SoapDope78

I noticed in one of Meredith's early episodes there is a scene of Doug and Kate and you can see picture of Actman on the piano. In the above interview Carroll Newman says that when watching the dailies Actman looked and came across as more like a love interest for Willie than his sister. I bet it was a major blow to her when she was let go. Rubinstein talked how it was working with all 3 Nancy's. Heilveil said when she did the pilot she was told that that audience wasn't going to like the character of Nancy. I'm not sure I totally believe the story that Heilveil wanted to get out of the series the way she says it. I get the impression she knew she was going to be replaced and she tried to save face by saying she wanted out. She seemed enthusiastic getting to play all the drama in the pilot. My favorite scene has to be when she drives out to the Lawrence home in Pasadena and pulls over, rolls up the windows and screams out her pain. An excellent kick off to a wonderful series. Very 1970's melodrama.

I can't remember if this has been posted before or not. Heilveil tells why she left the series which is kind of weird. She wanted out of her contract because she didn't want to commit to a long term series but I gather they were going to replace her anyway and she was confronted by that when her friend Brooke Adams told her she had read for her part. She also talks about knowing her replacement Jane Actman and that she was a lovely person. The other cast said It's a shame Actman didn't work out. They said they liked Meredith, but didn't get really close with her off set. The cast and crew did sense that David Birney wasn't nice and they were kind of protective of her. They also said the only time they really felt uncomfortable on set was when he made a guest appearance. Heilveil said she helped come up with the opening scene in the pilot where Nancy has a meltdown in the car.

Elayne Heilveil (Nancy # 1) put me in the mind of Betty Aberlin from Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Brianne Leary from CHiPS also looked similar to them. I thought Heilveil was fine in the role. She really wasn't given much to do after the pilot. Her role was pretty much reduced for the rest of season 1.

Thanks for posting.

Wow ! Thanks for the tag. I never thought we would see early color footage with sound.

It's been a while since I have sat down and watched the series thoroughly instead of skipping around and forgot a few details. I am currently watching them in remastered HD and they look incredible compared to the scratchy prints used on the DVD's.

Correction: I went back a looked at Bypass again and the character is being called Jeb "Ames". For some reason it is credited as Amos on IMDB and on several Dallas websites. Ed Nelson only played it for one episode before the character reappeared in " Fallen Idol" with actor Sandy Ward in the role. Nelson must have been unavailable for future episodes. I remember Ward playing the character of Pop on Seinfeld where he tore George's car up trying to fix it. He later appears in the same mental institution with George. Someone at Lorimar had to name both of those characters after Willie Aames, since most of the directors, producers, writers etc....also worked on Eight Is Enough.

In the Season 2 episode "Bypass" Ed Nelson played the character of Jeb Amos and his side kick was Willie Joe Garr. Later Willie Joe's sidekick is referred to as Jeb Ames. I always assumed this was the same character, but slightly renamed with the recast. I also wonder if it was Lorimars wink wink at the audience that since they also produced Eight Is Enough at this time, they named both those characters as a combination from Willie Aames?Another recurring character during the early days was Wade Luce. That sounds like a name straight out of 70's porn.......LOL Dallas burned through so much story and characters during these early years it's a shame they kind of swept it under the rug and never mined it for storylines in the later years. Luke the boy that Bobby became close to could have been brought back. Maybe his Dad died and Bobby and Pam adopt him as a brother to Christopher. Pam & Cliff's cousin Jimmy could have been brought back. Kit Mainwaring could have returned with a partner and asked Lucy to be their surrogate. Alan Beam could have returned to seek revenge. Killing Kristin off was stupid. She could have been sent to prison for shooting J.R without him knowing she was pregnant. While in there she secretly gives birth to Christopher who should have been J.R.'s son. Kristin contacts Bobby and lets him and Pam secretly adopt him. They could have went years before J.R. uncovers the truth of about his nephew Christopher. Dallas made a lot of mistakes in writing as the years went on. I also disagreed how they handled Jock's death. They should have addressed it as Miss Ellie finding him passed away quietly in his sleep at Southfork. Instead they decided to milk it and we got that bull with him missing and the search.

Thanks for alerting us to another rare promo.

He was just credited as "Jimmy" in his first appearance in episode 5 then he was credited as Jimmy Barnes in episode 6 on IMDB when the role was recast.

Her feelings run hot and cold. One minute she talks about it being a wonderful experience other times she acts like the show caused her to miss out on bigger opportunities. They all chose to ignore the elephant in the room (Susan Richardson) by not acknowledging her having been a part of the cast. Betty did give a shout out to Joan Prather (Janet).

Reunion segment from 2010. Susan Richardson and Adam Rich are absent. Lani O'Grady passed in 2001.

As much as we like to bag on Lucy/Charlene she did really good in this storyline. Very controversial for the late 1970's.

Maybe Kate's chilled a bit now that Farrah's gone? I saw a brief video clip of them leaving the Paley event where Cheryl and Jaclyn were holding Kate by the hands helping her walk out. There was speculation that Kate had suffered a stroke in recent years. As for Cheryl and Jaclyn not doing other Spelling shows later on, it is a bit surprising since they both seem to adore Aaron. I think it would have been interesting if Cheryl had played Jenna on Dallas and have scenes with Victoria Principal. She had already been paired with Patrick on CA.