Paul Raven
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Posts posted by Paul Raven
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Paul Stewart was an underdevoped character and recast a few times but really he could have just left town and be brought back down the line. Having Liz and Paul both die within months was a bit gruesome.
The oft repeated claim that Irna came back and made a lot of changes does not really hold up. Irna returned Jan 72 and Liz was killed off in Feb 73 so she played that story for a year.
One other thought I had is why the decision was made to give David and Ellen two daughters rather than another son. I guess they wanted to keep Dan as the only son Ellen had to intensify that story.
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If only the soaps had kept some sort of through line that kept the history alive and linked the new with the old.
If ATWT honored the Hughes and Lowell/Stewarts we would have seen Frannie and some children in the 2000s, Lisa's son Scott, the Ward quads, Kristina Hughes and others as major characters carrying on the legacy instead of being ignored or afterthoughts.
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A lot of info in reference books dealing with the 50's and 60's is wrong ie list of headwriters, cast member dates etc
In the Cast List and Character Guide thread in Cancelled Soaps as well as Soap Hoppers posters have made many corrections to rectify these mistakes.
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Keep in mind the times. In the 50's and 60's soaps pushed the narrative that womens' fulfillment came through marriage and children. That was their domain and major concern. So the wellbeing of their children was paramount. Husbands seemed to have a lesser say but older male figures either folksy types like Pa Hughes and Papa Bauer or successful worldly types like Judge Lowell were to be revered.
Women like Edith Hughes, Claire Cassen and Meta Bauer were less stable and cause for concern.
Although they often had way more interesting lives than the 'heroines'.
It gave women at home some vicarious pleasure to see women with agency(hate that term) but the overall lesson was that true fulfillment came from being a wife and mother.
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Attempted sabotage.
When Fred Silverman came on board at NBC the first show he got on the air was Diffrent Strokes and he cannily placed it Fri @8 up against Donny and Marie and Wonder Woman, 2 weak shows.
So ABC puts a new ep of Happy Days in a 'special event' Friday slot to blunt Strokes. It worked. Strokes had a lowly 25 share, HD a 34. But viewers came back to NBC in the following weeks and DS was a much needed hit for them.
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It's all very well to have hip/sexy promos (even if they are wide of the mark) but unless the show holds to that vibe, what's the point?
Maybe AW would have been better off with a more classy/mature promo for their men and keep the dancing/prancing to a couple of younger cast members.
As i posted earlier, had JC stayed on as Alice, audience might have been more receptive to a new Steve or other males cast against her.
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Back to AW and those controversial firings, I think a number of factors came into play.
First of all it all happened alongside the expansion to 1 hr which meant viewers were already adjusting to new characters and storylines, so this was another change to deal with.
In terms of Mary/Virginia I think the show could have survived. Soaps did have a history of killing off major characters Kathy/Robin/Bill on TGL, Arthur on SFT, Jim/Jeff on ATWT etc.
Re George/Steve-he had been troublesome for some time so it's understandable he had to go.
How would posters feel about a recast? Have Steve be in an accident, injured and voila John Fitzpatrick is the new Steve! Or who else could you think of for Steve?
I think losing Jacquie was the most damaging. She was an original cast member and beloved. Viewers might have accepted a new Steve or a widowed Alice if JC was still there.
But the double whammy of losing both the actress and her co star was just too much over time.
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In 1982 JLB announced she would not renew, so Bill dropped Lorie and by years end realized the Leslie/Robert story wasn't working so they were axed.
David Hasselhoff also left as did Wings Hauser so he was faced with too many recasts and decided to drop those characters.
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3 hours ago, Althea Davis said:
Rita Lakin is a master! That woman was sooo talented. God Bless her soul.
3 hours ago, Althea Davis said:Rita Lakin is a master! That woman was sooo talented. God Bless her soul.
Her book 'The Only Woman in the Room' is an interesting read. She doesn't talk much about The Doctors' but her career was so much more than that and she offers some fascinating insights into primetime in the 70's and 80's.
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2 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:
CBS forced him to go to an hour. Each & every person was signed to contracts that specified a half hour. Automatically, on the exact same day, no one had a contract. They'd been on this hot new soap & suddenly they might have thought they'd find a better role or a bigger paycheck
And everyone signed a new contract except for Brenda Dickson and John McCook.
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Here's another one that is oft repeated in one way or another (in fact I just read something along these lines in another thread)
When Y&R went to an hour Bill Bell dropped the Brooks and Foster families and replaced them with the Abbott and Williams families.
The impression given that within a short period all those original family members were dropped and the new families added.
In fact in 1980 Bell added the Williams based around the character of Paul-Carl, Mary, Steve and Patty.
John and Jack Abbott came on months later as fairly minor characters.
Jill, Greg, Snapper and Liz Foster continued as prominent characters till 1982 as did all the Brooks family.
It was not until 2 years into the 1 hr show that Lorie, Les and Chris were dropped along with Snapper and Greg.
And a family was created around Jack as had been done with Paul years earlier.
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So many dates in reference books are wrong.
Another myth is that Guiding Light was continuously on air since 1937, ignoring several times the show was not broadcast in the 40's.
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interesting to see ABC belatedly entering the soap world with revivals including Joyce Jordan, Evelyn Winters, Mary Marlin etc. At this point I think daytime radio wasn't really feeling the effect of TV, so soaps were still popular enough.
But I don't think ABC made much of an impact as most of those shows were cancelled in 52.
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2 hours ago, cassadine1991 said:
Mary Kennicott debuts April 26, 1971, just a couple of weeks before Erica has the abortion
Mary was originally played by Jacqueline Coslow. Not sure when Susan Blanchard took over.
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Good news for all those who work hard on the show.
Wonder what CBS thinking is? The show must be making money for them. Is there a set budget for the renewal or will certain goals have to be reached?
Hate to think of Josh in control for another 4 years.
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a couple of others have come to mind
1. The movie being filmed in town. EON set the ball rolling with 'Mansion of the Damned' being filmed in Monticello in 79 and throughout the 80's we had 'The Moonlighter' filmed in Oakdale (ATWT) 'A View from The Bay' in Bay City (AW) and Blood Moon in Llanview (OLTL). Those stories never really went anywhere or changed much as well as not being very believable.
Were there any others?
2. Guest artists performing-an offshoot of the use of Top 40 music and guest appearances. GL used 'Wired for Sound' for several artists to appear eg B52's, Huey Lewis etc.
Roberta Flack/Crystal Gale on AW, Jermaine Jackson/Whitney Houston (ATWT) and so on.
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I love Jan Sterling-she always is always great, no matter the quality of the movie.
Would love to see her on TGL.
Never apologize for time b/w posts - we all appreciate the continued effort.
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AS THE WORLD TURNS
Mrs. ______ Simpson ?????? March - ? 1979 Social worker involved when Val wants to foster Kate, a recently orphaned young girl.
Nick Andropolous...Michael Forrest Jan 80- September 82 Carpenter/restaurant owner hired by Lisa for renovations at Wade Bookstore owned The Plakka,knew Sheila Winston, fell for Kim,arousing jealousy of Bob and Melinda. Blamed brother Steve for a fire that killed his wife and daughter.Kim discovers from Steve that he had an affair with Andrea and pulls away from Nick because of that secret, Nick leaves for Greece, Kim follows and they sleep together! and become engaged.Discover Andrea is alive and that she faked her death over guilt of their child dying in the fire. Nick began divorce proceedings, discovered that Steve and Andrea had had an affair and almost killed Steve. Married Kim who became disenchanted with his old fashioned views as they clashed when she took over management of his restaurant and then got a job as Stan Holden's secretary. Furious to discover Steve is involved with Betsy his stepdaughter Died of a heart attack not before extracting a promise from Betsy not to become involved with Steve.
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Requests
Lew Brown
Kathleen Mahoney Bennett
Joan McIntosh
Jean Sullivan
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We've just lived through the Eric is dying/John McCook is retiring debacle, so Bradley is now not only recycling plots but also hype surrounding them.
What really would be a shocker is a well plotted story that took a character in a new direction and had some long term consequences!
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Don't think I've ever seen this photo before.
Pat (Susan Trustman) John (Michael M Ryan) and Mitchell Dru (Geoffrey Lumb)
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53 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:
Excellent. Michell Dru ATWT & AW;
Mitchell Dru was also on The Brighter Day.
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ONE LIFE TO LIVE
Dr Burnham Ron Bohmer
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Re Ellen
Had they nurtured core families, with a little SORASING you have her 4 grandchildren ready to be the new teens/young adults.
That should have been a gift to the writers but they chose to ignore it.
Her daughter Dee never returned. She could have come back as a business woman, ready to get revenge on John, or fallen for him again etc.
Plenty of opportunities for Ellen to be strong supporting.
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Acapulco Bay (short-lived syndicated soap opera)
in DTS: Cancelled Soaps
Posted
Yes he was a big TV star but never followed through. Maybe he got a bad rep or walked away from good offers ... Anyway he turned up on GH for a while.
It annoys me to see Maree Cheatham here when she should have been involved with Days in some capacity. Their only original castmember still active and Maree never came back .