robbwolff

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.

There was a soap article with Marland during this stint on "The Doctors" where he was less than gracious about Elizabeth Hubbard (who constantly changed the dialogue and the other writers had written) and Julia Duffy (who quit the show when he had major plans for her character). He came across a bit whiny during that interview.

Rick's return wasn't a short-term visit. He stayed around until early 1991. Sheri Anderson was head writer at that time and seemed intent on beefing up the presence of the Bauers through Johnny's family members. Of course, those weren't the Bauers that viewers wanted to see. As I recollect, Mary Stuart was even supposed to join the show in 1987 as Hannah Bauer. Hope Bauer was slated to return in 1986. Then head writer Jeff Ryder talked about Hope returning in a Soap Opera Digest interview. I might be wrong, but I think he even mentioned Alan-Michael in that interview. In the same interview, he also discussed introducing Sarah and Rusty Shayne. Weeks later, Ryder was out and Mary Ryan Munisteri's disastrous reign began.

As I recollect. one fan favorite did return around the 50th anniversary week: Rick Bauer. Rick had left Springfield earlier that year and then returned in late June/early July. Around that time, the soap press made a big deal about GL beefing up the Bauer family by reintroducing Rick, introducing a SORAsed Alan-Michael, and adding Johnny's sister Lacey. Plus, Johnny and Lacey's brother Todd was supposedly going to show up.

Yes, he was the one who wrote Althea out. In the interview that Carl referenced in this thread, Marland also described how Liz would frequently rewrite dialogue, which apparently didn't sit well with the scribe. He also complained about Julia Duffy leaving the role of Penny so abruptly and said that it was very unprofessional since he and the show had invested a lot of time in the character and had major story planned for her. I guess once Penny left, the feeling was there was no room for Althea. I remember reading that interview and feeling dismayed about Marland's opinions of the show. He felt it needed to be retooled to focus on family. Hence, the show focused on the Powers, Aldrich, and Dancy families. Reading that article, I got the impression that Marland truly didn't understand the concept of The Doctors.

I wouldn't count Christie out quite yet. I live in NJ and work for a local university. We're hearing rumblings that he may be up for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor with the goal to bust unions. Not sure if it's true, but the source is highly reliable.

I recall reading The Wonderful World of TV Soap Operas, which was published in 1974. A section of the book about Guiding Light referred to "Bauer Power". So the term apparently predated Allen Potter's stint as executive producer.

Thanks. You just gave me the 'OK' to skip everything from 'January 1972- last week'. I hate playing 'catch up'. If you skip those months, you're missing some amazing plot points and riveting performances.

I don't believe Hibbard was the killer. He was a red herring. I think the killer was a character named Rivera, played by Lloyd Battista from Love of Life.

Thank you! I thought that was Vernee Watson. By the by, the late Angela Thornton was the mother of Adam Storke, who played Ryder on Search for Tomorrow in 1985-1986.

Though I doubt it's her, the redhead bears a striking resemblance to Mary Kay Adams.

The Vicky Spaulding in the 90/00s was a different character than the one introduced in 1984. Victoria Tamberlaine was introduced in 1984 as the daughter of Brandon and Sharina. Vicky Spaulding was Victoria Tamberlaine's daughter. When Vicky showed up and was revealed to be Brandon's granddaughter, there was a throwaway line that Victoria Tamberlaine was dead.

It's Cricket Montgomery (Lisa Loring) and Cody Sullivan (Beau Gravitte). LOL..as if that promo would bring viewers in!!..(but I have to wonder, were they going to a rodeo or something???) I have to say, the overacting maniac on SFT really wanted me to see the rest of this storyline which I am sure would be a hoot! The overacting maniac is Peter Burnell who can currently be seen as Dr. Mike Powers in reruns of The Doctors on Retro TV. His acting on The Doctors is nothing like what you see in that SFT clip. His work on TD was understated and poignant. When Mike was over the top (for instance when he recently tried to jump off the hospital roof while high on drugs), the performance was dramatic and powerful. Having seen some other bits of his SFT story online, it's clear that the character was meant to be over the top.

It's Cricket Montgomery (Lisa Loring) and Cody Sullivan (Beau Gravitte).

I thought there was some kind of fake marriage between Hillary and Fletcher in order for them to get out of San Rios.