Nicholas Blair

That's all I know about it, too. Don Stewart and Melinda Fee were both popular with fans. Mart Hulswit said in his recent Locher Room interview, which was great, that he and Don Stewart differed politically (Stewart, a former Navy pilot, was conservative) but they became good friends. I think Nancy Addison did good work as Kit on GL, though the resolution of her storyline was dragged out and she had to play more or less the same kind of scene over and over again, and then the role of Gillian on RH gave her the chance to use much more of her own personality and she truly blossomed as an actress. I agree that she never quite got the credit she deserved. A character like Kit shows the range she had. She also got some attention for playing a drug addict in the mini-series THE DAIN CURSE, and RH subsequently wrote that into the story for Gillian.

Did she become Debrah Farentino? And Deborah Hunter became Hunter Tylo. @j swift--Thank you for confirming that Steve Fletcher tried out the name Steve Blizzard at one time.

I notice that several people mentioned wishing they had seen the storyline that led to Kit Vested (Nanci Addison) killing her "friend" Charlotte Bauer (Melinda Fee). The first half of this story is one of my favorites, something which was so true psychologically but never, as far as I can recall, imitated. Charlotte had become a pariah in Springfield. When Mike Bauer sued her for divorce, she suddenly blurted out in court that she was pregnant, although she wasn't, so Mike eventually got his divorce. Charlotte began volunteering at Cedars Hospital to try to build back some cred with the community, where she became the confidante of shy, socially awkward Kit Vested. Kit had a huge crush on the very married Dr. Joe Werner (Anthony Call). Charlotte encouraged Kit to tell her what appealed to her about Joe and how he made her feel. Although Charlotte had never had any interest in Joe, seeing him through Kit's eyes suddenly made him attractive to her. Because Charlotte knew how to manipulate a man, she seduced him, mainly because she could. Joe felt terribly guilty about this affair, but that was nothing compared to the cold fury Kit felt when she found out about it. When Charlotte went into the hospital for some routine surgery, Kit saw to it that Charlotte didn't come out alive. Everyone else thought Joe had made a mistake during surgery, and Joe felt so guilty that he began drinking. From here the story went downhill, or rather on and on, as stories tended to do in those days. Joe left the hospital and his wife, the warm and understanding Dr. Sara McIntyre (Millette Alexander). Kit took him to a remote cabin and looked after him. I don't believe it was clear if Joe ever slept with Kit. I thought not, but one magazine had an article which suggested that Joe would have to be killed off because he was "living in sin with a murderess." The eventual resolution was rather predictable: Sara eventually finds out where Joe is; Kit tries to shoot Sara; and Joe steps in front, taking the bullet. He did survive, but (I believe) suffered a fatal heart attack not long after his recovery from the shooting. This led to the introduction of Dr. Justin Marler (Thomas O'Rourke) as a new love interest for Sara. I was not a huge fan of O'Rourke, especially in comparison with Anthony Call, but two resulting stories were terrific: 1) Sara goes off on a cruise, falls for, and marries Dean Blackford (Gordon Rigsby), a lawyer who is far from the sterling character Sara imagines. It was a treat to see Gordon Rigsby, who had played the wise and kindly psychiatrist Dr. Ian Northcote on TSS, as a villain. 2) O'Rourke worked much better as part of the Marler/Spaulding/Mike Bauer interlocking story that would unfold, an all-time favorite. GL was great in those days. A side note: If you've always wondered why Nancy Addison was auditioning for the shy, socially awkward Faith Coleridge on RH, it's undoubtedly because she had played the shy, socially awkward Kit Vested on GL. Fortunately, someone realized she should read for Jillian, and that worked out brilliantly.

Seeing the Locher Room interview with Maree Cheatham reminded me that some actors spell their name differently or use a new name from time to time. While on SFT, her credit was always Marie Cheatham. Per imdb, around 1989/1990 was when she changed the spelling of her first name. IIRC, the role of Kit Vested on GL was originally credited to Nancy Addison, who changed the spelling to Nanci Addison during her time on GL. I believe she had changed the spelling back to Nancy by the time of Ryan's Hope, and eventually she added Altman. Some of you probably recall that Nana Visitor got her last name by playing a character called Georgina Visitor on OLTL. Wiki says her name was originally Nana Tucker, but I had the vague impression that she had used Nancy as her first name. I also have a vague recollection that she and Steve Fletcher were a couple around that time, and that he briefly changed his credit to--was it Steve Blizzard or something like that?--before changing it back to Fletcher. What other actors have been known by more than one name during their soap careers?

I was disappointed when GL killed off Charlotte, even though her exit story was great. I remember seeing a magazine headline "Melinda Fee Forced Off Guiding Light," but I don't know what the story was. However unpopular Don Stewart and Melinda Fee may have been with their castmates, the fans appreciated their work.

I also believe that Sam Groom would have had chemistry with just about anyone. He had such good big brother/little sister scenes with Jacquie Courtney. These family interactions added to the realism and the appeal of the show.

Though it wouldn't have the appeal of the making of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, a dramatized version of the story of Irna's return and her anger over Jane House's appearance in LENNY could be a fascinating look at the conflict over changing moral values at the time. At least John Colenback was brought back for another run on the show, and Dan Stewart and his daughters became part of the ongoing story.

Thank you, Paul. I had forgotten that Dan was a doctor, too.

I believe Rick Ryan was an intern, but that might not be right. I also saw the infamous two episodes where, unknown to most of us viewers, Irna Phillips had stepped in preparatory to writing out just about everyone connected with the Stewart storyline. Susan found out that her new husband Bruce Baxter had had a vasectomy, so she got the marriage annulled and in days to come would sashay around Oakdale proclaiming, "I'm not Mrs. Bruce Baxter any more, I'm Mrs. Dan Stewart," calling herself by her previous husband's name. The other part I recall is that Bob was doing some routine surgery on a patient named Maria, but she died during surgery and her distraught husband shot Bob, injuring his arm so that Bob feared he might never be able to perform surgery again. From Maria needing surgery to hubby shooting Bob happened in two days, rather than the two to three weeks it would normally have taken. It was all very herky-jerky. Before Irna became upset that Jane House was appearing on stage in LENNY--and thanks to those who provided this background information--it made absolutely no sense to me as a viewer at the time--Jane House was a delight as the warmly sympathetic Elizabeth, who had a lovely English accent. She was a good friend to Lisa, the reformed though still impulsive Lisa. I never got to see the bad Lisa who made Eileen Fulton a star. At a time when it was highly unusual to see promos for upcoming soap episodes, I remember seeing a promo which a voiceover called "A scene between brothers" as Paul Stewart (Dean Santoro) confided to his brother Dan (John Colenback) that he had had married Elizabeth knowing that she was carrying a child by another man. The other man, of course, was brother Dan, though Paul didn't know or suspect this. Paul would be killed off. Elizabeth would be killed off on the stairs; Susan had left the child barrier open after her visit, and Elizabeth, rushing to rescue her daughter, injured a vital organ and died. Off to England went Elizabeth's brother Ronnie (Curt Dawson), who had a shy and gentlemanly crush on Lisa; Dan and his daughters; and baby nurse Peggy Reagan, played by the wonderful Lisa Cameron. All of these actors were good, and eliminating these characters made no story sense.

I remember the original Rick Ryan, Con Roche (for some reason I seem to think his name was pronounced Ro-SHAY, but that might be wrong), an angry young man who did not want his mother Jennifer (Gillian Spencer) to marry Bob Hughes. I thought he was convincing in the role and was surprised when they wrote out this troublemaking character, although this was part of the era when odd and unfortunate character exits were common. I also liked Donna Wandrey as the original Barbara Ryan, recognizing her of course as Roxanne Drew from DS. She was quite lovely. I recall a scene where she asked her mother, "Do you think it would be odd if a woman were interested in the same man as her mother?" and Jennifer replying, "I wouldn't be surprised if she were interested in the same kind of man." I got the impression TPTB hadn't decided if they were going to turn Barbara into a schemer, but they switched to a Bob/Jennifer/Kim triangle and wrote out Barbara and Rick, to my disappointment.

I did not see any of the Iris/Robert Delaney relationship. Did Beverlee McKinsey and Nicolas Coster have chemistry? When Coster was dropped from AW, the official word was that they had run out of story for Robert. Fans knew that wasn't true because Robert had learned he had a child by Clarice, there might have been more story with Iris, and he was still in love with Lenore, who could easily have been recast and brought back to Bay City.

Beautifully said!

I do remember Joel Higgins from SFT, though not well. Did not recall that he was playing the same role that Gary Tomlin had played. Higgins was fine, though I remember liking Gary Tomlin a lot. I don't remember or didn't see Higgins as Wanda Webb's brother. He and Marilyn Chris as siblings?

Richard Bekins was very good as Jamie.

I agree with danfling that Dan Kincaid was really Bernard Barrow's signature role. Would you rather play opposite Marla Adams' Belle or Helen Gallagher's Maeve? Johnny Ryan didn't have many story lines of his own, and Maeve seemed to wear the pants in the Ryan family. As Dan Kincaid, Bernard Barrow was right at the center of the action.

Thank you, Paul. That confirms my vague impression that Gary Tomlin and Maree were on SFT at the same time and both would have interacted with Morgan Fairchild. Imdb is wrong again--shocker, I know.

Thanks, robb. What a cool association with your graduation day. Thank you for having such a good grasp of the timelines. I probably associated the Bert Kramer choice with Lemay because it's similar to casting Brian Murray on AW. Murray was certainly a competent actor, presumably even better on stage, but not my first choice to play a man with a wife (Susan), another good woman he was in love with (Alice), and an involvement with a femme fatale (Olive).

I watched a little of the beginning of this show, did not like it, and gave up. Apparently it got better later on. Harding Lemay sometimes had problems recognizing which men had sex appeal and which didn't. If Iris had a long-lost love she had never gotten over, of three actors who were on the show, for her long-lost love would you cast Lee Patterson, heartthrob from Surfside 6 and OLTL; Donald May, alpha male star of EON; or Bert Kramer, average middle-aged guy you might meet on the street? Lemay unerringly chose Door #3.

I'm another who thought Mary Carney was improving and might have turned out well. She also had exactly the right look.

I thought Gary Tomlin's time as an actor on SFT might have overlapped with hers, but imdb says he was only there 1973-1974 and she didn't arrive until 1975.

This is NOT an unpopular opinion: Linda Borgeson is one of the worst actresses ever cast in a major soap role. What did TPTB see in her auditions that she couldn't project in her actual scenes? Replacing George Reinholt was more difficult than might have been expected. There aren't that many actors who have the dark, brooding, romantic quality that Reinholt had. I would have been happy with Rachel and Mitch as a couple. Espy had good chemistry with actresses as different as Trish Stewart and Victoria Wyndham, or would Trish Stewart and Linda Dano be an even greater contrast?

I really enjoyed seeing and hearing Maree and Lisa. I have always liked both, and Maree has always been a special favorite.

Paul, IIRC, Joseph Gallison did something similar. Would it have been after RTPP was canceled? He was eventually cast on Days.

I watched SFT back when she was Marie Cheatham. Was it a numerology thing that made her change her name to Maree? She was always one of my favorites.

I enjoyed the season of Dallas that was later deemed to have been a dream. Barbara Carrera, John Beck, Marc Singer. I was convinced that Marc Singer was going to become a big star. Well, I've been wrong about other things, too. I was glad to have Bobby back, but the dream season was a lot of fun.