vetsoapfan

Meg Ryan once remarked in a derogatory manner about her experience on ATWT: "My character's name was Betsy Stewart Montgomery Andropolous, so that shows how many times she was married!" She said this as if Betsy's being married a "whopping" two times in her life was so absurd. Pffft. Many people in real life get married two (or more) times. I do think TLJ was just snarking to degrade the soaps. His story about how he left OLTL doesn't ring true.

Having an affair on his fragile wife, killing a patient, letting Larry be suspected of the crime, and then leaving a badly-injured Dorian to die after her fall down the stairs...seems bad enough to me for TLJ to realize that his character was a villain LONG before his final week or two on the soap.

Hi @DRW50, Either TLJ is having false-memory flashbacks, or he's shooting a lot of bull. Soap opera storyline arcs are written and approved well in advance, and no writer could instantly turn a hero into a villain, generate all the required scripts, and write him out within two weeks. Mark Toland's descent into ambiguous "villainy" started much earlier than a week or two before TLJ left the series. He was cheating on his sweet wife, Julie, by early 1973 (two years before being written out), and was responsible for accidentally killing a patient named Rachel Wilson in 1974. When Dorian Cramer (Mark's affair partner) intended to inform the authorities of how Rachel had actually died (the police at the time suspected Larry Wolek), Mark tried to flee, resulting in Dorian's falling down a flight of stairs and going into a coma. Mark just ran off and left an injured Dorian there, possibly to die. Then in 1975, Mark discovered that Tony Harris was really Victor Lord's son and tried to blackmail the elderly man with the information. Before he could do much damage in that area, however, Mark was shot and killed in early 1975. Anyway, all this to say: despite TLJ's peculiar account of how Mark supposedly turned into a villain and was written out pratically overnight, Mark Toland's dastardly behavior began two full years before the character left the show.

On GH, is it ever acknowledged or referred to that Laura and Liz are cousins? (Rick Webber adopted Laura, IIRC, and his brother Jeff is Liz's father.) Also lost to history is the fact that Gail Adamson (Baldwin) adopted Monica. Lorie Brooks being Liz Foster's niece on Y&R was swept under the rug and forgotten about, as was the fact that Jo and Stu (SFT) were step-siblings (their widowed parents married each other).

Thanks @DRW50.

Thanks for the tag, @victoria foxton! IMHO, AMC and RH were at their very best in the 1970s!

I don't believe it is either Courtney or Myers, but the actress does not look familiar to me and I cannot identify her, alas.

I feel like I have been CORRUPTED and lured to THE DARK SIDE! Whatever will become of me???

@DRW50 Thanks!

@AbcNbc247 Tell me about it. I have fallen down a rabbit hole, and am presently obsessed with sexy men!

@AbcNbc247 Don't encourage us, LOL!!!🤣

Particularly when the pants fit like THAT!🤭😍

@Soapsuds, it seems even Freddy Krueger can't keep his hands away! LOL!

I would get banned, and banished to Pornhub island, where I doubt my soap opera rants would be appreciated, LOL!🤣 But I must say, there are many delicious photos out there of the divine Matthew Camp.

Thank you for the link, @victoria foxton. My mind is reeling with risque comments that would make the faint of heart clutch their pearls and swoon, so I will just say....woof!!!😍

Does anyone know who this hunk is?

@DRW50, you are correct. That is definitely NOT Christopher Reeve is the commercial with Terry Davis.

@DRW50, thank you much. I am looking forward to watching these.

That is indeed our Justin Marler!

Yes, it would be easy to fall down the rabbit hole and spend hours pointing out the weaknesses and flaws in RC's writing. Unfortunately, DAYS (and the other soaps today) are not written or designed for critical thinkers, so nothing will ever change as long as TPTB are convinced that modern audiences will just sit back and passively accept any drivel they are given. Right. For younger viewers, that's all they know. One of my fellow veteran soap friends once said, "People who grew up on a diet of hamburger helper don't know what they are missing by never having eaten filet mignon." Caustic, yes, and bitchy, but there's truth in the sentiment. A person can't miss what he's never experienced.

Ron is but one of many "writers" whose repeated employment on soaps is a mystery.

Younger viewers now scoff when I tell them that DAYS was once a mature, subtle, sophisticated and literate drama aimed at a thinking adults. They cannot wrap their heads around the fact that a formerly classy series could end up like...what it has collapsed into since the Reilly years. I find the show's shocking fall from grace hard to fathom as well, and I SAW it happen. In my most cynical moments, I snipe that DAYS is now written and produced for gum-chewing, 12-year-old high school drop-outs, who move their lips when they read, and still can't figure out the two syllable words. There is a market for easy-on-the-mind camp programming. If folks like that sort of entertainment, great. To each his own and it makes sense to offer material that targets all sorts of audience taste and demographics. If TPTB at NBC or Corday productions wanted to present a low-brow, camp-fest aimed at teens, why not start a new series from scratch and have it be as outlandish as they want from the get-go? Why bastardize and decimate a classic, respected daytime institution?

DAYS was a masterpiece, really on fire, from 1966 to 1976 under William J. Bell and Pat Falken Smith. And that cast!