Khan

Actually, @Soapsuds, I think Kavovit was fired pre-MADD. And in both cases, I don't think it was P&G who fired them so much as it was CBSD, and Lucy Johnson, in particular, putting pressure on whoever was in charge to fire them. Once you got past the accent, Joan Collins was not bad as Alexandra. In fact, I think she was much more suited to the role than Marj Dusay, who I was keen on initially, but who really disappointed me over time.

Mary Alice Dwyer-Dobbin, who replaced Kenneth L. Fitts (?) as P&G's last Executive in Charge of Production.

They probably should have killed off Laura when SF left, since Susan Oliver and Rosemary Forsyth weren't successful recasts.

It's a miracle the new contract was ratified, considering how much controversy the AI provisions had generated.

Norman Lear was a true visionary, someone who expanded the kinds of stories one could tell on a half-hour sitcom. May he RIP.

I can say this much: years ago, Karen Harris (GH, PC) revealed at a seminar that she'd been offered the HW'ing gig, but that after talking with several people, she turned down P&G's offer. I agree, @Mitch64. I, too, would take Jill Lorie Hurst over David Kreizman anyday. IIRC, Beverlee McKinsey left GL around the same time that Barbara Rush joined AMC as Nola Orsini. One of the soap mags - either SOD or SOW - picked up on the resemblance between the two and asked Rush if she would play Alexandra if asked. Rush said she certainly would consider it (again, if asked, which GL never did). In retrospect, GL probably should have asked, if only on a temporary basis, so that they could have wrapped up the story properly. I respectfully disagree. I think JC was capable of handling the material and the workload, but I don't think MADD was all that enthused with her. The only thing missing from "Springpack" was a shot of Ned Beatty running through the woods in his skivvies.

I agree. Abby made an innocent statement. Scott Easton took that ball and ran with it. Once Abby realized what he had done, she was horrified. (After all, she had gone through something similar years before, when her ex-husband kidnapped her kids). However, there was no way for Abby to undo the mess without making it look as if she had conspired with Easton.

Yes, but at what cost? His work, for the most part, was simplistic and gimmicky. What's more, it reveals someone who, at their core, had serious psychological issues, particularly in regards to women and to sexuality. (Sorry, @Toups). JER might have saved DAYS from cancellation at that point, but is DAYS truly the better for him having worked there? Are soaps in general truly better off because of him?

To say I wasn't a fan of JER's work on DAYS would be almost an understatement, lol.

Mike Johnson is so in the closet, it's not even funny.

Given Mickey and Laura's history, it made sense for another psychiatrist to come in and help Mickey recover from his breakdown. Otherwise, if it had been Laura, it would've been a conflict of interest of the highest order, lol. I think the only actress who could have matched Susan Flannery's take on Laura was Erika Slezak; and obviously, she was otherwise engaged at the time.

God bless Peter Bergman, but he's basically playing "Dr. Cliff Abbott" (or "Jack Warner," whichever you prefer).

I don't HATE Robert and Anna as a couple. I'd be fine with them reuniting and spending their twilight years together. But it's clear someone(s) at GH feels differently. If it's Tristan and Finola who keep resisting the idea, then I say, why force the issue? It'd be lot easier just to have Robert and Anna pursue separate romances than to reunite them and make everyone, including the actors and the audience, utterly miserable.

I've seen parts of it on YouTube. Lisa Hartman certainly brought enough camp for everyone, lol! I dunno. There was nothing wrong with what I saw of the miniseries, per se, but it didn't stand out a whole lot for me either. I think part of the problem was that, no matter what, it was going to pale in comparisons to both the book and the film.

That should be an interesting book to read. When TEXAS premiered, NBC was in serious trouble. The only shows on their lineup that were even marginally successful were "CHiPs," "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life." Everything else was struggling, especially the new shows - "Hello, Larry," "Supertrain," "Pink Lady & Jeff," etc. - that then-network president Fred Silverman believed would bring the network to #1. Affiliates were bailing, President Carter's decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics cost the network millions of dollars in lost ad revenue, and I think there was even talk of NBC folding, like the DuMont Network before them.

Not that I recall. Nobody went to jail or anything; and by this point, people were used to Abby's shenanigans. The real takeaway was that Abby was back in control after being dominated or manipulated for so long.

You're right. Writing was a BIG issue for DAYS between 1989 and 1992 or three. (I would say the issue has never been fully resolved, but I digress). Ken Corday pinned his hopes on Deidre Hall's return bringing back viewers, but what he and everyone else obviously failed to realize was that bringing her and Wayne Northrop back was not going to solve everything. Sure enough, when she returned and reunited with "Roman," the ratings immediately fell again, because DAYS was still a mess, with stories that ranged from mediocre to godawful. Viewers might have been thrilled to see "Doc" again, but not enough to watch everything else that was going on around her.

IIRC, there was a scene, set at some dinner party or function, where Abby, fed up with being blackmailed by so many people, tells all (while wearing a stunning Travilla original, lol).

Just one of the many, many characters on DAYS whom JER reduced to their most basic functions. Susan Flannery's Laura reads like such a complex woman; yet, in JER's hands, JLB's Laura is little more than "Crazy Doctor Lady."

That's because Gene Palumbo botched the whole thing with some bad writing. "Marlena returns from the dead" should have been a slam-dunk. Instead, it was so underwhelming. OLTL was in serious trouble by the fall of '91. The show had OD'ed on '80's excess and needed just the right EP/HW team to push it into the '90's.

This is what I have been saying for the longest time. I wouldn't necessarily re-pair Robert and Anna, but I agree, @Vee, that the ONLY reason why he and Diane are together is due to their ages and nothing more.

I think what also makes her casting (and even Christopher Stone's casting as Bill) harder to accept is that, at the same time JLB and CS are on the show, so, too, are John Clarke and Suzanne Rogers, still playing Mickey and Maggie after all those years. I really believe that Ed Mallory needed to be there for the duration of that story. Even if you can't picture his Bill being married to JLB's Laura, his presence nevertheless would have provided further continuity.

Such a terrible loss for his loved ones. My heart continues to go out to them, and to everyone whose lives have been touched in one way or another by mental illness.

Now is the time to introduce Calvin, Eric's long-lost, black son, by his first love, a black girl named Justine.

Yeah, but I don't think AIW was nearly as fun, lol.