Paul Raven

Wonder how she ended up writing soaps?

St Louis Post Dispatch June 2 1980

Addie Walsh: An Actress Turned Playwright By Patricia Rice Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

Many actors who tinker with their lines, after the show has opened and the 'director has left, dream of writing their own play. In the case of Addie Walsh, that dream has come true. ' Ms. Walsh's first acting job after she left school five years ago was with the Imaginary Theatre of the Loretto-Hilton Theatre. There, actors and actresses gave a contemporary touch to traditional children's fairy tales and folk stories.

Many of the performances were from improvisational scripts, and Ms. Walsh was able to come up with children's stories much more often than other members of the company, she recalls. So two seasons ago, when she became pregnant with her daughter, Lauren, the Imaginary Theatre offered her the new job of playwright in residence. Her husband, Eric Brooks, remained as an actor with the troupe. The Imaginary Theatre plays chiefly plays in schools in Missouri, but tours other states. For 10 days or so each year, it gives performances on the mainstage of the Loretto-Hilton for the general public.

Ms.Walsh's two adaptions of favorite children's stories for the group have been successful with children. We saw two young audiences revel in her updated, jazzy version of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," a cool cat she calls "Rat Man." "I thought there had to be more than music to make the rats follow the Pied Piper. I thought he should look like a rat," she said. Last year, David Frank, former Loretto-Hilton general manager, asked her to try adapting Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" for the stage. The month-long run of her version, featuring the Imaginary Theatre actors and some from the regular Loretto-Hilton cast, as well as several children, was a box-office success and will be repeated as a Christmas special this winter.

On June 6, her latest adaptation for the stage will open under the Queeny Park tent. It is sponsored by the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation, in cooperation with the New Music Circle, and is a musical version of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper." Composer Robert Wykes wrote the music to Ms. Walsh's lyrics for the production. "He changed only a few words," she said.

"We cut out a few songs, added a line here and there. We didn't work together. I gave him the lyrics, and he wrote the music. It's just beautiful, just beautiful. He's a wonderful composer."

It was Ms.Walsh's idea to do a play based on the Mark Twain novel, which is set in the England of Henry VIII. After a performance of "A Christmas Carol" last winter, Elizabeth Sayad,the mother of two of the children in that production, came to Ms. Walsh and began talking about producing a play at Queeny this summer. "She asked me if I could find something to adapt that would be suitable for Missouri and young people, and would have music," Ms. Walsh said.

"Because she said Missouri, I thought of Mark Twain. I like his work." She settled quickly on "The Prince and the Pauper." She enjoyed working on the adaptation because she could do it leisurely, with about five months to work it up. Her only interruption was in the weeks she spent returning to acting, playing Joan Hogan, the daughter of the manic-depressive in "Father Dreams" at the Loretto-Hilton Studio Theatre. The language of her version of "The Prince and the Pauper" script reflects the Victorian words that Twain used when describing Tudor times. "I used as much of Twain's words as possible," she said.

"He has a lot of dialogue." But she edited out much of the more caustic part of Twain's work, she said. "In the story, when the prince (who changes roles with the pauper) hits the pauper's world, Mark Twain puts in a message that is not pliable enough for the stage. It is too preachy; it would hit too hard for kids. "Hopefully, his (Twain's) ideas about the streets will come out from the background." Ms. Walsh helped in the casting of the play.

Christopher Nickel, who played Tiny Tim in "A Christmas Carol," plays Edward, Prince of Wales, and Jack Reidelberger, who played the hyperactive child in "Put Them All Together" at the Loretto-Hilton, plays Tom Canty, the pauper. About half children in the play were in summer classes that Ms. Walsh gave at Loretto-Hilton.

After her husband finishes a run of "South Pacific" the end of Junes she plans moving to New Vork City. His family lives there, and she grew up Connecticut. She is working on adapting a novel for the stage and she may write another play some day, she said, but both and her husband plan to concentrate acting for a while after the move to New  York.

6 minutes ago, Khan said:

I would've gone even further that week and had Jo on trial for murder!  Of course, no one in their right mind would believe Jo to be capable of such an act, but just imagine how the audience might have responded had the big Friday cliffhanger had been the jury finding her guilty?  You KNOW they're gonna tune in on Monday just to see whether Jo will be exonerated after all!

 Have Patti return to escape from an abusive relationship. 

Jo is shocked that her daughter has been through this. The guy turns up and starts to get rough with Patti , resulting in Jo picking up the gun that Patti had brought for protection and blasting that bastard to bits. The Friday finale is a freeze frame of Mary Stuart withe pistol smoking

Would Farrah have considered doing a soap at that point? Her career was faltering but I think it would have been a comedown, even if she was offered $$$.

Morgan was perfect in the sense that she was a name associated with soaps and never really progressed beyond that, but still had that primetime cachet.

I'm trying to think of anyone from that era who might be a possibility.

6 minutes ago, Khan said:

In order for her vision for the show to have succeeded, she and Gary Tomlin really needed a true potboiler storyline that could have had everyone talking.

Agree. That live episode 'lost tape' schtick got lots of publicity but it was undermined by the feeling it was ahoax.

What they should have done instead was a 'live week' and use that in conjunction with some returns eg Patti, Gary  or gimmicks like the ghost of Eunice appearing to Jo and Suzi and maybe a bombshell story eg Jo's son is alive.

Something attention grabbing for each day of the week and lots of publicity.

So many actors have daytime credits on their resume before moving on to various levels of success in primetime. 

But there are many, after building up primetime credits ,make their way back to the soaps.

Let's start a list and discuss their career moves.

Susan Flannery

After years on Days as Laura, she made the move and landed that role on Towering Inferno-a pretty impressive start.

That lead to TV movies, mini series and a role on Dallas. But the roles seemed to dry up and she was tempted back to daytime with the proposed 'Scruples' and then made a triumphant return on B&B.

Dennis Cole

Started on Paradise Bay in the mid 60's. Then primetime leads on Felony Squad, Bracken's World and Bearcats. He was a regular guest star in the 70's, and married Jaclyn Smith, whose career eclipsed his, but by 81 was back on the soaps as Lance on Y&R.

Who can you add to the list?

Launching a new soap at that time was fraught with danger as we can see.

The big problem was getting the affiliates on board and both RH and LOV had major problems in that area so I don't know what made ABC think TC would do any better.

The only way that more stations would pick it up was if it did super well where it was playing. Which, of course was unlikely.

At 12.30 they probably would have been better off with a game show or some other format that may have rated as well and been way cheaper, so more likely to stick around.

Just concentrate on AMC,OLTL and GH.

Susan and everybody else needs to call it quits with trying to exhume AMC.

13 hours ago, EdibleFlowers said:

I enjoy satire and comedy, not realism or family drama.

Then why are you watching Days?

21 minutes ago, j swift said:

n 1976 would it have been viable for Tommy Horton to have a grown daughter suddenly appear in Salem?

Yes. Heather North , the last actress to play Sandy was 2 years older than Deidre, but presented younger so the casting would be fine. Having a new young leading lady as part of the family at the time the Bill/Laura and Doug/Julie stories were winding down would have been perfect timing.

24 minutes ago, j swift said:

Also, families like OLTL's Lords, or AMC's Martins have a legacy because important events happened which influenced future generations.

Can you elaborate?

26 minutes ago, j swift said:

In the preview thread, there was a discussion of the future of the Hortons.  As a fan, I've never valued maintaining a family of characters just for nostalgia, and the Hortons are a perfect example.

Bill and Micky never excited me, and I think Laura was the key to that triangle.  I never saw Marie as a twenty-something, but her nun period was hardly thrilling.  Addie was cool, but never really competition for Julie.  Then you have the boring generation of Melissa, Sandy, and Jessica, none of whom lit the world on fire.

Mike and Scott were variable based mostly on who played them, but they both lacked specific characteristic traits.  I only liked Jennifer during her initial pairing with Jack, who was problematic.  And Lucas never evolved out of his bratty stage.

Hope and Julie are the only Hortons that I enjoyed.  Hope is arguably more of a Brady at this point because of her kids.  And Julie, as played by SSH was really only the lead from 1968 to the mid-70s before she left in 1984, which in the history of DAYS is a relatively short period of time, 

In the 2020s the problem seems to be that the future of the family rests on Jennifer and Hope's kids, and Abby's dead, Shawn-D is in rehab, JJ's arc was a bust, and Ciara is with Ben.  I don't wish for random relatives to suddenly move to Salem so that they become Hortons in name only, because they have no shared history with the family.  So, there's not much of a loss for me to mourn.

I agree with a lot of what you posted. For me, the problem was that TPTB never bothered to really nurture and commit to the Hortons over the years, which has left us with fractured family we have now. When Pat Falken Smith returned in 81 she recognized that and had plans to keep the Hortons viable by intertwining them with the new families, but that soon went by the wayside.

The casting of Sandy in the 80's, the neglect of Steve and David, bringing on Scotty too soon, the bland recast of Melissa and so on-in nails in the coffin.

The success of Jennifer was down to an appealing actress and front burner stories(even if some of them were bad) Same with Hope.

As I have said many times, if Deidre had have been cast as Sandy things would have been very different as a popular new actress would have been part of a core family.

The desired demo is Women 18-34. That's who advertisers want to catch. The belief is that they are most prepared to spend money and try out different things.

Teen demo was secondary. Were there ads aimed at teens? NBC tried to push that the teens would grow into the desired demo but what appeals to a teen -campy Passions type writing has lesser appeal as viewers mature. And do you want to be watching what your kid sister is into?

2 hours ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

Rachel remembered walking past what became the Cory mansion on her way to school.  Again, Rachel didn't even live in Bay City while she was in school

She could have just said she remembered it as a young woman when she arrived in Bay City.

Reading through the synopses, i thought the Joanna Lee era presented the best-far from perfect but at least fairly balanced.

When Sherry left, maybe Liza should have also. She had been frontburner for a decade,so maybe some time away would have helped. Gary coming in to keep the Waltons/Bergmans at the center of things. Tom also with a good recast.

And why didn't they just bring in Tracey,Jo's natural grandaughter instead of creating the never before mentioned Sarah? weird!

Bringing Patti back finally but writing her as a different character.Where were her children?

So many changes and stories that seemed to lack purpose.

18 minutes ago, EdibleFlowers said:

Hopefully once the set is gone we’ll see even less of them. 

 

Even better, maybe anyone connected to the Hortons could be burned alive in the fire!

Love of Life

Additions and corrections

Joseph Wendt  Maury Cooper CIA double agent working to expose Dr Fred Wannberg as a former Nazi. Undercover at the Carlson Paper Company 1965

Dr Russo   Ralph Bell 1965

Scheff   Frieda Altman Vivian Carlson's housekeeper 1965

Dr Bart Phillips Buster Crabbe May June 1965

@slick jones Upon further research I have discovered that Buster Crabbe played Dr Bart Phillips on Love of Life in May/June 1965.Sorry for the mix up.

A re-imagined Horton Xmas

Doug/Julie. Steve, Spenser Olsen and his family, Scotty Banning, Mike and Jeremy Horton and so on.

Really from 1980 onwards the show spent more time on ignoring the Hortons than nurturing that family both onscreen and offscreen.

I would imagine  a lot of the 'new fans' weren't as loyal to the show as the 'old fans' who deserted.

Love of Life

Joseph  Wendt   Buster Crabbe  CIA double agent working to trap Kenneth Wann berg   June  1965         4-5 episodes

Is there a support group operating for all the actors/characters Brad has brought on and praised to the high heavens , before dumping them within a year?

Another Lisa Hartman mini series that seems to have slipped under the radar was the 2 parter 'Roses Are For The Rich' which aired May 87 on CBS. Based on a 1986 novel by Jonell Lawson. also starring Bruce Dern, Joe Penny, Morgan Stevens, Howard Duff, Sharon Wyatt and Betty Buckley.

With so many of those novels being churned out throughout the 80's, wonder how this one ended up being adapted?

Part 1 Sun #11 18.6/30 Part 2 Tues #7 17.8/29. 

How and why did Sharon end up with Cameron's company? Is she now running it?

St Louis Post Dispatch 12th Nov 1992

TUNE IN By Nancy M. Reichardt  LOVING" threw a champagne reception recently during the taping of the wedding festivities for star-crossed lovers Trisha and Trucker (Noelle Beck and Robert Tyler). Nearly the entire cast was on hand for the taping, and they were all dressed to kill in glamorous outfits. But all eyes were focused on the "bride," who was clad in a specially designed Renaissance-type wedding dress, topped off with a headpiece that looked like an authentic antique from the Middle Ages.

In actuality, the headpiece, a small crown, was purchased by Beck when she was a youngster.

"When I was about 12, 1 bought an old wedding dress for 25 cents at a flea market, and I bought this headpiece along with it," says the actress. "I've had the headpiece in my dressing room for years. When our producer, Haidee Granger, saw it, she thought it would be ideal for me to wear as part of my wedding ensemble."

At the reception, Granger announced that Millee Taggart would be replacing Addie Walsh as head writer, effective mid-November. The news that Taggart, who has written for the soap before, would once again be at the helm was met with applause. And Keith Grumet, who nearly disappeared from the show as nerdy Arthur, will soon be enjoying a beefed-up story line..

Soap Scoop By Connie Passalacqua

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" may be the famous message sent by Mark Twain to the Associated Press in 1897, but its contents are most applicable to the fate of "Search for Tomorrow," daytime's lowest-rated soap opera. To both counter rampant cancellation rumors and possibly revive the 34-year-old show, a new production team, headed by executive producer David Lawrence, was brought in two months ago. "I'm delighted that in the last six-to-eight weeks,the ratings have gone up two share points, so what we've been doing can't be wrong," says Lawrence. "At least we're going in the right direction." He attributes the gain to the new headwriting team, Pam Long and Addie Walsh.

Both came to "SFT" from a lengthy, successful stint on "Guiding Light," where co-headwriter Long (a former actress  on "Texas") cooked up outrageous but highly original and entertaining plot lines. "Pam and Addie are an extraordinary and well-matched writing team. Pam's inventive and passionate and gets all wrapped up in ideas, and Addie, who's organized, gets them into shape."

Lawrence is also pleased the show's focus has switched to the activities of the three McCleary brothers Hogan (David Forsythe), Cagney (Matthew Ashford) and Quinn (Geoffrey Meek). Lawrence is an old friend of "SFT," having started his career there as a Procter& Gamble supervisor in 1960. He's spent the past 14 years in Hollywood producing miniseries ("The Key to Rebecca") and TV movies ("Consenting Adult ) through his own production company, Castle Colombe Productions Inc.

He also co-owned, wrote and produced the memorable movie anthology series "That's Hollywood." Lawrence says that he's at various waiting periods concerning work on an upcoming ABC-TV movie, a Broadway musical and a Peter Sellers retrospective for a British company. But when these projects get moving he intends to stay with "SFT," delegating authority to others in his company for his ongoing projects.

"So many people have come and gone from my position that it would be heartless for still another person to leave," he says. "And there's no use kidding ourselves, if the show goes into a decline now, we're finished. But if we can hold (the ratings) we have now and gradually build on them to add (another ratings point) as I intend, then I think the future of the show is good.".

Re Alex North. Could Samantha have been posing as Marlena when Alex met and married her. Maybe Sam with her low self esteem and other issues felt more confident as Marlena-the more successful twin. Could that have worked with some tweaks?

Another idea-have a young woman turn up at some point turning out to be Samantha''s child-giving Marlena a surrogate daughter.