robbwolff

And wasn't there talk before Edge was cancelled on ABC about shifting the show to 11:30 a.m.?

Dioni Michelle Collins, who plays Deanna, is so talented. What an amazing voice. I've been watching some of the Nurses' Ball numbers and she just impresses me so much. I would love to see her get her own storyline, but have little hope that will ever happen.

The name Margaret DePriest makes me cringe. Right after she assumed head writing duties for DOOL, she had to deal with the aftermath of Brenda Benet's suicide and phase out the character of Lee. I don't know who wrote the script, but as I recall, there was a throwaway line where one character mentioned about cleaning up Lee's bathroom. I found it utterly distasteful as the news reports at that time had stated that Brenda's death had taken place in her bathroom. That line seemed so insensitive and it stunned me that it made it to air.

As a writer/editor, those kinds of mistakes annoy me. That said, thanks for posting these articles. They're fascinating!!

Her name was definitely Jean as show in the screenshot below.

Huh?

I'm with J Swift here. I really enjoyed the character of Madeline who was so fascinating to me unlike her drippy sister Courtney. It was such a treat to see Terry Davis playing such a devious character after years of her portraying April on The Edge of Night. By the by, Terry did later show up in a recurring role on Sunset Beach.

I just read that Vana now goes by the name Vaughn Taylor. And she's married to Paul Tinder who played the role of Jerry Grove on Another World and Larry Watts on The Edge of Night.

My vote would be for Linda Borgeson. Her acting was painful to watch. I never saw Courtney during her original run, so Susan Harney was my first introduction to the character of Alice. I don't recall seeing Pfenning in the role except for a brief clip online. I enjoyed Vana Tribbey in the role and never understood why she was replaced by Borgeson. It's a shame that they so underutilized Jacquie Courtney in her 1984-85 stint as she really shined in the role.

Alice and Sally were still on the canvas when Lemay departed in May 1979. Wesley Ann Pfenning assumed the role of Alice in early April while Julie Phillips joined as Sally in mid-April.

I agree 100%. Krimmer was powerful as Andrew, especially in the homophobia storyline in 1992. I can still see him holding his brother William’s quilt panel, and the image of the pages of the Bible fluttering in the wind as a homophobic man pummeled Andrew. Such a powerful story, made so poignant by Krimmer’s performance.

I’m glad they never had the chance to go that route. We really didn’t need CC to have another son. Can’t sleep here either!

I thought they actually revealed in 1992 that he wasn’t Lionel’s son. That erased the incest between Warren and Cassandra as the change meant they were no longer related.

That's my recollection too -- in the summer of 1985, Nancy started taking Ecstasy after Perry's death and Chris Chapin helped her get off drugs. The synopses on the Another World Home Page discuss Nancy buying and taking drugs, but not selling them. Carter and Thomasina were dealing with the drama of her pregnancy at that time and I believe Carter was involving in unwittingly running drugs for a dealer. Hunter Bradshaw, who was involved with Ben and Marley, was long gone by that time. But they did plan to bring back Rachel's sister Pammy Davis. It was sometime around 1988. There were reports in Soap Opera Digest at that time about the show casting the role. There were a lot of stories in Soap Opera Digest at that time about characters that never made it to air: for example, Pammy, Jason Frame's two daughters, a model named Bliss.

There's currently an outbreak on Cape Cod -- about 430 COVID cases linked to Provincetown (where we're headed in just a few weeks). Despite the fact that the town board called an emergency meeting to address the outbreak and the fact that over 150 P-Town residents have tested positive in recent days, we're seeing some residents on social media actually denying the cluster. Rather they're spouting theories that it's a conspiracy by the MAGA crowd and/or anti-gay people to hurt the town and the LGBTQ community. It blew my mind to read those posts today.

The bulletin boards were in force at that time and there was a lot of discussion about soaps on those boards. I remember stumbling across the boards in 1993 and seeing the heated discussions about who should replace Beverlee McKinsey as Alex and fans’ disgust about a possible Austin/Jennifer pairing on DOOL. And there was discussion about the Loving Murders. It was a wonderful precursor to what we have today.

Which writer handled David Bachman's fatal heart attack? That scene is my only memory of HTSAM. It's good to hear that Edelstein did such a solid job as I wasn't impressed with his short stint as head writer of The Doctors in 1969.

Ravens, like Brennan Reeves, is from New Jersey. His father was a physician at the then Rutgers Medical School. My late Aunt Mary worked with Dr. Ravens. There was a lot of press in NJ when Brennan and Ravens were cast on Santa Barbara. I believe Ravens was in his late 20s when he was cast.

I don't know. It always seemed to me that the teens like Jade, Danny, and Laken were phased out because they were part of families that the Dobsons just weren't invested in. Plus all three roles were played by actors who weren't overly impressive in their performances, unlike Todd McKee who seemed to always shine as Ted. I loved Christie. Unlike Jade, Christie drove story and provided lots of needed conflict. I don't understand why the Dobsons introduced this family and then dropped them so quickly. The Duvall/Bassett family was compelling and intriguing and portrayed by excellent actors. It's a shame Santa Barbara didn't hold onto this family. So much wasted potential.

According to the archive of the old Somerset Register website, Hildy James appeared in the fall of 1972. She was Sam Lucas' secretary and was terrorized by the evil Virgil Paris into leaving Somerset. Hildy was then replaced by Chrystal Ames as part of the syndicate storyline. Here's a photo of Hildy with some of the younger set.

I don't think Cher dropped out to film Silkwood. According to articles I read, Silkwood filmed in Texas in September 1982, so long before the character of Ruby aired.

I never had the impression that Capitol was put together hastily. As I recollect, the Karpfs wrote the bible for Capitol in 1980 (I remember reading it online). There were a lot of characters that never made it to air. The bible was then rewritten at some point. CBS wasn’t just considering Capitol to replace Search for Tomorrow. There was a second soap in contention: Beverly Hills. I recall a Soap Opera Digest article from the summer of 1981 where they discussed rumors that Search was on the chopping block. And a few years prior to Capitol's debut, CBS had been toying with adding another soap to its lineup: Aaron's World.

Me too. I never heard it referred to as a gay island before. But, hey, I figured this was a chance to post a photo of Hairy Island Guy.

That would be Sean, the hot, hairy-chested guy who lived on the island where Reva ended up after Annie tried to kill her in 1998. William Bumiller played the role. It seemed like Sean was going to be a love interest for Reva. Once they got back to Springfield, Sean was placed in Dinah's orbit and was then written out.

I recollect these two soaps being discussed in Soap Opera Digest before Jon-Michael Reed's 1984 column. I believe the Stewart soap went by two titles: Grosse Pointe and Star Crossed. The Bauer soap was known as The Barons at one point and then The Billionaires at another time. At one time, both soaps were slated to be part of an expanded CBS lineup and were set to debut around September 1983, likely in the late morning/early afternoon.