Limenade

^Not sure about late 90s... As to how things led up to the early 90s, as in that clip, I remembered it this way, and my points of reference could be off, but I'm thinking of actors such as John Wesley Shipp and Don Diamont, both paraded around in Speedos on GL (early 80s) and Y&R (mid-80s), respectively, although their upper body development, while well-built, was not nearly as buff as Swan. The only one who measured up was probably Richard Burgi in the famous shower scene in AW ('86-ish). Robert Tyler, who played Trucker on Loving then Spence on ATWT in the late 80s, had good pecs.

What I totally forgot, and that clip helped me remember, was how actors continued to wear Speedo into the early 90s. But beach/board shorts began to rule quickly after that.

12/16/86. I don't think anyone else has uploaded this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH8eHs7aeHo

Wow, watching this clip made me miss Finn Carter's Sierra so much...

In a large cast headed by such acting supernovas like Liz Hubbard and Larry Bryggman, not to mention the venerable ensemble of the Hughes family, I guess it's not easy for a newcomer like Finn Carter to stand out.

Watching this clip from late 1986, it just struck me how Marland's writing took Sierra's character in so many directions since his arrival only a year and a half ago, and Finn Carter's performances, so nuanced (thus easily overlooked), made the character quite compelling. Some of my favorites were scenes of her breaking up with Craig in late 1985 and her encounter with Tad Channing in summer 1986, when he nearly assaulted her.

I'm so curious as to how Marland felt about Finn Carter and Sierra, especially after Lisa Brown arrived to play Iva, whom he must have felt closer to, having worked so successfully together on GL. I don't think you could say that there was a triangle of Sierra-Craig-Iva in the same way as, say, some of the textbook soap triangles, e.g. AW's Alice-Steve-Rachel. The story of Lily's parentage was just heating up in 1986, and Liz, Martha and Lisa played their respective parts with such convictions that there was not much room for anything else in the lives of those characters.

LOL. at the Bob sneer in that clip. Forgot about that Emily...she was terrible, but soon she would wake up to be a bodacious babe! I like how quickly Marland centered the show around Bob and Kim and their multigenerational family.

This Emily--Colleen McDermott--was somewhat bland and seemed like an average college co-ed and nothing more. Maybe just a miscast?

As the story unraveled, the actress' shortcomings really showed. It made no sense that Emily (as played by this actress) had an affair with Hensley, much less with James. It really didn't help that the actor who played Hensley looked too creepy to be anyone's romantic interest.

It was also great to see Barbara slowly buckling as Tonio and Tad Channing swarmed around her. Her comeuppance was just around the corner (starting with Margo's miscarriage during the '86 November sweep).

Carl, I think you are correct on Susan. I guess I was thinking along the line of, whether Marland was sufficiently impressed already with Marie Masters' performances in the handful episodes in 1986 (he must have been) that he wanted to keep her on canvas as a catalyst for more substantial stories where she could be the lead, i.e. other than just Emily's Mom. I'd agree that the seed germinating the story of Bob's affair with Susan was most likely not in the same vein as Lily's parentage, i.e. by creating Iva, Marland would've already sketched out most of all that complicated background stories that played out for years. I did watch the show live in 1986 and I would say that episodes involving Susan were still sporadic in spurts that summer and fall and she really wasn't a "regular" character until the following year, at the earliest, though each performance was stunning--her scenes with Pat Bruder (Ellen) were so to-the-gut visceral.

As to what writers could've done with Susan in the early 80s, I do wonder if Bridget Dobson could plan something for her, had she still been on the canvas. I'm thinking of all those intriguing, complicated women on GL, e.g. Elizabeth, Jackie, Rita, etc.

October 1977 Soap Opera Serials.

She looks a lot like Joan Collins here.

Thank you for posting this--fascinating details of Susan's alcoholism story.

I would do anything to watch 1970s ATWT episodes. Apparently Marie Masters gave terrific performances back then.

She was terrific also after being brought back in 1986. I wonder if Marland was already thinking ahead about the story of Bob and Susan's affair when she was first brought back for the 30th anniversary episodes or that summer when Susan came back looking for Emily.

^That was a nice heart-to-heart between Kim and Betsy when they reminisces about Dan. Although I wasn't expecting everyone to wallow in grief for days and weeks, in these late 1979 episodes I almost feel as though characters went on with their lives almost too quickly and easily after Dan passed away.

I do wonder also if Betsy is being genuine here, or if she just wants some personal time by encouraging Kim to attend Lisa's wedding.

Going back to Dan--as lovingly written and produced as the funeral services episode was, I was surprised and disappointed that no flashback scenes showing Dan were inserted into that episode (or did I miss something? I believe that there was just a voice-over at the end of the funeral episode when Kim recalls their wedding vow, as spoken by Dan). If I'm not mistaken, John Reilly was the actor that Kathy Hays interacted with during Dan and Kim's stories, and John Colenback only came back to the role shortly before Dan and Kim's wedding. Perhaps it'd be too confusing to viewers to see Colenback as the actor walking out the door, but showing flashback scenes between Dan and Kim with Reilly in the role.

Sorry to hear about Tony Musante.

It's interesting and gratifying to see how pivotal Kim still was during this era, notwithstanding Dan Stewart's passing only a few months ago.

Pat Bruder cut her hair here!

It's also interesting to see Betsy interacting with the very young Andy. However, by Marland's 2nd stint I don't believe a whole lot was made between these 2 characters. What Marland did, and he did so very well, was to build the sibling relationship between Andy and Frannie. I'm not as familiar with Dobson's tenure and how much Andy was featured, except that Betsy became the heroine of the show.

That scene between Kim and Betsy was 8-minute long! 8 minutes!

I thought Davidson did a terrific job playing opposite Hays, very believable and natural in the way one set of emotions flows into the next throughout this long scene.

Interesting to see Nancy and Valerie having lunch at that fancy French restaurant (fluted colonnades, white linen table cloth, etc.) Nancy recommending the oyster stew when Tom and Barbara when they came in.

ATWT was the one show where Marland stayed the longest. As successful as he was writing for GH and GL, he stayed long enough (2 years or so, roughly) to breathe new life into these ailing shows, but left both due to discord with the EPs (Monty and Potter). Having a positive working relationship with Calhoun and Caso at ATWT gave him stability, but also challenged him in terms of longevity as a headwriter. Looking retrospectively, writing for ATWT was the first time in his career he had to do/prove that.

^Agree--it'd be a revelation to see the credits! These 1979 episodes do have that familial, generational warmth that one associates with ATWT, which Marland carried on assuredly in his 2nd stint that began in 1985. I do notice one Marland's signature touch that seems to be missing here: the crisscrossing of multiple stories within the same scene. Scenes in these 1979 episodes still seem to move for the most part from story to story, scene to scene, like blocks, whereas during his tenure on GH ('77-'79) Marland was already blending stories within the same scene that would give his writing a very different rhythm (that's how I feel, anyway). I'm thinking of the nurses' station at the GH that doubled as the hub of how characters from different stories mesh, which Marland would repeat on GL (Cedars Hospital) and ATWT (Memorial).

During the Tad Channing mystery, Marland gave David and Ellen a beautiful and long scene, where Ellen revealed that she felt her marriage disintegrating because of David's continual absence and focus on medical research. The scene made a strong impression on me because it was so unexpectedly long and probing in the midst of short, staccato interchanges among key players in the mystery, and also by then the couple was playing guardians of the young and did not have stories of their own. (I think it happened the night Betsy and Craig left Oakdale to find Steve, who skipped town after running into Channing at the construction site the stormy night of the murder. I believe David and Ellen stayed behind at the cabin to look after Dannie. David remarked how a good marriage like Betsy and Steve could just explode, whereupon Ellen mused, "some marriages explode, some simply disintegrate," then went on to say how she could not be like Nancy and Chris, who had no regrets in their marriage, because she had regrets.)

Sadly, Marland didn't do too much with it, and soon David left for Africa for AIDS research. But I got the feeling it was also a case where Forsythe probably had theater projects lining up and simply could not appear on ATWT regularly, so Marland obliged.

Jacqueline Schultz had such lush hair! Actually, so did Pat Bruder in these 1979 clips. I agree she looked matronly, but in one episode she was in a night gown and had her hair down--that was a revelation. When I began watching ATWT in mid-1980s Bruder was already in shorter hair and I was always truck by her receding hairline. But shorter hair did give her more energy.

I know at some point some of Betsy's inheritance was used to establish a shelter for teens/some kind of youth center (on what later became McKechnie Island if I'm not mistaken).

And I do think Betsy did get some kind of "experiments with drugs" kind of story, briefly. I remember something about a party where something bad happened, but it may have also been Frannie.

Yes, I do recall reading about story lines involving Betsy as a troubled teen, and in that 1979 episode seems to foreshadow that. We don't seem to be seeing other teens interacting with Betsy here, other than the young girl who was always with Valerie. We haven't seen Frannie in these 1979 episodes, have we?

I do wonder what would have happened if Davidson had stayed. I think she left for school, and was replaced by Lisa Denton. If she had wanted to stay, I wonder if they would have let her stay. She's very good in these clips, great understated grief. It's a beautiful performance.

One of the soap magazines at the time also said she was dating Peter Reckell.

Thank you for pointing out Lisa Denton. Regardless of how Davidson's run ended on ATWT and as much as I admire her performances here, hers is not your "typical" soap ingenue looks and it might've been more difficult to transition her into a young romantic lead like Genie Francis.

For some reasons Davidson reminds me a lot of Allison Smith of the mid-80s sit-com Kate and Allie; for a while she was going out with Brian Bloom (Dusty). (Photo below with her co-star Ari Meyers)

It's interesting to see these 1979 performances by Suzanne Davidson, because I did not start watching ATWT regularly until mid-1980s. I thought she did a credible job projecting quiet angst over her sense of loss and grief over Dan's death. It's also interesting to see the discussion with Kim of the drinking issues at school--maybe the writers were setting up some type of teen stories here?

At the same time, it must be disquieting for Davidson then as an actress at an awkward age and crossroad, because TPTB--perhaps Marland included--must be assessing her potential and ability to have the kind of impact like what Genie Francis had done on GH. (I checked and Davidson is only one year younger than Genie Francis.)

I guess TPTB in the end concluded in the negative, and Davidson would leave ATWT in 1980 (per IMDB), to be replaced by Meg Ryan, and Marland would find his Laura-reincarnate in the form of Morgan Richards on GL by K. Vigard.

Speaking of Tom Wiggin, it looks like he is offering acting workshop in the Arizona area:

http://proactorsworkshop.com/