49 minutes ago, RavenWhitney said:

Conboy's appointment of his friend of Dorothy, Ellen Weston, was a nail for sure.  CBS forcing Wendy Fischman's stories, primarily Clone Reva, was a nail. Megan McTavish getting near Springfield was a nail.

The final nail was ELLEN WHEELER! 

I don't think P&G or CBS had the nerve to pull the plug so they called Ellen Wheeler in to do it for them. 

3 hours ago, jam6242 said:

Here is an interview with Natasha Ryan from 2007.

Thank you for that, Jam. That's more coherent but still a strange story. I wonder what really went down with her and her foster family. I know it's hard to judge by one photograph but she looks traumatized in the photo they used for the article. It's kind of sad. She was such a cute kid and it seemed like she was everywhere in the 70s. Maybe she just happened to appear on the shows and movies I watched and loved. I remember her in things like Days of Our Lives, Sybil and Kingdom of the Spiders. Which says a lot about the kind of kid I was.  

11 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

They were bad years for the show. Retconning Ben as being sexually abused to tell us that people who were sexually abused as children go on to be killers was one of the moments I knew I would never forgive the show for. I wouldn't say it was the beginning of the end. That for me started when Maureen died, and many would say it was when the Bauers were decimated in 1983-1984.

Count me as a part of the last group. Although I thought the 90s were great for GL, I consider "the beginning of the end" to be that 1983-1984 time period. That's when the foundation of the show was compromised. It just took a while to completely collapse. 

I'd be curious to know what happened to Natasha Ryan and what she looks like now. She wasn't just on Days but seemed to be everywhere in the 70s. I think she just disappeared. 

Update:

Interesting. The only information I could find about Natasha was this weird bio. "Weird" because it reads like whoever wrote it was high at the time of its writing and seems to shift from first to third person with every other sentence. From what I can gather, she had a rough life. Homeless at 14? Kicked out by her foster parents (who probably pushed her into acting). Who knows what the real story is. 

http://snowtig.blogspot.com/2008/05/natasha-ryan-aka-ex-hope-as-child.html

8 hours ago, Dion said:

 

Yes, Leah's sorasing is one that I'd consider egregious. Didn't she leapfrog her older half-brother Jude in age?

 

That was one of the many WTF? moments that GL pulled off in it's waning days. Not only did Jude's younger sister become his older sister but with Leah now being older it meant that Rick would have had to cheat on Mel with Harley which obviously never happened. 

1 hour ago, VanessaReardon said:

Margaret Reed looks fantastic. I enjoyed her. Michael Swan, not so much. 

Why not? Just curious. 

11 minutes ago, Errol said:

 

 

Essentially, the show will be ignoring all storylines and starting a new hence time jump. But it also seems like they are looking at doing a clean slate altogether of some sorts from what the BBC source said, "They’re planning big storylines and a big marketing push — but that may mean they just start new stuff from scratch rather than continuing where they’re already at so they can be dramatic as possible. It would essentially mean the first series of EastEnders lasted 35 years — and the second starts in two months.”

 

I take that to mean that the first 35 years of "EastEnders" happened but they going to treat it like a different show when it returns in September, the earliest.

What's the point? That sort of destroys the point of a serial. It would make more sense just to end the current show and start a new show without calling it "EastEnders". Why just carry on the name and nothing else? I guess they're just trying to take advantage of the established audience but that just seems like a weird and kind of dumb decision. Then again, I've never watched the show so don't know how well they use the serial format. And I'm a huge fan of serials but not a fan of soap operas so not a fan of things like "time jumps" and "reboots". Days already did a time jump stunt and it flopped. 

1 hour ago, Vee said:

I'm in March of '86 atm on YT - classic soaps from Y&R and Loving to this are such a cozy watch right now. The Steve/Betsy rift is really heightening, and I don't remember it being pronounced in earlier episodes, more of a gradual thing as she was ill at ease about the house, etc. Fascinating watching Marland dismantle a supercouple which already seemed out of fashion to me. Does anyone know if he'd had serious intentions for Steve and Iva, or if he soured on Runyeon from the jump? Had the Andropouloses been backburnered for long?

 

Also: Lisa Brown had chemistry with Scott Bryce. It's too bad if that relationship didn't get more play.

I could be wrong, but I think that Nick and Frank were both gone by the time Marland came on board (I don't remember any other Andropolouses) and he probably would have gotten rid of Steve right away but had to phase him out slowly because he had been such a fan favorite. You could tell Marland didn't like the character because he really assassinated the character. Steve really didn't seem to fit in with the new Marland ATWT. I think his character got the shaft and I always felt sorry for him. I liked the character but it's interesting that nobody seemed to care that he was so unceremoniously written out of the story when he and Betsy were the stars of the show just a few years before that. 

15 minutes ago, GLATWT88 said:

I was going to mention this last week, but decided to wait and see what the numbers looked like this week. Some thought that Days would see an uptick in viewers once the other soaps went into repeats, but it looks like the opposite is true. Since YR and BB have been airing repeats, the numbers haven't not improved and now with GH airing repeats, it seems like the numbers have dipped again. I'm sure there is an overlap in viewers for these soaps and if they're not tuning in to their favorite they're definitely not tuning in for the others. 

What are you saying? As the other soaps have been airing repeats, the ratings for Days have gone down?

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

It was nice to finally have a good ATWT reunion 

This was the best one I've seen. Nobody talking over each other, few technical glitches, fewer dumb questions, only two interviewees and both interviewees seemed into it. The Ellen Dolan/Scott Holmes should have been good but it didn't seem like either one of them wanted to be there. Maybe it's a personality thing. Michael and Margaret both have fun personalities. 

10 hours ago, OzFrog said:

 

I am so sorry, I did not mean to make that worse for you!

I've only had one video blocked which was a Y&R episode. I'm just getting nervous because I'm unclear on what I can and cannot publish, people keep speculating the channel will be taken down and I don't want my channel completely taken down. I was surprised the Y&R episode was blocked because the only warning I was initially given was that I couldn't monetize it. So, I've only privatized my Y&R and DOOL episodes since they are still in production and those shows seem to take things down regularly. A youtube search almost never reveals complete episodes of Y&R and DOOL but there are plenty of complete episodes of ATWT and GL. So I'm thinking it has to do with the shows still being in production. Hence why I privatized the Y&R and DOOL episodes even though I hadn't had any of my DOOL eps blocked yet. Better safe than sorry. The rules are just too ambiguous and I don't want to lose everything. It's a shame. I enjoyed sharing. 

On 5/31/2020 at 2:30 AM, te. said:

I made a playlist of those recently uploaded clips in airing date order:
 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ5NXpr_PzNjvtUPu9kC2JSJ2QRWG4zMW

 

I expect the channel to be nuked before I have a chance to go through them all though.

I'm the owner of the channel but I'm probably going to make it private. I wanted to share my collection but I'm getting so many warnings of it being shut down (from people who are watching it) that I will probably just make it private again. A few of the videos had copyright claims, mainly due to music, but it said that it was either blocked in certain regions or I couldn't monetize it. That's fine. I wasn't going to monetize the copyrighted material. It didn't say I couldn't make the video public. But now I'm getting so many comments from people saying they don't expect the channel to be up for long that I'm getting nervous. I don't want to lose my channel. 

17 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

It's interesting that despite coming from a Jewish background, Irna's work often had these Christian themes running through them. I guess it could be down to the networks/sponsors she had to contend with. 

 

Did Irna's Jewish cultural roots ever get reflected in any of her works? 

Yes. One of the two major families when The Guiding Light started was Jewish. The Kranskys. I think Irna's fascination with Christianity came less from the networks and sponsors than it did from a positive relationship she had with a Christian minister who helped her when she got pregnant by a married man and lost her baby (a theme that would run throughout her work). I'm not sure how the relationship started. There's just mention of it in her biographical material. I don't think she ever became a Christian but she did "flirt" with the faith through her writings. I think Sigmund Freud would have loved Irna. 

4 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

Guiding Light - June 19, 1986 - India at Stoney Lake Reformatory.   Dorie and von Halken gold. Baby Ben drama.

That's an unfortunate freeze frame. Looks like a scene from The Exorcist. 

51 minutes ago, FrenchFan said:

It was on Search For Tomorrow. Jennifer was played by Morgan Fairchild and it happened in July 1975.

Oh. Ok. I was in Y&R mode and thinking Jennifer Brooks. 

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

1975 was a huge year for soaps with Jennifer falling into the glass, Dobson's taking over GL, Depriest making LOL sound interesting to view, Ryan's Hope debuts, Philip dies on y & r, etc.

What happened with Jennifer falling into the glass. I can't find anything about that but it sounds kind of familiar. 

13 hours ago, Legacy said:

Hey do you ever remember seeing a scene between Lorie and jill ever physically fighting in the hospital room when Lorie caught jill checking in on Stuart? I remember hearing the episode through audio on YouTube and it sounded like they had to be separated lol i would love to see that scene and wouldn't that technically be the first y&r girl fight I always thought the first y&r girl fight was Katherine and jill.

No, I don't remember that. This was pre VCR and I was a kid going to school so if it didn't happen in the summertime I probably didn't see it. I'm actually amazed at the things I do remember. Even things that didn't happen in the summertime. I'm thinking either I never went to school or they used a lot of flashbacks back then. 

On 5/30/2020 at 12:46 PM, FrenchFan said:

Lorie Brooks had a plan to help Mark Henderson, who admitted that he couldn’t be intimate with any woman because his young bride died in his arms on their wedding night. Since then he had dated only very young girls so that he wouldn’t have to face his problem. Lorie used sensitivity therapy: drawing articles of different texture across his bare back to make him more aware of his sense of touch.

Wow. That's just...strange. On so many levels. 

I'd like to see it again too. It's mind-boggling to me why Y&R and DOOL kept every episode they ever made just to let them sit around and collect dust. They should make them available to the public. Surely there's a market. It would be better than nobody seeing all those episodes. What's the point? Everybody laments the fact that so many soap episodes of shows like ATWT and GL were not saved but what's the point of having saved ones if nobody gets to see them? 

It's amazing how much Ruth Warrick remembers about a storyline so long ago! I contrast it with the interviews Alan Locher is doing on youtube where the actors don't seem to remember anything. Kathryn Hays didn't even remember that she played Leslie Bauer on GL!

18 minutes ago, will81 said:

Oh wow, but she must have explained it away as an accident right? What I had always read was Jennifer, Bruce and Stuart and maybe Peggy were arguing, Leslie came running back to see what was going on just as Lorie slammed the door shut to avoid the arguement being heard. Is it possible Lorie smashing her sisters fingers in the piano was a fantasy followed by it actually happening with the door?

 

Lorie was having multiple fantasies about things in the Aug 75 episode that was posted. Which would have been right after Leslie's hands were hurt.

That's a very real possibility. After all, I saw the scene in the 70s as a child. All I do remember for sure is Lorie angrily slamming the piano key cover on Leslie's fingers while she was playing. I don't remember anyone else in the scene. If I remember correctly, Lorie was yelling at Leslie and Leslie was playing the piano louder to drown her out and that's when Lorie slammed the covering on her fingers. The only thing that makes me think it wasn't a fantasy and the door scenario is wrong is the fact that I have the episode where Leslie is playing her first concert after the incident and somebody remarks about how good it was that her fingers healed in time. Leslie gives Lorie a knowing look and Lorie looks very guilty. If it had been an accident, I don't get where the accusatory look and the guilty look would come into play. I also think I would remember the door scene since I remember the piano key covering scene. Both would be impressionable and I was watching every day at that time. Even though i'm going on a very old memory, my gut tells me that synopsis above is wrong. I've noticed that in other synopses over the years. Things are just wrong sometimes. And no, it wasn't explained away as an accident. Lorie was remorseful and Leslie forgave her but it was clearly no accident. I think Leslie told others it was an accident to let Lorie off the hook. My sister also remembers the piano key covering scene and doesn't remember a door scene.

22 minutes ago, Legacy said:

This again is fantastic material, i wonder if on screen when Lorie slammed the door on leslie hand if it came off like she wanted to or if it really was an accident? It probably was an accident but i say that because she wasn't too fond of leslie in that time period.

 

I remember seeing this scene. She didn't slam a door on her fingers. She slammed the covering of the piano keys down on her fingers while she was playing the piano. She definitely did it on purpose. She did it violently on purpose in a fit of jealous rage. That description above is strangely wrong. 

Alan should just use his connections and get someone else to do the actual interviews. These reunions are a great idea but they’re mostly wasted with missed opportunities, annoying interruptions and dumb questions. I agree with someone who said that the interviewees actually ask better questions than the interviewer. 

I guess Locher is proof that’s it’s not ALWAYS about who you know. 

21 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

Terrible news. I enjoyed her on ATWT, even though her Alison was pretty vanilla (which is saying a lot, I know). She had a sweet quality about her. Hoping all the best for her and her family.

 

Am I making this up, or didn’t she debut as Alison on Y&R first then head to ATWT?

Only in soaps can a meth-addicted pornstar be called "vanilla". LOL. But I get what you're saying. The character did calm down quite a bit towards the end. I actually thought Marnie did a great job of acting when she first came on as one in her meth/porn phase but her character radically changed throughout the time that Marnie played her and Marnie did a good job of playing "both" characters. 

People were asking for the Coopers? Just more proof that we all live in different worlds. Irna was right. 

23 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Bill Bell had no involvement in Days until he took over in mid 66.

He worked with Irna on ATWT, AW and the nightime Our Private World.

Ted Corday and Allen Chase are listed alongside Irna as creators of DOOL.

 

Who was the headwriter from November 65 to mid 66?