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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.

It looks like that is Scott Feraco, Jeff #1. It's neat to see Jeff when he was written as a psychotic interloper in the Trisha / Trucker story. I know Trucker and Trisha were a beloved couple, but it seems like Trucker was simply playing a Steve Sowolsky recast. I think it would have been more interesting if they kept Jeff's original characterization (brash, arrogant heir to a media empire who was looking to prove he was more than his legacy) and made Trucker the crazy one.

That was Chaz Saybrooke, Ryan Fenelli's final love interest. He was connected to Emily, the woman who had the affair with Richard Rowan and Jack Fenelli. Emily was either his cousin or his aunt or some relation. Nice preview. It's a shame there is so little of the summer of 1988 available. I know its a Writer's Strike summer, but it would still be neat to see.

Thanks, saynotoursoap. Several years back, another poster had the Christmas Eve episode. I think I enjoyed that one a bit more. Medger's Christmas Eve truce with the Catlin clan was rather poignant and Jenny and Peter seemed genuinely happy despite the looming threat of Vanessa. There was also some T.J. / Annabelle angst which I enjoyed. I waver on "The Catlins." While I don't think it was ever the best that soap had to offer, I do find parts of it enjoyable especially in the era of action and adventure. Some of the family and domestic conflicts are well done, but I do find the segues into adventure a bit dull. Some of the relationship stuff is sweet. While the Babe / Dirk stuff did nothing for me in this episode, I remember enjoying them together in the previous episode. Both were lonely for their own reasons and decided to spend the holiday together. I did like the T.J. / Dirk scene and Dirk's comments about being old maids. While I understood T.J.'s reaction to Dirk / Babe, I thought he was blowing things out of line since Maggie and Dirk had not only split, but Maggie had moved to Washington, D.C. T.J.'s line about Dirk being more of a son than some of his own was also rather depressing. With that said, I enjoyed Michael Forrest dealing with his broken marriage to Pamela Burrell's Annabelle than this shipping nonsense. It's nice to know Stacey Manning is Senator Mahoney's daughter. I suspected as much, but I didn't get confirmaton. I get such a creepy vibe from James Condon, who played Mahoney. Maybe it's because I remember him as the married doctor pal of Seneca's who flirted with Kim on "Ryan's Hope." Incidentally, the first time I saw Pamela Burrell was on "Ryan's Hope" as Seneca's doctor pal who helped him with baby Arley. Anyway, the Mahoneys seem to usurp the Quinn family in a sense by tying Stacey to Cullen, who comes off as b#tchy at times. This was a lovely holiday treat. I do enjoy seeing episodes from this obscure soap.

The episode that aired November 5, 1950 has the label: Meta shoots Ted. http://otrrlibrary.org/index.html

Is it possible Grammer is confusing "One Life to Live" with "Love of Life"?

John Hess' script collection is available at Darmouth. Based on the catalogue information, he was headwriter of the show from March 1967 until July 1968 so he probably wrote the Brittons out and wrote them back in. A columnist from around this time period wrote the following letter which gives you some details about the stories in this period.

I've seen it listed as April 18th as Paul and Amy's return date in other papers. Here's another casting announcement. I believe this was the article Brent was talking about earlier

As always, thanks for sharing your insights. I had heard before that Tudi Wiggins might have left the show had it continued, but I didn't realize Abbi wasn't going to renew her contract. I think that would have been a horrific mistake given Wiggins' appeal despite not really having much story after they removed her from Cal and Rick's story until they paired Meg with Tom. Had the show continued, I have to wonder if there wouldn't have been more exits in order to accomodate the large canvas (plus the additions of Alan and Barbara that you spoke of). I misspoke in my last post about Abbi being behind the cast purge in late 1978. In the interview, CarlD posted with Cathi Abbi a few pages back, Abbi said the cast cuts had been made at the network's insistence prior to her arrival. I just assumed it was part of Abbi's overhaul. Your comments about Abbi do clarify the sort of bizarre journey that was her tenure as executive producer of "Love of Life." Going from Holloway to Marcus has to be one of the greatest extremes in soapdom. Despite the inexperience, I get the impression Abbi cared even if she was making baffling decisions like letting Tudi Wiggins go from the series. If she didn't recognize the importance of story, why fire Jean Holloway? If the network wanted the show to go quietly into the night, I don't imagine they would have pushed her to hire someone else.

Jean Holloway started writing in late 1978. Cathi Abbi was hired as producer in the fall of 1978 and Holloway came on around November / December. Abbi is credited for overhauling the production, but she also gutted the cast. In November 1978, a large number of characters were dropped from the cast, but, to be fair, a number of these characters were minor characters who were given expanded roles by Gillian Houghton. Holloway streamlined the storytelling to the Ben / Betsy / Elliot story and the Bambi / Tony / Ray / Arlene story. The Bambi story was convoluted and filled with bizarre characters and strange twists and turns. Holloway also introduced Ray's relatives, the Gaspero family who were cliched Italians with names like Guido. Marcus cleaned up in like two to three weeks. She came on in early May 1979 and wrapped up the Bambi storyline the same week she started launching the focus on the college. To be fair, Abbi and Holloway laid a lot of the groundwork by introducing Timothy MacCauley in December 1978 and bringing Bruce into the campus set at the same time. Marcus just ran with it and made it work. She brought on Steve Harbach, an ex-con who had known Ben Harper when Ben did time for marrying both Arlene and Betsy. At the same time, Van entertained the offer to teach commercial art at Rosehill University. In the 1950s, I believe Van had done some work in advertising which would have made her job offer not completely out of line, but still a bit of a stretch. Marcus did a good job tying the past to the present. Her creation, Steve Harbach, used his past with Ben to land a spot in the law program with Bruce and boarded in the Sterlings' garage apartment. Steve developed a romantic interest in much older Van and even had fantasies about her. Noble Van was horrified and kept Steve at bay, but it was nice to see Van involved in the story. I think the online audience appreciates that sort of effort, but I'm not sure if the audience of 1979 appreciated that story. To be fair, "Love of Life" underwent a timeslot change in April 1979, right before Hollloway was ousted, so that, too, effected the show's ratings. Amy Russell was another character who seems well liked. In August 1979, Marcus brought on Amy, a law student who was vying for Bruce's attention in and out of the classroom. Slowly, her motives were made clear to the audience; she believed she was Bruce's illegitimate daughter conceived prior to his marriage to Van. Around December 1979, Marcus brought her two creations together and Amy seemed to be honing in on Steve in order to get closer to the Sterling family. The two storylines were heading towards a collision and I would love to find out what Marcus would have done with them. At the same time, Marcus continued the Betsy / Ben / Mia / Eliot saga. By the time Marcus arrived, Ben and Betsy had found their way back to one another and Holloway was prolonging the divorce of Betsy and Eliot with some garbage like chaperoned dating between Ben and Betsy. In June, Marcus kicked the story into high gear by having Eliot rape Betsy, who was still his wife at the time. Soon after, Eliot announced his campaign for district attorney and Betsy discovered she had conceived a child via rape. Betsy was tormented and pulled away from Ben causing angst. Eliot used the pregnancy to try and reunite with Betsy in order to provide a proper image for his campaign. Mia hoped with Betsy pulling away from Ben that she would finally have her happiness with Ben. Betsy contemplated aborting the child, but, with Van's intervention, Ben learned the truth about the pregnancy and vowed to stand by Betsy. In November, the story entered it's next phase when Ben and Betsy went away to a cabin by the lake. This was a location shoot clearly meant to be a ratings stunt, but also to move the story forward. A vengeful Mia phoned the cabin and led Betsy to believe that she and Ben were still involved sending an emotional Betsy into a tizzy. She ran from the cabin and out to the lake. Ben got on the boat with her and they rowed farther from the shore. A fight errupted and drew attention from the people on the shore. Betsy spotted a snake on the boat and panicked. Ben raised the oar to kill the snake and boat flipped over. Betsy ended up in a coma and lost the child she was carrying. Eliot was furious and planned to prosecute Ben for attempted murder. Despite the impracticality of this case, it certainly was heightened drama and led to the show's infamous cliffhanger where Betsy, after awakening and suffering amnesia, realized what had happened and rushed to the courtroom to save her beloved Ben. If you read the above SOD synopsis, Holloway had Meg paired with Scott Carmichael, the hospital adminstrator who wasn't ready to settle. Rosehill Hospital was becoming rather prominent with the introduction of Dr. Liane Wilson, the hospital's ONLY female resident or intern (I forget which), and her romance with Betsy's mild-natured brother Tom Crawford. Andrew Marriott was still around not doing a whole lot. The Scott / Meg pairing comes off as a bit absurd as it is such a B-story when Meg was a A-character. Maybe if more attention was paid to linking Scott to the community, and maybe he was as synopses don't always paint the full picture. Marcus nixed Scott / Meg and used Meg as the catalyst to break up young lovers Tom and Liane. It was a rather effective use of Meg who probably hadn't had a story of much merit in some time. Marcus shipped Scott out of town in June, and, by July, Meg was setting her sights on Tom by offering him money to fund his cardiology project. In turn, Tom was romancing Meg in order to keep the money coming in, while falling for Liane in the process. The Tom / Meg / Liane back and forth played for a few months before climaxing in a late October / early November confrontation between Meg and Tom over Liane. A staircase was invovled and, wouldn't you know, Meg took a tumble. At the hospital, Liane went against the orders of her supervisors and performed the necessary surgery that saved Meg's life, but left her paralyzed. Liane was suspended and Meg planned on mounting a lawsuit unless Tom agreed to marry Meg. Meg's paralysis was psychological in nature, I believe, and she was starting to regain use of her legs towards the final episodes. Stealthy Meg was keeping that information to herself. Marcus wasn't perfect, though. Her teenage summer story was pretty bad. Virginal Catholic girl, Gina Gaspero, Ray's baby sister, was seduced by Wes Osbourne, Mia's kid brother who was working as a lifeguard before going off to Harvard. Wes took Gina's V-card and Gina had a pregnancy scare. Somewhere along the way Gina had an incident with some pot brownies. Later, Ray got involved and threatened to have Wes arrested for statuatory rape. The story wrapped up in mid-September and Wes was shipped out of town for about six weeks (I think Woody Brown was filming the 'Flamingo Road' tv-movie) before returning in November while Gina was gone for good. When Wes returned, he made up with Ray and went to work at the disco Ray ran. Liane's little sister Kelly arrived in January to attend Rosehill University and to pine after Wes and in the final week or two Cheryl Kingsford started working at the disco with Wes and became Kelly's rival for Wes' attention. I think Marcus' story was solid, (by all accounts) Abbi's production was good, but I'm not sure the show would have been able to overcome the timeslot and clearage issues. Once a show is dropped, it's hard to get the stations to bring it back. The only issue I could see storywise was the cast was rather large for a half-hour and there was a lot of story to play. I have to wonder if the show didn't feel disjointed at times because of Marcus' canvas.

The tail end of Jean Holloway's run. I think Ann Marcus starts in a few installments and does a 180.

Her name was Tally Hindman.

I was watching the arrival of Nancy Lawson. I was shocked by Nancy's backstory involving the ex-husband, the abortion, and her secret prostitute mother. It would have been interesting if Elaine, Nancy's biological mother, arrived in town and became born-again looking to reunite with her wayward daughter. It never dawned on me, but I guess Jeff Cummings' saved by the light was a Friday cliffhanger. Those scenes with little Jennifer telling her father Jesus will save her were surprisingly effective. I just wish it didn't have such a hokey ending.

I didn't realize Ellen Weston had played an earlier role before playing Karen Gregory.

I think it was once said Perry Stephens appeared as Jack Forbes on Egoli. He was once involved with one of the female characters.