Paul Raven

The UK versions George and Mildred and Robin's Nest were both successes. Did the US versions use any of the scripts or just get the rights to the concept? All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Three's Company and Too Close for Comfort were all based on successful UK sitcoms but several others were tried and failed.

Of all the characters to bring back... From the get go, this is a pass for me. For a story to begin with some convoluted explanation of how Diane didn't die or to have a lookalike. Feels like the Patty mess all over again. Happy to be proven wrong.

Changing to 1pm, forgot I had therapy, Such an LA statement...

Meego is an American science fiction sitcom television series that ran for six episodes from September 19 to October 24, 1997 on the CBS television network as part of its Friday night Block Party program block Created by Ross Brown, and developed by Thomas L. Miller, Robert L. Boyett, and Michael Warren, the series starred Bronson Pinchot in the title role as an alien masquerading as a human being who, after his spaceship crashlands on Earth, unexpectedly becomes the nanny to a single father's three children. Sounds like a mix of My Favorite Martian and Mork and Mindy. Meego

Like Benson would do later, Fish spun off from Barney Miller but was more of a family sitcom than the more adult cerebral Barney Miller. Yep that is Todd Bridges, pre Diff'rent Strokes

Makes sense to me. Just the sort of story Y&R does.

Laverne and Shirley's collapse was interesting. The show outrated Happy Days at times and it was moved to Mork & Mindy's timeslot so inherited a strong spot, yet immediately softened in the numbers. Maybe creatively it was not the best time to move? Was the show becoming a little tired and viewers were watching it because of the timeslot? ABC was big on spinoffs in the Silverman years. Bionic Woman and Fish were 2 more examples.

Just to go in adifferent direction, I was thinking about the 80's supercouples Roman/John/Marlena Bo/Hope Shane/Kimberley Steve/Kayla Each had their time in the spotlight. When Roman and Marlena married, Bo and Hope were ready to take over and so on. So throughout the 80's Days had at least one supercouple in the midst of angst with others at various stages of their relationship. And with other couples in the background-Pete/Melissa, Neil/Liz etc All of the supercouples featured a Brady and had action/adventure elements. By 88 with Steve and Kayla wed, there was no similar template couple ready to step up. Mike/April, Justin/Adrienne,Jennifer/Emilio etc didn't have the same larger than life appeal. So that era was over, either by design or poor planning. It got to the point that Tanner/Molly were being pushed. Who could have been the next supercouple? Days was fresh out of Bradys.

The new CBS Friday lineup bombed from the get go. 8pm Family Matters #72 5.8/12 8.30 Meego #72 5.8/11 9pm Gregory Hines #75 5.5/10 9.30 Step by Step #77 5.4/10 ABC was still airing reruns that week but they still beat CBS.

Phillip Lord Woman in White Dr Pettijohn 1940 Arnold Grimm's Daughter Arnold Grimm (temp replacement for Donald Merrifield) Ma Perkins 1940 Affairs of Anthony Girl Alone Hope Alden's Romance 'Strongarm' Smith Lonely Women Sen Victor Murray 1943

New life for One Life Aug 4 1976 Qunlan adds actors as ABC show changes timeslot More people. More work was the cheerful but resigned exclamation of Doris Quinlan when she contemplated the expansion of One Life to Live the soap opera she produces for ABC which expanded to 45 mins last week. But she indicated it would be all worthwhile if the longer time period and changed place in the daytime schedule do all they are intended to do – which is simply to get higher ratings and more loyal viewers to draw advertisers Quinlan has already added 3 actors to the show and is expected to add at least one more on a regular basis.Or at least the writing staff will, there are currently five writers working on the show under headwriter Gordon russell and one more will probably be taken on. The producer is also looking for a young production assistant 'preferably male' she said although it is somewhat difficult to find such help because men are less likely to be able to type. The three actors new to the show are led by ex film star Farley Granger. He plays the head of a family with Teri Keane as his wife and Jameson Parker as their grown son. An entirely new family gives the writers still another peg on which to hang storylines which is necessary if the serial is to avoid 'padding' a common problem in continuing stories and one which Quinlan wants to avoid. Already, Russell and Sam Hall (they worked together on Dark Shadows and plot this series while the other writers do the dialog) have provided more situations for the series through introducing the Granger headed family before the expansion. Granger plays a psychiatrist, so there should be no shortage of stories for the trio. Because of the shows physical location the show will continue to have to confine itself to four sets. Director David Pressman found the extra 15 min required more than a 50% boost in preparation. Pressman is working under some handicaps due to summer relief technicians for a network already manpower deleted by a heavy engineering drain from the conventions and Olympic Games coverage. Although Pressman found his work increased by more than the simple mathematical formula, Quinlan thinks that after the shakedown costs will only arise by about 40% although she said no final figure had been arrived at yet and the network finance people had put no pressure on her. The program had been budgeted at about $75,000 a week and final figures Quinlan estimates will rise to about $110-115,000 weekly. The producer admits though she doesn't entirely understand the figures the network accountants come up with. She remembers with relish the time she used a nickel on a show and was charged 7c in production costs. Perhaps more important than the expanded time, Quinlan thinks is the shows new place in the ABC schedule. No longer will it have to face the second half of NBC's Another World as it did when it was on at 3.30pm as it will now have the 2pm $20,000 Pyramid as a lead in instead of General Hospital.which now follows at 3.15pm. She seems to think that Guiding Light on CBS and The Doctors on NBC will prove easier than the old opposition. Also CBS goes with All in the Family reruns at 3.00 and NBC Another world. Changes aside Quinlan believes that soap operas are finally achieving the recognition they deserve.She pointed to TVQ surveys and other polls as indicators of the soapers popularity over the years. And she was quick to mention a growing tendency towards family drama in primetime as seemingly soaper inspired. But the strongest clue, she said, is the fairly new phenomenon of heavy fan mag coverage. And a syndie newspaper column by Jon Michael Reed now appearing 3 times a week in 80 papers is another indicator Quinlan thinks, of 'how powerful we are'

This seems odd. Other people seem to be fired for an inappropriate tweet but Morina is hanging around. In light of the Les Moonves events, you would think that Morina would at least be suspended until this is resolved. And it seems to be getting no publicity in the mainstream press who are usually all over stuff like this. So maybe the general feeling is that there is no merit to her case?

Thom Racina who wrote for Days, GH, AW etc has published several novels. The great Los Angeles Blizzard was the basis for the Ice Princess story on GH. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/authorpage/thom-racina.html

Matt Miller was such a wasted character. He could have been so much more-maybe a sibling rivalry with Victor that spilled over into business and romance. Robert Parucha wasn't the most exciting actor but to have Matt just disappear was wrong. Y&R didn't really do recasts in those days but it would have been warranted in this case. Send Matt off for a while then bring him back with the recast. For Victor to remain viable he needed a lot of characters to play off and Matt would have fitted the bill. Can agree re Lindsay and Diane. For Victor to remain viable he needed a lot of characters to play off and Matt would have fitted the bill.

I think those house cleanings are necessary from time to time as casts become bloated and there needs to be room for new characters. Don't know I agree with all the choices. Faren and Andy -yes-they got a happy ending, although it was nice for Paul to have a sidekick Julianna definitely should have stayed and I think Marla had a place on the canvas. To write off all of the black characters? Bill should have immediately brought on some new black characters. Loved Lauren and Alex and both Lindsay and Diane could have been used more- maybe a triangle with Matt Miller? It is hard to let characters go. Who would you have dropped at this time? James Stor

Samantha had also been involved with Tony Lord who was an older man, so it fitted in with the character. Everything I've read about Phil Carey-the boozy lunches, lack of respect for the scripts, use of teleprompter etc makes me wonder how he survived for so long. Did anybody actually enjoy working with him outside of Clint Ritchie and Bob Woods?

Agnes Nixon wrote 'Manions of America 'mini series which aired on ABC in Sept 81 starring Pierce Brosnan and Linda Purl.

Dick Van Patten Lighted windows Ted Thompson Robert Haag Whispering Streets 1952

James Lipton who wrote Another World,Capitol and others was responsible for the Broadway musical flop 'Sherry' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry!

It's not uncommon for new writing teams to be warmly received in their first few months. I think Lynne Marie Latham and Maria Arena Bell had good critiques for their early stuff as did Sally Sussman. But once they settle in, their long term writing comes under fire.

Roy Winsor the man behind Search for Tomorrow. Love of Life and Secret Storm who also wrote for Somerset and Another Life. He authored 3 mystery novels in the 1970's, even winning the Edgar Award for best paperback original for 'The Corpse That Walked' I read it and was underwhelmed. Interestingly, there was a soap connection as one of the characters was a soap actor.

Good question Susan as Cecile was on for exactly 2 years,so she may have signed a 2 yr contract and then decided to leave. However, the standard contract for an unknown performer at that time was 3 years, so perhaps she was let go at the end of a contract cycle and replaced. Maybe another poster can shed some light.

I think Susan looks way more 'done' than Deidre. Especially around the eyes. Also Deidre is doing the butch look now with the plaid and pants whereas Susan is still in the spaghetti strapped mini dresses.

If Julia/Tanya is only on for the day I wonder what the point of the character is? Y&R avoids having dayplayers like the plague so you would think this character would have some importance. Maybe she'll reveal the name of the owner of the LA house, which could lead somewhere. A thought- John Abbott -Jack will discover his father knew about Allie's existence!

Julie Montgomery (Samantha Vernon) returns to soaps this week on Y&R as Tanya. In a SOD story she said she disliked working with Philip Carey (Asa) because he never worked on scenes always used the teleprompter. She was bored and it was maddening for her to have to work with him all the time. Otherwise she said she would have stayed longer.