Tisy-Lish

Broderick, we are on the same wave-length. Keep posting about this...

In my opinion, if BTG is going to do this impaler/plasma smuggling plot, then they need to hire a top-notch mystery writer (along the lines of dear departed Henry Slesar) to write it -- or at least serve as story consultant. There have been many wonderful soap opera writers who have fallen flat, when they tried to write a mystery plot. And I'm not convinced MVJ (as much as I love her) has what it takes to make this impaler/plasma storyline compelling. The plot has just started, but already showing signs of weak writing -- by "telling" us the details, rather than "showing" the details. Every really good soap opera mystery storyline from the past has "shown" us enough to be believable; "told" us enough to be compelling, included several red-herrings to throw us for a loop, and ended with a shock or surprise. As much as I adore MVJ, I'm beginning to believe she is not the best person to lead this particular plot.

Rita and Paul Connelly were created by Harding Lemay as new characters enlarging the cast for AW's expansion to 90-minutes in 1979. Both were ill-conceived characters, in my opinion -- especially Aunt Rita who was essentially a working-class version of Liz Matthews. Aunt Rita was a shrew to her husband (Paul), and meddled terribly into the lives of her niece and nephew, Eileen and Morgan Simpson, who were late-teens or early-adults at that time. Aunt Rita was simply nasty, with not an ounce of humor, and no redeeming qualities -- unlike Aunt Liz, who had an established background on AW as a lonely widow with plenty of money, but no one to love. By adding Paul and Rita Connelly to the cast, I believe Lemay was attempting to add some sort of serious religious conflict to AW, as he had done so successfully with social-class conflict. But his attempt was an utter failure, because Aunt Rita was nothing more than a stereotyped religious bigot. And because Rita and Paul were Catholic, the entire story arc gave rather anti-Catholic vibes. I'm not Catholic, but even I was uncomfortable seeing a devote Catholic woman being portrayed as such a nasty interfering bitch. Yes, Lemay's least successful character creation was Aunt Rita Connelly.

This is one reason I've always felt -- if BTG is not going to do regular and frequent scenes on location (outside), then they need to create a couple of "outside" or "park" sets on the sound-stage, as all the other soaps do. That would give some of these clandestine meetings a little believability and legitimacy. Having supposed "secret" and possibly "dangerous" meet-ups at Uptown and at the coffee shop is just silly, and the viewers obviously sense that.

Thank you for the post. I had forgotten that Maeve subbed for Eileen Fulton as Lisa on ATWT. I believe that was the last time I saw her on daytime, even though she did have later soap opera roles.

I don't think much was ever said in the scripts about Liz'a background. Although that would have been interesting to explore. But somehow, Will became wealthy in the accounting business, while Jim and Mary maintained their middle-class status (or perhaps upper middle-class at best). I'm not sure Will and Jim's accounting partnership was ever explained in detail, but perhaps Will was the senior partner and Jim the junior partner. Or perhaps Jim was merely employed by Will (and not a partner at all), before taking over the firm upon Will's death. But for the duration of Liz's first run on the show (1964 until 1971), it was very clear that Will and Liz were far wealthier and more socially connected than Jim and Mary. When Liz returned in 1974 (with Irene Dailey in the role), those wealth differences were less focused upon, although Liz did occasionally demonstrate her wealth and social status throughout Dailey's run.

Was Geraldine Whitney's mansion set the same set that was used for Claybank, (Orin Hillyer's mansion)? If so, was it supposed to be the same house, or a completely different house? I don't remember the Whitneys buying Claybank from the Hillyar family. But it did seem Geraldine somehow inherited Orin's servants. Am I correct about that? And if so, how did Orin's servants end up working for the Whitneys?

Thanks for responding. From 1979 until 1999, I often thought about ways members of the Matthews family might return, and pull AW back toward middle-class characters, and away from so much lavish wealth.

Thank you for the information. So if Missy and Rachel interacted at Matthews family parties and holiday events in the late-1960s, then they were actively acquainted and most certainly shared scenes. And I assume, if Missy had returned to Bay City in the 1980s or 1990s, she and Rachel would have recognized one another, and would have had a generally positive (although not close) relationship. And only a complete idiot head-writer would have introduced Rachel and Missy as complete strangers in the 80s or 90s.

Yes, Russ and Rachel eventually moved into their own apartment, and were there until their marriage ended. At that point, Russ moved out and I assume Rachel and Jamie stayed there -- at least for a while.

You are absolutely correct. We are both very lucky. Lucky indeed.

I'm not sure exactly when Labine left Love of Life, but it was before the Ben recast and the silly and vague "Ben get's raped in prison" plot. Labine likely could have written a male rape storyline. and pulled it off successfully. But nobody else, with the exception of Agnes Nixon, could have possibly written a compelling and believable male rape plot in 1976-77. Sadly Claire Labine had moved on to Ryan's Hope, and the prison rape plot was left to sub-par writers who made a mess of it.

Actually it was Jonah Lockwood/Keith Whitney. But Hell yes, that Slesar storyline would be in my Top 5 favorites!! From Laurie Ann dating Jonah(Keith), to Nancy and Martha in Jamaica finding a scorpion in Nancy's bed, to the Keith Whitney reveal after falling from that tower. Jesus Lord -- that was compelling drama!!

If I remember correctly, after Walter Greaza retired, Winston Grimsley still turned-up on Edge of Night on the Christmas Day episodes for several years. Sometimes Mike and Nancy knew he would be stopping by, and other years Winston would just knock at their door unannounced. It was always wonderful to see him. Not sure when his final appearance on Christmas Day was, but it may have been 1973 or 74.

I remember the Capice's leaving the show, but I don't remember the details. In fact, all these years I thought they just disappeared, rather than moving-away on camera. I do remember one scene that began with Nancy standing at her front door saying good-bye to Louise. But the audience saw Louise only from the back as she walked away. Louise didn't have any lines. I believe that was technically Louis's final scene, even though the actress (Mary K Wells) was not present. I could be wrong about that. Since Phil Capice left a year before Louise, was Phil said to be still in Monticello, but just not on-screen? Or did he have a good-bye scene when Ray MacDonald left? I always believed Ray MacDonald left EON because he was cast in a much larger role on All My Children. But if your dates are correct, that is probably not the case. One thing I've noticed about EON is there were an unusual number of adopted children, and relatively few pregnancies. Certainly fewer pregnancies than other 30-minute soaps. That seemed to change in the later years of the show. Perhaps TPTB thought having characters pregnant for 9-months prevented them from being involved in the action (murder, crime, mysteries), and that the audience might be uncomfortable seeing a pregnant woman being involved with that kind of danger. I'm just speculating here.