Paul Raven

I read that he spoke with Stefano's accent, not that he stayed in character. I guess that was because he wanted it to come naturally rather than switch throughout the day, where it might have got a bit 'wobbly'. A touch 'actory' but fair enough.

Joanie Loves Chachi from Happy Days. 4 episodes aired after Happy Days in a short season The first episode was #2 for the week behind Dallas, even outrating its Happy Days lead-in. It continued to do well so for Fall 82 ABC moved it to Thurs @8 to take on Magnum PI. In Wk1 Magnum had a 2 hr premiere 23.1/37 while JLC could only muster a 13.5/23. That set the pattern and JLC was cancelled. At least they got to return to Happy Days. From Scott Baio All the Happy Days people had written the first four episodes, when the show got picked up for series, but then they left to go back to Happy Days, and we were stuck with new writers who didn’t know us. So that was a problem. And then some of the people on the show had chemical issues, and that was a problem. It was just on and on and on, and it just sort of all crumbled and fell apart. In retrospect, if given the choice again, I would not have done that show. That was just the wrong idea. If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve waited ’til Happy Days was over until I did anything else.

Re the Ellen Wheeler interview. WTH was going on at that time? To hire someone who not only had had limited experience but to do it in such a haphazard fashion? I could understand if it was someone who had worked their way up and had a connection and experience with the show. But with Ellen it seemed out of the blue. I wonder if money came into this as more experienced EPs would have had to be paid a lot more? MDD was probably under huge pressure from P&G and fighting for her own survival. Nice that Barbara Bloom mentioned Ellen being a mom but I wonder if a man would be given the same consideration? Probably not as he would have a wife to take care of the family. I wonder about some of those other names we see in the credits in production capacity who never got the EP positions.

Braeden: Of course, it’s crazy! You must remember that people who come onto the show as new executive producers have their own egos, and they think they can rewrite it, they can redo it all. What they don’t understand is that [Co-Creator/Former Head Writer] Bill Bell was a brilliant man who laid a very sound foundation, and if you want to veer away from that foundation, it willbegin to flounder. That’s all I’m going to say. Digest: Well, I must say how much I enjoy Victor hiring Michael and those two characters being back in the same sphere. Braeden: It’s well-written! It really is all very good, very natural, makes a lot of sense. Other storylines make no sense, introduced by the former regime, names that will remain nameless.

Digest: Fans found it surprising that Abby didn’t include Victor in some of the things going on with her, that Victor would have wanted to take charge and help her with the Chance situation or the Dominic situation. Did you have an opinion on that? Braeden (laughs): We only have so many hours a day to shoot this stuff! It would be too far-flung right now, I’d be involved in too many things, I guess. Melissa [Ordway, Abby] is another wonderful actress to work with, and I think the fellow who plays her husband now [Conner Floyd] is also doing a very good job, he really is.

Exactly. Eric Braeden: It was about high time! Hightime. I think it’s one of the best storylines that I’ve had in years. Digest: Tell me why you think it’s so successful. Braeden: Because it’s all very real, meaning,one understands that Victoria would fall for a good-looking guy like that with a lot of money; one would understand how she, being Victor Newman’s daughter, would have certain Machiavellian tendencies, meaning she sees the possibility of a merger between Locke’s company and Newman. She sees all that and at the same time, he’s a good-looking guy with a lot of money and she fell for him. But the real Machiavellian, of course, is Victor [laughs]! Victor,on one hand, has very paternal,fatherly feelings, wants his daughterto be happy, is happy that she’s out of Billy Boy’s clutches, yethe, too, is beginning to smell a certain rat. He doesn’t quite trust him and is very aware of it and of course, his fatherly instincts of wanting to protect his daughter are stronger than almost anything. And to protect his business. So, he’s not stupid! Victor is a chess player. He’s about two, three, four moves ahead of everyone else. So it all makes sense, psychological sense. Sound sense. That’s why I think it’s such a brilliant storyline because it’s one where you can do long-term planning. But Victor was totally Team Ashland before this.Where was his innate sixth sense then,when he walked Victoria down the aisle?

No Mr Braeden was more restrained. From the interview Look, let’s be very honest. The last regime introduced things that no one gave a damn about, okay? Let’s call a spade a spade. No one gave a damn about some of those storylines, no-one, because they were not a part of the history of that show! I hate to say it, but obviously, the Newman empire is one of the main cornerstones of the show. What the last regime really wanted, to be frank with you, was to get rid of me and get rid of Melody[Thomas Scott, Nikki], if you want to know the truth.

This week's SOD has an EB cover promising his most honest interview ever etc. All he does is take a few potshots at the 'previous regime' (Mal Young?) who wanted to diminish Victor. Praises the Ashland story. Says Victor's lack of involvement in the Abby story is a case of only having a certain amount of time to get everything done. Says he has no plans to retire.

Is Lou Grant the only example of a spin off where a drama came out of a sitcom? Sitcoms seem to be the breeding ground for spin offs, but can we recall any that were in other genres? Knots Landing and The Colbys cover the soap genre. The Law and Harry McGraw from Murder She Wrote. Although this is an example of an occasional character getting their own show, not a regular character doing so.

CBS moved KL to 9pm on 2 occasions Fall 1981 up against Barney Miller/Taxi on ABC and Diff'rent Strokes/Gimme A Break on NBC' The new 10 pm show Jessica Novak flopped and Knots went back to 10pm Fall 1986 up against The Colbys on ABC and Cheers/Night Court on NBC Again the new 10 pm show Kay O'Brien flopped and Knots moved back to 10pm Maybe the lesson for CBS is not to name a new show after after the title female character.

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