SoapDope78

Back in the late 90's James Houghton posted on the old soaps news groups board frequently. He was writing Y&R at the time. He responded to comments and questions usually with a quip. Someone brought up Greg's storyline with Gwen Sherman and he said something like "1970's Icky/Sappy Morality". He was also surprised when it was brought up that the Greg character had married Nikki after he had left the role. I also remember him referring to William Gray Espy as a strange fish. It would be interesting to see Greg pop back into Nikki's life but with Houghton and Hauser both deceased they would have to recast. TPTB in 2026 would probably get someone like Jeffrey Tambor to play him......LOL

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🤣 I would have loved for Pam to have walked in on that.

Executive Predator uh I mean Executive Producer Conboy would have staged scenes of Greg always at the pool or running around in short shorts if he had hired Spitz.....LOL Houghton really was kind of aloof with co-stars. He could also come across as bitchy/sarcastic. They should have written Greg kind of a 70's bad boy like they eventually did with Terry Lester's Jack in the 80's. LOL at Nikki not remembering Greg. Nikki doesn't think it is important to dwell on silly things like old forgotten husbands.

Bell was pretty much over the Foster/Brooks with the recasts and the final nail in the coffin was Jaime Lyn Bauer's exit. I don't think Hasselhoff was all that great as Snapper. By 1980 he was ready to bolt and there were long stretches where he was off the canvas chasing after TV pilots. It would have been interesting see how Houghton's Greg would have paired with MTS Nikki. They would have made an attractive couple onscreen and on magazines. They may have been Y&R version of GH's Laura & Scotty circa 1979. As for recasts, I could see someone like Gregory Harrison in the role if he hadn't gone to primetime. Harrison and Richard Shoberg (AMC) had a similar look. Olympic Swimmer Mark Spitz was trying to become an actor in the 70's, maybe they should have offered him the role of Greg. Even though he had no acting talent, he would have been better than Wings Hauser.......LOL

Anybody would have been better than Wing's Hauser. Any suggestions who would have worked in the role after Houghton's departure that would have made the Greg character stand out ?

Wings Hauser was badly miscast as Greg. He was just sleazy/bizarre and so far from the look of James Houghton. Of course, Brian Kerwin came before Hauser. There were a lot of actors that would have been better as a recast.

I take it Bill Bell tired of the Greg character and let him fade out. He had a habit of dropping storylines.

Thanks for finding that. I thought maybe I was losing it.....LOL

Found it

At one time on youtube there was a 1981 Y&R promo of Nikki visiting Greg in the hospital. Someone posted that he had gotten beaten up at the Bayou. I wish I could track down the synopsis to see what was going on around that time.

Wasn't Nikki still married to Greg when she began stripping at the Bayou? I think he wound up there after his car broke down and saw Nikki onstage. He then tried to cover her up with his coat and rush her out of there, but the customers became irate and beat him up which led to him being hospitalized. Nikki's stripping set off a chain reaction and affected many storylines with Edward the stalker, meeting Victor, getting pregnant with Victoria, meeting Katherine, marrying Kevin, marrying Tony and getting involved with the mob, Cash's death, feuding with Lori, tossed into the Lori/Lance/Leslie/Lucas mix, psycho Eve trying to kill her, Rick Daros etc etc...

I think the entire series is on youtube.

Bob was so good at hosting the show. Too bad he let himself get a huge ego and indulge in bad behavior and backstage drama. Janice Pennington who was on the show 1972 to 2000 still speaks fondly of him and the show even though she was forced out along with Kathleen. Dian and Bob were stupid to engage in that workplace affair. Dian, Janice, and Holly got along great for years before that train wreck. Kathleen said when she joined the show, the rift with Dian and the other models had happened. Dian would be paired with her and Janice and Holly would be paired together. I am curious to hear Anitra Ford's story about her time on the show 1972-1976 and why she left. She once posted on youtube that she had a personal problem and maybe someday she would share. I agree that I would like to see more 1970's episodes surface.

15-minute soaps would be great. They also should be taped live, so the actors don't get lazy and phone it in.

People now days have short attention spans. If there isn't something happening every 5 minutes they zone out and can't be bothered to look up from their phones. That is one of the many reasons soaps are a dying genre. Reality TV helped kill off well written drama.

Thanks for posting the link to the rare promo of Beacon Hill.

Bob was a good host, but he had his flaws. I recently saw a 1979 episode of the Dinah Shore talk show where he and his wife Dorothy Jo were guests. DJ talked about when she met Bob as a teen she was smitten with him. She said Bob told her she was fat and if she lost weight they would go out. Which she did. They married out of high school. Dinah then later was talking about the cooking segment coming up and Bob remarked that DJ ate like a bird and was always eating lettuce. My mind sprang to the idea that DJ had an eating disorder. I think it was mentioned she weighed less than a hundred pounds. DJ was also a chain smoker which led to her death in 1981. Bob was devastated and never really got over it. Bob became a producer of The Price Is Right the following year and I think that's when his ego grew out of control. DJ was no longer there to reel him in. Bob became an animal rights activist and vegetarian after her death as a tribute (as she had been). When TPIR went into reruns, he had it written in the contract that episodes featuring fur coats as prizes be forbidden to repeat.

I read that the E! channel series " Dirty Rotten Scandals" plans to air 2 episodes on March 18th at 9pm discussing the Price Is Right. From what I gather the former models, crew, etc...are going to dish the dirt on Bob Barker and what a toxic backstage environment it was working there. I watched the Barker era growing up and still watch the old episodes of it on youtube and streaming. The show was as it's best with the Barker Beauties Dian, Janice, and Holly and announcers Johnny Olson and later Rod Roddy. The show started to fall apart when Bob started the affair with Dian in 1989. She left the show in 1993 and sued Barker for sexual harassment in 1994. Supposedly Dian wanted Janice fired during her affair with Bob. To save face Bob went public in 1994 with the info of his fling with Dian when the lawsuit hit. He also wanted Holly to lie in court which she refused to do. Holly also gained weight do medication she was taking. Bob forced her of the show in 1995. Holly filed a lawsuit which took her about 10 years to win. She was living out of her car for several years before winning. Janice and Kathleen were forced out of the show in 2000. That is just the tip of the iceberg. I am curious who will be interviewed for the documentary. I doubt Dian Parkinson will participate. Dian hasn't been seen in public since the mid 90's. I remember in the early 90's she posed for Playboy to celebrate turning 40. The thing was her real age was 46. Years later when the arrival of the internet someone found her birth records and she was born in 1944. Footage also surfaced of her winning several beauty pageants in 1965-1966. She first met Bob Barker at that time. She was hired on Price is Right around 1974.

Thanks for sharing this here. I was just about to do it before I saw your post. Any episodes from the Woolery era are a rare treat. Supposedly NBC wiped most of the 1975-1985 daytime episodes.

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She does look familiar. Did she do a soap? P.J. Soles at the end as the graduate. I wonder how many phone books Charlene had to sit on to see over the steering wheel?

Yes. Knots never resorted to cat fights like Dynasty but this would be one time I could see Karen physically attacking Abby and having to be pulled off her.

That would have been interesting. Mama Karen would go "Karen" on Ginger's @$$. Imagine that happening at the same time she was dealing with Diana & Chip. There would be no scenery left after Michelle Lee finished 'Acting"