vetsoapfan

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.

Now THIS is the Ed Bauer whom we knew and loved, and who should have remained at the center of the show until the Light went dark!

Exactly. Through his acting acting skill, warmth, and intensity, Hulswit made you BELIEVE in his character. I did not care that he was not a perfect physical specimen. Truth be told, I don't believe physical perfection is the main criterion demanded by most viewers, regardless of what some PTB may believe. While shows have hired muscle hunks and beauty queens for decades, ordinary-looking actors like Hulswit, Tony Geary and Judith Light have captured viewers' imagination and loyalty. Mart Hulswit simply was Ed. The morose portrayal offered by Simon and the simpering interpretation given by van Fleet did not cut it.

Whether we accept a recast or not has no logical, rational component. It's all a gut-level reaction. Judith Light was a recast as Karen Wolek on OLTL, but I accepted her (and preferred her) instantly. I also accepted all the various Dorian Lords, although Robin Strasser was my favorite. But after George Reinhot left, I never accepted any of the three later actors cast in the role. On TGL, I accepted and loved recast Maureen Garrett as Holly, but hated the recast Rogers.