Paul Raven

How about Aunt Liz on AW? Widowed quite young, she never remarried and it seems quite believable that a woman of her generation would deny her sexuality, especially in her original incaranation, when she was depicted as a very unhappy woman. Later, she was loveable busy body. Perhaps in her time away from Bay City she had some 'experiences' that changed her somewhat... Maybe her obsession with other people's love lives was a way of not confronting some truths about herself?

Maybe she was killed off at some point to serve the story or otherwise, surely Eric would have stayed with her. Perhaps she conveniently said that she wasn't up to caring for a young boy and Eric was told he'd be seeing her regularly and then, like many others she was forgotten. All those little details....

The Maggie/Neil story came about as they were some of the only vet characters remaining and either Corday recognized that they were beloved by a lot of the audience and had been reduced to basically extras. He acknowleged that in an interview saying something along the lines that 'they won't be on 3 days a week but also not just talk to's.' There was no interest in creating major story for them so I guess they looked at the past and decided the surrogate story was ripe for revisiting and a way to provide some drama. Same thing happened to Maggie previously when they hooked her up with Don in the Mickey presumed dead story. Just a way of giving them some screentime.

October 1983 Douglas bets Victor that Victor can not get an ordinary job. Victor takes on the bet, and using the name "Vernon Nelson," gets a job at a diner December 1983 Marian Cooper feels victimized when she learns Vernon is really Victor Newman and refuses to accept his money. She then relents and promises to run the best cafe in town with his financial aid. Does anybody remember this story? That is the only mention in summaries and it obviously wasn't heavily played. At this time,Nikki was in the midst of the Rick Daros story and Victor was romancing his ex Julia. Does anyone know who played Marian? Was Bill toying with making her more long term but lost interest? Was she a possible romance or an older more working class character?

So true. A lot of these shows were popular only because of their timeslot. But some were only given a short time before they were cancelled or moved to another timeslot and expected to do some heavy lifting. Maybe if some of these shows were given a bit more time in 'cushy' timeslots they would have been better equipped to support the schedule elsewhere.

The ship has sailed on this one but at some point I could see Casey Reed (Y&R) as a lesbian. She had issues with sex and relationships and focused on her career. It would be believable if after a few years away, she would have returned to GC and announced she was gay.

The talk about a possible late in life coming out story on Days, got me thinking . Which character, past or present on soaps would be suitable and believable to tell such a story? I'm talking about characters we are familiar with, not the never seen sister who turns up in town announcing they're gay. I'm mulling over my ideas...so over to you. Should be a fun discussion.

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This is a story that should be told, but I doubt Days can be trusted to do it justice. I get the outcry and the feeling that the couple positively represented a unique and unconventional pairing and that should not be devalued, but can also see that Craig and Nancy would be the right couple to tell that story.

Wasn't sure where to post this. Anyway, watching Yellowjackets and saw the name Daisy Von Scherler Mayer in the credits as director. That rang a bell so I checked and she is the daughter of Sacha Von Scherler (vet of several soaps) and Paul Avila Mayer (co creator of Ryan's Hope) Nice to know that the creativity of her parents lives on.

That makes sense. Jack could have been sounding off to Diane, reasoning that John is attracted to Jill because she's a pretty young thing and John just needs to get his rocks off.Jill just happened to be there, any other gorgeous chick would fit the bill. Diane mentions Gloria her friend who only dates lonely older men like John and then we go from there.

That some month Gloria split town when John rebuffed her sexual favors. As I said it was probably a couple of episodes. I can see Jack meeting Gloria in a secluded spot at the Embers. He probably got her name from the PI he worked with. Jack explains the assignment and Gloria asures him she's the woman for the job. In the same episode perhaps, Jack tells John he's like to meet for drinks. John is skeptical but Jack says he's like some one on one father /son time. There's been a lot of stuff happening and they need some quality time to sort through things. John is alttle perplexed, but always willing (and hoping)that Jack will clean up his act agrees. John comes to the restaurant and waits at the bar for Jack. Gloria sidles up and takes a seat. John gets a message from Jack that he's had to cancel due to some work issue. Gloria strikes up a conversation and engages John who's persuaded to stay and finish his drink. Next scene, John and Gloria are getting along famously, even agreeing to another drink. John opens up about a beautiful young woman who has come into his life. Gloria says she's jealous and spins some story about never finding the right guy and John goes into gentleman mode telling her she's a beautiful vibrant woman etc. Camera focuses on Gloria going in for the kill. Gloria puts the hard word on John and he backs off, saying he has made a commitment to another woman and that he is a man of honor. No matter what might be happening he would not betray that commitment. He apologizes if he led Gloria on and wishes her the best. Next day, Jack meets with Gloria and she tells him no dice. John Abbott is one of those rare guys who is actually decent and moral. Gloria says that the woman he's interested is one lucky lady. Wistfully, she states she's like to meet her own John Abbott...maybe ,one day. With that Gloria departs.

Danfling used this example to start the thread.

August 1982 Jack hired glamor girl, Gloria, to split John and Jill. So there was another Gloria involved with Abbotts all those years ago, Does anyone know who played her? It was probably a couple of episodes. Imagine if this was the same Gloria, who years later remembered wealthy John Abbott and this time managed to land him.

B&B Ridge and Thorne over Caroline AW John and Michael over Donna GL Ed and Mike over Leslie

I think Traci on Y&R attempted suicide when she was pregnant and alone? Katherine threw herself overboard from acruise ship. Vanessa threw herself off a balcony to frame Lorie. There a number of soap character(usually female), who took a handful of pills due to some trauma, who were conveniently rescued in time. It was a standard plot device that could lightly deal with a topic and but pretty much avoid tackling it head on. (see also abortion) The attempted suicides were brushed aside.

Jean Simmons Pilots/Proposals Golden Gate Jane Kingsley 1981 Midas Valley Molly Hammond 1985

Oops! Sorry Mel- don't know how i missed that. Never let facts get in the way of a good story.

Both Peter and Nicole could have returned at any point. I hate when soaps never have family members return.

Thanks for that. Yes the list includes the kid oriented serials like L'il Abher and Don Winslow which aired late afternoon. the only soap I hadn't heard of was Elm Creek, which ust have been local. In fact there were several more soaps running throughout the 40's that were heard on local stations only. But the majority were traditional soaps and most of the aired from Chicago, so there was alot of work for actors in that city. Some actors were holding down multiple roles. In the next few years, the shows moved to New York and I think Ma Perkins was the only holdout. Actors were forced to relocate to keep working. Ironically the same thing happened with TV soaps when one by one the NY based soaps were axed and that source of work and income disappeared.

Yes. I think it was the final 4 episodes in May sweeps. The show actually won its timeslot for one of those episodes and overall did well.

Just hit home to me that Y&R has 3 major contract characters-Ashland, Jack and Victor all males over 60. Number of contract females over 60 -ZERO. Surprised they decided to go with an over 60 actor for the Ashland role.

Josh is earning $40,000 to turn out that dross ? Unbelievable. Days has a lot of vets on contract Deidre, Drake, Mary Beth, Lauren, Galen, Suzanne,Stephen,Josh etc at least as many as Y&R so I don't think Y&R is exceptional in that regard. Days seems to be using extras and I think the sets look better. Y&R's management of the budget seems suspect, although Days extreme taping schedule must make a big difference.

CBS trashed Murder She Wrote in it's last season. It would have been better for it to go out on a high and concentrate on the many other problems with the schedule. Fact is MSW was still winning it's Sunday @8 timeslot. In Wk 34 in the dying days of the 94/95 CBS aired a 2hr MSW Thurs @8 in a test run. It ranked 55th. The next ep aired in it's usual Sun @ 8 slot and won the time period ranking 12th. In Wk 1 of 95/96 season MSW ranked 55th in its new timeslot and its Sunday replacements Cybil and Almost Perfect ranked 49th and 65th, so the move did nothing to help the ratings. On Sunday, Sept. 24, the network finished third on the night, and its performance among 18 -49 year olds was worse than it was with the older skewing Murder, She Wrote in the time period last year.

i've read that before but never seen it verified. My understanding is that ABC wanted to replay EON late night. My guess is some sort of deal was in the works for those involved to receive minimum payments as this was new territory and probably there was no compensation payments agreement set up. ABC saw this as a chance to pay peanuts and make extra money on the deal compared to primetime reruns. Donald May was probably the most outspoken at what he saw as exploitation of soap actors and the blame was pinned on him for it not going ahead. Just speculation...