Edge of Night (EON) (No spoilers please)

[Soaplovers]

Lisa Sloan seemed more mature as Nicole than Jayne was.  She wasn't quite as sophisticated and mature as Maeve's Nicole...but she was moreso than Jayne's.

[j swift]

Loved that movie, and the play.  Isn't it amusing that Will Smith's whole story about making a movie of Cats wound up being so close to the truth?

[Nicholas Blair]

Ain't that the truth! An audience these days will laugh even harder at the lines about CATS.

[Vee]

Agreed on that one, which is a surprise given those kind of iconic characters get diminishing returns on a second or third recast, especially back then.

I remember an ancient, apocryphal story that Karen Lynn Gorney (Tara, AMC) tried to audition for the Nicole recast of all characters and was laughed out of the room.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Vee

[amybrickwallace]

Was that before or after Saturday Night Fever?

[robbwolff]

I can't recall which magazine it was, but one featured a story in 1981 about Edge's 25th anniversary party. The story included a number of photos from the party and Karen Lynn Gorney was included. The article mentioned that Gorney was interested in assuming the role of Nicole.

[edgeofnik]

I binged Mansion of the Damned a few months ago. What struck me for the first time was the sheer brilliance of Slesar's storytelling: 2 major characters only meet once or twice early in the story (during the Paige drama). After that, they don't meet again until much deeper in the story, which was the only way the 'trick' could've been pulled off plausibly.

It wasn't overtly discussed until the story's conclusion. What's crazier is that based on the underlying story those two characters should've had major run-ins/confrontations constantly. Slesar was a genius. 

[amybrickwallace]

Was it ever said why Nicole was de-aged, or if there was any backlash about making the character younger?

[danfling]

It was People magazine which mentioned that Karen Gorney had been interested in assuming the Nicole role.   She also did attend the cast party, so I thought that she must have had some connection to the show.

 

Also, when Maeve McGuire was leaving the show for the first time, no decision had been made about how she would be leaving.     Judy Lewis (The Secret Storm, Kitty Foyle, and writer for Search for Tomorrow) lobbied to join the show as a recast Nicole.    (For some reason, I think that her castmate on The Secret Storm, Mary K Wells, may have learned of the upcoming departure of her former castmate, Maeve McGuire, and gave encouragement to Judy Lewis to inquire about the role.)

 

Also, Maeve McGuire did appear in the Six Degrees of Seperation film.   She was not the only performer from The Edge of Night to be cast in that film.     Carolyn Groves (Betsy Brown in 1963) and Vince O'Brien (Judge in 1964-1965) were also in that movie.

Coincidentally, Ms. Groves and Mr. O'Brien also appeared on Dark Shadows.  (She as Victoria #3, and he as Sheriff Patterson #?)

 

 

 

 

[Soaplovers]

I assumed it was an ABC mandate to de age the character.

I think I read somewhere that Karen Gorney auditioned in 1981 for it..but she was deemed too old.  I think she was 9 or 10 years older than Jayne...and 7 or 8 years younger than Maeve. 

 

[Nicholas Blair]

I can see Judy Lewis as Nicole. Susan Sullivan would have been a great Nicole recast.

 

[amybrickwallace]

According to imdb, Maeve McGuire was born in 1937, Karen Gorney in 1945 and Jayne Bentzen in 1955.

Speaking of Jayne Bentzen...here's recent info...and photo!! She has a very interesting Instagram page as well.

https://www.literacytrust.org/team-profiles/jaynebentzen

Edited September 27, 2021 by amybrickwallace

[Joseph]

Little correction Karen was born in 1945 not 1955

If she tested the first time maybe she could get the role would be nicer than an extreme deaging

Well Judy sounds right but Susan I don't know anyway it's hard not to think of Nicole as a Brunette

[Vee]

Am I crazy or did the legendary Eddie Drueding also run an EON site? The layout of an older site with bios, etc. was identical to his AW homepage.

There seems to be an updated version of the EON site around today, but with far fewer active bios (I was trying to look up when the Madisons started airing in '78 or '79).

Edited September 27, 2021 by Vee

[j swift]

Did everyone know that Chris Goutman wrote an Edge of Night book in 2020 and just didn't tell me?

https://smile.amazon.com/Edge-Night-C-P-Goutman/dp/B08HGTT29J/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=The+Edge+of+Night&qid=1632762004&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-8

NYPD Detective David McIntire never thought he'd see his fiancé again after she left him five years ago. When the two reunite she is no longer Mary Burr but Sister Mary Catherine, a Catholic nun. Despite his resistance, she enlists him to investigate the death of her brother, who reportedly committed suicide while doing missionary work in Argentina. As they work together to uncover the truth, what they find pits them against one of New York’s oldest and most powerful families, the Whitneys, whose patriarch will do anything to protect his and the Church’s secrets. Always meeting at the edge of night in the catacombs beneath the parish church, they discover that the strange underground labyrinth possesses the key to unlock the mystery and bring the Whitney empire crashing down with it. Edge of Night is a high-adrenaline suspense thriller that travels across continents and a hundred years into the past, proving in the end that the corridors of power are no match for the enduring strength of love.

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Edited September 27, 2021 by j swift