Lara would have been a fascinating choice, and she could have played a darker Alice too.

Fascinating interview, and thank you for posting it. He was very good friends with Paul Newman. In the AW Trivia Book by Gerry Waggett, there is an anecdote about the two hanging out at a racetrack while Considine was playing Reginald Love in the 80s. A fan of the show walked up to them (apparently not noticing or recognizing Newman) and yelled, "Hey Reginald, you creep!!", which Newman found extremely funny. LOL

I never knew he suffered from epilepsy. God bless him.

Ironic about the last sentence - about AW fans not needing a fourth major shock after losing George Reinholt, Virginia Dwyer and Susan Sullivan. The biggest one was looming right then!!

I think Considine or Nic Coster later said they were both fired because they played pranks on the set. Not sure how true that was, obviously.

I don't know how true that is, either, but Nic Coster once said on FB that he and Considine were both the pranksters of AW, and that they would sometimes get it from Rauch. Coster likened it to being sent to the principal's office!!

Thanks for the articles, DRW50! Intellectually, I understand the show couldn't tolerate Reinholt and Courtney causing trouble on the set (if that was truly the case). Still, to me they were irreplaceable. I didn't hate Susan Harney but it was like she was a different character. I didn't care for the subsequent Alices. And I did not like David Canary as Steve, at all.

Thank goodness it didn't take long at all for David Canary to find the perfect role(s) for him after his AW stint. I think he got AMC the same year he got cut from AW...and the rest is history.

In Lemays book I think he talks about Nic Coster's firing, he just isn't named.

I'll have to read that book again - my library has it. He seemed to fit in much better on SB as Lionel Lockridge, who seemed to have the same sense of fun and adventure as his portrayer.

What about Leslie Charleson as Alice? Or Lara Parker?

i Don't think Leslie Charleston would have been a good recast. I can't think of who would have been better than susan harney. She was not the same ALcie but how many recasts ever are?

The audience's interest in Alice dwindled significantly after Jacquie Courtney was fired. Even Lemay admitted in his book that despite continued storyline attention paid to the character as played by Susan Harney, Alice was never again a hugely popular character as she had been with Courtney in the role.

So whatever they did with Alice after the replacements started piling on (and most of them were dreadful in the role), the audience wasn't very interested in Alice anymore.

again, I would say, Alice was never the same after J Courtney but Susan Harney did have success and major story lines on AW. I am guessing that Lemay and Rauch regret getting rid of Courtney and Reinholdt but they did make the show number 1 even after they were fired. After Susan Harney, the other Alice's were just awful and never lasted more than a year

Jacqueline Courtney was the definitive Alice, of course, and none of the replacements (whom I always referred to as "the fake Alices") ever really impressed me. Courtney moved over to OLTL on November 12, 1975, and I became a staunch and loyal supporter on that show from that moment on (even though I had already watched and enjoyed it previously).

My rating of the Alices:

Susan Harney: ** (out of four stars)

Wesley Ann Pfenning: BOMB (What was Rauch thinking?!?)

Vana Tribbey: **

Linda Borgeson: *

i agree with all your ratings. I heard Wesley Ann Pfenning was hired because she was Paul's friend. It was around this time that AW's began to tank with recasting very bad roles

Did you notice a typo there? "VIRGINIA Wyndham"???

they did that a lot morons. i noticed barbra something instead of jeanne lange playing as carol lamonte

I thought that he had been hired and then the writer's strike hit. Supposedly, Swajeski was head writer during the strike. The strike ended and Lemay's material aired for about 2 months (including the reintroduction of Iris). He was then axed in favor of Swajeski.

he was not axed. he quit. Donna was writing during the writers strike and Lemay was hired to come back and they wrote together only to clash over story lines. I am sure he wanted the Frames and Corys to be the focus and she prob did not know much family history. I often wonder, how many of the old clan would have been written in if he stayed longer but he did write many month scripts that were shown and Donna did keep the focus on the families, and i am sure by the producers stress since that was the year of the 25th anniversary. There were numerous names and character returns (most very brief) between 1988 and 1989 from the past. I am sure If NBC or Proctor were more favorable of Lemay, they would have voted to ax her but at this time things changed unfortanely. i was so waiting for that shakespare show to start back up in 1988

I wonder how Jacquie Courtney would have fared in the show's 90-minute era. I would have liked to see her Alice wrestling with guilt over John giving his life to rescue her from the burning cottage.

Edited October 11, 201411 yr by amybrickwallace

I felt that NBC and P&G should have considered an option that would've been perfect for all involved re Reinholt/Courtney. Why did they simply offer them a big-bucks deal to move over to Somerset? P&G could have had Steve and Alice decide to make a new start in Somerset. That way, the ratings-charged spinoff would now have daytime's top duo as their new stars, drawing new viewers. Somerset would have been given a new lease on life. As we all know, ABC wound up being the beneficiary of the AW firings- Reinholt & Courtney landed at OLTL, which began to rise in the ratings, and with the 1978 renovation of GH, AW began to lose steam.