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Her cousin and business partner, Kat. Vanessa's line about Hayley being the community's worst fear will ground her pariah persona in something more than just her affair with Bill. The fact that the women fear a younger woman coming after their man. It was smart to establish this early.

I thought Duplaix and Tunie played that beautifully, not to say you aren't saying the same. It was smart to anchor the opener in these two. I also appreciate the coffee talk between Vanessa / Dani. The focus on strong female characters is amazing.

That EW review was very positive and definitely sells the show well. I am watching "Abbott Elementary" on Hulu and just saw a promo for "Beyond the Gates" on Hulu. Has anyone else seen BTG promos on Hulu?

Henry Sleasar was writing from March, 1978 to about early September, 1978.

Wow! In episodes 134-135, Vince Cardello and Russ Weaver reference Russ' half-brother, Tony Cardello. Russ and Tony grew up as childhood friends until Russ learned that Tony was gay. Tony's sexuality is delivered pretty bluntly with Vince talking about Tony picking up sailors and Russ said Tony has enough men in his life. I guess Michael Ryan finally got to play the gay son story from "Another World." The Weaver-Cardello backstory is interesting. The initial conflict is over Carrie's descent upon Kingsley to cluck over Russ and Becky's living arrangement. Carrie is a hypocrite complaining about the situation while being a kept woman. Mobster Vince Cardello is paying for her to live a life of comfort while calling Becky a social climber. It's all delightfully sleazy. Carrie vs. Becky is fun. Russ seems to be a precursor, to some extent, to Chris Ramsey on "Port Charles" lying about his background around school and admitting he is afraid of someone from the old neighborhood coming to Kingsely and blowing up his lies. Other details I was unaware of include the fact that Becky Hewett was adopted which makes her secret pregnancy also more complicated. Vince reveals his backstory working for mobster Harry LeBlanc before literally marrying the mob when he unites with LeBlanc's daughter. Vince and Nancy would have been a fun couple.

I was told that, in the scripts, it was said that Bill after the heart transplant didn't have long to live. Heart transplants were relatively new and the life expectancy wasn't high. My brief (googled) understanding is that anti rejection drugs weren't introduced until the 1980s. It may have been 12 years as stated above. I thought it was shorter, but I could very well be wrong.

I think that might be the first episode. If so, Sussman suggested reusing her open with an actress filming material as a fakeout beginning from "Generations." Was this produced by New World? I noticed the opening has some female voice hush "Secrets" in the same way they would "Valley of the Dolls" several years later. I watched only a little bit. Not super exciting material from the brief view but I find these English language North America/European soap opera collabs from this period intriguing (Secrets/ Riveria / Family Passions / Foreign Affairs) because so little is out there barring Riveria in Catalan.

I wish more of this show would show up. I am particularly curious to see how the final few months played out with the fresh to soap opera writing duo they hired. Palumbo's run seems to be full of constant changes though curious to see how it evolved through all those revisions. Raymond Goldstone's work seems more grounded and definitely influenced by Jorn Winter. In particular, the Lucky / Julia pairing, the white supremacist storyline, and the introduction of Christina's sister Lisa, the high end Washington madam, would be interesting to see.

@VelekaCarruthers Thanks for sharing. Is that the same document where the Soderbergs originally mentioned that they were literally replaying the Mickey/Bill scenario and I believe Mike was suppose to rape Leslie? Or it might be Ed. I don't recall. I think the other thing that I remember being bandied about when Bill's death was talked about years ago was that Bill's heart transplant had realistic only extended his life by something like 5 years so once Bill had the surgery, he was living on borrowed time. Realistically, he wasn't suppose to live into the late 1980s. TV Editors in the newpapers of the time said that Ed Bryce asked to be written out to explore other opportunities (some said acting and at least one said he wanted to try directing).

@Soaplovers I hadn't considered the therapy angle when it came to Marland as it would relate to "Another Life." I think that's a valid point. I could only imagine a series of hunky country boys doing repairs shirtless at the local church in Marland's "Another Life." Marland didn't seem to mind comical side characters so that broad scope of people (like Harold Webster, Francis Miller, and others in the early episodes) might have worked for him, but so much of this early dialogue is infused with light domestic humor (I think Winsor evoked references to "Ma Perkins" in one interview which tonally I think I get) that I cannot see fitting in Marland's tone. Long is not someone I have any fondness for, but I am aware that is a fairly unpopular stance. I do think she was more willing to have characters speak about religion on "Texas" from what I recall, but I am not overly fond of her work there or elsewhere. Not surprisingly, I find her work suffers form similar struggles that Addie Walsh's work does; it all seems like very surface level emotion rather than something deeper. I don't know if that makes any sense. My wild card pick for a network version of "Another Life" in the early 1980s would be Rick Edelstein, who was fairly done with daytime by then. The way his work was described on "How to Survive a Marriage" which took a very non-traditional (soap opera) stance, I would be curies to see what he could have done in that format. Though, I hope AI progresses far enough one day that I can type in "What stories would the Dobons tell if they head wrote the soap opera Another Life?" and get a deliciously insane read.

If "Another Life" were to play anywhere on network in 1981, it would have to be late morning on CBS. I don't see it fitting anywhere else in the daytime schedule. Especially not on ABC where Luke and Laura were exploding and changing the genre or on NBC where they were slowly adapting to the phenomenon as well. I don't think it would have been super successful. It's very slow and maintains a blend of light humor and family drama. The romances aren't grand at this stage and it's not must see tv. It's something that is entertaining while doing chores (which is basically how I watched it yesterday). In terms of content, I think there would be censorship issues. CBN allowed conversation about things like pre-marital sex, abortion, weed, etc. It's not super integral to the plot so it could easily have been eliminated, but some of its charm is the bizarre blend of the real and surreal which I am not sure could be maintained on network. I've been trying to think of a mainstream writer who could handle the material. The canvas has the depth and density of something out of Marland, but tonally he could never handle it. Nixon's blend of community, family, and comedy would be close as well, but I can't see her handling the business/drug stories in these opening episodes which are the major sources of conflict for the characters. I think Labine and Mayer might have been able to handle some of humor and landscape, but I think some of the black and white nature of the world view would be too problematic for them. I would be curious to see how Jason Vinley, who is the headwriter at some point, would have handled network sanctioned material. He was Irving Vendig's script writer if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the accolades, but don't sell yourself short. I watched a bit of this today, jumping ahead to Nancy's arrival because I find that character fascinating. I think Nancy's addition is such a smart move. It gives internal conflict to the family instead facing outside sources. I think some of the low level plotting in the story is different. Nancy is basically couch crashing with the Davidsons while the clash of beliefs between worldly Nancy and the devout Davidsons provides ongoing domestic issues. At one point, Nancy appears to be stealing and tehn she continually makes passes at Scott out of earshot of Terry. It's surprisingly layered. I don't think the plotting overall is always great. Personally, with Peter being on a rebellious arc, I would have had Peter fall under Nancy's spell. I was surprised how far they went with Peter nearly losing his virginity with his girlfriend Julie Sawyer taking him to a party where underage drinking and cable television (oh the horror!) would be present before suggesting he should have smoked some weed before they went out to the car to have sex. Obviously, Peter declines temptation, but the trappings are a bizarre mix of high faith and modern social issues. The mix sorta keeps the tone from going completely into camp. Nancy's backstory intrigues me because I had never heard that Nancy was actually Terry's half-sister until watching. The revelation comes out of nowhere, and I really love that revelation even though it could have been better developed (I would have had Terry stumble onto the revelation by accident through her work at the hospital by realizing that Nancy's blood type didn't match). I wish Terry had more grief about the realization that Nancy was the product of an affair and that this was kept from her. The Lindsay family backstory is remarkable twisted and sorta written off with a pat line from Nora stating the patriarch, Alf Lindsay, was a perfect man before later revealing another layer that Alf got drunk and revealled Nancy's maternity to her on her sixteenth birthday. I feel like the intention is that Nancy is evil because she was the result of sin rather than my interpretation that Nancy was a reminder of a painful point in Alf and Nora's marriage that led to a lack of love being given to Nancy. In that light, I find it fascinating, but I don't think that's what they intended. In addition, Nancy has two ex-husbands (the first I think was Rob and the second Brad) and I think she aborted Rob's baby because she thought it might have been imperfect (details weren't given). Nancy has such an interesting past that easily could have been explored later down the line. Pairing Nancy and Miriam Carpenter was genius and there lunch together was a highlight on a show. I think know Nancy later becomes Miriam's stepmother so I found it delightful Nancy outlining her plan to snag a wealthy older man to Miriam so early in the story. It's just fun. Nancy convincing Miriam that they shoudl go into business together (they met at the employment office because they are both jobless) and find buyers for the retail space in the Carpenters Hollister Mall project is such fun. The Carpenters seem to represent the evil of the story. Big business is bad, which is a wild take for the 1980s, but it works. Helen and Charles' marriage seems pretty lifeless, but not openly hostile. The lingering pain of the faux affair between Paul and Lori lingers as Charles fights to have Lori's soon to be husband, Dr. Ben Martin, evicted from his office space. The fight involving the eviction invovles so many side characters (lawyers Harold Webster, Doug Hughes, and Mitch Dunbar) and manages to rope in Samantha Marshall and Gene Redlon at the plannign office. It is all very dense. Much more dense than I anticipated. I enjoy it, but I'm not sure how I would feel in a day to day viewing. Was also pleasantly surprised by a mostly gratituous shirtless scene of Doug Hughes being examined by Ben for tennis elbow. The other big story is the intertwined relationships of Becky and Russ and Ben and Lori each are who are engaged under different circumstances. Lori and Ben's engagement is based on their deep love for each other. Jeanette Larson and Matt Williams have a nice rapport. They have an easy chemistry which keeps things from becoming too sappy. I even found Lori's praise to the Lord after Ben's proposal oddly poignant given all that Lori had faced earlier. I also adore the friendship between Lori and Becky. It is easy for Lori to let bygones be bygones because her faith has brought her a husband and there is an undercurrent of hate the sin not the sinner in several stories. Susan Scannell plays Becky's loneliness beautiful and infuses an undercurrent of regret into Beck that makes you feel sorry that she is painfully aware of the emotional hollowness of her relationship with Russ. Russ' reaction to learning Ben and Lori marrying is delightfully insane, and I think having Russ be the heel in all this is great especially as it sets up potential professional conflict (Russ the med student envious of the established medico Ben). In this set, Becky learns she is pregnant and in only in a soap world, Ben is covering for Dr. Greely one day and discovers Becky's situation. I think the interaction between the two couples (Ben/Lori and Russ/Becky) is great because there are things kept from each other. Ben is keeping Becky's pregnancy a secret from Lori, while Becky is keeping the pregnancy secret form Russ. I imagine it will also play into Russ' discovery of who his father is. It's all beautifully messy. Lori is keeping from both Becky and Ben that Russ came to see her at her dorm room in a last ditch attempt to restart something only to learn from comic relief Francis Miller, the lovelorn egghead who seems to want Becky, that Becky and Russ are engaged, a lie Becky concocted when Lori told her about Lori's engagement. I cannot see Lori and Becky's dynamic playing out on any other show, but it is really great. I know that Scott ends up dead soonish but I was surprised to see them find another station to work at and to invest in that situation. I wonder at what point it was decided he was going to go becasue in these November episodes I don't get the sense he is otu the door. I love the low stakes conflict in the Davidsons marriage: Scott struggling to adjust to Terry being breadwinner and then Terry's insistence that she continues her nursing role even though Scott has managed to land a station manager position. Also, the financial strain of Scott being out of work while Ben and Lori are planning to marry just gives good background for all the day to day domestic squabbles. The Jeff stuff doesn't really work for me though I like the actor well enough. I think it all is wound up too tight. I think pulling him back into the mob story is a bit silly, but I would love to see them have tried out Nancy and Miriam both sorta making plays for a casual situation with Jeff testing his newfound devoutness while Liz tries to start to rebuild her own life. I don't really care much for the mob stuff (it's been backburned anyway). Gvien the show's stance on buisness, I am curious about where Jeff ends up. They should have gone the right of making him a preacher or something. I think that might have provided him with such a different position and possible conflict with Liz thinking he has changed too mcuh and then she has to change too. I think I watched 116-128 so I think there is some decent stuff coming up, but I definitely always struggle keeping up with this.

It probably was years ago now, but I think someone behind the scene cited the rise in shows like "Law & Order" and reality court tv had led to a belief that audiences wouldn't sit through long trials when they could get an entire story wrapped up in a single episode. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember who stated it.

Someone with more knowledge could probably explain the Reynolds backstory, but I believe the gist was Andrea and Sam had twins, Len and Jamie, and while they were little, Andrea was carrying on an affair one afternoon with Larry Carter when a fire broke out and Jamie perished. Andrea had manipulated Len into believing Sam was the careless one and, as a result, Len changed his name and hated his father. I know there was some script posted several pages back about this from a few years later, like you referenced later. @FrenchFan 's summaries from January 1965 show that Marge was pregnant than so the baby would be only a round a year old in 1966. I haven't watched the episodes yet. There are 6 sets correct? So the 42 or so episodes I had been told earlier was correct. I think the simplicity of plot that explores the nuances of the story rather than deeply intricate plotting can be effective. I appreciate the emotional richness that comes from diving into the complexity of character rather than the complexity of plot. I'm finding with the radio shows how solid the 15 minute format is. You can ideally tell about 1-2 stories at a time with some side plots. I think something the vanity projects that were online a decade or so ago when the televised series were fading missed teh boat. A tightly written story with a few characters rather than trying to do Doug Marland on an internet budget would have been much more effective.

I believe it is Christopher Dunn.

It was great seeing the first two behind the scenes episodes. Getting into the show's lore was fascinating. I didn't realize they were actually going to have Duprees as the founders of this community, which I thought was wonderful. Tying the development into the real life father of the Paramount CEO was very touching. The amount of detail going into this is awesome, but I should have known by all the magazine covers in the photoshoot scenes of the preview featuring Chelsea and Chelsea/Dani that details weren't going to go overlooked. The Dupree wealth coming from property development is interesting. I am curious if that family business won't be lingering in the background. There are certainly opportunities to explore with Vernon being retired but not the settled down type returning to business as well as linking a property development business up with Vanessa McBride, the realtor. Orphey Gene's origin story is wonderful involving Val Jean's mother and that real life spot in the D.C. area that served as a hub for activism and community. Orphey Gene's not just being a meeting place for characters, but a cultural center for the community due to its history is just very smart. It washes away the potential class line issues that soap gathering hubs face based on the appeal of their clientele. Regarding Brad being white, I think the show was purposefully looking to integrate the family while also deliberating avoiding the typical daytime trope of a white man with a black woman. This left Martin as the sole choice. In addition, I think featuring an interracial couple may have been important to TPTB and, as stated earlier in this thread, Vanessa McBride was originally (at least according to what was posted online) intended to be a woman of color. I think Jon Lindstrum's character is the perfect addition as a casino owner, though I imagine the show would use the casino a resort with hotel, restaurants, and entertainment. In this state, it allows you to explore the possibility of Joey trying to lure Anita as a headliner (or if Anita turns him down pursuing Naomi) while also looking to purchase property in Fairmont Crest. I was watching some of the last episodes of "Generations" the other day and thinking about casino owner Jordan Hale and nightclub owner Peter Whitmore, I cannot help but wonder if Joey and Anita don't share a romantic past (though this would kind of ignore my earlier comment about the white man/black woman avoidance). It would certainly give Joey's desire to move into Fairmont Crest a bit more motivation. There is just so much possibility based on the foundations that we have gotten so far from Michele Val Jean. Creatively, this stuff is very strong.

I thought the initial contract cast seemed small. Maybe it still is, but it seems like there might be some additions that weren't revealed. Did we ever find out what Real Anderws secret project was? I am wondering if he might pop up here too if his new project hasn't been announced.

I know you and others have spoken of characters that you felt could have returned, but I often feel that so many of the characters feel like names and not people. This isn't a slight to the writing, but rather to the passage of time and how much of the CBS run is gone. Those 1980 episodes are a treat because its nice to see a continuous glimpse into the show. My point being I often feel like the characters who are always slated for a return needed a strong entrance story and not just a reliance on family ties. In the past few decades, soaps haven't been great at building connection between people beyond romantic (and even that has been lackluster in many cases). Jo's prominence seemed to depend on whoever was in charge that week during the NBC run. Cherrill gave her a lot, while the end of Hunt / Ellis seemed to feature her little, but did feature Stu. Tomlin gave Jo the Vargas tale and Stu had his romance with Barbara. Glynn tried to keep Stu and Jo in the thick of things with the Murder at Midnight Party and lots of family scenes for Stu and Warren's revenge involving Jo. I know they aren't well liked, but I thought Paul Avila Mayer and Stephanie Braxton were smart to bring on Sarah and bring back Danny to tie Jo and Stu to the young set especially as Liza and Suzi had aged out. I also thought Caldwell House was a great setting and it was nice having them back in the hospitality business. Tomlin making Jo in charge of Liberty House was probably good, but I've seen very little of it. With the Kendalls, there was such turnover with the characters due to the change in producers and writers. Cherrill created Steve and Michael, but it was Tomlin who revealed they were brothers (not sure if that was Cherrill's original intention) and brought on Lloyd and later T.R. I thought letting Michael fade out made sense given the trajectory of the character (his romance with Jenny) had come to an end. Personally, I would have had him pop in more as the moral compass, but that wasn't meant to be. Steve's departure was downright criminal given that he was Martin's biological son and the building of T.R. as the long lost Kendall daughter being raised by the Sentells. I think Glynn loses the plot for a bit by bringing in Alec and Chase, the twins. Pairing them with a McCleary was not the choice I would have made. I wonder if it would have been any better had the show explored the original angle; Adair being the mother of baby Elan that Liza and Travis had also been raising. I wonder if T.R. would have turned out to be someone else or if the Sentells would be raising two Kendalls. I think they might have been able to make that work if it was Tracey Whiting they were torn up over with Wendy playing spoiler. Though, it would ultimately still be three new young people being asked to carry a bulk of the story. I am not sure when Bunim was there. Was the late 1970s until 1981. I feel like Fred Bartholowmule was hired when the show was going to NBC as Bunim and Lemay had fought earlier in 1981 over a rape sequence that ended up playing out under Don Chastain. If that's the chase Bunim oversaw the Corringtons and Mulcahey was a script writer who was brought in by the Corringtons. Joanna Lee oversaw most of the initial arrival of the Kendalls (Michael, Steve, Lloyd, Estelle in flashbacks only). Ellen Barrett would be the one to introduce the McClearys (Hogan, Kate, Cagney, Adair, and family friend Justine Calvert) though Hogan may have been introduced in the final episodes of Lee. Barrett would expand the Kendalls to include T.R., Alec and Chase.

I don't think there is anything wrong with bringing in new families like the McClearys and the Kendalls because you cannot just have Jo's brood marry Stu's brood. There needed to be interlopers. The problem becomes when this all happened without tying back into the two family lines. For example, I tend to hear less complaints about the Sentell/Tourneurs and the Adamsons because almost every character introduced in those clans were introduced as love interests or conflict for Stu and Jo's family. Travis was linked to Liza, which made Travis' mother Liza's enemy. His uncle Martin became Jo's latest love interest. Lee becomes one of the exceptions to the rules as he mainly becomes involved with Sunny, who was initially brought in for Tom (I think). Ted was for Janet and Stephanie. Tod was for Wendy. Laine was conflict for Gary and Carolyn. The initial arrival of the Kendalls and the McClearys is fine in my opinion because Tomlin followed the Corringtons path of tying the new and the old. I think the biggest mistake was Jeanne Glynn's reign where she started doing things like Adair / Chase / Alec without any real ties (besides a brief attempt at Chase and Wendy at the start) and jumping into Cagney / Suzi / Justine rather than giving Suzi the third leg of the triangle (preferrably Brian) or fill Justine's role with the already established Kristin. Throw in Hogan / Sunny / Victoria and you got a real mess. Nothing was about the long term characters. The center of these scenarios were all newcomers. The only story with the central character in the center was Liza / Kentucky / Cord though none of that was cohesive enough to stick. Once the show was unbalanced there, it was hard to come back.

@Vee The Corringtons were only at "Search for Tomorrow" only once from about September, 1978 - May 8, 1980. They assumed the writing reigns from Henry Sleasar on August 14, 1978, so there work was probably in place within a couple weeks. Prior to this, they had done some work writing a sample projection for "Another World" with Paul Raunch as training. This is probably how the origins of "Texas" began. Once they leave, they never returned. There were six headwriters after the Corringtons left before the show went to NBC less than 2 years later. Two of which I don't think lasted more than two months (Lemay was interrupted by the Writers' Strike of 1981 and Millee Taggert's original run was nixed when NBC bought the show and P&G hired Hunt and Ellis to return and write the show).

I don't know about that. I know Conboy's removal was quick. Briefly, Wheeler was executive producer at "Guiding Light" and directing episodes of "As the World Turns." Maybe only for a week or maybe two. The show's numbers didn't collapse until Conboy was already out the door. I think there was a bit of a dip after the Maryanne Carrouthers hall of mirrors climax that the show didn't really recover from until maybe when Kriezman took over. Conboy probably was let go at the end of the first contract cycle of his second year having first worked in December, 2002, and his last episode being in mid-March, 2004. Weston's departure was announced in May, three months after Conboy was booted with Kreizman's work starting in early July. I thought the Weston/Wheeler period was decent as Wheeler took the material and shaped it into something more grounded. Some say Donna Swajeski was doctoring the scripts, but I found that to be a hard sell given the fact that the show lost much of its energy in the first few months of Kriezman before launching the big stories: Roger's death, Jonathan's seduction of Tammy, and some of the Dinah material started to spark.

@All My Shadows If you hadn't found this on your own already. Holloway was hired by Abbi. I think there were nice elements that Abbi did that you noted (the new opening, the sets including the Sterlings new home, and hiring Marcus later. I don't think all of the casting under her was spectacular. I find a lot of the young women she hired fairly bland with the exception of Dana Delaney. Given the parameters, I still think Abbi was a decent producer, but letting Tudi Wiggins go is the kind of mistake that makes me reconsider how great she would have been in the long run.

I think Tom as a coffee house owner would have worked. The show was missing that sort of common setting where characters could frequent that wasn't the classroom. There was 35 Maple Street that acted as a defacto dorm / community center, but something more traditional makes sense. The bowling alley was a great set, but it didn't scream college crowd the way I think the show tried to claim it did. Taggart and Guza played some Steffi / Frankie material to suggest that they might go there in the fall of 1993, but with several episodes Nixon had taken over the writing. I always wanted Steffi's secret father to be Dane Hammond because I felt that would have caused havoc. I think Sean could have been Matt Ford's father if they had kept him around long enough. The Reverend had been his stepfather so his biological father was a story thread that could have been explored.

No. Conboy was out the door by mid-March on screen let go at the end of February. He let go of Lindsey McKeon and then was let go himself hours (or maybe a day) later. Aubrey Dollar didn't resign and Kit Paquin was hired to assume the part of Marina. Everyone else was let go by Ellen Wheeler. Wheeler quickly dumped a bunch of people and the mass exodus started in May though Kit Paquin was dumped a little earlier (late April after only premiering in early March) and Lindsey McKeon's previously scheduled exit was earlier in March. Peter Simon refused to resign and was out in May. Troy Kurtis' Nico was fired and shipped off to New York to explore his music with Jesse and Drew (probably the last mentions of the characters). Deborah Zoe's Eden got caught up in the mob drama and had to turn evidence so the FBI faked her death in mid-to-late May. Everyone believed her dead including her fiance, Bill Lewis. Eden's death in the bombing was a big sweeps event that coincided with JER revealing everyone was alive on "Days of our Lives" after the serial killer plot. There were also a ton of minor recurring parts that had first appeared under Conboy that were dropped. Sophia Hayden's Lucia quietly stopped appearing in February. Carrie Nye's Caroline reached her natural conclusion in March, but returned for a one shot in either late March or April to resolve the story that had left Marah on the hook for Caroline's murder. Russ Anderson's Dr. Christopher Langham stopped appearing once the Caroline stuff had ended as Reva's second sight faded in April. The actress playing Darcy Matthews, the escort friend of Eden's who was dating (engaged?) to Frank, skipped town when the news of her past was about to come out. Vinnie Salerno, the mobster, was around through May, but I think came back for a one off in June or July, but I might be thinking of his return a year or two later. Mark Pinter's Brad Green, the shady Spaulding executive, was killed off in June during the climax of the Spaulding drug storyline. Tonja Walker, playing Brad's wife Marie, also stopped appearing in June. There was a brief run by Lauren B. Martin as Sheryl, a nurse at Cedars in a triangle with Bill and Tony for a couple days, who first appeared under Wheeler that was quickly dumped when Kriezman came in. Wheeler and Kriezman dumped Joey Lupo in September in set up fo the Jonathan's revenge and Phillip's death storylines. Then, Phillip was killed off to spark November sweeps. To clarify, Ramsey was briefly recurring in 2004. I want to say March-April 2004. Chappell returned from maternity leave in January with Olivia claiming her baby had died. Eventually, it was revealled Sam was watching Emma for Olivia while Olivia was trying to secure Emma's future and safety. When Emma's existence was revealed, Olivia went to live at the Spaulding mansion and Sam stopped appearing. I don't remember if he got an exit scene to be honest. I think Ramsey had started doing some independent work. In addition, he appeared on "Days of our Lives" in 2009 in a contract role, Owen Kent, who was the Kiriakis gardener on the Dimera payroll during the early stages of the Kiriakis / Dimera feud. Owen was quickly killed off after kidnapping and falling for Stephanie, who was engaged to Phillip at the time. Despite the quick exit, Ramsey was on contract. Gordon Thompson appeared as his mortician father. There were onscreen mentions of a twin brother. I assume the plan was to continue on with Ramsey as the twin brother, but instead they brought on Mark Hapka as Nathan. Phillip died in 2004. There was a pre-filmed scene of Alan and Phillip that was used in June, 2005, to resolve the murder mystery and reveal that Phillip was alive. This wasn't a return on Alexander's part, but Phillip did appear onscreen in his office at Spaulding. I believe it was revealed that Alan had setup a duplicate office set like he had for Annie. 2005 was the year that the show insisted on the paycut that Kim Zimmer fought them on. A bunch of people were dumped, or reduced to non-contract, in this period. Tony was killed off in March. Danny and Michelle left town in the fall after the brief Hope baby switch. Daniel Cosgrove also jumped ship. Laura Wright took an offer to go work at "General Hospital." Jerry ver Dorn was reduced to non-contract and immediately scooped to play Clint on "One Life to Live." I think Edmund was also written out at this point. Richie Costner I believe was contract as Jonathan's stepfather Nate/Alfred and I believe he also was given the boot by the fall. Doug Hutchison's Sebastian fled Springfield in July after trying to kidnap Lizzie, I think. Not a contract part, but Maureen Garrett, who had been appearing regularly again, was dropped in May when the show nixed a Spaulding / Lewis war which involved Alan selling Holly interest in Spaulding in exchange for interest for the Herald. Holly disappeared almost immediately after Blake learned of the business transaction.

Sam was a guest in 2004. He had returned when Olivia claimed Emma was dead. Sam was brought back to look after Emma while Olivia continued her charade. Eden August, Nico Castano, and Joey Lupo were also contract characters written out in 2004.