Paul Raven

I think it is supposed to be Eileen/Lisa. This is early 1980 and Brad and Lisa were circling each other at that time. That story was dropped and Lisa was back to the Grant/Joyce triangle.

Leslie in her blonde 'Pris' persona? Who is to the right of Brad in the ATWT section? Is it supposed to be Annie?

Dee Stewart ?

Gary Garver -what a sleaze. Almost felt sorry for poor Brenda having to laugh along at his smutty 'jokes'. "I made a film called 'Welcome To My Home" Just classic Brenda along with a bunch of other nonsense. I want to know how she has supported herself all these years?

After Lin Bolen left NBC daytime lacked direction. Madeliene David/Michael Brockman wrought havoc. Lovers and Friends yanked after 13 weeks. For Richer/For Poorer a dismal failure. Days and TD plummeting . 90 min AW. Spinning off the misguided Texas from an ailing AW. Constant headwriter changes. They never really recovered from that era.

Colleen's potential was wasted on a cartoon character involved in an awful retcon story. There is/was no need for Claire.

Enough of the anniversary episodes. Every 10 years is enough.

Interesting to see how this all slots into the canvas. I hope they don't go with takeovers, buyouts and hiring/firing. Enough with the godawful business stories.

That was the premiere of the mini series. The series began March 10 1980

His real name was Terry Johnson. There was obit posted elsewhere-that of some random man named Dan Fling.

August 79 Dorian’s old flame, Matt McAllister returns with Pat’s sister Maggie on his arm in order to make Dorian jealous.

Neither of Marland's retcon children stories was worth it in the end. Scott and Sabrina just faded away. As for Chuckie, just do a switched at birth story (a hospital mix up, no sinister motive necessary) and have him he and Lisa have to adjust to the situation. He would want to know about his Dad. Ellen, Lisa, Bob, David,Nancy were all around from that time so they would have a point of view. One of 'Chuckie's' adoptive parents could be around and resentful b/c their natural son died. Tom was driving when Chuckie died. Another angle that wasn't explored then. Lot's of story possibilities.

Bryna Laub

Irna created Kim as a fiercely independent woman and having a child didn't fit that profile. Her sister Jennifer had 2 children and was seen as the more traditional woman. Interesting that later on Jennifer resisted having another child. I could see the reasoning however. Like many women she felt that she had done the mom thing and now with her children grown she wanted to devote time to herself and her interests/ambitions. The Dan debacle began in 1966 when 8 year old down was suddenly early 20's played by an older actor. The Dobsons and subsequent writers kept making the mistake of not balancing and replenishing the core and favoring too many new characters. Let's not even mention killing off Chuckie Shea. Years of story thrown away in a few weeks.

The Willows was a Ralph Ellis/Eugenie Hunt story. They took over from the Soderbergs in late 78. On the outs with Grant, Lisa takes a trio and winds up an Inn called The Willows, run by Bennett Hadley. It was Gothic type story with Lisa delving into the mystery of Bennett's dead wife and the possibility he killed her. Doug Marland wrapped that story up.

Looking at the garage scene I notice they put these huge bumper protectors over the rear bumper to make space b/w them where Barbara/Joyce could stand so that she wasn't actually being squashed up against the wall. Did the car slip into reverse b/c Joyce didn't select Park properly in her frazzled state? I was trying to work out the make/model of the car to see if it was actually something Joyce and Don might be driving that fitted their status. So often they have characters driving something unsuitable. I guess they figure housewives won't notice or care.

I don't know that actors 'having fun' should be a consideration when it comes to writing story. Marlena has been written with Leo more than members of her own family.

John Colenback as Dan was looking rough and way older than 43(his age at the time) That drastic SORASING of Dan backfired down the track as the character was pretty much played out by this point - 3 marriages and now settled with his 'true love' Kim. Dan should have been about 20 by this time without the SORAS. Still killing him off seemed drastic. Paul had already been unnecessarily killed off earlier in the decade. Maybe Dan should have chosen to leave Oakdale when he realized he was dying. That would have left the possibility of a return down the track with a recast (John Reilly again?) just when Kim had moved on. The show had way too many over 40's at that point and even the younger characters mostly came across as stodgy. Ditching characters like Alex, Ralph, Valerie , Mary etc was a quick fix but apart from James -who came in as a romantic lead and turned villianous too quickly, the Dobsons new characters like Brad and Nick were just as boring,

February brings us so far ATWT 1979 GL 1979/80

AFTRA Magazine Spring 2010 Broken marriages, intrigue and rivalries were par for the course when AFTRA and The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills gathered together the cast of ABC's long-running daytime drama, "All My Children" (AMC), for a panel discussion and celebration. Divulging all the tawdry secrets of Pine Valley that evening were the program's icon, Susan Lucci ( Erica Kane), along with cast members Julia Barr ( Brooke English), Bobbie Eakes (Krystal Carey), Melissa Claire Egan (Annie Chandler), Vincent Irizarry ( David Hayward), Debbi Morgan (Angie Hubbard),the show's executive producer, Julie Hanan Carruthers, and special guest Agnes Nixon, the show's legendary creator. The event's purpose was twofold: to celebrate AMC's historic 40 years on ABC and to officially welcome the cast to Los Angeles, the show's new home. Throughout the panel discussion, cast members lauded Nixon for keeping them going and creating such rich characters to play. Morgan humored the audience with the one stumbling block she has yet to overcome: the medical jargon and procedures. "You don't know how good an actress I am to pull that material off," Morgan laughed. " I remember back in the ' 80s, I think Angie was a nurse, and I remember I had stuffed a thermometer in a little boy's mouth. I remember him saying, ' Don't you think you should put that in the other way around?" The best line of the evening came from Lucci during a discussion by Eakes about the pros and cons of shooting in high definition ( HD). When asked what she thought about shooting for HD, Lucci quipped, " I think HD is better suited for ESPN." The evening, however, belonged to Nixon, who delighted the audience with her stories about the program, including getting her first writing job with Irna Phillips, the legendary creator of "Guiding Light." "My father said I would have no chance as a writer," Nixon recalled. " He wanted me to go into his business, which was manufacturing burial garments. "I got my chance when I went up to Irna Phillips' apartment with my half-hour script, and Irna and her assistant read it out loud," she continued. " I wanted to go down the dumbwaiter I was so terrified. But then Irna put the script down and said, 'How would you like to work for me?' It was an amazing moment for me." The panel discussion ended with Nixon and Lucci re-creating one of the first scenes between Erica Kane and her mother, Mona, who was portrayed on the drama by the late Frances Heflin.

In 1998 Pat Fili Krushel, once VP of daytime and now president of ABC discussed briefly their test marketing of rerunning soaps. Obviously nothing came of it. Are additional revenue streams needed to improve the network model? Yes, and we're looking at a number of things including all of the repurposing opportunities that don't hurt the core business and at the same time expand the current audience. You know about our soap opera market test. Soaps are a very expensive product for one run. I mean, in essence they're like tissues, you run 'em once and you throw 'em away. And the thought is to do a day- and -date repurposing on another distribution platform to expand the amount of viewers. And therefore get more for the money that you paid for this product, in terms of increased revenues, to at least make the business make a little more sense. SSo that is one way that you could increase your revenues. Where does that soap project stand now? We did a three -market test. One we ended early, which was in Charlotte, and it was a week -delay test, so today's episode would be on next Friday night. There really wasn't an audience for that. In the other two markets -Chicago and Houston-we did same -day airing at night, and then on the weekend we would play all five episodes. We're currently analyzing what we have -but in both markets the overall audience grew. In one market it eroded the daytime play a bit; in the other market it did not erode the daytime play at all. What we're trying to analyze is: How much of that additional viewing was driven by the frequency, and how much of it was driven by lapsed viewers coming back, to see what kind of business model we would have. I would say we'll have all the data in by mid- January.

I found it odd that Ralph was brought back to interact with Lisa and Ellen. He was involved with Valerie, Mary and Joyce in the 70's, none of whom were around. It seemed kind of random. Don would have made more sense but he had been married off to Mary. I guess he could have been widowed (again-see Janice) or divorced (again-see Joyce) Maybe Conard Fowkes was unavailable and Keith Charles was well regarded in the P&G/CBS world.

NBC placed a 2 page ad in Variety to promote FTR and YDM. Wednesday, August 16, 1961 Drama by Daylight Among the things people have stopped kidding during the past few seasons are Soviet science, Mickey Mantle’s bubblegum chewing and daytime dramas on television. It’s easy to see why. Russian space experts have been making Buck Rogers look about as modern a Buck Jones; Mr. Mantle has blossomed into one of baseball’s greatest sluggers; and ‘TV's best daytime serials have matured to a point where they do almost as much for drama as they do for soap. By “best” we mean, of course, “From ‘These Roots” and “Young Dr. Malone,” the two, half hour serials seen back to back on NBC from Monday through Friday. Any non-thinking, non-viewing critic who'd refer to either of these programs as soap operas should have his mouth washed with you-know-what. Together, the two shows represent five hours of well-crafted live drama per week. On every level—writing, acting, production—the standards are uncommonly high. More than one dramatist will tell you that the daytime serial is one of the best media of all for talented writers, since it allows so much more time to explore a dramatic situation a single, full-hour offering. One such booster is author Leonard Stadd, who’s been writing “From These Roots” since last summer, and who thinks of a daytime series as ‘“T'V’s novel,” as contrasted with the “short stoty" of nightime television. “What's more,” says Stadd, “‘you get a standard of acting that would be hard for nighttime TV to top, for here we have a kind of repertory company where there’s simply no room for anything but the most professional of performers. DESPITE THE DEMANDS a daytime series makes on an actor's resources, the turnover is small. On “From These Roots,” for example, more than half a dozen cast members (including star Ann Flood) have been with the series since its premiere three years a Because our daytime dramas originate in New York, we're able to tap a plentiful supply of seasoned Broadway performers. Conversely, the TV actors get the chance to work in the theatre —be it Broadway, off-Broadway, or off-ofl Broadway (like suburban summer stock). Last season Barbara Berjer of "From These Roots" appeared in Broadway's "The Best Man" OffBroadway, Len Wayland worked in“U.S.A.” and Robert Mandan performed in both ‘Here Come the Clowns” and ‘The Death of Satan" From the “Young Dr. Malone” company, Dr, Jerry Malone himself (actor William Prince) will be starring at Westport Country Playhouse next week in “Venus at Large,” a new comedy by Henry Denker. AT NBC we've long believed an actor should be well-rounded— even if he never intends to play Falstaff— but all the acting skill in the world wouldn't make our daytime serials as good as they are without the guidance of first-rate production personnel. “Young Dr. Malone” is produced for us by Carol Irwin, whose substantial credits are too long to list here, but who's probably best known for her eight-year stint as producer of and packager of the “I Remember Mama” series. Her director is the very able Jim Young, whose imposing track record includes contributions to that same “I Remember Mama.” ‘From These Roots” is masterminded by producer Eugene Burr, whose strong TV credits were preceded by theatrical posts with the Theatre Guild and Billy Rose (to give you an idea). His director, Paul Lammers, is a veteran of such worthy programs as the Kaiser Aluminum Hour, Philco Television Playhouse and Kraft Theatre. With these and other capable pros working behind the scenes, both of the daytime serials have been able to treat mature, adult themes in depth without ever sliding over into sensationalism or over-sentimentality. It appears that many sensitive subjects— such as infidelity, alcoholism or the problem of adopting an older child can be developed much more thoroughly in a dramatic series than in a one-shot drama or documentary. The significance of this has never escaped the attention of astute sponsors, for whom viewer loyalty to NBC daytime drama has always reaped handsome dividends. The nature of this viewer support was never better exemplified than in a letter sent us last summer by a Pennsylvania woman (initials: VirginiaHardy) who'd read a report somewhere that “From These Roots” was going to be dropped by her local station, Mrs. Hardy was, in a word, livid. “I have tried in vain,” she wrote, “to become absorbed in the eternal search for tomorrow, or in the brilliant glow given off by the guiding light—which will undoubtedly lead us to the brighter day. I have tried marrying Joan, loving that Bob, beating the clock and even leading three lives, but none can hold a candle to "From These Roots’.” WITH THAT SORT OF ROOTER, our daytime dramas may well go on forever. And that’s fine—even though a long run does place a heavy premium on ingenuity. Ilustration: The current “Young Dr. Malone,” which bears the same title as the radio serial that began with NBC 22 years ago, is based on all-new situations; and in this TV series, the original “Young Dr. Malone” (Jerry) has an adopted son, David, who's also a physician. Because it would now be too confusing for the dialogue to call either one the young Dr. Malone, the prefixing adjective is never used at all. Our other daytime serial will never have any such problem. After all, whoever heard of a doctor— or even a dentist named "From These Roots"?

i wonder if Damian sent Holden along to gauge what Nate was up to. Hopefully they both will hang around. Jermaine, Nathan and Sean-nice 3some. Although thinking back to the time that Redaric and Lamon were added around the same time and look what happened there.

Why anyone would think Margaret De Priest was a good fit for AMC at that point is beyond me.