Dale

It was because of their kids, Frank and Leslie. They had been living with Luna's relatives on their farm in NC after they had been kidnapped, presumed dead, then rescued. Basically, JFP treated Max like a deadbeat dad (Al was living with Gabrielle after she was released from prison by this time), and they stayed with them until after Al died and Max went to raise them himself.

Because it was revealed at Asa's funeral that he lived in Argentina, I've always fanwanked it that he moved there after Gabrielle's death to carry on her memory, her death devastating him more than he ever thought possible, given what he felt after losing Luna.

The show missed a major opportunity with Max and Gabrielle when she returned in 2001. Back in their heyday, the characters were written with a "I hate you but can't live without you" kind of passion. But when Gab came back in 2001, it was more like they just had a "I hate you" kind of passion. The redux fizzled miserably (IMO) though it had such great potential! I wonder if anything had changed between James and Fiona by that time, because the chemistry just wasn't there. Or maybe it was the writing that lacked.

I didn't realize she ever left the show. Was that her months-long absence from 1987 to 1988, before she returned in the Faux Bo story?

I loved Shelly Burch and Delila, especially in the beginning when the character had a purpose. She did leave from November 1987 to June 1988. Here are two 8X10 pictures that she generously sent to me when I wrote to her way back when. She was and is a beautiful woman!

I don't think so. I remember another Gabrielle fan on a LONG defunct board saying years ago that their final scene in 1991 may have been one with KW's Tina slapping Gabby in the face, either after the stuff with Carlo came out, or after the prison sentence was delivered (maybe even after her infidelity in her marriage to Max was revealed, too).

Yes, I do believe the final Tina-Gab scene was the one in 1991 where Tina slapped Gab. I have that floating around here in my "archives" somewhere. And as much as I liked Karen Witter, she was HORRIBLE in that scene!

Yea that's another thing. I think i saw more scenes/photo's of Viki in furs during the 80's than Dorian. Dorian wore the furs in the early 1990's (even making a joke of it when Sloan was bugging her penthouse and had to hide in her closet with all her furs.) and then of course it all went away in the late 1990's when a producer and the actresses were aware of PETA. Jeanne Cooper on Y&R wore one on her show for years, well into the late 1990's when her character eneded up in a homeless shelter with only her fur coat to keep her warm. I'll probably get slauted for saying this but i liked seeing my Diva's in fur coats. It showed that they had money.

hears one from 1987 Viki wears fur when she sees Maria and then Tina shows up and is also in fur.

Viki wore a Gawd awful hat at Megan and Jake's wedding...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GsGsX7WuVc

The Dorian character was in somewhat of a transition phase when Claire played her on OLTL. I do not feel she was provided with material in which she could really shine, hence she is often forgotten or dismissed in DorIan discussions. She was a solid actress. I am sorry to learn of her premature death.

Clair Malis was playing Dorian when I first started watching OLTL, and I really liked her in the part. As you say, Dorian was in transition at that time, trying to be "kinder and gentler". She was not very successful, LOL! She was trying to win Paul Kendall, and he would have no part of Dorian's schemes and lies, so she was trying to change. But she just couldn't mind her own business and made a lot of trouble for her sister, Melinda, and her husband Peter.

I've looked for youtube videos of Clair Malis as Dorian, but can't find any. Do you know of some?

I've never gotten the impression that a lot of fans hated her. Maybe there's a split group, but she certainly has a large number of fans (including me, of course). Even with her replacing a Japanese-American actress, I always got the impression that her being in the role left a strong enough memory that she became the "real" Blair in every way.

I was a huge Mia Korf fan (talk about somebody that did not seem to be well liked!) and I was very disappointed at first with Kassie in the role. I loved her on GL as Chelsea, but her first few months on OLTL were disastrous, IMO. She was way over the top in trying to play the villainess. In fact, her first few scenes with Robin Strasser were kind of embarrassing - for both of them. Of course, Kassie found her bearings and made Blair totally her own. She ended up doing things with that role that Mia Korf could only dream of. And both times that I've met Kassie, she showed what a beauty she is on the inside as well as the outside.

Dale, those Fiona pictures are AWESOME. SO jealous of you right now, I'd LOVE to get her autograph someday. Thanks for posting those!

You're welcome. Fiona was awesome on OLTL, especially the first time around. I think I fell in love with her and her character when she tried to smother her husband, Steve Holden, in the hospital while he was in a coma.

I wonder how different her stint would have been if they had paired Melinda with Bo, I loved he and Sarah though!

Bo and Sarah were OK. I was never a big Jensen Buchanan fan. When she joined OLTL she was very green. And given that she shared most of her scenes with Erika Slezak and Clint Richie, it showed. She did get better as time went on, but I always found her a little on the "cold" side as a performer. I know she became very popular later on Another World, but I didn't see much of her on that show.

OLTL did have Melinda flirt with Bo; or maybe that's how Sharon chose to play it. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was with how the show wasted Sharon Gabet. Talk about a missed opportunity! Her Melinda started out as a schemer, but later became wallpaper. At the time, though, OLTL was blessed with many popular leading ladies - Slezak, Buchanan, Fiona Hutchison, Jessica Tuck and Andrea Evans. I guess there was just no room for Melinda.

These are lovely.

Thanks! And for the record, I don't really think I influenced Mr. Paul Rauch. Pure coincidence....

I always thought this was a fun story. In the spring of 1987, I wrote to Paul Rauch who was the EP of OLTL at the time. I suggested to him that he get Sharon Gabet on the show. She had finished a stint on Another World, and the soap world was not the same without her in it! I suggested to Rauch that he hire her as Melinda Cramer. Yeah, I know, ME telling Paul Rauch what to do! LOL! Anyway, some months later, he DID hire her as Melinda, and I wrote to Ms. Gabet to tell her what I had done and to ask for a picture of her. Here is her reply to me:

And here is the pic she sent me:

Yeah, I was even in her fan club.

This one is not one of my faves, but it was signed by Fiona. I wrote to her just after she joined OLTL and this must have been her own publicity photo.

One of my fave Gab/Fiona pics:

The clown puppet murder story is being uploaded, although I don't know how far it goes.

I think the EON site will have more detailed info, but as far as I can tell, Margo gave April away as a baby, April replaced the dead baby girl of the Cavanaughs, also named April. This is why at one point April kept having visions of her name on a tombstone.

I have some synopses from 1978 and 1979 if you ever want me to post any.

Thanks, Carl, that rings some bells! I thought that April story with her visions and dreams was wild, and how so many things played into it....especially Denise's murder. Speaking of Denise, how can this thread be 21 pages without anyone having discussed Denise Cavanaugh?

I've had such a wonderful time reading this thread. It brought back so many wonnderful memories of one of the best soaps EVER! I have been watching the 1979 episodes posted on Youtube ( I'm assuming they are the AOL episodes from years back). I see that the episodes only go to the fall of 1980. That means I am not going to see the clown puppet murders or Nancy Karr being held at the clinic. Ah, I guess I'll just enjoy what I can get! I am LOVING the episodes so far, and it confirms my memories of what a great show Edge was!

I have a question (and I'll probably have more as I go along!) but what was the story between April and Margo? I stared watching in 1978 before Margo came on, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the circumstances of how Margo is April's mother. Does anyone here remember?

Fiona Hutchison has this photo on her Facebook page, with some other publicity shots.

I am amused at how Fiona cut Jessica Tuck out of that photo!

I have googled S Michael Schnessel and have found very little about him. I quite enjoyed his work because he took risks and I loved his strong female characters.. For some reason Paul Rauch credits him with OLTL's success. But I must say that I thought Peggy O'Shea's OLTL was utterly brilliant and pitch perfect. Those 1985-1986 Viki/Niki/Tina scenes are like soap opera crack to me. 1985-1987 is an era of OLTL that has been greatly undervalued. I know -THE- soaps at the time in terms of critical acclaim were ATWT, Y&R, and to a lesser extent AMC- but OLTL was in a class by itself.

Oh yeah, 1985, 1986 and 1987 were OLTL's best years in the 80's! Didn't the show win the Emmy for Best Writing in 1987? Credit has to go to Peggy O'Shea for that! When she left, and Schnessel took over, the show drifted in to some very choppy waters - 1888, Faux Bo, Eterna and Badderly come to mind. OY! Some of those stories gave us some great production moments and some isolated memorable scenes, but overall, I thought that Schnessel was Rauch's puppet and that together, they brought the show to near complete and total destruction before Gottleib came in and cleaned it up.

Now this is my kind of thread. I got hooked on GH in 1977 so the 80s intro is dear to my heart.

I remember vividly the first time I watched GH. It was the 1978 May long weekend here in Canada. On that Monday, Laura Webber killed David Hamilton. I was 12. Laura was 15. I could not believe they had a kid on the show involved in the thick of the action. I became a GH devotee because of Laura and Genie Francis, which is of course, exactly what Gloria Monty wanted.

But it was the Heather Webber storyline involving Jeff, Peter & Diana Taylor and P.J/Steven Lars that really interested me. People always talk about Luke and Laura turning GH into the phenom it became, but there was a solid bedrock of other stories and characters that received the full tilt treatment that never get credit. Think Rick/Lesley/Alan/Monica and Heather's machinations as just two examples. I was fortunate to come across somebody on line that sent me copies of several 1979 GH episodes that were copied from the master tapes, including the classic sequence where Heather drinks the LSD laced iced tea she meant for Diana Taylor! That happened in 1979, thirty two years ago! And it was a good/exciting/campy/suspenseful as I remembered it!

Do you know how long Marco masqueraded as his brother Mario before the truth became public knowledge? Also what did you think of ABC taking his character to GH?

Marco started posing as Mario in March 1979 and was busted at his wedding to Edwina in September 1980 by Dorian. Karen figured out that Mario was really Marco in the early summer of 1979 and kept his secret.

It was a disgrace. Gabrielle, Tina, and Megan, along with Viki, CARRIED OLTL in the late 80's. They were some of the most addictive and complex women ever on soaps.

I'd add Sarah Gordon to the list, though Jensen Buchanan was not in the same league as the other ladies you mentioned.

Badderly was named worst story of the year by SOD - I guess part of that colors my thinking. But I should check it out.

Just catching up on this thread.....

Badderly should have been named the worst story of the decade. Gawd, that went on and on and on and on and....well, you get the picture. It was a horrific mess, and showed that Paul Rauch's creative steam was gone. Yes, it featured characters we cared about like Megan, Jake, Sarah, Bo Cord and Tina, but they interacted with cartoon villains in a senseless plot. It was the longest summer ever!