Paul Raven

Fabulous! Why do I get the feeling that everytime Mitchell Dru appeared I'd be switching over to General Hospital? Who is the dark haired woman in close up and the blonde talking to Jim Matthews?

Just over a year ago Victoria married Ashland. 12 months later he's dead and buried and forgotten. Apart from saddling Kyle with a kid, are there any ramifications from that character and storyline?

Variety Nov 64 reported that the show would shut down production for a week. 40 episodes had been filmed at that point. Reasons cited were a chance for cast and crew to have a break and for adjustments to be made now that the show had aired and public feedback was showing which characters had ignited interest. Producer William self said scripts would be fine tuned to accentuate characters that viewers had taken an interest in.

Bill Bell wrote him back into Days the next year. Bill made the choice to drop Robert but I guess he assumed that Conboy would alert him in plenty of time and give him a decent send off. He was the first of the original cast to go so up till that point they had all been working together for over a year.

Variety Nov 18 64 lists MOT cast and includes renowned actor Raymond Massey. However he seems to be still involved with the Dr Kildare TV series at that point. So some confusion there.

I think the criticism of the depiction of mental illness is being viewed through a modern lens. Back then things played fast and loose in that regard. They were just plot points and were acceptable at the time in movies/TV.

What was the status of Liz/Neil at the time of the time of her departure ? Was it a case of them hoping they could make along distance relationship work but then that didn't happen? Or was the writing pretty much on the wall when Liz left Salem? Interesting that they didn't just write Neil and Liz off.

I'd go for SFT 35th Sept 1986. ATWT celebrated 30 years by bringing back former cast members and showed clips in closing credits April 1986.

Missy had already been set up as an orphan by Irna . She loved adoption stories, right back to Guiding Light on radio. I wonder if she had a character in mind as Missy's mother and Agnes followed up or Katherine was completely Agnes' creation? Looks like Ann Sheridan signed on for 6 months, so they killed off the character. Would it have been better to keep Katherine around?

I think when Pat Falken smith arrived, the vet characters got more to do-she brought back Robert and had plans for Bill to return but that lasted only a few months, I guess Jed signed a new contract in 82, maybe believing that Don would be more active. Joe Gallison/Neil was the only vet to survive those purges, apart from Mickey, Tom and Alice. As soon as contract time came up they were offered recurring or reduced appearances. But later Doug, Robert, Julie etc came back . Joe lucked out by his character being a doctor and the popular pairing with Liz. Once Gloria left in 86, Neil was the only older character around and managed to last several more years. Maybe if Jed had stayed Don might have got more story eg a revival of the Don/Maggie story

AMC did a primetime Sunday night special hosted by Carol Burnett and a week long tribute with many past castmembers returning to Pine Valley.

Great that he's still working but disappointing about the lack of credit.

I don't think much was made of anniversaries until the 80's. 20th/25th anniversaries of ATWT, GL, SFT, EON etc seemed to pass by unnoticed. I think Days 25th was the first to be acknowledged during Cruise of Deception storyline? Search for Tomorrow did a 35th with Jo and Stu reminiscing and old clips but it was cancelled soon after.

Hopefully Daniel's return will balance out Phyllis a bit. Interesting what they will say about Lucy - probably off 'at school'. Given their track record with SORASED teens it's probably better she stay away.

Thanks to Titus Andronicus for alerting me to this. Oakland Tribune July 29 1980 Soap opera star Jed Allan all lathered up about meanie role By Doris G Worsham Tribune Staff Writer Soap opera star Jed Allan was seething. I've just about had it, declared Allan, who portrays attorney Don Craig on NBC's hour-long daytime serial Days of Our Lives. Allan ran his long fingers through the short tufts of his curly, jet-black hair and breathed a painful sigh. They've taken my character and decimated it, he said somberly in a recent interview. Allan was referring to the new Days storyline that has, in recent months, transformed his likeable and kindhearted character into a spiteful and bitter man who blames his wife for the crib death of their son. 'The way it is now, they've got me playing a flunky to a bunch of characters called the Chandlers, but Don was never a flunky!' Allan exclaimed. Don was always a charming man with joie de vivre.' I am very unhappy about the situation and I just gave them somewhat of an ultimatum. I told them if they don't change the script. I'm leaving the show. That's just how strong I feel about the situation,' said Allan. Allan has developed and refined the character of Don Craig over the past seven years. 'Don came on the show for only four performances as a lawyer,' Allan said. 'And I guess they kind of took to my personality. I guess they liked me because I have a sense of humor and there was no humor on the show. At times I can be quite charming, and other times I can be like I am today,'the muscular actor joked. Allan prides himself on his versatility and often performs inversatility in live theater. ' He is a professional stage actor and singer with an extensive theatrical background in Los Angeles and New York. During the past month, he has been costarring as Sky Masterson in the San Francisco Civic Light Opera production of Guys and Dolls with veteran comic Milton Berle. Because he is so heavily involved in the Days storyline, the TV actor has' been commuting to Los Angeles to film his segments each week, an arduous task that Allan is more than willing to endure. The Bronx, N.Y., native said the current changes on Days were initiated by new head writer Nina Laemmle, who recently replaced Elizabeth Harrower. Harrower is the real-life mother of Days star Susan Seaforth Hayes, who plays Julie on the daytime serial. Under the Laemmle regime, many of the soap's most popular characters have been either "killed off or written out of the storyline. Among those who have left are Margaret Mason as the scheming Linda; Robert Clary as the diminutive Frenchman Robert; and Mark Tapscott as wealthy businessman Bob Anderson. 'I think that Maggie got so bad that they had to get rid of her because she had no redeeming qualities,' remarked Allan, who many years ago starred in such soaps as the now-defunct Love of life and Secret Storm. 'So they had to dump the character. Mark was a story problem and they figured they had to give another character called Chris more to do. They needed more storyline and Mark's character was holding it back somewhat. They also wanted some more conflict between Chris and Alex Marshall, who was trying to take over Anderson Industries and had married Anderson's daughter Mary. Allan said that Ed Mallory, who was a viewer favorite as Bill Horton, quit the show because he couldn't direct. Allan added that Clary should never have been fired. He was very definitive. It was a very dumb thing to do. The cast changes, said Allan, were somewhat necessary so the producers could attract more viewers with a different storyline. Days has been plagued with declining ratings during the past year, and viewer response to other cast changes has been extremely negative. But Allan suggested, the new characters were not properly introduced to the viewers. 'General Hospital came back in the ratings after cast changes, and we can can come back again just like GH,' he predicted. But they put a lot of new people In the show without mixing the new and the old. And they should have done that because when people turn on the set, they will ask who are they and why until they find out whats going on.' Asked his opinion of new head writer Laemmle, Allan said: 'I really cant say anything good or bad about her, he responded. But for a while she was giving outlines to be done by the other writers, which should only be done by head writers'. Allan said be was skeptical of the new storyline that culminated with the long-awaited marriage of Don and Dr. Marlena Evans, and the birth and death of their child. 'It proved me out correctly because the character doesnt hold up that well,' he said. 'They took away Dons availability, his looseness by being married, and certainly by his having a child contributed to this more so. God forbid any parents should have a crib death. But in this case they had to do it for the benefit of the story. They could not have another child at that point in time. They just had a whole situation with Dons older daughter. I got a lot of hate mail when I told my wife on the show that it was her fault for the child's death one week, then nothing the next week. The justification for changing Don is that Don had another child who died many years ago, which the writers completely forgot, and the only way they can justify his actions is that people lash back irrationally. Allan contends that the characters of Don and Marlena will become more Interesting if they are divorced and possibly brought back together. 'They have to spilt us and bring us back together to make it work,' Allan said. 'Don and Marlena are a very loved couple on the show. She's wonderful, and you can see that there's a niceness between us. But they've got to bring back the conflict. You cant have a lot of talking with nothing going on.' The actor said that although viewers prefer happy marriages and positive scripts, the appeal of most popular soap operas is character conflict.' It's a shame, but the viewers are happy when were happy, but they're bored when we're happy,'he chuckled. They wont admit to that fact but it happens to be true. It's not so much the misery, but the conflict.If there's no conflict then they'd be bored to tears. ' Besides performing in live theater, Allan has been featured in several prime-time television shows, the most recent of which was Real Friends, and was a regular on the old Lassie series for 30 episodes. He has also appeared in such motion pictures as Ice Station Zebra. At one time, Allan hosted a syndicated game show called Celebrity Bowling, and although he enjoys the world of soap operas, his desire is to host a television variety talk show. . If anybody offers me a job in this town as a talk-show host, I'd jump at it, confessed Allen, who lives in Southern California with his wife Toby and three sons. I would love to do an hour noon talk show-something that the women could watch, he said. They could enjoy something with a little music, something literary, something cerebral, and a little drama added, too."

Thanks for that. I found it easily. Very interesting to see an actor speaking out about their show, especially Days of that era. I'm going to post it in the Classic Days thread, as I think a lot of posters would enjoy it.

Would love to read that interview! Would you be able to share it?

Until the Hursleys came along and tried to shift the focus away from Jo.

Says something that Allie has her back to the camera. Have to watch to see how they get around that,

I would posit Lorie as the it girl of the 70's. Brenda was only on for 3 or so years in the 80's. Nikki definitely received more attention throughout the 80's.

The Abbott dining room makes an appearance this week!

Ellen McCrae Burstyn Right to Happiness 1959 Marie Thomas The Guiding Light pre 1972 Edith Adams Jenny Peabody Widow Peach 1937

back when tessa first came on Nikki offered her shelter and was kind of a mentor. Then that was forgotten and they had nothing to do with each other, Now for some reason she and Mariah are living on Newman property. What happened to Tessa's career? Wasn't she supposed to be super successful (like all of Josh's characters?) What does Mariah do now?

For Tessa and Mariah to have moved to the Tacky room, surely this means they have plans to show it, or else they would have said that they moved to another apartment. I'm still puzzled as to why the angle shown of the Chancellor living room was changed after decades? The last set was a shrunken reproduction of the original, even though certain features were changed eg there were now doors to the left of the fireplace.

Obviously there is no long term interest in Noah/Allie . Recurring saves them money because they can be used sparingly. If that's the plan they have to hope the actors are willing to work for less,appear less ofte and don't take other gigs.