vetsoapfan

JvD was the LAST person who should have ever been dropped from TGL. For the majority of its final 25 years, there were idiots in charge who had no understanding of the show, its legacy, or the importance of consistency and history to the audience. Getting stuck with irrelevant, minor characters while beloved vets got the axe was infuriating. I didn't mind Frank Dicopoulus, but Frank Cooper was not a character who should have lasted longer than Ross Marler. Lillian Raines never should have outlasted Maureen Bauer or Holly Norris. Billy Lewis over Mike Bauer? Nope. Cassie Layne over Hope Bauer? Nope. The Santos mob and the San Cristobelians over legacy families? Never. To be honest, speaking of Emmys, I can't honestly say that the show was worthy of much acclaim in the end.

When Fitzpatrick first joined the show, Mary and Alice had a scene in the Matthews living room, in which Mary commented on the resemblance between Willis and Steve. There were rumors at the time of "difficult issues" leading to the dismissal, but in his book, Harding Lemay only commented that Fitzpatrick's being replaced was for reasons other than his skill as an actor. What are you curious about? There had been character crossovers before between shows on different networks, so...why not? Pat and Mike could have become a solid tent-pole couple in either Bay City or Springfield, with kids and grandkids to provide them with storyline fodder. Yes. Russ beat Willis to a pulp one day over his treatment of Sharlene, and shortly thereafter, Leom Russom replaced Fitzpatrick in the role and Willis softened significantly. Before I bought my first VCR (a Betamax) in 1977-ish, I used to record AW on audiotape every day, and I kept an extensive scrapbook of articles, interviews, notes, etc., about the series for years. I used to be embarrassed to admit this, but I have since come to realize that I was not the only obsessed soap fan out there! Lee lived there with him when she was alive in the 1960s, but I can't say for sure if they had ever had other living quarters previously. Pat moved in after she married John. Trivia: On the set, there was originally a framed wedding photograph of John and the first Pat, Susan Trustman. After Beverly Penberthy assumed the role, the photo was reshot with her wearing the same headpiece Trustman had worn, with the actors in the same position. Over the years, I've seen both versions of the wedding shot on the internet and in soap history books. (I know: no one else could possibly care about pointless trivia like this, except me. 🥺 My inner AW Geek is coming out, LOL!)

I figured.🙂 I was surprised they killed her off ATWT, rather than just writing her out, if they wanted to drop the character at the time. There was potential storyline fodder for her, if not at that exact moment, then down the line. They really do. And they are more alluring because we can all relate to conversations like those from our own lives. I have never once sat around with family or friends to debate the latest actions of our local serial killer.🙄 Leah's SORASing really threw history and other characters' ages out of whack. It was ridiculous. Incompetent, really. There have been certain PTB over the years whose keeling over...might have been quite satisfying, LOL.🫢

Yes, that clip comes from either April or May, 1975. (Eddie Drueding, founder of the Another World Home Page, has just written in the video's commentary section that the clip is from May 22.) Steve died in a helicopter crash while in Australia, so it could not have been when he was flying home to see Alice. When she had to do extremely heavy, emotional scenes, I found her to be less effective, but she was much better in quieter scenes, and she had good chemistry with the actors playing her family. I'd say she's the best-remembered and most-liked Marianne.

I presume you mean surviving footage from closest to her exit date. (I know that you are aware of the 1964, 1968, 1973 and 1974 material available on Youtube.) This is from April or May, 1975, and Courtney was fired a few months later. She was gone by the end of July. We had one episode with the majority of the characters hearing about Mary's passing. The next day, Pat told Ada and Rachel the news. A third episode had folks talking about Mary's (unseen) funeral. And that was it. I think Lemay wanted it all over and done with, ASAP. What strikes me is that these quiet, naturalistic scenes about family issues (which we could all identify with) are infinitely more engrossing that gimmicky scenes of devil possessions, clones, brain implants, gang shoot-outs and time travel. These people could be our neighbors or families, not the stick-figure caricatures soaps have often featured in recent decades. When asked to do "heavy lifting" acting, Mu(e)nker struck me at the time as being somewhat wispy and inconsequential, although she was fine with lighter, more naturalistic drama. I'll always contend that one of the most egregious cases of SORASing was Leah Bauer on TGL. She was born in 2004, and morphed into a teenager by 2006. Very possible. I would have liked to see Pat become romantically involved with Mike Bauer from TGL, with whom she was linked briefly in the 1960s. This would have given Pat a storyline with an established and popular leading man AND strengthened the foolishly-decimated Bauer family. Linking the Matthews and the Bauer clans would have been poetic! I think TPTB in latter years of many soaps simply did not know or did not care about history or trying to use it.

IMHO, while Brown was okay as Michael Randolph, Johnston was more gregarious, affable, and appealing. And Eric Roberts showed little spark as Ted Bancroft. He just didn't click in the role. I don't recall Pat ever getting a degree. She got sidetracked by an accidental pregnancy, an abortion, shooting her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, and then going on trial for murder. No, as characters go, Chris Pierson was a minor component of Bay City history. He was gone by the end of 1975, and popped up on TGL in early 1976. I can't wait to see them all.

In an interview published in 1974 in Daily TV Serials, Jacqueline Courtney confirmed that she had had kinescopes made of important Alice-centric episodes. Robin Strasser, at one point, said she had some vintage eps as well. Rosemary Prinz has shared many rare videos (of ATWT, AMC, How to Survive a Marriage) with one of her fans. He talks about them on Facebook. I would tend to think he was telling tales, but he uploads numerous screen shots, so it seems legit.

Thank you, @DramatistDreamer.

Thanks for the tag, @slick jones!

Thank you for the heads-up, @Soapsuds! Alan Locher makes my teeth ache, LOL, but I can endure him for short periods, with enough incentive!

Thank you, @slick jones. Your posts are always informative and entertaining, and memory-jogging too!

Martha appears...unmoored.😬 It's scary how many MAGA supporters are unable to function within the realm of reality.

THANK YOU! That's what I said, but folks kept insisting that it's Jeffrey Hunter or Charlton Heston. Other choices included Peter Hansen, Kenny Rogers or Colonel Sanders, ROTFLMAO! The internet is an endless source of amusement!

All four of the remaining soaps need to replace their head writers, overhaul their stories and structure, and prune away a large number of useless characters from their casts. I'd say DAYS and GH even more so than B&B (which needs massive help as well, of course).

This photograph of Emily McLaughlin, from the ninth anniversary of GH, has been uploaded on Facebook and posters are debating who the man with EM is. Most people keep insisting that it's Jeffrey Hunter. Apparently, the hairline gives it away. 🙄 Forget the fact that the gentleman looks nothing like Hunter whatsoever, but JH died three years before the photo was even taken. 😑 The next most popular assertion is that it's (get this) Charleton Heston. Lord, give me strength.

I love finds like this. Thanks @slick jones!

I don't know whether to cheer about finding an age-appropriate cohort, or commiserate with you about another one of SON's Golden Girls, LOL. Seriously, I'm sorry to hear that you battled with depression back then. It's such a lonely and misunderstood affliction.

I'm so sorry you had to struggle with depression on your own, without anyone to talk to about it. People often wax poetically about "the good old days," but in reality, things were not always so good. Depression and other forms of emotional issues were sublimated and not talked about. Spousal and child abuse was covered up. Issues with sexual orientation were demonized, leaving many people on the outskirts of society rejected and condemned. MAGAs rage at anything "woke," but it's made society kinder and more enlightened.

Thanks for the tag, @slick jones. I may be the only one here who's old enough to have watched Scotty's mom on GH. It's a shame about the actress passing away.

Yes, that's right. I loved that set.

Thank you for the tag; always appreciated!

@DRW50, that was a fun curio which I had never seen before. Thanks for tagging me.

I never DID equate PFS' tenure to CL's; I merely pointed out that both these brilliant writers made (IMHO) egregious errors at the show. I wasn't comparing the writers to each other and arguing that their blunders were equal. The reason I found the gorilla and tomb stories so painful was because Labine had created a rich, erudite series, and helped elevate it to the quality of a daily stage play. Pat Falken Smith never produced quality material here. CL introduced us to multi-dimensional, intricately-drawn characters who came across as identifiable, "real" people. PFS gave us mediocre (if not downright forgettable) stock figures. Watching a theater-like drama devolve into King Kong and Scooby Doo antics doesn't mean that CL's work and PFS' work on RH was comparable. Watching core characters get jettisoned to the back-burner for hair-models and other newbies under Smith was even worse than the fantasy nonsense, because at least CL's fantasy plots centered heavily on core characters. Unfortunately, whatever precipitated the problems on this show, many people had their hands in messing it up at one time or another. Claire Labine and Paul Mayer, on the other hand, are mainly responsible for giving us the golden years.

The endless recasts really hurt the show, IMHO. Throughout the soap's run, we had six Franks, four Pats, four Marys, five Siobhans, four Delias, four Faiths, four Joe Novaks...and five (IIRC) Sister Mary Joels. * including one short-term, fill-in actor for Frank and one for Delia. I count them because they did appear on-screen for plural episodes.

I understand your bewilderment. Tolan was loud, abrasive, coarse and noticeably unable to speak coherently at times. Not to be unkind, but while Kate Mulgrew and Mary Carney were lovely, Tolan simply...wasn't. It's hard to fathom a worse recast for the show's young leading lady. It's like when ATWT cast Jason Kinkaid as Tom Hughes. Egads! What were they thinking? I am Tolan's career in writing was more successful for her.