vetsoapfan

Actually, THIS may just be my personal epitome of male beauty.

Not that I would ever defend the work of JFP (except, perhaps, in her early TGL period), but dealing with clueless network suits and their constant demands and interference must have been dreadful.

Yep. She also said that in attempts to weaken the show, in order to justify cancellation, the suits purposely tried to sabotage the character of Rachel. Yes...both painful, both better off forgotten. UGH. I knew Passions would fail. Gimmick shows may have an initial burst of popularity due to the audience's curiosity, but it never lasts. Even Dark Shadows burned out after a few years, and that show had much better writers than Passions ever did. The moment Marlena started levitating over her bed, I knew that DAYS, the real DAYS, intelligent, adult, witty, and sophisticated, was dead forever.

And the entire idea was a flop. Viki and Dorian, themselves were still in their prime and very vital, so needed faux carbon copies? It reminds me of when Little House on the Prairie tried to replicate the success of Laura and Nellie with Jenny Wilder and Nancy Oleson. UGH is the word.

Yes, it would have been wonderful to see Hastings, Hays, and Fulton featured in the photo, even though it would have made longtime fans get all choked up. I literally have not watched any new program on CBS since ATWT and TGL were cancelled. I'd rather watch vintage soap opera episodes on youtube than the drek CBS is offering us now.

In addition, Victoria Wyndham later revealed that the suits at NBC had said AW was not the type of program they wanted on their network. Whatever that is supposed to mean.

JEH was indeed a beautiful man, but he did not commit suicide on purpose. He was playing around with a gun on stage, that had had blanks in it. It was supposed to be unloaded, but one blank remained in the cartridge, and when the actor jokingly fired the gun, believing it to be empty, the blunt-force trauma from the blank hitting his temple caused brain damage. A major tragedy, to be sure.

Well, you know, sometimes a guy is sexier when there's something left to the imagination.

It's always great to see vintage clips from the show's golden era. I wonder what William J. Bell would think of today's version of his show.

Jameson Parker, a blast from the distant past! I remember him on Somerset and OLTL. Great photo.

Then, a selection of your top choices. You can have three.

Soapsuds...post a picture of the hottest guy you have ever seen. YRBB, I must say that I love your Knots Landing slideshow. Every time I see it, I get nostalgic.

Well...my ex may be hotter, but only by a hair!!!

The epitome of male beauty.

Yes, he always kept a smile on my face.

My ex.

And unfortunately, Rauch crippled all the soaps he touched.

Yes, Rauch gets a lot of (undeserved, IMO) credit for the success of AW, but I think he was just in the right place at the right time, and lucky to be hired to produce an already-stable show that had writers who knew what they were doing. Once Rauch began tampering with and destroying the show's established core (which had existed long before his arrival), and after Lemay left, AW just fell apart. Rauch did not know what he was doing. His dismal work on OLTL, TGL, TEXAS, etc., confirmed his cluelessness.

After reading a plethora of interviews with Lemay over the years, as well as accounts from others who worked with him, I think Lemay did not like to be crossed, criticized, or confronted, and would become very petulant and caustic if that ever happened. I doubt he would have accepted any actor's opposite point of view. He always assumed he was in the right.

Actually, at the time, people did speak out against him, but then they let it go, and moved on. Viewers who were not around in the 1970s missed those rebuttals and replies to Lemay's attacks. The writer continued to bitch well into the 2000s, however, so that is all newer viewers saw.

Many younger or newbie soap fans take/took his words as gospel. It can be frustrating if they take a one-sided and biased account as fact, without any first-hand viewing experience of their own. Right.

Except that certain things Lemay wrote in his book, to denigrate actors he abhorred, was BS. Only viewers who watched the show at the time could refute his most petulant and untrue attacks.

To be fair, this was the one and only time I ever saw Marland being ungracious. On the other other, Lemay continued to belittle and/or bitch about certain actors for years after he left AW.

A (surprisingly) rude Marland derided Hulswit in one interview, calling him a "dodo" who needed to be replaced, and claimed that Lenore Kasdorf begged Marland not to work with Hulswit any more, despite their on-screen chemistry.