robbwolff

I think Monika is right. I saw this Suzanne’s FB page and one of her connections is Joe Willmore, who produced ATWT when Suzanne played Betsy.

Yep. She was in the finale. It was pretty insulting to be honest. She encountered John and Lucinda in her hotel and they were snarky with her. She had very few lines.

Pretty much the entire cast appeared in the finale -- over 25 actors. I recall there were even scenes that were cut and aired on CBS' website. Unlike many other soap finales, there weren't any scenes where the entire cast appeared.

Kalember portrayed the role of Meredith on Texas.

Phil Carey was on Bright Promise.

I think someone said she was on Edge

It was likely Martha Galphin, who would join The Doctors in 1970 as Dr. Sigrid Vorst.

I've thought that it may have had to do with Joy Bell's Caroline Stafford, who arrived about a month before Iris' return. My guess is that Lemay planned to reveal that Iris had been living in Australia and that Caroline was her daughter. Evan (Bates) Frame was lovers with both Iris and Caroline, so there was potential there for a juicy triangle.

It was really amazing. The instructor was William J. Mann, a fiction writer who later wrote biographies of Barbra Streisand, Katherine Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. During class breaks, Bill and I would chat with Harry about GL. He was writing a murder mystery novel set behind the scenes at a soap opera. I'm not sure if he ever finished it.

1986 was a bad year for GL. I know Jeff Ryder went on to teach classes at University of the Arts in Philadelphia and later became a dean there. He's retired now. I took writing class on Cape Cod in 2005 and the late Harry Eggart was in the class. What an amazing writer. It's a shame he never wrote for GL. The instructor and I were huge GL fans and had a blast talking about Nola, Kelly, Quint, and Charita Bauer. Harry was really proud about producing a memorial to Charita and was hugely disappointed with the direction GL had taken. I think he mentioned that Quint McCord's Thornway Road house was inspired by his own home or a home owned by someone on the production staff. He was a warm and delightful man to chat with.

Yes, Pam wrote the one-night stand between Claire and Ed in 1985. I believe it was Ryder and then Mary Ryan Munisteri and Ellen Barrett who made Claire go crazy. Claire was written out during the Sheri Anderson/Joseph Manetta period.

When was it established that Monticello was set in New York? Granted, I only watched the last decade of Edge, but I don't recall that at all. I remember car license plates on the show read "Heartland" where the state name should appear. And wasn't the connection to Oakdale set in the mid-1970s? I thought Nicole and Adam's barn was also in Oakdale. I recall Danfling mentioned that Somerset was referenced at one point too.

I think Lemay was head writer when the expansion happened. He was replaced by King in May 1979. According to the AW home page, King joined the writing staff in 1973.

I absolutely love your idea of Blaine being on Texas. That could have been interesting. Blaine and Dennis had a flirtation on Another World as I recollect. What could have been interesting is if Blaine and Dennis hooked up, split for Houston, and then Iris followed to break them up. Previously, Iris had interfered in Dennis' relationships, so it would have been in character for her to meddle in Blaine and Dennis' relationship rather than become a heroine. I recall the original plans were for Russ and Pat to be major characters on Texas (then known as Another World: Houston). It seems like Iris was a last minute addition to the new soap, especially since Beverlee McKinsey returned to Another World just a week before the Texas characters began to be introduced. Jim Poyner had actually been in the role of Dennis for two years before he moved over to Texas. So the audience was invested in him. I absolutely loved the chemistry between Paige and Eliot and was so disappointed when Eliot left in late 1981. I don't recall Eliot having a final mental breakdown. I think he just vanished after Poyner and McKinsey left the show. And I don't recall Alex having an ex-wife. Yes, Grant had his ex Judith who showed up to cause trouble for Grant and Reena. But I have no recollection of an ex-wife for Alex. He had had an affair with the married Victoria Bellman but that relationship was over when we met Alex (I think Vicky was still in love with Alex). The writers seemed to race through the Alex/Iris relationship. They reconnected in August and were married in November. Alex was dead by June 1981.

You’re thinking of another drip: Kurt Corday, who married Mindy in that fairytale wedding. The wedding was in the fall of 85. Kurt left a few months later, around April 86. Johnny arrived a few months after Kurt left so he almost seemed like a replacement for Kurt. Later that year, Kurt was killed off. Kurt was portrayed by Mark Lewis.

I believe Poll's book had a number if inaccuracies. If I recall correctly, didn't she also say that Paul Kincaid was Bill Bauer and Simone Kincaid's biological son?

I have to disagree. I think she was widely accepted as MJ. It was quite a casting coup. I know I adored her in the role — both during the show’s original run and in the reruns. And she played the character as it was written. This was a period when there was constant turnover of head writers — I think there were four sets of head writers in just the first year of Kathy’s run. They were the ones that transformed the character so radically. The changes started when Mel and Ethel Brez were writing the show and MJ was widowed. The changes were even evident when Carla Dragoni briefly played MJ.

Lassiter was a few states away from Bay City. Depending upon where in Pennsylvania Lassiter was supposed to be, it is at least a seven-hour drive from the Chicago area to the Pittsburgh area. I could easily picture the Bay City and Lassiter McKinnons visiting each other in the summer, much like my husband's family did when they were growing up.

Actually, I have recollections of seeing the introduction with Dorothy; I believe it aired directly after the Loving movie.

I don't know. While Iris wasn't Australian, people can pick up other accents. I had a friend who lived in England and when he came back to the states, he was sporting a British accent. Without knowing Lemay's plans, we can only speculate but perhaps Iris moved to Australia at some point and Caroline was her daughter.

In light of the fact that AW cast two Australian actresses (Joy Bell and Carmen Duncan) in such a short period of time, perhaps Caroline was slated to have some kind of connection to Iris.

The Simons weren't certain which child character was slated to be killed off. At first, Courtney said Frederick but then she seemed to second guess that.

No. They were referring to a child actor on the show back in the early 1980s. They didn't seem to recall who the actor was or which character he played. The decision was made to kill off the character but then the producer announced at a meeting that they had changed their minds. At that point, Charita turned to the person sitting next to her and said something like, "Well, he'll be dead in our hearts forever." Peter Simon talked very glowingly of O'Leary.

What a great topic! From around 1977 to 1983 and then from 1986 to 1994, I wrote a continuation of Somerset that combined many of the original characters from the show with my own creations. I was a huge fan of Somerset so it was a lot of fun and rewarding to continue my favorite characters' stories after the show was cancelled. There were stories involving homophobia, male-on-male rape, drunk driving, terminal cancer, AIDS, and euthanasia. I especially loved tying my stories to the original characters and stories from the show.

Does anyone know what the situation was with Linda Elstad? Soap Opera Digest announced in early 1984 that she appointed head writer of Another World. While she wrote for the show that year, I don't think she was ever credited as head writer. Soap Opera Digest featured a brief interview with her where she previewed one storyline involving Donna Love seeking to break down gender lines by joining an all male club.