Paul Raven

BUFFALO COURIER-EXPRESS, Sunday, June 18. 1971 Buffalonian Doing Well As Soaper’ Producer By JACK ALLEN ERWIN “NICK” Nicholson, a native of Buffalo and longtime producer of shows derogatorily referred to as “soap operas.” can build a good case for the oft-despised daytime television dramas. The Buffalo State College graduate is a former public-school teacher here. He left to find fame and fortune in New Ycrk City, some 18 years ago, and has achieved some degree of both in TV. Scorned as they are, the daytime “soaps” form the bread and butter of the CBS schedule, fulfill the daydreams of a multitude of American women, and most important, provide jobs and training for a host of promising young actors in a city shorn by Hollywood of most of its TV production. IN THE SO-CALLED “golden days” of live TV drama, New York City was a hotbed of pretty good production, better than most of the slick videotaped output of the California studios of today. And a fellow like Nicholson has had a good part of the action in his 17 years in New York television. With CBS-TV, he held various production jobs—as production assistant, stage manager. associate director and director — with the “Lamp Unto My Feet” religious series, “Ford Star Jubilee” specials and the original live presentation of “Cinderella,” with Julie Andrews.Miss Andrews, incidentally, is shooting a new series for next fall's prime-time hours, and a former Buffalonian named Nick Vanoff is running the show. NICK WAS A floorman at WKBW-TV studies not too many years ago, along with his brother Boris. Nick moved on to Hollywood, became a hit producer with the old “Hollywood Palace" Saturday nights on ABCTV. His show bailed out Jerry Lewis after his flop on the network, and its success as a classic variety show recovered a lot of ABC money spent on refurbishing the old Palace Theater in Los Angeles. But this story belongs to the other Nick from Buffalo—Nicholson. He has been associated with many of the CBS daytime dramas, and joined “The Edge of Night” some six years ago. This soaper,seen at 3:30 p.m. locally on Channels 4 and 6 weekdays, is in its 17th year on CBS-TV. Nick is its producer, and the series Is shot “live” in a converted theater in Gotham. HE IS NOT at all apologetic about it, as we found out during a visit with Nick and his people recently. “We feel very strongly about the live aspect of our show,” he said. “Just think, we do 260 halfhour live shows a year. How many Hollywood prime-time shows, with their big budgets and supposedly hot-shot performers, could stand the gaff of such a production schedule? Heads nodding in agreement belonged to Ann Flood and Teri Keane, two of the longtime and highly capable “soap” actresses, and Henry Slesar, currently head writer of the show. “THE EDGE OF NIGHT” airs out of a studio on Sixth Ave. where “Omnibus” and “Armstrong Circle Theater” were shot. Miss Flood, who has been on “Edge” since 1962. said the crew is really on edge each day. When you shoot live on a tight time schedule there are no retakes and no videotape to be easily trimmed. “This series has never paled for me.” said the gracious lady of the daytime dramas. “I find it a daily challenge as a working actor. The rigid time schedule and the discipline make for good performers, in a training school tougher than any Hollywood can offer its newcomers. For an actor, it is a great environment.” ANN PLAYS Nancy Karr, the pivotal character, in the suspense melodrama about criminal attorney Mike Karr and Adam Drake in the fictional Midwest city of Monticello. Actually. the opening bit shows the skyline of Cincinnati, Ohio. Donald May. who plays Adam Drake, said, “Live TV can be dangerous, but for that reason it is exciting. Sometimes we choke on a drink, or walk out of a living-room set right into a clothes closet. But viewers know it is live, and these obvious fluffs only add to the scene.” Slesar, the writer who pumps these episodes out on a hot typewriter, said, “Our time slot makes us the caboose of the daytime shows, but we’re ’way ahead on track time. Our story is planned a year in advance, like a big, complex mystery novel. INDIVIDUAL scripts are written about three weeks ahead. There must be a strong continuity and a character memory, for daytime drama is a continuing life. “For our viewers, it is a vicarious life of great importance to them, and they take the problems of ail the characters very seriously.*’ “They sure do,” chimed in Nick. “My mother, who still lives on Kenmore Ave. in Buffalo, is my greatest critic. She and some other relatives have a regular fan club for ’Edge of Night,’ and they let me know by phone when something goes wrong.” PROCTOR & GAMBLE owns “The Edge of Night.” as well as “Search for Tomorrow” and “Guiding Light.” The product and the housewife viewer earned the daytime dramas the “soap opera” label. How good are the actors? “We work,” said May. “We rehearse the night before an episode. Once I had a 22-minute charge to a jury, and it was a toughie. But I have few memory problems, and memorize the scripts from day to day.” Nick said, “We get from 300 to 500 letters a week. When two characters on the show celebrated a wedding anniversary-, we received 32,000 letters of congratulation for them. Five daily magazines are now devoted to daytime TV, and they boast one-half million subscribers each.” “We also have fan clubs, one prominent one in Jackson, Miss. A woman by the name of Frances Noonenhocker— that’s a real name, not a soap character*— has a newsletter about us. “ONE TIME WE had a spy story which didn't appeal to the audience, and it was taken off in two weeks. Our time slot is a pretty good one. Why do you think President Nixon often takes the 3:30 p.m. spot for a nationwide address?” Do the sudsy- shows have to be exceptionally clean, in comparison to theater movies? “We do have censorship problems,” admitted Nick, “but perhaps not as rough as those of the prime-time people. We once lifted a line from ‘Othello,” but the P&G men said the word ‘whore’ might be all right for Shakespeare but too strong for the show. We had a battle on that line, but the soaps are becoming more frank, along with all the media. There is really no subject that is taboo today, as long as it is handled with some taste and discretion.”

How many interviews have we read where the actor praises the writer to high heaven even when the story stinks?

Wes Kenney dropped several characters when he arrived. Does someone have a tally? I know Bryan and Claudia went for starters.

Patriot -February 23. 1977, The 35-plus sets used on Another World are undoubtably among the most varied and stunning of any daytime serial. From the Cory. Carrington, and Matthews homes — to frame Enterprises and the Randolph law offices — to Tall Boys and El Diable, AW does a superb job in designing sets that suggest a realistic background for Bay City's lofty surroundings. Otis Riggs, AW s Art Director, is the man responsible for creating this delicate illusion of reality. In order to achieve a look that viewers could accept as real. Riggs has had to combine his background in architecture and interior design with studies in stage management. When the creators of Another World decide to expand or to introduce a new set. the shows producers call & special meeting with their Art Director. How and when the set will be used, who will be visiting it, and what it should look like are all discussed in considerable detail. Riggs next consults his for possible ideas, paying careful attention not only to the function of the room in the plot, but also to the personalities and characteristics of the people who will be seen there, Riggs finds himself devoting a great deal of time to researching each of the rooms he creates. Several sketches of a basic floor plan are devised by the Art Director before any of the actual set construction begins. These rough floor plans are xeroxed and copies are given to the serial's directors for an analysis of the new. room's "geography" — to make certain that cameras can be moved around easily. The revised floor plans are next routed to the show's carpenters who draw elevations and estimate the cost of building materials, paper, and paper hanging. A cost estimate is sent to the show's Cast Manager and to the producer, Paul Rauch. Finally a floor plan is approved and the green light is given to begin building the set. While the carpenters build and shape the framework of the new set, Otis Riggs and his co-worker. Bob Greenberg, are deciding how it will be "dressed." Once these plans are complete, Otis will take his floor plans to the Kenmore Furniture Company in New York, a firm that specializes in providing furnishings to television and movie studios. Riggs will either rent or purchase the furnishings he needs, for quick delivery to the show's Brooklyn studio. The many sets used on changed almost every day. Once a set has been designed, erected and dressed, it soon must be taken apart. Every set has its own special "hamper" and "dolly," where its components are safely labeled and stored.

Josh Griffith has to go. He claims he's writing these deep psychological stories about guilt and redemption but they're just trash.

Excerpt from a 1980 article about soap stars Ron Arrants (Travis Tourneur Santell on Search for Tomorrow) describes his character “as a romantic with dimensions, a combination of Rhett Butler, Howard Hughes and Citizen Kane the younger. He inherited an international business conglomerate, he is classical straight arrow. He flies his own jet and speaks several languages. On Lovers and Friends, I was just a millionaire. Now I’m a BILLIONAIRE.” Arrants’ character fell in love with Liza when her husband died and the couple went through just about every conceivable tragedy until their TV marriage last December. “WE HAVE HAD 10 major obstacles to our relationship,” he has figured out. A major star of daytime, Arrants still rides the subway from his Brqpklyn Heights home to CBS in New York but it gets more difficult daily to study his lines during the 20-minute ride. Autograph seekers are the interruptions. A native Californian, he has transplanted comfortably for a good economic reason: “I work 305 days a year, and have for 10 years. Elven though there’s nothing here for actors except daytime and the stage, it’s good experience, and I’m grateful for the work. It’s a good life, and I feel a responsibility to stay in daytime, after barely getting by for so long. But I have the economic freedom to take the risk again if I ever want to. “Actors who think of themselves as artists, who have an impulse to stretch and grow, find an excitement and challenge they can only experience in soaps. There is no beginning, middle or end in daytime. You never have that sense of completion you get in the theater. “TO THE EXTENT that an actor can feel secure, I am. I even get two paid vacation every year.That came as a big surprise,” he laughs

Excerpt from a 1979 article about soap stars Colleen Zenk (Barbara in As the World Turns). “I went through the mill getting on this show. For the first three years I was in New York, I had 14 tests for 14 different soaps. I wanted daytime so bad, because it’s a three-act play every day. There’s nothing like it for an actor. It’s the best challenge. In the theater, you can get stale in the most wonderful part. I don’t have a wonderful part every day on our show, but I can DO things.” A Chicagoan, Colleen started dancing at 3, modeling at 9, doing commercials at 11, and was the Dr. Pepper girl and the 7-Up girl. She’s done a total of 100 commercials. “I LOVE WHAT I’m doing now. I’m part of people’s everyday lives, and when I go home to visit, I’m mobbed in shops. People like Barbara, and so they like me. I don’t want to be a star, you see. My private life is too important to me. I won’t sacrifice it, and I don’t want the notoriety that goes with being Farrah or Cheryl Tiegs. I want to have a family, all those wonderful Midwest things.”

I'm glad Derek's death is being mentioned and pondered over. Unlike other soaps that pile up the deaths and nobody bothers after a couple of days. It was morning of a new day but it seemed like the Country Club had nightime lighting. Those Andre/Chelsea scenes were fine but a whole episode on them at OG's recapping various stories? I'm going to keep putting it out there-we need to see the characters working/at work-maybe we might see Shanice nursing, Vanessa dealing with her real estate business or Nicole with a patient.

Jane did step back from acting in the 60's and 70's. I remember a quote where she said all she was offered was lesbian axe murderers. She did a pilot arounf 1970 'Amanda Farrow' a sort of female Marcus Welby that was shown on Medical Center but it didn't get picked up. In 79 she played a backwoods medicine woman in a Lindsay Wagner 3 hr TV movie "The Incredible Journey of Dr Meg Laurel" that was a ratings success and brought her critical acclaim. I'm sure that got her considered for Falcon Crest and got her interested in acting again. I could definitely see Barbara Stanwyck as Angela. Any other actresses you could think of from 'Old Hollywood'?

Those 1970's wealthy characters were somewhat relatable. Philip Chancellor ran a factory, they had a grand house and some servants but that was it. Lance Prentiss was another level above-he had a private jet! So settling into a lakehose in Wisconsin was a stretch, but at least he and Lorie did jet off to various locations. I wish it had have been specified what Chancellor and Prentiss did. When Victor was introduced, again he was wealthy, with a ranch and some business interests but not at billionaire level. Soaps shoot themselves in the foot by making characters fabulously wealthy and internationally known, yet tend to be selective about how public their lives are. Some things are all over the media, while others that would draw attention seem to be ignored.

A Review of 1978 from Jon Micheal Reed. Seemed to forget All My Children... BUFFALO COURIER EXPRESS. Saturday. January 6, 1979 NEW YORK — As the New Year begins, let's take a look at a few of the notable soap opera achievements of the past year. The ‘'Miracle” soap story of 1978 was the “rebirth'' of ABC's 15-year-old aerial, “General Hospital.” A year ago this show was approaching cancellation. A new producer, Gloria Monty, and a new headwriter, Douglas Marland, infused a new visual glamor and vigorous storylines for the ailing warhorse. Today, “GH” often ranks number one in the daytime Nielsen ratings. Despite the healthy symptoms, the prognosis isn’t entirely positive. The cast includes a number of weak, awkward performers, especially Mary O’Brien as Heather Webber. AND WHILE cast newcomers receive a large share of storyline activity, the “old pros" who’ve been on the show for umpteen years are generally relegated to subsidiary inactivity. There also has been a marked and somewhat annoying storytelling tendency to focus on one storyline at a time and for an agonizing length to boot. That flaw, however, seems to be shifting in favor of more balanced, multistoried activity in the las couple of months. Another notable soap “recovery” occurred on “Edge of Night.” In 1977, a glut of newcomers replaced the long-running characters. The emphasis was on romantic pap that didn’t jell with the show’s basic crimemystery format. IN THE PAST six months, the younger cast members have improved noticeably, and headwriter Henry Slesar gratefully returned to his incomparable storytelling mixture of romance laced with intrigue and set amidst melodramatic action. Slesar also incorporated topical subjects to his plots, such as the Children of the Earth cult and April’s psychic phenomena experiences. For some reason, “Days of Our Lives” sank in the ratings at a time when the writing, at least to this viewer, seemed to sparkle with intelligence and well-rounded motivation. “The Doctors,” too. hit the ratings pits, even though the writing of Linda Grover challenged the usual soap opera tendency of black and white stereotypes. But, again, there seemed to be too much and too prolonged concentration on one story at a time. THE CASTS of “Guiding Light'' and “As the World Turns" proved in 1978 that they are among the most underrated in daytime television. When story material is weakly motivated as on *GL” or in a state of flux as on “ATWT and the performers still manage to make the stones interesting and “bookable,” the vitality of the actors can’t be ignored. "ATWT" generally failed in its attempt to join the more contemporary serials in both physical appearance and plots. It was however a noble effort that shouldn’t be completely shunted aside. “RYAN’S Hope,”which sports the snappiest, wittiest dialogue on the tube, suffered from a severe case of massive ast turnovers and replacements. It was difficult to empathize with characters whose faces changed quarterly. “Another World" experienced a similar problem with periodic cast dismissals and newcomers who ended their run just as they were beginning to trot. The emphasis on the Perrini family, however, was, io this viewer, a refreshing addition to the show, as was the spotlight on the superb talents of Dorothy Lyman (Gwen Frame), Brian Murray (Dan Shearer), Jay Morran (Vince Frame), among others, and let's not overlook the sometimes neglected Beverly Penberthy (Pat Randolph) FOR THOSE critics who complain that soap operas don’t move at a rapid pace, “One Life to Live,” proved that soaps can progress unlethargically and excitingly. No small thanks to be given to headwriters Gordon Russell and Sam Hall for giving the sublime Al Freeman and Ellen Holly (Ed and Carla Hall) strong story material after years of virtual do-nothingness. “Search For Tomorrow” and “Love of Life” underwent sweeping changes in story and character focus. “Search” is recently settling into a comfortable and attractive niche, but it’s too early to tell whether “Love of Life” can be saved by its new producer, Cathy Abbi, and new headwriter, Jean Holloway.

COURIER EXPRESS BUFFALO NY WEEK OF JULY 20 -JULY 26 1980 Although executive producer John Conboy of The Young and Restless says all the actors on that show are stars, three of current interest are Victoria Mallory (Leslie since Janice Lynde left the show in 1977), Tom Ligon (Lucas) and Jerry Lacy (Jonas). Victoria’s character, a concert pianist, enables her to use her own musical talents. Currently, she’s run away from home, husband, and baby because of amnesia, due to typical soaptime pressures. “The character, now called Priscilla, because no body in this new town knows who she is, has gone through a change of personality change. There was a scene recently when I had to go to a hospital, and I sat up screaming, ‘SOMETHING HAPPENED TO THE BABY.’ I got in my car to go home, and couldn’t understand why I was so tired. But I love it, because it’s like live theater, when they call ‘5-4-3-2-1, roll tape’ that’s it! This is the part of TV that is best. There are periods when the character is in great stress, and it’s exhausting. It takes far more than people think. “STILL, LAST summer John McCook (Lance) and I played in ‘Brigadoon’ in St. Louis and we packed the house every night. It was incredible. Yes, I am constantly called Leslie, but I can’t let it bother me, because I know who I am.” As Lucas, Tom Ligon is even more pragmatic about his place in daytime TV. “The pay is nice, and I’m shocked at the amount of furor from fans. I didn’t believe people cared: I have to spend a day a month handling the mail. I’m still in a state of shock that people watch. I think the character is an enigma. I think I’m a good person, with no nonsense, no bull, but with jealousies and guilts from the past. I like him, because he’s not slick, and I’m not either. “I let my work speak for itself. At the studio, what counts is your attitude. If you’re a pain and not brilliant, you’ll leave. I’ve got six months more to go on my contract, and I’m uncertain if I want to stay. I do like the show, because I don’t see another actor like me on other shows.” Ligon is so honest, he actually pays a manager to work with him in his personal life as well as business. “It’s difficult for an actor to get neutral feedback. I pay him to be a no-man and a yes-man, to reflect truth back to me.”

That set is awful. An apartment supposedly at that level with no foyer/entrance, a tiny table and chairs in the corner. As for the urn up against the wall....

I don't think that set will go, it just won't be used much at all. Maybe put up and used for a few weeks if necessary. The days of sets being used regularly are gone. When was the last time we saw Nate's penthouse? Lily's penthouse? Most characters are homeless.

Also you have the issue of today's 60 yr old soap characters looking 20 years younger due to enhancements. So the generational aspect is even harder to portray as those actresses don't look like grandma.

BUFFALO COURIER - EXPRESS, Sunday, July 21, 1968 Soap Opera Star Wants Broadway Hit Elizabeth Hubbard, Heroine of "The Doctors,' Sets Sights NEW YORK—Can a beautiful blonde doctor, who is also a divorcee, a mother and a woman with the emotional range of a candy thermometer, find happiness as the wife of a boorish neurosurgeon who suffers on and off from hysterical paralysis? Can a beautiful actress who is highly educated, critically acclaimed and blissfully newlywed, become a Broadway star even though she performs regularly in this TV soap opera? THE ANSWERS to these cliffhanging questions (in the first instance, definitely not, in the second, let's hope so) are of absorbing interest to Mrs. David Bennett, a fur designer's bride who is known to millions of merican women as Dr. Althea Davis, the tormented heroine of "The Doctor," the nation's number 2 daytime serial drama. A smaller 'and definitely ample as well as female audience of legitimate theater goers recognize Mrs. Bennett as Elizabeth Hubbard, a featured player during the last decade in such short-running ventures as "The Affair," "The Physicists," and one hit, "Joe Egg," which expired during the recent Actors Equity strike. WHEN THE real-life protagonist stands up to be counted, she reveals herself to be confident, optimistic and not at all apologetic about her continuing commitment to the sudsy clean but professionally impure world of afternoon television melodrama. After all, it isn't as if she had stooped to doing commercials. And hasn't "The Doctors," in which she has been starring on NBC since August, 1964, given a case of the jitters to a rival network that formerly monopolized the daytime field? Miss Hubbard comes across as one of those rare examples of artistocratic whistlebait. Perfect Anglo-Saxon bone structure, Wedgwood-blue eyes, 18-karat gold hair, milky complexion, unexpectedly sturdy fingers and knees coexist with such proper credentials as an English father (retired director of extracurricular activities at Columbia College), feminist American mother (the late Elizabeth Wright Hubbard was a homeopathic physician) and a cum laude diploma fn:m Radcliffe, class of 1955. GIVEN SUCH a background along with such merit badges as the Silver Medal from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the Clarence Derwent award for her Nurse Monika in "The Physicists," an actress like Elizabeth Hubbard can affect the dross with which she is confronted In soap opera script form. "There are 50 ways you could play a certain line. And it's how you play it that counts. Soap opera, after all, is human drama," she said. IN ITS VOYAGE from radio to television, soap opera seems to be catching up rather tardily with the sexual revolution. "They're sort of working sin in," said Miss Hubbard gleefully. "But I'm for showing sin not as sin but as life, and doing it honestly." Not that "The Doctors", is to be confused with a Swedish movie. The audience realized what had transpired between the doctors one evening from a morning-after scene in which they crawled around looking for their shoes. "Oh, I've done a few things in my slip for kicks," Miss Hubbard added. IT'S A MEDIUM for an experienced actor, she said, turning dead serious. 'The director hasn't time to teach you to act, the way many Broadway directors take it on themselves to do." She stepped into "The Physicists" on 24 hours' notice and learned the part perfectly, proof of the quick-study experience that soap opera affords. Soap opera also gives an actress a soul-warming, national identity. "You're like an old-fashioned actress with a following in each city," she said. Fans stop her on the street, write profusely, send gifts and seek advice: "should a 24-year-old girl have a spinal fusion'" Miss Hubbard has learned not to advise. "I'VE GOT a standing in the community, which is a nice feeling." she said. "Now I wish a standing in the theater community. I've done a play a year. I've never had a bad review. All of them were good plays, although, until 'Joe Egg,' I never had a nit. Now I'd like top billing in a play that rings in one's heart somehow. I've never done a movie, but I hope that's going to happen soon."

Lily. Viacom Productions. Action adventure series starring Shelley Duvall as an associate curator at a Washington museum. When when not searching for artifacts, she is a troubleshooter, searching for stolen art. Executive producers are Duvall and Andy Borowitz. Pilot written by Borowitz. Supplier is Duvall's Platypus Productions in association with Viacom Productions. Production began on March 11 with location shoots in Los Angeles, Washington, London and Acapulco. Pilots CBS did pick up included Mike Hammer. Spies, Houston Knights, Shell Game. Outlaws, The Wizard and Kay O'Brien. Apart from Hammer, they all bombed. Maybe Lily should have been given a chance.

There were always wealthy characters present, but they were not at the level of some of today's rich set who seem to have so much money that nothing is really a problem for them eg Newman on Y&R. And soaps can't present that lifestyle with any sort of reality. They have no staff/assistants etc and live in modest houses with no security. I wish they could somehow scale back and make things more realistic/relatable.

@Rev. Ruthledge Thanks for continuing these summaries. That was Elizabeth Hubbard playing Anne when the character died. I wonder if the recast coincided with Anne more strongly resisting the idea of living in that area. Perhaps Elizabeth put a different spin on the character. And Bill was off the show for months. Guess even back then they were finding the character expendable.

Love that Noah has had the time to find a location and have an LA bar replicated in GC. All this while the Matt Clark drama plays out. A very resourceful young man. Definitely took a page from Grandad's playbook, who manged to build a replica house w/.o anyone knowing. When that set first appeared, I suspected it would find it's way back to the show. Rather like Cane's train. Hope this business does better than Noah's last venture -the Glum, sorry Glam Club. It's a nice set -but will it take the place of another? Will we not see the Jazz Club for example? It also means even more characters meeting up in public. Build a house or office set, please!

@EricMontreal22 Found a 1987 interview with KLG Nyack NY Journal Life After Fever-Lisa Faye Kaplan writes Hot Stuff far these newspapers. A transcript of this interview has been edited far clarity and condensed. Born Jan.28; Hollywood, Calif Grew up Manhattan Lives In Manhattan, Upper West Side Family Father, Jay, composer of "Brother Can You Spare a Dime"; mother, Sondra, a public relations executive; brothers, Roderic, an analyst, and Daniel, a marketing executive Pets El Gato, a Turkish Angora cat Hobbies Painting, reading, writing, playing guitar Favorite Foods Chicken sushi Greatest accomplishment Dancing, because it was always very difficult for me to dance. The last time we saw Karen Lynn Gorney she was partnered with John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever a special film that captured the cultural shape and feel of the late 1970s. Gorney played a social climbing receptionist whose idea of success lay across the Brooklyn bridge in Manhattan. Hers was the leading female role in a hit movie. But Fever turned into Travolta’s movie, and everyone else disappeared in his shadow. Although Gorney faded from view in the past decade, she says she’s been working steadily in regional theater and off-Broadway. The actress, who spent summers in Katonah as a kid, is currently starring in The Baldwin Theater’s production of Life on the Third Rail, a romantic comedy by Mitchell Uscher that runs in Manhattan through Dec. 6. The Dean's List, Gorney’s new film, will be released early next year. Gorney, whom you may remember as Tara on “All My Children,” recently talked with me in her studio apartment on Manattan’s Upper West Side. The walls are decorated with pictures she’s drawn and painted mainly of her white cat, El Gato. There’s also a black and white photograph of Gorney and Travolta at a ballet bar, the only memento of Fever on view. During our chat, El Gato slept on my coat while Gorney talked about life after Fever and her new definition ofsuccess. Is this your roommate? El Gato. Isn’t he something? He’s my model. All these are my paintings and drawings of him. He’s a real inspiration to me. Tell me about the part you play in Life on the Third Rail. I play an actress. She knows she’s a star and her dream is to be immortalized in film. So she gets ir. a movie finally, but gets upset when the male star she’s playing opposite pays attention only to himself. In the play she comes to the conclusion that cinema can’t really capture the real her, that she needs a live audience to do her best work. Any similarity between that character and the turn your career has taken? I like both. You made such a splash in Saturday Night Fever and then seemed to disappear. Not really. I just kept doing theater. I did a play with Cybill Shepherd, Lunch Hour. Then I worked in the Midwest doing Dracula. In New York, I’ve been doing a lot of English plays. I did The Vortex, by Noel Coward. I’ve also been studying for the last five or six years at the Actors Studio. 1 think I’m a much better actress now than when I made Saturday Night Fever. God knows I’m a much better dancer. I was just beginning to scratch the surface of what it means to really act I was playing a lot of things that I had no experience with. Doesn’t acting mean doing things that aren't in your experience? If you really experience something, you can act it much better. The more you experience in your life, the better the artist you are. What did you experience that made you a better actress? Independence. From whom? From the need to be patted on the back. Don’t you need that anymore? I need it, but not as much as I did when I was younger The character I played on “All My Children," Tara, was really me. She was a goody-goody. All I’d do on that soap was serve coffee, cry, get pregnant and be comforted. I support myself now. I’m an independent woman. I don’t lean on anybody. Weren’t you supporting yourself before? I still didn’t have the sense that I really was in control of my life. I’d be getting lost in, “Oh, I’m so in love with this one,’’ “Oh, Mommy doesn’t like the dress I wore.” Nonsense. How did you get away from that? I think I got away from it by taking risks and experiencing the terror of disapproval. And what happened after you experienced it? You get freaked out. And then it goes away and you go on and take a bigger risk. Once you can actually face being alone and people’s disapproval, then you’re strong, you’re really independent Those are the two most horrible things for women — disapproval and being alone. Did you think Saturday Night Fever was going to make you a star? Naaaahh. I’ve always thought of myself as a star ever since I was a little girl. To me, it was normal (Laughs.) Do you think you’re a star now? I’m just one of God’s little creatures. What’s your definition of success? Being alive. Just being able to walk and talk is my definition of success. What did Bob Dylan say” “There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.” You’re successful if you keep growing, changing. What more would you like to accomplish? Nothing really. All the things I’ve wanted to do I’ve done. And all I want is to be able to go from one play to another, one film to another. I just want to keep acting and growing. Do you want to have a family? No. That's not in the cards for me. It’s not something I want. I tried to take in another cat and I was going crazy with two cats. How am I going to deal with children?

@EricMontreal22 Saturday Night Fever 50th Anniversary in 2027 so she might turn up there. A number of the cast is still with us at this point-Travolta, Donna Pescow. Lisa Peluso, Fran Drescher etc

@slick jones With Robert Heitman being highlighted in the Soap Hoppers thread I thought I'd post a pic of him from his SFT days. With Millee Taggart (Janet) and Leslie Ann Ray (Donna)

BUFFALO COURIER EXPRESS. Friday. January 23,1981 Dallas’ Keeps Step Ahead of the Copycats LEONARD KATZMAN, predictably, doesn't think much of television’s copycat syndrome, which has invaded prime-time soap lately. Who’s Leonard Katzman, you ask? He’s the chap who produces CBS’ runaway hit, "Dallas," for Lorimar Productions and who can blame him for feeling ripped off? Flick on NBC (Ch. 2) Tuesday nights at 10 and there’s "Flamingo Road" with Howard Duff providing the peacock network's answer to CBS’ great anti-hero, J.R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman. Tune in ABC (Ch. 7) Monday nights at 9 and there’s John Forsythe running an empire of oil based wealth much as J.R.'s daddy does in “Dallas,” only this is "Dynasty,” don’t you know’. OF COURSE, Lorimar and CBS ripped ... er, spun off "Dallas” well before "Flamingo Road” or “Dynasty” surfaced — just by moving a couple of characters to "Knots Landing” and unfolding another web of sex-tinged plots among the beautiful people. Whenever that Thursday night show needs a boost, it gets one from “Dallas” — like Mary Crseby showing up pregnant with J.R.’s baby. But Katzman would like to tell you the king of suds still airs Friday nights (Ch. 4, 10 p.m.) with J.R. about to finally meet his female match. Susan Flannery, in next Friday’s episode. Katzman figures it should take his show’s copycats a while to catch up with that move. "None of the copies have touched our format,” Katzman argued when interviewed by Channel One in Los Angeles two weeks ago. "And even our first 10 to 12 shows (back when "Dallas” was in danger ot being canceled) didn’t touch on what we have now. "Between Larry and the writers, we’ve created the greatest anti-hero in all ot television,” Katzman went on in listing his reasons for the show’s near-weekly No. 1 status. “People secretly would love to do the things that he gets away with. “FURTHER, THIS family lives together every Friday night headed by a strong father figure. And there’s that element ot voyeurism —the viewers are surrounded by this group of tremendously attractive people. That’s so important. People stay with our show in reruns because they want to stay with the characters. ” Katzman is most perturbed by the ripoff nature of “Dynasty,” the only prime-time soap not cranked out by Lorimar. "I think they’ve taken a great deal of what we have in our show,” Katzman said. “There’s a great deal of wealth through oil. But the question is: Will audiences accept their cast, care about them and root for them? No, I’m not concerned about it. My feeling is we have the audience. They have to come and get it.” They’re coming, Leonard, they’re coming. That three-hour premiere just missed hitting Nielsen’s top 10. So don’t be surprised if Katzman concocts another wild season-ending show, although he’ll have to go some to top the "Who shot J.R ?” mystery Katzman revealed that classic 1980 finish came about only because CBS made a late request for two additional shows. “WE WERE originally going to do 23 episodes and the season was to end with Digger Barnes dying,” the producer said "But the network wanted two more shows and we figured shooting J.R. was the way to go. Texas is still a gun-oriented society. That’s the way they are down there and we thought it was a perfect way to end the season.” What followed was a matchless buildup to this season’s beginning and, despite much of the drama being short-circuited by the actors’ strike, the opener was viewed by a record 150 million. Katzman mentioned that figure, thought for a moment, flashed a smile and said, "I’m amused by all the people who say they never watch the show and then proceed to tell you all about it.” Katzman feels the population move from northern cities into Dallas helps the show’s following. “Dallas is the major financial center of the South and Southwest now," he said. “But interest in the characters is the chief reason tor the show’s success. I certainly think there’s another year or two of material without repeating anything. After that, who knows how long we’ll go? 'Gunsmoke’ lasted 20 years.” YES, KATZMAN also was responsible for Matt Dillon and friends, not to mention Steve McGarrett and his "Hawaii Five-O” hounds. But now’s he going to keep J.R. fresh by bringing on Leslie Stewart (Miss Flannery), a sharp New York public relations type, to mastermind his new role in the business world as he resumes control of Ewing Oil and brother Bobby shocks the family by jumping into an alternative energy venture. "She’s the first woman J.R. respects,” Miss Flannery told this column “She’s just as unscrupulous, she refuses to tall under his charm and she’s nice, not just an SOB. She rivals his Southern style and she’s a match for him in every way.” I can see the suds bubbling now

Richmond County Daily Journal, Rockingham, N. C. Tues Aug. 10,1976 Not All 'Soap' Writers Tormented New Yorkers By JAY SHARBUTT LOS ANGELES (AP) — Most soap operas are taped in New York, and their characters and plots have much grief and woe, It must mean all their writers are tormented New Yorkers, reflecting the travails of Fun City. Guess again. Case in point: Mr. and Mrs. Robert Soderberg, head writers on CBS' "As the World Turns." They say they're quite happy. They should be. Their show is taped in New York, but they cook up its daily diet of angst from 2,800 mites away, working at their home in the pleasant, unhurried coastal city of Santa Barbara, Calif. Soderberg only laughed when a caller suggested it must be awful hard in all that tranquility for him and the Mrs. to compose dally difficulties acted out in the frenetic, nervous hamlet of New York. "No, there's an advantage to it," he said. "We're more out in the world than you are if you're in the world where they make the show. "Very often, we'll say (to the show's, East Coast end), 'Please look out the window and see what the rest of the world is doing.' Sometimes there are little everyday things you don't see or do in New York." And, he said, the community In which he and his wife live "pretty much reflects everyday stories" of the sort going round and round on "As the World Turns," a show they've been lead writers on for three years. The Soderbergs have been writing for 30 years, and married for 28 years, but they only began writing soaps together eight years ago when they started as a team on "Guiding Light." How do they put together their New York shows from California? Soderberg says it works this way: They create what they call "the longterm story," which charts the course of the plots, subplots, stars and lesser players for as much as a year in advance. Then they outline every act in each show, writing a detailed daily outline concerning what the day's plot and characters are up to, occasionally tossing in suggested lines of dialogue. As the show became an hour long opus last December, this works out to seven acts per show, 35 acts a week, 52 weeks a year. Wen the Soderbergs the only writers, this might cause a buzzing in the brainpan. But they have help, two other writing teams and Gillian Spencer, a scrivener who once acted in the very show for which she now writes. They work on the actual shooting scripts of each day's show. They're sent various plot outlines by the Soderbergs and write the scenes and dialogue. Then they send the scripts back to the Soderberg works in Santa Barbara for editing. Then, Soderberg says, each script is dispatched to New York. He expressed amazement at how it all works out there when the shooting starts, "I don't know how they do an hour show each day." But he didn't find it strange that he and his wife write in Santa Barbara for a series taped in New York. He cited several other soap opera writers around the country who also work that way. A check with CBS disclosed there's even one head writer, Bill Bell of Chicago, who doesn't have to get his scripts to New York for taping. Of course, tins may be because his show, "The Young and the Restless." is taped in a place called Hollywood.