SoapDope

Bill Bell co-wrote ATWT in the early 60's and created the character of Lisa in 1960. He wrote for the show till 1966. Irna Phillips had him go to Days to help Ted and Betty Corday with the struggling show. Bill made the show a ratings winner. CBS then approached him in 1972 and he and his wife Lee created Y&R.

Y&R did do a lot of social issues in the 70's. Chris Brooks was raped. I think it may have been the first non marital rape on daytime TV. The attacker (played by Tony Geary) got off free and told Chris she asked for it. Jennifer Brooks mastectomy. Katherine's alcoholism and attempted recovery. Katherine and Joann's relationship that border lined on being sexual. Nikki and Casey Reed were sexually abused by their father. Leslie Brooks mental breakdown and put in a mental hospital. Sally McGuire's attempted suicide that could have harmed her unborn child. Jill being a unwed mother and her child declared a bastard in the eyes of society at the time. Liz Foster respecting her husbands wishes to be taken off life support and her pulling the plug. Paul and Nikki contracting STD's in the era of free love and disco.

I know what you mean about CBS. ABC became a power house and even in the 90's it seems like NBC promoted the crap out of Days Of Our Lives. It was a love fest with that show. You couldn't go to the super market without seeing Days on the cover of at least 5 magazines. I noticed pre-1984 CBS seemed to be shut out of any kind of awards shows for the most part. Y&R actors from those first 10 years didn't even get nominated for their performances.

These may have been posted before. Here is a page of Days photos from 1968. http://www.gettyimages.in/galleries/search?phrase=days+of+our+lives+1968&family=editorial&sort= 1967 photos. http://www.gettyimages.in/galleries/search?phrase=days+of+our+lives+1967&family=Editorial&sort=mostpopular

Galmans reply to the ATWT question was " There are no clips on this reel from ATWT. Most of the shows were "live" back then and there was a much more cumbersome process to the recordings. There may be some archived at CBS or Proctor & Gamble, which owned the show and others. Retrieving them will take time and quite a bit of digging." He must be trying to get some footage for his personal collection. I hope he has better luck than most have had. P&G destroyed tons of footage and what little that is left is in private collections or archived with UCLA who has done nothing with it and will not allow access.

I saw that Peter has a youtube page and someone asked about ATWT footage and he says he doesn't have any and that if any exists CBS and Proctor & Gamble has it.

Here is a recent pic of Peter Galman who played Tom 1969-1973.

Thanks for the synopsis. I read Marie Masters started playing Susan in September 1968, so who was in the role at this point ? I would love to see footage of Michael Shea and his relationship with Lisa. John Dixon worked under Michael and I guess trained him well in being dastardly.

Patricia Richardson from Home Improvement reminds me of HBS. I wonder what she would have been like as Margo instead of casting Dolan ? Pat didn't really hit it big till 1991.

My Mom watched Y&R from the start too and she loved all the original actors especially William Gray Espy as Snapper. When I was old enough to remember the show, Dennis Cole was playing Lance. I felt sorry for Lucas because both Brooks sisters obsessed over dull Lance. His mother Vanessa also favored Lance over him. I wonder if Victoria Mallory saw or heard those comments about her portrayal of Leslie ? It was interesting that years later she became friends with Janice Lynde. I don't really recall Howard McGillin as Greg, since I was so young at that time. Did his Greg interact with Nikki ? William Gray Espy simply smoldered as Snapper Foster, and he became hugely popular with the audience. It's too bad he did not enjoy playing the role. He became noticeably disinterested as the months went on, and even busted his hand at one point, by punching a wall out of frustration. In an interview at the time, he admitted that at least his lack of emotion in the part worked well for his restrained, emotionally-distant character. It was a major shock when he was replaced by David Hasselhoff, who tried at first to emulate Espy's style, but who lacked both the smoldering sexiness and the brooding quality which Espy brought to the role. In a critique of the series, written in Daily Serials, author Jon-Michael Reed wrote of Espy (something like; I forget the exact quote), "Have you ever seen strength look so vulnerable?" Howard McGillan was the best of the replacement Gregs, IMHO. Sweet and endearing. Not bland like Brian Kerwin was at the time, and not homely and icky like Wings Hauser. Unfortunately, McGillan came and went so quickly, he really did not have much time to make the role his own. I don't recall if he played any scenes with Nikki. William Gray Espy seems to be a bit eccentric. I remember reading he and Trish Stewart (Chris) didn't get along all that well and he would go off to his dressing room after taping scenes. Years later I think they became friends off set. Too bad Howard McGillan didn't get a chance to grow in the part, but by the end of 1982 the Foster/Brooks era had come to an end. I guess his look was a return to the dark haired Houghton version. I wonder if Y&R would have considered asking Espy back, but I think he was still in NY on AW in 82. I agree. He could have hooked up with Ashley instead of that weird short lived Brian Forbes character that disappeared without a trace.

I think CZP did feud with HBS. CZP seems to have not gotten along with several actors on the show over the years. I remember reading she fought with Jackie Schultz (Dee), which caused Ariana Munker (Melinda) to leave. Anthony Herrera (James) said his relationship with CZP improved/evolved over time,so I'm guessing they got off to a rocky start. Getting back to the 1979/80 episodes, I can't help but be fascinated at how campy Dennis Cooney (Jay) is. I don't buy him as blue collar kind of guy. I keep expecting a scene where Carol leaves the house and he puts on Macho Man by The Village People while dancing shirtless in front of a mirror.

My Mom watched Y&R from the start too and she loved all the original actors especially William Gray Espy as Snapper. When I was old enough to remember the show, Dennis Cole was playing Lance. I felt sorry for Lucas because both Brooks sisters obsessed over dull Lance. His mother Vanessa also favored Lance over him. I wonder if Victoria Mallory saw or heard those comments about her portrayal of Leslie ? It was interesting that years later she became friends with Janice Lynde. I don't really recall Howard McGillin as Greg, since I was so young at that time. Did his Greg interact with Nikki ?

I know some have said that period of time was very strange and mostly enlivened by stuff like the Suzanne gaslighting. I wish some was around to watch so we could see. Bell seemed to always hit these patches and then come out the other side. I am the first to acknowledge and celebrate Bell's genius and enormous contribution to the genre, but he did have some occasional dry patches as a writer; times when his material was hackneyed and cliche, and, well...pretty bad. The Suzanne Lynch story was not well written at all. I found it absurd, over-the-top, poorly acted (Ellen Weston was no great actress) and not well constructed. As I recall, Bell dropped the story quite suddenly, as if he had realized it was not working, and wanted to erase it from the canvas. To his credit, when a story was failing, Bell corrected course sooner rather than later. Wings Hauser was so creepy in the role. It was as if a degenerate drug dealer and pimp had suddenly taken over Greg Foster's body...and nobody in Genoa City dared say a word, LOL! Casey was a major focus early on. I loathed her. I hated the idea of her coming between Chris and Snapper Foster, and every time she would appear on-screen, I wished the character would just disappear. The more I think about it, the more I wonder how I sat through this time on Y&R, since it was (temporarily) marred by weak writing, and had so many actors on-screen whom I literally could not stand. In reading synopsis for the 1978-1981 period, it seemed Bells priority was the Leslie/Lorie/Lance/Lucas story. What did you think of the Chris Foster recast of Lynn Topping from Trish Stewart who originated the role ? I still can't believe someone agreed to cast Wings as Greg. Even in magazine photos it looks like he's come off a bender, went through the dirty clothes to see what smelled fresh to wear to take a photo. I remember seeing a short scene of him and Melody on the show and he had on a filthy gray athletic jacket without a shirt on and it was unzipped to his navel.

Thanks for the answers. I wish more early 70's episodes would show up, especially Kim/Bob/Jennifer/John. I heard about how shocking it was when John raped Kim. I can't remember if it was Laura Horton on DOOL or Kim on ATWT that they showed a pearl necklace break and spill on the floor during the attack.

LOL.....I remember reading somewhere that Erica would blab storyline spoilers to magazines pissing Bell off. What were they thinking when they hired Wings ? He's nasty. It seems that Bill Bell fell in love with the way Melody played Nikki and began to focus writing for her and didn't know what to do with Casey. It sounds like Casey was the focus early on.

Liz was so pretty. She still looked great as she matured. I have been watching some of the 1979/1980 episodes again on youtube and had a question. Why was Tom Tammi let go as Tom ? I thought he was fine in the role. Deas was playing the part when I started remembering the show. I liked HBS and Greg Marx as Tom & Margo. Tom got younger as time went on and his history went out the door and the marriages to Carol & Natalie were buried by the time the 80's rolled around. I remember CZP being interviewed in SOD back in the 90's and she said Deas was her Tom and Colin was her Margo. Which is strange since her first pairing with Tom was Tammi's version.

Thanks for the classic Y&R article. It's strange seeing Erica Hope as Nikki. I wonder if she had been fired from the show when that hit the stands ? Melody started playing Nikki in February 1979. Erica only had the role for about 6 months. Wings was so gross and miscast as Greg. I think Tom Tammi who played Tom on ATWT around this time might have made a good recast as Greg or Snapper.

Those are very good questions. I also wonder why they never had Kim have a child by her first husband Jason Reynolds who had died before she arrived on screen.

I wish Marie Masters could see that and comment. I hope someone out there unearths some more vintage material from the late 60's or early 70's, especially Kim/Bob/Jennifer. I know it was common practice then, but it is so sad that P&G wiped their vintage material. I wonder if the episodes when broadcast new, ever had a "muddy" appearance to them since they kept reusing tape ? I read that Johnny Carson's show looked that way then because of that practice. Kind of like a VCR tape degraded over time with re-recording. They said Johnny wanted to pull some stuff one time and was told what had been done to the early footage and went ape crap.

Strange to see little Wednesday Addams grown up and playing Cricket. Speaking of porny, Lisa Loring (Cricket) married 4 times and one of her husbands was a porn actor. Lisa was 15 when she married her first husband, had a child at 16, and divorced at 17. Her second husband was Doug Stevenson from Search For Tomorrow.

Did Jane House play the scenes when Liz fell up the stairs and died ?

OMG !!!!! Thanks DRW50 for posting this rare 1972 material. I never thought we would see much more from this era. I wish we could have got a glimpse of early Kim with long hair and her lusting after Bob.

It's always interesting to get info on the first airdates for actors. I remember reading years ago that Melody Thomas Scotts first airdate as Nikki was February 16, 1979. So I wonder when Erica Hope last aired ? Kay Alden's interview with the Archive Of American Television she said something about the actress they first hired for Nikki didn't bother to show up for work one day. I don't know if she was referring to Erica or if they had hired someone before her that didn't make it to air. I have also read stories of how Bill Bell wasn't happy with Erica and she would leak storyline info to the soap press. I think Melody was being considered to play Ben's wife on The Waltons, but was asked to audition for Y&R. I saw Melody's screen test with Beau Kayzer (Brock). Ed Scott said he knew she was going to be their Nikki.

I remember someone posted on a message board that Aaron Spelling seemed to be obsessed with Deborah Adair. He put her in Dynasty and when that failed, he put her in Finders Of Lost Loves. He then had her guest in multiple episodes of Hotel, Love Boat and Matt Houston. Later he cast her in Melrose Place.