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I find it amazing that Harding Lemay never appreciated Jacqueline Courtney's talents considering her huge popularity! Irna Phillips believed in her, as did Agnes Nixon who created the Alice/Steve love story which put Jacquie front and center as THE leading lady of AW! He criticized her acting yet millions tuned in to see her emote as the long-suffering Alice. The problem as I see it is that he never understood the mechanics of soap acting as an art form- it's pure melodrama carried to the extreme. Ol' Pete would have given 'thumbs down' to the likes of film stars like Lana Turner, Susan Hayward, Dorothy Malone, and Elizabeth Taylor- actresses who starred in big screen melodramas in the 50s and 60s- and the latter three won Oscars in melodramas! Jacquie knew how to pull at the heartstrings of the AW viewers - and you need talent for that! But Lemay had no faith in melodrama and wanted to turn "Another World" into Eugene O'Neill or Arthur Miller- yes it led to well-written scripts, but what about the emotional turmoil that has always driven soaps? He actually admired George Reinholt as an actor despite his openly criticizing Lemay's writing at times and his antics backstage. So why couldn't he appreciate Miss Courtney for all she did for "Another World"?

Do you think the show would have succeeded if it had been a daytime spinoff of ATWT?

Years later Nicolas Coster said in an interview how much more advanced "Peyton Place" was from a technical standpoint since it was shot on film and could get better angles as opposed to the much heavier TV cameras used for "Our Private World". Also, the ABC series could use exteriors on the Fox lot as opposed to the CBS studio in mid-Manhattan. I think the odds are good that P&G held on to the videotapes and/or kinescopes since it was a primetime production. I would love to see the entire series because of its unique place in soap history, and because how three decades later Doug Marland revisited Lisa's time with the Eldredge clan on ATWT with a delicious plot twist that shocked everyone in Oakdale!

I am still hoping that someone has video of Joan Crawford on the show as the substitute "Joan Borman Kane"!

I'm hoping to see anything else from "Dark Shadows"- nothing from its premiere or at its height of popularity in 1968/69?

I'm currently reading the memoirs of singer Billy Vera. This paragraph is most interesting: from it I could easily figure out! Basically it's about Marie Masters and Robert Lipton from ATWT.

Over the years it's been mentioned that veteran soap writer Sam Hall worked as a story consultant on PP- back in the 60s that fact was featured in a magazine article on his wife Grayson Hall of "Dark Shadows". And as we all know Sam himself worked on that OTHER ABC show about a New England town with secrets. But did you know about the other links between DS and PP? They shared Malcom Marmorstein as a writer, and DS actor Roger Davis was a finalist for the role of Rodney but lost out to Ryan O'Neal- Mr. Davis divulged this fact in am interview a few years ago. Now, back to Sam Hall- does anyone out there have any real info as to his contributions to PP?

I still hold out hope that Michael Park can join Maura West on GH!

What? No Peyton Place? Shame on you! 514 half hours that changed TV forever- and it's turning 60 next month! Bright Promise is complete and owned by CBS/Paramount. Also, add Strange Paradise!

DAYS, definitely (Ted Corday died, and his wife Betty took over, getting William Bell away from ATWT to write for what turned out to be one of the best runs in daytime history). But to me the ultimate example of 'thinking outside of the box' to save a new soap is Dark Shadows: creator/producer Dan Curtis begged ABC to give him thirteen weeks to turn things around, and her did. The show went from being a standard Gothic suspense drama a la Jane Eyre or Rebecca to gradually going into Gothic horror. First the ghost of Josette was seen onscreen and then in December 1966 Diana Millay appeared as Roger's estranged wife Laura who was actually a Phoenix in human form, causing all kinds of mayhem for the next few months. She was the first supernatural creature on the show, but the storyline came to an end in March as Diana's Laura went up in flames. The ratings did go up, and as the 13 weeks ended Curtis (based on a suggestion of his young daughter) and the writers created a even more dangerous creature: a vampire who just happened to be a long-lost family member from the 18th century and now came to Collinwood claiming to be an English cousin- Barnabas Collins! We all know what happened next......

Regarding EDGE- I do know that when Henry Slesar took over circa 1968 he replaced Lou Scofield who wrote the Laura Hillyer story in 1966-67.

Also, Victoria Winters, Emily Quartermaine, Jody Travis, Patti Tate, Morgan Richards, and my all time favorite soap ingenue: Allison MacKenzie of Peyton Place as played by the irreplaceable Mia Farrow!

Adam Huss isn't the only new GH guy who's queer- so is Adam J. Harrington, the new Jagger! Apparently he had openly talked about his sexuality on his Twitter/X account a few years ago, but it no longer exists!

Reminds me of a similar story about Lara Parker during her first weeks on DS- she had a crush on Anthony George. Grayson Hall took her aside and told her "My dear, he's gay!"

Thomas Coley was in the sci-fi classic "Doctor Cyclops" as a young man- one can see what "Henry" saw in him! ATWT producer Robert Calhoun was the longtime partner of Farley Granger - is that he got to play Earl Mitchell? DS had a lot of LGTBQ people in front of and behind the camera. BTS it was makeup artist Vincent Loscalzo, and writers Ron Sproat (who knew Jonathan Frid at Yale while the actor was studying for his MFA and put in a good word for him to Dan Curtis and Robert Costello as 'Barnabas' was being cast) and Joseph Caldwell.

Well, the cat is out of the bag! I first heard about the couple years ago but only posted it about here hoping that someone could back up the story- and now it's real! Thanks to Broderick for his research!

You're not stupid after all! So you probably know which couple I was talking about. And Soapsuds (and Paul Raven, too!) guessed the ID of the then- boyfriend of the male AMC star!

Indeed you do!

Yes she is married with children now, but not then! Well anyway her foreign born leading man/fake boyfriend was seeing a blonde stud from the same network in another soap! Look at the clues I gave about the blonde dreamboat- I'm sure you can figure out his ID soon.

Why didn't Victoria Wyndham and David Forsyth show up? They seemed to have vanished!

In retrospect SOMERSET could have been saved if Lin Bolen (NBC daytime head) hadn’t been so blindly led by Paul Rauch and Harding Lemay! The show was cancelled for their creation “Lovers and Friends” which fared worse than its predecessor! However there may have been a golden opportunity which would have saved SOMERSET and may have added more viewers to NBC’s soap schedule. We all remember the debacle about the Reinholt/Courtney/Dwyer firings from 1975 and how George and Jacquie went to OLTL, giving it a boost in the ratings. But after he was fired, Lin Bolen offered George the role of villain Dr. Paul Summers on THE DOCTORS (eventually played by Paul Carr). George flatly refused and then got the ABC offer. What Lin should have done would have given SOMERSET a big boost: simply have Steve and Alice Frame have a new start in AW’s spinoff show! That way NBC would keep two of its biggest stars while keeping the AW brass happy by getting rid of the actors they felt troublesome. Best of all, adding Reinholt and Courtney to SOMERSET would have been a big ratings boost. Imagine if Steve Frame bought Delaney Brands and decided to start a new life with Alice in Somerset, away from the constant threat of Rachel. It would have been interesting to see…..

No! No actor-character by that name on either soap in question, but the same network.

Not Stacy- the actress doesn't look ANYTHING like her. Think opposite,

Okay - a few hints. The lady played more than one role on her show- something that would send most actors to the moon and back! Her tall dark and handsome leading man was foreign born-no way could he hide his accent! As for his blond boyfriend from another soap- he wasn't afraid to show some skin for a national magazine- little did the ladies know he showed ALL for his male lover!

I remember when two actors played a married couple on a soap in the 80s- and both were strictly playing for the home team! They had an offscreen 'romance' for the soap press but the male half was having a steamy affair with a hot blond stud from another soap on the same network. The female half came from a somewhat prominent family so she had to be discreet. Now- guess who these three people (still living) are!