Paul Raven

The AWHP identifies most of these actors. This party was for director Len Valenta. I mentioned in a post elsewhere that I read somewhere that Mr Valenta had tapes of shows he had directed. They're probably sitting in an attic ....

Tess Sheehan When A Girl Marries Nora/Nettie Front Page Farrell 1943

BD needs a better haircut. It would really improve his look. Something shorter and layered.

Soap Sensationn. ABC Research is anticipating record numbers from last week's two-part wedding (Nov. 16 and 17) of Luke (Tony Geary) and Laura (Genie Francis) on its already top-rated General Hospital. "Conservative" estimate is 19.5 million viewers watching all or part each day, or 16.0 rating/49 share. General Hospital usually averages about 15.1 million viewers or 12.0 rating/40 share. National ratings weren't available last week, but overnights were strong for both days, according to ABC. New York brought 15.4/46 and 15.8/46; Chicago 21.7/62 and 20.6/61. and Los Angeles 13.6/48 and 12.7/46. Among the "guests" at wedding was Elizabeth Taylor, who began a short soap stint-her first-a week earlier. The wedding proved to be a local promotion bonanza. In Indianapolis, for example, WRTV(TV) with WIBC(AM) held a reception for more than 1,000 people at Stouffers Inn to watch the wedding and share cake. Guests were picked from postcard entries.

For Fall 81, CBS moved Knots Landing foward one hour to 9pm. The Waltons, long time 8pm show ended its run so CBS moved Magnum up an hour to 8, Knots to 9 and introduced Jessica Novak at 10. Knots didn't debut until Wk 5 of the season. The results Magnum #13 21.5/33 Knots Landing 18.0/29 (won its timeslot but not in the top 20) Jessica Novak 13.7/24 (third in its timeslot behind Hill St Blues and 20/20) Moving Knots gave NBC the chance to build Hill St Blues into a hit. As the season wore on Knots struggled to win its timeslot up against Diffrent Strokes/Gimme A Break on NBC. Later in the season Knots moved back to 10. They tried the same move in Fall 86 and once again, the ratings dropped and Knots was moved back to 10pm.

Well both are pretty obvious plot turns to take and Josh does by the numbers writing so.... The show is unbalanced right now with the Kyle/Summer/Tara story on every day, with a dash of Amanda talking about the past and that's pretty much it. Everyone else is just filler. Jack is on way too much going from the Abbott house to Society and Crimson Lights to dole out wisdom. What's with all the women in silky tops/pants?

Not sure a truck driving by on an overseas location shoot would have been deliberate product placement.

Some Dallas rating trivia... In the week ending Nov 9 1980, Dallas premiered new season episodes (late because of a strike) CBS showed 4 episodes - 2 reruns and 2 new eps. Thurs at 10 (rpt) 24.7/42 Fri at 9 (rpt) 31.8/51 Fri at 10 (season premiere) 38.2/51 Sun at 10 40.0/59 Leading up to the record breaking Who Shot JR ep.

May 1980 Presenting the CBS fall 1980 schedule Bud Grant vp Programs, stated that the introduction of 32 yr old widow Abby Culver to Knots Landing will function in much the same way as the JR character in Dallas 'driving the story forward and making things happen' An actress had yet to be cast for this protaganist. Has Donna Mills or anyone else ever spoken about the casting and evolution of Abby?

Christopher Norris A 1980 TV Guide article states she was on Search for Tomorrow in the 60's in addition to DRS and EON.

Brooke Bundy was everywhere in the late 60's and 70's. I'm sure most viewers would recognize her when she turned up onscreen. I wonder why she never landed a series? Maybe through choice or she was regarded more as a guest star by producers. Anyway, I found it odd that she went into daytime in 75 as she seemed to be working steadily at that point in nightime episodics.

'Kong' the thug that couldn't read and 'Jazz' the Mr T rip off. Again the actors lead the way I think and allowed Bill Bell to humanize them beyond the stereotypes. Can't recall but was Sumiko, the cult leader of New World the inscrutable 'spider woman' type of Oriental character?

Thanks Jason for sharing that. 9 sets seems a lot and not typical for that time. Wonder how that worked? I thought there was only room for a certain number of sets onstage at a time and they didn't like too many one off sets or daily changes as that meant extra expense erecting them etc

Three Steps to Heaven Some more characters Tony Brett Leon Cordeaux Rocco Mrs Montgomery Chester Vince Bannister's nightclub was 'The White Parrot'

So Harrison gets a bedroom set but no one else does?? Victoria meets with Nikki at Society and then goes back there for dinner with Harrison? If they're going to have these meeting places then there needs to be at least one other choice. Has Lily made any references to her children or past marriages, or are we to treat her like a new character?

Reading a Fred Astaire TV Guide profile from 1980. Fred watched ATWT and GL every afternoon! He got into the habit as he lived with his mom and they watched together until her death in 1975.

That lack of affiliate support was a big issue for all of the lower rated shows. It became a self fulfilling prophecy as affiliates dropped them so they had less coverage and therefore lower numbers which in turn meant other stations would follow suit.

James Monks Big Sister Kate Hopkins 1940 Helpmate Henri Snow Village 1943 Road of Life Gordon Slater 1950 Light of the World Jarrok Charlie and Jessica Lee Crotty Martha Webster 'French Dress Designer' Young Sr Malone 1949 Backstage Wife Ben Douglas 1949 We Love and Learn 'valet' Whispering Streets Jack 1952 Lil Orphan Annie Mr Slagg

Not sure why the week's episodes were all on the one day but as discussed above, it didn't make for good viewing. It made some of the story beats in the Kyle/tara saga seem rushed. There didn't seem to be any sense of progression throughout the day. People just randomly showed up at places. Nikki was at Society twice,the first time for seemingly no reason as later she met Victoria there for her birthday. Maybe this is an editing issue as perhaps she was supposed to be at Society to meet Victoria but then there was scene in between where she visited Victor so why was she at Society the first time? Summer was at Crimson Lights, episodes apart. Jack just turned up at Society to talk to Ashland. And all these places are EMPTY. Only Victor and Adam were shown at work, although for some reason they earlier met at the Grey Pimple Everyone else was at home or visiting each other. In the Bell days, there would be an Abbott breakfast scene and then people would be at work, maybe lunching out and so on till the evening. I know sets are limited but something needs to be done.

Well. they wasted Janice's time at the 45th anni appearance, so I doubt she'll turn up. It was probably a scriptwriter throwing a bone to loyal fans - maybe the outline says 'Victor gifts Nikki a trip to Italy and they filled in the blanks. I would have thought Leslie's best playing days were behind her. Maybe she's doing one of those morning melodies gigs at a community center and Victor got senior discount tix. Speaking of Nikki,I'm a few days behind but so far she was at Crimson Lights to talk to Billy, then Society for a time waste scene where she encountered Amanda/Imani, then to Victor's office for a convo then back to Society to get her birthday gift from Victoria. Poor gal. Just wandering around town without a purse in that dowdy pink dress, trying to fill in time - probably desperate for a drink, yearning for the days she spent at the ranch when folks visited her...

Drams stems from conflict which seems non existent with Billy/Lilly. The thing is, we know the two very well as they've been on for years. That's one problem the show has with pairing up all those vets. Vet characters pretty much need to pair up with new people so the new characters can bring freshness to the situation. Trouble is there's no room for new characters and the casting/writing is seldom up to pair. Look at the interest already shown with Nate/Imani- so many possibilities...because we don't know a lot about either character.

Quite a number I imagine. I recall reading years ago that one of ATWT's vet directors maybe Len Valenta? had certain/scenes episodes in his possession. I wonder if relatives of now deceased actors and BTS people have access to a whole bunch of stuff eg scripts and don't realize that it is of interest to others.

Olga Rosenova Betty and Bib Ann Meredith Ann Shepherd Now and Forever 1943 Just Plain Bill Barbara Taylor 1944 Cimarron Tavern 1946 Marcella Markham My True Story 1947 Viola Berwick Carters of Elm Street Peter Fernandez Woman of America 1944 Front Page Farrell Aunt Jenny 1954 My True Story 1955 Guiding Light 1956 Radio and TV Charlotte Holland Road of Life Margaret Allen 1939 The Rising Tide (proposed) 1945

Back from the dead was a trope that went as far back as radio soaps but it was mainly used when a presumed dead character eg someone's first wife turned up alive after all - not a character we had seen(or heard) who died on air/screen. Previous to the 80's it was used from time to time but off hand I can't think of an instance where it was used to bring back a popular actor. But when the 80's soap craze hit and certain actors became popular and decided to leave soaps, the writers began hedging their bets by killing them off but happily resurrecting them if they decided to return. Days was probably the biggest culprit- Roman, Marlena, Steve, Hope. As far as Y&R is concerned, Bill Bell never used it, but like so many other tired gimmicks - doubles, retcons etc once Bill was gone all bets were off. So Phillip and Cane both came back along with Adam -anyone else?

Check YouTube.