robbwolff

The first arc of the storyline started in the fall of 1979. The story ended in January 1981 with the revelation of Molly being the killer. That week, EON was the talk in my high school, not Luke and Laura for a change! Mady Kaplan played Bobbie Gerard, a waitress at Sid's Tavern. Bobbie was part of the next big stories. She had dated Matt Sharkey, the orderly who had impregnated Emily. Bobbie went to work as a maid for the Whitneys in hopes of proving Gavin Wylie's innocence in the killing of Gunther Wagner, but ended up being murdered by Jefferson Brown/Sky Whitney.

Nancy's nephew Kelly had a clown puppet that was used to cover the hand of a person who murdered club owner Eliot Dorn. The story began when vixen Raven's mother Nadine died in a car accident. A few weeks later, Eliot was killed and then attorney Cliff Nelson was attacked as well. There were a few suspects, including Raven, who had had an affair with Eliot, and Kelly. In time, the killer was revealed to be Molly Sherwood, the meek and friendly housekeeper of April Scott. Before working for April, Molly had worked for Dr. Leo Gault and his daughter Emily. Molly was a mother figure to Emily and very protective of her. April's hubby Draper had amnesia for a time and came to live with the Gaults who found him after a train crash (a long complicated story). Draper regained his memory and reunited with April, leaving Emily distraught and suicidal. To protect Emily, Molly decided to eliminate the competition: April. However, Raven's mother Nadine ingested the poisoned tea and crashed her car. Molly then killed Eliot, whom she believed knew about her crime. It was a long complicated story and details are available on the Edge of Night homepage. It truly showed the brilliance of head writer Henry Slesar who effortlessly wove together three main stories (the murder of April's mother Margo Dorn, Draper's amnesia and connection with the Gaults, and the clown puppet story). As a result, we got a year of dynamic storytelling.

Really? I don't recall him showing up at that time. Did he have any significant scenes?

Jody Lee definitely vanished when Edelstein was writing though was later mentioned visiting family. As for Liz, her send-off was hasty like Anna's. Out of the blue, she's off to visit her dad. So she did get some final scenes before Pamela Toll moved over to Somerset. But, overall, a disappointing end to such a memorable character.

I believe Anna departs in October 1970, in the first month of the Pollocks' tenure as head writer. It's a shame Zaida left the show. She was an amazing actress and Anna was one of my favorite characters. None of the writers post Rita Lakin seemed to know what to do with her.

Father Donnelly was introduced during the Anne Howard Bailey period - 1988.

I thought that episode was 60 minutes, not 90 minutes. From everything I've read over the years, the only soaps to air 90-minute episodes were How to Survive a Marriage, The Edge of Night, and Another World.

I was a Marland fan and tend to think he would have written them in a memorable way. Had Marland stayed, I don't think we would have seen the declawing of Vanessa. I loved the chemistry Jordan Clarke and Maeve Kinkead had as Billy and Vanessa, but don't like the fact that she was changed so radically during Long's stint. I'm curious what Long's original plans were in terms of HB. When he first appeared, it seemed like Long was planting the seeds for a Bert/HB romance. But then HB was shifted in Reva's direction. Had Charita Bauer not gotten ill in 1983, I'm wonder if there would have been an HB/Reva pairing. When Billy's ex-wives were first mentioned in the summer of 1983, the most recent ex-wife was referred to as "Joanna." Of course, by the time autumn came around, the character had been renamed Reva.

While he may not have been paired with Vanessa, it's very possible that Billy might have shown up if Marland had continued writing. Ditto HB. The character of Billy Lewis was mentioned in a clip Robert Newman recently posted showing his scenes from his first episode in October 1981. Josh's first scenes were with Trish, Amanda, Mike, Jennifer, and Morgan, and he and Trish talk about Billy. I believe HB was also mentioned during the Marland era.

If I remember correctly, Maureen's funeral was never shown. We only saw the aftermath of the funeral and a fleeting reference to the Reardon family being present. Frankly, I wasn't surprised that they didn't appear. Besides Bea, Chelsea, and Bridget, we never saw the rest of the Reardon family interact with Ellen Parker's Maureen. Lisa Brown, Michael Woods, Greg Beecroft, Michael Tylo, and Harley Kozak had all appeared alongside Ellen Dolan's Maureen. Had Dolan still been playing Maureen, I think they might have brought back the Reardons as they would have been able to use flashbacks to remember the character.

Chris, I will private message you the link. The folks that post the episodes ask that the link not be shared publicly because the episodes have been pulled for copyright issues.

Elise Neal was outstanding as Janie. I recall being so disappointed that the character was killed off so quickly (a plane crash, wasn't it?). Such wasted potential. Frankly, after Janie was gone, I lost interest in Loving and tuned out till the end of the series then the murders kicked off.

Loved today's episodes. Absolutely nail biting. I actually feel sorry for Cathy. The character really has evolved dramatically since we first met her. I try to avoid spoilers but I think John's around until sometime in 1974. Joe Stuart should be taking over as producer of The Doctors sometime in the next six months. According to Susan Bedsow Horgan, whose husband Patrick played John Morrison, Stuart fired Patrick Horgan in 1974.

I'm not sure she's initially an ingenue. No spoilers, but from what I've read she's quite the hellion for a few years before she mellows and becomes an ingenue. That makes sense since she was a bit of a troublemaker and rebellious when Jami Fields played the role.

I believe it was sometime in November 1969. After months of references to the character, Dr. Ann Larimer (played by Geraldine Court) showed up on yesterday's episodes of The Doctors (from January 1973).

It was a scene set in the park around September 1969 after some kind of a fight between Mike Powers and his girlfriend Nancy Bennett. He was bouncing a ball and reciting something like "M, my name is Mike and I'm come from Madison." That's the only reference to the name of the city thus far. As for the state where Madison is located, it's been suggested that Madison is in upstate New York.

I believe that is Ann Williams. She died in December 1985. Right around the time of this commercial, she appeared on Guiding Light as a blind woman.

Contrary to what that video says, I don't think that's Carolyn Jones. She resembles her but the voice and eye color are different than Jones'.

It wasn't only her time on GL where her recollections were wrong. She claims to have been head writer of Another World from November 1980 to November 1982 and that she received head writing credit during that period. Not true. Her head writing credit was removed in November/December 1981 when the awful Corinne Jacker took over. She claims that AW continued to user her bible after she left to join Marland at GL in late 1981/early 1982.

I'm really curious as to who wrote the Annabelle storyline. Browne claims that Guiding Light used her bible until late 1983 though she left the show by late March/early April. Annabelle was actually introduced in April 1983, the period where Carolyn DeMoney Culliton and Gary Tomlin were serving as interim head writers. And the story with the mysterious photo kicked off when Pamela Long Hammer and Richard Culliton arrived in May.

Yep. I was just going to say the same thing. Long declawed both Vanessa and Nola. I loved the rivalry between the two of them. Their cat fight over wearing the same dress at Nola and Quinton's engagement party is a classic. But, very quickly, Long neutered Vanessa through her relationship with Billy. Once Reva arrived in the fall of 1983, she indeed overshadowed Nola and Vanessa. By the following year, Vanessa was hooked on tranquilizers and a totally different character in many respects. According to an interview I read with Kozak, she indeed quit Guiding Light. Her two-year contract was up and she decided to leave to try film and primetime TV. She was through with soaps at that point but accepted the role on Santa Barbara to get herself to California. Bea stuck around Springfield through the fall of 1985. I think she left around the time of Lujack's death -- around November or December 1985. So Long was still writing the show at that time. I remember reading about the character's exit in the weekly soap recaps that appeared in my local newspaper. Sheri Anderson and Joe Manetta reintroduced Bea in the fall of 1986 around the time Chelsea was introduced. Long dropped the character in 1987 or 1988.

Falken Smith was at Guiding Light for a very short time -- perhaps late September to late November 1982. I don't really recall much of her stories aside from the introduction of Mona/Rebecca; the formation of Los Tres Amigos, a company founded by Josh, Ross, and Amanda; and a house that was being moved crashing into the Reardon's boarding house, leading to the introduction of the restaurant Tony & Company.

Not according to Browne. In her remarks to the Another World Home Page back in 2006, she said: Christopher Schemering wrote a book called the "Soap Opera Encyclopedia" and, in it, he says that I took over Guiding Light and it then went into a "slump." I was pretty darned surprised as, within four months of becoming head writer, I had raised the ratings by two full points and our position from 8th to 3rd. In fact, the folks at P&G filled my office with flowers to congratulate me. Ken Fitts (a P&G exec) said he hoped we'd be working together for years. The VERY NEXT DAY, Allen Potter, the executive producer, announced he was leaving to be replaced by Gail Kobe and she fired me -- the very next day after receiving all those flowers and wishes for years and years of working together. And then they continued to use my bible for 9 more months and kept my name on the credits as headwriter for that long. Her claim that she was credited as head writer for 9 more months is totally incorrect. She and Palumbo were out of the credits by April 1983 and Carolyn DeMoney Culliton, Richard Culliton, and Gary Tomlin was listed as head writers.

It was Julie Poll's book that mentioned that Paul Kincaid was Bill's son. Others have pointed out that Poll's book had lots of errors so she may have been wrong about Paul's paternity. Falken Smith's replacements, L. Virginia Browne and Gene Palumbo, seemed to maintain the core of Guiding Light during their four-month stint though they dropped Sara McIntyre. According to Browne, Gail Kobe fired her. Browne also claimed that Guiding Light used her bible for about a year. I wonder how true that was.

According to the GL anniversary book, Paul was the son of Bill and Simone, though the information in the book may have been wrong. I saw the interview on one of The Doctors message boards sometime in the past year. It was very insightful because it showed Marland was clueless about The Doctors. He said that soaps are about families and that he was restructuring the show around the Powers, Aldrich, and Dancy families. Having watched the reruns on Retro, it's clear families were secondary to the staff of Hope Memorial Hospital. I'll see if I can find that article. It was quite interesting.