Another World

[Xanthe]

Just double-checked the AWHP. Steve was last onscreen in March 1975 and Sally first appeared in April. Alice got Steve's long-distance approval to adopt orphaned Sally before he died but he was dead by May. So Sally never met Steve really [before he returned from beyond the grave when she was an adult and she sulked that he was all about protecting Diana's virginity and didn't care what sin Sally was living in] and was not raised with Jamie as her brother. That part doesn't bother me. But I did like their quasi-sibling relationship in 1983/1984 and it does seem a pity to blow that up to replace it with a romance, especially given that Catlin and Sally were so successful pre-Brittany. It's only my hatred of Brittany and Lesoleil that made me entertain the hypothesis.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Xanthe
elaboration

[j swift]

That whole era of Sally was such an odd contrast to Sally as an adult.  I know it was due to multiple writers changes, but fans of the Sally/Catlin era would hardly recognize rebellious teen Sally (of course, she also had a different head back then).

Edited September 23, 2021 by j swift

[FrenchBug82]

 

Would love it too.

I don't think they are still acting. They live in Pennsylvania, last I heard, and make their money as property owners renting to folks.

Edited September 23, 2021 by FrenchBug82

[Xanthe]

Mary Page Keller's Sally was definitely portrayed as having put her wayward past behind her. If she had been the version that Julie Philips or Jennifer Runyon portrayed Donna's resistance to her might have been more than snobbery. However I remember there was at least one little nod to Sally's past during Majorca when Sally had to hotwire a car or something and when Catlin commented on it she said that Phil had taught her how to do it. When I found out that Gary Tomlin who was headwriter in 1984 had been playing Morgan Simpson around the same time that Sally was mixed up with Phil Higley that cast that reference in a bit of a new light for me. 

I don't think Taylor Miller's Sally behaved as though she had any past whatsoever. She became a pristine princess whom all the Lesoleil boys adored and whose middle class life was so far removed from Catlin's rodeo past that they started to seem fundamentally incompatible. Of course even Catlin's past had been sort of sanitized in 1985 by turning his sort of shady drifter past into a little true love marriage and tragic [presumed] death of his young wife and child.

[Nicholas Blair]

Thanks for posting this! I did not know that VW originally turned down the role of Rachel.

[amybrickwallace]

I know Sharon Gabet has gone on the record saying she regrets taking the part of Brittany on AW. She had come to AW after playing a beloved and highly successful character on EDGE, so how exactly was she received by fans? I know the character of Brittany was a mess.

[j swift]

I am probably preaching to the choir, but, while I appreciate the idea of tying Sally and Donna's secrets together in the Royal Dunning/Emily Benson mystery, given Sally's rebellious youth, the retcon of David Thatcher and Kevin were totally unnecessary.  Sally could have been pregnant by Phil, Leigh, Denny, or Joey and had consulted with Dr. Dunning off screen.  But, I guess, that would have left us without a murder victim.

I like a murder mystery as a backdrop to a burgeoning romance, but as much as you disliked Brittney, I found Kevin to be one of the most obnoxious children in the history of soaps (coming a close second to GH's Mike Webber)

[Xanthe]

I absolutely cannot condone murdering Joey Perrini. Not that it makes a difference in the way retcons work, but did Sally at the time succeed in seducing Joey onscreen? I have a vivid recollection of her drugging him and staging a scenario where Eileen caught them apparently in flagrante in the back of a van, but I have been scanning the AWHP synopses for 1979 and 1980 and I don't find any description of Joey and Sally actually having sex even though the character guide does list them as lovers.

David Thatcher made a good murder victim as a villainous outsider nobody cared about who had already murdered Uncle Kevin.

My enjoyment of Kevin boiled down to Sally's clear love for him and a comment that Mary Page Keller made about how much the child actor looked like her as a child. And if he had remained on the canvas he could have been SORASed and interacted with Maggie (and Cory and Jeanne and whoever else) and been integrated with the Matthewses, come to terms with his parentage, and so on. (But I would also have moved Brittany out of Catlin's orbit sooner so that her baby was Zane's or Peter's or Mitch's or Michaud's or whoever's.)

[j swift]

Heaven forbid! Angie Perrini was one of my favorite characters of all time, and I would hate to kill off Joey.  However, the same story could have been told by just killing Dr. Dunning, and revealing that he had stolen Sally's baby, fathered by one of those other guys.  Evil Nurse Emily Benson could have been motivated by her misplaced devotion to Dr. Dunning, her attraction to Peter, and her hatred of Sally.

And of course, in my fanfic, Kevin Thatcher would later return with his lover Cory Ewing - (they were distant adopted cousins who raised apart so it avoids the ick factor) - as the new architects for Frame Construction in charge of renovating the Cory Complex (along with the Aunt Liz memorial water-cooler/gossip hub).

Edited September 23, 2021 by j swift

[Joseph]

Isn't she sweet??? But that's not Cecile That's Tara Martin Nancy's Main role before Cecile! Funny Enough she left the role of a sweet ingenue for a heartless manipulative vixen, Stephanie Braxton made something similar once she left the role of Tara Martin she played deranged killer Winter Austin in EON

[Efulton]

I think Sally and Jamie did actually go on a date when Julie Philips or Jennifer Runyon was playing Sally. I thought it was gross and was glad it did not go any where.  

[amybrickwallace]

There you go! Who was playing Jamie then?

[Xanthe]

Richard Bekins was Jamie until early 1983 so only he could have dated Julie Phillips, Jennifer Runyon, or Dawn Benz's Sally. Only Stephen Yates overlapped with Mary Page Keller. 

I'm really all about Stephen Yates and Kathleen Layman. I love him here about 20 minutes in. 

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Edited September 23, 2021 by Xanthe
Spelling Yates

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks for clarifying - and great clip.

[Xanthe]

Jamie talking about his "male ego" makes my heart go pitter-pat. John Hutton's Peter Love was I think too alpha to even consider that type of chatter.

One of the things I loved about AW of this era was that scenes could have idle chitchat that made the characters seem real -- not everything was important to plot mechanics. You need both and I thought AW handled the balance very well.