3 hours ago, j swift said:

Well, there was reasonable doubt based on Liz also visiting Wayne, and the number of prior spurned lovers he left behind.  Also, Walter gave a tour de force closing argument.

Interesting.  Thanks for the additional information.  I began watching AW daily a month or two after Walter's death.  Previous to that, I only saw occasionally parts of episodes.  So I was aware Lenore had been on trial and that Walter had been the killer. But I didn't know many details at all.  I did see a couple of scenes with Walter removing the scarf from the wall safe and talking to himself.  And I remember seeing at least one scene of the trial.  Wasn't Lenore pregnant during the trial?  I'm not sure if my memory is correct about that.  And wasn't Wayne Addison also having an affair with Bernice Robinson?  That guy must have been virile and vigorous.  LOL.  

1 hour ago, Tisy-Lish said:

And wasn't Wayne Addison also having an affair with Bernice Robinson?  That guy must have been virile and vigorous.  LOL.  

I think she was his ex-wife, and accomplice.

20 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I think she was his ex-wife, and accomplice.

John Randolph also had an affair with Bernice, didn't he? It makes me wonder about his taste in women since he later married villainous Olive and of course he married Pat after defending her for murder. Did Lee's mother have any dark secrets or criminal tendencies?

21 hours ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Wasn't Lenore pregnant during the trial?  I'm not sure if my memory is correct about that.

She must have been -- the trial ended and Wally was born in March 1971.  

On 10/6/2025 at 10:36 PM, Soaplovers said:

Depriest also objectified Cass as well with that whole Cecile kidnapping plot.

Oddly I'd take grimy and toxic over the non descript vibe the show had between 1984 and 1986. 

The misogyny charge was not so much about objectification of women as some of the choices she made about character. There were certainly salacious storylines under her watch, although they were perhaps a bit confusing. Serial killer the Sin Stalker was obsessed with prostitutes and then any woman who was not a virgin but never sexually assaulted any of his murder victims because he was obsessed with Lisa and intended to "marry" her until she revealed that she had been raped as a teenager and did not meet his standards for purity.

MJ was changed from a college-educated police detective to a uniformed officer (who basically continued to do a detective's job) with no college degree and a secret past as a prostitute. She was devastated when her upright fiancé Adam jilted her at the altar but also still had a strong emotional attachment to her hunky former boyfriend and pimp, Chad.

Donna remembered that before she had had sex with her boyfriend Michael as a teenager actually she had been hanging out with his brother John who had raped her, so there might have been a possibility that he was the biological father of her twins Marley and Victoria. When John came back from the dead he insisted that it had not been rape, she had been attracted to him because he was a badder boy than Michael. And then they spent the summer lusting after each other and setting up situations that allowed Reginald and Peter to persuade their dupe Victoria that John and Donna were having an affair.

Reginald terrorized and drugged Donna and had her institutionalized, and what had been her story about how Reginald had kept her from Michael and forced her to hide in a secret room until she gave birth to the twins, given Victoria up for adoption and raised Marley as Donna's sister, became Michael's story of how Reginald had wronged him and culminated in a fight to Reginald's death where they blamed each other for Donna's miscarriage of a son without any noticeable regard for the pain and suffering of Donna and her daughters.

 

 

It’s difficult to know what truly motivates a writer. Was she telling the stories based on inspiration, or was she focused on what might connect with viewers and perform well commercially?  As weird as it may sound in 2025, romantic stories about women with toxic fathers were a big cultural touchstone at the time, and were selling well to young women in movies and books.

It can be a bit unfair to assume that a writer, especially a woman, was only drawing from personal inspiration. That view can overlook the fact that television writing is a job, and like any job, it's shaped by deadlines, audience expectations, and network goals.

Take the example of serial killer storylines. Maybe Ms. Depriest genuinely enjoyed writing them. Or maybe she was hired for those stories precisely because she had proven she could make them work. It’s like Stephen King not being asked to write a romance novel—not because he couldn’t, but because horror is what sells with his audience.

Writers often get hired for what sold well before.  And that is equally likely as ascribing personal motives for how a story was shot and portrayed.  Obviously, everything has multiple variables.  I am simply offering another hypothesis in retrospect, because it feels incomplete to not consider commercial inspiration as a fact.

 

 

Edited October 11Oct 11 by j swift

3 hours ago, Xanthe said:

John Randolph also had an affair with Bernice, didn't he? 

Yep.

One of Lemay's first big storylines

Edited October 11Oct 11 by AbcNbc247

2 hours ago, j swift said:

It’s difficult to know what truly motivates a writer. Was she telling the stories based on inspiration, or was she focused on what might connect with viewers and perform well commercially?  As weird as it may sound in 2025, romantic stories about women with toxic fathers were a big cultural touchstone at the time, and were selling well to young women in movies and books.

Pat Falken Smith is notorious for penning sensational and lurid rape storylines. With the exception of Guiding Light, every single soap she wrote for, she featured a sensational rape storyline that would live on in soap opera history. The most famous being "Luke & Laura"

14 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Yep.

Lemay's first big storyline

And poor Pat took to drinking, because she mistakenly believed John was screwing her best friend Lenore.  Then Bernice was murdered on Pat and John's patio (the body was found by Mary Matthews), and poor Pat was too drunk that afternoon to remember whether or not she had killed Bernice.  Pat was a suspect in the murder, but did not go to trial.  In the end, a young lawyer from John Randolph's firm, Mark Vendable, admitted to killing Bernice in a fit of rage -- because he had also been screwing Bernice.   And didn't Walter Curtain also have an affair with Bernice?  Lord that Bernice...

Edited October 11Oct 11 by Tisy-Lish

Just now, Tisy-Lish said:

And didn't Walter Curtain also have an affair with Bernice?  

No. I think she was blackmailing him

Richard Bekins screentest for the Hardy Boys.

 

On 10/11/2025 at 5:35 PM, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

Pat Falken Smith is notorious for penning sensational and lurid rape storylines. With the exception of Guiding Light, every single soap she wrote for, she featured a sensational rape storyline that would live on in soap opera history. The most famous being "Luke & Laura"

To be fair, any "sensational and lurid" rape storylines on DAYS in its first decade were conceived, plotted and launched by William J. Bell, the head writer. Early in her tenure as a dialogue writer on that soap, it wasn't PFS, herself, who "featured" the rapes. PFS is on record as being against the Bill/Laura Horton scenario, believing that this would never result in a beautiful love story. She was also against the idea of Jack Clayton sexually aggressing his stepdaughter Trish, when Bill Bell presented her with that saga.

I don't remember her creating or writing rape stories on Where the Heart Is and/or Ryan's Hope either.

As far as I know/can recall, the only sensational and lurid soap sexual-assault storyline that lives on in infamy, which can be attributed to Smith, is the irresponsible Luke/Laura fiasco.

 

10 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

I don't remember her creating or writing rape stories on Where the Heart Is and/or Ryan's Hope either.

Pat Falken Smith wanted Roger (played by Ron Hale) to rape Maggie (played by Cali Timmins) on Ryan's Hope. As PFS turned Maggie from a schemer to a heroine. Ron Hale put his foot down and threated to quit, as there was no reason or justification to turn Roger into a rapist.

PFS backed down, slightly. Instead it was an "Attempted Rape" and Maggie is saved by Dave. Then two Head Writers later, they have Roger and Maggie fall in love and get married! Despite Roger attempting to rape Maggie just 2 years earlier!

18 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Richard Bekins screentest for the Hardy Boys.

 

Thank you. Always happy to see Richard Bekins. I don't remember much about the Hardy Boys series other than (1) I had a crush on Parker Stephenson who got the part of Frank and (2) the reception we got for ABC was terrible. I don't know how I would have handled "Jamie" as Frank. 

Edited October 26Oct 26 by Xanthe
gah, wrong name

18 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Richard Bekins screentest for the Hardy Boys.

 

Richard came off  more as villain of the week than hero. 

Parker Stephenson was perfect casting.

Just wish the scripts had been better.

Any opinions about Susan Sullivan's (Lenore Curtain on AW) new web soap?  Sorry I don't have a link, but it should not be hard to find.    I understand David Selby and Kathryn Leigh Scott (both from Dark Shadows) are in the cast.