Was GL's Tory a mental case? Wish I had seen it, if only to have seen the last frontburner storyline for Blake & Ross...

She was one of those people who came on the show to be a psycho.

There are some clips on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guiding+light+tory&aq=f

Lexie on DAYS. She lost Theo, Abe threw her in jail and she has a subsequent breakdown after being thrown in jail. RJ was fantastic!

I concur, teplin. Laura's descent into madness was one of the last great stories of what I consider the golden age of Days. I actually liked Rosemary Forsyth in the role. Rosemary did not replace Susan Flannery; Susan Oliver did. Although Susan Flannery is and always will be the definitive Laura for me, I preferred Rosemary Forsyth over Susan Oliver.

The story began under Ann Marcus' writing and was to have been quite different, I understand. Laura's mother Carrie had been institutionalized forever. In March 1979, Laura received word that an experimental drug (methylphenadate) might bring Carrie out of her psychosis. Laura began to have premonitions that something was amiss. At that point, Betty Corday replaced Ann Marcus with Elizabeth Harrower as headwriter, and Harrower had Carrie suddenly commit suicide in the asylum. Carrie's suicide sent Laura over the edge. I remember many creepy scenes in which Carrie appeared to Laura, taunting her that Carrie's death was her fault and warning Laura that she awaited a similar fate.

Laura quickly slipped into a morbid depression that was noticed by Marlena and Jordan Barr, but no one in the Horton family wanted to believe them. I remember the scenes in which Laura gave a burned, hospitalized Julie drugs, then told her that Doug was lying when he vowed Julie was still beautiful to him. Julie freaked out and ran away from the hospital with Laura's encouragement. After the incident with Jennifer and the bus, Laura locked herself in her room, downed a bottle of pills, and attempted to hang herself. This was around July 1979 and was pretty heavy stuff for that era.

I liked this storyline, too. Though I loved Susan Flannery as Laura, I didn't mind Rosemary Forsyth. I thought Mickey Horton's breakdown when he found out Michael wasn't his son was another good one. He ended up in a straight-jacket in a sanitarium and kept trying to strangle other blonde women who reminded him of Laura. He cunningly pretended that he was sane when Michael (who had been hurt on Maggie's farm) wanted to see him at the hospital. He was allowed to visit Michael and Mickey then cruelly told him the truth!

Heather Webber and the LSD? When she was then sent to a menstal institution?

Yes. Yes. YES. Heather Webber is the best mental patient of daytime. Love love love.

Lexie on DAYS. She lost Theo, Abe threw her in jail and she has a subsequent breakdown after being thrown in jail. RJ was fantastic!

Agreed. Some fine, fine work for Renee Jones... last time DAYS was really good (Spring/Summer 2002). Sigh...

-Kristen Blake (DAYS)

-Lexie Carver (DAYS)

-Ali McIntire (DAYS)

-Tricia Dennison (Y&R)

-Gwyn (Loving)

-Janet (AMC)

-Viki (OLTL)