vetsoapfan

For novelizations that were promoted as being "based on the actual scripts," the Soaps & Serials books were weakly written, missing major details, and didn't really adhere to the source material. I bought them all when the company lunched, but was quickly disappointed by what I was reading. I wasn't surprised when S&S folded. I sold all my copies on eBay.

In the early years, both Bay City and Somerset were said to be located in Michigan, about an hour's drive from each other. In a long-ago news report about the backstage goings-on of the show, the host opened the segment by giving historical facts about AW, including Bay City, Michigan, as its locale. The clip is, or at least was at one point, available on Youtube. I watched it twice. Somerset, the spin-off sister soap, was also acknowledged to be in that same state. When Heather Lawrence was told by her mother, Eve, that they were moving there permanently, Heather complained about not wanting to go to that, "dreary little town in Michigan." On a talk show once (it might have been Merv Griffin; I forget), Audra Lindley spoke about her career pre-Three's Company. She said, "I was on a soap opera for years called Another World. It was set in Bay City, Michigan...." And then she elaborated on her antagonistic character of Liz Matthews. Finally, even Google has its say: "Yes, Somerset, a township in Huron County, Michigan, is relatively close to Bay City. It's located to the north-east of Bay City, and the drive is generally less than an hour. The two towns are linked by the Saginaw River and Lake Huron, according to a local information source." The two towns, whose names at least exist in real life, were always said on-air to be close to each other and separated by water. The opening logo of Somerset even had a visual depiction of this. Why TPTB at P&G later changed AW from Michigan to Illinois, who knows? Maybe they just made the arbitrary/pointless decision to set AW, TGL and ATWT in the same state. Maybe those in charge were just ignorant of the facts and didn't care about consistency and continuity. Remember this is a company which mandated dropping the article THE from The Guiding Light and The Edge of Night in order to "modernize" the shows and "attract a younger audience." (If anyone can explain the irrational logic of that loopy decision, let me know, LOL.) So, yes, Bay City was originally set in Michigan. There is a real Bay City in that state, just like there's a Genoa City, Wisconsin on Y&R and a real Genoa City in the real Wisconsin. Retcons and historical inaccuracies are not uncommon on soaps, alas. Out of curiosity, were you watching in the late 1960s and early 1970s? Michigan was mentioned, on-air, more than once back then. I kept extensive scrapbooks of all my favorite soaps at the time (yes, I had no life, LOL), and I made notes of trivia like this, characters' addresses and telephone numbers, birthdates of babies, etc.

Personally, I felt that the deletion of the original music from the girls' slumber party episode, and the axing of REM's Losing My Religion from the ep featuring Brenda and Dylan breaking up, were the most painful. The changes really damaged those episodes. I dropped the DVDs after season two, but I've been told by other viewers who kept going that tunes from all the seasons continued being replaced, and the situation only got worse as the DVD releases progressed. Yes, penny-pinching from those in charge was the principle issue, but I wonder how much better the DVDs would have sold if such poor choices had not been made in the name of cost cutting. On the other hand, when Time-Life put out the Vietnam-war era classic China Beach, they dug deep into their pockets and ended up clearing the rights to a whopping 268 (!!!) of the original tracks. This represented 96% of the total. TPTB said that when they were not given permission to use a few of the remaining pieces, they substituted different singers' versions of the exact same songs, in order to preserve the show's integrity as much as possible. The CB set was expensive as heck, to be sure, but to me it was worth it.

@DRW50, as always, the tag is much appreciated.👍

@Gatecrashers, No, that's not GA, although there is a resemblance...particularly with that hair.

That was interesting; thanks. Courtney looks tired and/or bored AF, LOL!

YES! While I objectively found the writing on RH (particularly during its first few years and then again in its final days) to be excellent, so many of the principle characters were unpleasant, and totally turned me off. I could never settle down and become emotionally involved with a group of people who grated on my nerves.

This is tragic news. Another one of our legendary icons, gone. I was just talking about her yesterday, with one of my friends, and remembering all the wonderful performances Denise Alexander gave us on DAYS and GH. Modern audiences will know her best as Lesley Webber on GH, of course, but she was a force to be reckoned with on DAYS and gifted us with years of mesmerizing work there. RIP.

Many thanks to @skylark and @DRW50!

Yes, I know JK is getting on in years, but perhaps he and his family (wife and/or son) could work with him as co-headwriters on the new TEON! I would also be available as a story consultant!🙃

Once Johnny Dallas' cut himself off from Laurie Ann Karr and their son, and once Laurie successfully recovered from her mental problems, she wanted a new, fresh, and healthy start for the next chapter of her life. She legally reverted her name and changed John Victor's surname to Karr. After moving to the country (when Teri Keane was dropped from the show), Bill and Martha Marceau legally adopted Jennifer, the baby girl whom they had earlier taken in when the child's biological mother, Taffy Simms (and other bio family members) proved to be unfit to raise her. Jennifer legally and emotionally became a Marceau, and gave that name to her own daughter, whom Jennifer birthed through a sperm donor as a single parent. Et...voila! The Karr and Marceau legacies live on. 🙂

I truly believe Kellerman is a writer who could make a reboot of TEON a success! I'd anchor the show on Mike & Nancy Karr's great-grandson (now a DA), Bill & Martha Marceau's granddaughter (a police detective), Jim & Liz Fields' grandson (a psychiatrist), and Adam & Nicole Drake's great-granddaughter (a PI).

Jonathan Kellerman has written 40 novels centered on the character of Alex Delaware, with the first being When the Bough Breaks from 1985. One of the aspects of the series which I find so appealing is that characters grow, evolve and change as time goes on. They act and react in a believable, human fashion. While each book tells one complete story, certain relationship threads can continue as the series evolves. Occasional references to the past (from previous novels) also make the readers feel like we know the characters intimately; that we are "living" with them through the years. Actor John Rubenstein (of the 1970s' TV series Family) narrates the audiobooks, and he is perfectly cast. I've never read or listened to an Alex Delaware story which I did not enjoy.

I've been championing the idea of TEON being rebooted for years. One author I'd like to see helming the project is Jonathan Kellerman, who has authored a plethora of mystery novels about a psychiatrist named Alex Deleware. Like TEON's Henry Slesar, Kellerman is a master at weaving intricate and surprising suspense/mystery stories, but is also adept at characterization and interpersonal relationships. I think he'd be fabulous at writing for a new version of TEON.

As always, thanks for heads up. That is indeed Virginia Dwyer with Jacquie Courtney, but the actor (as other posters are mentioning) is Hugh Marlowe. The clip was misidentified on YT as being from 1967, but it's from two years after that. Hugh Marlowe debuted as Jim Matthews in 1969.

Gracias! I will check it out!😉

Oh, that's great to know. I figured it was saved, but thanks for the confirmation.🙂

It didn't surprise me at all that the soaps which premiered after the practice of wiping was discontinued have been saved, either by TPTB or by fans on home-recorded videotape. A quick search on Youtube confirms the debuts of Texas, Capitol, Port Charles, Generations, Santa Barbara and The City are still up and available for viewing. The only one I did not find was Sunset Beach, but I'm sure that's around somewhere. I have never seen or found confirmation that the 90-minute pilot of How to Survive a Marriage exists, but you never know. TEON's 90-minute debut on ABC, from 1975, is up on YT. Anything is possible! All in all, soap lovers are fortunate this many debut eps are in circulation.

I believe P&G wiped their videotapes through 1978, but starting archiving them in 1979. I may be off by a year, but I believe this to be the case. Of course, various episodes from prior years were kept (like Papa Bauer's funeral from TGL in 1973).

I figured Loving's first episode would have been saved, since the show began after wiping was discontinued. I'd say Strange Paradise counts as a soap. It was a daily continuing drama like Dark Shadows (just a lot weaker, quality-wise). Primetime's Peyton Place survived, and so did The Long, Hot Summer, so I'd love to know Our Private World did too. It would be wonderful to see the entire run! Thanks for the additions; I knew I'd forget some potential titles.👍 Thanks for mentioning the surviving scripts. I considered adding them to this list once I collected enough titles. The actual videos are perhaps more emotionally coveted, but the scripts being available to read is also a major thrill!

A fellow soap fan lamented to me recently that since most daytime dramas were "wiped" for decades, almost no debut episodes survived to be seen and enjoyed today. True, a huge amount of soap history has been lost forever...but we are fortunate to have uncovered and archived several first/pilot eps. I won't list every single show that began well after networks/sponsors decided to archive their material, but here are the golden oldies (and a few newer titles) whose premiere eps are known to exist today: --Search for Tomorrow --The Edge of Night (episode number two, not one, but still noteworthy) --General Hospital --Peyton Place (primetime, but a soap and significant) --Days of our Lives --Dark Shadows --All My Children --The Young and the Restless --Ryan's Hope --Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman ("iffy" to include here, I know, but it's soapy enough) --The Bold and the Beautiful --Tribes I'd guess that The Doctors' pilot survived, since Colgate-Palmolive kept everything until they sold TD to NBC, but I have seen no official confirmation of this. Does anyone else know of other daily soaps that have their first broadcasts conserved?

To be fair, Nancy Wickwire was fine as an actress, but after the ferocious intensity Audra Lindley brought to the role of Aunt Liz, Wickwire's more restrained, pallid interpretation was a major disappointment. Aunt Liz was just not Aunt Liz anymore.

To me, Wesley Pfenning and Linda Borgenson were the worst Alices. Other weak recasts: Margie Impert (Rachel #2) Robert Hover (Russ #2) David Bailey (Russ #3: handsome but bland) Lynn Milgrim (Susan Matthews #4) Brian Murray (Dan Shearer #2) Nancy Wickwire (Aunt Liz #3: a major come-down after Audra Lindley) ...to name but a few. Some of the Jamies were not cast well; Richard Bekins owned the role. On the other hand, AW struck gold with Beverly Penberthy as Pat #2 and Susan Sullivan as Lenore #2.

Mine is but one opinion, of course, although according to other GH viewers whom I knew, they didn't feel the recasts were particularly captivating, either.

IMHO, she was the best of the three actresses to play the role. She had screen presence and spark. Her replacements were adequate, but Gina became much less interesting after Stuart left.