Reverend Ruthledge

That's interesting. I always got the impression that Laura just kind of tolerated Val. I'm not sure why I got that impression, but I did. I never really looked at them as good friends like I did Val and Karen.

I know Margo and, perhaps Craig, mentioned Cricket at least a couple of times over the years and her son, Billy, was on the show for a while as an adult. But even up to the last few years I remember Cricket getting a mention or two. I liked Lisa Loring for some reason so I didn't mind Cricket but she was kind of an airhead.

I was mercifully spared that because I wasn't watching the show at the time when she came back. From what I've heard about that time, I choose to pretend that version of Dani never happened.

I think Frost was more close to Davidson's portrayal and, in my opinion, the real character. I loved Davidson's work during the aftermath of Dan's death. She was very realistic. You could feel her grief. I could be wrong about this but I think I remember Dani living with Susan at some point which made no sense. Or Susan being some kind of maternal figure for Dani. That was just weird. Ellen would have made much more sense as a maternal figure for Dani as she was her great-grandmother in Betsy's absence. I could be wrong about all that. My watching during the adult Dani years was very spotty. I much preferred Vicky Dawson but that's highly subjective. I just really liked the actress. Not that she was even that good of an actress. I just liked her looks I guess. Something about Schultz irritated me.

Thank you for the response. Most of my posts are usually thread killers. Or, at least, just get a response from crickets.

Thanks. I really liked this Betsy. I wish they would have kept her. Lindsay Frost was ok but I found Meg Ryan too "cute".

In my eyes, ATWT was like two different shows, the first one from 1956-1979 and the second one from 1985-2010. The years 1980-1984 are kind of like a black hole to me. Whenever I see clips from that time period, I frequently don't know who anybody is or what's going on.

I'm really surprised too. I can see why Marland kept her on even though he seemed to struggle writing for the Stewart family. However, I think it's a downright miracle that she lasted a few years after he was gone with the subsequent writers who seemed to have zero respect for the history of the show. It was a crime that she was let go but I guess by that point it just didn't make sense to have her around. If I remember correctly, at the end of her run, she was just hanging around with Susan, a woman who she hated. David, Paul and Dan were dead, Annie, Dee and Betsy were MIA and Emily was busy running around Oakdale being histrionic and had ceased to be a real, relatable person. The Stewarts were decimated much like the Matthews of AW.

I've said this before and I'll say it again but I think Robert Gentry personified the character of Ed the best as he was envisioned in the 60s and this is, in my opinion, the character's most prominent time. But this vision of the character was long gone by the time Gentry played the role again decades later. I never saw him when he revised the role but I can imagine he did seem out of place with both the writing and Ed being so different. Hulswitt was, by far, the most likable Ed. He was my "favorite" Ed in terms of likability but Gentry was my favorite for being truest to the character as originally envisioned. I really couldn't see Hulswitt pulling off the Ed of the 60s just like I can't imagine Gentry pulling off the Ed of the 70s. I tend to go with the original version of characters as the most definitive so that's why I think Gentry played Ed the best. Ed was a dick and Gentry played that so well. By the time we got to the later version of Ed, the character was just sour and weak which, actually, Simon was great at playing. But my strong distaste for the actor challenges me to say anything positive about his portrayal. I never liked Ed so it's just hard for me to think of Hulswitt's Ed as the real Ed. Especially because his Ed was the Ed I had the least exposure to. When I watch Hulswitt's Ed, it actually confuses me to like Ed. Much like it confuses me to watch Bert in the 70s and 80s and like her so much.

Thank you very much for posting this. The David Stewart storyline is one of the few storylines from that time period that really interests me and that I wish I could see in its entirety. I don't think I realized until this episode what a good actor Henderson Forsyth was. I don't think he got to show his range that much in the role as David was so stoic.

I never saw Jeff when he wasn't acting like a dick. Strung-out on drugs or stone cold sober.

Who was that guy with Carol?

You're right. And it meant they would have to celebrate the holidays in strange places like the hospital or the TV studio.

Why would they go through all of the trouble of saving these episodes only to destroy them later? I don't think it would take that much to digitize and stream episodes. Surely they're interested in making money off of them.

Hello Mike. Do you happen to have an exact episode date for when Granny was mentioned in 1965?

Didn't they eventually make Bob and Kim's kitchen into part of the WOAK set or was that a nightmare I had?

Back from the dead stories are my most hated plot device and why I currently hate DOOL (once one of my favorite soaps). You are right that a death on DOOL means absolutely nothing anymore.

That's actually what I was thinking. There seemed to be a slew of cop shows in the 80s. Not that there wasn't in other decades but it just seemed more popular in the 80s.

Very good question, and, surprisingly, he may have been. I'm stretching my brain trying to come up with an earlier character who was a cop and while there were many small-part characters who were cops, I can't remember a full-time character being a cop until Rusty. Same with Margo on ATWT. And Hope Williams on DOOL. It was definitely an 80s trend to make main characters policemen and policewomen. I'm not sure why.

If I remember correctly, Colin was VERY in and out (mostly out) during those four years.

Oceanview was actually called "Lakeview" in a few scripts. Agnes seemed undecided on the name so perhaps they were wrestling with whether to change the location at this time in 1965. The history books say the location changed to Springfield in 1966 but there is no mention of Springfield in 1966. Nor is there mention of Los Angeles or Selby Flats. The characters always just refer to where they live as "the city".

I'm know I'm in the minority, but I think all the 80s prime time soaps were the best in the beginning. Like the first and second seasons. All of them. Even Dynasty which people said was boring until Joan Collins came along. The first season of Dynasty was my favorite. I guess I just like things in their purest form with the original vision still intact.

Nobody knows what happened to Kenny and Ginger?

I don't think it's about YouTube guidelines. Proctor and Gamble don't seem to care about people posting their old soap material so I don't know why YouTube would. It's really only a problem for soaps still on the air. Sony will yank Days material down in a hot second. Whole episodes of GL, ATWT and AW have been posted for years. I don't think her only having scenes she's in is so much about ego as it is about the fact that she's not a fan of the show. One thing I've noticed over the years is that we expect actors to be into the shows as much as we are. For a lot, if not most, of them it's just another gig. They're not necessarily soap fans or even a fan of the show that they're on. Whereas we fans of the shows would want whole episodes, an actor might only be interested in the scenes in which they worked.

How did they write Kenny and Ginger out? I don't remember. Did they just move away? I just kind of remember they just weren't there anymore and nobody talking about them but that's going on a very old memory.