Old vets ladies of yesteryear VS. Vets of today

[EricMontreal22]

Well Meredith comes off as kinda the equivalent to Tara on AMC (though older, I think and much better off)--the innocent heroine, Vicki, Carla, and the others were more complicated I get the feeling (of course early on it seems that Cathy Craig was focused on, but she was a troubled character. Carl's coneceit does make sense, I think.

[BKuzak]

I recently saw Gillian Spencer on AMC for Palmer's funeral last year. I still can't help but say, "So that's what Viki would have looked like!" Gillian's OK looking but she's nothing like Erika.Erika took the role and made viki her own. I can't see Gillian being six different personalities in the course of six months (and looking very different as each of them.) or pulling off a wig and showing a bald cap during a cancer storyline. Remember Viki wanted to show Asa that she had cancer so she took off her wig and showed her bald head which was really just a bald cap/wig. but hey if Erika ever did want to leave (god not in my lifetime please!) it would be intersting if they brought Gillian back. the headlines would read, "Shocking twist! Original Viki taking over for six time emmy winner."

I beleive Carla Gray was the main focuss on the show in the very early years. Remember Agnes still talks about that first storyline where Carla was "kinda black" but nobody knew it because she looked white (think Denise Huxtable from Cosby Show)but then it turned out she was the daughter of a black housekeeper. then they had her torn between a black guy and a white guy which made everyone confused and Agnes was getting hate mail about it. I heard some place in Texas refused to air OLTL because of the white and black love story.

[EricMontreal22]

I think Gillian is a great actress, though her strength was in comedy really--at least on AMC. Check out some of her 80s stuff--simply great. But I guess she was sick of acting.

I have to say, I would never recognize her if I didn't know, in the few old OLTL pics of her as Vicki I have seen. WHat is the official story--did she leave of her own free will (I've always assumed she did). And was Vicki number two always seen as just a tmporary thing till they found someone they liked more? Obviously Agnes was a fan of her work on GL when she wrote it, and cast her on OLTL. Did Gillian think the role was a bad fit? Pretty soon afterwards she was on ATWT I know...

That was the main issue storyline, but I get the impression from reading the story synopsises in the big OLTL book that it wasn't quite the main story or focus.

[SFK]

Right, a big story but not the main story, yet I still can't shake my curiosity about Agnes seeing Carla/Sadie as a creative spin on her Erica/Mona slash Ada/Rachel prototypes. Maybe a good question for her website? And LOL the Denise Huxtable reference BKuzak.

I'm not sure why GS decided to leave. Maybe she's one of those actors who gets bored easily? And if so, there were so many soaps on the air back then, one could bounce around from show to show if he or she was seen as a valuable enough commodity. How nice. I'm not sure what the deal was with Joanne Dorian. Judging from the story Erika Slezak tells in her archive interview, it seems like her agent (who was also Joanne's agent) was very surprised by her being let go and replaced with Erika, as were her co-stars. Sounds like the same deal with Margie Impert on AW, a "lookalike" replacement for the original who didn't really work out yet ends up playing an important role in the transition of the character into a new light with a dissimilar performer.

I've only seen one episode with Gillian Spencer and in it she played Viki very still and reserved, slightly reminiscent of Katharine Hepburn (I've never seen Philadelphia Story, but I'm aware of the Tracy Lord connection Agnes Nixon denies). I'm trying to avoid the adjectives "cold" or "frigid", there was nothing bitchy about her, but Erika Slezak's Viki of today is a lot more relaxed. I bet Spencer's Niki especially popped off the screen because of this.

[EricMontreal22]

I wonder if she found Vicki too serious/drama filled--even getting to play Nicki. I remember reading that Daisy was much more her type of character (I think she even helped conceive her) with the comedy, etc.

[BKuzak]

I really don't know about Gillian Spencer. Because she was only on for a couple of years, there is not much stuff about why she left or anything. I've seen two very breif clips of Gillian as Viki and i've been a devoted Viki fan for 18 years now. All i know is Gillan played Viki as a repressed, prim and proper young woman who just came back from college. upholding the Lord image and being trained to run the Banner. but that was part of the storyline to make it show that Viki had Niki deep inside who was nothing like Victoria. and remember Erika said that Gillian got to wear a "big white wedding dress" when Viki married Joe that first time. Erika didn't get to wear one until she married Ben Davidson. I guess the final story is when Joe Riley died, Viki and Merridith left town to go find him and when they returned, that's when the second Viki was introduced (Joanne Dorian.)

Viki was still a normal character when Erika started playing her. She was just a widow who had a split personality but even Niki was a memory from a couple of years eariler. And Erika's Viki had a pretty normal life until the 1980's. in the 1970's she had the love triangle with Steve, Joe and Cathy Craig and she got into a couple of car crashes but nothing too wild. then in 1978 she was on trial for murder (no big deal. LOL) But in the 1980's they really went crazy and brought Niki out, then had Viki go to heaven, she went to 1888 to meet her great grandmother, then there was Eterna and the daughter for forgot she gave birth to, then the stroke. but back in the 1970's she was a semi-normal charater.

[EricMontreal22]

That's interesting--I had no idea that they had Vicki off screen for a bit before the recast. I do know from everything I read, that people thought Gillian did a superb job with Nicki (and I think there was even some worry or surprise if Erika would be able to do as well herself--and of course she did at least, if not more. It says something that they took over a decade to bring back Nicki, and now alters seem to come out every Spring...) That isn't too surprising, seeing as Gillian was known later for playing broader, more "whacky" characters like Daisy on AMC--although I've seen some clips of her 60s work on GL and it's very much in the way you describe Vicki at first--prim and rather repressed.

I've been a Vicki fan for just under 20 years now, myself, and haven't even seen ONE clip of Gillian in the role

[Khan]

Definitely. (Liz Foster, right?) She was supposed to represent more the attributes of the average female viewer: hard-working, moralistic, loyal to family and friend alike. If Liz Foster approved or didn't approve of something, so, too, would the audience. Only Paul's mother, Mary Williams, came closest to filling the role once she'd left, IMO.

[SFK]

Eric, the next time you're in Manhattan, you gotta swing by the Paley Center and watch that ep. The Paley Center is so perfect for a TV buff on a rainy New York day. Only thing I dislike about it, you can only make four selections and you have under three hours to watch them all so if you pick four hour long shows, you're going to have to do a little fast forwarding. But that's a minor quibble considering the privilege.