robbwolff

Jada is the Carolee that was there when I watched The Doctors back in the 70s and 80s. So it's great to see her though I do miss Carolee Campbell. My husband told me his mom watched The Doctors and "hated the new Carolee." In the spring of 1977, a new character appears named Jeffie Rowland. Not sure how long he lasts but Jada Rowland's brother was named Jeffrey. You're right about Althea no longer being an essential part of the puzzle. I think that's why Marland writes her out. In one interview, he was not pleased with Hubbard rewriting her dialogue.

Cool insight about the name of the board member Beatrice. Myra Sofronski was the topic of conversation on a Doctors group on Facebook. Sofronski was her married name. She had been married to Bernard Sofronski who was a producer on Search for Tomorrow and Another World. Bernard is now married to actress Susan Dey (The Partridge Family, LA Law). Myra's maiden name was Tamarkin. Myra Tamarkin supposedly was a writer on Search at one point in the 60s or 70s. Nancy Franklin started writing for TD under Margaret DePriest. Her name has been in the credits for a least a month or two. In the Facebook group I mentioned, there has been much speculation that Marland had heavily edited DePriest's scripts in the weeks before his arrival.

I agree. I didn't like her at first but she grew up on me quickly and really impressed me with her performances.

I believe that poster is adding episodes as he has time. His channels have been pulled a few times so it's time consuming restoring all the episodes.

Retro started with the December 1967 episodes. I remember people expressing their disappointment that we missed out on seeing the death of Althea's son Buddy earlier that year and didn't get to meet Mike Powers' first wife Valerie. I'm pretty sure that the company said earlier episodes do exist but they decided to start with the December 1967 episodes, which saw the introductions of Steve Aldrich and Karen Werner.

Thanks. I remember watching when he suffered the heart attack. It was powerful.

Who was head writer when Dave Bachmann died?

As I recollect, the big story during his stint involved Mike Powers who was in love with physical therapist Nancy Bennett, whose blind husband Paul returned from the dead. Also in the mix was Shana Golan who had nursed Paul back to health. Paul was played by James Shannon. Shannon's acting was over the top and painful to watch. The other story involved an amnesiac Althea. By September, Nancy, Paul, and Shana were gone. Edelstein then introduced Julie Forrest who came to live with the Powers. By November, Edelstein was gone, replaced by Ira Avery.

Lakin was amazing, but I wasn't impressed with Edelstein's short stint as head writer in 1969.

I have to admit that I very much liked DePriest's writing. It was nowhere as wonderful as it was during Rita Lakin's stint but it was mostly entertaining and interesting. Her writing for the Dancys was particularly very good. I'll be curious to see how Marland's work is.

Marland's episodes starting airing today on Retro. Richard Niles was incredible as Rico. Unfortunately, when the character returns in 1975, Chandler Hill Harben takes over the role. Harben's version of Rico is nowhere near as interesting. The fast pace gives way pretty quickly as I recall. Some stories go on forever under the Pollocks. Maggie has a story coming up in 1971 that lazily unfolds over the course of 14 months. Ultimately, it's thrilling to watch but it's very slow to build.

Marland started in September 1976. His first episode airs on Retro this Tuesday from what I read.

It was wrapped up quickly but the story was always meant to be short term, wrapping up completely by Labor Day 1992. As I recall, Andrew gave an impassioned sermon about intolerance to his congregation. Billy came out to the church. Billy's father was pissed and went to slap Billy across the face. Simultaneously, Sloan was haunted by memories of his intolerance toward his own son William and of slapping the boy. Sloan intervened and stopped Billy's father from hitting him. Sloan and Andrew then had a heart-to-heart talk, reconciled, and Sloan joined Andrew in placing William's panel in the quilt. It was hokey but powerful in every way. I don't know if he was instantly down with the cause but rather just realized how much time he had wasted and how much he had lost. I know those scenes changed my life, helping me to break away from an intolerant church that I was involved in.

Carolee's mom Emma is still alive. I think she's written out in late 1972/early 1973. I was so disappointed as I adored the character (she reminded me so much of my late mother). From what I've read, Emma does show up in late 1976. She also returns in 1977 or 1978 for a wedding.

You'll be noticing a big difference very soon. The Pollocks introduce using flashbacks and recaps of scenes from the previous episode. It didn't bother me at first but quickly wore on me. I recall there were at times five-minute-long flashbacks. I loved this version of Cathy. Carol Pfander was outstanding in the role.

The information on Wikipedia is highly inaccurate. Wikipedia shows the Corringtons writing for OLTL in 1983. Henry Slesar and Sam Hall were still head writing OLTL in January 1984, right before the O'Neills were introduced. The Corringtons became head writers sometime later that year. I believe Peggy O'Shea was still at Capitol in early 1984 at the time the O'Neills arrived.

Eileen Kearney was outstanding as Greta. She has some amazing scenes coming up in the fall that were mesmerizing and compelling. I was not impressed with the Pollocks. I liked their work from 1970 to late 1973 but then they lost me. I liked the Dan Allison story but they also turn another current character into a deranged villain. It was a shame to see such an interesting character ruined for the sake of a plot.

Nope. Lew's name changes to Luke while Marland is head writer and while the character is still a cad. I suspect Marland changed it because "Luke" has a sexier ring to it.

I believe Nancy Curlee was co-head writer at the time.

Actually, there's scuttlebutt on a Facebook soap group that Reilly appeared on The Brady Bunch.

And may I add making up stuff about what she said during her Emmy acceptance speech (easily disproven by finding her speech online) and making insinuations about the actress and her motives. So much for that stance on positivity.

I've heard mixed stories. One account was that Jennifer Reilly was a permanent replacement. She only last 2-3 episodes. She was painful to watch, especially in today's episode. She wasn't looking at her acting partner at times, but at the cue cards. In today's episode (aired in August 1976), Greta was said to be 16 years old. Vestoff leaves around May/June 1970 and Hubbard returns in October.

Despite your distaste for the actress, Maureen did become the light and heart of the the show for many fans. She filled the void left by Charita Bauer's passing. Of course, she wasn't in the ranks of Reva, Roger, etc. Maureen was a totally different character -- a supporting character, driven by family, not a career, just like Bert was.

She said no such thing. During her Emmy acceptance speech, she said that fans come up to her on the street calling her "Maureen, Maureen," and that she responds, "I'm dead, I'm dead." She then went on to say she missed her friends at Guiding Light and thanked fans for their support. I remember the discussions on the bulletin boards when Maureen was killed off (pre-Internet, pre-social media). Viewers -- myself included -- were upset that they lost Maureen, not that Ellen Parker had been fired. We had lost an iconic, warm, loving maternal figure. In so many ways, it was akin to losing Bert Bauer again.

Thanks. I had no recollection of that. I lost interest a lot during that Eden nonsense.