Paul Raven

Definitely should have cut that clip down. I started fast forwarding after about a minute. I remember the first few episodes-things draaaged. Not the way to hook new viewers in. The Alex/Iris scenes were torture.

Seeing the outside of the studio is frustrating. They could tape the Hayley/Randy meet ups in the car park, for instance. They have been outside a few times so it is puzzling why they don't do it more often.

BUFFALO COURIER-EXPRESS, Sunday, May 23, 1982 In 'a soap opera age of bland blond 'and boring brunette beatities, red haired Lurlene Harper on 'Texas" is a flapjawed, awkward, yet endearing relief. She's clean and fancy-free in appearance, guileless in manner and backwoods in speech. She may be the only TV woman capable of pronouncing her boy friend's name, Joel, in six syablles. She is so full of goidurned spunk and cotton-eyed charm that she outdistances the other "Texas" ladies in appeal by a country mile. "She's good-hearted and naive," says actress Tina Johnson, describing the character she plays. "She trusts everyone and doesn't believe that people can be ruthless, heartless or unfaithful, which produces a lot of conflict for her, especially in a soap opera. Lurlene also doesn't believe she's attractive. She's merely cute. She fantasizes about the men of her dreams who'll sweep her off her feet. ''She had a giddy crush on Jeb Hampton a year ago, and that was the only romance in her life until ' Joel tame along. But he's blind, literally. Otherwise, he might see her as other men do: a good pal." Ms. Johnson doesn't have a trace of the Texas twang she uses on screen as Lurlene, While most other actors on "TX" struggle to no authentic avail to deal with a Lone Star accent, Tina's is as authentic as sagebrush and armadillos. "I grew 'up in Tyler, Tex., and people back home see me on the show and say, 'her folks sent her to all those fancy schools and she's talkin' laik she always daid,'" explains Tina. Her christened name is Varina and it has been the name bestowed on every first girl born in her family for four generations, ever since her great-grandmother, an admirer of Jefferson Davis's wife. "My pa was, and still is, head of the music department at the Tyler High School. Ma's a violin teacher. I sang in the church choir since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and there was never a doubt me and my brother, who is now a songwriter and guitarist, wouldn't pursue music in some way." An interest in music professionally began for Tina at age 12 when she appeared, with Sandy Duncan, as one of the Trapp children in "'The Sound of Music," in Dallas. After graduating from North Texas State University, Tina toured in "Peter Pan" as Wendy and in "Cactus Flower" with Ann Miller. I never deliberately set out to change the way I talked. I just picked up accents naturally. I'm a sponge. I lose myself in the magic of acting and become this other creature. You have to mold your whole being for a character."

Daily Bulletin Endicott. Thurs July 26, 1956 'Romance of Helen Trent' Oldest Soap Opera of All by Charles Mercer. Yesterday a few bars of 'Juanita' sounded from a few million radios across the country and a soap opera called "The Romance of Helen Trent" entered Its 24th uninterrupted year of broadcasting on the CBS Radio network. As far as anybody can find out - and just watch a couple of authorities from somewhere arise to dispute the flat statement- "The Romance of Helen Trent" is now the oldest consecutive soap opera on the air. Its 5900 scripts, if laid end to end would consume fill 61 solid days and nights of heart-throb. Romance Over 35 Helen has survived by a simple, neat formula that has endeared her to millions of women as they slave .over their ironing boards and cookstoves. She demonstrates, in fact she proves—that a woman of 35 or older may still have romance in her life. Granted that Helen, a successful Hollywood dress designer may have been 38 when her perpetual and persistent romances began back in 1932. She now is a mere 62—a real spring chicken. One thing about Helen is that she's a mighty good girl, with none of the major or minor vices. She has been courted only "by wealthy men-it's doubtful if anyone knows how many. Yet, not once has she been led to the altar. Her listeners have their favorite suitors of course. One actor who played a suitor some time ago, says he used to receive constant communications from a listener, a sweet little old lady from Chicago, who was rooting for him. She's report what were being said about him behind his back on the program. She urged him to "strike back'' But when Helen finally rejects her listeners apparently accept the fact with a fatalism born of the ironing board. Tomorrow there will be somebody else. Tomorrow there will be hope. And there always Is Gil Whitney. Helen's most persistent suitor of the past dozen years. Helen was the brain-child of Frank and Anne Hummert. a husband and wife writing team. Only nine writers have worked on the show in its lifetime. The present writer is Margo Brooks, of South Salem. Ernest Ricca has been the director for the past 12 years There have been occasional substitute stars but the present Helen, who took the job at the age of 27 and will be 40 in -November, is an actress named Julie Stevens who Is married to a television executive named Charles Underhfll and lives in Armonk. , Helen .has .been aroundL*-long tinw-aiw shows-no' eigne of ever leaving the airways. One fact mint be. faced, however: Helen never can marry. if she ever did there would be no more romance for, a lot of listeners.

Melody Thomas Scott as Marge.

@soapfan770 I'd forgotten that the Dobsons had worked on a couple of episodes of Emerald Point. I agree that a Fri @10 slot could have worked but I guess the risk was too great in breaking up the Dallas/FC combo. What they could have done was have a couple episodes play Fri @10 before moving it to Monday ,hopefully building an audience that way and then debuting FC for the season in it's regular Fri slot.

Not sure if this has been posted before, but with close to 1000 pages... Margaret De Priest plans to spruce up'Another World' By Nancy M. Reichardt Award-winning soap opera writer Margaret De Priest, who took over the head-writing chores on NBC's "Another World" this past March, has plans to shake up the soap - and its viewers. "I intend to bring a solid focus to this show," says De Priest. "The audience will be able to say in one sentence or to see in one key scene what 'Another World* is all about." De Priest started her daytime drama career 17 years ago when she joined "Edge of Night" as an associate writer. She later co-created the short-lived soap "Where the Heart Is," then went on to become an associate writer on "One Life to Live" and later became a head writer on the NBC soap "The Doctors." De Priest was part of thé "General Hospital" head-writing team from 1980 until 1983, when she joined NBC's "Days of Our Lives" that same year, where she continued through 1985. De Priest received Emmy nominations for her work on "Days of Qur Lives'" {last year), "General Hospital" and "One Life to Live". Getting back to "Another World,""De Priest says, "The show is revolving around three core families: the Corys, the Loves and the McKinnons. Each family has a particular kind of lifestyle and philosophy. We're doing a classic drama, in the vein of Sinclair Lewis - with all those wealthy Loves on one side, the blue-collar McKinnons on the other, and the wealthy but socially conscious Corys in between.. ''We'll also be adding characters to flesh out each family," continues De Priest. "Several members of the Love family will show up soon, including an older patrlarchal figure and some of the younger members of the family. There are still a brother and sister In the McKinnon family that the audience hasn't met yet, and some of the Corys will also return." De Priest doesn't intend to use the typical: Friday cliffhangers to grab the attention of the audience. "The audience will be kept off balance," says De Priest. "They'll have to watch the show every day because events of momentous importance will take place throughout the week.

Soap Report Jon Michael Reed April 29 1979 NEW YORK - CBS's "Love of Life" has undergone many creative changes since last fall when new producer Cathy Abbi spruced up the visual look of the show with dynamic stunning sets and costumes. But a beautiful environment does got a good soap opera make. The story, under headwriter Jean Holloway, has gone to the dogs. The prime focus centers on a ridiculous story about locating Bambi Brewster's parents. At first, since the girl was in critical condition, the search seemed logical. Now that she has recovered and not expressed the least bit of interest in her boss Ray Slater's locating her family, motivation and reason has flown out the "'Love of Life story window. AND, HAS ANYONE out there in videoland been able to make sense out of the horde of various characters bearing the Brewster name that Ray contacted in Des Moines, where half the.town of Rosehill has journeyed to join Ray in the dismal hunt? The story's core characters have been left in limbo, meanwhile, with absolutely nothing.' Love of Life's" doldrums may be reversed, however, when yet anothér new headwriter Ann Marcus takes over the writing helm. . Marcus was in charge of Days of Our Lives story till last fall. Prior to that she had co-created "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, even earlier had scripted 'Search for Tomorrow." Her expertise hopefully will bring "'Loveof Life" out of the pits.

It speaks to my desperation! Maybe Josh will burn out? But I guess he's still got a few villains he can resurrect... Veronica Landers, Shawn Garrett and Mari Jo Mason for starters.

None of these (mostly)unqualified people are remotely believable as business dynamos because we never see them do anything apart from sit in restaurants. Fingers crossed Griffith will leave in 2026. Anyone will be better. I'd take Carvilati in an instant at this point.

Thanks @Soapsuds for continuing to post ratings. This was well into the new season and the networks were making some decisions. There were a lot of pre-emptions for Xmas specials and new series that had flopped. The A Team was NBC's biggest hit in years Tues @8 trampling Just Our Luck/Happy Days on ABC and The Mississippi on CBS. ABC decided to axe Luck and replaced it with Foul Up's Bleeps and Blunders, which did better. Remington Steele was losing a lot of the A Team lead in and Bay City Blues was a disaster @10 so Remington was moved to 10 and Riptide brought in @9 where it beat a weakening 3's Company and Oh Madeleine on ABC. Circus of the Stars did it's thing on Sunday where the comedy block was finally failing. Knight Rider was solid for NBC. So CBS tried to freshen Sunday with The Four Seasons @8 but it didn't help. Fortunately Murder She Wrote was waiting in the wings. Wed was all ABC Fall Guy/Dynasty/Hotel. NBC's only change was to place Night Cout @9.30. ABC's Thursday had been a disaster so changes were made. Automan was placed Thurs @8 but #47 on debut didn't help at all. It was still Magnum/Simon/Knots ruling Thurs. NBC moved Family Ties from Wed to Thurs @8.30 , Cheers back to 9pm and Buffalo Bill @ 9.30. Moves that would pay off when Cosby came along. Fri was still CBS domination although Dukes of Hazzard was failing. Webster was the only bright spot for ABC as Lottery @9 failed so they went with action with Blue Thunder. NBC dropped all their Friday flops-Mr Smith, Jennifer Slept Here, Manimal and For Love and Honor. But the replacements-Leg Men, The Master and The New Show failed also. Saturday-Love Boat was still strong for ABC but TJ Hooker and Fantasy Island were dropping with no real competition. Strokes and Silver Spoons were doing OK at 8 for NBC but Rousters @9 was a dud so NBC went with comedy-We Got It Made/Mama's Family moved from Thurs with Yellow Rose continuing @10. CBS showed improvement when they dropped a movie for Airwolf and Mike Hammer.

Just how does it come to be that the top rated show has the worst budget? Is the LA Bar going to be seen again? Or was money used up for a short term set? The creative decisions made on this show are truly puzzling.

Ha ha. Just re-read it and see what you mean. Let's NOT go there!

It's that time of the year when those Best and Worst Lists appear all over the place and I thought it might be fun for all of us to compile lists from the 5 soaps to compare and contrast. Some suggested categories (taken from old SOD) You can use any of these or add your own. Best/ worst couple Best/worst new character Hottest new pairing Best mystery Best/worst use of history Most entertaining character Most over exposed character Most surprising twist Best wedding ceremony Best/worst breakup Best casting Best enemies Most ruined character Best/worst new/old sets Best/worst costumes Some of mine for starters. I only watch BTG and Y&R regularly so Days, GH and B&B will be up to others. Most over exposed character Y&R Phyllis Shoehorned into just about every story. Most surprising twist BTG Hayley is a villain. She didn't seem to have a viable POV until we found out her true intentions. Best costumes BTG the male characters- Andre, Bill, Vernon etc It's good to see so much attention being paid to men's clothing rather than some of the generic stuff we see on other shows. Best new set Y&R Billy's apartment. Very detailed and tasteful. We haven't seen it in months! Best couple BTG Dani/Andre. Lovers fall in love. It grounded Dani from the constant craziness and gave Andre more depth. Most entertaining character BTG Bill. Love his characterization. Egotist but charming in his own way. Reminds me of early JR Ewing and Terry Lester's Jack Abbott. Timon does a great job in bringing him to life.

Of course, take your time. The amount of time and effort you put in is much appreciated. Such a fantastic resource.

Didn't Holly just come back for a visit and Pam was impressed by Maureen Garrett? Decided to bring her on full time?

No I don't believe she is . You would think that link would be very widely known. When Bill spoke about first working with Irna that connection was never mentioned.

It came across as though he thinks gay guys are so far away from his persona as to be unplayable. Whereas in reality there are plenty of gay guys who present the way Ted (and Maurice) do.

The way that interview went you would think was up there with Denzel rather than a few months on BTG. Was it God's plan he lost that gig?

Broad generalization-probably many exceptions. Bill Bell, Doug Marland etc for starters. Currently Brad Bell wouldn't fall into either of those categories!

It's been a while but some requests before 2025 is over Harris Laskawy Camilla Carr Evalyn Baron

I wonder if Frank was supposed to be a longer term character? Maybe there was some BTS stuff that went on.

Yes Days needed a shake up but the 1980 revamp was too much. None of the new characters had much appeal and only Liz was embraced by the audience, and that was under subsequent writers.

I had to laugh when Hayley said she has a crick neck from having to look up all the time! That height difference is so noticeable. Bill looks like he could put Hayley in his pocket. Is the St Barts trip gonna happen?

Solid episode today with the classic soap format of characters going from place to place Nicole-Anita /Nicole Martin Joey/Randy Joey/Bill And so on. Adding Lynette to the mix is interesting. Was it deliberate? I think so. Looks like she might want a piece of the action. But meeting at Uptown? C'mon! Just put a wall and a booth to suggest a seedy bar, like soaps did in the 60's/70's. Scriptwriters-we get it. Vernita have the most amazing marriage ever. No need to lay it on so thick.