SFK

Thanks Carl, Wind on Water. And yes, I remember The Monroes, I was very excited about that one back in high school. It filmed not far from me. Bill Devane and Susan Sullivan.

A Lisa-less episode of Our Private World was shown on WoST, I don't really remember what was going on.

I was watching an archive interview of Lee Grant a few weeks ago and they spoke a little about her Stella Chernak. I'll have to check out PP sometime soon. My mom used to say how when she was coming up parents would put their kids to bed before "grown folks'" PP came on.

In his archive interview, Nolan Miller speaks about working with Lana Turner on Survivors. I'd really like to see that one too, I belive WoST had a promo of that as well.

I'm forgetting the name of it, and I never tuned in, but does anyone remember the VERY short-lived primetime soap set in Hawaii that starred Bo Derek? I remember the promos were somthing like, "Imagine your life in Hawaii... the sun, the sand, the girls... and Bo Derek is your mom!" as they show her in a bikini emerging from the water in slo-mo. This was the show that Ashton Kutcher turned down to do That 70's Show.

Models, Inc. was good, my mom watched that one regularly. Linda Gray played Heather Locklear's mother, and they brought on Emma Samms to play the bitch. I think this is where I first saw Kylie Travis who went on the bitch it up on CPW. This one was camp from the start. In the first episode, they're burying one of Linda Gray's models, and the pallbearers slip and drop the casket which flies open! Her hand falls out, and one of the other models says, "She always had great nails. (smirk)" Jesus Lord...

Unfortunately for me, I didn't tune in to most of Central Park West, but we really got into the eight-part "mini-series" revamp, CPW that aired over the summer. I still have a couple of those on tape. Now that really was a glamour soap for the '90s, sure it aped Dynasty, but there was a modern edge and realism (as realistic as Raquel Welch can get ). Central Park West was a huge disappointment for CBS, it was very heavily hyped. I remember the simple, sexy black and white promos, dissolving from shot to shot of the characters preening for the camera as "Sleep Walk" played. I was really bummed when the commercials for CPW were encouraging us to tune in for the shocking "conclusion" as I hoped the show would continue as a series in the fall.

Was this the one with Drew Barrymore?

No, that's 2000 Malibu Road (I love that title). I watched Malibu Shores a couple of times, it was very short-lived and what I seem to remember most about it was that Randy Spelling was on it and later popped up on his dad's OTHER show, Sunset Beach. Oh, and Michelle Phillps' character had a Japanese name, like Tuki or Suki or Zuki??

I am so tardy to the party, all of these years and I never realized that was Marie-Alise Recasner playing Whitley's mousy tagalong Millie in the first season of A Different World.

Like you Carl, I remember VERY little of Audrey after the primetime movie premiere when "Alan-Michael" drilled her head open.

I remember watching Debbi on Sinbad's late night talk show and she was touting her new, bitchier character, Ellen ("Angie's DEAD!"). She seemed excited about the prospecst, but after a year or so and the show wasn't really poppin', she decided she wanted to devote her energy to booking film roles. She had a lot of good press off of Eve's Bayou and I think she had a lingering desire to see where that might take her.

You know, the interviewer is Connie P. aka Marlena DeLacroix. Agnes does get a little short from time to time, like, "Honey, I don't remember... Okay, you're asking me three different things at once..." and I love how her eyes dart over to her assistant/daughter or whoever at some of the names brought up, like, "And who the HELL was that??"

And I would love to read a juicy posthumous autobio, but I kind of feel like that was the main purpose of launching her website, her life in her words. But man, the autobio sure would be icing.

So Loving was basically about the going ons at a university when it started, am I right? When did the show first start to veer away from this premise? From what I've read about the show, it seemed to focus on the Aldens and a revolving cast of young people. Perhaps, having a soap set in a college was just asking to fail. Think about it, people go to college, graduate, then move away. It is a constant revolving door.

I dunno, see, I like the whole college town angle. And I guess it depends on where you're college town is. For instance, I live in a neighboring town of where I went to college outside of New York City. I always liked it here, and it's where I happened to find work and relationship. And although most of my friends are in the city or other states, there is still a very warm energy for me here, lots of great memories, so I'm sort of attached to the area.

What I would do is take it a step further with alomost a Degrassi-like approach and introduce the local high (eventually, maybe even junior high) school for my teen stories, and have those kids (the more popular characters) feed into the college. Then there are little things you do to ensure longevity like having a rich snooty kid who wants to go to school in California or somewhere Ivy League but her parents force her to go to the local college which was founded by her great-great grandfather and where she'll get a full ride. So she always has ties to her family on the show. Or the lower middle class local who works part-time at the college while putting herself through it, gets her master's there as well, and ends up teaching there.

Yeah, I don't know why he/she took it down, I really doubt there would have been a copyright complaint. I loved how it was narrated by Ernie Anderson, the voice of ABC during the '80s ("From the Emmy Award-winning creator of All My Children...").

Joel played King Galen of Moldavia, he and Alexis had a thing.

Yeah, Azure C. and Bernardo. I don't want to say that she was a snooze, she was a perfectly fine character (better than say Randi on AMC), but Azure never did anything too exciting or special that I can rememeber. Then the transgendered stuff came out, and whoosh, she and Bernardo were out of there.

Deborah and Coop both visited in those early days of The City, I don't remember exactly when Steffi left, first six months or so? But it was established that Deborah won the lottery and bought her precious Clay's family home early in The City's run, if my ep is from Christmas, the show had only been on a little over a month ("Morgan Fairchild is coming to The City premiering November 13th...").

Damn why can't I find it anymore--any luck? I need to save more faves on youtube

It's been removed by the user.

Kayla was the little girl Angie and Jacob tried to adopt but it didn't go through.

I remember the casting blurbs in SOD about Jared, they wanted a Charlton Heston type, and they did manage to get themselves a Dynasty alum. Joel Fabiani subbed for him on GL, but a Michael Zaslow would have been a much better Jared Chase imho (he was still well and on GL at this time, if memory serves).

I agree that I have much respect for Lemay and I would LOVE to see FRFP/L&F, but I don't think his ideas/remarks really served what The City was all about. Sure, they could have incorporated a stronger family element, but as you intimated, a lot of people in the city create a family support system for themselves. The show didn't *really* go there besides Zoe and Azure, but there are a lot of people who run to Manhattan to be themselves, to BREATHE. They make their own family, and that is a very valid concept the show could have even gone further with.

Deborah didn't do many episodes, but I have a Christmas episode I'll upload with her in it. She was visiting the girls who shared the loft.

I love the way she says "roMANCE" in that promo.

I see Lemay's point, but then I think about what life was like for me in college, how VERY close I was to my friends. That couldn't touch my family life back home, but it was still valid. I do believe in the concept of created family, and Angie, Jacob, Frankie, Zoey, Kayla, I mean, they had a little more of a traditional family thing going on. I did enjoy when Deborah was there for Steffi, though I also loved the concept of her winning the lotery and buying the Alden mansion, living happily in Corinth!

I thought Morgan Fairchild was great, but she was poorly propped. No offense to Joel Fabiani, but his Jared was a bit of a dud, and I just NEVER bought into... oh God, Australian dude... Richard? Whatever, I just never bought into him as Sydney's not-really-adopted-but-real-son. She sorta bonded with Jocelyn, she had her right hand man Samuel, but overall, Sydney was way too islanded to be the star of the show. In retrospect, she needed like three kids, she needed the Dirty, Sexy, Money son and daughter to give her grief, but of course this was before the age of the Paris Hilton Manhattan It Girls.

You know, I think you hit something on the head with the word "generic", and I'm no Lovingphile or anything, but that is kind of the vibe I got from the show (and wow, I guess you could start with the title). I think some fans more knowledgeable of the show's history would agree that characters and plots at times seemed like Nixonian retread. Almost like Agnes Nixon's niece was writing a syndicated soap or something.

I'll be the first to admit though that The City won me over from the very first time I read about it, style over substance. But I really felt that there was some substance there. That show really deserved a better chance. I'd say it was better than much of GL's final years, even some of AMC's more recent years.

Yeah, I don't know what's up with the rights, and I've said this several times in the past, but The City seemed like such a no-brainer for SoapNet's lineup. It's still young and hip, and at two eps a day, it would have been over in a *snap*. I'd much rather that than the constant start and stop of RH.

Egypt was a fun character, sort of the missing link between DL's Opal and IK's Roxie. The actress was on OLTL a little while back and I didn't even recognize her. Eric, you probably remember, what was the name of Egypt's no-nonsense black older lady friend? Maybelle, LillyBelle or something? LOL, for those who didn't catch it, imagine Opal and Mrs. Valentine picked up and moved to a new town. At my grandparents' house, Loving was more like a "warm up" soap while my grandmother made lunch, and this may sound weird, but in hindsight I appreciate how my mom watched it with the same attention she gave the rest of the ABC lineup.

Good question, not sure about that. But like you, I tend to hope (and hold out) that someone else will put up the stuff I've got, and in some cases, that has already proven to happen. And most folks would probably be frustrated with my clips as I hardly ever have full episodes, just bits and pieces (inexplicably recording while flipping channels ).

Indeed. You know, it was Marj's charm/humor/charisma/VOICE that drew me to GL after flipping from GH one day in the early '90s, I actually came to know Beverlee's Alex AFTER Marj through tape trade. Marj and Beverlee just have this quality, they don't have to do much to draw you in, and I enjoyed Marj's stuff with Alan, Tangie, and yes, the Hawk stuff that came later ("Don't call me Queenie!") was funny too, I have a little of that on tape (gotta get that YouTube page up!). But I think she was pretty "fabulous", though I hate to use such a cliched word, when she first replaced Beverlee from what I've seen. She had a very fun energy, and though there's no question that a LOT of fans missed Beverlee, she injected B12 into the character, there's a certain joie de vivre Marj brought that Beverlee's Alex did not have.

Yeah, I think that was the problem, the schedule didn't allow her days/weeks at a time to promote her book, but, why wasn't this worked out before hand? I believe her s/l was only to be a three-six (?) month arc to begin with, and once Rauch got Dusay back, Alex lingered until GL's demise. I remember Michael Logan being upset with Rauch for propping Joan as "perhaps the best Alexandra yet," an insult to fans' memories of the inimitable Beverlee McKinsey (not to mention Marj, but Beverlee was Logan's main point of contention).

Does anyone remember Marj's first scene back? It was pretty great, pure Marj. The announcer said something to the effect of, "Returning to the role of Alexandra Spaulding is Marj Dusay", and Marj kinda-sorta broke the fourth wall and looked up as if she was listening to the announcer and made one of her little "huh" sounds that (to me) said, "Well well, would you believe... hired, fired, brought back, left on my own accord, and now my ass is back again" all in one monosyllable.

I had friends and relatives who watched AW and I of course knew who Felicia was, but I never really got into it. And as a matter of fact, I remember thinking that it was cheap-looking and lit with fluorescents whenever I flipped past it in the early '90s. I remember watching during the Justine period, I *sorta* got into it then, but honestly, I think I really picked the show up once I knew it was being cancelled. I have to agree that the cast and characters were this show's strong suit, I got a real OLTL (the show I did watch at 2pm) vibe from the show, I thought the characters would work very well on OLTL, and I'd later realize the various cast connections between shows (even before Rae Cummings and assorted FOJ hit Llanview). I really am more of a retroactive AW fan, through tape trade, YouTube, message boards et cetera, I really got into the show's '70s and early '80s history, and I don't have to tell you how the show boasted some of the finest writing and acting of the genre during its Golden Age.

No, I seem to remember SOD/SOW exit interviews where it was clear that she was stepping away from the business for a while to spend more time with her family after Loving folded. I think she may have even moved to New England or back to her native Baltimore. The old, "I would definitely do another soap if the right role came along yadda yadda" type thing. I don't know that she's even attempted any sort of comeback. But it would be *nice* if someone like Frank Valentini thought of her and invited her in to do a little something-something, you know?

In Kim Stanley's case, something like the Loving movie would have been perfect as she was too unreliable for a full-on soap schedule given her alcoholism. We talked about this at WoST on the subject of Carole Shelley temping for Beverlee McKinsey when she broke her collar bone, but I would have loved to see Sandy Dennis tackle Iris. It would be interesting to see Sandy all glammed up, bringing her own bag of blonde neuroses to the role (and Beverlee also played Honey in Virginia Woolf). She is brilliant in The Four Seasons, and in Another Woman: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=253693

HAHA i love her. Yeah even most fansof the series didn't seem to think the pilot movie was all that good.

It's too bad that she was only around for the movie before being carted off to the loony bin. Can you imagine a Geraldine Page, or a Kim Stanley, a Sandy Dennis on a soap? ErikaSlezakEmmy who??

Carl, I remember Neal, I had totally forgotten that part about being Gwyn's dad though! That reminds me of Myrtle and Rae for some reason. I remember him romancing Kate, kinda like Bernie Barrow's character with the Alzheimer's had earlier. I just got tickled picturing all of Larry Haines' little grunts, stammers, and other actorly behaviours he'd always work into a line reading. Is the actress who played Kate still living? Christine Tudor could (and should) be playing all of those roles the usual suspects like Louise Sorel and Anna Stuart get plugged into. I think she's perfect for OLTL, the type to be mixing it up with Dorian and Viki during that too-short mayoral race.

WoST ran the Loving movie a few years back. Getting to see the late great Geraldine Page do a soap where she wore hats and smoked Nat Shermans was by far the best thing about it (imho).

The show would have gotten pretty diva heavy (like Another World, Rachel, Felicia, Donna, Iris) with Ava there too, they seemed more interested in making Tess Sydney's foil, and as someone else said, freeing Alex up for Jocelyn.