vetsoapfan

We are very fortunate to have @Reverend Ruthledge sharing these beautifully-written synopses with us. They preserve history which would otherwise go unrecorded and end up forgotten, and allow us to experience the richest years of the show.🥰

No, actually, I haven't checked out the channel yet. I appreciate the heads-up!

That is so interesting. I love the rare times when soaps do stuff like that. Unfortunately, it draws a blank for me. I do not remember anything like it, and the hefty scrapbooks I kept chronicling the show's history does not include any information about Mark Lenard making a return engagement to the show. I wish there were a definitive way we could find out the answers to your questions.

Thank you @Franko and @DRW50 . I always love seeing curio pieces like this, but would probably miss them if kind folks did not post them and alert me to them!

Ernest, who was the first member of the family to be introduced in 1964 was also the last to go. He remained in Bay City after everyone else had left (or, in the case of his brother, died). When his romance with Janet Matthews fizzled, he also left town.

YES!👍

@Tisy-Lish bringing up "urban myths" is spot on. It's long been purported that Agnes Nixon came aboard and killed off all the Gregorys in a plane crash. That doesn't correspond at all with what I remember. Ernest, Karen (and I presume the Gregory parents) left town, and the only one who died was Alex, but in a car crash. Not a plane crash. And P&G didn't stop Pamela Long and Gail Kobe from slaughtering the Bauers on TGL or Mary Ellis Bunim from dropping tent-pole characters Nancy and Chris Hughes from ATWT, so if TPTB wanted the Matthews family gone, they would have been dispatched.

Actually, that's a good point. While it's long been reported as fact that the Gregorys were meant to "replace" the Matthewses, it makes more sense that they were substitutes for the Baxters. At no time were the Matthews family members backburned or decimated. And if P&G wanted them gone, Nixon would not have continued keeping them center-stage.

@Khan , IIRC, the first of the family to arrive was Ernest Gregory, in 1964. He must be have a creation of Irna Phillips'. He was involved with Janet Matthews (Jim's sister). Ernest's brother Alex and Alex's wife Karen both popped in 1965, so they would be Lipton's additions. Ernest and Alex had parents, both of whom came and went very quickly, also during Lipton's tenure in 1965. I can't think of anyone else (but, as always...it's been 50 years, LOL). I believe there were five Gregory family members, four created by Lipton. And the entire clan was forgotten once Agnes Nixon began writing the show. Alex died, Karen and Ernest moved away, and the men's parents just disappeared as far as I know. It's hard to guess today what Lipton's intentions were. Maybe P&G felt the Matthews family wasn't enough a draw and therefore mandated the introduction of another one. Anyway, none of these interlopers made much of an impact; they became forgotten in the dust-bin of history.

Good question. I think (my memory is hazy here) Lipton only lasted for a short time; maybe half a year(?) or so in 1965. Aside from expanding the Gregory family, I don't think he had any major, lasting effect on the show. The Gregorys were dispatched rapidly when Nixon took over.

In her life story interview, published in Afternoon TV, Jacquie Courtney acknowledged that her job was in serious danger early on, as Irna Phillips was unhappy with the overly-bubbly way JC was playing Alice. Irna devised a story about the character going away to summer camp and perishing when it burned to the ground. It was only thanks to the intervention of a director, who strenuously demanded she tone it down, that Jacquie stopped overacting and began playing Alice in a more naturalistic, somber fashion. Irna noticed the change, approached the actress at the studio, and embraced her. "My Alice! Forget the summer camp! Forget the fire!" Jacquie credited that director with saving her job.

Yes, and to be honest, Jacquie Courtney (whom I later came to adore, of course) originally played Alice as an overly-expressive teenager, like the bubbly teen girls in Bye Bye Birdie. It was a common sight to see in the media during the 1960s, perhaps, but apparently Irna didn't care the persona. It was only after JC toned down her portrayal that Irna dropped her plan of killing Alice off in a fire. (Irna was so sadistic!🙄) I think TPTB accepted that every writer/creator will have hits and misses. While some of her soaps only became successful after she left (AW and Love is a Many Splendoured Thing), or failed early on, ATWT and TGL continued to be monster hits and make a lot of money. The Right to Happiness and The Road to Life were also successful, long-running soaps. Considering so many shows fail to catch on at all, P&G probably thought it was wise to gamble on Irna, whose track record showed that she could hit soap opera gold. I agree that Susan was never the focus of hot stories which caught on and ignited a lot of passion from the audience. Pat and Missy, and later Alice, were the attention-getting heroines of the 1960s. IIRC, Susan returned to Bay City shortly before Bill and Missy left for California in 1969. (Bill later died off-camera in 1970.) It didn't take long for Liz and Susan to butt heads. Particularly when played by Audra Lindley, however, Aunt Liz was wont to berate and scream at everyone; it wasn't just Susan.

Yes. Several actors were fired abruptly during the first year. I would have scared of the axe too.

As @Tisy-Lish acknowledged, there were three other actresses who played Susan before Milgrim. Fran Sharon (who is best known for playing Cookie Pollack on The Edge of Night) was first. I thought she was okay, but she came and went very quickly. The second Susan was an actress named Roni Dengel. I don't remember much about her, and she also disappeared in the blink of an eye. IIRC, both Sharon and Dengel stayed on the show for about a month or two each in 1964 before being fired. I think Irna Phillips must not have been thrilled with them. The character was off the canvas for about five years before being recast again with Lisa Cameron in 1969. This was my favorite Susan. She was in the role for about 2.5 years before leaving Bay City. I found Cameron likeable, and it certainly helped that she stuck around long enough for the audience to get to know and warm up to her. When I think of Susan, it's Lisa Cameron who comes to mind.

If I ever get through the mountains of books, audiobooks, old-time radio dramas, TV series and films which are waiting for me to read, listen to and watch them, I'll consider it.🙂

I agree about the similar tone both shows shared. I didn't realize that Gordon Russell had died quite so early. What a shame. While he doesn't engender the love awarded to other master soap writers, he did some wonderful work on OLTL. That would have been wonderful, but alas, money is always a factor in daytime.

Your post made me giggle.😆🙃 I know it was a tongue-in-cheek question, but I don't think there are any characters on BTG that a 70-year-old Kimberly Beck could play. As for a critique of BTG, I no longer have cable (a senior's fixed income has to be handled carefully), and don't live in the USA, so I haven't seen enough of the series to evaluate it fairly. I've heard good, bad, and mixed comments about it, however.

OMFG, what WAS that? What an awful opening. TGL had some gawd-awful openings (which was infuriating, because they kept inflicting terrible ones on us, even though they had had some fine ones which could have lasted indefinitely), but this SFT try-out?🤢 Mystery author Jonathan Kellerman has always been my go-to suggestion to take over and pen a reboot of TEON, although he didn't find success as a novelist until 1985. Maybe Sam Hall and Gordon Russell, who were so good as a team on OLTL They both got axed from Llanview in the early 1980s. They were both poor choices, and major disappointments after the actresses who had originated the roles of Morgan and Jackie, both of whom had a spark; a "je ne sais quoi" which the bland and shallow Cooke and Mowery sorely lacked. Yes.

OMG! I'm imagining it now. If written well, those actresses could have made the drama just crackle. I never liked her at all, anywhere or any time I saw her. What a come-down from Claire Bloom on ATWT. I would have preferred Jada Rowland over Lynn Milgram as Susan too, although now that @Tisy-Lish has put the idea of JR as Missy Matthews in my head, I have a feeling it's going to be entrenched there.

Yes, I remember reading that the new Dan and Susan were theater performers. Although they may have been great in many roles, I found their interpretations of the Shearers to be off-putting and hard to warm up to. I've long thought that Denise Alexander should have been cast as Missy if the show declined to go with Carol Roux. I had never thought about Jada Rowland in the role, but now that I think about it, she had more of a waif-like quality which would have suited Missy quite well.

Nope, I have neither.

After TPTB stupidly fired Jacquie Courtney, it would have been nice to have Carol Roux reappear as Missy. Yes, I know that's a pipe dream, but as you say, it did look like Lemay might have been teasing the character's return. He and Rauch probably would have gone for a recast, without even considering Roux, however. The recast Dan and Susan Shearer were so unappealing; I hate to think whom HL and PR would have foisted on us as the new Melissa.

Oh, that's cool. I love hearing references to long-gone past characters on soaps, since once they are off the canvas, they are rarely mentioned again. When Susan Harney was playing Alice, there was a scene between her and Aunt Liz in Alice's living room, in which Aunt Liz said that she had recently received a letter from Missy. Alice replied, "I'm glad she's writing to you again." I appreciated the fact that Harding Lemay alluded to the previously-strained relationship between Liz and Missy, and that Missy was even referred to at all. I was hoping it might lead somehow (i.e., Missy and Ricky returning to Bay City) but no such luck.

At least, when the Brooks sisters returned to Genoa City in 1984 to attend the Newman wedding, Trish Stewart was chosen to reprise Chris. I was hoping to see Janice Lynde as Leslie, too, but no such luck.😕 Speaking of that wedding, it was rather random and far-fetched that Nikki and Victor would even invite all the Brooks girls (along with Maestro Fausch, no less🙄) to attend. It's not like they were all close. I was thrilled when William Gray Espy and James Houghton returned as Snapper and Greg for the show's 30th anniversary celebration, though. It was just soooo disappointing to see David Hasselhoff and Wings Hauser (the worst of all the Greg recasts🤢) chosen to play out Liz Foster's death story. Yes, Lee Crawford's return was a dud and fizzled out, but I was happy to see her, anyway. It would have been so much more meaningful and effective, had she had the chance to be reunited with Espy and Stewart. (The boy who played Chuckie was quite good, BTW, and the show blundered by never bringing back either that character or Brooks Prentiss as adults.)

I do personally feel that Hallick and Lynde made poor decisions when they left Y&R; Brad and Leslie were the roles of a lifetime for them. Alas, people have dreams (and illusions) of grandeur, and often believe in their own publicity. Stewart's work on Y&R was top-notch. Her performances during Chris Brooks' rape storylines were gripping. Those first several years of the show were amazingly good.