Paul Raven

From radio soap hopper Joseph Julian's book For a time, the daily serial The Road of Life was heard over two major networks until the sponsor decided to eliminate NBC and play it only on CBS. The final day on both, the announcer's tag line read: Starting tomorrow, The Road of Life will be heard only over CBS. This didn't sit well with NBC. It was bad enough losing the show, but a free plug for the rival network was rubbing it in. So they ordered it eliminated. But the writer, Charles Gussman, a shrewd and determined fellow, rewrote the last scene as a phone conversation between Dr. Brent, the leading character, and a patient who was asking for an appointment. Brent responded by saying that he was moving the next day and could be reached only in care of Doctor C. B. Hess. On paper this was nothing NBC could object to. But spoken by actor Don MacLaughlin, who de-emphasized the word "doctor" and stressed the rest, it was exactly what Gussman wanted it to say. Sneaky, sneaky.

There was some spin about the audience wanting to believe that Bert was alive and happy. They should have done a proper funeral with Mike, Hope and even Peggy appearing .Surely the actors would have agreed to return to honor Charita. And Meta could have returned for the funeral and stayed on as the new matriach.

More of Erica at the altar Wedding #5 Erica marries Travis Montgomery Feb 88. May 1990 Erica and Travis rewed. July 93 Erica marries Dimitri

Fair enough when new writers come in they drop a few characters to make room for their own. Marland did that in time with Holly, Elizabeth. Lucille, Diane,Rita etc but kept a good balance and integrate the newbies so it didn't seem like a different show. He brought in Tim and Andy to support Barbara's and Sara's role in the show. But in the long term I get why Barbara, Adam and Steve Jackson were dropped. They didn't have any connection to the canvas. Their children were all gone. and the actors were probably expensive to keep. Maybe if they were happy with recurring - but was that even offered to them? Maybe if Emily Norris had been brought on Barbara could have functioned as a grandmother figure? However, when Long got in full swing most of the cast was dropped .Mike, Hope, Justin, Eve, Floyd, Hilary, Morgan, Jennifer, Amanda, Tony, Nola and Quint etc And Charita passing away. The show just changed too much.

It's funny how Marlena in that 80's mode has a very butch look. I've noticed that with some other females in clips from that era. Never understood the appeal of Wayne Northrop. How he was ever considered some sort of sex symbol?

With Dennis Cole they decided to go with a completely different look to John McCook, which was jarring - not only a new performer who naturally presents in a different manner, but also physically is nothing like his predecessor. I don't think anyone warmed to DC in the role.

Re Ron Husmann Add Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.

Her name didn't stay on the credits for that long so there seems to be some confusion about the whole period.

When the show expanded Bill Bell collapsed the Lance/Lorie/Lucas/Leslie storyline. Lance left town, and Lorie shifted to Robert and then Michael before Victor,Leslie had amnesia and got involved with Jonas, leaving Lucas to hook up with Casey. Didn't Jonas get involved with Casey when Les regained her memory? I think all of this sprang from Bill having exhausted the story and wanting to intro new complications while waiting to re-introduce Lance. Also to use established characters to support new storylines for the hour.

Don't recall ever seeing any photos of Erica's wedding to Phil Brent. was it a church ceremony? September 1978 wedding #3 Erica marries Tom February 1984 Wedding #4 Erica and Adam Chandler

SPW Jan 7 1995 The USA network is planning to launch a new soap 'The Drive'. Leah Laiman, who's written for a number of soaps (she was most recently co-headwriter of Guiging Light; she also created the short lived Fox teen soap 'Tribes'), is the show's creator. According to Laiman, The Drive will be set in Miami's South Beach and revolve around characters who range in age from 18-34. "It's not going to have the same emphasis the daytime shows do on the older more staid core-type families. I think it's going to be a lot hipper. We're looking for something that has a little more oomph.It's a great mix of young models - people trying to make it-and it's got a lot of style.' The Drive is set to premiere in September

I think it was Brown that also brought back Marianne Randolph. She teased Mitch and Alice, which would have been interesting.

It's such a pity that GL took an axe to the cast to make way for newbies. If only they has kept a better mix. Tghe show had nothing to fall back on as each new writers dropped some of the previous gegimes and introduced new characters We had remnants of the Bauers, Reardons, Shaynes, Lewis but no strong core. How many of those older/longer running characters actually wanted to leave? Justin for example?

First time ever reading about Irna/Lee. She was Lee Phillip not Phillips so I wonder what happened there?

Re Carolyn Ann Clarke Her first role was Love of Life - a week as a student nurse

A 1974 article on soaps stated that top writers like Gillian Houghton (Secret Storm) could earn upwards of $100,000 per year.

Jillian and the various franks Michael Hawkins . Originally hired for f/back scenes only? Was going to be killed off but ABC demanded Frank recover so he was kept on. Had trouble remembering his lines and was generally unreliable. Andrew Robinson. Wasn't accepted by viewers as he was associated with his psycho role in Dirty Harry. Daniel Hugh Kelly.most popular Frank but left at the end of his contract Geoffrey Pierson. John Sanderford

Been a while since I made any requests, so here goes... Joanna Cassidy Henrietta Moore Bartlett Robinson Ron Hussman James Hyde Walt Willey

And this is Vanessa post surgery. She was even more menacing when she appeared with her face covered.

Didn't Doug write ATWT (and Lucinda ) for like 8 years? For sure in that time there would be instances when she wasn't happy about the writing or particular plot points. Maybe she is focusing on those times and forgetting the good stuff...human nature to do that. Several GH writers (Pat Falken Smith for one complained publically about the ad libbing going on (Geary and Rogers, maybe others who followed their lead) .

I don't believe so. I think that this was like 'Victor and the bomb shelter' where Bill Bell wanted to go in a different direction with the character so past criminal misdeeds were swept under the rug. Of course this would become commonplace later on, where just about every character should have faced jail time at some point.

This photo from the PP pilot shows that Gyl Rowland actually played Selena Cross. The Cross family were dropped and there are some other actors dropped also. By the looks of that photo in addition to Selena and her father Lucas (from the book/movie) there appears to be a mother and younger daughter. Minnette King, James Anderson and Stephanie Lynn fill out the Cross family in addition to Gyl Rowland. In addition Sarah Shelby has a role. Perhaps the role filled by Laura Harrington in the show (Dr Rossi's receptionist?) OR maybe a school teacher?

Re Robert Hogan Add Day in Court 'a villian'

Rosemary Prinz was earning $1000.00 per ep for How To Survive a Marriage in 1974 and on a guarantee of 3 eps per week. That's roughly 15,000 a week in today's money. I believe that made her the highest paid daytime actor at the time.

March 1977 Cast photo