Khan

Does anyone have the inside story as to why Kathy Breech was replaced as Karen Wolek? Thanks to YT, I was able to watch some of her work. Although she was very pretty, I really don't think she would've been up to playing the prostitution story with as many psychological layers as JL was. Was that why TPTB replaced her, or was it something else?

Yep, lol! Another missed opportunity: having AP return - in later years, of course, probably after "Soap" was dead and gone - for an episode as the spirit of Reverend Ruthledge. For instance, he could've returned during GL's big 50th anniversary celebration, providing counsel to one of the younger characters who was in crisis (although, chances are, it would've been Johnny Bauer and his damn cancer, lol). And after he/she/they had overcome their dilemma, they go back to thank the man, but learn he had died during WWII. I still would love to know which fool at P&G or CBS approved that opening. The music is okay (although, a little sleepy), but those visuals are just too muddy-looking.

I agree, lol. That story cried out for some good, old-fashioned irony.

And the episodes always have the most mawkish-sounding titles, too. Like, "A Marigold for Margie." (In that one, she's a botanist in her early '20's, who has contracted a rare blood disease that will prevent her from fulfilling her lifelong dream of visiting Africa and studying the plant life there.)

Sigh. The '60's. When a girl on TV couldn't experience anything in life without dying at the same time... She's graduating from college/nursing school - and she's dying! She's getting engaged to her college sweetheart - and she's dying! She's going to have the baby she's always dreamed of - and she's dying! She's published the Best Selling Novel of All Time and she's winning the Nobel Prize for discovering the cure for cancer - and guess what? She's dying (and from something that her cure can't cure)! She's always! [!@#$%^&*]! DYING!

EB looks like Barnabas Collins getting his groove on at the Blue Whale. (IYKYK, lol).

I think that's because their lawsuits with NBC and New World were so publicly messy that the other networks wouldn't go near them, fearing that they, too, would end up in court one day. (Same goes, I think, for Pat Falken Smith, who should have worked in soaps a lot longer than she did). Also, even before they had created SaBa, the Dobsons had essentially retired, claiming that head-writing was a nonstop grind that never allowed them much of a personal life. NBC, however, lured them back with the promise of creative control - which, as we all know, was an assurance that would come back to bite all concerned in their respective asses, lol. Maybe it's me, but I think there was a very good reason why the Dobsons never wrote much for teens and young adults on their other shows, lol.

In a way, he didn't. He took the gig, however, so that he could be at home more with his kids, as his wife was pursuing film work that often took her out-of-town. Or, at least, that's the story I heard.

That is a story that would be just as juicy to follow today! I wish Mercedes McCambridge had made a special guest appearance at some point in the later years as Mary Holden. It's strange to think that was the same actor who played The Major on "Soap."

Which was pretty much when GL itself became OTT. I'd argue, though, that the performances had to be OTT across the board because the storylines had become so unbelievable (and no, I'm not talking just about the clone either, lol). By the way, I'm not defending all of Deas' work. I'm more than willing to accept that he lost control of himself at some point there. But I do believe it likely was the result of not being as happy at GL as he might have been at the start.

...Sigh...

No budget.

I'll wager that she would have appreciated it more if you had created a pair of sniping, sniveling dogs and then named them "Frank" and "Doris." It's been a few semesters, so I can't recall any particular SaBa episodes that stand out to me. Generally speaking, though, I wouldn't watch anything from the show's first year, as I agree with everyone else that the younger cast members, save for Marcy Walker and Robin Wright, were mostly awful. Nor would I watch anything after 1987, because once the Dobsons are locked out, the show turns to [!@#$%^&*] almost immediately. (You watched the Guza/Pratt era of GH, @Vee, so you probably have some idea, lol). According to good ol' wikipedia, the Dobsons return as HW for a year starting in February '91. I remember BD telling SOD that she and JD would need two years to turn things around. (Me: "TWO YEARS???"). Obviously, they never fulfilled their promise, and that probably was for the best, because I remember becoming very bored with the show. At one point, when Jack Wagner's Warren was in Russia, I was like, "If only the Cold War still existed, so he could get trapped there and never return." In retrospect, it was obvious that the Dobsons had not watched their show while they were...um...away, and that they were writing a version of SaBa that no longer existed.

Frank and Ron really blew it when they pitched to JS their stupid idea for how to bring back Blackie for the anniversary.

I agree.

Will do, lol!

Personally, I thought Bill and Lee Phillip Bell set B&B in the wrong city. If you want to do a show that is set within the fashion industry, you set it in the home of "Fashion Week" and the annual Met gala, which is NYC. To me, L.A. is more about the entertainment industry than anything else. The earliest that I remember watching a soap with my mom was watching Greg and Jenny on AMC. My mom, however, watched a lot of shows: AMC, LOVING, RH, CAPITOL, ATWT, OLTL, GL, later Y&R. For some reason, though, she never got into any NBC shows, whereas I loved to rush home from school everyday and catch the second half of DAYS.

LOL!! Before there was Todd and Blair, there was Brad and Jenny.

JL was wonderful and a much-needed addition to AMC at a time when (let's face it) the show was faltering. But she was not Liza Colby.

Whenever I think of Bridget Dobson, the words "mad genius" spring to mind. Even as a junior high school student, learning about the ins and outs of this crazy industry through reading issues of SOD and SOW every week, I thought BD was screwy af, but also fascinating and, of course, brilliant. I think she (and her husband) understood better than any other scribes in daytime that human beings aren't entirely heroic; that we are, in fact, deeply, deeply flawed; and that it is in our flaws where we find comedy and tragedy existing side by side, nuzzling each other's necks like a pair of illicit lovers in the midst of a stolen afternoon. And, my God, how Bridget & Jerry loved to pen the most macabre and irreverent ideas! I mean, what other head-writing team, past or present, would even dare have SaBa's Augusta Lockridge serve up her daughter's deceased pigeon to the rest of the family as an hors d'oeuvre!? Even JER's mind wasn't so twisted - and that man, ICYMI, wrote a storyline where a character's penis was severed in a fit of anger, then reattached upside down! When I was in the sixth grade, I chose to write a research paper (the first one I ever wrote) on the life and work of Irna Phillips. To this day, I don't know why I chose her as my subject, except that I loved watching my mother's soaps and maybe I wanted to learn more about them. Like I said, I don't know why I wrote my paper on Irna, but I'm glad I did write about her, for two reasons: one, the more I learned about the history of this genre and of the people who left their marks upon it - not just Irna, but others, like Agnes Nixon, and Bill Bell, and Douglas Marland, and Bridget and Jerome Dobson, and so on and so on - the more I fell in love with the industry and wished to be a part of it one day; and two, I'm grateful for whatever good sense that led me to write about Ms. Phillips, because it was BD, in particular, who gave me that little piece of cockeyed wisdom that has never steered me wrong in life from the moment I first came across it. As BD told Christopher Schemering in his book commemorating GL's 50th TV anniversary: "We aim for purity...and we always miss." She, of course, was talking in general about her and her husband's approach to soap writing - and if I don't have that quote letter-perfect, please forgive - but from the very first time I read her words, I thought they could apply not just to writing or to writing for the soaps, but also to how we go about this so-called "business of living." In life, we do aim always to do what's perfect and pure - and most of the time, we [!@#$%^&*] up royally. (God knows you all have been witness to many times when I have!) But even on those rare occasions when we don't eff up, we never get it exactly the way we pictured it either. No matter how many times we promise ourselves that this time - this time - we'll get it right, like Bridget says, we always miss. I thank Bridget and Jerome Dobson for the many hours of entertainment they gave us on GH, GL, ATWT and SaBa, but more than that, I thank Bridget Dobson for giving me my life's basic philosophy. Like I said, Bridge, you were one looney chick, but damn if you weren't right.

Even when Bill Bell still was head writer, B&B was a show I never could tolerate for more than a couple of months at a time. I loved watching Susan Flannery, of course, and Darlene Conley always was a hoot, lol. But the rest of that cast, I could take-or-leave.

I chalk that up to the same forces that undermined most GL actors' performances in the show's last 5-10 years: poor writing, minimal direction and absolutely zero rehearsal time.

Good God, lol! Uh...thanks...I guess...?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: JER hated writing for DAYS, and it showed. IMO... AMC: 1992. ATWT: 1993. CAPITOL: 1986. DAYS: 1989. THE DOCTORS: whenever Rita Lakin and Rick Edelstein stopped writing for the show. EON: 1983. GH: 1996. GL: 1994. LOVING: 1985 (and even that's being generous). OLTL: 1990. RH: had some rough years, but ended in '89 on a good note. SaBa: 1987. Y&R: 2004.

I agree. Thank you for reminding me about the Emmons Carlson case and its' aftermath, @dc11786. I tend to think the court ruled in favor of Carlson on account of his gender.