BetterForgotten

HBS was my favorite Margo and I never thought the character was the same after she left and never thought Dolan was great for the role. Speaking of 1989, wasn't this the year Robert Calhoun left as EP to become EP of GL or was that in 1988? When exactly did he leave and when did Laurence Caso join? Granted Marland was still there so the change in EP's wasn't glaring, but I know some who thought the show lost something when Calhoun left. Calhoun was a terrific EP, and never gets the credit he richly deserves.

It seemed like a lot of their ATWT was a prototype for what became Santa Barbara. Their Tom and Margo also seem like an early draft for what became Mason and Julia.

He'll probably be back in a year anyway, I don't see any big Hollywood career for him.

I think you may be referring to this:

From what I've seen, the Tom King and Millee Taggart era didn't seem as bad as some make it out to be. Didn't they create Lucinda and ugh Lily? I think Marland inherited an alright show actually, and used many of the existing elements to his advantage when he took over.

Their second stint seemed a bit more well-received than their first, to me at least. However, Mary-Ellis-Bunim, the EP during their second stint, was controversial in her own right as well. It's amazing that they wrote GL and ATWT so differently, tonally at least. Granted, most of their GL stint pre-dated the ABC soap dominance in the late 70's/early 80's, while their ATWT stints didn't. I assume P&G was in panic during this time. ATWT also seemed to be targeted the worst during those dominant ABC daytime years - always cited as the most old-fashioned soap in the press.

Carl - they're doing a Back To Ours special with Lindsey Coulson and Natalie Cassidy (ugh) on Friday. Just letting you know as you may be interested.

HR was also a lot more believable to me as the spoiled daughter only Lucinda could have raised. I really thought Lily came into her own as a character during that time as well. HR brought a lot of complexity to the role I thought, and I dislike how some Byrne fans just totally dismiss her contributions to the part.

I prefer to only watch Lily when I could stand her - when Heather Rattray was in the role. She was so much better than Byrne ever was, and I hate how some have dismissed her as a failed recast, ugh, such revisionist history.

Just a random video of the EE cast wishing Corrie good luck on their live episode.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153642299829939&permPage=1

I used to call her Ghastley.

Well, she did pull her video with R. Kelly from being officially released where there were scenes suggesting he was sexually assaulting her and she was liking it... I'm sorry, I just don't take her seriously and always question her intentions (as everything she's done has been about getting attention and people to feel sorry for her) , and she's more than often proven me right to do so over the years. Though, she has been slightly less annoying recently, now that her success and career have died down and the general public's interest in her has waned.

There's already press reports about how Oates wants to kill off numerous characters, even through she hasn't even started yet, and not like that would be such a bad thing for this show...

Thanks for posting - the show had such heart back in those days, it's too bad they no longer care about that.

Every episode I've seen of this soap bores me to tears - I just will never see why Sally Sussman Morina gets any type of hype from fools like Jamey Giddens. I do think there were some good actors, but the material just wasn't there to support them.

I have my issues with her writing, but I thought Pam Long would have been a better fit for AW than GL. I didn't understand why P&G brought all those folks from Texas over to GL, and not its actual sister soap (AW). I think Long would have exceled at writing the friendship and community aspect, and AW was not as strongly rooted in generational families as GL and ATWT were, something she struggled with.

What probably did AW in more than anything was the huge spike DAYS received in the mid-90's that had no impact whatsoever on the rest of NBC's daytime lineup. Unlike in the early 80's when GH spiked and it impacted all of their soaps, the same never happened when DAYS was bringing in the ratings in the mid 90's. Also, NBC wanted to cancel AW as far back as 1992/1993 - in fact it was between AW and Santa Barbara and AW got a last minute reprieve if I remember correctly during that time. The demos for AW were always the worst too, I believe they even skewed older than ATWT and GL, both of which had obviously been around longer and CBS was always of course the oldest skewing network.

The thing is, AW suffered years of neglect from both NBC and P&G. I just remember Ed Trach, who was the last person that ran the P&G soaps with any sense, always talking about the CBS P&G soaps to the press and never bothered to or barely mentioned AW. By the time it was canceled, those who were responsible for overseeing it just didn't see it as any sort of priority. AW never got the same attention and acclaim in its last two decades that ATWT received under Marland or what GL received under Long and Curlee and her team. Unlike the other two P&G soaps, its last heyday (at least in the soap press) was too strongly associated as being in the 70's, which I always found a bit unfair. On the other hand, I do think P&G and CBS tried with both ATWT and GL, they were just never able to get it together, and made all the wrong decisions with who they hired and fired. Truth be told, CBS kept both shows around a lot longer than NBC and ABC would have had they been on those respective networks.