Xanthe

MPK was fantastically appealing but I think there is also credit due to the writing and the casting. Sally might have been the heroine but her relationships with other characters were well-delineated and multifaceted. Cecile's storylines were strong at the same time: where they overlapped with Sally's they complemented each other but each had a separate focus. Likewise Donna's interest in Catlin and her secret room were leading to the reveal that she was Marley's mother. The world didn't grind to a halt every time Sally needed something.

I wonder what the plan for the Ewing family was, but I imagine they let it get derailed when they decided to fire Laura Malone. In 1983 Blaine had a lot going on with Alma Rudder, her mother Jeanne, and of course her wedding to Sandy. Jeanne told them about Catlin on her deathbed in August and it was at least 6 months before "Josh Peterson" turned up around the time Alex was born. During those 6 months they introduced the story of Sally's secret child Kevin Thatcher and broke up her engagement to Peter. My guess is that they primarily intended him for Sally and his link to the Ewing family was to provide secondary support. Blaine was still around for a year after Catlin's arrival, without very much to do because Judy Dewey. Larry lasted two and a half. Catlin was only around for three years altogether though and that was the end of the Ewing family. Maybe he actually prolonged Larry's story.

I never knew before that Hogan of Hogan's Heroes was named after this Robert Hogan. https://www.metv.com/lists/8-actors-who-almost-played-significant-roles-on-hogans-heroes I liked Hogan as Vince.

Glad you recognized him. I watched the clip several times trying to understand whether he was supposed to be young Michael or young John. On the one hand Donna says Michael's name, but on the other his hair is so dark and it's John's flashback. Per the AWHP, Brad Pitt's role was a couple of days in May 1987.

For some reason the name Michael Palance is associated with the clip of Brad Pitt which includes a flashback to a basketball game. Might Palance be the player in the flashback? This couldn't be before 1987 though.

There were No Wigs apparent in the Ellen Wheeler days. Marley wore her hair very neat and straight, and Victoria's hair was typically tousled and wavy, although sometimes she would do it up in a very tight knot. Regarding The Plan, it is difficult to say how well-developed it was since we only got Step One: Jake records video of Marley for Vic to study and learn Marley's voice and mannerisms and Step Two: Bridget Infiltrates the Love household. Since Bridget was on the spot she could have facilitated borrowing any ID Vicky needed to move money around as Marley. Of course transferring large sums of cash would probably have been easy to trace unless Jake and Vicky had a more sophisticated plan to cover their tracks.

The twins turned 18 in 1985. On Marley's 18th birthday she was supposed to receive her inheritance. Victoria had intended to impersonate Marley, claim the inheritance, and leave town. However when Marley needed bone marrow Vicky revealed herself and derailed the impersonation plan. And sweet innocent generous Marley voluntarily said they should split the money anyway. However on their 18th birthday (July 19, 1985 according to the AWHP) it turned out that they would not receive it outright -- they would get an income until they turned 21 when the rest of the money would be released. But soap time being how it is that doesn't necessarily mean that they would be 21 in 1988. Jamie was born onscreen in 1969 but is obviously older than Marley and Victoria during 1985. He seems to be treated as not inappropriately older than Victoria when she gets pregnant with Steven.

I remember "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in flashbacks as well.

"Love yacht" didn't sound quite right to me -- I think it was a [house]boat that John was living on. And IIRC it wasn't so much that *they* stopped but that John nobly rejected her because he could not betray Michael or something. I remember liking Forsyth on SFT and I never had a problem with his performance on AW as such, but John as a character wasn't appealing before Sharlene. The bitter war vet part was fine, but retroactively forcing him into the role of spoiler in Donna and Michael's past and waffling on whether he had been truly bad or if it was really all Donna's fault was typical clumsy DePriest and made the whole thing nasty. Who was writing when John and Felicia started up? I think one normally blames JFP for the sins of that era and there is less discussion of the writer.

Reading the AWHP summary reminds me of how gross it was when John first came back. http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/donnal2.html I had forgotten or perhaps never knew that Donna and John had slept together after Sharlene was presumed dead and Anna Stuart was back in the role.

Thanks. I probably discount all of the longing panting "summer ... is ... so ... hot" Donna and John got up to because I was so disgusted by the handling of the question of whether or not he had raped her when she was a teenager.

The promo suggests that Vicky confirms Donna and John are having an affair but they didn't, did they? I thought Peter planted evidence but nothing actually happened.

Was that where Cass was living after Cecile left in 1984, until she sent an emissary to evict him in early 1985? The AWHP has an address for that place as 30 Meadow Lane. (Not that addresses are mentioned often enough to be sure whether there is accurate continuity.)

I remember reading that some old shows were lost because production reused the same tapes. Not sure about conversion issues. Back when they were making these decisions there were also a lot fewer distribution options. Before home video, cable channels, YouTube, streaming services ... where could they broadcast such a long form? The soap serial form has no real internal start and end points -- and some of the storylines might be too dated to attract a general audience.

It's not that they thought that no one would want to see the episodes as much as the cost to them was much more in the short term than even the long term benefit. We live in a time when data storage is relatively cheap and there are a lot of options. But back then it was significantly more expensive and they would have had to be able to see how to make money from choosing to preserve the shows.

Iris and Elliot were separated when they started on AW, and had been for at least a year I think. I always assumed they were supposed to have been married before Dennis was born, but I don't know how Texas defined the timeline around Dennis' conception and their wedding and whether Iris deceived Elliot into believing the baby was his.

I'll grant you Emily, Fax, and Taylor, but did Royal Dunning practice in Bay City? I thought his super secret baby ring was out of town, possibly in Crystal Lake.

Did Donna put him in the hospital admin role? I recall she was very interested in him around this time. She might not have been evaluating him on his business acumen.

Well Coster refers to both events as "on camera" so it sounds like during taping. On the one hand, the scene is supposed to cohere so the performance of the other actors are not really the outside world -- your pace and tone should be appropriate in reaction to what is going on. I don't know if you have ever seen Noises Off -- it is about actors putting on a farce. There is one character (played by Nicolette Sheridan in the movie) who is completely oblivious to everything going on around her and she just continues to say her lines and follow her blocking so that it looks completely ridiculous when the other actors have missed their cues. On some level I can understand that if Coster felt that there was no give and take in their performance he would be frustrated. But on the other hand if she found him too unreliable and unprofessional and felt she had to ignore him rather than engage I have sympathy for that as well.

And the jokes Coster describes both involve trying to make each other "break" during scenes, and rather lewdly. Considine would stand nearby and make vulgar noises during Coster's love scenes. And one time Coster put pornographic photos in a set of architectural drawings Vic was showing Alice. Oh how they laughed!

I was being a little facetious, but: he felt he was demonstrating that she was oblivious to what was going on around her and performed by rote rather than by reacting to her scene partner. On the day in question she had been annoyed with him for not knowing his lines.

It's out, title Another Whole Afternoon. I haven't found much more behind the scenes stuff than you mention here -- he declines to name Beverlee McKinsey as the costar he didn't like, but describes how he showed her up by coming to rehearsal of the scene where he smashes a bust of her father without any pants on and she didn't notice right away. He goes into more detail about how much he liked the people he worked with on SB and OLTL. No mention of George Reinholt as far as I can tell, but he is good friends with John Considine and mentions him a lot. Is the bust scene with Robert and Iris anywhere online? John Considine also has a memoir (Improvising, My Life and Show Business) in which he does discuss how hectic it was when he started on AW as Reginald -- last minute replacement of another actor and he had to do 5 days of work in one to catch up. He describes how he didn't have time to understand who the characters he was meeting were, and thought perhaps the young blonde who slapped him when they met was an ex-girlfriend or something, but no! She was his granddaughter! And not only that, but played by Anne Heche, future star! That didn't sound quite right -- I remember it was Reginald who brought Rhonda Lewin as Vicky to Jake and Marley's wedding, so Ellen Wheeler must actually have been playing Marley/Vicky when Reginald came back from the dead. And I believe Marley did start by hitting Reginald as soon as she saw him, possibly at Zane's funeral. I'm sure John Considine remembers working with Anne Heche but his memory has misled him here.

This is what I have always heard as well -- although I don't know enough about Jacqueline Susann to have a sense of what aspects really informed the character of Felicia beyond Fabulous Best-Selling Novelist. Was Felicia's evolution so different from Cass'? When he first came on he was portrayed as self-centred and calculating, and then once Cecile was out of the picture he eventually mellowed in order to be worthy of Kathleen. Wallingford joined their friend group around the same time and Felicia was mostly on the side of the angels after that.

Thank you! Most of the other actors stayed for less than 2 years. I think only Henrietta, Thomasina, and Lily were around for more than 2 years and all of the men did less. Not sure whether they were on contract and were released early or if they were only recurring. I don't remember knowing Paul Hecht was the Russian, but I didn't really know of him until 1984 when I saw him in Noises Off on Broadway and then of course he was Allie's ex-husband on Kate & Allie. I am happy for those who enjoyed the Crystal Gayle theme, but although I would hesitate to call it the actual worst I have to say that it didn't do anything for me and I would have preferred to keep the instrumental themes I was used to. I didn't mind the music especially but I found the lyrics dull and generic. Speaking of themes, watching AW videos provoked YouTube to suggest someone playing the earlier 80s theme by Jonathan Segal. I had never paid attention to the composer's name but apparently he has a lot of YouTube videos up.

I was watching a clip from AW dated January 7 1985 and Sara Botsford was there as Wendy with Carl.