dc11786

I don't think the Terrace existed very long. Until the recent fall 1981 video appeared, I had never heard of it before. I think it was introduced by Don Chastain when he was aiming for a younger, hipper "Search for Tomorrow" in line with the work that was being pumped out at "General Hospital" and "Days of our Lives" around the same time. I think it was dropped when Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt came on in early 1982. I think it was replaced by the Riverboat. I wonder if the Terrace was a replacement for the Boilermaker.

The original casting call for the Will recast had him in a scene flirting with Melanie. Given the structure at the time, it was clear that the initial conflict between Will and Melanie would have been Melanie's influence over Nick Fallon and the role the Hortons felt Melanie played in Nick's downfall. This was addressed by Nathan when he first came to town have some animosity towards Melanie because of that. I'm glad to know that Nathan was mentioned. My MarDar viewing was sporadic and more often than not it was more reading about the period because watching it was painful. In terms of Mia being Nicole's daughter, I did feel like this period had a tendency to have a moving target in regards to storylines. Like the structure might have stayed the same, but the characters would change or the characters were the same, but the structure would alter. I definitely felt like "Nicole having a child" was something that was going to happen, and I felt like who that child may have altered. Regarding Phillip, I didn't mind JPL as Phillip, but I felt that there is always an assumption that because someone is playing an established character there is no need to go into the character work to help the audience identify with someone who has been offscreen for a bit. I felt he was serviceable with Nadia Bjorlin in the paternity story, but his Phillip didn't feel like he could carry a story.

James Proctor integrated himself into the Harvey family. I'm not even sure if they ever revealled positively he was their son. There may have been a blood test, but I think there seemed to just be an overwhelming sense that Steve Harvey didn't care if James was or wasn't his son, he wanted it to be true. The scene I watched was from (I believe) June 1993 with Louise Plowright's Lynda Harvey blaming herself for her son being gay. Gary made sure that she knew that wasn't the case and then he went off to have a drink with James. Leicester was introduced as Jane Richards in late April/early May 1991 when the show had decided that they were going to shift away a bit from the upper crust Thompson crew by having John Thompson stab his brother Mike to death in the office before later torching himself to death (something that would be revisited on Russell T. Davies' soap "Revelations"). John Bowe's Larry Richards was intended to be a Den Watts type. When the show was originally conceived, it was envisioned as a bit of a mix of American, English, Austrailian, and Latin American soaps. Creator Kay Mellor implied that stories would have beginnings, middles, and ends. The Richards and the Williams were just the next chapter in the story. Louise Richards, the central of the latest paternity drama, was introduced until October 1991. It's a shame Margot Leicester's recent role was so thin. The humanity she bestows to Jane makes the character remarkable and is such an interesting contrast to Briony Behets neurotic, alcoholic Diane Vaughn. I admire actors who give a character a quiet strength like Leicester has with Jane. I hope more shows up as well. The first months are a bit meandering from what I've heard. Mike leaves for Australia in April and doesn't return to England until September for his daughter Amanda Thompson's aborted wedding to Neil Brooks. They do eventually marry even though Amanda has a compelling attraction to Andrew Stevens, who has arrived in Westbury and takes a job alongside his grandfather, George Davidson, at the Thompson auto garage. Andrew has flirtations with both Corinne Todd (who gets pregnant in a who's the daddy story with Andrew's brother, Christian) and Lisa Shepherd (the secretary at the garage). The big secret about Andrew being Mike's son doesn't really come to light until March 1991 and Mike's offed less than two months later. I'd still be curious to see how the show evolved to a point where Isabelle Bannerman kneels at Fiona Bannerman's bedside while she dies of an overdose. This really is one of Davies and crew's favorite story moments as I believe the "Families" crew worked several shows together. On "Springhill," Eva stands by Debbie Nixon Freeman's side when she takes her life. On "Revelations," Judy Loe's deliciously wicked Jessica Rattigan goes one step further and injects her posh, but bland, daughter-in-law Rachel with a hypodermic filled with air.

Mark Hapka played Nathan Horton.

Nathan Horton was the son that Melissa was pregnant with when she returned to town in the 1990s. It was referenced onscreen. I believe it was in July 2009 in the sequence where Maggie Horton bestowed Nathan with Tom Horton's medical bag. In the same conversation, we got the only reference that I recall to Nathan's paternity. Maggie said his father wasn't a good person and that was it. Nathan didn't seem to have any desire to explore the topic any further. Around the same time, Ken Corday was quoted in Soap Opera Digest stating that Nathan was Melissa and Pete's son, but this was never confirmed in anything that aired onscreen. Nathan's creation seemed to be an offshoot of the original plans for Will Horton. Before Dylan Patton was cast, the original casting call had Will Horton returning to Salem in early 2009 a bit older (he was a baseball player at Salem University). College age Will was suppose to end up in a flirtation with Melanie Layton. I suspect the original plan was to reveal Nicole was Melanie's mother and that the post-baby switch reveal would have had Sami learning this secret and keeping it in order to enact revenge on Nicole for taking Sydney. This was all clearly tossed when they decided to bring back Carly. As someone who was a fan of that era, I was incredibly disappointed in the decision to ditch Mark Hapka early in 2011. While Hapka's compliants weren't wrong, the show was pretty much structured around the female leads. I thought the sequence that they gave him in late 2010 (the virus that a pre-Dario Francisco San Martin gave Melanie and Nathan) was incredibly strong. Hapka and Burnett knew how to play the angst as well as Shelley Hennig knew how to just bare it all as Stephanie a few weeks later when Nathan called off the wedding. I felt like Melanie and Nathan would have been the plan for much of 2011 with Melanie's pregnancy being what kept Nathan and Melanie at odds with each other. I was very sorry when Nathan left town to work at John Hopkins. Has Nathan even been mentioned since he left Salem?

@DRW50Thank you for the tag! This has been one of those shows that has been incredibly hard to track down any material for. I didn't really think there was an interest here. This show is quietly insane. This episode is from the transition period where they have basically just written out a majority of the remaining original cast with the Stevens family fading into obscurity (barring Diane Stevens Vaughn who has relocated to Westbury with her husband to run the wine bar). The cast intergration and story crossover is nice with Diane's past catching up to her in the present being the catalyst that propels Margot Leicester's Jane Richards to confess the truth to her "daughter" Louise. Leicester was a real stand out in this and marvelous at taking some of this truly over the top material and grounding it in real emotions and avoiding playing up the melodrama. A few weeks earlier, Jane had had a miscarriage, kidnapped a baby from the hospital, and then tried to convince her sister Jackie to let her and Larry raise baby Sam (Jackie's son by an affair with Australian businessman Don McLeod) just as Jackie had let Jane and Larry raise Louise. To further complicate this plot, Louise (in the tailend of the Australian story) was determined to stay in Australia. To do so, she had first tried to marry Andrew (who chose his sister Amanda instead) before Louise was able to convince Don to marry her instead. Russell T. Davies plays a bit with this story (the revelation that Louise is not Jane's daughter) in his later soap "Springhill," but on a much grander scale when Nick, Sue, and Trish Freeman learn that their mother isn't frumpy religious zealot Liz Freeman but the recently returned Eva Morrigan. Drippy Sue Freeman has a similar reaction to Louise, while Liz, who has had moments of mania since Eva's return, is a much more calming force. Nick has also a rather deliciously "Families" embraced story as he has decided to dump his girlfriend Debbie so that he can pursue older woman Eva, who had befriended the young man before revealing her true identity. The other story, the destruction of the marriage between Anton and Diane, is equally fun. Diane desperately trying to convince herself that Amanda couldn't possibly have left town pregnant with her half-brother Andrew's baby borders deliciously on soap parody. I would drink too if I were Diane. Juliette Bannerman's flirtation with Anton is both intriguing, slightly disturbing, and thematically in character for the show as I struggled to tell the differnce between Anton and Simon Bannerman, Juliette's brother. Juliette ends up taking over the wine bar once Anton leaves Diane and a drunken Diane has a nasty confrontation with Sue Thompson, who returns just long enough to drop off Amanda's child (who we are told is Neil Brooks' son) off and to get one final dig to Diane by implying she knows where Diane's son Andrew is, before Diane gets killed when her car gets stuck on the railway tracks and she gets hit by an oncoming train. The Sue return sequence is still online in very poor quality. The final story, which is only starting to begin, is posh Simon Bannerman sporting an incurable crush on his sister Juliette's pal Fiona Lewis, who has been living life in Manchester in a flat paid for by her wealthy older married lover. While both Simon and Juliette are aware at this point that she has a sugar daddy, they (nor the audience) know that said man is their father Charles Bannerman (the lawyer who is said to be representing Larry Richards in the July 1992 episode). When the show ends the following August, Simon and Fiona have married, separated, and are on the verge of reuniting when Fiona decides to overdose, but calls the Bannerman home for help only for Helen Bourne's Isabelle Bannerman (Charles' wife) to answer and drive over to Simon and Fiona's to tell Fiona she made the right choice as she lets Fiona slip into an unconscious state. Wicked stuff. Within the last year, there was another (partial) episode from the final weeks in 1993 that included some of the story with the Harvey family, the working class family who took over the bar after the Richards and Williams crew was mostly shipped off. The episode was after the son Gary had already come out to his parents and I believe James Proctor had also informed the Harveys that he was their actual son (he and Gary I believe had been switched at birth). The show definitely led the audience to think that it was possibly there might be a romantic attraction on the part of Gary towards James, while James certainly was determined to take over Gary's position in the Harvey family. I didn't post it because the thread was closed and I imagined there wouldn't be much interest. Now I wish I had.

@KaneI think I've seen Rebecca Staab in a single episode as Cecilia. She was dressed in something very offbeat as if she were going off to a B-52s concert. I do think each actress played a very different version of the character from what I've seen. I do like Colleen Dion the most as I think her version of Cece was a predecessor for what was later done with Dinahlee. Collins, like Tudor Newman, just seemed to be able to evolve the character with such ease despite the rockiness of the transition between the revolving door of writers, producers, and recasts in their characters orbits. I wish they had done more with them when Curtis and Dinahlee were married and Chris Marcantel had returned to the part. I recall at one point (March 1994) Dinahlee, Curtis, Gwyn, and Clay were all living together. I liked how Gwyn and Dinahlee were able to push their differences aside for Curtis, but I wish that had been tested more. I vaguely recall Gwyn overhearing the conversation you were speaking of. The show managed to effectively use music throughout it's run. I seem to recall Dinahlee having a very sorrowful, heartfelt conversation with Louie Slavinski in November 1992 about how Louie was like the father she never had while Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" played in the background.

I felt MarDar's story scope was very narrow. The relationships they developed were strongly developed and had lots of character details, however, I didn't always find the story was their strong suit. Marlena and Will's relationship was definitely well developed under that regime, but Will's relationship with Kate was definitely downplayed and with Maggie was basically non-existent. There was also no real meat to the story. No one was against Will's sexuality. Will wasn't really interested in any guys (except maybe his former stepfather). The characterization was rich, but the plot didn't really include any action. It often was a lot of people hinting to Will that they knew he was gay (Marlena, the most often, and once, Sonny) but never really doing anything with it. The EJ/Will dynamic was also a little more complex than I'm giving it credit for as Will tried blackmailing EJ over the affair with EJ turning around and revealing Will was the one who shot him years ago, not Lucas. There was talk, I think, of EJ sort of mentoring Will, but nothing really ever happened. It was just a lot of talk. Chandler Massey definitely performed well with the adult crew. He has always been rather charismatic, but not always the strongest when it comes to delivering dramatic material. I cannot remember if he was a lot better when he was playing the material during MarDar, but I remember him being very ineffective against Blake Berris when they were writing Nick and Will as this generation's David Banning and Mike Horton. By keeping Will sequestered with the adults, there was no real attempt to build a younger core that would be needed to really tell stories based on the economics of the show. The veterans were too expensive and the show too cash strapped to really tell those kind of stories without some new, inexpensive faces to carry some of that dramatic weight.

There was a change in writers. Marlene MacPhearson and Darrell Ray penned EJ and Will's relationship with heavy homoerotic subtext because they had no real story for Will after coming out. Even if they wanted to go there, and I'm not convinced it wasn't anything more than gaybaiting, production wasn't super supportive at the time. Greg Meng stated when MarDar were leaving and outlining the future for "Days" that the gay story wasn't what was bringing in the 18-49 female demographic or something of that nature. Though Gary Tomlin and Christopher Whitsell within their first five to ten episodes turned around and had Sonny track down Will post explosion to declare his love for him and for Tad to turn around and beat the crap out of Sonny because he was gay with a less than subtle suggestion on Sonny's part that Tad's feelings regarding Sonny's sexuality was more about Tad's insecurities. I'm pretty sure Will and Sonny was the plan from the end of Higley and Whitsell's run. I know Whitsell was technically out of the credits by the time Sonny was introduced in June 2011, but the story setup for Gabi's pregnancy seemed to be in the works. Gabi had a brief bout of pneumonia that landed her in the hospital in the summer of 2011 which I figured would have been used to explain later why Gabi would be able to hide her pregnancy. MarDar definitely spent time and energy developing Will's coming out, but I never got the sense they knew what they would do with Will after he came out. As I recall, he was kept pretty isolated from the rest of the younger set in 2012 until Tomlin and Whitsell returned and then Will seemed to be more central to the youth set while his story still impacting his family. NBC is more likely more conservative than CBS, and the reaction wasn't stellar, but "Young and the Restless" did something similar with Adam Newman and the attorney Rafe Torres. Granted, that was something that has been pretty much scrubbed from history, but it was a thing for a moment. Even if they didn't "go there," they could still have easily had Sami convinced that EJ and Will were sleeping together with Will later making a play at EJ that he rejected that could have led to some interesting drama. Though very little actually happened between 2011-2012 between Tomlin runs. I'd argue that a lot of the "interference" MarDar faced was their own inability to work within the budget constraints of the shows tight budget, which is something that had led to a sudden dismissal of Paula Cwikly and Peter Brash as headwriters a decade earlier. For one, MarDar didn't understand how contract guarantees worked. You can't have Matt Ashford starring in a story with a once-a-week contract guarantee or Lisa Rinna for that matter. For MarDar to have been successful, they would have needed to be paired with someone who could have made their day to day storytelling compelling, which is odd because I believe most of the people who had worked under the previous regime stated. That group was use to taking Higley's underdeveloped plans and turning them into something compelling. What I mostly remember MarDar for is that Marlena and Sami's family got a lot of good character developing material while everyone else seemed to flounder until their wedding anniversary or birthday came up and that was remembered. Or the inability to choose whether the audience was rooting for Sami with Rafe, EJ, or Lucas.

Another May 1985 episode: Some nice use of music that shows why "Loving" would have been hard to rerun. The music sting at the start of the episode is fairly compelling when Ava is knocking on Stacey's door while Stacey has a panic attack on the other side since she and Jack have just finished up in her bed. I know "Loving" had a tendency to use more popular musical scores from film and other television series. Does anyone recognize this one? Dane and Gwyn romping around in the hotel room to "Smooth Operator" is pure 80s gold only to be topped by the lost episode of "Paper Dolls" that seems to play out at the end of the episode with Lorna hopping to Madonna's "Material Girl" while men and women clad in dayglo outfits prance about. In terms of actual dramatic material, Jack lying to Stacey about Ava's reaction should come back to bite him. Ava and Ann's conversation about a husband's infidelity would have been much richer if they leaned a bit more into the history. Dane and Gwyn's affair is the obvious subtext to Ann's remarks to Ava, but I would hope that at some point it is acknowledged (or has been) that this was Ann's issue in her marriage to Roger as well.

My apologies regarding Patricia Estrin. I was confusing her with Englund as they both appeared together on "Lovers and Friends." Regarding Ellie Bergman, was she Scott's cousin or aunt? Wasn't Gary Walton set to return in summer 1986, but Addie Walsh scrapped it? Gary and Laine's son Craig spent the summer with his Aunt Sunny, but wasn't that suppose to be the lead in to Gary's return. Erwin Nicholson and Paul Avila Mayer/Stephanie Braxton brought back Danny Walton and introduced Sarah Whiting in the same month. It was clearly a choice to give more weight to the characters. If the show was going to keep Tracey and Chris Whiting young, Sarah made sense, but the scripts sugggested they were both older. Patti's return in the form of Jackie Schultz is typical of that era where early 30 somethings were parenting characters in their 20s. It was such an odd choice. So much of Patti's actual generation was long gone though.

Marland actually did it three times. He originally told the incest story on "A New Day in Eden" with Emmett and Cynthia Clayborn. Cynthia was played by Britt Heflin who ended up playing Lily Slater #2 on "Loving." Nixon also retold the story with Ceara Connor on "All My Children." Based on the research in the "Loving" bible, I suspect that Nixon pitched Palmer and Nina Cortlandt as an incestuous relationship. Her notes state that any relationship that left the child feeling uncomfortable could be deemed incest. When Addie Walsh and Laurie McCarthy were writing "Loving," Stephanie Brewster has a memory of her mother Deborah accusing Malcolm Brewster, Stephanie's father and Deborah's soon to be ex-husband, of having unnatural feelings for Steffi, which led to Malcolm cutting himself out of Steffi and Deborah's lives. Back in 1984, not only was the Slater story killed by the network, it was towards the start of a new contract cycle in January, 1984. Despite the credo of not mentioning the story, June Slater returns for one more episode at the end of March 1984, probably with Ann Williams still under contract, revealing that Lily's condition had deteriorated and that Jack Forbes needed to move on.

I've finished watching "Tribes" this summer. Mary Ryan Munisteri definitely mimicked the style of storytelling for the youth stories on "Loving" in the tailend of 1991 into early 1992. The drug dealer who had been supplying Matt Ford ended up in the band with Matt and the others with Ally eventually flirting with one of the other band members. This was a replay of the Matt Kubiak / Melinda Cox / Billy Pressfield situation with Jojo (the show's resident bad boy) being brought into the band as well. Similarly, the situation with Ally Rescott becoming emotionally attached to Giff Bowman while her parents marriage broke up is very similar to Stacey Cox's relationship with her science teacher Mr. Stevens. Most of this though played out after Munisteri departed. I would bet the original plan was for the third leg of the Ally / Matt story was to be Revel Bowman, Giff's son who has been mentioned around Christmas. Actually, I am almost positive now that Addie Walsh used whatever storybible had written for the first part of 1992 to wrap up the stories while she built up the canvas she wanted. The social issue stories were relevant to both series. I think Matt overdosing on heroine is one of the most dramatic moments in the show's history and shocking given how short a run the character had on the show. Even the presentation of Matt's story, being accused of a rape committed by his stepfather, is a storytelling style that was popular on "Tribes" where the kids stories were reactionary to what their parents were doing. Ally was similar in that most of her story was in reaction to her parents divorce.

Thanks. I don't know if I ever saw Bonnie Bartlett perform as Vanessa before.

Patricia Englund's character Dr. Jamie Larson was said to be Scott Phillips' half-sister. Did they ever clarify if she was related to his mother or his father? I find it interesting because, while Scott wasn't present, family members from both side were. Scott was Suzy Martin Wyatt's half-brother and Ellie Bergman was Scott's aunt or cousin on his mother's side. Also, I don't know if the episode is online or not, I think it isn't, but there is an episode set in San Marcos in October 1985 with a postal clerk. The actor credited is Tony Rivera, I think, but I'm pretty sure it is Tony Shaloub. Has anyone else considered this before?

Not to continue the train off-topic too much, but I've interacted with the buyer before. He is a very fair man from my experiences and has a genuine passion for the genre. I would highly recommend him. For many years, he was a trade only individual when I first started on soap message boards in the late 1990s. I think not wanting to buy from someone is fine, but I don't think this is an unreasonable person. It's not like the asking price is incredible high or the market for this is incredible big. Also, he did at one time post on this board. Also, from my understanding, this episode isn't for sale, unlike "The Secret Storm" episode. I've only seen him offer to trade it with someone for this "All My Children" episode. I am always happy to see new material find its way out in the open. Eventually, this makes its way into the public sphere once it enters the market.

@Paul Raven Sorry. I ended up going in a hole of "Road of Life" searching without actually sharing anything. The final years seem to be dominated by a lot of turnover in the actors playing the roles. As TV became the dominant medium, I imagine a lot of actors who made the move to television no longer had the time or ability to perform on the daytime radio soaps. As a result you have a lot of turnover in key roles. Paul McGrath is more than likely the final Dr. Jim Brent. He first appeared in September 1958 and the show wrapped up in the first week of January 1959. There's about a year (July 1957-August 1958) where I cannot find anyone listed in the role as Jim. I am pretty sure he appears, but I'm not sure if Don McLaughlin was in the role until 1958 or if there were another actor in between McLaughlin and McGrath. Though, I am beginning to wonder if Brent may not have been offscreen for a bit in January - March 1957 (or 1958 I have to check) in Mexico because of McLaughlin's part on "As the World Turns." Similarly, several actresses played Jocelyn post-Virginia Dwyer. Teri Keane assumed the role by September 1955. She was there for about a year or so. She was replaced in 1957 with Lenka Peterson. In 1958, Pat Wheel returned to the role of Jocelyn. I cannot find any newspaper listings confirming Pat Wheel, but I am almost positive I read about Wheel resuming the role in one of the old TV Mirrors online. I think Bobby Readick was the final Dr. John Brent. I believe there was another actor in the Frank Dana role towards the end as well. I mistakenly wrote that Elizabeth Lawrence was Jocelyn, when she was Francie. I'm not sure if she was there until the end. John and Franice Brent took the lead for a bit in 1957-1958 with Francie's ex-boyfriend, Cable, arriving on the scene from her days in Chicago around the time she also started working for Ed Malloy, a multimillionaire, who arrived in Merrimac in August 1957. John Brent became obsessed with social status and used his inheritance from Aunt Reggie to improve their lifestyle. To keep up with the payments, John became involved in gambling and with loan sharks. This placed strain on his marriage to Francie, which I would assume pushed her towards Cable, but I don't think Francie and John broke up. Cable, who had been a physical trainer for a baseball team, became involved in the newspaper business and ended up married to Nicole Malloy, who had some neuroses related to her mother's mental decline. I imagine Francie's professional involvement with wealthy Ed Malloy also made Brent a bit more driven to elevate his status. I now suspect that the Overton clan was deemphasised in mid to late 1956. Charles Dingle, the actor who was playing Conrad Overton, passed away in January 1956. Another actor, who's name I have not been able to locate, assumed the role until at least June 1956 when Sybil was involved in yet another trial. I suspect Dingle's passing is what spurred the exit of the Overtons. I imagine Abbey Lewis and Doug Parkihurst may have departed around the same time if they hadn't already. I'm also unsure at what point the show wrote off Malcolm and his wife, Augusta, who I imagine may have departed before the tv series began, but I am unsure if she reappeared. With Conrad Overton gone, Ed Malloy became the heavy in the story. He was at war with Frank Dana presumably over the way Ed tried to control the newspaper with his money and power. The animosity between the two escalated when Frank's (adopted) son Tom Dana returned from college in the summer of 1957 when Gabrielle Malloy, Ed's daughter by his late first wife, also returned. Tom and Gabrielle fell in love in a "Romeo and Juliet" style story that kept them apart. Gabrielle was dragged into some legal matters involving Ed and Frank which would have caused her to testify against her father. Frank eventually recruited Cable to work as an editor at the paper which meant that now Malloy's son-in-law was working in the enemy camp. Cable, and I believe Nicole, both began to suspect that Ed may have in fact been behind his first wife's untimely death. This would have placed Malloy's new wife, Sybil Overton, at risk after she and Malloy forged Jim Brent's name on papers in April 1958 in order to marry without waiting for a blood test. Cable threatened to use the newspaper in August 1958 to do an expose on the mysterious passing and Ed ended up fleeing from justice in late 1958. In January 1959, Sybil was informed that Malloy had perished in a plane crash, most likely one of the three cliffhangers spoken of in Charles Gussman's obituary. I suspect Tom Dana may have shot Frank Dana as well thinking Frank might have been Ed Malloy, but that's pure conjecture. I'm realizing more and more that Dr. Jim Brent and Jocelyn really are regulated to the sidelines in the final years, more likely than not because of the constant turnover in actors and actresses. I wouldn't be surprised if McLaughlin stayed until late in the show's run (summer 1958) but that they had to keep Jim on the sidelines becasue of McLaughlin's workload on "As the World Turns." The last big Jim Brent story seems to be Brent's involvement with Hopehaven Sanitarium, a crooked old age home where his Aunt Reggie Ellis was interred. Aunt Reggie defended the charltan doctors at this hospital before falling victim to neglect and dying in June or July 1956/1957. Sybil became involved with Randy Ogden, a financier involved with the hospital who was also involved in mismanaging Aunt Reggie's money. Jim spent the better part of the year trying to bring the responsibile parties to justice, which he did. Also, briefly, as a part of the story, Sybil was looking to make amends with people as her involvement with the criminal element had led her to loose custody of her daughter. Jocelyn, post-TV, seems to have a few stories. I think she would have given birth to her and Jim's child on radio while wrapping up the love triangle between herself and Armand Monet and Jim with her going back to Jim. When Jim went missing in Mexico, it is Jocelyn who was leading the search to find her husband. Charles Gussman would have written this entire period. I easily think this could have played out on television more successfully than what actually played out on TV. Most of "The Road of Life's" run is fairly compelling to me, barring the two or three year period where Howard Teichmann pushes out the medical angle and inserts a spy ring involved in trying to steal the research Jim Brent is doing for a government lab. As a part of the spy ring plot, Carol Brent, Jim's decade long love interest, is killed off and replaced with a doppleganger, Beth Lambert, who infilitrates the Brents lives in order to get access to the research. The plot is resolved in mid-1950 before Gussman shifts the story from spies to the complicated relationship between the Brents and the Overtons, who I believe he created. If there is any interest, recently about two and half months of episodes from 1944-1945 were released from a radio fan's collection. What's most interesting about the period is its from the time the show switched filming locations from Chicago to New York so there should be an entirely new set of voices playing role after four or five episodes. I haven't listened yet, but it seems like it might be of some interest to those here. https://archive.org/details/RoadOfLifeJHMC

These 1985 episodes have been great fun. I'm not a fan of the Jonathan storyline, but it's well produced. I'm a bit more ambivalent to the 1990s replay with Gilbert and Jeremy retelling the story. With that in mind though, I think Nixon wanted to try and recapture the gothic understones. It only sorta works in my opinion. I am constantly thinking of different ways the show could have told different stories. In one of my latest alternate timelines, I maintain the gothic tone by bringing in Rita Mae and Billy Bristow much later, after the Slater story had reached its initial conclusion. In my revised version, I went with a revised version of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Billy Bristow is Billy Rescott, one of Kate's boys who finally made it out of Corinth on a football scholarship only to end up in a car accidnet with his best friend leaving Billy Rescott physically disfigured. Rita Mae was the social climbing wife who convinces Billy to buy the Slater house because it's a beautiful house below market value because no one in Corinth wants to own the house where a murder happened. Rita Mae would hire Forbes Construction to do some remodeling to spruce the place up, but also so there would be a deluge of young men in and out of the house. Billy would end up working on his memoirs with Doug Donovan, who in my version almost 100% of the time is gay. Billy would soften over time as Doug pushed him to accept that he is not the monster he has made himself out to be, with Merrill Vochek in the background determined to get a scope on the accident the ruined Billy's career and took the life of Billy's friend and lover. I'd probably have Mike Donovan develop a friendship with Billy, or rekindle if they played high school football together, and let Mike learn the truth after bedding down with Rita Mae. Given the climate of ABC daytime of the 1980s, I mean even today, this would be unlikely but I still like to dream. In real time 1985, I think the Stacey / Jack story is strong foundational, but the dialogue could be crisper. I get that the posh Aldens would be scandalized by Jack and Stacey's affair, but Clay is still missing at this point and Cabot's son-in-law has stolen the company from him during a medical crisis. A messy divorce and custody battle seems pretty tame by comparison. I would like to see them lean in more to the Donovan's faith. I know they've already done this before, but the scandal stuff seems a bit much at times. I do root for Stacey and Jack even in the material as it is presented. I also really like Dane and Gwyn. It's a shame they were never able to keep Anthony Herrera around too long or never thought to recast the character. Dane is the kind of Gatsby-esque insider/outsider that is needed to keep the Aldens on their toes and give them someone to show an united front against. I like how they've positioned the two affair storylines with Ann at the center of one and inline to react poorly to the other based on her own experiences. The reporter blindsiding Lorna in an interview is replayed in a few months (November 1985) when Christy Conners (Lois Robbins) asks Lorna about Linc Beecham's wife. I would have linked the Beechams and Rita Mae. Not that they had to be related, but maybe Rita Mae grew up in the same town. It would have given the Beechams a bit more ties to Corinth. It's very interesting to see Rita Mae free of Billy. Sheri deciding she wants to keep the baby is just great. I love it. Ava is such a selfish, self involved individual. I don't think I realized they had made Tug and Jack friends. Here's to hoping for a few more to pop up.

@SAPOUNOPERA I actually don't disagree on the tonal issues with the stories you mentioned. Hunter Belden convincing Dolly Jones that her daughter had been adopted out to child pornagraphers has to be one of the most tasteless stories told. The Jonathan/Keith story just wasn't the kind of story that worked for a show like "Loving" as initially conceived. I imagine it was suppose to be a form of spiritual successor to the dark, gloomy Slater family drama that had opened the show's first year, but I don't think it worked. Possibly, the show may have thought the same of Hunter Belden's and Alan Howard's stories. Recently, I've begun to wonder if the show was planning on recasting Merrill Vochek in the summer of 1984. After Doug Donovan marries Edy, Doug goes off to California to turn his book into a television series. He ends up getting a co-writer, Stephanie, a journalist who was interested in developing a story based on the Van Ark murder. Stephanie appears to be a potential love interest for Doug. it would have made sense if that journalist was in fact Merrill, working with Doug on the series while also actively working on a case that would have revealed Doug's wife to be a liar. I'm thinking that someone nixed the Merrill return and instead developed the Stephanie character. I'm curious if the plan was to keep Roger longterm after Shearin departed. John Shearin's last appearance is at the end of his first 13-week cycle. Peter Brown starts in September 1983 with a four month contract (this was stated in the press) before being written out in January 1984. Roger doesn't die until March/April when the show reintroduces Ann in the form of Callan White. It's a shame that Merrill wasn't given the moment to grieve Roger as I think that would have been a nice beat to play. Anyway, the bigger crime wasn't writing out Roger, but not bringing him back at some point to cause some havoc.

Interesting to see that Marland is already out as headwriter by the end of May as is his creator credit. Eugene Price is listed first under writers. I haven't watched all of it, but it's great to see more of Betsy Burr as Noreen. Noreen and Mike Donovan were an interesting conflict for Jim and Shana. I'm not a huge fan of the Jonathan tale. I think the first part with him as a sinister serial killer is dark and gloomy, but the second round with the devil stuff isn't my cup of tea. Given Jim's profession, I can see why this would be intriguing, but it's just goes against the tone of the show's premise. @SAPOUNOPERA Part of the problem with the premise was that the characters that were heavily outlined in the bible (Merrill, Roger, June Slater, Lily) were not always the ones that jumped off the screen. Jennifer Ashe's Lily is very intriguing and given her trajectory in daytime Ashe could have clearly taken Lily in many different directions, but ABC politics is always cited as the reason Lily's story was discontinued. Roger and Merrill didn't really work. I think the show was more successful using the affair angle with Stacey Donovan and Jack Forbes later when Jack was married to Ava and carrying on behind her back. Young, Catholic Stacey wondering how she became the type of girl who would sleep with a married man came off as more sympathetic than Merrill Vochek's blaise view of love and marriage. Shana's independent career woman was a more palatable character because Jim was only cheating with her on God not some alcoholic housewife. Susan Walters' Lorna emerging as a central character was a smart move, though her more ambigious anti-heroine was more santized with Parker O'Hara and emerged as a traditional heroine. A grave mistake. Similarly, Christopher Marcantel's cheeky and conniving Curtis was shifted into more story, but never to the level he should have risen to. It probably would have made things too neat, but an Ava / Curtis / Stacey / Jack situation where Curtis and Stacey were either involved or very much unlikely friends would have been something I felt that could have been pursued further. To me, Dane, Shana, Ava, and Gwyn were all great additions that gave the show a bolt of energy that was very much absent in the original canvas. They were much needed catalysts for plot movement that was rarely occuring in those early episodes. Of the characters absent at this point that I would have liked to see around still from the original structure would be Doug and Merrill, but both probably in more supporting roles than anything else. Billy doesn't appeal to me. Roger's death opened up story and his inevitable return would have caused more ripples in the canvas. The Slater story had a beginning, middle, and end. I think exploring the Slater women forging ahead after years of abuse would have been a positive message to send, but I think allowing Lily should have returned in January 1986 right before both Jack and Stacey and Curtis and Ava married as a potential third leg to both relationships.

I agree that Higley, Whitsell, and Tomlin managed to reinvigorate a show that had mostly atrophied from years of neglect and was on life support. Besides the things you already mentioned (the baby switch, Chappell and Sorel's returns, and working within a budget), this regime focused on emotional outcomes, building storylines to payoff, and building non-romantic relationships between characters in order to keep time between signifcant story beats interesting. Intergenerational story telling also really helped. The show also, I think this is really important, was no longer being run with the philosophy that super couples had to be front and center and dominating a majority of the storytelling. Avoiding those sacred cows helped a lot. Characters also no longer returned just because they were big names. There had to be enough reasons suddenly to justify why they were returning on contract for a two year period. Vivian returned to enact revenge on Carly for killing Lawrence in November, but, by December, there were already interactions with Victor and Kate regarding Phillip and it was clear what Vivian's second arc was going to be once the revenge story was over. Similarly, Chappell was returning as a Bo / Carly spoiler, but the Melanie angle was eventually going to give way to the Carly / Daniel angle. The show was written as if it was a show that had the possibility of staying on the air. In the end, I dipped out for a bit during Nighttime Hope. I thought the tribute for Alice Horton, and Francis Reid, was lovely and full of great moments (Bill wondering what life would have been like with Kate, Kim and Shane's reconcilliation after years apart, Jen/Mike/Bill/Laura all together), but I think it was a mistake to wholesale stop the rest of the show to tell that story for a month or so. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have done it, but rather that material, even if filmed in advance, should have been spread out over time. Regarding Hope's point of view, what I remember from that time was the show was driven by a series of female characters (Sami, Nicole, Hope, Chloe, Carly, Melanie). According to what Higley wrote, from prior to Whitsell and Tomlin arriving, the bone of contention in Hope and Bo's relationship stemmed from their son Zach's death and the fact that Bo kept Hope in the dark about his daughter Chelsea's role in it. At the time, I don't think this had been brought up much prior to Higley's arrival, and I was willing to go with the fact that losing a child would have a huge impact on a marriage and it wasn't something that would have been easily resolved. Almost all of the stories Bo and Hope had in that era revolved around that dynamic. After Bo had hid evidence that may have implicated Phillip in Paul Hollingsworth's disappearance, Hope was offered the position of chief of police which would have put her over Bo, but she didn't accept the position. When Hope was suspended for shooting Kayla, the specific reason Hope went on leave was because her superior office, Bo, did not give her permission to fire her weapon and he had done so because he hadn't told her about his visions. Ciara's kidnapping in the summer had a similar issues. It was all driven by emotion and it was effective. To me, the end of Higley/Whitsell/Tomlin was a combination of things. As I recall, the show was preparing for the possibility that Allison Sweeney might not return by re-introducing Taylor Walker. The idea was smart, but the execution (and casting) were pure misery. The Taylor/EJ/Nicole stuff was just bad. At the same time, Shelley Heining and Jay Kenneth Johnson had elected not to renew their contracts with Mark Hapka's contract being terminated after a rather contentious conflict with TPTB over the fact that Nathan did little more than pine for Melanie. Heining's wedding day breakdown where Nathan confronts Stephanie over her lies and involvement in Parker's paternity switch is one of my favorite "Days of our Lives" confrontations to this day. To me, blowing up the Nathan/ Melanie/ Phillip/ Stephanie quad was a bigger issue than is often cited in the downfall of the show in 2011. Having to reset that story, after just resetting the Nicole storyline was too much. It was very clear where it was all going. Nathan and Melanie, after learning about both Stephanie and Phillip's deception, would have reunited with Melanie's pregnancy being the lingering shadow that kept Phillip in Melanie and Nathan's life. Melanie's miscarriage was inevitable as it would be the motivation for Melanie and Phillip to reunite and provide a united family front for Phillip to gain custody of Parker. Meanwhile, I imagine Stephanie would have become involved with Dario and played something akin to the Patch/Kayla romance before having Nathan try to "save" her. God I loved Nathan and Melanie. Fake Rafe and Nighttime Hope were the weakest spots of that era for sure. I actually liked the Dimera / Kiriakis war. Though, I also liked Carly's drug dependency and Chloe's post-partum induced prostitution stint so I'm not really the best judge of character lol

I know I'm in the minority, but I didn't hate the Bo/Carly/Hope story. I felt Kristian Alfonso did some of her strongest work in those scenes where Carly showed up at Maggie Horton's house after Mickey had died and Hope confronted Carly about the affair. To me, that was just really solid soap opera. I also loved how when Hope learned that Carly had a child out there, she contemplated that Bo might be the father, but dismissed it because she knew that Bo wouldn't keep that from her. When I had started watching in the 1990s, Carly and Bo were the couple and I adored them. I liked them being reunited even though it was clear from the beginning that Carly was an obstacle and there was no plan to keep Carly and Bo together. If anything, there wasn't enough story to tell with Bo and Carly at the center of it as a couple. Carly was clearly intended for Daniel Jonas and was pretty quickly thrust into the Daniel / Chloe / Philip / Melanie / Nathan saga with playing Chloe's confidante. It worked because of Bo's connection to Phillip and Daniel. I really enjoyed Chloe and Phillip's one night stand and all the complicated mess that came out of it. With that said, Bo and Carly were a couple mostly in name only. Bo spent most of the same time period involved in the Nighttime Hope stuff, as I recall. To be fair, in some ways, Higley's second round at "Days of our Lives" was a much quieter show than it had been in many years and that was quite an adjustment for cast and viewers. I really enjoyed Bo and Hope integrated into the canvas more than having the need for them to drive story 24/7. I actually really enjoyed angsty Bo and Hope driven by the unresolved feelings from Zach's death, Bo's need to be in control, and Hope's stubborness in reacting to Bo's possessiveness. I think the show could have done a better job with the break up Bo and Carly. For me, Bo's hero complex was at the center of his romantic stories of that time and examining how Bo ultimately needed to save someone would have been interesting if that was part of the manifestation of Carly's drug dependency. Also, I wish post-prison Hope and Bo had a longer reconilliation period, not so much rocked by massive threats to their relationship, but rather two adults trying to navigate a happy medium before settling down again. Also, with a stronger sense of community, characters could react to other people's stories during that time and it was still meaningful.

Adrienne had been reintegrated into Salem before Sonny arrived. Kurth returned as Justin in the summer of 2009 when Daniel Jonas was accused of poisoning Chloe. Kate was the actual culprit at the time going after the couple because of the ongoing affair Daniel and Chloe had while Chloe was married to Lucas and Daniel had been involved with Kate. At the time, it appeared the show was planning on playing a Justin / Hope relationship as Hope and Bo had been struggling the last year with residual resentment stemming from Zach's death. While Justin was defending Daniel, Hope and Bo were dealing with a kidnapping involving Ciara by some cop that worked for the Salem PD (Dean played by Nick Stabile). Given how stories were told at the time, I believe Bo, once again, made the decision to ice Hope out of the decision making process just as they had started to make some leeway on making things better (Hope had forgiven Chelsea before Rachel Melvin departed the show). With Bo acting alone, Hope found solace in Justin's arms. By November, Justin and Adrienne had divorced (offscreen) and Carly Manning had returned in October on the run after murdering Lawrence Alamain. A relationship between Hope and Justin was described in previews, I believe, but it was scrapped and instead the show went with Nighttime Hope. Adrienne returned in late March or early April 2010 during the start of the Nightime Hope story. Adrienne arrived to see Justin in the hospital after he had been clobbered by the mysterious attacker who had targetted powerful men (I believe other victims included Abe Carver and Charles Woods, the district attorney who had raised Chad). Adrienne was used as a voice of reason for her niece Stephanie Johnson as well as playing some romantic tension between her and Justin. She also bought the Cheatin' Heart and operated as the owner/manager. In May 2011, the show married Justin and Adrienne offscreen in preparation for Sonny's arrival in June 2011. Other than Marlene MacPhearson and Darrell Ray Thomas, most subsequent writers used Adrienne pretty consistently until she was killed off, which was a shame in my opinion.

I believe when Adrienne was brought back in 2007 after Bonnie Lockhart departed town they made Judi Evans wear a darker wig. I don't know if she wore it the entire run, but I seem to recall her donning darker hair during some sort of kidnapping.

Thanks @DRW50 @te. There were six 90-minute episodes produced and aired, but they didn't air with any consistency. Two episodes premiered in June, 1983, and then a single episode every month until October, 1983. In the summer of 1984, the show was re-run with some frequency with up to two different episodes being repeated. In terms of Showtime, it doesn't surprise me that they didn't care about "Lone Star Bar & Grill." In 1982, Showtime has launched "Romance" which was a romantic anthology. It was a story told in 5 parts. Some of it was developed for the network, but at least one story, "33 Brompton Place," was simply bought from another country and repackaged under the "Romance" banner. By November, Marland's "New Day in Eden" was launched with "Romance" folding in December. "Loving Friends, Perfect Couple" launched in January, 1983. "New Day in Eden" would air two episodes a week before rerunning six of the previous episodes in the course of a single week. These reruns ended in May, 1983, right before "Lone Star" came around.