I was surprised to see a credit for Patrick Tovatt as "Andrew Barris" in 1981 in this clip as well as one for Jean Smart as "Woman on Bus".

 

I finished reading Eight Years in Another World. It was interesting to see Lemay's opinions and biases. When he praised Ray Liotta it made me curious to know what he thought of Richard Bekins but based on the dates I don't think they overlapped much. 

Lemay did admit that they didn't have any success recasting Alice. It's too bad he couldn't have figured out how to be satisfied with Jacqueline Courtney in the role. But if forced to choose between Alice and Iris I would have to go with Iris myself. 

 

Edited July 15, 20214 yr by Xanthe
Another thought

21 hours ago, Xanthe said:

Lemay did admit that they didn't have any success recasting Alice. It's too bad he couldn't have figured out how to be satisfied with Jacqueline Courtney in the role. But if forced to choose between Alice and Iris I would have to go with Iris myself. 

I don't see any reason for choosing between Alice and Iris. The characters were very different.   

24 minutes ago, Neil Johnson said:

I don't see any reason for choosing between Alice and Iris. The characters were very different.   

Absolutely. I meant really only that I think AW is richer for having included Iris . . . and I was forgetting that Iris was introduced in opposition to Alice originally, and her role as antagonist to Rachel came later. 

I have very little memory of Alice before Courtney's return in 1984, but my impression is for whatever reason the character was not interesting after Steve's death. 

Somehow that reminds me that I have a dim memory of somebody shoplifting clothes on AW, probably  from the late 70s, and I thought that it was Olive,  but now I am wondering if it was actually Sally in her juvenile delinquent phase. 

The problem with Alice is that so much of her storyline revolved around breaking up/reuniting with Steve. And when they Jacqui Courtney back, Steve was gone, as was most/all of her family. What ties did she really have to everyone? That’s why we got silly scenes such as when Rachel invited Alice  to spend Christmas with her. Yeah, like that should ever really happen.

4 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

That’s why we got silly scenes such as when Rachel invited Alice  to spend Christmas with her. Yeah, like that should ever really happen.

The transformation of Rachel as a character overtime certainly worked but it does feel like one of the few instances where trying to turn her saintly just ended up intelligence-insulting.

50 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

The transformation of Rachel as a character overtime certainly worked but it does feel like one of the few instances where trying to turn her saintly just ended up intelligence-insulting.

Got to keep in mind though, most subsequent producers/writers probably didn't know about all of the terrible things that Rachel did. They probably just knew that she was a troublemaker who was reformed.

Gary Tomlin even admitted that he didn't study Rachel and Alice's history enough in order to write effectively for Alice in 1984-85

Edited July 16, 20214 yr by AbcNbc247

1 hour ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Got to keep in mind though, most subsequent producers/writers probably didn't know about all of the terrible things that Rachel did. They probably just knew that she was a troublemaker who was reformed.

Gary Tomlin even admitted that he didn't study Rachel and Alice's history enough in order to write effectively for Alice in 1984-85

Never underestimate the importance if your show's history, soap writers/producers...

That floors me. AW was one of the most popular soaps just 10 years earlier. The Alice-Steve-Rachel triangle was iconic.

2 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

That floors me. AW was one of the most popular soaps just 10 years earlier. The Alice-Steve-Rachel triangle was iconic.

That story was the biggest thing in soaps at one time. It set AW apart. Too bad more people who worked on the show didn't realize that.

From 1969, a look at a day of taping the show.

2 hours ago, jam6242 said:

From 1969, a look at a day of taping the show.

The author of that article is incredibly ignorant and condescending. 

53 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

The author of that article is incredibly ignorant and condescending. 

I've noticed that was the norm for newspaper columnists back then.  😒

1 hour ago, jam6242 said:

I've noticed that was the norm for newspaper columnists back then.  😒

Yes: smug, self-important nobodies who denigrated others to make themselves feel superior.

I noticed that he tried to imply Lisa Cameron was a bad actress and also tried to make Nancy Wickwire say her job was dull (she handled that well), but he didn't play any of those games with Constance Ford. He was probably afraid she'd come bawl him out. 

4 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I noticed that he tried to imply Lisa Cameron was a bad actress and also tried to make Nancy Wickwire say her job was dull (she handled that well), but he didn't play any of those games with Constance Ford. He was probably afraid she'd come bawl him out. 

Constance Ford would have opened him up a fresh can of whup-ass, LOL!