4 minutes ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Agreed. Especially when she had long hair. Imagine Rowland and Irene Dailey In scenes together!

OMG! I'm imagining it now. If written well, those actresses could have made the drama just crackle.

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

Lynn Milgrim was so bug-eyed on ATWT, I wonder how her theater work was.

Do you think she was better in her 1982 stint?

I never liked her at all, anywhere or any time I saw her. What a come-down from Claire Bloom on ATWT.

I would have preferred Jada Rowland over Lynn Milgram as Susan too, although now that @Tisy-Lish has put the idea of JR as Missy Matthews in my head, I have a feeling it's going to be entrenched there.

34 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Lynn Milgrim was so bug-eyed on ATWT, I wonder how her theater work was.

Well, Lynn was playing a psychotic killer on ATWT, plus she was hired as a replacement actor to play out the end of a storyline that had been written for another actor. At that point in the plot, Orlena was essentially breaking-down mentally, so even Claire Bloom might have played it bug-eyed toward the end. Who knows??

No, I don't think this was Lynn's finest moment, but I wouldn't judge her entire television career (limited as it was) by this role. She certainly didn't play AW's Susan Matthews Shearer as bug-eyed. She played Susan as a neurotic woman who had repressed most of her emotions for most of her life, to keep her neurosis under control. But she did not play Susan with much warmth, so Susan lacked warmth which viewers usually expect in a member of the show's core family. This may have been the fault of the writing -- since Lemay loved writing neurotic women (Bernice, Liz, Iris, Louise Goddard, Olive, Rose [to a lesser degree] and Marianne [to a lesser degree]). A more seasoned daytime actor may have been able to warm up the icee material Lemay wrote for Susan.

I never saw Milgrim on the stage. But I've read that she is a magnificent stage actor. I'm not an expert in theater, so I tend to believe what I read about stage actors.

@vetsoapfan How were the previous Susan's that played her before Milgrim? I think another actress played Susan for two or three years in the late 60s/early 70s when she first got together with Dan and the show even briefly bought on his daughter for Susan to play step mom to before Lemay took over and wrote them out.

21 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

@vetsoapfan How were the previous Susan's that played her before Milgrim? I think another actress played Susan for two or three years in the late 60s/early 70s when she first got together with Dan and the show even briefly bought on his daughter for Susan to play step mom to before Lemay took over and wrote them out.

I believe three actresses played Susan Matthews between 1964 and 1971. Then Lemay was hired as head-writer, and quickly married Susan to Dr Dan Shearer, and promptly dispatched them to Boston. And if I am correct about that, Lynn Milligram would have been the fourth actor to play Susan. when Lemay reintroduced Susan and Dan in 1978.

Edited March 11Mar 11 by Tisy-Lish

5 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

@vetsoapfan How were the previous Susan's that played her before Milgrim? I think another actress played Susan for two or three years in the late 60s/early 70s when she first got together with Dan and the show even briefly bought on his daughter for Susan to play step mom to before Lemay took over and wrote them out.

As @Tisy-Lish acknowledged, there were three other actresses who played Susan before Milgrim.

Fran Sharon (who is best known for playing Cookie Pollack on The Edge of Night) was first. I thought she was okay, but she came and went very quickly.

The second Susan was an actress named Roni Dengel. I don't remember much about her, and she also disappeared in the blink of an eye. IIRC, both Sharon and Dengel stayed on the show for about a month or two each in 1964 before being fired. I think Irna Phillips must not have been thrilled with them.

The character was off the canvas for about five years before being recast again with Lisa Cameron in 1969. This was my favorite Susan. She was in the role for about 2.5 years before leaving Bay City. I found Cameron likeable, and it certainly helped that she stuck around long enough for the audience to get to know and warm up to her.

When I think of Susan, it's Lisa Cameron who comes to mind.

Edited March 11Mar 11 by vetsoapfan

2 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

The second Susan was an actress named Roni Dengel. I don't remember much about her, and she also disappeared in the blink of an eye. IIRC, both Sharon and Dengel stayed on the show for about a month or two each in 1964 before being fired. I think Irna Phillips must not have been thrilled with them.

Knowing this adds weight to Jacqui Courtney's fear that she might be fired early on as well.

2 hours ago, Xanthe said:

Knowing this adds weight to Jacqui Courtney's fear that she might be fired early on as well.

Yes. Several actors were fired abruptly during the first year. I would have scared of the axe too.

9 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Yes. Several actors were fired abruptly during the first year. I would have scared of the axe too.

If I recall correctly, the first actor to play Liz was fired after the first episode! The first actor to play Jim was fired after the first week! Granny Matthews was written-off after one month. The first two actors to play Susan Matthews were each fired within two months of being cast. So Jacquie Courtney's fear was understandable.

7 minutes ago, Tisy-Lish said:

If I recall correctly, the first actor to play Liz was fired after the first episode! The first actor to play Jim was fired after the first week! Granny Matthews was written-off after one month. The first two actors to play Susan Matthews were each fired within two months of being cast. So Jacquie Courtney's fear was understandable.

This is all still insane to me. AW got some bad breaks but also was lucky to hang on for so many rocky periods. Irna had fired or tried to fire key actors on her other soaps but never so early on or on such a spree. I'm almost surprised she was able to get on other soaps on the air after this.

21 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

As @Tisy-Lish acknowledged, there were three other actresses who played Susan before Milgrim.

Fran Sharon (who is best known for playing Cookie Pollack on The Edge of Night) was first. I thought she was okay, but she came and went very quickly.

The second Susan was an actress named Roni Dengel. I don't remember much about her, and she also disappeared in the blink of an eye. IIRC, both Sharon and Dengel stayed on the show for about a month or two each in 1964 before being fired. I think Irna Phillips must not have been thrilled with them.

The character was off the canvas for about five years before being recast again with Lisa Cameron in 1969. This was my favorite Susan. She was in the role for about 2.5 years before leaving Bay City. I found Cameron likeable, and it certainly helped that she stuck around long enough for the audience to get to know and warm up to her.

When I think of Susan, it's Lisa Cameron who comes to mind.

I think Susan was cursed with being over-shadowed by other more interesting arcs that kickstarted the show including the slow burn romance between her brother Bill and Missy, plus her cousin Pat's angst.

While her original arc was grieving the death of her father, feeling alienated from her over-bearing mother, and at a crossroads.. it made sense that the only solution for her character was to take a job in a different state and start her life over a few months into the show.

Coming back to the show in 1969, wasn't she coming back just as Bill/Missy had finally gotten together and were about to leave town? If so, it sounded like she was going to take the place as the latest Matthews child to clash with Liz.

13 hours ago, DRW50 said:

This is all still insane to me. AW got some bad breaks but also was lucky to hang on for so many rocky periods. Irna had fired or tried to fire key actors on her other soaps but never so early on or on such a spree. I'm almost surprised she was able to get on other soaps on the air after this.

I think it was Bill Bell who said Irna was unusually impatient with AW, amping up the melodrama and making all kinds of snap decisions, because she wanted it to be a hit right out of the box.

18 hours ago, Tisy-Lish said:

If I recall correctly, the first actor to play Liz was fired after the first episode! The first actor to play Jim was fired after the first week! Granny Matthews was written-off after one month. The first two actors to play Susan Matthews were each fired within two months of being cast. So Jacquie Courtney's fear was understandable.

Yes, and to be honest, Jacquie Courtney (whom I later came to adore, of course) originally played Alice as an overly-expressive teenager, like the bubbly teen girls in Bye Bye Birdie. It was a common sight to see in the media during the 1960s, perhaps, but apparently Irna didn't care the persona. It was only after JC toned down her portrayal that Irna dropped her plan of killing Alice off in a fire.

(Irna was so sadistic!🙄)

18 hours ago, DRW50 said:

This is all still insane to me. AW got some bad breaks but also was lucky to hang on for so many rocky periods. Irna had fired or tried to fire key actors on her other soaps but never so early on or on such a spree. I'm almost surprised she was able to get on other soaps on the air after this.

I think TPTB accepted that every writer/creator will have hits and misses. While some of her soaps only became successful after she left (AW and Love is a Many Splendoured Thing), or failed early on, ATWT and TGL continued to be monster hits and make a lot of money. The Right to Happiness and The Road to Life were also successful, long-running soaps. Considering so many shows fail to catch on at all, P&G probably thought it was wise to gamble on Irna, whose track record showed that she could hit soap opera gold.

12 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I think Susan was cursed with being over-shadowed by other more interesting arcs that kickstarted the show including the slow burn romance between her brother Bill and Missy, plus her cousin Pat's angst.

While her original arc was grieving the death of her father, feeling alienated from her over-bearing mother, and at a crossroads.. it made sense that the only solution for her character was to take a job in a different state and start her life over a few months into the show.

I agree that Susan was never the focus of hot stories which caught on and ignited a lot of passion from the audience. Pat and Missy, and later Alice, were the attention-getting heroines of the 1960s.

12 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Coming back to the show in 1969, wasn't she coming back just as Bill/Missy had finally gotten together and were about to leave town? If so, it sounded like she was going to take the place as the latest Matthews child to clash with Liz.

IIRC, Susan returned to Bay City shortly before Bill and Missy left for California in 1969. (Bill later died off-camera in 1970.) It didn't take long for Liz and Susan to butt heads. Particularly when played by Audra Lindley, however, Aunt Liz was wont to berate and scream at everyone; it wasn't just Susan.

12 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I think Susan was cursed with being over-shadowed by other more interesting arcs that kickstarted the show including the slow burn romance between her brother Bill and Missy, plus her cousin Pat's angst.

Good point. Another World always had several young women in lead roles who overshadowed and left little room for Susan -- Pat, Alice, Missy. And later Lenore and Rachel joined the show. And when Iris came along, that's another woman of approximately the same age, and later Felicia, Sharlene, and Donna. All those women were such compelling characters with few recasts, while Susan was played by four different actors, and also had long periods of time off the show. So each time she returned, Susan had to be almost totally reintroduced to much of the audience.

I noticed when reading the 1971 write-ups on Eddie's AW website that the show had introduced Dan's daughter and Susan's stepdaughter onto the show and it appeared as though there was going to be the potential of some angst for Susan/Dan.

This was a matter of a few weeks before Harding Lemay's start as head-writer. The moment he joined.. the step daughter was ushered up the show and Susan/Dan got a transfer offer to a different city and quickly left the show.

So it appeared to me that Lemay wasn't inspired to write for that couple and that Susan's story arc was mostly a Robert Cendella focused story.. and it seemed as though Lemay wasn't feeling most of his stories hence finishing off some of the stories fairly quickly in the first few months of his stint.

Pat and Missy were introduced as the front burner heroines whereas Jacquie was just the kid sister and Susan never got of the starting block. So I don't think Alice was never really under threat. Same with Russ. Although the bible gave him a much stronger presence. I guess once you get into day to day writing things that were planned don't get incorporated for a variety of reasons.

Irna was more concerned with getting the lead characters right. She must have gone on instinct b/c the original Jim and Liz didn't get much of a chance and she might have had more in store for Susan that the actresses didn't hint at.