Paul Raven

The Desert Trail Twentynine Palms. California Dec 9. 1993 Big Doings in Brooklyn by Connie Passalacqua. The soap world is abuzz with the dismissal after five years of Another World executive producer Michael Laibson. With considerable grit and tenacity Laibson kept AW alive during a time when the low-rated soap was rocked by drastic changes that NBC made in its afternoon serial line-up- specifically the cancellations of Generations and Santa Barbara. The show survived its own cancellation scare last spring when NBC decided at the very last moment to renew the show for three years. Apparently part of that deal is rumored to have been the replacement of Laibson, a long-time Procter and Gamble employee (AW is owned by the soap company) with someone more closely affiliated with NBC. AW’s new producer is Terry Guarneri. Guarneri was once a producer of The Cosby Show which incidentally was taped at the same Brooklyn studio as AW. Most recently she was the vice president of daytime east coast at ABC. Laibson, who was said to be quite surprised by his dismissal accomplished a great deal at AW. To remain for five years at a faltering soap in an executive producer's position is a miracle in a network environment that encourages personnel changes at every turn. When Laibson arrived at the soap it was in a shambles. In the 6Os and 70s, AW was daytime’s classiest and most sophisticated show (and also in the 70s top-rated). Under the long reign of Paul Rauch and several subsequent producers the show had degenerated into a soap that was both boring and cliche. Under Laibson (and head writers Donna Swajeski and Peggy Sloane) the women characters on the show became particularly strong. The high level of acting on the show was maintained by relying both on the talents of long-term cast members Victoria Wyndham (Rachel) Linda Dano (Felicia) and Stephen Schnetzer (Cass) and by developing such dynamic young actors as Alicia Coppola (Lorna) and Alla Korot (Jenna). If not a ratings favorite then the show under Laibson certainly distinguished itself critically. What will happen to AW (founded 1964) one of the greatest of the old warhorses of daytime? Stay tuned. I think a 5 year run was a enough for Laibson. He didn't manage to jolt the ratings or create any real hype for the show.

Does RH set the record for having the most recasts of original characters in the shortest amount of time? B/W 75-80 there were 2 Delias 3 Franks 4 Marys 3 Pats 4 Faiths That's not counting the later multiple recasts of Siobhan.

LANE DAVIES THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS Julia Newman's Doctor 1981

I'm referring to those pairings that come about because there are 2 characters on the canvas w/o love interests so the writers decide to pair them to fill guarantees and give them some airtime and stories. Sometimes it's shortlived, others hang around on the backblocks and sometimes things work out and they become fully fledged couples. I saw that GH put Robert and Diane together and that pairing didn't seem to go down well. Y&R had Cane on contract and Lily was gone so we had a Cane/Traci story for a while. What other examples past and present can we discuss?

To think , at one point, the Horton house set was going to be dropped. As for a reunion, in terms of the core they could have Julie, Steve, Marie, Jennifer, Mike, Sandy, Hope, Jessica...

SEARCH FOR TOMORROW Alan Ron Leibman 1967 Alan Smith ????? June/July 1967 Kid porter; drug addict; creeped out Angie; stabbed Sam Reynolds with a screwdriver; robbed the hospital pharmacy, stole morphine; held Patti hostage @slick jones I believe they are same character. Dr. Brad Campbell George Kane 1962- May 65 engaged to Patti but she got involved with Everett Moore. After that he let Patti know he was still available but she turned her attention to Len. Laurie 'Millie'_____ Miller Freida Altman April 1965-66 Sam Reynolds long time housekeeper who relocated from NY to Henderson. Susan Carter Sharon Smyth May - ? 1965 6 yr old who Allison Metcalf met whilst volunteering at a day care center. Fred and Allison cared for her from time to time. Helen Carter ??? Susan's mother. Single mother who worked as Bob Rogers secretary. Dr. Nick Hunter Emily's husband Burr De Benning 1965-66 Dr. Nick Hunter Emily's husband Burr De Benning June 1965-66

Thanks. Of course, now I look so obvious. With a cloth roof that is so easy to tear to gain access. Hope Zach has learned a lesson.

Not sure if that is an Aston Martin or a Bentley? Here's a tip-don't leave thousands of $$$ of belongings in your car.

In the case of SB taking a year to solve the mystery is counter productive. I'm talking about something that is resolved or revealed in the first week and move on with the ramifications from there. As for Texas, it moved at a snail's pace so viewers were asleep by the time anything happened. Citing those shows, another tip for MVJ is not to crowd the canvas with too many stories and characters at first , try delaying the debut of some characters till a few weeks in. If they allow extra time to tape the first few weeks a smaller cast could cope with the extra workload.

How about opening with a major event- eg a shooting, a wedding where bride/groom says I don't, a reveal eg So and and so is an imposter! etc and then flashing back to 1 week before and we start the show from there so viewers are hooked from the start and know where the story is going and know by Friday what to expect.

GUIDING LIGHT Mark McEwen Mark McEwen reorter on CBS This Morning May 1994 Host of 'Soulmates' which Buzz and Nadine competed. Extra at San Rios Airport 1984

@DRW50 always interesting to see backstage stuff. Farley Granger from his memoir 'Include Me Out' talks about getting into daytime on OLTL. I began accepting guest-starring roles on episodic TV again. There were a lot more opportunities, but if anything, the quality of the material and the lack of time for preparation had gotten worse. I was not happy. My agent knew how I felt and called to say that I had been offered a lot of money to do a soap opera in New York. He said that many respectable New York theater actors worked in soaps in order to make enough money to live decently in New York and to be available to work in the theater whenever the right part came along. I said that I needed time to think about it and accepted an offer from the Seattle Repertory Theatre to play one of the leads in Noél Coward’s Private Lives. The production was a smash hit with both the public and the critics, and I had the time of my life playing Elyot. When it closed, I returned to Hollywood and episodic television, which seemed even more banal after Noél Coward. When my agent said that the soap, One Life to Live, in New York was still interested in me and had upped the money, I returned to New York. Bob stayed in California. I thought I disliked episodic TV, but the soap was worse. Soap acting requires certain skills that I have never been able to develop: the ability to be a very fast study, the ability to concentrate in the middle of complete chaos, the ability to learn material that is the same but slightly different each day, and always, the need for instant acting with little or no rehearsal or preparation time. I have nothing but admiration for the many fine actors who have mastered these skills. For young actors it is an invaluable technique to acquire for a limited period of time. I couldn’t master any of these necessary abilities. It took me many painful years and two additional tries to realize this. At the time I thought, maybe my mind is going. Maybe my ability to memorize lines has deserted me. I was able to memorize three plays simultaneously for repertory and couldn’t remember three scenes for a soap. Maybe I had earlyonset Alzheimer’s. I went to doctors, to hypnotists, to acupuncturists, to people who supposedly knew how to teach acting technique for soaps. Nothing worked. I developed a spastic colon. My gut had always spoken for me when I was unhappy and felt unable to do anything about it. I had memories of it speaking out in meetings with Mr. Goldwyn, or at formal dinner parties in my young movie star days, but this was getting more serious. I was in danger of perforating my intestine. One day, in an effort to stop the mental and physical pain, I just walked off the set, went to my dressing room, got my things, and left the studio. I didn’t go back. I didn’t answer my phone for days. I just slept. When I started to feel a little better, I went to see Jay Julien. Jay handled everything. My colon stopped complaining, and I began to feel whole again.

From his memoir' Include Me Out', Farley Granger discusses his stint on ATWT Dating this time, Bob had progressed from director and line producer on two NBC daytime shows to executive producer at CBS on his fourth soap, As the World Turns. It took him nine grueling months, but he finally met the head writer with whom he could transform the eighth-ranked show into a winner. Within six months, he and Doug Marland had moved the show into first place, and it went on to win a Best Show Emmy Award for the first time in its thirtyfive- year history. Against Bob's instincts and, even though I was tempted to take on the challenge of mastering a technique which had up to this time eluded me, against mine, Doug persuaded him to persuade me into signing me for the show. Immediately after signing a three-year contract with mutual out clauses for As the World Turns, Eileen Fulton, whose singing still continues to charm supper club patrons in Manhattan, has played Lisa, the resident vixen on As the World Turns, since shortly after the show went on the air. She was chosen to be my love interest on the show. Eileen was helpful, caring, a consummate professional, and in general a delight to work with. Lisa also happened to own the one restaurant/club in Oakdale, the fictitious Midwestern city somewhere near Chicago in which the show took place. Doug Marland was a master at writing scenes at this restaurant/ club, the Mona Lisa, where a large number of the show's leading characters supped, drank, plotted, and crossed paths. In this way, he was able to spread information quickly, and dramatically illustrate tts effect on the various people involved. The technique worked wonderfully, but these scenes were the most difficult and time-consuming to stage, rehearse, and tape. Whenever the cast saw a heavy day scheduled in the Mona Lisa, we knew that we would be lucky to finish before midnight. On my first day of work, I had an early-morning call for some of the intimate scenes that introduced my character to Oakdale as well as an afternoon call to play a number of see-and-be-seen scenes at the Mona Lisa. The morning scenes were finished by around 11:00 a.m. I went back to my dressing room,where I sat until my next call at ten-thirty that evening. It was complete chaos in the studio, and everyone was tired. I could not remember one word. I tried, oh, Lord, I tried. I had a recliner put in my dressing room, kept to myself, and studied my ass off. By the time I was called to the set, I always knew my lines perfectly. The moment I hit the studio, even for the simplest of scenes, the normal noise and chaos of daytime television—sets being changed, last-minute lighting adjustments, the cameras and boom microphone platforms working out traffic problems—blew my concentration. I would tense up and the words would desert me. There were not enough hours in most days to allow the actors a quiet run through or two on the set. Whenever we were able to have one, I could remember lines and come up with a performance. But those opportunities were extremely rare. More often than not, the dress would be taped in hopes of getting something good enough. The producers, the directors, the technical staff, and almost all of the other actors could not have been more supportive and encouraging,but it wasn’t enough. I still couldn't master the technique of tuning out the surroundings. I knew it and everyone else did, too. I was miserable. By this time in my life, I knew I was a good actor, but that knowledge also made it possible for me know how bad I was in this particular situation, I kept trying for over a year, partially out of loyalty, partially out of stubbornness, but my health began to suffer. I tried new diets, meditation, acupuncture, hypnosis, and whatever else anyone recommended. Nothing helped. Things did not improve. After a few more months, old reliable, my colon, started to act up for the second time since my battle to get out of my contract with Sam Goldwyn. I was diagnosed with spastic colitis brought on by stress. I asked what I could do about it because it was obviously the soap and I had eighteen months left on my contract. My doctor's answer was, “You have no time left. A perforated colon is an extremely serious problem. It is also one you will be facing soon, if you do not stop what is causing your colitis.” I went to Bob the next day. He said that he knew how unhappy I had been, but had no idea that it was making me sick.. He called Doug immediately, and they discussed replacing me with another actor or writing me out of the show in a way that would be dramatic and serve the plot. Within two days, Doug Marland had figured out how to write me out of the show, but he needed a month. He agreed to keep my performance schedule as light as he could without damaging the story line. As soon as I heard that, |started to shed some of the tension that was making me ill. After several days, people at the studio started complimenting me on how well the scenes were going. Bob called me into his office and said, “Do you have any idea of how much better you've gotten since we agreed to release you from your contract?” I said that I hadn't, but I did acknowledge that the scenes seemed to be getting a little easier to do. At that point he said, “Maybe you won't have to leave the show.’ As I quickly turned to leave his office, he yelled after me, “Just kidding.” Anyone watching at the time- Did Farley fumble his lines? I think he came back for brief appearances after his departure?

On Search for Tomorrow Margaret Draper was a temp for Mary Stuart in 1952

AA was a buddy of Ken's , so keeping his wife on the show might be a gesture from Ken to lessen the financial strain the couple may face, and show his support to a friend. As stated, we'll see over time if she stays around.

Jane had already done a soap in the 60's. And it took Jane 2 years to land a soap role ,so her agent was a little slow to follow Jane's request. In the meantime Jane landed a primetime series Rosetti and Ryan.

@j swiftThis from a Wes Eure interview WE: It was but I immediately got cast in TWO series. I got Land of the Lost and Days of Our Lives. TT: Simultaneously? WE: Pretty close. It happened very quickly. TT: That’s amazing for a young actor, isn’t it? WE: Yeah. I was real lucky. I got Days of Our Lives first and then David Merrick (the big Broadway producer) flew me to New York. They were doing Candide and he wanted me to go and star in that. They flew me in to see the production that they just opened and while I was there, the phone rang and I was offered the part of Will Marshall on Land of the Lost. They said I had to “play sixteen” and I was like nineteen or twenty. I turned them down at first and they kept calling and I finally said. “Okay, I’ll do it.” That’s how that happened. NBC let me shoot both series. TT: How did you manage that? WE: Days of Our Lives made sure that all my scenes were filmed in the morning for three years. And then I would race over to General Services Studio in Hollywood - and run from dinosaurs! In the morning, I was crying that my girlfriend was cheating on me…and in the afternoon, I was running from dinosaurs. It was a lot of fun. I had a great time. Deidre debuted on Days June 21 1976 and EW debuted Sept 76, so I would imagine that she might have been working on both shows simultaneously for a short time, although EW might have been filmed on a very quick basis due to budget and she may have wrapped the 16 eps before taking on Days. Electra Woman was announced late March 76 so may well have gone straight into production and been done filming by June. I'm sure other posters might have more info.

Lesley didn't learn about Laura till Sept 75 and I don't think we saw Laura until early 76.

I'd ditch Nina. I was reading over her Soap Central profile and her backstory is a convoluted mess. Ditching her would eradicate a lot of tangled history. She doesn't have any relatives on the canvas ,right? Looks like the role was created because they nabbed Stafford and she's long gone.

All of the goings on at GH makes me hope The Gates doesn't fall foul of conflicting agendas/visions and what not. Let's hope CBS has realistic expectations of what the show can accomplish initially. And the budget is there for it. Let's not kid ourselves that the ratings will be great iniyially. Launching a new network soap after decades is not easy. MVJ needs to come up with a viable long term story and the casting and production has to be on point. Having said that, until the show is onscreen and rolling TPTB won't be able to really assess what is working and what changes need to be made. That is part and parcel of a new show and there may have to be recasts or some tweaks to the stories. Ideally the budget would allow them to ease into it-something along the lines of 2 weeks to tape the first week of shows, 3 weeks to do the next 2 weeks before going to the regular schedule. I'd hate to see massive overhauls the minute the show is perceived to be underperforming.

Interrupting this 80's edge discussion to go further back to Slesar's beginnings at the show. Millette was a popular 60's soap star. She returned to ATWT after her initial run, the went to EON for 2 gigs before GL snapped her up for her long run as Sara. The Record Hackensack New Jersey 16 May 1968 Edge Of Night' Star Shines All Day By JAY RAE OFFEN Staff Writer PIERMONT - - Soap opera queen Millette Alexander makes housewives feel better when she plays Julie Jamison on TV's "Edge of Night." No matter what a woman's problems, she can tell herself, "At least my life's not as bad as Julie Jamison's. No one's blackmailing me. I'm not a murderess. I'm not going to jail." Julie Jamison's soap bubble troubles runneth over on screen. Offscreen, the most striking quality of the actress who portrays her is her happiness. That's the way it is with the real life of Millette Alexander. With a husband she calls the doll of the world, four children, a 19-room house, a job she loves and the world's most adoring audience, her woes won't match Julie's. But Millette would never call her life placid. "With four children of our own and five children who belong to the couple who live with us and work for us? Then there are seven dogs, and four cats, one pregnant. It's not placid but there aren't any murders." In contrast, TV Julie's life is nothing but toil and trouble. Divorced from a guitarplaying no-goodnik, she comes to "Edge of Night" as the new nightclub singer at the Riverboat, a gambling den. Good-guy Orrin Hillyer sees her and falls in instant love because she looks just like his dead wife. Former husband shows up to make trouble. Julie passes out from one drink (she's allergic to alcohol). While she's unconscious, former husband is killed in a fight. When she wakes up, real killer persuades Julie she did it, then blackmails her. Orrin lends her money, marries her secretly, and the plot thickens. Back In Script That's one plot. There are at least four more that make up TV's cops and robbers soap, "The Edge of Night." Only the daily watcher can keep track of all the problems. Even the writers get confused sometimes and add things that can't happen yet. But the most amazing thing that's ever happened I during this soap opera's 13 years is an act of reincarnation that wrote Millette back into the script after killing her off. Audiences liked her so well as Laura Hillyer, first wife of Orrin, that she's been revived as Julie, Orrin's second wife. Millette first became Orrin's wife, Laura Hillyer, two years ago. Laura had troubles too. She was a faithless wife who chased a disc jockey who loved her money but not her. So she killed him, then died, herself, in a car crash. The TV ratings hit an all time high. Nine months later, Millette was back in town as Julie with a Southern accent and long yaller hair. The dialogue ran, "Have you seen that new nightclub singer? She's a dead ringer for Laura Hillyer." Indeed. Trying on a new, ash blonde wig for the secret wedding last week, (Julie tones down her yaller hair for love), actress Millette said she was not bride-nervous. She'd done it all before. At Laura's wedding. Millette received pot holders and hankies from believing fans. Anticipating more wedding gifts for Julie, she said. "It's weird in a kind of wonderful way." The world's most devoted audience, soap opera fans are all kinds of people. Tallulah Bankhead watches. So do teenagers and retired men. They love soap operas. So do the actors, who adopt each other as family and sometimes act together for years. For Millette, her working life in "Edge of Night" is strenuous. She commutes from her Piermont home to a CBS studio two, three or four days a week, depending on the script. She's in her dressing room by 8 a.m.,rehearses all morning, dons makeup and costume, does the show from 3:30 to 4. then has a pre-rehearsal from 4 to 5:30 if she's acting next day. Evenings, she memorizes 20 or 30 pages of dialogue. An actor with a poor memory doesn't do soaps. It's gruelling, but actors love it. Millette has never really had a vacation from her career since she graduated from drama school at Northerwestern University. She admits her four children slowed her down a bit. But she did head and shoulders TV commercials and radio commercials throughout each of her pregnancies. Time Out For Baby The day that Will, her third child, was born, she taped a radio commerical. "I kept teasing them to hurry up, that I was in labor. When we finished the taping, I said, 'Now can I go home and have my baby?' and I did!" As with any woman, all days are not all smiles. Millette copes by crying, woman's first right. And she relies heavily on husband James Hammerstein. "When I'm most upset, that's when he's most calm," she says. Hammerstein is director of off-Broadway's "The Indian Wants the Bronx." Because he understands that the show must go on, he understood why Millette went on with a temperature of 105 recently. The last stronghold of live acting, soap opera doesn't allow for sickness. "They were wonderful to' me though," Millette says. "They got a doctor and set up a cot next to the set so I could rest. Millette Alexander is a pretty woman with a girl-next-door look. What keeps her from being the girl next door is her whole life style and a high energy level.To relax, she gardens and translates modern paintings into needlepoint canvases. "I woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning one night and thought, 'Wow, wouldn't Picasso look great in petit point?' What girl next door would do a thing like that?.

Watching the Jill/Devon/Lily scenes (as awful as the story is) and Jess was bringing it -from a computer screen, no less and CK was giving a sense of her feelings with little dialogue. Meanwhile Bryton was blandly reciting lines sounding like a whiny kid. Dullvon drags down any scene he is in.

I think he had a bit of a thing for Don... and Don was playing along with that 'I'll sit on your lap' reference.

Disappointed if Chance/Connor has been demoted. The whole Abby/Devon/Chance story had so many beats to play but instead Chance just walked away with little angst and Devon/Abby got together and now have zilch story. Has Josh written one decent story in all these years?

I did some thinking about the blonde stud and I hope I have the Luck of the Irish...