Xanthe

My mother has been watching episodes of The Rockford Files and asked me who was playing a guest role in the latest episode. (She does look things up on IMDB herself but it always annoys her when the photo of the actor is from a different stage of life so she can't recognize them by their appearance.) When I looked it up it turned out to be Robert Hogan, which led me to glance at his credits where I noticed in an incredibly dull coincidence that he once played a character on Law & Order SVU named Grant Harrison. Obviously it is more a testament to how generically ordinary the name is than any intentional easter egg but there you are. Grant Harrison and Vince McKinnon didn't even overlap in Bay City.

You have probably considered this as well, but he would have been in the studio in late 1975 for his role as Peter Goodwin on Somerset. I don't see any indication that the minor character crossed over between the shows or that John and Pat appeared on Somerset as late as that or that Jim and Mary would have appeared at all. I don't see any broadway credits for Lenard in the 1970s on the ibdb but that doesn't mean he wasn't working in NY at the time. Most of the AWHP synopses for 1971-1975 appear to be daily, so I don't know if there is any passing reference to the character there that might ring a bell and give a new trail to investigate.

He certainly disparaged it and wanted to bring in more upper- and lower-class characters. Some quotes from Eight Years in Another World: "Solid middle-class values were idealized through characters who were invariably white Anglo-Saxon Protestants with surnames such as Matthews, Hughes, Stewart, and Randolph." "The existing conventional soap opera family on “Another World” – upper-middle class, professional children of professional parents – was to be contrasted with a group of vigorous young people from the dirt-farm deprivation similar to the bleakness of the impoverished region in which I had grown up. They would join the Matthewses and the Randolphs slowly over several years and in their individual way fight for the social acceptance and economic security their complacent betters took for granted." "We were gaining Frames from Oklahoma and Carringtons from international society circles. The Matthewses and Randolphs remained but would no longer dominate the action." "It would take time to weave the Perrinis into the action, so I set about making Angie a focal figure in a secondary triangle to counterpoint that of Iris, Mac and Rachel. Angie fell slavishly in love with Willis in spite of his blatant pursuit of Carol Lamonte, whose wealth and social standing was worth cultivating far more than the meek little Italian girl from the wrong side of the tracks. The two triangles had much in common: both heroines were brunettes and both spoilers were blonde, a departure from prevailing soap opera formula. Both spoilers were also extremely rich while both heroines were from working class backgrounds, factors which reflected my own prejudices."

I forgot JFP was in the mix in this scenario. I did not watch but I know Linda and Robin went all around ABC with those characters and were revealed to be mother and daughter.

If I recall correctly they specifically wanted Felicia for Linda Dano. I don't remember whether there was discussion of other characters they would have used -- although I suppose once you have Felicia any of her friends and relations could be relevant.

Knowing this adds weight to Jacqui Courtney's fear that she might be fired early on as well.

Her AW character Sally Frame was engaged to Leigh Hobson played by Christopher Knight ... who was of course also Peter Brady.

Beautiful!

All credit to @slick jones for having documented it!

I don't seem to find the character mentioned in the Minor Characters, Day Players, or Actor Guide on the AWHP, but bizarrely there was a doctor named Pamela Bondi in 1986 who was Chris Chapin's colleague and occasional confidante who made Nancy jealous. She is mentioned in the synopses. Chris calls her in the lab here: http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/aw1986.html I haven't found her named in the credits anywhere online but she was around for a few months. ETA: then I thought to check the Soap Hoppers thread here and I find that she was played by Susan Bigelowe who is not in the AWHP actor guide. https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/55788-soap-hoppers-the-soap-actors-and-roles-thread/page/74/#findComment-1609894

Thanks! I didn't know anything about Runyon's family life and was not aware her daughter was an actress. I don't recognize the name Bayley Corman but she has various credits including Y&R.

Jennifer Runyon has died. Variety did not mention AW. Jennifer Runyon Dead: 'Ghostbusters' Actor Was 65 https://share.google/vIC5XiRxe5Y3FNkIT

Another random fact I had not known: Leon Russom understudied Stephen Schnetzer on Broadway in 1981 in a play with Claudette Colbert. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/a-talent-for-murder-4133#OpeningNightCast

This is from a few months ago -- I came across a mention on the AWHP that Victoria Wyndham had not liked the actor and had refused to continue the storyline with him. http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/unknown.htm The unknown actor mentions auditioning for Dennis and Jamie -- I had not known that Dorothy Purser had been a casting director before she wrote for the show.

Do we know for certain whether she was fired or made the decision to leave? She might have wanted to focus on her cosmetics idea. It looks like she overlapped a little bit with Quinn in 1981, and then post-Linda Henrietta came on in 1982. Do you recall whether Linda and Quinn interacted? Based on the way they wrote out Quinn it's equally easy to believe they failed to appreciate Linda and let Vera Moore go, but it would be so much nicer if it was her own choice.

I don't remember the character of Linda. Apparently the actress created a cosmetics line. About Us – Vera Moore Cosmetics https://share.google/O9yZbCW0eBULmWU5J

So clearly the next logical step was to hire him back on Another World to fill the void left by Paul Michael Valley's departure. I didn't hate him as Sam, I thought he did a reasonable job with the material such as it was. But there is no reason his costars should have to put up with bad behaviour.

I sometimes wonder what Ellen would have done with Vicky after Anne Heche or after Jensen. Original Vicky's bitterness was very raw, especially after Jake decided he preferred Marley.

Robert Carradine has died. I did not know that Martha Plimpton is a Carradine. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/feb/24/robert-carradine-dies-aged-71-death-revenge-of-the-nerds-actor

I think the writing for MJ was a huge part of the issue here. I thought Kathleen Layman was wonderful but she didn't have to put up with being demoted at work, changed from an eldest child and college graduate to a middle child and aspiring singer who had fallen into prostitution, and contrasted with poor wooby Chad who was somehow hardly to blame at all for operating a stable of prostitutes. I liked Sally Spencer and Ed Fry together but the storyline was handled very poorly. I think Nancy was the one who got treated as a placeholder for Amanda and Cheryl was replaced by Josie Watts. I am torn because I liked the character of Paulina but I would have liked to see Nancy and Amanda interacting. I was never very happy with Sandra Ferguson as Amanda. I have seen some episodes of the series Madame Secretary recently and I think that Stevie McCord as played by Wallis Currie-Wood (obviously too young to have played the part of Amanda, just an example) is the kind of character I think young Amanda was supposed to be and never was. IMO Lauri Landry came across as a bit too strict and prim for Nicole, but Anne Howard's Nicole was a bit too naive. I do wish that both Peter and Nicole had been around for longer. But because the characters left having burned all of their boats and the last actors to play them had not been ragingly popular, no later PTB felt compelled to resurrect them.

In his book he talks about how gradually over time he stopped hiring sub-writers in order to just do everything himself. I don't know how accurate that is but I wonder how that timeline might line up with a decline in quality.

According to the AWHP, Marlowe assumed the rôle in July 1969. If so NBC was making no effort to be current. I note also that Macdonald Carey is used as the face of Days of Our Lives. Certainly current in that case but was Tom any more of a lead than Jim at that time? Maybe they were just going for patriarch?

Jesse Jackson has died. NBC NewsRev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights icon, dies at 84“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement Tuesday.

Aunt Liz was wealthy compared to Jim Matthews but even so Jim must have been relatively comfortable when he set up some kind of fund for Jamie. Did Liz come from money or was it due to Will's business?