Edge of Night (EON) (No spoilers please)

[chrisml]

Larry Hagman writes of his brief time on Edge of Night:

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[Paul Raven]

@chrisml Thanks for all these articles you share.Always pick up some interesting tidbits.

[Tisy-Lish]

Is it true that, after the transition from CBS to ABC in 1975, Edge of Night had a very short-lived very unliked "new" opening theme?  I understand it was rather quickly replaced by the Cortner and Barranco melody that lasted until the show was cancelled.  Is this true?  And if so, does anyone have audio or video of the short-lived and reviled "new" opening theme song?  

[chrisml]

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This was a lot of fun and Tony Craig was immensely charming. I wish he got to show this side of him as Draper on the show.

Edited June 4 by chrisml

[chrisml]

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[chrisml]

In watching the Family Feud episodes, I can't get over how charming and interesting all the EON actors are. Tony Craig was not served by how Draper was written, and I wish he had been given a better character. He's so adorable on FF. From what I've seen on EON, he is never given much of a chance to show that. He should have been a major leading man in soaps based on the way he is on FF. 

[VelekaCarruthers]

Henry did write Draper as a series but sweet romantic lawyer and had an opportunity with the not too inspired Emily/Kirk plot to change Draper's personality (Ala Jason Quartermaine on GH) but Tony quit a while after that story was resolved which Henry may have know about and Terry Davis got pregnant so he gave them a happily ever after (off screen). But Tony often flubbed his lines too; he didn't come across as a multi talented actor in the vein of Joel Crothers who aced absolutely everything Henry gave him to do.

[chrisml]

It was so interesting to the Edge actors because they were so much fun. From where I came into the show, Draper has been such a drip so it was nice to see Tony Craig so loose and fun. Joel Crothers has not had much to do in where I am in the show, but he is a great presence. 

[chrisml]

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[Franko]

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[DRW50]

In this interview from 2023, Dorothy Lyman mentions her first Edge of Night part being a couple of weeks work filling in for an actress who had gotten in a skiing accident. She said the show appreciated her work and a few months later she was cast as Ellie Jo.

Clearly, she doesn't remember all the details (she says SOD named her as the best new character of 1972), but this seemed like something she was sure on. 

It's at about 13 minutes in.

Have any of you ever heard of this? @vetsoapfan ? @slick jones

She also goes into a little detail about her Search for Tomorrow part, although she still doesn't give a name for the character. (she says the character was a friend to Kelly Wood's character)

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Edited June 23 by DRW50

[slick jones]

Interesting interview. I've always loved Lyman. I forwarded it to MTF from the Edge Homepage, hoping he might help identify the actress that skiied into a tree.

I'm updating her SFT cast identification to 

Confidante               Dorothy Lyman        Between 1969 and 1972   Lauri Leshinsky's close friend

[vetsoapfan]

@DRW50, I clearly recall Lyman's great run as Elly-Jo Jamison on TEON, but have no memory at all of her temporarily subbing for another actress before taking on that part.

Soap Opera Digest had not yet been created, of course. The only soap mags that gave out awards at the time (to my recollection) were Daytime TV and Afternoon TV. Of those two, Afternoon TV awarded statues to actors in many different categories, so I wonder if Lyman could be thinking of that publication as the one which gave her an award.

[DRW50]

Thanks for replying so quickly. 

Yes, I figured she meant something like Afternoon TV (that and Daytime TV being the main two).

I don't know who the women in her age range were at the time that she could have temped for, if that happened.

Edited June 24 by DRW50

[vetsoapfan]

Another soap mag which was around in the early 1970s was TV Dawn to Dusk, but it was a rag; poorly produced and run, in comparison to Daytime TV and Afternoon TV. I don't think TVDTD ever gave out awards. It was such a cheap publication. They'd devote a full page to an oft-seen publicity photo, with an empty comment like, "Mary Stuart enjoys playing Jo on SFT."

Big woo. 

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They also reported storyline details incorrectly, suggesting their staff didn't pay attention to the soaps. The same misinformation about plots would show up in "letters to the editor" commentary, which told me TVDTD made up those fan letters, themselves (or at least some of them).

It was carelessly done and inundated with filler material. Yuck.

On the other hand, Daytime TV, Afternoon TV, Daily TV Serials, Rona Barrett's Daytimers and Soap Opera Weekly were class acts. I read them all, cover to cover. Soap Opera Digest was "iffy" at first, but eventually blossomed into a good magazine, before petering out and coming pointless in its declining years.

I'm trying to think of what character Lyman could played on TEON temporarily, a while before she began playing Elly Jo. Maybe Sarah Louise Capice? I could see DL filling in for Christopher Norris. Phoebe Smith is another possibility. Nobody would have hired Lyman to sub for Emily Prager as Laurie Ann Karr. At least Sarah Louise and Phoebe Smith were both young blondes.