SoapDope

Another jarring recast was the sudden firing of Mart Hulswit and the hiring or Peter Simon. I guess Marland brought him over from his stint on ATWT. I grew up with Simon in the role for the most part, but prefer Hulswit. I read that his weight gain was part of the reason he was let go and Marland thought he was fuddy duddy. They also exchanged hairdos. Jackie went short and blonde and Elizabeth went long and brunette.

That was what Bridget Dobson said in an interview I read online. I was puzzled by that too. It's like they were competing against themselves. She said P&G thought of ATWT as the tentpole show or something like that. Here is a sample of the interview: Needless to say, P&G was happy to have GL the number one rated soap. But there was a problem: it was never anticipated that GL would or could be number one. ATWT was supposed to be #1 because of the way it was positioned in the line up, because of its time slot. It was to be the tent-pole, the lynch-pin. Years of research (and decades of storytelling) supported this. Guiding Light was, at best, supposed to be #2, in part due to trickle-down ratings theory. By bringing GL to #1 we had unwittingly sowed chaos in the corporate world. And GL was #1 for months. Executives were tearing their hair, but being careful not to let the Dobsons know of their concerns (except retrospectively). We were popping champagne corks and they were drinking hemlock .

I usually skip most Eve scenes anyway, but youtube commenters rip her apart calling her mush mouth, stupid etc...they also bring up her bad hair do's and dye jobs. I like Katie OK.....Floyd I can only handle in small doses. The Lainie character was kind of a nothing burger. Maybe if they hired a spitfire actress, the character could have become a major character like Justin and Ross and drove story.

Selby Flats sounds similar to Yucca Flat where all the nuclear testing was done....LOL Going back to the late 70's again....why was Janet Grey( Eve) kept on the show as long as she was ? Everyone in the youtube comments complain at how awful she was as an actress. They also kept Katie around for years even though she never had story. Lainie Marler other than being paralyzed and crushing on Ed never really had story and was on for about 3 years.

Allen & Elizabeth Spaulding were like earlier versions of Victor & Julia Newman on Y&R. I wonder if Bell (who said he watched all the soaps to see what they had going) was influenced by that. He was going to have the Newman come in 1979, but waited till the hour expansion in 1980. The Spaulding arrived for the hour expansion on GL in 1977.

Thanks for the pics. I always liked Gary & Val's & Laura & Richards houses and interiors best during the series. Gary & Val's is like a California version of a colonial. Richard & Laura's looks like Faux Tudor. I never could figure out the style of Karen & Mac's house. I guess just a suburban two story. I never really liked Abby & the Ward's houses. Kenny & Ginger looked like they couldn't afford furniture and spent what little money they had on stereo equipment and bean bags......LOL

They sound like self centered ego driven snobs. I'm glad she was able to break out on her own with her husband. I read that Frank Hursley left his first wife and child to hook up with Doris. They have a grandson Joe that does a lot of crazy comedy acting in commercials, TV and film. He looks like a younger version of Hugh Laurie. It was strange that Elizabeth or Jackie never resurfaced in all those years. I wonder if Lezlie Dalton was ever approached to reprise her role ? Maybe she was, but declined saying the character was finished like Victoria Principal did on Dallas. Cindy Pickett was in California, so I doubt she would return to NY to do the show, even though she talks fondly of her time on GL. I did see on IMDB that Dalton took a short stint on SFT in 1983. I have not seen any of her SFT work. Is it on Youtube ? The Spaulding/Marler saga was front burner 1977-1983. All those actors/character were gone within 5 years except Alan and Phillip. Even Alan was gone for a few years with the exit of Chris Bernau in 1984.

Thanks for the info and correcting my goof on spelling Procter. There is a local business that spells their name with and O instead of an E so it was locked in my brain to spell it that way without checking.

I found a interview with Bridget Dobson online explaining why they were moved to ATWT. Proctor & Gamble insisted that ATWT be the # 1 soap on CBS and GL should be at best # 2. Since GL was # 1 in the ratings, the executives were pissed off a bit. She also said her parents (the creators of GH) were jealous of her and her husband Jerry's success as writers and they refused to watch anything they had written. OUCH !!!. She said her sister happened to be visiting them when they went into an outburst about it and told her what they had said. They were also super pissed that Bridgett and Jerry were approached about creating their own soap for NBC (Santa Barbara) and they were not having their shows bought. They both died by the end of the 1980's

Why were the Dobsons replaced by Marland ? I love their material from the late 70's episodes that have been uploaded. I wish Cindy Pickett had stayed in the role of Jackie to finish out the reveal to Elizabeth that she and Justin are Phillips biological parents. The storyline was bit of a let down with the recast. I also wish Lezlie Dalton had stayed as Elizabeth, but I take it was her decision to leave. She always talked with a breathy whisper.

Actor Paul Savior who played Walter Addison died in 2021. He was also on GH as Tom Baldwin 1969-1972 and had short term role on Days and Edge Of Night. A few years ago I saw the clip where he collapsed with the heart attack in the hotel room with Nikki. His acting was campy during the attack that it reminded me of something Harvey Korman would have done on The Carol Burnett Show.....LOL

Yes, the first 3 seasons had a lot of duds. A lot viewers also feel that Michelle Lee had better chemistry with Kevin Dobson than Don Murray. Murray gave the impression that doing Knots was slumming and sometimes it comes across in his acting.

That's true. I also wonder what Val did all those years after Gary left and Lucy was being raised by the Ewings. We saw Rusty and Cricket, but she had to have more boyfriends than that. I assume Lucy was born about 1961 with her graduating high school in spring 1979. Gary left shortly after she was born I'm guessing around 1962. So there is a period of 16 years between 1962-1978 that Val was single. I guess we are to assume she pined for Gary all those years. It was also written that J.R. did not marry Sue Ellen till about 1971. So, J.R. was getting up there in age when he decided to settle down with Miss Texas. I think they should have written he had a previous marriage and child like Sid Fairgate on Knots.

Gary was a slut and it's possible he has kids out there he knows nothing about. Maybe they could have had Judy Trent come back with Gary's child in tow. He got her pregnant before she left Knots like he did Kate.

I was thinking about Judy (Jane Elliot) too. She and Abby sparring would be awesome. Judy with Greg would be good too, maybe fighting with Laura. I also like your idea about Laura visiting/confronting her rapist in hospice. I'm surprised Joshua didn't rape Cathy (reminiscent of the Roger & Holly rape storyline in GL in 1979). When you look back at season 1 of Knots, viewers probably assumed with Richard's short temper that at some point he would start beating Laura. Another storyline that was quickly brushed over was when Chip Todson forced/harassed Laura to sleep with him. Joseph Hacker who played Chip later appeared again on Knots as Jim Westmont. I assumed that too the way she told her during the stairs chat "It hurt's me to see you going on this way, and your going to have to do something about it" "I know you have it in you to do the right thing". The episode has kind of a " Looking for Mr. Goodbar" overtone. The first three seasons have kind of a" Scenes from a marriage" type of setting, but then it become full on nighttime soap drama around season 4 with long storylines arcs and cliffhangers. Dallas started off that way too.

Yes. A lot of that could have been mined for future storyline material. It's like they divorced themselves from those early years. Dallas: Some ideas Pam & Cliff's cousin Jimmy could have been developed into a supporting character. Instead of having Lucy kidnapped by Roger the photographer, Willie (Greg Evigan) gets out of jail and abducts her. Kit Mainwaring could have come back in some shocking way. The return of Alan Beam seeking revenge. Since they made baby Christopher not J.R.'s, they could have had Alan be his father. Country star Garnett McGee (Kate Mulgrew) returns wanting Ray back and coming between him and Donna. Knots: Laura's attacker from season 1 returns and she has to revisit the past. Annie (Karen Allen) Sid's daughter return to the canvas. Maybe those beach thugs (boy that was a terrible episode) return and wreak havoc again in the cul-de-sac. They would write Val stinks on the front of her house and throw Karen's trash cans through her picture window. Karen would turn vigilante and go after them in her car like she did in the later seasons......LOL

I recently re-watched the episode " The Lie" where Laura is raped by the artist guy she met in a bar. It was one of the best shows in the early years when the episodes were mostly self contained. Constance McCashin really knocked it out of the park showing how sad and lonely Laura was in her marriage to Richard and stuck being a Stepford wife.. I loved the scene she has with Val on the stairs in her house talking about her background and how she felt trapped. Pretty groundbreaking stuff for an episode done in 1979 (all the first season shows were filmed in 79). It would have been interesting years later to have done a storyline where Karen hires a highly recommended artist for some sort of advertising campaign for Lotus Point with Laura's involvement. When he arrives Laura is confronted by a face from the past. Over the course of the season he would feel confident and smug tormenting her and she would have to revisit the injustice that was done to her. In the end he get's his comeuppance in some big way. I hated that he got away with what he done to her.

It would be interesting to find out if copies still exist of RTPP. I figured a company like 20th Century Fox would be good with their archives, but read somewhere that they no longer have the masters to some of their shows and films. Whey they did a DVD release of the series Room 222 several years ago, the quality was beyond horrible. They had to rely on beat up/scratched up 16mm prints. People on Amazon thought it was a joke.

I know very little about this shows ratings and wonder what reaction it got from fans of the original series. It appears many of the roles were recast quickly during it's short run. I have only seen one small promo for it surface on youtube. I wonder f the entire run exist somewhere ? More than likely it has been trashed or was wiped by the network to reuse the tape.

Ron Russell appears in the ad for Zody's circa 1976.

Any updates if and when Knots will be streaming ? I hope they do a remaster like they did with Dallas.

Happy Holidays !!!!

Yes. There have been several miscarriages at the Newman ranch.

Yes, Victor was very abusive towards Julia. She was married to him for 10 years (1971-1981) and went through all kinds of crap. He didn't even allow her to have friends. I'm surprised he let her leave the house to go shopping etc...

I liked that Nikki and Julia became friends. I guess since she was the first Mrs. Newman, Nikki had a quiet respect for her and realized she did not want Victor back. Julia also rooted for Nikki and Victor to get together. Jamie would be great character to have on canvas. She and Nikki could have a close friendship.