1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

think the mistake later writers did with Cass/Frankie was make them too serious without the quirky/comedic elements that made them appealing.

You had baby Charlie with her health ailments, Cass' mental health issues, Cass' becoming gullible to believe Maggie was his daughter, Frankie feeling less than because she couldn't have a 2nd baby, etc.  It was no wonder focus groups in 1996 were not so keen on Frankie.

Gee now these are all things that I dearly loved about Cass's little family. And there was great acting involved. I remember being so impressed that they remained consistent with Cass's bipolar  that he continued to carry a water bottle with him because the lithium he took made him thirsty & dehydrated easily. 

In a Locher Room AW Reunion I thought Alice said that at the time of that blasted focus group that she had actually been on the backburner, while other characters had story.

That was also when they talked about Doug Watson's death. My takeaway from things she said & that Kale said were that he was a chain smoker & that as soon as he arrived he joined an exercise class & very quickly collapsed with a massive heart attack. I sorta think of May 1st as a day of unhappiness & now besides Doug's death anniversary it is Jerry verDorn's too. 

On 9/30/2023 at 3:46 PM, Neil Johnson said:

I think Swajeski may have known about Emma because Emma was mentioned during the strike of 1988, when Swakeski was a scab writer.  I think they scabs were, to some degree, following Lemay's story projections during the strike. Lemay's notes may have included character names, but still must have been rather vague, because the scabs got many of the historical and character details wrong.  

I remember Molly's name was even mentioned when Vince & Jason were talking about Emma's children.  That was during the strike as well.  

On 10/1/2023 at 8:54 AM, ScottyBman said:

Christmas 1983.  Carl Hutchins arrives as Felicia Gallant's guest much to the chagrin of Donna Love and Perry Hutchins.  The rest of Bay City is delighted to meet him.  For a while....  I never liked him with Rachel.  And that pony tail...

 

 

Thank you. Very nice -- includes original Nicole (Kim Morgan Greene) with Stephen Yates as Jamie, Laura Malone as Blaine (pregnant with Alex), Chris Rich as Sandy, Anna Stuart as Donna, David Oliver as Perry, Luke Reilly as Ted Bancroft, Paul Stevens as Brian Bancroft, Irene Dailey as Liz, Joe Morton as Leo Mars and Abel Marsh, Jackee Harry as Lily Mason, Gail Brown as Clarice, Rick Porter as Larry, Petronia Paley as Quinn, Geoffrey Ewing as DA Adam Banks. Of course Felicia and Mac and Rachel are all present as well.

The name Hutchins rings a bell with Mac, but not in a way that suggests that he would turn out to have been in a close partnership (or triumvirate) with Andrew Hutchins and Leon Rain as the storyline seemed to go in 1993/94. Of course even in this episode after they establish the bombshell that Donna had been married to Carl and that he remembers Nicole as a girl, Felicia makes a comment about wanting him to meet Peter as if they wouldn't already know each other.

I especially enjoyed the scene with Donna and Nicole in the ladies' room where Donna is both wretchedly unhappy and also wildly unreasonable. I wish that the version of Nicole that was involved with Cass had been more like this Nicole.

I remember Miss Devon -- after Lorna was introduced it struck me as an odd coincidence that her surname was Devon, whereas Jenna's connection to Felicia was through her mother who was a different professional contact of Felicia's, her editor Gloria Norris. (Was Gloria supposed to have worked for Cory Publishing at any point, or was she associated with a previous publisher?) Part of me always unreasonably conflated Gloria Norris and Miss Devon (and possibly Agnes Gooch from Mame) so that Jenna was Miss Devon's illegitimate child.

Anne's still got one movie out but this appearance was a surprise. I watched it on Amazon Prime Video. ALL RISE, "Woman Trouble". I believe it will be up on Hulu next week. She was very good, so good I forgot we don't have her anymore. 

https://ew.com/tv/all-rise-pays-tribute-to-anne-heche-during-her-final-tv-appearance

 

I have two questions about Grandma Matthews (Vera Allen).   When the character was written off the show, what was the explanation that she was no longer living with Mary and Jim?    Did she leave at the same time Janet Matthews was written off the show or before that?

3 hours ago, danfling said:

I have two questions about Grandma Matthews (Vera Allen).   When the character was written off the show, what was the explanation that she was no longer living with Mary and Jim?    Did she leave at the same time Janet Matthews was written off the show or before that?

Granny was off the show a month into its run (June 64) I don't believe there was any explanation at the time. Maybe they were thinking of recasting?

I think a bit later there was a mention that Granny had gone to care for another relative out of town.

It's always stated that the role wasn't needed but after only a few weeks it would be hard to roll. Maybe it was a budget thing or they just realised the cast was too big.

2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Granny was off the show a month into its run (June 64) I don't believe there was any explanation at the time. Maybe they were thinking of recasting?

I think a bit later there was a mention that Granny had gone to care for another relative out of town.

It's always stated that the role wasn't needed but after only a few weeks it would be hard to roll. Maybe it was a budget thing or they just realised the cast was too big.

That was when Irna was still trying to write the show herself, wasn't it? And she was so set in her ways about characters. If Irna wasn't interested in that person, well, that was the kiss of death. I remember thinking that those two Matthewses were just SOL. Tough luck, too bad. I also thought that she just vanished without explanation. 

Apparently Jacqueline Courtney was on Irna's list as well because of how she was portraying Alice in the early weeks of the show.  She had said that she had chosen to play Alice like a typical mid 60s teenager that was perky and full of energy.. which Irna didn't like.  

She claimed a director told her about this so she adjusted how she portrayed Alice and wasn't written off in those early months like a lot of other performers were.  I did see Alice in a fall 1964 episode and she seemed a bit like Rachel with liking two guys and having a party in the basement  and wondering how she would get alcohol so would have been interesting if we had seen more of that Alice in the 70s.

11 hours ago, danfling said:

I have two questions about Grandma Matthews (Vera Allen).   When the character was written off the show, what was the explanation that she was no longer living with Mary and Jim?    Did she leave at the same time Janet Matthews was written off the show or before that?

As someone has posted above, Granny stopped appearing about a month after the show premiered.  But Janet remained an important character until she was written-off in June, 1966.  So Janet made it through the Irna Phillips/Bill Bell tenure, through James Lipton's short time as head-writer, and even six-months into Agnes Nixon's very successful time in the writer's chair.   

Some soap historians have reported -- when Agnes Nixon wrote-off Janet, it was intended to be a temporary break for Janet, and Nixon planned to bring back the character after a few months.  But the actress, Liza Chapman, died in an auto accident.  So Janet never returned to the canvas.   

On 10/10/2023 at 7:17 AM, danfling said:

I have two questions about Grandma Matthews (Vera Allen).   When the character was written off the show, what was the explanation that she was no longer living with Mary and Jim?    Did she leave at the same time Janet Matthews was written off the show or before that?

Granny Matthews was written out with the on-screen explanation that she went to be with her niece, who was going to have her first baby.

Many years ago a short film showed up youtube starring a Carol Roux as a crime fighting nun. Everyone speculated if it was the same Carol Roux from Another World. The same poster uploaded some more content and here is another film starring her. I think it's the same CR from AW. 

 

1 hour ago, SoapDope said:

Many years ago a short film showed up youtube starring a Carol Roux as a crime fighting nun. Everyone speculated if it was the same Carol Roux from Another World. The same poster uploaded some more content and here is another film starring her. I think it's the same CR from AW. 

 

Yes, that is Carol Roux from Another World.  Surprisingly, her acting skills still seem very strong in 1992.  Thanks for sharing this.

7 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

Yes, that is Carol Roux from Another World.  Surprisingly, her acting skills still seem very strong in 1992.  Thanks for sharing this.

Yes, she seems to be really enjoying herself here. Maybe because they were small independent films and she was involved in behind the scenes production, it was a more comfortable atmosphere for her to work.

I managed to find a version of the Breakaway promo with Sam/Amanda, Felicia/Mitch, and John/Sharlene. It's not as good as the Vicky/Jamie/Jake version where Anne Heche really sells it despite Larry Lau's awkward moves. I don't think there's anything going on plot-wise for any of these couples at this point (early 1989?) that seems to suit the theme of "Breakway" and no one looks very comfortable to me.

 

 

As we've discussed in the prior illustrated print ad and promo threads, NBC daytime was the worst of the three when it came to marketing.  From the inconsistent identity for their commercials, to the illustrated print ads that often looks like they were meant for Mad Magazine, it just wasn't good.  Which is a shame, because they couldn't benefit from some of the unique stories that they were telling.  There were memorable individual ads, but never a great overall campaign.  I mean, ABC effectively "stole" the concept of Love in the Afternoon that was created by the NBC ad team, and they ran with it for years.  Meanwhile, Linda Dano's dragging around her partner on a dance floor like a dog on a rainy day.

https://youtu.be/-kHBu9hLHLo?si=V8El1iijxP4LFWOf