOOL. In my opinion, Riley's "success" (if I can call it that) gave the other soaps "permission" to copy him (directly or indirectly) and concoct similar (in tone, not detail) storylines. And that meets my definition of copying. And I'd suggest it was the production companies and the networks who wanted to copy Riley's style, not necessarily the writers -- some of whom I feel sure detested that kind of stuff and felt like they were prostituting themselves. Contessa, this is less an argument from me, and more of an explanation of my point of view. I do respect you point of view, even if I might misinterpret it or even disagree with it.

You're talking about Alan Locker here, correct? For a minute, I thought you were talking about James Riley, and I was wondering what you were trying to say. Sorry -- Yes, i agree completely about Alan Locher. But I always try to defend him a bit, because he at least has the guts to do his interviews. Few others have been able to do that.

In my opinion, it is nearly always bad for soap operas when they start copying one another, or all try to follow the same trend. So I believe it shook the genre in a bad way. Similarly, several soaps tried to copy GH's Luke and Laura capers, science-fiction-ish plots, and international intrigue in the 1980s, and none of them were successful. This did damage to the genre that it has never recovered from. Yes, I do. And GL's back-in-time painting plot. Also the Lumina plot on AW. The 3-women at the spa plot on ATWT. Labidizone on AMC. Probably a few others I'm not recalling.

Two weeks?? Wow, I was way off!! Sorry about that. But it seemed like a month and a half. LOL. I wonder if the plan was always for Shelley to stay only two weeks? Or was the original plan for her to stay until McKenszie was ready to return, but Shelley's run was truncated because of audience complaints?? I'm sure there is no way to answer this accurately -- too long ago, I'm afraid. Although I believe Tom King is still living, and he was the head-writer at that time. At least I think he was. Is anybody here in touch with Tom King??

Did Riley create Sami? Or at least the adult Sami? Yes, I remember it really shook daytime. And a few other soaps tried to copy his style. I don't believe any took it as far as he did, but they swayed in the direction.

It sounds as if AI was describing Riley's writing style at DOOL and Passions, not his earlier work. Because even though I hadn't heard of him, I did watch most of those soaps you listed him working on earlier, and I don't remember anything supernatural or even particularly over the top, aside from GH, which did some over the top stunts -- but still never as bad or campy as DOOL or Passions. I don't have much faith in AI to get the history of anything right. I see posts written by AI on Facebook every day, and they are always riddled with errors that even I can detect. I'm afraid AI is making the internet even less accurate than is already was -- especially when it comes to historical details. But I could be wrong. By the way, I'm not criticizing you for using AI for research. Just stating that my limited experience with it has not been positive.

Peg Murray was likely cast as replacement Ada because she had played a very similar character on Love of Life in the mid to late-1970s -- a long-suffering working class widow with a trouble-making daughter. Of course by this time on AW, Rachel was no longer a trouble-maker.

Thanks for the information. I hadn't been aware of any of this. I'd be curious to know what Riley's "writing style" was, and how it differed from Curlee's. But I doubt that kind of information is available from so long ago. I was completely unfamiliar with Riley until he was writing DOOL in the 1990s. I don't think I had even heard his name previous to DOOL.

No, I don't know the story. Can you share a bit of it? Thanks

You may be correct about that. Iris was on and off the canvas so many times, for so many reasons, between 1978 and 1980 -- it's difficult to keep it all straight. I do remember, Iris had extended visits Millie Marbury in St Tropez two different times during this era, and both visits were at least partially on camera. Does anyone else remember Giorgio??

Oh, those are the nasty-girls. Just ignore them. The Contessa and I have a bit of experience with them. LOL. Pay them no mind!!

Without looking it up, I'd speculate about a month and a half. Then Iris was off the canvas again for a while. During that period, it has been said that Beverlee McKenzie informed Paul Rauch she did not intend to return to AW. That's when Rauch offered McKenzie a staring role on his new soap, TEXAS. So McKenzie eventually returned to AW, just a month or two before the premiere of TEXAS, then she was off to Houston.

When James Riley was writing Guiding Light, were there any hints of the campy garbage he would unleash on Days of Our Lives just a few years later? Surely there must have been hints of his campy madness. Somebody, spill the GL tea...

Maxim, you have not written anything nasty about the actress. You have respectfully critiqued her performance. I have also been critical of Ms Shelley, as have several others. You have no reason to feel like a target. We all feel how we feel. And you have expressed your feelings respectfully. That's my opinion anyway.

There is another scene during Shelley's run as Iris, in which she makes a few comments about Pat Randolph. Shelley delivers the lines as if Pat is almost a stranger to Iris, even though the two characters had been acquainted for nearly five-years. McKenzie would have delivered those same lines entirely differently.

LOL. I more likely pulled a muscle in my eye, trying to see a red-head playing Iris. LOL.

Pulling back is exactly the right term. So thanks for that. I found myself pulling back every day during Shelley's short run on AW. But I don't blame Ms Shelley.

Yes, I watched Carole Shelley's entire run as Iris. Ms Shelley was an amazing and accomplished actress. And one can see how hard she worked to inhabit the character of Iris -- it is obvious in every moment. She is mannered and precise. But it DID NOT WORK. Shelley was simply miscast. She did not have McKenzie's patrician appearance, McKenzie's velvet voice, nor McKenzie's perfect delivery. And the red-hair, oh Lord! I could say more, but I truly do not want to be perceived as making fun of Carole Shelley. She really deserved a trophy for even attempting to replace Beverlee McKenzie. I do hope she was paid well! Let me just leave it at this -- Fine actress in the wrong role. Miscast, miscast, miscast.