2 hours ago, SFK said:

@DRW50I think you can back me up on this from articles you’ve posted, but the show lost Nancy Pinkerton because they refused to meet her salary request when renewing her contract. She walked on her own accord. Other accounts of history note the show’s “necessity” to recast in order to retain the character of Dorian as no viewer could forgive and forget her egregious acts while looking at Pinkerton’s punim day after day.

 

I think you're right. I get the feeling they lowballed her as well as Doris Belack. 

Edited January 27, 20214 yr by DRW50

I've heard the story about them lowballing Pinkerton before. Doris Belack wouldn't surprise me.

Same [!@#$%^&*] different decade good actors never get what they deserve while the shittiest of them are drowned in green.

Is ABC ever going to release their vault of episodes to the fans? Does anyone know how many episodes they have? I mean...that's a lot of tape. Or is most of this show gone like the wind?

 

I saw a channel on youtube called everydayrebellions that had so much stuff from the mid to late 80s posted, and then one day the channel and all the content was gone. 

I will say that it seems as if Malis laid the ground work for how Dorian would be thereafter.  Pinkerton's Dorian wouldn't have pulled that routine with the accountant that Malis' Dorian did.  Strasser and Princi's Dorian...for sure would have.

 

Malis played it as vunerable/desperate, Strasser would have played it as more seductive/neurotic...and I think Princi would have played it as playful/cold.

 

Also, the original Karen is interesting to watch in the 2 1977 episodes.  Beautiful yet eager to fit in..to keep up with the Jones.  It's good ground work being laid out..eager to please and be accepted.  I think the original Karen did a good job with setting the stage so that when Judith light took over...she got to work since the set up was laid out nicely with the original actress and writers.

 

Original Jenny...seems more passive and timid.  How did Brynn play her when she took over?

 

And Jameson Parker as Brad.could so buy him as a player...moreso than Steve fletcher (who seemed more tortured than a Romeo heartbreaker).

10 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

I think you're right. I get the feeling they lowballed her as well as Doris Belack. 

 

Allegedly, several cast members in the latter half of the 1970s were miffed to still be working for relative peanuts, when ABC hired Courtney and Reinholt at almost twice the salary everyone else was getting. Frankly, I'd be annoyed too. 

On 1/24/2021 at 10:57 PM, j swift said:

 Also, Vinny's line about the cake cutting being a chauvinistic tradition seemed out of character, given his history of chauvinism. 

It was Jim Craig who had that line, not Vinnie. He did have Karen and Larry recreate the “first cake-cutting” moment later in the episode.

 

I’ve watched the 1975 ep and first 1977 ep so far, and they were SO GOOD. It’s weird to watch a pre-Buchanan OLTL because the show had so many established characters who were tentpoles that would eventually be written out not even five years after these episodes aired. Eileen seemed like such a neurotic 70s mom, contrasting with cool and calm Anna and Carla. Then you have Jim, Joe, Steve, and Ed basically running Llanview. I’ve never been big on the Buchanans, but getting a real taste of how the show was before their arrival just makes them less appealing to me.

 

The music score - so big and sweeping! 

20 minutes ago, All My Shadows said:

I’ve watched the 1975 ep and first 1977 ep so far, and they were SO GOOD. It’s weird to watch a pre-Buchanan OLTL because the show had so many established characters who were tentpoles that would eventually be written out not even five years after these episodes aired. Eileen seemed like such a neurotic 70s mom, contrasting with cool and calm Anna and Carla. 

 

Didn't little Josh come on pushing pills on widowed, depressed Eileen? Or am I going by apocrypha too much?

 

To me it's always been a fundamental weakness that OLTL always leaned on showing off its diversity/social consciousness laurels at every anniversary by trotting out the same old name-drops of the Woleks, Siegels, Rileys, Halls, etc. and the same old picture of Carla in the hospital bed or Karen on the stand but did not preserve these original families. I never understood it. And they could always be brought back. It's not that hard.

 

Nat Polen seems sweet and fatherly as Jim. I know Ellen Holly wasn't happy they replaced Robert Milli though (later of GL), who she found handsome and dashing when Jim was Carla's potential suitor. It's just a question of different roles for the character.

Edited January 27, 20214 yr by Vee

Wasn't Doris Quinlan also fired without warning around this time also?

I wonder if this was at all related to Jackie Smith taking over as head of ABC daytime?

As much as I love 80s OLTL especially Rauch I really wish they had not broken what was so lively and beautiful. I am not huge on the Buchanan's but it would have been nice if maybe they did not consume the show. Its nice to finally see this time period after only having the 1969 episode. 

 

I could watch Ellen Holly and Doris Black read the phone book. I can't believe they could not come up with another frontburner story for Ed and Carla after they adopted Josh. Ed could have gotten mixed up in a dangerous investigation. The father or mother of Josh could have came on. Anything. 

 

I guess Anna and Jim did not really get much story either outside of being tentpoles. 

4 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

Jim Craig who had that line, not Vinnie. He did have Karen and Larry recreate the “first cake-cutting” moment later in the episode.

With all of the recastings it was difficult to keep everyone straight.  It was one time that I was grateful for the ol' soap writing chestnut of characters using the full name of the person to which they are speaking (e.g. Dr. Lord what brings you to the hospital?)

 

Given that Dorian and Karen are friendly enough to share a decorator, are we to assume that she wasn't invited to the wedding because of her history with the Wolecks, the Craigs, or Viki (or all of the above)?

Edited January 28, 20214 yr by j swift

Always puzzled as to why they had a second character named Karen who also married Larry.

It's not like OLTL didn't have other choices for her name or that the 1st character was long forgotten, She was on less than 10 years before and many of the same viewers would be watching (and remembering).

Ive Seen Karen Wolek #1 and 3. I wish there was tape of Julia Duffy in the role

2 hours ago, j swift said:

Given that Dorian and Karen are friendly enough to share a decorator, are we to assume that she wasn't invited to the wedding because of her history with the Wolecks, the Craigs, or Viki (or all of the above)?

I guess all of the above, but I think more specifically, it’s Dorian and Larry’s contentious history at the hospital.

6 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Wasn't Doris Quinlan also fired without warning around this time also?

I wonder if this was at all related to Jackie Smith taking over as head of ABC daytime?

in 1977, ABC canned her & Ellen Holly tried to save her job but it failed