Tisy-Lish

I remember, for their wedding, TPTB pulled out the old Stewart patio which had not been seen for years (and was not seen again). But during the 1960s, Ellen and David's patio was seen somewhat often during the summer months.

I haven't been watching, so I have a stupid question: How have they been showing John on camera in the hospital? Is his face bandaged or something? And how about his voice? Does the voice sound like Drake? It seems that viewers are accepting the situation, so it must be playing as believable. Am I correct about that?

Leslie has showed up at Ted's hotel room far too many times. It's becoming redundant. Why the hell does he let her in? He should just shut the door in her face. Letting her in makes Ted look like a naive idiot, which is is not. Any normal man would refuse to be alone in the same room with a woman who had done this to his family. I understand the two characters need to interact -- that's what dramatic conflict is all about. But we've endured more than enough of Leslie's visits to Ted's hotel room. The writers need to create other ways for them to interact.

Is it true that, after the transition from CBS to ABC in 1975, Edge of Night had a very short-lived very unliked "new" opening theme? I understand it was rather quickly replaced by the Cortner and Barranco melody that lasted until the show was cancelled. Is this true? And if so, does anyone have audio or video of the short-lived and reviled "new" opening theme song?

It would have been interesting to see Sam Groom back in the role of Russ, when the character returned in 1989 (or even in a later return). David Bailey was acceptable as Russ, but he didn't have much acting range. And if Russ and Rachel ever reunited, I don't think Bailey would have been the best choice, because Rachel's husband sort of becomes AW's leading man. I don't think Bailey would have risen to that challenge. But Groom could have done that wonderfully. I would have also been okay with a complete recast -- hopefully with an actor with a good deal of soap opera experience and someone happy with the role long-term. And to answer a question: I do not believe Russ's return in 1989 was originally meant to be short-term. With the reveal that Josie was his daughter, and with Olivia on the canvas, there was lots for Russ to do. I think Lemay's plan was that Russ return permanently, but Donna Swajeski probably didn't think he was exciting enough and lost interest in Russ.

Does anyone have a favorite adult Russ Matthews? Which actor did you like most? Sam Groom, Robert Hover, or David Bailey?? And why? And if Russ had returned late in AW's run, what actor would you have wanted to portray him? One of the former actors, or someone new??

TPTB are dragging out the Alexander Dumas reveal way to long. We really aren't any closer to knowing who he is than we were months ago when his name was first mentioned, I really don't mind a lengthy soap opera plot, in fact I kind of prefer them. But this is crazy. Give us some hints, give us some red herrings, give us some cryptic evidence. And for God's sake, show us who he is. And it BETTER be good... But knowing this head writer, I doubt the reveal will be anything exciting. Just another outside force coming into town to cause trouble. I hope I'm wrong.

I wonder if Michelle Val Jean even considered this. It seems so obvious to many of us. If they want the Dupree name to continue, Anita and Vernon need at least one male heir. Two would be even better. Do you think Val Jean may have written it this way intentionally for some reason?

Well, the head writer obviously knows nothing about writing romance. He writes couples, but there is nothing romantic about them. They just pair-up for a year or so, and then move on to somebody else. He needs to give us a couple of long-term romantic pairings that struggle to get together, and make mistakes despite their deep love for one another -- couples like Victor and Nicki used to be, or like Doug and Julie, Bill and Laura, Alice and Steve, Rachel and Mac, Holden and Lilly, Tara and Phil, etc, etc. Everything this dude writes is so superficial and lacks any kind of depth. Even his silly business plots aren't really plots -- they are just musical chairs for who is CEO here, or there, and then over there.

Understand. But actually Patti should have been a generation older than Liza. Patti and Janet Bergman (Liza's mother) had been contemporaries a decade earlier. So when they cast Jacqueline Schultz as Patti, most long-term fans felt it did not ring true. Sometimes de-aging a character by a few years is successful on soap operas. But to de-age a character by an entire generation was silly and stretched believability a bit too far.

Understand your point. But I usually see Reginald's mustache twirling villainy as ultra campy bordering on comedic (albeit unsuccessfully). And upon Reginald's exit, most of the overt camp/comedy seemed to cease. And although I'm aware camp and comedy are not exactly the same thing, I tend to throw them together anyway -- especially when discussing soaps. You are correct, Mary was not played for laughs. When I used to term "let's play everything for laughs" I didn't mean literally everything or every character was comedic. But TPTB put so much effort into comedy, it did tend to eat the show for a few years (again not literally). I'm just expressing my perspective on the topic, and lots of folks probably disagree. That's cool. People who like comedy on soaps tend to defend it, and folks who don't like comedy (or think it want too far) tend to criticize it. Whichever side of the fence one is on, it sure didn't help the ratings on AW.

Doesn't matter if its off topic. No need to point it out. Things will get back on topic soon enough. They always do . . . And I do love the off topic photos from the Bill Bell era! So thanks.

Sure! And we promise, Mr Corday -- we will ridicule those wonderful old episodes daily on social media. NOT!

I would say, Denise was the ONLY good thing about that insultingly ridiculous plot. But all this took place near the end of Another World's "let's play everything for laughs" era. Thank God that nonsense ended around 1988.

Oh yes, that would be grand! But Ken Corday will never allow that. No executive-producer wants to hear people rave about how good his show "used to be". Thank you for sharing that information. I barely remember that plot, but it was so significant in DOOL's history. Ramifications went on for years and years.

Thank you for the clarification, but Susan didn't name her child after David. It was Julie who named her own son David. And how/when was Susan's son killed? And didn't Susan kill David Martin and stand trial for his murder? The genius of Bill Bell -- truly.

Oh my -- long time ago, huh?? What was the actual storyline? Here's what I recall: Susan was married to David Martin and had his baby, Dickie. David allowed Dickie to fall off a swing-set or something, and Dickie was killed. So a distraught Susan shot and killed David. Julie had been having sex with David Martin, and was pregnant with his child when Susan killed him. Then Julie named her newborn child David. And that was really what began the big feud between Susan and Julie. I KNOW I have a lot of this history wrong -- so anyone please feel free to correct my historical errors. I would appreciate that very much. Now back to Denise's Another World connection. Although I loved Denise as an actress, I was never crazy about Mary McKinnon. Mostly because of her completely unbelievable introduction -- two back-from-the-dead characters returning in the SAME storyline. It seemed ridiculous, and was just a bit too much for me to accept.

I hate quick snip scenes. Such a tired hold-over from the 1980s. And that nonsense does not belong on BTG. Bring back the long scenes.

Does anyone know which head writer introduced the Marriott family? That is about the time I noticed something important had changed in the writing for Love of Life. Everything was really falling apart, and I could hardly get through an episode. But I will admit, Hugh Marlowe's son was a beautiful man. He played the Marriott son, maybe his name was Andy. Not sure.

According to the head writer list, it seems the show may have started to fall apart while either the Schneiders or Upton were writing. And when it started to crumble, it crumbled fast. It was sad to see everything Labine had brought to LOL be disassembled.

Total agreement. But wasn't AW wonderful with all those servants? Louise, Brooks, Rocky, Karl (never seen), Beatrice, Helga, Sven, Vivian, etc. None of the post-Lemay servants ever seemed to resonate, nor did any of them last very long. I do think BTG would benefit from casting at least one servant for Anita and Vernon. And perhaps another for Nicole and Ted. The show needs more have-nots for the different perspective.

To each his own, but I am lovin' the Duprees. Doesn't mean the show is perfect, but the Duprees are not the problem.

If I'm not mistaken, much of this took place while Claire Labine was writing LOL -- and believe me, it was a very compelling show! Probably the best soap on the air during Labine's short tenure as head-writer. I assume Labine left LOL to create Ryan's Hope in 1975, but much of the action your describe seems to be her work. Not sure why -- maybe some dates are off.

Too bad Anne Meacham is no longer living. Wouldn't it be great to see Louise Goddard appear as Anita and Vernon's housekeeper????

Not trying to be a contrarian, but I don't think the show needs a rival family. Rival families have been over-done on soaps since the 1980s. And it might make the show too predictable. I'd prefer they beef-up the have-not group with perhaps a couple of workers from the Country Club and one or two Dupree servants, joining the existing group of have-nots. They could all know one another without being a real "family." That would give the audience more opportunity to see Fairmont Crest life from the "backstairs." To me this would be a far more interesting perspective than another wealthy family to rival the Duprees.