Paul Raven

Variety Nov 3rd 1965 Love of Life was in 9th position with a 9.3 rating and Another World was 17th with a 6.4, one spot ahead of GH.

Variety reported in Oct 64 that Screen Gems were pitching two nightime serials to ABC 'West Wind' and 'Days of Our Lives'.At the same time, it stated, they were pitching Days to NBC for daytime. So it seems that in the wake of Peyton Place, the producers felt that Days had a shot at primetime but were hedging their bets. I'm pretty sure Days was always intended for daytime and this proposal would have modified the original concept.

Yes,back in the time when someone wasn't gettting bumped off every few weeks.

In her session with Bill,Althea mentions past relationships with Sam Shaffer who was the hospital chaplain in the original anthology series and continued when the show went to soap format and Matt. Found the John/Polly scenes grating.John sure had a lot of time to spend with patients. Steve claimed to be 'the one and only 'son in the family. Oops...he forgot Jason

Re Althea's ex husband Dave.He was played by Karl Light,Josef Sommer and Richard Clarke,so he probably appeared at different times played by different actors.

Thank you so much for sharing that. Fascinating to read your thoughts and memories.

Me too. Thanks!

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So Steve and John were cousins - a fact lost in history.It was always stated that Steve was on in 67 and now we know it was December.Karen had just been brought on obviously with the intent of being paired with Steve. I hope we can see at least some of this.

Nov 8th 1968 was the date for the episode where Donald May had the only speaking part for the entire episode as he delivered a courtroom summation.

Variety reported in August 67,NBC's The Doctors beat Art Linkletter (CBS) and Dream Girl (ABC) with a 34 share at 2.30pm for the first time since Loretta Young show had a slight edge over Linkletter in 1961.

Variety reported in Dec 26th 1968 that Rahel Ames was returning as Audrey in a recurring capacity and that she had departed in March.

I wonder whether The Doctors was using short arc storylines featuring guest performers eg the characters of Bill and Ruth Winters for 13 week stories. Was Bill for example,introduced as a doctor who was assumed to always be on staff and this story with the alcoholic wife and adoption played out over this period. I say that because a lot of these characters are never mentioned in longterm synopses and Variety reported that Lynne Rogers had signed for a 13 week role as Kitty Harris, so maybe this role was one of those short arc stories.

Variety reported that in the September 67ratings report all 3 NBC soaps - Dool,DRS and AW won their timeslots with an afternoon shareb of 33 ,highest since 1960.

Interesting to see cast credits. James Noble is listed as Dr Bill Winters but IMDB has him as Bill Reynolds,so if we continue to get access to credits a lot of information should come our way. Was that only for the cast that appeared that week.I noticed David O'Brien wasn't listed as Steve.Wasn't he on by then? Rick Edelstein is listed as story editor and he would later became co headwriter. I think 67 was the year The Doctors was possibly going to CBS.

Re Snapper and Chris.That was when Kelly Harmon (Mark Harmon's sister)was cast as Dr Jane Lewis and they were hinting at Snapper/Jane but nothing came of it.I recall that David Hasselhoff was not on regularly and so the stories for Snapper were on/off. Maybe he was working on a primetime pilot? Was it Semi-Tough or was that Josh Taylor?

Variety reported in August 68 that Lydia Bruce, who had been filling in for Bethel Leslie now has the role permanently.So it seems Bethel left for some reason and never returned. They also reported that Lakin became headwriter in June 67,so what we are seeing now is about 6 months into her run.

The lack of organ music,naturalistic dialogue and staging give the show a more modern feel than other shows of the era.No sign of character standing up with one facing the camera and the other talking to their back. You would expect to see Althea in turmoil over her pregnancy, either hysterical or stoically bearing up,not chatting naturally about it. Were John and Nick fighting about Liz? Is John interested in her and mad at Nick for the way he is treating her? I wonder if Rita Lakin is aware or even interested that her work is once again available to view.She made a ton of money writing the show, negotiating with NBC and CP to have Rick Edelstein as co writer before leaving for Hollywood and getting a job on Mod Squad.A pity that she seemed to see soap writing as a just a stepping stone. Bethel Leslie also became a writer,working on Secret Storm. Dr Karen seems interesting and I think was being set up for playboy doctor Steve.Seems the opposites attract story that worked so well for Nick and Althea would be put into play again.Wonder when they decided to bring Carolee into the mix?

Here's what Bill Bell said about Snapper & Chris I can never forget on Y&R when we married Chris and Snapper about ten months after we went on the air. Everything built so beautifully to that, and then suddenly there's that big let down.The audience is euphoric because they wanted this marriage. Then you say, “Jesus, what am I going to do with it? Where does it go?” Of course it worked out very well. But for a few days there I wondered what the hell we were going to do.The marriage was solid. I wasn't going to shake up a marriage the audience wanted very much. ButSnapper was an intern, and Chris was one of four sisters. So she got involved with her sister's problems, and Snapper was at the hospital where girls were flirting with him. So there was a lot ofinterest there regardless. But that relationship was untouchable. Bill kept them solid,rather like he did later with Paul and Chris by having them involved in outside issues eg the whole Ron and Nancy Becker story.Then he had short arc stuff like Chris and the teen runaways...

So used to seeing clips of shows from this era in grainy B&W ,the color and print looks great. And to see the cast so young and pretty. Bethel Leslie got special billing.Was she on for two years? At this time you had NBC offering Bill Bell's Days,then TD followed by Agnes Nixon's AW.Credit to the NBC execs who perservered with these three shows and turned them around by putting top notch writers/producers in charge.

June 77 NBC press release.Kathryn Harrold plays Nola Dancy, the shrewd young nightclub singewr from a working class family who aspires to meet the right man and lead a comfortable and secure life.

SOD 1970's covers.

Days 1970's DOD covers.

Gh scored these SOD covers in the 70's.

SOD covers from the 70's.