Paul Raven

Robert Parucha - another miscast. As Victor's brother he should have been a major player and it seemed like that was the intent - an Ashley/Matt/Nikki/Victor quad fermenting. But Matt was so bland that nothing solid ever eventuated and then he was dropped and forgotten. He should have been rested then recast.

Chicago Tribune June 20 1971 The first thing you notice about Jane House, who plays the stripper wife of Lenny Bruce in the Broadway play "Lenny," is that she is wearing only pasties and a G-string. Then, if you are familiar with television soap operas, the second thing you think is "My God, that's Liz Stewart up there!" Liz Stewart, the sweet English girl who invaded the small community of Oakdale two and a half years ago, got pregnant by one young man, married his brother, and just recently h a d a miscarriage, a nervous breakdown, and then, two days, after opening in "Lenny,'' lost her steady, lucrative television job. That's As the World Turns, folks. Jane, who got good reviews for "Lenny," probably won't go hungry because the producers of As the World Turns decided to end her contract. The official explanation, Jane says, was that they were having a story conference and wanted to let the character of Liz go for a while. That's all she knows. "Maybe they had some misgivings," she said in her dressing room recently. "What this play says is very different from what a soap opera says." As a matter of fact, "Lenny" and his bring-it-all-out-in-the-open attitude is light years away from As the World Turns. And there is Jane's image to consider. With her long, strawberry blonde hair, blue-gray eyes, and country girl freckles, she , epitomized sweetness, motherhood even if it was her brother in law's baby she suffered from pangs of guilt constantly and gentility. Rusty, the character she portrays in "Lenny," is not like that. Her language is almost as uninhibited as Lenny's, she takes drugs, and she is far from virginal. And even; though a stripper should be wearing a G-string and pasties, what would the fans of Liz Stewart think? Once, when Jane was being considered for a role in "Coming Apart," she told a fan magazine that she would appear in the nude in the film., "I got some very negative letters. ' People out there respond very negatively to nudity. I don't know what they do at night." No matter what they do at night; they won't be watching Jane in the afternoons any more. Liz was taken away to an institution in another city, according' to the story line. Jane has mixed feelings about leaving the soap. The money was, she admits, "fantastic," and she may have to give up her apartment because the difference in salary is enormous. But she loves the role of Rusty and says, "The play has really gotten to me. I love it." But things seem to get to 25-year-old Jane very easily. "I got too much into Liz," she says; "I was really close to her for awhile. .There were a lot of things about her that I understand, - like her guilt. And I also have felt her kind of craziness. But I didn't associate well 'to her house-wifeliness. I'm not really a homebody." But she disapproved of some of the things Liz did. For instance, Liz and Paul Stewart lived, together for three months without going to bed together. Paul was very accepting instead of having a talk with his wife about it. "I guess people do things like that but I don't want that to be real for myself." There's a lot of unreality in soap operas, Jane thinks. "They're so restricted in what they can suggest because they're afraid of shocking people. Everything's glossed over." Nothing is glossed over in "Lenny." And the hardest scene for Jane is a very intimate love-making scene between Jane and Cliff Gorman, who plays Lenny Bruce. First of all, it's because of what she's wearing. "Sometimes I've felt a lot of terror being nude up there." Then, in the middle of the scene, Gorman talks to the audience, leaving Jane just lying there. "I feel very rejected then," she says. 'But "it's the kind of role I've been working towards." Jane majored in speech and drama at Stanford University. She worked a short time in off-off-Broadway plays before landing her As the World Turns job. She got that because Irna Phillips, creator of the soap, wanted an English girl on the show, Jane says. Jane has lived in this country since 1956. Her father is a member of the British Foreign Service. Jane's parents met in New York, were married in Mexico, and Jane was born in Panama. When she was 2, the family moved to Bulgaria, then to Africa and, Switzerland. For a time Jane studied in a convent in Switzerland and wanted to be a nun. Now she wants to be in the movies. I can't resist - that's how the world turns.. In the movie version of Lenny, Valerie Perrine played the role of Honey. Years later she was on ATWT as Dolores Snyder. with Marco St John as Paul

@OpportunisticSlut that's as good (or better) than anything Brad has been serving up.

It happened over and over on just about every show. Rather than look back to the original concept and rebuild from there, each new team introduce new characters and families which then are mostly dropped by the next team and the shows become a disjointed patchwork representing various regimes.

On paper the De Priest/Whitesell team had an opportunity to settle the show but the execution fell short and initial plans were derailed. Rather than bringing in a load of new characters and families, they planned to focus on The Loves, Corys and McKinnons and the interactions b/w the established Corys, the Loves with many skeletons in their past and the working class McKinnons. That seemed sound. Mitch Blake was to return to shake up Rachel/Mac and Cecile was back to cause trouble for Cass/Kathleen. The McKinnons/Loves would be shaken by the return of Mary & Reginald. But things went awry. Reg never came off as an effective villain, the new Nicole and new Vicky were quickly dropped. Peter turned into a villain and Anna Stuart left. Philece Sampler was miscast. Vince had to be recast, MJ was recast, Ben never returned,Cheryl was bland and then dropped. Cass and Kathleen left as did Jake and Marley. Nancy left, Jamie was poorly recast with Larry Lau And so on... Harding Lemay was the best bet with the return of Iris, the Frames etc but he quicklyleft and Donna Swajeski didn't have the skills to really deliver. So Lemay gets my vote based on what he achieved in a short time.

But that was pretty much what all soaps were doing by that stage. Otherwise Texas was strictly studio bound. Back to The Doctors expanding, despite all the changes in writers the show still had a solid base of core characters. But the show always seemed to have a limited budget which I guess was down to colgate Palmolive as owners of the show. maybe they were resistant to going to 60 min because of the extra cost? And studio space seemed to be an issue as they would need double the space for extra sets etc .NY studios were limited and expensive so maybe they couldn't come to a resolution on a number of points. Imagine a Ihr Doctors with an expanded cast, bigger hospital set a la GH and ablend of hospital drama and family/romance. With a new young female doctor taking center stage(not dominating) Maybe Maggie's niece from her sister Nora? So many possibilities.

ATWT Chuckie Shea Paul Stewart Y&R Diane Jenkins Ricky Williams

Y&R Phillip Chancellor Diane Jenkins

Tragic deaths are a part of soaps, but in the last decades that plot twist has lost its potency through way too many characters being killed off for short term dramatic effect and often to accommodate a popular actor departing. Hence the regular back from the dead trope used to undo previous mistakes. Who are some characters that you feel didn't need to die? Y&R Colleen Carlton obviously. All that came out of it was the loss of a next generation core character and the horrible Victor heart transplant story that isn't even mentioned these days. Dina- Marla Adams could still bring it and she could have taken Katherine's role as a kick ass older town matriarch. Cameron-if they only had Linden for a short time, why not have him escape, cause havoc and maybe disappear, thus leaving the door open for another return. Hilary-she could have easily left town and returned when Mishael came back, rather than the dull and covoluted Amanda story. Over to you guys..

Sistine ! Maybe the surname is Chapel.

Going into 87 AW had lost many characters from the canvas the previous year including Cass, Kathleen, Jake, Marley,Larry, Clarice, Zane, Sally etc with Catlin and Brittany soon to go. Hardly the time to start killing off more characters. And the killer wasn't really anybody we knew or cared much about. They should have put more effort into the core stories if they wanted viewers to be involved.

We have seen the departure of We Love and Learn, David Harum and Nona from Nowhere. David and Nona were sponsored by Bab O cleanser and the sponsor simply decided to discontinue producing those shows so they were gone. David Harum had been on air for 15 or so years.

Unfortunately for NBC that shake up didn't flow through the lineup as ABC had done previously.

ABC piloted a spinoff based around David flying the coup and becoming a photographer travelling the country. Did any of that come up in the series?

I didn't realize there was a second pilot. I thought Days was picked up on the strength of the first pilot with the decision made to recast Alice for the series. Was the pilot(S) just the first episode script or a completely different script?

Looking at some of the monthly numbers I'm wondering if a few other 'contract' players may be recurring.

Precisely. So Y&R makes no official 'demoted to recurring' announcement and for whatever reason Britni keeps quiet also.

Ken's legacy seems as much a burden to him as a privilege. He has never seemed to have much insight or passion for the show beyond it being a generational thing that he feels responsible for. In a way he acknowledges his limitations by handing over the day to day running of the show to those he feels have more expertise, but this is often misguided. He then belatedly tries to make changes but the whole thing seems patchwork. See 'The Plan to Save Days' Compared to his mother who had a very clear notion of what she wanted the show to be and worked closely with writers and producers. You don't really get the sense that Ken has a clear vision and is more likely to glom onto whatever current producer or headwriter wants to do.

Re David Strathairn THE DOCTORS Dennis the grave robber June - Aug 82

Thanks @JAS0N47 Didn't know about that feature. Burt Metcalfe talks about the Days pilot and casting of Frances Reid, but wasn't Mary Jackson cast as Alice originally and taped the pilot, then replaced by Frances for the series? Maybe Burt Metcalfe just forgot that detail. But trivial as it might be, its how misinformation is spread. That's why the need interviewers with a lot of knowledge.

Like so many headwriters new to a show, Hogan's intial 6-12 months at ATWT brought a lot of improvements and positive reaction when he replaced Leah Laiman. But as time wore on things went south.

Is she still listed in the contract cast? If so,most likely like others before, she has been moved to recurring but is still listed as contract for some reason.

Re Braeden. The role of Victor should be scaled back if he can no longer remember lines. It must be difficult for him to no longer be on top of his game but that is the reality.

Texas didn't live up to the hype. The comparisons with Dallas were a handicap. No 5 day a week serial could compete with a once a week primetime show, especially one that was a cultural phenomenon. I don't recall location filming extending beyond the initial weeks. Despite what Rauch was claiming the lighting was harsh and unflattering. Seriously, claiming to revolutionize daytime TV is setting you up for ridicule and failure. I don't know why NBC took on another P&G show. Better off developing something they could have greater control over. And expecting Paul Rauch to oversee 2 shows, when one of them was already in the doldrums. It would have been better all round to expand The Doctors, following the template ABC had used for GH.

Fran Myers grew up on soaps so should know the genre inside out. So if she is messing up what hope is there? As for new writers , do they love soaps or are just cheap hires greatful for a gig? Also, if they are like some of the posters here, their knowledge and understanding of the genre starts and stops with 90's soaps. Or maybe the vintage 80's stuff if they want to go waaaay back.