EricMontreal22

Yes she absolutely was involved in that story which seems to have gone nowhere. She didn't start to remove herself from the writing until 1973.

100%

Right--I did think of that, as it was around the same few years. Accents I guess...

I can barely remember who was the person they tested her with for the AMC revival but I *do* remember kinda liking them together (anyone remember better? lol) But yes, I feel the same. It might not help that when I became a regular viewer Tad was presumed dead and she was with Craig... I do remember that my sister's best friend had been an AMC viewer with her mom and dad and that they were very excited that Tad was returning... OK I instantly remembered that. And now once again I'm sad about what coulda been with the reboot.

I think this is a great observation. I do wonder if some of that was down to how Nixon had started writing story and plot outlines. By this point (maybe even by the mid 70s) many have discussed how she *didn't* write detailed story outlines anymore--the focus more was on a mood or theme and ABC simply allowed that because they trusted her at this stage (in her "memoir" I think even Megan McTavish talks about Nixon's writing in this way in the 90s and she basically seems to admit that it worked for Nixon. But if Nixon wasn't in charge of the daily execution of these ideas...) What was with the ABC soaps around that time bringing in Aussie "hunks" from Heartbreak High? Richard (Corey Paige?) Tanner on AMC (Vince Poletto) OK not from Heartbreak High but didn't Ingo Rademacher start on GH around this same time?

*raises hand* Me too.

YES the wild waters is what I most remember too. (I still can't believe they grounded you but still continued to watch AMC and wouldn't let you. Too cruel.)

No kidding. As the soaps dwindle down to barely existing they have seemingly just given up on bothering to look for outside talent.

That's a mix up. When Ted Orsini went off the rails he hunted down Tad and Dixie in the "wilds of Canada" (I think I have the gist of that right. As a young teen I just found it amusing that they had to go to Canada to find wilderness.)

Well technically Janet was a sister, not a twin. We did get the stuff when Natalie and Janet's awful mother would visit--but that was just backstory about their childhood. You're right, there are a lot of gaps there. I always assumed the Hunters were French Canadian but probably just because of LeClerc. I feel you

That IS a good point and fair. I may be giving Nixon too much credit--it wouldn't be the first time--but I think she had so many more ties to ABC than those talents did (especially with AMC--which she was still involved in even if Washam was HW--being still at such a high) that it would have taken a lot more for her to make the move. @dc11786 Those are great points, and yes, the bible is full of great stuff (and the bible was before Marland got involved) that simply didn't make it on screen and it's not easy to guess who made that decision, at least in the majority of the cases.

That's been my impression as well--DePriest's first year doesn't get much talk, but it seems to have built the reputation of Pat FS and *especially* the Labine and Mayer who then went immediately, it seems, to Love of Life. Did DePriest have a soap background before?

I do wish they found some new excuse for Harold's exit because it seems basically like he's leaving for the very same reason he just recently came back anyway.

Well I certainly remember that--but not many Phoebe/Erica altercations.

The NBC isn't a quote but someone saying "this COULD be what happened maybe" as far as I'm concerned (I had forgotten that from the great Ryan's Hope book though!) And of course Loving was already at ABC and had been for a year--it all just sounds like supposition to me. But obviously people were concerned--still, as mentioned, Ryan's Hope was doing poorly already and why anyone would consider it a bargaining chip is beyond me.

Thanks for this! I never thought about the fact that around the same time ABC Daytime obviously made a point of hiring outside the soap world for exec producers (Felicia Minei Behr was doing fine at AMC.) Gottlieb was the highest profile one, but Loving hired Haidee Granger from the BBC (who Logan thinks shows promise--but would have a falling out with headwriter Addie Walsh, serve as HW herself for three months, hire Millee Taggert and Bob Guza, and then get fired by ABC) and for GH they took TV movie producer Wendy Riche who Logan doesn't think shows much promise, but of course... would (mostly.) However, Gottlieb seemed to be the only one to immediately hire a headwriter from outside the soap world as well. (But what was the S&M sex?)

Malone says in the Llanview oral history book that he had been learning so much about OLTL's historic storylines and loving the history that he felt he would use Megan's death as a way to remind the audience of the show's legacy with characters coming to her death bed and telling her stories about their lives (cue the flashbacks.) I might find that annoying myself if I was on my death bed, but it was an amazing week for new viewers like myself. I was NEVER a Todd fan (though did like him marginally better as played by TSJ who I like a lot as an actor.) The fact that Howarth often didn't want to be there didn't help. Funny, i was watching regularly then, and have zero memory about Grace Phillips as Sarah Agreed. For those of us as viewers, it can be easy to forget how much has changed in attitudes and awareness in 30 years.

LeCler did get acclaim in the late 70s replacing Frank Langella and Raul Julia as Dracula (really!) In the beloved late 70s Edward Gorey designed revival on Broadway. Interesting they couldn't make Jeremy and Ava work--I remember their main storyline was a Summer (?) story at the new Universal Studios Orlando (before Disney owned ABC obviously) because they were on the run from a General Hospital supervillain I think (Faison was it? I had no idea who he was so it was a cross over completely lost on me.) There was a goofy scene with Ava interacting with the animatronic giant King Kong that I think the soap press throught was a dig/homage to the infamous Ryan's Heart story.

Yeah saying Nixon threatened to bolt to NBC if ABC didn't give Loving RH's timeslot doesn't... make any sense at all when you look at the facts. In terms of ratings--how much truth was there that Loving out performed... Y&R I think (could that be?) in NYC and some other major metro markets? That always gets mentioned but with no proof lol He wasn't great at it but I kinda loved the Gothic over the top spooky storyline. It was during Agnes Nixon's 1993-94 run as HW when, as we discussed some weeks back, she decidedly focused on Gothic storylines. Wow that was fast

Brian Green's Brian was such a departure I remember thinking as a 12-13 year old. I liked him (and already at the time knew him from his Broadway musical stuff) but he just seemed so much... not like a bad boy (or former bad boy.) Interesting to see the Cullitons listed as (I think?) breakdown writers with Hal Corley in the credits. Thanks for those Michael Logan pieces. I don't agree with a lot of what he says in them (from my memory anyway...) but they seem to be honest--if catty--and not how he would eventually become in his soap writing which was simply unbearable. Great question that I have no answer for Did Phoebe ever really have much of a gripe with Erica after Erica's obsession with Chuck? (I'm sure I'm forgetting something.) In theory of course she should have hated her simply due to the eternal Erica/Brooke feud, and yet...

+

Speaking of missing the first ten minutes today--how exactly did Derek help out Hayley?

Oh wow! Thanks Mitch.

I've been working at preparing a conference so haven't been able to watch since Tuesday, so how annoying to sit down and see that Wednesday's episode was nearly entirely pre-empted here for Trump's inane/insane tariff crapfest. And then so were the first ten minutes of Thursday's and Friday's (I'm sure others in this thread on the West coast have complained about this...) I admit, having not been a daily soap viewer in ten+ years I forgot about the annoyance of news pre-emptions when you're a soap fan. In the past, I usually could get around it because the soaps I watched were simulcast here on Canadian stations which wouldn't have the pre-emption, or I could watch the streaming feed, but with Gates, I can only watch it via its Seattle feed (have any Canadian stations picked it up for simulcast?) and all the sties streaming it are region blocked. Still, it doesn't seem like I missed much on Wednesday (I wasn't looking forward to seeing how Derek's My Dinner with Andre went.)

I think this is what always gets me. Don't get me wrong--I've stuck with a fave soap for YEARS of mediocre or even bad writing and still mourned when it was cancelled, so I get it. But it's not like RH was at a creative high and ABC/Evil Aggie were sabotaging it (well maybe ABC was with some of the creatives they hired...) @DRW50 I completely agree.