teplin

Agreed, I thought they were terrific together. Jed Allan made it work with just about everyone -- Deidre Hall, Susan Hayes, Suzanne Rogers, Anne-Marie Martin, Gloria Loring.

I saw all of this play out intermittently, whenever I had a day off from school. I remember Laura putting Jennifer on the bus -- it was a rare location shoot. Not exactly glamorous, the location being the interior of a bus. I thought the ideas behind the Julie story were quite intriguing. A woman who had traded on her beauty, or at least benefited from it -- just about every man in Salem was after Julie at one point -- facing the loss of what she considered her most precious asset. A psychiatrist who magnified rather than allayed her patient's fears and insecurities. Because I saw relatively little of it play out on screen, I didn't see the day-to-day interactions that should have made it obvious to people that Laura was losing her grip, long before they finally accepted it. The writing made more sense when you saw less of it, I guess. I have to confess that I never cottoned to Rosemary Forsyth as Laura. (Susan Flannery is tough to follow, even if there was an actress or two in between.) And it's so odd that I can't remember Lanna Saunders' Marie being involved in the story at all ... I would have sworn she wasn't even on the canvas yet (and I really liked her!).

I don't know why he declined, but he had a long and varied career after AW. I last saw him on Showtime's Shameless last year. Check his IMDB page.

In a few more years, DAYS SORASed Hope and Melissa, which effectively ended Doug & Julie's (and Mickey & Maggie's) reign as romantic leads. Hope & Bo helped fuel a ratings renaissance, so you can't really say it was a bad decision for the show -- but it was certainly a blow to a legion of Doug & Julie fans.

I was a kid so I only watched during school vacations. I didn't know any BTS stuff but it was clear that something was different about the show in this period -- and not for the better. I loved Trish and Mike -- and Trish's singing! -- but the stories were ridiculous.Margo was a simpering ninny. Mickey & Maggie were a bore. Rosemary Forsyth's Laura couldn't hold a candle to Susan Flannery's. I really liked Don & Marlena but hated Donna and everything that came in her wake. Doug & Julie were ill-used. I don't even remember Kate Winograd or Joanne (Barnes?). Josh Taylor was very appealing as Chris Kositcheck (you wouldn't believe it if you've only seen him as Roman) and his pairing with Barbara Stanger (Mary Anderson) worked well. I always liked Margaret Mason's Linda Patterson (and hated, hated, hated Linda's nonsensical '80s return as a high-class madam in the form of Elaine Princi.)

Trust me, it reads better than it played out on screen.

Yes, Anna was great as Toni, but she owned Donna from her very first scene on AW ... the perfect marriage of actress and character. And she got more beautiful as she grew older!

Nurse Linda Metcalf! For some reason, I thought she was long gone by 1980. I loved her.

Elizabeth Ashley played Emma Frame on the show for few years, but I think she would have been even better as Cass' mother. Might have had to tone down the Southern accent a bit, though. Then again, maybe not -- it could have helped explain his attraction to Souther belle Lila.

Thank you for this. Such a contrast to the chintzy weddings of today. And not a gun, bomb, catfight or deranged lunatic in sight!

The justly maligned Corinne Jacker run on AW had one plus, IMO -- the introduction of very strong black roles played by some pretty awesome actors (Morgan Freeman! Howard Rollins Jr.! Joe Morton! Robert Christian! Jackee Harry! Petronia Paley!). IIRC, they were pretty well integrated into the larger cast while maintaining their own agency and motivations as characters. Unfortunately, their storylines were not exactly gripping, and many of them were gone within a couple years. I have no idea what black viewers thought of them -- the soap press didn't seem eager to explore that angle. And I don't think AW ever had a big black audience.

Hard to conceive of today -- the oldest actor on a soap appearing (a lot!) more often than their co-stars. Imagine Bill Hayes having double the guarantee of Kristian Alfonso in 2020.

Several sites are reporting that Judi Evans (ex-Beth) had a horseback riding accident on Saturday, May 16, and is in the hospital with seven broken ribs, a collapsed lung, broken collarbone and two chipped vertebrae. What a tough, tough six months she has had. Wishing her a speedy recovery if this is indeed true.

A little? John Black was never a Mensa candidate but Marlena lost 50 IQ points under Reilly.

And yet, like Drake Hogestyn, Reinholt was enormously popular. I remember hearing my aunt and her friends talking about sexy he was. I agree that Alice-Rachel was the main draw, but I think you underestimate Reinholt's appeal to a segment of the audience.

John Aprea had a stroke as well, according to Linda Dano.

This is a disaster.

It was ... and yet I kind of liked her Alex Carrington-esque businesswoman incarnation, with the big hair and the big shoulder pads, the flirtation with Victor and the affair with a younger man. It was a stretch from the Julie we knew and loved but SSH played the heck out of it.

Condolences to Kaitlin Hopkins (AW's Dr. Kelsey Harrison) on the death of her mother, the spectacular actress Shirley Knight. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Knight died Wednesday of natural causes at the home of her daughter, actress Kaitlin Hopkins, in San Marcos, Texas." Among her many roles, Knight starred opposite Al Freeman Jr. (OLTL's Ed Hall) in the 1966 British film "The Dutchman." https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shirley-knight-dead-sweet-bird-youth-dark-at-top-stairs-dutchman-actress-was-83-1133636?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Rachel "killing" Mitch and going on trial – earning Doug Watson an Emmy in the process -- and then going to prison before busting out to track Mitch down was riveting to me as a kid. But in retrospect, yeah, it didn't do the show or the characters any favors.

I was just going to pop in to write what Efulton did -- I recall Sandi Ferguson and Matt Crane speaking warmly of VW. Of course, that was some years after the disastrous early 80s, when the writing took a long and steep nosedive. I wouldn't be surprised if VW was unhappy then. Dano, Schnetzer and others used to talk about how being filmed out in Brooklyn, away from other soaps and the NYC media, made the cast feel more of an ensemble.

That was the first time I'd seen Valerie Mahaffey ... she's probably better known for comedy these days but I remember being very impressed with her dramatic turn on The Doctors. I can't remember any story specifics, but I believe she played a neurotic, almost Glass Menagerie-like character, and was very effective.

I could see Doug Watson paired with Susan Sullivan (Lenore).

My assumption was always that VW's late-in-life Brit accent was a character choice reflecting Rachel's closeness with Carl. But it wouldn't surprise me if it was a combination of boredom and a passive/aggressive stab at NBC.

What a talent. I have a couple of collections of his music. I was not aware that he also scored The Doctors until I was watching one of the Retro episodes and immediately noted his distinctive touch. RIP.