Paul Raven

Young marrieds Bob and Lisa with Chris and Nancy in the background

Some FITW publicity shots Jacqueline Brooks Maggie Hayes Lenka Peterson Kathleen McGuire

Norman 'Dack' Rambo as he appeared in Never Too Young

GUIDING LIGHT Cindy Adams Cindy Adams 12/9 & 12/12/1995 Gossip Columnist accompanied Fletcher to charity ball. Lucille __ Wexler Rita Lloyd July 1978- October 80 Nurse Katherine "Kit" Vested Norris Nancy Addison 1970- April 74 dies after shooting herself in struggle with Joe Werner

Well I suppose a cellar would survive a fire. But keeping Jordan imprisoned is another mark against Victor, although by this stage it doesn't matter anymore. Victor could drop a bomb on GC and still go unpunished. Jordan stole a baby and is villified. Victor replaces Jack with a double and the two are working together like old pals. Go figure...

Caught a bit of Traci and wish they wouldn't give her such corny lines. We know Traci has a big heart etc but in the scenes with Jack and then Danny she was just blathering on about how wonderful they are. It comes off as too needy. Beth deserves better than that. And I wish she would ditch the old lady hair do!

Were the cousins established from the outset or just written in ? I would hope the former as Labine/Meyer seemed to have a comprehensive backstory/bible. It's always smart to have some characters available for down the track. I never found Richard Backus particularly appealing. He never got a long lasting role. Maybe a different actor could have made Barry work better?

I know at one point ABC daytime used focus groups a lot to dictate storyline, but I imagine those days are long gone, so I wonder who is pushing that a 60 plus actor has to be a lead. Especially when the character is a criminal. Surely they should be pushing younger actors, as happened in the past, and let the older veterans move into a more supporting role. It seems GH can't move on from what was working 20 years ago.

@DRW50The only actor I recognized was a young Douglass Watson as the Private.

@Khan thanks for that, very interesting!

Nice to have something new on FITW A Pioneer Of Pioneers by William Hyder baltimore Sun Sun 17 Jan 1965 A BALTIMORE-BORN actress is a regular on ABC-TV's new day-time serial "Flame in the Wind." Ironically, the show is not being carried in her home town. But Baltimoreans who can pick up Washington's Channel 7 can see Margaret Hayes weekdays at 2 P.M. in the role of Roxanne Reynolds. Miss Hayes, who is sometimes billed as Maggie Hayes, is the daughter of the late J. L.Ottenheimer. Nominally an insurance broker, Mr. Ottenheimer was a performer at heart. He spent much of his time organizing talent shows and taking them to hospitals, institutions and U.S.O. clubs. In the early days of radio he headed a local show called "Jack Ottenheimer and His Gang," writing the songs and skits himself. Growing up in this atmosphere, his daughter Florette took naturally to the stage. She gave her first performance at School No. 64, Garrison and Maine avenues, and continued acting in school shows at Forest Park High School and the Teachers' College of the Johns Hopkins University. At the Hopkins she was one of the first girls to appear with the Barnstormers, who for years had barred female performers. After a period of modeling in New York, during which she worked in three short-lived Broadway plays, Florette was signed by producer Hal Wallis to a Warner Brothers contract. Under the name of Dana Dale she made her screen debut in 1940 in "The Man Who Talked Too Much," a movie starring George Brent and Virginia Bruce. Her second picture was "The Letter," which starred Bette Davis. More small parts followed at Warners' and later at Paramount, where she was given the professional name she still uses. But the newly-christened Margaret Hayes soon felt the need of more stage experience. Returning East she toured in "Jane Eyre," "Laura" and "The Philadelphia Story," and appeared on Broadway in two George Abbott shows and starred as Jo in a City Center production of "Little Women." In the late Forties Miss Hayes married Herbert Bayard Swope, Jr., a producer-director in the theater and television. TV was mushrooming at the time. Hundreds of live dramas and comedies were being produced in New York. Miss Hayes was soon caught up in the stream. She starred in more than 200 teleplays, including the first drama in the long-running "Circle Theater" series. This is the period everyone calls TV's pioneering days, but as a radio performer Miss Hayes outpioneered the pioneers. She had worked in TV as early as 1939, appearing on an experimental program. In 1955 Miss Hayes returned to Hollywood to appear with Glenn Ford in the movie version of "The Blackboard Jungle." Other films followed. By this time TV production had largely shifted to California, and once more Miss Hayes found herself in the thick of the medium. She acted on most of the big shows. Miss Hayes and Mr. Swope make their permanent home in New York. They have a son, Herbert 3d, age 15, and a daughter, Tracy, age 12. Tracy is named after Miss Hayes's favorite stage role, Tracy Lord in "The Philadelphia Story.".

And Meg (along with Nick Benedict) was the first soap 'name' to be brought onto Y&R.

Nick had the housing project but that was never dealt with . Trouble is in addition to Josh's crappy writing they can't afford to bring in sets and characters that might provide an appropriate story for Nick. Maybe some sort of social issue thing where he helps a struggling family etc He just doesn't work as a NE exec.

That downgrading of guest stars was obviously a budget thing. Were there any MSW episodes that 'broke the mold' eg went against the formula in any way?

Requests Rex Everhart Tony Carlin Mike Hodge James Noah

Steve and Liza were super popular in the mid 70's.

Did Angela's 'face refresh' coincide with the NY move?

And Lewis Arlt. Meg did a great job as Julia (combo of the actress and Bill Bell's writing) She could have come off as a victim/damsel in distress but imbued the character with an inner resolve that allowed us to forgive Victor just as she had. And bringing on Julia's daughter Jamie at some point would have been a nice gesture.

@FrenchFan Your efforts and willingness to share are much appreciated. The 1960's soap era is not well documented and much misinformation has been printed and reprinted, so these scripts are the only way of getting true info. Thinking about Sara, she was GL's first woman doctor-a sign of the times. ATWT had Susan around this time also. TD had lead the way with Maggie and Althea and Days had Laura. Patricia Roe would have been playing Sara at this time- she continued throughout 68 until Millette Alexander too over. I wonder what the circumstances were? Was it a case of Millette wrapping up her EON stint and GL grabbed her and decided to replace Roe? Nowadays we have so much more info on this sort of stuff. The Ferros only lasted about a year. They had to follow Agnes' long run. I wonder if their stories were well received ? Maybe not...

Bonanza NBC /Big Valley ABC Bonanza- Ben Cartwright, a widower, along with his three sons, Joe, Adam and Hoss, faces several difficulties as they run their large ranch while also assisting the neighboring community. Big Valley - Victoria Barkley, a widow, and her family tackle various problems while living on a ranch in California's San Joaquin Valley. Bonanza was #1 when BV came along so why not imitate ?

Exactly! Otherwise The Gates will have awful production values and stories that seemed made up as they go along.

I'd always assumed that killing off Robin was Irna's doing when she came back, but this was all before her return. I guess Gillian Spencer wanted to leave as she never stayed beyond her original contracts - see OLTL and ATWT. Same with AMC but she did return, something she couldn't do at the other shows. So perhaps they decided yet another recast was unwise and they had got 10 years out of the character-she had no relatives and a death would be dramatic, so goodbye Robin. Re Sara and the engagement to Paul, about 10 years later Justin turned up with a similar backstory of a romance with Sara back in the day. She did well on the never mentioned past romance retcons.

@FrenchFan thank you so much for continuing to share these gems. The Paul/Sara engagement from the 50's was a retcon by the Ferro's I think. Pretty sure Paul was established as a loner who never had time for women when he was introduced. That changed when he met Anne.

From the Jan 89 Affilliate meeting In a meeting with representatives of affiliated stations, NBC executives pushed the network's upcoming Generations serial drama and spoke extensively about other programing in 1989. Among the announcements were that the network plans a March test of a daytime talk show starring Rona Barrett, and that it is developing, for a summer debut, a magazine show to be supervised by the news division that would probably include "dramatic re- creations." Additionally, NBC -TV Network President Pier Mapes reviewed the network's continued strong ratings performance, but he balanced his positive appraisal against inroads made by broadcast and cable competitors into the three major networks' share. Mapes also announced what he said would be a first step in improved communications between the network and its affiliates, the videocassette distribution of a speech made by NBC President Bob Wright. Generations, the half -hour daytime drama debuting March 27, was the major subject of programing at the meeting. Mapes, who started the meeting with a warning that competitors to the three major networks "are nibbling away at us," told the affiliates: "We have to have clearances on Generations." Vice president, daytime programs, Brian Frons presented the show, which features black and white "core" families, as a way for the network to gain a bigger black audience in daytime, which he said represents a disproportionately large segment of that daypart's audience. If NBC had "parity" with the other networks in black audience, he said, NBC would win the daytime daypart. If Generations performs well, Frons said, it is possible the show will be expanded from its half -hour length (double fed at noon and 12:30 pm) to one hour. However, he said, NBC has no "foreseeable" plans to recapture the half hour in daytime that affiliates are scheduled to gain when the program premieres. To help launch the show, Frons said, NBC has budgeted $1 million for print promotion. To promote the show at NATPE, the show's creator, Sally Sussman, made an appearance, along with four of the show's stars. Another daytime show appearing in March will be a test run of a half -hour strip featuring Rona Barrett chatting with three guests a day over a morning meal at her home. Scheduled to preempt Sale of the Century for the weeks of March 6 and March 13, the show will be brought back in the third quarter of 1989. if successful, Frons said. In another move to improve NBC's daytime performance, Frons said the company is adding $1 million to the annual casting budget of Santa Barbara. *the show titled 'At Rona's' was a flop and never came back.

Boston Globe Sun 29 March 1981 She's Good at Being Bad Robin Strasser has more fun as a villain on the soaps By Terry Ann Knopf Globe Correspondent Bitches will be bitches, after all. As the notorious Rachel on "Another World." she had countless victims in Bay City.Indeed, the Rachel-Alice-Steven Frame triangle stands as one of the most gripping storylines In soap opera history. Who can forget the time when Rachel used the occasion of Steven and Alice's engagement party to announce that the dashing young man was actually the father of the baby she was carrying? Now, as the notorious millionaire Dorian Lord on "One Life to Live," she has simply taken her show on the road to Llanvlew. When Pat Ashley, a talk-show host (at a TV station owned by guess who?) became involved with the rich and handsome Clint Buchanan. Dorian broke up the relationship by going to bed with Clint. And when Dorian decided she wanted to become the first lady of Pennsylvania, she simply struck a deal with Herb Callison, the candidate for governor. The price was a large wedding In return for a large campaign contribution ! Clearly, Robin Strasser. the 35-year-old actress who was the original Rachel for more than five years and the current Dorian for the last 2 years, has carved out a career largely by playing soap opera villains. (In between Rachel and Dorian, she was Dr. Christina Karras Martin, a mentally ill doctor on "All My Children" a character she disdainfully dismisses as "a wimp, but not a goody-goody.") . In an Interview following an appearance on Ch.5's "Good Day" show recently, Strasser readily acknowledged the similarities In her two best-known characters. "Dorian Is simply Rachel older and richer." she said, expressing sympathy for the devils, "If you told Rachel she was doing something wrong, you would hurt her feelings. I knew that character well. Dorian knows she has problems. She has been In therapy. Yet at the height of her crimes, she's unreachable. She honestly thinks she's doing the right thing." . Strasser gravitates naturally to villains who definitely have more fun. Alter all, villains are the initiators, the catalysts, the focal points for action: The villain robs the poor, elderly woman, forecloses the farm or ties the heroine to the railroad 'tracks."You are never passive as the villain. You never sit around drinking coffee or listening to other people's problems.When ABC asked me about playing Dorian. I told them 'I don't mind being mean or hateful I do mind being boring." But aside from the obvious dramatic advantages of playing a villain, a larger question arises as to whether certain actors by virtue of physical and personal character traits are better suited to this kind of role. To be sure, daytime villains (with some notable exceptions such as Lisa on "As the World Turns" and Irts on Texas) have been on the dark side an outgrowth of our own cultural bias which equates blackness with evil. ""In America, we think of fairer people as good. A few years ago you couldn't do a soap product commercial unless you were a blonde or redhead." said Strasser. adding proudly: "I'm the prototype for dark-haired, dark-eyed villains. I'm something indefinably ethnic." Interestingly enough, there seem to be some distinct similarities between Rachel/Dorian and Robin. "You can't cast against an actor's instrument.-' Strasser herself said. "I will always have this body, this face, this voice. And a certain mindset, a certain background. "All actors are the sum of their parts. And the only thing you an draw upon as an actor is your treasure-chest of memories. If you've lived through a lot. It's possible to have a lot to call upon as a performer. My feelings have always been right there to dig into." Strasser's own real-life story would probably be rejected by a soap opera writer as much too farfetched. Born and raised in New York City. Strasser's parents were divorced when she was a baby. Her mother later was remarried to a black photographer when Robin was only three. But In a bizarre sequence of events, the youngster became a pawn in a protracted custody battle between her own mother and maternal grandmother who disapproved of the marriage filing a court suit on the dubious grounds that the little girl was being deprived of her Jewish heritage. Grandma won the first trial, whereupon Robin was hidden by a community of anarchists In New Jersey. While Strasser's mother ultimately won the case, the couple was subsequently divorced when Robin was 11 years old. "All of my formative years were In a state of upheaval. I'm still putting my childhoood in perspective through therapy." she said. In all likelihood, the anger and conflict from the past, are what give Robin Strasser the necessary edge to play villains so effectively. Returning to the subject of her current character, Strasser complained that Dorian hasn't been on ."One Life to Live" all that much lately. "I just told the producer that since I'm working so little. I'm working up a little strip-tease act. I was only kidding, of course. Just a little guilt trip, you know." she said, breaking Into that diabolical laugh and sounding very much in character..