Paul Raven

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.

You probably know that edge of Night was also live until the switch to ABC. Before that I would assume it was Search for Tomorrow/Guiding Light which went to tape when they expanded to 30 mins in 1968??

I guess S&D was CBS' response to the 50's nostalgia craze that spawned Happy Days. Opposition was That's My Mama on ABC and Little House on the Prairie which was the timeslot winner finishing #13 for the season. Cancelled and replaced by Tony Orlando & Dawn variety series which was waiting in the wings after a good Summer season. that did way better than S&D finishing #25.

I recall Afternoon TV magazine speculating that the spinoff would be set in Boston and that Pat Matthews and Kevin Cooke would be involved. I wonder if this was just guesswork on the part of the mag or that was one of the original ideas floated?

The storylines had potential, but the deathly pace, some poor acting and the awful lighting all played a part in getting things off to a rocky start.

Jennifer had been introduced in late 71 shortly before Irna returned in Jan 72. Originally played by Geraldine Court,Gillian Spencer took over. I would imagine that Irna had a different vision for the character and felt a recast was necessary. Not having read any 72 or 73 synopses it's hard to know how the character evolved onscreen, but it seems that she was a more 'liberated' type who wanted a career . Irna tried to reflect the times, but perhaps Jen was seen as somewhat unsympathetic for wanting more than marriage and children. @EricMontreal22 Dennis Cooney was Jay-he had been on Love of Life and Secret Storm. He was introduced as a brooding mysterious type and was first paired with Lisa. But he calmed down and married the beloved Carol. However, traces of the original Jay remained and he caused poor Carol much heartache by having an affair with Natalie and impregnating her . Carol always stuck by him. Cooney was written off by the Dobsons in 1980. He stopped appearing for a few months and then was killed off. Dennis was a confirmed bachelor and the Daytime mags of the 70's did stories on his love of antiques...

They really need to get over this mindset that viewers have short attention spans and unless things are constantly changing, they'll switch off. How about a longer scene that is so intriguing and well written that you will want to stick with it?

Respect your viewpoint but to me that has made it unwatchable as the same stories seem to be told over and over and those characters face one ridiculous scenario over and over. Happy to see the vets frontburner when the story calls for it but centering the show on Victor and having his misdeeds be ignored or even praised is too annoying for me.

Interesting that another Black male has been added, in light of BTG. Unfortunately, knowing Josh, this story will go nowhere. Is Bryton being backburnered in all of this?

GH 66/67/68 And a 2 min Somerset clip

Teasers not spoilers please! eg Anita faces danger v Anita is pushed down the stairs. Not a great example but you get the gist.

I think Joe Stuart may have played hardball on contract renewals - I'm pretty sure that was the case with Doris Belack.

Welcome back Eric ! Missed ya. Hopefully you'll hang around.

And the gifts keep coming: ATWT 1973 TGL 1973 and a clip from How To Survive A Marriage.

Love La Lucci dearly, but I think she was/is in her own Erica bubble and isn't an authoritative source on AMC or soaps in general. Those random statements above as evidence.

The YouTube poster who has been gifting us with classic episodes the past few days has added a 10 min clip of HTSAM with Miss Rosemary Prinz!

TGL episode was around late August/early Sept 73. 3 voiceovers in the early part of the episode was a bit of overkill. Also surprised at Anthony call's grey locks. And Millette looks pretty and youthful. She was 40 at that time. By 1980 she had a much older and dowdy look. Wouldn't happen these days with 50 plus actresses presenting years younger. And we get to see the change from Barbara Rodell back to Lynne Adams as Leslie. Barbara got the short end of the stick here with the producers decide to recast with Lynne, the original Leslie. Don Stewart was looking very hunky here with the tan and filling out the yellow seersucker shirt nicely. Nancy Addison looked great. Maybe Victoria should have had another child, with the old pregnant when she left town trope. It could have given Leslie/Mike more to do.

I checked synopses and this episode is late August or early Sept 73. Jen was unhappy because Bob was clashing with her son Rick, and she felt Bob was at fault. In addition Jen was unhappy about her pregnancy and had only reconciled with Bob because of it. An argument ensues one night which results in Bob getting hit by a car, trying to save Jen. When Rick shows little sympathy for Bob, Jen realizes she has been blind to Rick's true nature. Then Bob in a drugged state reveals to Jen his one night stand with Kim and the fact he is the father of her child also. Jen decides to keep the secret. At the same time John and Kim elope.