I get that Kim might be fuzzy on dates.I'm sure if we had to recall particular events or timelines, things might get a little confused.

But surely Kim,or someone, could get online and do a little fact checking. It seems a bit slack to let this go to print with easily corrected info.

 

40 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

LOL, I love Zaslow. And yeah, when I was reading that about her dreamy blue eyes, I was like are you kidding me Kim.  Kim loves Kim.

It's all I can do to believe Bev messed up her lines. Of course she wasn't perfect, but didn't she have a photographic memory? I'd have an easier time believing she's irritated with Kimmy and trying to prove a point. But truly, they don't have a lot of scenes together. Sort of like Kim with Zas---they just don't. They weren't on the show that long together, so I don't necessarily trust her impressions of him either.

3 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

During the last few years of GL, she admitted that she would drink 2-3 glasses of wine at lunch each day and then go back and shoot scenes. She called it self-medicating because she was fed up with pretty much everything, but wouldn’t give GL the satisfaction of quitting. She drank to make the days more tolerable. She made pals with the on-set crew and would talk sh!t about the executives, who could overhear her, but she didn’t care. Wow - now I want to go watch some of those episodes and see if I can tell haha.

I can understand why she is bitter about the show's final years, but I have to laugh at this about not giving them the satisfaction of quitting. She stayed for the money. No one else was going to be hiring her (not personal against Kim - most older soap actors don't work a lot in movies and TV after their shows end), and no one else did aside from a short OLTL run, web soaps, and small parts here and there. That's also why she wouldn't take a pay cut. You'd think she could have just admitted this. And they gave her a good amount of material in those years - it wasn't quality, but she'd had much worse, as most of Reva's material was never quality. In spite of her unhappiness, she does some of her better work, maybe because the pressure was off. 

Thanks for taking the time to type up these summaries as I will likely never be reading the book myself. 

The description of Ehlers (likely Ehlers) having a dark energy seems all too true. I loved Beth's work as Harley in her first run, but her second run is very difficult to get through, to the point where I actually preferred the temporary recast of an actress I did not care for on ATWT (Hayley Sparks). 

I disagree with Kim that Harley's exit hurt the canvas. By that point Harley was completely burnt out and her stories involved which man she was going to [!@#$%^&*], which was never the point of the character. I am sorry she wasn't on for GL's final episodes, but she chose to leave, and she...well, she sure made her choice with that one.

Edited June 14Jun 14 by DRW50

3 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

She talks about the set used in the 80s and how there was a party room where lots of things went on that you could only whisper about. Lots of experimentation because after all, it was the 80s. She didn’t name names, but said one of the younger actresses at the time got so wasted one night that she ended up getting duct taped to the outside of the office door. She actually admitted that she never saw that with her own eyes.

I didn't think the P&G shows would tolerate their cast/crew indulging on set. We know about the partying that went down at the ABC shows BITD.

This is my own fan review of KZ's book, Part 1 

I'm Just Sayin'! Three Deaths, Seven Husbands, and a Clone! My Life as a Daytime Diva by Kim Zimmer with Laura Morton. NAL New American Library. Penguin Books Ltd. © 2011.

“My character is Reva-Shayne-Lewis-Lewis-Spaulding-Lewis-Winslow-Cooper-Lewis-Lewis-O'Neill.” Personally I think the ending of the show left us to believe that Reva & Josh would marry again, so another Lewis would be added on the end.

First off KZ tells about driving drunk while in Los Angeles for pilot season and getting arrested for DUI and finding herself sitting in a cold, stark drunk tank cell for ten hours.

Zimmer turns her attention to the rainy April 1^st when they got the news that GL had been canceled. It was 2009 and April Fools' Day but no one jumped up & yelled, April Fool! According to her, this happened to be the last day TPTB could either cancel or order more episodes. Her completely brilliant suggestion was that they should have done it the day before!

KZ noted that changes to the show began around 2000 but that Ellen Wheeler became EP in 2004.

She related a rumor that LIFETIME wanted GL—which it did not.

Zimmer talks about growing up in a wholesome, healthy family in Michigan. She mentions using Mercurochrome in baby oil as a suntan lotion. That's a distinct memory for me, too

9 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

I always preferred MH as Ed, as he was on when I was a kid, watching and waiting for Match Game 76 to come on..but with Parker as Mo, I can see how Simon works better, as he is more volatile and emotional, where she is the calming influence. His work post Mo kicking it is so lethargic, and he is just there...I dont think the writers knew what the hell to do with him without Mo...the only option was for him to be completely unglued and start drinking and Rick stabilizes him (adult Rick never worked as a romantic interest or having drama, he too was good as a stabilizer a role too often looked over for more OT characters. )or Mike comes back to take over as the patriarch.

Alan's return was also a good time to liven up Ed, and have him go against him at the hospital ( I would have Hope caught in the middle) which they tried to do with this but it was just so stupid.

 

Mart was always my favorite. The day the recast was announced on screen, my household went into an uproar. I can still remember asking why they got that puny man to play Ed. People could talk about Mart's weight but we didn't see it, we just saw Ed. I only started liking Simon when he came back. There was so much cast turnover after he left, so it was good to see a familiar face, especially because I never took to Van Vleet. 

KZ book, Part 2

Kim's mother enrolled her in dance classes and early on she got bitten by the acting bug.

She met her future husband, AC Weary in a production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. She fell for him right off. That was during their college years in a summer theatre program.

KZ left college without a degree and went on to pursue acting as a student in a conservatory theater. She just did one year there.

From San Francisco she moved to Chicago and got an agent, union cards and jobs. The famous GL Casting Director Betty Rea gave her what was her first role on daytime. It was a small short-lived bit.

Kim talked about her time as Nola on THE DOCTORS which was where she frequently cried on cue. The soap loved that ability of hers. She would roller skate to work. The then new Alec Baldwin came onto the show. She refers to David O'Brien [AW's Sin Stalker] as “one of the funniest men.”

Zimmer reports asking Elizabeth Hubbard [Althea Davis] how she maintained focus on the scene even when she had no dialogue. “Oh, darling, I just try to figure out who FARTED,” was the reply.

The movie BODY HEAT gave her a chance to meet the Nola Dancy before her, Kathleen Turner.

KZ & AC and their new baby Rachel, moved from New York to Los Angeles where AC found acting work.

Then OLTL called with a three-year contract for her to play Contessa Echo DiSavoy. That led to a physical separation between her & AC—New York to Los Angeles. That didn't work out well after only one month. So AC moved back to New York, too, and became a Mr. Mom to Rachel. However, after a thirteen-week cycle, or three months in other words, she was let go because the show was done with the character. She explained how any actor can be let go after each thirteen-week cycle no matter how long the contract was for.

KZ book, Part 3

Next it was Betty Rea again, Casting Director at GL, who let Kim's agent know she had a new part with a contract that she wanted KZ to come audition for. That part, of course, was Reva Shayne. EP Gail Kobe and HW Pam Long were other aspects to the audition. [Pam Long is known to fandom to have been a huge contributor to the character of Reva.] As of Nov. 1983 Zimmer had beaten out ten other actresses for the part.

Kim says that this was the ultimate collaboration between writer and actress. [Reva, Kim, Pam Long]

To Zimmer no other part she had ever played was as complex and challenging as Reva. Just some of the storylines included: time travel; playing a clone; having ESP; marrying all of the men in one family; and hiding in a truck full of refugees crossing the U.S. Border.

KZ relates the rumor that Chris Bernau [Alan #1] died in 1989 of some exotic malady he contracted on one of his many travels.

Tina Sloan [Lillian] and Kim were both Aquarians. Me, too.

KZ book, Part 4 

Kim's sons are Max and Jake.

Kim doesnt and never did like being called a diva.

KZ said that soap contracts were called “golden handcuffs” because you were well paid and had quality work but you couldn't moonlight in other projects.

Big party scenes, weddings, funerals, etc. were sixteen to twenty-four hours of work that tape day. [Once when we lived in Brooklyn we ran into Paul Anthony Stewart about 6 p.m. at the subway. He was on the way back to the studio for the rest of just such a tape day. He had the cutest little dog with him.]

Zimmer noticed that Beverlee McKinsey was going off her lines in scenes with just Kim; no one else. She inquired if she was doing something to cause it. Bev said that it was Kim's blue eyes; she would get lost in her eyes and her dialogue would just vanish out of her head.

Kim told about leaving the show when Reva drove off the unfinished Florida bridge. Her whole family moved to Valencia, CA so her husband could pursue a great teaching job – acting, directing, and stage combat. She got a gig on SANTA BARBARA near the end of that great show and it gave her the opportunity to first work for Paul Rauch, who she adored. KZ also did some guest shots in prime-time. Personally I remember two of them. She was on these favorite shows of mine – BABYLON 5 as a reporter, and DESIGNING WOMEN as an abused wife, stellar performances, both of them.

Zimmer described all three of the GL studios.

Kim claims one thing as her own fault – gaining 40 lbs. near the end of the show.

This book is 303 pages long. It is chock full of well-written, interesting facts, data, truths, opinions and perspectives.

Coverage includes: Amish Rebecca; Princess Katherine of San Cristobel; Annie in the airplane, clone Reva; breast cancer; Kyle Sampson; suicide attempt; multiple romances with many different men; her early connection to the Lewises; miscarriage; why she first came to Springfield; slapping Alan; Cross Creek marriage 1989, Always, pregnant after menopause; GL directors and love scenes; Jonathan; WNBA Liberty game with mother-daughter shootout; Celebrity Thongs; Rosie O'Donnell Show; Oprah show; Daytime Emmies (4 wins, 10 nods); “Slut of Springfield; stolen Emmy award.

KZ threw two people under the bus, as people sometimes say. First was the show's Costumer. Well, I've known him online since the days he did costumes at AW and he simply would not leave an actress out in the cold by not shopping appropriately for their clothes. The man does his job and does it well!

Next was the big dump on GL's last EP Ellen Wheeler. I could've understood if Zimmer blamed John Conboy (EP before Wheeler) and his chosen HW Ellen Weston. Very unpopular with fans, they were dubbed “ConWest”. His overspending created the deficit budget problem and their storylines were nightmares. And, they couldn't even manage good interviews! They began in 2000. There's the cause of the ultimate demise of the show. Look no further! And while you're at it think about what Wheeler inherited.

Kim said she hadn't had an EP who was a woman since very early in her career. Could be that was Gail Kobe from when Reva was created & a few years after the start of an admitted Golden Era. She also said she'd never had one who was younger than she was. And, lastly, she said she thought a male EP would have been able to “keep her in line” better.

Zimmer related many of the new things that were done on the show including the tags that showed different actors talking about how they found the light; A Day in the Life Of shows; building houses in cities & towns which had been hard-hit. In Biloxi, MS (pronounced like Biluxi with a soft u sound instead of sounding like an o) the show worked with an agency there & built 4 houses with P&G furnishing them & other show sponsors pitching in. KZ credits EW with a lot of good new ideas but she didn't like anything that scared her into thinking the show was on the way out or was too divergent from the traditions of GL. However, in Biloxi Kim got along wonderfully with Ellen & admired her for making things happen. It sounds like there were no tears there.

P&G and Ellen introduced a new production model with permanent sets; handheld cameras (complete with a shaky cam effect until they learned how to do the new things well); and GL offices doubling as sets themselves. Personally I loved the new production model but fans were split. Other shows became interested in visiting the set and learning details of what the show was actually doing. Kim didn't care for the new production model, the smaller permanent sets, and the whole shooting in Peapack, NJ, experience. KZ had a particularly nasty encounter with a fan finding her in a bank restroom changing clothes & she was naked when the fan came in! That was before Peapack had its own show house where they could do hair, makeup, costumes, and have some GL offices, to boot.

Kim had a bit of contention with the show while everything else new was going on: she was told she would have to take a pay cut at the one year point in a three year contract. She refused saying that she would be glad to consider it when her contract came up for renewal. As a fan, we heard that having already moved some actors off contract and into heavy recurring status (which is how the show lost Jerry verDorn and Maureen Garrett until the end when she came back and some others), the show was basically asking all the veterans to take this pay cut mid-contract. We knew that the show's long-term actors were well paid and had been so for years and most of us thought they should be willing to take the cut. If anyone besides Kim refused we never heard about it, while KZ's contract showdown was even in the soap press.

To her credit Zimmer did eventually conclude that Wheeler was just doing what she was hired to do and what she was told to do.

Kim was having a terrible time with a long, several passage through menopause. And, she was so constantly so angy about what she saw as the deterioration of the show. She was using alcohol to self-medicate. And, she had that DUI, first and only offense, with a pretty tough court sentencing of punishment that probably also helped her reach a new point about driving after drinking. She devotes a chapter to it and she is open and candid.

KZ's anger put me back in touch all over again with my own anger. But, I focus on different things. I am a huge fan of Ellen Wheeler's , have been so for many years. And I'm one of those fans who believe she gave us years of GL that we wouldn't have had if she an my friend and co-HW Jill Lorie Hurst hadn't done such wonders with GL at the end. Another thing I fault is P&G and Televest. The last years of GL and ATWT were the worst ever not to have someone in place as Executive in Charge of Production for P&G. Ellen Wheeler and Chris Goutman had to face all the slings and arrows from CBS alone. MADD was the last pperson to hold that position and she needed to be replace not to have the position eliminated!

I hope that this blog makes it clear that I am a big fan of Kim Zimmer, too!

Kim's mother died while this was going on, too. Like she really needed real-life grief! She & her mother were very close. It reminded me of how close I was to my own mother & how often we talked both about real life and about the soaps we shared.

KZ told about the “So Long, Springfield” Tour that the actors did after the show was over.

Kim related the story of the last Daytime Emmy ceremony, that travesty where the GL tribute was cut short. She mentions the nights when she won four of the ten times she was nominated.

The book ends with pictures – plenty of them & good ones. I have the kindle edition of the memoir. Sometimes the book pictures don't get rendered so well in that e-book format, but not so with these. They are great, big enough, colorful and with lots of interesting people.

That's a good word for this book – interesting!

I can highly recommend it to soap fans, to Kim fans, and to GL fans. I hope you get the book. I have read it twice now.

2 hours ago, chrisml said:

Ehlers was married and divorced twice, but the timeline of those marriages and divorces don't exactly line up with Zimmer's version, but then Zimmer is not good with dates. Ehlers could have left her first husband for Derwin. She left GL for LA with Derwin. She broke up with Derwin. She married someone named Matthew Christian in 1996. She returns to GL in 1997. However, her next relationship would have possibly been with Ricky Paull Goldin but he didn't join until 2001. He was also married in 2001. He did leave his wife as they were  divorced in 2002.  However, Ehlers was married to Christian until 2005. She left GL in 2008 and went to AMC which disastrous for her. Goldin went there too.

I don't know if Ehlers left her first husband for Derwin, but they were together when they left in 93, and she did get married in 91 (i remember she took an extended leave for her honeymoon. I don't remember details but Alan Michael had her go into hiding, it involved Roger and a cohort of his). Somewhere in these pages, posters on here said the other one was Mallet number two, Rob Borgue, who didn't leave his wife, but then ended up with the actress who played Marina. Supposedly, Wheeler liked their off screen chemistry and paired them together on screen. 

I believe that BE & Matt, the father of her two boys, were together when she left GL. Ricky Paull def left first. The only reason that they used Gus's heart was because he decided not to stay. BE was promised that she & Ricky Paull would be romantically paired at AMC. Chuck Pratt not only pulled a fast one, but he lied. Of course, he said appalling things to Lucci & well, everyone in the cast. BE had always wanted to be an architect. When she went to access her money for college, it wasn't there.  (typical child actor sob story) Sometime around this time she & Matt parted ways. The boys stayed with her. I think after the debacle at AMC she went to be trained as a paramedic. 

Personally I thought Rob Bogue did an excellent job, during a difficult time. 

It may be an unpopular concept but I agree that without Harley there was a hole in the canvas. Not as big as Mo, but, still ... 

What age difference are you speaking of?

 

Edited June 14Jun 14 by Contessa Donatella

9 minutes ago, bboy875 said:

I don't know if Ehlers left her first husband for Derwin, but they were together when they left in 93, and she did get married in 91 (i remember she took an extended leave for her honeymoon. I don't remember details but Alan Michael had her go into hiding, it involved Roger and a cohort of his). Somewhere in these pages, posters on here said the other one was Mallet number two, Rob Borgue, who didn't leave his wife, but then ended up with the actress who played Marina. Supposedly, Wheeler liked their off screen chemistry and paired them together on screen. 

That was a terrible idea as the age difference was very distracting as she seemed so immature, they had little onscreen chemistry (many soap actors who hook up offscreen do not work onscreen - Kassie and James DePaiva being the king and queen of this), and he had a much more natural connection with Dinah. At least the show did reunite them for the finale, in a very odd way (wasn't there like one scene of them "in Europe" laughing or running away)?

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

That was a terrible idea as the age difference was very distracting as she seemed so immature, they had little onscreen chemistry (many soap actors who hook up offscreen do not work onscreen - Kassie and James DePaiva being the king and queen of this), and he had a much more natural connection with Dinah. At least the show did reunite them for the finale, in a very odd way (wasn't there like one scene of them "in Europe" laughing or running away)?

They showed Dinah and Mallet meeting up in Europe (she either had car trouble or was trying to pull a con by pretending she was having car trouble) and then crashing a church wedding because Dinah "always" loved the part where they said "I do", which was stupid. (But it made clear that Dinah and Mallet had reunited, which...well, whatever. Not a fan.)  Not nearly as stupid as the episode they devoted to Jeffrey chasing Edmund (which no one gave a flyin' fig about) through something. But still. RME. 

At least we didn't get an unnecessary update on Cassie.

I'm probably the last one to know, but in case anyone else doesn't, in the main discussion forum, the topic "Look at 1975" has synopses from all the shows from '75 to '78. It also has some from as early as '72 or '73. 

13 minutes ago, P.J. said:

They showed Dinah and Mallet meeting up in Europe (she either had car trouble or was trying to pull a con by pretending she was having car trouble) and then crashing a church wedding because Dinah "always" loved the part where they said "I do", which was stupid. (But it made clear that Dinah and Mallet had reunited, which...well, whatever. Not a fan.)  Not nearly as stupid as the episode they devoted to Jeffrey chasing Edmund (which no one gave a flyin' fig about) through something. But still. RME. 

At least we didn't get an unnecessary update on Cassie.

I'm probably the last one to know, but in case anyone else doesn't, in the main discussion forum, the topic "Look at 1975" has synopses from all the shows from '75 to '78. It also has some from as early as '72 or '73. 

Thanks. 

I liked Edmund more than I should have and I was happy for DAM that he got a few more paychecks but he probably didn't need a return. I suppose Bradley Cole did always have more chemistry with him than he did with a number of his love interests.

13 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks. 

I liked Edmund more than I should have and I was happy for DAM that he got a few more paychecks but he probably didn't need a return. I suppose Bradley Cole did always have more chemistry with him than he did with a number of his love interests.

DAM is the better actor, but Edmund certainly outlived his usefulness a number of years previous. I certainly didn't need that last return to explain Shayne's morose return. 

6 hours ago, chrisml said:

Kim Zimmer knew exactly why Chris Bernau died. I understand why she might not have wanted to reveal the details, but why create a lie about it? She didn't have to even bring it up. "An illness" would have sufficed.

I lived through the 80s and remember how strong the stigma was around both actors being gay and having AIDS, especially for soap stars. The show pretended he had some mild health issue. They claimed for a long time after he left that he was coming back. And here's Zimmer carrying on the same BS TWENTY FIVE years later? To be fair to her, I suppose there's the possibility that she felt uncomfortable talking about working so closely with an actor who had AIDS. There was a lot of hysteria when Rock Hudson appeared on Dynasty and had kissing scenes with Linda Evans. But if that was the case why talk about him being ill at all?

Back then I subscribed to a newsletter by a soap magazine writer (for the LIFE of me, I can't remember his name--I'm only sure it wasn't one of the big names, like Michael Logan). He also said in the newsletter for months that Bernau would come back. After Bernau passed away, he wrote an editorial berating his readers for speculating that he had died of AIDS. It had a really angry tone, blatantly shaming people for besmirching his memory. It definitely had a whiff of "doth protest too much."

If the network/P&G had just said he left because he was done with soaps, or said he was burned out (totally believable since he had been front burner for two years) without mentioning illness, there would have been a lot less speculation. Just shows what dumb decisions get made when they try to cover things up. I remember being so angry back then at how badly they had treated him and the viewers. (It must have also put Daniel Pilon in an awkward spot). Which was a preview of the atrocious way they would treat Michael Zaslow's and Joseph Breen's (Will) illnesses a few years later.

Edited June 14Jun 14 by DeeVee

If Kim didn't like the "diva" label....maybe she shouldn't have acted like one.