dc11786

I think JER could have had a field day with a long slow burn between Mike and Kate with Billie used as an early arc where Laura disapproved of Billie because she was Kate's daughter. I don't think enough was done with Kate's connection to the Horton family, and that might be for the reason that you are alluding to. Essentially, Kate was suppose to be a mostly nice character and the affair with Bill and Lucas' conception was a reminder of her messy past. With Billie and Austin, at least you could argue that Curtis was scum, but the Hortons were the "good" people in Salem. I get that Kate and Vivian were more exciting, but it became too played out because no other angle was played. Leaning into Kate and Laura for a bit would have stretched the shelf life of Kate and Vivian. I think you could have played Kate's guilt about how her affair with Bill impact his family. I would have had her secretly funding some project for the Horton Center (or maybe helping to get Laura's counselling license back) with Mike discovering Kate's generosity and slowly becoming friendly with her. To Kate, Mike could confess what actually happened in Israel, which I think should have also set up some sort of situation with a woman that could have been mined down the road as a complication. Realizing Bo would never get over Hope, Billie decides to move on with Mike, but, of course, Bo is possessive which upsets both Billie and Gina/Hope. Kate encourages Mike and Billie, but Vivian points out that maybe Kate's desire for Billie to be with Mike is her own desire to reunite with Bill. Of course, Vivian would run with this idea to Victor in order to complicate things. Billie and Bo would have one final moment and, in true soap opera fashion, Billie gets knocked up, but confesses to Mike who feels many complicated feelings because of his own situation involving his two fathers, Mickey and Bill. Mike speaks second hand to Mickey, who admits that he still loves Mike as a son even though he is not biologically his. Laura would overhear this and start to ruminate about the past herself. Vivian lands herself a seat on the hospital board and initiates a plot to bring Bill Horton back to Salem permanently by securing funding for the Tom Horton Cardiac Unit with the stipulation that Bill be in charge of the department. Titan and Kate are also donors to the project so that when Bill returns he assumes Kate has been the secret donor. The Israeli incident comes to light and Mike is up on charges for his part in this and turns to Mickey for help navigating the situation, which upsets Bill. Laura learns that Kate has been involved in helping the Horton Center and specifically helping her secure her license and begins to suspect that Kate is trying to worm her way back in. Bill and Laura have a push-pull dynamic complicated by Laura's inability to forgive Bill that is often fueled by Bill's desire to connect with his son, Lucas, especially when he continues to find Mike turning to Mickey for advice. Kate and Bill spend more time together when Victor suffers a heart attack, but Kate starts to realize that Bill is emotionally incapable of true love at this point in his life and is more after lust and rejects him. Kate does find solace and comfort in the arms of his son, Mike, and Kate starts realize that Mike reminds her of the man that Bill use to be. Bill, who is scarred by his time in Africa, decides to seek therapy with Marlena. Bill wants Victor to be in a trial for his new cardiac device and Vivian intervenes feeling like Bill is trying to rid himself of the competition by setting Victor up with a faulty device because this is Vivian and she doesn't operate in the world of logic 24/7. Vivian suspects that Kate and Bill are in cahoots. Meanwhile, Mike speaks to Billie and agrees to stand by her after she has told Bo the truth. Billie does tell Bo, but Bo thinks this is a ploy. Seeing this as a win-win situation, Billie runs back to Mike and says Bo knows. In the meantime, Kate has started to suspect the timing of the pregnancy and confronts her daughter during an appointment with Dr. Bader, while Kate is in the hospital visiting Victor. Future grandfather Bill stops by to visit Billie after learning she's hear from Dr. Bader and overhears an argument about the baby's paternity. Bill is torn on what to do, but when Dr. Bader has some tests ordered, Bill adds an order to determine the baby's blood type and learns it is impossible that Mike is the father. Laura has been stewing over Mike and Billie's news of a baby and a quick wedding in the Horton garden. Alice is thrilled, but Laura is surprised to have an ally in Bill. Bill confesses to Laura that the baby cannot be Mike's leading to an ugly confrontation between Bill and Laura over both Mike and Lucas' paternities. In the heat of the moment, Laura tells Bill she wished to God for so many nights that Mickey was the father. Given the mess that Bo has made of Hope's life, maybe the child would be better off with Mike. Laura suggests that Mike isn't an idiot and knows the baby isn't his, but Bill insists that he tell Mike before Mike ruins his life. In the meantime, Marie has suffered a health crisis and Bill rushes off to his sister's side. Kate is worried that Mike might be saddled with a child that isn't his and tries to worm it out of Mike, who admits he knows the baby isn't his. Mike tells Kate that the child deserves a good life, and if Bo won't step up, he will. Kate knows the pain a paternity lie can cause, and reminds Mike that he knows as well. Kate tries to get Mike to call off the wedding to Billie, which Billie overhears. Billie and Kate go at it, and Billie viciously lets Kate know that Kate has no leg to stand on here. Kate instead goes to Bo and begs him to own up to the situation, but Bo still thinks this is all a ploy to get him and Billie back together. Laura lets Mike know that Bill knows the truth about the baby. Mike and Billie considering postponing their wedding, but decide to go through with it with Kristen and Jennifer as the bridesmaids and Lucas and Austin as the groomsmen. Everyone gathers in the Horton garden as Mike and Billie prepare to exchange vows. Kate finds Bill before he arrives and Kate insists that Bill listen to her. She tells him Mike knows about the baby, but Bill thinks she is just helping Billie to pull one over on his son. Kate agrees with Bill that she thinks Billie and Mike's marriage will only bring them each heart ache, but that it's there choice to make. Arrogant Bill shows up in the backyard to object to the wedding and fight breaks out between Mike and Bill leading Billie to storm off and end up in a traffic accident where she loses the baby. The driver being Sami Brady who speeds off unaware of what she has set in motion. Billie loses the baby, falls into a depression, and she and Mike marry anyway. At this point, Billie refuses to seek help and slowly becomes more and more detached from reality and starts to become obsessed with Will Roberts, her nephew, who Sami brings by often because of her own guilt regarding her role in Billie's loss. Mike continues to seek solace from Kate, who is equally concerned about Mike and Billie. Billie is also determined to have another child, and Mike knows that's the worst thing for them right now. Mike goes as far as seeking a vasectomy in order to prevent this from escalating, but is talked down by his mother, Laura, who says that Mike needs to stop hiding things and treat Billie with compassion and not dishonesty. To avoid Billie, Mike starts to spend more time at the hospital where he starts to clash with his father, who has now been appointed chief of staff. Mike, in turn, is there for Kate when Kate learns that Vivian is the surrogate mother for hers and Victor's child. Kate and Mike keep Vivian's pregnancy from Billie, but it is Laura who speaks with Billie openly about Vivian's pregnancy. Billie finds comfort in her mother-in-law, Laura, and continues to turn on Kate. Vivian also uses Billie's fragile mental state and the growing connection between Kate and Mike to suggest to Billie that her mother and husband are having an affair. This leads to a public confrontation between Mike, Billie, and Kate at the Penthouse Grille when Vivian spots them together and calls Billie. Laura intercepts part of the call and tries to talk Billie down, but Billie is enraged. Vivian awaits for the showdown while Bill shows up to meet with his brother Mickey to discuss a legal issue at the hospital and is front row for the verbal altercation between his son, daughter-in-law, and his former lover. I apologize for being long winded, I kinda got lost on that tangent. I think the other piece of the puzzle that wasn't addressed is that Nicky was Vivian's nephew and had been raised as Vivian's adopted son. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Victor Webster came on right before Vivian left the first time so I suspect the Vivian angle was dropped because Louise Sorel left. I liked Quinn 1.0. I loved the seediness of it all, but, after some time away from those years, I could see how it was all too much with Chloe's post-partum and Carly's drug addiction also intersecting into that story. I didn't hate Quinn being Vivian's son because I felt it could explain why Vivian was so controlling involving Nicky. Her own child was taken from her. Later sons, not so much. There's no way the Vivian I know and love would have let Ivan live after letting her believe her child was dead. Ivan would be buried alive for the next decade.

I remember the passcode story. I believe Mike had been involved with arms dealers when he was living in Israel with his son Jeremy or something of that nature. He had been reluctantly roped into some scheme and Stefano had used that information to his advantage. I don't even know if that secret ever came out. Most of the women available were the losers in the love triangles with the Horton girls (Billie and Kristen). Both women were friendly with Jennifer, Mike's sister, so there was easy access, but I am not sure if either could have generated much conflict. Mike might have worked as their talk-to / comfortable second choice. If they really wanted to shake things up, Mike and Kate having an affair would have escalated the conflict between Laura and Kate and would have revisited some of the animosity between Mike and Bill over Janice. Additionally, Mike and Kate would have played a very different angle for Lucas in a rivalry with a brother as Austin / Lucas were already at odds over Carrie / Sami.

I believe James E. Reilly stated he brought on Mike because he felt he was an important character to have on the canvas, but that he needed to reestablish him before he set him up for a long-term relationship. I feel like Mike returned before the Possession storyline which blew up and took up so much story space that Mike probably got lost in the process. Then, the show went with Aremid which nearly became its own show so again Mike probably got lost in the process. JER said NBC was pushing him to pair Mike was someone, but he was waiting. I am curious if JER was considering revisiting the idea that Mike was gay, which is why the story didn't go anywhere. I thought the time that was best to bring on Mike was around 2011 when the show was slowly rebuilding Jennifer's family by bringing on Abigail and giving Jen the Horton home. Mike and Carly is the angle I would have gone, at least initially, while building a professional rivalry between Mike and Daniel Jonas. Though, I also would have brought Bill Horton back at that point as well as threw him into the older romantic storyline by bouncing between Kate, on the outs during her marriage to Stefano over keeping the secret that Chad was his son, and Maggie, because how could Bill resist his brother Mickey's other wife.

Funny, I was also thinking she might have been up for Diana Frame, which would have put her and Chris Marcantel together as a couple a few years earlier. If that had happened, I'm curious if the "Loving" powers that be would have been more, or less. tempted to try repairing them as Curtis and Stacey, which was the original plan when Lily Slater was still in the picture.

Joanna Lee wanted the show to be a hour long; she felt that was the only way it would survive in the then modern soap enviroment. Under slightly different circumstances, Joanna Lee could have been the 1980s equivalent of Wendy Riche. It really is a shame that her ideas were often shot down (such as Sheryl Lee Ralph's Mac being one of Lloyd's wives and not just his assistant). I usually don't give much thought to Janet because Millee Taggart pretty much went into writing by the mid-1980s and while I am usually pretty open to recasting, I am not sure if that would work here. Liza could have used her mother so I wouldn't have been opposed to her coming back, but it probably would have been limited. If she did come back, I would want to revisit Chuck Gardner, the son that sorta fell into the abyss. He would be a villain and would tie the Bergmans and Jo's family together. I know Gary was set to return in spring, 1986, and to be paired with Sunny, which is why we ended up with the Craig Walton visits Aunt Sunny for the summer scenario. I don't think Sunny / Gary would be a bad idea, but it isn't the angle I would go. I would have paired him with Angela Bassett's Nurse Selina McCulla from the Riverfront Clinic and explored the class conflict at the clinic verse the hospital with Gary initially working at Henderson Hospital before realizing how the board diverts funds that they claim are for the clinic back into the hospital. Gary and Selina would go toe to toe over the politics while slowly becoming more and more enamoured with one another. One of the reasons I don't always do much in my alternate histories with Gary is because I don't always have the greatest sense of who he is. The affair with Laine seems purposely out of character to create conflict under the Corringtons, but it was effective. Does the audience still want that hotheaded version or more grounded? I'd probably try to straddle the line with him as well as struggling to be a father to Craig who he feels has been spoiled by his mother's excess wealth and lack of love. I think I'd have Craig reject Selina/Gary in order to see Gary / Sunny be a thing, but neither Sunny nor Gary would actually be interested in that situation. Neither Cain Devore nor John Loprieno set the world on fire as Danny, but that was more to do with the writing than the acting. I think they were trying to go the neglected angle with Danny, which I am not sure the audience really was ready for because they had seen so much of the Janet / Danny relationship. I would want to go in a different direction with him if I did have him come back to Henderson. I wouldn't want to revisit Danny and T.R. though I don't think Danny at the television station would have been a bad idea. I still think there was more mileage in brining back Chuck Gardner so I might pursue the angle of Chuck (or Charlie as I would probably rechristen him) trying to tempt Danny over to the dark side in his plot against the Bergman/Walton/Sentell clan. After Gary and Craig were established, I think Laine Adamson could return and reintegrate herself into the business sector. I would put her up against fellow female business woman and pseudo stepsister/sister-in-law Liza over control of the manufacturing industry in Henderson. Laine would want to make things work with Gary, but her selfishness and desire to succeed at all cost results in her losing Gary and Craig. With T.R. presumably off canvas, I would have Estelle develop a mother-daughter relationship with Laine with Estelle wanting a Laine / Steve pairing. Then, Laine can be a part of the Steve Kendall / Liza romance with Gary trying to keep Laine from destroying his sister while waiting for the back from the dead Travis. When Travis returns with amnesia, he would decide to build his life with Laine, which would also upset the Steve / Liza dynamic when Liza became jealous. Ted Adamson would fit with the business sector I would want to build up especially since even though I am interested in Lloyd vs. Martin, Martin isn't really a businessman. Now, Ted jockeying for power while using his daughter Laine and her connection to the Kendall family until Lloyd was released from prison would be interesting especially if Ted went after Estelle in the process. I think I might also go for broke at some point and hire Maree Cheatham back as a Stephanie doppelganger before revealing that the woman was in fact Stephanie's half-sister, a child Stephanie's mother had after abandoning Stephanie as a child (as Stephanie's stepmother Rainey Wesner had been a character in 1970s). Cheatham's new character would be a woman who was raised with money, but was down on her luck and looking to restore a sense of wealth and power. Though, I'm not sure Cheatham would return and I'm not sure how interested I'd be in Louise Shaffer in the part, though I initially imagined this role as a way to have both Cheatham and Shaffer on at the same time (Shaffer would have played Stephanie's half-sister).

@DRW50 I think Jeffrey Meek was underrated and misused. He should have been the center of the love triangle with Stephanie and Wendy. That would have been more interesting than Bela. And then later, it could have been Sunny, Quinn, and Bela. In an ideal world, I would have loved to bring back Spence Langley back as the main heel as I think the connections to Wendy, Brian, and Stephanie as well as the smaller connection to Cissie, Roger Lee, and Kathy Phillips (he briefly clerked in her office before he left town) would make him the perfect candidate for the Warren Carter successor. Plus, he was a lawyer which the show really needed by that point. The problem is none of those characters were on the canvas by the end of 1986. I think Jo in her sixties raising a child would be the sort character moment material that Mary Stuart would excel at. Also, I feel it would press her to "search for tomorrow" and keep hoping that she has will to go through this all over again. Of course, I would sprinkle in some Duncan Eric references to keep this board happy. The missing Whitings (Len, Tracey, and Chris) had to be addressed. Len's returns could be intermittent, but he would need to resolve his issues with Patti in order for her marriage to Hogan to be successful. Additionally, bringing back Chris would mean dealing with the nearly 20 year elephant in the room of Chris being Len's biological son and the implications that would have on Chris/Len, Chris/Patti, Patti/Jo, Chris/Tracey, Len/Tracey, etc. etc. And Jo knowing means she would have to be held accountable (I don't care what the network would say @Khan, Jo can be tarnished a bit). With all that playing out, and Stephanie dead, it would be the perfect time to reintroduce Andrea Whiting, who I earlier suggested should be played by Tudi Wiggins. Now, I am considering a slightly softer version of the role and wonder if "Somerset" and "As the World Turns" vet Georgann Johnson might be better suited to play my follow up plot where Andrea is forced to recognize who she actually is. Returning to Henderson engaged to Phillip Lancaster, the owner of a pharmaceutical company looking to relocate his operation to Henderson for some of the tax benefits that Jo has been opposing on City Council, Andrea arrives thinking she is the doyenne of Henderson society unaware that she is viewed as a virtual pariah. Phillip will try to block the sale of the land to Lancaster for his company to relocate because of Lancaster's history with environmental issues and Henderson starting to deal with the fall out of two 1985-1986 stories (the flood and the chemical spill) which has led to some clean up issues that have put Jo and Estelle (as the person handling Lloyd's affairs) at odds over who is responsible. Phillip finds himself drawn to Jo, but she doesn't reciprocate his feelings. The one-sided attraction will lead to Phillip ending his engagement to Andrea, who initially blames Jo because of the business issues before realizing that Philip has had romantic feelings for Jo. In the fallout, Andrea finds a sympathetic ear from Stu, who knows Andrea's history and is leery of her until her genuine attempt to do right lead him to think she might truly be turning over a new lead. Jo, of course, remains skeptical.

By the time "Loving" ended her type wasn't big in daytime anymore. Those women who lived their lives fully balancing careers and families were slowly fading and were mostly for women who had been on their shows a while. I do think Taylor would have worked as a Harley surrogate in as the fiesty working class woman. I think she could have been a Reardon (maybe Matt and Bridget's sister) who could be involved with Phillip and/or Rick.

Jon-Michael Reed reported that Tomlin's original plan was to have Stuart Whyland be the serial killer. I believe Stuart was involved with Lee Dumonde at the time so she may have been intended to be an intended target at some point in the story. @soapfan61 Thanks for sharing that scene from the trial. I remember one of the soap books talking about how important and powerful that scene was. It's nice to see some more of the details. Andrea is such an interesting character. I think Matt McCleary's twin brother Malcolm was involved in some sort of payroll robbery involving Judge Henderson. Malcolm was killed back in the day, but everyone thought it was Matt so Matt went into hiding in Ireland. Personally, the last year of "Search for Tomorrow" doesn't appeal to me once Tomlin leaves, and even good bits of Tomlin's 1986 seem like they would be a struggle to get through. In my opinion, "Search for Tomorrow" was at its best during the NBC run during Joanna Lee's run. This was a reboot in the way the Corringtons managed to reboot the show when they came in 1978. Resetting the show away from just Travis and Liza, the introduction of the Kendall family as the rivals to the Sentells, developing the Warren/Wendy/Suzi triangle, and repositioning the civic aspect of Henderson with the crime commission and the work with the youth all helped to really develop a strong show. If the show had continued in 1987, I would have liked to have seen something of that nature, but as many have stated, the show was so gutted by that point it would have taken at least a year to two in order to start to really see the results. I think I would have kept the McClearys at the center for the year just to let them suffer and go through the big plot moves to keep the show going before basically eliminating all of them except Quinn and maybe Hogan. I would have reestablished the rest of the Whitings slowly with teenage Tracy and Chris and then eventually Len, Andrea, and Andrea's new husband/ex-husband who would be Jo's love interest. With Liza, I would recast (Carla Borelli as was once suggested) and build up to the return of Travis with a pairing with Steve Kendall, who I would move into the business world to build a battle of the wills between Martin and Lloyd over their influence over their son. For Steve, I think someone like Richard Bekins would suit my purposes. Then, I would have Travis return to mess up the happy home Steve and Liza had created. In the meantime, I'd just torture the McClearys. Matt and Kate's reunion would immediately be threatened by Matt's realization that Kate isn't the same woman he was in love with all those years ago and she is now more independent. Kate thinks that Matt is attracted to their son Quinn's fiancee, Kat, who has to deal with immigration issues forcing her and Quinn to move up their wedding to St. Patrick's Day. Cagney would investigate a syndicate who is onto him and wants him dead while Cagney and Evie fight because Evie is tired of hearing about Suzie all the time. On Quinn and Kat's wedding day, the church is shot up by the men after Cagney. Kat ends up dying on her wedding day. Cagney is forced to go on the run, faking his death, and leaving Jonah with Jo. Adair returns for all the nonsense to become involved with Dr. Jerry Henderson who helps Evie cover up that she was high as a kite on pain killers when she accidentally caused Kat's death in the hospital after the shooting. Kat's death would reset Quinn back to a cad and amoral character who sees himself as the new Warren Carter type. To complete this, Kristen returns looking for custody of Jonah and gets into cahoots with Kristen, who's red locks remind him slightly of his dead bride. Kristen and Quinn are set to become a major threat to the community just as Wendy returns to town and revives her relationship with Quinn. Brian Emerson also would return at some point. Maybe Brian and Adair would be a thing for a moment after Jerry and Adair break up. Ultimately, I would want Brian to become involved with a female lawyer, who would be law partners with either Scott or Kathy Phillips. I'd give Matt and Kate would officially divorce and both leave town. Kate might make a play briefly for Stu, but Stu would end up in an opposites attract relationship with Andrea Whitting. Hogan and Sunny could be a thing or they couldn't, it wouldn't impact me either way. I would probably do a Hogan / Patti / Len situation with Patti working at the hospital in the PR department while Len faces a malpractice suit and Hogan is determined to use the Herald to slander his rival. I'd also probably try Sunny and Brian or Sunny and Steve. I could also see a Sunny and Quinn situation. I'd probably have Bela go to prison because of the syndicate that was after Cagney leaving Sunny, who was pregnant at the end, to decide she wants to be a single mother before losing the baby and then deciding to just sleep with one of the three suggested guys (Brian, Steve, or Quinn) in order to provide her child a father. Probably Quinn because I think at some point I'd revisit Hogan / Sunny and having Quinn/Sunny ties would fuel drama.

I haven't looked into Morgan too much, but my guess is that she became available after leaving "All My Children" and Jorn Winter worked quickly to snag her. Debbi Morgan is a phenomenal actress, but I don't think Sharon Brown was ever given a shot to really sink her teeth into much juicy story of her own. I thought Brown was good as a supporting role in the Doreen / Adam / Danielle story as well as passing her chemistry test with Rick Fitts' Martin Jackson. Martin and Chantal would have been interesting. Reynolds, like Morgan, I think arrived to a fairly new story that the previous actor was probably fine with playing. Henry started having heart issues around the summer of 1990 which lead up to his heart attack in bed with Doreen in the final episode. I have to imagine this might have been what would have led Chantal to learn Henry wasn't her father. Lyman wouldn't have been on the show long, I suspect. Her character was brought back for Peter Whitmore's return and the inevitable secret that Chantal was Peter's daughter. Gail Ramsey was set to return in early 1991 as Laura and a recast J.D. was on the way. I am curious which of Winter's AMC pals would have landed the JD role. Crowley had been gone almost a year before Lyman assumed the role. Morgan, Gentry, and Stacey Nelkins all appeared as recast in about the same week in March, 1990. James Reynolds arrived in August or September. Lyman was December.

The letters from Roy Winsor and the story projections from the Averys were enlightening. They definitely revealed that Winsor was in favor of eliminating the Ames family as early as 1964 because of the success of "Love of Life" at expanding beyond the core family. I brought this information over to this board several years after you posted it and it generated a bit of discussion. The original plans for Janet Hill suggesting a more liberal view to a woman's sexuality and sexual power was also intriguing, though it seemed to be a bit overblown by Winsor. What is the earliest period you are able to uncover scripts from? I am imagining it would be the stuff in James Elward's collection from his first stint on the show prior to creating "The Young Marrieds." I think the struggle with the early years is the turnover in writers from Lillian and Anthony Spinner to Max Wylie to any number of writers before the Averys longer stint. Irving Vendig and John Hess' much longer starting runs at "Search for Tomorrow" and "Love of Life" mean most of those years are covered in their collections. In your research, do you have a favorite period or favorite writer from "Storm"?

I returned to "Days of our Lives" in September, 2008, after having stopped watching consistently somwhere around 1997 (though I popped in and kept up). I loved that 2008-2011 era. Free from the shackles of the supercouples, I felt the show had finally had room to breathe and it was refreshing. The stripped down version required more emphasis on family, angst, and other emotions rather than simply relying on the latest attempt to recreate the spark of JER's original run. It was also nice seeing characters that I cared about who hadn't necessarily dominated the show for the past two decades. It was a much more intimate Salem and I felt more connection to that group of people than I had to a lot of the long time players that I had grown up with in the early to mid 1990s. I think there was barely a month between John and Marlena's departure (mid to late January) for abroad and Steve and Kayla simply disappearing from the canvas after Kayla recovered from Hope shooting her (early to mid February). Tony did stay on slightly longer (sometime in March). Anna had stopped appearing around September when Tomlin came on, but she came back off for a one-off appearance in April to threaten Stefano or E.J. and to take Tony's ashes with her. Anna returned in December, 2009, when she was watching baby Sydney after E.J. had her kidnapped. Maggie Horton was definitely featured more in the 2009-2011 period, but her role (initially) and Marlena's story functions were significantly different. Maggie was the natural successor to Alice Horton when Francis Reid was reaching a point where she could no longer appear consistently. In the first year of the stripped down "Days" (2009), Maggie acted strictly as a talk to for characters like Melanie and Mia McCormick before Nathan arrived and he also moved in with Grandma Maggie. I don't think until year 2 (2010), that Maggie started getting the dramatic story that Deidre Hall usually would get (Mickey's death, hints of her alcoholism returning and the rumored drunk driving storyline, the remission of her MG, the romance with Victor). Many of those things also Suzanne Rogers openly discussed being opposed to (the drinking and the MS). The Victor / Maggie romance surprised me because I thought for sure they were just going the friendship angle with them, but I should have realized they were developing that story from the minute they increased the Victor/Maggie scenes around February, 2010, when Vivian was about to murder Melanie at her wedding to Philip. In my opinion, it was a necessary moment for the show that had been creatively hampered by years of trying to recreate supercouples and or half-baked sci-fi plots. The show still had Bo and Hope and would tell some of those sci-fi stories (Bo's visions, Nighttime Hope), but the shift away from the ongoing antics of Stefano Dimera supervillain was a much needed breath of fresh air. Ali Sweeney did wield a bit of power at that point. She was the reason behind the safe house story as I recall because she was pregnant and didn't want to hide behind props or something of that nature. The baby switch was the best story the show had told in years so I don't really hate her for it in the end. Sami was definitely more emotional in 2009-2011, but she still could be dangerous. I think she shot E.J. in the head point blank in 2010 because he threatened to take her kids away. The recton of Daniel being Maggie's eggbaby was after Marlena and John returned. There was absolutely no reason for it considering MarDar had no use for the Maggie/Melanie relationship. Maggie's increase in 2009 was directly related to Melanie. After Nick Fallon was sent to prison, the show had planned on pairing Melanie with an aged Will Horton, a college baseball player. Will and Melanie were suppose to be the pairing until the show cast Dylan Patton and decide to go Mia / Will and then Mia / Will / Chad / Gabi. I think Maggie was also used as a bit of a talk to for Chloe due to her marriage to Lucas. I think Maggie may have even been privvy to the knowledge that Chloe and Daniel were having an affair. Melanie was heavily featured after the purge of 2008/2009 so people felt she was taking over the show. Molly Burnett had energy, which many of the younger actresses didn't have at the time (Shelley Hennig, Rachel Melvin, Taylor Spreitler) so I enjoyed her. Hennig did come into her own much later on and Spreitler gave much better young vixen in her final months than she had as young ingenue. I thought the execution of the reset in 2011 was a mistake. Burning through all the good will of bringing back a slew of vets in the first Monday episode after "All My Children" was off the air and having almost no compelling story in place after surviving for the past two and half to three years on strong long story was a massive misfire. It was too easy for me to tune out in September, 2011, when Carly slipped off on the plane and there was literally no story carrying the show other than Daniel and Jennifer's impending engagement. I did enjoy Marlena and John when Eileen Davidson returned a year later, but I can't say there was anything during the 2011-2012 period prior that I enjoyed. Even Marlena's attempts to force Will out of the closet were a bit obnoxious because they limited Will's world to just Marlena and not others like Kate and Maggie who had been there for him in the missing years. I don't disagree, but I am not sure the audience that wanted John and Marlena back on the show at that point were comfortable with John and Marlena back solely in a supporting capacity. This was one of the few reasons I didn't mind that John and Marlena weren't there for Alice's funeral because I don't think there was a way to have them back without it being the John and Marlena's show. The missing years reset some of the audience so that they were more comfortbale with a show not dominated by the supercouples. Was John's 2007 death suppose to be permanent? I feel like he was back pretty quickly. I think Tomlin and Whitesell also wrote John out after the original Brady / Kristen arc. Hogestyn may have even been off contract in 2014 or 2015 for a bit. I thought Drake Hogestyn did some really good work in his last months (September 2008-January 2009) as the sort of damaged person after his death. I thought it was smart to reset the character in a way that would require him to fall in love with Marlena again. I seem to recall something happening around Christmas, 2008, where Hogestyn played John as unlocking emotions and realizing that he wanted the home and the family and the love of Marlena and it being very powerful. I liked the Hollingsworths. I only saw a bit of them at the end, but I thought Kristen Renton was a fun presence. The show started pairing Brady and Melanie platonically around March, 2009, when it became clear that Darren Brooks wouldn't be renewing his contract. Brady was suppose to be her conscious and look out for her the way an older brother was supposed to. Brady assumed several of Max's roles as I recall. I think when Felisha Terrell first appeared as Arianna as a waitress at Brady's Pub, they looked to be considering a Arianna / Max pairing after the show had moved away from the suggestion of a Stephanie / Max / Chelsea triangle. I thought Brady and Melanie made sense plot wise in early 2011 when Arianna was dead, Dario had just arrived, and they were resolving Arianna's murder. I don't think there was enough to play the Dario / Melanie / Brady triangle long term, but it worked as a stop gap transition for both characters. Bringing back Melanie for Brady in 2014 was silly. I love Molly Burnett, but she only agreed to a six month return. If I were EP, I would have nixed the offer. I thought the suggestion of a Melanie / J.J. pairing when she first came back in November, 2014, was promising but that went nowhere. In defense of Melanie, she was the only non-related game in town for quite a bit of time so maybe the guys of Salem were growing tired of all the pseudo incest. Though, Melanie did flirt with Daniel when she first became a nursing student so she did maintain the Salem history of inappropriate family ties. This was the point in the story (April 2009) where I think they were still planning on revealing that Melanie was Nicole's daughter by Trent. I thought Daniel, Carly, and Melanie made a nice little family unit for a show that had restructured itself in a way that was emphasizing University Hospital again. Having two doctors and their nurse daughter kept that piece of the show functioning.

I've been doing a little research into 1954-1955 soaps. I knew that shows had premiered on NBC in a block on July 5, 1954, but I hadn't realized how significant the revamp of the NBC lineup was on April 1, 1955. Not only did "Golden Windows" and "One Man's Family" air their last episodes necesistating the movement of "The Greatest Gift," but there were major casting changes on the other shows. On "Concerning Miss Marlowe," Louise Albritton and Chris White last appeared on the series. it looks like both Maggie Marlowe and her newly discovered daughter Kit Christy depart for Florida. Maggie returns later the next week in the form of Helen Shields. White's departure is particularly shocking because the revelation that Kit is Maggie's long lost daughter reaches its climaxing late March, 1955. There is no time for the revelation to have any impact. I wonder if this was done to reset Kit with a recast down the line? Or if John Pickard and Frank Provo were being petty at being forced to drop the character? It would appear a few weeks later, Sarah Burton's Barbara Gavin so even the murder mystery wouldn't have played long. On "First Love," Val Dufour was dropped as of the April 1, 1955, episode. Dufour had been playing Zach James, the test pilot romantic lead on the series set in the Washington, D.C. area. At the time of Dufour's departure, Zach was under investigation for the murder of Petey, a woman who people had suspected he was carrying on an affair with behind his wife Laurie's back. Tod Andrews was appearing in the role by mid-April at the latest. Also, both "Golden Windows" and "One Man's Family" appear to end on happier notes. On "One Man's Family," the Barbour clan gathered for Mother Fanny Barbour's birthday, while on "Golden Windows," heroine Juliet Goodwin confronted Carl Grant (Joe De Santis) in jail. I believe Carl was Juliet's biological father that she had never met. Carl was also involved in some shady business and was in jail for either that or for kidnapping Juliet. "Golden Windows" had just recently written out Juliet's original love interest Tom Anderson in early February, 1955, which now I suspect might have been an attempt to save the series.

Marsha Hunt mentions it was about the friendship between two women. I think this is often something that is downplayed in recent years and wasn't always as present as Hunt suggests on other occasions. In the beginning, that friendship was between Vivian Potter and her former employer Rebecca Whitmore. Their connection was the basis of the ties between the Marshall and Whitmore/McCallum families. I don't think we got many (if any) scenes of the two women just sitting around chatting about life, which is a shame because both women could have used that. Vivian's brood was always in the thick of things with Marshall Ice Cream going national, Ruth's desire to achieve financial success at a level of her white peers, and Adam's involvement with the wrong women. Rebecca was worrying about Sam's future, her own career advancement at the law firm, and should have been worried about the cracks in her daughter Laura's marriage. It would have also allowed a greater counterpoint to the dynamic between their daughters Laura Whitmore McCallum and Ruth Potter Whitmore. I was thinking just yesterday how Gail Ramsey felt playing Laura, who was viewed by Ruth as being racist. The Bible makes it very clear that Laura feels superior to Ruth, but the basis of that storyline, a love triangle between Ruth, Laura, and a plastic surgeon who had been a high school friend of both, was nixed. There are still times that Ruth openly addresses Laura's racial and class snubbing from their youth.At times, Laura appears repetentant especially when Ruth is trying to join the Chicago's Women's Arts Council where Laura is a member. I also suspect that had the proposed Sam / Adam romance played out, Laura would have made her opinions very clear. Laura seems to get lost in the transition from "Young and the Restless" to "Days of our Lives." The onscreen story seemed to be heading for an affair between Laura's husband Trevor and Laura's best friend, Jessica Gardner (when Barbara Rhoades was still in the role). Afterwards, Laura doesn't get much to do other than the fallout of Trevor's actual (mostly offscreen) affair and then a C-level romance with Martin Jackson's business associate Joel Resnick (played by Rick Lohman). I know Laura was set to be given a bit more story in early 1991 with the revelation that Chantal Marshall was her half-sister, but that story didn't play out before the cancellation. Thankfully, I don't feel Joan Pringle's Ruth suffered the same fate. Ruth remained front and center, as she should have, throughout the remainder of the series. It is her friendship with Doreen Jackson that Marsha Hunt is referring to in that article. Ruth and Doreen had both elevated themselves from much humbler beginnings as Ruth had been the daughter of a maid for one of the old money Chicago families and Doreen had started out singing in nightclubs before marrying old money Martin Jackson. Doreen wasn't intended to be a major player in the begining. In the Bible, she is briefly mentioned as Martin's soon-to-be ex-wife who spends most of her time shopping. The fact that Jonelle Allen and Sally Sussman Morina shape Doreen into the leading attraction she was is the power of soap opera. Ruth and Doreen are initially connected through business as Martin Jackson wants to take Marshall's Ice Cream national. Then, Ruth and Doreen connect through their work on the Arts Council while Doreen engages in her affair with Ruth and Henry's son, Adam. The friendship between the two women is one of the treasures throughout the show's run. In the era of "Steel Magnolias" and "Fried Green Tomatoes," Ruth and Doreen are the show's forgotten super couple. Each woman has their own thread with Doreen's pregnancy leading to an even more complicated marriage to her husband, Martin, who learns Adam is the father of his daughter, Danielle, and sets out to destroy the Marshalls and Doreen over time. In the process, Doreen becomes involved with Daniel Reubens, a doctor falsely accused of blowing up a pharmaceutical lab who has been on the run for decades. Doreen and Daniel's romance is complicated by Daniel's daughter, Maya, who has become involved with Adam Marshall. It's all a fascinating web of dynamics that was potent for drama and sometimes used very well and sometimes not. Meanwhile, Ruth achieves her dream of owning the Whitmore estate, which is quickly threatened by her neighbors the Mullens, who instigate a campaign of racism against the Marshalls starting with vandalism and escalating into a bombing at the Marshall's housewarming party to launch the February, 1990 sweeps. She encourages her son Adam's romance with Maya and follows her daughter's prosecution of footballer Eric Royal. She seems to be finding a level of happiness in her new life as the queen of the Marshall estate, formerly the Whitmore estate. By the fall of 1990, the women are carrying the show if not in terms of time onscreen but definitely in terms of story quality. Doreen's world is quickly unravelling with Martin trying to end her romance with Daniel before planning to whisk her and Danielle away from Chicago. Martin has also planned to defraud the Marshalls in the process and sell their company out from under them and abscond with the funds. In Martin's parting gift, he sends a video to the Marshall's telling them that Danielle is their granddaughter, Adam's son. This destroys the bedrock of the show: Doreen and Ruth's friendship. In a parallel plot, the groundwork is being laid for the revelation that Ruth has kept her own paternity secret for decades: Chantal Marshall is Peter Whitmore's daughter. Peter returns to Chicago just as Ruth, Henry, and Vivian start having conversations about a secret they have all been keeping which is eventually revealled to be that Henry isn't Chantal's biological father. This is a fact that Henry was very much aware of, but he had never known who the girl's father was. Now, with Peter's return, the news of a prior dalliance between Peter and a barely legal (or possibly underage) Ruth comes to light setting into motion a reveal that should have shaken the core of both families. Ruth and Peter were getting closer. Doreen was interested in Peter's jazz club, the Music Box. Everything was set in motion to very dramatic once Ruth's secret was revealed. Add in the final moments with Doreen and Henry in bed and I am left disappointed that we didn't get years of Ruth and Doreen instead of months.

I suspect that Kathleen Cullen's picture is covering Charita Bauer. There is clearly a head that's being covered as the hair doesn't match Janet Grey.

I believe Linda Gottlieb was finishing up a project in mid-1991. The papers were crediting for the casting as soon as Robyn Griggs started in early June. I imagine that Linda Gottlieb was giving some input from May-August, 1991 before she was credited, but I think the show is mostly rudderless and it shows in the bits of pieces I have heard everyone talking about. Watching the turnover from Hardy to Monty and Monty to Riche on "General Hospital" recently, I do think the producer can have an impact on the shape of the story. Personally, in the bits of August, 1991, I have sat through, it seems like Linda Gottlieb is definitely present by the second week of August since her start date was July 15th. I know Monty started on December 4 or 5th and wasn't credited until late January even though her impact could be felt for a month and a half prior. So there is definitely ripple effects. Not convinced Malone is tweaking as much as Gottlieb is shaping story much in the way Monty and Riche did prior to "their" headwriters starting. There's also a post on the August 13th episode that suggests this. Though who knows. I guess half the fun is just speculating.

I think "Secret Storm" is fascinating. I found the document that was posted online many years back now detailing the general outline of the show shortly after the show's cancellation very fascinating. The problem of the archiving of soap operas is finding where the material is buried when there hasn't been enough documentation done on the early years of the medium. I imagine some material from those early years exists buried. I suspect some of the actors might have a script or two in their collections. There are also times that people involved in the production have stuff buried away in their collections. Also, I imagine how much has been donated and just not properly catalogued yet. That's my hope for the final years of the radio version of "Road of Life" which is fairly well catalogued until about 1952. The Averys work seems so fascinating and the years leading up to that have some interesting characters that I think would like to know more about (Eduardo De Gamma, Kate Lodge Ames, Julian and Evelyn Dark, and Jeff Nichols spring to mind). By any chance, were you posting material online for "Storm" in a Facebook group? There was a really fascinating set of story projections regarding Janet Hill and the plans to revamp the show circa 1965 that I found a fun read. If you were, I just want to thank you for sharing. If you aren't, it wouldn't be the first time I made a fool of myself.

My guess would be Babby Dennis, one of the minister's daughters, on "The Brighter Day." Mary Linn Beller played the character when your sister was born. The character was a young ingenue in the late 1950s. I think after your sister was born her character was recast with Nancy Malone and she became involved with a gangster, Peter Nino. Babby and Peter disappeared, I believe, when the show relocated from being filmed in New York to California. Or so the rumor goes and soap folk lore is riddled with inaccuracies. There was also Barbara Sterling on "Love of Life," but she didn't appear until early 1959.

I have seen a few more episodes of January/February, 1992. January 30-31, 1992: Gloria Monty credited as EP February 3, 1992: Episode had credits, but video I have is incomplete. February 4-5, 1992: Just title cards. February 6, 1992: Wendy Riche credited as EP. So Wendy RIche´s work first appeared in the first week of February.

I think the name change is smart because of the dual meaning. Beyond the Gates and into the gated community and what remains beyond the gated community. It just invokes the idea of secrets and hidden knowledge which I hope will be central to the story since it seems to be trending in that direction. I think the casting works better than I expected. I do wish that they had kept the name Rosalind for Tamara Tunie´s character, who I never thought would grace daytime again. I think she has the gravitas to make that character such a powerhouse and the charisma to sell the performances. Hoping that Obba Babatunde is playing her husband now. I can´t believe that Karla Mosley and Daphne Duplaix are old enough to play the daughters, but that shows that I have no concept of how much time has passed since Guiding Light ended or One Life to Live whitewashed and heterotized their cast. Mosley received some (lots?) of praise when Maya was more of a manipulative character so my initial reservations based on her tepid performance as Christina in the final year of GL have faded. To be fair to Mosley, Ellen Wheeler´s entire product wasn´t energizing. Duplaix will probably shine on a P&G show in her role. I am anticipating the next round of casting news given how solid this is so far.

Craig Carlson is still credited in the August 9, 1991, episode on YouTube unless the episode credits were added in from another episode. Gottlieb is also not credited though she was reported as doing some behind the scenes work between May and July before her official start date. Raunch, who had previously quit, was suppose to stay on for two months until Linda Gottlieb was free, but he secured Santa Barbara and jumped ship. I know when I looked at this earlier in the year, Malone´s announcement was made in the same week as Mary Ryan Munisteri on Loving. I believe we were able to narrow down Munisteri´s start ot the second week of August. Malone´s is probably the same week.

I found Carly appealing in her first run (and her second), but I also really enjoyed Chappell as Olivia on Guiding Light. For me, there is always a layer of sadness to Chappell's performances that I find relatable, a vulnerability that I don't always see. I thought Carly's second run was a pleasant surprise that built on a year of the newly scaled down "Days of our Lives" that was already gaining momentum. Were there issues at Guiding Light that I am forgetting? The Days of our Lives set seems to be its own beast at times. I never could get into Bo and Billie because when I started watching it was Bo and Carly. As I recall, around 2009, Peter Reckell was usually complaining about his low episode guarantee, which the show usually would burn through before the end of his current cycle and his publicist would run to Soap Opera Digest to announce that Reckell would be offscreen for weeks. The online presence for late 2008-mid 2011 was, and mostly seems to still be, pretty split in a love it or hate it sense. I don't remember a lot of people liking the redux of Bo and Carly, but I did. I thought the scene where Carly showed up at Maggie's to offer her condolencnes on Mickey's death only for Hope to open the door and read her for filth was delightful. I thought Carly and Melanie worked well, but after the initial affair Bo and Carly really didn't have much to do because the show wasn't going to commit to Bo / Carly and the teased Hope / Justin storyline was always pushed back before being dropped completely. I thought Nathan and Melanie were great as well. I know Melanie was a very divisive character, but I felt she was a breath of fresh air on the show that had a very staid set of younger characters, with the exception of Blake Berris' Nick who was quirky. The original set up, if I recall, was going to be for Melanie and Will, who was originally going to be recast as college aged in early 2009 before settling on Dylan Patton and keeping the character younger and involved with Mia. I suspect the original conflict for Will and Melanie was the basis for Melanie and Nathan; Nathan blamed Melanie for Nick being in prison. Mark Hapka complained that the show had several characters they kept up front and center and didn't feel like it was a true ensemble. The show was heavily female focused at the time, which was one of the reasons I enjoyed it. The problem with Nathan was he was a good guy and that isn't the kind of character that you can always keep at the forefront of the drama. Before his firing was announced, Nathan was given a couple a very strong story moments. Nathan and Melanie ended up in quarantine after being exposed to a virus by a hospital patient (played by Francisco San Martin, later Dario #1). Nathan and Melanie confessing their love near death was very angsty and both actors played it well. This arc I believe was the result of Hapka's complaints that Nathan didn't get enough to do, and I thought it was a good arc. Shortly after, Chloe's paternity secret was exposed at Parker's New Years' Eve christening leading to the revelation that Stephanie had kept mum to protect Grandma Caroline who had changed the paternity results because of her anger with Victor. When Nathan found out, there was a great confrontation between Stephanie and Nathan with Stephanie in her wedding dress. Hapka and Hennig were great together and Stephanie was a solid third wheel. There was definitely story to play with Nathan, but they decided to go in other directions. Melanie was pregnant with Phillip's baby. I imagine had Phillip stayed, Melanie would have lost the baby (as she did anyway) and supported Phillip in going after custody of Parker (which I believe he ended up doing offscreen for most of the remainder of Dena Higley's 2011 run). This would have meant Nathan playing the role of Melanie's conscious. Also, there always seemed to be a hint that they might do something more with Nathan / Chloe. Nathan befriending Chloe during her custody battle would have provided a bit more angst than the Chloe / Sonny friendship that was started right before Higley left and never revisited. Without Phillip, Melanie and Nathan pretending the baby was hers would have positioned Stephanie into a good place to call out Nathan for his hypocrisy, but Hennig quit. I think there may have just been a decision to clear the slate and start clean with Melanie in the brief Dario/Melanie/Brady triangle which I thought made sense but was never sustainable in the long run. The other thing to consider is that by early 2011, the younger teen set that had been slowly evolving finally had most of its key players in place (Chandler Massey had started in January or February, 2010, and Camila Banus assumed the role of Gabi in November, 2010) and they had already spent the summer of 2010 investing in the Chad/Will friendship. By early 2011, with Kate Mansi arriving in February, the show finally had assembled a group of actors in the roles of characters that the show could survive resetting the early 20 somethings because they had a strong teen set.

I'm reaching the end of September, 1975. Faces of Love has shifted the action to the city and temporarily written out Aunt Isabelle (Joan Copeland) sending her off to England to settle some property from one of her ex husbands. Men continue to fawn over Kate like she is the last woman alive. I am not super interested in her dalliance with Tony Cushing (Nat Polen). Tony is overbearing and controlling. Her niece Nancy Reed's beau Jeff Clark is now chasing after her. There was also some guy on the train, Brick, who I imagine might pop back into the story. David is left behind in Bellhaven so who knows when he'll be back in the picture. There is a certain charm to Faces. Kate's small town approach to big city living makes for a strong concept especially in the real estate field. The current episodes focus on Kate making her first sale, renting a slum apartment to a young single mother who is in desperate need of a place. Kate feels awful because the place isn't fit to live. So she drags, Jeff, and tries to get her office pal Truby to help her with some painting and cleaning in order to surprise the young woman. It's a sorta sweet thing ruined by Jeff showing up with a jug of wine and a jealous Tony arriving and getting into a fight with Jeff. I am not really sure what to think of Kate's life at the Studio Club, the complex where she is residing in the city where Jeff also lives. It's just interesting to see how so much time was spent in Bellhaven and now all those characters are sorta on the sidelines for a new group of characters. Over on To Have and To Hold, I am pretty much in awe that the Hollands are attempting to play as many threads as they are in a 15 minute soap. Emily's illness is sorta on the sidelines now that Ginger's sister Cora is in town giving us more insight into the Foster family. Cora's visit has served us two fold: (a) to explore Ginger's life before her marriage to Marsh when she was already ambitious and wanting the good life and (b) to reveal the source of Ginger's neuroses involving Marsh / Angela. Ginger admits to her sister that she thinks Marsh is carrying on with Angela because he did it at Billings Hospital with another woman, a resident named Phoebe. The revelation is very recent, but Jason has shared some of the info (Ginger's obsession with Angela and Marsh) with his father, attorney Robert Carter. So I won't be surprised if Robert has it investigated. Meanwhile, there have been two references to an intern that was once in love with Angela, Jerry, so I have to wonder if he won't pop up as well. What I like about the Ginger / Marsh story is it unclear what came first Marsh cutting out on his marriage or Ginger thinking he was and pushing him away. Whether or not Marsh and Phoebe had an affair is yet to be resolved, but I suspect it will. In the brief bits of the Emily story that pop up, Emily has started to have vision issues right before her son Bobby Carter heads off to Harvard. Marshall has stated he suspects a tumor is possible. There is also some fear setup to suggest that Ginger will tell Emily about Marshall and Angela and it will lead to another medical crisis for Emily. Angela has considered leaving town. I like that Bobby popped in for a few episodes before shipping him back out because it sets him up for later. Unfortunately, I am not sure if we will ever get it later. There is also been some setup with Betsy Carter carrying on with Chuckie, a boy her parents don't like. I am not sure if that will go anywhere but it is a nice layer to the story for the Fosters who don't always drive the story. The Lynn story has emerged as the A-story in this set of episodes. Lynn Carter is still determined to bring Kurt Rogers to Chicago to meet the family, but decides instead to visit him first to soften the blow that Robert had him investigated. Kurt and Lisa Scott (Rita Lloyd) are plotting to stay together after Kurt makes a quick buck by having the Carters pay him off to get out of Lynn's life. The plan was threatened by Rene Noir, the investigator hired, who has agreed to play double agent and will feed back the right information to Hoffman in exchange for money. The set up for the next stage is pretty clear. Robert has informed Jason that Ann, Caroline's well off daughter, is returning to Chicago after a failed romance. Kurt will switch his target from Lynn to Ann and marry her for her extensive inheritance. I'll be curious to see where things are left by February, when the episodes wrap up. Off topic, I read today there was a brief revival of radio soaps in 1965. Pepper Young's Family and Big Sister were rerecorded with revised scripts and a new cast. I am not sure how long these "new" episodes went on for or if they ever ended up creating new material. It was just interesting to see that there were some attempts to bring these back.

I have a paper copy of the bible for Woman Inside. Lakin developed this very quickly (about 3 week turn around) and it has some interesting ideas, but I can see why it didn't go into development. The lead Barbara Brooks is quite unlikeable. She is weak and simpering for the most part before ending up having a hot sexual encounter in a hotel room with the sleazy contractor who had been seducing her for weeks while her husband is in a room across from her with his airline stewardess mistress. In an additional document attached, Jackie Smith noted this and stated that she and Lakin had worked out an alternate scenario involving a slow burn romance between Barbara and the widowed teacher David Stratton of Barbara's eldest daughter with Barbara and Dan Hartley (the contractor) having a one night stand that was the result of right place right time rather than slow burn seduction. It might have been more effective, but the main thrust of the story is around the Dan and Barbara affair so it's hard to say if it would have worked. I do think Lakin does a decent job providing a counterpoint with Lacey Andrews, the reporter. Lacey is divorced and claims that her affair with the married politician is the ideal situation. Later, it is revealed that Lacey does plan on marrying the politico once his wife dies, though I suspect that the wife's terminal illnesss might just be a ruse to keep Lacey at bay. In the beginning Lacey is constantly going in on Barbara for being weak. It is actually rather unappealing. Lacey only softens when she and her married lover Emerson Forbes are having a cladenstine meeting in the airport bar and Lacey spots Barbara's husband Allen Brooks (who she met when on an assignment) and his lover. The group therapy element is intriguing. Mother hen of the group Annette Davidson is dealing with life as a single woman after the death of her husband. She has taken in her mother-in-law who can no longer be on her. Then, there is Jill Wexler, a juvenile deliquent, who received little love at home from her very educated and professional parents Herbert and Lucille Wexler. Jill is alligned with Lacey in most meetings and is equally caustic. Marlisa Diaz is a bit frigid apparently stemming from the departure of her father many years earlier who abandoned her mother. The last of the group is Karen McLeod, who is a mystery woman married to a film exeuctive and won't have a child. The source of Karen's fearfulness regarding having a child isn't revealed, but Karen was worried when she learned Barbara grew up not that far away from where she lived growing up. Dr. Ken Saunders runs the group and he has a wife and child.

@Soaplovers I agree with most of what you said. Megan Follows was definitely the strongest of the three leads. I think Jennifer Lopez had presence and charisma, but Melinda felt underdeveloped. Not that I was a huge fan of Kevin and Melinda, but I felt that fell apart too quickly. Maybe if we had to see Melinda fight against the Cooks more before the failed wedding there would have been more investment, but it just didn't work. Even when put in the spotlight on Hotel Malibu, Melinda didn't get more interesting. I liked Cassidy. I was a big fan of "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" growing up and it was interesting to see her years later as Ellie when Second Chances was released on DVD. I think Cassidy had more spunk though then I felt Ellie did and would have liked to seen more of it. I don't remember her breast cancer story going very far, but everything on Malibu blends together. The only thing that really stood out was Walthall's character Nancy who was such a breath of fresh air. I remember her hiding the dead body and then trying to marry Paul Satterfield's character, though maybe I am thinking of Pacific Palisades. Anyway, Nancy was fun. As I said, I watched on DVD so I had already seen Dye as Andrew for many years on Touched by an Angel so I found it a hard adjustment and I don't know if it played to Dye's strengths. I know a lot of it is available, but I also wish that the full run of Angel Falls from around the same time was available. I think 4.5 out of 6 episodes are available are on YouTube.

Thanks for sharing. I think we had reached the primetime soap peak by that point so I am not surprised it didn't move on. Additionally, I think setting a show in the tech industry was going to cost a bit of money with the focus on robotics and AI. I don't think the American TV industry was quite there yet unless they were looking at a more serious soap focused on family and romantic conflicts that happened to be set in the world of high tech. I received the six episode scripts. I have only made it through one so far but I liked the first episode more than the pilot telefilm script. The show sorta downplays the drama in the pilot film with Drew Hammond on the mend, but still hospitalized, as the series opens. His near death experience has encouraged him to make some decisions: (a) a strong attempt to reunite with his ex-wife Molly and (b) a decision to split his workload with his son, Franklin, who has been handling the businesss while Drew was recovering. Franklin is becoming more aware of the growing romantic tension between his bride to be Sarah Corey and Drew's one-time protege now rival, Josh Landau. In the meantime, Sarah is still being blackmailed by an offscreen entity, but scheming Mitzi Kawamoto has also caught on and is having Mitzi followed. Mitzi is also caught by Lillian Hammond who has decided to start bugging her boss George Carew's office. Lillian now knows that Mitzi and George are in cahoots. Lillian doesn't really like Sarah so I imagine (Lillian and Josh were once involved when they were teens) so I imagine Mitzi will eventually supply the information to Lillian as a sorta get out of jail card. Lillian seems more savvy and more centered in the episode which helps. The final thread that helps to build a little suspense is the ongoing investigation into the mysterious break in at Lantern Computers where an unknown man has died. Josh is determined to learn who it is while his security chief is determined to hide his own connection to the man; they appear to have been good friends and government agents at one point. Josh is meeting dead ends until a fired secretary from the corner's office states that the man's eyes were missing from the corpse (an ocular scan is used as a security measure at Lantern) just as the episode ends. The first episode has a better balance where I felt the scheming in the pilot was more about maneuvering rather than the emotional impact of such actions. There is a little moment at a boardmeeting for Hammond where Franklin sets up one of the VPs to end up trash talking the plan Franklin has to the person who created it which is humorous. Even this seems to be rooted in Franklin's desire to prove himself. Pitting Mitzi and Lillian against each other is intersting and using Mitzi's textile emporium as the scene of some of those revelations (Mitzi is designing Sarah Corey's wedding dress) is effective. It's still hard to imagine Robert Stack as the older roamntic lead though.