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The first episode was recently auctioned on ebay. This information comes from the images made available in the auction listing.

Funny, the show didn't last much longer. Robert J. Shaw was the show's final writer and wrote for several years. I've read that CBS cancelled the show earlier in 1957, but kept postponing the conclusion because they hadn't finished the preparations for their replacement series. That must have been an awkward situation both onscreen and offscreen.

I chuckled when Coster was talking about people being fearful living in the Upper West Side and alluding to the racial / ethnic tensions. These subjects would never be broached in modern soap press. I enjoyed Coster's interview. The Hover one didn't engage me as much. The Hover family just seemed too nice. Maybe that makes me an awful person. lol

I read both the Bruder and Fulton interviews. Both provide interesting narratives. I found Bruder's story about the early days of her marriage interesting. The whole first dinner party sequence is something that would easily play on a soap back in the day, but you would never see play out today. Eileen Fulton is such an interesting character. She seems larger than life and yet grounded, if that makes any sense at all. She sounds like someone who is too big to be in the country, and yet she seems so at home. I found her comments about capital punishment and child rearing a bit shocking only in the sense you would never see such topics broached by the current soap press is such a natural manner. If any of this would have been talked about today, it would be presented with salacious undertones. I found Fulton a bit contradictory though when it came to mercy. She claims to prefer it, but that seemed in stark contradiction to her views on capital punishment earlier. I guess she could have been blinded by her friend's murder, but it seemed rather hypocritical.

I was looking through this thread again. Carl asked about when Leonard Stadd was fired. John Young, the show's final head writer, donated his papers to a university (Syravuse?) I believe his scripts only covered the last three months (Oct. - Dec. 1961). So Stadd would have been headwriter from Sept. 1960-Sept. 1961. I thought he was there longer as I had once read the creators Provo and Pickard were only with the series six months. Provo and Pickard's papers were donated to a television museum in California I believe. And, of course, there are scripts available for "From These Roots" in the P&G collection at Bowling State University. Anyway, it would seem our current writing credits for FTR would be: John Pickard / Frank Provo : June 1958 - September 1960 Leonard Stadd: September 1960-September 1961 John M. Young: October - December 1961

Thanks for posting this Carl. I never knew Mills last name was originally Miller. I like how Mills actually talks about what is happening on the show (her character being in the hospital / the flashbacks related to Laura's decision to become a nun) as they are usually more personal than this. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of Burr from his time on the show so it was nice to see tha Donnelly family pic.

I thought I would bump this thread. I was looking at synopses for "The City" and I read a news item about Fran Brill appearing on "All My Children." Brill appeared as Robbie, Erica's counselor at the Betty Ford Clinic. Her first appearance was January 31, 1996.

I've never been very interested in "The City" but I find these episodes and 'flakes' (great term SFK) intriguing. Visually, the show is strong and I can see why Jean Dadario Burke landed at AMC. Ignoring the lack of story and weak characterization, the show is stunning. I'm wondering what would have been if Burke could have EPed Claire Labine's "Union Place" using the sets from "the City." While I like the look, I find some of the characters out of place in a very real location. Watching some of the scenes at the bar between rock star Nick Rivers and television producer Richard Wilkins seems a bit awkward given the dialogue and the story. Some of the other Corinth transplants seem so out of place. On the otherhand, I have fallen under the charm of Maggie Rush, who I've only known as the psychic who found Angie's adopted baby in the finale. The stuff with Cooper arriving in New York for the holidays was well done. Without a doubt, Heinle did her best soap work on "Loving" / "The City." Weatherly is still good as Cooper. I kind of like the family Jacob, Angie, Frankie, Zoey, and Kayla make. Kayla's goodbye was well done and I like the scene with Sydney / Richard talk about Richard's break up with Zoey. At times, the show reminds me of the European soaps (both the British and the German). SFK, thanks for posting these.

AdelaideCate thank you for uploading those June 2000 episode. They were a real treat. I'd never watched the ABC soaps until SoapNet arrived so I reemmeber seeing bits and pieces of this time period with Cedric / Jamal / Alison and the arrival of Livvie. For the most part, I found myself enjoying these episodes and understand why many have said this was one of the strongest periods for the show. I'm surprised how integrated the cast of PC and GH is at this time. Alexis showing up as Frank's custody attorney and Alan appearing in scenes at GH. And look at soap vets Peter Hanson, Susan Brown, Maree Cheatam, and Nicholas Pryor all appearing in strong supporting roles. In particular, I'm surprised how much Gail appears in a professional role at GH. What a wonderful surprise. I like how they experimented with the episode structure. Initially, I wasn't a fan of the opening montage of everyone preparing for the custody case resolution, but I like how they bookended the episode with a similar montage of everyone back where they started. It was rather effective. Also, the back and forth between Julie telling Chris about Christina while the Baldwin / Coe clan celebrated Christina's birthday was great. I forgot how wonderful Carly Shroeder was as an actress. She was so charismatic and lively. The scenes where she and Scott go to viist her mother's grave and put flowers on Claire (the terminally ill patient Scott had helped secure the right to die at home) was touching as was SErena's offer to have Lucy adopt her. The little beats did so much while the story keeps moving at a quick pace. I like the atmosphere of the hospital and how it seems to drive a lot of the story and the interactions. I love cocky do gooder Ian scolding nwbie nurse Gabriella for her failure to insert the IV during the cycling accident. It was nice to see Ion Overman before she became the OTT vampire. I loved Alison telling Eve and Kevin that Rachel was a pariah now after the stunt she pulled at their wedding. I wish the show had continued to tell stories within the hospital as Karen Harris and Barbara Bloom did such a good job during this period. Watching the valerie stuff again upsets me deeply. I hated how they changed Hope's paternity as I felt it undermined Jamal's character. There was no reason to do that other than to ruin Jamal in order to pimp Rafe. "Secrets" was my favorite arc, but the Valerie plotline is such a blemish on a strong story. It was also nice to see the first Nurse's Ball episode in its entirety. I beleive LoriJo only has part of it on her youtube channel. Thanks again.

According to wikipedia, Sue Randall's was born Marion Burnside Randall.

This was neat. I've never seen Marion Randolph credited as Diane Emerson before. Considering this was the second anniversary, this would place Randolph as Diane around the fall of 1955. Most of the sources list Dolores Sutton and Sue Randall playing the role in 1955.

Carl, thanks for posting this article. It was a fun read. It sounds like 'The Doctors' had a lot of fun off screen. It was interesting to hear a bit more about Carolee Campbell's development on the show. I knew she started out as a U/5, but I was unaware of the connection to Rick Edelstein. It's been several years since I've seen "The Forsyte Saga." I really enjoyed the later installments with Susan Hampshire's character, Fleur, and her love for Jon and all the nasty history being revealed about Irene's first marriage. In the beginning, I recall it being a bit boring, but maybe I'm simply biased towards the later end of the saga. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed the period she was EP more consistently than I did than when Robert Costello was there. In the beginning, George Lefferts was there for the first 13 weeks or so. I really liked the music in the beginning which was very moody and jazzy. I always attribute that to Lefferts, but I may have no right to. Schemering's book lists Avery as Edelstein's successor followed by the Pollocks, but I didn't see Doug Marland's name on his list at all. I thought the Averys were with "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" less than a year. I know they were sub writers under Irna Phillips, and I assume CBS hired them to maintain the ship when Irna left the serial late 1967/early 1968. I swore I read in a newspaper article that Don Ettlinger was hired in spring 1968. In the article, which I cannot find, I believe Tom Donovan announced Ettlinger's arrival and the introduction of Garrison family, who I had earlier assumed were a creation of the Averys. Please feel free to correct me on any of this as I'm wondering if the article I read wasn't dated spring 1969. I think Barrett came after Lee. I want to say Lee was there in 1983 when Gary Tomlin was head writing and they had the live episode. Barrett came after and hired Louise Shaffer and Malachy McCourt. I want to say she was EP when the AOL episodes started.There were so many writing / EP changes I cannot remember if Paul Avila Mayer worked under Barrett or one of the other producers. I like the Averys. From what I've read from people here, their work on "The Secret Storm" was very good. I believe the 1966 episode of "Storm" on youtube saynotoursoap is theirs. The Averys lived a rather interesting life. I believe Jane was a model before she married Ira and the two travelled a lot. Besides their TV work, they wrote several travel books about their time in Europe and, I believe, a restaurant guide. Jane's mother, Helen, had remarried and as living in Florida in the 1960s. One of the local papers would mention the Averys whenever they were in town to visit Helen in the society pages. There was nothing earth shattering revealed, but it seemed like the Averys would have fit in with their characters in Woodbridge.

Regarding Brown & Essensten and AMC, didn't they also introduce Samuel Woods and his son, Dre? I also seem to remember tuning in once and seeing Samuel's father. That was all under them, correct? When I started watching GL under B&E, the only black characters featured were Vicky Spaulding and David, but I think Sugar Hill and Dahlia Crede had been written off only a little bit earlier. To be fair to B & E, Paul Raunch's GL was very lily white. The only attempt to integrate was with the Boudreau family, and the less said about them the better. An interesting group of actors, for the most part, some intersting potential, but no story time or development. Back to "Loving," I think Elise Neal's Janie Sinclair was intended for bigger things. In her short run, they mixed her up with a lot the cast. Initally, she was dating the thug who kidnapped Angie Hubbard when she was in Chicago or some other large urban area. Hardshelled Janie eventually helped Angie get back home, and Angie realized Janie had been abused by the boyfriend. Once in Corinth, Janie took advanage of Steffi and Cooper, who were determined to learn the secret Deborah had used to blackmail Clay into marriage. Janie ran with it and told them she (Janie) was Clay's illegitimate daughter. Cooper put her up in a nice room, but Frankie exposed her as a fraud. I was never a huge Buck fan, but I thought the revelation Janie was his daughter was interesting as it tied Janie to Trucker and the Aldens by extension. There was a bit there where Janie was attracted to Buck, not knowing he was her father, but overall Janie was interesting. Also, the press release in SOD or one of the mags about Neal said she was intended for Frankie. Janie's death was supposedly one of Uncle Harry's predictions, but the original prediction said it would be someone close to Ava. I'm not sure Ava and Janie even had a scene together. More likely, the show intended to kill off Dinahlee as Jessica Collins decided not to renew her contract with the show. Dinahlee and Ava were good friends so her death would have impacted Ava. A couple of Harry's other predictions also didn't really play out the way they were suppose to. Harry suggested someone would come into money (i.e. the Rescotts own Alden Enterprises) but that story was resolved rather quickly. I suspect it would have been a story that would have pitted Ava against Alex as Alex was incredibly close to the Aldens.

Frankie appeared on "The City," but he wasn't there for the full run. I assume Alimi Ballard left at the end of his three year contract like most of his age group did. Did they really ever use Frankie? I've read some episode recaps where they hint Frankie / Stephanie might become a couple and then they hired Elise Neal to play Frankie's Erica Kane-esque love interest only to kill her off after three or four months. I believe on "The City" his character had a story with Monti Sharp's James, but I'm not sure what it was. I'm not sure if B + E were planning the revamp in advance. I seem to recall the network announcing the plans at some sort of celebration ; either an early anniversary party or a pivotal episode number in May / early June. The show had such big holes to fill in 1995 with the departures of Robert Tyler, Michael Weatherly, and Paul Anthony Stewart. I'm sure landing Darnell Williams was a coup and the show built on the Charles / Angie story that Nixon started (didn't they actually marry under Nixon when Angie nearly died or am I confusing Angie / Charles with Ava / Alex). My point is the show would have had to undergo major changes in 1995 even if "The City" wasn't a part of the overall plan.

Thanks, saynotoursoap. Carl, this is pure speculation, but I believe the show intended to pair Curtis and Ava again in 1992 when Addie Walsh was headwriter. Initially, when Ava started working at Burnell's, her mysterious boss was a Mr. A who had known Ava for some time. I think Walsh's plan was to pair Curtis and Ava, but Walsh left and Haidee Granger served as interim headwriter. Instead of Curtis, we got Leo Burnell, which made little sense since Burnell's was owned by the Aldens when Ava first appeared in 1984.

If you find the date, I would be interested in knowing when Albers left. I know IMDb lists him as Curtis until 1991, but I'm almost positive he was gone by the time Cabot 'died' in February 1991. I followed the synopses into February thinking Curtis might have been written off after a two-year contract, but couldn't find any mention of him. After the immigration plot, Rocky / Rio dovetail into an 'exciting' storyline where Rocky cheats on her paper, is called in front of the college board, and then fights off the advances of one of her professors.

Chip Albers' Curtis Alden returned to Corinth in February 1989 announcing that Lottie, his wife, had died while they were living in Germany. Albers stuck around long enough to play the Curtis / Rocky / Todd and Curtis / Rocky / Rio triangles. The last mention I've found of him in the Scanning the Soaps column is from October 1990, where Curtis has informed immigration that Rocky and Rio's marriage is fradulent. Curtis did announce his plans to serve in the Gulf. At the time of Albers' run, Millee Taggert and Tom King were headwriters. When Curtis returns in February 1993, Taggert is headwriting with Robert Guza and picks up the Gulf War thread with the Tess Wilder / Curtis Alden / Buck Huston triangle.

It would have been a grand gesture to show that the "Loving" of old was dead--- once and for all. You've got me thinking, though. In the end, what if Trisha had been the one to kill Gwyn, instead of Steffi. In this revised version, you'd still have the killer stalk Tess with the audience only seeing what they assume is the back of Trisha's head. How great would it have been if, as all of this was happening, Noelle Beck opened the door and stumbled upon Gwyn in the Trisha wig. Also, I think Gwyn's "Trisha" confessions would have taken on a more twisted turn as Gwyn informed Trisha about all the pain Gwyn had felt since Trisha's death and how Gwyn had to kill all the people Trisha loved in order to relieve herself of the pain. Then, once Gwyn's hands were crushed, Gwyn would beg Trisha to end her life. When the police would find Trisha, they would still believe she was the killer, but Tess would be able to confirm that Trisha was innocent. Overall, my feelings about the Loving Murders is mixed. It ruined whatever foundation "Loving" had, but that was really the goal. Knock it all down and start fresh. It certainly built anticipation for what was to come, but I don't think the ends justified the means. Don't get me wrong, in the long run, "Loving" was a weak series because it had no solid core and no strong sense of identity. Something big would have had to happen, but I'm not sure "The City" was the right approach.

Noelle Beck left the show in early 1993. In March,Trisha was in a car accident and presumed dead, but, in reality, she had been carjacked and the carjacker died. An amnesiac Trisha ended up working at a diner on the outskirts of Corinth where she donned the name Crystal and waited on Jeff Hartman, her ex-husband freshly released from Dunellyn, Corinth's local asylum. A shocked Jeff tried to call the Alden clan to let them know Trisha was alive, but no one answered when he called. Instead, Jeff decided to whisk "Crystal" off to Rome while her friends and family were led to believe she was dead. Trisha ultimately became the Phillip Spaulding of "Loving" where whole stories would be built around this absent character and at the denoument Noelle Beck would never reappear. There was a delightfully twisted story where Curtis Alden, Trisha's rascal brother, decided to torment Trucker McKenzie, Trisha's 'widower,' and his new flame Dinahlee Mayberry, Curtis' ex-wife, by leaving little signs around Corinth that Trisha was alive. When the truth came out about Curtis' scheme, everyone (including mama Gwyn) was appalled by Curtis' behavior. At one point, Richard Steinmetz returned for a second time, June 1994, and Shana Burnell, Trisha's best friend and relative, almost figured it all out. When Robert Tyler decided to leave the show in early 1995, Trucker dug up Trisha's grave and had tests run again that proved Trisha was in fact alive. In February, Trucker tracked Trisha down in Rome and had a conversation, offscreen, with her. In the end, Trisha chose a life with Jeff. Around the time of the Corinth killings, the Aldens received word from Jeff Hartman that Trisha had suffered a miscarriage and had run off as a result. Since everyone who died was tied to Trisha, Trisha was a major suspect. Trisha returned to Corinth to learn if everything Trucker had told her earlier in the year was true. Gwyn Alden and Neal Warren, who was recently revealed to be Gwyn's biological father, kept Trisha hidden from the rest of town with Neal even taking the blame for the murders. Years earler, Neal had spent time in prison for ending the life of his terminally ill wife so Neal had already been on the Corinh PD's radar. In her final appearances, Trisha was struggling with her dual identities and trying to figure out her place in the world, but I think she simply faded from the scene. Once Gwyn died, most of Trisha's connections to the show were long gone or dead and buried.

I've started watching some of Freeflyur's episodes. I started with the August 30, 1985, episode featuring Ryan Fenelli's 18th birthday party. It's such a strange time for the show. It certainly is better than what I've seen of the Pat Falken Smith era, but it is still such an extreme departure from the December 1981 episodes SoapNET ended with. First off, I don't like the Max / Siobhan pairing. I was never a huge fan of the Siobhan / Joe storyline once Richard Muenz and Sarah Felder left. I tolerated the Ann Gillespie / Roscoe Born stuff in the beginning because the ambivalent writing for Joe was fascinating, but I never saw Joe and Siobhan as end game. I cannot see Siobhan falling in love with a man like Max. It's not the type of story "Ryan's Hope" would have told and, if it didn't, it wouldn't be presented in such a generic manner as it is here. The Dubujak family is another alien element in this environment. While I thought the crafting of the story involving Antoine Dubujak's will was well done, it was not the kind of plot-driven story "Ryan's Hope' would have told. Even the most extreme plots of the early 1980s were always grounded in strong characterization and relatable human emotion. This material would have played out better in primetime. I was shocked to see Jacqueline was still around especially in scenes with Susan Scannell. How does one cast Scannell as Quealy's mother? I can only assume Taggert / King took over during the early stages of Scannell's story and turned it around. Or was Chessy Blake always intended to be Gabrielle Dubujak? While it's nice seeing Riverside Hospital, I don't understand why I see Jack and Ryan working there instead of Roger and Pat. I'm sure these gentleman appear there in episodes that aren't online, but it's so odd seeing Jack work as an orderly/ambulance driver. His relationship with Gloria Tasky is a bit underdeveloped as is the character of Gloria. Betty Alley, the actress playing Betty Sherman, looks like Kate Mulgrew. This triangle with Gloria / Jack / Betty bores me though I get a greater sense of character from Sherman than from Gloria Tasky. I want to like D.J. LaSalle, the high school dropout with the alcoholic mother. There are shades of Jack Fenelli there, but the day-to-day writing isn't there. I hate how much time is given to Betsy, Ryan's candy striper co-worker with designs on D.J. I wouldn't mind her if she wasn't some generic interloper. It sounds like hasn't been home long so I cannot imagine D.J. has been around very long either. He seems to be crashing and burning in the latest episodes I've seen where he shows up drunk at Ryan's dance. There are some elements I've enjoyed. The relationship between Ryan / Jack is wonderful for this time period, it's a rare combination of strong writing and strong acting. After Ryan's birthday party, she lies to Jack about going to her friend Stacey's when she really intends to go back to D.J.'s to lose her virginity. Anyway, Jack calls to check on Ryan, learns she hasn't been honest, and frantically looks for her. When he finds her, Jack doesn't blow up at Ryan, but has an open and honest conversation with Ryan about growing up and learning to deal with your feelings. Mary would have been proud. I don't like Maggie's storylines, her involvement with Frank or her lackluster modeling career, but there was a fascinating scene with Roger in one of the episodes. Roger was talking to Maggie like he did Delia and I could see shades of Delia in Maggie. The young woman wanting to cling to happiness and willing to do whatever necessary to do it. Granted, Maggie doesn't seem to have the psychological issues Delia does, but I could see why Timmins outlasted her peer group and how she ended up with Ron Hale's Roger. The dialogue in the Frank / Jillian story has been rich with emotion and all their nasty baggage. Both Delia and Rae have been mentioned in separate conversations in response to the current predicament. There was a really touching scene between Johnny / Jill where Jill believes Johnny is swaying her in order to help Frank's election, but Johnny reminds her that he cares for her to. I will say I don't think Labine / Mayer always utilized Johnny's softer side tending to leave that to Maeve. It was rather effective. The ultimate issue I have with the whole story is the grief over Jillian representing Max Dubujak. It seems rather mute considering Frank's sister is marrying the man. So while the daily writing is strong, the overall plotting is a bit messy. The Dakota story should be starting so I'm going to try to see if I can struggle through that.

With Petersen, he appears more stoic than menacing to me. I knew Peterson played Ruthledge, but I didn't dawn on me that it was him. I've only seen him in SOAP. Again thank you. This was an interesting read. Everyone talks about how Agnes Nixon was the one to really diversify and urbanize the soaps, but I think Irna's efforts in those categories are often unvalued. She certainly made an attempt to integrate Asian characters into soaps more so than any other writer in that time period with the stories on "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" and "As the World Turns." Off topic, but I've been wondering lately if Nixon was the one to create the Bergman family on "Search for Tomorrow" to contrast the more WASPy Barrons.

Wonderful article on "The Right to Happiness." It all sounds wonderful . I do wonder how the transition from Bill / Carolyn to Dwight / Carolyn played out. I get very different views of both Bill Walker and Dwight Kramer from what I had intiially assumed I know Richard Campbell, a doctor love interest of Carolyn's, was a juror in the trial. I guess he hadn't been introduced in the story yt by the tim the article was printed.

The Ned Holden story was riveting to read. I was surprised by the details given about Five Points. It paints a very different picture of the world of "The Guiding Light" than I ever imagined. I just didn't dawn on me that most of these people lived in the same apartment building (Ellis, Fredricka Lang, the Kranskys) and how that would effect the story. It seems more urban and ethnic than I think most people give it credit for being. It's interesting how this sets up the next big story with Rose Kransky. For the most part, I feel like the story holds up. Some of the old soaps seem so dated, but I think this story holds up fairly well. Thanks, Carl.

Freeflyur has a wonderful channel, but the episodes go from March 1988, right after the brilliant Emily Hall confession episodes, to November 1988 when the show is in its final days. I don't think it was a conscious decision on Freeflyur to not include the strike episodes. I believe Freeflyur posted the episodes that the SoapNet board members collected after SoapNet reset "Ryan's Hope" the first time.

Mrs. Huber was a resident in Riverside who sought Frank Ryan's help when he was a councilman. She arrived at Ryan home in late November 1975 complaining about how the super had let their building fall into disrepair or something of that nature. I think her husband may have been injured while trying to fix something. The only reason I remember this was because Martha Greenhouse was in one of the first episodes of "Ryan's Hope" I ever saw. In my area, SoapNET's signal was first transmitted in April 2000 when these episodes were airing. She was on two episodes.