Daytime TV Reader's Poll No. 010

[Gilbert]

Daytime TV Reader's Poll No. 10

January 1971

[EricMontreal22]

This was pre Lemay, right? I didn't realize AW held on to its huge appeal in the interim between Nixon and Lemay.

And welcome Gilbert!

[Sylph]

Paul Raven's?

I think you mean someone else.

[Gray Bunny]

For as popular as LIAMST was, it didn't last too long. I'm forgetting my random useless soap facts that I know, but was it cancelled to make room for another series waiting to make it on air?

[EricMontreal22]

I was mixing up my members who have vintage soap character names--I meant Steve Frame. Le sigh.

[SFK]

Y&R debuted days after LIAMST final episode, and carried on that Conboynian tradition of pretty young people on soaps.

Eric, I remember reading some old AW fans on WoST say that Nixon gets a lot of the credit owed to Cenedella for some of the great Rachel/Steve/Alice stuff. He was '68-'71, so this is before Lemay came in and began the Rachel transformation and move to Mac and Iris.

[DRW50]

I think LIAMST was canceled because the network interference kept pulling the ratings down. The ratings were still good when it was canceled but CBS had had enough. CBS replaced it with $10,000 Pyramid.

I love seeing Lara Parker on that list. I guess even then soap fans had appreciated for the bad girls. That's interesting to see Robin Strasser so high on the list. This goes along with what Harding Lemay said, that he was surprised at how many fans loved and empathized with Rachel.

I had no idea Jacquie Courtney had quit the show at this time. And then they brought her back. No wonder she seemed to feel a certain amount of power onset.

[SFK]

And Robin would quit and come back too to lend a hand when her replacement didn't work out. The more things change the more things stay the same. We're still seeing these power plays and behind the scenes politics with daytime "megastars" to this day.

[DRW50]

I guess it explains even more why they fired Jacquie Courtney, instead of letting her leave, as they wanted to send a message. She was also gone for a lot of 1973 or 1974 wasn't she? I can't remember.

Of course back then these comings and goings actually had an effect on ratings. These days so many viewers stopped caring long ago and it's only about the issues of those behind the scenes.

[SFK]

Lemay and Rauch fired her right? I'm assuming on Rauch's part for divatude (they had a *thing* too, right?) and Lemay thought her acting was too dramatico and she never learned all her lines. But did they immediately recast? I guess I could go to Eddie's page and find out these things for myself. Obviously none of the other Alices were as popular, but I wonder if any of them were knock-it-outta-the-park actresses who wowed fans and lived up to Lemay's standards.

[SFK]

ETA: Just looked it up, Susan Harney replaced her a month later.

[DRW50]

Lemay said that Harney was a good actress, better than Courtney, but she did not have the presence Courtney brought to the role.

I've never heard anything great about any of the other Alices, but then I have never heard much at all about them, other than someone once saying Linda Borgeson was one of the worst recasts ever.

[SFK]

"What's a 'Wesley Ann Pfenning'? " -former WoST member upon Bill Wolff's recast announcement

[SFK]

Look at how young, pretty, and sleek-headed LC looks in that pic.

[soapfan770]

OMG major flashback! That was Kelly, the poster who did an interview with Carol La Roux(Missy on AW and Somerset). I seem to recall that Vana Tribbey was considered pretty good, although I have been unable to find any info on her other than being M*A*S*H actor Larry Linville's wife in the late 70s. It's also interesting to note that Rachel and Alice had very little interaction between 1975 and 1981, when Borgeson assumed the role.