Broderick

I don't think he was necessarily "secretive" about it; he just didn't readily discuss it until he was in his 40s and had a bunch of kids. (Maybe it began to take on a greater significance for him at that point.)

It's like they live in a post-apocalyptical Ghost Town. I'm always expecting the Howdy-Doody Dummy who hides behind the red curtain in Crimson Lights beneath the giant eyeballs to pop-out and terrorize them.

Y&R was pretty much always a "hit", being in 3rd place in the 1975/1976 season, when it was only in its third year of production. It stayed that way until 1980, when it expanded to an hour, suffered in the new format, and lost a ton of viewers. It didn't rebound until the 1983/1984 season.

Oh, the dialogue is HOWLINGLY bad; there's no sugar-coating that. The decline begins in May of 1983, and it never improves for the remainder of the show's run. In fact, the problem seems to worsen as the months pass. (And I don't understand it to this day. Lois Kibbee was scriptwriting for Henry Slesar, and while she never penned the clever dialogue that Steve Lehrman had, she was adequate. She continued writing for a while under Lee Sheldon, but it's not the same. The dialogue becomes amateurish and childlike almost overnight.) The production components start an INSTANT decline. Under Slesar's tenure, scenes typically ended with a very quick "cut-to-black", with a music cue that reverberates over the blank screen. Immediately, they start doing these "slow fades" before the commercials, which force the actors to hold terror-stricken grimaces for additional (comical) seconds. Episodes end with non-cliffhangers, such as Jody announcing that she might move in with Preacher. By late summer, Sheldon had adopted the annoying practice of cycling from one story to another within each episode, in a repetitive, predictable A-B-A-B-A-B fashion. So if you cared what was happening with Schuyler and Raven but not about Preacher and Jody (and that was about the only two stories he had for months), you could easily tell when to go to the kitchen or the bathroom. The scenes are quick and choppy, many of them completely thrown away, with no dialogue that moves the storyline forward. There's a cheesy, pseudo-comical aspect that begins immediately and worsens as the show progresses through 1984. The "humor" isn't rooted in character; it's just lousy jokes and "situation comedy" such as the Whitneys pretending there are rats in their house. As I said earlier, if that's what ABC or P&G visualized as their goal, I'm glad Slesar wasn't forced to prostitute his talent to achieve it. He was better off leaping (or being tossed) from the sinking ship. At least he landed in a lifeboat.

Another "famous" case is Y&R's Donald Feinberg (a/k/a Don Diamont) who'd spent 20+ years using a non-Jewish stage name and living a non-Jewish identity. Just as Diamont began embracing his heritage, the Y&R writer, Lynn Marie Latham, decided to retcon Brad Carlton into a Jewish guy named George Kaplan who'd been hiding out in plain sight marrying Gentile heiresses. Now suddenly he was at odds with the Evil Art Thieves, and Victoria Newman was crafting faux reliquaries out of construction paper and glitter. Nevermind, let's just forget that one, lol.

No question -- the ISIS storyline was the very best of Lee Sheldon's work. But for some unknown reason, the production staff seemed determined to sabotage the story almost before it started. The 1983-1984 timing of it was PERFECT, as it was clearly a celebration of George Orwell's old novel 1984, which, in 1983, was being heavily re-read and promoted in literary circles. Sheldon realized 1984 was about to be in the news regularly, so he had the foresight to "borrow" the concept of mass surveillance directly from the novel and incorporate it into his storyline, along with a liberal borrowing from the 1982 film Halloween III: Season of the Witch (in which children were encouraged to gather around their TV sets for the mind-controlling Silver Shamrock commercials), plus a few copped elements of Tennessee Williams's late 1970s novella and play The Red Devil Battery Sign, in which the flashing sign reminded the Woman Downtown to keep her mouth shut about the dangerous things she'd learned. All of that being said, what better logo could you choose for your show than a big city skyline? For 27 years, that's exactly what "Edge" had featured -- a cluster of lighted towers rising into the gloomy twilight sky, the perfect setting for an "ISIS-type" storyline. So what did the show do as soon as Sheldon proposed the story? They ditched the skyline entirely, replacing it with a placid beach scene that appeared to be the Long Island Sound. They completely neutered Sheldon's storyline almost before it began, sending viewers the "subliminal message" that Sheldon's urban tale of surveillance was occurring in some quiet, peaceful beach resort town instead of a large, creepy, crime-ridden Midwestern metropolis. But the producers weren't finished with sabotaging him just yet. They had one more nail to drive in his coffin. Beginning in the late 1970s, the "premiere set" on Edge had been a high-rise penthouse apartment set, with a balcony, that featured an extensive cityscape backdrop. The production staff had perfected the management of the backdrop over the years: they learned to light the backdrop with yellows and pinks to represent morning scenes, a gauzy, deep blue with flecks of pink to represent twilight scenes, and a dark murky blue to represent late night. They'd learned to create the appearance of lightning on the backdrop when scripts called for a thunderstorm. And most amazing of all, they'd learned to put little red lights on the backdrop (representing TV towers on buildings) that would brighten and dim as characters stood on the balcony. All of this was 100% conducive to the ISIS storyline, whose first and most unfortunate victim was Nichole Cavanaugh, who actually LIVED in this high-rise penthouse that theoretically overlooked the ISIS building. So what did the production staff do? They pulled the heavy drapes and almost never displayed the cityscape backdrop during the entire ISIS storyline. Miles Cavanaugh and Jody Travis could've just as easily been living in the sleepy resort town the brand new opening and closing credits subliminally represented to us. The ISIS storyline potentially could've been a timely and interesting tale to pull "Edge" out of the ratings cellar, but the headwriter's lack of experience in the medium, the show's low budget, and the production staff's determination to strip away the serial's longtime "metro image" gave Sheldon pretty insurmountable obstacles to overcome.

During Lee Sheldon's reign, there were a pair of (dull) sisters, both of whom were evidently named "Elizabeth Correll". One of the girls went by "Beth Correll" and the other by "Liz Correll". My mother called them "Big Sis Lizbeth" and "Lil Sis Lizbeth". My mother was a huge fan of Agatha Christie (and Henry Slesar). She was 100% convinced there was gonna be a gigantic bloodbath that wiped BOTH Elizabeth Corrells off the face of the earth. She thought the clue to their demise would be found in the old Mother Goose Rhyme: "Elizabeth, Elspeth, Betsy, and Bess; They all went together to seek a bird's nest. They found a bird's nest with five eggs in; they all took one, which left four in." I was like, "Momma, there ain't gonna be a bloodbath. This writer doesn't have enough sense to come up with something like that. He was simply brain-dead when he named both of these sisters Elizabeth. There's no mystery; you're just witnessing an inept writer at work." But whenever Beth & Liz would appear on the screen, Mama would start singing, "Elizabeth, Elspeth, Betsy and Bess; they all went together to seek a bird's nest." lol.

I never saw much improvement, but that's just my opinion of course. Lee Shedon learned some of the "do's & don'ts" of writing in the genre -- not beginning a new day in the middle of an episode, and so forth. But the stories themselves just weren't "Edge" quality, and the scenes were short & choppy, seemed random and haphazard. To me, the entire show just deteriorated one day in 1983 and never really regained any appearance of quality until the last day.

If money hadn't been a problem (his veteran writer salary), I'm sure Slesar could've changed his style to suit their mandate. But I'm glad that didn't happen. If they wanted a choppy, amateurish mess like Lee Sheldon turned in, it's a good thing Slesar didn't prostitute himself financially and talent-wise to create such childlike garbage. His legacy at Edge of Night is generally looked back on as 15 years of excellent storytelling. Lee Sheldon -- bless his heart -- doesn't have a legacy worth mentioning.

Once Henry Slesar was tossed aside, there was really nothing left to offer the audience. I'd always enjoyed the show, but not due to any particular performer -- Slesar's storylines were the draw.

"Honey, I'm working on a story in which Rick Daros harpoons you in the crotch."

Oh, I know. Seems very southern. (We're all "honey" down here.) I saw an outline posted here a while back that he'd written for Miss Alden's predecessor (Kay Lennard) in which he instructed her, "Honey, let's focus on the Brooks family today."

I really like the letters from Miss Alden to Bill Bell, and from Bill Bell to Miss Alden (especially his kind but somewhat patronizing use of "honey" to address her, and offering her a position as his "girl Friday" provided of course she can take shorthand, lol.)

Pierre's was the same restaurant as Gina's, but it changed tremendously between 1973 and the burndown circa 2003. The Allegro didn't resemble the original Pierre's very much, and Jonas's didn't resemble the Allegro very much, and Gina's didn't resemble Jonas's very much.

Thanks for the Kay Alden update and history!! I'm glad she's doing well. I'm sure she misses Big Vern. PLEASE provide the Brock platitudes. I'm sure we heard several of them on them on the air ("Lord, I pass this way but once; let me not pass without serving my neighbor"), but there are likely plenty more that we never heard. If I were Kay Alden, I wouldn't take credit for Jack Smith. I'd pretend he was WJB's protégé instead of mine!

I believe the source of the problem was that Bell & Kenney released the actor who played Stuart Brooks from his contract, and then Bell no longer had any control over the actor's availability. Bell *likely* planned to wrap-up the storyline in some fashion (as evidenced by the Memorial Day clip), but then Bob Colbert (hurt by being released from contract) cut-off his availability, and everything just fizzled out completely, leaving the entire storyline up in the air for the rest of Julianna McCarthy's run on the show.

I feel like we long-term viewers got really cheated with no resolution to the Stuart/Liz Brooks storyline.

Cawthorne's biggest problems (multiple "scandals" revealed) seemed to begin the minute he implicated his colleagues with their alleged "cocaine orgies". It seems the Establishment GOP is ready to be rid of him, and they're uncovering everything they can about him. Of course, in their eyes, his bisexuality is about the worst thing they can reveal, because they know their base is homophobic. Speeding on the highway? No problem. Gun in the airport? No problem. Unreported bitcoin? No problem. Groping women? No problem. Lying about his college history and his auto accident? No problem. But DOING IT with another guy? Serious stuff there!

I think the main reason Marc Mergeron worked in his first run (and seemed so out-of-place in his second run) is that he had a purpose the first time around. Through him, we found out all about Dina's post-Abbott life in France with Marcel Mergeron, Marcel's will, whether or not John and Dina's divorce was valid, the Brent Davis scandal, and so many other things that made Marc a crucial part of the show. The second time around, he was just a random playboy, not really even connected with the Abbotts, and he really did just seem like a Dynasty reject.

Gosh, I haven't seen that since high school lol. That's the way I remember it exactly -- whenever Traci would get even an ounce of positive feedback, Lauren would come swooping in, smirking and jostling her hooters around, opening her mouth wide to show all her plentiful teeth, and stealing all of Traci's attention for herself. And you'd think Amy was on the verge of slapping Lauren's jaws, but she never did.

Yeah, the whole dynamic really changed. Stephanie E. Williams (as Amy Lewis) took on the sympathetic aspects that Angela Laurence had been showing Traci, Lauren became a selfish Nellie Olesen from "Little House on the Prairie", and a character named Betsy became Lauren's co-conspirator and partner in crime against the sweeter girls.

Can't say that I recall her "very first scene", but I do remember that she basically debuted as the "New Angela Laurence", a girl who could commiserate with Traci. But while Angela Laurence had always been a sincere and genuine friend to Traci, Lauren seemed more shallow, superficial, and caustic, even without necessarily intending to be that way. She definitely turned into a spoiled, entitled little shrew in a big hurry, and the actress was just right for that part.

It really does seem stupid not to show him occasionally after they jumped through so many illogical hoops to resurrect him from the dead. In my opinion, Bierdz's acting has declined to the point where he's more of a liability than an asset, but I believe he should be given a few lines of dialogue a year to remind us, "Here's this once-popular legacy character who's Jill's son and Billy's brother and Chance's father, whom you believed to be dead for 20 years, but now he's alive and well and running a bar in Australia!" It's absurd to resurrect him and then HIDE him from the viewers completely. If he were needed in an actual storyline on an ongoing basis, they should probably recast the part with an actor who has more refined skills and less personal baggage. But either way -- original actor or recast -- he shouldn't be completely invisible to the audience 100% of the time.

Of all the Post-Bell Back From the Great Beyond Storylines, the one that struck me as the most egregious was Phillip. That was horrible. The whole time it was playing out on-screen, I noticed that neither Jill nor Kay never hugged him, stroked his face lovingly, nor had a moving conversation with him. They lectured him a LOT for tricking them (understandably), but they never showed him any affection whatsoever, and they never seemed genuinely relieved that he was alive. After all the years they spent fighting over him, and all the years they spent hovering over him and catering to him, he got a couple of stern lectures from them about playing dead, and then he moved on to another continent. No emotion. SURELY there was a way for Maria Arena to expose Cane Ashby as a hoax and imposter, without going the extra mile of resurrecting Phillip for -- nothing! -- except a short-term stupid storyline with no emotional impact at all.

I don't find Abby any worse than anyone else on the show. She makes me yawn about half the time, but so do Chance, Devon, and Amanda. I think it's just a case of four (fairly) appealing performers being stuck in a dud of a storyline, and none of the four can figure out how to rise out of the quagmire. As the daughter of Ashley & Victor, Abby ought to be sparkling and shining through it, but she ain't. As the grandson of Kay Chancellor, Devon should be sparkling and shining though it, but he ain't. As someone who was re-hired because of her popularity and talent, Amanda should be sparkling and shining through it, but she ain't. That's what a lousy storyline does to the cast, though; it can turn anyone into a yawner.