Paul Raven

I agree. Someone like her who has been on both sides of the screen could bring a lot to the role of EP. Maybe she found that not acting didn't give her much satisfaction. Besides working on Loving might have been a negative vibe, with cancellation always around the corner.

Joanna Johnson left at the end of her contract and there was talk of a recast but Bill Bell finally decided to kill her off.

And then NBC tried to get in on the act with the Beggarman, Thief miniseries which flopped.

TV Guide June 3 1996 By the next year Jane was back onscreen on Loving. In 2003 she returned to GH. So the BTS career didn't work out for whatever reason. Loving: The new house of Elliot Jane Elliot, one of daytime’s most beloved divas, quit her Emmy-winning role as General Hospital's Tracy Quartermaine in 1993 and promptly disappeared in a whirlwind of rumors: Some said she was being lured to As the World Turns. Others claimed she was a shoo-in to replace the great Beverlee McKinsey as Guiding Light's Alexandra Spaulding. Still others saw her having private discussions at One Life to Live. But last January, Elliot popped up in a part no one expected—as the producer of ABC’s Loving. “After 30 years as an actress, I was beginning to feel that my days onscreen, my income, and the number of [soaps] available to me could only diminish,” says Elliot, who has starred on four of the ten current daytime serials. “Looking at the sunset of my career just wasnt going to do it for me." So, after departing GH due to conflicts over story and management, the single mother of two decided to pound the pavement for production work. Just one contact came through—her former Days of Our Lives boss Al Rabin, who hired her as dialogue coach on his syndicated sudser, Valley of the Dolls. "Al was the only one who took me seriously. [Hollywood] is a boys' club where my sex, my age, and the experience that comes with time are liabilities," says the 48-yearold Elliot. “So I moved East, where you could hear the sound of doors banging against walls as they were flung open for me." The female programming heads at ABC Daytime let Elliot observe all aspects of soap production at One Life to Live, and after she proved that she had the chops, they awarded her the Loving gig. “I’m learning on the job," she admits, "but the cast and crew have been extremely supportive. And that is a miracle. I was fully prepared to have people saying behind my back, ‘Who the hell does she think she is?”

With BTG hitting that milestone soon, I thought it might be interesting to look back at BTG's first year and other soaps past and present to discuss what changes on and offscreen occurred before the first anniversary. BTG had one recast with the role of Ted and it's still not clear why that happened. And Bob Guza departed as co headwriter, but that seemed to be the plan from the start. As far as story is concerned it seems that Shanice taking a more major role was probably not in the cards at the outset and Derek and Ashley being de-emphasized seems to have come into play. Andre and Dani marrying?? Looking into the past a lot of soaps didn't even make it to Year One.- The Best of everything, Hidden Faces etc The most recent example being Lovers and Friends. Rather than revamp on air it was taken off after 4 months and returned 6 months later with a new title For Richer, For Poorer, some cast changes and new stories but it was cancelled after 10 months. Santa Barbara had recasts and revamps almost from the beginning . What do you recall of those first 12 months of various soaps?

So how many Nola fantasies were there? I remember Shipmates Forever and Casablanca. There was also a Wuthering Heights one with Quint and Wizard of Oz. I'm sure there were others.

Tom Dennison on OLTL. Lee Paterson had been very popular in a 10 year run in the 70's. Joe and Viki had been a super popular couple with only death tearing them apart. So having Lee back to work with Erika meant the possibility of the magic happening again. Would Viki get into a hot triangle with Clint and Tom, the twin of her past love? But nothing really happened and LP left without anyone really noticing.

TV Guide Dec 17 1994 Is James GH's guiding light? seems like everybody in Soapland has either come back from the dead or had a long-lost twin—and for that we can thank Francesca James. As All My Children heroine Kitty Shea, James was bumped off with a brain tumor in 1977 but proved so popular she became the first suds star to “rise from the grave” and return as a look-alike. As Kitty’s identical twin, Kelly Cole, James won even greater acclaim, as well as a 1980 Emmy. And then she gave up acting altogether. Out of guilt for what she'd wrought? Hardly. James, a theater-trained Carnegie Mellon grad, was determined to get behind the camera, and now (after directing and producing soaps for 14 years she is making what many consider an unparalleled contribution: Last May, James signed up as supervising producer of General Hospital, where the difference was both overwhelming and instantaneous. This is not intended to downplay the importance of GH executive producer Wendy Riche (after all, the best bosses hire the best talent and then let 'em do their thing) or the soap’s divine headwriter, Claire Labine. But with James hands-on in the production booth, guiding actors, designers, and technicians five days a week, General Hospital is soaring like no soap in memory. We're talking movie-quality work here. Timing crackles. Humor and style triumph. Nuance—layers and layers of it—shades every performance (some have become so brilliant they're intoxicating). Camera work and lighting (which James has overhauled) are now so rich and textured they're practically characters unto themselves. In short, we're in heaven! But enough with the superlatives: Clearly, what's paying off in spades here is experience—the kind that knows exactly how to take it off the page, get it on-camera, and then send it shooting into the deepest part of our hearts. Just one question: Why is this so rare?

That story of Dick taking off for another town and using an alias was used by Irna with Jeff on ATWT and maybe a few other soaps over the years. I wonder why Irna decided to kill off Joe? No story in Meta and Joe being a happy couple? She did like a tragic unexpected death.

ABC had Joan Bennett on Dark Shadows, Keith Andes had done movies when cast on Paradise Bay on NBC. Jeffrey Lynn on Secret Storm.

It speaks to the current state of Y&R that news of Shemar's return is met with a meh response. It's nice of him to agree to a return-I wonder if he's aware of the production downgrade since he was a regular. When Malcolm returned for Neil's funeral, Shemar played the role very low key-it may have been the circumstances but he wasn't the Malcolm I remembered. Interestinf to see him this time round.

Story Consultant seemed to be the cruziest job ever-attend a few meetings, make some suggestions which may or may not be acted upon and collect a big check.

Those CBS and NBC sitcoms were placed all over the schedule in an attempt to gain traction or simply fill timeslots. Uncle Buck, Doctor Doctor, Fanelli Boys, Dear John, Working It Out, Lenny etc A sad ending for Dallas which got moved back to 9pm after Over My Dead Body flopped. Dark Shadows was interrupted for Gulf war coverage and wasn't able to build. Twin Peaks had flopped Sat @10 and moved to Thurs to hasten its demise.

Yes you would think they might show Jacquie Courtney for AW for example. Or at least prominent couples like Steve/Carolee, Bill/Laura etc. And poor Bright Promise just gets a title card.

Linkletter had been dropped by CBS in Sept 69 after decades on radio and Tv with House Party when Fred Silverman wanted a soap heavy schedule. The NBC show lasted a season. @DRW50 Maybe also post it in the NBC daytime topic at Cancelled Soaps forum?

It was Thom Racina who was involved with Ice Princess. He has mentioned it in several interviews. Here's a snippet from a Daytime Confidential interview. DC: General Hospital, which is where you got your start in the whole soap game, revisited your Ice Princess storyline. TR: You know, it just amazes me. Somebody sent me a clip on Valentine's Day of Luke and Laura discovering the box with the Ice Princess thing and I couldn't believe it. I said, "After all these years, they're doing that again?" and yet, it made me feel really proud. DC: It came from your novel? TR: Yes, it came from The Great Los Angeles Blizzard about snow on Los Angeles, and we just made it snow on Port Charles.

This was peak 'network wars' with super hyped programming battling it out. ABC -TV emerged on top with a 21.9 rating average, NBC climbed out of third for the first time since last November with an 18.9 and CBS -TV came in close behind with an 18.3. MON CBS programmed All in the Family/Alice #19 8-9. MASH #9 ABC Salvage had a 28 share How The West was Won 26 share. NBC Little House #12 Backstairs at White House #7 TUES ABC Happy Days #4 Laverne #3 Three's Company #2 Taxi #8 WED The much hyped Supertrain on NBC had a 2 hr debut and managed a 32 share #17 up against 2hr Charlies Angels 35 share #11. Quincy had a special episode @10 #20. CBS was way off Spiderman 23 share One Day at A Time 24 share, Jeffersons 25share/Kaz 19 share. THURS Angie #5 premiered following Mork & Mindy #1 so was guaranteed a successful debut. It was Mork's highest rated episode to date. Barney Miller #13 NBC up against Mork/Angie had Little Women premiere 18 share and 2hr Women in White 25 share CBS Waltons 27 share FRI CBS Dukes of Hazzard 33share/Dallas 38 share #18 ABC After airing the previous Friday behind a Happy Days special episode, new sitcom Makin It aired @8 to a dismal 20 share up against Diff'rent Strokes and Incredible Hulk. NBC were trying a sitcom block-Strokes 36 share #15 /Brothers & Sisters 26 share/ Turnabout 24 share/Hello Larry 22 share and Sweepstakes 21 share. SAT NBC BJ & The Bear 90 min premiere 36 share/Rockford Files 90 min ep 27 share CBS White Shadow @8 25 share ABC Love Boat #16 SUN ABC Osmonds @7 24 share Elvis 8-11 #6 27.3/39 CBS GWTW Pt 1 7-10 #10 24.3/36 60 Minutes @19 27 share NBC Cuckoos Nest #14 22.5/32 Weekend @10 19 share That was only the 2nd time GWTW had been shown on TV. The first showing was in 1976 on NBC.

And of course Janet was played by Ruth Warrick.

TV Guide November 5 1994 Lovers from two different Worlds He writes As the World Turns. She writes Another World. But even though their soaps duke it out in the same time slot throughout most of the country, daytime's answer to Mary Matalin and James Carville—husband and wife Richard and Carolyn Culliton—swear that plot secrecy is not a concern. *We don't sneak into each other's files in the middle of the night or anything! I trust Richard completely —in fact, if I had the answer to building a daytime audience, I'd gladly share it with him...later," laughs Carolyn, who was announced as AW's new head writer Sept. 19— the same day ATWT revealed Richard would be forming a head-writing triumvirate with Juliet Packer and Garin Wolf. Married 22 years with two daughters, the Indiana-bred Cullitons live and scribble out of a Brooklyn brownstone—with offices at opposite ends Richard and Carolyn Culliton: of along hall. Both classify themselves as back to-basics types, so fans needn't fret about the cast purges that often accompany writer switches. 'I'm not interested in new characters at this time', says Carolyn who began her soap career in 78 as an AW secretary. “There are sides to our established characters that haven't [surfaced] for years—I want to work with who we have.” Richard says ATWT (lately top-heavy with corporate takeover plots and out-of-town adventures set in Malta, Mexico, and Montana) will be “changing the way it tells a story. We're focusing on Oakdale and our contract players. And all that time spent in board meetings will now be spent in front of the fireplace with champagne. Lots of dating, lots of kissing, very few stock options."

TV Guide July 1 1995 AMC's Gellar: She's outta here! Sarah Michelle Gellar— the dynamic teen star who just won an Emmy as the demon-seed daughter of Erica Kane—will depart All My Children effective with the July 3 episode. But before she goes byebye, Gellar wants to set the record straight: "Contrary to what one newspaper reported, I was not fired because I won the Emmy and Susan Lucci didn't," laughs the 18-yearold actress. “Nor, as another one claimed, did I win on a Friday night and quit the following Monday morning because I'm ‘too big for my britches.’” In fact, Gellar's farewell—orchestrated at her request —has been in the works for many months. “I decided some time ago not to renew my contract [which elapses next February] and told the show very far in advance, because I felt it was fair. Then, when my storyline slowed to one day a week, I asked to be released even earlier. I’m the type that needs to be acting eight days a week, 25 hours a day." Gellar's character— nasty, backstabbing Kendall Hart—was a sensation the instant she hit the screen. But lately, the part has become an albatross. "I was offered two other projects, which I was not released to do. And to be honest, I was a little bitter about that," says Gellar, who, while technically obligated to AMC, has spent the last several months meeting with casting execs from several major films, including "The Crucible" (with Daniel Day-Lewis) and dueling versions of "Romeo and Juliet" (one with Ethan Hawke, the other with Leonardo DiCaprio). But she is more than a red-hot property—Gellar’s star power makes headlines. The supermarket tabs have had a field day with this actress practically since her early-1993 arrival at AMC (one rag went so far as to photograph Gellar, costar Sydney Penny, and Penny's fiancé, Rob Powers, arriving at an ABC Christmas party, and then eliminated Penny from the shot to insinuate that Gellar, who was then a minor, was secretly stepping out with Powers). Printed reports of a Gellar/Lucci feud have been particularly juicy: Some paint Lucci as a vengeful, insecure diva who couldn't bear acting opposite a younger, prettier, and more talented version of herself, while others characterize Gellar as a pint-sized Eve Harrington who took devilish delight in pushing Lucci's emotional buttons. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between. "Susan and I were not best friends, and we're never going to be," Gellar states. “Basically, the best І can say is that we worked together—on top of each other—for so long that problems were inevitable. But they were also greatly exaggerated by the press... and now they've sort of worked themselves out." She adds: “I’ve had a wonderful run on All My Children.I'm not going to lie and say that it was a problem-free dream job on a cloud. "But would I do it all over again? Absolutely,”

Dee and Suzanne were like mannequins in that scene but Dee was giving off ice that would have flooded the Sahara. Would it have made any difference if Susan had have been in the middle? Then Dee and Suzanne would have been apart and in each others eyeline., so at least it would have looked like there was some connection.

Susan Douglas had 3 children in the time she was on TGL so some of the absences were pregnancy/maternity related.

Constance also knows the power of a a fringe, glasses, a scarf and long sleeves. Way less on display. Kim's harsh hair color and outfit are not helping.

Yes and respectfully so.😊

James Houghton got a short lived primetime CBS series Code R in Jan 77 that went up against Sanford & Son and Donny & Marie. Janice seemed convinced her Roxie show was going to make it but NBC didn't pick it up. For every soap star that gets a hit show there are way more who fail. Once they're out of the soap they were just another unknown to primetime producers. It's kind to call Brenda a guest star on Falcon Crest. As I recall she had one short scene as Tony Cumson's ex.