Tisy-Lish

Thank you for responding. Was that the last murder trial on the show? Do you remember what year Raven's trial aired?

Perhaps because EON was a mystery genre 30-minute soap, when the networks and P&G were focusing on the 60-minute soaps. Maybe that allowed Nicholson to "fly under the radar" so to speak. By the way -- did Lee Sheldon write any murder trials? Or did the actual trials end with Slesar? I always thought EON was at its best when most of its plots ended with a murder trial. When the show stopped doing trials, all the plots seemed to be trivialized. Just my opinion.

Well, Lynn was playing a psychotic killer on ATWT, plus she was hired as a replacement actor to play out the end of a storyline that had been written for another actor. At that point in the plot, Orlena was essentially breaking-down mentally, so even Claire Bloom might have played it bug-eyed toward the end. Who knows?? No, I don't think this was Lynn's finest moment, but I wouldn't judge her entire television career (limited as it was) by this role. She certainly didn't play AW's Susan Matthews Shearer as bug-eyed. She played Susan as a neurotic woman who had repressed most of her emotions for most of her life, to keep her neurosis under control. But she did not play Susan with much warmth, so Susan lacked warmth which viewers usually expect in a member of the show's core family. This may have been the fault of the writing -- since Lemay loved writing neurotic women (Bernice, Liz, Iris, Louise Goddard, Olive, Rose [to a lesser degree] and Marianne [to a lesser degree]). A more seasoned daytime actor may have been able to warm up the icee material Lemay wrote for Susan. I never saw Milgrim on the stage. But I've read that she is a magnificent stage actor. I'm not an expert in theater, so I tend to believe what I read about stage actors.

Agreed. Especially when she had long hair. Imagine Rowland and Irene Dailey In scenes together!

If Lemay was ever going to bring back Missy and Ricky, it would have been for the transition to 90-minutes -- and he chose not to. He did beef-up the Matthews clan a bit with Susan and Dan. But Russ was gone at that point (for about a year) and John Randolph was killed. So he really did have room for Missy and Ricky on the canvas too. The actors recast as Susan and Dan were well known theater actors. And the actor playing Dan was actually a Scottish actor using an American accent. Dan was written as a little stodgy and seldom seemed to laugh or smile -- not unlike the exiting John Randolph in many ways. And Susan was written as such a neurotic (even though she was a psychiatrist), so she wasn't much fun to watch either. I think Lemay was trying to display the damage an interfering mother like Liz had done to her own daughter, but it was just too heavy to enjoy. I didn't dislike the actors, but thought Lemay made them a little too troubled for the people the audience to identify with. I agree that Rauch/Lemay were unlikely to have cast Carol Roux as Missy. They had a problem with any actor who was proud to be on a soap opera, and they probably feared Roux might have "soap star syndrome". LOL. But I don't think the role was un-recastable. Actors like Denise Alexander or Jada Rowland could have made Missy's return successful.

It was interesting that Harding Lemay mentioned Missy in scripts so often, even before Liz returned in 1974. And after Liz returned, Missy was mentioned fairly often until Lemay left as head-writer in 1979. Lemay always kept Missy alive, even if she was off-screen. I've always assumed Lemay was teasing Missy's (and Ricky's) return, but just never got around to it.

Total agreement here. Especially regarding Patti. Patti had been a contemporary of Janet Bergman, who was Liza and Gary's mother. So Patti should have been cast with an actor old enough to have adult children. There was no reason to reverse-soras Patti and forget her entire adult history.

I remember reading an article about (or interview with) Agnes Nixon years ago, in which it was said that Nixon's original intent was to write-off Janet for only a few months, and then have her return to AW. But Liza Chapman was killed during her time away from the show, so Agnes decided not to recast the role.

Mitchell Dru was also mentioned just a year or two before Mary Matthews died. I believe Pat (or was it Alice?) and Mary were having a conversation in the Matthews living room. Pat (or Alice) mentioned Uncle Dru in a passing comment. I'd love to see that scene again now, or to read the script.

Same thing happened on Another World for the show's final twenty-years. One regime after another, endlessly -- until it killed the show.

Well assuming you are correct, that in itself was a huge issue. Far too many "regimes" between the Corringtons and the end. Makes my head spin.

True, but wasn't Caldwell House a small bead and breakfast, rather than a hotel and restaurant? If tptb were going to give Stu and Jo the Caldwell House to run, why not just keep the Hartford House?? Especially since the HH was much more important to the culture of the show.

Is anyone old enough to remember Aunt Janet Matthews on Another World? And if so, were Aunt Janet and Aunt Liz similar in any way? I am aware Janet was Jim and Will's sister, so she was a Matthews by blood -- while Liz had been married to Will, so she was actually an in-law of the Matthews clan. Were the two characters similar, or very different? Did they have many scenes together? Any idea when Aunt Janet was last mentioned on the show? I believe Agnes Nixon was the head-writer who wrote-off Janet. And Robert Cenedella later wrote-off Liz around 1971. Harding Lemay brought Aunt Liz back around 1974, but Aunt Janet was seldom (if ever) mentioned after her exit.

Thank you for the information. I never noticed an obvious age difference between McCay and Aniston. But the age difference between Stuart and Aniston was more obvious, in my opinion. Not the fault of the actors -- probably just my perception.

Does anyone remember if Susan Harney and Very Moore had many scenes together? I'm assuming they did since Linda was still one of Alice's closest friends, but I don't recall seeing Harney and Moore together. I watched AW nearly every day from 1971 until 1982, and I certainly noticed the pleasant chemistry between Courtney and Moore. But I have no memory of Harney and Moore working together.

Does anyone know the age difference between Mary Stuart and John Aniston? To me, Martin always seemed younger than Jo. Plus he was much more worldly, and a bit of a cad. Although I feel it was a good decision to directly connect Jo to the Tourner/Sentell family, the romance between Jo and Martin always seemed a little forced. I'm still glad the Corringtons wrote it, but the chemistry between the two characters was a bit off, in my opinion.

Well, cast credit norms have changed many times over the past 45 years -- especially on daytime. And they aren't always consistent from show to show even in 2026. Why would AW put Vera Moore back on contract in 1981, just so she could appear in a few episodes surrounding Rachel's murder trial? I'm not saying you are definitely incorrect -- just saying I disagree with your conclusion about the credits from the 1981 episode.

Not sure what you mean. How can an actor be both "on contract" and "recurring"? Doesn't recurring typically mean non-contract? I see in your screen shot that Moore is listed among the contract actors, but 45 years ago the norms of crediting may have been much looser than they are today. I'm not arguing with you, but I find it hard to believe Vera Moore was still on contract with so few appearances over so many years. But who knows??

I believe Ms Moore was not on contract during her final few years on AW. When Linda Metcalf first joined the show, she came on as the sister of Peggy Nolan. Peggy was a popular, fairly long-running character, and Harding Lemay wanted to build a family around her. So Lemay created Linda and the mother of both sisters, Gloria -- all contract characters, I assume. I believe Gloria and Linda lived together in an apartment, which became one of the sets on the show. Fairly soon, Linda started dating a young man (Zac Richards) who, if I remember correctly, had recently gotten out of prison or jail. This caused Gloria some concern and it seemed to be a developing story. Unfortunately about six months after Linda and Gloria were introduced, Micki Grant (who played Peggy) left the show. Grant's absence seemed to take the wind out of any plans Rauch and Lemay had for the Metcalf family, probably because Peggy was the most important of the three characters. Gloria stopped appearing, then Zac stopped appearing, although Linda would sometimes mention him, or Alice would ask about him. No plots were written for Linda, and she became little more than a colleague and friend of Alice, and a nurse when the show needed a nurse. So I'm assuming Ms Moore was taken off contract by 1974-ish, and then appeared rather infrequently, and usually in scenes at the hospital.

Does anyone know if Anita's scene with Gayle King is available to watch online? I couldn't find it on Youtube, and I don't subscribe to Paramount+.

Does anyone else remember Mary Stuart's one episode stint as Kate, the madame of a bordello in Louisiana who also happened to be Jo's doppelgänger? And I believe Kate was Martin Tourner's former girlfriend. I happened to see that episode when it originally aired, and the idea was quite intriguing. Nothing ever came of it, and no storyline was built around Kate. But I assume the Corringtons were toying with the idea of somehow getting Jo and Kate together -- ala Kathryn and Marge on Y&R. (I believe the Kathryn/Marge plot took place in the 1990s.) I'd love to see that episode again, but haven't found it on YouTube. Kate is mentioned during Martin and Jo's first meeting scene, which is on YouTube. When Martin first meets Jo, he thinks she is Kate. This particular scene was available on YouTube as late as about a year ago.

You mentioned Chastain was the head writer who got rid of the Hartford House. Although I was unaware of that, I do recall him being criticized for some of his other decisions. I remember posters on another message board mentioning that he had written several things that practically destroyed the show. I was not watching regularly at that time. Do you recall any other damaging occurrences that took place while Chastain was writing?

I didn't think the apartment building concept worked. It seemed so contrived -- moving most of the cast into the same building. It was a gimmick. It might have worked better if the building itself had been more interesting. For example, if the apartments had been lofts. Or if the building had been an old apartment building with lots of urban character. But the sets were generic and boring. It was very 1980s plain and simple. Plus the writing was not compelling. it seemed no one knew how to write SFT after the Corringtons who were extremely successful in my opinion. The show still had moments of greatness, but it was never again a great show after the Corringtons left.

I don't think SFT was ever as good after they destroyed the Hartford House. The show lost its gathering place.