robbwolff

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.

Yep. That's what she said. I think she was written out in May 1995, so I'm not sure if it was Farren Phelps or Michael Laibson who fired her. Tina Sloan seemed genuinely surprised about how Ellen Parker got news of her firing. It was so wonderful to see all four of them. I got choked up when I saw Ellen.

I believe it was Anne Howard Bailey and Charles Pratt.

He was actually just a few years younger than the actors who played Martin on Peyton Place. John Hoyt was born in 1905, George Macready was born in 1899, and Wilfrid Hyde-White was born in 1903.

If I remember correctly, around April or May 1986, they started showing scenes involving the mystery man who owned Liberty House, the apartment building that because the central focus during the last months of Search. It was implied he knew Jo and may have been a man from her past. The storyline was quickly dropped and then Jack Betts' David Glenn showed up.

The SB characters were the mother Caroline Wilson (Lenore Kasdorf), biracial daughter Alice Jackson (Marie-Alise Recasner), white daughter Jane Wilson (Jane Sibbets), Alice's father Gus (David Wolos-Fonteno), and cop Paul Whitney (Stoney Jackson). I believe Patrick was referring to Stoney Jackson as the miscast romantic lead.

I had no idea that Carolyn Ann Clarke wasn't the first Lesley Ann Monroe. Apparently, Jacquelin Perkel originated the role. Interestingly, I worked with Perkel on a project at Rutgers University back around 2008. She was an executive with the Rutgers Foundation at that point.

Yates opted not to renew his contract. Earlier this year, someone posted an article about him returning to GL for three weeks to wrap up his story around January 1982. So he was gone long before Kobe/Long. Gray continued on until around June 1983. For a time, it seemed like a Katie/Justin/Eve triangle was being considered.

Joyce was also a producer/story editor on The Real World.

Yes. The older man is Dr. Steve Jackson, who was the late Leslie Bauer's father. Thus, he is Rick Bauer's grandfather. Peter Chapman was a doctor and involved with Holly. He was played by the late Curt Dawson who also played DA Zack Colton on Another World.

George Mitchell was the actor who originated the role of Matthew Morgan. He only appeared in a few episodes when he was replaced by the much younger Thayer David.

I didn't mind that opening ATWT had from 2007 to 2009, but that final opening with the title on the spinning globe was the worst.

Another World's final graphic can't be credited to Goutman. That change was made by Jill Farren Phelps in March 1996. Goutman didn't take over as executive producer until the fall of 1998.

Aside from Taggart and Simon, I am curious to see what James Harmon Brown has to say. There was an interesting situation with him on Facebook a few years ago. There was a fun thread on one of the groups about the best soap murder mysteries. Lots of ideas came up: Diana Taylor on GH, Eliot Dorn on EON, Diane Ballard and Joe Bradley on GL. Then this one guy chimed in about the Loving murders. He touted about what a great story it was but never divulged that he was Jim Brown, one of the scribes behind the story. A few of us had gone to his FB page and saw who he was. It was amusing to us that he was anonymously raving about his own work.

Cool information! Culliton and Long's material started airing in May 1983. After Browne and Palumbo departed, it appears that Carolyn DeMoney Culliton, Richard Culliton, and Gary Tomlin served as interim head writers until Long arrived. And the switch from Ryder to Barrett happened as early as July 1986. I've seen episodes online from July 1986 where Barrett is credited.

And Reena's character went from "bad girl" to "good girl". She started evolving when she got involved with Max Dekker and then regressed when Max died. She again evolved to being a "good girl" when she fell for Grant Wheeler, though still had her edge. Reena was one of my favorite characters, and Carla Borelli is one of my all-time favorite actresses. I would have loved to see Carla as Liza Sentell on Search for Tomorrow after Sherry Mathis had left. She would have been amazing.

Ashley was a reformed bad girl. When she was introduced, Terry Dekker made some biting remarks about Ashley's scheming nature and said she couldn't be trusted. She was a secretary at World Oil known for sleeping with the married executives. The character changed a lot as the writers changed. I don't recall her being a wealthy heiress when she was introduced; she was a secretary whose wealthy aunt Hildy was good friends with Iris.

I believe that was Elizabeth Swackhamer as Suzy. I'm not sure how long she played the role but it wasn't very long.