Robert Soderberg and Edith Sommer (GL/ATWT)

[EricMontreal22]

Is the clip of Erica's online? I swear it used to be but I wanted to show a friend lately and couldn't find it. I love discos on soaps--the music is always SOO quiet too (and they're usually quite bright) lol

Schemering also said their last year at ATWT wasn't as strong, they started to recycle plots, etc. It was the Dobsons who started to drop so many older characters right and under who Nancy left? That said people did think quite highly fo their run (though not as highlya s their run at GL) and they did seem to update the show as P&G wanted.

[Paul Raven]

Yes,Helen Wagner left because she felt not valued.i remember her saying that for the month of January(81)Nancy did not appear.i guess at that stage it would have been the first time(apart from vacations)that Helen/Nancy had not worked for that amount of time.

Really,it was foolish of TPTB to so coldly ignore the veteran/key players.Was there research done that viewers found these characters a turn off?Or was it just a (misguided)perception that having Nancy around reminded everyone of a previous era?

Days kept Tom and Alice around and still gained a lot of younger viewers and a 'hip'image.Although they did pretty much ignore the rest of the older Hortons.

[EricMontreal22]

I believe the Dobsons were told to add a lot of young characters. Even their hugely successful time at GL was then criticized for not having teens or 20somethings (Marland commented on this). So maybe they jumped the gun a bit at their first major changes--or maybe it was the EP to blame.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Mary Ellis Bunim was the EP at ATWT at the time, she had run into similar problems at Search For Tomorrow when she tried to make that show more youth-oriented, which pissed Mary Stuart off.

[EricMontreal22]

LOL suddenly her work at Real World makes sense

[Mitch]

No Bumin didnt come in until after Wagner left..it was Fred Bartholomew who was the producer at the time that she left. On GL the Dobson's kept the core pretty much intact and Bert was left as the matriach of the town. The only thing I can think of is that they really didnt like the Hughes family or they didnt like Nancy at all. Nancy was a different matriach then Bert..Bert was softer and warmer and more forgiving then Nancy..Wagner says in an interview that she beleives that Nancy was Irna's idealized version of herself..a woman very much in control of things. It wasnt until Marland came around that they softened her and she became the generic grandmother with the tea cozy. Maybe the Dobson's had a hard time wrapping their minds around a "good," matraich who was noncompromisingly tough?Ellen was a softer, pliable grandma so maybe they just went with that (I thought Ellen was pretty much a wet rag myself...)

[Saving ATWT]

Eric, great post! I'm guessing tht PGP wanted to keep ATWT and GL somewhat similiar much in the same manner that the Bells do with Y&R and B&B. The company probably wanted viewer to 'Stay tuned for The Guiding Light on most of these CBS stations'. In the 1980's both programs continued to have similiar story/characters. Also, it seems like PGP liked to stick with talent who had already proven themselves with good results.

I checked out the 1975 YouTube clips: ATWT had the same characters...Bob, John, Barbara--amazing! These people have been in our living rooms for so many years. BTW, the sets looked so good. I was born in 1976, and love to see what the world was like back then. TV was BETER and, too me, has lost its luster these days.

[Paul Raven]

Interestingly,that at GL in 81,veteran actors Robert Milli(Adam)Barbara Berger(Barbara)Millette Alexander(Sara) and Stefan Schabel(Steve)were fired.Doug Marland said he had no choice in the matter.

At the P&G shows around the same time,Billie Lou Watt(Ellie)was let go from SFT.

But the ATWT vets seemed safe apart from Helen Wagner choosing to go.

Edge had only Mike and Nancy as vets at that time.AW was going through so many changes anyway.

[DRW50]

I guess I can see on paper why they fired those GL actors (Adam and Barbara no longer had any family in town, and Sara had not had any family or story in several years), but it's still a shame. They weren't even old, they could have driven story and given GL some continuity when so many left a few years later.

I do think Barbara was a very difficult role to care about, she seemed like such a self-righteous prig. I loved Berjer on AW as Bridget.

Poor Barbara Berjer, fired from three P&G shows and violently killed on two of them

[Paul Raven]

At that time,in a SOD interview about veteran actors,who gathered at Mary Stuart's apartment,Barbara Berger tearfully announced that she had been dismissed from GL.

I'm glad she returned to soaps at AW and played a beloved character.I hope her dismissal from that show wasn't too upsetting for her.

Someone should write a book about these soap vets and interview those who are still with us.

[DRW50]

That's awful. Poor Barbara. I guess at least she got to make a few GL appearances in the mid-90s, as sort of closure.

I hated her AW exit. Then they brought her back as a ghost to try to appease, but the show was still not the same without her.