Paul Raven

I recall that Deborah Adair played Jill at this point as having been damaged by the disastrous relationships with Stuart,Derek,Jack and John and seeing Andy as steady,responsible man who could give her stability. Of course when John Abbott returned and showed interest,Andy then seemed a little safe and dull. Did the revamping of the show occur when Wes Kenney arrived? I wonder what relationship he had with Bill in terms of input on story and character? Bill wrote out April,Barbara and the Stevens as well as Leslie and the Laurences, Jonas,Lucas, Karen etc By 83 the show was really firing again.

Billboard review July 1957 Living on borrowed time from extension to extension, "Valiant Lady" is making valiant attempts to wind up and then extend its story line with each reprieve. Author Robert J. Shaw is currently heavily dependent on significant looks from the actors to imply suspense and conflict. The excellent cast continues to feature Flora Campbell in the title role, with Robert Webber and Joy Hodges especially good as a mismatched couple shadowing her life. Herb Kenwith's direction is inventive and lends a different air from the average soap opera, a theater quality in the movement and gestures. This pleasant approach is echoed in the sets and costumes of the Leonard Blair production.

Kings Row 26 Feb 1951 - 29 Feb 1952 CBS/NBC. The NBC run began 22 Oct 1951 Kings Row had been a book,a movie with Ronald Reagan and later a primetime series. Billboard review Kings Row RADIO -Reviewed Friday (2), 3:15 -3:30 p.m., EST. Sponsored by Colgate -Palmolive -Peet Company, Monday thru Friday, thru William Esty via Columbia Broadcasting System. Producer, Arlene Lunny. Writer, Welbourn Kelley. Director, Edward Downs. Music, Bert Buhr - man, organ. Announcer, John Mac - Dougalt. Narrator, Lee Vines. Cast: Francia DeSales, Doris Dalton, Charlotte Manson, Charlotte Holland and Jim Boles. Scrtpter Welbourn Kelley has effectively utilized the characters from Henry Bellamann's best selling novel for soap opera. That the sentimental and neurotic Kings Row characters always had potentialities for the necessary endless trouble is undeniable. And Kelley has included all the proved soap opera elements. Francis DeSales, as Parris Mitchell, psychiatrist, gave his lines a consistently calm reading on the segment caught Doris Dalton skillfully provided the hysterics in the role of the sick in the head gal out for Mitchell's scalp. A clue to her trouble was her husband, an unmitigated scoundrel, who may be insidiously trying to drive her to the nut house. Life Ebbing The stanza caught involved a tense interview ' between Miss Dalton and DeSales. Whether the .latter would live to appear on the next installment seemed to be in doubt at the program's end. A legion of other complex characters were referred to in the dialog, indicating more than ample material to extend the serial as long as necessary. The commercial for Fab employed testimonials in a woman's voice to back up the announcer's claims. The Luster Cream Shampoo jingle was used at the end. Kings Row is soap opera at its most typical. Gene Plotnik.

Billboard March 1955 The pop song market was very much in evidence this week, both on the best -selling pop single chart and the top EP listings. The "Ballad of Davy Crockett," which was plugged into hit proportions by several airings over Walt Disney's ABC -TV program, shows up on the top 30 retail chart in three different places this week, while Columbia's EP "Joanne Sings," featuring TV soap opera queen Mary Stuart, jumped into 12th place on the EP chart in its first appearance. The case of "Joanne Sings" offers even more conclusive proof of TV's potential power in the record market, since Mary Stuart is unknown to the disk buying public as a recording artist. However, she obviously is known to them as the star of one of CBS -TV's top daytime soap operas, because they have bought enough copies of her album to land her in the No. 12 spot on the EP chart this week.

Terry Davis tested for the role of Delilah on OLTL after playing April on EON for 4 years.She said in an old SOD interview she really wanted that role,but they went with someone completely different (Shelly Burch) She then went on to land the role of Stacey on AW.

Don't know if this has been mentioned before. Gloria Monty called Anthony Geary to test for Mitch Williamsas he had worked with him on Bright promise and a late night ABC Mystery Movie, but they felt he was too young. A few weeks later he was called back to test for Luke Spencer.

Thanks for posting. Rare to have eps of this age in such good quality. Katherine lost her love interest in time for the summer stories. Guess Bill felt the young ones on vacation wouldn't be interested...

Heath Kizzier tested for 8 roles on Y&R over a 10 year period before landing the role of Joshua Landers.

Anna Stuart quote from SOW interview May 1997 Stuart says her greatest sense of isolation from the role was when Donna Swajeski was writing AW. "No one would ever admit that Donna didn't like Donna", Stuart recalls. "There were some stories.In one, the boy, Mikey, was taken away from me. After that, it started drying up. I started getting bitter and angry, and I would go to the producer and say,'What is going on here I'm not that old that I should be put out to pasture'. Finally, the exec producer Michael Laibson admitted to me (that I was right), and I said,'Thank you for validating my feelings."

Surprised that Marland wasnt interested in Dee Stewart. She was part of a core family, had only been married once and being an ex to John gave story possibilities.

A murder mystery once in a while is fine as long as ,like previously stated, there is sufficient motive and fallout. It was only when soaps started doing them every year on the flimsiest of motives that they lost impact.

So maybe the role of Barbara was an afterthought?

Thanks for posting. So that day, the stories were Traci/Steve/Brad Sharon/Nick Paul/Chris/Danny/Phyllis Cole/Victoria After setting up three of those, halfway through Nikki and Cole pop up and then Victoria. This often happened and I guess it was to liven things up so that if viewers were getting a little bored something different happens to keep them tuned in? There was no reason that Cole and Nikki could not have appeared earlier.

I guess Lemay was used to writing those lengthy verbose scenes that had worked for him in the 70's and was either unwilling or uncertain about adapting to the pace expected by the late 80's with the shorter more heavily edited scenes. Maybe in time he would have adapted, or perhaps he felt they interfered with the intent and mood he was going for.

ATWT would return to #1 in 74.

I don't recall that style being at all popular at the time, but I guess it was done to clearly delineate Liza as an unsympathetic, harsh type in contrast to Jenny, with the long 'heroine' locks.

And Marland was known to enjoy La Dolce Vita - he was a heavy smoker I recall and wine drinker. Probably a very sedentary lifestyle.Hours at the typewriter/computer poring over scripts etc.

Very true. There's speculation on other boards that this was a response to Y&R debuting earlier that year and showing a lot more skin and sexy scenes than previously on daytime. Well, we were treated to several scenes of Matt in a singlet and bare chested...Does that count??

Ooooh, creepy nightmare sequence... That was when Van's first husband came back from the dead. Thanks for posting.

Jared Martin, who played Donald Lamarr in the late 80's has passed away aged 75.

Gil Gerard is now appearing as Dr Alan Stewart (Nov 73) His first appearances were showing off his bod in a form fitting red swimsuit. He certainly upped the hunk factor on the show.

Thanks! Mystery solved...

We Love Soaps has Jennifer Bassey as Anna Crane on Somerset

Thanks for that. The reruns of The Doctors currently playing on Retro are from around this time period.

Guess that change was the result of Joe Stuart becoming producer...