Paul Raven

La Looch still scoring magazine covers

In the cover above,who are the women either side of Henderson Forsythe?

Knots TV Guide covers.

As stated above,Carol was written out during Irna Phillip's absence from the show.That left Tom to get involved with Meredith.I had thought Carol returned when Irna came back in January 1972 and by June Tom and Carol were married.However,looking at the TV Guide cover from August 71,Carol is pictured. So my question is,when was Rita MacLaughlin written off and when did she return? Also around this time,Donna Wandrey was cast as Barbara Ryan and they were on the cover of Afternoon TV. I think Irna quickly dropped Barbara and steered Tom toward Carol. Tom seemed to be a popular boy with Meredith,Carol,Barbara and Ellie all interested in ashort period of time.

I didn't recognize half the people in that promo! Also Norma Connelly pops up earlier.They really brought out the hot soap stars for that one...

Diana Douglas,who played Martha Evans,Marlena's mother has died,age 92.

I've never seen that 1962 episode. Fascinating. At this point. Penny had recently been widowed and had amnesia. She knew about Bruce and Lisa. How was the affair uncovered? Did Penny spill the beans? Pa was obviously suspicious.Had he seen or overheard something? Gotta love Nancy. Jeff was barely cold in his grave and she was planning Penny's next marriage. A few line flubs here and there but the actors covered well. Good to see the Hughes dining room. In a late 70's ep,everyone was in the living room balancing plates on their laps. Bob of course was puffing away.And suggesting Lisa get preggers again when Tommy was barely a year old. Why were they still living at home?

Robert Gentry's Ed with Lynne Adams.

Variety June 78. Reading between the lines it seems that Mr Hermann and Ms Monty may have had some creative differences

Ad placed in Variety 1986

Variety June 1973

Yes I have read that directors/actors had tapes made of various episodes so I am sure there is more stuff out there. I also wonder about soaps produced outside of P&G.We know most of The Doctors exist.Maybe 20th Century Fox has Best of Everything and Return to Peyton Place? Then there are the tapes that were sent to other countries,particularly Australia.Maybe sitting in a box somewhere??

Thanks so much for reaching out to those actors and their relatives.It's nice they've been so gracious. Have you thought of trying to contact Rita Lakin? It would be cool if some of these people would agree to an interview...

Ouch! TV Guide June 26th 1965 Cleveland Amory’s review of Our Private World is not kind. He notes that the twice-weekly prime time CBS serial has even less depth than As the World Turns, the daytime serial it was spun-off from. “In fact, if it weren’t for repeating everything twice, we don’t think they’d be on twice a week.” He explains the basic plot of the series and its main characters before ending with the following: Altogether it is the first show we’ve seen in a long time where literally nothing is good–the idea, the producing, the writing or the directing. As for the acting, it has to be seen to be believed–and, believe us, it shouldn’t be. The girls are bad and the boys are worse. One thing this show dose, though. It makes Peyton Place look great. In fact, the only thing we cannot fault is the title, Our Private World. The mistake was in making it public.

That makes sense as Rita Lakin joined TD in June 67 and in August 68 renegotiated to have Rick Edelstein as co headwriter,each working in 16 week blocks. In June 69 she got the Mod Squad story editor gig.In Sept she penned her first script on the show, dealing with anti - semitism. So she was there for 2 years all told.How long Edelstein continues solo and when the next headwriters we'll have to wait and see.

Re Lynne Adams/Leslie. I guess there were a number of factors at play. Firstly,Lynne Adams may have not wanted to renew her contract. She had already left once,so this seems a possibility. So TPTB were faced with either recasting or killing off Leslie. When Lynne left the first time she was replaced briefly by Kathryn Hays and then Barbara Rodell.i have read that Barbara was very popular as Leslie and that Lynne's Leslie never had the same spark with Don Stewart as had Barbara. So maybe that was another factor in not recasting Also,story wise there may have been the feeling that there wasn't much to do with Leslie and Mike now they were happy together. The Dobsons were headwriters at that time and may have had more interest in their characters like Rita,Eve etc

I have never seen Garson De Bremenlo (!?) listed as playing Paul Stewart. Does anyone know about this??

In Jan 1964 Lydia Bruce and hubby Leon B Stevens were on stage in 'The Seven Year Itch' at the Community Playhouse at the Atlanta Women's Center, along with Susan Trustman (shortly to be Pat on AW),Bert Parks and Joel Fabiani,who later would also appear on TD

Apparently, Lynn Loring (Patti) had a go at a singing career. In 1962 she signed with Dere Records and released at least one single 'My Name is Ann'. This was at the time she was appearing on the TV series 'Fair Exchange'. Also,I never knew that while on Search,she also did radio soaps 'Ma Perkins' and 'Second Mrs Burton'.

Don't know how concerned Augusta would be. She would just wait for her next in a long line of soap roles.I think it was OLTL as Helena Ashley.

I agree that James and Lydia were probably in the wrong age group and perhaps too strongly identified with their roles. Liz lucked out as by 1984 soaps were still casting those 'Alexis' older powerful women roles. Looking at the many vets that were dropped at that time,very few landed substantial soap roles afterwards,perhaps through choice but more likely lack of interest from other soaps. Think Ron Tomme,Audrey Peters,Barbara Rodell,Conard Fowkes,Kelly Wood,Millette Alexander,Billie Lou Watt,Millee Taggart . etc

Two interviews with the late John Colenback (thanks Carl) THE OLD DAN IS BACK! John Colenback: "I Always Knew if I Did Another Soap, it Would Be This One." What could be more exciting than watching TV's "star-crossed" lovers - (Kim and Dan, As the World Turns) pose for our cover photo. They were so delightful together. How charming and gracious Kathryn Hays was. She had been at the studio since 7:30 AM and would remain until 8PM...yet her eyes sparkled, and she smiled that lovely, almost mysterious smile of hers...posed and moved with solid grace and ease...always calm and poised. We were sorry, when after the pictures had been taken, she left for rehearsal. John wasn't on that day, so we settled down for the promised interview. John had left As the World Turns three years ago and, as always, when a performer leaves, is replaced, and then returns to his original role - there is a why and wherefore. Nothing is ever done without good reason. Whatever other problems there may have been - there was the question of time to act outside the daytime show. Now, three years later, John was ready - very willing to discuss what happened...what he's been doing in the past three years...and his hopes for the future. John: Oh, yes, the outside stuff, we all have this, six week performance lave. I did maybe five outside things during the seven years, and each time it was World War III - to get to do it. Each time, you know, I was suddenly indispensable and I would have to compromise and do both. So I'd spend nights on buses and trains or planes, coming back from Boston, or Hartford or West Springfield Mass. where I was doing the kind of stage work I think is absolutely vital when you're under a long-term contract. RG: So this problem has been cleared up now, I assume, since you're back on the show and everything is great. JC: Well, so far, I think. At least they realize now there is the need for me, at least, and other people to do stage work, and the very nature of the 60 minute format allows them more time for a storyline, using other people. I think we'll get more time off, to use as we wish. RG: Do you have anything scheduled for any outside work? JC: Well, I did a new play by Mark Medoff, the guy who wrote When You Coming Back Red Rider? He's a brilliant young new playwright. Paul Hecht and I did a show with a wonderful actress, Brenda Curtis, in Huntington, Long Island. We tried it out last winter, February of '76, called The Halloween Bandit, and I assume they have plans to resurrect it, he's re-writing it. But that will, I think, probably be a New York situation or a place nearby, like Huntington, and it would not involve vast travel or intricate rehearsals necessarily, and I hope when it comes along, that we can work things out. I don't live under the constant fear that when something happens - if I'm going to have to fight - I don't like to fight. I can just feel things are much better. RG: In the 3 years that you were away from the show, aside from this work that we just discussed, what other things have you accomplished in your career? JC: I did a play in New York at the Theatre DeLys downtown in the Village, a couple of years ago, called Four Friends - about four college guys who get together again after fifteen years and find out that things "ain't the same." But it was an interesting play and a very good company. I had a lot of fun doing it. It was a flop, and it sort of soured me on the whole thing, and I think how ironical life can be, if I'd been doing the soap, concurrent with that, if I'd been on a soap at the time, the nit's not that important, it doesn't come to be the be all and the end all, and I overreacted to the critical reviews, which is not personal and the whole thing went down the drain, and i said, "oh, the hell with it," and I went back to Rhode Island and sort of didn't do anything much, which didn't do me any good, certainly not professionally, and I'm very glad I'm back to work, and I'm very glad I'm back here. I always knew that if I did a soap again, and for a while there I vowed I never would - I guess I always knew in the back of my mind, if the opportunity ever came up where I could go back to Dan, I'd rather do that than say yes to some other soap, because at least here I know what I'm getting into or getting back into - I adore the cast, the people, and the direction people. RG: The cast hasn't changed that much has it? JC: No, but it got bigger...which again helps those who want to work outside, because there's simply more storylines to deal with you and you naturally have some breathing space. They can't work the way they used to work us with the 30 minute live thing because the human body cannot do that much. When you're on the show now, as you well know, it's morning, noon and night. Well, my first week on the show I had three double-days in a row - and that's killing. The day itself one can adjust to, you have enough time to get off your feet, but it's going home at night, doing something about dinner and then having a double-day the next day, starting all over again, and having to learn the script. I'm a very quick study - thank goodness. I think you almost have to be, otherwise you don't do soaps, but it takes me four times as long to learn something when I can't concentrate from fatigue. It's not a matter of being sleepy and going to bed. I find that difficult too, because you get so tired you can't sleep, but it's just concentrating. I can learn a script very quickly. RG: Were you on when it was live? JC: Yes, we were taped only if we were pre-empted for assassinations or other - 90% of the time we were live. RG: Wasn't that more difficult? JC: In a sense, but at least you knew when you were going to get out of here. you knew at 2:00, you knew from 1:30 to 2:00 you had to do it, but here it's like 1:30 to 2:30, or 1 pm to 2:30 or 6:30-8:00, or you don't know if a machine is going to break down, or a set is going to collapse, or those things that have nothing to do with you getting up and doing, are going to affect the schedule, or how many times you have to do it over. I still am in the live format, mentally, and I know they would rather do it in one take, and rarely shoot it again, unless something technical goes wrong. But I've found that they will, if they have time, just do it again, to see if you were better. And you always have that added sense of security even if you know they're going to do one take, that it's not beaming out at that precise moment. There is a certain spontaneity, I suppose, that's lost if you do not do it live, but, that's so difficult to judge or deal with. What you tend to worry about - is - "I hope I can get through this - I hope that door opens, etc." RG: I don't think the average viewer notices the difference between today and the days when you did it live. JC: No, unless something ghastly happens, like poor Helen Wagner ended up playing a scene on her hands and knees picking up some broken china service one day because the coffee table legs collapsed. I'm sure the scene went out the window. Helen is a very resourceful woman, and a wonderful actress, but that would kill anybody. It would distract anybody, let alone watching it. RG: There are actors who look for cue cards - and if I'm watching a program, immediately I get distracted from the lines because you are taken out of the make-believe and you say, "they really just acted that part." JC: We have the teleprompters, but I don't like them, and whenever you need them, they're never there...which is no one's fault. You may be too deep into the set, against the back walls, and you won't literally be able to see them, without as you say, being so obvious about it. RG: Then you really have to memorize your lines. JC: For me, it's not that difficult memorizing lines, and I can't imagine doing a show without it, you're always working with at least one other person - unless you're on the telephone, and for everybody's sake you've got to know what you're talking about, you've got to be able to listen. RG: Do you have enough leeway if you're playing a scene with someone so that if the exact phrases skip your mind and you substitute, that she knows to take it up? JC: You get to know each other's habits, you also get to know the mood the person is in doing the scene, if it's a very difficult scene in terms of story line, and you have to get certain names out, relationships - that's the thing that's thrown me a couple of times since I've come back, because I'm talking about people I don't know. RG: You are a Libra, are you into horoscopes, do you believe that your life is governed by your sign? JC: I have a very good friend who is a professional astrologer, and through knowing him, I picked up on it. I don't know how to do it. I couldn't chart someone's horoscope. I use it as a very positive guide, it's not a question of, "don't cross the street you'll be hit by a bus," it's never that detailed, but when the astrologer knows your interests and needs, and you can give him a full background, then he can really deal with you on the level at which it's important to you. "Don't worry about a bad period professionally, that you're not going to work for six months or something, because there are certain aspects coming up, you're going to get offers and opportunities and you can use this as a positive guide." And I very often have aspects that will say: "Keep your mouth shut, don't be argumentative - don't open your big mouth." And I've found that very helpful. I've been in situations that I can see coming. I've kept my mouth shut and it's been okay ,and it hasn't been a disaster and it's been much better than if I hadn't known it, I might very easily have said something that wouldn't help anything. RG: People who are in the sign of Libra are supposed to be middle-of-the-road, and find it difficult to make decisions, is that one of your traits? JC: I'll postpone decision making. I think it's less a question of finding it difficult to make decisions by just pure rationalization, than covering all bases, before you decide. It's like the Presidential thing, Carter is a Libra. If he is elected, you would certainly find, (I think all Presidents are like this), they will, or should accept all kinds of advice and then make up their minds. I think Carter will do this with more deliberation, and more overtly than other Presidents. Ford is a Cancer and that's July. There is tremendous variance within the sign; by the way my chart is aspected, I'm actually more of a Virgo than a Libra. Back to the decision making briefly, everybody says because the sign of Libra is the scales, that Librans are organized or well-balanced, or middle-of-the-road emotionally in terms of decisions. I think Librans cover all that, they strive for that, but very often I will find myself inadvertently upsetting the cart, doing something outrageous or harmful, or unnecessarily muddying the waters, so that I can upright the cart, make everything alright and very often I'll have to do one before I can do the other. RG: I haven't seen any interviews with you in the last few years so I am not too familiar with your personal background. I would like to ask you if you have a marital status that you would care to discuss? JC: I have a marital status - I am single. I almost got married when I was in college, which would have been an out and out disaster for good reasons that really had nothing to do with her. And since then I came to New York, was starting out, and that was not easy, and again marriage was out of the question for very good reasons, and although those reasons are no longer applicable, I don't really want to, I don't feel the need to, it's no problem, it's no big deal whether I do or not and I'd rather not. I suppose if it comes up if I meet someone who insists on it - RG: In other words, you're not a confirmed bachelor? JC: No, not at all. I like having someone around, it's very important - that's another Libra trait; always have to have a mate - but I'd like it on a pretty cool basis and I find so do they - otherwise you don't go out together very often, and then you just stop going out. I'm under no compulsion to have children. The divorce rate is so alarming that it's not very encouraging. RG: It's so easy to go along without getting permanently entangled with anyone. JC: Yes, and even if you don't live together, you can still have a very, very close, intense relationship without operating out of the same flat or house, and that's not important either. What is important, is what goes on when the two of you are together, or apart: it has nothing to do with having the key to the same door. RG: This is a generation that has found an easier way of living and a more relaxed way of living. Today, people are more casual in every way, that's not to say all relationships are casual. JC: I've never been one for casual relations, I guess what I'm saying is I like the advantages of a close relationship, like marriage can be, at its best, without just signing that contract which I always felt was sort of ridiculous - but without the added burden that you're under any pressure to maintain a relationship the way you would have to, if you were married. And I'm not just talking about fidelity. I rather admire fidelity, though as one gets older, one sees it's not necessarily admirable, but if you're faithful fine, but if it ever becomes a problem, then that's the problem. RG: Yet to some people, unfaithfulness is the biggest taboo...it's the worst thing that could happen. JC: I couldn't agree more that it's very unfortunate - I don't know if it's the worst thing, but I think I don't put down people who have a different attitude. I don't think any relationship is going to last if "everybody is going out the back door" or "coming in the front" all the time. Then what kind of a relationship do you have with that person? RG: If in a marriage, someone is unfaithful, let's say, for awhile, then should it be held against them forever? JC: No, I don't think it should be; however, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the marriage is through. I think it's [marriage] difficult enough...I think people should be honest with each other but you don't necessarily have to know everything or should know everything about the other person...but we're getting into a very sticky situation. I think striving for fidelity - working at it, is that it either happens naturally or it doesn't, and if you sit around and worry about being faithful, then you probably would have problems anyway. You've got enough to worry about getting along with each other in any close relationship, it's simpler if no one else is involved, on any level; but I can understand various outlets that one or another person will need; sometimes it ends up in bed, sometimes it doesn't. RG: When people live together before marriage, does that make them surer about their feelings? JC: Absolutely - but then again I think that if something is going to happen, you never know. It's like meeting the right girl, how do you know if the one you're with this year is the right one until another one comes along. RG: Then I guess it's easier if you're not married. JC: I don't enter into a relationship expecting or wondering what to do when you're faced with getting out of it. The whole problem of being faithful, or is this going to last forever, is a waste of time to worry about. I definitely feel, however, that if you get married there's a definite commitment, call it a moral commitment or what you will, but I think if one gets married you have a very real commitment, on every level to make with that person. That's probably why I'm not married. When I was in high school, quite literally I went with two girls, not at the same time; one for three years and one for two years which extended into college. She was the girl I was talking about; in-between that, there was a purely physical fling, and it was very nice and it lasted very briefly, and it was very good for me, and then I went right back and found the second girl whom I was with for nearly three years before we parted. I couldn't get married, didn't want to, and she went on and got married - but you get over it. But I've never been one to "play the field." I can't deal with that. If I like someone I want to be with them. RG: If someone you were really attracted to was an actress would it be a problem as far as having two careers that were running parallel and yet not parallel? JC: I think it's difficult because the competition can become very severe even if you're not obviously up for the same parts. I think you compete, a man and a woman, or business partners - there are natural areas of competition between any two human beings, who have any kind of close relationship. I think if you're both in the same profession that only exasperates a basically, very difficult but unavoidable situation. I don't look to avoid that. I don't notgo out with an actress but I think it's interesting if the other person does something else. RG: I'm wondering if you're in a position now that you've returned to ATWT - as Dan, to say if your romance with Kim, is still going to be as "star-crossed lovers?" JC: I don't know. I don't think they know. I don't listen to the rumors I hear about where the plots are going, because sometimes they never happen. And the less I know about what's going on, the happier I am. It can affect the way you play scenes. RG: On the whole, I can tell you're happy to be back here. This is the soap that you've done the most. JC: Yes, I've only done one other, called, From These Roots, in the early 60's, my first show, and that's sort of just a memory. I'm delighted to be back. RG: I'm sure your fans are happy to see you.

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20080372,00.html Once upon a time there was a little girl named Aggie Eckhardt whose address was Nashville but who lived more vividly in a world of fantasies. Her parents were separated, and her mother worked as a bookkeeper, so Aggie stayed home with Katie Ryan Dalton, her grandmother, and thrilled to tales of her bold Irish ancestors. Sometimes she made up stories herself—about Tillie the Toiler and Etta Kett, comic-strip cutouts that lived not in doll-houses but pressed between the pages of a well-thumbed phone book. As Aggie grew older she treasured the novels of Louisa May Alcott, followed Little Orphan Annie on the radio and dreamed of one day being discovered. And so she was. Though the name Agnes Nixon may mean little or nothing to the estimated 20 million devotees of TV's daytime serials, her genius as a cliff-hanging storyteller has figured in the success of no fewer than six soap operas on all three networks. In addition to creating All My Children, One Life to Live and Search for Tomorrow, she co-created As the World Turns and was a head writer on The Guiding Light and Another World. Now, after a quarter century of love in the afternoon, Nixon, 53, goes prime time this week with The Manions of America, a three-night ABC miniseries tracing the passage of an impoverished 19th-century Irish family from Old World to New. Nixon conceived it a decade ago to dramatize the stories that enthralled her in childhood. "The Manions was meant to be," she says. "I know it's good and true and real, whether or not it's a commercial success." Based on her record, it's hard to imagine The Manions as anything less than a success. Whatever Nixon has wrought in the past, Nielsen families have dutifully and enthusiastically ratified. "I tell stories that I like and that I believe can really happen," she says. "Soaps are the form of entertainment that most nearly mimics life. Nighttime TV is terrific, but you know the Fonz is never going to change. In daytime we can deal with characters in depth and let them metamorphose as they do in reality." Of course, Nixon adds, "We try to make it as intense and suspenseful as possible. I don't want to be bored, because I'm sitting at home eating my leftovers and watching, just like millions of others." In the interest of conquering boredom, Nixon has never hesitated to break new ground on the soaps. She is regarded as a pioneer in bringing social consciousness to daytime TV. Amid tawdry plots of seduction (Will Erica snare Brandon?) and murder (Who shot Sybil?), Nixon has threaded topical story lines on child and wife abuse, Vietnam veterans and MIA families, teenage prostitution, cancer and drugs. Her sources of inspiration are diverse: talk shows, best-sellers, cocktail party chatter and, not infrequently, personal experience. When her son, Bobby, briefly suffered from a rare nerve disorder, Agnes incorporated the illness into a Guiding Light script. When a friend died of cancer, she wrote a subplot in which a woman's life was saved by an early checkup. "The name of entertainment is escape," she observes, "but we've proved that soaps can do good things as well as entertain. It's a soft sell, but we get messages across." And sometimes she gets messages back. In 1968 Nixon devised a plot on One Life to Live in which a black actress, passing for white, became engaged to a white doctor, then fell in love with a black intern. When the actress, played by Ellen Holly, kissed the intern, a station in Texas canceled the show. Despite the ensuing furor, ABC allowed the story line to continue. "I grew up in an extended family—there were three generations—and I like the feeling," says Nixon. The characters of All My Children, the only soap with which she is currently associated, are like part of her family, and some share the traits of Agnes' own relatives. The model for kindly Grandma Kate Martin (Kay Campbell) ought to be obvious. As for frosty autocrat Palmer Cortlandt (James Mitchell), he reminds Nixon of her late father, she says, because he "doesn't know how to love." Adds Agnes, "When I was 3 months old, my parents separated and I didn't have a good relationship with my father. I learned much later that he had never had a good relationship with his parents. He was very unhappy, but he wasn't a bad man." Much the same, she believes, can be said of All My Children's bitchy, beautiful Erica Kane—so convincingly played by Susan Lucci that once, when the actress left the confessional at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, a woman approached and muttered, "I hope you told him everything you've done." Surprisingly, Nixon can empathize with the shallow, misguided Erica. "I understand her because she grew up in a broken home without a father," Agnes explains. "She doesn't have a great sense of personal worth—and if you can't love yourself, you can't love someone else. Sometimes I think, there but for the grace of God go I." In reality, of course, Nixon is not Erica and her father was not Palmer Cortlandt. After high school in Nashville, Agnes and Harry Eckhardt were reunited in Chicago, where he manufactured burial garments. He paid her way through Northwestern, where she studied drama but soon found she preferred writing to performing. When Agnes graduated in 1947, her father, who wanted her to join his company, tried to end her dreams of a writing career by arranging an interview with Irna Phillips, the imperious Chicago-based creator of radio soap operas, including The Guiding Light and Road of Life. "I was trembling in my boots," Agnes recalls. "I brought a script I had written and she read it aloud. I was waiting for her to say, 'This is a piece of you-know-what,' but she looked up and asked, 'How would you like to work for me?' When I told my father, he said 'You're lying.' I knew I had to make it as a writer to avoid the burial garment business." If Phillips was the queen of soaps, Nixon, a $100-a-week dialogue writer for the daytime serial Woman in White, quickly became her heir apparent. "Irna taught me that real life is more hilarious, more tragic and more incredible than anything we could think up," says Agnes. "Look at the Jean Harris trial." With the birth of network television, many of the radio soaps—and Phillips—moved their base of operations to Hollywood. But Nixon headed for New York, where the brief Golden Age of live drama on prime time had begun. Soon she was canvassing the networks, searching for work in a mostly male industry. "I remember wearing this powder-blue wool suit and a powder-blue hat with a feather," she giggles. "I thought it was heaven until two friends called me 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.' I think a lot of men interviewed me just because they didn't believe it." Before long, she began writing scripts and adaptations for shows like Studio One and Robert Montgomery Presents. Those first months in Manhattan were lonely. "I would stand in the backyard of my basement apartment and listen to the lilt of laughter and the tinkle of glasses behind the fence," she recalls. "It seemed like the whole glamorous world was on the other side and I was the child whose face was pressed against the candy store window." Then, in 1951, she met Bob Nixon, a Washington, D.C. auto dealer. "When Bob proposed," she remembers, "he said, 'I understand that writing is part of you and I wouldn't want to change it.' So I said 'Yes' before he changed his mind." Within the next five years she built both her career and a family—a son and three daughters, now ages 24 to 29. The Nixons finally settled near Philadelphia. Bob was a regional director for Chrysler and Agnes commuted to Manhattan three days a month. She recalls going to New York swathed in a voluminous cape, hoping that no one would notice she was pregnant. But they did notice. "People just couldn't believe that I could hold a job and be a really good mother," she says. "Once we had a pediatrician who said my children seemed accident-prone. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I thought he was saying I was responsible. At first I felt I had to defend myself, but then I thought, Why? Bob wasn't objecting—he helped change the diapers and heat the bottles. It wasn't easy, but it worked out." In 1954 Nixon reunited with Irna Phillips to write dialogue for The Guiding Light, which had made the transition from radio to TV. Later, under her tutelage, NBC's Another World was transformed from a ratings bomb to a hit, and ABC agreed to let Agnes develop a soap of her own. One Life to Live went on the air in 1968, and All My Children in 1970. Bob cashed in his Chrysler dealership to join Agnes in their own production company, Creative Horizons, Inc. Subsequently, both shows were sold to ABC, and Nixon was put under a six-figure contract to supervise virtually every aspect of All My Children. Despite a veteran staff, the job is a staggering one. "We have no summer reruns, like nighttime," she explains. "We're under pressure to produce 260 hour-long segments a year." Gestation begins in Nixon's seven-bedroom pre-Revolutionary War home. (She and her husband own another house on St. Croix and an apartment in Manhattan.) On a typical morning Agnes swims 60 laps in the backyard pool before nestling into an easy chair in her top-floor, garretlike studio. "Each time I start a long story I think, 'This time it won't come,' " she says. "I'm like a little girl holding her grandfather's hand." Realistically, Nixon lists her characters' names, then sets about clearing her mind. "It sounds silly," she admits, "but it's almost like a mystical experience. I hear these people talking to me, and I dictate what I hear." At 1:00 p.m. she breaks from her recorder to watch All My Children, while simultaneously taping the competition, NBC's Days of Our Lives and CBS's The Young and the Restless. Though she is frequently on the phone to New York, where the serial is taped, Agnes works on long-range outlines alone; typically, she spends six days each month in the city collaborating with the show's head writer, Wisner Washam, and its producer, Jorn Winther. Rarely does she visit the set. "It's hard for me to see the stars in hair rollers going through rehearsals," she explains. "I don't want the edge taken off." In an industry that inflates egos to monstrous proportions, Nixon has retained more than the customary quotient of sanity. "Dirty dealing in this business stems from insecurity and panic," she says. "I had a husband who was making a good living, so I didn't have to panic. And I was loved. That gave me the assurance that freed me to be creative." As for the peculiar genius that has produced one enduring serial after another, Agnes is inclined to be modest. "I'll take credit for a lot of self-discipline and hard work," she says, "but the rest is a gift that comes from somewhere else. Years ago I went to a number of psychics because I have a strong belief in life after death. One of them told me, 'My dear, don't take too much credit, because there is an Irish ancestor on the other side directing you.' Now I don't say, 'Okay, ancestor, what are we writing today?' But it is a comfort to me." After 25 years of soaps, and the financial security her tenure has purchased, Nixon's attention may finally be wandering. If The Manions has the impact she hopes for, she would like to let the historical saga continue to the present—but as a periodic, not weekly, series. Last summer Agnes did not renew her ABC contract and is supervising All My Children on a month-to-month basis. Could she ever give up daytime serials entirely? "I think so," she says. "I might even enjoy it." Given such ambivalence, should ABC be saying its prayers? "I love the people at ABC," she says sweetly, "but it is a business, and I don't think I'm indispensable."

http://www.newsoforange.com/news/article_471ac8fa-681a-11e3-abf7-0019bb2963f4.htmlNovember 2013 Submitted photo Reading locally Stephen and Nancy Demorest of Hillsborough spent much of their lives writing for soap operas such as “General Hospital” and “All My Children.” The couple met writing for “Guiding Light” in the mid-’80s. Her first day on the job, Nancy Demorest—then Nancy Curlee—walked into the “Guiding Light” writers’ room and looked around at a sea of unfamiliar faces. A young man across the table invited her to the empty chair beside him. Settling in, the newbie turned to start up a conversation with her future husband. Stephen and Nancy Demorest thrived in the soap opera industry, working up the ladder from scriptwriter to head writer—and loving every minute of it. “I did it from about 1985 to 1994,” Nancy Demorest said. “We were head writers at ‘Guiding Light’ and then consultants for ABC for ‘All My Children’ and ‘General Hospital’ and their shows. Then when we decide to move down here in 1996, I actually had an offer to do ‘General Hospital’ out in California from here, but I was expecting our third child, so that was the point that I kind of got out. But Stephen staid in it for another 10 long years.” The journey While the couple moved up in the soap opera world side by side, they arrived there in completely different ways. Nancy Demorest went to Hollins University in Virginia, known at the time for its phenomenal writing program. A professor there hooked her up with a contact at publishing company Curtis Brown in New York City. “It turned out to be a great first job in the city, mainly because it took the intimidation out of writing,” she said. “I was reading manuscripts, and you come out of college, and you’ve been reading James Joyce and Fitzgerald, and you’re so intimidated. When you get into publishing and you’re reading these unsolicited manuscripts that come in, you go, I can do this.” After a year at Curtis Brown, Nancy Demorest teamed up with a friend to write screenplays. The two sold a pair of romantic comedies for publication, but soon the writer was itching for a steady income. An actress suggested soap operas, putting her in touch with someone at Procter & Gamble, which owned a few programs. And Nancy Demorest never looked back. For Stephen Demorest, he got his start more on the writing side of things, working as a freelancer for rock and roll publications “Rolling Stone Magazine” and “Circus” as well as submitting pieces for the Sunday New York Times. “I sort of learned the business as I went along,” he said. “And what I learned is freelancing is very inefficient in that you write 10 pitches or assignments for every one you get. And then you hand in an assignment for an article, and they pay you on publication, which might be six months later, which is fine when you’re 24 and you’re living alone. “But as you get older, and you see your friends are getting married and starting families and having houses and stuff like that, and you’re writing for the arts and leisure section of the Times, which is great, and then two months later they send you $200.” So the writer decided to take his craft into his own hands, penning a mystery series featuring a female protagonist. When that endeavor didn’t pan out the way he had hoped, a friend suggested he check out soap operas. Stephen Demorest, though skeptical, made a few calls; and—like his wife—he found his niche. Forging a career When Nancy and Stephen Demorest first met at “Guiding Light,” they discovered their paths had intersected before—though not in person. Nancy Demorest had actually worked at Curtis Brown when the publishing company processed her future husband’s novels. A few moments after the first hellos, the two realized those books had actually crossed Nancy Demorest’s desk. “She said, ‘Oh my God, I typed your contract five years ago,’ ” Stephen Demorest said. “I said, ‘You’re a terrible typist.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ ” The couple began as scriptwriters, the bottom of the writers’ food chain. Their job was to take an outline handed down by senior workers and draft dialogue. Some creative leeway exists at this level as long as they stay within the basic plotline, though any changes or additions have to be cleared with the powers that be. Above scriptwriters come outline writers who break down scene by scene what will happen in each show. Each outline and scriptwriter is assigned an episode by the head writers, who craft the overarching plotline looking out six to 12 months. “The head writers, which is what we eventually ended up doing, did what Stephen was talking about where you essentially do like a Victorian novel,” Nancy Demorest said. “You do this umbrella story, and you might have three or four subplots. There should be some overarching thing taking you through. … As a head writer, you really had to have an absolute vision and absolute idea of who each of those characters was and what was true. But then the outline writers and the scriptwriters could get more creative.” Though still working in New York, the Demorests eventually moved to Connecticut in 1990. After a while, though, Nancy Demorest began pining for her native North Carolina. The couple moved down, and Nancy Demorest decided to leave the industry. Her husband, however, realized he could continue the work. When living in Connecticut, the couple would drive an hour and a half into New York City every Monday morning, go to meetings, spend the night in an apartment they owned in the city and return to the office Tuesday before going home to spend the rest of the week writing. “It wasn’t a lot different coming from Raleigh Durham airport,” Stephen Demorest said. “So for the first five years we were out here, I’d get up at 5:30 or 6 and catch the dawn plane out of RDU. ... [i’d] catch the 6 plane out of LaGuardia Airport, land at RDU at halftime during the [uNC-Chapel Hill] basketball game, and listen to the second half of the basketball game while I drove home from the airport. I’d almost always come through the door with three minutes left in the basketball game, and she wouldn’t speak to me until the game was over because she’d be rooted to the basketball game.” Stephen Demorest stayed writing for soaps out of New York and Los Angeles until 2008, using the Internet and conference calls to get the job done. But while both have now given it up, the Demorests still talk about those days with fondness, outlining the fun, the adventure they had in the writing room. “You also have this writing team,” Stephen Demorest said. “You meet with five or eight or 10 other writers. You’d talk about where the storyline was going, and then you’d divide up the scripts and maybe go off on our own. … It was a great combination of working independently but with a group of comrades at the same time. And you could see it come back on the screen four weeks later.”