vetsoapfan

DAYS, AW, TEON, Y&R, OLTL...so many soaps produced stellar material throughout that decade. It's frustrating that among all the surviving episodes available to fans, the 1970s is the least represented period.

Never hesitate to tag me or ask me questions. I enjoy reflecting on soaps of the past. Some magazines of the day did write about the special Steve and Alice ep. One of them remarked that it was brilliant to do the two-person episode, since the romantic duo was enormously popular, and the fans had been loudly clamoring for a reunion for the pair for a long time. TEON's Mike-and-Nancy episode was also brilliant, by the way. EDGE was primarily known for its intricate mystery and suspense plots, but Henry Slesar never skimped on characterization or interpersonal relationship drama either. He could throw emotional punches to the audience with the best of the daytime scribes. Soaps were so powerful in the 1970s!

The "two-hander" (I had never heard of that expression before) episode of Another World was in 1973, when Steve and Alice finally met up and reconciled after their divorce, when he was then married to Rachel. Clips of it are in this youtube video, starting at about 5:16. The original script had a few other characters set to appear in the episode, but Paul Rauch said he wanted to focus on the Steve/Alice scenes, so they were extended and filled out, and only those two characters appeared on-screen. Rauch even got P&G to let him move the first set of commercials, so that the day's first act was significantly lengthened and uninterrupted. In a magazine article later on , Jacquie Courtney said that Rauch also made the decision to tape the dress rehearsal, which she appreciated. She said, "I don't think I could have mustered up all that emotion a second time!" I loathe how Rauch ultimately decimated AW, but even I have to grudgingly give him credit for the wise decisions he made about this specific episode. Watching it live, I was totally mesmerized. Eddie Drueding is an acknowledged and respected treasure, of course, but he began watching AW long after 1973. If he only had the scripts of that year to rely on, he would have no way to know about the last minute changes to the episode that ended up making it a two-person, special broadcast. From The Another World Home Page: OCTOBER 8, 1973 (EP. #2337) Alice told Steve she'd heard Rachel say that he was with her the day Alice lost her baby. Steve said he'd never told her that Rachel insisted on being present whenever he saw Jamie because he knew how Alice felt about Rachel. Steve said he married Rachel only to provide a home for Jamie. ***Rachel worried when she phoned from New York and Janice told her Steve wasn't at home. Mary got upset when Russ told her today was the day Steve and Alice were meeting.*** (<<<EDITED OUT OF EPISODE) Alice admitted she couldn't forget what she and Steve had shared together. When she wept that he was married to Rachel, he vowed to free himself. ***Alice thanked Pat for arranging the meeting, feeling hope for the first time in months.*** (<<<EDITED OUT OF EPISODE. AIRED THE FOLLOWING DAY.) Steve: (To Alice) "I loved you more than anything on earth."

To be fair, anyone can make an error, but IMHO, that does not look like "our" Sally at all. I'd bet the farm that it is not her.

@DRW50 I am sure that is NOT the Sally Stark from Love of Life.

Thanks for the new link, @DRW50.

Right. Stuart was always first billed in the closing credits, with her name appearing before anyone else's. An issue later arose, however, when a new set of writers, Frank and Doris Hursley, demanded they be first-billed as the writers, which meant Stuart was then "downgraded" to having her name appearing after theirs. Stuart alleges Doris disliked her and openly vowed to destroy Stuart's position on the show. Stuart later had conflict with Ann Marcus, when AM took over the show. Tension with head writers must be a nightmare for the star of a soap. Off topic slightly in a SFT thread, but one weird incident stands out in my head about actors receiving star billing. After Rosemary Prinz left How to Survive a Marriage, the soap obviously dropped her star billing from the opening. For some unfathomable reason, however, in a post-Prinz opening, viewers were suddenly treated to, "How to Survive a Marriage...starring Joan Copeland as Monica Courtland!" I was like, WTF? Copeland's character was definitely a supporting player. If HTSAM wanted a new star to be touted in the opening, it should have been Jennifer Harmon as Chris Kirby, who was the central heroine and definitely the series' leading character. Just as strangely, Copeland's special billing quickly disappeared, but I was always baffled as to why it have ever been given to her in the first place, even once. I don't know if the show used that exterior shot of the Henderson House repeatedly, but it would make sense. They went through the trouble of filming and paying for the footage, so they would want to use it again. I do agree that stuff like this added life to vintage, often barren-looking soaps of the time. And yep: smaller casts of characters with more meaningful conversations is much more captivating than watching hordes of one-dimensional, often unlikeable characters talking about nothing of substance in today's soaps.

Mary Stuart was always listed first among the actors, of course, but I never saw (nor do I recall at this point) ever seeing her receive special star billing.

LOL!

The only comment Kevin Bacon made about TGL which has always stuck in my mind is, "The more I did it, the worse it got." Pffft.🙄

Yes, that is definitely Lynn Benesch in the B&W photograph with Agnes Nixon standing behind the actresses. Benesch took over the role in 1969.

That has been the most widely-believed theory about her dismissal among fans from what I've seen. It was also commented upon in the soap press back in the day. I suppose we will never know for certain, however. Courtney never commented publicly about the situation, and after she was abruptly dropped from the show, ABC only gave a brief, improbable statement "We had no storyline for the actress." 🙄 Actually, PH was the third actor to play Tony Harris, following George Reinholt and then (briefly) Jimmy Jontz.

Wait, what? Tubi has early Emmerdale??? Is it only the first 20 episodes? I'm afraid if I start watching the show again, and get cut off after only 20 eps, I'll be left terribly frustrated. But it would be nice to see the Sugdens again.

Yes, but personally, the only hairdo I've ever seen and heard viewers cringe over was that dreadful abomination on AW in 1984. I thought she had a lovely look on OLTL, throughout her different styles there. I think after the third actor in a row did not work out as Tony, the show must have been in a real bind. It was for the best that they killed Tony off and veered Pat off into another direction. The show did continue to use the character, however, and the writers certainly seemed invested, judging from the fun stuff they were starting to do between Pat and David. I think there were other, political reasons at play surrounding her dismissal, and not a lack of interest, since they were already initiating a new romance with a daytime legend for her. But in any case, there's no way any of us can know for sure what happened, four decades later.

I fully acknowledge that I could not have listened to every line of dialogue in the show's painful last decade, so if they did mention that Meta was in Nova Scotia, I completely missed it. I do remember that when Mary Stuart returned to TGL for her final run (after being off-screen for an extended period), the first thing Michelle Bauer said upon seeing her was, "Aunt Meta! WHERE have you BEEN?" I took this as the writers winking at the audience, since so often older characters just drop off the face of the planet without any on-screen explanation. Would Michelle have asked that in such a shocked tone of voice, if everyone had known where Meta was all along? I always watch out for references to past or missing characters like a hawk, because I loathe when they just disappear without warning, or when their extended absence (even for weddings and funerals) makes it look like they never existed in the first place. (Hello, Tommy Horton from DAYS!) When Charita Bauer passed away and TPTB had her leave town to care for Meta who had had a stroke, it was said on-air that Bert and Meta were in Florida. Soap Central incorrectly gave the location as Washington. Egregious fan fiction is evident in various Soap Central bios, so at this point, I can't trust much of their reporting.

No, Pat's relationship with Bo was over long before 1982-3. They had fallen in love and gone to Paris in 1980. Adam Brewster was introduced in 1978 and lasted into 1979, but since the character was a dud, TPTB tried out other romantic options for Pat Kendall. The Buchanan men came along in 1979. Pat and Clint had been tested out first (briefly), but the pairing did not click. They worked better as friends. Clint was traded off to Viki and Pat was partnered with Bo. After George Reinholt left as Tony Lord, his character was recast with Jimmy Jontz, then Phillip McHale, and finally Chip Lucia. None of these actors set the show on fire. Lucia was a particularly baffling choice for the role. I'll always contend that Courtney's best couplings on OLTL were with Reinholt and Fuccello, and I firmly believe she and Zaslow would have clicked beautifully as well. I would disagree, since the show was clearly positioning Pat into David Renauldi's orbit, and the two of them were developing the familiar "antagonistic" interaction that so often later explodes into romance on soaps. Then TPTB just dropped her. The potential arrival of Paul Rauch, coupled with budgetary reasons, could have indeed precipitated Courtney's contract being dropped. But, what butch haircut? Her hair was lovely on OLTL. It was on AW in 1984 that it got hack off and slicked with gel. 🤮 JC's hair was lovely (IMHO) when she was on OLTL, and even when she first returned to AW in May of 1984, she had a decent-enough hairdo. But then, a while later, someone in the hair department must have been on LSD, because all of a sudden, Alice had a dreadfully-short haircut, and it looked like her hair was matted to her head. It was, as they say, "butch." Thank God it grew out and softened before she left in 1985, and then in later guest appearances, her hair was nice again.

Trudy (very rarely) popped up a few times after she and Clyde moved to New York. The couple continued to be referred to into the 1960s when Agnes Nixon was writing the show. In one script, there's talk about young Mike possibly going to visit Trudy in NY. After Nixon left, however, I don't recall Trudy ever being mentioned again.

I don't now remember why Pat and Bo broke up, but JC did not lose her leading-lady status on the show. TPTB introduced a character named Adam Brewster and were obviously planning on making him a romantic interest for Pat. Unfortunately, the actor was not attractive or appealing at all, had no chemistry with Courtney, and was dispatched relatively quickly without much fuss. Courtney had much more success with actor Tom Fuccello, who played Pat's ex-husband Paul Kendall. He was adorable, charismatic, and the actors oozed chemistry. Watching Adam/Pat scenes versus Paul/Pat scenes, it was clear that even the writers were shifting alliances towards Paul. The year before ABC let her go, Courtney was being tried out on-screen as a love interest for Michael Zaslow as David Renauldi. They sizzled together, too, and would have made a great couple, but ABC put politics before audience favorites, and a while after Courtney was dismissed for alleged "lack of storyline," The Roach descended upon Llanview and (IMHO) crippled the show.

The first thing that came to mind was one of the earliest examples of slapping (or in this case, spanking) which I saw on daytime TV: when a usually stoic and patient Russ Matthews finally lost his cool over his wife Rachel's atrocious behavior, and took her over his knee and spanked her. The scene would never be allowed to air today, but it was sooooo satisfying.

The show was engrossing and smartly written in the 1960s and 1970s, when the great Henry Slesar was head writer. There were so many memorable stories and characters.

On this day in 1973 (August 1st), Adam Drake and Nicole Travis finally got married after an eight-month engagement (he had proposed to her at the stroke of midnight, December 31, 1972). This was one of TEON's most popular couples.

God only knows why "Nova Scotia" (of all places) was woven into the bizarre and inexplicable fantasies fabricated by the Soap Central storytellers, LOL. Honestly, the need/insistence of some fans to write absurd fiction on the internet, and present it as "fact," suggests certain mental...weaknesses.

Yes, that bit arose solely from some contributor's imagination. When Aunt Meta showed up in Springfield, played by the legendary Mary Stuart, Bruce Banning was left completely unmentioned and never referred to at all. I've noticed repeatedly that on Soap Central, contributors fill in a lack of storyline and character knowledge/information with their own fantasies. Even more annoyingly, the SC site wove a huge amount of fan fiction about Meta's sister, Trudy Bauer Palmer. None of the following bullcr@p they posted about the character happened at all. "Trudy was mentioned having been contacted in 1973 when her father, Papa Bauer died. She was also contacted, along with Meta, in 1983 when their brother Bill died after being pushed out a window. In 1984, the Bauers received word that Clyde had died. In 1986, Trudy was contacted when Bert Bauer passed away. Though Trudy never visited her family, in 1999, Meta, living in Springfield again, would visit Trudy for a time."

@slick jones thanks for the shout out.

Thank you for your kind words. After Joey left, I don't remember him being referred to much, if at all, on the show. Particularly once Aunt Meta became involved with and married Bruce Banning. When Mary Stuart took over the role of Meta, I really hoped that TPTB would study up on the character's history and reintroduce Joey and his offspring to the show. It would give Meta an expanded family (God knows, the Bauers had mostly been hacked away by then), but when Meta showed up in Springfield, no one even mentioned Bruce Banning or what had happened to him. Yet another dead husband for Meta, I suppose. I doubt TPTB at the time even knew who Joey was.