Paul Raven

I can see Laurence Lau as Dennis. And if they brought in Dennis and Iris earlier, Vicky involved with Dennis and going up against Iris would have been fun. Jamie suffered from the recasts .First Stephen Yates and then Laurence Lau. And making him a doctor was pointless. They should have tried to get Richard Bekins back to provide much needed continuity. Jamie had possible romances with MJ and Nicole to keep him busy.

When Lucille was murdered Doug Marland stated that Lucille was always intended to die. Whether he meant in his projections or that the Dobsons had mentioned this in long term story projection, I'm not sure. But it seems likely. The soaps always liked a murder story from time to time. If that was the Dobsons I wonder who they intended to be the killer? Ben ? Amanda? Eve? Also wonder what plans they had about Amanda's real parentage. As soon as Marland arrived, Jane Marie Stafford(Jennifer) was mentioned.

Ed Prentiss' association with soaps went back to the 30's and his role as Ned Holden The Guiding Light. He had several small roles on Days. I wonder why the change was made to go with MacDonald doing the voiceover?

Roy never landed a hit series (like many others). The closest he got was The Invaders which has a cult following-pretty much like any sci fi series. And of course he was married to Lynn Loring for many years.

The Cane/Dumas story that promised so much (none of it to my liking) has petered out and now it's all about LA Noir. I feel sorry for Billy Flynn stuck with this character/story. Cane created this ridiculous alias for no apparent reason, threatening to somehow take over GC companies then backtracked and was indirectly responsible for two deaths due to his delusions of grandeur.

@Xanthe Thanks for the response. Makes sense. I recall a soap actress (can't remember who) saying they made a considerable amount from a national commercial that ran for a few years.

That's why Roy was so popular as Phil on GH and quickly departed to work in primetime.

Can't identify the actresses. Wasn't it the case that many performers were primarily commercial actors as it was a mini industry in itself and landing some good commercials guaranteed a healthy income? So any other acting jobs they might land was merely extra income rather than their primary goal?

Yes the Steve BFTD story was a bust from Day One. The show had changed so much from 75 that his return didn't have the gravitas it needed as most of the cast would have no idea who he was. Alice had been recast 4 times since Steve's death and all of his siblings were gone. Yet most of the viewers would have been hold outs from that time so it would have been wise to better explain his absence and maybe bring in Willis and some other siblings for a few episodes to tidy up that aspect of the story . What was the motivation for Steve deciding to reveal himself at that particular point? How many soap years were supposed to have past since his presumed death? Was it because Diana's mother had died? Do you think the story would have been better had George Reinholt returned?

All of those shows had well and truly had their day by the time they were axed. CBS just didn't develop a new set of shows. They tried a couple of times to bring in a new comedy to the Sunday lineup eg Gloria and Stockard Channing but they didn't work. By the time The Four Seasons and Maggie Briggs were placed on Sunday the schedule was falling apart. And Trapper John coasted along Sunday @10. CBS never put another show there to try and build a new hit and refresh the lineup. Not even a 6 episode show that could be tested, like the did with Nurse and The Mississippi Fri @10.

Yes MacDonald Carey was a movie star, not up there with Clark Gable or Cary Grant but did appear in some prestigious movies eg Hitchcock's Shadow of A Doubt. He was the first star of that calibre to do daytime, even though his movie star days were long over, so his name would at least draw some publicity.

I disagree. Marland wanted to introduce a new family of have nots. He was clever in having Nola and Bea introduced through the Roger story and not moving them to the front burner straight away. Unlike other shows, that within weeks moved the focus onto the new characters and leaving viewers confused and resentful. Marland had long term plans and slowly changed the focus w/o completely decimating the cast. Roger was already on the way out. He eliminated a few minor Dobson characters like Greg Fairbanks (who may have always intended to be short term) Ann Jeffers, Mark Hamilton and Peter Chapman. I don't think he was very inspired by Holly so she was dropped . As for Elizabeth, did Lezlie Dalton want to leave? If so maybe they didn't want to recast and decided to rest the character for a while. And the decision was made to kill off Lucille. He introduced Morgan and Jennifer, Bea and Nola, Kelly, SORASED Tim, Vanessa and Henry, Derek and Andy.

If Joey is to be this prominent I wish they had cast another actor. As a small time sleaze JL is Ok but someone sexier and more dynamic would work better for me if he's going to be all over the canvas. Ashley was so pathetic begging for Andre 2 minutes after dumping Derek. This is a text book example of a story that might work on the page not translating to the screen. Andre/Ashley are not giving star crossed lovers. A combination of some odd writing, acting choices, lack of chemistry.

'We can't let our meetings get back to Anita'-so we'll catch up at the club most of the family frequents.

Oct 27-Nov 3 Due to the strike, new shows were debuting week by week. There were still repeats and specials scheduled to fill up timeslots. Mon NBC swept the night with Little House #8/Father Damian#18 CBS premiered Flo #28/Ladies Man#25/ MASH #13/WKRP were repeats but Lou Grant was new. ABC That's Incredible #19/NFL Football #19 Tues Presidential Debates aired on all 3 networks 9.30-11 ABC Stuntmen #15/ Three's Company#9 CBS TV Movie Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women NBC Lucy special #19 This got better ratings than the first time it was shown the previous year Wed CBS Bugs Bunny/Raggedy Ann rpts/Jayne Mansfield #6 NBC Real People #15/The Omen #50 ABC Eight is Enough 90 min premiere#12/ Soap 90 min retrospective #25 Thurs CBS White Shadow new episode/Rape &Marriage #11 ABC Halloween Specials/Barney Miller season premiere/It's A Living premiere/ 20/20 NBC Games People Play/Omen 2 Fri CBS Dukes of Hazzaed rpt Dallas double episode rpt #9 ABC Benson season premiere/I'm A Big Girl premiere/Boxing NBC Legend of Sleepy Hollow#48 /Hostages#52 Sat ABC Love Boat 2hr #3/Fantasy Island #13 CBS WKRP season premiere/Tim Conway #49/The Return of Cannon NBC Bob Hope /Smothers Brothers #51 Sun CBS 60 minutes #1/Archie Bunker 1hr premiere #7/Alice season premiere #4/Jeffersons season premiere #5/Body Human #17 NBC Disney 2hr Apple Dumpling Gang rpt/The Gauntlet #2 ABC Amazing Animals/A Star is Born

Yes, those bandages looked ridiculous. Maybe Noah could have a few bandages and just have him in shadowy light. Maybe they saved a few dollars by having an extra play bandaged Noah. They had to pay for the doctor and the nurse. BTW Holden looked good in the stretchy pants. And of course Claire kept her bra on during passionate sex.

AMC Tom and Donna

Yes -they never heard of 'two wrongs don't make a right' Jill as Laurens sister? Katherine as Tucker's mom/Devon's grandma? Ughh! My solution. Bill Foster revealed to Liz he has impregnated another woman. This would be in character. She dies in childbirth and Jill is raised as their own. That would at least make Jill a Foster. Katherine had a daughter. They trace her only to find she became a nun, ironically taking the name Sister Katherine. She devoted her life to good deeds and died years before. Return to status quo.

If we needed a reason to dislike Ashley more... I think the idea is we're supposed to sympathise with this complicated. messy gal. But guess what...it's not working. Please Ashley-stay away from Andre. Take a job out of town to sort yourself out. Derek could decide to head back home and Jan just disappear. That leaves space for some new more interesting characters. I was impressed with Sean Freeman also. Although a few times he mentioned what a tribute it would be to his father to set up a grant/scholarship. Umm, mom needs a shout out also. He went on about how they were a team. The only way to salvage Ted is to have him pretending to befriend Leslie as a way to stop her being a nuisance and give her a false sense of security, before he pulls the rug out from under her. Maybe he's digging into her past to get some dirt.... to ne exposed at Winterfest!! No way is that house ever going to be seen.

During the cult story Paul had sex with another cult member and /or Sumiko the cult leader. So they could have give Paul a son from that and found something else for Nikki to do. Or Dylan could have been Nikki's half brother as it was quite possible Nick Reed would have had another child.

I'm pretty sure that getting paid for playing two characters is standard practice.

Iris arrived in Dec 72 and Steve was killed off in March 75 so they were both around for two years. But Rachel didn't hook up with Mac until late 74 by which time Alice and Steve were married. So maybe Iris had little connection to Steve.

I'll add the Claire rewrite on Y&R. Just to give Hayley Erin a job and introduce a new Newman heroine who of course gets involved with an Abbott. It brought back Cole, only to kill him off. And let's not forget Nikki and Paul's son Dylan whose conception made no sense and who has now been forgotten.

Trying to get my head around the LA Noir story. So Noah is in LA meeting with Mitch/Matt. Was that at Mitch's request or coincidence #1? The same club that Holden used to work at? Coincidence #2. Holden has a past with Audra in LA and they both happened to meet up again in GC. Coincidence #3. Audra has a past with Noah also. Coincidence #4. Audra hooks up with Tucker who has connections to GC. Coincidence #5. I don't mind HE as Claire and Holden is hot. However the fact she was on before is annoying as is the Claire storyitself. She should have been the daughter of Matt Miller. Matt dies and Claire/Jordan come out of the woodwork to make a claim. Kinda like Leslie on BTG. It would still be new blood for the Newmans w/o the convoluted back story. Cole could have still come back for Victoria and maybe Reed could return to give Victoria some parenting role.

Good episode, lot's of stuff happening w/o any major shockers. I quite enjoy Pamela-no problem with the accent or attitude. Dani and Bill are gold. Timon is my favorite actor/character. He brings a little JR Ewing/Jack Abbott #1 to the table. And I like Randy's kinda bumbling bad guy shtick. Meeting at the casino was dumb. Surely they could set up a brick wall a bench and some plants and pretend it's a park. Or meet in a car? As for that new set-is it at the hospital? There's a directory on the wall. If so, why are Chelsea and Naomi meeting there? It looks pretty basic to me. Sorry, but I thought Anastasia was overplaying the bitchy snob persona. Thought Diego might get a little more airtime. It's been months since we've seen him.