Broderick

8 minutes ago, Khan said:

If Tennessee Williams had done that to every original work that was influenced by his even a little bit, nothing in this country would have been written or produced after 1960, lol.

Oh, I agree.  I'm sure he grinned to himself when he saw it.  I remember when the miniseries premiered, I was too young to be watching such adult-themed material.  But my mother, who was a literature major in college and who happened to have the TV on that night, said, "Come here a minute.  I want you to look at this show.  Tell me who you think these people are, from a literary standpoint."  I couldn't believe it.    

18 minutes ago, Vee said:

I am very tempted to hunt this book down.

If you like the Western genre OR the Southern Gothic genre, it's a fascinating hybrid of the two (which is a rare combination).  And for anyone who's interested in the initial development of Dallas & Knots Landing, I'd sure recommend it.    

If you know your Southern literature, you'll see right away that the entire project -- the miniseries and the novel -- is an homage to the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1950s play Cat On a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams.  It's basically a retelling of the story, moved from the 1950s to the late 1970s. 

In the play, the "senior" characters are Big Daddy [Burl Ives] and Big Mama [Mildred Dunnock].  Big Daddy is a coarse, uneducated, quick thinking, nouveau-riche millionaire with a huge plantation and big cars; Big Mama is his more gentle, practical wife, who is the ultimate "boss" of the family.  Obviously, this is Jock and Miss Ellie. 

The antagonists in the play are Gooper [Pat Hingle] and Mae [Madeleine Sherwood], the oldest son and the daughter-in-law of Big Daddy.  Gooper is clever, underhanded, and greedy.  (JR Ewing).  Mae is his attractive, dimwitted, poised trophy wife whose goal is to give Big Daddy his first grandchild.  (Sue Ellen, of course.) 

The heroes of the play are Brick [Ben Gazzara] and Maggie [Barbara Bel Geddes].  Brick is the youngest son, who is more of a dilettante playboy than a hard worker, coasting through life on his good looks and charm (Bobby Ewing).  Maggie is Brick's wrong-side-of-the-tracks young wife, who is aggressive, cool, willing to take chances to get her way, and isn't afraid to go head-to-head with Gooper/JR (Pamela Barnes). 

The peripheral characters in the play are the "no-neck monsters" -- Brick & Maggie's nieces and nephews who are rowdy, spoiled, and think they own the place (Lucy Ewing). 

David Jacobs simply moved the entire concept from the cotton plantation of Tennessee Williams's play to the oil fields of the 1956 movie Giant, where Jett Rink [James Dean] has an oil derrick in the midst of Jordan Benedict's [Rock Hudson] ranch, and this of course is the basis of the Barnes/Ewing feud.  

In the Williams play, the big question is whether Brick[Gazzara] is truly heterosexual and will be able to father a child with Maggie [Bel Geddes] before Big Daddy [Ives] dies.  This is also handled in the miniseries -- without Bobby's homosexuality, of course -- with Pamela losing the desired baby at the end of the miniseries. 

Tennessee Williams obviously could've pulled the rug out from under the entire project if he'd wanted to, but he likely just appreciated the attention his work was getting in an entirely new setting.  The Dallas producers even hired his Maggie the Cat from Broadway [Barbara Bel Geddes] to play the matriarch of the family and named Pam Barnes's aunt "Maggie".  lol.        

5 hours ago, Franko said:

I need to re-read my copy; there may have been a hint about J.R. possibly being Digger's son.

 

Yep, @Franko, young Miss Ellie was lying up in bed with Willard Barnes, and he was (mis)quoting poetry to her, "Ah, woman, how the heaping of thy belly is like a serpent's tooth, or something like that ..." Then Digger went off & got drunk, and young Miss Ellie realized she HAD to pay-off her daddy's mortgage on Southfork before the bank foreclosed on the ranch.   (There was a drought, and the cattle were dying right and left.)   

She knew young Digger's sober partner, Jock Ewing, would have the cash to pay off the loan, so she invited him over, made love with him, and Jock said, "Hell, that was mighty nice, Miss Ellie," and before his refractory period was over she said, "You ain't seen anything yet, Jock Ewing," and she straddled him and rode him again.  He spontaneously proposed, and soon she was "bustin' with child".  

Miss Ellie never questioned that the baby (JR) was Jock's -- "he's just a little Jock made over", but the reader of course had to wonder.  

Just now, Paul Raven said:

i wonder if any of that even got proposed to CBS.

Somewhere back in this thread (or maybe Primetime soaps thread) is a David Jacob's interview talking about censorship and how the Lucy character was handled. He wanted her to be sluttier and learn the hard way the consequences  but CBS balked and insisted she be more of a tease, which in his opinion sent a more damaging message, I'll try and dig it out.

I hope you can find it.  

In the novel, Lucy is a spoiled young slut with absolutely no shame.  Miss Ellie doesn't necessarily "approve" of any of Lucy's behavior at all, but she tolerates it, because Lucy is the daughter of Sweet Baby Gary who can do no wrong.  Jock also tolerates it, because he loves having a "little lady" around the house. 

I wish the quick marriage/quick divorce between Gary and Vera Rodriguez could've been worked into the show as backstory, because again, the racial aspects were present, and there was always the possibility that Gary might have a little half-Mexican son or daughter running around, possibly even right there on the ranch. 

With Jock grooming JR to be his successor at Ewing Oil, and with Miss Ellie coddling Sweet Baby Gary, young Bobby pretty much grows up neglected, and he's always clowning and joking and cutting-up because nobody pays him all that much attention.  He ends up in Vietnam briefly, comes back with some post-traumatic stress, and develops a temper that frequently sends him into rages.  One of his coaches wonders if he's "queer bait" because he's such a peculiar boy, but the question of his sexuality is put to rest of course when he runs into Pam Barnes in New Orleans.         

11 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

I don't think CBS was ready for Bond in 78.  

On the show Ellie's brother turned up and was revealed to be dying. That was over in one episode right? From what I can gather, at the end of the ep , he and Ellie were bravely facing what was to come but by the next ep he was dead and no mention was made?

 

Oh no, Bond's "antics" were unsuitable for network television in 1978.  But the beauty of the character was that he was not a Caucasian, and Jock treated him almost like a son -- hauled him around all over the country on corrupt oil deals, let him drive the Cadillacs around, rewarded him with "special favors" involving women and sex.  To me, Bond is a fascinating character for a Southern-themed TV show or novel.  And with him being Albino, which spooked the more superstitious Mexicans at Southfork, an entire new layer of racial tension and suspense was added into what unfortunately became a more 'white bread' TV series by the time it hit the air.  Bond was the precursor at Southfork of Ray Krebbs, but Bond's relationship with Jock Ewing was much tighter and more interesting than Jock's televised relationship in Season 1 with Ray Krebbs. 

I believe the Garrison Southworth story seemed short-circuited on television at the time, but in hindsight, he really just came home to die.  Again, it was somewhat of a "burned" storyline due to the self-contained episodes.  

19 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't think that's hijacking, it's great lore. Feel free to share what you like.

 Another aspect of the novel was that Gary, as a teenager, married a local girl -- a Mexican -- from Braddock.  Her name was Vera Rodriguez if I remember correctly.  It wouldn't do for Gary to be married to a Mexican girl -- and a CATHOLIC at that, lol! -- so Jock ran her off, which pissed off her entire (huge) Mexican family.  Gary then promptly married Maureen (subsequently revised to Valene for the TV series).  Maureen wasn't happy with Gary at all, because he would go off on alcoholic benders, which enraged Jock Ewing but which Miss Ellie tolerated (because Gary was her "sweet baby" who could do no wrong.   Maureen ended up having sex on several occasions with JR Ewing while Gary was away, because Maureen loved JR's "big stud horse pecker", as she typically described his member.  The implication was that Lucy was as likely to be JR's child as Gary's, and the ironic theme throughout the book was that Lucy hated JR's guts but had no idea he might be her daddy, lol.  That was a thread deliberately left open-ended.   

I don't want to hijack the Dallas thread with tales from a 1978 novel that's only loosely based upon the scripts.  But I will say that if anyone is especially interested in how Dallas was developed and in the early episodes of Dallas, Lee Raintree's archives are housed at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Ms.  (Lee Raintree a/k/a Con Sellers is a native of Mississippi and was a prolific writer in many different genres, using many different pseudonyms.  He worked as a pornography writer, a historical fiction writer, a romance writer, a western writer, a detective writer --- almost everything you can think of.  He's the author of more than 230 books.  Included in his archives at Southern Miss are all of his manuscripts and revisions of the Dallas novel, the script outlines provided to him by David Jacobs, and letters back & forth between Raintree and Jacobs about how the characters should be presented.)  

Just now, Vee said:

Fascinating. I seem to recall something I heard about one of the books indicating one of the Ewing children was not Jock's. Or am I way off?

No, you're not way off.  You're close.  lol. 

In the novel -- written by Lee Raintree and approved by David Jacobs -- there's a storyline thread in which Jock has some business dealings in the District of Columbia.  Jock begins sleeping with a woman named Roberta.  Meanwhile, Ellie is back at Southfork pregnant with her third son.  Jock insists that he wants the boy to be named "Bobby" or "Robert".  Miss Ellie catches on that Jock is naming the baby for his mistress in DC.  Miss Ellie has Bond take her to Roberta's apartment.  Like the Mexicans at Southfork, Roberta is terrified of Bond, due to his strange eyes and lack of pigmentation.  Bond rapes Roberta violently, with Miss Ellie's approval, and it brings Jock's indiscretion to a definite and immediate end.  lol.     

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

Wasn't there a prequel book to go with the prequel TV movie or miniseries that got pretty wild?

It's probably the same book we're speaking of here.  This particular novel was VERY adult-themed and dealt with the entire history of the Ewing and the Barnes families, beginning with the death of old man Southworth during the Great Depression and moving through the subsequent decades-- in graphic detail -- all the way up through the end of Episode 5, in which Pamela suffers a miscarriage falling from the hayloft at the Ewing barbeque.  

7 minutes ago, Franko said:

Raintree took some interesting liberties in that book. For example, Lucy being the product of a rape between J.R. and "Maureen." And Sue Ellen being at least a decade younger (she's Miss Texas '75, not '67). It also goes into more detail about why J.R. and Julie's relationship exists; he comes to her for the kind of sex he wouldn't dare expect/ask from Sue Ellen.

A thread in the Dallas novel that I wish had been picked-up by the TV series (and reworked to make it more appropriate for television) is the episode with "Bond".  

Bond was Jock's "right-hand man" at the time Bobby was born.  Bond was Albino, and the Mexicans on Southfork were spooked by him, because they believed his lack of pigmentation was an "omen of evil".  Miss Ellie didn't like him, either, because she considered him fairly immoral.  He ended up assisting Miss Ellie in a certain endeavor that really was immoral.  One thing Dallas the TV series perpetually lacked was a storyline involving people of color, and this storyline -- though it was somewhat distasteful -- was a perfect way that the show could have added some color to the canvas in an interesting, unorthodox, and believable manner.  

I assume the rights to the Bond character belonged to David Jacobs, as the novel was written at the request of David Jacobs and was entirely based upon his characters.  

21 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

What happened to Aunt Maggie? Was she Digger's sister?

Yes, Maggie Barnes Moynihan (sp?) was Digger's widowed sister.  Aunt Maggie had a son named Jimmy Moynihan.   Jimmy was older than Lucy Ewing, but wasn't as old as Pamela Barnes.   

My understanding is that Maggie, having lost her own husband, basically moved into Digger's house and RAISED Cliff & Pam from the time they were children, as their mother was "dead" and their father was a hopeless drunk.

At first, all indications were that Jimmy and Aunt Maggie would be semi-regulars on the show. 

Jimmy disappeared pretty quickly.  Aunt Maggie was at Digger's bedside when he croaked, but she seemed to evaporate afterwards.

When Pam became so fixated on finding Rebecca, I wondered why Maggie didn't play a more pivotal role.  She probably KNEW Rebecca hadn't died all those years ago. 

Jimmy -- who was sort of a "foster brother" to Cliff and Pam -- as well as their first cousin -- could've become an important character somewhere down the road.  That entire storyline was pretty much dropped with no explanation.  

In the 1978 novel Dallas by Lee Raintree, which was based on David Jacobs' outlines of the initial five scripts, Jimmy was more-or-less a kid brother to Pam & Cliff, and Aunt Maggie served as a mother to all three kids (Cliff, Pam, and Jimmy).  The novel was written from the script outlines, before the filming was done and even before the scripts were finalized.  It was timed to be released in conjunction with the miniseries.   

As you noted above, a LOT of storyline was burned in the self-contained episodes.

 

15 hours ago, SoapDope said:

Liz Craig marries Jeremy Wendell and she helps him with his fight against the Ewings.

Ha!  I dunno if I'd have married Liz Craig off to Jeremy Wendell, but I *do* know that I'd have found a way to make Barbara Babcock (who played Liz Craig) a more integral part of the show.  The actress was a good fit on Dallas, had a good chemistry with Pamela, and her acting was good enough to get her a primetime Emmy in 1981 for Hill Street Blues.   

3 hours ago, Darn said:

Related to the Kay/Katherine discussion, sometime in the mid-2000s the show stopped having characters call her Vicki and exclusively had everyone call her Victoria. The same with Nick versus Nicholas, though I think he's still called Nick sometimes.

And one day a memo went out in Genoa City stating "From now on, Daddy's little princess shall be known as Christine or Chris.  No more Cricket, please!"  

Nina missed the memo.  

2 hours ago, lucaslesann23 said:

Sorry, if this has been asked already but, I've been watching older episodes. When and why exactly did the writers have characters stop referring to Katherine as "Kay"? Even in the credits she was Kay. 

It happened slowly, over time, mainly after Bill Bell wasn't writing as much of the dialogue himself. 

Recall that Bill Bell's wife was named Mrs. Loreley June Phillip Bell, but everyone simply called her "Lee".  Bill Bell seemed to subscribe to the notion that prominent ladies were given cutesy little nicknames by their peers, and those nicknames were used throughout their lives. (That's been my own experience as well.) 

The character's name was always Mrs. Katherine Shepherd Reynolds Chancellor, but her husband (Phillip) and her peers called her "Kay".   To everyone else, she was "Mrs. Chancellor".   You'll recall that in the early days, the entire Foster family (including Jill & Liz) referred to her as "Mrs. Chancellor".  To Brock, she was "Duchess".  To Phillip, she was "Kay". 

As the years rolled by -- and Phillip was killed -- Jill began (hatefully) calling her "Kay" as well, believing it indicated she was no longer the lady's servant but instead was her "equal".  (Liz Foster, though, was still in Kay's employ and called her "Mrs. Chancellor". )  Even Stuart Brooks referred to her as "Kay Chancellor" or "Mrs. Chancellor".  

Along came Derek Thurston from the hair salon.  He sometimes said "Katherine", and he sometimes said "Kay".  (The Derek character was a hair stylist and obviously hadn't grown up in Kay Chancellor's social circle.  That was likely why Bell had Derek alternate between the two names.) 

Douglas Austin began "courting" Kay in about 1980.  He often said "my dear Katherine", because he thought it sounded fancy & British.  There was a cute scene between Douglas Austin and Victor Newman in 1980 when Douglas admitted that he'd been "calling on" Kay.  Douglas said, "There's a dear lady that has caught my fancy.  The lady is Katherine Thurston.   Do you know her, old boy?"  Victor arched an eyebrow, looked perplexed for a moment, and said, "Ah yes, of course, you're referring to Kay Chancellor."   

Nikki Reed became Kay's friend about 1981.  Melody Thomas Scott always said "Katherine" -- I don't know whether that was in the script, or whether it was simply Melody's preference as an actress.  I expect that Nikki, like Derek Thurston, was a character who was "beneath" Kay's "social set", and that's why Nikki said "Katherine" instead of "Kay". 

The Bancrofts arrived in 1982.  Earl and Allison Bancroft had known Kay at Northwestern University in about 1950.  They called her "Kay", of course.  Their son, Kevin, who was smartly brought up, called her "Mrs. Chancellor". 

The Abbotts began crossing paths with Kay in 1982.  Jerry Douglas, Eileen Davidson, and Terry Lester typically said "Kay".  So did Deborah Adair's Jill. 

Brenda Dickson's Jill rejoined the show in 1983.  She said "Kay", just as she'd always done.  But then Brenda became more "hammy" and "campy" in her performances, and she learned that she could pout her lips, stick out her breasts, swivel her hips, pose theatrically like Alexis Colby on Dynasty, and say "KOTH-RINE" in a sort of comical Joan Collins accent.  She began doing that fairly often.

Marla Adams arrived as Dina Abbott Mergeron, and it was established that she and Kay had been friends since they were young girls.  Dina typically said "Kay".  

Brenda Dickson was abruptly fired.  Jess Walton took her place.  Jess Walton started off saying "Katherine" on Day One, and it sort of stuck throughout her run. 

Rex Sterling married Kay about that time, and he normally said "Kay", but sometimes said "Katherine", just as Derek Thurston had done when he was married to her. 

About that time, Bill Bell was extremely busy with launching "Bold & the Beautiful" and became less hands-on with Y&R, and he likely turned ALL of the dialogue and much of the breakdown writing to Kay Alden.  From then on, EVERYBODY was suddenly saying "Katherine" -- with the exception of Eileen Davidson, Terry Lester, Jerry Douglas and Marla Adams, all of whom knew better.  

Eventually all of those actors were gone, and pretty soon you had people like Amber, Kevin Fisher, Cane Ashby and all of them running around calling the old lady "Katherine" -- which sounded weird as hell, but that's what happened.  Bill Bell would've obviously had those characters refer to Kay as "Mrs. Chancellor".   

Sorry for the long answer.  You asked!  lol. 

3 minutes ago, te. said:

But I think her creation just shows the issue with creating a soap centered around families - once actors / actresses leave you're either stuck with recasting (which rarely works well in prime time) or creating a new unknown child or introducing never-seen-before cousins (which rarely has the same stakes as an actual child / sibling) and there's only so many times you can pull that before completely stretching the credibility on shows. I think that's why shows like Peyton Place and Knots Landing had easier times to re-invent themselves (and in theory Melrose Place should've had if they had left it in competent hands post-Darren Star leaving) - you can just have people move in without having to give them a convulted backstory to justify them being on the show.

Exactly, or you can just leave a certain aspect of the family "open-ended" that you can fill-in later.  

On Y&R, they introduced a Dynasty-type character named Marc Mergeron, who purred and batted his eyes like a Dynasty cad.  He was filing a lawsuit regarding his father's estate, and he stated 1,000 times that he was filing on behalf of "myself and my sister Danielle."  That opened the door for Danielle to pop-in later.  Well, the writers got tired of Marc Mergeron and sent him back to France with no Danielle in sight.  We never met her.  But if he'd worked-out on the show, the stage was set to bring Danielle on in.  And if both Marc and Danielle had caught-on with the audience like lightning, yet another sibling could've popped-in who simply wasn't named in the lawsuit because he/she was estranged from Marc and Danielle.  Marc never specifically said there were only TWO of them, just that the two of them were contesting their father's will.  

It's always a good idea to have an escape hatch to leap through when you get boxed in.    

1 minute ago, te. said:

The dumbest thing about it was that they then pretended Amanda just didn't exist. Like, I get soaps don't necessarily like to mention characters that are off screen too much, but I'm pretty sure in season 8 there were references about how all their children (Adam, Fallon and Steven) were there. Amanda who? What's an Amanda?

lol.  Every soap writer -- even the good ones -- have a misstep here and there.  But it's almost as though they didn't even TRY sometimes.  At the very peak of their popularity, how hard would've it have been to find one good story editor who'd say, "Okay, folks, if you throw in this Princess Diana, you're consistently stuck with her.  Remember that now!  And by the way, Richard, Esther -- let's decide once and for all, is Steven gay, straight, or bi? And let's talk a minute about this Poison Paint before we apply any more coats on the walls, okay."    

1 minute ago, Franko said:

I can't blame Dynasty for trying its luck at capitalizing on Diana-mania (It's not like Dallas, for instance, could.) but the execution just wasn't there.

It was all kinda handled in the dumbest way possible.  If they were dying to have a Princess Diana, they should've had her be a Colby who was already married to a prince.  Plus that could've spared us from a guerilla massacre or two. 

4 minutes ago, Franko said:

Lady Ashley knew Amanda back in London. Who know Hugh and Rosalind Bedford were so connected?

And that whole Amanda thing was dumb as hell.  

One of the Shapiros evidently said, "Let's find a girl who looks sort of like Princess Diana, have her be from London, and marry her off to a prince.  Our poverty-stricken audience will think every rich family has a princess in it!!"  

We'd already had Adam spring-up out of nowhere, and then Amanda suddenly dropped out of the clouds.  It made you wonder if Blake and Alexis actually had fourteen or fifteen children and had forgotten all of them except two -- woops, three -- woops, FOUR!  

I like the way she calls Mr. Colby "SESS'L".  

I have a friend named Cecil.  We always pronounced it with a long E.  SEE-sel.  

But during the 1980s, we all called him "SESS'L" and blew a plume of smoke whenever possible, to stand in union with Alexis.  lol.  "Got your math homework done, SESS'L??"  

Maybe the Presidential Suite at La Mirage was deep-discounted for the off-season, lol.  

It just got SO stoopid.  It was nice that they had a super-rich and super-powerful Black lady on the show, but her only "talent" seemed to be tossing her fur stole over her shoulder dramatically, which put her on par with Alexis, whose primary "talent" was whipping out a long brown cigarette and a gold lighter, taking one puff, and glaring at you schemingly through a delicate haze of smoke.  

Don't forget --

ALEXIS:  If the champagne is too 'burned' for your taste, then don't drink it.  The caviar I trust is not burned.

DOMINIQUE:  I really wouldn't know.  This is Osetrova, and I prefer Beluga.  

ALEXIS:  Who the hell are you?  

DOMINIQUE:  Who am I?  You will find out soon.  Very soon. Yes, very soon indeed.  

BRODERICK:  (watches) Just tell her who you are and that the caviar is as burned as the damn champagne, plus you're too busy for this silly nonsense.  

2 hours ago, Khan said:

IIRC, didn't that story climax during a WGA strike?  I wonder if Bill Bell had intended for that plot to get as weird as it did.

Yeah, that was in 1981.  The stalker started off terrorizing Casey, then Roberta Leighton left, and the stalker magically switched his focus to Nikki without missing a beat.   

We were thrown a few inklings the stalker might be Jonas, or it might be Andy Richards, or it might be Jerry Cashman, or it might be Greg Foster who was suffering from migraine headaches that magically vanished the day we found out the stalker was Edward.  

The whole thing seemed very haphazard and ill-planned.  I figured it was due to the WGA strike occurring that summer.  

9 minutes ago, allmc2008 said:

Last time Kay and I had lunch I asked her about how it came to be. 

It was conceived circa 1983 and, at they time, Jack and Bill went to her place to write. He told them he wanted to do something very "out of the box". She said often wanted to do some thing wild and a little crazy. The three of them were brainstorming and then he saw her little girl standing next to Kay's newborn in his play pen. Bam! Bill, as often Bill did, stood up and said "I got it" and basically mapped out the story off the cuff right there. Then, as always, they would write the show a week at a time and plant the seeds for the story whenever an opportunity to do so would arise. And once enough seeds are planted, they slowly grew it. Took about 5 years..

Same thing happened that led to Victor's heart attack with Jack in the office. When Bill was informed of the...incident...between the two actors, which he was informed in the middle of a story meeting, he said "Victor has a heart attack and Jack gives him mouth-to-mouth" (which didn't happen, of course).

Reckon the concept of the Brad Carlton character had even been conceived in 1983, or did they intend to put someone else entirely into the cage?  

1 hour ago, soapfave06 said:

Can anyone send me in a direction for some of Stephanie Williams best work? She just didn’t make an impression on me as Amy, Sheila on OLTL or Simone on GH, but I haven’t seen much. 

No, I can't "point" you to anything spectacular.  I simply thought she was beautiful, had a very strong screen presence, and had excellent chemistry with everyone she worked with on Y&R -- whether it was her smitten beau (Jazz), her fiancé (Ty), her co-workers (Paul & Andy), her best friend (Traci), her "enemy" (Lauren), or her "betterment project" (Nathan, the guy she taught to read).   She was also good with Brock Peters (who played her daddy).  

Mississippi Actress Actualizes Dream in Soap Opera Role

Finn Carter makes a name for herself

4/12/1985

On the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns, she plays Sierra Esteban, daughter of a slain Central American political figure.  In real life, Finn Carter is herself the product of a prominent family.  

Her grandfather, the late Hodding Carter, was the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and publisher of the Greenville, Mississippi, Delta Democrat-Times.  Her father, Hodding Carter, III, is a television correspondent who previously carved a niche for himself as a Mississippi journalist, political advocate and State Department spokesman during the administration of Jimmy Carter.  

The 25-year-old Ms. Carter has roots on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, too.  Her mother, now divorced from Hodding Carter III, is the former Peggy Wolfe of Pass Christian.  In addition, her uncle, Hudson Wolfe III, is an Ocean Springs music instructor.  

The character of Sierra was introduced in January on As the World Turns.  She arrived in the fictional Midwest community of Oakdale after escaping from a Central American revolution.  Sierra's father was murdered during the turmoil.  Although she has been told her mother died years ago, she is actually the daughter of Lucinda Walsh (played by Elizabeth Hubbard), a wealthy and unscrupulous newspaper owner in Oakdale.  

Complicating matters further is the fact that Sierra is in love with Craig Montgomery (Scott Bryce), who attempted to rescue Sierra from the Central American revolution.  And Montgomery is involved with Lucinda Walsh in more ways than one.  

"My character escaped from a fictitious Central American country called Montega," Ms. Carter explained in a telephone interview from New York, where ATWT tapes.  "She's been raised essentially by nuns, but she's not nun-like herself ... She's been exposed to the cream of Montega, but she's not blind to what really goes on.  And she's the type who may come across as sweet, but she has a lot of inner strength."  

It definitely took a great deal of inner strength for Finn Carter to face the odds and pursue an acting career in New York. 

She was born Elizabeth Fearn Carter at Greenville's King's Daughters Hospital on March 9, 1960.  For most of her life, she has been addressed by her middle name, which is pronounced "Finn".  

"The name is Irish," explains her mother, who now resides in New Orleans.  "It's a family surname on my mother's side.  She changed the spelling of her name only because most people can't pronounce it."  

Finn Carter is the second of four children.  Her older sister Catherine, who has a television background, is 26 and a first-year law student at Tulane.  Their brother, Hodding Carter IV, is 22 and is working with the Peace Corps in Kenya.  And younger sister Margaret, who lives with her mother in New Orleans, is a junior at Isidore Newman School.  

"I wanted all my children to have knowledge of the arts," said Peggy Wolfe Carter, an amateur artist.  "They're into the humanities, who runs in my entire family and also in their father's side."  

Finn developed these interests early.  "My first dance class was when I was five," the actress says.  "So I guess it started then.  My mother had always wanted to be a dancer and couldn't -- I guess because her father didn't approve.  I continued to dance until I was eighteen.  Before that, I did little theatre in my hometown." 

Finn Carter attended public schools in Greenville until she was 16.  For her final year in high school, she was sent to Walnut Hill School in Nantick, Massachusetts, not far from Boston.  Walnut Hill specializes in the performing arts, and Ms. Carter studied dance and theater there.  

After graduation, she went to New York and studied dance for a year with the Alvin Ailey Company.  Skidmore College in Sarasota Springs came next. 

"I went to college because I had a bad knee and because I really wasn't that great of a dancer, anyway," Finn said.  "I was kind of klutzy, but I was getting by."  

Returning to the South a year later, she enrolled at Tulane and during the next three years earned extensive credits in regional theatre.  

Her first big paying role?  "I played Jill in Butterflies are Free at Minacepelli's Dinner Theatre in Slidell in 1981."

Though a desire to return to New York was in the back of her mind, she continued to be busy with small jobs obtained through her agent in New Orleans and work at the city's Contemporary Arts Center. 

"And then a friend said to me one night, 'Finn, actualize your dream.  Don't just keep talking about it.' So I moved.  I always knew I would.  It was just a matter of my having enough confidence to do it."  

Finn lived in New York for two rather lean years before she won the role of Sierra on As the World Turns.  "I was erratic and unfocused and didn't know how to deal with New York," she recalls.  "I was waitressing and kept changing jobs and trying to get enough money to have my pictures made.  In that first year, the agents I had didn't know what to do with me ... They weren't sending me out on enough auditions.  And it's sort of a rule around here: if you go to 100 auditions, you should get one thing a year.  Well, I hadn't done 100 auditions." 

Eventually, she changed agents, and after a series of auditions and screen tests and callbacks, she joined the cast of World Turns as Sierra.  "I was speechless when my agent told me I got the part," she said.  "I literally dropped the phone, hung up on my agent, and had to call back and apologize."  

As a result of her role on the long-running daytime series, she now joins her father, who currently hosts the PBS newsmagazine Capitol Journal as a television regular.   

"I'm glad to have the first TV star in the family," deadpanned Hodding Carter III, "because she actually will be before an audience of some size, as opposed to whatever may see me or not see me.  I'm also glad to have another wage earner in the family."  

Finn's father and grandfather have been two very tough acts to follow.  

Her grandfather was a veritable giant of journalism.  He headed the Delta Democrat-Times for three decades and became nationally known for his progressive racial stance during the Jim Crow era.  Hodding III took control of the paper during the 1960s but eventually entered the political arena, first on a state level with the Mississippi Democratic party and then on a national level. 

When President Carter’s term began in 1977, Hodding III was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and became a State Department spokesman.  During the hostage crisis in Iran in 1979 and 1980, his daily press briefings catapulted him to national prominence. 

Hodding III resigned from his State Department post in 1980 and became anchor and chief correspondent of the PBS news series Inside Story.  He is now married to Patt Derian, a longtime activist in the Mississippi civil rights movement who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. 

Her family’s progressive stance on civil rights had an impact on young Finn.  For her, growing up as a Carter in the Mississippi Delta was a double-edged sword. 

“I can remember being in the fourth grade and inviting a girl to my birthday party – and her parents not letting her come because there might be a Black at my party.  And because I was Hodding Carter’s daughter and granddaughter.  So certainly, there were things like that,” she says. 

Still, she insists that little of that really affected her life. 

“She had a very normal childhood,” says Hodding Carter III.  “But she grew up in Mississippi at a time of pretty wrenching and fundamental change.  In a way, I suppose it was normal to her.  If it was happening and that was all you’d ever known, it was normal.  I always figured that the ideals espoused by the newspaper were a burden for my children.  They were having to suffer for my principles – ones that hadn’t lived long enough to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to it.  It was something I had experienced being my own father’s son.  And I’m sure they caught a little grief.” 

On another level, Finn Carter’s father declared she is lucky her first name isn’t Hodding. 

“I think the Carter name is a curse,” he said.  “People believe it opens doors.  Finn has tried very hard and very successfully.  And I’ve honored that desire on her part to not have it be something that Daddy tried to do for her.  I hasten to add that I don’t even know enough about that business to have been able to help her.  And I haven’t; she’s strictly done it on her own.” 

Finn Carter’s statements on the subject echo her father’s. 

“It is a little threatening to be born into a family like ours.  In my life, it affected me more during the Iranian crisis than in previous years.  And that’s because my father became nationally visible.  It was different to be his daughter in Greenville than to be his daughter in college.   Sometimes it’s been a curse because people would say, ‘Oh, it’s because she’s Hodding Carter’s daughter that she gets this’ … Even with this job, I’ve heard it said, ‘Well, her father …’ But he had absolutely nothing to do with my getting this part.  And certainly the people who cast me didn’t even know he was my father.” 

She expresses great pride in her family’s accomplishments, particularly those of her grandfather.  “He would be considered a moderate today,” she noted.  “But at that time, he was an extreme liberal.  And even his father was an amazing man in Hammond, Louisiana. He was doing things that people didn’t do.” 

Ms. Carter calls her stint on As the World Turns a learning experience.  “It’s been trying.  It’s not like anything I’ve ever done before, so I’m having to learn a whole new skill.  And I believe TV acting is a skill in itself.  I’m nowhere near having mastered it … I think it will create a lot of discipline.  I probably work with the best soap opera cast in New York.  Everyone’s very positive.  Everyone works really hard and cares and is supportive.  My first scenes were with Scott Bryce, and he couldn’t have been nicer or more supportive.  He was practically holding my hand through the whole thing.  It’s a very nice atmosphere.”

As for the future, Finn says she does not want to limit herself to any one acting arena.  “I’m glad to be doing a soap opera. I’m extremely grateful I’m doing it. I moved to New York, not with a soap opera in mind at all.  I moved here hoping to slowly move into theatre.  And I knew it would be a long road.  So after a while, I can hopefully get stage work here.  I want to do that, and I hope that film is in my future.” 

 

 

6 minutes ago, j swift said:

 

That type of writing -- "Glad to see your father had your teeth fixed, if not your tongue" -- was what characterized the first and second seasons, making them seem honest and clever.  

After it degenerated into "You'll pay for this, and that's a promise" -- (turns dramatically, flounces out) -- it was difficult to watch, unless you're a show-nuff fan of High Camp.  

Honestly, the last few seasons could've been written by Tommy Wiseau, for all the literary merit and cleverness they contained.  

21 minutes ago, Khan said:

the "good" characters have to be completely blind to whatever the "bad" characters are doing to them

Good point!  On very early Dynasty, the characters weren't (originally) essentially "good" or "bad".  Blake could be awfully nice, but he was also chauvinistic, intolerant, and expected conformity from his kids.  Krystal's motivations could be murky as well -- was she marrying Blake for love, or was she marrying him because he was richer than Matthew?  Steven was mostly sympathetic but could sometimes be a self-absorbed little brat.  Fallon was always bratty, but she had good reasons for it.  But there was never any question that Blake loved his children, and the kids loved each other deeply.   

As time went on, the "gray areas" inherent in that type of writing (and acting) went completely out the window. 

My big problem with the subsequent seasons -- beginning with about Season 4 -- was that it became a "Hollywood writer's idea of how poor people across America might visualize how rich people live".  Most of us on the board are probably friends or acquaintances of people who are very high-income individuals or members of extremely wealthy families.  Do they sit around all day drinking champagne and eating caviar?  Of course not.  They're at work!  Dynasty became an absurd fantasy in which everyone lolls around doing nothing except scheming and looking glamorous.

Obviously, there was a certain appeal to the show, as it became so synonymous with 1980s culture.  You can't discount that.  But the writing and acting ultimately were atrocious.  As someone said above, it doesn't hold up at all.    

@SoapDope -- Thanks for the Tattletales!!  

Bill Bell said that out at Lake Geneva, there was a snotty kid who was called "Snapper" because he snapped at everyone.  That's where he got the basic idea for Espy's character. 

I always secretly suspected WGE was like that in real life!  Glad to see he's not.