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 2 hours ago2 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