ATWT Tribute Thread

[DRW50]

I was going to ask about David Stewart's death and funeral.

I guess Henderson Forsythe had wanted to leave the show, as David made infrequent appearances for about 3-4 years before he passed away, didn't he? And I know Henderson did not pass away until fairly recently.

I have never actually seen anything from around the time David died. Did they bring anyone back for his funeral or was it just Ellen, Emily, and the Hughes?

[DRW50]

How long were Steve's father and sister on the show? (His father is leaving in this episode.) Were they not that popular with viewers or was the story short term or was this down to producer change? Apparently his sister Juliet was involved with Brian McColl. That must have been a bit dull.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VtWwhKitM0&feature=related

[Paul Raven]

I think the father angle was just a short term thing as Harris Yulin was more of a primetime actor.

This is from Soap Central

Betsy and Steve were finally happy, or so they thought. One day while driving, Betsy was in a terrible accident in Vermont. Distraught, Steve continued the search for his father but kept getting dead ends. Finally, a pianist named Juliet Hanover revealed the truth: Michael Christopher, their father, was arrested for selling secrets to the Russians and died in prison. Shocked, it was later revealed that Michael was indeed alive and was actually a double agent. After a reunion with his father in Amsterdam, Steve arrived in Oakdale to find out that Betsy was still alive!

They were also dealing with Meg Ryan leaving and the challenge of what to do with Steve and Betsy now they were married.Then Marland came on so a lot of plans would have been changed.

[DRW50]

Thank you so much, Paul, for your detailed answers.

Could you tell me anything about the black woman who was on the show in mid/late 1984/early 1985, she seemed to have a bit of a triangle with Tucker and Heather and went out on some casual dates with Craig? They worked together at Walsh. She seemed to play an important role in Lucinda's business before people like Jane started appearing. Was she just some filler character or did they have more plans for her initially?

Do you know if the guy who played Tucker was fired or did he want to leave? Did they just replace him with Roy Franklin?

I assume Tonya Pinkins (Heather) wanted to leave?

[OldSchoolSoapFan]

For old-timers...DENNIS COONEY (Jay Stallings, 1973-80)

[DRW50]

You look fine, Dennis, you don't have to flip us off!

[Paul Raven]

Carl,to address some of your earlier questions.

re David's funeral.I can't offer much,except that the Stewart girls-Annie,Dee or Betsy are not listed as returning around that time,so the funeral was not such a big deal.

Jordan Baker was cast as Betsy in 94-does anyone know why Betsy was brought back at that time?

As for the black woman you referred to-is it Wendy Edmead as Beverly Taylor? can't help re Tucker and Heather.

[DRW50]

Thank you for the answer about David's funeral. I'm surprised they didn't do more than that. Then again I never saw Rosemary Prinz's 1988 appearances listed anywhere so perhaps it just isn't credited...

Yes, it was Beverly. I know little about her, so that helps. It was interesting to see how much power she seemed to have with Lucinda, although she already seemed to not be there in some of the March 1985 episodes, although I've only seen a few of them. I think both she and Heather had a lot of potential, especially Heather. I guess on the soaps, especially the P&G soaps, for a long time, you could only have one black actor and actress at a time (and then on ATWT you had none at all...).

Betsy returned in 1994 to introduce her daughter Dani to the canvas, as I guess she'd had some trouble with Dani. It's too bad they did very little with any of this; Dani was recast, turned into the desperate rival to Nikki Munson, then written out in fall 1996.

[Mitch]

Actually the Stewart girls did return for David's funeral...both the last actresses to play them. I dont know if Betsy did or not (and are you sure she returned in 1994..I thought it was just phone calls, etc.) It was weird to kill him off if they werent going to give Brueder something to do..., a love interest, etc. (always thought it would have been fun for a guy to fall for both Lisa and she so we could see the fued on full force.) It worked out perfectly to have David in Atlanta and Elle would visit him as she wasnt on heavy rotation. I think it would have been perfect for them to keep her on recurring and visit from time to time.

As a viewer during the Meg Ryan days, I can't believe they would have Dani return to screw Craig. Craig pretended to be her father for a while..it was a big plot point back in the day.

[DRW50]

I think the phone call was a 1996 voiceover tying in to Dani's exit. I remember Betsy briefly being on the show to introduce a teenaged Dani. Soapcentral says August 1994. That sounds close to my memory, although that Soapcentral profile is a horrible mess -- they say that after Steve was put in prison she had a failed romance with Tad Channing (Tad was dead before Steve left), they don't mention her relationship with Seth, they say she left in June 1988 when she is still onscreen up to at least September 1988 according to the videos posted at Oakalian's Youtube account, etc.

I wonder if Henderson Forsythe said he wasn't interested in coming back anymore or if they thought viewers were getting confused. Either way, I agree that they should have given Ellen something to do. She never really got one story of her own in all those years, even when the opportunity was there.

I had forgotten that Kim tried to help Dani but decided this was impossible. That seems a bit stupid to me, but they did this again with Molly where they had Molly live with Kim just long enough to try to make viewers pity Molly, then they quickly moved her on an the only interaction involved WOAK and Molly bedding Kim's sons (good thing Sabrina was long gone...). I think those intergenerational relationships are what made ATWT special. Even with Lindsay Frost, who wasn't an overly warm actress, in the role, I'm still touched by scenes of the Kim/Betsy relationship.

I think they had the Dani/Craig stuff as shock value. It's disgusting. Apparently they even had Dani call him "Daddy" when they were going to have sex. Considering that she was thought of as Craig's daughter for a time and that Craig still seemed to see her as a daughter for several years after Betsy and Steve were together and Steve was revealed as her biological father, it's sick, and just another example of the contempt Goutman and Passanante have for the show's history.

[Mitch]

Was this Hunt Block's Craig???(cause I would call him "Daddy," any day of the week, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) I agree, its gross as hell. Almost as gross as Wheeler/KrazeeKreizman having A-M bed dimbulb Marina, who he thought was his daughter...(matter of fact he was screwing her mommy when she was a fetus, so it wasnt the first time she saw him coming...) But at least ATWT gave a nod that this was sicko and disgusting and had it for shock value, where GL acted like everything was okee dokey and no one said a thing about it..I just think Wheeler and Kreizman were too stupid to even look it up!

[DRW50]

This was Jon Lindstrom's Craig. This was some weird thing where ATWT for no apparent reason recast and then quickly wrote out Maddie, Dani, and Lucy. I guess this was when Goutman was doing his "look at how short term our stories are, wow, how daring," BS.

The Marina/Alan-Michael stuff always sounded awful to me. I'm glad I wasn't watching then. And to bring back Alan Michael as being in his 20s, and then to do nothing with him anyway. What was the point? And he was supposed to be Harley's ex-husband, the guy she married when she was 18?

[All My Shadows]

And Jade, too. They brought on three pointless recasts for Jade, Maddie, and Lucy, all in the same month and did absolutely nothing important with any of them.

[DRW50]

They had some five minute story with her father didn't they? I wasn't watching at the time.

I still can't believe not even Bonnie or Jessica will be around for the finale. Ugh.

[Franky]

Yup. Jade's papa, Derek, saved her from her psycho ex-boyfriend. Other than that, I can't remember much. I think he mistook Lily for Rose, establishing that he and Rose were a couple back in Atlantic City. I also remember something like Derek lending Jade money, which got Jade (ridiculously) upset because he wanted to be an insta-daddy. Bonnie helped them mend fences and...poof. They all disappeared. I don't remember Jade and Derek being given exits.

The thing about the story that really bothered me was, not only was it so short, but they gave it one episode every two weeks. It was impossible for me to remember what was going on.