Thank you! For some reason, I thought she had started at the beginning of 1988. She and Doug Watson were only co-stars for 6-7 months before his passing.

Below are the two definitive scenes between Carmen Duncan's Iris and Douglass Watson's Mac. In the first scene, Iris tells Mac at the Snowflake Ball "no one will ever love me the way I love them." In the other scene, Iris tells Mac she was "The Chief" behind the takeover of Cory Publishing. This scene aired only weeks before Watson's real-life passing.

Mac crumbling at the door always gets me right there!

It would have been so much better, though, without that '80s power ballad.

It would have been more powerful if there had been no music at all.

I wonder if they ever tried to woo McKinsey back before recasting with Duncan. It may have been difficult though as McKinsey was still in the P&G soap family and in another prominent role.

I think I recall a small bit in one of the soap magazines from the late 80's where McKinsey said they asked, but she told them was happy at GL.

I wonder if anyone else well-known was up for the part of Iris before Carmen Duncan was cast.

Bev mentioned she was approached but didn't want to travel out to the Brooklyn studios.

It would have been so much better, though, without that '80s power ballad.

For me that really helps make the scene even more powerful.

I thought Carmen Duncan did an excellent job in a role that was pretty iconic. It helped that Iris was gone a number of years. I think in retrospect it's good that a name actress wasn't brought in.

Did Carmen Duncan ever have a role on the soaps again - other than filling in for Eileen Fulton on ATWT?

I wonder if they ever tried to woo McKinsey back before recasting with Duncan. It may have been difficult though as McKinsey was still in the P&G soap family and in another prominent role.

I think I recall a small bit in one of the soap magazines from the late 80's where McKinsey said they asked, but she told them was happy at GL.

I read an interview that Bev was asked to return but it was much earlier on, around when she started on GL. I would love to see who Duncan's completion was. I always thought a Meryl Streep Devil wears Prada type would have worked well but that was closer to Carmens portrayal of Iris. Debbie Reynolds would have been a great replacement for Iris if she just did the sultry type voice

Duncan did great in the role, but I do have a hard time reconciling it with the character McKinsey played in the 70's. They are just completely different actresses, and I felt like Duncan's Iris seemed to be a product of her time and clearly inspired by Joan Collins, if that makes sense...

I don't know if it would have been different had McKinsey resurrected the role though. Though, I guess doing GL was hugely beneficial for her as it allowed a new generation of soap fans to know her and proved she could be someone else in the same genre other than Iris.

I think Linda Thorson would have been an interesting Iris.

Even though the two Irises had very different acting styles and very different takes on the character, each actress was/is larger than life. That's why both were believable.