danfling

The man who was originally was announced to be the co-creator of Loving (with Agnes Nixon) has passed away.   I will post an obituary of Dan Wakefield later.

Writer Dan Wakefield, who was originally to be the co-creator of Loving, has passed away.

He also wrote the book about Agnes Nixon called "All Her Children."  He was to write a review of All My Children for Playboy magazine, and, thinking originally that he would not like the show, became involved with the various plots on that show.

The late Mr. McCourt played Kevin McGuinness on Ryan's Hope.   He also appeared on Search for Tomorrow and One Life to Live.

Malachi McCourt, who played Big Begelowe, died earlier this week.

 

One of my favorite soap opera composers was the late Wladimir Selinsky.  He wrote the theme (I think) for the CBS primetime show Our Private World and also my favorite soap opera there, A World Apart.   He also composed (background music, I presume) for Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,

 

He was born on February 15, 1910 and passed away at the age of 74 in 1984.

 

 

I nominate Eileen Letchworth (Margo Flax Martin on All My Children)

Catherine Bruno (Roxanne/Nora on The Edge of Night)

Deborah Soloman Simon (Amanda Holmes on As the World Turns and Sydney on All My Children)

Frances Fisher (Deborah Saxon on The Edge of Night and Suzette Saxon on The Guiding Light)

Heidi Vaughn (Phoebe Smith #1 on The Edge of Night)

Georgann Johnson (Ellen Grant on Somerset; also on As the World Turns and All My Children)

Clarice Blackburn (Dark Shadows, As the World Turns, The Secret Storm and many more shows - also a writer)

August Dabney (Young Doctor Malone, Another World, As the World Turns, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, The Guiding Light, A World Apart, One Life to Live, Loving, serial General Hospital)

Jane White (The Edge of Night, A World Apart, Search for Tomorrow)

 

 

The show should have had Ellen and Lisa both competing for the attentions of Edwardo (Nicolas Coster) when he returned to the show.

I think that Christopher Wines had lft the show before the abortion was performed and that Charles Frank had begun playing Dr. Jeff Martin.  I never saw Ms. Coslow in the role.  But, I seem to recall that Charles Frank had already been playing Dr. Jeff Martin by the time that Mary Kinnecott, R. N. was introduced.

 

The husband of Ms. Coslow, Ted Sorrell, appeared on Ryan's Hope in 1981 and on The Guiding Light in 1992.

 

Her father was film composer Sam Coslow.  (Both she and Karen Gorney were appearing on All My Children at this time, and both of them were the daughters of composers.)o

 

Here is a picture of Jane Rose (Love of Life, The Secret Storm, Dark Shadows, Somerset), Jacqueline Coslow, and Daniel Keyes (Dark Shadows, Where the Heart Is, Ryan's Hope, Texas, The Secret Storm).

 

I can see a little resemblance to Erica Slezak, who also auditioned for the role of Mary.  Ms. Slezak said years later that she would have been entirely wrong for the role.   I wonder if Ms. Coslow was miscast as Ms. Slezak would have been.

 

Post any questions of comments about music that was heard on soap opera episodes or music from performers who appeared on soap operas.

She was also on As the World Turns, but I remember her best for her portrayal as Gretel Cummings.    Gretel was introduced as an assistant for Adam Brewster.    She and Dr. Dorian Cramer Lord were competing for the attendion of Herb Callison.

I do not remember clearly what actress was then playing Dr. Dorian, but the boyfriend of Claire Mallis (Dr. Dorian #2) appeared on Somerset.   I cannot remember his name.   Could someone refresh my memory?

This sounds a lot like what Donald May had been advocating when the network considered airing the show in a late-night timeslot.  He was advocating a maximum amount of money for everyone concerned.

I was told this weekend by a reliable source that actor and writer Doug Chapin (Tony Cooper #1 on Somerset; also Dr. Dan Stewart on As the World Turns) married Marilyn Chambers in the early 1970s.  It wiould have been before the time that he and Richard Hatch appeared together in the movie Best Friends (which Mr. Chapin also partially wrote).

It was also told that Mr. Chapin (who, I believe, is an heir to the Steinway family) had been playing bagpipes when he and Ms. Chambers first met.  

They divorced later.

Is this the same Doug Chapin who appeared on Somerset and As the World Turns?

The article above mentioned NBC's talk show "The Faith Daniels Show."    I loved that program!   It seems that Ms. Daniels disappeared following its cancellation.  I really wish that her show had been aired for a longer run.

This show was produced by the late Don Wallace.   He had extensive prior soap opera experience after having worked on The Edge of Night, From These Roots and One Life to Live.  He pioneered location shooting when he was directing The Edge of Night. 

Why was this show so unsuccessful?   (Of course, I realize that James Lipton was not known for splended writing.)  Did this show use many scenes taped on location as had been used on The Edge of Night?

Dr. Marcus Polk was a character on both One Life to Live and All My Children.   He was played by a variety of actors (with the final one being James Douglas).

When Dr. Polk was murdered in the 1980s on One Life to Live, was there any mention on ll My Children that Dr. Polk had died?

I am about to ask a very broad question.   Excuse me for being so broad, and know that I ususally do not ask anything so general.

 

Who can share information about Michael Levin before 1975 when he joined the original cast of Ryan's Hope?  What professional experience in acting did he have?  Was he already married to Elizabeth Levin?  I know that he was a Jewish actor cast as an Italian-American character.  He seemed to burst on the scene along with Kate Mulgrew.   The pair was featured on a late-night preview of Ryan's Hope.

I have been wondering about Mr. Levin for many months.  I am sorry that he was not available to be interviewed for Mr. Lisantti's book.

I enjoyed the addition of Jeremy.    He had starred in Mad Magazine's Up the Academy just before he was hired as Jeremy on Eight Is Enough.

If Procter and Gamble/NBC had not hired Paul Rauch to be the executive producer of Texas (a show which he was credited as having co-created), what producer would you have enjoyed as the executive producer of Texas?

Diane Kay (Nancy Bradford) was in an episode (possibly the pilot episode) of the ABC series Once a Hero.  I think that Dusty Kay (television writer and producer who created the series) was her brother.  I am not sure that they were brother and sister, so, if anyone knows for certain, I would love to know.

She was also in the pilot (a few years earlier) of Flamingo Road (produced by the same company that produced Eight Is Enough - Lorimar).   Her character died in the pilot.

Yes, Connie certainly was more interesting!

 

I remember that the real Silver was eventually murdered, but I do not remember who killed her.  Part of the storyline was that Palmer rolled her dead body in carpet and disposed the carpet and dead body.   He and Erica remained friends due to this.

But, I think that a better plotline would have been that Silver did not die, and Palmer told Silver to leave town.   Palmer would have then told Erica that he dispensed with Silver's body (although she was not really dead).   Palmer could have used blackmail at times in the future storylines to get Erica to help him with all the things that he plotted.

Who is Donna?

Ms. Phillips had used abortion as a storyline for the first time on Another World when character Pat Matthews had an illegal abortion.  I don't think that NBC had all of the reservations that CBS seemed to have.

Concerning Connie Wilkes:

I am sure that it was always planned for Connie to be an imposter for Silver.

Silver had been mentioned many years earlier, so her existence (and that of Goldie) was known.

This was almost the same plotline that Agnes Nixon had used when she was writing The Guiding Light.  Back in 1967 or so, a character who claimed to be Tracy Delmar was introduced.  (Victoria Wyndham played this character).   She was the niece of Dr. Sara McIntyre (then played, I think, by Patricia Roe).  It was later learned that this girl/woman was not actually not Tracy but another person named Charlotte Waring.   Dr. McIntyre had not ever met or had not seen the actual Tracy for many years.   But, in the case of Tracy/Charlotte, Tracy had actually died in another town with Charlotte taking advantage of the situation and deciding to pose as Tracy after she traveled to Springfield.

The audience of All My Children did not learn that Connie was the imposter when Erica found out the truth.  It was known pretty quickly that she was an imposter.

Here are two trends that I noticed back in the 1970s years:

1.  The hiring of more foreign performers.   I know that As the World Turns and The Guiding Light would both hire performers to play relatives of Elizabeth Talbot Stewart and as some of the family with whom Dr. Joe Werner was living in England.  The Guiding Light also hired Theo Getz as Papa Bauer and  Stefan Schnabel as Dr. Steven Jackson.   Also, there were Canadian performers around (such as Tudi Wiggins and almost the entire cast of the serial Strange Paradise).

But, I remember on the Hollywood serial General Hospital, an Autralian actress was hired to play a nurse at the General Hospital.  She remained on the show for a year or two.   (I cannot remember the name of her character or the name of the actress.  I do remember that her hair was dark.)    Then, suddenly, all of the soap operas tended to be hiring foreign performers.    In the cast of All My Children, both Jeremy Hunter and Giles St. Claire were introduced in a matter of a few days.

 

2.  Also, many of the actresses on the soap operas began changing their names in the billing.  I remember that on All My Children, both Tricia Hursley (as Devon) and Candice Earley (as Donna #2) changed their names with a hyphen and the married name following their original name.     (Intrestingly, both actresses divorced these husbands and the billing names were changed back.)   Actress Jacqueline Zeman (who appeared on the Hollywood serial General Hospital) changed her name to Jackie Zaman-Kaufman.

 

Marcy Walker (as Liza #1 on All My Children) may have changed her name in a similiar manner.   I do remember that she married one of the actors who was appearing on the show as a member of Jesse Hubband's band.

I cannot remember any physical resemblance between Ms. Lynne and Ms. Loring, but I do agree with you that Ms. Lynne would have been a good Patti (better than Jacqueline Schultz).