Paul Raven

Thursday May 20 1993 CBS 7.2/11 64th Movie Special The Color Purple FOX 7.3/11 38th The Simpsons 10.1/16 77th America's Most Wanted: Inside the Criminal Mind 4.5/6 ABC 7.9/12 51st Matlock 2hr Special 9.1/14 76th Primetime Live 5.5/8 NBC 36.7/54 3rd Seinfeld 21.3/34 2nd Cheers-The Last Call 39.6/56 1st Cheers Finale 45.5/64

Y&R would have no interest in recasting Keemo. That ship has sailed on many levels. However a 20 something child would be more viable story wise.

Golden Gate was a 1981 TV movie pilot for a nightime soap based around a San Francisco publishing family. Soap Hoppers in the cast Mary Crosby Natalie Kingsley John Saxon Monty Sagar Peter Donat Richard Byrne Robert Rockwell ?? Don Keefer ??

CBS got the first successful TV soaps on air with SFT and LOL. Brought the first soap over from radio with TGL and followed with Brighter Day. Introduced Secret Storm and then the first half hour soaps ATWT and TEON. In the mid 60's ATWT was huge, outrating many nightime shows. Y&R was hugely influential in the 70's and #1 till this day. Although they faltered in the 80's they were still competitive throughout.

I posted this w/o checking and some of those roles are already included so I will edit.

Peyton Place The following hoppers had uncredited roles at some point during PP's run Meg Wyllie Walter Mathews

As we've discussed in The Colbys thread the basic structure of the show was wrong. Charlton got a couple of years work and made a shedload of money (did he need it? maybe) so was probably relieved the whole thing was over.

So that's my opinion...

Don Diamont was pretty raw as Carlo on Days but by the time he got to Y&R he had upped his game and kept on improving.

I know during her reign of terror, Sheila didn't make it to the opening credits. Was that because they were not updated in those years? Are there any other significant characters that didn't get to pose at the start of the show?

Why bring back Summer so soon? Just so Sally can continue to be punished and Phyllis can obsess about her dotter? Re Kyle -maybe Michael Mellor has agreed to return, otherwise having both K&S as recasts screams disaster. Remember Mac & Billy? If Summer is coming solo,then Kyle and Summer would have to have split, which is another crappy storyline decision. They never should have married in the first place, especially as happened offscreen. Why not have them move to Milan to readjust to their new life, instead of making it the greatest love story ever told.? Much easier to say they couldn't make it work without a needless marriage to deal with.

And with the low budget and threadbare production values it's easier for the show to depict the lives of the have nots. It wouldn't take much for one of the 'suites' at the Grubby Parrot to be redressed as low income housing. Wonder if the Abbott set will get some airtime?

If this is the next story for Jack, it's about time . But as stated previously the groundwork needed to be laid. Maybe at Xmas,Jack could have spoken about the years he had an investigator on the job trying to track Keemo, without success until he decided that it was a lost cause. Mention Mai and that she has had no contact either. Or previously when Traci did the Abbott family history book, something could have come up. Or when Dina came back in 2017 she may have had some contact or knowledge of Keemo/his children. But obviously Josh plots the next 2 weeks only.

that was what the article claimed not my statement. That was true of soaps also. Many younger viewers enjoyed the older characters as much as the young 'uns. interfering snobs like Palmer and Pheobe, or nurturing types like Alice Horton fed their fantasies of either evil oldies who stood in the way of young love or supportive grandmas they may not have had in real life. But the networks ignored that and tried to phase out anyone over 50 to keep the focus on the hot youngsters, cos that's why the desired demos watch soaps.

Jane Webb Springtime and Harvest 1940 Today's Children Dr Paul Masquerade Vicki Wendall Lone Journey Jean Montgomery

Over 10 billion viewers (mostly the over 50 crowd) watched 'Murder, She Wrote' during the 12 seasons the show originally went on air (1984-1996). "I made up my mind when I was 58 that I better think seriously about getting into television. This was going to be my annuity," Angela Lansbury admitted. Between 1985 and 1994, 'Murder, She Wrote' was the highest-rated drama on television. "People my age and older say thank you for depicting a woman of our generation in a way that is up, that is forward-looking, that is not age-conscious, but simply has her take her place in life with all of the sense of responsibility and fun and energy that she can muster," Angela added. In its last season (1995-96), CBS moved 'Murder, She Wrote' from Sunday after '60 Minutes' to Thursday against 'Friends' because "ad rates for the hour were about a third less than its Sunday night competitor 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'." Of the success of 'Murder, She Wrote', Peter S. Fischer elaborated, "I think there are a lot of reasons. One of them is that America loves Angela Lansbury. The Sunday time slot has a lot to do with it. We get a lot of our audience from '60 Minutes'. Theoretically, the people who watch '60 Minutes' are the kind who watch mysteries. They don't normally watch TV. It's a show about an older woman. There's no action, no sex. Our audience has learned to stay on to solve the puzzle. They were intimidated at first but they have learned that all the clues are in plain sight. Many of our audience sit around the living room and try to outguess each other." In 1984 Jessica Fletcher, a one-time substitute teacher had just published her first mystery novel as well as solved her first case. By 1988, "her world has opened up tremendously." Angela Lansbury told Associated Press, "The big change is that she has become very successful as a writer. She has become a celebrity. She has become more urbane and sophisticated, although she has not lost that small-town feeling. She has become a champion of middle-aged women and women struggling to maintain their position in life, even though they're alone." Angela Lansbury maintained, "It doesn't represent in any way a stretch, as we call it, to play Jessica Fletcher but to play Jessica, a role that has such enormous, universal appeal – that was an accomplishment I never expected in my entire life. I thought 'Murder, She Wrote' would last maybe a year or two, and that would have been fine. But it seems to have become an institution." Angela believed 'Murder, She Wrote' was popular because "it says that problems can be solved, mysteries can be unravelled. That life's anarchy can be straightened out. To make an episode work, you have to have an interesting yarn and present the audience with a set of clues and with suspects, showing how they might or might not be suspicious. I really don't want Jessica just walking through these scripts. I don't want her to be a question-and-answer machine. "You have to introduce elements putting her in danger. I want a little challenge for me. I know there are women who are my age, some widows, some who have never married, who relish the fact that I'm there with this character, who really love the fact that Jessica gets out there and messes in with life. I think it's wonderful to be able to represent that, even to the smallest degree, on television." The role of Jessica Fletcher was first offered to Jean Stapleton who decided to turn down the part. Speaking to the 'Los Angeles Times' in 1985, Angela Lansbury confessed she "didn't honestly expect the show to take off in the amazing way that it has ... On the one hand, I love the success and am enjoying that tremendously. On the other, I resist this takeover that it represents of my life … You're caught in a trap – that's what I'm not sure about. It's awfully hard to walk away from success, isn't it? "I liked what I visualized her to be when I read the script. There was something about her quality that I felt I could adapt myself to very easily, and very comfortably, and hopefully she could be an attractive person even though I was playing a middle-aged widow. I felt she was courageous and full of excitement and energy about life and people. This attracted me to her because that's my feeling about life and people. I don't have any feeling of being any age, and my enthusiasm for living and the prospect for the future never diminishes." Peter S. Fischer came up with the idea of Jessica Fletcher being younger than Miss Marple. Angela Lansbury continued, "He played up the fact that physically, Jessica was a very active woman – she rode bicycle, she jogged, she looked after herself. She did not drive a car. I don't quite know why. As it turned out, it was a very good thing she didn't because it precludes, in a sense, the need for car chases. "We have enough of them – there are enough shows that do very, very exciting car chases. Otherwise, we'd all end up in the underground garages of Los Angeles along with everybody else. We're not 'Hill Street Blues' or 'Miami (Vice)', we're not any of those things. We're simply mystery stories concerning the mystery of murder. It's unraveling, gathering all the clues and personalities involved in murder."

I guess there is no role that can't be recast but those are big shoes to fill. Any suggestions of who was around at that time that could play Lorie?

??

Doug was only 7 years older than Jeanne and she presented older onscreen in the 70's and 80's so I can't see it.

2022 - Anytime Billy Abbott takes off his shirt. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Beth Ehlers - the 'Barbara Stanwyck of soaps'...if only she'd realized... Kinda sums up AW's lack of direction in the 80's.

In the 1986-87 TV season, CBS came up with the idea of a crossover between 'Magnum, p.i.' and 'Murder, She Wrote'. Michael Eisenberg of CBS told 'Newsday', "'Magnum' has more viewers who are male, teens and children, while 55% of 'Murder, She Wrote's' audience is women. This could bring more women to 'Magnum'. If this works, you'll see more such crossovers." Robert Swanson of 'Murder, She Wrote' and Jay Huguely of 'Magnum, p.i.' "worked very closely together. Obviously, the tough part for Jay Huguely was to put together the first part, the 'Magnum' episode, so it looked like a 'Magnum' and, at the same time, to bring in Angela as Jessica so that she looked good. I had the easier job. I had to make sure with the 'Murder' episode that we had four or five characters, as always one of whom would turn out to be the murderer, while doing justice to Tom Selleck as Magnum." Jay Huguely mentioned, "All along, adjustments were being made to suit the two lead characters. 'Magnum' is pretty much straight action-adventure regularly, with a big climax. In this case, because of Jessica Fletcher, our show had to be somewhat more complex and cerebral even with all the action." 'Newsday' reported, "When their scripts were finished, Swanson and Huguely found they still had more to do. Since the shows won't be sold together when they're sold into syndication as reruns, each hour episode had to be complete in and of itself." B. Donald Grant of CBS told 'Knight-Ridder Newspapers', "The key to these things is to create a certain amount of linkage between these shows in the minds of the viewers."

Odd Angela would say that as the show was a hit right out of the gate. Sometimes,on air talent are several steps removed from ratings and such so she may be misremembering or not properly informed. Apart from MSW CBS only launched Charles in Charge (which went on to be a syndication hit) Dreams (with John Stamos) and the ill fated Cover Up (Jon Erik Hexum shot himself on set).

Well CBS did place it Sunday @8 so they must have had some faith in it. Probably feeling that it would flow nicely from 60 Minutes. The competition was kid oriented action/adventure Hardcastle & McCormick (ABC) and Knight Rider (NBC) In Wk 1, MSW ranked 9th, Knight Rider was 10th and Hardcastle was 32nd. The following week MSW was 10th but Knight rider fell to 32nd.