Paul Raven

I think Phillip's return from the dead on Y&R was spoiler free?

Have you watched Y&R lately? The Newman ranch is now a room, Victoria's house has been reduced to a portion of the set etc The tiny Chancellor living room is so cheaply decorated as is Devon's penthouse. The 'suites' at the Grim Postule don't even have a separate bedroom. Days looks better IMO.

Good writing would have had a new villians to fulfill that role over the years instead of relying on Stefano for decades.

Excerpts from Racina's WLS interview Gloria said to me, “We’ve got this headwriter...,” and she muttered, “That bitch.” I should have taken that as a lesson that that’s how they think about headwriters. She said, “We’ve got something called The Ice Princess. It’s starting to air, and we don’t know what that is, and the bitch won’t tell us. There’s going to be a writer’s strike, and I’ll be damned if we’re going to have this show die.” And she said, “I need a long term story written now, because you can’t write it once the strike starts.” I just happened to have a hardcover novel of mine that I brought her from years before as a gift called “The Great Los Angeles Blizzard” about a snow storm that hits L.A. We stole that to be Port Charles. That’s how the whole Luke and Laura thing happened and we got up to the wedding. I wrote this long term story that was like seven hundred pages. I mean, detailed scenes which they did all through the strike. I sat home watching going, “No, no, that’s not how I meant it, it’s all wrong!”

The Ross Hunter of daytime television!

ABC had a similar line up with Fall Guy, Dynasty and Hotel. CBS tried to replicate that with Freebie & The Bean and Secrets of Midland Heights.

Requests Ivy Bethune Taurean Blacque Carlos Bernard Ron Parady Gwen Van Dam

Court Benson Backstage Wife Greg Hanon 1946

I thought Alex had married Renee before she died

Thanks for the detailed rundown. I've never paid much attention to primetime credits. Interesting to see a few daytime names pop up, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of crossover.

Anyone who really loves soaps wouldn't propose and promote a story where someone believes they are another person and make that person a long dead forgotten character. I'd call Days a fantasy serial, not a soap opera.

Kim Hamilton Day in Court 2 weeks 1965

Of course, thanks for that, One other thought I had about NBC's lack of success. Did they have a bigger turnover of execs in the 70's and 80's? If so this may have been a contributing factor. Lagging in the ratings, they hire a new daytime VP who makes changes that don't improve things, so someone new is hired who does the same thing and so on. Whereas CBS/ABC may have had more stability behind the scenes which translates to onscreen. Going to get together a list to see what was happening. I know Jackie Smith came to ABC in 77(?) and steered ABC to the top. Lin Bolen did the same at NBC in the early/mid 70's.

Interestingly enough back in the 50's, NBC had the concept of Hometwon USA which would air 4 15 min soaps back to back over an hour .They would be able to utilize common sets and there would be some crossover characters. That show got very close to airing but was dropped at the last minute.

The 3 network soap offerings in the heyday of the genre. Have I missed any? ABC Dynasty The Colbys Kings Crossing Twin Peaks CBS Dallas Falcon Crest Knots Landing Emerald Point Secrets of Midland Heights NBC Flamingo Road Yellow Rose Bare Essence Berrengers

Well, Bill Bell always claimed that he didn't plan too far ahead so he wasn't always locked in to a particular story direction. So in that sense he could make moves that might be considered impulsive.

Fascinating as always. Can anyone explain why Julie was so freaked out about the divorce not being finalized at the hearing? What were her plans?

I think AW managed to do both!

How about Joe Gallison playing Tommy Horton and Neil's stories be given to Tommy? Joe was 7 years younger than John Lupton but it could have worked. A few tweaks to the story and Tommy would be a major story rather than an also ran. Neil's stories and romances were always apart from the Hortons so things wouldn't get tangled . Of course in later years the marriage to Marie would have to be nixed. The surrogate story could be Tommy wanting to give his brother Mickey the child he could never have and had lost with Mike.

After 15 years at 3pm AW moves to 2.30. I imagine a lot of viewers were unwilling or unable to change their habits and the 90 min did drag.

There was talk in SOD at the time of a Caroline recast. Genie Francis was mentioned as a possibility.

Lora Lawton is pretty much forgotten but it did run for several years, from 1943-1950 Nobody knows the pitfalls of Washington life better than Lora Lawton. Ever since she first came to the nation's capital to act as housekeeper for shipbuilder Peter Carver, the former Middle Western housewife has been caught up in a series of dizzying intrigues. And each one has meant another adventure for Lora. In fact, there are listeners who find the serial heroine's daily life much too breathtaking to bear any resemblance to humdrum reality. Cynical observers have been known to doubt whether conflict and turmoil on the banks of the Potomac-even in wartime-ever reach the lurid dramatic heights so often chronicled in the chapters of -Lora Lawton." But, be that as it may, fans of the daytime drama have no trouble thinking of arguments to marshal in its defense. Many a .housewife welcomes the refreshing change of spending her mornings in intimate companionship with career diplomats, elegant countesses and business tycoons. They're a lot more interesting than the well-known "average American couple" soap operas revolve. And as for the action - well, kidnappings and murders certainly make for livelier programs than domestic squabbles do. Members of the cast are all in favor of swift action, too, enjoy the stimulation and excitement of meeting newsituations in each day's script. The main characters have all been played by the same actors since the serial first hit the air in May, 1943. Carrying the title role is grey eyed, blonde Joan Tompkins, who made her first hid for fame on the legitimate stage.Joan has created quite a furor in radio circles by freely admitting to reporters that she's 28 years old-instead of stagnating permanently at 21, as is the fashion. Reason for the lack of accent on youth in this case is simple -for nearly a decade of her career Joan was "typed" as a 17 -year -old ingenue, never had a chance to play an intelligent, mature woman till "Lora Lawton" came along. And the ambitious actress is taking no chances on being pushed back into adolescent roles again. Male lead in the serial (Peter Carver) is handled by James Meighan, nephew of the late movie star Thomas Meighan. In spite of his film connections, Jim has never been interested in Hollywood, carved out his own theatrical career through stock company and Broadway parts. A visit to a broadcasting studio in 1931 gave rise to radio aspirations and since then the Meighan name has been connected with innumerable network dramatic events. Radio regulars, too, are Charita Bauer (Gail Carver), Ethel Wilson (secretary May Case) and Walter Greaza (villain Russell Gilman). All of them are veterans, bringing years of experience to their present melodramatic roles.

I can understand the writers going in the direction they did, especially in a half hour show where they wanted to keep the cast roughly the same size. And there wasn't the burden/obligation to hang on to characters as they were beloved vets (a problem that haunts today's Y&R) The overall push in the 80's was towards wealthier characters. The Forrestors had taken the spotlight and unless they could find a way to integrate the Logans, they became islanded, whereas the Spectra clan were directly involved.

One of the things I hope someone can explain, is the chain of command in primetime soaps i.e who actually decides the storylines for the season. There seems to be so many producers and other titles involved unlike daytime where the headwriter and EP seem to be the main decision makers for plots. Hope someone can shed some light.

Something about Ann Marcus from various snippets I've seen, she always spilling tea about the devious people she's encountered and how she was wronged. No doubt a lot of it is true but I would like to hear some other takes eg the walking out of the restaurant story she presents a little bit of mischief but I'm sure if she had someone walk out on her she would present that as very unprofessional and totally out of line.