robbwolff

Agree completely. I very much liked Browne's stint and liked Canary as Steve Frame. I think he worked well with Victoria Wyndham. I think the problems were the poor recasting of Alice with Linda Borgeson. (I actually liked Vana Tribbey in the role of Alice.) And I shudder at the name Corrine Jacker. Truly one of the worst writers to grace daytime television.

I believe Luke Dancy has something to do with the restaurant that appears soon. Marland alters the show by centering it on the Powers, Aldrich, and Dancy families as opposed to Hope Memorial. Lots of changes are coming up. One central character has a career change. Jason Aldrich returns as a lawyer as opposed to the doctor he was under the Pollocks. MJ goes from being the granddaughter of Emma Simpson's husband Andrew to being Carolee's cousin. I've read that when Ethel and Mel Brez take over writing that character continuity gets even worse. I like flashbacks, but I felt that the Pollocks overused them. They got better with it after some time but I recall times when they'd have flashbacks that lasted upwards of four or five minutes.

I believe Cenedella exits around February 1976 and is replaced by DePriest, who is in turn replaced by Marland a few months later. Personally, I think the Pollocks were overrated. I liked their first few years of TD but tuned out when Retro got to the late 1973 episodes. Their constant use of flashbacks (which we didn't see until they arrived) and recapping was irritating. So much of their time was spent on a lackluster character like Ann Larimer. They resorted over and over to stories of Hope Memorial staff having medical crises. Worst of all was they drastically altered the personalities of some of the show's characters. Carolee became an ordinary soap heroine, mostly devoid of the humor and charm she had in her early years. Cathy Ryker went from a sexually free conniver to an obsessed psycho. That said, there are some good moments yet to come, but mostly a lot of uneven dreck, especially in the last few years.

And thanks for doing these. They're amazing!!!

I believe Hubbard was on TD until 1977, not 1976. Marland was head writing when she left and complained in an interview about Julia Duffy leaving abruptly as he had to change his plans. That was in 1977. And Curry wasn’t on GL for three years. Monti Sharp was playing David Grant into 1995. I think Curry was there from 1995 to 1996.

Tichina Arnold also moved from RH to AMC.

If I remember correctly, Guiding Light has taped Reva’s failed wedding to Kyle at the same church that OLTL later used for the AIDS quilt storyline.

Indeed, OLTL did a remote shoot at Odyssey House. I believe there was also a remote in Central Park.

According to the Another World Home Page, Cenedella wrote both AW and Somerset from March to December 1970. He continued at AW till he was replaced by Lemay in August 1971. Supposedly, there is a Somerset bible floating around. I would love to see it.

I really liked Carol Pfander as Cathy. She was such an interesting character. I liked both of her replacements but especially liked Carol in the role.

Cathy predated the Pollocks. She arrived in the spring of 1970 when Ira Avery and Stanley Silverman were head writers. I'd argue that the Pollocks actually ruined the character by taking a sexually free woman and turning her into a clinging baby-obsessed lunatic. The forthcoming story you're referring to was actually very well done and riveting. I remember the story sucking me in because it was so real, so true to life. Plus it affects the relationships and friendships of Matt, Maggie, Carolee, and Steve. Very exciting times are ahead with that storyline.

I, too, long for the Pollocks to be gone. I liked some of their initial work but bailed around early 1974. They’ve destroyed so many characters. They took a funny and sexually independent woman like Cathy Ryker and made her a clinging neurotic who lost her mind. They’ve stripped Carolee of her sense of humor and turned her into a run of the mill cliched soap heroine. As for Steve, he bares little resemblance to the charming cad he once was. I keep seeing people say that it’s all down hill once the Pollocks leave. BS. It’s nothing like it was when Rita Lakin was writing but there are good times to come.

Cenedella is next. His work started in August 1975 days after Jeff Young became producer.

I don’t think it’s a matter of that ability leaving soap writers. Rather, soaps have been adjusting their format to appeal to modern viewers. And it’s just not soaps. In academic research, we’re reevaluating ways to promote our research in a variety of ways since our constituents don’t have long attention spans. For years, soaps have been tinkering with their formats in this regard. Port Charles went for 13-week arcs. Most soaps sped up their stories. One Life and All My Kids contemplated 13-week arcs as well. Watching the reruns of The Doctors on Retro, the shorter arcs are not new. The Doctors was doing them in the 1967-1970 era.

The anniversary week is on classicGL's YT page. The series is called "Shine the Light." Here's the first segment:

According to an interview with Stuart, she left TD with the intention to not do soaps again. GH kept bugging her to join the cast. She eventually agreed to a one-year contract. I recall seeing an interview after she left TD where she was very vocal about her unhappiness with the show and the direction that the writers take Mike Powers in, in terms of his career.

There was CO2 at the mall.

Thanks! The info. on the Another World Home Page could be wrong. The tidbit about Ellie was taken from a synopsis in December 1985. It could be from a soap magazine, which always mess up details.

According to Eddie Drueding, Ellie was the daughter-in-law of Michael's brother Eugene Garrison. I recall Josephine Nichols (Kate Marshall on Texas) appeared on AW around the same time. Was she Michael's aunt Bertha or somehow connected with the man that Donna had hired to impersonate Michael?

I thought the story was that NBC wanted to keep SFT going through March 1987, not another full year, but that Procter and Gamble wouldn't agree to that. I've read that a few times. That would keep in line with executive producer David Lawrence's statement that he believed SFT would air through March.

And at NBC, SFT and Generations were cancelled under his watch. Personally, I think the man more than earned the lackluster reputation he has.

He was long gone from NBC and had nothing to do with Passions. I think Susan Lee was in charge when Passions was launched.

What was the last new soap commissioned?

I was a GL fan on and off for nearly 20 years but finally bailed when the mob surfaced in Springfield and we had to put up with that San Cristobel dreck. I've lived in NJ my entire life and I still can't comprehend why Ellen Wheeler settled on Peapack for the location shoots. That setting didn't match the Springfield we all knew and loved. I remember scratching my head when Cassie had parked on a country road when she went to Towers. That made no sense. Trust me, folks. Peapack is a lovely town. A very affluent area. But that didn't come across on screen at all. I think the location filming premise at the end could have worked had there been better equipment, better sound, better lighting, and less of it. What would have made sense was to simply go 30 minutes south of Peapack to New Brunswick and film there on occasion to supplement the in-studio scenes. New Brunswick is more reminiscent of the Springfield we saw for so many years: a mid-sized city with hospitals, high rises, various socioeconomic classes, affluent areas, struggling communities, parks, mansions, and even a university (Rutgers). Had Wheeler filmed there instead -- and only on occasion -- it could have worked. The inclusion of Springfield university would have driven character and story. And filming in that area would have enhanced what we saw on screen. It was a missed opportunity.

Good question. I think she could have passed as his mother. Viewers bought Ellen Wheeler as her daughter and Ellen was only a few years younger than Hank. Viewers bought Stephen Yates as Rachel's son Jamie and there was only a three-year age difference between them!