EricMontreal22

Yeah, I know this is a point that DRW50 and I have long disagreed on. I think that Erica as a character did mature, but only as much as I would realistically see her character do. That said, certainly making her a showgirl at 50something (a storyline I would have loved if they had actually shown us one of her routines!) wasn't the way to go. But... I think I'm in the big minority in saying I kinda liked her doppelganger storyline. Completely agreed. I think the most viable Tyler would have been Ann and I do wonder if Wisner Washam being headwriter, and married to the main actress who played Ann played a part in not wanting to continue her character after Judith Barcroft left the show. She would return to soaps later on (including filling in for Erika Slezak on OLTL in the 80s!) but I wonder if by that point they felt her character was too forgotten from AMC

Loving in general is pretty good to see the early work of future soap stars. I completely agree with you about Perry Stephens (who died tragically really young of liver failure) and Grant Show. I think what was most frustrating about Loving is there were numerous times where they seemed to be totally on the right track and then there'd be a shake up behind the scenes...

I mean it basically is still unfolding in the shortlived 2013 Hulu reboot so... yeah long lasting lol Yep one of those recurring characters I loved seeing still show up. Well she was HW for 8 months or something so that's not long enough to change things too much

As Vee said Trish and Trucker for sure, some of the rare times Loving got soap mag covers. Jack and Stacy probably came close too? And as much as I have a soft spot for Loving, "It makes it hard to get a feel for the show" is a problem Loving has in general throughout its short life (just check out its HW roulette.)

Thanks for this, always happy to see Michael clips I haven't seen since that storyline ended. I know it got some flack (and there was gossip that the acotr was not comfortablke playing gay, something the one actor and two writers, including the co-head at the time, I interviewed about the story said was completely not true) but I loved the whole 2 year off and on "gay" umbrella storyline that started with him and continued with Kevin Shefield (and not least because it ended up being a huge focus of my MA thesis interdisciplinary faculty presentation, which is why I had the chance to interview so many involved and which I did very well with ) It was overshadowed by Bianca's coming out four years later, but in some ways was better done.

Somehow being Erica Kane-style slapped doesn't seem like all that bad a thing to me... Interesting, Wiki of course seems off about the months as they say by March, Felicia Minei Behr as EP and Margaret DePriest were in for the start of the AMC overhaul but I see the credits for those episodes still have the old EP (Schenkel? He never seemed to get much love or hate--coming in between all time fave EPs Behr and Jackie Babbin. I know he was a producer at Edge and AW as well and apparently left AMC on his own terms due to health, which I'm not sure I buy since they were concerned about falling ratings and shaking things up) and Lorraine Broderick as HW although during the time that Victor Miller (creator of Friday the 13th! But of course he did a lot of soap writing) was her co or associate HW briefly. Also McTavish's name starts showing up as an outline writer... Despite those credits, I would expect that DePriest's stuff (and probably Behr's) probably is already airing. I believe during DePriest's run Broderick and Miller were simply moved down to associate HWs or whatever the official credit was. You're not wrong that DePriest, true to the style of soap she knew best from Days, even going back to creating the infamous Where the Heart Is (which I wish we could see some of) suddenly added a lot more... well, yeah, bad people and that style of soap storytelling. Behr though was an ideal fit with a long history with the show in various roles going back to the 70s, but, it turned out, the right person to make the show a bit more current, which is what it arguably needed though it took a bit for her to get there. And I assume Nixon swooped in when she saw what was happening, the way she swooped in (much more briefly) in 99 during McTavish's infamous second run. I wanna say Nixon's stuff starts with that fall's big costume party Adam has which lasts a week or so and is a lot of fun (well I love things like that) but a total attempt at a repeat of the 1980 Palmer Cortland hosted Masquerade (which I uploaded four episodes from years back.) But we know Agnes Nixon for all her strengths was NOT against repeating a story idea (this one isn't quite as successful because it doesn't have the epic reveal of Daisy Cortland plot to play off of.)

Yeah the scheduling just always seemed bizarre...

I loved that too. It really was a point that marked the slow beginning of the end for soaps--and shows why you need creative people in charge of the fate of these shows, not network execs. As is pointed out, these focus groups would often be women pulled off the street who were immediately meant to give their opinion on each character they saw on screen. And never mind that if they hated a character, that would be a warning sign to the execs who didn't seem to realize that you're not meant to like every character.

Someone (I'm sorry I forget who) asked what Wisner Washam said about Megan McTavish. I found the interview and... it doesn't say much. We Love Soaps: So you left the show at one point in the '80s? Wisner Washam: Sometimes I shared credit with Lorraine. I saw a crawl last night on YouTube and my name was underneath Lorraine's. That was during a transition period when I was about to given the gate. She had been there for a long time and knew the show and was my right hand. I never had any feeling of resentment toward her as far as taking over my job. We Love Soaps: After some time away, you returned to ALL MY CHILDREN then left again for good. What led you to leaving? Wisner Washam: Megan McTavish. We Love Soaps: Interesting you say that. Among fans online, she is very unpopular writer in ALL MY CHILDREN history. Wisner Washam: She wasn't a pleasant person to be with every day, I'll tell you that. She drove me away. We Love Soaps: What was her role at that point on the staff? Wisner Washam: She was one of the outline writers. But she has a big mouth. And a very domineering personality. I actually thought Wisner had passed away since the interview, but happy to see he's still alive (as is his wife, early AMC/AW/etc star Judith Barcroft.) The three part interview (which is a great, if all too short, read) starts here: https://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/02/wisner-washam-interview-part-1-of-3.html

Oh, I'm probably misremembering it and The City was still on, but just barely (at any rate, I remember thinking "why bother doing a cross over now when it doesn't matter if viewers go over" though really it does make sense to use Alex if they're going to New York...) If it was that would be The City's final month, so maybe why I thought that? That Peter Hall clip is wild (and again I'm always fascinated about what writing credits we'll get in 1983-84--interesting Don Wallace was still there.) As a Bacharach fan I had no idea Peter Allen ever sang Arthur's Theme (he's credited as one of the three song writers but only because lyricist--and Bacharach's then wife--Carole Bayer Sager had taken the one single line "when you get caught between the moon and New York City" from a song she had been working on with Allen some years earlier.

RIGHT! This was the one I remembered, helping Antonio with some crime thing (I think it had location shooting.) IIRC it happened just before The City was off the air so it seemed odd to me (in my mind it happened just after The City was off, actually, but that doesn't seem possible...)

Were B&E responsible for both the Dolly clone storyline and the time travelling portrait? I remember I had liked B&E's final months at The City so much that I did try to watch their GL to some extent, but that was such a busy time in my life, adding another soap wasn't really practical when I was a senior at a performing arts school. (Before then I had temporarily watched GL out of curiousity when McTavish was hired to the show after she was fired from AMC... But I don't remember much about that time except that it was pretty dark and mean--funny as I think Behr had been concerned that McTavish's AMC was heading too much in that direction already... Who wrote Ghost Reva?)

Yes, I should have posted those pages here, but I now deleted the pics I took from the OLTL Trivia book -- but you can check it out in the thread (and the AMC cross over section from the AMC trivia book--the AMC one is from 1998, the OLTL is from 2008)

Yes, I believe in her unfinished soap memoirs, McTavish makes those claims, and mentions that Nixon did have an "executive" credit (well uncredited credit.) She certainly was at meetings like I said--I think she only stopped regularly going during McTavish's second infamous run (and of course she then briefly replaced her for the Bianca story, etc) (It was only under Pratt that Nixon was actually officially BANNED from attending those meetings and "interfering" with suggestions.) McTavish was a flashy writer but the balance was still solid in the early-mid 90s (so says me--of course that was when I firmly became a soap obsessed fan) and ratings held steady until the end of her run when it was Behr who was looking for any opportunity to get her pushed out. (And there started to be one too many doppelganger stories, the bomb stuff, etc.) However, I am firmly of the belief Who Killed Will was McTavish (and I did love that mystery at the time.) It seems like her, for one thing, and... McTavish repeated so many of the same story beats for her Who Killed Michael Cambias mystery (that Eden Reigel mentioned at that same panel) when she returned for her third stint (which actually started off... kinda good? Her third stint I mean.) But Janet herself was Nixon I'm sure--it seems like Nixon at her most soapy OTT, and it led to the whole Natalie in the Well (on the formerly unknown Wildwind estate) and the whole Gothic Wildwind storyline (Angelique in the attic, etc) that we were discussing is classic Gothic Nixon. In the last (and maybe only) Washam interview (is it still online? I'd love to re-read it) he basically said that he just REALLY did not like that woman. I think she tended to just railroad over the other writers, is the impression I got. I assume Broderick felt the same. In that same interview Washam says he didn't write a single thing for GL. Broderick, because she's such a great lady, gave him the job because he needed something like 6-12 more months of steady WGA soap writing work to get a full pension, so she just had him on the GL staff long enough so he could get that. Let me echo everyone else's sentiments, that it's tons of fun to read your recaps/reactions and how much you're loving the show. I'm not sure how many more consecutive episodes are up--I haven't checked on YT in years (partly because I know I don't have time to revisit it all right now, and the temptation is big) but you have years of good stuff to go. (I did run across a Margaret DePriest episode recently and it wasn't bad... But you could tell she had the mandate to make the episode much more "action") For anyone interested, in the Loving/The City thread we got talking about crossovers (specifically the 1992 AMC/Loving crossover that got me hooked on Loving too) and I posted scans of the pages from the 1998 AMC trivia book that covered (most) of the crossovers AMC has had with the other ABC soaps (they don't mention OLTL's Anna Wolek visiting her "good friend" Joe Martin in the early months of AMC--which you can see in one of the 1970 episodes on Youtube.)

I certainly still have no idea who Claudia Cohen is! Of course cross overs to try to bring over viewers to the ABC/Nixon soaps is nothing new. We have that early episode of AMC where Joe Martin's friend Anna Wolek stops over (I have to wonder if they actually advertised that at all or if it did make any OLTL fans check out AMC or if it was just a cute idea--I mean they didn't even air close together back then.) (And OLTL had a GH crossover in their first year, didn't they? Which would have taken some planning to bring John Baradino to NYC to film... And then there were cases like Paul Martin coming to Llanview for the infamous 1979 trial--but I think that was done more because the show needed another lawyer character (I could be wrong but I think Paul wasn't even currently on AMC.) In the 90s when the Labines (??) brought Marco Dane to GH was that crossover advertised at all? The character had been off soaps for 10 or so years... As for Adam and Dorian I *think* they only met during the babyswitch AMC/OLTL storyline (since they were both grandparents of the babies...) I *do* like the idea of the soaps being in the same universe (and certainly I think, even without crossovers, Nixon thought of her shows being that way) although I admit things like the Babyswitch just went on too long, and sometimes casual short crossovers are the best. From the AMC and then the OLTL Trivia books, there are brief bits about the crossovers (including things like Jack from AMC on The City dating Sidney). They don't even mention Anna Wolek on AMC and I SWEAR there was some sort of OLTL and The City crossover (maybe even after the City ended?) involving some crime storyline... And you're right, Adam and Elaine Princi's Dorian did interact (but I don't think I saw that...)

Thanks so much for all this! I know I certainly watched during that era and a lot of the details came back to me (including Marian Seldes and her role.) Was that church the same one where... someone had their wedding in the snow in the 90s? (Was it a Stacy wedding? God I should remember all this better...) It always seemed random to me. I did like Lorraine a lot, though more so on The City, and actually I even started to like Danny on The City--not sure why but I just found him more appealing but he fit better on it.

There was definitely one in 1988 for OLTL's 20th (I swear!) But now find me the videos!

What was the finale of Gilbert's storyline? I have some scripts from his early appearances (which were close to supernatural--and credited to Agnes Nixon) but don't fully remember.But I agree that Addie Walsh's stint following Agnes Nixon was mostly really good (or I thought so at the time) and she followed the tone well. Honestly I don't really remember Brown/Esensten's work until the Loving Murders started in full. I think on my old half broken laptop I have some of the James Kiberd Vietnam stuff (including him at the Vietnam memorial) as well as some other good stuff like the Jonathan supernatural stuff, and I'll try my best to get that off the laptop and uploaded.

Totally agree

I see what you did there. I think it was about the mix AMC had. And like I said, some of the soap press in the early days did NOT approve. Later on Schemering would laud the show for its mix--but I believe also felt that sometimes it could be jarring going from scene to scene. About the recap of the Paley Center talk, when Agnes Nixon's web page was launched, the most exciting thing were the two kinescopes of early AMC in such good quality (the page said her son found them in a closet when they were moving her into a condo from her house) and I DID save those (and posted them years back on YT as have others--I like to think from my saved videos but probably not ) But they also had other clips as I mentioned earlier--lots of not too exciting things (later anniversary episodes of AMC and OLTL that we've all seen) but they had at least two of her Paley Center--then the Museum of Television (Broadcasting?) talks from the late 80s for the anniversary of OLTL and then later from their Worlds Without End exhibit (I have the companion book) where Agnes Nixon spoke for a good hour, with others speaking and clips, about her shows and they were FASCINATING. And I wish I had had the foresight to save those videos too--withoin a year the videos were all gone from her site and no one was updating it and I've never seen the videos of these two panel discussions resurface since I believe the dates are roughly November 89 to early Summer 1992? I started watching very late 91 and I specifically remember when Agnes Nixon was no longer listed as HW but Megan McTavish was (although to my young soap watching brain I didn't feel the show changed tone very much at the time--at least not at first, and Nixon was still involved in story meetings as she would be during the Broderick subsequent era--when I interviewed Hal Corley he said she was almost always at meetings offering input and would even phone him up a few times at 2am with sudden story ideas. So maybe her involvement made the transition smoother, although in hindsight even in that first successful era, you see some of McTavish's more stunt heavy, and arguably mean spirited writing come in.... And there's some discussion that McTavish wasn't Nixon's choice though she got along with her at the time--Broderick and Wisner Washam, who had both assisted Nixon on her early 90s return, did not--Washam retired as we know and Broderick went to... GL?)

I believe she is on Facebook...

That's a good question. But it does seem like Corrie is continuing to trim away their "eccentric character" types that they were always known for (but have been losing for decades, to be fair.)

This makes sense (also, maybe it had already changed, but giving Corrie a regular weekday time slot and not one that jumps around by 30 minutes depending on the day, makes sense.) I do wonder what it will mean for the CBC/Canadian airings I've watched with my grandma for years. It could give us a chance to finally catch up (for a while now we get 6 episodes a week--2 on Fridays--but we're permanently about a 4-5 weeks behind the UK which means I hate to look up anything about the show online or even here due to spoilers.) I mean the only soap I follow where I'm thankful for 6 episodes a week is The Archers, and that's a 13 minute show I can listen to on the bus to work As for Dev, I actually sorta feel kinda defensive about him as he seems so hated online. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan (though my grandma finds him often very funny which might add to why I feel some defensive ness) but I think like DR said he certainly works as a supporting (VERY supporting) character with his kids, even mostly with Bernie. Exactly--it seems like they try to recreate aspects of it anyway basically every single year (it reminds me of American soaps when they started to all get serial killer stories.)

Yeah she was perfectly fine. It's hard to invest in a character like that, especially when we know she's just going to be on for a limited time. I will say her acting style, etc, fit the show better than Mischa Barton who always seemed like she came from another planet. I like the Seb actor well enough too, but I agree with you. Out of the major storylines right now, it's the worst offender at a story I just can't really muster any interest in (and the addition of the new sister character is *not* helping and really just makes Seb's character all the more confusing. She was engaged to him??) Curtis is such a non character, I had to look up who he was as I didn't recognize the name (but he did have some lines this week. And he's fine for what he is, I just don't think the show has any interest in ever expanding his role from random school assistant.) But you do make a good point I've noticed since watching Neighbours since the reboot (I watched it fairly regularly for a few years 10-15 years back partly as I was dating a guy from Brisbane who loves soaps, knew I loved soaps and wanted me to watch with him, and it was easy to find for a brief time here in Canada.) The guest characters who more often than not you don't want to get too interested in even if you like the character because, again more often than not, they're simply not going to be expanded into anything more.

I agree with all of that. It's interesting, obviously I started watching Loving before I was on the internet, so I wasn't really aware of any reaction. I did start being aware and making notes (because I'm a nerd) of when the headwriter listing changed. I did always wonder if there was a reaction to the AMC crossover and if it made *any* impact on ratings? To be honest, I'm not sure why Loving didn't try to have a crossover from the start. (That video links to a nice scene between Kate, Dinah Lee and Louis. Even if it is about Gonorrhea LOL) I'm not sure that anyone would recommend Pine Valley as a place to take a vacation from trauma...