amybrickwallace

More yelling than in a Norman Lear show!!!

It always both amused and bugged me that every time Cruz was involved in a case, a family member, an in-law or friend was always involved in some way. While Eden's assault case in late 1988 was riveting with some absolutely powerful acting, no police force in their right mind would let the husband be investigating his own wife's rape. Yes, I know this is a soap opera but come on. I think it would have been more realistic to have Cruz forbidden from investigating officially, but to do end-arounds and investigate on his own.

Thank you for sharing your memories of these two ladies, TimWil. I hope they would enjoy knowing that a new generation is enjoying their work. I also got to see Geri guest on the NYC-based sitcom Kate & Allie. Her long red hair was by then short and blond, and she was trying to hail a taxi to get away from Jane Curtin!! Was Adam on SFT when you worked with his mom or was that afterwards? From everything I've heard and read, the cast of TD were for the most part a tight-knit bunch (and many put in significant tenure) - but as in every case, there are exceptions. Even without reading your posts, I can tell by watching that Gerald and Geraldine didn't click. There was NO chemistry there, and in fact Gerald Gordon only seemed to have romantic chemistry with one woman on the show - Liz Hubbard. (Holly Peters, the final Cathy Ryker, is a member of the show's FB fan page and said that she had no problems whatsoever with him - but she was also in a serious relationship with the man who would become her husband at that time.) The on-screen pairing just seemed so forced, and knowing that they didn't get along in real life just makes it even more painful to watch. After his first marriage broke up, the fan magazine articles always mentioned the various women who were in GG's life at that time and he admitted how much he liked to go out and party. Reading between the lines, it was pretty clear that he was a womanizer. The fact that the character of Nick had become pretty insufferable by then couldn't have helped any. Liz Hubbard has admitted that she was good friends with him, though, and stayed in touch with him until he passed on. It's no surprise that Geri liked David O'Brien so much - I have never, ever heard a negative word spoken about him from any of the cast and crew members who post on the FB fan page...Carolee Campbell, Holly Peters, Marie Thomas-Foster (Lauri James), Eileen Kearney (Greta Powers), Thor Fields (Erich Aldrich), Mimi Cozzens (Nurse Mimi), Barbara Pitcher (Nurse Barbara), director Stan Zabka have all sung his praises. Even Alec Baldwin (the final Billy) wrote lovingly about him in his recently-published memoir. What did Geri say about Jim Pritchett? It seemed that he was the patriarch of the show, whether or not the cameras were rolling. By all accounts, he was a happily married family man, so I don't think he would have tried any funny business with anyone.

Well, I never watched the show when it was first on, but caught up through YouTube. Even the Capwells were somewhat pushed aside towards the end in 1992 when Pam Long came in as HW and introduced the Walker family, headed by Kim Zimmer. But you're right that folks outside of the Capwell (and early on, Lockridge) orbit didn't really get much of a chance to flourish. Look how fast the Perkins and Andrade families were phased out, and after them, the Duvall/Bassetts, the Hartleys, the Donnellys, the DiNapolis, and the list goes on.

If that's what they were going for, it totally fell flat.

I don't think the show really and truly began to gel until the Christie Duvall rape trial in the summer of 1985. For one, Mason truly came into his own as a character. The story was also the catalyst of bringing Mason and Mary into each other's orbits.

@TimWil, I don't know where you are in the reruns, but this week has seen the return of Angela Thornton as Lisa Kincaid. Since Althea is refusing to fulfill John's "needs", you can basically guess where things are going to go. I can definitely see a resemblance between Ms. Thornton and her son, Adam Storke. Did Ms. Thornton appear in any other soaps?

A Brick/Amy/Warren triangle would have been a lot more interesting (and would have made a whole lot more sense) than the New Stailand story, which Richard Eden says to this day is the stupidest plot he's ever had to play out on any show!! On FB, he did share a funny tale about how he and Kerry Sherman (Amy) were on the New Stailand set in those hooded brown robes that made them look like refugees from Kung Fu. Richard decided to go commando under the robe, and he and Kerry could barely get through the filming of their scenes that day without completely losing it!

It's so surreal. Missy Reeves (Brennan when she was on SB) doesn't look that much older now than she did on SB, and she just turned 50!!!

Those scenes between Liza and Nick are a bit bizarre to watch, because a week after they were filmed Sherry Mathis and Jerry Lanning were wed in her hometown of Memphis. (This was in the summer of 1979.) During some of those scenes, Jerry got a little too into his role as villain and choked his real-life future bride so hard she started to turn blue!! (This according to Gerry Waggett's book, The Soap Opera Book of Lists).

ITA. I hope that some of those episodes are still out there somewhere and that someone will put them up for us to enjoy!!

I think it was probably a combination of both things. In the reruns, we will be seeing the name of Joseph Stuart in the credits as EP any day now (if we haven't already; I haven't seen all the episodes that aired this week yet). Allen Potter was chosen to helm NBC's new soap, How to Survive a Marriage (which debuted very early in 1974).

I'll take a look. Thanks!

I have to admit that I was a little worried watching the show the other night - I thought that Raul Esparza was leaving the show! I literally got back online at 3 in the morning to Google his name to see if he was or not. Since nothing was mentioned, and later on I see that he is in the next episode (which is not slated to air until April 26th...how stupid is that?), I calmed down. He's been my favorite on SVU since he joined back in 2012. I wish Olivia would open up her eyes and wake up. I never liked her with Cassidy and am still scratching my head that TIIC thought pairing her with Ed "Mother" Tucker was a good idea (bleccch!!). The scene where Barba found out about it and hit the roof was golden, and you could tell that he was not upset about it just for professional reasons. When the series finally does come to an end (and it will last as long as Mariska wants to stay - she IS the face of SVU, for better or worse), I hope that Benson retires from the NYPD and that she and Noah walk off into the sunset with Barba, who decides to retire from the DA's office and goes into private practice. She would still be an advocate for victims in some capacity. They deeply respect each other professionally (even when they don't agree - which is often), and have a warm, natural friendship. There's mutual trust. There's also the way he always looks deeply into her eyes when he talks to her, and the way he says "Liv". She finally called him Rafael for the first time ever (and introducing him to other people on the job doesn't count). Maybe there will be a payoff before the show ends someday.

Or a Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor movie?

Wow, I didn't know that. I'm sure the mail must have changed quite a lot once she became Eden, the heroine of Santa Barbara.

I'd like to see the material she played out when the character was deaf and mute. The only stuff I could find on YT was towards the end of her run on the show. It's been awhile since I checked. I should look again.

Black & Stern...it sounds more like a brand of hardware.

Yes, I would assume that Meg Mundy would have been deluged with hate mail and probably accosted in public as well. After all, Carolee was the heroine of the show and of the show's leading three female characters, the one the people in the audience could relate the most to. On the FB fan page, Marie Thomas-Foster (Lauri James) and Thor Fields (Erich Aldrich, from the late 70s into the early 80s) have said that once the cameras stopped rolling, Ms. Mundy was an absolute sweetheart - the complete opposite of Mona. I imagine that it must be great fun to play a villain because you can say and do things you would never get away with in real life. On the flip side, the fans who can't tell fact from fiction must be a pain to have to deal with. You mentioned Jaime Lyn Bauer - and other actresses who dealt with encounters like that were Eileen Fulton, Jacklyn Zeman, Robin Strasser, and the list goes on.

It was Lee Godart (Kent) that Susan Lucci didn't get along with.

I was wondering whatever happened to him. Good to see him back on the screen.

Here's a link to a 1977 article about a soap fan fest, with ATWT's Rita McLaughlin Walter (and her hubby, Rev. Norman Walter) and Dennis Cooney getting special mention: http://www.nytimes.com/1977/08/15/archives/new-jersey-pages-a-real-afternoon-for-soapopera-fans.html

I love all those vintage commercials. Keep them coming!!

Me, too!! I wonder what Meg Mundy's fan mail and in-person fan encounters were like at that time.

Kevin Stapleton was pretty popular, IIRC. He and Nathan Fillion really looked and acted like brothers.