Xanthe

Just got my copy of the Texas book. I haven't started it yet but although I knew it wasn't likely I had hoped for an index so I could jump to specific topics if I wanted to. Serves me right for buying a hardback rather than a searchable ebook.

Was Mac thinking about that aspect at all? In that specific conversation with Russ he seemed to be focused on Rachel rather than other people. How far had Rachel's relationship with Mitch gone at this point? In terms of personal betrayal, seducing one's husband's sister's boyfriend because he is rich seems morally worse (although statistically more probable) than nobly sacrificing oneself to thwart one's husband's murder. The only thing Russ and Mac have in common on this issue is that Rachel did let both of them believe that they were her son's father.

I was looking at the bit right after Jamie is born. But I have flipped back a couple of pages and I see Alice tell Jim (who reasons that the odds must be in Russ' favour) who tells Mary who was on the very verge of telling Russ when Rachel went into labour and Russ had to leave for the hospital without the facts.

I think you're right. In the Kate Lowe Kerrigan novelization, after Jamie is born Rachel talks with Russ (privately) about making sure Jim and Mary don't forget to create a trust fund for him and Russ doesn't have any objection other than she's being pushy about it. If he had known or suspected the baby wasn't his at that point surely he would have had something to say about it. It does appear that Alice and Steve and Jim and Mary are less oblivious and also believe Russ doesn't know. Rachel has told Steve directly of course but he insists that he isn't the father (without denying to Alice that he slept with Rachel, so just wishful thinking); Jim and Mary are suspicious but think they should open the trust fund anyway.

For reference it's Cara Pifko, not Carla.

Is it the same thing she did with Donna and Reginald on AW?

Very interesting, thank you! I liked Ed Fry a lot as Adam on Another World and despite the timeslot conflict checked him out as Larry from time to time. I can't tell how much of the story outline actually played out as written. What became of the surrogate baby? I liked the story with Larry and Susan and was disappointed later when Larry was portrayed as not a very good father without any nuance beyond the need to cause difficulty in Alison's life.

i.e. Brian Linehan.

Thanks, this is great. There is so much to absorb, I long for a fully annotated version! Joe Gallison's portrait is the one that really leaps out at me on the wall.

I had to look it up -- she was the first Courtney Evans, replaced after a few weeks by Stina Nielsen. Based on the synopses Courtney didn't do much while Bellamy was in the rôle and I admit although I remember Stina as Courtney I don't remember Bellamy at all. I wish Courtney had not had such a grim life and a grim end. I would rather she had had Kelsey's opportunities.

David Johansen aka Buster Poindexter has died: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2025/03/01/david-johansen-death-new-york-dolls-buster-poindexter/80967207007/

Thanks! I haven't been able to find anything concrete myself but it seemed very odd for a current wife not to be mentioned as a survivor, especially when Porter's daughter was.

I was looking at an episode from the summer of 1984 where Cecile goes with Wallingford to meet Bates (who had provided information about the secret baby-selling ring; they find him dead) and was surprised to learn from the AWHP that the actor (Tom Mardirosian) who played Bates is the same one who later played Ralph, the imposter Donna asked to pretend to be Michael so that Marley would stop looking for her father.

I remember coming across some video about it after Nancy Frangione died. Here's a link: https://www.neuroskills.com/about/news-and-events/video-chris-rich-part-1-introduction/

The famous big moments in soap trials that I can think of hinged on testimony under oath that wasn't about guilt or innocence, they were things like baby Matthew's paternity on AW or Karen's prostitution on OLTL. Maybe those are outliers but the serial is a different beast from Law & Order and it seems to me thinking that the audience watches soaps to reach an ultimate end point is a misunderstanding of the genre. It sounds like there is an overall tendency nowadays to tell more linear stories and maybe that undermines trials as a tool for creating conflict and keeping story moving in a serial format.

Based on Gabet's public comment when Marcus Smythe passed away it feels unfair to blame him personally. Smythe was quite tall though and she describes the abuse scenes as rough to play, so it makes sense that the circumstances were stressful.

I believe Thomas Ian Griffith intended to leave at the end of his contract since he and Mary Page Keller wanted to go out to California. He was on the show for 3 years. I seem to recall that Gabet was released from her contract early because she was so miserable. She was on from mid-March 1985 to early January 1987, so not quite 2 years. Based on the AWHP synopses, as early as August 1986 Brittany had a gun to protect herself from Peter. She shot him in mid-November. Did the show really have a plan for her exit in January and drag it out over so many months when Gabet so badly wanted to leave? Or did they have a different vision of the abuse leading to [attempted] murder that they had to throw out the window and rejig? According to the AWHP, this is how the verdict worked: I wish we had one of the advertisements for reference and knew the timing of when those went out.

Thanks! I had tried to see what information was available on the archived sites linked from the AWHP (the Somerset Register and Somerset Online) but had not found anything.

I wonder a lot about what influenced the changes in her character. (Brittany was never an amnesiac -- she was deaf and mute and had believed that both Catlin (whom she had known as Josh) and their baby Evan had died until Peter somehow tracked her down in order to prevent Sally from marrying Catlin.) She was introduced not as a scheming villain but as a stubborn and deprived woman. That lasted during a strike and a prolonged period without a head writer until after Mary Page Keller was replaced as Sally by Taylor Miller. Was it audience feedback or just a new HW that caused Brittany to start transparently lying and scheming to break up Catlin's marriage? That was the Brittany who entrapped Peter into marrying her, and it wasn't until Margaret DePriest came in and brought Reginald into the picture that Peter became abusive to her. Was that because the audience wanted to see Brittany punished (gross!), or was it just in order to turn Brittany into a victim so that she could be rewarded by being reunited with Catlin after Sally was killed off?

I glanced at the 1970 AW synopses and when Rachel meets Gerald Davis he tells her he is divorced from Marsha, Pammy's mother. I also don't see Alice Hirson listed in the AW Actor Guide. I'm not sure how large a role Marsha played in Somerset -- she is listed under minor characters but she was apparently around for a couple of years, even after Pammy left.

For what it's worth, I doubt that Deborah Hobart was still married to Rick Porter when he died because she was not listed as "survived by" in his obituary. Instead there is a reference to his having had two wives during his lifetime. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/richard-porter-obituary

They assumed that bigots would absolutely boycott the show and they would lose viewers while reasonable people wouldn't boycott if they didn't. The most unreasonable people often get this type of stranglehold because of their intransigence. So maddening. I'm not sure how I excited I would have been about Josie and Reuben specifically (I was more invested in the earlier possibility of Thomasina and Hunter Bradshaw) because she was so skittish about everything (and to be honest I had a hard time caring about girls whose career aspiration was to be a model). But in principle I would have had nothing against the concept. Thanks very much for these. I wonder whether the shift occurred after the storyline started airing or just between casting and writing. I think it would have been more effective if the audience had known the truth earlier even if Mary and other characters had misunderstood, rather than letting us believe that Reuben was abusive.

As time went on I found Reuben very appealing as a character, but I did resent the introduction a bit since caring about Pilara seemed to be a bait-and-switch situation. I don't mind red herrings and fakeouts and shaggy dog stories in general but it would have been better not to just discard Pilara altogether once Reuben's introduction was completed.

Michael Park showed up at the end of the latest Elsbeth. https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/how-elsbeth-just-set-up-michael-emerson-s-return-after-van-ness-battle/ar-AA1yzghe

I think he came up in the context of Maura West playing an unpopular character and I wasn't paying enough attention and replied here instead of posting in a more appropriate thread.