Edge of Night (EON) (No spoilers please)

[Contessa Donatella]

In the Irna Phillips universe there were small cities clustered near each other. They were Oakdale, Illinois [ATWT], Flat Rock, Centerville, Somerset, [itself] Bedfordtown, Brookville, Ogden, Centerville, Bay City, Illinois, [AW], and Henderson [SFT]. - Donna L. Bridges

Bay City didn't have Illinois attached to it as the state it's in until 1982.

Once there was a visual of a guy on a motorcycle, paused at a crossroads with signposts pointing in different directions, with different cities showing.

These bedroom communities to Chicago actually represented the bedroom communities that can be found around Cincinatti, the headquarters of humongous Procter & Gamble.

[TVFAN1144]

I always thought Bay City was Michigan and Somerset was a suburb of Detroit

[Soaplovers]

Seeing more of Winter #2, while she was a good actress...she played her scheming without any subtlety.  I think had Winter #1 stayed on, the twist would have had more impact...because she played Winter as colder and more restrained.  

[robbwolff]

Bay City was at one time set in Michigan. I recall a scene around 1980 when Mitch was presumed dead where it was clear that Bay City was in Michigan. Later, the setting was established as Illinois.

[Contessa Donatella]

I think the first time it was set in Illinois was 1982.

[Broderick]

I'm going to give an A+ to that boy who played Wade Meecham.  He turned in about the sleaziest, slimiest, most charming, most humorous, most animated, and most vulnerable performance I've ever seen on a soap.  That boy could've played anything -- the president of the United States, a car salesman, an oily lawyer, a pornography studio owner -- anything.  I realize he had to die to make the story work, but I expect Henry Slesar hated to pull the plug on him so quickly, because that actor obviously had the potential to play most anything you wrote for him, lol.   

[DRW50]

It's interesting to compare him to Lee Godart, as the roles are not entirely dissimilar and they overlapped for some months. Lee was very charismatic, and handsome, and fun, but not much of an actor. Hamilton is genuinely giving a strong performance here, to the point that it is still with me several days later. A great reminder that talent and charisma sometimes just isn't enough in the industry, I suppose.

[Broderick]

He's something -- the way he patronizingly baby talks to Winter ("Come on, come on in the bedroom, come on"), the way he lackadaisically waves his hands around when he lies there will be "no funny business" in the bedroom, his sly eyebrow-raising references to jerking off to the videotape on all those "long, lonely nights when he needed comforting", his impromptu giggling, his smarmy, sleazy remark about how there could still be even MORE copies of the tape, his terror when she pulls out the gun after she's finally had enough of him.  I remember the storyline, and I knew he was about to bite the dust -- but I've not laid eyes on that boy since I was a little kid, and I'd forgotten how he absolutely stole the show.   

[Vee]

Winter #1 was Lori Cardille, right? I'll always be fond of her from Day of the Dead, which cemented her horror stardom (she had a long association with those George Romero zombie films bc of her family's involvement in all of them); I've never seen her soap work but I'd like to.

[DRW50]

Yes. Lori left a few months before the story concluded. Sharon Gabet replied that Lori knew where the role would end up, so I guess that isn't why she left. 

This is all I see online of her work as Winter:

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She reminds me a lot of Melanie Smith. I do wonder how she would have played out the last few months. Stephanie Braxton really goes hogwild at times, although this works overall. Similar to the Claire Bloom/Lynn Milgrim situation on ATWT. 

Edited July 4, 2022 by DRW50

[danfling]

I saw Lori Cardille on both The Edge of Night and Ryan's Hope.   Her work was extremely good.  These two roles were quite different.    Winter (on The Edge of Night) was a major character, and she and Joe Lambie (Logan #1) worked so well together.    Her role on Ryan's Hope was a minor character, but Ms. Cardille played it well enough.

 

I first saw Stephanie Braxton on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing in a day role as a blind student in a school being visited by Leslie Charleston (Iris #1).   She then replaced the wonderful (in my opinion) Linda DeCoff as Laurie on The Secret Storm.    That character was written delicately.    Laurie had been, up uniil that time, the "other woman" who stole Joel Crothers (Ken Stevens #2) from his wife Barbara Rodell (Jill Stevens #2).  She was a fragile, misunderstood and troubled husband-stealer, but a husband-stealer nevertheless.  The show made her sympathetic while still maintaining the goodness of Jill (who married a man who would never be suited for her, Hugh Clayborn).  Widowhood, the apoption of a son whose mother had deserted him, a custody battle resulting with the murder of Alan Dunbar, and falling in love with a priest made Laurie the show's #2 young heroine (following Jade Rowland and Lynne Adams as Amy).   

In her next soap opera role, she was cast as Tara #2 on All My  Children.   She was so good in this role, although different from Karen Gorney (Tara #1).  I imagine that she was more like the Tara that Agnes Nixon had envisioned than any of the other three actress who played Tara.

Ms Braxton, of course, met her second husband (Dan Hamilton) on The Secret Storm (on which he played Robert Landers).   After she was cast on All My Children, he was hired to play Hal Shea, the first husband of Kitty (Francesca James) who posed as Hal Short.     Mr. Hamilton later played Wade Meecham on The Edge of Night (the murder victim of Winter Austin).

 

Interestingly enough, Laurie was a concert pianist who eventually stopped playing the piano.   Then, in his next soap opera role on Somerset, Joel Crothers played a concert pianist who stopped playing the piano.    (These two were later reunited on The Edge of Night.)  And, Stephanie Braxton later played the wife of a concert pianist (played by the late Michael Zaslow) on the ABC primetime serial King's Crossing.

Edited July 5, 2022 by danfling

[Soaplovers]

From what I understand, Lori C found that the story bought up past abuse she'd suffered in her past so she asked to leave the role.

I think she would have played those final months with less hysteria and less soapy/OTT.  Just in that scene you shared, she was more low key and seemed almost defeated/worn out over being dealt a bad hand.  

Had she stayed, I think she would have played that beat making the audience feel sorry that she was dealt a bad hand yet again and would root for her to be guilty.  And I think she would have been more sinister as she went after Nicole in the studio.. and since her Winter had chemistry with Logan Swift... his refusal to admit her loved her would have beem more impactful

[danfling]

My local station had dropped The Edge of Night in April of 1979 (during the months of this recasting and death of Winter) until September of 1980.    I had not known that Logan had refused to tell Winter that he loved her.

Writer Henry Slesar had a habit of breaking up happy couples.    I think that this was another time that he broke up a couple for whom the audience (or at least I) wanted a different, happier ending.

Edited July 10, 2022 by danfling

[DRW50]

I didn't know that. Very sad. I agree the story would have been stronger with Lori there at the end.

[Vee]

Yeah, I know one of her soap roles did that but I didn't know which one. Cardille was tough as nails in Day of the Dead, so seeing her on a soap is interesting for me; she is not a glamourpuss or conventional heroine/villain.