MonaCroft

If I recall, the final scenes between Sara and Mike are some of the best ever in the series.

That's what I figured. Thanks.

In the episodes today, did they skip a show? No flow from the first to the second with the fracas in the ER cliffhanger.

They are not on-line any more. They used to be but the person doing so was asked to stop.

The weekday shows are from March 1978.

Thanks so much for this link. I am one of the folks in LA who got cut off from Retro TV.

Thanks to the person who shared. Hopefully something will continue.

Sadly I live in LA and am now Retro-less. I had been depending upon those You Tube downloads from Robot Ranger. Can anybody provide a summary of each week's activities? I am distressed that I won't know how the Ann Larimer storyline resolves itself.

After devoting almost a year of plot screen time to the Matt/Paul/Joan Dancy storyline, the conclusion was so incredibly lackluster. As a writer myself, I could think of at least a half dozen other ways to end the story in a more powerful fashion. It's clear that, at this juncture, Douglas Marland had no feel for the genre he was working in. Hopefully, the Ann Larimer story ends with a bit more excitement.

On the new opening, I am at a loss for most of the heads on the bottom. I see Mona, Jason, and Luke. Who are the rest?

While the Joan Dancy case is being drawn out a bit too long, it should make for delicious soap opera when lawyer Jason Aldrich is on the premise for the revelation that his daughter pulled the plug.

Thanks for the intel. Yes, this poor girl was in way over her head. I looked her up on IMDB and she never did anything else. No surprise.

Does anybody know the backstory of why they temporarily replaced Jennifer Houlton as Greta in 1976? The one filling in was an incredibly weak actress.

The negativity above about the production values and acting talents is a bit over the top. From what I understand, TD cut it very close from tape to air date. They likely were working on a quick turnaround. Indeed, it taped at NBC in Rock Plaza where none of the crew had likely trained on soaps. Also take into account the era. Audiences were not as mean and super critical as they are today. As for the acting, it is generally good. There are some isolated bizarre choices, but, for the most part, the cast is decent. I have admiration for those acting in this medium, which might one of the most difficult creative venues to be in.

Could be a complete oversight as it is apparent those credits are prepared by hand. I've seen misspellings, etc..

It is interesting to note that Carolee Campbell remains on the credits at least a good two plus weeks after she supposedly left the show. I wonder if this was contractual or perhaps the show wanted to give the illusion she would be returning.

I can't possibly think of what kind of plot points would keep her around for another year.

How much longer do the Conrads hang around TD? It seems like the new writers don't know how to end the story. Or are they simply waiting for a contract cycle to come up?

Since I only showed up around the fall of 1974 in this rerun cycle, I am wondering if any legacy viewers can tell me if there was ever any sexual sparks between Steve and Carolee. The January 76 breakup scenes are badly written and David O'Brien's constant underacting makes matters worse. I frankly don't believe them as a passionate couple. I realize that the late O'Brien was gay and that perhaps contributed (although it shouldn't have) to this lack of sexual tension. I cannot wait till this couple is put on the back burner despite the fact that the departing Carolee is a much stronger actor.

A good romantic triangle can do well in a daytime drama. Unfortunately, the Mike/Toni/Alan one does not. The characters have garbled motivations and this plot is further upended by Armand Assante's very theatrical (hammy) emoting. Frequently, he comes off more like Hamlet than Mike Powers. Less is more for the small screen.

As a writer myself, I have to say that the current batch of TD episodes (Christmas 1975) are pretty well crafted. The Tom Barrett write-out was paced well and, while you know where it goes, the Althea/Conrads story is interesting. It reminds me of how good Elizabeth Hubbard was in this role. My only quibble is that these two stories were a little bit of a downer during the holiday season. But, then again, this past Christmas, DOOL had a character planning suicide.

Didn't she also do a stint on OLTL in its final years? She also played a nun in the movie Lady Bird.

All the intel about the stunt episode is great. Thanks so much.

I keep reading here of a March 1976 90 minute episode. I am sure someone on this board will have the backstory on this. What was the reason behind this? Was NBC trying to promote TD or an adjacent soap? Very curious.

It's refreshing to see a soap give a kid of that age such meaty material. These days, somebody like Keith would be relegated to "hi" and "bye" until he is SORASed into a horny teenager overnight.