RavenWhitney

I think the Corringtons were brilliant on SFT but it was too much too soon and the older audience didn't cotton to the New Orleans angle. But Travis and Liza kept the show going. Texas was a hot mess. The Corringtons lasted a hot minute as HW of Capitol, OLTL and GH. GL even hired Joyce for a few months during the Doug Anderson head writing debacle. Maybe the Corringtons should have stayed on SFT and expanded it to an hour. They found their footing after they moved the action back to Henderson.

These two episodes were broadcast on March 13 and 14 1979. Sharon Gabet's last episode before a six month break. Her departure episode is one of the best EON / Slesar episodes ever. Sharon's performance, the directing, music, the rest of the cast. late 1978 and early 79 was a high water mark for Edge on ABC. The next six months on the show was tough with Sharon's exit and the Mansion of the Damned plot. They also scrapped the Paige story and wrote her and Brian off. But Kim Hunter was so entertaining. And when Sharon returned during Margo's murder trial it was the beginning of another big classic EON period.

Maeve left GL after a 20 year run that started in 1980 (she took three 6 month breaks during her 20 year run) and ended in 2000. Paul Rauch became EP in Nov 1996; Maeve worked with Paul for three years/ stayed until Sept 2000. She then returned in 2005 until the end (Wheeler/Kreizman/Swajeski).

Just today on the Locher stream with GL actors, Maeve Kincaid who played Angie on AW and Vanessa on GL made a veiled reference to the toxic AW environment. When asked if she recalled day one on GL set she remembered the actress who played Hope Bauer telling her that the GL set was nothing like that other show.....

There's a reason VW never worked again in daytime. There are stories from many actors that AW was miserable backstage. VW was the only one there throughout all the EP and writer regimes. Think about all the other actors from cancelled soaps who were immediately rehired: Gabet, Malloy, Ann Flood, Joel Crothers, Lois Kibbee. Everyone who talks about Edge has nothing but amazing things to say about the Henry/Erwin years. Has there every been a positive AW backstage story?

Susan looks amazing and her voice hasn't really changed. She has aged beautifully. Wow

Iconic episode. Beverlee was so awesome. Iniitial scene between Reva and Alex was fabulous. Krista's acting is so poor. And I never liked the actress playing Mother Reardon.

That posted scene of Kay signing the divorce papers. Classic. Oscar worthy! But Mr. Rhoades couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. I never understood that casting choice even if short term role. Kay's house. Ah..so sad that Phelps destroyed the remodel. I'm sure they did it to save on space and have a collapsable set but boy did they go wrong.

Conboy productions hired Slesar to helm Capitol, a position Slesar held from Nov 1984 through Jan 86.

Poor Maura. She was awkward, sitting in the sun; and her face OMG, so sad! Martha, Michael and Don were so dignified and classy.

Speaking of Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt. They were prolific (and well respected) soap writers and not only served as headwriters of TD but at SFT twice and other shows. Both were also hired as breakdown writers, script writers and story consultants on various shows. Eugenie died a few years ago. https://www.theridgefieldpress.com/past_obituaries/article/Obituary-Gene-H-Ellis-82-actress-and-writer-14003844.php

Interesting. I think she and Cherrill will be gone from credits soon. I know Levin started writing scripts for SFT in spring 1980 when the Corringtons were replaced by Linda Grover/John Porterfield as head writers.

Phelps had some high moments until Nancy Curlee quit due to difficult pregnancy. Nancy's writing talent was unrivaled and Jill didn't dare interfere too much; but once Nancy was gone, Jill decided she was a better head writer and destroyed the show with committee of writers then hired a college professor (Doug Anderson) who knew nothing about writing soaps. Rauch made the show look amazing and hired some great actors. Remember CBS interfered with Brown/Estensen's stories and forced their own stories written by Wendy Fishman (including clone Reva which was not a story by Estensen and Brown.). Rauch also didn't want them fired but P&G overruled him. Rauch didn't want Labine and she was a disaster for the show. CBS and Proctor & Gamble biz execs destroyed these shows as much as Phelps et. al.

Are the writers still Levin/Cherrill?

Sharon Rose Gabet/Raven Alexander Whitney!

Wow, great sets, great cast, amazing production team; but ABC kept meddling. I never understood why Doug Marland didn't continue to get credit for co creating the show with Aggie. There's a story there..... Who's the hunk who played the role of Trucker?

Bettie Wysor has written a few scripts for The Doctors in the 1979 episodes currently airing. She as an employee at Benton & Bowles in NYC which is how she got the job writing for The Doctors. Here's her obit. She was out as a lesbian and wrote The Lesbian Myth. https://www.easthamptonstar.com/archive/bettie-b-wysor

It's interesting to watch the shows after they fired the actors playing Paige and Brian. I think P&G forced Slesar to dump the characters because of the implied incest angle. It's unfortunate. The show needed that age group. And they fired Margaret Colin! Dummies.

This post prompted me to go onto youtube and rewatch December 1979. Wow. So good. So fleshed out. Great dialog for the most part. Everyone was interconnected. It's easy to forget with the hacks that have been writing soaps since the early 2000s how many creative writers were employed on the soaps. Henry was tops. He had some down moments too but they never lasted long. I remember hating the main story once Draper was an amnesiac and we had all those long scenes with Emily. But in rewatching the lead up in December I'm blown away by how detailed and pointed every plot turn or line of dialog was. Not even the exchange of Xmas presents was gratuitous. Henry had a story bible and worked through it. I loved the pace of the episodes around Deborah's kidnapping, the police station scenes. Nancy's First Amendment storyline. P&G were idiots for firing Henry. The show needed new sets, maybe some fresh directing and a new script writer or two; but they didn't need hack Lee Sheldon. Thanks for posting. I'm up to 12/26/79 episode. The acting was so stellar.

In Billy news: https://ew.com/tv/2019/12/06/aladdin-spinoff-billy-magnussen-disney-plus/?utm_medium=social&utm_term=07DFC48E-188A-11EA-B353-70914744363C&utm_content=link&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_ew

The Youtube November 1988 credits show that for about three weeks the writers listed were (Barbara Hagstrom, Chris Whitesell, Michael Zazlow and Susan Hufford (breakdowns) and Carolyn Culliton, Peggy Schibi, Roger, Newman, Fran Newman, David Cherrill (script writers). I think Swajeski's shows started in early December just before snowflake ball. Speaking of Donna, here's a link to an article about where Donna is now: http://www.delawaretoday.com/Delaware-Today/February-2018/Meet-the-Grand-Dame-of-Delaware-Avenue/

Was the Thanksgiving 1988 episode a Swajeski or Lemay episode?

What was Tom Petitjean's soap pyseudonym ?

Interesting: just saw a credit crawl for the show in 81 when Lawrence Konner and his wife were head writers. They had five script writers who never wrote for daytime again. One (Mark Rosenthal) went on to great writer success in hollywood alongside Konner..