TimWil

True, Khan! There was never such a thing as a continuity consultant on American soaps as there have been on British soaps such as EastEnders and Coronation Street.

Exactly, Khan. It wasn't wise of me at all to do what I did. And OTT is definitely how I'd describe Goutman's "plan of action" against me. He obviously got my Social Security number and old phone number from the casting files from when I did background work on it in 1983. Yes, they do have files that go that far back.

NothinButAttitude, I was terrified that someone could steal my identity by usiing my Social Security number-in 2002 we started hearing a lot about identity fraud. Putting it on that bizarre WANTED poster had to have been illegal. That alone made me think about looking into prosecution.

Soapsuds-hah. Just...hah.

Forgot to add something-just a month ago I worked on Saturday Night Live and I was told by a background actor that he, along with 9 other of his felllow regular ATWT background actors, was actually made a member of NATAS and it was paid for by, you guessed it, Goutman at ATWT. This was so they would be eligible to vote for the Daytime Emmy Awards. Not much of a surprise, huh?

Here's my Chris Goutman story. Bear with me on this one, it's somewhat comvoluted but it has a good payoff:

In 2000 a friend called to tell me that he was dog sitting for a staff member of ATWT (no, it wasn't Goutman) and he asked me if I wouldn't mind doing it for him since he had too much going on at the time. He said this person had a lot of ATWT scripts just sitting around. I said OK and it turned out to be for quite a few weekends throughout that summer as well as the summer of 2001. I never met the ATWT staff member because my friend and I were very thorough about not making it known that I was actually doing the dog sitting, not him. There was no doorman, for starters, and the neighbors always kept to themselves.

I revealed a lot of the storylines I saw in those scripts on a website which I don't even remember the name of now. I only started going online in 2000 so I suppose I felt a bit "drunk with power" at possessing this info. One of the biggest storylines I leaked was Barbara being roasted like a kebab in that

gazebo. I posted under the same name as the one here. I can't say I felt terribly guilty about doing this, my only pangs came from the likelihood that some people on the show might be unfairly accused of doing it.

The spring of 2002 I was a judge for the Daytime Emmy Awards. The ATWT fan luncheon was being held the same day at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. I stopped by to say hello to someone I met via the website I'd posted on. We'd corresponded using the website's email. I had my picture taken with a few people at this luncheon. One of those people somehow found out I was the "leaker." They had also been told that I'd been a background actor on the show many years previously. This person was apparently friendly with Chris Goutman and promptly told him about me. And here's what Goutman did-

He put up a WANTED poster of me at the studio in Brooklyn. A friend of mine who had just started working part-time doing make-up told me he saw it on a bulletin board in a hallway. This was a few days after he'd heard Goutman bitching to another staffer about "that f**king leaker" and how Goutman wanted to handle it personally. On that WANTED poster was my headshot from the early 1980s (??!!), the photo of me from that fan luncheon, an old phone number and...much much worse...my Social Security number. When I was told this I wanted to throw up. My crew friend said he couldn't take a picture of it because it was too close to the production office. He really needed a job there full-time. He apologized profusely. I understood where he was coming from.

I knew one of the stage managers there-we were acquaintances during the late 1970s via a mutual friend, an actress. I knew she lived at the same apartment complex as a friend of mine because we'd bumped into each other a few times in the lobby. I wrote to her about the WANTED poster and how disclosing my Social Security number was a serious breach of privacy and most likely illegal. I wrote that if it wasn't taken down immediately I would consider legal action. I left the letter with her doorman. It must have been passed on to her because my friend the make-up artist informed me the WANTED poster was taken down a day later.

If I had not already been dealing with the impending death of a close friend as well as several other problems I might have gone ahead and tried to sue Goutman. It would have been a tough case to prosecute though, not to mention bizarre. Talk about something out of a soap. I would understand the lengths Goutman would take if I was actually an employee of the show but I wasn't! I did realize how stupid it was to do what I did with the leaking by not at least posting what I'd learned anonymously. The Datalounge site became good for that. Which leads me to....

Fast forward to 2010. ATWT was several months away from going off the air forever. Goutman was still in charge, of course. A friend of mine worked a location shoot up in Westchester County and he told me a major new character got hit by a train and was killed. He didn't actually see who the victim would be, he only knew what he knew by what he had heard on set. I put two and two together, however, and came up with Reid. I felt in my gut it was Reid. I posted my suspicion as fact on Datalounge. It caused something of an uproar there since DL's posters are predominantly gay. This then spilled over to other message boards like TWOP and perhaps this one, I presume. I called up my friend the make-up artist to wish him happy birthday soon afterward and he told me with glee in his voice that Goutman was really catching hell by CBS-they were apparently not at all happy with the enormously negative response by unhappy fans over the prospect of Reid getting killed off weeks before the show ended forever. The soap press was also bugging him about it. Goutman was, as a result, feeling under siege by the stupid decision to kill off Reid when he very likely thought it would be smooth sailing for him until the show's final fade-out. He was wrong. I got my revenge, sorta, didn't I? It took a while but I did.

Well, as my father often said, "Never f**k with the Irish." Or, even better, "What goes around, comes around."

LOL, Vee. Yeah, I'll never forget that. I doubt Case had even met Marland but you'd think from all the heartfelt tributes he got at his memorial she'd have an inkling of his huge significance to her colleagues!

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Yes, BetterForgotten, I'm an EE devotee who wrote a lot of interviews for The Walford Gazette fan newspaper. I got to meet many of the show's cast, writers and production staff. In fact I'm pretty sure 1991 (the year I met Marland) may have been when I met my favorite interviewee of all time, Anita Dobson!

Khan, I was thrilled to meet Douglas Marland and it was wonderful to tell him what his work meant to us viewers. He really was so shocked that he'd been recognized since he wasn't an actor...and in London, of all places! I was glad I didn't tell him I was an actor because it would sound like I was kissing up for a job as a long-lost Snyder or something. Or maybe a resurrected Upchucky Shea! Damn, if I'd told him my screen test story that could have worked.

Vee, I told the Sharon Case storyline on Datalounge once. Is that where you could have seen it?

Here's another brush with ATWT (sorta):

I was a panelist for the Daytime Emmy Awards for about seven years. I most often found myself judging all the acting categories. I remember sitting near Helen Wagner several times at breakfast in the dining area. Most of us didn't bother looking well put together but she looked fantastic-perfect hair, make-up and wardrobe! Talk about classy. The respect she commanded by her colleagues was tremendous. One year I sat next to Lesli Kay Sterling on a panel for Outstanding Actor in a Children's Series. She was absolutely delightful. I had to try to keep that from influencing my judging the following year-she did end up winning anyway, right?

I also jjudged the year when Margo had been raped. I wanted Ellen Dolan to win the award very badly. However I could only in good conscience vote strictly on what was seen on her submitted tape and what was on that tape was only Margo being catatonic in the immediate aftermath. I was crushed. A few other times I wanted to vote for Elizabeth Hubbard but I just couldn't because her acting taken out of context looked extremely messy, unfocused, like she was floundering with the words. I think the writing (even Marland's) should certainly have played a part in that. Erika Slezak's tapes, on the other hand, were always easy to follow and her acting was...clean. Smooth. Sharp as a tack. And so she got my vote several times. And OK, Susan Lucci did deserve the Emmy she finally got. I could swear she submitted bad tapes on purpose for a few years there, though, because she (or her husband?) was more interested in cashing in on her notoriety for being a "loser"-remember that Equal commercial?

Someday soon I'll tell you of my nasty "brush" with Chris Goutman!

OK, here's my brush with Douglas Marland-:

In 1991 I was in London and went to see the Brian Friel play Dancing At Lughnasa which had transferred to a West End theater from the Royal National Theater. It's a play about grown sisters and a lot of it took place in their family kitchen. During the intermission I saw Douglas Marland standing by himself having a drink. I walked over to him and told him how much I admired his work. His jaw dropped. I didn't tell him I was an actor, only that I recognized him from Soap Opera Weekly and I had a good memory. I remember mentioning how touching Alice Haining had been as Angel Lange when Angel revealed her history of sexual abuse on the witness stand. To be more specific it was the moment she concluded her testimony and was led out of the witness stand a shattered, exposed young victim. Marland thanked me, a tear forming in his eye. He then excused himself and returned with a British female theater companion and he said to her "This guy actually recognized me! Tell her!" And I did. We talked a bit about how good the play we were seeing was and I mentioned it reminded me a bit of the Snyder kitchen. Marland agreed, said he might steal something from the play for the show and shook my hand. It was a nice encounter.

In 1993 I found myself at his memorial service at the Ambassador Theater. My good friend Geraldine Court (who has also sadly passed away) brought me as her guest, along with Anna Stuart. It was wonderful. Tamara Tunie sang. Beautiful speeches from everybody. As we put on our coats I saw Sharon Case (who'd been playing Debbie) say to Martha Byrne and Jon Hensley "So do you guys wanna go bowling?" They just stared at her. Well, Case didn't know him as they knew him, didn't they?

Hah, Vee, I hated David Jay, too! We would be up for a lot of the same roles and he landed a few. I must have seen him on Dark Shadows and thought he was bad. He was pretty creepy looking and not a particularly nice kid, either. His mother was not pleasant, either. I understudied him in a Lincoln Center production of Macbeth in 1974. I never got to go on for him but I did get to go on for the other actor I covered (Scott Thomson) after the poor guy had been mugged in Central Park. I went on for two performances, had a few scenes with Christopher Walken (he played Macbeth) and a week later we both ended up with measles! I strongly suspect I gave them to him-I was in junior high, after all, a hotbed of germs. I actually got them IN MY EYES-my doctor informed my parents that if they had veered 1/5th of an inch closer I would have been blinded. I heard later on that Macbeth closed early due to Walken getting measles. The famed Curse of Macbeth was no joke!

DRW50, I remember that Freddie Bartholomew was the executive producer of ATWT at the time and the only way I remember that is because he apparently met my mother and introduced himself as a former child actor- he had, in fact, been a child movie star in 1930s Hollywood classics like Litttle Lord Fauntleroy which she had loved when she was a kid! She was highly impressed, let me tell you. I remember auditioning for ATWT initially at Grey Advertising. Watching Mad Men now is a trip down memory lane because those real life ad men were always subtly and not-so-subtly trying to pick up my mom! She was very beautiful and looked like an actress. Interesting times.

Wow, BetterForgotten, I've never heard that story. I do remember the tabloids having a great time with French apparently having had an affair with one of the male background actors on the show. I think the background actor sold his "story" for £££. That would certainly explain French's unwillingness to do interviews and the like.

It's absolutely true that French isn't leaving "early." By all indications he never intended to stay on the show for very long at all in the first place. I wonder if David will be killed off? Having him simply run off AGAIN is way too obvious.

Hi, everyone, after signing up to SON I've been over at the Foreign Soaps/EastEnders thread but finally found myself here. I've had a fantastic time reading posts going back to 2011. The info/articles/links/views/memories posted here have been pretty remarkable to see.

I've actually had a few personal brushes with ATWT over the years that I thought might be fun to share. OK, here's one:

When I was 11 back in the fall of 1972 I screen tested for the role of Charles "Chucky" Shea. The ATWT studio at that particular time was CBS on West 57th Street. The scene was Chucky in a hospital bed with strep throat. I was being considered for the role along with two other boys. One was a blond kid who looked like the Dutch Boy paint kid. His name was David Jay (Lord knows how I remember this but can't remember previous boyfriends!). The other was a towhead named Willie Rook. I'd seen him on a lot of commercials. Eileen Fulton actually did the screen tests with us. I have a vivid memory of her standing over me in the hospital bed, gently running her hand through my hair. She was very glamorous. I had to make my voice sound like I had...uhhh...strep throat. I felt that I did alright. I wasn't surprised when it turned out that Willie Rook got the part. My mom, ever the realist, said that I was the brown haired alternative for them and that although she was sure I did well they'd probably cast one of the blond kids.

Less than a year later Rook was replaced by another child actor I knew from seeing at auditions-David Perkins. He was a nice kid. And he had brown hair! His dad was also an actor. I didn't watch the show at the time (AMC and Dark Shadows were the ones I watched then) but I gather Chucky got killed in a car crash a year or so later. Apparently not a whole lot was done with poor little Chucky.

I remember David Susskind's Sunday late night talk show one time had a panel of soap stars-the ones I remember on it were Victoria Wyndham, Robin Strasser, Mary Stuart and Eileen Fulton. And Eileen Fulton mentioned that her character had a dead son named Chucky but he was known on the set as "Upchucky." I was rather amused by that!

I did end up on the show many years later but it was as a background actor in high school scenes in June 1983 with Kirk (Christian LeBlanc), Franny (Terry Vandenbosch) and Lorna (Barbara Garrick, although her last name at the time was Cook). The studio then was somewhere in the East 70s on the Upper East Side. I had already worked for two years as a background high school student on AMC. The environments couldn't be more different. LeBlanc seemed nice enough but I distinctly remember him saying more than a few times that he was his show's answer to Tad Martin. And I remember thinking "Uh uh, no, you're not." Franny didn't exactly bring to mind Jenny Gardner. And Lorna was quite obviously a Liza Colby rip-off. Garrick stood out for me, though, and I wasn't surprised she did well down the road on the Tales of the City miniseries as well as on OLTL.

In Aug/Sep/Oct 1983 I ended up working on a film which in production was called Sweet Ginger Brown. It was later retitled The Flamingo Kid. It starred Matt Dillon. I worked background in it as a cabana boy at a beach club in Queens. A very young actress named Marisa Tomei had a role in it. She had very few lines but she was there for around 30 days, as was I. I remember during the last week of production Bronson Pinchot, Fisher Stevens, Marisa Tomei and a few of us background people were having lunch and she mentioned that she'd been offered a two year contract on ATWT to play a "damaged and lonely" young girl named Marcy who was going to end up stalking someone named "Dr. Bob." By then I knew the show pretty well but held my tongue. She said she didn't really want to do it but she'd only been signed to her agents for a few months and they were insisting she do it. Interesting, huh? I made a point of watching her first shows and her talent was undeniable.

I never made it back to that set but I still have a few ATWT stories left which I hope to tell you soon.

Michael French would never agree to a long-term contract. I'm just glad he came back at all. David is one of my all-time favorite characters, along with Den, Angie and Dot.

Wasn't the trouble between French and Coulson somerhing to do with him being named as a corespondent in Coulson's divorce? French is by all accounts a gay man so I wonder what the real story was.

Is it true there was a retcon in terms of when Shirley walked out on her family? It was apparently establshed back in 2007 that Dean had been abandoned by Shirley when he was a baby yet in last night's episode it was mentioned that she walked off when he was five?

Good God, the actor playing Les Coker is awful. It's like he's wandered onto the show from a Rank horror film from the 70s where he was playing a 19th century ghoulish crypt keeper.

Timothy West (Stan), however, is already giving some of the best performances this show has ever had (and yes, I've watched from the very beginning).

Yep, he was, Bright Eyes. I strongly suspect that Ben #3 will be much easier on the eyes. And DTC will make sure whoever is chosen has great chemistry with Sam Strike (Johnny).

EE seems to have turned into The Lauren Show. And that's not a good thing.

Linda said that Eurovision was her and Johnny's "thing." And she couldn't tell he was gay from THAT? Wow.

Phil got teary eyed AGAIN during another of Ian's bleating fits. Sorry, I didn't buy it for a second. McFadden is doing a disservice to his character by allowing him to "get emotional."

Ben is out of prison? Already? Jeez...

I just feel, to this day, that Kat and Alfie have never been a good couple. I think the idea of Kat and Alfie looked nice on paper but the reality is different. I always believed that Kat loved Alfie (the "man in the moon") because he "rescued" her from feeling "dirty" but wasn't actually in love with him. I know this might appear to be a bit unseemly given her past but I always thought a powerful older man (15 years or so older) would have been a better partner for her-someone who would help her develop into the dynamo she really could be. A benign Henry Higgins/Svengali type who she'd co-own the Vic with.

Why are Tina, Tosh, Jake and Aleks all being isolated together in a flat? They're all new characters. Not the way to go, show.

Alfie's turning on the cheeky chappy charm to get customers after nearly ditching his stall was cringeworthy. It's exactly situations like this that I really wonder if EE's writers ever know what happens in the real world. Because that sort of thing never does.

Good point, soapgirluk, but I still think she's one to watch! I actually like the actress who plays Pam and I'm all for the show building up the ranks of older characters.

It's been great reading the posts for this even though the only German soap I've watched full episodes of was Marienhof.

Time Warner Cable had on a channel called German TV here in NYC for about a year and I loved it even though nothing was subtitled. I became a fan of Marienhof. And then, of course, the station got pulled. I kept up with it a little on YouTube but it wasn't the same.

DRW50, doesn't Shabnam #2 on EE remind you of Katrin Ritt who played Yasemin? I think they look strikingly similar, both are beautiful young women.

Well, Terry's leaving in a few months but I think he might actually end up being a victim.

Yep, that Stan (Timothy West) ain't fooling anyone. Dude can walk.

I think it's a tad premature to declare that EE going through a "golden era" but I love Grace Dent's writing, anyway.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/grace-dent-on-tv-lucy-beales-death-hails-new-golden-era-for-eastenders-9311234.html

You should, DRW50. Heh. So who do you think Lucy's murderer is? The moment Pam Coker asked Alfie for the black arm band and he declared that she was "lovely" she shot right up to the top of my suspects list and that was a few days before the Twitter "spoiler."

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Reading all those posts from 2008 (OK, I might have skimmed through some discussions of Kat/Alfie) I found it fascinating reading predictions/views/fantasies about certain storylines/characters. For instance, was it you, DRW50, who surmised that when Shabnam returned she would be a more severe, religious young lady? That was right on the money!

Anyway, thanks again. I really enjoyed reading through the posts and look forward to some good to-ing and fro-ing.

Hi, everybody, I had the great (albeit exhausting) pleasure of reading posts here dating from 2008 onwards beginning last Thursday. Well, I finally caught up now and am ready to post. I've been really impressed with all of you, particularly Y&RWorldTurner, DRW50, Ben, Edward Skylover, Ann_SS , sylph among many others. I hope I can contribute something of interest here and/or to simply express an opinion.

I have very mixed feelings about the Lucy murder mystery. On the positive side it's already brought in the issue of internet trolling and Diane Parish got to give one of the performances of her EE life in last night's episode, as a result. However, if other boards are any indication, I'm fairly alone in my opinion that the Phil/Ian scene on Friday's episode was a piece of phony baloney which I didn't buy for a second.

I look forward to parrying back and forth with you all. In a respectful manner, of course!