Bill & Susan Seaforth Hayes Article From 1977

[OldSchoolSoapFan]

[SFK]

A fun little read. I was thrown though by how he went from hair to comings and goings without so much as a transition. I believe this gentleman was a close friend and colleague of Connie/Marlena.

[OldSchoolSoapFan]

Here are the Hayeses circa 1980:

[DRW50]

Bill's hair looks odd in the 1977 shot. It looks a bit like someone put his face onto Michael T Weiss's head.

I can't see anyone but Mary Gordan Murray as Becky Lee.

OLTL was very recast-happy in these years, what with Anna, Vince, Dorian, Jenny, Becky Lee, Karen, Brad. They were very fortunate that Brad, Karen and Jenny worked out so well.

[dc11786]

Jon-Michael Reed wrote "the Soaps" as a weekly column. Other newspapers noted the transition by capitalizing the first several wonders of the new section. I assume most readers were simply use to the style of his column, which usually included a brief interview with a daytime personality, the latest behind the scenes news, and then usually plot spoilers or viewers' questions.

[OldSchoolSoapFan]

I need to ask this question. In our local newspaper, Reed's column appeared in the Sunday edition. Were the summaries of the shows pertaining to the week before, or for that upcoming week?

[SFK]

I see dc, makes sense.

A big Good Times fan, would love to see some Esther Rolle Sadie with Ellen Holly.

Carl, in Miss Holly's book she talks about all of those recasts and how most of the new actors didn't share the ethnic backgrounds of the original actors, what she kind of saw as OLTL's first move away from the show's original beauty/intent.

[DRW50]

Yeah, that seems true, based on the little we've seen of the Vince and Anna recasts. At least viewers didn't go along with it.

At least OLTL wasn't afraid to recast Karen with a more ethnic-looking actress.

I'd love to see Esther Rolle as Sadie. Her performance in Rosewood gave me chills, especially her death scene, which was very emotionally manipulative but nonetheless one of the most effective and horrifying on film.

[SFK]

You know, I've never seen that movie, will have to check it out (thanks for the spoiler j/k). I always enjoyed her, and I think there were one or two more Sadie recasts as well. I wonder what it would have been like if they'd ever had to recast/temporarily replace Carla. If they couldn't find a very fair-skinned black actress I wonder if they would have *gasp* cast a white woman (Agnes Nixon would have been furious) or more likely go with a light-skinned actress like Rosalind Cash and downplay the original passing s/l.

[DRW50]

Oops, sorry about that. The movie is pretty good, although I mainly remember it for that scene.

That's interesting about what would have happened if they'd needed to recast Carla. I can also see Diana Sands, if she'd lived, being in the role.

[Paul Raven]

These old articles are a treasure trove of info.None of the sources I have state that Lillian Hayman was off OLTL for 2 years. I wonder what the circumstances were.

I wonder how long Larry Bryggman was off ATWT. Maybe he was busy with a play and it suited both parties to have time off.

[dc11786]

I believe that Reed's column with the interview and the behind the scene stuff was for the upcoming week. They were very very brief and didn't necessarily cover ever show.

I feel like some papers also spaced this column better, but maybe I simply adjusted to the style. Most of the interviews tended to be rather fluffy.

Usually, on another day of the week, the papers would also carry Reed's weekly recaps of the story for the week that had just passed. Most of those are available online.

[OldSchoolSoapFan]

Thank you dc11786--that would explain something that appeared in a clipping I have of his that pertained to a Mike Douglas show from the late '70s that hadn't aired yet.