dc11786

Well said! I do think some of that dynamic is the result of the smaller cast size of a half-hour show as well as the typically limited storytelling scope. Though clearly this didn't work for all half hour shows such as "Ryan's Hope." Shows use to be better about resting legacy characters so they could revive them later. Janet was one of those characters who was gone for some of the 1960s only to return in the 1970s. It seems like SFT in the 1970s chose too often to kill off the characters for the ratings bump. For instance, I think it would have been more practical to have Jennifer shoot at Eunice, but have John save her taking the bullet and dying instead. Eunice could be sent out of town to mourn possibly leaving Suzi in the care of Jo, which would annoy her flavor of the moment who didn't want children and had a secret reason from his backstory for it. When Eunice returned to reclaim her daughter, Suzi could want to stay with Jo and Eunice and Jo's love interest could be in cahoots to help Eunice get the child back. Let Eunice revert back to a villainess to get more mileage out of the character. And, if in the custody battle, Eunice was required to see a psychiatrist to deal with her grief, then she is working with Dr. Wade Collins and you could propel a situation where Eunice and Wade are drawn to one another paralleling the Jennifer / John situation allowing Eunice to recognize her behavior while allowing some trouble to brew between Wade and Janet over Eunice's closeness to Wade leaving Janet to confide in Jo, who gently confronts Eunice, who of course explodes over the situation. You could even have childless Eunice reach out to Chuck Gardner, her cousin's son by Janet, and have Chuck reconnect with Janet on sly so Wade suspects Chuck is Janet's younger lover.

I think Ted Adamson bought into or took over the Collins Corporation, which was the company belonging to Janet's late husband, Dr. Wade Collins, through his affluent family. I believe Stephanie Wyatt as the widow of Wade's brother Clay Collins may have also had a percentage. Or maybe Stephanie sold her part to Ted? Given that Natalie Schaefer played the mother, Helen Collins, I always assumed the Collins clan was suppose to be old money.

I didn't understand what he meant at the time, but I think that was really the start of the changing in the daytime landscape in terms of how people were looking at the shows from a production standpoint. When Brian Frons stated that "Port Charles" was being cancelled because it was not cost effective rather than there weren't enough viewers, we had entered a point where the viewers didn't matter. What we go in the slimmed down 2008-2011 era (which I really enjoyed) seemed to be what Corday was striving for in 2003 , but wildly missed. Hiring everyone back wasn't the original plan though, was it? And those that came back I imagine had a smallerguarantee than they left with, but I don't know that for sure. I would never argue Corday's management is questionable, but I don't think he was making up the issues with the budget. What do you think was the actual reason then for firing Paula Cwikly and Peter Brash and hiring Higley?

Paul and Ava had a ridiculous number of failed weddings in 1991 (3 at least). This is the planning of the last one in December, 1991, which was thwarted because Michael went missing the day of the ceremony. The episode is December 2, 1991, according to @Kane's blog, which tracks given the Chanukuah was from December 1 - 9 that year and the episode opens with a holiday greeting. I have a deep appreciation of 1991. I think Mary Ryan Munisteri's work is pretty on point and since I don't care about Trucker and Trisha like that I'm all for Trucker and Dinah Lee having their little affair. The opening works for the era. I assumed he and Jessica Collins married and went to the West Coast when he left "Loving" given all Collins' work after leaving, but I could be wrong. My conspiracy theory hot take is Nixon would do anything to ensure that "Loving" lasted longer than "Ryan's Hope." If we are to take Wikipedia to be accurate (I know that's a stretch) "Loving" and "The City" combined (3,521 episodes) have 6 more episodes than "Ryan's Hope" (3,515 episodes). "The City" has finally found its way into the trading circles, but it is still missing a good chunk of episodes from the final months starting in September, 1996. I cannot stress how poorly cast Joel Fabiani was as Jared Chase. I think Jared's arrival in March had the potential to kick the show a bit into a higher gear, but Fabiani is so over the top that it goes past enjoyable camp into complete cringe. For the found family element to work, I still feel there needed to be more emphasis on the contrast to the traditional family. A lot of the stories in spring of 1996 involved biological family ties (Richard and Zoey's duel paternity questions, Jocelyn's prostitution as a result of incest, and there were layers of the Azure C. plot involving her mother and brother). I think they needed to develop those (biological) relationships more to explain why the found family may have been more appealing. The late 1996-early 1997 stuff does seem tighter, but there is just a pervasive level of ugliness that runs through things when I watch. The lack of heart is off putting, though I suspect there were moments of occasional warmth and togetherness, so much of the show is run on the non-stop animosity among the shows tougher characters which makes them unappealing to me at most points. Carla vs. Tracy can be fun, but its exhausting when there is so little downtime. I find "Port Charles" much less off-putting than "The City," but often very generic. This is probably for the PC thread, but have you seen much of Karen Harris' "Port Charles" in 2000? I think that was probably the show at its strongest creatively. I know Darren Star talks about "Central Park West" being one of the first shows in a long time to set a series in New York and focus on the glamour rather than the grit. From what I've seen, the show, at least initially, struggles between finding the soft spot between "Law & Order," "New York Undercover," and "Central Park West." Interesting to think about how someone could go from having only seen 1987-1988 "Loving" to "The City." I've always been curious about how many countries aired "The City" given that I imagine a lot of interest in "Loving" waned internationally as local networks were developing more of their own soap operas.

Max Wylie was stated to be the only writer for the show as of Monday, May 17, 1954. So it would look like Lillian and Anthony Spinner were probably the writers from February - May, 1954. Janet would have left and come back in the process. I was re-reading the memo from Roy Winsor about his plans for the show circa fall 1964, which looked at completely writing out and/or backburnering the Ames children as early as mid-1965 with the intention of exploring new facets of Woodbridge by having Peter and Valerie Ames move into a new home and infiltrate their way into the problems of their new friends and neighbors. The Porters were just one way to do so. It is interesting that they chose to introduce Janet and Kip into that story sans Amy. I have to wonder if the Averys fought to keep the Ames children on. Jerry ended up being involved with Hope Crandall in 1965 into 1966. The story with Amy and Paul continued well into 1966. Susan was involved in the Casey Arnold plot. It seems like it all just came to a close right before Hess arrives.

Cwikly and Brash wrote the conclusion of the story where the babies were returned, I want to say at someone's baptism. For a show that hadn't really delved much into the emotional impact of the stories since Reilly left it was a noticable and appreciated shift. I believe it was heavily promoted (Kleenex sponsored the episode or something) and they even dragged Lisa Trudel back as Melissa for the event. I don't remember much of what Abe and Lexi did after that, but I recall they were present when Tony Dimera returned at Tuscany (I believe) under the reservation of A. Dimera; Lexi was questioned if she was the person and she wasn't. There were things I appreciated like Jack and Sami trapped in some inn with a murder mystery theme unaware it was just a collosal joke. Coming after Jack claiming to be gay to let Greta down easily this was a welcome relief. I believe they also wrote out Greta with the vague revelation that she was going "to be with her father" resolving the fact that John Black wasn't that man. Hope and Bo ended up dealing with the return of Billie Reed in the form of Lisa Rinna as a cop and additionally the return of Larry Welch, who kidnapped Hope. I think they also did Chloe's leukemia storyline. The Gemini twins were the big teen story for a minute, which was half baked Reilly. Brash and Cwikly's was well regarded at the time, but Corday cited an inability to maintain budget as the primary issue why they were let go claiming the stories were too expensive with a shifting in the number of sets and such.

I really enjoyed Jeanne Marie Ford's scripts when Tomlin was headwriter a decade ago. She wasn't a Culliton or a Melissa Salmons, but her scripts tended to be better than average as I recall. I'm glad she will be given a shot at the headwriters seat, but I'm not sure how much she and Cwikly will be able to accomplish with the writing team that is currently in place. I am not saying that to be shady, but rather to state that after watching Mulcahey's "General Hospital" I am not sure what can truly be done when the writing team isn't up to par. I found Cwikly and Brash's run fun at first, but it tended to be a bit early fanfiction in some ways. Lots of things being changed to fit the what I imagine the viewers wanted. I didn't like the idea of Craig being Chloe's father. After watching Patrika Darbo's emotional confession to Nancy's rape, I felt that it undermined some of that story to provide a happy ending to a situation that didn't really need one. I'll be curious to see what happens because as I recall Cwikly and Brash struggled with storytelling with a 2003 budget which must seem like a blockbuster compared to today. In regards to the ghost of JER, I think that the show was desperate to recapture that spirit for most of the early 2000s. I think there was a shift when Dena Higley 2.0 began and there was a general shift towards something resembling soap opera rather than soap opera parody. The attempt at high (or low) camp that had permeated every crevice of the canvas seemed more limited to singular stories while trying to embrace something a little more traditional. I think Poulter Clark and Ray Thomas were just wildly underprepared to handle the financial constraints that impacted who they could use, what stories they could tell, and how often they could tell said stories. I didn't find a lot of what they did effective, but I think they thought what they were doing was modernizing the show which I don't think was a terrible concept. For me, Carvilati's return was like the resurrection of JER with the wildness just busting out of the seems. I don't regret that he has been shown the door on the anniversary of the non-sense of two separate characters impersonating their doppleganger. Truthfully, I thought Carvilati would be writing the show's eulogy, so I am pleased he isn't.

Hmmm... for EON, have you tried the Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green? They house a large amount of scripts for P&G shows. They might have something.

@FrenchFan Who was the headwriter on ¨Edge of Night" at the time? Was it Vendig? I mistakenly assumed you were using the James Elward scripts for ¨Secret Storm," but then I realized you were looking at Arthur Heinemann´s. Mel Arrighi´s scripts out of Boston University pick up 56 episodes (ep # 3021) after Heinemann´s end (Heinemann last is ep # 2965 June 18, 1965) and ends a little over 300 episodes later with ep #3329. This would mean the Arrighi scripts cover approximately September, 1965 to probably November, 1966. With John Hess' collection picking up in March, 1967, that´s not a huge gap. I think Elward wrote some ¨Secret Storm¨ scripts when he left ¨The Young Marrieds" in early 1965 so there may be some more episodes that will cover some of the gaps from that period. I am not sure what´s in Elward´s collection, but maybe you have a better idea.

@Paul Raven Thanks for the article summer. That all sounds about right with what I watched. The syndication package episodes start with 70 which I believe is the first Friday in September so it sounds like there will be probably some changes in November around 110 or so. I seem to recall Jeff's cancer "miracle" was in December, 1981, before they kill off Nora and Scott on New Years' Eve. I'm going to try and make it to at least the new year because there is some stuff I've seen before I'd like to see again in context like Nancy's introduction (especially to note who is credited at the time on production and who isn't) as well as the aforementioned New Years' Eve tragedy which I recall being rather bloody and emotionally raw. I am curious about whether or not this was a union production. When all of this is going down, it's the Writers' Strike so I am curious if Roy Winsor's title of Story Consultant means he was going fi-core (was that an option in 1981?) or if this somehow was ok. I know "The Catlins" also seems to be a bit vague with the writing credits which makes me wonder if they weren't just trying to underpay people. Straub, Aaron, and Winsor's departures seem crazy given who replaces them. In his interview, Vinley makes it very clear that the Barnes' were unsuccessful in part because they were use to nighttime shows where you didn't have to worry as much about budget in terms of sets and things like that. @DRW50 The show was in production for a long time. I think in March, 1979, there is an article with Jason Vinley, Gerald Straub, and maybe John Palmer about the show and how its set to premier the first week of January, 1980. I'd really be interested in seeing the original Bible for the show as the pre-production material you talked about is intriguing. Lois Robbins' Mandy was dropped because of Robbins' faith. I'm going to try and do the monthly character tallies so I'll be curious to see when Mandy fades from the story. I suspect that Nancy effectively replaces her on the canvas. It's interesting about Nora because she does definitely give off the vibe of a domineering woman like the way Winsor envisioned Sarah Dale in his story projection for the late 1960s with Sarah also having a religious bent to her. Nothing seems solid enough for me to dig too deep into her character. Characters going from bad to good seems a very P&G philosophy as well. The film description reminded me of that attempt several years ago to do a Christian soap, "Hilton Head Island." I only made it through about 10 episode but there are like 20 or so more. Linda Gray pops up in the second season (with Donna Mills already present) so I am always tempted to pay for PureFlix for a week and binge the rest.

This is a very neat project. I love that you are doing this. I definitely need to dive deeper into these, but something that is standing out right away is a reference to Oceanview on "The Guiding Light." That sounds like the show was still set in Selby Flats/Los Angeles. Oceanview isn't really a name typically associated with the Midwest, but maybe I'm over reading the reference. The "Love of Life" material seems to be very dry and with the focus on Wannberg some of it seems like reheated spy stories that Pickard and Provo were cooking up (with a more campy flair) on "Wendy Warren and the News." "Secret Storm" would be in the midst of the Averys. This seems all very dramatic. The Paul-Amy-Kip-Janet scenario seems very ripe for ongoing conflict. It's amazing how much story, and the number of characters, "Search for Tomorrow" and "Guiding Light" are packing in a fifteen minute episode. Thanks!

Thanks @FrenchFan for all you do. The Valerie Hill bio I suspect is something written by Ira and Jane Avery as I think they were the ones to introduce the character. It's interesting to see listed that Janet Hill was originally suppose to have children. They kept the Swedish professor husband it seems, but nixed the children. Also, wasn't Bob Hill a lawyer by the time he made it on screen? The Alex Waugh article is interesting. I believe, and I may be incorrect, that the period of intense change came as a result of the Averys departure and John Hess' arrival as head writer. I think Waugh's point though is important about the changes when Winsor was attempting his revamp of the show to explore a less Ames-focused serial in the vein of the then-current "Secret Storm." If the show could have kept those women front and center, I think the show would have been better off. I don't even recognize Haila Stoddard. I think they should have recast if Stoddard was focused on theatrical productions. I apologize if I have said it before, but I think Barbara Becker who played Sybil on "Road of Life" might have worked or maybe Lesley Woods.

Originally, it was an innocent comment connecting the drinking of beer to Aiden's cupcake obsession. Then I realized the connotation and went with it. I figure those of you who read my endless rants deserve at least one cringe comment every now and again. Thanks. There is a lot of potential that just wasn't utilized, which is a shame. I know some of us have discussed the need for more action, but I think if the show's scripts were stronger, the emotional confrontations would carry the show. I just don't think that level of writing is being achieved by the staff. I think someone like Richard Culliton would be spitting out gems for Jane Elliott the way he would for John Aniston on "Days." And Melissa Salmons would have elevated that Nina and Ava confrontation back in May to another level. The current crop of writers don't excite me. I didn't think about the Monica angle with Cody and Tracy, but that would have been nice. Monica's response to the Heather Webber stuff would have also been noteable I imagine. I realize that Charleston doesn't seem to be available due to health reasons so I respect her absence, and appreciate Elliott's presence even more. I liked the suggestion someone made about turning Michael into an alcoholic. I can't remember if someone else suggested it, or I expanded on it in my head, but I would have let Michael become paralyzed in an accident and milked the paralysis to keep Willow by his side torturing her. I think I'll try my best to stick it out for the summer since I am off from school, but unless Drew / Nina / Willow is still in play or they have committed to the Stella / Tracy friendship I don't see myself committing to Carly's musical love interests, the on contract / off contract romances, and whatever else is in play. I didn't feel like there was a true commitment to the younger set. There were a handful of scenes back in March/April that seemed like they might, but I don't really remember a whole lot in the past few weeks. The younger set seemed to stall the week they recast Aiden and then none of that group got much outside Jake's bar trip (to reveal Finn's affair) and Danny and Jason bonding to fuel Sam's need to learn what the FBI has on Jason. I know we have talked about it several times. I remember thinking after Terry suggested that Tracy might have depression stemming from all of the loss in her life, including her husband Luke, that she should take up a hobby. If I recall, Tracy showed up in the stables and Cody was shirtless. The Cody is like Gregory line also stood out to me. It's possible Cody / Tracy was just built in order to maneuver Cody into the outskirts of the Gregory story to propel him to tell Mac, but I think someone wanted to try at something more than just friends between them. It's one of the reasons I have no use for the Pikeman story. I think the psychological element of it was interesting with Sonny off his meds, but I don't get the sense that Bernard is interested in playing that.

So I am intending to give this a proper try because I never am able to really follow through with it. I've watched episodes 70-73 more intently, and I am slowly understanding why. Episode 70 is a good starting point because the story is fairly narrow in those episodes on Lori's accident which is a good starting point. The derided Paul Mason / Lori Davidson affair rumor plot has already been aborted with Paul off canvas. The drug operation story seems to be slowly developing and what is probably the first reference to Vince Cardello is made in episode 72 when Russ calls Chicago for help securing a surgeon for Lori's surgery to prevent permanent paralysis. The family structure is intriguing. Terry Davidson's connection to Ravenswood Hospital gives her access to a world that should allow actions sequences involving life and death. Scott Davidson's work at the TV station adds the adventure of searching for a criminal element. Grandmother Nora Lindsey is very snarky and tell it like it is without the intense faith of her daughter. Lori is a young and innocent ingenue and Peter the young man coming of age while fighting the temptations of others. Mary Jean Fenton is very good as the matriarch almost too sickeningly sweet at times, but tonally that makes sense. Beyond that, I am hard pressed to find much to enjoy. The scripts are pretty tough. While compacting the story around the accident provides a tight canvas, there isn't enough meat to pull out of this. Many of the characters aren't deep enough and the dynamics aren't developed (this is suppose to be the first time that Russ is meeting the Davidsons) that this situation to be sustained over multiple episodes. Furthermore, the show's struggle with presenting religion makes the central conflict (bad boy Russ believing that he can secure a world qualified surgeon to take Lori's case over the local dynamo that family friend Alex Greeley suggest) insane. The talk of miracles when there are steps that need to be taken is wild. In the limited subplots, I do like elements of the Cummings' situation. Jeff seems like a real jerk who is being lured into a complicated situation with his work at Capitol Distributors, which is tied up in the drug operation. I think Lois Robbins' Mandy Bolen, the career woman who won't again be involved with a married man for long is intriguing. Jeff's alcoholism and his abusive personality are shocking material, but it isn't always presented in the most interesting way. There has been one scene of Miriam Carpenter Mason and her new love interest, Nick Trench, which is slightly intriguing, but I doubt that my interest will be held. Additionally, has there been any really concept of who was in charge of the writing? From what I can gather, it sounds like Roy Winsor was the headwriter (story consultant) for part of the first year, followed by Dallas and Joanna Barnes (well into 1982), and the final Headwriter was Jason Vinley who claims he was one of the creators of the show stating his name was on the story Bible, which he still seems to have a copy of. Most of this comes from an interview with Jason Vinley. The Vinely interview can be found on YouTube. There is a list of interviews on episode 70 on YouTube.

I've caught up with everything but Friday so some of this will probably be from the end of June. Finn's departure worked well even rushed. I do still think there was story left to tell with Alexis/Finn as Finn continued to spiral and Alexis became more attached, while Tracey became more judgemental due to her feelings for Gregory. I feel this would have played nicely with the battle over Gregory's literary legacy, which I imagine will also not continue past the initial seeds planted the week that Gregory died. Brook Lynn and Chase with Violet at least has given the couple some sort of obstacle to deal with even though I don't feel they will get the kind of mileage out of it that I suspect. I think there would be some meat to explore about either Brook Lynn or Chase deciding to put off having children because they either feel overwhelmed by Violet (who wouldn't?) or because they realize that they just don't want to be a parent. Jane Eliott continues to bring class, grace, and snark to everything Tracey does. Eliott's scenes with Sam McMurray were very touching. Lots of seeds have been planted for Tracey in the last few months. I am (foolishly?) hoping that something happens with them in the coming months even with Mulcahey out the door. I was surprised that they jumped into Drew and Willow so quickly, but not disappointed. I do think the general arc for Willow since Korte and Mulcahey have taken over is that Willow has become bored with life (hence the decision to change her career). At the time, I didn't understand the thwarted sex scene between Michael and Willow back in May, but I do think there it was suppose to emphasis how Willow's domestic life has impacted her sexuality. I think there is space to explore how Willow loves her children but doesn't want to only be seen as a parent, and that's how I feel Michael sees her. Though, that last part really hasn't been explored in the scripts. Drew is a Quartermaine hoe and I hope that he continues in the vein of early 1990s Ned. I also hope that the Chelsea Grimes character makes her way on screen and is a complete hot mess. The reveal about Mac being Cody's father worked well considering it was coming off a strong week of episodes. I definitely think Mac would admire Cody's lifestyle as that was Mac back in the day pre-Port Charles. The Cody / James scenes were sweet. I definitely think with how they have positioned Sasha in the Drew/Willow situation that the plan is (was?) Sasha / Michael as a counter fling, which I think would have allowed what I suspected was a Cody / Tracey situationship to play out. There's a lot of potential on the canvas, probably too much with such a large cast. I have little to say about Trina / Gio / Joss / Dex other than it seems to me that someone wants Gio / Joss, which I don't think is interesting. When they changed Joss' major, I assumed she would become Jenny Eckert 2.0 and become involved with the Greenbelts (or a modern equivalent) who were protesting the rejuvenation project involving the waterfront leading to some sort of violent episode requiring sanctimonious Joss to have to keep quiet about her own involvement in a violent episode keeping a major secret form her cop boyfriend, especially if whatever incident was set up by Ava trying to frame Sonny. Clearly, I was on the wrong page. I think Trina / Gio could have had some conflict if they kept Trina alligned with Ava as the custody suit ramps up, but I don't think that's the angle they are exploring. The actor playing Gio is too young to be playing 21. He seems like he should be eating Aiden's cupcakes. I think Trina has some interesting space to explore, but I am not seeing that onscreen. The Pikeman stuff never really works for me. I think Anna and Valentine's back and forth has potential, but I also just can't be bothered. I don't find Jason the most appealing character, though he is better than I expected. Sam and Carly was a delight. I thought that was an interesting angle to play. I do think we will learn that Ava is behind the FBI recording because all things evil lead back to Ava apparently. I do feel like the plan was to write out Jagger when this arc was over even though they seem to continue to chemistry test him. I don't feel there is much of a commitment. I didn't have the intense negative reaction that seemed to sweep a good chunk of the board regarding the fall out of Kristina and Blaze and the tape. Ultimately, I think there are severe flaws in the story that fall down, for me, into two categories: (a) censorship and (b) nuances in scripts. When the original conversation between Ava and Natalia happened, I felt like it was played as a bigger moment than it was. I suspect that Natalia's language was suppose to be more openly homophobic than what it was, which would have triggered an actual conversation. Given that the bullying plot for Aiden was dropped quickly, I have to wonder what level of discomfort the network is expressing regarding gay content. Furthermore, some of the issues result from mediocre scripts. I know some have stated they were better than they were, but they still aren't strong enough. Blaze and Kristina both outlined why they might lose their jobs before they did. Kristina is highly underqualified for her position so the center deciding that they were going to dump her with online activists pushing her out because they didn't see her as taking a strong enough stance on advocacy makes sense. If Kristina isn't going to stand up to her girlfriend's mother, who will she stand up to? Blaze states before her contract is terminated that she would be losing her contract because she lied, not because she was gay. Personally, given the insane amount of stipulations regarding media in the Deception contract, I have to wonder if there isn't the same amount in Blaze's recording contract and the company wasn't willing to play with Natalia in terms of having Blaze do media. I do think I wouldn't have rushed to do both job losses in one week. I would have played the media angle first with Blaze being asked to denounce her mother and her either having to finally stand up for herself against her mother or to continue to allow her mother to control her. The fallout for Natalia doesn't seem as hefty as it should, but the right people are hating her so I don't really mind. I think there are attempts to layer Natalia's homophobia in a way that would be worth exploring further. Natalia's root issue with homosexuality is that she was raised to believe it was an illness. Given the deeper conversation about mental illness that should be ongoing on this show given Marshall's racist diagnosis, Heather's metallosis impacting her court decision, and the tampering of Sonny's bipolar mediation, adding a more meaningful view about this would be fitting. It would also allow the canvas to address that even though Natalia is claiming she is think its a sickness, her language is inflammatory and it reflects back on her own character. I think the more problematic piece remains that they are pushing Natalia and Sonny as a thing. I also don't know why I am suppose to like Natalia when the only person supporting her is dealing with undermedicated (soon to be unmedicafted) bipolar disorder while saying he accepts Natalia's homophobia because it was similar to him beating the crap out of a young man without provocation. I really wish they had just had sent Sonny to prison at the same place that Finn became an alcoholic and was sent to rehab. Sonny and Ava were already gearing up for custody battle so I don't think the optics are Ava is worse than Natalia. Also, they've pretty clearly say that Ava is Sonny's target because he hurt his daughter, but I do agree that Natalia's words are ultimately what did that. I think the act was suppose to be impulsive on Ava's part because Natalia was slowly pushing her out of Sonny's life, but I would have had Ava at least try and claim that Pikeman had been bugging Sonny's apartment and was sowing discord throughout Sonny's world in order to prevent him from focusing on the gun running. I'll be quickly to see what happens once Mulcahey's name is no longer in the credits.

Creatively, 1980-1981 was very tough for "Search for Tomorrow" with seven different writers/writing teams helming the show. By the time the show was cancelled by CBS, the show wasn't in a great place creatively. Add in the shifting daytime landscape with the summer of Luke and Laura, I don't think the show had much of a shot on CBS. In the period you specifically asked about, Don Chastain was writing the show during the strike. He inherited a show that was in transition as Harding Lemay had only been writing for several weeks before the strike took place. There was some nice movement during that time (the end of the custody trial where Roger Lee was returned to his biological mother Cissie) and some movement that wasn't as strong (there was a mini-stalker arc with Peter Burnell as Richard Kent which had been a sticking point between Lemay and Mary Bunim Ellis). The introduction of Cynthia Gibbs as Suzi and the permanent return for Brian Emerson in a boxing story worked well later in the summer. Foolishly switching Wendy's love interests from scheming law student Spence Langley to a limited henchman in the jade necklace story Zach Anders was not a smart move. The jade necklace story wasn't great and led to the unnecessary murder of Mignon Sentell, Travis' controlling and mentally unbalanced mother who had been brought back in Lemay's projections with the suggestion that she was going to shift her need to control Travis to her need to control her new grandson, Roger Lee. Chastain started to write out some of the characters from Gabrielle Upton's time (September 1980-March, 1981) that were extraneous (Garth Taper, the artist married to Kathy, was offed in a car accident). I don't think the brand new additions were not that great (Sylvie Descartes, Dane Taylor, and Zach Anders were limited at best). The stories he was setting up were not that great involving Tourneur Instruments exploring space exploration. He is credited for adding more humor to the show and the action in the boxing story seems decent, but overall, his period just got worst as time went on. I didn't look much at the start of 1982, but I would imagine that there was a flux because the show was waiting to transition to NBC with the younger slant that NBC would have wanted. Similarly, even if CBS hadn't cancelled it, I imagine the show would have had younger focus.

A couple more episodes have popped up... The premier is back https://lolaclips.com/footage-archive/itv_archive/ITV-01-1376/families_uk_soap_opera_with_jude_law_full_episode Additionally, there are two new episodes (October, 1990) featuring the fall out of George Davidson's stroke back in England, while Corrine Todd and Justine Stevens have a flat warming celebration in Australia. https://lolaclips.com/footage-archive/itv_archive/ITV-01-1377/families_uk_soap_opera_with_jude_law_full_episode_part_2 One thing that stands out consistently is how engaging I find Morag Hood as a performer. In the premier, her Sue is a necessary cog for Mike to leave in order to pursue his relationship with Diane Stevens after many years. In the October sequence, Sue Thompson has moved on with John Thompson, her husband's scheming brother, while Mike has stayed in Australia and set up house with Diane. I was happy to see it was these October episodes because of the older set triangle (George and Ruby are divorced and on different continents while George has made house with Dot). I think the levels of triangles at every level of the family intrigues me especially as the central hero Andrew Stevens seems to be at the center of two with each of his half-brothers (Mark and Lisa in England and Corinne and Christian in Australia). The Christian-Corinne thread was probably provided the most interesting drama in the Australia set sequences between Corinne flirting with everyone at the party, Geoff Todd (Corinne's father) ending up staying in Christian's bed because of his overnight, and the separation between Corinne's parents, Geoff and Barbara Todd. I thought Barbara's rationale for her breakup was wildly realistic and low key, while also highlighting the insanity of whatever it is Diane and Mike think they are going to be able to accomplish. I found Laura Girdling (Amanda) impressive in her scenes, which means more than passable. She doesn't do well in the high drama (the Greek tragedy bit on the cliffs online from later in the run) or the posh high drama (my credit cards were declined in episode 3). At the car garage, I found her charming after building her life up after her failed nuptials the prior month to Neil Brooks. I can also see why some characters are cut fairly early into year two. Justine isn't generating story. The Lisa-Mark strand at the garage also isn't really lighting things on fire (bad metaphor given John ends up dying in a blaze of glory). I will say, I cannot understand dumping Sue unless Morag Hood didn't want to continue.

I imagine the show didn't have a publicist, and if they did, they were also probably doing three or four other roles on production. I've posted in this thread a couple of summaries from Seli Groves' soap column. Usually, even if some local papers chop up their soap column, someone will carry a complete list. I never see "The Catlins" consistently, which leads me to suspect that no one was sending them the material consistently. If that's the case, the press just planned around it. For SOD, I think part of the issue would have been also the lack of publicity shots that they usually used in their summaries. I don't think "The Catlins" did those other than when the show was launched. On a side note, @slick jones I found an article on Rod Davis that stated he appeared in four episodes in December, 1984, as the ghost of Gus Catlin. I think we have the name, but I don't think we had the date or that he was a ghost.

I think I finally found out a little more information about one of the show's headwriters, Hilary Sares. Sares was involved in publishing; she was an editor. This interview is many years old, but it seems to clear up that Sares wasn't a pseudonym. For the full interview: http://rosescoloredglasses.com/NewsFeb07.htm#Hilary Robin Grunder was most likely also an editor. I found some articles referring to her as being involved with one of Signet's romance lines. Again, this is mostly conjecture whereas Hilary Sares seems more definite.

A set of very good quality episodes focusing on Trey and Sloane's Lincoln Memorial wedding.

When it was announced Don Chastain was fired, originally two writers were announced taking over: Millee Taggart and John Burnett. Until recently, most of us thought they never wrote anything on air, but it seems they were credited for several weeks at the end of 1981 under pseudonyms. The papers stated that Chastain was out as writer and as an actor. Taper leaves town around Thanksgiving. From what I've seen of 1982, I agree that the new additions (Warren, Kristen, Keith, Jenny) were strong. Ellis/Hunt end up doing what Addie Walsh was credited for on "Loving" a decade later by bringing in a stronger younger set. I find some of their writing for these characters to be mixed. The emotional material (the angst between Brian and Suzi, the pseudo-gaslighting of Liza by Rusty) was strong, but some of the heavier plot stuff (the intricate and unnecessary complicated backstory of Rusty and Jenny, both separate and togehter, and the jungle plane crash) left a lot to be desired. With that said, some of the strongest SFT I've seen in the 1980s is Brian and Suzi learning Kristen is pregnant. Ellis and Hunt's final days set up Cherrill well. I had never considered that the EP was the problem. It certainly got better with Joanna Lee. In an industry that recycles behind the scenes staff as much as they do, it's a shame Lee wasn't given another stab at a daytime show. I think she might have helped given Loving a sense of identity. I think because they were often actors on the shows they were working on, or had been actors. I feel like Millee Taggart said in an interview they were afraid that more actors would want to have input on their characters and such so the network/production company encouraged pseudonyms. Wasn't Bob good friends with Jo from when she worked or volunteered at the hospital? I believe in his later years he was the town doctor role. David Cherrill brings Bob back in February, 1983, to consult during Liza's pregnancy. Under Tomlin, Dr. Rogers is the one to perform surgery inutero on baby Tourneur when there were issues discovered during testing. The last time I remember seeing him is at Jo's funerla in October, 1983. Though, the episodes from mid-to-late 1983 can be spotty. I don't think Bob was involved with Sunny's rape, though he might have been. Given that Chastain's doctor role recently departed, I wonder if Bob was brought back in that role or simply as a holiday guest.

lol None of that stuff really works for me, but I also love Dinahlee and Trucker's affair when Trisha is pregnant with Christopher so there's no accounting for my personal taste. I think the half-hour format is ill suited for that kind of show that you are describing. the only one that I think accomplished the adventure piece well was Edge of Night. Having spent a good amount of time the last few weeks watching Generations try to do that, it is a hard sell. On an hour, you have time to ruminate on some of the character stuff that gets lost in a half-hour of action and adventure. I think Jean Rouverol wrote in her book on soap writing that those action style stories often require a large cast of recurring players (I think specifically she was referring to the mob aspect in the 1980s on Ryan's Hope). I agree it had to be different than what it was. Your comments, Khan, made me think of two different things. One, if the show was going to emulate Days of our Lives maybe they should have put Pat Falken Smith at Loving instead of Ryan's Hope in late 1983. I think if Falken Smith was allowed to explore more of the psycho-sexual work she as known for in the 1970s it would have defined Loving a bit better and grounded it in something that was manageable. The second thing is that we, on this board at least, ignore the contributions of Joe Stuart. Based on everything that has been said in recent years, Stuart should have been removed fairly early on. More specifically, I am thinking of how Bill Levinson seems to be at the lead of the team post-Marland and the work he did under Wendy Riche's reign nearly a decade later. I'm curious what a strong female EP could have done with a show like Loving in the early years as it seems that Jacqueline Babbin and Fran Sears really define the show in the 1990s.

These are from early this year when the question about Raunch/Gottlieb/Malone was asked.

I think the Harlequin style late 80s opening with Mathis fits what they were trying to do in the era of Trisha and Trucker, Stacey and Jack, and Ava and Alex, but I agree that it never got to the point that it was that lush. I like the short-lived champagne bottle opening but I'm not sure if that was really the mood of either Millee Taggart & Tom King or Mary Ryan Munisteri's work. The cast turnover would have made photos very difficult for "Loving." In watching early 90s General Hospital, I think the R&B style instrumentals is more evoking the musical choices of Wendy Riche's show as I know some of the music cues were also shared. Millee Taggert & Robert Guza's Loving was sexually provocative at times and probably the raciest the show gets. I think "Loving" was suppose to be a return to multi-generational family based storytelling in the era of the Ice Princess, Stefano Dimera, and other over the top stories. The issue was it was too underdeveloped and the parts that were developed were quickly squashed by the network. I wish there was longer stretches of English languages episodes from late 1984-mid 1985 because I think that is the time that show finally started to get somewhere with Ava getting pregnant, Dane taking over Alden Enterprises, the arrival of Trisha, Steve, and Gwyneth, and generally cohesive canvas. I agree thate Marland and Nixon's visions seemed very different.

Raunch leaves in May. He's probably in the credits until early to mid-June. By early July, I think he is in the credits at "Santa Barbara." A couple pages back, I wrote some more about this. From what I recall, there is a period with no credited EP from about June - early August. I think Linda Gottlieb might have done some work, but its uncredited. I don't think the big changes come until early September when Malone shows up (he may have shown up a bit earlier but I know he did the Daughters of Llanview story and I believe that is either the first or second week of September).