Paul Raven

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...

Fran Sears, who had a short stint as one of the many EPs who tried to revamp Loving during its run, has returned from obscurity at age 70 as a producer on Hulu's 'The Handmaid's Tale' which is getting rave reviews. Her producing partner had rights to the book, so suddenly they had some leverage in the community. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/business/media/how-hulu-and-the-handmaids-tale-revived-2-careers.html?_r=0

Not a soap star but a behind the scenes person... Fran Sears, who had a short stint as one of the many EPs who tried to revamp Loving during its run, has returned from obscurity at age 70 as a producer on Hulu's 'The Handmaid's Tale' which is getting rave reviews. Her producing partner had rights to the book, so suddenly they had some leverage in the community. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/business/media/how-hulu-and-the-handmaids-tale-revived-2-careers.html?_r=0

Under what circumstances was Sharlene re-introduced? Why was Rachel visiting her after all those years? Who was behind the re-introduction of these characters? Lemay came on after the strike of 88. I wonder what his long term plans were? I think Donna S only worked from what he had put in place rather than strictly following his long term plans. And the show was the worst for it. Lemay began at 3 shows (DRS, SFT,AW),worked for a short time and then was replaced. A shame that we never got to see him complete a longer stint as a headwriter.

I wonder if the writers were planning on re-introducing Nancy at some point to create a Joe/Nancy/Paulina triangle?

Just saw that Anthony Herrera's stint as Mike Kaslo (Steves brother) was 3 day thing. Thanks Carl!