OLTL/AW: Robin Strasser as Rachel

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Do anyone think Robin Strasser could have played Rachel from the 70's-1999? Being Redeemed and all. Could Robin have played that Rachel?

[SFK]

She could have, but I doubt she would have much enjoyed it. Robin likes playing the heavy, and frankly I think that's what she's born to play... it's hard for me to imagine her playing a weepy, vulnerable heroine (but maybe I'm biased as mid-'90s Dorian Lord is perhaps my most favorite female soap character of all time). And once Susan Lucci's Erica shot into the stratosphere, I think Robin Strasser may have been a *smidge* jealous that another actress was getting to have all the fun (and glory) playing a part she essentially created while she had to watch Beverlee have all the divalicious lines and wardrobe on her own show. Don't get me wrong, Rachel remained a wonderful character, but she took a decidedly respectable Victoria Lord turn in character, except none of the crazy fun outlandish outlets in the alters (until Justine of course, and we all know how that turned out).

I once asked a soap columnist if he thought that Strasser would have achieved "Lucci-dom" had she stuck with AW. But he reminded me that Harding Lemay had this idea of "reforming" Rachel by making some of her dreams come true even when Strasser was still in the role. He was also happy to have Victoria Wyndham onboard because he felt that she was a more capable actress, better at conveying the black, white, and shades of grey of his Rachel that he was preparing to explore. So in or out of the part, Rachel was going to make this change because Lemay wanted to move his creation, Iris into the villainess position. It was brilliant writing really. And it's even more curious knowing that years later Strasser was a breath away from replacing McKinsey as Alex on GL.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Victoria Wyndham said that Lemay and Rauch wanted her because they wanted someone who they knew could take Rachel into a more diverse direction. She said Robin wanted to play the bitch, and played it very well. But when time came up for a recast, Lemay of course wanted to steer the character in another direction. Robin herself has said that she's not very good at doing gray characters, which is why she was very unhappy with her role on AMC. She said she can play black or white, but gray isn't her forte.

Was Robin on AW when Mac and Iris were created? I thought she left before Lemay created those characters. Even though I wasn't alive during the 70's, I'm sure it would've been great fun to see Strasser and McKinsey together, even though Wyndham and McKinsey were apparently very good together.

[Aback]

Any clips of RS in that role?

[Vee]

Which is ironic for her to say, since in the end, Dorian is the epitome of "gray."

[EricMontreal22]

There only seems to be the Summer 1968 two wedding episodes when Agnes was just finishing writing and Alice meets Steve Frame for the first time that have a very young, very gorgeous Rachel in the role--in existance among any collectors. I've never heard of any other episodes coming to light at all--and these aren't on youtube--yet (they're very low quality)

And no Robin left before Mac and Iris (by quite a few years I think--wasn't Mac around the time Steve left??). SHe left at first in 69 or 70 to persue stage acting--but then when her replacement didn't work out she returned for a few months as a favour while they foudn a good recast--so I'm not sure she woulda been recast if she hadn't left on her own.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

The reason i brought this up i just watched 50 years of soap operas on youtube, and she speaks of her time as Rachel Davis-Matthews and she then talks of Vicky Wydham in the role, how they both took turns as Rachel trying to destroy Alice and Steve relationship. I would have loved to seen Robin playing Rachel to Beverlee's Iris. I was around to see Beverlee's Iris, I was born in 1987 so i only got to see Carmen Duncan's go as Iris. Robin is an amazing actress and I think playing redeem Rachel would have not worked for her.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

The reason i brought this up i just watched 50 years of soap operas on youtube, and she speaks of her time as Rachel Davis-Matthews and she then talks of Vicky Wydham in the role, how they both took turns as Rachel trying to destroy Alice and Steve relationship. I would have loved to seen Robin playing Rachel to Beverlee's Iris. I was around to see Beverlee's Iris, I was born in 1987 so i only got to see Carmen Duncan's go as Iris. Robin is an amazing actress and I think playing redeem Rachel would have not worked for her.

[SFK]

Lemay wrote for Strasser's Rachel if only for months. We must remember that when he joined AW in '71, he had inherited the s/ls of the HWs prior to him. He took what he had and created the legendary Rachel/Mac/Iris triangle. He commented on Strasser vs. Wyndham in his infamous SOD interview, he spoke to the ladies' strengths/weaknesses. Margie Impert played Rachel in '71 as well, so he wrote for her too, along with Robin during her brief return before vacating the role for good.

Vicki has said that she didn't want to take on Rachel initially b/c she had recently wrapped a similar role, Charlotte Bauer on GL. What intrigued her was the fact the Rachel would make the metamorphosis that Lemay planned for her.

I have in my collection that bit of kinescoped Robin Strasser as Rachel footage, and Lord how I wish I had more! She is so fun to watch, she is a fan's actress, she "winks" to us the audience in the subtlest of ways. You can just see the wheels turning as she encounters this glamorous Steve Frame character who has everything Russ has but oh so more. I. LOVE. ROBIN. STRASSER.

[YRBB]

I don't believe I never knew about this before!

[Quent]

I LOVED Robin Strasser as Rachel. The Rachel/Steve/Alice triangle was the first "must-see" soap action I knew of. I hated the direction that Victoria Wyndham took the character in. The RS version of Rachel would NEVER have become a matriarch. I've never seen Robin as Dorian, but I know she was FANTASTIC as Rachel.

[DaytimeFan]

Strasser was great as Rachel Davis the bitch. I think she would have been mediocre and personally and professionally unfilled as Rachel Cory the matriarch and I think she would have left the show by the mid 80s and tried to get another bitch type character on another soap.

Victoria Wyndham was just pitch perfect for the new direction Rachel was taken in. She had a dignity and a stability about her that was just wonderful. She also had great chemistry with Doug Watson, I believed they loved each other. If Strasser had been there...I just don't think I'd have bought the relationship as being genuine. She plays her characters in a predatory fashion. I also don't think she could have pulled off the relationship between Carmen Duncan's Iris (who I just loved, that accent, hot damn)...that was a strained relationship to play...I think Strasser's acting would have been to 'in your face' with Duncan's Iris. It would have been battle of the divas which was the exact opposite of that narrative. Finally, for much of the 90s Rachel was a supporting character in a lot of ways. Linda Dano got the alcohol story (for which she won a well deserved Emmy), Anna Stuart got the May/December romance (which was undeservedly cut short) and Jensen Buchanan got the rest. And after Carmen Duncan left the show there was basically nothing for Rachel Cory to be involved in, hence the Justine ridiculousness. Strasser wouldn't have tolerated it, I love her but patient she isn't.

That said, Victoria Wyndham never could have played Dorian Lord. Ever. Not for a second. Ever. So it goes to show that back in the 70s and 80s wonderful casting directors existed and they saw potential and they went for it.

[EricMontreal22]

This shames me to say but... I never really liked Wyndham as Rachel--even in those GREAT Lemay clips there's something about her style of acting--I know he claims she was less mannered than Strasser but I find it very mannered. Maybe it was that weird interview with her that's just colouring my judgement...

[DaytimeFan]

I don't know what Lemay meant by mannered but as far as I'm concerned Wyndham was WAY MORE MANNERED than Strasser ever was. To me, that was the point, Rachel grew up and became more rigid and stiff and matriarch esque.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Judging by what Lemay said of Strasser, I think he would've absolutely hated Carmen Duncan's Iris as well. Duncan could be outrageously over the top and heavy, like Strasser at times. Beverlee Mckinsey (the definitive Iris of course) had a more natural, nuanced, and subtle approach that could break your heart one minute and make you want to slap her across the face the next. I found Duncan to be extremely "one note" as Iris, which was how Lemay described Strasser's Rachel. I know when Lemay returned to AW in 88 or 89, one of the big things in his long-term bible was Iris' return, which the overrated and dull Donna Swajeski penned (it's said she used most of Lemay's bible during her years at AW). Of course at that point McKinsey was on GL stirring up trouble and playing another diva, Alexandra Spaulding, so they had to recast with Duncan.