SoapDope

I went back and watched Eileen Fulton's Archives American Television interview again. I crack up at all the backstage stories from those early years of doing the show under Irna's writing. The funniest was the story of Barbara Berjer. Eileen said she was standing in the control room and Barbara was looking gorgeous. They guys were talking and said " Do you realize she's a great grandmother ? Well, we have just got to kill her. The following week she was hit by a truck. Eileen said to herself, that is not going to happen to me and she had the grandma clause in her contract. Irna tried to play the upper hand and told her she would make her a grandmother if she wanted and Eileen had the contract on her desk and would not sign if she didn't do the clause. Irna gave in. Irna was a pip. She gave all her actors a hard time, especially Rosemary Prinz and Eileen. Kathryn Hays (Kim) said Irna was eccentric and the first time she met her, Irna got upset that she was doing a play. She expected KH do be Kim at all times.

I kind of wonder if the Susan miscarriage storyline is true ? Someone could have gotten confused by a storyline on another soap and wrote it as Susan. ATWT history in the late 60's and early 70's seems to be sketchy when written about in synopsis. In some places it is written Carol came on in 1970, but viewers remember her appearing in 1969. There has been no footage surface from the 1968-1971 time period on the net. I would love to see the infamous Dr. Shea. My mom who was 14/15 at the time always remembers him and his son Chucky with Lisa

I was looking at some ATWT history and one thing that I never knew about Susan. In the late 60's it said when she was pregnant with her and Dan's baby, the doctor told her that she had to stay still in bed and not walk around to prevent a miscarriage. As soon as the doctor left the room, she threw back the covers and got up bringing the miscarriage on. WOW ! It said this made viewers despise Susan. Susan thought more of her career than being a mother. Did Marie Master play the part when they did this story ? Marie started playing Susan in 1968.

I wonder too about Judge Lowell. I have never seen him onscreen.

In the 1979 episodes, Lisa calls Kim her best friend and Kim goes up to The Willows to help with the wedding and plan a party. I also noticed the show hinted at a possible Grant/Kim pairing, but dropped it when Nick came on. Nick & Kim was an odd pairing along with Bob & Miranda. It took Kim and Bob 13 years to FINALLY get together. In the early 90's when Bob and Susan had the affair, Lisa was worried that Kim and Bob would split.

In a 1975 episode I saw, Chris found Lorie's manuscript about Leslie's mental break down and told her.

Lisa and Kim always had a good friendship the whole time I watched ATWT. When did their freindship start ? I remember in Kim's 25th anniversary episode, her sister Jennifer (the ghost of) said " Lisa surely didn't need you in the old days. You two were like oil and water. The last thing she wanted was you to be anywhere near Bob". Lisa and Kim are already close friends in the 1979 episodes uploaded.

I remember on a long gone soap board a regular poster talked about it wasn't till the early 80's (1980-1982) that Katherine entered the Brooks home after Stu/Liz married. Nikki interacted with all 4 Brooks sisters at different times.

I also remember reading something that Lorie saw Phillip and Jill kissing in a restaurant and went out to the Chancellor home to make things uncomfortable. Wasn't Brock and Lorie's backstory they had both got caught up in the late 60's/early 70's counterculture ? Brock came home in 1974 and asked for Kay's forgiveness. Lorie arrived in December 1973 I think to prepare for Chris and Snapper's wedding in January. Lorie quickly set out to torment Leslie.

Did Katherine actually talk to Leslie or just sit in the crowd ? I always wondered if Kay had scenes with Peggy when the Jack/Peggy/Joanne thing was going on. I guess not. I remember Melody talking about the storyline groupings keeping actors isolated from other actors, especially in the early days.

Did Katherine interact that much with the Brooks during the 1970's ? Did she do lunch with Jennifer etc...?

I wish UCLA would get off their butts and make available the episodes they have of the show from the 50's, 60' and 70's. According to their catalog, they have a weeks worth of shows from 1971 and 1973. I would love to see those. That was during the Dan/Susan/Paul/Liz & the Bob/Kim/Jennifer/John eras.

Yes. She spent most of her time arranging flowers etc...and Miguel would pop in to check to see if she needed anything. I remember MTS giving a set tour once of the Newman ranch and she said she knew if anything was out of order and it would drive her crazy till she or a stage hand put it back in it's proper place. She spent nearly the entire decade of the 90's doing all her scenes on that set.

Speaking of Phyllis in her apartment for most of her early scenes, I remember in the early mid 90's Nikki NEVER left the ranch and she was always in the living room. I remember Katherine would come over and try to coax her to go somewhere and she said something " I just don't feel up to it".

I fast forward most of the current episodes and find them boring. I do watch the Steve/Carolee stuff. David O'Brien often comes across as prissy and sarcastic in the current run. Carolee Campbell runs hot and cold. Sometimes she nails a scene, but there are time when she drops the ball by flubbing lines or obviously reading cue cards. It will be interesting to see how Anne changes and starts plotting against Carolee to get Steve.

I love when long forgotten soap facts like this are brought up. Like when someone posted that the first person to discover Jill and Phillips affair on Y&R was Lorie Brooks and she went out the the Chancellor estate to make things uncomfortable at Christmas.

I wish Bell had kept Tom Ligon on the show. He had more storyline in him. I could see him hooking up with Ashley or Nikki at some point. I was a little kid watching at this time, but only remember bits and pieces. I don't remember Joe Blair being such a prick, but he seemed to change rather quickly. I wish an episode would surface of Ashley with her first pairing Brian Forbes. That was being built as a big thing, then boom he was swept under the rug and disappeared. Ashley's early pairings were always a miss till Victor. It's always funny to see Danny looking more ivy league preppy in his early days before his Rock On period with the mullet etc...

Thank You.

I wonder why Chris Bohn did not return to play Jason ? I remember him flubbing his lines in one episode when he called Steve by Jason, before correcting himself. Bohn's son has a page on youtube where he has some of his fathers work uploaded.

Victoria Principal remembers Dallas 40 years later. http://people.com/tv/victoria-principal-dallas-40-years-later/

What was the appeal of Jeffrey Tambor ? He was always so stilted, uptight and awkward. He starred in that awful Three's Company spinoff The Ropers. I bet Audra Lindley and Norman Fell were pissed by that mess and getting screwed out of their TC spots.

I remember back in the 80's, cable channels were owned independently and they would air all kinds of shows you rarely see anymore, even short lived series. Today most channels are owned by corporations like Viacom and they air the same dang crap on several channels. Back then sometimes if a series was aired on one channel, another channel could not get rights to it.

Lee Phillip Bell in Amoco/All promo at 3:02 Pamela Peters (Peggy Brooks) at 10:55 in the ad for Head and Shoulders. James Hampton as the husband.