SoapDope

Greg should have served the go to lawyer role. Michael Crawford played by Colby Chester was also another lawyer that was dumped without explanation for John Silva.

I wonder if Tom Tammi who played Tom Hughes on ATWT 1979-1980 would have worked as recast Greg ? Wings was totally all wrong in the role.

I remember Bill Bell said in an interview with SOD back in the 90's, that it pained him to write out his original Foster/Brooks families. He said when David and Jaime decided to leave and knowing the audience was sick of recast (an nobody would accept a recast for JLB), he sat down over lunch and made the decision to phase the families out and move the Abbott's and Williams front burner. He had big plans for the Patty character and was upset when Lilibet Stern left the show in 83.

I agree. Lucy was a second thought character. Her stories were usually stupid or boring. The writers never knew what to do with her. David Jacobs said that the early episodes of Dallas was done as self contained episodes as a way to slowly draw viewers in, then when they got hooked it became more of an ongoing saga. The dream season really hurt the series and Victoria Principal leaving the show in 1987 pretty much killed it. The last 4 seasons coasted on fumes with original cast members leaving and new characters brought in no one cared about.

With the recent passing of Doris Day, I read an article that mentioned in 1984/85, Doris had been offered the lead on Murder She Wrote, but turned it down and went in negotiations to join the cast of Dallas. I wonder what role she was being considered for ? Was it when Barbara Bel Geddes left and before Donna Reed was brought in ? Doris then opted to do her own cable show on CBN "Doris Day's Best Friends". The first episode was surrounded with controversy and media frenzy when her old friend and co-star Rock Hudson appeared as her first guest. He was clearly sick and lost a huge amount of weight and barely able to converse. The media started speculating he was dying and what his illness was. It would eventually be revealed he had AIDS.

Robert Mandan ( ex Sam) in an episode of the 1980's ABC daytime version of The New Love American Style with Florence Henderson.

Rex Smith (ex Darryl) and Melinda Culea (A-Team and Knots Landing) in the 1980's version of The New Love America Style

Yes. Ashley was tossed around till she was put with Victor. Elieen said she also loved working with Rod Arrants who played her first husband Dr. Steven Lassiter.

Around that time (1982-83), Ashley was paired with her partner in the lab Brian Forbes (played by Jay Kerr). I have yet to see any scenes/clips of that character. I was a small kid then and I have no memories of him what so ever. I have seen photos, but that's about it. Jay Kerr who played the role trashed his time on it. He said soaps were the bottom of the barrel and that actors would rather do anything else than do soaps. He also said he felt miscast and can't understand why people still remember him from it. He also said his character went to make a phone call and never came back and no one cared. I noticed the Y&R credit has been deleted from his imdb page. It's funny that he trashed soaps when he hasn't acted in years. So how did that work out for him ?

She would have been a good re-cast for Roberta Leighton (Casey Reed).

Cristina Ferrare was fired abruptly like Mark.

I forgot to mention The Facts Of Life will celebrate it's 40th anniversary on August 24th, 2009. Hard to believe it has been that long. She said she did know Lori Loughlin, but not all that well.

Speaking of Steines, Lisa Whelchel said her son works on the Home & Family show in the interview asking her if she would take over Lori Loughlin's role.

Maybe everyone on this board should join in and write Hallmark. Lisa is also set to host a collectors show on MeTv.

I read fans are already bombarding Hallmark to replace Lori with Lisa Whelchel. Lisa said she would consider it if Hallmark came calling.

It was always kick when Mary would show up and start her meddling. I remember once she brought sour kraut and spare ribs to Paul and Paul confessed that they gave him gas.....LOL. Doug said Carolyn Conwell was hilarious and he loved working with her. I found this 1998/99 photo of Carolyn with Brett Hadley (Carl). This is during the return storyline. Carolyn's facial expression is odd and funny.

I seem to recall Katherine talking to Paul (this was mid 90's) and she asked him how his mother was and she mentioned that they worked together on some charity thing.

Katherine would sometimes ask Paul about his mother.

The full Williams family unit came and went pretty quickly. He wrote Steve out after about a year. Patty was written out after he lost Lilibet in the role and felt Andrea was a bust recast. Carl was dropped to recurring till being phased out. So their span as a main family was 1980-84.

All the crazy rewrites of Bill Bell's history has destroyed any sense of continuity. I remember getting my hopes of Patty's return in the 90's when that scene of Lilibet photos being shown and the let down when nothing came of it. Alex Donnelly came back as Diane at that time too, so I have a feeling they approached Lilibet and things did not work out as planned. They scrapped it and did that lame Carl Williams story instead.

Lilibet stated in recent years she started to feel acting was not her passion and wanted to do something with her life to help people. She then later became a nurse. She said Bill Bell was upset that she chose to leave as he had big plans for her on the show. I know what you mean with the story not having the impact as it would have had with Lilibet in the role. The same thing happened on Guiding Light when Cindy Pickett left the role of Jackie Marler. When it all came out she was Phillips biological mother to Elizabeth, it lost steam and was a disappointment. Back in the mid 90's they toyed with the idea of bringing Patty back.Bug was looking at a photo album with Mary and they showed pictures of Lilibet and they discussed her. Then they had a scene showing the back of a blonde girl making a call in a phone booth the day of Bug and Paul's wedding and everyone was gone as the phone rang in Mary's house. I wonder if Lilibet was being courted to return ?

I can't remember if Lilibet was still in the role when the shooting took place. There was a clip on youtube with Andrea Evans pulling the trigger, but was not sure if they re-filmed it for flashbacks.

Yes. Viewers were led to believe Carl was sill in GC, but off camera till that storyline. They also re-wrote Patty Williams history by having her run off and go psycho.

Here is an interesting photo from 1976 featuring Jeanne Cooper and her soap actress lunch group. The photo includes Rachel Ames (GH), Judy Lewis (GH), Emily McLaughlin (GH), Dorothy Green (Y&R), and Patty Weaver (Days and later Y&R). Yes she was pretty much recurring most of her run. Birn's daughter played Paul's secretary Lynn for years.

Patty Weaver who had been popular on Days was lured to Y&R by Wes Kenney and Bill Bell when she left that show. On Y&R she had very few storylines that amounted to much and then pretty much faded into the background. She was mainly used during scenes at her place saying " Table for two" and letting people stay or have sex in that room upstairs. After they foolishly burned her place to the ground, she soon disappeared from the show. At one point they were toying with a Brock/Gina pairing and later a John/Gina pairing, but that was quickly scrapped.