vetsoapfan

So many people I know readily admit to loathing Sonny, Carly, Michael Easton's 900 roles, etc., on today's GH, but lots of characters from the past seemed universally loved by the vast majority of viewers: Lesley Webber, Steve Hardy, Jessie Brewer, etc. Why can't soaps create likeable characters anymore?

Thanks, Carl. As a viewer, all I can say is I found Rodell's portrayal of Leslie to be both warmer and more likeable to Adams'. To equate Leslie's sense of morality to "stupidity" does not ingratiate Miss Adams to me, either. BTW, when Adams replaced Jada Rowland as Amy Ames on TSS from 1971 to 1973, I found her version of Amy to be much less likeable and warm as well.

And the 1968 ep of AW, in which Lee attends Lenore's wedding.

Rodell was on TSS for three years after leaving AW...until her character on that show, Jill Clayborne, was killed off it a plane crash. Girl needed to stick to travelling by foot, LOL.

Lee was dating Sam Lucas, Ada's brother, and they were deeply in love, but she broke up with him "for his own good," and Sam married Lahoma Vane who had held a torch for him for a long time. After Lee died, Sam and Lahoma moved to Somerset for a few years, and then after Lahoma left him, Sam returned to Bay City alone. I suppose it was because of all the changes in writers and producers during those years, but I do not recall Sam ever even mentioning Lee again, not even with Lee's father, John Randolph. Once, when Harding Lemay was the head writer, John's other daughter Marianne (then a young woman) asked her mother, Pat, why John never spoke of Lee AT ALL. Pat replied that it was still too devastating for him to do so. The psychology of that was valid for me. As Aunt Liz mentioned (referencing her own son, Bill's, death), "There are some things you never really get over." But killing Lee off in such a fashion was certainly grisly, and I did like that story at all.

I am sorry if this first picture is risque (I'll delete it if it offends everyone), but...WHO IS THIS? I hate when friends send me pictures but cannot identify the hunk in them! The guy on our left...woof!

Yes, Lee was having hallucinations while driving, and when she died, I was so pissed. I adored that character. At least the special effects were good during her hallucination scenes. The director superimposed visions in front of her on the road, and it was quite chilling to watch.

Yes, Rodell played Leslie Bauer on TGL and Joyce Colman on ATWT. She also played the enormously popular Lee Randolph on Another World in the late 1960s. No matter what role she played, the audience seemed to adore her. Does everybody know that Kathryn Hays (Kim Hughes, ATWT) also played Leslie on TGL, in 1971?

Internet fans were shocked once, when I wrote that in the early days of Y&R, a friend of Snapper Foster's convinced him to go to a cathouse to hook up with a prostitute, and when they got to the front door, Jill opened it, infuriating a (hypocritical) Snapper enough that he smacked her across the face and stormed off. The trouble is, I never know what anecdotes or long-lost storyline points other viewers already know or don't know.

Cool! I love shocking folks with long-forgotten trivia!

It was so cheesy and desperate. He was wearing a vest without any shirt, I believe, and obviously directed to sound aggressive. Back then, I adored Scotty Baldwin and thought Kin was a hunk, but the promo pained me. And it did not make me want to tune in to Texas. Paul Martin was in the living room when we heard Ann's (JB) blood-curdling scream from the nursery, after finding their baby dead. UGH. I will never forget that. It was horrific that SFT killed off Jo's son Duncan Eric (particularly since they had used Mary Stuart's own baby as the child). On Days, it was harrowing to see Susan Martin walk into her baby's hospital room with Tom Horton, to discover that the child had died. Nobody screamed and sobbed like Denise Alexander. Meta's son Chuckie dying on TGL, thanks to his abusive, homophobic father, was ghastly as well. If I had been Meta, I would have killed him too. I hate dead-baby stories

Maybe Stuart and Paul Dumont did not get along, which would explain why the show axed him so quickly, yet kept Aniston around for 6 years, even though he had no discernible chemistry with Stuart either. BTW, MS acknowledged in her biography that Tony George started picking fights with her about what she considered small things, and that their relationship went south. Does everybody here know that Jo and Stu Bergman were actually step-brother and sister, thanks to their widowed parents marrying each other? It was a fact never mentioned in the show's later years, just like GH seems to have forgotten that Gail Adamson Baldwin had adopted Monica.

Yes, I watched her throughout her run on AW. Susan Sullivan was very good as Lenore too, but the actresses brought different qualities to the role. JB was more vulnerable and charming, while SS appeared more poised and self-assured. Compare this promo to the one Kin Shriner did when he left GH for Texas, "I'm leaving General Hospital for a MAN-SIZED piece of the action of Texas!" (Or however he put it.) At the time, I thought he was trying waaaay too hard. But JB's promo here is tasteful and classy.

Wow! I love this!

I don't think it was very popular. IMHO, Aniston was stiff, wooden, and uncharismatic on both LoL and SFT. In 1976, the show brought on an actor named Paul Dumont to play the role of Chris Delon, and it looked like TPTB were testing the chemistry between Mary Stuart and Dumont in hopes of pairing them romantically, but Dumont was dull as dishwater, and quickly let go. Aniston did not produce any sparks with Stuart either, but this time (to my changrin), SFT went ahead and had his character marry Jo and remain on the show for 6 years. Blechh. The actors who had the most chemistry with Mary Stuart were Robert Mandan (as Sam Reynolds) and Anthony George (as Tony Vincent). Jo's on-screen romances with both these men were very popular. For the record, I was okay with Jo's first husband Keith Barron (although he did not last long, expiring as he did shortly after the premiere in 1951) and Arthur Tate (who lasted 11 years before getting killed off), but of all Jo's love interests, Sam was the best, followed by Tony.

What I loved about OLTL back then, under writers like Nixon and Don Wallace, was that the dialogue was NATURAL. Characters talked like people talk in real life. Relationships were credible. Friendships were believable. When Sadie and Anna sat down over coffee and discussed their families' problems, I felt like I was watching real, life-long friends. It made the show personal and intimate, and I deeply cared for these people. Even when situations were improbable, good writing, good dialogue and character motivation saved the day. Today we have so many unlikable, one-dimensional, and/or cartoonish characters on the soaps. Why and how should we even care about them and their outlandish problems? I was deeply affected by Carla's rejection of her black mother, and longed for them to mend their relationship. But vile entities like Sonny and Carly on GH? Badly-written characters AND ridiculous situations become an alienating turn off.

When the character of Leslie first popped up on TGL, I did not warm up to her right away. I found her to be somewhat...cold. I wouldn't go so far as label her a villain, per se, but she was not as warm a heroine as I would have chosen for either Ed or Mike Bauer. I was indifferent to the character until Barbara Rodell took over. Rodell infused Leslie with a heart, a warmth, a kindness that had not (IMHO) been there before. I adored her. (Think of Judith Light replacing Kathryn Breech on OLTL. The character of Karen Wolek changed significantly, and for the better, once Light arrived. Viewers loved Light's version of the role; Breech's, not so much.) I was disappointed when Adams returned to TGL. Leslie became more aloof again, and my interest in the character dwindled. The soap press printed letters from other viewers who were also annoyed at losing Rodell. I remember one, which went something like, "Original is not always better!" What about the Leslie/Hope/sex conversation did Adams not like?

Thanks, Carl. I always love reliving the golden era of soaps. This 1969 OLTL ep is a treasure.

Yes, Rodell played Jill Stevens Clayborn on TSS, from 1969 to 1970. She was the third actress to play the role, following Irene Bundle in 1968 and Audrey Johnstone from 1968 to 1969. And yes, Susan MacDonald (which is how her name is correctly spelled) was indeed the only actress to play Jill on Somerset. If only more eps of these vintage soaps survived! TSS really deteriorated in its final years, and Somerset always varied in terms of quality (mainly thanks to who was writing it at the time), but I'd watch either one of these soaps over the dreck we are forced to endure today.

The scene of her hurling herself through the glass door was legendary. Not every year in the 1970s was excellent of course, but SFT did present viewers with great drama when the writing was solid. Many other soaps had excellent writing in that decade too: AW, Days, OLTL, AMC, TEON, etc. It was a magical time for soap lovers!

It always pleases me when long-thought-lost soap material pops up unexpectedly. I just wish more videos existed from the 1970s, which was soaps' finest decade IMHO. Writer Ann Marcus' work on SFT made the ratings soar.

Fred Douglas, an attorney who married Susan Matthews, gave away Lenore at this wedding. http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/1fred.html Shepperd Strudwick was playing Jim Matthews in 1968, but was absent during the filming of this wedding. (Hugh Marlowe did not take over the role of the Matthews patriarch until 1969.) http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/1jim.html As far as I know, Barbara Rodell never played Jill Grant # 2 on Somerset. There was only one actress to play Jill: Susan MacDonald. Here is Rodell's American Talent Management resume: http://resumes.breakdownexpress.com/146798-290557 Harding Lemay was writing AW when Walter Curtin was killed off. Lemay felt that Walter had been written into a corner, and as a murderer who had let his pregnant wife spent time in jail (during Christmas, no less), was no longer a viable romantic lead.

A few years ago Roux did a short film that was available on youtube, but for the life of me I cannot recall the title. You can see her as Missy in the 1968 wedding of Lenore and Walter, which is still up on YT.

Actually, Joseph Gallison appeared on WTHI in 1972, long after Carol Roux had worked on Somerset in 1970. She did not return to Somerset after Gallison was hired by WTHI.

The premises of your paper sound quite interesting. Now I want to watch The Baby again. (Ruth Roman was terrifying in it, LOL!)