vetsoapfan

No, it wasn't Thomas, but someone much more aloof and austere. She did not last very long. Carla berated her once in the hospital for being insensitive about Ed, which is the main scene that I remember about the "mystery character." whom I suspect must have been played by Paley. Unfortunately, with six decades of soap memories floating around in my head, not everything remains in sharp detail.

I agree about John Reilly being the far-superior Dan Stewart on ATWT, just like Barbara Rodell was a much-better Leslie Bauer than LA on TGL. Colenback had good chemistry with Jane House as Liz Talbot, but there was a certain...effete quality about him when he was paired with Kim. He and Kathryn Hays felt more like platonic buddies than romantic partners. On the other hand, John Reilly had charisma and sex appeal to burn, and oozed effortless, appealing masculinity in the role. I always thought Reilly's Dan could rock a woman's socks off in the bedroom; Colenback's version...could play cards with her.

The black woman I am thinking about appeared in the late 1970s.

John Fitzpatrick, the first Willis, came across as a charismatic, but with a barely-concealed petulant temper, ready to be vindictive and aggressive at any provocation. After Russ Matthews beat Willis to a pulp, Leon Russom suddenly took over the role and started playing Willis as much more subdued and introverted, desperate in his emotions but not hard and calculating the way Fitzpatrick had been earlier. The character lost a lot of his edge and toughness as the actors changed.

Not significantly or negatively, no. Many characters underwent MAJOR personality changes with the advent of new actors in the roles (Aunt Liz, Alice, Willis, Mac, etc.), but Pat always felt like...Pat.

At the time, Susan was not responsible or stable, and should not have had custody.

Right. Mark Galloway was involved with Susan Stewart. He did not want Susan to regain custody of Emily, and testified against her in the hearing, claiming she was an unfit mother and making Susan lose the case. Susan kicked his ass to the curb and mark left Oakdale. No loss, LOL.

Yes, Pat and John got married while Trustman was still playing Pat.

Was she the selfish, annoying woman who temporarily got involved with Ed Hall when Carla was involved with that repugnant Jack Scott? I loathed her. She was not nearly good enough for our Ed.

I believe the writer's name was Paul Roberts, not Wallace.

Michael M. Ryan was the only actor to play John Randolph, from 1964-79.

Ackerman could not adapt to the fast pace of daytime TV, where she was required to do two-three episodes every week.

In the OLTL clip, that is Cec Linder as Dr. Thornley, briefly seen with Jim Craig. Linder appeared on OLTL in 1976. Jordan Charney tried hard as Vinnie, but he did not naturally fit well in the role. He always felt forced.

Exactly. It would have been easier. Of course, people have colored their hair for generations without incident, so one never knows who will have an adverse reaction to the procedure, but simply wearing a wig would eliminate any potential for disaster. Dorothy Malone wore a wig on the primetime series, and it looked fabulous.

I loved that little room and used to enjoy visiting it on a regular basis. TGL had the Bauer kitchen, DAYS had the Horton living room, and GH had that medicine room. Some sets just made the soaps feel like home.

As you say, Shaw wrote for Love of Life long before 1976-8 when Lynn Henderson appeared. He followed Robert Soderbergh as head writer in 1967 and was then replaced (thank God) by the divine Roy Winsor in 1969. Heaven knows why Shaw later spoke about writing for Lynn, who only came aboard SFT nine years after he was fired. Maybe he was an uncredited consultant. And he certainly did not last five years at SFT. Irving Elman wrote the show from November 1976 into 1977, and Henry Slesar wrote the Steve Kaslo death storyline in 1978, so Shaw could only have been headwriter at Search from mid-1977 to the beginning of 1978 when Henry Slesar replaced him...thank God, again, LOL. About six months. How many stories could he possibly have had to center around Mary Stuart in such a short time? (And of course, Jo had never had a mastectomy, another egregious remark.) Shaw's stints at most soaps were quite short, and he proved a weak, tepid writer in this genre.

What do you mean "again"? She never even acted on GH! LOL, sorry, I could not resist!

I think that overall, Bill Bell and Irna Phillips were extraordinary, although over the years they did present the audience with storyline clunkers. Ditto Claire Labine. Pat Falken Smith was consistently excellent except on Ryan's Hope. God knows what happened there. Loving did not really gel, but aside from that, Agnes Nixon was extraordinary most of the time too. And Henrey Slesar gave us YEARS of high-quality material. She created Where the Heart Is, and that show was a hot, tedious mess until she left, LOL. It became great under subsequent writers, but never really found a huge audience after its awful start.

Yes, I was watching TGL at the time. We knew that Ken was deeply insecure about his marriage to Janet Mason. Holly had once told Ken that Janet might be having an affair with Roger Thorpe. Roger had had the hots for Janet but she firmly rebuffed his advances, although Ken remained insecure about Janet's potential interest in him. Ed and Janet also became quite close around this time, when he helped Janet deliver her baby Emily, and while she was recovering from back surgery, which ratcheted up Ken's jealousy another notch. He now saw Ed as a real rival for Janet's affection. Ken became so possessive and neurotic that Janet demanded he see a psychiatrist as a condition of them staying together. Ken agreed, but secretly stopping going to therapy. He was temporarily blinded in a car accident, and treated by Ed (!!!). After he regained his sight, Ken continued to feign blindness in hopes that Janet would at least stay with him out of pity. They continued to fight all the time, however, which distressed Janet to the point where she turned to Ed for consolation. Ken saw Ed and Janet in each other's arms while Dr. Bauer was comforting her, and this made Ken finally snap. He confronted Ed and Janet with a gun and shot Ed, which left him with a paralyzed hand. I found this story to be rather melodramatic and sensationalistic. I was not a fan of Cenedella's writing on TGL or elsewhere. (I would take him over Ellen Weston and the other hacks who would later destroy the show, however.) As for Leslie Bauer, a singer at the Metro nightclub, whose name was Chad Richards, became acquainted with her again through Hope, who had gotten a job at the club. Chad had a benign brain tumor at this point, which caused him to black out. He had once been in love with Leslie and was disoriented enough to believe they were still in a relationship. He attacked her but was stopped before any real harm was done. When his brain tumor was judged to be the cause of his bizarre behavior, Chad was forgiven and he left town, never to be mentioned again. Not much else happened to Leslie in the year before she died. There was conflict between her and Mike when he took Freddie on a fishing trip and the boy was feared drowned, but of course Freddie survived, grew up to change his named to Rick, so all's well that ends well. Then Mike got involved with Ann and Spence Jeffers, and the story which led to Leslie's death played out. I hope this helps!

After losing two previous children to death already, you'd think Diana would be a little more careful about keeping track of her latest kid, LOL.

Mary O'Brien was a dreadful, dreadful actress, and the less-than-subtle direction during her mad scenes did her no favors. I loved Jeff Webber and would have married him, LOL, so even at his snarkiest, I understand that betrayal and pain led to his surly behavior, so I forgave him. I never thought he was a bummer dude, I thought he was a hunk and a half! And I preferred the sexy first Rick much better than Chris Robinson's version. When Douglas Marland wanted to bring add Tracy to the cast, TPTB told him that such as character needed family to justify her, so the entire Q clan was born. I can't talk about that STOOPID Ice Princess story without getting pissed off. It destroyed the show.

Erica Kane at the circus storyline? Eeek! And DePriest work on Days was such a HUGE COMEDOWN compared to Pat Falken Smith's (who she replaced) writing. How to Survive a Marriage was divine as written by Rick Edelstein, but when MD took over, I knew the show was doomed. From Tennessee Williams to Charles Pratt!

I remember the story from back then but I cannot for the life of me remember seeing Alan and Monica's first wedding. Maybe it was off-screen. Somebody correct me if I am mistaken, but I think Jill and Frank's wedding on RH occurred off-screen as well. I just remember Frank carrying her across the threshold and announcing they had been married. Yes, at the beginning of her story, Monica was in love/lust for Rick Webber, although she married Jeff. Even Jeff's attempted suicide over the situation could not make Monica keep her mitts off Rick. Even Monica's marriage to Alan did not stop her from panting after Rick. No wonder Alan tried to kill them twice, LOL.

Thank you for that great article, Victoria. Nina Laemmle lasted a whopping six months at DAYS, and her tenure was a disaster. You'll notice that most of her new characters bombed with the audience, with only Liz Chandler, Jessica Blake and Joshua Fallon having any point. (Along with the eight newbies referred to in this article, Laemmle also created a young female character named Cassie Burns, who...meant nothing to anybody and then just left Salem.) The primetime TV series Laemmle is credited with? Pffft. If anything, her resume proves why she never should have been hired at Days to begin with. A couple of individual scripts for Marcus Welby and Zane Grey don't prove that she could carry an ongoing series by herself. Rich Man Poor Man, Book One was a monster success, but when Laemmle took over for book two, the series plummeted right into the toilet and was axed. It was PAINFULLY tedious. The original TV miniseries of Little Women was also a huge hit, but when Laemmle took over the regular series, that also died a quick death. Three for the Road, Sarah, Born Free? All failures, and when she became story editor at Peyton Place, the show drifted out of focus and alienated the audience. Meanwhile, thanks to this hack, we lost characters like Bill and Laura Horton!