Paul Raven

Well if you couldn't find the time to reunite with your presumed dead mother, why would you bother with your sister? And speaking of Cheryl, was she ever mentioned before her arrival or created out of the blue by Margaret DePriest?

Although in those days no name actors were used, for sure there would have been some who went on to become names in some capacity. Thanks again @jam6242 for your kindness in sharing.

Thanks for that. I obviously missed that the show was set in DC.

Doug Marland anecdote I remember meeting Agnes Nixon downstairs at the elevator because Agnes was a consultant for all the shows on ABC and it was the week that General Hospital hit number one solid-- we wiped everything else out. The fact that this poor pathetic show was the solid number one show was like victory--this was the first story meeting I haven't dreaded. Agnes said, “Don't be too sure.” I said, “What can they say, we're number one?” Jackie Smith came in and said, her opening remarks, she was a half-hour late, and said, "We're in terrible trouble.” I couldn't believe it. Her maid that morning had said that the Laura, Bobbie, Scotty thing was boring, she didn't like it --all our eggs are in that basket. I said, "It was the basket that brought us here.” She said, “Yes, now we have to find ways to stay there.” "We can't go on telling the same story." I said, "The story isn't even over yet." I couldn't believe it. Agnes was totally right. She winked at me from across the room. There is an incredible instinct to panic.

So we have 1. Marcus and Daniel,a Washington based couple 2.Sam, the surgeon who works at Garland Memorial ans aprivate practice, 3. Stacy, the high end realtor 4. Jillian Washington based attorney 5. Luis trainer at the Country Club. So the show will have 2 locales. Wonder how they will connect Atlanta to Washington? Then you have the hospital, private practice, real estate office and Country Club. I'm just thinking in terms of sets and locations, it seems ambitious. Will there be a common meeting place for interaction eg Country Club bar/cafe etc? It's going to be fascinating to see this all take shape.

The Chicago Star Nov 1 1947 People living in real world distinguish new radio serial Without fuss and fanfare, a minor revolution among the radio “soap opera” families is going on over at Marshall Field's 50,000 Watt WJJD. Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 a.m. every standard soap-opera gimmick and character is buried while a new-type serial goes through fifteen minutes of some of the hardest hitting social dramatizations ever heard on the air. It’s “Here Comes Tomorrow,” a ; skillfully written and well-enacted drama about the “Redmond” family, recently from Claybank Alabama, now of Chicago, Illinois. THE STRIKING DIFFERENCE between the Redmonds and other members of radio's “soap opera” families such as “Ma Perkins,” “One Man’s Family,” “Big Sister,” and “Lonely Women” is not simply that the Redmonds happen to be a Negro family that has moved in on their block (although this in itself is sufficient to cause pandemonium among the “soap families”) —but that the Redmonds live where none of the other families have yet lived: in a real world. The “Here Comes Tomorrow” the Redmonds live in is a real: world in which they struggle through things that never exist in radio serials, such as high prices, housing shortages, racial discrimination, search for jobs and other real-life situations, in order to reach what Milton Redmond, the key character, describes as “tomorrow.” In other words: what has happened in Chicago radio is that in "Here Comes Tomorrow" it has produced America's first socially significant radio serial with a commercial sponsor. CREATED BY RICHARD DURHAM, who writes and produces the show under the direction of Allan Harris, its sponsor is the Metropolitan Mutual Assurance Company of Chicago, the first Negro company to take to the air with a dramatic serial.

I believe that Jane had signed a year contract but was happy to renew. However, Allen Potter was not happy with the story and I guess Jane's contract renewal would have seen an increase in salary. So he decreed Jane has to go. Marland was not happy (maybe about some other stuff as well) The recastasting of Ed and dropping Barbara,Steve and Adam were not his decisions.

Kinda soap related. For the 1964 Joan Crawford flick Strait Jacket a list of possible actresses for the part of Carol (daughter of Joan's character Lucy) Among those considered, several actresses who had or would have soap roles Julie Parrish Patricia Breslin Susan Oliver Patty McCormack Denise Alexander Sharon Farrell Zina Bethune Lynn Loring

It was merely an appearance with Van Johnson when Rosemary and a friend attend a play.. But it would have kept her in the public eye and had her associated with a prestige movie. Just referenced this and there is some dispute about the veracity of it. Actress Rutanya Alda has told this story many times (she was Mia's stand in) but others have denied such a scene was planned or took place. A fascinating read http://www.theconcludingchapterofcrawford.com/debunking_rosemarysbaby

Have you seen 'The Best of Everything'? She's great in that but her screentime is much too short. It would have been great had her appearance in Rosemary's Baby had not been cut. It is a classic movie and she would have benefitted from being apart of it, if only in passing. I can see why other actresses from that era avoided working in the 60's. They were regarded as has- beens pretty much and the roles available were poor.

To my mind, Bette was just too old and frumpy for this role. I could see Joan Crawford pulling this off in her Mildred Pierce era. The original with Dolores Del Rio, La Otra is a must watch. I think it is on YouTube.

Such a pity her latter roles were beneath her. If only she had stayed on Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. She was announced for Return to Peyton Place but pulled out and Mary Astor took the role. I thought she was excellent in Strait Jacket, but they shouldn't have shown her in flashbacks. That movie needed a bigger budget, the cheap sets and photography took away the potential. She looked so frumpy in her final role on The Sixth Sense.

CBS moving Designing women to Sunday @9 was one of the oddest scheduling moves ever. There must have been some strategy there but to move a new sitcom to the prime Sunday slot during February sweeps seemed odd. And have the following programs a revamped version of a sitcom that had already flopped and an untried drama ? Sure enough DW was swamped by big movies/mini series from the competition. Anyone got any insights into that bone headed move?

Info on OG barbara is limited as she isn't mentioned much in summaries of that time. She was involved with Tom but Irna quickly pivoted back to Carol when she returned and Barbara was left out in the cold. Seemed to be a support to Jennifer/Rick.I think she hung around till late 72/early 73.

Saying that Robin was disadvantaged due to her Santa Barbara commitments is disingenuous. She agreed to the contract and it's provisions. If she was interested in pursuing other roles, then agreeing to a soap was not the wisest choice. That's why many young actors didn't go that route. I think back to Tom Selleck for example, who was recurring on Y&R because he wouldn't sign a contract, knowing it would be restrictive and he really wanted a primetime career.

Those credits are from the Sept 78 episode that has been posted. Marland had a 13 week writing stint b/w Ellis/Hunt and the Dobsons, which has always been the subject of much conjecture as it was such a short stint and he really didn't do much story wise-some sort of interim/caretaking position before he moved to Guiding Light.

Doris Quinlan brought Nancy Pinkerton and Doris Belack onto The Doctors when she was EP. They'd both worked with her on OLTL.

When Melinda was introduced, Barbara wasn't around. Wonder how that was handled onscreen? Were Rick and Barbara mentioned? Did they meet offscreen or was there perhaps some initial hesitation from Bob, Kim etc about Melinda meeting her siblings and then it was not mentioned. If they wanted to introduce new younger characters why not just bring back Rick and Barbara instead of creating Melinda?

When Genie left GH she signed with CBS and got Bare Essence min series. I don't think anything else came of that. Perhaps CBS just signed her for the publicity and weren't all that interested. Then when the Bare Essence series bombed it was probably a rude awakening to the realities of the primetime biz. I can't remember who it was but an actress commented that it was limos to the studio, fashion shoots,(keep any clothes you like,darling) catered lunches etc as their series was launched, but once it tanked she had to pay for a cab home. '

@Khan Those credits- Ann Jillian gets's a sketch and John P Navin (who?) then the rest of the cast are credited with pics of Ann...huh?

1983-84 Nielsen ratings for weekly series 1. Dallas 2.60 Minutes 3. Dynasty (tie) 4. The A-Team 5.Simon & Simon 6. Magnum, P.I. 7. Falcon Crest 8. Kate & Allie 9. Hotel 10. Cagney & Lacey 11. Knots Landing 12. ABC Monday Movie 14. ABC Sunday Movie 14. TV Bloopers 15. The Fall Guy 16. AfterMASH 17. The Love Boat 18. Riptide 19. The Jeffersons 20. Scarecrow & Mrs King 21. Monday Night Football 22. NBC Monday Movie 23. Newhart 24. The Four Seasons 25. Webster 26. Knight Rider 27. Alice 28. CBS Tuesday Movie 29. Facts of Life 30. The Dukes of Hazzard 31. Hardcastle & Mcormick 32. Trapper John 33.Hill Street Blues 34. Three's Company 35. Cheers 36. Goodnight Beantown 37. NBC Sunday Movie 38. Benson 39. Foulups,Bleeps & Blunders 40. Real People 41. Remington Steele 42. T.J. Hooker 43. Family Ties 44. One Day at Time 45. Hart to Hart 46. Mike Hammer 47. Night Court 48. Gimme A Break 49. Matt Houston 50. Fantasy Island 51. Diff'rent Strokes 52. Maggie Briggs 53. Oh Madeline 54. Shaping Up 55. Silver Spoons 56. a.k.a. Pablo 57. That's Incredible 58. CBS Saturday Movie 59. Airwolf 60. 20 / 20 61. Blue Thunder 62. Happy Days 63. People Are Funny 64. The Duck Factory 65. We Got It Made 66. The Mississippi 67. Mama's Family 68. Automan 69. Domestic Life 70. St. Elsewhere 71. Double Trouble 72. Believe it or Not 73. Emerald Point 74. Buffalo Bill 75. Just Our Luck 76. CBS Wednesday Movie 77. Lottery Movie 78. Masquerade 79. NBC Friday Movie 80. Trauma Center 81. Boone 82. Mama Malone 83. The Whiz Kids 84. Nine to Five 85. The American Parade )86. The Master 87. It's Not Easy Movie 88. Empire 91. Jennifer Slept Here 90. Manimal The Yellow Rose 92. Bay City Blues Movie 93. Two Marriages 94. Mr. Smith Movie 95. The Rousters 96. For Love & Honor 97. Cutter to Houston 98. Legmen 99. The New Show 100. First Camera 101. Father Murphy.

Thought this article was appropriate for this thread ‘Designing Women’ becomes Thursday’s sacrificial lamb By Michael Dougan San Francisco Examiner SAN FRANCISCO (Scripps) Wed December 17 1986 Annie Potts and Dixie Carter were eating lunch when word came that their funny new CBS aeries “Designing Women” had scored miserably low numbers In the overnight Nielsens in its first Thursday outing, So low in fact that “Designing Women” rated 58th in the weekly figures — a disastrous drop from the No 20 slot it enjoyed when it aired on Monday the week before. Despite its great success as a Monday show following “Newhart” “Designing Women” is not likely to prevail against NBC’s “Night Court", part of a quartet of programs (with “The Cosby Show” “Family Ties” and “Cheers”) that has given American viewers an unshakeable NBC habit come Thursday evenings. Television Is an industry that eats its young In order to boost its own pitiable Thursday night ratings CBS moved “Designing Women” Into the death zone. The results were predictable - not only did “Designing Women” drew an abominable Nielsen rating but its “share” — the percentage of sets actually turned on at the time it aired — was a mere 15 vs 41 for “Night Court” and 21 for ABC’s ‘The Colbys”. “We did not win over The Colbys?’ ’’ moaned Carter “Oh Annie I hadn’t expected us to be lower than The Colbys’. ’’ “Did they have naked women on last night or something?” said Potts “That’s better than they’ve ever done” She stared glumly into her minestrone. Kim LeMasters is the CBS programming chief who made the decision to shift “Designing Women” onto the Thursday night minefield. On this Black Friday Potts and Carter were mentally scratching LeMasters off their Chrlstmas-card lists. They had learned of the move to Thursdays only two weeks earlier, “We were shocked and we were frightened,” Carter recalled. “We didn’t know what to make of this and Kim LeMasters came to see us to assure us that this was a vote of confidence. Although he acknowledged that this was not the best thing to do for Designing Women, it was the best thing to do for CBS on Thursday nights.He thought we were up to it” The topic shifted — however lightly — to Hal Holbrook, Carter’s husband, as It happened the “Designing Women” guest star on that ill-fated Thursday debut.“I’m just so angry” said Potts “that a man of his stature could come along strictly out of his affection for all of us and his extraordinary love for Dixie and do this show . “And” chimed in Carter, “that he would have the foul luck to be a sacrificial lamb on our first night.” I asked whether CBS might consider a second move if “Designing Women” continues to founder “That’s what Kim LeMasters said right to us” Carter replied “He said they would move us back to Monday nights but now that (CBS’ new series) The Cavanaughs’ has scored a marvelous rating on Monday night ”

And Doug Marland specifically created Carrie for Jane Eliot on Guiding Light after writing for her as Tracy on GH. But he never used her on ATWT in the 7 years he was there. Henry Slesar created a role for Lois Kibbee(Emily) on Somerset after he wrote her off EON and then brought Geraldine back to Edge. She the wrote EON under his leadership. Was he writing OLTL when she was cast as Elizabeth?

Silverman's 3 year tenure produced only 3 'hits' Diff'rent Strokes/Facts of Life, Real People and Hill St Blues,none of which were consistent Top 10 or Top 20 shows. The first schedule Grant Tinker oversaw produced Family Ties, Remington Steele, Knight Rider, St Elsewhere and Cheers. None of them were initially successful but there was definite upturn in quality and potential. Mid season came the A Team, the first genuine hit for NBC in years. And then Cosby and Golden Girls..

Who are some of the actors that particular writers and performers seemed to like,?-based on them appearing on different soaps that those writers or producers were involved with. Jill Farren Phelps favorites are often mentioned . Some others Bill Bell - Robert Clary appeared in 3 Bell soaps Bell was writing-DOOL, Y&R and B&B each time playing pretty much the same character. Wes Kenney- When he came to Y&R, Patty Weaver, Suzanne Zenor, Mark Tapscott joined the cast, all who had been on Days during his tenure. Doug Marland - Wrote Lisa Brown into ATWT when he joined, after writing for her as Nola on GL. Other examples?