Paul Raven

Lipton spent the 50's acting on a soap and then wrote for them in the 60's, 70's and 80's. He should have a lot to offer on the subject.

The secretary is Ann Jeffers (Maureen Mooney) That's Dan Hamilton and Christina Pickles as David Vested and Linell Conway. Those pics are from two different times 1972 and 1976,I would say. I'm sure similar press photos exist for other CBS soaps. Hopefully they will surface.

So we've had the New Day in Eden episode, some 1970 eps of AMC brought to our attention, CBS primetime soap pilot 919 5th Avenue posted and Alan posting complete issues of CBS Soaps in Depth from 1999 - and we are still in January. Good start to the year.

@Alan thank you for sharing,. Brings back memories.

A firefighter? Guess we won't be seeing him on the job. I think the focus needs to be on a few characters in the first few weeks and then bring others to the forefront. That was an issue with Texas, Santa Barbara etc too many characters to get into at the start. Then a lot of them falling by the wayside.

PR Puff Piece. I like how they say they never go online. Yeah, right. Or maybe after a few minutes they decided they couldn't take it.

Sharon Laughlin joins Mary Grover (cast as Leslie on Y&R) and another actress whose name escapes me, but was cast on Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, in the dropped before air time group. there might be others. Mary Jackson played Alice Horton in the Days pilot. I'm pretty sure Diane De Veagh made it to air but was dropped shortly after.

Jess Walton ???

This move to primetime was during Summer, a non ratings period. It was not a success and Days moved back to daytime.

Ditching Pat would be up there as one of AW's dumbest moves. She looked great and with only one marriage under her belt there was plenty of story for the character.

What was the shooting schedule for NDIE? By the looks of it they probably had a very tight timeline-not much time for rehearsals or retakes. The same for script editing and revisions. As many episodes in the can as possible in the shortest amount of time. Budgets were TIGHT in those days for cable shows.

I didn't know that. She presented older and Ellen was mother to Devon, who was at least 16 when she came on, so they were writing and dressing her as up to 10 years older. And I guess Mark the character was a little younger than Mark, the actor? Going to the link and seeing Joan Van Ark with Donna (who looks amazing) and Kathleen (who also is looking good) is sad. Such bad work.

James Karen went from AMC into The Best of Everything so either it was a contract thing where they had to pay him so put him in the new show or felt bad about dropping him from AMC and gave him a new gig. He had been recurring on ATWT for five years previously as Susan Stewart's dad.

Well I'll guess I'll have to accept that Doug and Julie would never marry which would make them the only couple that never got together at some point. Would love to see how Bill was going to keep them apart for the next 10 years or so. Yet he married off Chris/Snapper, Brad/Leslie, Victor/Nikki and many more. Guess Doug and Julie were in a class of their own.

I still take that as meaning that at that point he didn't want Doug and Julie to marry, as there were still viable obstacles that could be put into place. If Doug and Julie were never to marry, would that mean they would continue to marry other people? Bill Bell knew that viewers wouldn't stand for that. So 5/10 years down the line they would still be apart? And it is Bob Anderson, not Bill.

Re James Karen. I think I read that he came across as too old. He was about 9 years younger than his onscreen mother (Ruth Warrick) and wasn't convincing as her son. Certainly nothing to do with his acting.

Search For Tomorrow Patti Barron Whiting Whiting McCleary Kelly Wood temp replacement for Leigh Lassen 1969

Could you cite those texts so I can refer? Thanks in advance.

Wonder why the opening kept changing? it wasn't like a drastic thing-just a font/design tweak. Someone had time on their hands. Linc, Ann and Kate were all recast. Ann twice before they settled on Judith Barcroft. Judith was popular on AW. Did Agnes lure her over. Or had Judith left AW and was then approached by Agnes, who had created her character on AW? There were 3 Lincs before the character was dropped in 71 for a couple of years and Peter White took on the role. And 2 Kates in the first year until Kay campbell agreed to play the role -again an actress Agnes had written for on TGL. Jeff was also recast and Bobby dropped. A lot of changes in the early days.

I agree that supercouples were a phenomena of the 80's and tied to the action/adventure trend. As well as the obstacles of a villianous rival eg Larry Welch, there had to be some larger than life factor ,usually involving criminals/spies etc. Days and GH did the most. I think there had to be some longevity also. I would include Travis/Liza, Steve/Betsy at some point but the Betsy recast and Doug Marland's writing for them moved them in a different direction. Other popular couples, who faced more mundane,traditional obstacles do not earn supercouple status. As for Bill Bell not wanting Doug and Julie married ever, I don't buy it. I think he believed that they could have got another year or two out of the story before the wedding.

This article mentions marland being a consultant to P&G Summer of 79.

Ed also returned as Bill in 1980 for Hope's wedding. I don't think there was much interest in him coming back, after the poor reception to the Dobson's BFTD story in 77. GL was more interested in dumping established vets than bringing one back. Bill could have been used in family scenes and business stories and his stepson Paul could have come on also.

Thanks for this detailed and fascinating information. I'm particularly interested in Bill Bell's tenure. He took over in July 66. I wonder how quickly that all went down? Ted Corday was dying at this point, so I imagine there would have been a lot of backstage turmoil. Your list shows Carolyn Weston writing all of July, so maybe Bill was still finding his feet and Weston was writing with input from Bill. I imagine the first month would have been tying up storylines from the previous regimes, making adjustments and laying groundwork for new characters/stories. I believe Weston had been writing Morning Star which was cancelled July 1, so she would have moved straight to Days. I wonder if she was in the running to take over at Days? She went on to become an author whose books became the basis for The Streets of San Francisco tv series in the 70's. Bill Bell's first script is Aug 5 66. He writes most of August but most of September James Gentile is scriptwriter. He had been working on Edge of Night. Wonder why Bill handed over the reigns so quickly? Then Bill is back writing daily scripts for Oct and Nov. In Dec another experienced soap writer John M Young writes several scripts. Was it a case of Bill looking for a scriptwriter he liked to share the duties? Maybe Betty Corday felt the need for this? Young continued into 67 writing Jan episodes . By Feb 67 Bill is again writing every episode until late May- Oct when Sherman Magidson writes many scripts. He was a Chicago lawyer that Bill would have met through Irna Phillips as he was legal consultant for her. He turned his hand to scriptwriting and was associated with Bill Bell for many years following at Y&R and B&B. Nov and Dec 67 are all Bell. Moving onto 68 Pat Falken Smith enters the picture. She shares scriptwriting duties from Feb till May when Ted and Mathilde Ferro take over. They were veteran writers who had recently departed Guiding Light. By Oct the Ferros were writing one script a week, replaced by John Boruff, actor turned scriptwriter who worked with Agnes Nixon on Guiding Light. He only contributed a few scripts that month. Pat Falken Smith was also back. So Nov/Dec it was Bell/Smith/Ferro. 1969 was Bell/Smith and the Ferros sharing the scripts with Boruff popping up in July and taking over from the Ferros in September . They were back in Oct and Boruff was out. Maybe just filling in whjle they took a break. 1970 The Ferros were gone by Feb and Bill Rega took over. For the rest of 1970 Bell, Smith and Rega were the team, Seems they finally had a stable group. 1971 Rega was out and David Lesan wrote 2 scripts. He was a co writer for Irna Phillips . But until May 71, Bell and Smith were the only writers. Rega returned in July and Smith was out Was this when she became headwriter at Where The Heart Is? Carolyne Lacy began in July and Norman Jacob in August. Lacy only contributed a few scripts but Jacob continued for the rest of 71 Pat Falken Smith returns Feb 72 and Jacob is out. 'Wilber and Stewart' are added in April 72 so the rest of the year Bell, Rega, Smith and W&S are scripting. Although Bell is writing the scripts occasionally and nothing after Aug 72. Probably preparing for Y&R, which is given the official go ahead in Nov 72. In Jan 72 Don Sanford is added. He was an experienced primetime writer. Bill Bell writes one last script in Feb 73 and Kay Lenard arrives. The Bill Bell era is officially over.

Doug Marland's first stint at ATWT was 13 weeks in 79. I still maintain that it was a 'caretaking' position based on the facts that there was no publicity surrounding it. He was the writer that had helped GH turn around, so you think there would have been some hype about that, but nothing. And during that time he made no major changes to story, merely playing out stories already in motion. I'm sure he was paid handsomely but he had no real investment. In later interviews he never referred to it.

Hope Busby as Liza? I think Liza worked at Hartford House at some point.