Paul Raven

Martha Greenhouse replaced Sasha Von Scherler on LIAMST in Feb 71.

Laraine Day,40's actress was reported as up for a role in Peyton Place (perhaps Ruth Warrick's part as Hannah Cord)

Dec 65 Melissa Murphy replaces Patricia Harty as Patti Tate.Harty got a pilot in Hollywood,probably Occasional Wife which debuted Sept 66 Gretchen Walther was probably a fill in between Harty and Murphy.

April 67 Trish Vandervere takes on the role.

1964 Ossie Davis appeared in 6 episodes. Would he have been the first black performer on the show?

In a 1964 Variety article ,writer Jack Paritz recalls being brought on to Love of Life after another writer,caught up in a backstage feud,wrote the soap into a corner and Paritz had 'four weeks of impossible work' to get the show back on track.

Variety reports that the October 24 and 25th 1961 episodes of TBD will feature 4 blind actors,employed as part of a storyline dealing with a woman who shied away from marriage due to her need to devote herself to her blind mother.

The idea to use real life blind actors came from a fan letter in which the writer stated she had seen a blind performer on a local show.and wondered if the show could use them.

Does anyone know what character that was?

Cynthia was the estranged wife of Dr Doug Campbell.Doug and Cynthia were introduced by Ellis/Hunt in 78/79..Wasn't Doug a love interest for Annie?

I wonder what life had in store for these two after their soap stints ended.

Funny how some actors kept working in soaps through the 80's and 90's and others disappeared.

Was that the end of John and Ashley? I'm blanking out on how many of the characters were written out-Brad,Jack,Darcy,Viveca.I think some of these had potential and it was damaging for them all to be dropped when the audience may have been getting interested.

Variety over the years would note cast comings and goings (not everything unfortunately)Some of them were unknown to me.Maybe Carl or others might know more.

1965

March Sindee Richards (Penny Davis)

March Ann Williams out (Maggie)

June Jacqueline Bertell ?

1966

May Harry Packwood (Mike)

August Morgen Stone (Keith)

1968

April

Conrad Roberts (Dr Simon Harris)

September Peter Burnell (Mike)

1969

June Jim Shannon

August Mel Winkler (?)

October Virginia Vestoff (Althea)

Ginger Gerlach (Julie)

1970

March

Frances Sternhagen (?)

Robert Silvio (?)

October

Elizabeth Hubbard returns (Althea)

1971

May Palmer Deane (Hank)

July Nancy Barrett (Kathy)

1972

July Holly Peters (Kathy)

1973

January

Julia Duffy (Penny)

Marie Thomas (

1974

Michael Landrum (Mike)

1977

July

Chuck Weiss becomes exec producer

1978

May

Peggy Cass (Sweeny)

August

Carla Dragoni (MJ)

1979

May

James Storm (Mike)

July

Doris Quinlan becomes exec producer

October

Ben Thomas (Jack)

1981

November

Ashby Adams (Mike)

Amy Ingersoll (MJ)

In later years,it seems Robin's beauty tips could be narrowed down to one sage piece of advice 'get some good work done'

July 74 Ann Marcus named headwriter.

Gillian Houghton became new headwriter in June 1969. She also was known as Gabrielle Upton.

As well as Susan and Barbara Vining,Judy worked behind the scenes on Texas as a producer.

August 1960,NBC announces that Roots will remain on air due to viewer feedback-thousands of letters were sent once word got out about the imminent cancellation.

Will try and find out about Stadd's departure.

In May 1960,NBC announced that FTR would be cancelled in October to make way for repeats of the Danny Thomas show.They shelled out $7,000,000.Variety said that FTR was close to cancellation before ,but the acquiring of Thomas reruns sounded it's death knell.NBC had been experiencing success with Loretta Young reruns,so was willing to take the chance with Thomas.

Anyway,that didn't happen and FTR was granted a reprieve.Thomas was put up against ATWT at 1.30

In September 1960,Pickard and Provo quit the show due to 'unwillingness to write under editorial supervision'.Guess this means that NBC wanted more say now they owned the show.That's when Stadd took over.

Jan 63

1. ATWT 12.8

2.House Party 11.2

3. Password 10.8

4. TGL 9.9

5. SFT 8.7

6. TEON 9.2

7. To Tell The Truth 8.5

8. LOL 8.2

9. SS 8.2

10. Millionaire (reruns) 8.1

CBS had every show in the Top 10.

That drop by AW from 8.6 in 77/78 to 7.5 in 78/79 saw the show drop from equal 1st to 8th place which is pretty drastic. Meanwhile GH went from a 7.0 to an 8.7 and from 8th to 2nd.

That first drop was merely a taste of things to come.I think it was the 90 min format,which posters in the AW thread are all agreeing was a lot of filler,the cast changes,Lemay's departure and the resurgence of GH all combining to damage AW.

The Variety article said that GH was planning a 4 week story arc based around a black couple.She would be a schoolteacher who is assaulted by a student she flunked. They stated that theater actor Bobby Dean Hooks was in the running for the male role.I guess he was later known as Robert Hooks.

Has it ever been mentioned that Beverlee McKinsey was on LOL? Variety reported in July 66,Bev, who was noted as having understudied leads in Barefoot in the Park and As Wednesday on Broadway,was joining LOL in a 'running lead'.

Variety reported in April 65 that Billie Allen would be portraying a confidante to a Flame character newly arrived in Manhattan.Yje article goes on to say that GH and Young Marrieds would be adding black characters to their casts.

From the craziness of Hollywood to the craziness of preachin'...

That 73 article solved a mystery for me re the Benjamin family.I have seen those names in cast lists but never was sure who they were. I wonder if they were contract players and how much airtime they got as I have never seen them mentioned in summaries.

I have a feeling that Jay was a policeman and Terry a nurse so they could easily blend into the canvas without leading stories.Maybe there was more planned for them but writer changes got in the way.

Seems under John Edwards SFT was really trying to be contemporary and relevant and it was working.

In August 68,entering her second year as headwriter Rita Lakin worked out a deal with Colgate,NBC etc to co write the show with Rick Edelstein,citing exhaustion at being solo head writer. They each got 16 weeks off per year and shares the more than $100,000 pay check. Lakin communicated with exec producer Allen Potter by mail and a 10 min phone call each week.

By 69 Lakin was working in primetime as story editor for Mod Squad.

'Joyce and I are not the Perfect Couple' - true.They divorced in 74.

He then married onscreen daughter in law Suzanne Zenor (Margo)

Joyce went on to marry William Asher (who had been married to Elizabeth Montgomery).Interestingly,Asher adopted Mallory's son who was called John Mallory Asher.