OLTL Tribute Thread

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

What happened to Ivan Kipling?  Did he just stop appearing without explanation?  He was obviously up to something with those kids, but it all just seemed to stop without mention.  And was John Hensley's character written off, or did he just disappear?  

[soapfave06]

It was in a Clint and Viki Love Story Edit and definitely from 1985 due to the...grand fashion statements. 

 

I wish I could find more 1980 material for Carla but can only find Carla miserable in marriage to Jack then speaking with Jenny about Jack's death. 

 

Speaking of missed potential-was anyone watching when Herb and Ed's political campaign went south due to Herb's illegal activities? Maybe they could have had Ed's association get him into more trouble? Granted Herb was DA within a few years. 

[danfling]

Ellen Holly, the actress who created the role of Carla Gray Hall (also known as Clara Bonarri) left the show in 1980s.   The role was not recast, and the character left town.

 

Ms. Holly had also written (without onscreen credit) for the show.

 

She returned later and was involved in a storyline with the late actor Roger Hill (as Alec Lownes).   They were, or later were, a real life couple.   He left the show, but she remained.    Her character had become a lawyer, and she worked for the District Attorney.

 

She also wrote a mystery for the show which was never used.  Carla would have been involved in that storyline.

 

Paul Rauch, the executive producer, is said to not care for her voice (which was a voice almost anyone would want to have) and her hair.   He insisted that she take vocal lessons and cut her hair.    In all honesty, her new haircut became her and made her look more like a prosecuter.  

 

She was informed that her contract was not being renewed.   She missed the taping of one episode, and her lines seemed to taken by Anthony Call (Herb) and Louise Sorrell (Judith).

 

She returned on the next day she was to appear, but she called Viki "Viki Riley" rather than "Viki Buchanan."

 

In the story, she and her mother Sadie were said to be moving to Arizona where she had been offered the job of a judge.

She was said to have been quite unhappy about the breakup of Carla and Lt. Ed Hall.  

 

Her character, Carla, learned that she was getting a new leading man.   Ms.. Holly contacted an actor in Los Angeles that she thought would be right for the role and encouraged him to audition for the role.   She thought that he was going to audition, but, at the last minute, he decided to not travel to New York.    Instead, another actor was cast as Dr. Scott (the new character).

 

Ms. Holly was sorry that the actor she wanted in the role had not auditioned.   Furthermore, she was never happy with the actor who was eventually cast as Dr. Scott.

 

Ms. Holly later became an employee of New York Library System.   She wrote her autobiography, One Life: The Autobiography of an African American Actress.

 

I believe that she also appeared as a judge on Guiding Light for a few weeks.

Edited December 8, 2020 by danfling

[gimmetoo]

 

Would like to hear more about Jon Hensley's stint on OLTL.  Anyone ?

Edited December 8, 2020 by gimmetoo

[SFK]

 

I hadn't realized that he was on the show until I saw the 20/20 special on Rebecca Schaeffer. Hensley was in the clip they showed of her time on OLTL.

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

I don't even remember the character's name, but he was one of a group of teenagers (which included Cassie, Rob, one of the O'Neil sisters, and a couple of other teens) who had found a cabin in the woods -- or were staying at a cabin, or planning to stay at a cabin...  LOL.  Anyway -- Ivan Kipling (at the time, OLTL's version of Stefano Dimera) was skulking around the forest, planning to do something to them. It seemed to be the beginnings of an important storyline, then the entire plot was just dropped.  As I mentioned in a couple of previous posts, I can't remember if Ivan Kipling or Jon Hensley's character were even written off, or if they just stopped appearing.   I don't believe there was any resolution to the "cabin plot" at all.  I think it was all just dropped without mention, and the show moved on to other things.  And if my memory is correct, this was the final time Ivan Kipling appeared on the show, or was ever mentioned.    If I am wrong about any of this, I hope someone will correct me.   

Edited December 8, 2020 by Neil Johnson

[gimmetoo]

Is there any video out there of this or any of Hensley's time on OLTL ?  

[slick jones]

The character was Brody Price and he basically tiptoed around eavesdropping when he wasn't taking his shirt off" in my recollections."

 

[Soapsuds]

 

[SoapDope]

I was watching my Adam 12 DVD's the other day and saw actress Catherine Burns in an episode. She did a lot of TV in the 70's after a Oscar nomination for the 1969 film "Last Summer".  I know she played the first Cathy on OLTL. How long was she in the role ? She was in the 1969 episode that has surfaced on youtube. She later did some writing for Guiding Light in the late 80's. She passed away last year. 

 

Adam 12 was a great show. A lot of soap actors appeared on the series. Jed Allen played many times on there as various characters. He was friends with the leads Martin Milner and Kent McCord. They would guest on his show 'Celebrity Bowling". Susan Seaforth Hayes also appeared on Adam-12 (and Dragnet). She was a favorite of producer Jack Webb. 

Edited December 19, 2020 by SoapDope

[danfling]

I am under the impression that Ms. Burns did not appear in many acting roles.    She did created the role of Cathy Craig, and I do not think that she was in role all that long.   (I cannot specify the length.)  She did appear in the movie Last Summer and was nominated for an Academy award.  I was not aware that she had been on Adam-12, and I think that her television roles were few.

 

She later became a writer.

[SoapDope]

Between 1967 - 1984 she has around 30 movie, TV and  self guest appearance credits. She stopped acting around 1984. By 1989 she was writing for Guiding Light.  I assume she only played Cathy Craig during early 1969, by 1970 the role was recast. I remember seeing her in a rerun of Love American Style. She was hilarious as wife who gets addicted gambling on her wedding night and leaves her husband to play at the craps table. 

[slick jones]

She reappeared on OLTL in 1983 as Ruby, a hotel clerk at the hotel where Vicki found Echo hiding

 

[j swift]

Cathy really was a piece of work.  A victim of mental illness and trauma, who coped by becoming dependent on any guy who looked at her twice.  She was always the third wheel in every love triangle, and tried to steal men from Vicky, Pat, and Karen.  She was certainly no match for any of those iconic Llandview women.  As a result she was in at least two relationships where her lover only stayed out of pity.

 

That being said, I am surprised that Ron Carlivati never brought her back.  He was such a fan of the Vicky antagonists (from Allison, to Tina, Echo, and Irene), that it seems natural for Cathy to try to get her hooks into Clint.   

 

Until I caught up on her history, I never realized that she was the reason Pat came to Llandview.  I recall Pat being Vicky's close friend so it is weird that she was originally team-Cathy.  The whole thing about how she escaped kidnapping charges is also an odd detail.  Today, I guess she would have been diagnosed with a brain tumor (the rare type that causes people to plan child abductions). At the time the insanity defense was in the news, so I suspect that was motivation to use it as a device.  However, while Cathy couldn't remember stealing Kevin after she was found, she had clearly planned the kidnapping and was conscious of her efforts to escape, which therefore negates her qualifying as insane.  Obviously, the writer at the time thought enough of the character to devise a way to keep her on the canvas, but subsequent regimes were not as beholden to poor old Cathy. 

 

In hindsight, it was a cruel trick that Vicky's long lost daughter Megan shared a name with Cathy's late child.  Vicky begged Larry not to tell Clint that baby Megan inherited her illness from him.  However, Clint went to father tons of other kids who never developed the same genetic defect.  He also shared DNA with Asa, Bo, Natalie, Joey, Cord, Kevin, and Jessica who never had babies with a similar illness, which makes me second guess Larry's prowess as a genetic specialist...

Edited December 21, 2020 by j swift

[soapfave06]

I have always found it interesting that Cathy was supposed to be the modern woman under Agnes but she ended up being a victim in love and near a breakdown multiple times. She seemed well enough for the time Agnes was there but then ended up off the charts. 

 

A little disappointing that they never found their footing with the casting of Cathy. Did anyone ever have any realistic addictions besides Rachel in the mid-90s and Cole in the late 2000s? Would have been nice to see Cathy as maybe a drug counselor. 

 

I would have loved to see Edwina, Cathy and Pat recur as popular talk show or radio hosts over the years popping in and out throughout the Llanview scandals. 

 

All in all I just don't think it is as difficult to honor the past as soaps make it seem when they have the unique history of being on 40 plus years. Not sure why the Cathy talk brought this to mind for me. Lol.