Paul Raven

I agree. Liz should have been on as support to Jill and friend to Katherine and always trying to mediate between the two. I proposed at one stage that the John Silva character could have been Greg-go to lawyer and romantic option for Nina etc as played on screen.

Roberta and Melody reunited in 2012

Fantastic!! Early Xmas present - can't wait to see the updates. BTW are u going to do a cast list for Bright Promise?

This may have been posted before... Ken Corday and Tom Langan Executive producer and executive producer/head writer TV Guide Online Q&A April 2000 Have you visited Salem, USA, lately? If you haven't, you're missing out on a slew of new characters, situations and secrets on Days of Our Lives. Tom Langan, a longtime Days producer, took over the additional title of head writer last fall, and he's been spinning his own brand of soap storytelling (teen angst, extensive use of history) ever since. The road has been somewhat rocky (erratic Nielsen ratings!), but Langan and Salem scion Ken Corday are determined to bring the show into the new millennium. Here, in part one of a two-part conversation, the duo voice their concerns about the Nielsen ratings and discuss what viewers can expect in the coming months. It must be gratifying that people are responding so well to your stories. Tom Langan: It's very encouraging. As a writer, if people are responding in a positive way, [then] you feel motivated to continue the hard work, but I was very disappointed [that the ratings went down the week of the plane crash]. I don't understand it. I don't see how the Internet site [Soap City] can get a million hits a week and the ratings are flat or going down. You know the answer: Everyone knows the Nielsen ratings aren't accurate. Ken Corday: Will you print that? Tom, is it frustrating for you, as the prime content provider, that the number of people watching isn't accurately measured? Tom Langan: Terribly frustrating, because you labor over this, creatively speaking, and you challenge yourself and you start to second-guess yourself if the ratings don't reflect what you think is positive, good material. Ken Corday agrees to spend half a million dollars in one week for an airplane crash that I'm writing, he shows great confidence, the audience gets excited, the network starts promoting it and the ratings are flat. But the Nielsen problem is nothing new! In the late '80s, during the supercouple era, Days was not a strong ratings performer. Ken Corday: Correct. What you have to look at is that the Nielsen sample seems to be the antithesis of where we are strongest. We are strongest with women 18 to 34. Many of those women are in a single-parent home or a single-person home without children, and some of them are in institutions such as dormitories, colleges and other places that are never sampled by Nielsen. You will never have any institutional sampling; you'll never have any nontraditional sampling. So perhaps that is part of the reason [we're undercounted]. Tom Langan: It's all very frightening to me that with television being one of the greatest inventions in the last 100 years, they haven't come up with a way in Silicon Valley to monitor audiences. Ken Corday: Or if they have, the civil liberties union isn't letting them implement it! Tom Langan: That's an excuse, because people voluntarily get on [America Online] and they get into these chat rooms and enter contests in which they're more than willing to give up personal information. Just put a chip in the television! Why hasn't anyone done it? Somebody is stopping this from happening. Now you're beginning to sound like a Days storyline! Tom Langan: Absolutely. I know it sounds a bit diabolical. How much of your mind is occupied by this &emdash; because head writing is a full-time job, as is executive producing! Do these thoughts interrupt your creative process? Tom Langan: No, because I'm going to write what I'm going to write. I've always said that if my writing is not going to be pleasing to the show owner or the network then they should get somebody else, because that's what I would do. Fortunately, at this point, people are very pleased with how the show is doing. But, as I said, it angers me to know that these are the ratings, because with all the technology we have I know that there could be a much [more accurate] sample than it is. What are your strengths as a writer? Tom Langan: The fact that I have no children. I devote my full time to this. I don't know what my strengths are. I have no idea. I really don't. Ken Corday: Tom's first strength is that he's lived and breathed Days of Our Lives for close to 10 years. In dog years it would be many, many more! So he knows the show. It's not like someone who's walked in and is learning it while writing it. He also knows that if it's not broken it doesn't need to be fixed, so he's not constantly dumping characters that are familiar and important to the show. And he also knows for anything to grow and change and get better, you have to water and get new life in the family trees for the Hortons, Bradys and DiMeras. That is a responsibility that the previous head writers over the last five years had not been addressing. But over and above all that, I think Tom realizes that this is a medium about emotional connections more than physical connections, more than intellectual connections. There are deep emotional reasons attached to the things we do, and they connect sometimes over an arc of a year or two. The show is in transition since Tom really started writing the show. To look at the show now, it is not the same show it was last summer. I find it a better show, a more intriguing show and a fresher show to look at. We're not trying to or being asked to follow five or six storylines a day. Tom Langan: Do you watch the show? Of course I do! Tom Langan: I'm just curious, when Ken says to you it's a different show than it was last summer, do you see that? I do. And if I can answer my own question, I feel one of your strengths is the humor. It's not humor that is directly related to the storyline. It's almost throwaway humor. And I don't mean to say throwaway as in throwaway, but in that you have to be quick to catch it. Tom Langan: Do you have any favorite storyline right now or anything you're curious to see more of? Abe and Brandon's history. I want to find out exactly what happened, because Abe and Lexie have been underserved. I mean, they've had stuff to do... Tom Langan: ...But they haven't had a story in a long time. Ken Corday: Well, there's a lot more coming there, but I think that the plan that Tom has laid out goes at least a year down the road before any of the big, big secrets are revealed. Were there specific characters that you wanted to write for when you took over? Tom Langan: The story takes on a life of its own and you sort of just go with those people. I did want to bring Chloe in, however, because I felt that the group of kids needed a loose cannon that was mysterious. That's a good way to describe her. Tom Langan: You don't know which way she's going to go yet. And we won't know that for a while because she has a lot of baggage, emotional and psychological baggage. Ken Corday: And what that's done is enable him to bring Nancy and Craig into center story as opposed to the peripheral kind of mustache-twisting. Tom Langan: What do you think of Belle and Shawn? I don't understand Belle. We don't know a thing about her. We don't know what she wants, whether she's a good girl or a bad girl. Is she a heroine? Because she's written to be something of a heroine, yet the actress plays against that. She plays mischievous. We know she has a heart because she defends Chloe and stands up to Phillip, and we know that she wants Shawn and that she's a good daughter &emdash; but none of that translates. I don't feel any of that. I think it's because the actress (Kirsten Storms) plays against what's being written. Tom Langan: I think it's in the writing, because you want to keep her as something of an unknown &emdash; you don't want to predict what's going to happen if, let's say, Shawn should become interested in Chloe. But do you know in your head what Belle is all about? Tom Langan: Not yet, no. I know more about Chloe than I do about Belle, and like you I've been watching her. It's very interesting to me, as a writer, to watch the show because I'm seeing, word for word, how the actors interpret what I write for them and how they relate to the material; that really can motivate you to write more for a character. It works the other way, too, obviously. A lot of people have asked about Brady. Tom Langan: Yeah, I know. I would love to bring Brady in... the only thing is I have [too] many people. Let's just say that he won't make an entrance as Eric did, years after Sami. Of course, the time might be right soon because Jensen [Ackles, who plays Eric] is leaving the show... so we'll see. As a head writer you're creating story but you're also juggling the number of good guys and bad guys on the canvas, as well as contracts and who's coming and going. How do you manage it all? Do you use a chart or a bulletin board, or is it all in your head? Tom Langan: It has to be in your head. If it's not in your head then you shouldn't be doing it. A lot of times people said, "Oh, my goodness, Mike and Carrie are leaving the show. What are we going to do? It's going to leave a big hole in the show." I said, "Yippee. Let's play Belle, Shawn and Chloe. Let's get more Nancy and Craig." I would love it if Mike and Carrie came back to the show, but it's great from a writing standpoint to get some fresh people on canvas that we don't know about. We know everything there is to know about Mike and Carrie; they loved each other! In terms of the juggling act, one thing I do try to say to myself as I'm writing each show is, "Gee, do I have any comedy here? Do I have any fun? Are people going to smile when they see these scenes? Are they going to be depressed [for] the whole show?" You have to come up with a balance of adventure, romance, fun and excitement. As a writer, who were your influences? Tom Langan: That's very easy. [Legendary soap writer] Bill Bell. Bill Bell really nurtured me for the 10 years I was on The Young and the Restless. We became very close through the show and had a friendship, mainly, about the show. I loved his writing and I was amazed by his talent. We communicated very well in discussing daytime in general, and he was the first person to say to me many years ago, "Tom, I'd like to train you to be a writer." I remember exactly where it was. It was in Malibu and we were having lunch and he was buying sandwiches to bring back to the house in the Colony. And I was so flustered by it, I just put it in the back of my head, and here I am 10 years later, doing it. But he really believed in me. He believed I could do it, and he was the greatest influence on me. Have you spoken with Bill since you've taken over as writer of the show? Tom Langan: Yes. And I told him that it was very daunting and that I sort of fell into it. I said to Bill, "I really feel that as each week goes by I'm really getting into the rhythm of it." And he said, "Tom, that's the keyword. Look at me: I did it for four years and I never broke stride. You can do it. From the sound of your voice you really sound like you're doing the right thing, you've got the right attitude and the right work ethic." He was very encouraging. That anecdote brings me to something that is a problem in daytime, which is that writers don't train other writers. Are there specific young writers that you want to work with? Tom Langan: Well, it's interesting. This is a very special animal, daytime, and some people take to it like a fish to water, and other people try it and it just doesn't work out. It just doesn't fit them. It's something you have to be working within; you have to be available 24 hours a day. I hate these people who say, "Oh, my God, I work so hard. I'm a head writer on daytime and I have no time to myself." I would love to find people who could take over for me someday but they just don't present themselves. The desire is not there, the talent is not there and it's not something that you can look at someone and say, "Oh, there's a head writer." It takes months of getting to know them. Actually, there is someone whom I met recently, a young lady who I think has great potential. But again, she looks at this as being impossible, which is the same way I looked at it 20 years ago. Ken Corday: Unlike many of the head writers I have worked with, Tom is the kind of head writer that is not an island unto himself. He is a nurturing head writer. He will sit and although I'm not privy to some of these meetings, with his breakdown writers and associate head writers and allow them to bring some of themselves to the script. He will sit with people, whether it's the script continuity person or a new breakdown writer, and take the time to explain that this is the way that these characters interrelate. And there is a good synergy between him and the current writing staff. Better than I have ever seen on this show. Similar to the synergy that existed when Bill Bell was head writer here, and also creating The Young and the Restless and training Pat [Falken] Smith and giving her outlines, yet reading every one of her shows! And that was in the day when you would not just write the show but you would write the scripts as well! The transition between head writers really has to be hands-on. Thank god Tom was hands-on here when we went from Jim [Reilly] to Sally Sussman to Lorraine Broderick. Had he not been here, I think there would have been a lot of glitches. There would have been big gaps and big jumps and big holes in the story that he seemed to plug. After a while, with all his fingers in the dyke, he said, "OK, I'm going to stop being the Dutch boy and I'm going to be the guy who fixes the dyke and builds a new one," very metaphorically speaking. But if something is not working, he is able to work it out. And if something is working he can be told, "This is great," and then he moves on. He doesn't hammer that nail. He's a rare find. What hasn't worked? Tom Langan: I think it's been too short a period of time to know. I think sometimes things do present themselves and you say, "Oh, God, let's get out of this. It isn't working." That hasn't happened yet, so ask me that in a year!

Martin E Brooks, who played Skip Curtis, has died aged 90.

Matin E Brooks,who played 2 roles on SFT in a matter of years has passed away. He played Dr Dan Walton and Dr Everett Moore.

Martin E Brooks who played Dr Arthur Bradshaw has died aged 90. http://variety.com/2015/film/news/martin-e-brooks-six-million-dollar-man-dies-dead-1201655892/

Not sure how long Coca was on the show =matbe 13 weeks? Here's a quotefrom a radio interview with Helen Wagner discussing the storyline after Doug Marland died. HELEN: Well, there has been a slight change. It's very difficult, though, to maintain an author's ideas. He left a Bible, so-called in quotes, that he had put together, fortunately, just previous to his heart problems, and we've gone on that now for more than a year. I don't know how much of that is left and how much of what they are doing will be continued. I'm sure they will continue Doug's people, but now they really have to strike out on their own and we've got to just cross our fingers and hope for the best, because that's what we all want.

That Richard /John story was ATWT's rip off of Hitchcock's 'Strangers on a Train', which starred Farley Granger who turned up a few years later as Earl Mitchell.Imagine if Farley had have been cast as Richard. ATWT could have scored some publicity by having a star from the original movie now playing the villian. Imogene Coca was Alice.She was a huge TV star in the 50's on 'Your Show of Shows'.

Late 83 thru early 84

Here's what was happening around the time of the Xmas episode to put things in perspective Learning their marriage has been annulled, Whit decides to tell everyone Charmaine is not his sister but his former wife. Paul accuses Gunnar of murdering his father, causing Barbara to take the child to a psychiatrist. On TV, John and Karen expose James as a fraud, stating Gunnar is the real Stenbeck heir with Dusty in line for inheritance. Gunnar decides to give money to John to do research on the heart disease that killed Burke. Steve proves to Whit that Craig stole one of the coins used to frame Steve. David finds empty pill bottle and insists Jeff have blood test. David is called away on emergency; Jeff starts to change label on sample as David returns. Craig tells Ernie Cricket is pregnant. Caught by David trying to change blood samples, Jeff runs off. Jeff winds up on Skid Row and buys some methedrine to shoot into vein, but stops when a policeman comes on scene. Jeff goes to sleazy motel and tries to go cold turkey. Whit believes Steve's charge that Craig double-crossed Whit with coin theft. Whit fires Craig and Craig vows to get even. Margo invites Bob and female judge Sara Compton for dinner. First Bob feels uncomfortable because on his first date with Sara she came on to him, but the two enjoy each other's company and laugh off their first date. Arriving in Oakdale, Ernie asks Cricket to marry him. Samantha finds Cory and now has information to free her mother. Learning Craig embezzled from her, Diana insists on his interest in nightclub or she'll go to police. Craig tracks down graphologist who agrees to modify Betsy's letter to Steve. In the new letter, Betsy tells Steve she loves Craig and regrets having betrayed him. Bob and David tell Annie that Jeff should go to a treatment center after he's released from the hospital. Jeff nearly becomes violent at the thought of going to detox center and persuades Annie to let him come home. Steve agrees to tend bar at Anemone on temporary basis. Craig has a dream in which Betsy leaves him and he suffers fall. Craig later goes to therapist, saying that he needs information on novel he's writing. Following car trouble, Diana spends night on Steve's couch. When Betsy arrives to talk with Steve, Diana, wearing Steve's nightshirt, opens the door and makes it look as though she and Steve went to bed together. Lisa and Barbara are impressed by a man named Richard, who claims his wealthy dad wants to open a boutique. Steve cries in Diana's arms, saying he's lost Betsy forever. Craig asks stuntman to teach him to take fall without getting injured. Diana tells Brian she intends to marry Steve. Brian has negative response, saying Steve isn't good enough for her, Margo and Tom want to start family. Unable to find job, John physically attacks Bob when he won't give him a reference. Tom and Margo fight about their fathers' disagreement. Lisa is furious when Whit writes damaging article about Jeff’s drug abuse. Craig feigns paralysis. Betsy refuses Lyla's request that she leave Craig. Annie learns that Jeff has been skipping his psychiatric appointments, but balks at David's suggestion that she leave him. Richard, foiled in his attempts to be with Barbara, continues to stare at her from the apartment across the way. Barbara receives flowers from an anonymous admirer. Betsy will not listen to Kim's suggestion that she leave Craig. Craig checks out of hospital against doctor's advice. Frannie’s friend, Marcy Thompson fantasizes about Bob kissing her and promising eternal love. Frank Andropoulos, Nick and Steve’s cousin, is interested in Lila. Ariel tells Whit she knows he's a bigamist and gets him to offer job in return for keeping mouth shut. Richard breaks into Gunnar's hotel room and steals camera. Annie leaves Jeff but promises to return if he gets help. Lisa is stunned when she's the only one dressed formally for her party. Everyone else is in punk attire thanks to Ariel. As the guests are all assembled, Lisa asks them to meet the new advice columnist for the newspaper and both Ariel and Kim stand. Whit's newspaper runs headline accusing Bob of sexually attacking Marcy in hospital. Gunnar is stunned when Richard suggests Gunnar stop seeing Paul. Gunnar realizes Richard isn't who he claims to be. Frank is falling for Lyla. Marcy’s mother, Peggy let her live with her boyfriend. Alice gets job at hospital working with children. Cricket and Ernie announce engagement. At treatment center, Jeff refuses to see Annie. Bob is cleared of all charges in molestation of Marcy. After meeting John on train, Richard is under impression John wants Bob murdered. Richard, now believing he has airtight alibi, shoots Bob. Tom and Margo find the wounded Bob and rush him to hospital. John is only doctor at hospital available, due to emergency. Tom is against John operating, but Margo insists. Bob needs splenectomy and surgery reveals he may have nicked aorta. John is arrested for attempted murder. Maggie agrees to take Frank's legal case. Lyla is unaware that Frank is member of Andropoulos family. Jeff refuses to see Annie at clinic. Later he opens Christmas gift from her and starts to cry when he sees picture of Annie and the children. Frannie is on strict diet. Jeff sees Karen and agrees to let her tell Annie he needs her. Richard gets job at pinball joint, claiming he is psychologist doing study on video arcades. John is reinstated at hospital with David voting against him and Bob abstaining. Barbara believes Richard has left town. John tells Det. Kevin Callahan about meeting Richard on train, but Kevin doesn't believe Richard exists. Maggie wants to adopt a child. Jake, an old flame of Diana's, wants to resume affair, but she refuses. Ernie and Cricket wed as she goes into labor. On way to hospital, Cricket gives birth to baby girl. Paul tells Gunnar he wants him to move back home. Betsy is pinned under the beam loosened by Craig at the lakefront property. Steve gets Betsy out unharmed. Craig convinces Kim through Betsy that she should sell the lakefront property. Richard manages to exit hospital by posing as priest. Deciding to frame Karen for Bob's shooting, Richard places a bloodstained handkerchief in the Dixon house. John throws out the handkerchief but Richard retrieves it. Betsy considering going to bed with Craig in order to save her marriage, but Kim suggests she remain true to herself. Kirk tells Frannie that he loves her. Lyla agrees to reconcile with Frank even though he withheld information that he was Steve's cousin. Richard learns John's phone to be tapped. Frank learns his life is in danger and cancels his trip to Montreal with Lyla, saying she's in danger when she's around him. Craig is furious when he learns Kim turned the lakefront property over to the Throwaway Kids group. Tom tells Margo that Callahan is setting a trap for John. Dusty loses many of his friends when their parents believe John shot Bob. Karen convinces Dusty that John saved Bob's life and didn't try to harm him. Richard tells John he wants him to kill Gunnar or Karen will be framed for Bob's shooting. Marcy applies for a job as Danielle's nurse but runs out when Betsy checks her references. Lyla walks in while Betsy is with Steve and calls her a tramp, although Betsy insists she and Steve have done nothing. Karen is upset with John for talking to Gunnar about Dusty. Frannie saves Marcy from being arrested for shoplifting. John tells Richard he hates Gunnar but needs more time before killing Gunnar for him. Paul has a nightmare about a man wanting to take Barbara away. Bob is so fixated about his problems of working with John that he ignores Frannie's problems. Frannie is torn between attending Yale and staying in Oakdale to be with Kirk. Betsy sees Zack, who assures her her love for Steve is not wrong and she is not responsible for Craig's paralysis. Maggie considers artificial insemination. Lyla tells Craig she thinks he and Betsy should move to Boston. \

Such memories... The lack of guests is so obvious,not even extras I think.The director should have gone for tighter shots to disguise the empty rows. What explanations (if any) were given for Doug and Julie's absence at Hope's weddings?

Well,I think Valente was right in realizing that it was impossible to replicate Marland's ATWT,especially with such a huge cast to contend with,but the reign of Stern and Black was such a contrast that viewers were turned off.

I remember Kay Alden saying at the time that Bill Bell made the decision to drop Danny,which she wasn't totally on board with. She hoped to use him in some kind of music storyline with Callie. This was in an article about Bell handing over the reigns and how that was working in practice.

Why not have Lisa discover that Chuckie was switched at birth and the boy that died was not her real son? I guess the problem was they had already done a variation on that recently with Sabrina.

Guza's was just a different kind of misery...

Other performers who were on Somerset before EON Richard Shoberg Mitch Farmer/Kevin Jamison Jay Gregory Carter Matson/Morlock Sevigny Holland Taylor Rith Winter/Denise Cavanaugh Bruce Gray Warren Parker/Owen Madison

Back to the Dan character.Someone suggested that rather than Sorasing Dan,Ellen could have had a younger brother who could have played out most of Dan's stories,leaving Dan to come of age in the mid 70's. So Ellen could have been concerned sister rather than mother,thus not pushing her into an older age bracket.

Does anyone look good with corkscrew curls??

Marie was gorgeous then and stayed beautiful in all the years that followed. Like the idea of Kim/Dan/Bob in the late 70's with Susan and John involved also.

The temporary replacement thread probably lists all of these and hundreds of others.

In March 1970 Virginia Vestoff rejoined the cast of '1776' on Broadway,which I believe she departed when she got the gig as Althea.Leads me to believe that Althea will soon be leaving town and not seen again until EH returns.