robbwolff

Thanks for continuing to do these! They're all so fascinating. Stephen Newman's Mike Marshall first appeared on Another World, likely in July 1980. He committed suicide on AW and the ramifications of his death continued on Texas. I recall AW airing Mike's funeral service, which was very long.

Mary was in talks to join GL in 1987. She stated so in one interview. However, her character was to be called Hannah Bauer. That was during the period Sheri Anderson was head writer. I'm not sure how Hannah was supposed to be related to the rest of the Bauer family.

To be fair, it was really Doug Marland who introduced the Lewis family. Josh and Trish arrived when Marland was head writer. And Billy and HB were both mentioned by name when Marland was writing. I'm not sure how much of Marland's vision for Billy and HB that Long used. I do remember Billy mentioning his ex-wife Joanna in the summer of 1983. When the character finally showed up that fall, Joanna's named had been changed to Reva.

Was Edelstein writing HTSAM when David Bachman had his fatal heart attack? I was around 11 at the time and those scenes were riveting. I would love to see Edelsten's stint on HTSAM. I wasn't impressed with his short stint as head writer of The Doctors in the 1969 reruns. There was a noticeable shift in the writing as soon as Rita Lakin left. There was a unique intelligence in the writing when Lakin was there that disappeared as soon as she was gone. I think he only last five or six months before Ira Avery replaced him. I would love to know what Edelstein planned for Julie Forrest, who changed drastically under Ira Avery and Stanley Silverman.

Dick? I remember Mitch Farmer, but I don't recall a character named Dick.

I loved Paige. She was such a great character compared to her drippy sisters Courtney and Dawn. Lisby Larson had incredible chemistry with Daniel Davis as Eliot. It was disappointing that they aborted the Paige/Eliot pairing so quickly.

Paige got involved with TJ Canfield who years earlier had been involved with Ashley. In time, she became an alcoholic and accidentally burned down the Marshall home. A few weeks later, there was a flood and Ashley's car was swept away and she was believed to be dead. I think it was more so Ashley's return that was the miracle, not the birth of Katherine Paige. Gregory, who was Ashley's son by TJ, was certain Ashley would return and so she did at Christmas, carried in the arms of the angel Seth.

As I recall, he did help her create the show and was supposed to be the head writer. Loving, originally titled Love without End, was supposed to debut in March 1983. Wakefield dropped out, Marland replaced him, and the debut was delayed until June 1983.

As I recall, the Dark Shadows bible stated that Paul Stoddard was her father.

Out of curiosity, what is the source for her credits? Her Search credit is clearly wrong. Gary Tomlin was head writer for the first part of 1986. Walsh arrived around June 1986 and was there till the end in December 1986, not January 1987. She was also a co-head writer for ATWT.

Wow. I had no idea that was Travis. Thanks for sharing that!!

I had watched most of the show in syndication back in the 1980s when they started with the introduction of Barnabas. I finally got a chance to watch the pre-Barnabas episodes this past year. It was interesting to see how the show started out, but I was personally bored by some of the material. My interest finally grew when they fully embraced the supernatural elements.

Most people on the soap boards are saying they don't see a noticeable difference, largely because the same dialogue writers are in place. The Brezes' writing credit is different from previous head writers. They're billed as "Story by Mel and Ethel Brez." If I remember correctly, Mel was one of three co-head writers on ATWT in the 90s.

That synopsis is slightly incorrect. The guy's name was Bryan -- with a a Y, not an I. He was a henchman for the Spauldings, I believe. As for Mark, I believe his real name was Mark Evans and his alias was Samuel Pasquin. Mark was married to Jennifer and having an affair with her daughter Amanda.

With all due respect, is it a good idea to be posting a link to the above video on this board? Since Retro is already aware that people are posting episodes on YouTube and DailyMotion, and is getting those channels shut down, isn't this putting MontyB's channel at risk of being shut down? Not trying to stir up trouble here. Just asking a legitimate question.

Victoria did post one photo of herself about two years ago. She still looks the same. Carmen's passing hit me a bit today. Ironically, I was watching clips of Mac's death yesterday. For some reason, I purposely went to the scene where Rachel tells Iris that Mac is gone. Carmen's performance was so raw and powerful; the scenes between Carmen and Gretchen Oehler as Vivien were so special to watch again after all these years.

Interesting as usual! One correction. Peter Burnell left The Doctors in 1973. He was dropped shortly after Joe Stuart took over as executive producer. He left around August/September 1973, and Michael Landrum assumed the role around May 1974. As always, thanks for putting these together!

The second actress to play Connie — Cynthia Bostick — also appeared on Texas.

We're now in May 1977. Supposedly, she's around through December 1977 or January 1978.

Carolee soon will go head to head with Mona. Their conflict in the show's later years, and Carolee standing up to Mona, is a real highlight.

I, too, believe it was Kobe behind the cast changes. Long had introduced Jim Reardon with the intention that he would be part of a love triangle with Hillary and Katie. I remember that being touted in the soap press. But the story never came to pass. I would have hated to see friction between Hillary and Katie over a man, but was disappointed when Hillary and then Katie were both dropped from the show.

I love the extras who’ve appeared over the years, especially Dorothy Butts. But I’m always amused about how busy they are answering the phone during the closing credits when the phone seldom rings during the actual show.

This is what Petronia had to say in a 2011 We Love Soaps interview: I played Jessie Rollins, she was a black doctor and I (originally) was brought on to be the love interest of a white character. But they had another black/white romance on another soap that had not gone well. The woman playing the part, the black actor, had been fired, because people didn't like the story line, so that didn't work out. So, originally, I was brought on for this kind of setup, but somewhere along the way, they realized it wasn't going to go anywhere, maybe because of the other situation, and that was dropped. And I was terribly new, and inexperienced, and not very good at it, and I was let go.

Lemay actually expanded the Perrini family before the show's expansion to 90 minutes in March 1979. Rose and Joey arrived in April 1978, nearly a year before the show's expansion. The family that Lemay expanded in March 1979 were the Simpsons -- Eileen's aunt and uncle Rita and Paul Connelly (a love interest for Rose) and Eileen's brother Morgan (played by Gary Tomlin). Lemay was gone by May 1979. The Perrinis and Simpsons, with the exception of Joey, were all phased out during Tom King/Robert Soderberg's stint. And, no, Cory was never SORASed. I had always hoped Cory would show up, especially during Carmen Duncan's time as Iris. I envisioned him stirring up lots of trouble.

I believe Marland planned an interracial romance for Jessie but it was nixed.