Mary Page Keller was the best Sally ever.

 

I enjoyed Jennifer Runyon and Mary Page Keller equally as Sally.  

I have a soft spot for the absolutely shocking behaviour of Julie Phillips' Sally and I did enjoy Jennifer Runyon's Sally as well, but I think Mary Page Keller's Sally (whom I loved) also benefited from having a storyline that kept moving and having impact. 

Maybe my perspective is biased because I was not watching as consistently during Jennifer Runyon's tenure. If she had had the storyline with Donna splitting up her and Peter I think she could have done well with it.

I thought the movement from getting engaged to Peter to Donna digging up the info with Kevin to getting engaged to David to falling in love with Catlin was compelling and the integration of Donna and Cecile's stories into that whole flow was great. It's a great shame that all of that was essentially wiped out even really before Sally died with Taylor Miller as the Lesoleil spokesmodel and Brittany. 

27 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

I have a soft spot for the absolutely shocking behaviour of Julie Phillips' Sally and I did enjoy Jennifer Runyon's Sally as well, but I think Mary Page Keller's Sally (whom I loved) also benefited from having a storyline that kept moving and having impact. 

Maybe my perspective is biased because I was not watching as consistently during Jennifer Runyon's tenure. If she had had the storyline with Donna splitting up her and Peter I think she could have done well with it.

I thought the movement from getting engaged to Peter to Donna digging up the info with Kevin to getting engaged to David to falling in love with Catlin was compelling and the integration of Donna and Cecile's stories into that whole flow was great. It's a great shame that all of that was essentially wiped out even really before Sally died with Taylor Miller as the Lesoleil spokesmodel and Brittany. 

I completely agree.  And I also thought Julie Philips was great as Sally.  Should could have been brought back in 1981 and played out the stories given to Jennifer Runyon.

1 hour ago, Efulton said:

I completely agree.  And I also thought Julie Philips was great as Sally.  Should could have been brought back in 1981 and played out the stories given to Jennifer Runyon.

The other advantage Mary Page Keller had was that they cast her eventual future husband as her new love interest and their chemistry came across to the viewer. Maybe they could have worked some other casting magic with another pair of actors in those roles but it felt very special at the time even before they were known to be together IRL.

@Stevel I don't mean to be talking past you, Sally was one of my favourite characters, especially in the Mary Page Keller era. What do you remember about her (and if you know of any good videos available do share! I am always looking for Sally stuff from 1983-1984)?

No offense taken Xanthe.

And I shouldn't have said Mary Page Keller was *the best* 

But she was my favorite.  And it didn't come easy. A dark haired Sally? What the hell?

I should also revise my opinion a bit. I loved Jennifer Runyon, the dumb blonde bimbo who was decidedly NOT a dumb bimbo. She my favorite Sally up to then and I would have been more than happy to have her continue the role in perpetuity. 

There was an earlier Sally another person mentioned.  Sorry I can't remember. She was a bit of a stoner type and had potential. She became friendly with Blaine. I remember wishing she had lasted longer, stoner type that I was

With Mary Page Keller, the change in appearance was jarring but she pulled it off so well and the chemistry with her real life future husband was so natural.

Then AW made one of the biggest mistakes ever with their choice of Taylor Miller, who I adored on AMC.

Wrong for the part and way too old.

Do any of you remember the old Compuserve AW boards?  There was a great discussion about which actress would have been a better recast Sally.

 

Sorry Xanthe, yes Julie Phillips. 

 

She wasn't given much of a chance.

 

And the original girl was kind of cute and pathetic "mooning over Joey" as Rose described her.

On 9/24/2025 at 12:13 AM, Stevel said:

Mary Page Keller was the best Sally ever.

 

I always had a soft spot for Cathy Greene, the original actress who played Sally as a young child.

Of the adult performers, I think MPK had the most charisma and likeability factor.

An early TV spot for Ed Fry, a few years before he was cast as Adam.

 

9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

An early TV spot for Ed Fry, a few years before he was cast as Adam.

 

This looks like it's for something more than chocolate mints. LOL. 

8 hours ago, Maxim said:

This looks like it's for something more than chocolate mints. LOL. 

These old dessert ads could always get dirty. I remember some people being shocked a few years ago to see an old ice cream ad where Bernadette Peters was having orgasms over her rocky road or whatever.

Just now, DRW50 said:

These old dessert ads could always get dirty. I remember some people being shocked a few years ago to see an old ice cream ad where Bernadette Peters was having orgasms over her rocky road or whatever.

These days... we only see ads for Ozempic and heart attack prevention pills. 😁 The good old days where people used to go off on deserts... are over. And I don't know if that's a good thing... or bad. 

From AWHP re Sally

Last Appearance: May 26, 1986
Portrayers: Cathy Greene, April 17, 1975 - September 15, 1978.
Julie Philips, April 16, 1979 - September 18, 1980.
Jennifer Runyon, March 2, 1981 - February 25, 1983.
Dawn Benz, March 9, 1983 - May 24, 1983.
Mary Page Keller, May 27, 1983 - June 21, 1985.
Taylor Miller, July 22, 1985 - May 26, 1986.

On 9/25/2025 at 5:15 PM, Stevel said:

Do any of you remember the old Compuserve AW boards?  There was a great discussion about which actress would have been a better recast Sally.

No, I am not familiar with those boards. What did they think?

On 9/25/2025 at 5:15 PM, Stevel said:

Then AW made one of the biggest mistakes ever with their choice of Taylor Miller, who I adored on AMC.

Wrong for the part and way too old.

Was Taylor Miller's Sally similar to Nina? I didn't think she was a bad actress but the story didn't do Sally any favours. They didn't address any issues with regard to Kevin -- and I am sure that it would have been too soon for him to find out she was his real mother, they needed Kevin to be older to make the most impact with those repercussions, but that element should have been there waiting to go off. And it felt like they wanted to make Sally seem unreasonable for breaking up with Catlin after he cheated on her with Brittany and then insisting on marriage counselling before they reconciled. I mean I don't think either of them learned anything from the marriage counselling, in the end I think their problems were resolved by giving in to passion followed quickly by her death. 

On 9/24/2025 at 2:20 PM, Xanthe said:

I have a soft spot for the absolutely shocking behaviour of Julie Phillips' Sally and I did enjoy Jennifer Runyon's Sally as well, but I think Mary Page Keller's Sally (whom I loved) also benefited from having a storyline that kept moving and having impact. 

Maybe my perspective is biased because I was not watching as consistently during Jennifer Runyon's tenure. If she had had the storyline with Donna splitting up her and Peter I think she could have done well with it.

I thought the movement from getting engaged to Peter to Donna digging up the info with Kevin to getting engaged to David to falling in love with Catlin was compelling and the integration of Donna and Cecile's stories into that whole flow was great. It's a great shame that all of that was essentially wiped out even really before Sally died with Taylor Miller as the Lesoleil spokesmodel and Brittany. 

From what I can recall Jennifer was still playing Sally during the start of the Sally/Peter relationship with Donna not approving of her.  Her last few months laid the groundwork of Sally/Peter becoming a couple with Cass as a potential spoiler... while she was friends with Cecile.   

Donna's first few weeks on the show was the last few weeks of Jennifer's stint as Sally, but once Jennifer left the show and the recast that replaced her didn't work... the story seemed to shift from Sally/Peter/Cass to Cecile/Peter/Cass because Mary Paige Keller had a different vibe and take on the character of Sally that didn't seem to work with what had been set up previously.

With Taylor Miller coming on as Sally, it could have worked if the show had decided to make a clean break from Sally/Caitlin and tried to position Sally in a different orbit.

With that said, I saw a few episodes with Taylor Miller playing Sally and she wasn't a bad Sally.. it just seemed as though she became too mature and matronly without the eagerness of Mary Page Keller or the craftiness of Jennifer Runyon to make the character stand out by 1986.