The Martin home was destroyed in the Tornado of '94; it was the oldest set still in use at the time.

Fickett was present for the 30th Anniversary in 2000.

Fans online referred to Lee Meriwether as "CatRuth"." LOL

I do recall Joe having an affair (or almost) with a character named Leora Sanders, who was beaten by her husband.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Sensuelle

12 year-old me just thought Lee Meriwether looked too hot to be a grandma. It was jarring going from matronly to former beauty queen, especially next to Ray McDonnell.

9 hours ago, EricMontreal22 said:

Only recently was I reminded about some of the drama when Fickett retired from AMC. I think it was shortly after the anniversary week at the start of 1995 (when it felt like literally dozens of past characters came to the homewarming of the Martins new home, after the previous one was destroyed in the fire.) I believe shortly afterwards was when Lee Merriwether took over the role, and then from my bad memory, Fickett DID come back in a recurring status for a while, before Lee took over permanently. I feel very guilty admitting that I didn't... well mind Lee in the role, even if it really wasn't the same (for the most part AMC seemed to do well by their vets, and it does seem with Fickett it was her decision not to return again.) It is tragic how she seemed to be pretty incapacitated (with Alzheimer's and other health issues) for the final years of her life, and died IIRC just days before the ABC finale for the soap which was dedicated to her.

She was only in her early 40s when she started playing Ruth, which I suppose says something about how the age of actors (and age of people in general) has changed over the past 50 years, although for the first decades of AMC, although we don't have a lot of remaining episodes to easily check out, they certainly gave her a lot of her own stories.

I think Lee started in spring or summer 1996. Then, IIRC, she had a high-profile contract dispute and left in 1998. Mary returned for several years before Lee took over again.

I remember MEK saying he had to go back to a darkened studio to film that goodbye, which must have been horrible.

20 hours ago, EricMontreal22 said:

Yeah they've shown that (and an earlier 1980 one) in clips several times now as part of their "From the Vault" sequence.

I don't get why they won't air those episodes in full instead of repeating the same episodes over and over

3 hours ago, dragonflies said:

I don't get why they won't air those episodes in full instead of repeating the same episodes over and over

Who knows who/what's behind how these are being programmed. It does seem like we get a new batch on the weekend continuing into Monday/Tues and then for the rest of the week they just repeat those episodes (confusingly in different sequences--like right now sometimes they go between 6570-6575 but sometimes 5666-5675. I suspect by tomorrow/Sat we'll go up to 6581...) Besides the big jump backwards from August/Sep episodes to May/June episodes, this at least seems to be the rhythm they're following and I'm keeping my eyes open for but...

Yeah--I completely agree. They did release online (for the BeondTV European base) that great random May 1 1980 episode in full that was captured here...

7 hours ago, Sensuelle said:

The Martin home was destroyed in the Tornado of '94; it was the oldest set still in use at the time.

I remember at the time some fans were so upset that they got rid of the oldest set, and I get that. However, as a viewer who just started watching in 1991, I swear that that set was barely EVER used in those years between then and the tornado so young teen me didn't get what the fuss was--I felt like maybe I had seen it two times in those years :P (I'm sure I saw it more, but...)

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I think Lee started in spring or summer 1996. Then, IIRC, she had a high-profile contract dispute and left in 1998. Mary returned for several years before Lee took over again.

I remember MEK saying he had to go back to a darkened studio to film that goodbye, which must have been horrible.

Dunno why I didn't think to check out Wiki--for the record here is what it says:

In the mid-1990s, Fickett decided that she wanted to reduce her schedule and spend more time with her family. She allowed her contract to expire and expected to go on recurring status, meaning she could still appear on the program but did not have to meet any contractual obligations or minimum number of appearances. Negotiations with the producers of the program broke down, and the role of Ruth Martin was recast with Lee Meriwether taking on the character in 1996. In 1999, Meriwether was let go and Fickett rehired on recurring status. She resumed the role of Ruth and supported several front burner storylines including son Tad's romance with Dixie and the breakdown of son Dr. Jake (Joey) Martin's marriage to Gillian. After another year, Fickett decided to call it quits from the busy schedule of soap opera acting and retired in December 2000. In 2002, the producers wanted to bring the character of Ruth back, but Fickett remained in retirement, so Meriwether was rehired and played Ruth whenever the occasion arose.

8 minutes ago, EricMontreal22 said:

Dunno why I didn't think to check out Wiki--for the record here is what it says:

In the mid-1990s, Fickett decided that she wanted to reduce her schedule and spend more time with her family. She allowed her contract to expire and expected to go on recurring status, meaning she could still appear on the program but did not have to meet any contractual obligations or minimum number of appearances. Negotiations with the producers of the program broke down, and the role of Ruth Martin was recast with Lee Meriwether taking on the character in 1996. In 1999, Meriwether was let go and Fickett rehired on recurring status. She resumed the role of Ruth and supported several front burner storylines including son Tad's romance with Dixie and the breakdown of son Dr. Jake (Joey) Martin's marriage to Gillian. After another year, Fickett decided to call it quits from the busy schedule of soap opera acting and retired in December 2000. In 2002, the producers wanted to bring the character of Ruth back, but Fickett remained in retirement, so Meriwether was rehired and played Ruth whenever the occasion arose.

That sounds about right. Lee's page mentions the contract dispute leading to her 1998 exit, which is what I remember from soap magazines at the time.

She did a good job as Ruth, even though Mary was one of a kind.