robbwolff

A friend who worked behind the scenes at the P&G shows reached out to Alan WEEEKS AGO and asked Alan if he wanted to be put in contact with Eileen. Eileen is not in great health; my friend (who is very close with her) said he's not sure she would be up for this.

That’s not possible. Santa Barbara is listed and it went off the air in January 1993.

I don't believe it had been decades since soaps had aired live. According to the Edge of Night homepage, Edge stopped its live shows in September 1975. As for the live Search episode, you can find it on YouTube. The show's video operator shared the episode a few years ago. He pretty much confirms it was a publicity stunt by executive producer Joanna Lee and says that the tape hadn't been lost. He says that he knew it was a historic professional moment for him so he asked the engineering department to do the control room audio.

Highly doubtful. It's very difficult to fire state employees here in Jersey. Bottom line is she is still listed on the state payroll for the first quarter of 2020. Since there are five commissioners, she's likely chief of staff specifically for Commissioner Gordon.

I'm not sure if the complete bible is online, but Casiello's blog had a four-part series examining Marland's bible. It starts here: http://casiello.blogspot.com/2009/01/great-marlands-ghost-part-one.html

I mostly agree except for the the summer of 1982 with that ridiculous Republic of Eden storyline. It started off with such promise but then fell apart. To do this day, I don't understand why they cast Mark Andrews (Chad Sutherland). Yeah, he was cute but he was a terrible actor. I also loved Poppy and Eddie. Poppy was so much fun.

Yes, Giancarlo Esposito portrayed Clay. Matt Davenport didn't last long. A month or two, I believe. He was portrayed by James Carroll, who later played Leo Burnell on Loving. I never understood why GL didn't do more with Alex and Alan's sister Victoria.

January 1993.

L. Virginia Browne and Gene Palumbo were at Guiding Light from around December 1982 to March 1983. They aged Phillip and Rick, and wrote out Sara, Gracie, Jennifer, Tim, and Ivy. They introduced a number of new characters: Matt Davenport, a doctor who was involved with Maureen in New York; nurse Helen Tynan and her son Clay; and ballerina Susannah who was a romantic interest for Tony. I think Clay was friends with Rick and Phillip. At some point, Rick and Phillip became friends with Morgan. According to an interview with Browne on the Another World Home Page, she said that Scherming said GL went into a slump when she took over as head writer but that she took the show from 8th to 3rd in the ratings while she was there. She claims she was fired after Gail Kobe replaced Allen Potter. She claims that GL continued to use her bible and kept her credited as head writer for another 9 months. Not true at all. As the credits from the March episodes on YouTube show, she was out of the credits by March 1983. She makes similar false claims about Another World crediting her as head writer after she had departed.

How cool. Thanks for sharing that. I actually work for the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy where Beth took classes. I had no idea she had been a student there. Tom Pelphrey is another Rutgers graduate -- he went to the Mason Gross School of the Arts. Bloustein and Mason Gross share the same building.

Cool find! I believe images from the Hillary/Tony scene were later used in the disco opening credits circa 1982-83.

It was actually September not March. That said, Raven’s speech in that episode was riveting.

Yep. I didn't see yesterday's episode so I'm not sure which was their first episode.

Today's episode of The Doctors on Retro, which originally aired in December 1979, listed Ellis and Hunt as the head writers.

I was actually just about to say that. I have a feeling it was someone from Texas and Carla would have been perfect. The character was referenced in the summer of 1983 and was referred to as Joanna, not Reva. It also could have been Caryn Richman, who played Elena on Texas. There was talk in 1983 of Richman joining GL

The article was fascinating. I had no idea that there was interest in Lemay head writing TD as early as 1980.

I don't believe so.

Actually, that's not accurate according to a Jon-Michael Reed article that just surfaced online. It was published in October 1980. Reed said that NBC fired Quinlan in late September/early October 1980 after Colgate-Palmolive sold the show to NBC. She was replaced by Jim Baffico. Rothenberger did join the show but was a line producer, not executive producer. The article also says that Ellis and Hunt were hired as head writers in 1979. That actually matches what the woman who transcribes The Doctors for Retro said. About a month or so ago, she indicated that Ellis' name already showed up in the writing credits. So Ellis/Hunt were onboard by late 1979/early 1980. The article also states that Quinlan and Colgate-Palmolive wanted to fire Ellis and Hunt and replace them with Harding Lemay. But then the show was sold to NBC and NBC opted to keep Ellis/Hunt as head writers.

Yep. But Coming of Age was a possible NBC soap.

Poor baby has to work 5 days a week. Welcome to the club, Antonio.

Margaret DePriest created an unaired soap for NBC set at a newspaper in Chicago, I believe. The title was "Deadline." Variety announced it in the mid-80s.

I swear I had read at one point that Pat was supposed to be part of Texas. It makes sense since they were playing with a Kevin/Pat pairing. A Daytime TV issue in early 1980 stated that Russ Matthews was slated to be part of the new soap, which was then titled Another World: Houston. Also, Texas was originally supposed to premiere on June 30, but then was postponed until August 4. Makes me wonder if the postponement was meant to weave Iris into the story.

I have to disagree with Culliton about living in lofts not belonging in a midwestern setting. When I've been in that area of the country, I've gone house hunting and have looked at lofts a number of times.

Interesting piece about the late Catherine Burns, who was the original Cathy Craig on OLTL: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/catherine-burns-inside-50-year-disappearance-an-oscar-nominee-1275646

A friend shared this with me on Facebook. A post today from Walt Willey: