Nicholas Blair

The show expanded to 60 minutes and then to 90 minutes without TPTB figuring out how much additional story they would need. After Reinholt was fired, he showed one of the magazine writers a scene where Vic Hastings and Angie Perrini (probably the original one, the boring Toni Kalem) talked on and on about office furniture until Steve Frame came in and said he was going to Australia.

Lemay did have some respect for Slesar, saying that Slesar wrote a different kind of show. Lemay admitted his own inability to write courtroom scenes, one of Slesar's strengths. The episode with John Randolph's death shows some of the limitations of Lemay's imagination. There are several scenes where women are told about John Randolph's death. Each one bursts into tears. IRL, people react to news like that differently. Some will cry. Some will seem stoic and cry later. Some may seem incredulous and scarcely believe the news. By having all the women react the same way, Lemay missed an opportunity to show how people react differently.

I don't think I ever saw a scene with Patrick Horgan on any show that I didn't enjoy.

I did see a little of RTTP. Saw a little toward the beginning, but it was very slow and I had never seen Peyton Place, so I didn't watch much. Saw some of Katherine Glass, who was first-rate, as she was on OLTL. She had that waif-like presence which makes people want to comfort and protect her. I knew Joseph Gallison from AW, and liked him in everything I ever saw him play. And I knew Mary K. Wells from TSS, and she was good as always. Then I saw more of it toward the end, where there was too much talk about "the enabling legislation for the deepwater port," and I didn't figure out if that legislation was a good thing or not. Pamela Shoop was very pretty, and as someone said, she had a Southern California vibe, quite different from Katherine Glass. I liked Charles Sailor as Tom Dana, a good-looking guy, and Margaret Mason was a wonderfully smirky troublemaker, just as she later would be on DOOL and as she later would be on Y&R, and why the soaps didn't keep her around all the time being smirky and evil is a mystery to me. I also liked Mary Frann as D.B. Bentley and enjoyed her subsequent career. There were elements that could have worked, given more time and good stories. I seem to have seen a lot of shows at the end of their run. I loved WTHI and was crushed when it was canceled; LIAMST was a solid show and I had enjoyed the last year; TSS would have been OK with better writers, and it had Jada and Marla; HTSAM was a mess when it was canceled, having dropped all the original male actors in about a year, and the only improvement was that Armand Assante had stopped trying to speak with an Irish accent; Somerset, after good years under Cenedella and Slesar, was in "let's throw stuff at the wall and hope something sticks" mode; FRFP never really took off though it wasn't bad. RTPP was on that borderline where the network could have given it time or not. Some of these canceled shows were in bad time slots for different reasons, which also hurt.

My feelings about Mary Matthews are no doubt colored by the fact that Virginia Dwyer somewhat resembled my mother. Mary was in many ways a typical middle-class woman of her era. She did not work outside of the home, but she was a strong presence in her family and her community, a devoted wife and mother of three fine, upstanding children. OK, Pat got pregnant, had an abortion, and shot her boyfriend, but these things will happen! Mary was perhaps a touch less outgoing than Nancy Hughes or Alice Horton and kept her emotions a little more in check, as many women and almost all the men of her generation and class were brought up to do. Lemay did not grown up in this kind of middle-class family, instead growing up poor and fantasizing about what it would be like to be rich. He did not understand or appreciate people like the Matthews family or the communities which produced them. In many ways, AW was a poor fit for him, because the Matthews family had always been central to it. I did not know that he would give Mary's scenes to Ada or Liz, both played by actresses he liked. Lemay recounts how Virginia Dwyer asked for a meeting with him at the Russian Tea Room. Obviously she knew there was a problem and wanted to improve matters. He brags about grabbing the seat at the banquette facing the room, where Virginia could have seen friends who happen to come in. He was miffed when she introduced him to some friends as the new writer on her show, when he had been there two years. In any event, the meeting did not improve things, and it's clear that Lemay simply wanted to get rid of her. According to Lemay, Virginia Dwyer had trouble with her lines so that Hugh Marlowe wasn't getting his cues, and that after the firing, Hugh Marlowe sent him a telegram saying, "God bless you, Pete." Was she beginning to have memory problems? Did her unhappiness with the way he was writing her character lead to less capable work by her? I remember what a shock it was to the audience when Mary was killed off. Many people assumed Virginia Dwyer had died, decided to retire, or was in poor health. The magazines wrote about this topic extensively at the time, wondering if killing off older characters was a trend in the soaps.

That makes total sense, and I couldn't agree more. Ronn Moss, though not a first-rate actor, had all the qualities needed for Ridge. I liked Thorsten Kaye on OLTL, but I think he is terrible as Ridge. Though I rarely watch B&B, his scenes always make me cringe. It didn't help that I first saw him in the "Grandpa Loves Barbie" storyline. And though I am very happy that soaps can now portray same-sex relationships, LesbiMariah is not as interesting as the Mariah who used to hang out with Kevin and the two best friends had their own kind of language, the way good friends sometimes do. That was some of the best dialogue I have ever heard on any soap.

Audra Lindley's Liz would have made Rachel wish she was lying dead on the floor beside Danny Fargo--or would have put her there!

James Douglas would make sense. I can't think of who else left around that time. Ah yes, Lemay and his vaunted "chemistry." I remember when David Ackroyd as Dr. Dave Gilchrist had deadly dull dinner dates with, basically, every unmarried female on the show, to see if Dr. Lemay detected signs of chemistry. I'm not sure if poor Dr. Gilchrist ever got laid the entire time he was in Bay City. I thought Ackroyd had chemistry with Beverly Penberthy, but what do I know? On TSS Ackroyd had plenty of chemistry with actresses as different as Lynne Adams and Jada Rowland. Perhaps if Lemay had actually written storylines for the new characters introduced at this time, chemistry would have been detected in auditions or could have been developed as the story unfolded. John Considine had so much sex appeal as the "bearded bear" Dr. Brian Walsh on Bright Promise that it's agonizing how he was completely wasted on AW. Here's a thought: audition for an actress who has chemistry with John Considine and eliminate one or more of the minor characters who don't. And here's another thought: according to Lemay, Considine and Ackroyd didn't have enough chemistry with any of the women, yet Lemay created the couple with the least chemistry I have ever seen in my entire history of soap opera viewing: Jim Poyner as Dennis Carrington and Christina Pickles as Countess Elena de Poulignac. This warmed-over version of TEA AND SYMPATHY was what Lemay considered European sophistication, and defended by Mac in more or less those very terms. Iris was livid about this, and for one of the few times in her life, Iris was absolutely right. Christina Pickles, though an enjoyable character actress, was barely credible as an older woman Russ Matthews would date. Guys who look like David Bailey rarely date women who look like Christina Pickles. Even a desperately horny teenager boy like Dennis might reconsider if his only option were Countess Elena. So I am not overly impressed by Lemay's views of who did or did not have chemistry. He struck gold with Mac and Rachel, and the success went to his head.

Thank you. Those cast and character lists are so helpful.

That totally makes sense, doesn't it? Thank you!

Bill Bell's writing for Leslie's nervous breakdown on Y&R was actually more believable than Lemay's for Alice. The two breakdowns happened about the same time, and some of the magazines had stories about this coincidence, especially since Jacquie Courtney and Janice Lynde were high in the reader polls at this time. Leslie Brooks had always been written as a gifted concert pianist who was shy and awkward socially, and played as such by Janice Lynde. When she opened up to a romantic relationship with Brad (Tom Hallick) and then seemed to be losing him to her sister, it's not implausible that Leslie could have had a breakdown. "Muted catatonic grief" seems like something Jacquie Courtney could have played very well. Muted grief is how she played Alice when she ran away to New York and met the Carringtons. Lemay more or less brags about how he disliked Courtney and Reinholt from the beginning, mentioning a Christmas party where he ignored the two of them while spending all his time with his new BFFs on the show. I don't have the book to check the exact names, but I believe this would have included Nicolas Coster, Susan Sullivan, Victoria Wyndham, and a few others.

Exactly right about Susan Harney and Jacqueline Courtney. Harney was pretty; she could act; and if she had been playing a different character or if Alice were going to be only a supporting character, she would have been more than acceptable. Harney was better than her successors who played not-the-real-Alice. Lemay said that Harney had more "technical variety" than Courtney, and I would be inclined to agree. Courtney's limitations of technique showed up when she had to play an evil British twin on OLTL. And how much do 99% of the viewers care about "technical variety"? Not much. They recognize star quality. They recognize actors who can bring genuine emotion to their roles. They know who they care about and who they want to see on screen. They didn't tune in AMC to see Susan Lucci display her technical skills; they tuned in to see what Erica was up to next. Courtney received some fairly shoddy writing from Lemay--a foolish running away from Steve after a misunderstood conversation; an unmotivated mental breakdown (because Rachel said she wanted the house Alice lived in!)--and she sold the hell out of this. Courtney held back nothing from these scenes, yet did not fall into theatrical melodrama. The audience knew who it wanted to see and why, and the audience was right. I don't know the backstage story about Nicolas Coster's firing, but I thought he had started phoning in his performances. He had been one of my favorites ever since Somerset. He had a certain catch in his voice that he used for moments of deep sincerity, a nice effect, but toward the end of his time on AW that catch was appearing with great regularity.

Judith Barcroft has said in interviews that she was ready to leave AW because Lenore had become "Rita Recap," but when TPTB told her about the murder trial storyline, she was happy to stay. The show moved two secondary characters, Walter and Lenore, to the front burner, and Val Dufour and Judith Barcroft took a very well-written story and knocked it out of the park. The first Wayne Addison was Edmund Hashim, a competent actor but too obviously a weasel, so the role was recast with Robert Milli, a suave, good-looking villain who could plausibly pretend to woo rich widow Liz Matthews (Nancy Wickwire) while plotting to cheat Steven Frame and everyone else. Walter Curtin, desperate to get more money to give his wife Lenore the kind of upscale life she had always known, was an easy cat's paw. Walter had no idea that Lenore loved him and didn't care how much money he was making. The notion of seducing Walter's lovely blonde wife greatly appealed to Addison, and the fact that Lenore seemed repulsed by him added spice to the game. Liz expected a marriage proposal, but Wayne managed to suggest that he was having an affair with Lenore and even implied that the child she was carrying was his. As he was planning to leave Bay City with his ill-gotten gains, he taunted Liz about how little he cared for her and how he'd been carrying on with Lenore. When he turned his back on Liz, she picked up a statuette she'd given him--he had taunted her about that, too--and prepared to hit him over the head with it. End of episode, probably a Friday. We next saw Liz in the lobby of Wayne Addison's apartment building, where she ran into a dithery clubwoman friend, Louella (Dorothy Blackburn), who was on her way to a shop on the first level that repaired clocks or watches (don't recall which). Wayne's dead body was discovered, killed by a blow to the head with the statuette. Eventually the finger of suspicion pointed to Lenore, because everyone "knew" that she had been having an affair with Wayne. To the viewers, of course, Liz was the prime suspect. Would TPTB dare write off this troublemaking villainess we loved to hate? Liz had also been a prime suspect in the Danny Fargo murder, and it was always plausible (pre-Lemay) that Liz could commit murder. Liz had covered her tracks by persuading Louella that she had the date wrong about when they had seen each other in Wayne's building. Or was the real killer a more dispensable character, like Bernice Robinson (the excellent Janis Young, whose only soap role this was), Addison's ex-wife who was up to her ears in his financial misdealings, or another of Addison's cohorts or victims? I see from the Somerset thread that Robert Delaney was another of Addison's victims. As the net closed around Lenore, and Walter prepared a defense for his wife, at some point there was a scene where Walter opened a wall safe and took out Lenore's missing scarf. We didn't know for sure yet, but it suddenly dawned on us that Walter could be guilty of the crime his wife was accused of. Walter had supposedly been in New York on the day of the crime. The question was not just was Walter guilty, but would the show go there? I believe that at some point before the trial we were shown a flashback where Addison breaks up Liz's attempt to hit him with the statuette and she rushes out of his apartment. Walter soon shows up, Wayne taunts Walter by showing him the scarf Lenore has left after their supposed tryst, and Walter picks up the statuette and finishes the job Liz had started. These scenes were filmed while Robert Milli was still there, but not shown until this later time. The AW Home Page used to follow the sequence of scripts filmed and suggested that the audience knew from the start that Walter was guilty. The actual sequence of events was much more interesting. I wish I remembered more precisely when the revelations were made, but before the trial we knew that Walter was defending his wife for the crime he had committed. Lenore's situation looked bad, made even worse when on cross-examination Rachel was so eager to defend Steve, a possible suspect, that she made things even worse for her "best friend" Lenore. Fortunately, Louella realized that she had indeed seen Liz in the building around the time of the murder (did she have a receipt with the date? that detail I don't know) and testified to that effect. Now Walter could show reasonable doubt, with Liz as a plausible suspect, and Lenore was acquitted. I don't recall exactly how, but it was quickly made clear that Liz would not be prosecuted for the murder because her defense could always show reasonable doubt because of Lenore. Whether this was said by the D.A., Tom Albini (Pierrino Mascarino, who had played the seedy detective Grady Perrette on EON), I am not sure. (I remember being interested that Mascarino had played his EON character with a New York accent, but the D. A. without.) So far the storytelling had been superb, and the performances equally so. How would this story be resolved? The answer, unfortunately, would be "not nearly so well as it had been told up till then."

Bill, I couldn't agree more.

The sense of flow was unusually good. For instance, after Walter Curtin prosecutes Missy for Danny Fargo's murder, then he begins to court Lenore. The episode of Lenore and Walter's wedding, though the sound and video quality are poor, shows how several of the stories connect. Alice meets Steven Frame; Lee feels that she can't marry Sam because of the LSD and lets Lahoma catch the bouquet; and the opulence of the wedding makes Rachel more unhappy about the contrast with her own wedding and her life with Russ. Marrying a rich woman makes Walter feel the need to make more money than he gets on his salary as D.A., so he falls into Wayne Addison's trap, setting up the next major storyline. Even the simple motif that "Rachel wants to be Lenore" played big dividends. Russ's salary as an intern can't satisfy Rachel's need for luxury. Rachel pushes herself into Lenore's company, and Lenore is too polite and well-bred to turn away Rachel completely. Rachel brags about being Lenore's best friend, although Lenore is closer to Pat and Alice and probably numerous others as well. When Lenore is on trial for the murder of Wayne Addison, Walter tries to create reasonable doubt by showing that other people had motive, including Steven Frame. Rachel is called as a witness to demonstrate Steven's motives for murder, but under cross-examination, feeling a need to protect Steven, Rachel ends up loudly denying that Steven could possibly have any reason to kill Addison, and she makes the situation much worse for Lenore. I still remember the look on Judith Barcroft's face as she said, "And she calls herself my best friend."

She would have been fun as Pammy. Imagine the fun if she had moved to Bay City and locked horns with her half-sister Rachel.

Thanks for the timeline info. The fact that Agnes Nixon recycled the LSD story on OLTL so closely makes me wonder if this was one of her stories.

AW in the 60s made one of those classic bad writing decisions, which illustrates this rule: "Don't kill off a beloved character until you're sure you have something interesting as a replacement." Irna, presumably, made the decision to kill off Lee Randolph (Barbara Rodell) to illustrate the dangers of taking LSD. Lee, having had LSD dropped in her drink, ultimately (after many twists I won't detail here) has an LSD flashback, wrecks her car, and is killed. Fans were upset because Barbara Rodell was popular, and she and Jordan Charney (as Sam Lucas) were a popular couple. Even after Sam had married Lahoma (Ann Wedgeworth) because Lee was concerned about that any child of hers might have birth defects, fans expected Sam and Lee to get together eventually. Wrong. The grieving father, John Randolph (Michael M. Ryan), then got to know the Mason family: the mother, Anne, was a department store executive (I think), implicitly criticized very harshly for having a career instead of looking after her teenage daughter Emily. It's unclear where this story was ultimately to have gone. Anne died of a heart attack, John became Emily's guardian, and apparently Emily was going to be a substitute daughter. Unfortunately, Emily bored the pants off most of the viewers, who resented her space on the screen in place of Lee. Emily was sent off to boarding school or one of those other dumping grounds for unwanted soap characters, and she was never heard of again. When Agnes Nixon recycled pretty much the entire LSD story on OLTL, she made one very important change: Cathy Craig, unlike Lee Randolph, was not killed off.

Oh, we are so on the same page about this! I even wondered if certain actors felt threatened by the quality of his work.

Though I did not see a lot of Billy Warlock's work on GH, I thought he was outstanding.

Dan, thanks for all this great information. Jada was one of my favorites. I began watching when Linden Chiles was playing Paul Britton.

Of course, for The Bold and the Beautiful that would have been par for the course! I'm a little hazy about this, but I definitely remembered that under Lemay they brought back Walter Matthews as Gerald Davis to encourage Rachel by saying things like, "Would you rather be Mrs. Ted Clark or Mrs. Steven Frame?" As if Rachel needed any encouragement! Lemay noted in his book that Stephen Bolster (Ted Clark) told him how he kept getting mail from fans who wanted Ted paired up with Alice. Lemay knew this wasn't so, because he had access to the mail, but he couldn't blame Bolster for trying, because it was clear how the storyline was going to go. Alice precipitated her breakup with Steve by misunderstanding a conversation she heard between Steve and Rachel. Steve had been with Rachel talking about Jamie when Alice fell off a ladder (I think), precipitating a miscarriage, and Steve wasn't there to send for help in time. Alice understood him to mean he had been with Rachel sexually, so instead of confronting him she behaved like a soap opera heroine and took off for parts unknown. Rachel then eventually took advantage of the situation. Many thanks to everyone who has access to the timelines and cast and character lists.

My memory is probably wrong. James Gerald certainly would be reasonable, although Rachel had had no contact with her father for years.

I don't know why Lemay backed away from this. It seemed to have a ton of story potential. Had Russ married Iris, his wife's stepmother would have been his ex-wife. Russ was always drawn to the wrong women. By the way, by the 1980s not many AW viewers would have known that Jamie Frame got his name because he was originally named James Russell Matthews, named after his supposed grandfather and his supposed father.

No, I'd like to see that.