Franko

Going off the CBS Thursday promo right after the episode, this is sometime during the week of Sept. 21, 1981. https://www.ultimate70s.com/seventies_history/19810924/television ETA: Whoops, looks like I posted at the exact time as beebs did.

Yeah, it's really not good. The only way it maybe would have been salvageable was as a novelty song and/or in character as Tootie.

That's for the clarification re: Kelli. That period before Andrea Evans came back is a blur to me. Oh, how I wish Kim's AMC appearance was on YouTube. In the meantime, here's the song.

Going off the Tune in Tomorrow recaps, the storyline was labored from the get-go. Maggie wants to be a surrogate! Mickey won't let her! He agrees, but isn't sure she'll be able to give the baby up! Maggie's friends with Stuart! Now she's friends with Evan! Either way, she's too close for comfort! Evan's the daddy! Evan wants his baby! Never mind about the couple Maggie was carrying the baby for!* *They apparently weren't that important in the scheme of things. I can't help but think of how surrogate stories would be told later in the decade after the Baby M mess.

Agreed. I always liked Tony/Brad, who seemed like a solid enough guy with a bad habit of needing neurosurgery and/or getting involved with shady women. But I never thought of him as a heartthrob type.

We'll have to start a new tracker, this time for After-Massacre Improvements. No. 1 was killing off Cassie. Marlena's making an impressive bid for Dumbass of the Fortnight. Did she really think the grass was greener on her side of the fence? Or is she just that pissed at Don? Never mind. Dumbass of the Fortnight clearly goes to Jessica, with Toad a close second. Good God, how many times are they going to rely on this scene device? Okay, I have to admit, this is pretty exciting. And so's this. Personally, I think Jessica's subconsciously figured out the truth and likes daddy more.

That's fair. I guess I hadn't thought of it as an umbrella story. GH did have kind of a Saturday morning serial feel for a while there with the continuing action adventure plots. Dead on re: the never-ending Aztec treasure story. All I know is that by the very end, we could like Sean and Anna. Not to mention the endless chem testing. Tonia going from (good) Grant to Frisco to Tony, who was also nearly paired with Ginny.

The revolving door of actors caught my eye in September '84: -- Loanne Bishop leaving GH, "Christina" Milandro and Robyn Bernard joining the cast and Tony Geary preparing for a guest appearance (reportedly without Genie Francis). Meanwhile, Jane Elliot joins AMC. -- TIL Suzanne Rogers and Lane Davies were once a couple. And, ha, I was right, Suzanne did try for the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line! In lighter news, Arleen Sorkin got promoted. -- More on the Laura Malone story: She's lost her baby weight, but still can't get her role back. No comment from Chris or Nancy (who's returning to AW for an ATM visit). -- SFT, which Michael Corbett will soon leave for good, earned a stay of execution because it's doing better than SB, which is hemorrhaging sub-writers. Ah, well, Marcy Walker's on the way. -- Today I also learned Eileen Davidson was nearly in Red Sonja (!) and got around BITD. Her boyfriends included Christopher Mayer, Nicholas Walker and Billy Vera. I'm now imagining an alternate universe where Eileen gets Brigitte Nielsen's career and does movies like Rocky IV, Cobra and Beverly Hills Cop II. -- Kelly "Mironi," formerly of RH, coming to OLTL as nu-Tina (which, of course, didn't happen). -- Yet again, more dumping on the newbie, with a thumbs down for Rituals. -- Don Stewart, Marsha Clark and Peter Simon out and Kristi Ferrell and Richard Van Vleet (out at AMC) in at GL. -- Jon-Michael Reed apologized for the Harry Dean Stanton mix up, admitting Harry came to mind because of winning a recent award for his acting. -- The news I was waiting for: ABC pushing RH to noon and LOVING to 12:30. Coming soon: EDGE's cancellation. All this, and a reminder not to mix pot and alcohol.

Welcome back! I should feel sorry for Cassie, but this sounds hilarious. This is another of those times where I wonder what's going on in Alice's inner monologue. I'm sure she's retroactively fed up with Marie and not exactly thrilled with obnoxious Jessica. Seriously. I just cannot get a read on those two. HAAHAHAAAHAA!

A brief tangent: Young Doctors in Love isn't particularly great, but there's a few jokes done pretty well. (Dabney Coleman's on the phone) "Sara. ... Sara, look, you've got to understand. I am supervising 20 interns. I am running the surgery department in one of the largest hospitals in the country and I'm sitting on 12 medical committees. Now, I don't have time to talk to you, or your divorce attorney, is that clear?! Good!"

I mean, William Hickey *was* on AMC as one of Ray Gardner's scumbag associates, so ... (Did Bruce Dern ever do a soap? If he did, it probably would have been a New York show in the '50s or '60s, so we'll never see it.)

Also of note: -- Kim Delaney-Flohe's on her way out at AMC and the press is promoting her goodbye. Sorry, not sorry -- I just about fell over when I learned Jenny's jet ski death was the work of a "special effects wizard." It looked so cheap! -- How 'bout Thaao implying Philece was a hot mess? "(Leann's) a total pro, and knows enough to keep her personal life separate from the work we do at the studio." -- K.K. from Louisiana, asking for a recap of DAYS since 1980, comes off a bit like those YouTube commenters (and occasionally SON posters) seeking any and all episodes of a show. -- What Could Have Been: Suzanne Rogers in the (ill-fated) movie adaptation of A CHORUS LINE. I guess the only roles that she'd maybe be believable as are Sheila or Cassie. -- Lots of folks heading out the door: Suzanne, Wayne Northrup, Robert Newman, Don Stewart ... oh well, we've got Brad Lockerman, Julie Osburn and Gloria DeHaven. -- Coming Soon: The great RH/LOVING timeslot switch. SEARCH now has until early 1985 to get its act together. On the horizon: EDGE coming to an end. -- All this, and Nancy Addison Altman in need of the Ghostbusters.

Is there some sort of rule that states soap columnists must never like a new show from the get-go? I was amused by Jon-Michael Reed's review of early SANTA BARBARA, which took a while to deal with the show itself. Instead, we had a column and a half of reminiscing about early AMC and Y&R. Anyway, as you can guess, J-MR didn't care for most of SB's young cast.

@j swift, I think @Mitch meant to say The Sun Also Sets, the show in Soapdish.

Good points. I did what I didn't want to, fell into the "every step or setback is a game changer!" mentality.

Cue the "Democrats in disarray" bull from the usual suspects ...

Something I've noticed while reading recaps of mid '80s AW: the murder stories tend to drag on a bit. For example, in 1984: David was shot in May but we didn't find out who actually did it until November. The year later, Brittany's cousin Willa died in February and her death was resolved in July.

Highlights of July 1984 include: -- The aftermath of the clusterfcuk that was the '84 Daytime Emmys. In light of reports that Judi Evans also received the cold shoulder from her costars for winning one so soon, I felt oogy reading Jon-Michael Reed questioning her win. -- Christopher Rich and Nancy Frangione preparing to depart AW. I dunno, I don't think it would have been so bad had Sandy transitioned into more of a tentpole character. It might even have eased some of the upheaval in the wake of Douglass Watson's death. -- Eileen Fulton's back! J-MR gives a little shade to her stage endeavors: "She popped up, hither and yon, in just about any vehicle that gave her star billing. But she never forgot to remind the press and the public that she was the original Lisa on 'World Turns.'" -- Jimmy McNichol Update: He's now staying on GH until at least the end of 1984. -- Kim Fields showing up to sing about Michael Jackson on AMC and Jermaine Jackson and Whitney Houston on ATWT. -- Something I didn't know: Scrabble was an immediate hit. I guess it helped having Wheel of Fortune as a lead-in and not being in the 12 p.m. death slot. -- Once again, it's time to ask the "exciting" question, Is Dorothy Lyman Coming Back to AMC? (Yet again, no.) -- All this, and Dame Judith Anderson clutching her pearls in defense of the soaps.

And he wasn't. I forgot Scotty.

Speaking of Norman Lear, I keep forgetting that he apparently had some (minimal) early involvement with Who's the Boss? (as the Soaps Of Yesterday blog recently reminded me). I think the case was WTB? was originally an Embassy show, which meant the columnists were cool with associating Norman's name with it. ETA: I've never watched "Perfect Strangers" all the way through, but it seems to have had a reverse. Starting out for adults/families, then softening for kid appeal. I have watched "Mr. Belvedere" all the way through and that definitely evolved from family show with a slight edge (like Wesley thinking Heather's birth control was a handheld game) to adopting more of the "TGIF ethos."

And if I remember correctly, Martha died during the Port Charles hurricane or thereabouts. Nancy, Tracy, Martha and Augusta and Phil's kid ... talk about four missed opportunities. Tommy Hardy didn't need to be the only legacy character on late '80s GH.

I could be wrong, but I think "Strokes" started out fairly popular (then again, when everything else on NBC was in the basement ...) Anyway, I agree with your distinction between the first and second waves. I always think of the second wave as being dominated by Miller-Boyett's shows, but you'd also get a show or two like "Blossom." (Somewhere to the left, closer to the "adult shows," would be a "Wonder Years" or a "Doogie Howser") Seems like the kid-favoring shows fell out of favor at the basic networks, moving onto Nickelodeon and Disney. After all these years, TV must be onto, like, the seventh wave? And to not stray too far from the topic, I got a kick out of Soleil and Cherie on TODAY last week, even if Soleil was tripling down on being excited/adorable after all these years.

Well, I'll be darned. I had no idea Robin Mattson read for the role of Patsy in Terms of Endearment. (If James L. Brooks had made Broadcast News at the time, I could see Robin playing Joan Cusack's role, Blair.) Elsewhere on ABC, Jon-Michael Reed is claiming GH "took action too late" in becoming an ensemble show again. "It is just now paying the long-overdue price of loading emphasis on two characters who are no longer visible. (Need we mention Luke and Laura?)" Then why the hell did you, Jonny Boy? Oof, feels kinda foolish (to me, anyway) that Grant Show dropped out of college in his last semester at UCLA to join Ryan's Hope. Oh, well, at least it wasn't Edge ... And then again, everybody's favorite Venus/beach bimbo/ex-Catholic schoolgirl Eileen Davidson is a college dropout and things turned out just fine for her. We're up to the Rauch era beginning on OLTL, Santa Barbara debuting on NBC ... I guess the next biggie will be Loving scoring Ryan's Hope's old timeslot.

The entire post is dead-on, but these two points are especially true.

It feels like AW had a target on its back from the moment it was clear the 90-minute expansion was a flop. Also, seems like NBC rather quickly had buyer's remorse over Search.